Portal:Romania

The Kingdom of Romania, under the rule of King Carol II, initially maintained neutrality in World War II. However, fascist political forces, especially the Iron Guard, rose in popularity and power, urging an alliance with Nazi Germany and its allies. As the military fortunes of Romania's two main guarantors of territorial integrity—France and Britain—crumbled in the Battle of France, the government of Romania turned to Germany in hopes of a similar guarantee, unaware that Germany, in the supplementary protocol to the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, had already granted its blessing to Soviet claims on Romanian territory.

In the summer of 1940, the USSR occupied Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, severely weakening Romania and diminishing its international standing. Taking advantage of the situation, Hungary and Bulgaria both pressed territorial claims on Romania. The disputes, arbitrated by Germany and Italy, led to the further losses of Northern Transylvania and Southern Dobruja to Hungary and Bulgaria respectively. The popularity of the Romanian government plummeted, further reinforcing fascist and military factions, who eventually staged a coup in September 1940 that turned the country into a Legionary State under Mareșal Ion Antonescu in partnership with the Iron Guard. Romania officially joined the Axis powers on 23 November 1940. Antonescu assumed full control over Romania in January 1941 and invaded the Soviet Union with the Axis, providing equipment and oil to Germany and committing more troops to the Eastern Front than all other allies of Germany combined. Romanian forces played a large role during fighting in Ukraine, Bessarabia, and in the Battle of Stalingrad. Romanian troops were responsible for the persecution and massacre of 260,000 Jews in Romanian-controlled territories, though half of the Jews living in Romania survived the war. Romania controlled the third-largest Axis army in Europe and the fourth largest Axis army in the world. (Full article...)

Ioan Petru Culianu or Couliano (5 January 1950 – 21 May 1991) was a Romanian historian of religion, culture, and ideas, a philosopher and political essayist, and a short story writer. He served as professor of the history of religions at the University of Chicago from 1988 to his death, and had previously taught the history of Romanian culture at the University of Groningen.

An expert in Gnosticism and Renaissance magic, he befriended, was encouraged by Mircea Eliade, though he gradually distanced himself from his mentor. Culianu published seminal work on the interrelation of the occult, Eros, magic, physics, and history. (Full article...)

• ... that gymnast Andrei Muntean was Romania's first Youth Olympic Games champion?
• ... that Romanian literary scholar Dan Simonescu, who edited a chronicle dealing with the reign of Michael the Brave, had to delete any mention of Michael having "all the Jews murdered"?
• ... that Soviet politician Pavel Chioru wanted "Moldovan", which he developed from a dialect of Romanian, to serve as a language of the "exploited" against the supposedly upper-class Romanian?
• ... that scholar Axinte Frunză wanted Romania to join the Central Powers in 1916, espousing "a vision that was profoundly anti-statist (with hints of anarchism), populist, and virulently anti-Russian"?
• ... that N. Porsenna, who translated The Ballad of Reading Gaol into Romanian, spent seven years in communist prisons?
• ... that in 1968, actor Ludovic Antal recited a Romanian nationalist poem in front of tourists from Soviet Moldavia, causing them to flee for their bus for fear of a "provocation"?

• ...that Timișoara, a city in western Romania, was the first European city to have electric streetlights (that time part of Austria-Hungary)?