In 1940, Chernivtsi Oblast (⅔ of which is Northern Bukovina) had a population of circa 805,000, out of which 47.5% were Ukrainians and 28.3% were Romanians, with Germans, Jews, Poles, Hungarians and Russians comprising the rest.
The strong Ukrainian presence was the official motivation for inclusion of the region into the Ukrainian SSR and not into the newly formed Moldavian SSR.
Whether the region would have been included in the Moldavian SSR, if the commission presiding over the division had been led by someone other than the Ukrainian communist leader Nikita Khrushchev, remains a matter of debate among scholars.
In fact, some territories with a mostly Romanian population (e.g., Hertza region) were allotted to the Ukrainian SSR.

After the instauration of Soviet rule, under NKVD orders, thousands of local families were deported to Siberia during this period, with 12,191 people targeted for deportation in a document dated 2 August 1940 (from all formerly Romanian regions included in the Ukrainian SSR), while a December 1940 document listed 2,057 persons to be deported to Siberia.
The largest action took place on 13 June 1941, when about 13,000 people were deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan.
The majority of those targeted were ethnic local Romanians, but there were (to a lesser degree) representatives of other ethnicities, as well.

Until the repatriation convention of 15 April 1941, NKVD troops killed hundreds of Romanian peasants of Northern Bukovina as they tried to cross the border into Romania in order to escape from Soviet authorities.
This culminated on 1 April 1941 with the Fântâna Albă massacre.

Almost the entire German population of northern Bukovina was coerced to resettle in 1940–1941 to the parts of Poland then occupied by Nazi Germany, during 15 September 1940 – 15 November 1940, after this area was occupied by the Soviet Union.
About 45,000 ethnic Germans had left Northern Bukovina by November 1940.

In the course of the 1941 attack on the Soviet Union by the Axis forces, the Romanian Third Army led by General Petre Dumitrescu (operating in the north), and the Fourth Romanian Army (operating in the south) regained Northern Bukovina, as well as Hertza, and Bassarabia, during June–July 1941.

The Axis invasion of northern Bukovina was catastrophic for its Jewish population, as conquering Nazi soldiers immediately began massacring its Jewish residents.
Surviving Jews were forced into ghettoes to await deportation to work camps in Transnistria where 57,000 had arrived by 1941.
Bukovina's remaining Jews were spared from certain death when it was retaken by Soviet forces in February, 1944.
In all, about half of Bukovina's entire Jewish population had perished.
After the war and the return of the Soviets, most of the Jewish survivors from northern Bukovina fled to Romania (and later settled in Israel).
In 1940, Chernivtsi Oblast (⅔ of which is Northern Bukovina) had a population of circa 805,000, out of which 47.5% were Ukrainians and 28.3% were Romanians, with Germans, Jews, Poles, Hungarians and Russians comprising the rest. The strong Ukrainian presence was the official motivation for inclusion of the region into the Ukrainian SSR and not into the newly formed Moldavian SSR. Whether the region would have been included in the Moldavian SSR, if the commission presiding over the division had been led by someone other than the Ukrainian communist leader Nikita Khrushchev, remains a matter of debate among scholars. In fact, some territories with a mostly Romanian population (e.g., Hertza region) were allotted to the Ukrainian SSR.
After the instauration of Soviet rule, under NKVD orders, thousands of local families were deported to Siberia during this period, with 12,191 people targeted for deportation in a document dated 2 August 1940 (from all formerly Romanian regions included in the Ukrainian SSR), while a December 1940 document listed 2,057 persons to be deported to Siberia. The largest action took place on 13 June 1941, when about 13,000 people were deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan. The majority of those targeted were ethnic local Romanians, but there were (to a lesser degree) representatives of other ethnicities, as well.
Until the repatriation convention of 15 April 1941, NKVD troops killed hundreds of Romanian peasants of Northern Bukovina as they tried to cross the border into Romania in order to escape from Soviet authorities. This culminated on 1 April 1941 with the Fântâna Albă massacre.
Almost the entire German population of northern Bukovina was coerced to resettle in 1940–1941 to the parts of Poland then occupied by Nazi Germany, during 15 September 1940 – 15 November 1940, after this area was occupied by the Soviet Union. About 45,000 ethnic Germans had left Northern Bukovina by November 1940.
In the course of the 1941 attack on the Soviet Union by the Axis forces, the Romanian Third Army led by General Petre Dumitrescu (operating in the north), and the Fourth Romanian Army (operating in the south) regained Northern Bukovina, as well as Hertza, and Bassarabia, during June–July 1941.
The Axis invasion of northern Bukovina was catastrophic for its Jewish population, as conquering Nazi soldiers immediately began massacring its Jewish residents. Surviving Jews were forced into ghettoes to await deportation to work camps in Transnistria where 57,000 had arrived by 1941. Bukovina's remaining Jews were spared from certain death when it was retaken by Soviet forces in February, 1944. In all, about half of Bukovina's entire Jewish population had perished. After the war and the return of the Soviets, most of the Jewish survivors from northern Bukovina fled to Romania (and later settled in Israel).
Bukovina