On July 27, the upper house of the Romanian parliament approved a draft law, according to which the celebration of Victory Day is postponed from May 9 to May 8 according to the western model. The official name of the holiday is changed to "Victory Day of the United Nations Coalition in World War II."
Romanian news agency Agerpres cites the statement of the initiator of the bill, MP from the National Liberal Party Ovidiu Rajecki, in which he calls the celebration of Victory Day on May 9 "historical ambiguity."
As a justification for changing the date of the holiday, the fact of the signing by Germany of an act of unconditional surrender, which took place on May 7, 1945 in France, is cited, after which hostilities ceased on May 8.
"Since the change of the regime, the SRR (Socialist Republic of Romania), which is in the Soviet sphere of influence, has recognized May 9 as Victory Day, but the date that really is a victory day for our state is May 8, 1945," the Romanian media reported.
Rajecki notes that Western states such asUSA, Great Britain, France, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Norway, Baltic countries, Germany, celebrate Victory Day on May 8.
Now the bill must pass the approval of the lower house.
It is worth noting that after the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops, two acts of German surrender were signed.
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The first act was signed on May 7, 1945 in French Reims by the chief of the operational headquarters of the High Command of the Wehrmacht, Colonel General Alfred Jodl, and the Allied military leaders. The document did not meet the requirements previously agreed by the leadership of the Anti-Hitler coalition. The signing was attended by only one representative of the Soviet Union - Major General Ivan Susloparov, who put his signature on the document on behalf of Moscow, without having the authority to do so. The document came into force on May 8 at 23:01 (May 9 at 01:01 Moscow time). It is to this act that the Romanian parliamentarians are appealing.
Joseph Stalin insisted that the final act of Germany's unconditional surrender should be signed in Berlin by the high command of all countries (including the high command of the German troops). The Reims act was called the preliminary surrender protocol.
The signing of the second act took place on the night of May 8-9, 1945 in the Karlshorst suburb of Berlin. On behalf of the Supreme Command of the Soviet troops, it was signed by Marshal Georgy Zhukov and on behalf of the High Command of the expeditionary forces of the Western Allies - Marshal Arthur Tedder. General Karl Spaats (USA) and General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny (France) put their signatures as witnesses.
At 00:43 Moscow time on May 9, 1945, the signing of the act was officially completed. On May 9, 1945 at 02:10 the Soviet Information Bureau announced the surrender of Germany. In the postwar years, the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw bloc, which included Romania, celebrated Victory Day on May 9.
Now changing the date of the holiday, Romania is trying to assert itself as an anti-Russian country, Vadim Trukhachev, a teacher at the Department of Foreign Regional Studies and Foreign Policy at the Historical and Archival Institute of the Russian State University for the Humanities, explained in an interview with RT.
“In general, it is strange that Romania is celebrating Victory Day, given that it defected to the side of the anti-Hitler coalition in 1944, and before that was an ally of Germany. Therefore, it would be better for her to make May 8 and 9 working days, "Trukhachev noted.
In turn, the expert of RISS, Doctor of Historical Sciences Oksana Petrovskaya believes thatBucharest will not be able to break with the historically correct interpretation of World War II, as Poland, Ukraine and a number of other Western countries are doing now, and deny the liberation of Eastern Europe by Soviet troops.
“Romania does not really fit into the general outline here, because it was Hitler's ally for a long time,” stressed Oksana Petrovskaya.
Historical realities
Recall that for most of the Second World War, Romania and its armed forces fought on the side of the Nazis. The dictator Ion Antonescu in 1940, with the support of the fascist "Iron Guard", overthrew the monarch Karol II, and on June 22, 1941, simultaneously with the attack on the USSR, he entered the war on the side of the Third Reich.
Germany handed over Bessarabia and the so-called Transnistria, the territory between the Dniester and the Bug rivers, which, according to Antonescu, were allegedly inhabited by “Russified Romanians”, under the control of the Romanian occupiers.
- Ion Antonescu
- globallookpress.com
- © Scherl
Romania established a brutal occupation regime on this territory, as a result of which at least 200 thousand local residents died.
Also, by order of Antonescu, in the built years on the territory of Transnistria, the concentration camps were brought in from all regions controlled by the dictator. During the occupation, about 250-270 thousand Jews were killed there.
In addition, the Romanian troops took part in battles on the side of the Wehrmacht - in the battles near Uman, the capture of Crimea and the siege of Sevastopol. Also, the Nazi command involved Romanian troops in the battles near Kharkov, on the Don, Volga and North Caucasus.
In the fall of 1942, the 3rd and 4th Romanian armies were thrown at Stalingrad, where their losses amounted to over 150 thousand people.
Subsequently, the Romanian troops were driven out of the occupied territories during the counter-offensive of the Red Army. Soviet troops entered Romania in August 1944. At the same time, King Mihai I made a coup in the country and arrested the dictator Antonescu, after which Romania went over to the side of the anti-Hitler coalition.
Decommunization and dates
After the overthrow of communist regimes, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the abolition of the Warsaw Pact, many countries in Central and Eastern Europe began to change the Victory Day dates to May 8 to better meet Western standards. Poland did it in 1989. In the Czech Republic, in the early 1990s, the author of this initiative was Milos Zeman, who later became the country's president. The process has acquired a systemic character as more and more new countries join the EU or NATO, experts say.
In Ukraine, the holiday was divorced for two days - the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation on May 8 and Victory Day on May 9. At the same time, due to the law on decommunization adopted in the country on May 9, it is forbidden to demonstrate any symbols traditionally associated with Victory Day.
- Victory Day in Romania
- AFP
- © Bogdan Cristel
Oksana Petrovskaya believes that Romania, by refusing to celebrate May 9, is thus forming its new common European identity and wants to prove that it is a European country.
“In Europe, it is the 8th and not the 9th of May that is celebrated. The countries of Eastern Europe, being in the socialist bloc, always celebrated May 9, this was never disputed. Now they begin to move to another camp and show their ally loyalty. Previously, the socialists were in power in Romania (in October 2019, after the resignation of the Social Democratic government, President Klaus Iohannis appointed the head of the national liberal party Ludovic Orban as prime minister. - RT ) and these things mattered to them, they did not want break with the tradition of Victory Day. And the current liberal government does not value this and can afford such a pan-European bias, ”the historian noted.
Vadim Trukhachev believes that by refusing to celebrate Victory Day on May 9, the former Warsaw bloc countries thus “swear” to be loyal to the Euro-Atlantic model.
“By denying the Soviet period, they are trying to assert themselves and show that they have broken with the past and, due to this, receive some kind of dividends. Since now the EU does not have enough money for everyone, it is necessary to show what kind of Euro-Atlanticists they are, so that they can be recognized. Moreover, Romania is one of the poorest EU countries and receives a large number of subsidies, "the expert concluded.