Partly reinstated during national communism in the late 1960s, he spent his final decades encouraging the second-generation communist authorities to take a firmer stance against controversial Soviet policies such as "Moldovenism".

[9] Primarily known to his family as "Vlaicu", Smochină learned Russian at the Orthodox Church school in Mahala, where he was colleagues with the future activists Arhip Ciurea and Mircea Carp.

[20] Reportedly, Lenin also urged the Transnistrian delegate to personally to sabotage the war effort on the Caucasus Front, fraternize with the Ottomans, and demand "peace without annexations or indemnities".

[21] As some Romanian historians have noted, "Lenin was not about to curb [a nation's independence], but did not specify in sufficiently clear terms what would happen if they should want to achieve self-determination in any social order other than communism.

"[16] Smochină returned to his place of origin, which was being progressively included in the newly emancipated Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR), and began defending the interests of local Romanians.

Smochină's experience of Bolshevik rule was painful, and he described war communism as a trauma: "Entire properties were taken away, [Romanians in Transnistria] were left naked, downtrodden, worse off than during slavery".

[6][11][26] Historian Oleg Galushchenko notes that he was only successful on his second attempt, since for unknown reasons, the Romanian border guards initially had him deported back to the Ukrainian shore.

[29] Smochină also reports that his eldest brother was drowned after managing to escape internment at Solovki, while his mother, detained in a tank half-filled with cold water, suffered from the fatal injuries.

Although refugees were convinced that the Soviet Union was a "prison of the peoples",[6] Smochină and some of his colleagues gave positive review to the move, seeing it as an implicit recognition of Moldavian (and therefore Romanian) self-rule.

[36] The Transnistrian activist despised two other figures from Romania's left-wing Poporanist camp, Alexandru Mîță and fellow Mason Gheorghe Stere, both of whom he depicted as unprincipled agents of Bolshevism.

[34] As part of his efforts to champion the cause, he awarded Titulescu a map of the Moldavian ASSR, which was drawn in his own hand;[53] it showed Romanians living as a compact community in Transnistria, including as a "semicircle" around Odessa.

[58] He offered commentary on the Soviet propaganda techniques as related to the renewed anti-religious campaign, noting that Tiraspol's radio station was specifically conceived to draw Moldavians away from the church.

[64] In 1935, also with Moldova Nouă, Smochină released his French-language study Les Moldaves de Russie Soviétique ("The Moldavians of Soviet Russia"), illustrated with samples of Romanian folklore from the region—songs about cultural isolation and the impact of Russification.

His essays there included the 1936 review of the Moldavian ASSR's standard primer Kuvyntu nostru, evidencing the agitprop aspect of Soviet education, the vilifying of "kulak" elements in Transnistrian society, and the plagiarizing of Romanian textbooks.

"[74] In February 1939, a Soviet diplomatic mission to Bucharest presented Alexandru Cretzianu of the Romanian Foreign Ministry staff with a list of grievances prompted by Smochină's scholarly findings.

As the "representative of Romanian Transnistrians", he noted that "thanks to the armies of Michael I, in their unparalleled bravery, so gallantly led by Marshal Antonescu, the Dniester shall no longer mark a border between brothers.

[11][89] As Solonari writes, the appointment showed that "Smochină himself was not immune to the allure of rent"; "he was reported to have received 'gifts' from [Transnistria's] Department of Culture [...], consisting of art objects looted from Odessa museums.

[102] As supervisor of the social survey, Anton Golopenția left "especially incisive" comments regarding Smochină's count of Romanians on the Dniester, noting his "flagrant arithmetical errors.

"[106] Similarly, Smochină maintained contacts with local Russians, and helped anti-communist surgeon Pavel Chasovnikov (Ceasovnicov) in receiving Romanian citizenship rights.

[12] In June 1945, the Allied Commission in Bucharest issued a selective ban on Smochină's writings, including Republica Moldovenească a Sovietelor and Masacrele de la Nistru.

[112] Smochină Sr went into hiding with assistance from the PNȚ leader, Iuliu Maniu; hoping that their target would return, from 1954 the Soviets had a soldier on guard on Nicolae Golescu Street, Bucharest, which has been his last known residence.

In April of that year, an anonymous informant wrote to the Soviet Embassy that "a mortal enemy of the communist regime" had returned to Matei Golescu Street; this resulted in his being tracked down by the repressive apparatus, which opened a dossier on Smochină Sr in March 1957.

[125] By 1961, the authorities were closing in for his prosecution, but eventually settled on intimidating him, noting that he was old, sickly, and psychologically affected by personal loss—the latter referred to the accidental death of Constantin Smochină, seen by Nichita as a disguised assassination.

[127] Notes left by Smochină himself suggest that he had a personal experience of the Romanian–Soviet hostilities, which began in February 1963: though still followed around by the Securitate, his thoughts on the Romanian claims in Bessarabia were no longer perceived as criminal.

He claimed that, already that year, Ceaușescu asked him to retrieve those documents which showed Antonescu's move to a separate peace; driven by a Securitate guard to Caransebeș, Smochină only recovered three empty crates.

[129] According to his own report, Smochină discussed these issues with a communist researcher, Ion Popescu-Puțuri, who informed him that the Soviets had confiscated all they could find of the Antonescu–Smochină letters, and would only send some photocopies to Bucharest, for the Securitate to hold as evidence against the scholar.

[30] Securitate surveillance of the Bessarabian colony was reactivated in March 1969, when Halippa attempted to commemorate the 1918 union by setting up a private foundation for the study of Moldavian history—which threatened the communist monopoly on historical memory.

According to Mihăilă, the entire argument lacked scientific grounding; Smochină, he notes, misidentified Romanian words by improperly sectioning the Gospel' continuous writing.

[149] With the death of many friends, Smochină only still received visits from Elefterie Sinicliu; as he informed Crihan: "I fear that now it is my turn and that I shall not see my dreamed-of hope coming to bear fruit, for the disease is getting to me.

"[147] The final entries in his private diary show that he remained unpersuaded by Ceaușescu, "the dictator", whom he viewed as an incompetent manager of Romania's economy, while also reacting against his cult of personality.