Maybe memory plays tricks on me at this late hour, but I don't seem to remember reading or hearing about this before:

http://www.indiana.edu/~league/1933.htm

Is that info correct?

Jesus, NO!!!!!
This is more than unreal, this is "Unreal Tournament" by now... I must check out the date to see what exactly happened then; but the answer is NO, USSR NEVER recognised Bessarabia as part of Romania!!!!

This post has been edited by MMM on October 30, 2010 11:01 am

This is what I found:

CONVENTION BETWEEN THE USSR, CZECHOSLOVAKIA, YUGOSLAVIA , ROMANIA, AND TURKEY ON THE DEFINITION OF AGGRESSION
London, 4 July 1933

http://www.rastko.rs/istorija/diplomatija/kod_e.html

If I remember correctly, that Convention was indeed signed by USSR, but it was never put into practice. The so-called recognition was only implicit (so basically MMM is right), being an official (multilateral) act to which USSR was part, which was also signed by Romania, by which the latter and its borders were recognized as such. Although it wasn’t per se a bilateral non-aggression agreement between the two countries, I think the Convention was the maximal moment of bilateral Ro-SU détente in the interwar years, being part of the (also formal but rather informal) Titulescu - Litvinov series of negotiations for signing a non-aggression treaty (the next step, as it was seen by Romania, in recognizing its post-WW 1 borders by the USSR), which never materialized.

From a NET Chronology, in russian, about Bassarabia Operation 1940 :
1940.03.29, Moscow.
At the session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs V.Molotov declared: "We have not a nonaggression pact with Romania. This is due to the unresolved disputed issue of Bassarabia, which capture by Romania, Soviet Union never recognized, although it never called for the return of Bessarabia by military means. "

About the tensions on Dniestr river during interwar period.

http://cristiannegrea.blogspot.com/2011/12...ti-romanii.html