Tag: front

  • World War One in Romania

    World War One in Romania


    Much has been written and, surely, more will still be written about World War One, the Great War as it had been dubbed at that time, and that, because the deflagration was something the world had not seen up to that moment. It was a tremendous mobilization of resources and people, made for the ideas of the age, for convictions and for utopias. And that, because the most eccentric ideas, before they are materialized, are oddities people get enthused with, when they deal with such ideas, yet being at once overcautious about them and rating them as forms of utopia. Everything that occurred in the aftermath of World War One, in 1918, would have been considered, before 1914, the year of the outbreak of the war, unachievable.



    In the great conflict, Romania took sides with the English-French-Russian Entente, in 1916. The Romanian army, in 1916, fought on World War Ones longest front line, stretching north of the Carpathian ridge to the south of the Danube and the shores of the Black Sea. The Romanian army eventually conceded defeat, in 1916. With the support of the Russian army and the French military mission lead by general Berthelot, the Romanian army put up a successful resistance to the German and Austro-Hungarian armies, in 1917, who were advancing on the front line, in 1917. In 1918, in the wake of the Entente emerging as winner, the Old Romanian Kingdoms unification was possible, with the territories of the neighboring empires, with a predominantly Romanian-speaking population. For posterity, the year 1918 went down as a year of triumph, a year of celebration and the commemoration of all Romanians sacrifice for Greater Romania.


    Savoring the victory of 1918 left little, if any, room for commiserating with the defeated, who lost almost everything. Austro-Hungary was dismantled and reduced to the territories where the ethnic populations of the two successor states, Austria and Hungary, were predominant. However, the real winners are those who find the time and the willingness to consider their opponents sufferance, to look, through the eyes of the losers, at how much they themselves had to suffer for victory. To that end, the volume edited by the Hungarian historians Nándor Bárdi and Judit Pál and titled “Over the Trenches. How the Hungarians of Transylvania experienced the Great War and the Trianon.” is a collection of documents of the time.



    The historian Daniel Cain told us that, for the Romanians, the beginning of the war that led to the final victory was a much too optimistic one, with very little doubt as regards the real situation,



    “I shall make reference, if I may, to an article that was a singular voice in the Old Kingdom press in late 1914 and early into 1915. It is an editorial published in a business magazine and also an attempted answer to those who were dead set on Romanias entering the war: fine, we advance into Transylvania, we make Greater Romania. What would our administrative model be, for those living in Transylvania? Do we have the required administrative experience to replace, for instance, the elite of the Transylvanian towns? It was a one-of-a-kind article, at that time, as there were extremely boisterous other articles targeting the necessity and the light-mindedness of a decision to be taken, for the Romanian Army to cross the Carpathians. “



    The light-mindedness with which people cause real tragedies is typical for our minds and motivated by our good intentions. Human beings are self-delusional, believing, for instance, that a war ends up quickly, without much effort. It was the mindset of that particular generation and, as history has revealed, it was also the mindset of the generations to come.



    Historian Daniel Cain:



    “In order to illustrate that light-mindedness with which people viewed the war in the summer of 1916, in Bucharest there were two major incidents that occurred prior to Romanias entering into the war: an explosion at the armys Arsenal and another explosion at the ammunition storage in the Dudesti district. The following day, the press and mainly the Adevarul daily said measures had to be taken, because there were the spies who did it and 300 people were sacrificed, it was exactly the number of people who had to be sacrificed for the accomplishment of the national ideal, once the Carpathians had been crossed. So, in 1916, a great part of the public in the Old Kingdom was firmly convinced that Romanias entering into the war would be no more difficult than a walk.”



    Here is historian Daniel Cain once again, this time highlighting the good points of a thought-provoking volume, a book where we can find the same experiences that are typical for wartime. Its just that theyre being viewed from the other side.



    “It practically offers several answers to several questions, it provides an extremely varied image of what, first and foremost the experience of the war mean, for the ordinary people who fatefully felt the pressure of those trying times. Here we have testimonies of experiences that mainly boil down to uncertainty, to the uncertainty of tomorrow, to fear. Just put yourselves in the shoes of those living in the border localities, where, all of a sudden, the next day they see another army marching into their locality. And what they see is a change, a withdrawal of the local administration, a replacement of the local administration, only to see that, in a couple of days or in a few weeks time, the former state of things would again be put in place.”



    The volume “Over the trenches… is more than an invitation to reading. It is an urge to view a glorious year, such as 1918 was for the Romanians, from the other side, the side of the defeated ones, it is an urge, for winner and losers alike, to share the sufferance. (EN)


  • 1917. Note de război – un serial simbol, marca Rador

    1917. Note de război – un serial simbol, marca Rador

    Pentru a onora
    Centenarul Marelui Război, Agenţia de presă Rador a Radio România îi aduce în
    atenţia dumneavoastră pe participanţii şi martorii acelor evenimente eroice.
    Dorim să depăşim limitele livreşti ale relatării şi să vă oferim fragmente
    autentice din viaţa de pe front.


    În prima lună din
    1917 armata noastră operativă care a supravieţuit dezastrului campaniei anului
    precedent se afla în Moldova, istovită şi secătuită, după trei luni de lupte
    necontenite şi retrageri din faţa unui inamic puternic. Totuşi încrederea în
    dreptatea cauzei pentru care România intrase în Războiul cel Mare nu se
    clintise. Ţara trebuia scăpată de ocupaţia străină şi trebuia întregită. Se
    impunea refacerea armatei, readucerea ei în stare de a da lovituri trupelor
    germane şi austriece. Acest lucru s-a întâmplat în iarna şi primăvara lui 1917,
    cu efortul şi sacrificiul tuturor românilor şi cu ajutor din partea Franţei
    aliate. Rezultatele au fost pe măsură: victoriile impresionante din vară, la
    Mărăşti, Mărăşeşti şi Oituz ne-au făcut cinste şi au fost spre folosul cauzei
    comune a aliaţilor.


    Începând de marţi,
    19 septembrie, într-un nou serial intitulat 1917. Note de război
    vă oferim mărturii detaliate, impresionante, despre încleştarea de acum un veac
    de pe fronturile Moldovei. Sunt interviuri realizate cu zeci de ani în urmă,
    păstrate în Arhiva de istorie orală Radio România şi care au o valoare
    documentară excepţională. Vă invităm să ne urmăriţi pe www.rador.ro, secţiunea
    Istorie Orală. Vă mulţumim!

  • 28.07.2014 (mise à jour)

    28.07.2014 (mise à jour)

    Ukraine — L’Ukraine voisine recrute des ethniques roumains de la région de Cernauti pour les envoyer en première ligne du front à la place des Ukrainiens. C’est ce qu’a déclaré le vice président de la Commission de la Chambre des Députés, pour les communautés roumaines de l’étranger, Bogdan Diaconu qui affirme que cette méthode est la solution adoptée par Kiev pour exterminer les Roumains de la région. Les déclarations du responsable roumain surviennent après que des centaines d’ethniques roumains ont reçu l’ordre d’incorporation au terme duquel ils se sont vu obligés de lutter contre les rebelles pro-russes dans l’est ukrainien. Forte de quelque 500.000 personnes, la communauté roumaine d’Ukraine se trouve notamment dans l’ouest du pays, sur les anciens territoires roumains annexés en 1940 par l’ancienne URSS.



    Sécurité – L’attitude expansionniste de la Russie doit être un sujet de préoccupation, en raison d’une possible propagation de phénomènes négatifs sur le territoire de la Roumanie. C’est ce qu’a déclaré lundi le directeur du Service roumain de Renseignements, George Maior, pour le quotidien Adevarul LIVE. Et d’ajouter que la région de la Mer Noire, dont la Roumanie est riveraine, deviendra, avec le temps, une faille géopolitique, au carrefour de quelques acteurs très puissants — la Russie, la Turquie et l’Ukraine. Les nouvelles tensions internationales ne s’inscrivent pas dans les limites de la guerre classique et relèvent plutôt d’une guerre d’un genre nouveau, plus complexe, avec des actions du type attaques cybernétiques qui touchera la région pendant une période de temps plus longue, a encore précise le directeur du Service roumain de renseignements.



    Mission – Des inspecteurs de Roumanie et des Etats-Unis survoleront du 28 juillet au 1er août la Russie et le Bélarus à bord d’un avion roumain AN-30 dans le cadre du Traité international « Ciel ouvert », fait savoir l’agence de presse Ria Novosti. Des spécialistes russes participeront au vol dinspection pour contrôler le respect des paramètres du vol. Signé en 1992 à Helsinki, le Traité Ciel ouvert est mis en œuvre depuis 2002. Le document vise à accroître la transparence et la confiance entre les Etats signataires dans le domaine des activités militaires et du contrôle des armements. Il instaure un régime de libre survol des territoires des différents Etats parties au Traité. Le traité a été signé par 34 Etats dEurope et dAmérique du Nord. La Russie y a adhéré le 26 mai 2001.



    Ramadan — Le premier ministre roumain, Victor Ponta, a tenu à offrir ses meilleurs voeux à la communauté musulmane de Roumanie dans un message formulé à l’occasion de la fête du Baïram qui marque la fin du Ramadan. On se sent très attaché à la communauté musulmane vivant en Roumanie grâce à une cohabitation harmonieuse fondée sur la solidarité culturelle et sociale et sur le respect réciproque des traditions et de la foi” a tenu à préciser le premier ministre roumain. La communauté musulmane de Roumanie est forte de quelque 70 milles personnes, notamment des ethniques tatars et turcs dans la plupart vivent en Dobroudgea.



    Alerte — Le Ministère roumain des Affaires Etrangères avertit ses citoyens à éviter les voyages vers la Lybie ou à quitter au plus vite possible le territoire lybien, en raison de l’intensification des combats entre l’armée et des groupes islamistes. De nombreux pays européens, dont la Roumanie, déconseillent les voyages en Libye. Au moins une centaine de personnes ont été tuées, à Tripoli, dans les combats déclenchés le 13 juillet entre forces spéciales et milices rivales afin de prendre le contrôle de l’aéroport international de la capitale. Les Etats-Unis et plusieurs pays occidentaux ont évacué leur personnel diplomatique.



    Sondage – Près de 70% des Roumains estiment que le pays se dirige dans une mauvaise direction alors que 21% affirment que la direction est bonne, selon un sondage paru lundi à Bucarest. Par ailleurs, parmi les institutions politiques, les Roumains font le plus de confiance aux municipalités, parmi les institutions exécutives à l’armée, parmi les institutions sociales ou privées, à l’Eglise et parmi les institutions internationales, à l’OTAN. 20% des Roumains font confiance à la présidence et 16% au Parlement, indique encore l’étude. Commandé par le quotidien Adevarul, le sondage a été réalisé par INSCOP, du 1er au 6 juillet.



    Intempéries — Les météorologues ont placé le sud-ouest du pays en vigilance jaune et orange pour des orages et de fortes pluies. On s’attend à ce que les quantités d’eau dépassent les 80 litres par mètre carré.