 The uprising was instigated and led by communists from across the Dniester who were opposed to the establishment of Greater Romania and regarded the Moldovans as a distinct people (later that year, a Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, roughly corresponding to Transnistria, was established inside the Ukrainian SSR).The Tatarbunar Uprising, as well as the uprisings of Khotyn and Bender, occurred in those regions in which there were very important demographic changes resulting from Tsarist Russia's policy of settling in Bessarabia large numbers of Ukrainians, Russians and other nationalities.American professor and expert in Moldovan issues Charles King however considers the revolt, along with other similar rebellions in Romanian-administered Bessarabia, as modern "jacqueries".