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Romanian Land Forces

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Trăiască Regele ("Long live the King") (1884–1948)

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171-597: The Romanian Land Forces ( Romanian : Forțele Terestre Române ) is the army of Romania , and the main component of the Romanian Armed Forces . Since 2007, full professionalization and a major equipment overhaul have transformed the nature of the Land Forces. The Romanian Land Forces was founded on 24 November [ O.S. 12 November] 1859. It participated in the Romanian War of Independence against

342-568: A 2003 constitutional amendment which allowed the parliament to make military service optional. The Parliament of Romania voted to abolish conscription in October 2005, with the vote formalising one of many military modernisation and reform programmes that Romania agreed to when it joined NATO in March 2004. In peacetime , the supreme commander of the Land Forces is the Minister of Defence , while in wartime,

513-485: A lexicon of over 150,000 words in its contemporary form, Romanian showed a high degree of lexical permeability, reflecting contact with Thraco-Dacian , Slavic languages (including Old Slavic , Serbian , Bulgarian , Ukrainian , and Russian ), Greek , Hungarian , German , Turkish , and to languages that served as cultural models during and after the Age of Enlightenment , in particular French . This lexical permeability

684-710: A union with the Kingdom of Romania . Later on, in April 1919, the newly established Hungarian Soviet Republic vowed to retake occupied territories by force, and Hungarian troops attacked Romanian formations in Transylvania . Under the command of generals Gheorghe Mărdărescu and Traian Moșoiu , the Romanian Army defeated the Hungarians and occupied Budapest in August 1919. In June 1940

855-623: A "Luna-M" missile battalion, while two of the four army commands had also an "Elbrus" missile brigade. Proven to be fairly inaccurate in combat, "Luna-M" (a.k.a. FROG-7) and "Elbrus" (a.k.a. SCUD-B) missiles would be rather less effective weapons carrying conventional high-explosive warheads. Tipped with nuclear or chemical warheads, however, they could be devastating. According to one former Romanian official writing in 1988, Romania produced chemical agents that could be delivered by battlefield missiles. The vânători de munte specialised troops, reactivated in 1961, were formed up into an independent branch of

1026-609: A "regional language" alongside Ukrainian as per the 2012 legislation on languages in Ukraine . Romanian is an official or administrative language in various communities and organisations, such as the Latin Union and the European Union . Romanian is also one of the five languages in which religious services are performed in the autonomous monastic state of Mount Athos , spoken in the monastic communities of Prodromos and Lakkoskiti . In

1197-454: A GDP per capita of 20,487 lei at an estimated population of 18.9 million. The 1938 average exchange rate was of 1 leu for US$ 0.00732. Romania's 1938 GDP thus amounted to $ 2.834 billion. Romania's public debt as of 1 April 1938 amounted to 112,267,290,144 lei, of which 78,398,078,964 lei consisted of external debt. Total public debt thus amounted to 29% of Romania's 1938 GDP, while public external debt amounted to just over 20%. Despite

1368-542: A company had already been commissioned in early 2006. In 2018, the 6th Special Operations Brigade was transformed into the Special Operations Forces Command being directly subordinated to the General staff of Defence . The current Romanian reconnaissance battalions (the 313th, the 317th and the 528th) are also considered special forces units, and were formed in the 1960s during the communist regime . After

1539-514: A few border settlements were exchanged between Romania and Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes . The most notable Romanian acquisition was the town of Jimbolia , while the most notable Yugoslav acquisition was the town of Jaša Tomić . Romania made no further territorial claims; nonetheless the kingdom's expansion aroused enmity from several of its neighbors, including Bulgaria, the Soviet Union, and especially Hungary. Greater Romania now had

1710-719: A foreign language, for example the Nicolae Bălcescu High-school in Gyula , Hungary. Romanian is taught as a foreign language in tertiary institutions, mostly in European countries such as Germany, France and Italy, and the Netherlands, as well as in the United States. Overall, it is taught as a foreign language in 43 countries around the world. Romanian has become popular in other countries through movies and songs performed in

1881-517: A name that was extended to the literature and writers around this time such as Vasile Alecsandri , Grigore Alexandrescu , Nicolae Bălcescu , Timotei Cipariu . Between 1830 and 1860 "transitional alphabets" were used, adding Latin letters to the Romanian Cyrillic alphabet . The Latin alphabet became official at different dates in Wallachia and Transylvania - 1860, and Moldova -1862. Following

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2052-430: A number of positive changes have come about and the level of combat readiness has been growing steadily; since 1996, the military budget has grown more than four times, rising from 636 million dollars to 2.8 billion dollars in 2007. Conscription has been abolished and professionalisation has been completed. The modern Moldavian and Wallachian armies were formed in 1830 following Regulamentul Organic . During

2223-503: A population of 18,057,028. Romanians made up 71.9% of the population and 28.1% of the population were ethnic minorities . Largest cities as per 1930 census: Notes: 1 - including 12 suburban communities. Two of Romania's seven largest cities in 1930 are currently located outside of Romania as a result of World War II border changes . While the Romanian nobility had a long tradition of sending their sons to Europe's finest schools,

2394-624: A potential source of opposition) were purged from the military. This involved copying the Soviet model of military and political organisation, and changing the military doctrine of combat and defence, also in the context of Romania's integration in the strategic system of the Soviets, at the beginning of the Cold War . In the early 1950s the RLF reached a level of 12 rifle, one mechanised, and one tank division. From 1959

2565-509: A pro-Soviet government. It has been estimated that the royal coup shortened the war by six months. Romania soon declared war on Nazi Germany and its allies, and the First Army (under the command of General Macici and later Vasile Atanasiu ) and the Fourth Army (under the command of Lieutenant General Gheorghe Avramescu and later Nicolae Dăscălescu ) were pressed into action. After expelling

2736-481: A reconciliation with her, and Carol soon arranged for Magda Lupescu's return to his side. Her unpopularity was a millstone around Carol's neck for the rest of his reign, particularly because she was widely viewed as his closest advisor and confidante. Maniu and his National Peasant Party shared the same general political aims as the Iron Guard: both fought against the corruption and dictatorial policies of King Carol II and

2907-508: A result of which the Kingdom of Romania became a constitutional monarchy again and switched sides to the Allies , recovering Northern Transylvania . The influence of the neighbouring Soviet Union and the policies followed by Communist -dominated coalition governments ultimately led to the abolition of the monarchy, with Romania becoming a Soviet satellite state as the People's Republic of Romania on

3078-573: A series of successful battles, regained Dobruja , which had been previously ceded from Bulgaria by the treaty of Bucharest and the Berlin congress . Although the Romanian forces did not fare well militarily, by the end of the war the Austrian and Russian empires were gone; various assemblies proclaimed as representative bodies in Transylvania , Bessarabia and Bukovina decided on union with Romania. In 1919 by

3249-434: A short-lived royal dictatorship, sanctioned 17 days later by a new constitution under which the king named personally not only the prime minister but all the ministers. In April 1938, King Carol had Iron Guard leader Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (aka "The Captain") arrested and imprisoned. On the night of 29–30 November 1938, Codreanu and several other legionnaires were killed while purportedly attempting to escape from prison. It

3420-433: A significant minority population, especially of Hungarians , and faced the difficulty of assimilation. Transylvania had significant Hungarian and German population who were accustomed to being the power structure; with a historically contemptuous attitude towards Romanians, they now feared reprisals. Both groups were effectively excluded from politics as the postwar regime passed an edict stating that all personnel employed by

3591-572: A significant share of the local population (districts in Chernivtsi , Odesa and Zakarpattia oblasts ) Romanian is taught in schools as a primary language and there are Romanian-language newspapers, TV, and radio broadcasting. The University of Chernivtsi in western Ukraine trains teachers for Romanian schools in the fields of Romanian philology, mathematics and physics. In Hertsa Raion of Ukraine as well as in other villages of Chernivtsi Oblast and Zakarpattia Oblast , Romanian has been declared

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3762-408: A so-called " monstrous coalition ", composed of Conservatives and radical Liberals, forced Cuza to abdicate. The German prince Charles of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was appointed as Prince of Romania, in a move to assure German backing to unity and future independence. He immediately adopted the Romanian spelling of his name, Carol , and his cognatic descendants would rule Romania until the overthrow of

3933-424: Is also spoken within communities of Romanian and Moldovan immigrants in the United States, Canada and Australia, although they do not make up a large homogeneous community statewide. Many are Moldavians who were deported Data only for the districts on the right bank of Dniester (without Transnistria and the city of Tighina). In Moldova, it is sometimes referred to as the " Moldovan language " In Transnistria, it

4104-489: Is called Daco-Romanian as opposed to its closest relatives, Aromanian , Megleno-Romanian , and Istro-Romanian . It is also spoken as a minority language by stable communities in the countries surrounding Romania ( Bulgaria , Hungary , Serbia and Ukraine ), and by the large Romanian diaspora . In total, it is spoken by 25 million people as a first language . Romanian was also known as Moldovan in Moldova, although

4275-608: Is continuing today with the introduction of English words. Yet while the overall lexis was enriched with foreign words and internal constructs, in accordance with the history and development of the society and the diversification in semantic fields, the fundamental lexicon—the core vocabulary used in everyday conversation—remains governed by inherited elements from the Latin spoken in the Roman provinces bordering Danube , without which no coherent sentence can be made. Romanian descended from

4446-477: Is distinguished by the activity of Romanian literature classics in its early decades: Mihai Eminescu , Ion Luca Caragiale , Ion Creangă , Ioan Slavici . The current orthography, with minor reforms to this day and using Latin letters, was fully implemented in 1881, regulated by the Romanian Academy on a fundamentally phonological principle, with few morpho-syntactic exceptions. The first Romanian grammar

4617-457: Is generally agreed that there was no such escape attempt, but that they were murdered in retaliation for a series of assassinations by Iron Guard commandos. The royal dictatorship was brief. On 7 March 1939, a new government was formed with Armand Călinescu as prime minister; on 21 September 1939, three weeks after the start of World War II, Călinescu, in turn, was also assassinated by legionnaires avenging Codreanu's murder. In 1939, Germany and

4788-502: Is known is that on 1 July 1947 Fourth Army became 3rd Military Region, based in Cluj. The 3rd Military Region became the 3rd Army on 30 April 1960, and the 4th Army on 5 April 1980. During the 1980s, the land forces numbered 140,000 personnel, of whom two-thirds were conscripts. In 1989 the land forces were organized in four armies: the First Army at Bucharest , the Second Army at Buzău ,

4959-665: Is not considered a major conflict in Romanian history. This was due to historical claims on land and the area no longer belongs to Romania. During the Second Balkan War, the Romanian Army suffered a cholera outbreak that provoked 1,600 deaths. On 6 July 1916, the Kingdom of Romania declared war on the German Empire and Austria-Hungary , following the initial success of the Brusilov Offensive (a major Russian offensive against

5130-593: Is official only in the villages of Vojvodinci ( Voivodinț ), Markovac ( Marcovăț ), Straža ( Straja ), Mali Žam ( Jamu Mic ), Malo Središte ( Srediștea Mică ), Mesić ( Mesici ), Jablanka ( Iablanca ), Sočica ( Sălcița ), Ritiševo ( Râtișor ), Orešac ( Oreșaț ) and Kuštilj ( Coștei ). In the 2002 Census, the last carried out in Serbia, 1.5% of Vojvodinians stated Romanian as their native language. The Vlachs of Serbia are considered to speak Romanian as well. In parts of Ukraine where Romanians constitute

5301-639: Is officially called " Moldovan language " and is written in Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet . Officially divided into Vlachs and Romanians Most in Northern Bukovina and Southern Bessarabia; according to a Moldova Noastră study (based on the latest Ukrainian census). According to the Constitution of Romania of 1991, as revised in 2003, Romanian is the official language of the Republic. Romania mandates

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5472-635: Is one of the largest and most modern training firing ranges and military facilities in Europe, with a total surface area of 270 square kilometres. It was announced on 6 December 2006 that 1,500 U.S. troops stationed at Mihail Kogălniceanu , which in time will form Joint Task Force East , will be using Babadag as a training base. The Romanian Land Forces distinguishes four career paths: officers ( Ofiţeri ), warrant officers ( Maiştrii militari ), NCO's ( Subofiţeri ) and enlisted men ( Soldaţi şi gradaţi voluntari ). The Marshal rank can be given only in wartime by

5643-585: Is the official and main language of Romania and Moldova . Romanian is part of the Eastern Romance sub-branch of Romance languages , a linguistic group that evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin which separated from the Western Romance languages in the course of the period from the 5th to the 8th centuries. To distinguish it within the Eastern Romance languages, in comparative linguistics it

5814-660: The Sfatul Țării , or National Council, to proclaim the union of Bessarabia with Romania . War with the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919 resulted in the occupation of Budapest by Romanian troops and the end of Béla Kun 's Bolshevik regime. At the Paris Peace Conference , Romania received the territories of Transylvania , part of Banat and other territories from Hungary , as well as Bessarabia (Eastern Moldavia between Prut and Dniester rivers) and Bukovina. In

5985-510: The 1848 Wallachian Revolution , Gheorghe Magheru assembled an army at Râureni (now part of Râmnicu Vâlcea ). However, due to the lack of proper equipment and the hesitation of some revolution leaders, Magheru ordered his troops to disband when the Ottoman forces swept into Bucharest to stop the revolution. A battle between the Bucharest fire company together with Line infantry soldiers against

6156-543: The 1st Army and 4th Army prior to 2000. However, due to their personnel having been reduced considerably to reach compatibility with NATO standards, they were renamed and reorganized as divisions. In 2010, the Joint HQ command was renamed as the 2nd Infantry Division Getica and received units from the 1st and 4th Infantry divisions. The official day of the Land Forces is celebrated each year, on 23 April. The Romanian Land Forces have completely overhauled their equipment in

6327-644: The 26th Infantry Battalion "Neagoe Basarab" , also known as the Red Scorpions, in Craiova in October 2020. Another 133 units will be produced in Romania, at Bucharest Mechanical Factory . Equipment Summary (2023): The evolution of the special forces within the Romanian Land Forces led to the establishment of the 1st Special Operations Regiment on 1 August 2009, headquartered at Târgu Mureș . It later became

6498-544: The Cannes Film Festival ). Also some artists wrote songs dedicated to the Romanian language. The multi-platinum pop trio O-Zone (originally from Moldova) released a song called "Nu mă las de limba noastră" ("I won't forsake our language"). The final verse of this song, "Eu nu mă las de limba noastră, de limba noastră cea română" , is translated in English as "I won't forsake our language, our Romanian language". Also,

6669-540: The Constitutional Court of Moldova ruled in 2013 that "the official language of Moldova is Romanian". On 16 March 2023, the Moldovan Parliament approved a law on referring to the national language as Romanian in all legislative texts and the constitution. On 22 March, the president of Moldova, Maia Sandu , promulgated the law. The history of the Romanian language started in the Roman provinces north of

6840-519: The Dnister , former part of Moldavia. The Romanian armies saw their first major battles at Odessa and Sevastopol , and in 1942 advanced with other Axis forces deeper into Soviet territory during operation Case Blue . In early November, Romanian mountain troops under the command of Brigadier General Ioan Dumitrache took Nalchik , the farthest point of Axis advance into the Caucasus . The worst defeat for

7011-689: The Galați shipyard using parts manufactured in Austria-Hungary, and the first one launched was Lascăr Catargiu , in 1907. The Romanian monitors displaced almost 700 tons, were armed with three 120 mm naval guns in 3 turrets, two 120 mm naval howitzers, four 47 mm anti-aircraft guns and two 6.5 machine guns. The monitors took part in the Battle of Turtucaia and the First Battle of Cobadin . The Romanian-designed Schneider 150 mm Model 1912 howitzer

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7182-563: The General Directorate for Defense Intelligence . It is a military special unit, formed of highly skilled individuals, a very large percentage of its members being champions in martial arts, athletic disciplines and so on. DIR was, until December 2003, top secret. After the Romanian Revolution , many firing ranges and training areas were closed and abandoned due to lack of funds. Currently, the military schools and training units of

7353-577: The Jireček Line in Classical antiquity but there are 3 main hypotheses about its exact territory: the autochthony thesis (it developed in left-Danube Dacia only), the discontinuation thesis (it developed in right-Danube provinces only), and the "as-well-as" thesis that supports the language development on both sides of the Danube. Between the 6th and 8th century, following the accumulated tendencies inherited from

7524-517: The LAROM MRL system). Compared to similar Soviet, Hungarian, or Bulgarian divisions, the Romanian ones were more poorly equipped, both in terms of number and quality of heavy weapons. The armored divisions were composed of 3 tank regiments and one mechanized infantry regiment plus support units. The artillery, antitank, and air defence regiments of divisions provided specialised fire support that enabled motorised rifle and tank regiments to maneuver. Each of

7695-511: The Mareșal tank destroyer , which is credited with being the inspiration for the German Hetzer , a Renault R-35 tank with a T-26 turret and an artillery tractor known as T-1 . Warships built include the submarines NMS  Rechinul and NMS  Marsuinul , a class of 4 minesweepers , 6 Dutch-designed torpedo boats and 2 gunboats. According to the 1930 Romanian Census , Romania had

7866-483: The Mausoleum of Mărășești (1938) were erected. The oil industry was also greatly expanded, making Romania one of the top oil exporters by the late 1930s, which also attracted German and Italian interest . In 1938, Romania produced 6.6 million tons of crude oil, 284,000 tons of crude steel, 133,000 tons of pig iron , 510,000 tons of cement, and 289,000 tons of rolled steel. Romanian military industry during World War I

8037-591: The Ottoman Empire during the 1877–1878 Russo-Turkish War (known locally as the Romanian War of Independence ), after which it was forced to cede the southern part of Bessarabia in exchange for Northern Dobruja . The kingdom's territory during the reign of King Carol I, between 13 ( O.S. ) / 25 March 1881 and 27 September ( O.S. ) / 10 October 1914 is sometimes referred to as the Romanian Old Kingdom , to distinguish it from " Greater Romania ", which included

8208-774: The Ottoman Empire , the Second Balkan War against Bulgaria , World War I against the Central Powers (in which it won the decisive battles of Mărăști and Mărășești ), and the Hungarian–Romanian War . During most of World War II (until 1944), Romanian forces supported the Axis powers , fighting against the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front . From August 1944 until the end of the war, Romania fought against Germany under

8379-674: The President of Romania ; in fact, Romania had only three marshals coming from the officers` rank in its history: Ion Antonescu , Alexandru Averescu and Constantin Prezan . Kings Ferdinand I , Carol II and Mihai I also held the rank of Marshal of Romania. King Carol I held simultaneous ranks as Russian Marshal and German Field-marshal. Romanian language Romanian (obsolete spelling: Roumanian ; endonym : limba română [ˈlimba roˈmɨnə] , or românește [romɨˈneʃte] , lit.   ' in Romanian ' )

8550-459: The Romanian Academy . The third phase of the modern age of Romanian language, starting from 1880 and continuing to this day, is characterized by the prevalence of the supradialectal form of the language, standardized with the express contribution of the school system and Romanian Academy, bringing a close to the process of literary language modernization and development of literary styles. It

8721-673: The Second Army in victory at the Battle of Mărăști (22 July to 1 August 1917), while Major Generals Constantin Cristescu and Eremia Grigorescu led the First Army in victory at the Battle of Mărășești (6 August to 8 September 1917). As a result of the Russian Revolution , Romania was left isolated and unable to continue the war, and was forced to sign the Treaty of Bucharest with the Central Powers. Later on, in 1919, Germany agreed, in

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8892-449: The Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact , which stipulated, among other things, the Soviet "interest" in Bessarabia. After the 1940 territorial losses and growing increasingly unpopular, Carol was compelled to abdicate and name general Ion Antonescu as the new Prime-Minister with full powers in ruling the state by royal decree. At the time of the proclamation of the Kingdom, there were already several industrial facilities in

9063-435: The Soviet Union occupied Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina . After General (later Marshal ) Ion Antonescu took power in September 1940, Fascist Romania signed the Tripartite Pact with the Axis Powers and subsequently took part in Operation Barbarossa in 1941. An expeditionary force invaded the Soviet Union in Bessarabia and southern Ukraine , alongside the Wehrmacht . The expeditionary force, 'Army Group Antonescu,'

9234-498: The Third Army at Craiova , and the Fourth Army at Cluj-Napoca . The land forces consisted of eight mechanised (infantry) divisions ( 1st , Bucharest, 2nd , Craiova, 9th , Constanța , 10th, Iași , 11th, Oradea , 18th, Timișoara , 67th, Brăila and 81st , Dej ) two armored divisions (the 57th Tank Division at Bucharest and the 6th Tank Division at Târgu Mureș ), one armored brigade, four mountain (infantry) brigades, and four parachute infantry regiments. According to

9405-426: The Treaty of Saint-Germain and in 1920 by the Treaty of Trianon most of the territories claimed were assigned to Romania. The Romanian Old Kingdom ( Romanian : Vechiul Regat or just Regat ; German: Regat or Altreich ) is a colloquial term referring to the territory covered by the first independent Romanian nation state , which was composed of the Danubian Principalities – Wallachia and Moldavia. It

9576-470: The Treaty of Trianon , Hungary renounced in favor of Romania all the claims of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy over Transylvania. The union of Romania with Bukovina was ratified in 1919 in the Treaty of Saint Germain , and in 1920 some of the Western powers recognized Romanian rule over Bessarabia by the Treaty of Paris . Thus, Romania in 1920 was more than twice the size it had been in 1914. The last territorial change during this period came in 1923, when

9747-403: The Treaty of Versailles Article 259, to renounce all the benefits provided to it by the Treaty of Bucharest in 1918. After the success of the Vardar offensive on the Macedonian front , which put Bulgaria out of the war, Romania re-entered the war on 10 November 1918, a day before its end in the West. After World War I , in December 1918, the Great National Assembly of Alba Iulia proclaimed

9918-440: The Vulgar Latin spoken in the Roman provinces of Southeastern Europe north of the Jireček Line (a hypothetical boundary between the dominance of Latin and Greek influences). Most scholars agree that two major dialects developed from Common Romanian by the 10th century. Daco-Romanian (the official language of Romania and Moldova) and Istro-Romanian (a language spoken by no more than 2,000 people in Istria ) descended from

10089-430: The president assumes the role of supreme commander. The main combat formations of Romania are the 2nd Infantry Division Getica , and the 4th Infantry Division Gemina . Until 2015, the Romanian Land Forces fielded a third division, namely the 1st Division Dacia . Before June 2008, the 1st and 4th divisions were known as the 1st Territorial Army Corps and the 4th Territorial Army Corps, and in turn they used to be known as

10260-435: The unification of Moldavia and Wallachia further studies on the language were made, culminating with the founding of Societatea Literară Română on 1 April 1866 on the initiative of C. A. Rosetti , an academic society that had the purpose of standardizing the orthography, formalizing the grammar and (via a dictionary) vocabulary of the language, and promoting literary and scientific publications. This institution later became

10431-434: The "liberty to teach in the mother language (Romanian language)". At the same time, Romanian-language newspapers and journals began to appear, such as Basarabia (1906), Viața Basarabiei (1907), Moldovanul (1907), Luminătorul (1908), Cuvînt moldovenesc (1913), Glasul Basarabiei (1913). From 1913, the synod permitted that "the churches in Bessarabia use the Romanian language". Romanian finally became

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10602-415: The 10th and 81st Mechanized Divisions and the 6th Tank Division operated soviet and Czechoslovak built T-55/-55A/-55AM tanks, while the remaining three mechanized divisions (1st, 18th and 67th) were equipped with mixed equipment, including a number of outdated soviet T-34 -85 tanks, within their mechanized regiments. The 1st Mechanized Tudor Vladimirescu Division apparently operated four types of tanks, from

10773-811: The 165-year 'History of Modern Romanian Artillery,' in 1989 each of the four armies were organized into a headquarters and reporting formations under them, which were organized as follows: The mechanized divisions were organized along the Soviet model with a division HQ, three mechanized infantry regiments, one tank regiment, combat and service support units, and a full complement of 10,700 infantry soldiers, having 130 main battle tanks, 216 wheeled armoured personnel carriers (APCs), 30 wheeled armoured reconnaissance vehicles, 18 light SPGs SU-76, 54 towed 120mm. M-38/-43 (or Md.1982 120mm. Romanian made) mortars, 36 towed 122 mm howitzer M1938 (M-30) and 12 truck-mounted (Romanian production) 122mm. multiple rocket launchers APR-40 (which will become later, after an extensive modernization,

10944-409: The 16th century, by various foreign travelers into the Carpathian Romance-speaking space, as well as in other historical documents written in Romanian at that time such as Cronicile Țării Moldovei  [ ro ] ( The Chronicles of the land of Moldova ) by Grigore Ureche . The few allusions to the use of Romanian in writing as well as common words, anthroponyms, and toponyms preserved in

11115-424: The 4th Army Cooperation Command. The army group-level 2nd Army Corps, under Major General Nicolae Macici , controlled the 9th and 10th Infantry Divisions and the 7th Cavalry Brigade. Additionally the 1st Armoured Division was formed for service on the Eastern Front. The Army Group's first offensive, in conjunction with the Eleventh Army , Operation München , enabled Romania to retake the territory immediately east of

11286-476: The 6th Special Operations Brigade on 25 October 2011. The most famous and well trained unit is the 1st Special Operations Battalion " Vulturii " was created in March 2003. Members of the special forces battalion have benefitted from courses abroad, such as the United States Army Special Forces (Green Berets) course, the United States Marine Corps Force Recon course, as well as other courses. The Special Forces battalion became fully operational during 2007, after

11457-472: The 6th and 16th century, entire stages from its history are re-constructed by researchers, often with proposed relative chronologies and loose limits. From the 12th or 13th century, official documents and religious texts were written in Old Church Slavonic , a language that had a similar role to Medieval Latin in Western Europe. The oldest dated text in Romanian is a letter written in 1521 with Cyrillic letters , and until late 18th century, including during

11628-417: The Assembly, the Executive Council and the provincial administrative bodies. The Romanian language and script are officially used in eight municipalities: Alibunar , Bela Crkva ( Biserica Albă ), Žitište ( Sângeorgiu de Bega ), Zrenjanin ( Becicherecu Mare ), Kovačica ( Covăcița ), Kovin ( Cuvin ), Plandište ( Plandiște ) and Sečanj ( Seceani ). In the municipality of Vršac ( Vârșeț ), Romanian

11799-405: The Black Sea due east, and Hungarian neighbours on its western and northwestern borders, looked to the West, particularly France, for its cultural, educational, and administrative models. Abstaining from the Initial Balkan War against the Ottoman Empire , the Kingdom of Romania entered the Second Balkan War in June 1913 against the Tsardom of Bulgaria . 330,000 Romanian troops moved across

11970-401: The Central Powers in 1916. The Romanian military campaign ended in stalemate when the Central Powers quickly crushed the country's offensive into Transylvania and occupied Wallachia and Dobruja, including Bucharest and the strategically important oil fields, by the end of 1916. In 1917, despite fierce Romanian resistance, especially at the Battle of Mărășești , due to Russia's withdrawal from

12141-413: The Cyrillic script, and the Latin script as stipulated by the law, the Croat , Hungarian , Slovak , Romanian and Rusyn languages and their scripts, as well as languages and scripts of other nationalities, shall simultaneously be officially used in the work of the bodies of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, in the manner established by the law. The bodies of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina are:

12312-469: The Danube and into Bulgaria. One army occupied Southern Dobruja and another moved into northern Bulgaria to threaten Sofia, helping to bring an end to the war. Romania thus acquired the ethnically mixed territory of Southern Dobruja, which it had desired for years. In 1916 Romania entered World War I on the Entente side. Romania engaged in a conflict against Bulgaria but as a result Bulgarian forces, after

12483-568: The European Union). 2025 is the set date for when the long-term stage is to be completed (full technical integration in NATO and the EU). The stages aim at modernising the structure of the armed forces, reducing the number of personnel, as well as acquiring newer and improved technology that is compatible with NATO standards. Romania abolished compulsory military service on 23 October 2006. This came about due to

12654-453: The Kingdom of Romania became an absolute monarchy , only to become a military dictatorship under Ion Antonescu in 1940 after the forced abdication of King Carol II, with his successor, King Michael I being a figurehead with no effective political power. The country's name was changed to Legionary Romania . The disastrous World War II campaign on the side of the Axis powers led to King Michael's Coup against Ion Antonescu in 1944, as

12825-602: The Kingdom of Romania in 1881, and the annexation of Southern Dobruja in 1913. The term came into use after World War I, when the Old Kingdom was opposed to Greater Romania , which included Transylvania, Banat , Bessarabia, and Bukovina. Nowadays, the term is mainly of historical relevance, and is otherwise used as a common term for all regions in Romania included in both the Old Kingdom and present-day borders (namely: Wallachia, Moldavia, and Northern Dobruja). Romania delayed in entering World War I, but ultimately declared war on

12996-541: The Land Forces included cavalry, but the arm disappeared from the force with the disbandment in November 1954 of the 59th Cavalry Division at Oradea . After the Romanian Communist Party seized political power, the sovietization of the army commenced, under the supervision of the new Minister of Defence, Emil Bodnăraș . Thirty per cent of the officers and noncommissioned officers (mostly experienced soldiers, and

13167-639: The Malaxa factory under French licence, eventually 126 being built until March 1941. Czechoslovak licence was acquired in 1938 to produce the ZB vz. 30 machine gun, with 5,000 being built at the Cugir gun factory until the start of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941. Romania also acquired the licence to produce the R-1 tankette, but ultimately only one prototype was built locally. German licence

13338-561: The Moldovan autonomies of Gagauzia and Transnistria . Romanian is also an official language of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina in Serbia along with five other languages. Romanian minorities are encountered in Serbia ( Timok Valley ), Ukraine ( Chernivtsi and Odesa oblasts ), and Hungary ( Gyula ). Large immigrant communities are found in Italy, Spain, France, and Portugal. In 1995,

13509-449: The Moldovan musicians Doina and Ion Aldea Teodorovici performed a song called "The Romanian language". Romanian is also called Daco-Romanian in comparative linguistics to distinguish from the other dialects of Common Romanian : Aromanian , Megleno-Romanian , and Istro-Romanian . The origin of the term "Daco-Romanian" can be traced back to the first printed book of Romanian grammar in 1780, by Samuil Micu and Gheorghe Șincai . There,

13680-580: The National Liberal Party. The worldwide Great Depression that started in 1929 and was also present in Romania destabilised the country. The early 1930s were marked by social unrest, high unemployment, and strikes. In several instances, the Romanian government violently repressed strikes and riots, notably the 1929 miners' strike in Valea Jiului and the strike in the Grivița railroad workshops. In

13851-514: The Old Church Slavonic religious writings and chancellery documents, attested prior to the 16th century, along with the analysis of graphemes show that the writing of Romanian with the Cyrillic alphabet started in the second half of the 15th century. The oldest extant document in Romanian precisely dated is Neacșu's letter (1521) and was written using the Romanian Cyrillic alphabet , which

14022-546: The Ottomans also took place at Dealul Spirii in 1848. The current Romanian Land Forces were formed in 1860, immediately after the unification of Wallachia with Moldavia , and were commanded by Alexandru Ioan Cuza , Domnitor of Romania until his abdication in 1866. In 1877, at the request of Grand Duke Nicholas Konstantinovich of Russia the Romanian army fused with the Russian forces, and led by King Carol I , fought in what

14193-422: The RLF operated a total of 2,825 tanks: 1,059 outdated (soviet WW-2 type) T-34 -85 tanks, 785 Soviet and Czechoslovak T-55/-55A/-55AM tanks, 415 Romanian built TR-77-580, 535 Romanian built TR-85 -800, and 31 Soviet T-72 "Ural-1" tanks. The 9th and the 11th Mechanized Divisions operated Romanian built TR-77-580 tanks, the 2nd Mechanized Division and the 57th Tank Division operated Romanian built TR-85 -800 tanks,

14364-448: The RLF with 4 separate mountain brigades in 1989. The vânători de munte were seen as the best-trained forces of the Army in the communist Romania. Each brigade had a mechanized company equipped with MLVM APCs and a mountain artillery battalion of 76mm. mountain guns Md.1982 (similar to Yugoslav 76 mm mountain gun M48 ), but most of the equipment was for a motorized light infantry unit. During

14535-500: The Romanian Land Forces are directly subordinated to the central headquarters. There are 5 military high schools ( Câmpulung Moldovenesc , Alba Iulia , Craiova , Breaza , and Constanța ), five military academies, one officer school ( Pitești ), 3 training schools ( Sibiu , Pitești , Buzău ) and 9 training battalions. In the past few years, many training exercises have taken place in Romania with other Balkan or Allied countries. Most of these exercises took place at Babadag , which

14706-591: The Romanian dialect spoken north of the Danube is called lingua Daco-Romana to emphasize its origin and its area of use, which includes the former Roman province of Dacia , although it is spoken also south of the Danube, in Dobruja , the Timok Valley and northern Bulgaria. This article deals with the Romanian (i.e. Daco-Romanian) language, and thus only its dialectal variations are discussed here. The differences between

14877-640: The Romanian expeditionary force on the Eastern Front occurred at Stalingrad , where, during the Soviet counter-offensive of November 1942, the thinly spread forces of the Third Army (under the command of General Petre Dumitrescu , deployed north of Stalingrad) and of the Fourth Army (under the command of Lieutenant General Constantin Constantinescu-Claps , deployed south of Stalingrad) were attacked by vastly superior Soviet forces and suffered combined losses of some 158,000 personnel. During April–May 1944

15048-657: The Romanian forces led by General Mihai Racoviță , together with elements of the German Eighth Army were responsible for defending Northern Romania during the Soviet First Jassy-Kishinev Offensive , and took part in the Battles of Târgu Frumos . In late August 1944, the Red Army entered eastern Romania . On 23 August 1944, a coup led by King Michael I of Romania deposed Marshal Antonescu and set up

15219-770: The Romanian language. Examples of Romanian acts that had a great success in non-Romanophone countries are the bands O-Zone (with their No. 1 single Dragostea Din Tei , also known as Numa Numa , across the world in 2003–2004), Akcent (popular in the Netherlands, Poland and other European countries), Activ (successful in some Eastern European countries), DJ Project (popular as clubbing music) SunStroke Project (known by viral video " Epic Sax Guy ") and Alexandra Stan (worldwide no.1 hit with " Mr. Saxobeat ") and Inna as well as high-rated movies like 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days , The Death of Mr. Lazarescu , 12:08 East of Bucharest or California Dreamin' (all of them with awards at

15390-475: The Romanian neuter became a mixture of masculine and feminine. The verb morphology of Romanian has shown the same move towards a compound perfect and future tense as the other Romance languages. Compared with the other Romance languages , during its evolution, Romanian simplified the original Latin tense system. Romanian is spoken mostly in Central , South-Eastern , and Eastern Europe , although speakers of

15561-404: The Romanian state in the interwar period , and by extension, to the territory Romania covered at the time. Romania achieved at that time its greatest territorial extent (almost 300,000 km (120,000 sq mi) ). At the 1930 census, there were over 18 million inhabitants in Romania. The resulting "Greater Romania" did not survive World War II. Until 1938, Romania's governments maintained

15732-590: The Soviet Union during the war, but also of many Communist activists. One was the Tudor Vladimirescu First Volunteer Division , under the command of Colonel Nicolae Cambrea , and the other the Horea, Cloșca și Crișan Division , under the command of General Mihail Lascăr (who later served as Minister of Defence from 1946 to 1947). These two units formed the nucleus of the new Romanian Land Forces under Soviet control. The postwar reorganization of

15903-548: The abdication of King Michael I and the Romanian parliament's proclamation of the Romanian People's Republic . From 1859 to 1877, Romania evolved from a personal union of two principalities : ( Moldavia and Wallachia ) called the Unification of Moldavia and Wallachia also known as "The Little Union" under a single prince to an autonomous principality with a Hohenzollern monarchy. The country gained its independence from

16074-627: The areas most exposed to a possible armored attack, and subordinated to the four army commands. Besides these, there were also nine anti-tank artillery battalions, mostly subordinated to the mechanized divisions, some equipped with Romanian made 100 mm anti-tank gun M1977 , but the majority with older Soviet production 85 mm antitank gun D-48 . Surface-to-surface missile battalions were divided into four batteries, each equipped with one missile launcher. The RLF operated 32 9K52 Luna-M short-range artillery rocket systems and 18 R-17 Elbrus tactical ballistic missile systems. Each mechanized division had

16245-430: The armed forces, for a total of 90,000 men and women. Out of the 75,000 military personnel, about 43,000 are in the Land Forces. The Romanian Land Forces are undergoing a three-stage modernisation. In 2007, the first short-term stage was completed (reorganisation of the command structure and implementation of the voluntary military service). 2015 marked the end of the second stage (operational integration in both NATO and

16416-480: The armies of the Central Powers on the Eastern Front ). The Romanian armies entered Transylvania (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), together with Russian forces. However, German forces under the command of General Erich von Falkenhayn stalled the attack in November 1916, and drove back the Romanian forces. At the same time, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman forces invaded southern Romania, forcing

16587-447: The beginning of devoicing of asyllabic [u] after consonants. Text analysis revealed words that are now lost from modern vocabulary or used only in local varieties. These words were of various provenience for example: Latin ( cure - to run, mâneca - to leave), Old Church Slavonic ( drăghicame - gem, precious stone, prilăsti - to trick, to cheat), Hungarian ( bizăntui - to bear witness). The modern age of Romanian starts in 1780 with

16758-422: The colloquial speech and writing. Outside the political arena the language is most often called "Romanian". In the breakaway territory of Transnistria, it is co-official with Ukrainian and Russian. In the 2014 census , out of the 2,804,801 people living in Moldova, 24% (652,394) stated Romanian as their most common language, whereas 56% stated Moldovan. While in the urban centers speakers are split evenly between

16929-469: The control of the Soviet Union. When the communists seized power after the Second World War, the army underwent reorganisation and sovietization . Following the Romanian Revolution of 1989, due to shortage of funds, many units were disbanded and much equipment was phased out. Likewise, Romanian military capability declined because of a lack of fuel as well as training. However, since the late 1990s,

17100-469: The counties) to be ruled by rezidenți regali (approximate translation: "Royal Residents") - appointed directly by the King. This administrative reform did not last and the counties were re-established after the fall of Carol's regime. 28 November. The union of Bukovina with Romania is declared. 1 December. The union of Transylvania with Romania is declared. This day concludes a series of unifications between

17271-540: The country Moldovan . In December 2013, a decision of the Constitutional Court of Moldova ruled that the Declaration of Independence took precedence over the Constitution and the state language should be called Romanian. In 2023, the Moldovan parliament passed a law officially adopting the designation "Romanian" in all legal instruments, implementing the 2013 court decision. Scholars agree that Moldovan and Romanian are

17442-545: The country into a two-front war. The Central Powers drove deep into Romania and conquered the southern part of the country ( Wallachia , including Bucharest) by the end of 1916. The Romanian forces, led by Marshal Constantin Prezan , retreated into the north-east part of Romania ( Moldavia ). In the summer of 1917 however, Prezan, aided by Ion Antonescu , successfully defended the remaining unoccupied territories against German and Austro-Hungarian forces led by Field Marshal August von Mackensen . General Alexandru Averescu led

17613-507: The country: The Assan and Olamazu steam mills , built in 1853 and 1862 respectively, a brick factory built in 1865, and two sugar factories built in 1873, among others. In 1857, the first oil refinery in the world was built at Ploiești . In 1880, after several railways were built, the CFR was founded. After proclamation of the Kingdom, the pre-established industrial facilities began to be highly developed: 6 more, larger, sugar factories were built and

17784-563: The destruction provoked by the First World War, Romanian industry managed significant growth, as a result of new establishments and development of the older ones. The MALAXA industrial engineering and manufacturing company was established in 1921 by Romanian industrialist Nicolae Malaxa and dealt especially with rolling stock maintenance and manufacturing. It developed rapidly, and by 1930 Romania had managed to cease importing locomotives altogether, all required rolling stock being supplied by

17955-469: The development of printing, the same alphabet was used. The period after 1780, starting with the writing of its first grammar books, represents the modern age of the language, during which time the Latin alphabet became official, the literary language was standardized, and a large number of words from Modern Latin and other Romance languages entered the lexis. In the process of language evolution from fewer than 2500 attested words from Late Antiquity to

18126-500: The differences as 'accents' or 'speeches' (in Romanian: accent or grai ). Kingdom of Romania The Kingdom of Romania ( Romanian : Regatul României ) was a constitutional monarchy that existed from 25 March ( O.S. 13 March) 1881 with the crowning of prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as King Carol I (thus beginning the Romanian royal family ), until 1947 with

18297-409: The early 1990s, some major units were disbanded and much equipment was phased out or scrapped due to a severe shortage of funds. The whole land forces structure was reorganized from armies into territorial corps, and from regiments into battalions . In the mid-1990s, the situation of the land forces was critical: the military budget was one third that of 1989 (636 million dollars), 50% of the equipment

18468-564: The economy. Already the Iron Guard had embraced the politics of assassination, and various governments had reacted more or less in kind. On 10 December 1933, Liberal prime minister Ion Duca "dissolved" the Iron Guard, arresting thousands; consequently, 19 days later he was assassinated by Iron Guard legionnaires. Throughout the 1930s, these nationalist parties had a mutually distrustful relationship with King Carol II. Nonetheless, in December 1937,

18639-603: The educated were otherwise a tiny minority. Transylvania had the most educated population in Greater Romania, while Bessarabia fared the worst. While legally all Romanians were required to undergo at least four years of schooling, in practice few actually did and the system was designed to separate those who would go on to higher education from those who would not. While this was partially necessary due to limited resources, it ensured that peasants had almost no chance of becoming educated. High school and college education in Romania

18810-518: The field on 10 November 1918, a day before the war ended in Western Europe. Following the proclamation of the union of Transylvania with the Kingdom of Romania on 1 December 1918 by the representatives of Transylvanian Romanians gathered at Alba Iulia , Transylvania was soon united with the Kingdom, as was Bessarabia earlier in 1918, since the power vacuum in Russia caused by the civil war there allowed

18981-413: The first Romanian school, and Ion Heliade Rădulescu . The end of this period is marked by the first printing of magazines and newspapers in Romanian, in particular Curierul Românesc and Albina Românească . Starting from 1831 and lasting until 1880 the modern phase is characterized by the development of literary styles: scientific, administrative, and belletristic . It quickly reached a high point with

19152-656: The first eight were delivered to the Military Police in December 2006. 31 Piranha III armoured vehicles ( LAV III variant) and 60 URO VAMTAC high mobility vehicles were also ordered in 2007 for deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan . The land forces are also purchasing additional Piranha III armored vehicles. The Land Forces ordered 227 Piranha V armoured vehicles. The first batch of 36 vehicles, produced at GDELS-Mowag's facilities in Kreuzlingen , Switzerland, entered service with

19323-692: The first locally-built warship, the minelayer NMS  Amiral Murgescu . During the war, Romania copied and produced hundreds of Soviet M1938 mortars , as well as designing and producing up to 400 75 mm Reșița Model 1943 anti-tank guns. Infantry weapons designed and produced by Romania during the war include the Orița M1941 sub-machinegun and the Argeș flamethrower . Romania also built 30 Vănătorul de care R-35 , 34 TACAM T-60 , 21 TACAM R-2 tank destroyers and rebuilt 34 captured Soviet Komsomolets armored tractors . A few prototype vehicles were also built, such as

19494-469: The form, if not always the substance, of a liberal constitutional monarchy. The National Liberal Party , dominant in the years immediately after World War I, became increasingly clientelist and nationalist , and in 1927 was supplanted in power by the National Peasants' Party . Between 1930 and 1940 there were over 25 separate governments; on several occasions in the last few years before World War II,

19665-481: The four Army Commands comprised an antiaircraft artillery brigade and an air defense missile artillery regiment (Surface-to-Air). Three of the four air defense missile regiments were equipped with 2K12 Kub systems, and the fourth regiment with 9K33 Osa SAMs in the late 1980s the artillery regiments of mechanized and tank divisions were organized into a regimental HQ, two artillery battalions and one multiple rocket launcher battalion. In terms of their combat equipment,

19836-473: The gradual development of bilingualism . Russian continued to develop as the official language of privilege, whereas Romanian remained the principal vernacular. The period from 1905 to 1917 was one of increasing linguistic conflict spurred by an increase in Romanian nationalism. In 1905 and 1906, the Bessarabian zemstva asked for the re-introduction of Romanian in schools as a "compulsory language", and

20007-592: The influence of the Mukacheve eparchy in Ukraine. The language spoken during this period had a phonological system of seven vowels and twenty-nine consonants. Particular to Old Romanian are the distribution of /z/, as the allophone of /dz/ from Common Romanian , in the Wallachian and south-east Transylvanian varieties, the presence of palatal sonorants /ʎ/ and /ɲ/, nowadays preserved only regionally in Banat and Oltenia , and

20178-427: The king appointed National Christian Party leader, the poet Octavian Goga , as prime minister of Romania's first Fascist government . Around this time, Carol met with Adolf Hitler , who expressed his wish to see a Romanian government headed by the pro-Nazi Iron Guard. Instead, on 10 February 1938 King Carol II used the occasion of a public insult by Goga toward Lupescu as a reason to dismiss the government and institute

20349-424: The king free rein to dissolve parliament and call elections at will; as a result, Romania experienced over 25 governments in a single decade. Increasingly, these governments were dominated by a number of anti-Semitic , ultra-nationalist, and mostly at least quasi-fascist parties. The National Liberal Party steadily became more nationalistic than liberal, but nonetheless lost its dominance over Romanian politics. It

20520-460: The language and use of the demonym Romanians ( Români ) for speakers of this language predates the foundation of the modern Romanian state. Romanians always used the general term rumân / român or regional terms like ardeleni (or ungureni ), moldoveni or munteni to designate themselves. Both the name of rumână or rumâniască for the Romanian language and the self-designation rumân/român are attested as early as

20691-506: The language can be found all over the world, mostly due to emigration of Romanian nationals and the return of immigrants to Romania back to their original countries. Romanian speakers account for 0.5% of the world's population, and 4% of the Romance-speaking population of the world. Romanian is the single official and national language in Romania and Moldova, although it shares the official status at regional level with other languages in

20862-531: The language, working together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Department for Romanians Abroad. Since 2013, the Romanian Language Day is celebrated on every 31 August . Romanian is the official language of the Republic of Moldova. The 1991 Declaration of Independence named the official language Romanian, and the Constitution of Moldova as originally adopted in 1994 named the state language of

21033-592: The largest Romanian-speaking community in the Middle East was found in Israel, where Romanian was spoken by 5% of the population. Romanian is also spoken as a second language by people from Arabic-speaking countries who have studied in Romania. It is estimated that almost half a million Middle Eastern Arabs studied in Romania during the 1980s. Small Romanian-speaking communities are to be found in Kazakhstan and Russia. Romanian

21204-534: The last day of 1947. The 1859 ascendancy of Alexandru Ioan Cuza as prince of both Moldavia and Wallachia under the nominal suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire united an identifiably Romanian nation under a single ruler. On 24 January ( O.S. ) / 5 February 1862, the two principalities were formally united to form the Principality of Romania , with Bucharest as its capital. On 11 ( O.S. ) / 23 February 1866

21375-737: The last of the Wehrmacht and Hungarian Army units from Romania at the battles of Turda and Carei , the Romanian armies took part in the Siege of Budapest and the Prague Offensive of May 1945. The Soviet occupation of Romania led to a complete reorganisation of the Romanian Land Forces under the supervision of the Red Army. At the onset, pro-German elements were purged from the Romanian armed forces. In 1944–45, two divisions were formed out of Romanian volunteers—ex-prisoners of war, trained and indoctrinated in

21546-649: The late 15th century and ended in the early decades of the 18th century, by which time Romanian had begun to be regularly used by the Church. The oldest Romanian texts of a literary nature are religious manuscripts ( Codicele Voronețean , Psaltirea Scheiană ), translations of essential Christian texts. These are considered either propagandistic results of confessional rivalries, for instance between Lutheranism and Calvinism , or as initiatives by Romanian monks stationed at Peri Monastery in Maramureș to distance themselves from

21717-643: The local industry. Industrial facilities acquired along with the new provinces, such as the Reșița works , also contributed to the rapid development of Romanian heavy industry. Other important establishments were the Copșa Mică works , producing non-ferrous metals and the Romanian Optical Enterprise . Construction also developed, as great monuments like the Caraiman Cross (1928), Arcul de Triumf (1936), and

21888-543: The matter in their own hands. The land reform passed in 1921 accomplished little however. Large landowners still controlled up to 30% of Romania's land, including the forests peasants depended on for fuel. The redistributed plots were invariably too small to feed their owners and most peasants could not overcome their tradition of growing grain over cash crops. Nothing was done to remedy basic problems such as rural overpopulation and technological backwardness. Draft animals were rare, to say nothing of machinery, actual productivity

22059-519: The media regarding the forgery of the census results. The Constitution of the Republic of Serbia determines that in the regions of the Republic of Serbia inhabited by national minorities, their own languages and scripts shall be officially used as well, in the manner established by law. The Statute of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina determines that, together with the Serbian language and

22230-432: The mid-1930s, the Romanian economy recovered and the industry grew significantly, although about 80% of Romanians were still employed in agriculture. French economic and political influence was predominant in the early 1920s but then Germany became more dominant, especially in the 1930s. As the 1930s progressed, Romania's already shaky democracy slowly deteriorated toward fascist dictatorship. The constitution of 1923 gave

22401-559: The modern Soviet T-72 "Ural-1", to a number of Romanian TR-77-580 and Soviet T-55A tanks, and to the outdated T-34 -85 tanks. The predominantly defensive structure of the Romanian Land Forces was also highlighted by the five anti-tank (missile-artillery) regiments (each with 36 Romanian made 100 mm anti-tank gun M1977 and 12 ATGM launcher vehicle based on BRDM-2 4x4 scout armoured car a.k.a. 9P133 "Malyutka" (with 9M14 Malyutka anti-tank guided missiles) and 9P148 "Konkurs" (with 9M113 Konkurs anti-tank guided missiles), placed especially in

22572-555: The monarchy in 1947. For more than a decade after the formal union of the two principalities, Romania was still nominally a vassal of the Ottoman Empire. However, this was increasingly a legal fiction. Romania had its own flag and anthem, and from 1867 had its own currency as well. Following the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 , Romania was recognized as an independent state by the Treaty of Berlin, 1878 and acquired Dobruja , although it

22743-409: The northern dialect. Two other languages, Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian , developed from the southern version of Common Romanian. These two languages are now spoken in lands to the south of the Jireček Line . Of the features that individualize Common Romanian, inherited from Latin or subsequently developed, of particular importance are: The use of the denomination Romanian ( română ) for

22914-475: The official language with the Constitution of 1923 . Romanian has preserved a part of the Latin declension , but whereas Latin had six cases , from a morphological viewpoint, Romanian has only three: the nominative / accusative , genitive / dative , and marginally the vocative . Romanian nouns also preserve the neuter gender , although instead of functioning as a separate gender with its own forms in adjectives,

23085-447: The past few years, replacing them with more modern equipment. The TR-85 M1 "Bizon" main battle tank and the MLI-84 M "Jder" infantry fighting vehicle are the most modern, domestically produced equipment of the Romanian Land Forces. Also, 43 ex-German Flakpanzer Gepard anti-aircraft systems were commissioned in late 2004. The Land Forces ordered about 100 United States Army Humvees ;

23256-480: The printing in 1780 of Elementa linguae daco-romanae sive valachicae , the pre-modern phase was characterized by the publishing of school textbooks, appearance of first normative works in Romanian, numerous translations, and the beginning of a conscious stage of re-latinization of the language. Notable contributions, besides that of the Transylvanian School , are the activities of Gheorghe Lazăr , founder of

23427-655: The printing in Vienna of a very important grammar book titled Elementa linguae daco-romanae sive valachicae . The author of the book, Samuil Micu-Klein , and the revisor, Gheorghe Șincai , both members of the Transylvanian School , chose to use Latin as the language of the text and presented the phonetical and grammatical features of Romanian in comparison to its ancestor. The Modern age of Romanian language can be further divided into three phases: pre-modern or modernizing between 1780 and 1830, modern phase between 1831 and 1880, and contemporary from 1880 onwards. Beginning with

23598-518: The printing of Dacia Literară , a journal founded by Mihail Kogălniceanu and representing a literary society, which together with other publications like Propășirea and Gazeta de Transilvania spread the ideas of Romantic nationalism and later contributed to the formation of other societies that took part in the Revolutions of 1848 . Their members and those that shared their views are collectively known in Romania as "of '48"( pașoptiști ),

23769-432: The program to modernize and restructure the armed forces began on 11 April 2000. In 2005, the army comprised eight combat, four combat support, and two logistic brigades , while ten combat, five combat support and two logistic brigades were further mobilised in case of crisis. Many of these units have been reorganized as part of the 2007 Force Plan . Currently, about 75,000 military personnel and 15,000 civilians comprise

23940-400: The provinces that became part of the state after World War I ( Bessarabia , Banat , Bukovina , and Transylvania ). With the exception of the southern halves of Bukovina and Transylvania , these territories were ceded to neighboring countries in 1940, under the pressure of Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union . Following the abolishment of the 1923 constitution by King Carol II in 1938,

24111-411: The railway network was expanded more. Another, more modern brick factory was built in 1891. Despite all of these industrial achievements, the overwhelming majority of Romania's economy remained agricultural. In 1919, a staggering 72% of Romanians were engaged in agriculture. The Romanian peasantry was among the poorest in the region, a situation aggravated by one of Europe's highest birth rates. Farming

24282-472: The regional varieties are small, limited to regular phonetic changes, few grammar aspects, and lexical particularities. There is a single written and spoken standard (literary) Romanian language used by all speakers, regardless of region. Like most natural languages, Romanian dialects are part of a dialect continuum . The dialects of Romanian are also referred to as 'sub-dialects' and are distinguished primarily by phonetic differences. Romanians themselves speak of

24453-555: The rest of the Cold War." From 1947 to 1960 the country seems to have been divided into three major military regions: Cluj , Bacău , and Bucharest in the west, east, and south, respectively. In wartime the land forces in each military region would become an army corps with their headquarters in Cluj-Napoca, Iași , and Bucharest. Armies seem to have succeeded military regions in 1960, and three armies seem to have become four in 1980. What

24624-426: The result being the most effective field howitzer in Europe at that time. Romania even managed to design and build from scratch its own model of mortar, the 250 mm Negrei Model 1916. Other Romanian technological assets include the building of Vlaicu III , the world's first aircraft made of metal. The Romanian Navy possessed the largest warships on the Danube. They were a class of 4 river monitors, built locally at

24795-459: The revolution, the units suffered from a lack of funds which resulted in the temporary disbandment of the 313th Battalion. However, their equipment was completely overhauled in the past few years and the combat readiness and capabilities have regained full strength. The Special Detachment of Protection and Intervention (DSPI), former Rapid Intervention Squad (DIR) of the Ministry of Defence is an elite special operations unit currently belonging to

24966-413: The rifle and mechanised divisions were converted to mechanized (motorized rifle) divisions, and reductions in strength began. Rottman writes that "force size dropped to six mechanized and two armored divisions by 1970 [actually 1968]. From 1970 to 1976, three more motor rifle divisions were formed, but one was deactivated in 1977, and the eight motor rifle and two armored division figure remained that way for

25137-464: The rivalry between the fascist Iron Guard and other political groupings approached the level of a civil war. Upon the death of King Ferdinand in 1927, his son, Prince Carol , was prevented from succeeding him because of previous marital scandals that had resulted in his renunciation of rights to the throne. After living three years in exile, with his brother Nicolae serving as regent and his young son Michael as king, Carol changed his mind and with

25308-543: The same language, with the glottonym "Moldovan" used in certain political contexts. It has been the sole official language since the adoption of the Law on State Language of the Moldavian SSR in 1989. This law mandates the use of Moldovan in all the political, economic, cultural and social spheres, as well as asserting the existence of a "linguistic Moldo-Romanian identity". It is also used in schools, mass media, education and in

25479-757: The state had to speak Romanian. The new state was also a highly centralized one, so it was unlikely that the Hungarian or German minorities would exercise political influence without personal connections in the government in Bucharest. Despite these policies, the Romanian government permitted both Germans and Hungarians the freedom to have separate schools, publications and judicial hearings in their respective languages. These rights were not extended to other minorities, Jews in particular. The Romanian expression România Mare (literal translation "Great Romania", but more commonly rendered in English: "Greater Romania") generally refers to

25650-478: The support of the ruling National Peasants' Party he returned and proclaimed himself king. Iuliu Maniu , leader of the National Peasants' Party, engineered Carol's return on the basis of a promise that he would forsake his mistress Magda Lupescu , and Lupescu herself had agreed to the arrangement. However, it became clear upon Carol's first re-encounter with his former wife, Elena , that he had no interest in

25821-473: The two names (with the capital Chișinău showing a strong preference for the name "Romanian", i.e. 3:2), in the countryside hardly a quarter of Romanian/Moldovan speakers indicated Romanian as their native language. Unofficial results of this census first showed a stronger preference for the name Romanian, however the initial reports were later dismissed by the Institute for Statistics, which led to speculations in

25992-495: The unrecognised state of Transnistria , Moldovan is one of the official languages. However, unlike all other dialects of Romanian, this variety of Moldovan is written in Cyrillic script . Romanian is taught in some areas that have Romanian minority communities, such as Vojvodina in Serbia, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Hungary. The Romanian Cultural Institute (ICR) has since 1992 organised summer courses in Romanian for language teachers. There are also non-Romanians who study Romanian as

26163-428: The use of Romanian in official government publications, public education and legal contracts. Advertisements as well as other public messages must bear a translation of foreign words, while trade signs and logos shall be written predominantly in Romanian. The Romanian Language Institute (Institutul Limbii Române), established by the Ministry of Education of Romania, promotes Romanian and supports people willing to study

26334-537: The vernacular spoken in this large area and, to a much smaller degree, the influences from native dialects , and in the context of a lessened power of the Roman central authority the language evolved into Common Romanian . This proto-language then came into close contact with the Slavic languages and subsequently divided into Aromanian , Megleno-Romanian , Istro-Romanian , and Daco-Romanian. Due to limited attestation between

26505-621: The war following the October Revolution , Romania, being almost completely surrounded by the Central Powers, was forced to also drop from the war, signing the Armistice of Focșani and next year, in May 1918, the Treaty of Bucharest . But after the successful offensive on the Thessaloniki front which put Bulgaria out of the war, Romania's government quickly reasserted control and put an army back into

26676-463: The war, Romania acquired from France the licence to produce hundreds of Brandt Mle 27/31 and Brandt Mle 1935 mortars, with hundreds more produced during the war, and also the licence to produce 140 French 47 mm Schneider anti-tank guns at the Concordia factory, with 118 produced between 26 May 1939 and 1 August 1940 and hundreds more produced during the war; these guns were to be towed by Malaxa Tip UE armored carriers, built since late 1939 at

26847-406: Was achieved when, under the auspices of the Treaty of Paris (1856) , the ad hoc Divans of both countries – which were under Imperial Ottoman suzerainty at the time – voted for Alexander Ioan Cuza as their prince, thus achieving a de facto unification. The region itself is defined by the result of that political act, followed by the inclusion of Northern Dobruja in 1878, the proclamation of

27018-410: Was acquired in 1938 to produce 360 37 mm Rheinmetall anti-aircraft guns , but only 102 were produced until May 1941. British licence was acquired to produce 100 Vickers Model 1931 75 mm anti-aircraft guns at the Reșița works , with the first battery of 6 guns entering service on 1 August 1939, and 100 more guns were built during the war for a total production of 200. On 14 June, Romania launched

27189-445: Was composed on 22 June 1941 of the 3rd Army , the 4th Army , the 2nd Army Corps, and the 11th Infantry Division. The 3rd Army comprised the 4th Army Corps (6th and 7th Infantry Divisions), the Cavalry Corps, the Mountain Corps , two separate artillery battalions, a TA unit, and the Air Force's 3rd Army Cooperation Command. The 4th Army consisted of the 3rd Army Corps, the 5th Army Corps, the 11th Army Corps (two fortress brigades), and

27360-404: Was considered one of the most modern field guns on the Western Front. The Romanian armament industry was expanded greatly during the Interwar period and World War II. New factories were constructed, such as the Industria Aeronautică Română and Societatea Pentru Exploatări Tehnice aircraft factories, which produced hundreds of indigenous aircraft, such as IAR 37 , IAR 80 , and SET 7 . Before

27531-421: Was divided into 33 counties. After World War I, as a result of the 1925 administrative unification law, the territory was divided into 71 counties, 489 districts ( plăși ) and 8,879 communes . In 1938, King Carol II promulgated a new Constitution , and subsequently he had the administrative division of the Romanian territory changed. Ten ținuturi (approximate translation: "lands") were created (by merging

27702-517: Was eclipsed by parties like the (relatively moderate) National Peasants' Party and its more radical Romanian Front offshoot, the National-Christian Defense League (LANC) and the Iron Guard . In 1935, LANC merged with the National Agrarian Party to form the National Christian Party (NCP). The quasi-mystical fascist Iron Guard was an earlier LANC offshoot that, even more than these other parties, exploited nationalist feelings, fear of communism, and resentment of alleged foreign and Jewish domination of

27873-404: Was forced to surrender southern Bessarabia ( Budjak ) to Russia. On 15 March 1881, as an assertion of full sovereignty, the Romanian parliament raised the country to the status of a kingdom, and Carol was crowned king on 10 May. The new state, squeezed between the Ottoman , Austro-Hungarian , and Russian Empires, with Slavic populations on its southwestern, southern, and northeastern borders,

28044-512: Was mainly focused on converting various fortification guns into field and anti-aircraft artillery. Up to 334 German 53 mm Fahrpanzer guns, 93 French 57 mm Hotchkiss guns, 66 Krupp 150 mm guns and dozens more 210 mm guns were mounted on Romanian-built carriages and transformed into mobile field artillery, with 45 Krupp 75 mm guns and 132 Hotchkiss 57 mm guns being transformed into anti-aircraft artillery. The Romanians also upgraded 120 German Krupp 105 mm howitzers,

28215-419: Was modeled after the French system. Students undertook a rigid curriculum based around the liberal arts. Romania suffered from the same problem as the rest of Eastern Europe, which was that most students, coming from aristocratic backgrounds, preferred to study subjects such as theology, philosophy, literature and the fine arts over science, business, and engineering. After Independence, the Romanian Old Kingdom

28386-433: Was older than 30 years, and 60% of the armoured vehicles and 85% of the missile units were non-operational. Due to lack of fuel and training, the level of combat readiness and military capability was extremely low (only about 30% of the entire land forces were operational). However, after 1996 the government took serious action; the military budget was increased greatly, and modernisation of equipment commenced. Officially,

28557-441: Was primitive and machinery and chemical fertilizers almost unheard of. The Regat (prewar Romania) was traditionally a land of large estates worked by peasants who either had little or no land of their own. The situation in Transylvania and Bessarabia was marginally better. After peasant calls for land reform snowballed into an avalanche, King Ferdinand had to oblige, especially once the Russian Revolution had encouraged peasants to take

28728-425: Was published in Vienna in 1780. Following the annexation of Bessarabia by Russia in 1812, Moldavian was established as an official language in the governmental institutions of Bessarabia , used along with Russian, The publishing works established by Archbishop Gavril Bănulescu-Bodoni were able to produce books and liturgical works in Moldavian between 1815 and 1820. Bessarabia during the 1812–1918 era witnessed

28899-462: Was to become the Romanian War of Independence . They participated in the Siege of Plevna and several other battles. The Romanians won the war, but suffered about 10,000 casualties (dead and wounded). The Romanian Army entered the Second Balkan War against Bulgaria , allowing Romania to annex Southern Dobruja (also known as the Cadrilater). Although some 330,000 troops were mobilised, the Romanians met little resistance in Bulgaria and as such this

29070-411: Was used until the late 19th century. The letter is the oldest testimony of Romanian epistolary style and uses a prevalent lexis of Latin origin. However, dating by watermarks has shown the Hurmuzaki Psalter is a copy from around the turn of the 16th century. The slow process of Romanian establishing itself as an official language, used in the public sphere, in literature and ecclesiastically, began in

29241-452: Was worse than before. Romanian agriculture struggled in the international market, and with the onset of the Great Depression , collapsed completely. Romania's 1913 GDP at the 1990 exchange rate amounted to $ 11.7 billion. However, the 1990 dollar was 9.27 times weaker than the 1938 dollar. Thus, Romania's 1913 GDP at the 1938 exchange rate amounted to $ 1.262 billion. The 1938 Romanian GDP amounted to 387.204 billion lei, with

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