Odessa riflemen commanded by a Jewish mobster, Mishka Yaponchik. He saw action against the Ukrainian People's Army, including outside Voznesensk on the Southern Bug, where Yaponchik was killed. One hostile report suggests that Cecan fled the battle; according to Șornikov, this cannot be accurate, as all deserters, including Yaponchik, had been massacred on the spot by the Cheka. A clampdown on Bolshevik activities began during the Odessa Operation, with the area now controlled by the Armed Forces of South Russia—and, as such, by the anti-communist White movement. Fearing for his life, Cecan moved to the city of Tiraspol, on the border with Bessarabia, and established there the newspaper Tiraspol'skoe Slovo ("Tiraspol's Word"); he was reportedly active there in early 1920, during the brief episode of Bolshevik rule under Grigory Kotovsky. Though his son was still held by the Romanians in Chișinău prison, Cecan finally decided to emigrate into Romania and pledge himself to the new Metropolis of Bessarabia. He obtained approval from Metropolitan Gurie Grosu (in exchange for Cecan's promise that he would stay out of Chișinău), but still returned to Bessarabia "essentially illegally", by rowing his boat across the Dniester. Raza and ecumenism As noted by Șornikov, Cecan became unusually "laconic" about his Ukrainian exile, and did not mention his service under Yaponchik; during his later life in Romania, he simply noted his activity at Tiraspol'skoe Slovo; the priest always mentioned that his Bolshevik captors were merciful, "although they knew I was a monarchist." During or after the Bessarabian union, Cecan had married his daughter off to a Transylvanian Romanian lawyer, Octavian Vasu. In February 1914, Vasu held an executive's position inside the Romanian National Party of Austria-Hungary. Noted for his excellent command of Russian, he was taken prisoner in Bessarabia during the world war, when he helped set up the Romanian Volunteer Corps in Russia. During the subsequent creation of Greater Romania, he became the first Prefect of Făgăraș County. Cecan's status was improved by these political developments, seeing him ordained as a Protoiereus of the Romanian Orthodox Church. In October 1920, he asked Romanian authorities to grant him 500 thousand lei for propaganda work to contain the spread of communism in Bessarabia. However, he would not honor his agreement with Gurie Grosu, refusing to leave Chișinău for a countryside posting; described in official records as a "provocateur", he was swiftly defrocked in 1920. In March 1921, he