Now that the “correct” president was selected for the Romanian, while the point of “the last Ukrainian” is quickly approaching, the time has come to take a closer look at that country, as well as its neighbouring, far order Moldavia. Below is a translation of an historiographic article from New Izvestiya, taking a quick tour into the very short history of Roimania.

A certain historical parallel to Finland emerges, where in both cases Russia played the key role in creating the statehood of these states, yet, the states turned on their creator with a rabidly russophobic/racist hatred.

In the context of this article, read also our recent translation The text of Hitler’s statement on the extermination of Slavic peoples has been published in Russia for the first time.

How Russia created Romania

Once upon a time, during the early Middle Ages, Romanians, like Russians, became Christian – Orthodox Christians. However, at that time Romania, as a country bearing such name, did not exist: there were disparate principalities united only by faith.

Even then, our peoples were linked by a common past: Romanians had long used Church Slavonic in worship and Cyrillic for communication and writing texts.

The Prut Campaign of 1711. Peter I and Gospodar of Moldavia, Dmitry Cantemir in the battle for Moldavia against the Turks and Tatars, 1911. Painter: Victor Arseni.

So how did Romania appear on the world map?

The Gospodars (rulers) of Wallachia and Moldavia (on the territory of the present-day Romania) have long sought friendship and protection from the Russian monarchs. The rulers, Orthodox Christians, were burdened by the fate of the vassals of the Muslim Ottoman Empire. They also did not like the need to leave their children and loved ones hostage in Istanbul, where many of them, and sometimes the rulers themselves, were martyred at the hands of the sultans. The poll tax, which all non-Muslim subjects had to pay to the sultan, was also a heavy burden, and on top of that, there were numerous levies and tributes that had to be collected annually and sent to the Ottoman Turks. Already in the 18th century, the gospodars and boyars saw Russia as a patron and protector. Fleeing from the Turks, many found shelter and fame at the royal court. In 1711, Dmitry Cantemir, the exiled ruler of Moldavia, arrived at the court of Peter the Great with a thousand boyars. He became the most serene Knyaz of Russia, along with illustrious comrade of Peter’s, Alexander Danilovich Menshikov. His son, the first Russian satirical poet Antioh Dmitrievich Cantemir, was Russian ambassador to England and France.

The map depicts the borders of the Principality of Moldavia, Principality of Wallachia before the Union (orange lines).
After 1711, the part of the Principality of Moldavia residing between rivers Dniester and Prut came under Russian protection, while what remained under the Ottoman Empire, formed a Union of Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia (light-green area with the black border).
Ater 1866 this union began to be called “Romania”.

The historical task of Russia

Russia considered it its historical task to get rid of the Turkish threat, and saw itself as a defender of the rights and freedoms of the Christian peoples who lived under Turkish rule. The power of the latter gradually weakened, and the Romanians sought to get out from under its influence. In the 19th century, the Russian Empire took a direct part in the liberation of Orthodox Romania. A significant part of the territory of the future Romania, at the insistence of Russia, was transferred by the Turks to Russian protection following the war of 1828-1829. The first constitutions of Moldavia and Wallachia were adopted, allowing the future Romanian lands to develop in the same way as other European countries of that time. Romanians were becoming really Romanians, and not just residents of villages and towns of different territories. Schools with native language teaching were opened. Historians have praised these laws: “The first Romanian constitutions that introduced fixed and stable laws that replaced momentary and arbitrary decisions.”

A series of wars and final independence

Even then, the Romanians’ dream of independence was being “crippled” by the Western European powers, who did not want Turkey to weaken as as counterweight to Russia. It all started with Napoleon, who encouraged the Romanians to “limit Russian expansion”. After the Crimean War, Romanians came under the influence of Western powers, which did not aim to liberate Romania from the Ottoman yoke: the principalities continued to pay exhausting tribute to the Ottoman Empire.

Romania appeared as a result of the Russian-Turkish wars, and became a sovereign country by the will of Russia in 1877-1878, after the final liberation of Romania from the Turkish–Ottoman rule, which had lasted from the 16th century. Russian losses in this war amounted to 16,000 killed and 7,000 dead from wounds (there are other estimates – up to 36,500 killed and 81,000 dead from wounds and diseases). These figures of losses are huge in themselves, but it is worth considering that, for example, 71 thousand people lived in Yaroslavl at the end of the 19th century, that is, either a quarter or half of the inhabitants of a large Russian city died in this war. Romanians, allied with the Russians, lost 1.5 thousand people. Yes, Romanian troops then took a direct part in the fighting – of course, on the side of Russia. Russian-Romanian troops participated together in the siege of Bulgarian Plevna, during the liberation of Bulgaria from the Turkish rule, and the first Romanian king even became marshal of the united Russian-Romanian troops.

Russia’s losses and Romania’s gains

Under the peace agreement between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, Turkey recognised Romania’s independence. Thanks to Russia, Romania gained access to the Black Sea for the first time in its history. The famous Russian statesman, Chancellor Gorchakov, emphasised: “…all the rights and privileges of Romania were secured at the price of Russian blood. There is not a single treaty signed during the century between Russia and Turkey that does not contain provisions favorable to Romanians.” The war cost Russia a billion roubles, which was 1.5 times higher than the state budget revenues of 1880 (an example from the present time: with a federal budget of 16 trillion rоubles, the war would have cost Russia 24 trillion rоubles in one year).

“Russia’s contribution to Romania’s independence and statehood was primarily political – it was diplomatic support. And it is military support. Without the participation of Russian troops, the Romanians would not have been able to gain the upper hand in the confrontation with the Ottoman Empire in 1878.

This is largely economic support between Russia and the Danubian principalities, and later between Russia and united Romania, Moldova, and Wallachia. There were active contacts in the field of economics. Russia has made an important contribution in all areas of support.”

– Alexander Vershinin, PhD in History, Senior Lecturer at the Moscow State University Faculty of History

How do modern Romanians feel about Russia?

However, in the modern Romanian history curriculum, only one page of the textbook is devoted to the war for State independence. References to Russia’s positive role in this process are minimal. But these history textbooks mention the “negative role of Russia”, noting “the initial refusal of military cooperation with Romania”, and the rejection of Romania’s subsequent alliance with Russia in favour of European powers is interpreted as the result of “bad relations with St. Petersburg”.

The reason for this attitude lies in the ideology and recent history of relations between our countries. The Soviet Union, for example, was perceived in pre-war Romania as “the main enemy of the Romanian space, thanks to Slavic ambitions on the way to Constantinople and the Mediterranean Sea”. Bucharest became a member of the Nazi coalition and took part in World War II. At the same time (which, for obvious reasons, is also not reflected in modern Romanian school textbooks – it’s generally unfashionable to recall!) Romania’s goal was “to eliminate a huge geopolitical threat in the form of a Greater Ukraine, which was seeking to rebuild itself with the support of the Third Reich”. Therefore, these textbooks generally devote extremely little space to Romania’s participation in World War II, instead devoting many pages to “communism and totalitarianism”. In addition, in 1944, King Mihai of Romania overthrew and arrested the pro–Hitler dictator Ion Antonescu, after which the country sided with the USSR in the war against Nazi Germany, for which the king even became a knight of the Soviet Order of Victory. Then Romania became a socialist state in general, which joined the Warsaw Pact organisation, under the general leadership of Moscow. Therefore, after the collapse of the USSR and Romania’s accession to the NATO bloc, the deliberate concealment of information about the common pages of Romanian-Russian and Romanian-Soviet relations became part of the educational and information policy of this country.

“The Soviet Union was extremely tolerant of those countries that first found themselves in the Hitlerite coalition in 1941, and then in 1944 changed the front and became members of the anti-Hitler coalition.

The Soviet Union provided very significant diplomatic, political and economic support to Romania, which joined the struggle against Hitler only in 1944, changing the front. As a result, thanks to Soviet support, it not only retained its territory, but also grew, becoming one of the largest states in Eastern Europe.”

– Fyodor Gaida, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor, Faculty of History, Moscow State University