Romanian Volunteer Corps in Russia
Encyclopedia
The Romanian Volunteer Corps in Russia , or Volunteer Corps of Transylvanians-Bukovinans (Corpul Voluntarilor ardeleni-bucovineni, Corpul Voluntarilor transilvăneni şi bucovineni), was a military formation of World War I
, created from ethnic Romanian
prisoners of war held by Russia
. Officially established in February 1917, it comprised abjurers of the Austro-Hungarian Army
, mainly contingents from Transylvania
and Bukovina
. These had been obliged to fight against Romania
, and, once in Russian custody, volunteered for service against the Central Powers
. As campaigners for self-determination
and union with Romania
, they passed collective resolutions which, in both tone and scope, announced Union Day 1918.
The Corps was effectively an active military reserve
of the Romanian Land Forces
, and regularly dispatched new units to the Romanian front after June 1917. It helped defend the last stretches of Romania against the Central Powers' unified offensive, and met success in the Battle of Mărăşeşti
, but its units were for long divided between the existing local regiments. When the October Revolution
in Russia and the Romanian armistice
took Romania out of the Entente camp
, the Corps was left without backing and purpose. However, it inspired the creation of similar units in Entente countries, most successfully the "Romanian Legion" of Italy
.
Mobilized volunteers or prisoners symbolically tied to the Corps were left behind in Russia after the Russian Civil War
was ignited. Various such groups formed the Romanian Legion of Siberia, which resisted the Bolshevik
s in cooperation with the Czechoslovak Legions
and the White movement
. These units were ultimately repatriated to Greater Romania
in 1920.
against Austria-Hungary and the other Central Powers. After a while, Romania began investigating the fate and loyalties of Austria-Hungarian Romanians who were held in Russian POW camps
. Estimates for that period place the total population of Bukovinan and Transylvanian Romanians in such facilities, throughout Russia, at 120,000 or 130,000. Meanwhile, in Romania itself there were several thousand Romanian refugees from Austria-Hungary who immediately signed up for service in the Romanian Armed Forces
.
In Russia, Romanian captives were allegedly the recipients of worse treatment when compared to prisoners from other Austro-Hungarian backgrounds, which may have contributed to their decision to volunteer for service with Romania. Russian authorities were undecided about letting them join, and initially prohibited such initiatives; those who insisted in establishing contact with Romania were arrested by Russian police forces. During the same year, after consultations with Romania, the Russian executive reverted such policies. It was decided that Russia would free at most 15,000 of this demographic group, transferring them to Romania in exchange for a similar number of non-Romanian prisoners from Romanian camps.
Subsequently, those who chose to enlist were together relocated at the special camp in Darnytsia
—a suburb of Kiev
, known to Romanians as Darniţa. In December 1916, that facility held some 200 officers and 1,200 non-commissioned officer
s, who formed the nucleus (and general command) of a "Romanian Corps". Elected First Senior of the Camp, the 40-year-old Victor Deleu was a legal professional, rank-and-file member of the Romanian National Party
(PNR) and opinion journalist from Transylvania, who came to Darnytsia after internment in Kineshma
. The other members of Darnytsia camp's leadership body were Pompiliu Nistor, Vasile Chiroiu, Emil Isopescu, Valeriu Milovan, Octavian Vasu and Ioan Vescan.
Regardless of such initiatives, Romania tended to give little attention to the potential of recruitment in Russia, as many decision-makers were still unsure about the devotion of Transylvanians and Bukovinans, and worried that they might be welcoming Austro-Hungarian spies into army ranks. Additionally, probably half of the 120,000 men excluded themselves from the pool of recruits, as Austrian loyalists, invalids or men who feared Austria-Hungary's retaliation. Support from within Romania was therefore weak, and Russian obstruction still played a part, but in January the camp was visited by Lieutenant Colonel
Constantin Gh. Pietraru of the Romanian Land Forces, on a mission to evaluate the recruitment project. The reversal of fortunes on the Romanian front had brought a Central Powers' invasion into southern Romania, and the Romanian military authority became pressured into finding new soldiers for the defensive action.
, which brought to power a liberal Russian Provisional Government
. As a consequence of these, the whole transfer project was much delayed, but the Russian acceptance of self-determination
facilitated renewed political action. According to veteran Simion Gocan, the soldiers were much inspired by both these revolutionary promises and the American entry into World War I
, which seemingly made Wilsonian Self-Determination
an official Entente policy.
By Order 1191 of , Romania's Minister of War, Vintilă Brătianu
, created the Volunteer Corps as a special formation of the national army. On the same day, in Darnytsia, Pietraru was tasked by Chief of Staff Constantin Prezan
with equipping the new recruits and organizing them into units. The honorary command was assigned to Constantin Coandă
, who was already the military attaché
with Russia's Stavka
(General Headquarters). Over the next month, in Mogilev
, Coandă again negotiated the Corps' recognition by Stavka. Coandă received the permission, but the number of recruits was no longer clearly specified.
On March 18, Coandă issued a "Pledge" (Angajament), which regulated the status of Corps soldiers in relation to the Romanian Army, and which the recruits had to sign. It integrated the former Austro-Hungarian officers into the Romanian Army, with equivalent ranks, and recognized past service, including time spent in camps, as active service. The pledge ended with the words: "May God help us, so that through our blood we may liberate our lands and create a Greater Romania
, unified in substance and everlasting." All those who backed out after signing the document were to be considered deserters. Demand for enlistment remained considerable, even though rumor spread that Austro-Hungarian repression forces were by then murdering the families of volunteers and confiscating their property. However, Corps veteran Petru Nemoianu (Nemoian) was later to state that envy and class conflict were also characteristic for the formation, where the intellectual leaders quarreled over the better paid assignments.
In April, Pietraru met with the Provisional Government's Alexander Guchkov
, and an agreement was reached regarding the maximum total of troops to be enlisted in the Romanian Corps. Answering to special pleas from Romanian Premier
Ion I. C. Brătianu
, Guchkov allowed for the recruitment of 30,000 prisoners in his custody. The order was revised by Alexander Kerensky
, who reduced that number to 5,000 prisoners, noting that they were sorely needed as working hands in Russia's agriculture and industry. In practice, Quartermaster
Ivan Pavlovich Romanovsky only allowed recruitment to take place in Moscow Military District
, ordering that no more than 1,500 prisoners should be taken into account.
. Their manifesto of April 26 (April 13), reviewed for publishing by the Transylvanian poet Octavian Goga
, was signed by 250 officers and 250 soldiers, and is probably the first unionist statement to be issued by a Transylvanian representative body. The document states: "we Romanians, like all other subjugated nations, have grown aware that once and for all that we ... cannot carry on with our lives within the frame of the Austro-Hungarian state; we ... demand, with unwavering will, our incorporation into Romania, so that together we may form a single national Romanian state. ... For the sake of this ideal, we throw in the balance all of what we have, our lives and fortunes, our women and children, our descendants' life and happiness. And we never will stop, lest we vanquish or perish."
The text, which also survives in slightly different versions, included a brief analysis of the international scene. It paid homage to Russia's democratic program, referenced the "generous" American doctrine on self-determination, and looked forward to a congress of "blissful, national and democratic states". The manifesto made ample reference to the activity of "traitors" to the Transylvanian cause. As Nemoianu later recounted, there was a disguised reference to the PNR, whose moderate leaders, ostensibly loyal to the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, still tried to achieve Austrian devolution
. More leniently, Gocan argued that the PNR at home was "deeply terrorized" and bound to government by a forcefully signed "declaration of loyalty".
Goga, a civilian refugee in transit through Russia, was supposed to have left Darnytsia with a copy of the appeal. Some argue that he did, and that the subsequent popularization is largely owed to his work as publicist. Such accounts are contradicted by the recollections of another unionist activist, Onisifor Ghibu
: "[The appeal] was supposed to be handed down to Goga, on his stopover in Darniţa. For whatever reason Goga stopped for a day in Kiev. In such circumstances I was the one designated to hold it". In this version, Ghibu passed it on to Romania's executive, King
Ferdinand I
and General Prezan.
In Russian
and French
translations, the document was distributed to various institutions: the Provisional Government, the Mossovet
, the Petrograd Soviet
and the Central Rada. It was also presented individually to representatives of Russian political life and to the foreign press agencies, and circulated among the national emancipation movements of Czechs, Poles
, Serbs
and "Ruthenians
". A copy was later taken to the United States by Romania's special delegates Vasile Stoica
, Vasile Lucaciu
and Ioan Moţa
, and reprinted in the Romanian American
community press. According to one account, it was also included in airborne leaflet propaganda
dropped over the Austro-Hungarian trenches on the Italian front
.
The Darnytsia soldiers soon gave themselves a special banner, based on the Romanian tricolor
, with the added slogan Trăiască România Mare ("Long Live Greater Romania"). Seven such items were sewn in all, of which one was kept by Banat
-born soldier Dimitrie Lăzărel (Lăzărescu).
, where work also began on tailoring of the new Romanian uniforms. From Podil, a newly formed battalion
was quickly sent into Romania to reinforce defense. Comprising some 1,300 men, this unit traveled by special train, stopping first in Kishinev (Chişinău)
. The largely Romanian-inhabited Russian city gave them a warm welcome: the battalion received another Romanian tricolor as war flag, and were presented with an Orthodox icon.
The battalion arrived to the city of Iaşi
, Romania's provisional capital, where the volunteers were welcomed as heroes. On June 9, at Iaşi's marching ground, they took their oath and were officially integrated into the Land Forces. The ceremony was attended by King Ferdinand, Premier Brătianu, General Prezan, by representatives of Entente missions (Alexander Shcherbachov, Henri Mathias Berthelot
) and by ambassadors of neutral countries. Manuel Multedo y Cortina of Spain
recalled the sermon as a "a solemn act", clamoring "the national aspiration" of Romanians.
At a later banquet and public rally in Union Square, Victor Deleu addressed the civilian population, describing the Corps' arrival as a rescue mission: "We had the duty of coming over here on this day, when you are living through such hardships. We left a foreign country, but did so with just one thought on our minds: coming home. That's why there was only road meant for us, the one leading us ahead ... We'll be the victors, for the Carpathians
cannot reach as high as our hearts have been elevated!" As politician Ion G. Duca
recalled, no other speech left as deep an impression on the public: "Deleu['s speech] was a pure and simple marvel, something unforgettable."
There was a noted effort on the part of Corps staff and other Transylvanian exiles (Ion Agârbiceanu, Laurian Gabor, Octavian Tăslăuanu etc.) to encourage the rapid integration of Podil-formed units into the Romanian line of defense. After a quick session of retraining, the Corps units were attached to the 11th Division, which was recovering in Iaşi. It was however decided that the formations, particularly those from Transylvania, were to be kept distinguished from the rest under the common command structure. An official act of 1918 explained the rationale behind this act: "Transylvanians should fight as Transylvanians [...] against the Hungarian state
, so as to assert, clearly and beyond all doubt, that the Romanian nationals of the Hungarian state do not recognize its authority. To have fought against Hungary, however the war may end, ought to have been a badge of honor for the Romanian nation in Hungary and a moral reinforcement during the battles to come". When it was proposed that men from the Corps be assigned noms de guerre so as to avoid execution if captured, Deleu reacted strongly: "We intend to be the army of Transylvania! We aim to be the conscience of Transylvania, which is for absolute freedom and The Union! We do not want [to receive] a conquered land, we wish to liberate ourselves with our own forces! Hangings? Let them hang us! But let them be aware that Transylvania herself is fighting for liberty and The Union!"
In July 1917, Corps offices in Kiev put out the first issue of a recruitment gazette, România Mare ("Greater Romania"), which became the essential component of its propaganda effort in Russia. It was a new edition of the Bucharest
gazette founded by Voicu Niţescu, and, in this new form, was managed by a team of pro-union activists: the Transylvanians Sever Bocu, Ghiţă Popp, Iosif Şchiopu and the Bukovinan Filaret Doboş. România Mare registered some successes, but only printed between 3,000 and 5,000 copies per issue.
Recruitment itself continued at a steady pace, and the Romanian General Staff gave itself a Biroul A. B ("T[ransylvania] and B[ukovina] Bureau") to keep evidence of Austro-Hungarian abjurers on and behind the front. Its founding members were three Sub-lieutenant
s: Deleu, Vasile Osvadă, Leonte Silion. Biroul A. B. was assisted by a Consultative Commission of intellectuals and politicians of Transylvanian or Bukovinan backgrounds (Goga, Ion Nistor
, Leonte Moldovan) and represented in Russia itself by a deputation of Transylvanian officers – Elie Bufnea, Victor Cădere
.
Units of the Volunteer Corps distinguished themselves in the defense of eastern Romania, which postponed the Central Powers' advance during summer 1917. With the 11th Division, the Transylvanians-Bukovinans saw action in the battles of Mărăşti
, Oituz and Mărăşeşti
. At the time, they were split between five regiments of the 11th Division: 2nd, 3rd Olt, 5th Chasseurs, 19th Caracal, 26th Rovine.
The three battles to hold back the Central Powers ended in early autumn 1917, by which time there were 31 dead and 453 wounded among the volunteers; 129 received distinction. Dimitrie Lăzărel was one to have survived all three engagements, and legend has it that he never went into combat without the banner. Deleu had left reserve duty to join the 10th Chasseurs Battalion in the Mărăşeşti combat, but fell severely ill and was reassigned to other offices.
The divisive command structure till disappointed Transylvanian and Bukovinan units. In a complaint they sent to King Ferdinand during September, asked for the troops to be merged back into a single structure, arguing: "Through such legions the free will of the formerly oppressed citizens would be expressing a common will. One would not be enrolling isolated individuals [...], but an entire people free from the [Austrian] yoke." Like his army staff, the monarch disapproved of this initiative, informing Deleanu and Tăslăuanu that, at most, units overseen by Biroul A. B. could expect to form special regiments within the existing divisions. Parallel negotiations continued between Russia and Romania over the total number of volunteers allowed to leave Russian soil. During early June, Stavka approved the release of 5,000 Romanian Austro-Hungarian prisoners, all of them from the Moscow Governorate
. According to historian Ioan I. Şerban, the approval was creating problems for the Romanian side, since most such captives were held elsewhere, and used "in the agricultural regions and the various industrial centers of southern Russia, the Ural
, western Siberia
etc." As the Mărăşeşti battle was waging, the Romanian government called on the Russian leadership to allow yet more recruits to be sent to the front, and received a confirmation of Guchkov's earlier 30,000 directly from Chief of Staff
Lavr Kornilov
. As a result, two of the recruiting commissions relocated to the Pacific
port of Vladivostok
, and set in motion a plan for recruiting more volunteers throughout Asiatic Russia
.
After Kornilov's promise, the Romanian high command took measures of creating a single and distinct division, comprising both those who had passed through Podil and those refugees already in Romanian service. Biroul A. B. was replaced by a Central Service, answering to General Staff. In early December 1917, the Corps was reformed a final time, as a division-sized
formation, and Colonel Marcel Olteanu was placed in charge of the central Volunteer Corps' Command, located in Hârlău
. By the early days of 1918, it had three new regiments under its command: 1st Turda
(commander: Dragu Buricescu), 2nd Alba Iulia
(Constantin Paşalega), 3rd Avram Iancu
.
Reenlisted prisoners of war formed a large section of the approximately 30,800 former Austria-Hungarian citizens who were registered as active on the Romanian side by late 1917. By the time it stopped recruiting (January 1918), the Corps had enlisted some 8,500 to 10,000 men. However, the Kornilov order came too late in the war for there to have been a more significant Transylvanian-Bukovinan contribution to the Romanian effort.
shook Russia and placed most of it under a Bolshevik
government which had no intention of continuing with war on the Central Powers. Although the Romanian presence in Kiev was set back by the November Uprising
and the January Rebellion
, Constantin Gh. Pietraru and a small force remained behind in the new Ukrainian People's Republic
(UNR), where they signed up the last group of Romanian volunteers. Some of these efforts were hampered by a diplomatic tensions between the UNR and Romania. While the Ukrainian officials refused to rally with the Entente or discuss border treaties, they tolerated the presence on its soil of Deleu, Bocu, Ghibu and other Transylvanian Romanians activists who worked against Austria-Hungary.
România Mare gazette, which still had Sever Bocu for editorial manager, closed down in December 1917, having published 23 issues in all. By then, Ion Agârbiceanu and family had left their temporary home in Yelisavetgrad
for Hârlău, where he became the Corps' chaplain.
The final Romanian units to make the journey out of the UNR and into Kishinev, where a Romanian-friendly Moldavian Democratic Republic
was vying for power with supporters of the Bolsheviks. The volunteers had dressed as Russian soldiers during their passage to Iaşi, but were recognized as Romanian units by the Bolsheviks of Kishinev City Station
, where their train arrived on January 6. A skirmish followed, and the Bolsheviks killed or kidnapped Corps soldiers. The survivors were held captive in the same place as Moldavian Army
founder Gherman Pântea
, and were released later that day by Republican troops. Years later, suspicion arose that Pântea had in fact helped the Bolsheviks, as an alleged enemy of Romanian interests in Bessarabia
.
Romania's own armistice with the Central Powers
put the recruitment project on a complete standstill, and cut off the effort to move Transylvanian-Bukovinan soldiers into the single new force. As Romania faced indecision about its future, the Corps was still the subject of unionist propaganda, spread by Romanian intellectuals in the capitals of Entente nations. From his temporary home in France
, Sever Bocu reestablished România Mare as the tribune of Romanian diaspora
politics and unionist aspirations.
, who proceeded to form their own abjurers' units. Luciano (Lucian) Ferigo became Commander of the newly formed Romanian Legion in Italy (Legione Romena d'Italia) that took its ceremonial flag from the Regio Esercito
on July 28 and contributed the Austrians' defeat at Vittorio Veneto
. On the Western Front
, a similar formation was being created, mainly by Romanian citizens who resented their country for surrendering, but also by soldiers who clandestinely left Romania to continue the fight. Its Transylvanian-Bukovinian membership was small, reflecting the number of Austro-Hungarian prisoners in France, who had been taken mainly in the Serbian
and Macedonian
operations. The 135 who signed up in October 1918 were put off by the refusal of French officials to recognize their Austro-Hungarian officer's ranks. Their unit was attached to the French Foreign Legion
, to be joined by the various other categories of Romanian recruits, but the effort was stopped midway: in November, the Entente's victory over Germany ended World War I for both France and Romania.
As the dissolution of Austria-Hungary was taking effect in October 1918, other such units were spontaneously formed on Austrian territory, mainly from rogue components of the Imperial Army. The Romanian Legion of Prague helped the Czechoslovak National Council and the Sokol
s gain the upper hand in during an anti-Austrian uprising, while other Romanian units were breaking away from Austrian command in Vienna
. Romanians were also a distinct segment of the Kriegsmarine
personnel who rioted on the Austrian Littoral
and elsewhere in the Adriatic
.
A more complex situation reigned in Russia. In June 1918, a number of Romanian prisoners who had signed up for the Volunteer Corps were cut off from Romania by the Russian Civil War
and left to fend for themselves. Some crossed into Bolshevik Russia
hoping to be repatriated together with the Romanian consulate, while others took to areas controlled by the White movement
, reaching Irkutsk
; still others escaped through northern routes into Sweden
. The various groups were monitored by French public opinion, and plans were drafted to merge them into the Romanian Legion on the Western Front, or even to have them open up a new Eastern Front
.
Meanwhile, in tandem with larger Serb and Czech national units, Romanian prisoners on the Trans-Siberian Railway
were involved in creating new armed formations. Their original goal was to show to the Entente that Romanians were still eager to fight against the Central Powers, but the Romanians also defended the line in skirmishes with the Bolshevik or anarchist cells
. They resisted especially when the Bolshevik Russian government asked them to surrender all weapons.
, which was effectively a subunit of the Czechoslovak Legions
. Romanian officers' clubs were organizing themselves in lands held by the Komuch Democrats and the White Russian Siberian Autonomy
. The original force to emerge from such schemes was formed at Samara
by Valeriu Milovan. Criticized for his eccentric idea of imitating egalitarian Bolshevik practices and doing away with military ranks, he also sparked a conflict when he arrested the more conservative officer Voicu Niţescu. Niţescu escaped imprisonment and fled to Chelyabinsk
, but support for his cause continued to be eroded by the privates' growing support for the Bolsheviks. As a result of Niţescu's activity, supported by Gocan and Nicolae Nedelcu, Dr. iur.
, Romanian loyalists in Chelyabinsk created a "Horia
" Battalion (or Regiment). Major
Ioan Dâmbu was assigned to lead it, and, under Czechoslovak orders, the new Mărăşeşti and Reserve battalions were sent on mission to other localities.
At the time, the two recruiting commissions in Vladivostok were also reactivated by the arrival of an international anti-Bolshevik force
. Their propaganda leaflets, drafted by Bukovinan Iorgu G. Toma, reached all 40 POW camps in the region, urging any volunteer to make his own way to Chelyabinsk. That city emerged as a main site of Romanian political and military activity, with a reported population of 3,000 liberated Romanians (July 1918). Major Dâmbu put a momentary stop to Bolshevik influence by arresting Milovan and ordering the Samaran unit to Chelyabinsk. A complex set of sanctions was imposed, in the hope of curbing dissent, ranks were reintroduced, uniforms on the Romanian Land Forces model were distributed around, and a patriotic cultural section began to function.
Taking a long and perilous journey, Elie Bufnea and some other officers of the original Darnytsia Corps joined up with "Horia" in mid autumn, at a moment when the Romanian soldiers were celebrating the breakup of Austria-Hungary. The union between "Horia" and various new arrivals from the western Siberian camps became a second Volunteer Corps, grouping as many as 5,000 volunteers. Through the alliance it formed with the anti-Bolshevik Czechoslovak Legions, it was a Romanian national contribution to the international coalition, but reluctantly so. Once relocated to Irkutsk and Omsk
in late 1918, the volunteers expressed their lack of interest in fighting against the Bolsheviks: after rebelling against Colonel Kadlec, their Czech technical adviser, the Corps was placed under Maurice Janin
of the French Mission.
A "Romanian Legion of Siberia" was formed from this structure, but only 3,000 soldiers still volunteered in its ranks – 2,000 others were progressively transferred out of the combat zone, shipped out to Romania or taken back to prisoner of war camps. As Şerban notes, the Western Front victory had opened the way for Transylvania's union, and "their only thought was to regain, as fast as possible, their families and their places of origin". A special case was that of Bolshevik sympathizers: in October, Dâmbu was killed by his own soldiers, partly in retaliation for Milovan's arrest.
The combative Legion defended the Trans-Siberian between Tayshet
and Nizhneudinsk
, where they forced the Bolsheviks into a truce and established their reputation for brutality with the nickname Dikaya Divizia (Дикая Дивизия, "Wild Division"). The anti-Bolshevik formation and the Romanian non-combatants were eventually retrieved from the Russian Far East
upon the end of foreign intervention, and were fully repatriated with the other Romanians from May 1920. Milovan, court-martial
led by the Legion, was cleared of the charged by a higher authority; however, those who killed Dâmbu were sentenced as mutineers and assassins.
. They call the Corps' April 26 meeting a "1st Alba Iulia". Within Transylvania itself, opinion was more divided. Shortly before the Hungarian–Romanian War
erupted, members of Corps were required to present themselves for reenlistment. The old rivals from within the Romanian National Party
, who led the Directory Council of Transylvania after 1918, allegedly refused to welcome the Corps back as a single unit, and plans for its mobilization had to be dropped. A new "Horia" Volunteer Corps was reportedly formed on the Crişul Alb River, as a first line of defense against the Hungarian Soviet Republic
.
In 1923, the old Corps set up a veterans' association, the Union of Volunteers, which carried the reputation of being a fascist
-inspired section of the PNR. Petru Nemoianu strongly dismissed the accounts as "enormities", and stated that the Union had good cause to reject the PNR for its handling of the Transylvanian issue. More sympathetic to the PNR, Simion Gocan was President of the Union in Bihor County
, and complained about tensions with Nemoianu. The Union even ran for Transylvanian seats in Parliament
during the 1931 general election. It formed an electoral cartel with Nicolae Iorga
's Democratic Nationalist Party and against PNR's successors (the National Peasants' Party
), but was only assigned non-eligible positions on the electoral lists.
All praise for the Corps' contributions was toned down between 1948 and 1989, when Romania was a communist state
. According to Şerban, communist historiography presented the story "superficially, usually truncated or in the context of other events". During a first wave of communization, repression touched several figures once associated with the Corps: Bufnea, Sever Bocu (beaten to death in Sighet prison
), Ghiţă Popp.
Interest in the Volunteer Corps' activity was only revived after the Romanian Revolution of 1989
. Among the relics left behind by the Corps is Dimitrie Lăzărel's banner, probably the only one of seven to have survived. In 1923, Lăzărel paraded it at the Volunteers' Union reunion in Arad
. Referred to as the Darniţa Banner, it was donated to a local church, then exhibited by the Museum of Banat
, Timişoara
. The Kishinev flag was donated by the Corps to ASTRA National Museum Complex
of Sibiu
.
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, created from ethnic Romanian
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
prisoners of war held by Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. Officially established in February 1917, it comprised abjurers of the Austro-Hungarian Army
Austro-Hungarian Army
The Austro-Hungarian Army was the ground force of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy from 1867 to 1918. It was composed of three parts: the joint army , the Austrian Landwehr , and the Hungarian Honvédség .In the wake of fighting between the...
, mainly contingents from Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
and Bukovina
Bukovina
Bukovina is a historical region on the northern slopes of the northeastern Carpathian Mountains and the adjoining plains.-Name:The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became...
. These had been obliged to fight against Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, and, once in Russian custody, volunteered for service against the Central Powers
Central Powers
The Central Powers were one of the two warring factions in World War I , composed of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria...
. As campaigners for self-determination
Self-determination
Self-determination is the principle in international law that nations have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or external interference...
and union with Romania
Union of Transylvania with Romania
Union of Transylvania with Romania was declared on by the assembly of the delegates of ethnic Romanians held in Alba Iulia.The national holiday of Romania, the Great Union Day occurring on December 1, commemorates this event...
, they passed collective resolutions which, in both tone and scope, announced Union Day 1918.
The Corps was effectively an active military reserve
Military reserve
A military reserve, tactical reserve, or strategic reserve is a group of military personnel or units which are initially not committed to a battle by their commander so that they are available to address unforeseen situations or exploit suddenly developing...
of the Romanian Land Forces
Romanian Land Forces
The Romanian Land Forces is the army of Romania, and the main component of the Romanian Armed Forces. In recent years, full professionalisation and a major equipment overhaul have transformed the nature of the force.The Romanian Land Forces were founded on...
, and regularly dispatched new units to the Romanian front after June 1917. It helped defend the last stretches of Romania against the Central Powers' unified offensive, and met success in the Battle of Mărăşeşti
Battle of Marasesti
The Battle of Mărăşeşti, Vrancea County, eastern Romania was a major battle fought during World War I between Germany and Romania.-Premise:...
, but its units were for long divided between the existing local regiments. When the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
in Russia and the Romanian armistice
Treaty of Bucharest, 1918
The Treaty of Bucharest was a peace treaty which the German Empire forced Romania to sign on 7 May 1918 following the Romanian campaign of 1916-1917.-Main terms of the treaty:...
took Romania out of the Entente camp
Allies of World War I
The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...
, the Corps was left without backing and purpose. However, it inspired the creation of similar units in Entente countries, most successfully the "Romanian Legion" of Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
Mobilized volunteers or prisoners symbolically tied to the Corps were left behind in Russia after the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
was ignited. Various such groups formed the Romanian Legion of Siberia, which resisted the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
s in cooperation with the Czechoslovak Legions
Czechoslovak Legions
The Czechoslovak Legions were volunteer armed forces composed predominantly of Czechs and Slovaks fighting together with the Entente powers during World War I...
and the White movement
White movement
The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...
. These units were ultimately repatriated to Greater Romania
Greater Romania
The Greater Romania generally refers to the territory of Romania in the years between the First World War and the Second World War, the largest geographical extent of Romania up to that time and its largest peacetime extent ever ; more precisely, it refers to the territory of the Kingdom of...
in 1920.
Origins
During 1916, Romania entered World War I as an Entente country, in alliance with the Russian EmpireRussian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
against Austria-Hungary and the other Central Powers. After a while, Romania began investigating the fate and loyalties of Austria-Hungarian Romanians who were held in Russian POW camps
Prisoner-of-war camp
A prisoner-of-war camp is a site for the containment of combatants captured by their enemy in time of war, and is similar to an internment camp which is used for civilian populations. A prisoner of war is generally a soldier, sailor, or airman who is imprisoned by an enemy power during or...
. Estimates for that period place the total population of Bukovinan and Transylvanian Romanians in such facilities, throughout Russia, at 120,000 or 130,000. Meanwhile, in Romania itself there were several thousand Romanian refugees from Austria-Hungary who immediately signed up for service in the Romanian Armed Forces
Romanian Armed Forces
The Land Forces, Air Force and Naval Forces of Romania are collectively known as the Romanian Armed Forces...
.
In Russia, Romanian captives were allegedly the recipients of worse treatment when compared to prisoners from other Austro-Hungarian backgrounds, which may have contributed to their decision to volunteer for service with Romania. Russian authorities were undecided about letting them join, and initially prohibited such initiatives; those who insisted in establishing contact with Romania were arrested by Russian police forces. During the same year, after consultations with Romania, the Russian executive reverted such policies. It was decided that Russia would free at most 15,000 of this demographic group, transferring them to Romania in exchange for a similar number of non-Romanian prisoners from Romanian camps.
Subsequently, those who chose to enlist were together relocated at the special camp in Darnytsia
Darnytsia
Darnytsia , is a raion of the Ukrainian capital Kiev.It is the southeastern raion of Kiev located on the left bank of Dnieper river. It borders Dnieper to its west with Holosiiv Raion of Kiev is lying across it, Dnipro Raion of Kiev city to its north, and Boryspil Raion of Kiev Oblast to its east...
—a suburb of Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
, known to Romanians as Darniţa. In December 1916, that facility held some 200 officers and 1,200 non-commissioned officer
Non-commissioned officer
A non-commissioned officer , called a sub-officer in some countries, is a military officer who has not been given a commission...
s, who formed the nucleus (and general command) of a "Romanian Corps". Elected First Senior of the Camp, the 40-year-old Victor Deleu was a legal professional, rank-and-file member of the Romanian National Party
Romanian National Party
The Romanian National Party , initially known as the Romanian National Party in Transylvania and Banat , was a political party which was initially designed to offer ethnic representation to Romanians in the Kingdom of Hungary, the Transleithanian half of Austria-Hungary, and especially to those in...
(PNR) and opinion journalist from Transylvania, who came to Darnytsia after internment in Kineshma
Kineshma
Kineshma is the second largest town in Ivanovo Oblast, Russia, which sprawls for along the Volga River. Population: -History:Kineshma was first noticed as a posad in 1429. In 1504, Ivan III gave it to Prince Feodor Belsky, who escaped to Moscow from Lithuania and married Ivan's niece...
. The other members of Darnytsia camp's leadership body were Pompiliu Nistor, Vasile Chiroiu, Emil Isopescu, Valeriu Milovan, Octavian Vasu and Ioan Vescan.
Regardless of such initiatives, Romania tended to give little attention to the potential of recruitment in Russia, as many decision-makers were still unsure about the devotion of Transylvanians and Bukovinans, and worried that they might be welcoming Austro-Hungarian spies into army ranks. Additionally, probably half of the 120,000 men excluded themselves from the pool of recruits, as Austrian loyalists, invalids or men who feared Austria-Hungary's retaliation. Support from within Romania was therefore weak, and Russian obstruction still played a part, but in January the camp was visited by Lieutenant Colonel
Lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
Constantin Gh. Pietraru of the Romanian Land Forces, on a mission to evaluate the recruitment project. The reversal of fortunes on the Romanian front had brought a Central Powers' invasion into southern Romania, and the Romanian military authority became pressured into finding new soldiers for the defensive action.
February Revolution
Shortly after these events, Russia experienced the February RevolutionFebruary Revolution
The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...
, which brought to power a liberal Russian Provisional Government
Russian Provisional Government
The Russian Provisional Government was the short-lived administrative body which sought to govern Russia immediately following the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II . On September 14, the State Duma of the Russian Empire was officially dissolved by the newly created Directorate, and the country was...
. As a consequence of these, the whole transfer project was much delayed, but the Russian acceptance of self-determination
Self-determination
Self-determination is the principle in international law that nations have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or external interference...
facilitated renewed political action. According to veteran Simion Gocan, the soldiers were much inspired by both these revolutionary promises and the American entry into World War I
American entry into World War I
American entry into World War I came in April 1917, after 2½ years of efforts by President Woodrow Wilson to keep the United States neutral. Americans had no idea that a war was approaching in 1914...
, which seemingly made Wilsonian Self-Determination
Fourteen Points
The Fourteen Points was a speech given by United States President Woodrow Wilson to a joint session of Congress on January 8, 1918. The address was intended to assure the country that the Great War was being fought for a moral cause and for postwar peace in Europe...
an official Entente policy.
By Order 1191 of , Romania's Minister of War, Vintilă Brătianu
Vintila Bratianu
Vintilă Brătianu was a Romanian politician who served as Prime Minister of Romania between 24 November 1927 and 2 November 1928.Vintilă and his brothers Ion and Dinu were the leaders of the National Liberal Party of Romania...
, created the Volunteer Corps as a special formation of the national army. On the same day, in Darnytsia, Pietraru was tasked by Chief of Staff Constantin Prezan
Constantin Prezan
Constantin Prezan was a Romanian general during World War I and after the war a Marshal of Romania....
with equipping the new recruits and organizing them into units. The honorary command was assigned to Constantin Coandă
Constantin Coanda
Constantin Coandă was a Romanian soldier and politician. He reached the rank of general in the Romanian Army, and later became mathematics professor at the National School of Bridges and Roads in Bucharest...
, who was already the military attaché
Military attaché
A military attaché is a military expert who is attached to a diplomatic mission . This post is normally filled by a high-ranking military officer who retains the commission while serving in an embassy...
with Russia's Stavka
Stavka
Stavka was the term used to refer to a command element of the armed forces from the time of the Kievan Rus′, more formally during the history of Imperial Russia as administrative staff and General Headquarters during late 19th Century Imperial Russian armed forces and those of the Soviet Union...
(General Headquarters). Over the next month, in Mogilev
Mogilev
Mogilev is a city in eastern Belarus, about 76 km from the border with Russia's Smolensk Oblast and 105 km from the border with Russia's Bryansk Oblast. It has more than 367,788 inhabitants...
, Coandă again negotiated the Corps' recognition by Stavka. Coandă received the permission, but the number of recruits was no longer clearly specified.
On March 18, Coandă issued a "Pledge" (Angajament), which regulated the status of Corps soldiers in relation to the Romanian Army, and which the recruits had to sign. It integrated the former Austro-Hungarian officers into the Romanian Army, with equivalent ranks, and recognized past service, including time spent in camps, as active service. The pledge ended with the words: "May God help us, so that through our blood we may liberate our lands and create a Greater Romania
Greater Romania
The Greater Romania generally refers to the territory of Romania in the years between the First World War and the Second World War, the largest geographical extent of Romania up to that time and its largest peacetime extent ever ; more precisely, it refers to the territory of the Kingdom of...
, unified in substance and everlasting." All those who backed out after signing the document were to be considered deserters. Demand for enlistment remained considerable, even though rumor spread that Austro-Hungarian repression forces were by then murdering the families of volunteers and confiscating their property. However, Corps veteran Petru Nemoianu (Nemoian) was later to state that envy and class conflict were also characteristic for the formation, where the intellectual leaders quarreled over the better paid assignments.
In April, Pietraru met with the Provisional Government's Alexander Guchkov
Alexander Guchkov
Alexander Ivanovich Guchkov was a Russian politician, Chairman of the Duma and Minister of War in the Russian Provisional Government.-Early years:...
, and an agreement was reached regarding the maximum total of troops to be enlisted in the Romanian Corps. Answering to special pleas from Romanian Premier
Prime Minister of Romania
The Prime Minister of Romania is the head of the Government of Romania. Initially, the office was styled President of the Council of Ministers , when the term "Government" included more than the Cabinet, and the Cabinet was called The Council of Ministers...
Ion I. C. Brătianu
Ion I. C. Bratianu
Ion I. C. Brătianu was a Romanian politician, leader of the National Liberal Party , the Prime Minister of Romania for five terms, and Foreign Minister on several occasions; he was the eldest son of statesman and PNL leader Ion Brătianu, the brother of Vintilă and Dinu Brătianu, and the father of...
, Guchkov allowed for the recruitment of 30,000 prisoners in his custody. The order was revised by Alexander Kerensky
Alexander Kerensky
Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky was a major political leader before and during the Russian Revolutions of 1917.Kerensky served as the second Prime Minister of the Russian Provisional Government until Vladimir Lenin was elected by the All-Russian Congress of Soviets following the October Revolution...
, who reduced that number to 5,000 prisoners, noting that they were sorely needed as working hands in Russia's agriculture and industry. In practice, Quartermaster
Quartermaster
Quartermaster refers to two different military occupations depending on if the assigned unit is land based or naval.In land armies, especially US units, it is a term referring to either an individual soldier or a unit who specializes in distributing supplies and provisions to troops. The senior...
Ivan Pavlovich Romanovsky only allowed recruitment to take place in Moscow Military District
Moscow Military District
The Moscow Military District was a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In 2010 it was merged with the Leningrad Military District, the Northern Fleet and the Baltic Fleet to form the new Western Military District.-History:In the beginning of...
, ordering that no more than 1,500 prisoners should be taken into account.
Darnytsia manifesto
By then, revolutionary examples also inspired the prisoners of Darnytsia to proclaim their own political goals, and openly demand the union of Transylvania with RomaniaUnion of Transylvania with Romania
Union of Transylvania with Romania was declared on by the assembly of the delegates of ethnic Romanians held in Alba Iulia.The national holiday of Romania, the Great Union Day occurring on December 1, commemorates this event...
. Their manifesto of April 26 (April 13), reviewed for publishing by the Transylvanian poet Octavian Goga
Octavian Goga
Octavian Goga was a Romanian politician, poet, playwright, journalist, and translator.-Life:Born in Răşinari, nearby Sibiu, he was an active member in the Romanian nationalistic movement in Transylvania and of its leading group, the Romanian National Party in Austria-Hungary. Before World War I,...
, was signed by 250 officers and 250 soldiers, and is probably the first unionist statement to be issued by a Transylvanian representative body. The document states: "we Romanians, like all other subjugated nations, have grown aware that once and for all that we ... cannot carry on with our lives within the frame of the Austro-Hungarian state; we ... demand, with unwavering will, our incorporation into Romania, so that together we may form a single national Romanian state. ... For the sake of this ideal, we throw in the balance all of what we have, our lives and fortunes, our women and children, our descendants' life and happiness. And we never will stop, lest we vanquish or perish."
The text, which also survives in slightly different versions, included a brief analysis of the international scene. It paid homage to Russia's democratic program, referenced the "generous" American doctrine on self-determination, and looked forward to a congress of "blissful, national and democratic states". The manifesto made ample reference to the activity of "traitors" to the Transylvanian cause. As Nemoianu later recounted, there was a disguised reference to the PNR, whose moderate leaders, ostensibly loyal to the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, still tried to achieve Austrian devolution
United States of Greater Austria
The United States of Greater Austria was an idea created by a group of scholars surrounding the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand that never came to pass...
. More leniently, Gocan argued that the PNR at home was "deeply terrorized" and bound to government by a forcefully signed "declaration of loyalty".
Goga, a civilian refugee in transit through Russia, was supposed to have left Darnytsia with a copy of the appeal. Some argue that he did, and that the subsequent popularization is largely owed to his work as publicist. Such accounts are contradicted by the recollections of another unionist activist, Onisifor Ghibu
Onisifor Ghibu
Onisifor Ghibu was a Romanian teacher of pedagogy, member of the Romanian Academy, and politician.-Early life:...
: "[The appeal] was supposed to be handed down to Goga, on his stopover in Darniţa. For whatever reason Goga stopped for a day in Kiev. In such circumstances I was the one designated to hold it". In this version, Ghibu passed it on to Romania's executive, King
King of Romania
King of the Romanians , rather than King of Romania , was the official title of the ruler of the Kingdom of Romania from 1881 until 1947, when Romania was proclaimed a republic....
Ferdinand I
Ferdinand I of Romania
Ferdinand was the King of Romania from 10 October 1914 until his death.-Early life:Born in Sigmaringen in southwestern Germany, the Roman Catholic Prince Ferdinand Viktor Albert Meinrad of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, later simply of Hohenzollern, was a son of Leopold, Prince of...
and General Prezan.
In Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
translations, the document was distributed to various institutions: the Provisional Government, the Mossovet
Mossovet
Mossovet , an abbreviation of Moscow Soviet of People's Deputies, was the informal name of *parallel, shadow city administration of Moscow, Russia run by left-wing parties in 1917*city administration of Moscow in Soviet period...
, the Petrograd Soviet
Petrograd Soviet
The Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies , usually called the Petrograd Soviet , was the soviet in Petrograd , Russia, established in March 1917 after the February Revolution as the representative body of the city's workers.The Petrograd Soviet became important during the Russian...
and the Central Rada. It was also presented individually to representatives of Russian political life and to the foreign press agencies, and circulated among the national emancipation movements of Czechs, Poles
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
, Serbs
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
and "Ruthenians
Ruthenians
The name Ruthenian |Rus']]) is a culturally loaded term and has different meanings according to the context in which it is used. Initially, it was the ethnonym used for the East Slavic peoples who lived in Rus'. Later it was used predominantly for Ukrainians...
". A copy was later taken to the United States by Romania's special delegates Vasile Stoica
Vasile Stoica
Vasile Stoica was a Romanian political writer, diplomat, and close assistant of European statesmen Tomáš Masaryk and Ion I.C. Brătianu.-Early life and education:...
, Vasile Lucaciu
Vasile Lucaciu
Vasile Lucaciu was a Romanian Greek-Catholic priest and an advocate of equal rights with the Hungarians in Transylvania....
and Ioan Moţa
Ioan Mota
Ioan Moţa was a Romanian priest and journalist. Moţa is buried at Orăştie....
, and reprinted in the Romanian American
Romanian American
A Romanian American is a citizen of the United States who has significant Romanian heritage. For the 2000 US Census, 367,310 Americans indicated Romanian as their first ancestry, while 462,526 persons declared to have Romanian ancestry...
community press. According to one account, it was also included in airborne leaflet propaganda
Airborne leaflet propaganda
Airborne leaflet propaganda is a form of psychological warfare in which leaflets are scattered in the air. Military forces have used aircraft to drop leaflets to alter the behavior of people in enemy-controlled territory, sometimes in conjunction with air strikes...
dropped over the Austro-Hungarian trenches on the Italian front
Italian Campaign (World War I)
The Italian campaign refers to a series of battles fought between the armies of Austria-Hungary and Italy, along with their allies, in northern Italy between 1915 and 1918. Italy hoped that by joining the countries of the Triple Entente against the Central Powers it would gain Cisalpine Tyrol , the...
.
The Darnytsia soldiers soon gave themselves a special banner, based on the Romanian tricolor
Flag of Romania
The national flag of Romania is a tricolour with vertical stripes: beginning from the flagpole, blue, yellow and red. It has a width-length ratio of 2:3....
, with the added slogan Trăiască România Mare ("Long Live Greater Romania"). Seven such items were sewn in all, of which one was kept by Banat
Banat
The Banat is a geographical and historical region in Central Europe currently divided between three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania , the western part in northeastern Serbia , and a small...
-born soldier Dimitrie Lăzărel (Lăzărescu).
Arrival to Iaşi
Six recruiting commissions were then dispatched from Romania to Russia. During May 1917, they received the Romanian volunteers, relocated from Darnytsia to the Girls' Lycée in PodilPodil
The Podil or Podilskyi Raion is a historic neighbourhood and an administrative raion in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. It is one of the oldest neighborhoods of Kiev, the birthplace of the city's trade, commerce and industry...
, where work also began on tailoring of the new Romanian uniforms. From Podil, a newly formed battalion
Battalion
A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...
was quickly sent into Romania to reinforce defense. Comprising some 1,300 men, this unit traveled by special train, stopping first in Kishinev (Chişinău)
Chisinau
Chișinău is the capital and largest municipality of Moldova. It is also its main industrial and commercial centre and is located in the middle of the country, on the river Bîc...
. The largely Romanian-inhabited Russian city gave them a warm welcome: the battalion received another Romanian tricolor as war flag, and were presented with an Orthodox icon.
The battalion arrived to the city of Iaşi
Iasi
Iași is the second most populous city and a municipality in Romania. Located in the historical Moldavia region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life...
, Romania's provisional capital, where the volunteers were welcomed as heroes. On June 9, at Iaşi's marching ground, they took their oath and were officially integrated into the Land Forces. The ceremony was attended by King Ferdinand, Premier Brătianu, General Prezan, by representatives of Entente missions (Alexander Shcherbachov, Henri Mathias Berthelot
Henri Mathias Berthelot
Henri Mathias Berthelot was a French general during World War I. He served as chief of staff under Joseph Joffre, the French commander-in-chief.-Biography:...
) and by ambassadors of neutral countries. Manuel Multedo y Cortina of Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
recalled the sermon as a "a solemn act", clamoring "the national aspiration" of Romanians.
At a later banquet and public rally in Union Square, Victor Deleu addressed the civilian population, describing the Corps' arrival as a rescue mission: "We had the duty of coming over here on this day, when you are living through such hardships. We left a foreign country, but did so with just one thought on our minds: coming home. That's why there was only road meant for us, the one leading us ahead ... We'll be the victors, for the Carpathians
Carpathian Mountains
The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians are a range of mountains forming an arc roughly long across Central and Eastern Europe, making them the second-longest mountain range in Europe...
cannot reach as high as our hearts have been elevated!" As politician Ion G. Duca
Ion G. Duca
Ion Gheorghe Duca was prime minister of Romania from November 14 to December 30, 1933, when he was assassinated for his efforts to suppress the fascist Iron Guard movement.-Life and political career:...
recalled, no other speech left as deep an impression on the public: "Deleu['s speech] was a pure and simple marvel, something unforgettable."
There was a noted effort on the part of Corps staff and other Transylvanian exiles (Ion Agârbiceanu, Laurian Gabor, Octavian Tăslăuanu etc.) to encourage the rapid integration of Podil-formed units into the Romanian line of defense. After a quick session of retraining, the Corps units were attached to the 11th Division, which was recovering in Iaşi. It was however decided that the formations, particularly those from Transylvania, were to be kept distinguished from the rest under the common command structure. An official act of 1918 explained the rationale behind this act: "Transylvanians should fight as Transylvanians [...] against the Hungarian state
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
, so as to assert, clearly and beyond all doubt, that the Romanian nationals of the Hungarian state do not recognize its authority. To have fought against Hungary, however the war may end, ought to have been a badge of honor for the Romanian nation in Hungary and a moral reinforcement during the battles to come". When it was proposed that men from the Corps be assigned noms de guerre so as to avoid execution if captured, Deleu reacted strongly: "We intend to be the army of Transylvania! We aim to be the conscience of Transylvania, which is for absolute freedom and The Union! We do not want [to receive] a conquered land, we wish to liberate ourselves with our own forces! Hangings? Let them hang us! But let them be aware that Transylvania herself is fighting for liberty and The Union!"
During and after Mărăşeşti
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
gazette founded by Voicu Niţescu, and, in this new form, was managed by a team of pro-union activists: the Transylvanians Sever Bocu, Ghiţă Popp, Iosif Şchiopu and the Bukovinan Filaret Doboş. România Mare registered some successes, but only printed between 3,000 and 5,000 copies per issue.
Recruitment itself continued at a steady pace, and the Romanian General Staff gave itself a Biroul A. B ("T[ransylvania] and B[ukovina] Bureau") to keep evidence of Austro-Hungarian abjurers on and behind the front. Its founding members were three Sub-lieutenant
Sub-Lieutenant
Sub-lieutenant is a military rank. It is normally a junior officer rank.In many navies, a sub-lieutenant is a naval commissioned or subordinate officer, ranking below a lieutenant. In the Royal Navy the rank of sub-lieutenant is equivalent to the rank of lieutenant in the British Army and of...
s: Deleu, Vasile Osvadă, Leonte Silion. Biroul A. B. was assisted by a Consultative Commission of intellectuals and politicians of Transylvanian or Bukovinan backgrounds (Goga, Ion Nistor
Ion Nistor
Ion Nistor was a prominent Romanian historian and politician. He was a member of the Romanian Academy after 1911, and served as administrator of its Library.-Biography:...
, Leonte Moldovan) and represented in Russia itself by a deputation of Transylvanian officers – Elie Bufnea, Victor Cădere
Victor Cadere
Victor Cădere was a Romanian jurist, politician and diplomat. Born in Cluj Victor Cădere (1891 – 1980) was a Romanian jurist, politician and diplomat. Born in Cluj Victor Cădere (1891 – 1980) was a Romanian jurist, politician and diplomat. Born in Cluj (at that time in Austria-Hungary he got a...
.
Units of the Volunteer Corps distinguished themselves in the defense of eastern Romania, which postponed the Central Powers' advance during summer 1917. With the 11th Division, the Transylvanians-Bukovinans saw action in the battles of Mărăşti
Battle of Marasti
The Battle of Mărăşti was one of the main battles to take place on Romanian soil in World War I. It was fought between July 22 and August 1, 1917, and was an offensive operation of the Romanian and Russian Armies intended to encircle and destroy the German 9th Army...
, Oituz and Mărăşeşti
Battle of Marasesti
The Battle of Mărăşeşti, Vrancea County, eastern Romania was a major battle fought during World War I between Germany and Romania.-Premise:...
. At the time, they were split between five regiments of the 11th Division: 2nd, 3rd Olt, 5th Chasseurs, 19th Caracal, 26th Rovine.
The three battles to hold back the Central Powers ended in early autumn 1917, by which time there were 31 dead and 453 wounded among the volunteers; 129 received distinction. Dimitrie Lăzărel was one to have survived all three engagements, and legend has it that he never went into combat without the banner. Deleu had left reserve duty to join the 10th Chasseurs Battalion in the Mărăşeşti combat, but fell severely ill and was reassigned to other offices.
The divisive command structure till disappointed Transylvanian and Bukovinan units. In a complaint they sent to King Ferdinand during September, asked for the troops to be merged back into a single structure, arguing: "Through such legions the free will of the formerly oppressed citizens would be expressing a common will. One would not be enrolling isolated individuals [...], but an entire people free from the [Austrian] yoke." Like his army staff, the monarch disapproved of this initiative, informing Deleanu and Tăslăuanu that, at most, units overseen by Biroul A. B. could expect to form special regiments within the existing divisions. Parallel negotiations continued between Russia and Romania over the total number of volunteers allowed to leave Russian soil. During early June, Stavka approved the release of 5,000 Romanian Austro-Hungarian prisoners, all of them from the Moscow Governorate
Moscow Governorate
Moscow Governorate , or Government of Moscow, was an administrative division of the Russian Empire, which existed in 1708–1929....
. According to historian Ioan I. Şerban, the approval was creating problems for the Romanian side, since most such captives were held elsewhere, and used "in the agricultural regions and the various industrial centers of southern Russia, the Ural
Ural (region)
Ural is a geographical region located around the Ural Mountains, between the East European and West Siberian plains. It extends approximately from north to south, from the Arctic Ocean to the bend of Ural River near Orsk city. The boundary between Europe and Asia runs along the eastern side of...
, western Siberia
West Siberian Plain
The West Siberian Plain is a large plain that occupies the western portion of Siberia, between the Ural Mountains in the west and the Yenisei River in the east, and by the Altay Mountains on the South-East. Much of the plain is poorly drained and consists of some of the world's largest swamps and...
etc." As the Mărăşeşti battle was waging, the Romanian government called on the Russian leadership to allow yet more recruits to be sent to the front, and received a confirmation of Guchkov's earlier 30,000 directly from Chief of Staff
Chief of the General Staff (Russia)
The Chief of the General Staff is the chief of staff of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. He is appointed by the President of Russia, who is the commander-in-chief. The position dates to the period of the Russian Empire...
Lavr Kornilov
Lavr Kornilov
Lavr Georgiyevich Kornilov was a military intelligence officer, explorer, and general in the Imperial Russian Army during World War I and the ensuing Russian Civil War...
. As a result, two of the recruiting commissions relocated to the Pacific
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
port of Vladivostok
Vladivostok
The city is located in the southern extremity of Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula, which is about 30 km long and approximately 12 km wide.The highest point is Mount Kholodilnik, the height of which is 257 m...
, and set in motion a plan for recruiting more volunteers throughout Asiatic Russia
North Asia
North Asia or Northern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the Asian portion of Russia.The Phillips Illustrated Atlas of the World 1988 defines it as being most of the former USSR, the part that is to the east of the Ural Mountains...
.
After Kornilov's promise, the Romanian high command took measures of creating a single and distinct division, comprising both those who had passed through Podil and those refugees already in Romanian service. Biroul A. B. was replaced by a Central Service, answering to General Staff. In early December 1917, the Corps was reformed a final time, as a division-sized
Division (military)
A division is a large military unit or formation usually consisting of between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, and in turn several divisions typically make up a corps...
formation, and Colonel Marcel Olteanu was placed in charge of the central Volunteer Corps' Command, located in Hârlău
Hârlau
Hârlău is a town in Iaşi County, Moldavia, Romania. the estimated population is 11,271. It was the capital city of Moldova in the 15th century. One village, Pârcovaci, is administered by the town.-Population:...
. By the early days of 1918, it had three new regiments under its command: 1st Turda
Turda
Turda is a city and Municipality in Cluj County, Romania, situated on the Arieş River.- Ancient times :The city was founded by Dacians under the name Patavissa or Potaissa...
(commander: Dragu Buricescu), 2nd Alba Iulia
Alba Iulia
Alba Iulia is a city in Alba County, Transylvania, Romania with a population of 66,747, located on the Mureş River. Since the High Middle Ages, the city has been the seat of Transylvania's Roman Catholic diocese. Between 1541 and 1690 it was the capital of the Principality of Transylvania...
(Constantin Paşalega), 3rd Avram Iancu
Avram Iancu
Avram Iancu was a Transylvanian Romanian lawyer who played an important role in the local chapter of the Austrian Empire Revolutions of 1848–1849. He was especially active in the Ţara Moţilor region and the Apuseni Mountains...
.
Reenlisted prisoners of war formed a large section of the approximately 30,800 former Austria-Hungarian citizens who were registered as active on the Romanian side by late 1917. By the time it stopped recruiting (January 1918), the Corps had enlisted some 8,500 to 10,000 men. However, the Kornilov order came too late in the war for there to have been a more significant Transylvanian-Bukovinan contribution to the Romanian effort.
October Revolution and Romanian truce
The October RevolutionOctober Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
shook Russia and placed most of it under a Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
government which had no intention of continuing with war on the Central Powers. Although the Romanian presence in Kiev was set back by the November Uprising
Kiev Bolshevik Uprising
The Kiev Bolshevik Uprising was a military struggle for power in Kiev after the fall of the Russian Provisional Government due to the October Revolution, that ended with a victory for the Kievan Committee of the Bolshevik Party and the Central Rada.-Chronology of activities:On November 7, 1917...
and the January Rebellion
Kiev Arsenal January Uprising
Kiev Arsenal January Uprising, sometimes called simply the January Uprising or the January Rebellion , was the Bolshevik organized workers' armed revolt that started on January 29, 1918 at the Kiev Arsenal factory during the Ukrainian-Soviet War....
, Constantin Gh. Pietraru and a small force remained behind in the new Ukrainian People's Republic
Ukrainian People's Republic
The Ukrainian People's Republic or Ukrainian National Republic was a republic that was declared in part of the territory of modern Ukraine after the Russian Revolution, eventually headed by Symon Petliura.-Revolutionary Wave:...
(UNR), where they signed up the last group of Romanian volunteers. Some of these efforts were hampered by a diplomatic tensions between the UNR and Romania. While the Ukrainian officials refused to rally with the Entente or discuss border treaties, they tolerated the presence on its soil of Deleu, Bocu, Ghibu and other Transylvanian Romanians activists who worked against Austria-Hungary.
România Mare gazette, which still had Sever Bocu for editorial manager, closed down in December 1917, having published 23 issues in all. By then, Ion Agârbiceanu and family had left their temporary home in Yelisavetgrad
Kirovohrad
Kirovohrad , formerly Yelisavetgrad, is a city in central Ukraine. It is located on the Inhul River. It is a motorway junction. Pop. 239,400 ....
for Hârlău, where he became the Corps' chaplain.
The final Romanian units to make the journey out of the UNR and into Kishinev, where a Romanian-friendly Moldavian Democratic Republic
Moldavian Democratic Republic
The Moldavian Democratic Republic , a.k.a. Moldavian Republic, was the state proclaimed on by Sfatul Ţării of Bessarabia, elected in October-November 1917 in the wake of the February Revolution and disintegration of the political power in the Russian Empire.Sfatul Ţării was its legislative body,...
was vying for power with supporters of the Bolsheviks. The volunteers had dressed as Russian soldiers during their passage to Iaşi, but were recognized as Romanian units by the Bolsheviks of Kishinev City Station
Chişinău Railway Station
Chişinău railway station is the principal train station serving Chişinău, Moldova. It is located in a central area, not far from the downtown on 1, Aleea Garii Street.-Transport:...
, where their train arrived on January 6. A skirmish followed, and the Bolsheviks killed or kidnapped Corps soldiers. The survivors were held captive in the same place as Moldavian Army
Military of Moldova
The Moldovan Armed Forces consist of the Ground Forces and Air and Air Defense Forces.- History :Moldova has accepted all relevant arms control obligations of the former Soviet Union...
founder Gherman Pântea
Gherman Pântea
Gherman V. Pântea was a Bessarabian-born soldier, civil servant and political figure, active in the Russian Empire and Romania. As an officer of the Imperial Russian Army during most of World War I, he helped organize the committees of Bessarabian soldiers, oscillating between loyalty to the...
, and were released later that day by Republican troops. Years later, suspicion arose that Pântea had in fact helped the Bolsheviks, as an alleged enemy of Romanian interests in Bessarabia
Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
.
Romania's own armistice with the Central Powers
Treaty of Bucharest, 1918
The Treaty of Bucharest was a peace treaty which the German Empire forced Romania to sign on 7 May 1918 following the Romanian campaign of 1916-1917.-Main terms of the treaty:...
put the recruitment project on a complete standstill, and cut off the effort to move Transylvanian-Bukovinan soldiers into the single new force. As Romania faced indecision about its future, the Corps was still the subject of unionist propaganda, spread by Romanian intellectuals in the capitals of Entente nations. From his temporary home in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Sever Bocu reestablished România Mare as the tribune of Romanian diaspora
Romanian diaspora
The Romanian diaspora is the ethnically Romanian population outside Romania and Moldova. The concept does not usually include the ethnic Romanians who live as natives in the states surrounding Romania, chiefly those Romanians who live in Ukraine and Serbia. The diaspora does include the people of...
politics and unionist aspirations.
Diaspora units and the cut-off troops
By spring 1918, the existing Romanian Corps was then taken as example by Transylvanian-Bukovinan prisoners held in France and ItalyItaly
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, who proceeded to form their own abjurers' units. Luciano (Lucian) Ferigo became Commander of the newly formed Romanian Legion in Italy (Legione Romena d'Italia) that took its ceremonial flag from the Regio Esercito
Royal Italian Army
The Regio Esercito was the army of the Kingdom of Italy from the unification of Italy in 1861 to the birth of the Italian Republic in 1946...
on July 28 and contributed the Austrians' defeat at Vittorio Veneto
Battle of Vittorio Veneto
The Battle of Vittorio Veneto was fought between 24 October and 3 November 1918, near Vittorio Veneto, during the Italian Campaign of World War I...
. On the Western Front
Western Front (World War I)
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...
, a similar formation was being created, mainly by Romanian citizens who resented their country for surrendering, but also by soldiers who clandestinely left Romania to continue the fight. Its Transylvanian-Bukovinian membership was small, reflecting the number of Austro-Hungarian prisoners in France, who had been taken mainly in the Serbian
Serbian Campaign (World War I)
The Serbian Campaign was fought from late July 1914, when Austria-Hungary invaded Serbia at the outset of the First World War, until late 1915, when the Macedonian Front was formed...
and Macedonian
Macedonian front (World War I)
The Macedonian Front resulted from an attempt by the Allied Powers to aid Serbia, in the autumn of 1915, against the combined attack of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria. The expedition came too late and in insufficient force to prevent the fall of Serbia, and was complicated by the internal...
operations. The 135 who signed up in October 1918 were put off by the refusal of French officials to recognize their Austro-Hungarian officer's ranks. Their unit was attached to the French Foreign Legion
French Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion is a unique military service wing of the French Army established in 1831. The foreign legion was exclusively created for foreign nationals willing to serve in the French Armed Forces...
, to be joined by the various other categories of Romanian recruits, but the effort was stopped midway: in November, the Entente's victory over Germany ended World War I for both France and Romania.
As the dissolution of Austria-Hungary was taking effect in October 1918, other such units were spontaneously formed on Austrian territory, mainly from rogue components of the Imperial Army. The Romanian Legion of Prague helped the Czechoslovak National Council and the Sokol
Sokol
The Sokol movement is a youth sport movement and gymnastics organization first founded in Czech region of Austria-Hungary, Prague, in 1862 by Miroslav Tyrš and Jindřich Fügner...
s gain the upper hand in during an anti-Austrian uprising, while other Romanian units were breaking away from Austrian command in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. Romanians were also a distinct segment of the Kriegsmarine
Austro-Hungarian Navy
The Austro-Hungarian Navy was the naval force of Austria-Hungary. Its official name in German was Kaiserliche und Königliche Kriegsmarine , abbreviated as k.u.k. Kriegsmarine....
personnel who rioted on the Austrian Littoral
Austrian Littoral
The Austrian Littoral was established as a crown land of the Austrian Empire in 1849. In 1861 it was divided into the three crown lands of the Imperial Free City of Trieste and its suburbs, the Margraviate of Istria, and the Princely County of Gorizia and Gradisca, which each had separate...
and elsewhere in the Adriatic
Adriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges...
.
A more complex situation reigned in Russia. In June 1918, a number of Romanian prisoners who had signed up for the Volunteer Corps were cut off from Romania by the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
and left to fend for themselves. Some crossed into Bolshevik Russia
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....
hoping to be repatriated together with the Romanian consulate, while others took to areas controlled by the White movement
White movement
The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...
, reaching Irkutsk
Irkutsk
Irkutsk is a city and the administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, one of the largest cities in Siberia. Population: .-History:In 1652, Ivan Pokhabov built a zimovye near the site of Irkutsk for gold trading and for the collection of fur taxes from the Buryats. In 1661, Yakov Pokhabov...
; still others escaped through northern routes into Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. The various groups were monitored by French public opinion, and plans were drafted to merge them into the Romanian Legion on the Western Front, or even to have them open up a new Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War I)
The Eastern Front was a theatre of war during World War I in Central and, primarily, Eastern Europe. The term is in contrast to the Western Front. Despite the geographical separation, the events in the two theatres strongly influenced each other...
.
Meanwhile, in tandem with larger Serb and Czech national units, Romanian prisoners on the Trans-Siberian Railway
Trans-Siberian Railway
The Trans-Siberian Railway is a network of railways connecting Moscow with the Russian Far East and the Sea of Japan. It is the longest railway in the world...
were involved in creating new armed formations. Their original goal was to show to the Entente that Romanians were still eager to fight against the Central Powers, but the Romanians also defended the line in skirmishes with the Bolshevik or anarchist cells
Left-wing uprisings against the Bolsheviks
Left-wing uprisings against the Bolsheviks were a series of rebellions and uprisings against the Bolsheviks led or supported by left wing groups including Socialist Revolutionaries, Left Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, and anarchists. Some were in support of the White Movement while some...
. They resisted especially when the Bolshevik Russian government asked them to surrender all weapons.
"Horia" Regiment and Romanian Legion of Siberia
Some prisoners or drifting units in Russia joined up with new arrivals from Kiev. They created the 1,300-strong battalion of KinelKinel
Kinel is a town in Samara Oblast, Russia, located on the Bolshoy Kinel River near its confluence with the Samara River, east of Samara. Population:...
, which was effectively a subunit of the Czechoslovak Legions
Czechoslovak Legions
The Czechoslovak Legions were volunteer armed forces composed predominantly of Czechs and Slovaks fighting together with the Entente powers during World War I...
. Romanian officers' clubs were organizing themselves in lands held by the Komuch Democrats and the White Russian Siberian Autonomy
Provisional Government of Autonomous Siberia
The Provisional Government of Autonomous Siberia , was an ephemeral government for Siberia created by the White movement.After the Bolsheviks' seizure of power in Petrograd, All-Siberian Extraordinary Congress of Delegates from Public Organizations, was convened in Tomsk on December 7, 1917...
. The original force to emerge from such schemes was formed at Samara
Samara, Russia
Samara , is the sixth largest city in Russia. It is situated in the southeastern part of European Russia at the confluence of the Volga and Samara Rivers. Samara is the administrative center of Samara Oblast. Population: . The metropolitan area of Samara-Tolyatti-Syzran within Samara Oblast...
by Valeriu Milovan. Criticized for his eccentric idea of imitating egalitarian Bolshevik practices and doing away with military ranks, he also sparked a conflict when he arrested the more conservative officer Voicu Niţescu. Niţescu escaped imprisonment and fled to Chelyabinsk
Chelyabinsk
Chelyabinsk is a city and the administrative center of Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, located in the northwestern side of the oblast, south of Yekaterinburg, just to the east of the Ural Mountains, on the Miass River. Population: -History:...
, but support for his cause continued to be eroded by the privates' growing support for the Bolsheviks. As a result of Niţescu's activity, supported by Gocan and Nicolae Nedelcu, Dr. iur.
Doctor of law
Doctor of Law or Doctor of Laws is a doctoral degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country, and includes degrees such as the LL.D., Ph.D., J.D., J.S.D., and Dr. iur.-Argentina:...
, Romanian loyalists in Chelyabinsk created a "Horia
Vasile Ursu Nicola
Vasile Ursu Nicola, known as Horea, was a Transylvanian Romanian leader of the Revolt of Horea, Cloşca and Crişan in 1784-85. After the revolt was defeated, he was executed by being broken on the wheel....
" Battalion (or Regiment). Major
Major
Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
Ioan Dâmbu was assigned to lead it, and, under Czechoslovak orders, the new Mărăşeşti and Reserve battalions were sent on mission to other localities.
At the time, the two recruiting commissions in Vladivostok were also reactivated by the arrival of an international anti-Bolshevik force
Siberian Intervention
The ', or the Siberian Expedition, of 1918–1922 was the dispatch of troops of the Entente powers to the Russian Maritime Provinces as part of a larger effort by the western powers and Japan to support White Russian forces against the Bolshevik Red Army during the Russian Civil War...
. Their propaganda leaflets, drafted by Bukovinan Iorgu G. Toma, reached all 40 POW camps in the region, urging any volunteer to make his own way to Chelyabinsk. That city emerged as a main site of Romanian political and military activity, with a reported population of 3,000 liberated Romanians (July 1918). Major Dâmbu put a momentary stop to Bolshevik influence by arresting Milovan and ordering the Samaran unit to Chelyabinsk. A complex set of sanctions was imposed, in the hope of curbing dissent, ranks were reintroduced, uniforms on the Romanian Land Forces model were distributed around, and a patriotic cultural section began to function.
Taking a long and perilous journey, Elie Bufnea and some other officers of the original Darnytsia Corps joined up with "Horia" in mid autumn, at a moment when the Romanian soldiers were celebrating the breakup of Austria-Hungary. The union between "Horia" and various new arrivals from the western Siberian camps became a second Volunteer Corps, grouping as many as 5,000 volunteers. Through the alliance it formed with the anti-Bolshevik Czechoslovak Legions, it was a Romanian national contribution to the international coalition, but reluctantly so. Once relocated to Irkutsk and Omsk
Omsk
-History:The wooden fort of Omsk was erected in 1716 to protect the expanding Russian frontier along the Ishim and the Irtysh rivers against the Kyrgyz nomads of the Steppes...
in late 1918, the volunteers expressed their lack of interest in fighting against the Bolsheviks: after rebelling against Colonel Kadlec, their Czech technical adviser, the Corps was placed under Maurice Janin
Maurice Janin
Pierre-Thiébaut-Charles-Maurice Janin was a French general and military commander who was the chief of the French military mission in Siberia during the Russian civil war....
of the French Mission.
A "Romanian Legion of Siberia" was formed from this structure, but only 3,000 soldiers still volunteered in its ranks – 2,000 others were progressively transferred out of the combat zone, shipped out to Romania or taken back to prisoner of war camps. As Şerban notes, the Western Front victory had opened the way for Transylvania's union, and "their only thought was to regain, as fast as possible, their families and their places of origin". A special case was that of Bolshevik sympathizers: in October, Dâmbu was killed by his own soldiers, partly in retaliation for Milovan's arrest.
The combative Legion defended the Trans-Siberian between Tayshet
Tayshet
Tayshet is a town and a railroad junction in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. Population: Here the Baikal Amur Mainline begins, branching northeast from the Trans-Siberian Railway...
and Nizhneudinsk
Nizhneudinsk
Nizhneudinsk is a town in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Uda River , northwest of Irkutsk. It stands on the Trans-Siberian Railway, and is served by a small airport, ICAO code UINN. Population: 39,700 ....
, where they forced the Bolsheviks into a truce and established their reputation for brutality with the nickname Dikaya Divizia (Дикая Дивизия, "Wild Division"). The anti-Bolshevik formation and the Romanian non-combatants were eventually retrieved from the Russian Far East
Russian Far East
Russian Far East is a term that refers to the Russian part of the Far East, i.e., extreme east parts of Russia, between Lake Baikal in Eastern Siberia and the Pacific Ocean...
upon the end of foreign intervention, and were fully repatriated with the other Romanians from May 1920. Milovan, court-martial
Court-martial
A court-martial is a military court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the armed forces subject to military law, and, if the defendant is found guilty, to decide upon punishment.Most militaries maintain a court-martial system to try cases in which a breach of...
led by the Legion, was cleared of the charged by a higher authority; however, those who killed Dâmbu were sentenced as mutineers and assassins.
Late echoes
The original Volunteers' Corps went out of service in December 1918, soon after German defeat and Transylvania's de facto union (see Great Union Day). The Romanian volunteers' rally in support of self-determination was judged by some Romanian authors as a direct predecessor of Alba Iulia's "Great National Assembly", whereby union was being endorsed on Wilsonian principlesFourteen Points
The Fourteen Points was a speech given by United States President Woodrow Wilson to a joint session of Congress on January 8, 1918. The address was intended to assure the country that the Great War was being fought for a moral cause and for postwar peace in Europe...
. They call the Corps' April 26 meeting a "1st Alba Iulia". Within Transylvania itself, opinion was more divided. Shortly before the Hungarian–Romanian War
Hungarian-Romanian War of 1919
The seeds of the Hungarian–Romanian war of 1919 were planted when the union of Transylvania with Romania was proclaimed, on December 1, 1918. In late March 1919, the Bolsheviks came to power in Hungary, at which point its army attempted to retake Transylvania, commencing the war. By its final...
erupted, members of Corps were required to present themselves for reenlistment. The old rivals from within the Romanian National Party
Romanian National Party
The Romanian National Party , initially known as the Romanian National Party in Transylvania and Banat , was a political party which was initially designed to offer ethnic representation to Romanians in the Kingdom of Hungary, the Transleithanian half of Austria-Hungary, and especially to those in...
, who led the Directory Council of Transylvania after 1918, allegedly refused to welcome the Corps back as a single unit, and plans for its mobilization had to be dropped. A new "Horia" Volunteer Corps was reportedly formed on the Crişul Alb River, as a first line of defense against the Hungarian Soviet Republic
Hungarian Soviet Republic
The Hungarian Soviet Republic or Soviet Republic of Hungary was a short-lived Communist state established in Hungary in the aftermath of World War I....
.
In 1923, the old Corps set up a veterans' association, the Union of Volunteers, which carried the reputation of being a fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
-inspired section of the PNR. Petru Nemoianu strongly dismissed the accounts as "enormities", and stated that the Union had good cause to reject the PNR for its handling of the Transylvanian issue. More sympathetic to the PNR, Simion Gocan was President of the Union in Bihor County
Bihor County
Bihor is a county of Romania, in Crişana, with capital city at Oradea. Together with Hajdú-Bihar County in Hungary it constitutes the Biharia Euroregion.-Demographics:...
, and complained about tensions with Nemoianu. The Union even ran for Transylvanian seats in Parliament
Parliament of Romania
The Parliament of Romania is made up of two chambers:*The Chamber of Deputies*The SenatePrior to the modifications of the Constitution in 2003, the two houses had identical attributes. A text of a law had to be approved by both houses...
during the 1931 general election. It formed an electoral cartel with Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga was a Romanian historian, politician, literary critic, memoirist, poet and playwright. Co-founder of the Democratic Nationalist Party , he served as a member of Parliament, President of the Deputies' Assembly and Senate, cabinet minister and briefly as Prime Minister...
's Democratic Nationalist Party and against PNR's successors (the National Peasants' Party
National Peasants' Party
The National Peasants' Party was a Romanian political party, formed in 1926 through the fusion of the Romanian National Party from Transylvania and the Peasants' Party . It was in power between 1928 and 1933, with brief interruptions...
), but was only assigned non-eligible positions on the electoral lists.
All praise for the Corps' contributions was toned down between 1948 and 1989, when Romania was a communist state
Communist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
. According to Şerban, communist historiography presented the story "superficially, usually truncated or in the context of other events". During a first wave of communization, repression touched several figures once associated with the Corps: Bufnea, Sever Bocu (beaten to death in Sighet prison
Sighet prison
The Sighet prison, located in the town of Sighetu Marmaţiei, Maramureş county, Romania, was used by the communist regime to hold political prisoners...
), Ghiţă Popp.
Interest in the Volunteer Corps' activity was only revived after the Romanian Revolution of 1989
Romanian Revolution of 1989
The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...
. Among the relics left behind by the Corps is Dimitrie Lăzărel's banner, probably the only one of seven to have survived. In 1923, Lăzărel paraded it at the Volunteers' Union reunion in Arad
Arad, Romania
Arad is the capital city of Arad County, in western Romania, in the Crişana region, on the river Mureş.An important industrial center and transportation hub, Arad is also the seat of a Romanian Orthodox archbishop and features two universities, a Romanian Orthodox theological seminary, a training...
. Referred to as the Darniţa Banner, it was donated to a local church, then exhibited by the Museum of Banat
Museum of Banat
The Museum of Banat is a museum in Timişoara, Romania, headquartered in Hunyad Castle. It was founded in 1872 under the name "Societatea de Istorie și Arheologie" . It hosts the largest collection of archaeological objects Banat...
, Timişoara
Timisoara
Timișoara is the capital city of Timiș County, in western Romania. One of the largest Romanian cities, with an estimated population of 311,586 inhabitants , and considered the informal capital city of the historical region of Banat, Timișoara is the main social, economic and cultural center in the...
. The Kishinev flag was donated by the Corps to ASTRA National Museum Complex
ASTRA National Museum Complex
"ASTRA" National Museum Complex is a museum complex in Sibiu, Romania, which gathers under the same authority four ethnology and civilisation museums in the city, a series of laboratories for conservation and research, and a documentation centre. It is the successor of the ASTRA museum that has...
of Sibiu
Sibiu
Sibiu is a city in Transylvania, Romania with a population of 154,548. Located some 282 km north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles the Cibin River, a tributary of the river Olt...
.