Following the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union annexed Bessarabia and proclaimed the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. The Metropolis of Bessarabia was forced to interrupt its activity. In the same period, the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church established on the territory of the new soviet republic a new Diocese of Kishinev. In 1990, it was raised to the rank of the Archdiocese.