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In 1944 Romania was occupied by Soviet troops, who would not withdraw until 1958. In the meantime, part of the country had been detached to form the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic; 9 raions of Odessa Oblast in the Ukrainian SSR; Chernivtsi Oblast, also in the Ukrainian SSR; and Dobrich and Silistra Provinces in Bulgaria.

The Armistice Agreement

In the Armistice Agreement with Rumania (September 12, 1944), it was stipulated in Article 18 that "An Allied Control Commission will be established which will undertake until the conclusion of peace the regulation of and control over the execution of the present terms under the general direction and orders of the Allied (Soviet) High Command, acting on behalf of the Allied Powers. In the Annex to Article 18, it was made clear that "The Rumanian Government and their organs shall fulfill all instructions of the Allied Control Commission arising out of the Armistice Agreement", and that The Allied Control Commission would have its seat in Bucharest. In line with Article 14 of the Armistice Agreement, two People's Tribunals were set up to try suspected war criminals, one in Bucharest, and the other in Cluj. The Treaty of Peace with Romania was signed on February 10, 1947 and entered into force on September 15, 1947.

Davai ceas, davai palton

According to reports, the well-known Romanian stage actor Constantin Tănase was performing in Bucharest a year after the arrival of Soviet troops, and was killed for satirizing the Red Army soldiers' habit of "requisitioning" all personal property in sight, in particular of taking people's watches, demanding them by saying, "Davai ceas" (davai—Russian for "Give me", and ceas—Romanian for "watch"). Tănase made up a verse:

Rău era cu "der, die, das"

Da-i mai rău cu "davai ceas"

De la Nistru pân' la Don

Davai ceas, davai palton

Davai ceas, davai moşie

Haraşo tovărăşie

After several performances he was arrested, threatened with death, and told not to do the sketch again. However, Tănase was not a man to be intimidated. At the next performance, he came on stage in a giant overcoat, with his arms festooned in watches. The audience applauded wildly as he simply stood there. Then he opened the overcoat, revealing a pendulum clock. Pointing to it, he said, "El tic, eu tac, el tic, eu tac" (a pun on tic-tac, the Romanian equivalent of "tick-tock", but also meaning "It ticks, I am silent, it ticks, I am silent"). Two days later, he was dead.

Expulsion of Germans

The Red Army played a crucial role in the expulsion of Transylvanian Saxons from Romania in January 1945. In October 1944, the Sănătescu government, at the solicitation of the Allied Control Commission, began arresting young ethnic German Romanian citizens, who were placed at the disposal of the Soviet command. Under the Rădescu government, faced with ultimatums from the Soviet command, trains carrying Transylvanian Saxons left for the Soviet Union. In a Protest (dated January 13, 1945), the Rădescu government noted the Romanian government's obligation to protect each of its citizens, regardless of ethnic origin, and of the absence of a legal basis for the deportation of the Transylvanian Saxons. The deportations were a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which at Article 49 states: "Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive."

SovRoms

The SovRoms were joint Soviet-Romanian ventures established in Romania at the end of World War II, and lasting until 1954–1956. An agreement between the two countries regarding the establishment of these enterprises was signed in Moscow on May 8, 1945. In theory, these ventures were aimed at generating revenue for reconstruction after the devastations of the war. However, they were mainly designed as a means to ensure resources for the Soviet side, and generally contributed to the draining of Romania's resources, in addition to the war reparations demanded by the Armistice Agreement and the Paris Peace Treaties, which had been set at 300 million U.S. dollars. The Soviet contribution in creating the SovRoms lay mostly in reselling leftover German equipment to Romania, which was systematically overvalued. The total number of goods sent from Romania to the Soviet Union were estimated at 2 billion dollars, by far surpassing the war reparations demanded by the Soviets. By 1952, 85% of Romanian exports were directed towards the Soviet Union.

See also

• Potsdam Agreement
• History of Romania
• Romania during World War II
• Battle of Romania (1944)
• Paris Peace Treaties, 1947

Notes

1. The term "occupation" is widely used by Western and post-Revolutionary Romanian historians. Examples include:
   • "Soviet forces occupied Romania in 1944 and stayed for more than a decade." Roger E. Kirk, Mircea Răceanu, Romania Versus the United States: Diplomacy of the Absurd, 1985-1989, p. 2. Palgrave Macmillan, 1994, ISBN 0312120591.
   • "Soviet occupation troops had been withdrawn in 1958." Gordon L. Rottman, Ron Volstad, Warsaw Pact Ground Forces, p. 45. Osprey, 1987, ISBN 0850457300.
   • "The country had to endure a long Soviet occupation (until 1958), and to pay the Soviets massive reparations." Lucian Boia, Romania: Borderland of Europe, p. 106. Reaktion Books, 2001, ISBN 1861891032.
   • "Soviet occupation forces in Romania unlimited interference in Romanian political life." Verona, p. 31.
   • "In June 1958, based on complex arrangements between the Romanians, the Russians, and the Yugoslavs, the occupying Soviet Army units left Romania." Tismăneanu, p. 25. "Romanian communists remained an unappealing marginal group until the occupation of the country by the Red Army in 1944." ibid., p. 59. "The Soviet Army occupied Romanian territory and ... the Soviet-controlled political formation called the RCP was exploiting this state of affairs to establish a Stalinist regime as soon as possible, whatever the human cost." ibid., p. 91.
   • "The primary focus is the occupation of the rest of Romania from 1944 to 1958...There is little doubt that the Soviet occupation had a devastating economic, political, and social impact on Romania." Aurel Braun, review of The Red Army in Romania, in Slavic Review, Vol. 61, No. 1, 146-147, Spring 2002.
   • Flori Stănescu, Dragoş Zamfirescu, Ocupaţia sovietică în România - Documente 1944-1946 (The Soviet Occupation in Romania - Documents 1944-1946). Vremea, 1998, ISBN 9739423175.
2. The Armistice Agreement with Rumania
3. Treaty of Peace with Romania
4. Karpatenwilli.com, gaeste09.htm Karpatenwillis Gästebuch
5. Marga
6. Cioroianu
7. Alexandrescu
8. Roper
9. Cioroianu

References

• Romania - History ": This text comes from the Country Studies Program, formerly the Army Area Handbook Program. The Country Studies Series presents a description and analysis of the historical setting and the social, economic, political, and national security systems and institutions of countries throughout the world."
  See sections:
  • Romania - Armistice Negotiations and Soviet Occupation
  • Romania - POSTWAR ROMANIA, 1944-85
• Template:Ro icon Andrei Marga - Deportarea Saşilor Transilvǎneni
• Adrian Cioroianu, Pe umerii lui Marx. O introducere în istoria comunismului românesc ("On the Shoulders of Marx. An Incursion into the History of Romanian Communism"), Editura Curtea Veche, Bucharest, 2005. ISBN 9736691756
• Ion Alexandrescu, "1945–1956: Din «cleştele» german — în braţele «fratelui» de la răsărit. Societăţile mixte sovieto-române (Sovrom)" ("1945–1956: From the German «Tongs» — into the Arms of the Eastern «Brother». Mixed Soviet-Romanian Societies (Sovrom)"), in Dosarele Istoriei, 3/1996
• Stephen D. Roper, Romania: The Unfinished Revolution, Routledge, London, 2000. ISBN 9058230279
• Vladimir Tismăneanu, Stalinism for All Seasons: A Political History of Romanian Communism, University of California Press, Berkeley, 2003, ISBN 0520237471
• Sergiu Verona, "Military Occupation and Diplomacy: Soviet Troops in Romania, 1944-1958", Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 1992, ISBN 0822311712
• Constantin Hlihor and Ioan Scurtu, "The Red Army in Romania", Center for Romanian Studies, Iaşi, Portland, OR, 2000. ISBN 9739839258

Further reading

• Romania and peace conditions after the Second World War, on the website of Radio Romania International, January 31, 2005
• Review of Verona's book, by J. Calvitt Clarke III, at Jacksonville University.
• Template:Ro icon Paula Mihailov Chiciuc, "Practica sovietică a lui 'Veni, vidi, vici'", Jurnalul Naţional, April 25, 2006

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