The Communist Party of Moldavia (PCM) was a Marxist-Leninist communist political party which served as the governing party of the Moldavian SSR under the Soviet Union. The party was founded following the USSR's annexation of Bessarabia from Romania during World War II, and it became one of fifteen republic-level affiliates of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The party weakened during the Perestroika period of the 1980s, during which anti-Soviet riots broke out in Moldova in 1989, and Petru Lucinschi became party leader on 16 November 1989. The party was outlawed on 23 August 1990, four days before Moldova declared its independence from the USSR. The party was succeeded by the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM).