to the Red Army. The emerging Soviet Union continued to back partisans in Hotin County during the interwar, until annexing Bessarabia entirely in 1940. Background Before 1918 The Ukrainian claim to Khotyn (or Hotin) extends back to the Principality of Halych, with reports that Ukrainians had settled there before the lands fell to the Hungarian Kingdom. The city then belonged to the Principality of Moldavia, which grew out of a Hungarian fief, before becoming a tributary state of the Ottoman Empire. Imperial Russia began its incursions into Moldavia with the Pruth River Campaign of 1710–1711, prompting the Ottomans to annex Khotyn Fortress and reconstruct the corresponding Hotin County into a distinct raya in 1714. The city was finally absorbed into Russia following the Bucharest Treaty of 1812, during which time it was recognized by all parties as being distinct from Bessarabia-proper. A census conducted five years later reported that 7,000 "Ruthenian" families had been colonized into the area by Russia. Immigration continued at a steady pace, and was in large part a private enterprise, with hired hands needed for the "immense estates" of Moldo-Bessarabian boyars. By 1900, Ukrainians were a likely majority of the area's population, although no definitive count exists. According to historian Nicolae Enciu, in 1918 there were 121 all-Ukrainian villages, 52 all-Romanian, and 16 mixed. Khotyn town was populated by Bessarabian Jews, though accounts differ on their number, from a vast majority to a fifth of the inhabitants. Under Russian rule, Hotin County was incorporated with the Bessarabia Governorate, as Khotinsky Uyezd. Its assembly, or Zemstvo, overrepresented Russian nobility, in particular the rival Krupensky and Lisovsky families; in 1900, it was dominated by members of the former, including Alexander N. Krupensky. Its control was looser from 1912, when the Zemstvo presidency went to a Romanian nationalist, Dimitrie A. Ouatul. Russian dominance was again being challenged during World War I, when the northern areas of Hotin were a devastated battlefield, along with the neighboring Duchy of Bukovina. The latter was an extension of Austria-Hungary, which envisioned annexing Khotyn upon defeating Russia and Romania. Following the February Revolution, Ouatul became Commissar for Khotyn, appointed by the Russian Provisional Government. His attempt to reassert control was ineffectual, as previously disenfranchised social groups began forming their own soviets and refusing to abide by central laws. These soviets decreed the socialization of all landed estates. The Provisional Government fell during the November