“An Ambush” (Zasadzka) by Feliks Sypniewski, depicting the Battle of Koźmin in 1497 (source: Wikipedia)
This is a fragment of the former Polish hymn of Bukovyna, which helped them to survive in difficult times. It is still alive in Bucovina, the northwestern part of Moldova, which was divided between Romania, the newly formed Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic and Ukraine (part of the USSR) after World War II. Moldova is one of the lands included in Romania. In addition to it, there is Transylvania in the west and Wallachia (with the capital of the country Bucharest) in the south, which is the most indigenous part of the country. The political existence constructed in this way is relatively young, and when Poland in 2018 was celebrating the 100th anniversary of regaining independence, the Romanians were celebrating the 100th anniversary of their country.
Map: Romania and Moldova, source: Wikipedia
The history of the presence of Poles in Romania
The first Poles probably appeared within the borders of modern Romania during the reign of Kazimierz the Great, but the real intensification of the Polish presence and expansion in these areas dates back to the Jagiellonian dynasty and is mainly associated with the Moldavian land.
Poland tried to control these areas, being aware of its strategic values. Access to the Black Sea, especially the ports in the Danube Delta, blocking the Ottoman Empire, controlling trade routes; including the road connecting Halych Ruthenia with the urban clusters of the lower Danube, but above all the so-called “Moldavian road” connecting the Black Sea with the West was important not only for Poles. Slavic, Arab, Jewish and Armenian merchants traveled here.
Today, there are about 2,500 Poles officially registered in Romania. Another several hundred people live here temporarily with their families on contracts. Poles are an officially recognised national minority and there is even a Pole in the Romanian parliament. However, anyone who measured the scale of Polish-Romanian historical, economic and geostrategic relations by the number of Poles living here, who today constitute only about a tenth of a single percentage point of Romanian society (19 million), would be wrong.
Crush zone
The history of Poland’s struggle for these areas is a topic for a separate essay. Polish kings and often magnates interfered in the affairs of Moldova, whose hospodars had to seek support from outside in order to stay in power. Today we would say that these were typical struggles for being in a crush zone, whose leaders had to choose between Poland, Hungary, the Ottoman Empire or the Cossacks, and later other nations. Feliks Koneczny wrote in the book “Historical Geography”: “… a lot of Polish blood was spilled, because it was here that people faced Turczyn, and Polish leaders often risked the betrayal of the hospodars …”. Such moments include the expedition of King Jan Olbracht from 1497, among others, who wanted to capture the Danube port of Chilia. The excursion ended in failure, and on the way back the Poles suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Koźmin (20 thousand captured) – this battle gave rise to the saying that “the nobility died for King Olbracht” during the reign of Jan III Sobieski.
The local nobility, mostly educated in Poland, owned estates there and formed a Polonophile party in Moldova. Their goal was to liberate Moldova from Turkish oppression; these plans were unsuccessful, and with the fall of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth they disappeared. To this day, however, when traveling around these areas, you can come across Polish accents by visiting monuments (e.g. the castle in Suceava besieged by Poles), visiting Polish villages in Bukovina (e.g. Poiana Mikuli, Plesza, Nowy Sołoniec), and local naughty children are sometimes told scare stories of Sobieski in the mould of Polish stories about Baba Yaga…
Entrance to the Polish village of Pojana Mikuli, Bukowina (author’s photo)
The Polish-Romanian alliance
After the First World War, Romania, being from 1916 on the side of the Entente countries, received Transylvania from Hungary and additionally annexed Bessarabia – a part of Moldova that it lost to Russia in 1812. The so-called “Greater Romania”, so proclaimed in 1918, was linked with Poland not only by a common border, but from 1921 by a military alliance. This was a mutual aid treaty against Soviet aggression, which Romania also feared, not even having diplomatic relations with the USSR due to the annexation of Bessarabia. An interesting fact is that to this day in Chisinau (the current capital of Moldova, at that time Romanian-occupied Bessarabia) there is a bust of Marshal Piłsudski, who was there in 1932 during military maneuvers. He was accommodated in the only foreign consulate in Chisinau, i.e. the Polish one. The alliance lasted until the outbreak of war in 1939. As we know, as a consequence of the USSR’s attack on Poland, our authorities (including the President, Prime Minister and the Supreme Commander) left the country through the Romanian border.
Romania in the Second World War
Romania itself, like Poland, was a victim of the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, in her case Stalin guaranteed himself the return of part of Bessarabia, which happened in 1940. Until 1944, Romania remained in alliance with Germany, and the oil fields extracted in its area (e.g. the city of Ploiesti) were a strategic resource for the Wehrmacht. As Viktor Suvorov wrote in his book “Icebreaker: Who Started the Second World War?”, Hitler was afraid of the attack of the Soviet Union and the occupation of these areas. If Stalin had succeeded in this, the Second World War could have ended much faster for the Germans. Today, Romania’s land deposits are rather exhausted, but much is said about the possible greater potential of oil and gas in the Black Sea, which would make Romania a net exporter of these raw materials.
Problems with neighbours
Another common geostrategic denominator of Poland and Romania is the current political environment. The Kaliningrad Oblast hangs over Poland, and in the east we have Belarus, a country that is economically and culturally infiltrated by Russia. Romania has as a neighbour a politically unstable Moldova, with pro-Russian authorities, and most of all Transnistria, i.e. the eastern part of Moldova. This land, inhabited mostly by Russians and Ukrainians, rebelled after the collapse of the USSR, fearing the plans to connect Romania and Moldova. An armed conflict ensued in which the 14th Russian Army stationed here took part. The commander of this army was Alexander Lebed, known for his later political career in Russia. The conflict ended without a resolution, but Transnistria remains a rebellious part of Moldova, not recognising power in Chisinau. At one time, Vladimir Putin officially proposed annexing Transnistria to the Russian Federation and Moldova to Romania…
Does the country with which we have so much in common: history, the same threat, common strategic goals in the form of the Intermarium and Three Seas concept, have sufficient strategic attention with us?
Poland is a very important trade partner for Romania, being the 6th most important export country and 4th in terms of imports with a negative trade balance. For Poland, Romania is only the 15th exporting country. In this context, it is surprising that there is no Polish-Romanian chamber of commerce that would help Polish companies enter this market, especially since countries of much less importance for Romania have such organisations present. Cooperation, especially in strategic areas, is certainly not facilitated by the highly unstable political scene in Romania. A year ago, in September, intergovernmental consultations were held in Bucharest with the participation of our prime minister and the heads of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of National Defence. Two months later, the government changed, which has been operating as a minority since then and has struggled several times with the vote of no confidence.
Photo: Romanian-Polish intergovernmental consultations, Bucharest, September 2019 (source: www.nineoclock.ro)
From the military side, there is the Polish contingent that has been stationed in Romania since July 2017 under the so-called Adapted Forward Presence forces. It consists of about 230 soldiers supported by 14 Rosomaks. It is located in the south of Craiova, so from the point of view of the main directions of threats, i.e. Moldova or the Black Sea region, it has a strategic, rather limited significance.
American policy
The American voice resounds strongly in Romania and Poland. The way of narration, the selection of topics, resembles what we are witnessing on the Wisła. Objectively speaking, Romania is under even greater pressure when it comes to the Chinese thread due to significant investments by Huawei, which has a regional office in this country with over 2,000 employees. There was also much talk about the port of Constanta as the centre of the new Chinese silk road. Meanwhile, the current US ambassador Zuckerman repeats the mantra “Huawei is the wrong way” with every public appearance, and it seems that the Americans are winning this tug of war so far. Romania has just withdrawn from a contract with a Chinese company for the expansion of a nuclear power plant (the Americans will do it) and OBOR will probably go through the port in Piraeus or Thessaloniki. US-Romanian relations are especially important, given that a large NATO airport/base (Mihail Kogălniceanu) is located next to Constanta, which is absolutely key to controlling the entire Black Sea basin and the Middle East. Romania has already pledged to expand it at a cost of EUR 2.5 billion so that it can accommodate up to 10,000 soldiers and adapt it to service F-35 aircraft, which they are to buy from the USA soon.
Outside of Schengen
The port of Constanta has one more strategic importance – this is the unofficial reason why Romania remains outside the Schengen area to this day. This is mainly opposed by the Dutch, who fear the growing importance of Constanta at the expense of their home port in Rotterdam. It seems that from the Polish point of view, the expansion of the Port of Constanta in conjunction with the expansion of the Via Carpatia road would fit in with the Intermarium concept. We could win a lot if we supported the Romanians in this issue, which, apart from the obvious economic values, is of enormous moral and image importance for them.
When there is much in common and almost nothing separating
Overall, Romania has all the features to become our leading ally. Poland has a strong historical and economic base that should be further developed. It is also impossible to overestimate the fact that Poles are liked and respected in Romania, and we do not have any territorial (like Romania with Hungary) or historical disputes (like the case of the Banderites with Ukraine).
Autor
Marcin Molin
General Manager for Philips South East Europe. He based his professional career on working for international corporations. The possibility of living in many countries and working with many cultures changed his perspective of looking at and understanding the way the world works. He draws his energy to act from long journeys, having special fondness for Africa. What is noteworthy as a hobby is balancing the noise of three children - playing the drums and running together with wife.
Strategy&Future
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