Cosmin Budeancă
On 6 September 1940, King Carol II of Romania was forced to abdicate and flee the country. On the same day, at the age of just 18 years, his son Michael I ascended to the throne, but he had little authority beyond the prerogatives of being supreme commander of the army and naming a prime minister with full powers, called the “Conductor”.
Through a royal decree issued that day, he assigned the function of “Conductor” to General Ion Antonescu, who ran the Romanian state from 6 September 1940 to 23 August 1944. On the night of 21–22 June 1941, on the order of General Antonescu, Romania entered the Second World War by taking part in the invasion of the USSR together with Nazi Germany. Antonescu hoped to recover territory lost in the Second Vienna Award on 30 August 1940.
The Beginning of the Occupation
Convinced of the German army’s victory, the Romanian army participated in the entire eastern campaign, including the Battle of Stalingrad, where Romania lost 158,854 soldiers (dead, wounded and missing in action). With the western advance of Soviet troops and their penetration into northeastern Romania in spring 1944, many residents of Bucovina took refuge in the forest, between the front lines. To defend against the attacks of Soviet patrols, with the help of the regular military forces of Bucovina, the locals assembled groups of partisans under the leadership of Vladimir Macoveiciuc, Ion Vatamaniuc, Vladimir Tironeac și Constantin Cenușă, gathering 15–20 members each: peasants, militiamen, former soldiers, or soldiers on leave. These groups were well armed and trained by German and Romanian instructors.
The disaster on the eastern front and the imminent risk of Romania becoming a theatre of war convinced King Mihai I to call for the arrest of Ion Antonescu on 23 August 1944 and end the alliance with Nazi Germany. Still, the Allies delayed signing an armistice with Romania until 12 September 1944, during which time the Red Army functioned as an occupying force, disarming Romanian soldiers, taking 150,000 prisoners, confiscating supplies and committing many acts of violence.
The Armistice of 1944 and the Paris Peace Treaties of 1947 conferred a legal basis to the Soviet military occupation of Romania, which consisted of 615,000 soldiers in 1946 and lasted until August 1958.
Having been exposed to bitter anti-communist propaganda during both the interwar period and the Second World War – and considering the direct experiences of Romanian soldiers during the war against the USSR – the local population awaited the arrival of the Red Army with an understandable sense of dread.
Different Perspectives
When interviewed for an oral history campaign undertaken six decades later, Cornel Igna, a resident of Transylvania, told us that, right up until the end, the people did not expect the Soviets to win. The German army’s superior military technology and the impeccable uniforms and discipline of the Wehrmacht had aroused a sense of admiration, respect and trust. In contrast, the shortcomings of the Soviet army (“They had one oily trough from which they ate and poured gas”) aroused in the Romanians revulsion and disbelief at the situation that could have led to the defeat of the great German army.
Romanians from that period have differing perspectives on the actions of Soviet soldiers. A small minority report that relations between Romanians and Soviets were relatively normal, and that the latter acted in a civilized manner. For example, Cornel Buciuman relates that his patron (an ethnic German) hosted a Soviet superior officer and his wife. The officer knew German well and was respectful towards his host. The host’s wife taught local recipes to the officer’s wife, and they cooked together in the kitchen with no conflicts.
Other witnesses recall that the Soviet soldiers behaved differently depending on the ethnic identities of the locals, as well as the ethnic identities and military ranks of the Soviets. This meant that ethnic Germans had higher chances of being subjected to aggression or having their possessions stolen. On the other hand, the Soviet officers were typically more educated and fair, even punishing subordinates who committed such acts.
Retaliation
Nicolae Moloțiu of Orăștie explained the actions of some soldiers as a reaction to the atrocities carried out by the Nazis and their allies among the civilian population of the USSR, when the partisan attacks increased and the locals did not want to cooperate with the invaders. “A Russian officer was stationed in my house, and he told me […] the [Nazis] cut branches from trees and impaled kids on them […] so, when people saw that, could they consider them human? Were they not animals? So, if the Germans felt under threat… when they caught a partisan, they his kids to show what they were capable of… What do you expect simple people to do?”.
Regardless, witnesses from the period acknowledge the fact that confiscation of clothing, foodstuffs, drink, animals, and and vehicles did, unfortunately, occur in every conflict. Likewise, murder and rape were common occurrences in lands occupied by hostile forces. To protect their daughters and wives from soldiers, parents and husbands dressed them in rags, smeared them with dung or mud and invented various visible physical handicaps to make them less attractive.
Alongside the inherent abuses and violence of the Red Army soldiers, we must mention that there were also cases when they fell victim to the defensive reactions of the occupied population. Avram Opincar from the town of Sebeș relates that a Soviet soldier attempted to rape the wife of a neighbour, but the husband fought the attacker, took his pistol, and shot him. The incident was reported to the Romanian authorities, who passed the report to the Soviets. An officer of the Red Army was sent to investigate, but, ultimately, the Romanian was not punished, the conclusion being that he acted in self-defence.
Installation of the regime
The Red Army’s arrival on Romanian territory in 1944 and the stationing of its units within Romania’s borders over the following years were the primary factor leading to the installation of the communist regime in Romania.
The first step in this direction was taken on 6 March 1945, along with the formation of the first pro-communist government, led by Dr. Petru Groza. This was followed, on 19 November 1946, by an egregious falsification of parliamentary elections. The Bloc of Democratic Parties, controlled by communists, claimed victory with an overwhelming 80% majority. Under the false pretence of legitimacy afforded by these results, the communists turned to eliminating the opposition, sentencing opposition leaders to many years of prison in a false trial on 11 November 1947. The final step was taken on 30 December 1947, when King Michael I was forced to abdicate and leave the country, and Romania was declared a people’s republic.
According to the Paris Peace Treaties of 10 February 1947, the Romanian state owed the USSR another 300 million dollars, payable in goods over the course of eight years, starting from 12 September 1944.
Romanian-Soviet Friendship
One method of plundering the resources of Romania was SovRoms: mixed Romanian-Soviet firms founded on the basis of an accord between Romania and the USSR that was signed in Moscow on 8 May 1945. They should theoretically have generated income for the reconstruction of the USSR after the devastation of the war. The Soviet contribution to SovRoms was mainly the sale of abandoned military equipment left behind by German soldiers, overpriced and paid for each time by Romania. The goods sent from Romania to the Soviet Union were estimated to have a value 2 billion dollars, far exceeding the war damages claimed by the Soviets. The final SovRom was dissolved in 1956.
All these political, social and economic transformations could also happen because the Red Army was present on Romanian territory.
The loyalty of the Romanian communist leaders and the solidity of the Stalinist regime installed in the Romanian People’s Republic led to the Soviet Union withdrawing its troops from our country’s territory in 1958. On 24 May 1958, an accord was signed between Romania and the USSR to repatriate the soviet troops. The Accord specified a gradual withdrawal from June-August 1958, as well as so-called manifestations of Romanian-Soviet solidarity and friendship.
As a result of this withdrawal, Romania became the only nation within the Warsaw Pact on whose territory there were no longer any Soviet troops or military bases in the 1960s.
During the Second World War, the soldiers who fought in the USSR came into direct contact with the Soviet army. These experiences, emphasized by propaganda, left the Romanian populace with a very negative lasting impression of the Soviet army. Beginning in the spring of 1944, Soviet troops entered Romanian territory and, unfortunately, the “negative image” of them was confirmed by reality. Murders, robberies, rapes and all kinds of abuses characterized the interactions of the Soviet army with the civilian population during the first period.
Fortunately, the Soviet army’s presence on Romanian territory ended in 1958 after only 14 years. During this time, even if they were stationed there for a shorter time than in other countries in the Soviet Bloc, they played a decisive role in the installation of the communist regime in Romania.
Cosmin Budeancă, PhD. Habil., University of Bucharest (Romania)
Sources:
Cioroianu A., Intrarea României în război – o eroare motivată geopolitic (Romania’s Entry into the War – A Geopolitically Motivated Error), https://historia.ro/ (dostęp: 3 IX 2024);
Graficul incidentelor și neregulilor făptuite de militarii sovietici pe teritoriul României de la data de 1 septembrie 1944 până la data de 1 februarie 1945, întocmit după datele semnalate Comisiei Române pentru Aplicarea Armistițiului (delegația militară) de către marele Stat Major, din Arhivele Ministerului Apărării Naționale, fondul 1367, dosarul 199, fila 516 (The schedule of incidents and irregularities committed by the Soviet military on the territory of Romania from September 1, 1944 to February 1, 1945, prepared according to the data reported to the Romanian Commission for the Application of the Armistice (military delegation) by the General Staff, from the Archives of the Ministry National Defence, fund 1367, file 199, tab 516), in: Armata Roșie în România. Documente (I) [The Red Army in Romania. Documents (I)], București, 1995, p. 207;
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Verona S., Military Occupation and Diplomacy: Soviet Troops in România, 1944–1958, Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 1992.
Interviews:
Cornel Igna (79 lat), 28 VII 2005;
Mihai Pipernea (83 lata), 10 X 2004;
Nicolae Moloțiu (92 lata), 20 II 2005;
Ion Vințan (79 lat), 31 VII 2005;
Aurel Gruia (83 lata), 22 VII 2003;
Cornel Buciuman (75 lat), 19 II 2004;
Romulus Hetel (80 lat), 24 VII 2003;
Lucreția Murg (77 lat), 21 VII 2003;
Vasile Restanția (75 lat), 30 VII 2005;
Elena Anghel (76 lat), 31 VII 2005;
Maria Roșca (65 lat), 30 VII 2005;
Avram Opincar (87 lat), 15 VIII 2004.