INDEPENDENCE WAR AND RUSSIAN BETRAYAL (PART – 4)
december 14 2007 - 15:13 (Public Center for Monitoring and Strategic Analysis) A. Savin

ROMANIA AND WARFARE (See part - 3...) Events continued to change with kaleidoscopic speed: Romanian government declared about general mobilization of military forces March 31st and interrupted diplomatic relationship with Ottoman Empire April, 10th; Russia declared war on the Porte on April, 12th. Romania also got involved into war on April 30th (involvement in war resulted from bombardment of the Romanian towns Braila, Calafat, Bechet, Oltenita and Calarasi by the Turkish artillery).Romania mobilized all resources numbering twenty thousand people [1]. Though, the Russian commander in chief (also tsar Alexander II and chancellor Gortchakoff) declared about his ability to defeat the Ottoman Army without the Romanian Army help or any other side. It is worth observing that Romania has been warned (by the Great Powers) many times of the possibility to get involved into military operations because sooner or later Russians would rape southern Bessarabia. Andrassy at the meeting with Mihail Kogalniceanu (minister of Foreign Affairs of the time) tried to explain the same. Messengers from England and Italy also expressed their attitude toward the problem. Elated with the first successes (deceitful) of the battle, Prince Gortchakoff made a mistake by letting Romanians openly know about his country’s intentions concerning Bessarabia problem [2]. Unexpected bitter resistance destroyed the Russians’ plans: a blitzkrieg (A swift, sudden military...