"Is It 'Rumania' or 'Romania?' " Part 6/Final

The end of World War Two saw Rumania's eastern border set again to its status prior to the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, but the part of Transylvania lost to Hungary in 1940 was returned to Rumania. Rumanian casualties during the war are difficult to determine, although my guess would be at least 700,000 dead, including military and civilian (which includes murdered Jews).*

Rumania was occupied by the Soviet Union after the war, and many thousands of Rumanian soldiers captured during the war by the Soviets returned to their native land fully imbued with communist ideas, giving the Soviets Rumanian communist troops to help in their takeover of the country. The Soviets and Rumanian communists gradually took control of the political machinery of the country and King Michael** was forced to abdicate at the end of 1947, thus ending the monarchy, and making Rumania a totally communist country, a "people's republic." The 1960s saw Nicolae Ceausescu take control of the Rumanian Communist Party and the country. He was more open to Western Europe, an obvious departure from Soviet policy, but he also began to tighten his dictatorial control of Rumania. This continued until December 1989 when mass protests of the government took place. Within days the military had abandoned Ceausescu, and he, his wife and a couple of associates fled before being captured by police and then handed over to the army. A quick trial was held and Ceausescu and his wife were executed by some army men.

A democratic governing system developed in Rumania and the country established closer ties to Western Europe and the United States. The Rumanian economy was gradually opened up to private investment. The beginning of the severe world economic recession of 2008 hit Rumania very hard, but it has been recovering.  

NOTE: Back in the 1990s I met some fairly recent Rumanian immigrants on a couple of separate occasions. Because I have studied World War Two extensively, I naturally mentioned that I knew something of Rumania because of its involvement in the war. Interestingly, on both occasions, the immigrants spoke highly of Antonescu, with one saying he was important to Hitler, and one of the others mentioning something about Antonescu's face-to-face meetings with Hitler put him in high standing. This certainly was NOT the "politically correct" thing for these people to say, and "perhaps" part of the explanation is, these were immigrants to the U.S., and like some immigrants from many countries, "may" have been highly anti-communist (although that is not a given). Remember too, Ceausescu had been overthrown not all that long before, and ill feelings toward him, if not outright hatred, may have colored their thoughts, and thus, Antonescu's anti-communism appealed to them, in spite of his association with Hitler. Whether these few people I spoke with represent a significant attitude held by average Rumanians, I do not know, but I thought their comments were interesting.

Likewise, I have had some medical issues over the last few years and several EKGs were taken. On two of those occasions, I had the same technician for the tests. She was from Hungary and as we chatted about my little bit of knowledge about Hungary, I mentioned Transylvania. She got very upset, told me how Rumania had "stolen" the area from Hungary. She was so worked up, I thought she was going to declare war on Rumania all by herself! So while one person's opinion does not make a trend, her impassioned feelings show how the Transylvania issue still packs some emotional punch, even for a person who no longer resides in that part of Europe. 

* It is a bit difficult to get a handle on figures for the Jewish deaths, as many Jews lived in, or moved to, the eastern districts, which then became part of the Soviet Union in 1940. Further, Jews also lived in, or were deported to, Transnistria (see Part 5 for more about this region), which was part of the Soviet Union, but was administered by Rumania after the conquest of the area in 1941. For a good explanation of all of this, please check this:  https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Romania/five.pdf

Another problem with overall Rumanian casualties is, the part of Transylvania with a substantial Rumanian population was given to Hungary in 1940, and men in this ceded area then served in the Hungarian armed forces, and their casualties would have been counted as "Hungarian," although the area was returned to Rumania after the war. Further, Rumania fought on both sides during the war, although mostly as one of the Axis nations, but it did provide military forces to the Allies to fight against Germany and Hungary from the late summer of 1944 until the end of the war. These forces were under the overall direction of the Soviets. A good place to start when researching World War II casualties is "World War II: The Encyclopedia of Facts and Figures" by John Ellis, the 1995 edition with corrections to the initial 1993 release, but understand, other sources will not necessarily agree with figures from this book. 

** As of this writing (May 2015), King Michael is still alive at the age of 93. The establishment of a democratic government after the fall of communism gradually saw Michael granted the right to visit his homeland and his public appearances have drawn large crowds, although a return of the monarchy itself to some position of power has not seemed to be particularly popular among Rumanians.        

The following were consulted for this article on Rumania: "Kingdoms of Europe" by Gene Gurney, published by Crown Publishers, Inc. NY 1982

"Romania/An Illustrated History" by Nicolae Klepper, published by Hippocrene Books, NY 2002

WORD HISTORY:
Cunning-This adjective, related to, and actually derived from, the verb "can" ("to be able to do, have the knowledge to do"), the modern meaning of which is, "shrewd, often deceptive, way of doing something." It goes back to Indo European "gnoh," which had the notion of "to have knowledge." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "kunnanan," with the same general meaning. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "cunnan," the first and third person singular present form of which was "cann." The present participle of the verb was "cunnende, which was also used as an adjective, and it later became "cunninde" (also as "kunnende"), which then became "cunning" (also "kunning"). Most of "cunning's" Germanic relatives did not develop the "shrewd, deceptive" tilt to their meanings, but rather they have remained closer to it pure meaning of "be able to do," which is the case with its German relative "könnend," but Icelandic "kunnandi" does indeed mean "cunning."