Romanian Policy Towards Germany, 1936-40 by Rebecca s> Haynes (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS i6i lost most of itspolitical significancealreadyby I922, when a defence pact had been rejected by the Finnish parliament. Thereafter, relations had been strainedby severalfactors,including large scale Estonian smugglingof spirits into Finland, which had introduced Prohibition in I9I9. On the part of the Estonians,therewas also resentmentwith regardto the supposed'bigbrother' attitudesof the Finns. Andre Sahlstrom'sbook covers the period I934-38, duringwhich Estonia adopted Pats's dictatorship and Finland in turn got a broad-based left-andcentre coalition government and, in foreignpolicy, adopted the Scandinavian orientation. Sahlstrom's theme is the Estonian constitutional crisis and its impact on Finnish-Estonian relations. The central issue, which took the attentionof both partiesduringtheseyears,was a miscarriedplan fora rightist coup d'&tat in Estoniain I935. The abortivecoup did not claim casualties,but it was establishedthat there were Finnish connections: Finnish dynamite and hand grenadeshad been procuredby Estonianemigrantswho lived in Finland in cooperation with Finnish rightistelements, especiallywith members of the leadershipof the youth organizationof the Finnishradicalrightistparty,IKL. The case was discussed in the press and on the Estonian side and there was quite a lot of resentment regarding the alleged Finnish protection of the Estoniandiversionistactivity.Yet,thisaccusationlackedfoundation. Estonian resentment must ratherbe viewed in a largercontext: Finnishcriticismof the Estonian political system was seen to be condescending. The 'war of words' over the Gulf of Finland was not without political consequences. Finland, which officiallyadopted the Scandinavianorientationin I935, was stillfurther estranged from Estonia. Both countries went definitively their own way. In Finland, the scandal of the Estonian conspiracy still further estranged lawabidingcitizensfromthe rightistradicals,whose prestige,popularityand even organizationalresourceswere gravelyaffected. Sahlstrom'sbook is based on Estonian and Finnish archival material, the press and even interviews. Also some documents from the Public Record Office have been used. The book is not only a thorough analysisof its subject; it also contains a detailed presentation of the respectiveinstitutionsand ideas of Estonianand Finnishpoliticallife and the radicalrightduringthe period. Renvall Institute TIMo VIHAVAINEN University ofHelsinki Haynes, Rebecca. Romanian PolicyTowards Germany, 1936-40. Studiesin Russia and East Europe. Macmillan, Basingstoke,and SSEES, London, 2000. Viii + 205 pp. Notes. Bibliography.Index. [42.50. THE crux of the Romanian challenge in internationalaffairsbetween the two world wars was to protect the integrity of the almost improbably enhanced Greater Romania including Transylvania,Bessarabia, and Dobrogea that the capricious contingencies of the first war had conferred on the relativelyyoung nation-state. The most influentialRomanian diplomat of the period, Nicolae Titulescu, believed that the essentialmeans of doing so was to forestalla resuscitationof Bismarck'ssystem of German alliance with Russia. I62 SEER, 8o, I, 2002 When Hitler came to power in I933, Titulescu began to advocate Soviet designs on Bessarabia and Romanian distaste for Bolshevism notwithstanding a treatyof mutualdefensewith Moscow as an indispensableelement of collective security. He warned that it was the only realistic alternative to a Nazi-Soviet pact leading firstto a new partitionof Polandand subsequentlyto the division of all of eastern Europe between its two flanking super-powers. Titulescu and his policy were decisively repudiated in August I936, and thereafter Romania looked first to the dubious wisdom and fortitude of the Anglo-French before despairing and finding itself forced to choose between the Soviet Union with which it had a territorialdispute and Germany with which it did not. Germany seemed the lesser evil, and perhaps, from the perspectiveof I944-48 and following, it was. There were severalfactorsthat influencedthe preferencefor Germany:the natural sympathies of King Carol II (Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen); native Romanian fascism (the Iron Guard) and anti-semitism;the palpable Soviet threatboth militarilyand ideologically;the undeniable decline of France;and thediplomaticinfluenceof Romania'sallies(PolandandYugoslaviaespecially) and enemies (especiallyHungarybackedby Germanyand Italy). The leading worksin the field in which Haynes's new book appearsare, in order of importance, Dov B. Lungu, Romaniaand theGreatPowers,I933--40 (Durham, NC, I989), Viorica Moisuc, Diploma4iaRomaniei i problemaaparrari suveranitadii ?i independenlei nafionaleznperioadamartie1938-mai I940 (Bucharest, I97 I), and loan Talpe?, Diploma4ie?i aparare. coordonateale politicii externe romane?ti,I933-39 (Bucharest, I988). The thesis of her work is that the Romanian historianshave over-emphasized the commitment of Romania to collective security and the helplessness of the state in the face of the rise of fascism and the decline of the victors of Versailles.In particular,she stresses native sources...