Romanian invasion of Bessarabia

26
Romanian invasion of Bessarabia

100 years ago, Romania, taking advantage of the unrest in Russia, occupied Bessarabia. Bessarabia was part of Romania for 22 years, until 28 June 1940, when a strong Soviet Russia regained its land, which was heavily watered in various wars with Russian blood.

prehistory



In the 1916 year, deciding, after long trades, that the time had come, Bucharest took the side of the Entente. However, the German-Austrian, Bulgarian and Turkish troops quickly crushed the poorly trained Romanian army. Most of Romania was occupied. The Russian command had to move the entire front south to cover Bessarabia. The Russian army came to the aid of the dying Romania, the Romanian front was formed. The remaining combat-ready units of the Romanian army were taken to the province of Moldova. During the most brutal and bloody battles of the enemy was stopped.

During the evacuation and retreat, the Romanian authorities and the British did everything to undermine the country's existing economic potential. The Romanian military and authorities took literally everything from the civilian population, including milk, eggs and bread. Many officers quietly profited from this, literally creating nothing but huge states. The British tried to destroy the oil industry - oil reserves and equipment. Their destruction was conducted under the direction of the British military attache Thompson and Colonel Griffiths. The wells were filled with stones and scrap iron, machinery and equipment were smashed and broken. The premises and tanks were burned. The fires were terrible, the flames reached a great height. The British are not limited to the destruction of oil fields. In Romania, there were 80 thous. Wagons purchased by the English wheat. Some managed to take out, the part captured by the Germans, the other - burned. Also, the British tried to destroy the main industrial enterprises of the kingdom and rolling stock.

By the beginning of the 1917 campaign, the Romanian army was restored with the help of Russia and its allies in the Entente. But the problem was that the war led to economic ruin in Russia, the collapse of the transport system. This was partly due to the sabotage of the February-conspirators who were preparing the overthrow of Tsar Nicholas II. The front-line could not satisfy the demands of the army, and the supply from the Volga and Siberia almost stopped. The South-Western Front lived today, there were no stocks. The Caucasian army was starving. And here we have to supply the Romanians. Until April, 1917, the supply more or less worked, but after finally collapsed. Romanian troops switched to self-supply, that is, they simply plundered the local population.

The situation was extremely difficult. There was an acute shortage of food, fuel, and essential goods. The Russian quartermaster General Sannikov noted: “During the whole of last winter, the situation in Romania was very difficult: Romanian soldiers actually died of starvation.” Typhus, the satellite of hunger, mowed people. With the help of the most severe requisitions, entire counties were devastated. The peasants, knowing that everything would be taken away from them, themselves sold off all the available surpluses. The triple arbitrariness reigned in the villages: landlords, local authorities and the military. A similar situation was in the occupied lands, where food was swept clean by invaders.

In the spring of 1917, the situation became even more desperate. Soon after February, a delegation of the Petrograd Council visited Romania. P. D. Mostovenko, who was part of it, recalled: “At first, we simply ran into dying people, corpses of animals that were not cleaned.” General A. Averescu with military laconicism wrote in his diary: "The population is dying from cold and hunger." The statistics bring us terrible figures: 70% of the children born in 1917 in Moldova have not lived even a year. There were villages where all newborns died. Total on unoccupied territory in 1917 - 1918. (not counting the army) died 240 thousand people.

Against this terrible background, the behavior of the upper classes of the Romanian society and their minions looked disgusting. The Romanian elite had not previously been an example of virtue, but during the war it lost all propriety and organized a "feast during the plague." Landowners and gendarmes forcibly drove women and children to work on landowner lands. The gendarmes robbed peasants, raped women and girls whose fathers and brothers were mobilized to the front. Aristocrats and officers burned their lives, drank and depraved. Treasury has reached an incredible size. Everyone who has the power and access to property, as if in anticipation of the near end, sought to fill his pockets and often immediately pull down the loot. State property was written off as missing or spoiled during retreats and hostilities, and then sold on the black market. So, the stolen army horses were sold by whole herds, and then Romanian officials demanded that Russia supply the horses because of the acute shortage of horsemen in the army. Flood bribery reigned, money opened any doors. For bribes exempted from military service. The pursuit of income knew no bounds and bordered on madness.

At the same time, the pro-German party intensified in the Romanian elite, shaken by the military defeat and occupation of most of Romania. Germany was considered "invincible." The opinion was spreading that a demonstration against Russia would allow Romania to get Bessarabia. It is worth noting that the time of the evacuation of the Romanian government prudently left part of the administrative and police apparatus in place, which was instructed to transfer the local affairs to the occupiers in good order and cooperate with them. In particular, only in Bucharest "for supervision" was left about 400 gendarmes, 500 police officers and the police battalion under the command of Major Presen, brother of the Chief of General Staff of the Romanian Army. And the people of Bucharest were ordered not to show even the slightest resistance to the invaders under the threat of the death penalty. As a result, the Germans made only small changes in the abandoned Romanian administration. She was headed by a supporter of cooperation with Germany, Lupu Kostake, who led the Department of Internal Affairs. Cooperation with the enemy, carried out with the knowledge and even at the direction of the king and the government, created the possibility and facilitated the possibility of Romania moving into the camp of the German bloc.

The king and the Romanian government, under the influence of the revolution in Russia and because of the growth of revolutionary sentiments among the people and the army, were forced to make concessions. King Ferdinand promised the soldiers land and voting rights after the war. Parliament revised the constitution of the year 1866, where private property, including land, was declared "sacred and inviolable." Innovations provided for universal suffrage, the elimination of land holdings of the king and the state, the alienation for the purchase of 2 million hectares of landowner land. All these measures strengthened the Romanian army, which consisted mainly of peasants. The overwhelming majority of the peasant soldiers had their houses and land behind the front line, occupied by the enemy, they had to be freed. As a result, by the summer of 1917, the Romanian army was restored. It consisted of 15 infantry and 2 cavalry divisions, a total of about 400 thousand soldiers.


King of Romania Ferdinand I

German occupation

At first Austro-German invaders simply robbed everything that came to hand. Exhausted soldiers eat off. The newly captured Romania was not depleted by the war and rich in food. At the same time, goods and raw materials were plundered and destroyed senselessly. In particular, cattle were slaughtered and meat quickly became rare. Cattle were stolen in Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria, they transported food and goods.

However, soon the German command realized that such a robbery led to the killing of the goose that laid the golden eggs. With the exhaustion of a long war of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria, only Romania could provide relatively serious reserves. Therefore, after a period of disordered robbery, the time has come for the robbery of organized and systematic. The Germans introduced a system of forced labor. For violation of the orders of the commandants imposed a monetary fine and was supposed to 3 years in prison. Through tough measures, the occupants achieved a growth in acreage and the restoration of part of the oil industry.

In the cities - from warehouses and shops - 3 / 4 immediately confiscated all goods. Bread was left at the rate of 400 g per day per person and a hard minimum of other food. In the villages, peasants were left with seeds and 500 of corn per person per day. Everything else was exported. Residents on pain of death penalty were required to provide lists of their food. The following goods and items were seized: motor vehicles, crews, clothing and footwear, cast iron and copper, rubber, typewriters, furniture, etc. Soldiers with German pedantry searched the villages and towns, literally scooping everything. For undelivered weapon the shooting was established, for the hidden good - fines.

According to official data from Romania from December 1916 of the year - to October 1918 of the year were taken: about 2,2 million tons of grain and vegetables, 90 thousand cattle, more than 200 thousand sheep and pigs, 1,1 million tons of oil, 200 thousand. tons of wood, about 100 thousand tons of salt, as well as a lot of metal, leather, textiles, alcohol, wine, vodka and tobacco.

At the same time, the Romanian population was forced to feed the occupying Austro-German, Bulgarian and Turkish army - about 500 thousand soldiers and 140 thousand horses. Thus, the monthly consumption rate of meat by them was more than 13 thousand heads of cattle and 67 thousand sheep. In addition, the soldiers sent their families often living on the verge of starvation - their number was not limited, only the weight - no more than 10 kg. During the first year of occupation, more than 1 thousand cars with parcels were sent to Germany and Austria-Hungary. And the soldiers, who went on vacation, looked like bagmen, they dragged along as much as they could carry. Just a robbery continued during requisitions, holdings, troop movements, etc.

It is clear that such a robbery caused terrible poverty, hunger. Typhus destroyed entire villages. The people tried to resist - refused to go to work at the enterprises and landowner fields, sabotaged the order to surrender weapons and the supply of food, went to the "hungry" demonstrations. There were cases of arson prepared by the occupiers for the removal of property, damage to telephone and telegraph lines, killing of enemy soldiers and their police officers. In response, the occupiers imposed huge fines on entire villages, sent people to hard labor, and shot them.

The collapse of the Romanian front

The February Revolution had a tremendous impact on the Romanian front. The Provisional Government removed from the command of the conservative General V. V. Sakharov (the Romanian King Ferdinand I was formally considered Commander-in-Chief). In his place was appointed General D. G. Shcherbachev, who at that time did not openly express his sentiments.

February caused widespread disintegration of troops, which were already weakened by the fierce and bloody battles of 1914 - 1916. The sacred royal power has fallen, the core of the army has been knocked out. Moreover, the Provisional Government headed for the "democratization" of the army. The soldiers did not want to fight anymore. Discontent, outrage, hatred, driven into the depths of the soldiers' souls, burst out. The escape of soldiers by May 1917 took a large scale. Whole parts rebelled. The front was falling apart. The soldiers rallied instead of fighting.

The Socialist Revolutionaries and Menshevik internationalists initially dominated the soldiers' committees. They got a majority at the congress of Soviets of soldiers, sailors, officers and workers' deputies of the Romanian Front held in Odessa in May. Black Sea fleet and Odessa district. The Odessa Military District then included the Odessa, Kherson and Bessarabian provinces. The congress formed an executive body - the Central Executive Committee of soldiers, sailors, workers and peasants' deputies of the Romanian Front, Black Sea Front and Odessa District (CEC Rumcheroda). The committee campaigned for a "revolutionary war." However, when the Kerensky government organized an offensive in the summer, the majority of the soldiers did not support it. The soldiers did not want to fight.

The Romanian Front launched an offensive on July 20 of the year 1917. About 240 thousand Russian-Romanian were deployed against 400 thousand Austrian-German troops. In the early days, Russian troops successfully attacked. But soon the shock units were knocked out, and the rest did not want to die, they began to rally and voluntarily leave positions. The restored Romanian army fought more successfully this time. In the battle of Mereshti (July 22 began) the Romanian army under the command of General A. Averescu, with the support of the Russian troops, was able to move forward. “The Romanians have done relatively much,” noted the new Supreme Commander A. A. Brusilov, “they had success. But, in view of the general state of affairs on our front, I sent a gene telegram. Shcherbachev with orders to suspend a further offensive. " The counter-offensive of the Austro-German forces under the command of Field Marshal Mackensen was stopped in the battle at Marasesti (August). By September 8 the front has finally stabilized.

The unfortunate "offensive of Kerensky," undertaken by the Provisional Government under the pressure of Western "partners", finally destroyed the Russian front. If earlier the troops were ready to at least defend themselves, then the failure of the offensive, with the death of the most combat-ready units still ready to attack, finished off the army. Front enveloped the chaos. Revolutionary propaganda intensified, replenishment was infected with disobedience, did not want to go to the front line, the soldier mass as a result of "democratization" actually became unpunished, that is, discipline, organization, order - the basis of the army, disappeared. Even the restoration of the death penalty could no longer change the situation. To maintain order, punitive detachments were formed from cavalrymen and gunners, least of all infected with revolutionary moods. But the effect was minimal. Smoot and chaos in the country only gained momentum. The military mechanism was hopelessly destroyed. Unsuccessful Kornilov revolt finished off the position of the officers. Frequent reprisals against the officers. The soldiers wanted only peace and return home.



To be continued ...
Our news channels

Subscribe and stay up to date with the latest news and the most important events of the day.

26 comments
Information
Dear reader, to leave comments on the publication, you must sign in.
  1. +1
    9 February 2018 06: 25
    They helped before! Now through Romania, there is a destabilization of the entire post-Soviet space, and the Romanians are ready to plunge us a knife again .. In Moldova, in particular, it’s flaring up.
    1. 0
      9 February 2018 18: 51
      Quote: Mar. Tira
      They helped before! Now through Romania, there is a destabilization of the entire post-Soviet space, and the Romanians are ready to plunge us a knife again .. In Moldova, in particular, it’s flaring up.

      Well cho, flames up, and?
      Now to the refrigerator and quietly .... For Romanians to pump, from the beginning with Ruin, dozens of pipes of the world need to be smoked (but the liver or something else ....). So I say, Odessa is ours! Katka did not set and rearrange!
      And the Romanians, who will fill the corn with them, that they have the master ... well, or they’ll break the horns. True, we have a schedule, and all the others .... wait. “In turn, su ...” (Dog’s heart)
  2. +18
    9 February 2018 06: 36
    The offensive of the Romanian front during the Summer Offensive of 1917 developed well.
    But on July 12, frightened by the fall of Tarnopol and the continued retreat of the armies of the Southwestern Front, A.F. Kerensky ordered him to be stopped.
    But the Romanian king Ferdinand still ordered A. Averescu to continue the offensive on Maresti. In the battles of July 13 and 14, the Romanian troops, supported by the strong artillery of the 4th Russian army, successfully completed the battle ..
    After the fierce August fighting (the offensive of the 9th German army was reflected), a lull fell on the Romanian front.
    Fights in July-August 1917 cost the Germans 47 thousand people. The losses of the Romanian troops amounted to 27,5 thousand, and Russian - 25 thousand people.
    The offensive of the Romanian front during the Summer Offensive of 1917 was probably the most successful. The decomposition of the Romanian front was the weakest (affected by the distance from Russia and the proximity of foreigners), but Kerensky’s decision in this case served as a stop signal
    1. +15
      9 February 2018 14: 39
      Again, the result was
      But not developed
      Our guys
  3. 0
    9 February 2018 07: 25
    Parliament revised the constitution of 1866, where private property, including land, was declared "sacred and inviolable." The innovations provided for universal suffrage, the liquidation of the land holdings of the king and the state, and alienation for the purchase of 2 million hectares of landowner land.
    ... And in 1920, the government of A. Averescu carried out agrarian reform ...
  4. +9
    9 February 2018 07: 40
    The fact is that the actions of the Romanian Front by Lct 1917 were successful, the counterattack of the enemy was repulsed and the front stood steadfast until December, i.e. even after a thief.
    The reason is simple: the fewer Bolsheviks, the stronger the army. As was the case on the Romanian front, unlike the North.
    T.N. "commander in chief" Krylenko was simply sent.
    1. +18
      9 February 2018 14: 40
      the fewer Bolsheviks, the stronger the army.

      Totally agree
      Waves of decay came from revolutionary centers
      As is the case with rotting fish - from the head
  5. +4
    9 February 2018 12: 20
    On the Romanian front, the Bolshevik S. Roshal, the commissar of the Krylenko detachment, who torn apart the Commander-in-Chief Dukhonin, was shot. He arrived on the Romanian front to establish Bolshevik power ......
  6. 0
    9 February 2018 13: 39
    thank you .. we look forward to continuing .. well, then only the Italians fought worse than the Romanians
    1. +16
      9 February 2018 14: 41
      The Italians fought in general, not bad
      Given the specifics of the mountain war
    2. 0
      9 February 2018 16: 36
      In World War I, Romanians fought no worse than Russians.
      1. +18
        9 February 2018 16: 51
        Only this Russian army saved the Romanians, creating a whole front
        1. +1
          9 February 2018 17: 07
          Romania had the longest front in World War I. They fought in the war, provided assistance from the allies, mainly from Russia.
          1. +16
            9 February 2018 17: 11
            They spoke, and the Russians saved them.
            Mainly
            And what is the length of this front, the longest?
            1. The comment was deleted.
            2. 0
              9 February 2018 17: 21
              My ignorance annoys me. Please remind me when it was.
              1. +16
                9 February 2018 17: 23
                You are strict to yourself)
                They simply wrote: "Romania had the longest front in the First World War."
                I asked how long is km? This is a discovery for me)
                1. 0
                  9 February 2018 18: 20
                  Now I can not find a more serious publication. But there is one: Romania had to fight on two 1,600 km-long battlefronts, the longest front in Europe, with a varied configuration and diverse geographical elements (by comparison, the Russian front, stretching from the Baltic Sea to Bukovina, was only 1,000 km long).


                  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romania_during_Wo
                  rld_War_I
                  1. +17
                    9 February 2018 20: 01
                    Well, dear man
                    and the Russian Austro-German front (from the Baltic to the Black Sea) is 1900 km long with a tail, plus 1100 km of the Caucasus. That is, without the Caucasian longer.
                    Yes, and in my opinion there is nothing to compare the armies of the leading Entente players with the Italians and the Romanians. Romanians seem not to be noticed in special military achievements. In addition to the Summer Offensive of 1917 - but again, together with the Russians (at the beginning), and then with the support of the Russian artillery
                    1. 0
                      9 February 2018 20: 44
                      But I found this: The length of the theater along the front from the Baltic Sea to the Russian-Romanian border was about 850–900 km (along the Königsberg – Chernivtsi line), the maximum depth (in 1915) was about 500 km (from the Baranavichy – Rivne line to borders with Germany (a little west of Lodz)).


                      https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Восточный_фронт_П
                      World War I
                      1. +16
                        9 February 2018 20: 49
                        The figure is not from the ceiling, I can find where. Even so - 1934 km)
                        Of course, about the whole ovory - taking into account the Romanian sector of the Russian front. There, too, a lot of our troops were and were called Russian-Romanian.
                        At the beginning of the year 17, out of 4 armies, 3 were Russian.
  7. +1
    9 February 2018 15: 34
    Quote: Bouncer
    The Italians fought in general, not bad
    Given the specifics of the mountain war

    I agree: Samsonov had materials about the Italian army, they really fought reasonably well, but their command was fig
    1. +16
      9 February 2018 16: 02
      Command is average, as the bulk of the bulk)
      And the materials. Yes, Samsonov did. But not only him.
      I read a very interesting cycle about Arditi (assault units of the Italian army of the WWI) A. Oleinikova.
  8. 0
    9 February 2018 16: 39
    The author forgot to finish a trifle. In 1917-18, the Romanian royal family ate mostly only barley porridge, in solidarity with the people who were starving.
    1. +4
      9 February 2018 17: 00
      So we and Lenin in Gorki drank carrot tea and slept on the bunks; in solidarity with the people.
      1. +1
        9 February 2018 17: 08
        So a good person
      2. +1
        9 February 2018 19: 08
        But we have beaten the king. Deservedly.
    2. +1
      9 February 2018 23: 29
      and who cares what the Romanian royal family ate, and did she just eat what kind of chair she had, etc.?

"Right Sector" (banned in Russia), "Ukrainian Insurgent Army" (UPA) (banned in Russia), ISIS (banned in Russia), "Jabhat Fatah al-Sham" formerly "Jabhat al-Nusra" (banned in Russia) , Taliban (banned in Russia), Al-Qaeda (banned in Russia), Anti-Corruption Foundation (banned in Russia), Navalny Headquarters (banned in Russia), Facebook (banned in Russia), Instagram (banned in Russia), Meta (banned in Russia), Misanthropic Division (banned in Russia), Azov (banned in Russia), Muslim Brotherhood (banned in Russia), Aum Shinrikyo (banned in Russia), AUE (banned in Russia), UNA-UNSO (banned in Russia), Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People (banned in Russia), Legion “Freedom of Russia” (armed formation, recognized as terrorist in the Russian Federation and banned)

“Non-profit organizations, unregistered public associations or individuals performing the functions of a foreign agent,” as well as media outlets performing the functions of a foreign agent: “Medusa”; "Voice of America"; "Realities"; "Present time"; "Radio Freedom"; Ponomarev; Savitskaya; Markelov; Kamalyagin; Apakhonchich; Makarevich; Dud; Gordon; Zhdanov; Medvedev; Fedorov; "Owl"; "Alliance of Doctors"; "RKK" "Levada Center"; "Memorial"; "Voice"; "Person and law"; "Rain"; "Mediazone"; "Deutsche Welle"; QMS "Caucasian Knot"; "Insider"; "New Newspaper"