T.A. POKIVAYLOVA

ROMANIA IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR IN ROMANIAN HISTORIOGRAPHY

Romanian historiography devoted to the study of the history of the Second World War is extremely extensive and multifaceted. Since the late 1940s, published great amount works that consider both general and individual issues of the history of Romania during the Second World War. They cover the domestic and foreign political development of the country, its socio-economic situation, national problems and other aspects. These are collective works, and monographs, and numerous articles, and memoir literature, and publication of documents, etc.

In the development of post-war Romanian historiography, several main stages can be distinguished, each of which has its own specific, to a certain extent qualitative, differences, determined by the conditions of the country's political development and the characteristics of political regimes.

At the first stage (1944-1947), during the period of the most acute struggle of political forces for power, with a significant influence on the development of political processes, the presence on the territory of Romania of the Red Army and the Soviet military administration, there was still political pluralism in public life, which was reflected in historiography1 . This led to a fairly wide range in approaches and assessments of the events of the Second World War, including the period of preparation and implementation of the act of August 23, 1944, when the Romanian dictator I. Antonescu was overthrown, Romania withdrew from the war in which it participated on the side of Nazi Germany as her ally, and went over to the side of the anti-fascist coalition. Different points of view, depending on the political orientation of the authors, existed at that time in assessing the role and place of political parties during the war years, in overthrowing the Antonescu regime, the influence of objective and subjective factors on the evolution of the political situation, etc.

Of the works related to professional research, one can name the books of L. Patrascanu, a prominent figure in the Communist Party of Romania (CPR), a member of the anti-fascist underground who took part in the preparations for the change of regime in August 1944. His works "Under three dictatorships" and "Main Problems Romania" he began to write before the war, and they saw the light after the liberation of Romania from fascism. The author paid the main attention to the analysis of Romanian fascism, its origins and social base, exploring the state of Romanian society on the eve of World War II, the initial period of the war and at the time of the country's withdrawal from it. He also published several articles on the preparation and implementation of the act of August 23, 1944 (note that in the documents of the CPR of that period about the events of August 23, 1944, no.

Pokivailova Tatyana Andreevna - Candidate of Historical Sciences, senior researcher at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

1 See: Marxism and historical science in the countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe. M., 1993, p. 183, 185-188; Pokivailova T.A. Anti-fascist resistance movement in the countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe. Issues of national historiography. - Anti-fascist resistance movement in the countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe. M., 1993, p. 184-187.

referred to as a coup d'etat, which was organized "only under the influence of the victorious offensive of the Soviet Army")2.

Many of the works of 1944-1947. were memoirs and came out from the pen of various political figures. Some of the memoirs were reprinted in the 1990s. Characteristically, almost all politicians, except for the extreme right, then recognized the decisive role Soviet Union in defeat Nazi Germany, in the liberation of Romania by the Red Army3.

Modern Romanian historians emphasize that it was precisely the pro-Soviet political forces in Romania, primarily the communists, who propagandized and introduced into public consciousness ideas about the decisive role of the victories of the Red Army in the liberation of Romania from fascism4.

A new stage in the development of Romanian historiography dates back to the late 40s - early 60s of the 20th century, to the period of the formation of the Soviet-type regime in the country (1948-1953) and its evolution.

The Soviet historical science then had a great influence on the conceptual provisions of the Romanian Marxist (communist) historiography. There were no particular differences on the main problems of covering the events of Romanian history, including the period of World War II, between Romanian and Soviet historians. In those years, the leading role in historical science was occupied by the historian and communist academician M. Roller. In 1947, he published "History of Romania", which began to be considered a new history textbook and was reprinted several times (in 1948, 1952, 1956). The work was translated into Russian in 1950. The Foreign Literature Publishing House presented the book as a popular essay5.

In the sections devoted to the history of the Second World War, the author writes about the attack of Romania on the USSR together with Nazi Germany, about the loss of national independence by Romania, about the robbery of Soviet territories together with the Germans, characterizing this period as anti-people. As the first experience of such a publication, the "History of Romania" could not be flawless. Politicization of history, schematism, simplification of political processes, restructuring on a new methodological basis, developing questions national history in line with the documents and instructions of the central bodies of the Romanian Workers' Party (RRP) were fully inherent in the works of that period6. In the same vein, the events related to the participation of Romania in the Second World War were conceptually considered in the works of Marxist historians of the older generation, such as P. Constantinescu-Yash, and representatives of the new generation - A. Roman, I. Georgiou, V. Livyanu, B Belteanu (B. Kolker) T. Udrya, E. Campus, P. Nikita, A. Petrik and others7

2 Päträcanu L. Sub trei dictaturi. Bucureti, 1944; Probleme de bazä ale Romaniei. Bucureti, 1944; Georgiou-DezhG. Articles and speeches. M., 1956, p. 22; Udrea T. 23 August 1944. Controverse istorico-politice. Studiu istoriographic. Bucure^ti, 2004, p. 13-18.

3 Pokivailova T.A. Decree. cit., pp.185-187.

4 Constantiniu F. De la Räutu §i Roller la Mu§at §i Ardeleanu. Bucure^ti, 2007, p. 127-285; Buga V. Politica PCdR fatä de Uniunea Sovieticä în etapa finalä a celui de al doilea räzboi mondial. - Materials of the bilateral commission of historians of Russia and Romania. X scientific conference. Moscow, October 2005. M., 2007, p. 145-149.

5 History of Romania. Abbreviated translation. Ed. M. Roller. M., 1950, p. 535-539.

6 Constantiniu F. Op. cit., p. 209; Tugui P. Istoria §i limba românâ în vremea lui Gheorghiu. - Dej. Memorii unui ^f de secjie a CC al PMR. Bucureçti, 1999, p. 10-11, 13-14, 22.

7 Kolker B.M. Lupta de eliberare nationalä în România în anii 1941 - 1944. - Studii. Revista de istorie, 1954, No. 4; Roman A. Situatia politicä din România înainte conferentiei nationale (23 August 1944 - octombrie 1945). - Zece ani de la conferinta nationale. 1945-1955. Referate prezintate la sesiunea §tiintificä istoricä din 8-10 decembrie 1955. Bucureçti, 1956, p. 82-114; Gheorghiu I., Roman A. Din lupta PCR pentru scoaterea României din räzboiul antisovietici §i întuarcerea armelor împotriva hitleriçtilor. -Anale, 1956, No. 3, p. 61-87; CPR - organizer §i conducätorul luptei pentru rästurnarea dictaturii fasciste antonisciene §i întoarcerea armelor împotriva cotropitorilor hitleriçti. Bucureçti, 1956; Constantinescu-Ia§i R. Eliberarea României de sub jugul fascist §i însemnarea ei istoricä. - Anale, 1959, No. 4.

After Stalin's death in Romania, as well as in other countries of the Eastern bloc, there was some liberalization and emancipation of historical science. The new generation of historians was not weighed down by the old stereotypes of bourgeois historiography. However, the old stereotypes have been replaced by new ones associated with a narrow class interpretation of history, a simplified interpretation of events, a lack of professionalism, and a lack of a sufficient source base. In addition, the pressure of the party leadership on historians and their subordination to party instructions remained in full measure. Any deviation from the political slogans proclaimed by the WRP and the historical schemes built on this basis received a negative assessment. Thus, for example, an article by the Romanian researcher E. Campus "Some aspects of international relations during the Second World War", published at the end of 1955 in the journal "Research and Articles", was sharply criticized and accused of "objectivism", for the fact that she "did not reveal the secret negotiations that were taking place between the representatives of the USA and Britain and Hitler's Germany" and did not emphasize "the qualitative differences between the position of the Soviet Union and the USA and Britain with regard to the problems of the anti-fascist coalition", etc.8

A new round of ideological pressure from the Romanian leadership on historical science was designated in 1957-1958. The decisions of the 20th Congress of the CPSU, followed by a certain democratization in Poland, Hungary and other countries of people's democracy, had an ambiguous effect on the social and political life of the socialist countries, in particular Romania. The leader of the Romanian Communists, G. Gheorghiu-Dej, was among those who, in fact, did not recognize the decisions of the 20th Congress of the CPSU, especially those concerning Stalin's personality cult and its consequences. The struggle within the RRP ended with the victory of G. Georgiou-Deja and his supporters. Fear of the democratization of the country and the weakening of personal positions, the desire to keep social and political life under control pushed the party leadership to increase ideological pressure on the social sciences.

Plan
Introduction
1 Background
1.1 Foreign policy. Rapprochement with the Third Reich
1.2 Rise to power of Ion Antonescu. Greater Romania

2 World War II
2.1 Armament and condition of the army
2.2 Invasion of the USSR
2.2.1 Bessarabia and Bukovina
2.2.2 Battle for Odessa
2.2.3 Occupation of Bukovina, Bessarabia and the interfluve of the Dniester and the Bug

2.3 Assistance to German troops
2.3.1 Crossing of the Dnieper and invasion of the Crimea
2.3.2 Battle of Sevastopol, countering Soviet landings
2.3.3 Kharkiv region, attack on Stalingrad
2.3.4 Advance into the Caucasus
2.3.5 Stalingrad

2.4 Position within Romania
2.4.1 Political situation
2.4.2 Socio-economic situation
2.4.3 Jews and Gypsies
2.4.4 Aerial bombardments of Romania

2.5 Defeat of Romanian forces
2.5.1 Kuban and Taman Peninsula
2.5.2 Retreat from Crimea, Operation 60,000
2.5.3 Loss of control over Bessarabia, Bukovina, Transnistria
2.5.4 Coup d'état, reorientation foreign policy. The entry of Soviet troops into Romania

2.6 Final period of the war
2.6.1 War in Transylvania
2.6.2 Romanian forces allied with the Red Army

3 Postwar years
3.1 Famine of 1945-1947. Economy
3.2 Politics

4 History revisionism

6 Footnotes and notes
6.1 Footnotes
.2 References


7.1 In Russian
7.2 Romanian
7.3 English


8.1 External links
8.2 Maps
8.3 Video

Introduction

The Kingdom of Romania entered World War II on the side of the Axis on June 22, 1941, at the same time as the Third Reich attacked the Soviet Union.

Romanian troops took part in the battles on the eastern front along with the Germans. In 1944, the theater of operations moved to Romania, after which a coup d'état took place in the country. Ion Antonescu and his supporters were arrested, the young king Mihai I came to power. From that moment on, Romania sided with the anti-Hitler coalition. After the end of the war, in 1947 the People's Republic of Romania (Socialist Republic of Romania) was proclaimed.

1. Background

1.1. Foreign policy. Rapprochement with the Third Reich

Signing of an agreement between Germany and the USSR

Romania moved closer to France and Britain during the last months of the First World War. French and British politicians considered it a good "cover" from communism in southeastern Europe. Romanian troops took part in the war against Soviet Hungary in 1919. Romania also included Bessarabia, which it later claimed Soviet Russia.

However, by 1939 the Versailles system of international relations had completely collapsed. Defeated in the First World War, Germany, where the National Socialists came to power, began to pursue an aggressive expansionist policy. This led to a chain of political events that aggravated the situation in Europe: the Anschluss of Austria, the entry of German troops into Czechoslovakia, the establishment of pro-German regimes in a number of Central European countries. The policy of "appeasement" of the League of Nations was not effective enough. A similar pre-war situation developed in Asia. The Japanese Empire, having annexed Korea, began to penetrate deep into mainland China, establishing two puppet states in its north - Manchukuo and Mengjiang.

On September 1, 1939, the day the Second World War began, Romania was still a partner of France. The "Strange War" that began on September 3 did not change Romania's attitude towards its partners in Western Europe, although it remained neutral.

The non-aggression pact signed by the Third Reich and the USSR a few days before the start of the war (August 23, 1939) effectively divided Eastern Europe into Soviet and German "spheres of influence". The Soviet Union wanted to get Bessarabia from Romania, which used to be part of the Russian Empire. The USSR for 22 years unsuccessfully disputed the ownership of this region. In 1924, the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was formed as part of the Soviet Union - a "bridgehead" for the creation of the Moldavian Republic within the Soviet Union.

In the spring of 1940, Romania found itself in a difficult position. On the one hand, her allied France was defeated by Germany, on the other hand, the situation on the Soviet-Romanian border worsened. Incidents with the use of weapons have become more frequent there. Soviet diplomats presented several notes to the Romanian authorities demanding the return of Bessarabia. There was a pre-war situation.

The defeat of France, as well as the threat of war with the USSR, inclined Romania towards rapprochement with Germany. As it seemed to the Romanian authorities, the Third Reich is able to protect the country from the Soviet threat. However, Adolf Hitler, adhering to the agreement with the USSR, did not take active steps towards the Soviet side. Germany assured the Romanian government and the king that nothing threatened the country, but supplied Romania with captured Polish weapons, receiving oil in exchange. 27th of June Soviet troops near the Romanian border and the Danube Flotilla, created in the spring by a special decree, were put on alert. In Romania, mobilization was announced in response. However, on the night of June 28, the crown council of Romania decided to transfer Bessarabia to the Soviet Union without bloodshed. In the morning, the Romanian troops began to withdraw from the entire territory of Bessarabia. At noon, Soviet troops crossed the border and began to occupy Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. On July 3, the operation was completed, and Bessarabia became part of the USSR. On August 2 of the same year, the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic was formed. It included most of the MASSR and two-thirds of Bessarabia. The southern part of Bessarabia (Budzhak) and the rest of the territory of the former MASSR went to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.

Another major territorial loss for Romania was the transfer of Northern Transylvania to Hungary on August 30, 1940 after the Second Vienna Arbitration. This territory was ceded to Romania in 1918, after the collapse of Austria-Hungary, and, according to the Treaty of Trianon, was part of Romania. The transfer of part of Transylvania to Hungary caused Romanian-Hungarian contradictions, which the German side took advantage of to strengthen its influence in the region. In the event of unrest in Transylvania, Germany retained the right to send troops into the oil and gas regions of Romania. F. Halder wrote in his diary: "Hitler hesitated [...] between two possibilities: either to go along with Hungary, or to give guarantees to Romania against Hungary".

However, the Hungarian-Romanian conflict was settled through the mediation of Germany. On September 7 of the same year, Romania lost another territory - Southern Dobruja (see the Treaty of Craiova), received in 1913 as a result of the Second Balkan War. Southern Dobruja became part of Bulgaria. Despite this, the state became increasingly dependent on the Third Reich. On November 23, Romania joined the Berlin Pact, while negotiations began with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

1.2. The coming to power of Ion Antonescu. Greater Romania

Manifestation of members of the "Iron Guard" in September 1940

After major territorial losses, King Carol II finally lost the trust of politicians and the people, who also lost faith in the policy of the authorities due to rampant corruption. Fascist and nationalist organizations took advantage of this, desiring the restoration of Romania within the borders of 1939 - "Great Romania". Among these organizations, the Iron Guard, led by Corneliu Zele Codreanu, stood out.

Corneliu Codreanu in 1923 became one of the founders of the LANC (National Christian League), which received 120,000 votes and 10 seats in parliament in the 1926 parliamentary elections. Despite its anti-Jewish slogans, anti-Semitism was not put at the heart of the party's program. In 1927, Codreanu left the party, because he considered the LANC program insufficiently developed and advocated radical methods of struggle. In the same year, he founded his own nationalist organization, the Legion of the Archangel Michael ("Iron Guard"). The Legion became the ideological opponent of LANC. In the 30s, the Legion gained popularity among voters and began to win parliamentary elections, each time receiving more and more seats in parliament. Then Ion Antonescu established contact with the legionnaires.

Postage stamp with the emblem of the "Iron Guard" and the inscription "help the legionnaires", issued on the eve of the 1931 parliamentary elections. The money received from the sale of stamps went to the development of the Guard

At the same time, relations with the king deteriorated, and in 1938 the Legion was disbanded, and a wave of searches and arrests swept the country. At the same time, the “Iron Guard” organized the party T.P.Ţ., or “All for the Kingdom”, “All for the Motherland” (rum. Totul Pentru Ţara [Totul Pentru Tzara]) to fight their opponents. Carol II dispersed the legionnaires only because he sought to subjugate this fascist organization, but first it was necessary to weaken it. To this end, Codreanu was arrested, and Horia Sima took his place in the Legion. Sima started the terror and militarization of the organization. Also, Antonescu, who was placed under house arrest, was removed from politics. During Hitler's visit to Romania, a wave of ethnic violence swept through the country, organized by members of the Iron Guard.

In early September 1940, after the loss of vast territories, the "Iron Guard" moved to decisive action. On September 5, under pressure from the radicals, Carol II was forced to abdicate in favor of his nineteen-year-old son Michael I. The old king fled with his wife by train to Yugoslavia. In Timisoara, the train was intercepted by legionnaires, they were opposed by station workers loyal to Carol II. A battle broke out, but the train left the city in time and crossed the border. On September 15, a new fascist government was formed, dominated by members of the Iron Guard, and led by Ion Antonescu. Horia Sima was appointed Vice Prime Minister. Mihai turned into a puppet king, subordinate to the fascist government. Romania was proclaimed a "national legionary state" and finally sided with the Axis.

The history of the aviation industry in Romania began in 1925, when, with the participation of foreign companies, in particular the French firms Blériot-Spad and Lorraine-Dietrich, the Industria Azronautica Romana (IAR) concern was founded in Brasov. He was mainly engaged in the licensed manufacture of aircraft and engines. In 1928, 30 two-seat Moran-Saulnier MS.35 training aircraft were the first to leave the assembly shops of the enterprise, then 70 Potez XXV light bombers. In the early 30s, machines of their own design were also developed in Brasov, but almost all of them remained at the level of prototypes, with the exception of the IAR 14 training aircraft. Therefore, when the need for modern combat fighters arose in Romania, the government turned its gaze abroad, where, at various aviation exhibitions and competitions, the all-metal high-wing planes of Zygmund Puławski were a great success. Initially, 50 PZL P.11b aircraft were purchased in Poland, then in 1934 the government acquired a license to produce an improved P.11f fighter, the construction of which was deployed at the IAR factories. Until 1937, units of the Romanian Air Force received about 70 of these machines. By this time, Romanian fighter aircraft consisted of nine R. 11 squadrons, three SET biplane squadrons. 15 manufactured by the aircraft factory in Bucharest and one - Devuatinov D.27. All these aircraft quickly became obsolete, and the Polish PZL P.24 fighter, which had a more powerful engine and enhanced weapons, was again chosen as their successor. To get acquainted with the technology of its manufacture, a group of IAR engineers headed by Professor Ion Grosu went to Warsaw. There, they probably received information about the development in Poland of a new fighter "Hawk" with a retractable landing gear, because they returned back with a firm conviction to create their own, even more advanced machine simultaneously with the licensed construction of the R.24. The command of the Romanian Air Force naturally supported this idea.

Work on the new fighter began in Brasov in October 1937, and the backbone of the design bureau of twenty people was Ion Grosso and his deputies Georgiou Zotta and Ion Kocereanu.

When the Nazi troops invaded the territory of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, Romanian military units, including aviation, also participated in battles with the Red Army. Of the 504 Romanian aircraft of the first line, 423 aircraft were sent to the Eastern Front, including 170 fighters. Among the very motley fighter aircraft of Romania, including German He 112 and Bf 109 aircraft, Polish R.11 and R.24, as well as English Hurricanes, there were also IAR 80, which were part of two squadrons of the 8th group. Under conditions of dominance in the sky, the pilots were mainly engaged in air support for the 3rd and 4th Romanian armies advancing in Bessarabia and Ukraine. In mid-October, IAR 81 fighter-bombers, who also fought as part of the 8th group, received a baptism of fire near Odessa. At the beginning of 1942, the units of the Romanian Air Force were reorganized and replenished with new aircraft. From the units armed with IAR 80 fighters, the 6th group of the 1st air corps was transferred to the territory of the USSR. In the ongoing battles in Ukraine, the Romanians quickly realized that the German “blitzkrieg” was dragging on, and the number of modern Soviet fighters was constantly growing in the air, surpassing Romanian aircraft in flight data, especially at medium and high altitudes. Most of all, IAR 81 dive bombers were hit in air battles, the maximum speed of which, even without bombs, did not exceed 470 km / h.

The obsolescence of Romanian aircraft was fully manifested during the Battle of Stalingrad, where they simply had no place in fierce battles for air supremacy. At the beginning of 1943, the German 6th Army capitulated, and Romania lost 18 infantry divisions and a significant part of its aviation near Stalingrad. The IAR 80 fighters withdrawn from the front returned to their homeland and became part of the air defense units that defended Bucharest and the oil refineries in Ploiesti from allied air raids. In the summer of 1943, all IAR 80 and 81 aircraft were in Romania (on the Eastern Front, the Romanian Air Force units were re-equipped with Bf 109Gs).

Participation of Romanian troops in the fighting on the Eastern Front:
1) "33-day battle" for the capture of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina (June 22 - July 26, 1941) by the forces of the 3rd and 4th Armies, with the participation of the German 11th Army.
2) The Battle for Odessa (August 14 - October 16, 1941), carried out mainly by the forces of the 4th Army
3) The campaign of the German (11th Army) and Romanian (3rd Army) troops in the direction of the Southern Bug - the Dnieper - the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov to the area of ​​\u200b\u200bBerdyansk and Mariupol, also known as the "Nogai Steppe" (August-October 1941) .
4) The Battle for Crimea, which took place mainly in the autumn of 1941, when part of the troops of the 11th German Army, led by General Erich von Manstein since September 1941, stopped the advance to the Sea of ​​Azov, redirecting, together with the 3rd Romanian Army, to liquidate the forces of the Red Army located on the Crimean peninsula. Then, in the winter and early summer of 1942, units of the 11th Army and selected Romanian units stormed the Crimea, culminating in the capture of Sevastopol on July 4, 1942.
. 5) Stalingrad "epopee - in turn, divided into several periods: the campaign of the Romanian troops (by the forces of the 3rd and 4th Armies) together with the Germans in the direction of Stalingrad (June 28 - September 1942). 3rd Romanian the army operated as part of Army Group "B", next to the 6th German, 2nd Hungarian, 8th Italian and 4th German tank, finally fortifying in the area of ​​the bend of the Don, while the 4th Romanian the army took up a position advanced directly to the city from the southwestern side, in the so-called "Kalmyk steppe" storming Stalingrad in September-November 1942; defensive battles, after the start of the Soviet counter-offensive (November 19-20). The front of the 3rd Romanian army was torn in two, and at the same time the 15th, 6th and main part of the 5th divisions were surrounded. Later, these formations, forming the group of General Lasker, will try in vain to break out of the ring in a westerly direction. Military operations in the Kuban (February 1 - October 9, 1943), which were retreating battles of the Romanian and German troops, whose task had previously been to storm the Caucasus and which, after the defeat of the main strike group near Stalingrad, left the positions they had conquered and retreated to Azov sea ​​for the purpose of further evacuation to the Crimea.
The defense (October 1943 - April 1944) and the abandonment (April 14 - May 12, 1944) of the Crimea, which took place under the blows of the Red Army from the northeast.
The retreat of the German and Romanian armies (winter 1943/1944), under the growing pressure from the Soviet troops, was carried out in the direction of Donetsk-Dnepr-Southern Bug-Dniester-Prut.
Battle on the territory of Moldova (since August 20, 1944). After a broad offensive in the Iasi-Kishinev region, deployed by the forces of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts of the Red Army, the Romanian-German units, squeezed by the enemy, were unable to further resistance.

In general, the Romanian land army fought the Red Army for a long time, lost more than 600,000 soldiers and officers killed, wounded and captured on the territory of the USSR, and on the whole very, very seriously helped Germany in its efforts to conquer the USSR. Efforts were not crowned with success - but the Romanians tried very hard!
By the way, the Romanian aviation was also not a "whipping boy" for the Red Army Air Force. Romania fielded more than 400 aircraft for the war with the USSR (672 in total in the Air Force). These are 162 bombers: 36 German Heinkel-111N-3, 36 Italian Savoia Marchetti SM. 79V, 24 French Potez-633V-2 and 12 Block-210, 40 British Bristol-Blenheim Mk I, 24 Polish PZLP.37V Los, 36 Romanian IAR-37. These machines, although not the last word of aviation, but they can’t be called a “museum” either: these types or their analogues were in service with the warring countries of Europe in 1939-1941 and were in no way inferior to the main Soviet front-line bombers.
For 116 Romanian fighters, the picture is even more interesting: 40 German Messerschmitts Bf-109E and 28 Heinkel-112, 12 British Hawker Hurricane Mk I, 36 Romanian IAR-80, whose performance characteristics are better than those of our I-16 and I- 153, and the "Messers" - no worse than the latest MiG-3, Yak-1, LaGG-3. Polish-made fighters PZL.P.11 and PZL.P.24 (another 120 units) - those, however, are no longer a “fashion cry”, but no more outdated than our I-15, I-153 and I-16 - in rarely participated in battles. Scouts "Blenheim", IAR-39, seaplanes "Kant" Z501 and "Savoy" SM.55 and 62 are not worse than the R-5, R-10 or MBR-2 and Sh-2 of the eastern enemy.

The structure of the Romanian Air Force on the Eastern Front:
Flotilla Group Squadron Armament
1st bomber flotilla (Flotila 1 Borabardament) Gr.1 Bomb. Esc.71 Bomb.
SM.79B "Savoie" Esc.72 Bomb. SM.79B "Savoy"
Gr.4 Bomb. Esc.76 Bomb. PZL P.37B Los
Esc.77 Bomb. PZL P.37B Los
Gr.5 Bomb. Esc.78 Bomb. He-111H-3
Esc.79 Bomb. He-111H-3
Esc.80 Bomb. He-111H-3
2nd bomber flotilla (Flotila 2 Borabardament) Gr.2 Bomb. Esc.73 Bomb. Potez 633B-2
Esc.74 Bomb. Potez 633B-2
- Esc.18 Bomb. IAR-373
- Esc.82 Bomb. Bloch 210
1st Fighter Flotilla (Flotila 1 Vanatoare) Gr.5 Van. Esc.51 Van.
He-112B
Esc.52 Van. He-112B
Gr.7 Van. Esc.56 Van. Bf-109E-3/E-4
Esc.57 Van. Bf-109E-3/E-4
Esc.58 Van. Bf-109E-3/E-4
Gr.8 Van. Esc.41 Van. IAR-80A
Esc.59 Van. IAR-80A
Esc.60 Van. IAR-80A
2nd Reconnaissance Flotilla (Flotila 2 Galati) - Esc.11 Obs.
IAR-38
- Esc.12 Obs. IAR-38
- Esc.13 Obs. IAR-38
- Esc.14 Obs. IAR-39
- - Esc.1 Obs./Bomb. Bristol "Blenheim" Mk.I

The armored forces of Romania on June 22, 1941 consisted of 126 R-2 tanks (Czech LT-35 of a special modification, at that time a very, very decent vehicle), 35 R-1 light tanks (as part of motorized regiments of cavalry divisions); in addition, 48 cannon and 28 machine gun Renault FT-17s were in reserve. Plus, 35 Polish Renault R-35 tanks interned in 1939 were included in the Romanian armored forces.
So, as the reader can see, the Romanian army was by no means as helpless and weak as it is sometimes presented in various kinds of "historical" literature!
The Romanians fought against us until September 1944, constantly keeping military contingents of 180,000 - 220,000 bayonets and cavalry on the Eastern Front. It was a very significant support for the Wehrmacht, no matter what our marshals and generals later said in their memoirs.

Romania in World War II

It was clear that Karol needed to receive divine sanction in the form of the patriarch heading the cabinet of ministers in order to implement radical changes. And they were not slow to follow. In February 1938, the king held a referendum to approve the new constitution. Voting took place as follows - the voter had to come to the polling station and verbally, of course, without any observance of the secrecy of the will, speak out for or against the fundamental law. The constitution is adopted by a 99.87% majority.

The new basic law radically expands the powers of the king. The existence of a parliament, it is true, is also provided for, but the essence of this institution is changing due to the fact that all parties are banned. Instead, the National Renaissance Front is being created. Very quickly, 3.5 million people join it. Young people do not have to make a choice at all - the entire population of the country who has reached the age of 17 is enrolled in the organization "Guards of the Sea". In vain, communist propaganda scolded Karol for many decades - after all, the man did so much to prepare the future citizens of socialist Romania and Soviet Moldova for their already very close communist future.

Introduced the death penalty, more than a hundred years earlier canceled by General Kiselev. But the right to vote now extends to women. Another thing is that only the youngest girls had a chance to live until the next free elections - Romania and Moldova had to wait 52 years for them.

The country meekly accepted the destruction by the king of democratic institutions that had been so long and difficult to build. Karol, in turn, did not use repressions against representatives of democratic parties, being satisfied that they were sitting quietly. But in the legionnaires, he saw serious opponents, the fifth column of the German Nazis, and, presumably, he was simply jealous of Codreanu's popularity. So mass arrests fell upon them, and then executions. Codreanu was initially sentenced to 10 years in prison, but in November 1938, by order of the king, he was killed in prison.

If at the time of the establishment of the royal dictatorship in Romania, the situation in Europe was still relatively calm, then in the following months, as if trying to justify the measures of the Romanian authorities for internal consolidation, it begins to deteriorate rapidly. The betrayal by Great Britain and France of Czechoslovakia, which led to the rejection of the Sudetenland by Hitler in October 1938, was very bad news for Romania. The country felt abandoned by its traditional allies, defenseless in the face of the USSR, Hungary and Bulgaria, who were thirsting for revenge. The ancient fear, which receded in 1856 and seemed to dissipate in 1918, begins to rise again from the depths of the Romanian soul.

In March 1939, Germany liquidates Czechoslovakia. The Small Entente, from which the strongest link has been knocked out, ceases to exist. Karol, although inspired by Italian and German examples in domestic politics, still wants to remain an ally of Great Britain and France. But the fear of Hitler is also growing. Therefore, Romania is trying to please both camps of opponents in the impending war.

The Romanians are inferior to the Nazis on the most important issue for the latter, which will run like a red thread through the entire history of Romanian-German relations during World War II - access to Romanian oil. On March 23, 1939, an economic agreement is concluded between Romania and Germany, according to which the latter becomes the priority buyer of Romanian oil, but Hitler does not want to pay in hard currency. The Germans pay off by barter, mostly with weapons. This ends the golden age of the Romanian oil boom.

On the other hand, in April 1939 Romania accepted the British and French military guarantees of its sovereignty. A project for a joint confrontation with Germany by the forces of France, Great Britain, the USSR and Eastern European countries begins to be developed. Poland's refusal to allow Soviet troops into its territory led to the failure of this first attempt at an anti-Hitler coalition, followed by the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and the outbreak of World War II. The consequences of the Polish refusal became catastrophic, but the events of 1944-1948. proved that there were good reasons for such a decision.

Having agreed with Stalin on the division of spheres of influence in Eastern Europe, Hitler agreed to the return of the USSR to the territories that had ceded to Romania in 1918, and at the same time belonged to Romania, but inhabited mainly by Ukrainians in northern Bukovina.

Romania did not know that it had already begun to be divided, but the brutal defeat of Poland by Germany and the Soviet Union could not but give rise to the most terrible premonitions about their own future. Great Britain and France, following the guarantees provided to Poland, declared war on the Nazis. The Romanian leadership, numb with horror, does not even dare to think about any attempts to join the struggle on the side of its allies in the last world war. At the Crown Council on September 6, 1939, a decision was made to strictly observe neutrality.

But the Romanians nevertheless showed a minimum of solidarity in the tragedy that befell Poland. The border with Romania was the only loophole where the Poles could hide from the German and Soviet vise that squeezed them. In September 1939, many trains passed through Romanian territory, carrying the Polish government and gold reserves, thousands of soldiers and refugees. They reached the Black Sea ports of Romania, from where they went into a long exile.

While the trains with the unfortunate Poles went through Romania from the northern border to Constanta, events broke out in the country, ugly in terms of the intensity of hatred and rampant barbarism. On September 21, 1939, Prime Minister Călinescu (who took over the government in March 1939, after the death of the patriarch) was assassinated by the Iron Guard. In response, the king, distraught with fear and hatred, ordered immediately, without trial, to kill 252 legionnaires who were in prison. The bodies of the dead were thrown into the main streets of Romanian cities and lay there for three days to intimidate the people. Romania dreamed of being like Ancient Rome, and achieved something. If Karol I is comparable in his merits with the emperor Octavian Augustus, then in the person of Karol II the country received a ruler in the spirit of Nero or Caligula.

The Romanians might indeed have been frightened for a long time, but in their past, which was now returning, external circumstances often prevented the strengthening of the power of tyrants at home. On May 10, 1940, German troops launched a general offensive on the western front. By the end of May, the French army was defeated, the remnants of the English fled from the continent. On June 14, the Nazis entered Paris. On June 22, France surrendered. On June 17, the USSR proceeds to the occupation and annexation of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Only 20 years have passed since the West was at the height of its power. But the top is a slippery and windy thing, it is not easy to stay on it for a long time. From the turn of the 1920s to the 1930s, the economic crisis, the growth of the power of the Soviet Union and the rise of the Nazis to power in Germany undermined the strength and influence of Western civilization so that now it was on the verge of death. Romania had shared in the triumph of the West in 1918, and now she had to share in its disasters.

The situation forces the Romanians to make decisions quickly - already on May 28, without waiting for the final fall of France, the Romanian Crown Council decides on the country's orientation towards an alliance with Germany. But in the fate of the eastern lands of Romania, already spelled out in the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, this could not change anything.

On the night of June 27, 1940, the USSR presented an ultimatum to Romania demanding the immediate transfer of the eastern provinces. English guarantees are still formally in force, but it is obvious to everyone that Great Britain cannot provide any assistance. The Romanians ask for Germany's support, but receive a recommendation from Berlin not to resist the Soviet Union. June 28 Romania accepts an ultimatum, and on the same day the Soviet army crosses the Dniester.

Parts Soviet army occupy Bessarabia and northern Bukovina in three days, ahead of the Romanian military units and administration trying to evacuate at least something, as well as hundreds of thousands of refugees rushing to the Prut. Bessarabian Jews, being offended by the Romanian society for anti-Semitism, and trying to curry favor with the new masters, welcome the Soviet troops and rob the property of the Romanian army and administration. On July 3, the withdrawal of Romanian troops from the provinces transferred to the Soviet Union is completed. Together with them, about 300 thousand refugees leave Bessarabia and northern Bukovina - a significant part of the representatives of the propertied and educated classes of these lands. Those who ventured to stay soon regretted it. During the year from the moment of the Soviet occupation to the offensive of the German and Romanian troops in June 1941, 90 thousand people were repressed in Eastern Moldavia and Northern Bukovina. The most severe blow to the population of the regions was the deportation of 31 thousand Bessarabians and Bukovinians in June 1941. There was also a considerable reverse flow - 150 thousand inhabitants of Eastern Moldavia who were in other regions of Romania, either hoping for a better future under socialism, or fearing the closure of the border , hurried back to their homeland.

On August 2, 1940, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a resolution on the creation of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. At the same time, the borders in the region have undergone a serious revision. Northern Bukovina, as well as southern Bessarabia adjacent to the Danube and the Black Sea, where the Moldavians were a minority, were transferred to Ukraine. Part of the Bulgarian and Gagauz lands went to Moldova. But there were no Germans left in these lands. By agreement between the USSR and Germany, all of them in the amount of 110 thousand were taken to German territory. The Germans traveled with greater comfort than those Bessarabians whom the Soviet authorities took to Siberia, but it is unlikely that separation from their homeland, where several generations of their ancestors lived, became much easier from this.

On the other hand, a strip of land along the eastern bank of the Dniester, on which the Moldavian autonomy previously existed, was taken from Ukraine and transferred to Moldova.

The new possessions of the communist empire were brought to the all-Soviet standard with maximum speed. Already in July, they exchanged lei for rubles, which ensured equality in poverty for the population of the new Soviet lands - only a very small amount was exchanged, and all savings in excess of it turned into nothing. On August 15, 1940, a law was followed on the nationalization of all large and medium-sized enterprises in Eastern Moldavia and Northern Bukovina. And the Soviet authorities did not have to close the free Russian-language press of Bessarabia - this work was done for them by the Romanian royal dictatorship in 1938.

Greater Romania no longer existed. The country was again defenseless, desperately looking for a ruler whose patronage would allow it to survive. Karol II demonstrates his readiness to go to any humiliation, if only Hitler would protect the unfortunate country from its neighbors.

The surviving legionnaires are amnestied, and their new leader, Horia Sima, is included in the cabinet of ministers. Jews are dismissed from state institutions, a law is passed banning marriages with representatives of the “small people”. Continuing to live with a Jewish woman without formalizing the relationship, Karol, presumably, shows his subjects that the ugly law he has adopted can be easily circumvented. Romania refuses British military guarantees and withdraws from the League of Nations, then asks to join it to the Berlin-Rome axis.

After leaving the eastern regions, Defense Minister Ion Antonescu demanded that the king grant him emergency powers, for which he was removed and sent into exile. Karol's power still held out, but the events that put an end to it were approaching quickly and inexorably.

Romania seems to be able to count on the understanding of Germany, given the importance of its oil sources. But Romanian fuel is not yet critical for the Nazis. Relations with the USSR are good, and Germany can buy oil there. So Karol receives from Berlin the most terrible answer he expected - Germany will condescend to an alliance with Romania only after the claims of Hungary and Bulgaria regarding compensation for the lost in 1918 and 1913 are settled.

Budapest demands to give up most of Transylvania, agreeing to leave some areas along the southern Carpathians to the Romanians. Bucharest is trying to object. Germany, as the supreme European arbiter, undertakes to make an arbitral award. On August 30, 1940, the decision of the Vienna Arbitration was announced - Transylvania is divided in half. Romania must give Hungary the northern part of the region with Cluj and the Szekely lands. Thousands of Romanians themselves flee northern Transylvania, and thousands more are deported by the Hungarian authorities to Romanian territory. In general, Romania receives another 300,000 displaced persons. In a number of places the Hungarian army massacres the Romanian population.

Finally, on September 7, 1940, an agreement was signed in Craiova with Bulgaria on the return of southern Dobruja to it. Although the Bulgarians and Romanians do not seem to be divided by fierce enmity, according to the custom of the fierce times that have come, the parties agree on mutual ethnic cleansing. Several tens of thousands of Bulgarians are being deported from Romania, several tens of thousands of Romanians are being deported from Bulgaria. In total, Romania in 1940 lost a third of its territory and a third of its population.

Cruelty, corruption and the pervasive influence of the Jewish mistress have long made Carol II unpopular in the country. For the time being, he was feared. But the endless nightmare of surrendering Romanian lands without a fight forced the Romanians to overcome fear. The finest hour of the legionnaires has come. After the decision of the Vienna Arbitration on Transylvania was announced, hundreds of thousands of people across the country, responding to the call of the leadership of the Iron Guard, took to the streets demanding the abdication of Karol from the throne. To force the army to fight against its own people, which had just given away many lands to foreign peoples without a fight, the king did not dare.

He is trying to find common ground with society by placing the disgraced Minister of Defense Antonescu at the head of the government on 4 September. But he deals the final blow to him - on behalf of the army, he joins the demand of the Iron Guards for the abdication of the king. There is nothing more to hope for, so on the morning of September 6, Carol II abdicates the throne. The day is spent collecting and loading money and valuables that will help the deposed king and his girlfriend spend the rest of their days comfortably, and in the evening Karol and Elena Lupescu board a train that takes them to the Yugoslav border.

The deposed monarch lived until 1953, settling in Portugal. Having left his homeland, which brought so much trouble and grief to this man who loved a good life, Karol finally formalized a legal marriage with Elena Lupescu.

Mihai returns to the Romanian throne. He has already reached the age of majority, but no one intends to allow the king to rule the country. The only thing he needs is to endow Prime Minister Antonescu with dictatorial powers. But the young man can meet his mother again. Queen Helena returns from exile.

A frightening-looking column of legionary militants is marching through the streets of Bucharest. Multi-million dollar royal party of 1938 disappears overnight without a trace. Romania is proclaimed a "national legionary state". As in the early days of Turkish domination, when Dracula raged in Wallachia, the people are not ready to come to terms with the loss of the country's former status. Discipline, determination and ruthlessness towards enemies should help the nation overcome a merciless fate.

The object of revenge for Romania's impotence in the face of external enemies is people of the “wrong” nationality living quietly inside the country. In the autumn of 1940, laws were passed on the nationalization of the property of Jews and Hungarians, then on their dismissal from all more or less decent jobs. The persecution of the Jews also serves to improve relations with Germany, with which hopes for revenge are associated.

And things are improving in this direction. The Nazi government says that now that Romania has shared its lands with its neighbors, it can provide it with guarantees of territorial integrity. The latter very quickly receive a material embodiment - in October, German troops are introduced into Romania. November 23, Antonescu is favorably received in Berlin, where Romania's accession to the Berlin-Rome axis is formalized.

It remains only to decide who will lead the country to revenge - Antonescu or legionnaires led by Sima. The government formed in September included several legionnaires, but the military loyal to the prime minister occupied key posts. The Iron Guards put more and more pressure on Antonescu, demanding that they be given control of the army and police, the entire public life and economy of the country.

Organized in November, the reburial of Codreanu and other legionnaires who were victims of the royal dictatorship sent society into a state of hysteria. The general brutality, the first victims of which were Jews and Hungarians, now fell upon the Romanians as well. On the night when the secret burial of Codreanu was opened in the courtyard of the Jilava prison, the legionnaires killed 64 officials from the time of the royal dictatorship, who were sitting there, in the following days, the economist Madzharu and the historian Iorgu. Nature also seemed to respond to the madness of people - in November 1940 powerful earthquake led to great destruction and casualties in the south of Moldova and in the east of Wallachia. In Bucharest, the elite residential complex "Carlton" collapsed - a 12-story concrete brainchild of the economic boom of the second half of the thirties. Thus, the hopes of Romania to quickly and simply come to an industrial democratic society fell apart.

However, the opinions of Romanian historians as to whether the Holocaust took place in their country are divided. Because Romanians destroyed Jews, but not on Romanian territory. There was no persecution in Romania itself after the Iasi pogrom. Many were even able to keep their property, since there were enough loopholes in the laws of 1940, such as an exception for Jews "having services to the Romanian state."

Although the Moldavian peasantry, of course, bore the brunt of the war, for them the short return of the Romanians was a respite between Soviet taxes. During the three years of Romanian rule in Bessarabia, 417 thousand tons of grain were collected in the form of taxes and requisitions, while at the same time in 1940-1941, in just one year of Soviet administration, the state took 356 thousand tons of grain. And in 1944, returning Soviet authority pumped out 480 thousand tons from war-ravaged Eastern Moldavia!

If in Eastern Moldova there is a significant partisan movement was not, then 10,000 partisans settled in the huge catacombs of Odessa. The Romanian army did not make any attempt to defeat them, the partisans were also limited to minor operations. So all two and a half years of occupation in Odessa, there were two authorities side by side - from above Romania, from below - the USSR.

Meanwhile, the quagmire of war dragged Romania deeper and deeper. I had to fight not only with those who had taken the eastern provinces of the USSR, but also with those to whom the Romanians had no claims. On December 7, 1941, Romania declared war on Great Britain, on December 12, fulfilling an allied duty to Japan, the United States. In the east, the clash between the USSR and Germany reached its highest point. In the spring of 1942, after the success near Moscow, the Soviet army launched a series of counteroffensives against the Germans, but was not ready and was driven back with heavy losses, after which the Nazis launched an offensive on the southern sector of the front. The Romanian army took part in the most important of the battles of the spring campaign of 1942 - the defeat of the Soviet troops near Kharkov. In June-July 1942, the Romanians helped the Germans take Sevastopol.

By the end of the summer of 1942, the Nazis managed to ensure the greatest mobilization of their European allies. It had already become clear that it was incredibly difficult to defeat the Soviet Union, but after the German victories in the spring of 1942, Hitler's chances seemed to be preferable. Therefore, two German, one Italian and one Hungarian armies went on the offensive against Stalingrad. There were two Romanian armies, as well as German ones. In total, Romania had about 400,000 people on the eastern front in 1942 - two-thirds of the forces at its disposal. Hungary sent only one-third of its army to the eastern front. Of all the Europeans forced to fight for Hitler, the Romanians were still the most enthusiastic in selling their souls to the Nazi devil.

By the end of August, when the German troops began the assault on Stalingrad, the Romanian forces (third and fourth armies) were entrusted with the responsible task of covering the German troops fighting for Stalingrad from both flanks. The Third Army occupied the front line, which went northwest from Stalingrad along the Don and turned towards central Russia. The Fourth Army was deployed on a huge front between Stalingrad and the Caucasus, in the steppes of Kalmykia.

September, October, half of November passed. The terrible massacre in Stalingrad continued month after month, but the Soviet troops fought to the death and did not allow the Nazis to reach the lines outlined by Hitler. Romanian soldiers froze in the trenches and died in battles thousands of kilometers from their native land. And they died inefficiently. They had to fight against the Soviet army, which, despite the terrible situation in the country, received tanks, guns, and aircraft in abundance. The technical lag of the Romanian army during the Second World War was almost greater than in the First. An outstanding achievement of the interwar period was the construction of our own aircraft factory and the creation of good combat aircraft. But the artillery was poor, and huge war exhausted its capabilities - by November 1942, the third Romanian army had only 20% of the necessary ammunition. The Romanians were representatives of an oil-producing country, but their army had only 30% of the required gasoline in the most important strategic direction.

And most importantly, there were negligibly few tanks. The Third Army consisted of eight infantry and two cavalry divisions, there were no tank formations, and hundreds of combat vehicles of the Soviet Fifth Tank Army were deployed on the northern bank of the Don to attack the Romanian infantry and cavalry.

So the artillery and tank hell that opened up on the Romanian positions along the Don on November 19, 1942 did not give the Romanians any chance. In the history of the Romanian wars, as we know, there were cases when the army fought to the last, but this happened only when defending the last line on their native land. There was nothing similar here, so the third Romanian army fled and was destroyed in a matter of days. The Fourth Army, on which the Soviet attack hit on November 20, withdrew with heavy losses. The lightning-fast defeat of the Romanians allowed the Soviet army very quickly, by November 23, to surround the German forces that had stormed Stalingrad. In January 1943, the withdrawal of the Nazis from the Caucasus began. At the same time, the only Hungarian army sent to the eastern front died near Voronezh.

The enemy turned out to be stronger than not only the Romanians, but also the Germans. In the early 1920s, the Russian Bolsheviks experienced great disappointment when the rest of the world, even after a terrible war, did not make a communist revolution. But the belief in the correctness of the communist idea of ​​the Bolsheviks did not leave, so it was decided to make the world happy by force. And in creating strong army designed to carry red banners and impose the power of party committees throughout the earth, the USSR succeeded. The general confiscation of property by the state from the people made it possible to create an unprecedented system of resource mobilization in terms of efficiency and cruelty. In this regard, it is appropriate to recall the 30,000 Bessarabians sent deep into the USSR to work on slave terms - for minimal food, without a penny of wages, and the scale of grain procurements in Eastern Moldavia.

And one more earlier circumstance. In 1933, Romania began to emerge from the crisis, agriculture revived, and nothing resembling a famine was observed. And beyond the Dniester, where climatic conditions could not seriously differ from Romanian ones, millions of Soviet peasants, from whom the latter was taken away for the industrialization of the communist empire, were dying of hunger. Near Stalingrad, those peasants who survived in 1933, but now died by the millions on the fronts of the bloodiest war in human history, were given moral compensation for their suffering - they became citizens of a great power. And for the Romanians, in the winter sky over the frozen Don steppes, merciless fate began to draw the first lines of a new chapter in their history - the era of communist rule.

Defeat

At Nazi Germany there were no truly loyal allies. Hungary, after the defeat of its army near Voronezh, curtailed participation in the struggle on the eastern front. Bulgaria, which took advantage of Hitler's victories over Yugoslavia and Greece, never sent a single soldier against the Soviet Union. Far to the west, Franco, who came to power largely thanks to the support of Germany, could have prevented the penetration of the American and British fleets into the Mediterranean, but he did not think to do so. A country whose official ideology was extreme nationalism could hardly hope for anything better. Antonescu was Hitler's best ally, but his words about his readiness to go to the end were not sincere either.

The harsh history of the country has developed among the Romanian elite an exceptionally sharp sense of smell on the subject of who is currently with strength and luck. And if in 1940 the Romanian Crown Council decided to seek an alliance with the Nazis even before the final fall of France, then Antonescu orders a recall from eastern front most of the Romanian forces already on November 26, 1942. It was possible to complete the withdrawal of the remnants of the third and fourth armies within the boundaries of the Romanian possessions in February 1943. On the eastern front, 40,000 Romanian troops remain, who are fighting in the North Caucasus, then evacuated to the Crimea, where they receive respite until April 1944

Antonescu's strategy is changing. He is doing everything possible to restore and strengthen the Romanian army, but is in no hurry to throw it into the hell of the eastern front again. Domestic politics softens. There is no more talk of further extermination of the Jews. Hitler's demand to start sending them to concentration camps on the territory of the Reich is ignored by the Romanian authorities. The Jewish population of Odessa, although it suffered losses in the first months of the occupation, largely survived thanks to a change in the approach of the Romanians. At the same time, Germany's attitude towards Romania is quite loyal - Hitler knows that without Romanian oil he will end.

Rumania's hopes are pinned on the offensive of American and British troops, especially since their main theater of operations is relatively close to Romanian territory. In May 1943, the Allies defeat the Germans and Italians in Africa, and on September 8, their landing in Italy leads to the overthrow of the Nazis and the country's withdrawal from the war. This development of events gives rise to the hope in Romania that the troops of the Western members of the anti-Hitler coalition will land in the Balkans, and then it will be possible to join them in order to expel the Nazis from South-Eastern Europe and prevent the Communists from entering there. But the course of the Italian campaign may already give rise to doubts about the reality of the prospects presented by the Romanian politicians. The unwillingness of democratic governments to shed the blood of their citizens, which led to the grandiose defeats of the West in 1938-1940, is now turning into indecisive warfare. The Americans and the British allow the Germans to take over