1940: Rumania

Political Changes.

In 1940 Rumania passed through the most crucial year of its existence since in 1918 the country, widely enlarged, emerged from the World War. She underwent not only a change in her internal governmental structure, accompanied by severe rioting and grave excesses in which many valuable lives were lost, but she was also shorn of several territories which she had acquired as the result of victorious wars in the second decade of the present century. While Rumania at the beginning of June 1940, counted about 20,450,000 inhabitants, by the end of September this number had been reduced to about 13,291,000. Of the 6,754,000 souls which she had lost, about 4,000,000 were incorporated into the Soviet Union, 2,370,000 into Hungary and 330,000 into Bulgaria.

The internal change in Rumania was best expressed by its transition from a monarchy where the king held autocratic power to the formation of a so-called legionary state, in which the king played only a purely titular role and all the power was concentrated in the hands of the legions of the Iron Guard. The Iron Guard, one of the earliest Fascist movements in Central Europe, goes back to the middle of the twenties when Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, then a student of law at the University of Jassy, killed the police prefect of the city and founded a movement for the racial and Christian regeneration of Rumania under the name of the Legion of the Archangel Michael, which spread quickly among the youth, army officers and especially the Greek Orthodox clergy. Within this legion Codreanu founded a political section which was called the Iron Guard, and which in 1931 participated in the elections for the first time. In 1932 Codreanu and four other members were elected to Parliament. The rise to power of Hitler in Germany gave a new impetus to the movement, so that the then Prime Minister of Rumania, Duca, saw himself compelled to dissolve the Iron Guard. Shortly afterward he was assassinated by the Iron Guard, and Codreanu reorganized his group under the new name, Totul Pentru Tara, 'everything for the fatherland.' This party started a relentless campaign against democracy, for a close alliance with Germany and Italy, against the Jews and the national minorities, and the elections of December 1937, proved the party to be the third strongest in Rumania.

The internal chaos which threatened to engulf the Rumanian state forced King Carol to establish a royal dictatorship in February 1938, and to dissolve all parties including Codreanu's. The discovery of a plot by the Iron Guard to march on Bucharest led to the arrest of Codreanu and some of his lieutenants, and in May 1938, Codreanu was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. But in the fall the Fascist terrorism in Rumania flared up again with renewed violence. As a part of its policy of repression the government decided to transfer Codreanu and thirteen other terrorists to a military prison; on the way the fourteen were shot by the police as they 'tried to escape.' These energetic measures had been taken by the then Minister of the Interior, Armand Calinescu, who, however, on Sept. 20, 1939, himself fell victim to the terrorism of the Iron Guard. The changed international situation and the increased pressure by National Socialist Germany on Southeastern Europe in 1940 gave to the Iron Guard the opportunity to avenge the executions of its leaders, to remove King Carol, and to establish with the help of General Antonescu a party dictatorship in Rumania under the leadership of Horia Sima, who had returned for this purpose from Germany. The conservative dictatorship of the king was now replaced by the Fascist dictatorship of the Legion. (See also EUROPEAN WAR.)

Foreign Relations and Question of Oil Supply.

In the first part of 1940 the Rumanian government under King Carol tried to play a waiting game and to avoid taking sides too openly in the European war. Rumania had been guaranteed in 1939 by Great Britain. Her independence had been protected by the rivalry between Germany and the Soviet Union. The conclusion of a pact of friendship between these two powers and the disappearance of Rumania's friend and ally, Poland, in the second half of 1939 rendered the Rumanian position much more difficult. Rumania's geographic situation commanding the mouth of the Danube and the approaches to the Black Sea and the Bosphorus was equalled by her economic importance, not only on account of her supply of foodstuffs, but especially in view of the large oil fields. In 1937 Rumania produced 53,300,000 42-gallon barrels of crude petroleum, or about 3 per cent of the world's total production. Thus Rumania was the most important of all the oil-producing countries in Europe outside the Soviet Union. While the oil wells in Rumania belonged in the majority to British, French and American capital, Rumania in view of her geographic situation exported most of the oil to Germany and to Italy. Germany was of course most eager to obtain complete control of the Rumanian oil supply, and generally to incorporate the Rumanian economic system into the German system. The year 1940 saw the realization of this aim.

At the beginning of 1940 King Carol and Crown Prince Michael visited Bessarabia and Bukovina, and King Carol in his speeches stressed Rumania's resolve to defend her frontiers against any aggression. His utterances reflected official worry about the possibility that the Soviet Union would try to claim Bessarabia which had formed part of Russia until 1918; the danger from the Soviet Union was the greater because Hungary and Bulgaria with renewed energy tried to put forward claims for the territory which they had lost to Rumania in 1918 and 1913 respectively. As serious as this territorial pressure was the economic pressure exercised upon Rumania by Germany on the one hand and by Great Britain and France on the other.

Rumania had pledged herself to deliver 1,560,000 tons of oil to Germany in 1940, and Germany insisted not only upon the delivery of this amount but upon its increase, while the British-, French- and American-owned oil fields did not wish to operate for the production of oil for shipment to Germany. The problem of petroleum sale was further complicated by the fact that Germany wished to pay for only a small proportion in free currency or in gold, whereas she wished to receive the bulk of the deliveries in exchange for German imports, while Rumania needed free currency for buying products and raw materials which Germany was not able to supply. The Western powers used economic pressure to counter-balance Germany's military pressure and geographic proximity.

Internal Affairs.

Showing increasing concern over the possibility of war in the spring, at the end of February Rumania increased her armed forces to a virtual state of mobilization and put her economic life on a war basis. Suggestions from Germany, which offered to guarantee Rumania's frontier against the virtual monopoly of Rumania's oil and wheat, and from Italy, which proposed Rumania's inclusion in the Anti-Comintern Pact, were declined. In opening the Rumanian Parliament on March 7, King Carol laid special stress on the country's rearmament and declared that Rumania would remain neutral commercially as well as militarily. At the same time the king, apparently under German pressure, proclaimed a royal clemency for many of the Iron Guardists who had been imprisoned in 1938. They pledged allegiance to the king and joined the National Rebirth party, the only legal party existing in Rumania. Officially it was proclaimed that by this step internal peace had been secured. At the end of March a German economic mission under the leadership of Dr. Karl Clodius arrived in Rumania to conclude trade negotiations about speeding up Rumanian oil production and vastly increasing her farm output. As a result, Rumania mobilized her youth into a vast agricultural army to aid crops, and agreed to change the exchange rate of the German and Rumanian currencies to the advantage of the former. In his policy of appeasing the Fascist circles in Rumania, King Carol went further by decreeing on April 26 a far-reaching political amnesty. Prime Minister George Tatarescu hoped for the possibility of cooperation between the government and all parties in Rumania in view of the rising external danger.

The successes of the German army in the later part of the spring of 1940 brought with them a reorganization of the Rumanian government. Foreign Minister Grigore Gafencu, who was well known for his sympathies with the Western democracies, resigned on June 1, and was replaced by the Minister of Communications, Ion Gigurtu, a close friend of National Socialist Germany. On June 19 King Carol received the leader of the Iron Guard, Horia Sima, and a decree issued by the king on June 21 dissolved the National Rebirth Party and tried to reorganize the state on strictly totalitarian lines in accordance with the principles of the Berlin-Rome Axis. A new Party of the Nation was founded which was to be joined by the Iron Guard; it accepted the Fascist principles and proclaimed itself openly as anti-Semitic. (See also RELIGION: Jews.)

Relations with Germany.

On June 27 the Soviet Union occupied Bessarabia and the northern part of Bukovina with the capital of Czernowitz. Bessarabia had formed part of Russia until 1918, while Bukovina had been part of Austria and had never belonged to Imperial Russia. Rumania, partly under German pressure, accepted the occupation and ceded the lands to the Soviet Union, which now extended its hold to the mouth of the Danube. In view of the general European situation, King Carol on July 1 renounced the British and French guarantees of Rumanian independence which he had received on April 13, 1939. Large fleets of German bombers landed at Rumanian airports, ostensibly to protect the Rumanian oil fields. Harassed by urgent Hungarian claims for the restitution of Transylvania and by Bulgarian demands for the Dobruja, King Carol's government veered completely towards Germany, hoping to receive a German guarantee against further dismemberment. These changes were accompanied by anti-Semitic riots in many cities of Rumania. On July 4 the Cabinet of Rumania was entirely reconstructed with Ion Gigurtu as Prime Minister and the Iron Guard Leader Horia Sima as Minister of Culture. British engineers working in the oil fields were ordered to leave Rumania immediately. Thus the king threw in his lot with the Axis powers. The government assumed dictatorial powers over foreign capital invested in the country's oil industry, and the Astra Romano, the largest oil company which was controlled by British and Dutch interests, was taken over by the Rumanian government.

Problem of Transylvania.

Meanwhile Rumania declared herself willing and ready to cede territory to Hungary and Bulgaria, and in August official negotiations started between the governments concerned. While the discussions between Rumania and Bulgaria proceeded more or less smoothly, Hungary and Rumania could not agree upon a partition of Transylvania. Several serious border clashes on the Rumanian, Soviet and Hungarian frontiers were reported. When on Aug. 30 the award was made which ceded the whole of Northern Transylvania to Hungary, Rumanian public opinion protested violently against it. Many Rumanians regarded Transylvania as culturally and politically the most progressive and nationally conscious part of the country. A German offer to guarantee the remaining frontiers of Rumania did not allay the growing indignation against the further dismemberment of the country. The award did not take into consideration the ethnographic and economic conditions, and was dictated purely by the strategic and political exigencies of the Axis. Vast anti-Axis demonstrations followed in Transylvania and throughout Rumania.

Abdication of King Carol.

This unrest gave to the Iron Guard and to Germany the welcome opportunity to effect a final change in the political set-up of the country. On Sept. 3 it was reported that King Carol escaped a Fascist plot of assassination and the abdication of the king was demanded. Crown Prince Michael, who was nineteen in October, was to be made king. General Ion Antonescu supported the demands of the Iron Guard and prevailed upon the king to name him dictator. In the ensuing chaos Carol was forced to abdicate, and he left the country secretly for Spain with his friend of many years, Mmc. Magda Lupescu. Michael was immediately invested with the crown and his mother, the former Princess Helen of Greece, divorced wife of Carol, was called back from exile. Arrests of many of the important political, military and economic leaders of the country occurred. On the same day, Sept. 6, an official agreement between Bulgaria and Rumania for the cession of the southern Dobruja to Bulgaria was announced. Thus the Iron Guard, profiting from the general dismay over the Vienna award, was able to force the abdication of Carol and to establish a completely Fascist dictatorship by the forces of the Legion. General Antonescu, was now the real head of the country, but his control was precarious in view of the anarchistic character of the Iron Guard movement, which subjected General Antonescu and Horia Sima to increasing terrorization by irresponsible and radical groups. Systematic murder, which was introduced into Rumania as a political instrument by the Iron Guard, came now fully into its own.

Rumania Joins Axis; Earthquakes; Iron Guard Uprising.

From the moment that the king abdicated, events in Rumania moved swiftly. Many of the generals and socially prominent people were arrested, the Iron Guard organized units throughout the nation, parts of the army were demobilized, new anti-Semitic measures were taken. Although General Antonescu promised to respect property and pledged to keep order, his resolution was of no avail against the Iron Guard. The new government asked Germany to send a military mission to reorganize the Rumanian army. Prime Minister Antonescu officially joined the Iron Guard on Oct. 6. The flags of the Axis and of Japan were displayed in profusion with the Rumanian flag. Germany began to pour large numbers of soldiers and of war matériel into Rumania, which were officially destined to guard the Rumanian oil fields against any British attack. The situation in Rumania was further complicated by a heavy earthquake on Nov. 10, although official censorship made it impossible to determine the exact damage done throughout the country. On Nov. 23 Rumania adhered officially to the German-Italian-Japanese Axis, having been preceded in that step by Hungary, and followed the next day by Slovakia. Only four days later the whole of Rumania was the scene of widespread massacres. The Iron Guard had got out of hand, and the result of this new order was that sixty-four of the leading officers and dignitaries of the country were killed in a vast 'blood purge.' The bodies of Codreanu and thirteen other Iron Guard leaders who had been shot while 'trying to escape' in November 1938, were exhumed in the gloomy courtyard of Jihlava military prison, and the sixty-four victims of the purge were executed on the same spot. The disorder in the country revealed dissension in the ranks of the Iron Guard itself, but finally General Antonescu succeeded in reestablishing some order. The Iron Guard arranged for a public funeral of Codreanu and the other 'martyrs.' The elaborate funeral services were held on Sunday, Dec. 1. By Dec. 4 Rumania was reported to have emerged from its days of terror, in which more than four hundred persons were believed to have been killed. An agreement providing for extended German credit to Rumania to execute successfully a ten-year plan for the reordering of Rumanian economy in conformity with the German economic system was announced on Dec. 4. Thus Rumania, dismembered and having undergone internal chaos, became for all practical purposes a German protectorate.