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Romania (România), officially the Kingdom of Romania (Regatul României) is a country in Southeastern Europe. Ruled by Carol II, an ambitious king with autocratic and anti-constitutional tendencies, and governed by Prime Minister Corneliu Zelea Codreanu and his government composed of the ultranationalist Legionary movement, the power balance in deeply revanchist Romania is more unstable than ever and will surely one day erupt into a power struggle of unimaginable dimensions which will shape the troubled nation's future forever.
Romania is bordered by Austria-Hungary to the west and north (via the Kingdom of Hungary and the Crownland of Galicia-Lodomeria, respectively), Ukraine to the northeast, the Black Sea to the east and Bulgaria to the south.
History[]
The Early Kingdom[]
Following the Peace of Paris, concluding the Crimean War (1853-1856), the unification of Moldavia and Wallachia was expressly forbidden. However, due to a quirk in the procedure, Ioan Alexandru Cuza was elected Domnitor in both principalities, thus becoming first Prince of the United Principalities (1859-1866), to be followed onto the throne by the German prince Karl Eitel Friedrich von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen after a coup staged by the so called "Monstrous Coalition". After the 8th Russian-Turkish War 1877/78, which saw Romania fighting alongside Russia, the country's sovereignty was recognized on the Berlin Congress of 1878. Southern Bessarabia was ceded to Russia, while Romania gained Dobrogea.
Bustling Bucharest, the "Paris of the East", shortly before the devastating Weltkrieg
In 1881 the Romanian Prince took the title of King Carol I. The orientation towards the West was secured, Russian influence lost its appeal. Under King Carol, Romania successfully participated in the Second Balkan War of 1913 and conquered Southern Dobruja from the Bulgarians. Carol was celebrated as a national hero, but he would die only one year later in 1914, aged 75. His paternal nephew Ferdinand succeeded to the throne in a dire time for Europe; The Weltkrieg was raging, and many expected Ferdinand to join his German relatives on the side of the Central Powers. Therefore, many were surprised when he proclaimed the following during his inauguration before the Romanian Parliament: "I will reign as a good Romanian."
The Weltkrieg[]
Ferdinand indeed would turn his rhetoric into action in 1916, joining the war on side of the Entente. While the army had some initial successes in Transylvania and the navy conducted a successful raid on Austrian ships on the Danube, things began to detoriate quickly soon after; A detachment of German, Bulgarian, Austrian and Ottoman troops overwhelmed the smaller country by invading Dobruja and starting a counteroffensive in Transylvania. After only three months in the war, Bucharest was under foreign occupation and the government evacuated to Iași. While it seemed all hope was lost, Romania gained support from Russian troops and a French Military Mission under General Henri Berthelot. The Royal Family also stood by the country during this time, doing their best to keep morale high.
German propaganda showing the Conquerers of Romania, August von Mackensen and Erich von Falkenhayn
However, in 1917/18, disaster struck as Russia first was plunged into a Civil War and soon after exited the war, de facto ending the war on the Eastern Front and leaving the small Kingdom to its fate. Romania decided to sign an armistice and soon after, in May 1918, the Treaty of Bucharest was signed. Romania was forced to cede Dobruja to Bulgaria and a border strip around the Carpathians to Austria-Hungary. While Romania was allowed to keep Bessarabia from the remnants of the Russian Revolution, the oil fields in Ploiesti were placed under a joint Romanian-German-Austrian consortium.
All in all, the treaty turned out to be relatively benign, especially in comparison to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and most 1919 treaties the Central Powers forced upon their enemies. After the war the Treaty of Bucharest was even renegotiated in Romania's favour, as oil from Azerbaijan could be acquired much cheaper and to more convenient terms. However, it was still enough to deeply humiliate the Romanian nation and cause revanchist thoughts among the population. Ferdinand, disgraced by his own decision to join the war, withdrew from the public, showing himself only on rare occasions. He would be often represented by his son Carol, a known womanizer, which would lead to Carol slowly settling down from his excessive lifestyle as he began to get a grasp of his royal duties.
A Decade of Darkness[]
Widespread revanchism and anger at the failure of the government to achieve the national dream, combined with an economic slump due to the failed war effort coupled with failing cereal prices and a worsening rural situation led to a widespread feeling of ennui combined with anger, eventually leading to a meteoric rise in support for previously-fringe ultranationalist parties and movements. Jews, Bolsheviks and Russians were blamed for stabbing the Romanian soldiers, who had bravely defended against the Central Powers until the very end, in the back.
Initially, the first among these parties seemed to be the LANC (Liga Apărării Național-Creștine/National-Christian Defense League), but a defector, the young and charismatic Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, started to gain more and more adepts, managing to more efficiently channel the desire for union and vengeance towards a greater desire for national rebirth, embodied within his movement: the Legion of the Archangel Michael (Legiunea Arhanghelului Mihail), also known popularly as the Legionary Movement (Mișcarea Legionară).
Laid out body of King Ferdinand I of Romania "the Unfortunate", July 1927
After the death of Ferdinand in 1927, the embittered but ambitious Carol II rose to the throne. Compared to his father, who had sympathized with the long-ruling liberal PNL (and the Brătianu family which often was leading it), he was not content with the somewhat-limited role of the monarchy within the state and dreamed of a more absolute form of monarchy, where he would be the main arbiter of the affairs of state, as he viewed the political parties as nothing more than ternal divisors that teared the populace apart. In the shifting political climate of the early 1930s, he saw an opportunity. The Conservative Party was dying off anyway as its support base, the great landholders, was gradually eroding, and the PNL was in flux. Any other parties were minor, and with the right sledgehammer, they could be swept aside.
Rise of the Archangel[]
Initially, Carol had considered supporting A.C Cuza of the LANC, but after a few reports by the SSI (popularly known as the Siguranța Statului, aka the intelligence services) concluded that the man, while intelligent, was by no means inspiring or had that relevant of a platform. Instead, he took interest in Zelea Codreanu and his legionaries, which had drastically expanded their influence over time, concluding that Codreanu's fanatism and relative inexperience in politics at the time would make him easier to manipulate towards his whims. So, he invited the young Căpitan for a personal audience to Bucharest, and offered him a deal: the Captain and his Movement would work together with the King to achieve national glory and revolutionize the country, and in exchange the King would give the Captain the keys to power and smoothen his way to the Premiership. Codreanu, overjoyed, accepted.
March of Iron Guard Legionaries in Bucharest, early 1930s
With the “historic” parties barely holding on, the two set the pieces in motion. In late 1933, then-Prime Minister I.G Duca was unexpectedly told by the King to resign, owing to “recent political developments which undermine the PNL’s mandate to rule”, and a snap election was called. Codreanu and his Legionaries campaigned furiously, promising a large-scale land reform, and an improvement of the peasants’ condition should they be given power, undercutting the Conservatives’ standing severely, while the Liberals were starting to dispute amongst themselves about how to curtail the “upstart from Husi”. Duca, particularly bitter, swore to outlaw the Legionaries and to fight them to the very end; a fatal mistake, as not only would the 1933 elections bring a surprising defeat to the PNL (undercut by his proclamation, the PNL’s economic mismanagement, as well by the royal decree extending universal suffrage), but he himself would pay with his life, as a group of Legionary youths of Aromanian origin would gun him down soon after in early January 1934.
The King and his Captain[]
Codreanu and several high-ranking Legionaries greet the Romanian people after King Carol II's appointment of the Iron Guard government, Bucharest, early January 1934
With the Legionary movement having asserted itself, it was time to start preparations for the national rebirth. First on the order of business was settling accounts with the LANC once and for all, and soon enough many of its leaders and more prominent enforcers found themselves brought to trial or in jail. The historic parties also found themselves under some pressure from the Codreanu ministry, yet some of their members found shelter by appealing to the King and offering support; something he found to be most pleasing.
While the Legionary governance program started off ambitiously via the 1934 land reform, it was eventually stalled when some remnants of the landholders appealed to Carol, who forced his ambitious Prime Minister to halt it, at least temporarily. This incident, as well as the Monarch's philandering, greatly vexed Codreanu, who started to see his own country's monarch as a hamper towards his ambitions. Likewise, Carol noticed that his Prime Minister was far harder to manipulate than he thought, as his office gave him a certain measure of safety.
As 1936 dawns, Romania stands at a precipice. Externally it seems to be making a slow if relatively stable recovery, while internally the nation feels the weight of the power struggle between the King and the Captain; a struggle which may have many twists and turns and possible endings, but there are two things that both sides agree upon: national unification and self-strengthening. And the revanchist kingdom may just have the opportunities to achieve its goals sooner than later....
Politics[]
The Iron Guard[]
Flag of the Legionary Movement, widely-flown alongside the Tricolore
The dominant party within the kingdom at the moment is the Legion of the Archangel Michael, represented in Parliament via its party front-organization. The Legion itself operates as more of a secret society, and by necessity it is represented in the open via an eponymous political party, which it presides over.
At the top of the pyramid of the Movement sits Codreanu himself, the Captain and Leader. Immediately beneath him is his inner circle, either in codified structures like the Legionary Senate or the Commitee of the Thousand, or in non-codified ones. Below the inner circle are the diverse "nest" leaders, the nest being the smallest Legionary partisan unit.. Teenagers and schoolchildren organize themselves within a similar organization, named the Cross Brotherhood (Frăția de Cruce), aimed at preparing these young minds for the rigor of later Legionary life.
Codreanu prizes discipline within his organization’s ranks, and members are expected to hold themselves to a certain standard. Sacrifice, faith, martyrdom, camaraderie, labor, heroism - core values of Codreanu’s way of thinking, which he hopes to propagate towards his adherents and later on towards most Romanians. An admirer of the old chivalric values, his ideal leadership distinguishes itself via spiritual cleanliness, capacity of work and creation, braveness, faith in God, love and an austere, spartan life. He keeps his movement in line not just via his own personal charisma and highly personalistic leadership style, but also via an intricate system of internal bureaucracies, commitees, decorations and titles, like the Green Cross, the White Cross, and, the highest title-decoration short of the Captain himself, the Commanders of the Annunciation.
A highly enigmatic and intricate structure, more reminiscent of a secret society/chivalric order than a political party, the Legion of the Archangel Michael has its main lynchpin in the person of the Captain himself, who is considered being the main keystone holding together the two factions within the Iron Guard: The Old Guard consists out of social-revolutionaries recruited from factory workers coalescing around Gheorghe Clime while the even more radical Young Guard is led by Alexandru Cantacuzino, someone who took his source of inspiration from the Italian Associazione Nazionalista Italiana and its leaders, Gabriele D'Annunzio and Italo Balbo.
Carol's Loyalist Clique[]
The other main political force consists of Carol II and his loyalists, organized by the monarch, his trusted right-hand man and Marshal of the Palace, Ernest Urdărianu, and other important figures who support Carol II's quasi-absolutistic tendencies.
Leadership[]
| Title | Name | Party | Portrait |
|---|---|---|---|
| King of the Romanians (Regele Românilor) | Carol II
(born 3 October 1893) |
Unaffiliated (but heavy autocratic and absolutist tendencies) |   |
| Prime Minister of Romania | Corneliu Zelea Codreanu
(born 13 September 1899) |
Legion of the Archangel Michael (Iron Guard) |   |
| Minister of Foreign Affairs | Ion Moța
(born 5 July 1902) |
Legion of the Archangel Michael (Iron Guard) |   |
| Minister of Finance | Gheorghe Clime
(born 1899) |
Legion of the Archangel Michael (Iron Guard) |   |
| Minister of War | Alexandru Cantacuzino
(born 1901) |
Legion of the Archangel Michael (Iron Guard) |   |
Military[]
With the Weltkrieg long past and Romania starting a certain recovery, the nation has started to remilitarize, though more is needed for Romania to be able to successfully challenge the Bulgarian hegemony on the Balkans.
Army[]
The army currently consists of eleven infantry divisions and two cavalry divisions.
[]
The Romanian navy is very small, consisting of an outdated destroyer squadron and an equally old submarine group.
Airforce[]
Romania possesses a small and somewhat outdated airforce, but it has a large domestic aircraft industry and the capability of greatly expanding the current forces. Currently, it has a small fighter squadron, a tactical bomber group, and a naval bomber squadron.
Foreign Relations[]
Romania has friendly relations with Greece and Serbia, due to their shared alliance against the Ottomans in the Balkan Wars and as allies in the Weltkrieg, and the Ottoman Empire, due to their shared distrust of Bulgaria.
Romania has hostile relations towards Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria due to territorial claims on both countries.
Culture[]
Primarily Romanian, with large Romanian minorities living abroad in Hungary (Transylvania) and smaller Romanian minorities living in Bulgaria (Dobrogea and small pockets around Vidin), Serbia (the Timocka krajina), and Ukraine (on the left bank of the Dniester river). The Kingdom also keeps close contact with Aromanian and Meglenitic minorities living in the Balkans, and to the Istriots to a smaller extent.