Joseph (Iosif) Isaakovich Badeev (real surname Suslik) was born in 1880. He graduated from an agricultural school and worked as a gardener before the revolution. From 1903 to 1915 he was a member of the Bund, and from 1917 he was a member of the Communist Party. One of the founders of the communist underground organization in Bessarabia and the creation of the Moldovan ASSR in 1924. I. Badeev considered the Moldovans a separate ethnic group from the Romanians, advocated the Moldovan language and led a group of originalists (samobytniki) in the leadership of the Moldovan Autonomous Republic. In 1924—1928, he actively participated in discussions on these issues with Ion Dicescu-Dik and Grigory Stary. At the suggestion of the Central Committee of the CP (b) of Ukraine, he was included in the Bessarabian Commission of the Communist International, at whose meetings he defended this point of view, in contrast to the opinion of Al. Badulescu and Ekaterina Arbore-Rally. During the “Romanian operation” I. Badeev was arrested and on October 8, 1937 he was sentenced of death. Shot on October 11, 1937. Rehabilitated on April 4, 1957.