“Do not break the Romanian order and do not introduce the Soviet order”: liberation of Arad by the Red Army (Romania, September — November 1944)
Anna S. Grishina, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Applicant
Voronezh State Pedagogical University, Voronezh, Russia, vspihist@rambler.ru, https://orcid.org/0009-0009-1634-7061
Abstract
The article discusses issues related to the Red Army’s liberation mission in Europe during the Great Patriotic War. The Soviet government repeatedly stated that it did not seek either territorial acquisitions, or a change in property relations, or a change in the state system of countries and peoples liberated from fascist oppression. The first of the countries liberated from German Nazism was Romania, whose new government went over to the side of the United Nations and, together with the USSR, opposed Nazi Germany and Horthy Hungary. In September 1944, German-Hungarian troops invaded the territory of Hungary within the pre-war borders and occupied its western regions, including the city of Arad. The troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, by order of Headquarters, together with Romanian units, entered the battle with the invaders and drove them back across the Romanian-Hungarian border. During the first months after the liberation, the Soviet military authorities assisted the Romanian civil authorities in establishing a peaceful life in the city, while refraining from interfering in the existing national, social and political contradictions and without making attempts at sovietization and communization, which confirms the sincerity of the previously declared USSR intentions.
Keywords
Great Patriotic War, 2nd Ukrainian Front, Romania, Arad, occupation, liberation.
For citation:
Grishina A. S. “Do not break the Romanian order and do not introduce the Soviet order”: liberation of Arad by the Red Army (Romania, September — November 1944). Vestnik of Orenburg State Pedagogical University. Electronic Scientific Journal, 2024, no. 3 (51), pp. 193—206. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32516/2303-9922.2024.51.12.
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