\nRomania first
\nentered WWII in June 1941 alongside Nazi Germany, hoping to recover
\nterritories it had lost to the USSR a year earlier. Three years
\nlater, however, on 23rd August 1944, Romania broke off its
\nalliance with Germany and joined the coalition of the United Nations.
\nThe immediate contact with the Soviet army was, however, brutal and
\nengendered a lot of negative sentiment in Romanian society for
\ngenerations to come. Radio Romania’s Oral History Centre contains
\nmany testimonies about the abuse and violence committed by the
\noccupying Soviet army at the time. Writer Dan Lucinescu, for example,
\nwas a young army officer. In 2000, he recounted how he was humiliated
\nby a Soviet non-commissioned officer in the centre of Bucharest:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I was walking
\ndown the street when I ran into a Russian who put a gun to my chest.
\nTrying to explain that I didn’t understand what he wanted from me,
\nI somehow realised from his gesticulation that he was angry I hadn’t
\nsaluted him. I told him I was training to be an officer, while he was
\na non-commissioned officer, so it should be him saluting me. At gun
\npoint, he ordered me to do a marching walk and to salute him. I
\ndidn’t want a confrontation with him, so I saluted him. He could
\nhave easily shot me.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nDan
\nLucinescu’s
\nunpleasant experience was nothing, however, compared
\nto what he saw happen a few days later, in broad daylight and in the
\nmiddle of Bucharest:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nI
\nsaw a teenage girl, probably a high school pupil, walking by. There
\nwere trucks full of Russian soldiers. One of the soldiers suddenly
\npulled her, while she started screaming. They took her with them, and
\nof course no one intervened. They were armed to their teeth.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nColonel
\nGheorghe L\u0103c\u0103tu\u0219u fought
\nin the Romanian army alongside the Soviets against the Germans. In
\n2002, he told Radio Romania’s Oral History Centre how the Soviets
\ntreated everything they laid their hands on:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nThe
\nSoviets were seizing everything, trains, vehicles confiscated from
\nthe population, from the German army, from us, the Romanian army. You
\nhad to have a
\nspecial dispensation, otherwise
\nthey’d even they your horses if they didn’t have a serial number
\nsomewhere.
\nThey told us they were from the Germans. It was prize of war and we
\nweren’t entitled to it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nGendarmerie
\ncolonel Ion Banu recounted in 1995 how a Soviet soldier took his
\nwatch on a street not far from where Radio Romania today has its
\nheadquarters. Close by, he could see the corpse of a Romanian soldier
\nexecuted by the Soviets:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When
\nthey returned
\nfrom Germany they looked so ridiculous. Each had two or three watches
\non their wrists. I even saw a Russian with a watch hanging around his
\nneck. Once
\nI
\nwas buying an envelope to write to my parents and
\nI was wearing a very beautiful watch which I had received as a gift.
\nA Cossack unit was just passing by, with their big and heavy horses,
\nand one of them saw my watch and came up to me. He said ‘davai,
\ndavai’, meaning to give him my watch. I was carrying a gun so I
\nsaid: ‘It’s mine!’ But he just snatched the watch from me. He
\nwas carrying a machine gun. They wouldn’t hesitate to shoot you. I
\nsaw so many terrible things. On Cob\u0103lcescu street, for example, it
\nstill pains me to remember, I saw a Romanian colonel shot dead, his
\nwife near him. He was lying in
\nthe street, shot by the Russians. They’d do that kind of thing:
\nthey would take a man’s wife, rape her and shoot the husband.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nA
\nteacher from\u0218ieu\u021b,
\nin
\nBistri\u021ba-N\u0103s\u0103ud,
\nVasile Gotea also
\nserved as an officer in the Romanian army. In 2000, he recounted how
\nhe came close to being shot by the Soviets three times:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nI
\nwas almost shot three times. All kinds of disorganised troops that
\nhad passed through the front line were roaming about, through the
\nvillages. Not far from my house, they found what they thought was
\nwine, but was in fact a recipient with a lid full of grapes to be
\nkept for winter. They asked me for wine, but there was no wine. I
\ntold them I didn’t have any and they wanted to shoot me. Another
\ntime they took me
\nbehind
\nthe school, put a gun to my chest, asked me to raise my hands and
\nthen
\nwent
\nthrough my pockets, taking everything they found and my watch. And
\nanother time, a man was passing by in a cart pulled by an ox and
\nabout 16 Russian women got on the cart, demanding he took them where
\nthey wanted to go. I must have said something and they immediately
\npointed their guns at me, ready to shoot. One wrong move and I’d
\nhave been shot. So I didn’t say anything anymore and the cart drove
\nby.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The
\nSoviets’ encounter with Romania was violent and left painful
\nmemories and resentment which
\nwon’t be erased from history books
\nany
\ntime soon. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Radio Romanias Oral History Centre contains many recollections about the locals experiences with the Soviet Army towards the end of WWII.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":92209,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41141],"tags":[34239],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-131467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-history-show","tag-wwii"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n