In 1990-1991, after the first free elections in the history of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Moldova (February-March 1990), its Supreme Soviet became the main organism engaged in the struggle against the pan-unional forces, seeking to assert national sovereignty both internally and internationally. With the disintegration of the Soviet Union-an empire that in 1940 had fraudulently seized, by way of a diktat, the Romanian lands between the Pruth and Dniester rivers-the day of 27 August 1991 marked the culminating point of the national emancipation movement, and the last Supreme Soviet made history by becoming the Independence Parliament of the Republic of Moldova.