Why didn't Romania join the invasion of Czechoslovakia of 1968?
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- Опубліковано 18 чер 2021
- Why didn't Romania join the invasion of Czechoslovakia of 1968?
As the Soviet Union worked tirelessly to keep the Iron Curtain up and strong after the second world war, Czechoslovakia unintentionally became a threat to this objective. As a satellite state of the Union, Czechoslovakia was meant to remain a firm communist-led country, just like the rest of the Eastern Bloc. So, when a new Czech government began a process of reform known as the “Prague Spring”, the Soviet Union quickly became concerned. In hopes of quelling these liberating reform efforts, the Soviets reached out to their Warsaw Pact allies to plan an invasion into Czechoslovakia and intervene. Poland, Bulgaria, East Germany, and Hungary subsequently threw their support behind this Soviet plan - but two nations refused to do so. Both Albania and Romania were unwilling to join the invasion, and Romania’s Nicolae Ceaușescu went out of his way to condemn the operation.
So what made Romania so unwilling to join the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia?...
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♦Background music by Epidemic Sound
♦Sources :
Promises of 1968: Crisis, Illusion, and Utopia
by Central European University Press : amzn.to/3cUPoPd
The Greengrocer and His TV: The Culture of Communism after the 1968 Prague Spring by Cornell University Press: amzn.to/3cRPl70
1968: The Year That Rocked the World by Ballantine Books :
amzn.to/3xoZ6RQ
www.globalsecurity.org/milita...
♦Script & Research :
Skylar Gordon
#History #Documentary #ColdWar
I am Romanian and i remember that i saw in 2019 on the house of the czech delegation in Bucharest a sign: U havent "visited " us in 68 so we invite u to visit is today
Serios?Wow asta da mândrie naţională
@@thegodofmischief8141 ti am dat like pt numele de profil... XD
@@MRS160 ms
that is so coooool we should have more countires doing that kind of friendship in this days
We also visited in 1944; but unlike others, we left a.s.a.p.
Thank you Romania and Albania for not invading from Slovakia
you welcome
No problem 🇷🇴🤝🇸🇰
I didn’t even know about this, cooperation between these countries to do what the imperialist countries did in the 16-19 centuries…kind of late, right? I was too young in ‘68 to hear about this invasion, but it wasn’t covered in any history class during the 70s.
🇦🇱🤝🇸🇰❤
No problem ❤️ from Albania 🇦🇱
Damn. As a Czech, I didn't know Romania did this, that's awesome. Romania was one of our only true allies before WW2, it liberated a great part of Czechoslovakia, paying with Romanian lives. And now this. Thanks.
@solish- two of my great Uncles fought in Tatra Mountains, after they fought from 41 to 44 on Eastern Front. We had to finish the Nazis who first gave some Romanian territories to USSR in 1940, then forced us into the Axis alliance. In the summer of 1944 we have turned the arms against Germany, otherwise USSR would had have obliterated our country.
Romanians and our ancestors, the Thracians were always good and open-hearted people. Sadly, because of this many nations took advantage and occupied Romanian land, including Hungarians, Russians, Ukrainians, Bulgarians and Serbs. As a Romanian, this saddens me deeply, but, as a Christian, I forgive them.
❤️
Death to communism!
@@dncviorel adevărat. Thracian nu Dacian
I'm Romanian and mom tells me the day Ceausescu refused to support the invasion of Czechoslovakia was a day of extreme national pride for all Romanians.
while I wasn't born at that time, at last our dear Romania didn't get invaded too after Ceausescu's speech. I'd imagine the pride of the people would turn to horror fast if it was invaded from all sides minus Yugoslavia with which we had good relations.
@@George-Chris Could be. After all, he did alert the army to be on guard for an attack. It was a smart move nevertheless. Risky, but smart. Right after that speech, the US have opened their embassy in Bucharest, Nixon came to visit, we got access to technology from the west and so on. I believe that speech was the only time when Ceausescu was cheered with honesty and not as an obligation.
@@marcfaur yeah but neither the army nor the population could stave off the Soviets, as seen in 1940 and 1944 when they were smashing us. Let alone the Soviets combined with the rest of the Warsaw pact. It was almost a suicidal act of Ceaușescu, even if bravery. We were lucky that the US and China backed us, otherwise we'd have the same fate as Czechoslovakia and Hungary when they rebelled.
Also, didn't help much that the West gave us access to better technology and money, because Ceaușescu didn't know how to use that and made lots of useless factories and spent the money poorly while hiding his stupidity (even if he had good intentions), and when the West found out (Ion Mihai Pacepa being the biggest figure I'd say), they cut ties with us and forced Romania to pay off its debts. So the 80's could have been avoided with the starvation, yet Ceausescu's propaganda worked great since even today people praise him for paying off the debt when that could have been avoided if he and his wife weren't stupid.
@@George-Chris Don't think I'm taking his side. But access to better technology also yielded a few good results. Take the nuclear power plant as an example. Ours functions with Canadian technology as opposed to Soviet and thus it's the only one in the region that is allowed to function today.
Спасибо
Im from Slovakia and now i respect Romania even more 🇸🇰🇷🇴
👍
A am from romania and i love slovakia
We respect our Slavic brothers,tortured by the same country,Soviet union, Ceaușescu was not a nice guy. He didn't do anything good for us. Believe it or not,he made everything worse. People on his side just switched parties,same shit,same corruption.stay strong !
😊 🇷🇴🤝🇸🇰 Thx!
don't man , there were pragmatic reasons for Ceausescu not to side with the Soviets...it was all politics! Anyways Slovakia rocks...
Thank you Romania🇨🇿🇷🇴
🇷🇴🤝🇨🇿
🙌🏼🤝
🍺
👊👍✌️
God bless! Sorry that you had to split from Slovakia in 1993.
While I did my erasmus in Prague last year, I went to a small neighborhood bar. There were alot of old people there, trying to talk in english with me, and when they figured I was romanian, they happly bought me a few drinks, while telling me about how Romania stood with the Czech people back then.
Ahoj from Romania ✌️
Bună from Slovakia
Waaaw😮
Those Czechs must have been over 60 yrs old. :) But I feel your pride, it's OK. ;) I also lived in Prague for 3,5 years. Nobody really cared if I said I was from Romania but if I mentioned Hungary they got excited thinking about the unique food, wine and wonderful women from Hungary. I guess these things in the present are more important than ruthless politics from 50 years ago. Life is happening now. Peace! :)
@empty Really? :))) Your name is EMPTY! You got...nothing. ;)
As Czech I love Romania for this reason...
As a Romanian, I feel honoured for you to say that. Long live our nations!
As Slovak I love now Romania too :)
@@narttilplaysblitz4126 Yes mate, cheers to our nations!
🇷🇴🤝🇨🇿
Dekuju!
I am slovak and I have known this since I was about 5 years old. My dad used to say that because of this gesture he considers Romanians our brothers. He also said that they are some of the best soldiers that bow down to none. For this I have always felt thankful and also connection to Romanians as well as respect.👍👍👍
Those were very dangerous times. With his speech, Ceausescu put the ussr in an uncofortable position. They had to deal with another rogue state. In September the same year they were ready to invade from Ukraine, but met the romanian army at the boders. An army of about 500k men and all the available equipment were ready to fight to the last. Of course, they could have never won against the ussr, but the bloodshed would have been immense. So the ussr puled back. A military confrontation with Romania would have been a political suicide for them.
To be fair, the US and China also intervened to cool down the situation. Romania and China had excellent relations so the USSR could not risk also alienating China.
Respekt my brother From Romania!
My great-grandfather came back from Tatra Mountains after the ww2. He walked to Cernauti, took the train to Bucharest and then walked again to his house and kids in the Bucegi Mountains.
I've listened to war stories from him. He died in 2002 at 94yr old. He was full of bayonette scars and had PTSD. He was a warm man, but also cold and tough motherfcker.
He fought both russians and germans but the most proud he was when he was telling how he gutted out russians with the bayonette that we were sacrificing the pig every Christmas..
✌️❤️ to all the honest people!!!
As a Slovak, thanks 🇷🇴🇦🇱
Why Albanian flag?
@@Stefan_2003 they also didnt invade see the video
@@Stefan_2003 not just not invade, but protest against the invasion..
@Darth Revan learn some history, during soviet time albania was jacked, with bunkers and military, they were european north korea
@Transylvanen albania had 1.8k tanks 370 fighter jets a lot of missile systems 8 sub's 150 warships and 780k troops was ranked the 9th strongest army in the 60s&80s thats what army
I am Czech, with Romanian ancestor (they lived in Timișoara and Sighișoara) Mulțumesc România ❤️🇷🇴
I am from Slovakia 🇸🇰❤️🇷🇴Thank you Romania💪🏻🇷🇴
ua-cam.com/video/z-of4mBh60E/v-deo.html
👍👍👍
I am from Romania 🇹🇩🇹🇩 Romania and Slovakia = Good Friends 🤝🤝
😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂 neviem kto si ale musis byt pekne jednoducha osoba. Dakovat Rumunom na youtube za to ze pred 60timi neprisli ma poprve aky zmysel!? 😂 Podruhe ci by uz prisli ci neprisli situacia u nas by bola uplne rovnaka islo iba o mocensky akt ktory aj tak skoncil nasou spolocenskou porazkou. Potretie Caucescu bol jeden z najbrutalnejsich a najnechutnejsich diktatorov od konca druhej svetovej vojny ktory bol taka nechutna svina ze ked konecne po viac ako 50rokoch padol jeho rezim tak jeho popravu aj s manzelkou vysielala narodna televizia nazivo a cely narod pritom oslavne tlieskal. A posledne dovod preco sa nepripojili bol presne ten ze jeho rezim bol autoritatorsky a brutalny a nechcel aby bol dalsi v poradi na vpad vojsk Warsavskej zmluvy. Ty tupelo
Prosim!😊🇷🇴🇸🇰
As a Slovak, I have huge respect towards Romania and Albania for not participating in this
As a Bulgarian, I’m embarrassed that my country participated. It was never a popular decision among the people, but the government was eager to lick soviet boots.
im too
@@SKa-tt9nm don’t feel so bad, nobody could do anything about decisions made by the govt…the party made those, and no one could replace the system, yet. Your neighbor who lives in the US.
@@SKa-tt9nm the government was the soviet boot. Nikolai Malinov type.
polish and American here,I feel bad for Czechoslovakia
As an Iraqi, I have been living in Romania for more than 12 years. My wife is Romanian and my children are Romanian. All the love for Romania, my second country that embraced me for years, and all the love for the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Whenever I visited them, I felt their kindness and love for their beautiful countries 🌺
What part of Iraq are you from?
CIA was involved in the events 1989. ua-cam.com/video/W4fIzJv34_g/v-deo.html
از حمایت شما متشکرم
Me, a Romanian, seeing a video from Knowledgia about Romania : A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one
He is Romanian
👍
I'm Cuban and had the opportunity to visit Romania. What a beautiful country. Targoviste, Horenzu, Brasov, and Sibiu were amazing.
@@barcuta4121 Wait, really?
@@barcuta4121 I thought he was an American after the accent
At the very last minute, East Germany also opted not to intervene. Much less known! The leader of the GDR decided he did not want similarities to be made to Hitler's invasion of Czechoslovakia from 1939, just 29 years prior.
You deserved a appreciation love sign that are given to guys who are favorable to this channel,,,here I'll give you mine ❤️
This is wrong a motorized division forgot which one cross the Czech border but only operated at night cause you know….1938 (edit) sorry the division only did logistics support
well it was in 1939
not to make you sound dumb
@@mr.8-bit604 Thank you. You're right. It was March '39.
@@mr.8-bit604 sorry allies don’t consider Munich agreement valid after the war and considered it an act of aggression so…invasion and since I lived in a major allied nation (America) 38 but yea your right the real invasion was 39
I am a Czech myself, and I have newspaper from the very day we were invaded in 1968. There are interviews with Caucescu and Tito expressing support for my country. :)
Pity our alliance, the Little Entente, didn't work out in the interwar period. I hope closer relations avait our countries in the future. ;) 🇨🇿♥️🇸🇰♥️🇹🇩
I am Romanian and we always support your country's 🇨🇿❤🇷🇴❤🇸🇰
@@sebastianjack2341
🇨🇿♥️🇸🇰♥️🇹🇩♥️🇷🇸♥️🇭🇷♥️🇸🇮♥️🇲🇰♥️🇧🇦♥️🇲🇪
It's a shame Czechoslovakia didn't want an alliance with Poland in the interwar period
@@niepowaznyczlowiek
Actually, it was your minister of foreign affeirs Józef Beck, who was strongly anti-Czechoslovakian, because of the Těšín issue. I am not an expert on Polish politicis at the time, but he seems to have doomed Poland by his pro-German policies.
Though yes it is sad, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia and Romania could have withstood German agression in 1938. V4 forever 🇨🇿♥️🇸🇰♥️🇵🇱♥️🇭🇺
@@czechoslovakpatriot4773
I think he tried in the later years but failed, Bek wasn't too effective. Anyway I think Czechia is a great nation that we should take as an example of how a west slavic society should look
cheers to Romanian brothers from Slovakia!
My Grandmother and Grandfather (They are Romanian), who were visiting Czechoslovakia on vacation at the time had quite a story to tell me about this. My Grandmother was 4 months pregnant with my mother at the time, went into their hotel for the night. When the woke up in the morning, the USSR had already occupied the country. Can you image you're on vacation and the morning you wake up its just a bunch of Soviet Tanks and soldiers patrolling the streets. The Hotel owners told them they could stay as long as they wanted. But my Grandfather was having none of that. They packed their stuff and my grandma told me my grandfather drove 18 hours straight, through Hungary all the way to Tulcea ( Romania). Lucky for them the soviet soldiers stationed at the border let them through. Not sure if they had to bribe them or not but. It could've ended in disaster. Can't imagine the stress.
Anti-Russian sentiment runs deep in Romania, going all the way back to the Russian annexation of Moldova in 1812
Woah that's an experience allright! Being on a vaccation in a country and you wake up with it being occupied by an another country's army, that's quite the adventure!
I would guess they might have confiscated a few things from your grandparents, that's atleast what my family went through when they visited some relatives there back in the day, altough things might have been different during that time.
Either way, thanks for sharing the story!
That's a nice story to make a movie.
However, anti-russian sentiments are still around, mostly because of the SOVROM's era ('50-'58, if I'm not wrong).
Soviets took everything they could carry with ships and trains as a war payback. My grandpa told me that rumors said that russians extracted the oil from Romania, carried with ships to Soviet Russia and because of not enough storage capacity, they had to put the Romanian oil into the USSR oil wells.
That's one of the reasons Ceaușescu wanted to make Romania a power without any links with Moscow.
Ceaușescu also "patented" the type of politics China is developing in Africa: investments into infrastructure, health care, industrial assets, real estate, etc in exchange of rare minerals, diamonds, gold, uranium, oil, fish.
Romanians really do have the biggest balls xD kudos to your grandfather for expressing his basic freedom at a time when it was hard.
@@micultimy91 Yeah. Ceausescu really started a lot of shit back in the day. He starved the population in the 80s to pay off all debt and then he decided to become a new bank lending to any country. But at a better deal on interest. Heck Romania used to export a lot of weapons and military vehicles. For example the Iran Iraq war there were romanian tanks on each side fighting each other. My Grandma on the other side(not the same one in the story) Her sisters husband had a much older brother who was I believe a general in the Romanian secret police The Securitate. They found out a lot of shady crap that was happening.
@@micultimy91 We don't like russians because they don't let Eastern Romania(Rep Moldova) unite with Romania .That's the main reason.
The irony of the Warsaw Pact was that the only time the members formally collaborated together was by invading their own member country.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
BHuang92...except Albania
@@suqfoesfukhoes yes of course ... but Albania, unlike other members of the warsaw pact, had the balls to leave that pact after the invasion
@@lagjescuni5482 there were no balls,Albania didnt border ussr or any warsaw pact countries so they were mostly safe.
@@mojewjewjew4420 you don't know the story...Albania kicked out the Soviets from its military bases after that event holding among other things with force also the four whiskey class submarines....
Thank you Romania and Albania for not invading us. Greetings from Czech.
🌷🌷❤️❤️
No worries mate, love love
Albania and ex Yugoslavia noa was part of Warshavian part so the no was called to this operaion so called
Boemian Mounts Military Maneuver
Romanian army was keeped ar an logistic armi, reserva
Greetings 🇷🇴🇦🇱
Greatings from Albania, here newspapers and back than was condemning the Soviet leadership but they were also afraid that later after this refusal might be our turn for such invasion from Bulgaria and started investing a lot in air defense. Let me say that communists were bad and selfish. All that mattered for them was to hold their power and leadership of Albania was afraid of loosing their power if such invasion happened because relations with soviets were going bad after Stalin's death. If such invasion would take place they would be probably replaced by other more loyal communists to the soviets.
And Romania was also the only country (beside USSR) who supported Czechoslovakia in 1938:)). They were the only neighbour who didn't attack us. We also had an alliance, but unfortunately it didn't work out :/..
Also tens thousand romanian soldiers died during liberation of my country.
Romania will always have a special place in my heart for 1938 and 1968❤
Roumanian Army liberated Slovakia în 1919 together with chech army from the war against soviet Hungary.
in the 30's, Romania made substantial military aquisitions from Czechoslovakia: rifles ZB, machineguns, antitank cannons and other stuff.
And in summer of 1919, when Romania and Czechoslovakia defeated invading Hungary and the Romanian army occupied all Hungary, forced the Bolshevik Bella Kun to run in the Soviet Union and left in 1920 after organized free elections in there.
My grandmother's twin brother dead in Brno on 24.04.1945.He was 24 years old. Is my hero. Greetings from Transylvania,Romania.
ua-cam.com/video/z-of4mBh60E/v-deo.html
Alexander Dubcek's Reform was almost successful and almost made a new path for Czechoslovakia to a better future.
And then Husák happened...
It would be an interesting 'what if' scenario if they weren't invaded
I say that for the whole world of communists.
I wonder how Kremlin allowed
Dubcek to be put on the first position not being 100% sure in his devotion to follow the only true path?
Yes, It would be interesting, unfortunately peolpe are also stupid and once there was freedome of speech people in pubs start talking about Jewish bolshevism and
people like Vasil Biľak got scared...
Because they're our friends. 🇨🇿🇷🇴🙏
Brothers :) . Even if you're attacked now Romanians would join you're side! I would rather die for Czechoslovakia then , watching them getting attacked
Always!
This is reason why i consider Romania as one of the greatest allies and friends of my country :) Thanks
I know that there is a church built there to remember more than 66,000 Romanian soldiers who fought for the liberation of the Czechoslovakian territory during the World War II and we also have some war graves in Slovakia and Czech Republic to remember our countrymen that died there.So when you pass by PLEASE just think about them for two seconds or leave some flowers so that they are not forgotten...
Our village where I live was liberated by Romanian unit. Happily none of the Romanian soldiers died that day because German troops fled towards West, but you can't imagine the happiness of our people when Romanian troops appeared.
Actually 660k romanians fought in chekoslovakia and 60k died…20 mluntains crossed…10 rivers…3700 villages…
This also has an unknown side… as the ussr wanted to punish Romania for its past friendship with Germany… they made Romania rid of all heavy weapons and soviet commanders sent the Romanians where they knew there would be the biggest carnage… pay tribute to them, even 2 seconds when you pass a grave…
During the Second World War, many Romanians died in Zvolen, the city was liberated by them./Během druhé světové války zemřelo ve Zvolenu mnoho Rumunů, město bylo jimi osvobozeno. Ahoj z Rumunska, kde existuje významná česko-slovenská menšina!
I want say thank you to Romanians for not supporting our occupation . Greeting from Slovakia 🇸🇰
Russia: for the motherland!
Germany: for the fatherland!
Romania: for the brotherland!
I think you actualy expressed here 3 different views on communisem and how each state understood it.
@outcast
USSR: communist oppressor
Post ww2 East Germany: socialist subject yes man
Romania: brotherhood who takes one for his brothers instead of beating on his brother's head
Underrated comment 😂
Romania was the only member of the Pact who went to the 1984 Olympic Games in the US. It finished 2nd in the medal rankings.
Did you steal my name? ;)
Yeah like seriously, way to make an entrance and mark HISTORY
We never finished higher than 6 or 7....
@@ionelghiorghita688
Here-it says 2nd--> en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romania_at_the_1984_Summer_Olympics#:~:text=Romania%20competed%20at%20the%201984,Union's%20boycott%20of%20the%20Games.
@@ionelghiorghita688A non-patriot romanian that doesn't even accept the fact that we are good in many sports🤦♂️.
As a Romanian who grew up in a democratic republic I can only applause Ceausescu's decision and salute czech people
hmm, citeste cartea lui Pacepa si o sa vezi ce tarfa a fost Ceausescu la faza cu neinvadarea Cehiei. Din pacate omu era dement si juca la doua capete. Pe de o parte zicea ca usa e de cacat pe de alta parte ca rusia e de cacat si faza cu Cehoslovacia a fost doar un interes pentru imaginea lui personala si nu a Romaniei. Chestiile astea nu le spune nimeni pentru ca e mai usor sa fie un mare bull shit.
I presume that the democratic republic that you grew up was other than Romania, because Romania at that time and after was anything but democratic. Not invading Czechoslovakia was one of the very few good things that bastard did...
@@teenagefrommars Tu asculti de un tradator, un vanzator de tara, un invidios. Sunt multi istorici si documente care spun ca Pacepa este un mincinos.
CIA organised the events 1989. Ceausescu is our hero. ua-cam.com/video/W4fIzJv34_g/v-deo.html
As a slovak its awsome to know besides our czech brothers and sisters that we actually had only one friend this whole time ❤️❤️❤️🇸🇰🇨🇿🇷🇴
Thank You Romania❤️. I am from Slovakia, I was 5years old in this time. I remember tanks un the our streets😱
My granny told me about this hard time Czechoslovakia went through. As a daughter of a farmer, whose life was ruined by communists, for her was Prague Spring one of the most magical moments of freedom of her life. The censorship of all the press was abolished and political prisoners started talking about the cruelties hardcore communists of the late 1940's and early 1950's commited. And then Occupation. Its no wonder exactly our Romanian friends refused to take part in it. Our friendship lasts more than 200 yrs
Indeed..I was 9 years old and I still remember the Prague Spring when soviets invaded Czechoslovakia...many czech refugees in Bucharest..our non participation to the Warsaw pact occupation was mainly due to the resentments about the massacres,massive executions,labour and "reeducation" camps,property seisure and intellectuals persecution committed by soviet occupation...romanians,poles,albanians and czechoslovaks were among the most targeted countries by tyrant Stalin...
It is heartwarming to see so many people from the Warsaw pact countries expressing support for each other🇦🇱❤️🇧🇬♥️🇵🇱♥️🇷🇴♥️🇩🇪♥️🇭🇺♥️🇸🇰
Love you all from🇨🇿
Shall those countrys remain free in future without opression of other nations 👍
🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷
Respect Czech Country and people! from România.🇷🇴-🇨🇿 💞💪
I'm sorry for puppet government which invaded your country and that's sad we don't have united Czechoslovakia it would be much stronger country than devided into Czech Republic and Slovakia
Love from Poland 🇵🇱❤️🇨🇿
I'm a Serb and I love Romania as much as Serbia.
Greetings from Romania!
We love you too brother.
Serbia ia our brother.Greetings from România!
As a romanian i LOVE also our serbian brothers …
I am Romanian from Transilvania, and speak for my people, you the Serbs were and always will hold a special place in our hearts. Even though we are latin and you slavs, we do not see any difference, any obstacle in our relationship of respect and consideration. Our hearts are pounding for your nation as of right now. We pray God for your blessing,
As a czech i always viewed romania as a reliable ally. Good health and fortune for you all
Love to Romania from Slovakia!
Respect to all my Romanian homies 🇨🇿🤝🏻🇷🇴
Love to Romania from Czech and Slovakia!
Thank you, Romanians, we remember! ❤
Accurate but also only partial explanation of the situation.
One has to ask himself "but how come the USSR and other satellites didn't also invade Romania, to set it on the right path as well?" Well, at that time, this as a very huge probability, and the soviets had mobilized several armies near the Romanian border for "exercises and wargames". The saving grace for Ceausescu was that he had very strong relations with Communist China, another worthy adversary of the USSR at that point, and a little known fact is that China opened it's diplomatic channels with the USSR in order to threatened dire consequences should Romania be invaded as Czechoslovakia was. Surprisingly, US diplomacy did the same thing, warning that if Romania was invaded, "all options were on the table".
These ominous positions by the other superpowers, coupled with the high chance of Romanians actually offering armed resistance and a possible devolution of the invasion into a guerilla type of warfare after that (Ceausescu had a fetish for civilian armed resistance, read more on "patriotic guards") led the Soviets to give Romania a pass.
Foarte bine punctat!
Yeah, and Romania really has a lot of mountain ranges that make guerilla warfare a nightmare. But in the end, why invade when you can convince through diplomatic channels?? Ceausescu was talking about a socialism like in Czechoslovakia in '68 and by the 80s he was completely in line with USSR and going the North Korea route. A total imbecile.
Also a second incursion back-to-back would have likely lead to the entire warsaw pact revolting one way or another, especially if Romanian guerilla fighters would resist with some success.
This comment should go to the top!
I apologise for what my country, foreign-ruled or not, has done. Hope one day our countries will only have pleasant things to discuss. Greetings from Poland.
Exact me to i apologise. We schouldnt invade our west slawic brothers or any slaws. This must STOP. Pozdrawiam Cię Paul.
@@rocorosch7765 What?
A national pride in Romania, that time and even now! My father told me that in 1968, romanian people were very determined to fight against the USSR and the neighboring countries. About 1 milion people were concentrate in regular Romanian Army and the Patriotic Guards. Romania, like Poland, for ex., is a deep russophobic nation, especially after the WW2 (crimes , rapes, polItical ellite of Right parties killed or prisonned in ruff conditions). In my opinion, in 68, USSR did't attacked Romania beacuse: 1. The red army generals considered that an invasion in Romania was causing a large men and material loses, (my opinion - similar to what is happening now in Ukraine). 2. In Romania, some politicians of that period talks about some intervention of communist leaders of China in favour of Romania.
I'm Czech and this truly awesome what they did for us.
Not "they", were Ceausescu and another few others. Many romanians blaming Ceausescu because of the '80 restrictions endured in terms of being independent and free would also accomplish the Soviet requires in terms of not risking them skin.
Ceausescu, with all his mistakes, was one of the greatest leaders in the history. And this just because he valuated the DIGNITY!
@@ionelghiorghita688ope, both Ceaușescu and the romanians!
🇸🇰♥️🇷🇴 carpathian brotherhood
🇷🇴🫶🏻🇷🇸
Big respect brother's und love from 🇷🇴🇷🇴🤝🇨🇿❤️🙏
Díky Rumuni, tohle vám nikdy nezapomeneme 🇨🇿🤝🇷🇴
Albania was isolated between neutral Yugoslavia and capitalist Greece, there practically wasn't much that Albania could do to assist the invasion of Czechoslovakia.
Practically?
That wasn’t important at all, it was a question about principles.
Wish Albania joined the Yugoslavia union.
@@KangaKucha Albania are not slavic
@@febrian0079 still could make it a southern union.
I literally Made a presentation about this yesterday 😕
I’m sure it was good 👍😎
How did it turn out? I hope you got good grades😊
@@vuvuvu6291 dont know yet I will get the mark next friday 🤷♂️
I hope you get a good grade.
Gl pal
Romania's Ceausescu had just left Prague less than a week before. Almost like walking out of a building that collapses moments later.
he warned them of the invasion!!! this is why he was there
@@victorrusu4827 The whole world knew it was coming. The train station summits at the CSSR-Soviet border, and the horrific Communist Block Bratislava conference that followed.... The Soviets had been maneuvering in Czechoslovakia with the Warsaw Pact Allies for weeks and did not withdraw. They essentially just invaded the urban areas. If it hadn't been deadly you would have called it a city break for soldiers on leave......
so what do u think of Ceausescu being there??
@@victorrusu4827 We have to be honest and admit that Ceausescu had deep disdain for the values of the Prague Spring. What he did to Romanians later speaks for itself. To Ceausescu the Prague Spring was the perfect opportunity to ingratiate himself with the West (West Germany, IMF, USA). He did this by pretending to support the Prague Spring. If only he had used the money they loaned him to finish a nuclear power plant and build bridges and highways, instead of shallow canals and easily outdated concrete industrial giants......
esti roman???
Great! Greetings from Czech republic!
Thats why i love România❤
🇷🇴❤️🇨🇿❤️🇸🇰❤️🇷🇸
If you brothers ever want the Little Entente to happen, we’re up for it!
Tito was a Slovene and Croat
Romania never attacked with the intention of conquering territory and only with the intention of recovering the territory we had, for this reason we also entered WW1 and WW2
adevarat, pacat ca am fost idioti in al 2 lea razboi mondial si ne-am dus dupa nemti la stalingrad, cred(dar asta e doar o teorie de-a mea) ca daca am fi ramas doar in basarabia si am fi asteptat sa intoarcem armele cand nemtii o dadeau in bara , recuperam si transilvania si evitam si comunismu, dar boul ala de carol a adus legionarii la putere si ne-a facut dictatura si am ajuns din cauza asta cu militaru care nu stia deloc politica care s-a dus ca prostu cu nemtii ca asa-i militareste
@@alex990ismAntonescu a fost un tembel, eclipsat de mașinăria nemțească, nu e in totalitate vina lui. Soarta noastră au decis o englezii, din pacate……
@@killthereds2.043 mi se pare ca au decis-o mai mult rusii
My grandma and my grandfather told me about this story, they told me after this speech, they expect a ferm reaction from Russia and every body(the army and population )was “ on positions” at borders in case of another soviet invasion. After this speech also a lot of people join the romanian communist party. Was the first time by then,when Ceausescu appears like our leader and not a puppet from Moscow.
I remember Ceaucescu got some money from US too for his good decision he made (not to invade CZ)
Romania is truly the greatest ally of Czechoslovakia
Should that not be Slovakia or Czech Republic and not Czechoslovakia, just saying. ✌️☘️
@@deeppurple883 I say Czechoslovakia bcs IT was czechoslovakia
Romania does not have a history of invading or annexing land of others. Romania's mind their business. Live and let live.
We cannot say the same about Mongols, Tartars, Turks, Ottomans, Huns or Russians.
Well if you check better you'll discover that the biggest winner on the Balkans after the WWI is Romania which didn't happen without annexation of territories from Hungry and Bulgaria. :)
@@CvetomirBulgarian yeah maybe the Romanians got more territory then anyone else but there are still territory with Romanian majority that don’t belong to Romania…
I gues you are speaking about Transilvania and dobrogea , the population was in majority Romanians and see this problem will never ends
If we let everything behind … You want dobrogea to be part of Bulgaria ? If yes how the Romanians will have acces to the Black Sea and why Bulgaria deserve all the coastline?
@@drp2923 Hey Jon! Yes, these are the territories I was talking about ;)
Well, it's funny because we believe the opposite (I guess Hungerians too) , and yes I checked the internetional sources (I am never checking Bulgarian sources related to Balkan history anyway as I do believe every country that is involved in a historical event is not credible and has its own interpretation of the same events). Same applies to the rest of the Balkan countries as well. :)
I do NOT want Macedonia, Dobruja or whatever the stupid nationalists want. It's actually funny for me that someone would even claim this our days of no border EU policy. :)
I just want to be very clear that I do not believe those territories to be with majority of Romanian population at the time before WWI. Check your sources buddy ;)
@@CvetomirBulgarian Bulgarian friend, if you look more closely at the True History you will find out that, after being an Ottoman province for 500 years, Bulgaria wanted too much territory. Bulgaria believed it could stretch from the Adriatic to the Black Sea and from the Aegean Sea to the southern Carpathians, including all of Dobrogea. This made her attack her neighbors. They put her in her place. It is very simple.And what Hungarian territory did Romania occupy after the Balkan wars, stupid?
@@CvetomirBulgarian Transylvania had a Romanian majority, with absolute certainty!
Transylvania was not occupied, but the majority population requested legal union with the mother country.
Romania also help Serbia back in 1999. Thank you for covering this.
Discreetly for obvious reasons and principled too I was 16 at the time and being struck how Romania was much less keen on the affair than Bulgaria, interestingly Croatia was tactful and didn't enthusiastically assist NATO like Bulgaria did
An old inteligent man once said... ALO , ALO , ALO
😂😂not inteligent after all
@@thegodofmischief8141 nice name :))
"stAți LiNiȘtiȚi La LocURiLe voAsTRe!"
@@b.e.1601 TRAIASCA REGELE!TRAIASCA REGELE MIHAI!JOS FASCISTII SI COMUNISTII!
@@thegodofmischief8141 ✊👑🇷🇴
Trăiască Tricolorul, trăiască România și regele ei, Mihai!
Eternal thanks to Romania.
My great grandfather was an veteran who was in the mission eliberation of Slovakia from the Germans! Seeing this wholesome Czech,Slovaks comments really melts my heart! Cheers from you're Romanian Brat
As a Czechoslovak who lived trough the whole ordeal, let me tell you this:
1. we do not hold grudges against other members of the Warsaw pact for their actions, they were enslaved just like we were by the soviets.
2. the "normalization" that followed, was way worse then the invasion itself! It completely killed any progress, social, cultural or otherwise within our society.
3. the Ruzzians are still being paid back for their "friendly help" to this day. Both of our governments are supplying Ukraine with whatever we can, and Czechs elected a former General and 2nd man in NATO for president...I wonder what might have prompted that decision...
The German Democratic Republic didn't participate in the invasion too, but rather gave logistics support to the invading forces.
Romania and the Czech Republic had a historically special close relationship, officialized by the "Little Entente" treaty of 1921. Along time, Romania was also a big client of Czech arms and other export products.
As a Romanian, I'd like to add that although he is commonly referred to as some cruel dictator, between 1967 and 1980, life in Romania under Ceausescu was in all fairness quite nice, prosperous and probably the most liberal from all the eastern block countries. The country has significantly developed; a crazy amount of things were built (bridges, tunnels, roads, factories, homes, administrative buildings, dams, electric lines, rail lines, hospitals, schools, kindergartens, and so on), the population became educated, a decent health system was created, as well as a defense industry.
The '80s were so bad though due to Ceausescu's exaggerated ambition to rapidly pay back the national debt by any cost to the life of Romanian citizens. Otherwise, the country would have to subject to some absurd demands from the IMF that would have seriously affected Romania's sovereignty - exactly that thing for which he opposed the Soviets in 1968.
Sadly, nowadays Romania became a country with an economy completely based on consumption and imports, living on credit after credit; having almost all its production facilities destroyed and sold for scrap iron. And sovereignty... well, it became more like a myth.
after Cehoslovakia invasion,Ceausescu switched to English and French to be learned in school insted of Russian like foreign language
All you said are very true. All of it. Unfortunately this kid's that where born after 1990 don't have a clue how was life under Ceausescu's regime. I was 8 years old when the revolution happened. I still remember how beautiful and peaceful life was before the revolution and how it changed after that. From 1990 Romania was sold piece by piece and now we don't have anything.
@@elaela2754 Yes ! That is true ! I learned English in Romanian school starting in 1971 !
@@adrionetarcudohori well yes Romania was sold piece by piece to Russians who destroyed the industry.
And all of this is because the globalization is the child of the communism and the enemy of the identity independency and nations. It's a single nation which were prosecuted. We all the others just endured the tyranny of the history. I even can't blame the Russian for the tens of thousands of romanians dead in prisons, siberia or shoot in them own house in the late'40-th and early 50-th because non of the communists commissars sent from Moscow was Russian. But our children are not learning nothing about all of this or about the romanians killed in 1939 in east or north Moldova when the same people killed thousands of civilians after the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact or sent them in Siberia but they are learning about Holocaust even if Antonescu and most of the romanians defy the Hitler's require and protected the Jews. Very soon we will dissappear, with an average 1child/family when the planet "controllers" are having 4-5 children /family.
As a Czech person, i have to admit, i never thought about it.
One thing is for sure, Czechoslovakia (now Czechia and Slovakia) have gone through many hardships since WW I. At least today in the 21 century all seems calm with the exception of that virus 19.
@@ab9840 Well, Russians are blowing up munitions depots in Czech Republic, but yes, if you don’t count that, we live in peace.
@@ab9840 right now we are big enemy for russia :D
Ceausescu: You either die a hero, or live long enough to se yourself become the vilain.
And he tried the first one and ended up with the second option.
lol the communists were never the heros.
@@abramslion1 ho chi Minh laughs
@@Indian_Tovarisch he laughed while putting people into reeducation camps.
@@abramslion1 Laughs in Nestor Makhno
The question in the title was not answered by the video. It was pure geopolitics. Basically, the Romanian Comunist Party was tired of Moscow's BS and opposed Moscow's plans for Romania after WW2 (basically a backward agrarian nation to feed the Warsaw Pact) and did its own thing. And this move garnered enough sympathy with western nations to help the economy.
Great job. This should had been included in he video.
You mean the plan of the revisionists, not Stalin. The revisionists (aka Khrushchev and Brezhnev) were imperialists and they destroyed many eastern block countries by corruption and privatisation. The leaders Stalin installed were actually already the leaders of the communist parties of their countries and under Stalin the leaders of the communist countries could basically do what they want unless it was really anti communist
@@Rezistenza1998 Stalin was as much an imperialist as the UK and US and PR China ( later on ) .
If Stalin was NOT an imperialist, the Iron Curtain countries would not have been the satellites of the USR post WW 2.
Do not forget the suicide in 1948, of Jan Maszarick the Czheck leader .
The PR of China is showing its colours begining with Tibet in 1950, invasion of India in 1962, its war with Vietnan in 1979, and the current troubles in SE Asia that it is involved in .
@@rajatshubhrosengupta284 the eastern block didn't become puppets of the USSR after ww2, but rather after many imperialist actions undertaken by Khrushchev and Brezhnev, like the replacement of Ulbricht with Honecker in 1971, the prague spring, the Hungarian uprising and many more events. The leaders that were installed after ww2 already were high ranking communists before the war and could structure the state after their own ideas and plans without needing the consent if Stalin.
@@Rezistenza1998 Stalin was occupying these nations and were already puppeted. You don't need a Soviet invasion against a revolt to prove that. Only demented Stalinists can deny that. Every iteration of the USSR was imperialist, conquering foreign nations for their own agenda; whether it be geopolitical or ideological reasons.
this is another proof of how much we Romanians love Russians....
FACTS!JOS CU BESTIA BOLȘEVICĂ
yeap, we love them to death :):)
of course, after they stole Bessarabia and N. Bukovina from us, massacred the people from those areas and send to Siberia/Gulags hundreds of thousands of them + the soldiers who fought against USSR in WW2. And let's not forget the SOVROM's after WW2, biggest plunder of Romania in it's history. Russia can go to Hell.
@@George-Chris Changed Bessarbia's letter system, and spent decades hammering it into their head that they are not Romanian.
@@George-Chris hai ca sunteti prosti cu caruta, Bucovina de nord si sudul Basarabiei sunt sub Ucraina, nu Russia.
Western friendliness wasn't all that sudden to Romania. In May 1968, Charles de Gaulle had just visited Bucharest, despite having heaps of trouble with the Paris protests himself. By 1968 Romanian railways were operating Swiss and Swedish rolling stock. French was being taught in Socialist Romanian schools. Just after the 1962 Cuban Crisis, Romania was removed from the Pentagon's nuclear SIOP war plan, after a discrete Romanian request. What cancelled our scheduled November 1968 "Bucharest Autumn" was the request by Cyrus Vance, US Secretary of State, for Moscow to leave us alone, as well as a Chinese promise of support from Premier Zhou Enlai. In 1969 the Soviets and Chinese would have an armoured brawl on the border of their own......
De Gaulle was tired from Washington dictate but instead of army, France got student protests... America was better at keeping satelites in line then the rough soviets
@@antondavidoff150 carrots are better than sticks. Why are you telling this? Once the Soviet control gone, the satellites went away. For 50 yr Soviets controlled against their wishes the satellites,
@@Kannot2023 Washington controls Germany, France etc. for 75 years now against their sane wishes, however Washington find a way to control to certain degree what the satelite "wishes"... and to keep them in line they start having "student protest" etc. France and Germany and rest of Europe experiance certain and slow death, that is current..not picking favorites here... just stating that as long as somebody dictates you no matter how it looks like it is not good for the satelite country
Yes, this liberal capitalist hell
"as well as a Chinese promise of support from Premier Zhou Enlai." True, but it was the same Zhou EnLai who said "you cannot extinguish a fire with firemen coming from far away... ".
I am Romanian and i like Czechoslovakia from Arabella to Skoda, but all after the peoples of this wonderful country.
Pane profesore..!!
"from Arabella to Škoda" well said 👍
Orburak,parcă se prefăcea in cioară?😂😂😂😂
I support Romania and Albania's move to not invade Czechoslovakia.
I'm Romanian , working in the Netherlands , and everytime i drive home in vacation , i prefer to pass trough CZ and SK instead of Austria (even though its a little bit extra money) , even if the roads are better in Austria(no offence , Romanian roads are even worse) , just because CZ and SK are beautiful countries. Much love to both countries , very nice castles , good beer , and other stuff. :)
The way you pronounce "Ceausescu" is so close to how romanians pronounce it. A research done right. Just subscribed to this channel.
Yugoslavia even offered to send resource aid to the Czechoslovak army around the time of the invasion. Protests all over the Eastern bloc, including Moscow itself. People burning themselves alive in response of the invasion. The invasion of Czechoslovakia in '68 had a negative effect around the world.
slav brothers forever!!!
first
no was a military invasion
second
romanian army remained as an reserve part, logistic ansurance
therd
ceaysescu participated to prepare these military exercice
what made cehoslovacian army these time because somes historians said cehoslovacian army participated to this military maneuvre
to fight againt the URSS was not a good idea. just would be spread the death and the devastation if yougoslavia interved in the action, it is possible make change with politic too.
yugoslav embassy also sheltered some czechoslovak diplomats
Thanks, very informative. I would also add that following a declassification of British intelligence, it is now known that both the UK and Yugoslavia committed to defend Romania if the Soviets decided to invade. Hungary was pushing hard for an invasion, perhaps due to their vested interest in Transylvania. Dutch intelligence suggested that 22 November was the established date for the invasion when a contingent of Hungarian, Polish and Soviet troops (150,000 strong) were set to enter Romania and partially Serbia (to cut off possible support from the West). Luckily, at the last minute Moscow decided to call it off. The invasion could have ended the Eastern bloc there and then. Interesting to read stuff like this 50 years later, wondering how different Europe would be today if Romania would have been invaded.
I'm Romanian, but haven't even heard about this scenario.
Do you have a source.
I'd be grateful if you could help me to learn more on the subject.
The Romanians knew they were being attacked… our soldiers could hear the russian tank engines at the border… the dictator made claims of a “laser weapon” melting tanks and thats why they didnt invade it… but unlike CZ romania was a harder nut and would actually fight
Declassified first hand Romanian info tells that Tito met Ceausescu and Bodnaras on Danube and did not commit to anything. Even more only promised to Ceausescu that would only receive a disarmed Romanian army, while Ceausescu categorically refused and asked for a supply corridor from the west, which Tito enigmatically ensured "we'll see in few days.." Most probably intended to imply "when the Warsaw invasion will take place, we'll see what you gonna do." In the eyes of the west Romania became a more credible anti Soviet insider and Tito was aware of that.
Bullshit,Tito did not commit to anything, while UK involvement is pure fantasy.The Chinese had more involvement as Zhou Enlai warned the Soviets not to invade Romania since Bucharest supported Beijing during the Russian-China split
Forgive me but that is the stupidest thing I have ever read. The Hungarian government did not care about the lost territories during the communist times. Moskva was looking at Romania to keep the satellite states under communist leadership. There were heavy times between Bucharest and Moskva but no actual actions were at work. They gave Ceacescu a red line he cannot cross and after he accepted it the tensions got calmer. BTW there were invasion plans for everything everywhere in the SU.
Speaking in the defense of Poland at that time, as my Grandfather served in the army then. Most officers and military higher-ups were Russians in Polish uniforms, going against their orders would put your family at risk of imprisonment and torture. I recommend to read the story of Franciszek Jarecki, a Polish pilot who managed to escape the communists, and would tell the West what was happening in Poland behind the Iron Curtain. All my best wishes to our southern brothers! 🇵🇱♥️🇨🇿
Very interesting. In 1984 the Soviet Union refused to participate in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California. The Soviets cited "security concerns". Most though agree that it was retalation for the fact that the U.S.A., Canada, and several other countries refused to participate in the 1980 Games in Moscow because of the Soviet War in Afghanistan. However, Romania did send its' Olympic Team to Los Angeles in defiance of the U.S.S.R. Albania in 1968 was in solidarity with China, but did not send their team to L.A. in 1984. Also boycotting L.A. were Cuba, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, and North Korea, as well as Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Bulgaria. When Communist governments in Eastern Europe collapsed in the 1990s most of the transitions from Communism were peaceful. Romania was the exception. Caucescu refused to yield power peacefully. This time though when the Romanians rebelled, the army, instead of supporting the Communists and Caucescu, joined the population and helped to overthrow the Communists and Caucescu.
Nicolae Ceaușescu's communism was known as a sort of "Nationalist Socialism", that is why ever since his taking over of power in Romania he'd put the country at odds with the USSR, one reason being, for example, never having recognized Moldova as part of the Soviet "Union" while claiming it was rightful Romanian land. Had he not made some significant progress in bilateral relations with the United States and the country's military been the second largest in all of the Warsaw Pact, Romania would be right next in line for the invasion after Hungary and Czechoslovakia. While he had many flaws, and things were not so pink, we are proud of the reputation that he solidified for our country across the entire world, from Africa to the Americas.
Edit: Ceaușescu also had a nuclear program you know, we were going to have nukes of our own if he stayed in power for a decade more or so. Not saying that this would have been a good thing, but it could prevent something similar to the Ukrainian separatism wars from repeating after a reunion with Basarabia (Moldova).
“Nationalist socialism” I think i have heard this kind of term before
Basically all leaders that were installed after the second world war in the eastern block were great anti Imperialists, it was just that Khrushchev and Brezhnev decided they would like to be in control if everything.
@@adammazeli there's a difference between national socialism and nationalist socialism. The first one is nazism and has, except for its name, nothing in common with actual socialism, and the latter one is socialism but with a strive for independence.
@@Rezistenza1998 Thank you dear, saves my time in answering the triggered antifa guys in the comments
@@Rezistenza1998 no need to be defensive. Just thinking I have heard similar ish term before
Albania at the time was already aligning itself with China.
Same with Romania , china promise support for Romania if the Soviet union invade
Romania never tried to conquer, unlike other neighbors, it only defended its territories and that's what was left of Greater Romania
Thank you for this video!
Ive watched few of these historical moments videos, gotta say this guy is quite accurate and knowledgeable. Congrats whoever you are!
Wow awesome video your channel is the inspiration for others please keep it up that type of great work please
There should be more videos about Romania.
Great video! Thank you ! 👍👍👍👍
Thank you for the video, it is impressive:)
The Romanias people have always loved peace.And about the invasion of the URSS in Czehoslovakia the Romanias people considered it an act of agression against a stat.
Its a shame that the wish for peace of the romanians isnt wanted for Kosovo....
@@albinh.3149 Kosovo je srbija
@@BobuxGuy Dream on little *slavic immigrant* lol..
@@albinh.3149 What makes you think I'm slavic?
I never would have imagine so many czechs and slovaks like/love/respect us so munch.🤯🤯. I always thought that only our latin cousins( to an extent-im looking at you France) love/like us. And in the balkans only Serbia,Bulgaria,Greece and Moldova where our only friends. Now i see that we are loved by other people to. Multumesc frumos.🇷🇴♥️🇨🇿♥️🇸🇰.
Funny, as a Czech I actually thought your latin cousins are not that interested in you. In my mind you and Hungarians have very similar culture and values as us. The only difference is the language. And Romania was probably our best ally in last century. Czechoslovakia was created in 1918 and already in 1919 we were allies of Romania and together in a war against Soviet Hungary which threatened us both. In interwar period we had a defene pact with Romania, in the beginning of ww2 our western allies (UK and France) and Russia betrayed us and sold us to Hitler, yet Romania and Yugoslavia supported us. In 1968 Romania supported us once again and we taught that in schools and remember it.
Overall Czechs view Romania as a friendly nation that was on the same side as us for most of history and that was just historically less developed in terms of industry and less urbanized and more into agriculture. But we also notice your very quickly growing economy and hope we will both catch up western EU members :-)
Bulgaria? When was it our friend before nowdays?
@@mosradu4953before tsar Ferdinand came to power in Bulgaria, we didn’t have problems with them
Lovely video, I learned a few things!
Great video. It was quite informative.
Ceausescu made the right decision and did not partner with other socialist countries to invade Czechoslovakia, a country that was highly valued by the Romanians. After this decision, Ceausescu expected the Soviet Union to invade Romania. At that moment, Ceausescu alerted the Romanian army, waiting for a Soviet invasion. Fortunately, the Soviet invasion of Romania did not occur, and a war was avoided.
A national pride in Romania, that time and even now! My father told me that in 1968, romanian people were very determined to fight against the USSR and the neighboring countries. About 1 milion people were concentrate in regular Romanian Army and the Patriotic Guards. Romania, like Poland, for ex., is a deep russophobic nation, especially after the WW2 (crimes , rapes, polItical ellite of Right parties killed or prisonned in ruff conditions). In my opinion, in 68, USSR did't attacked Romania beacuse: 1. The red army generals considered that an invasion in Romania was causing a large men and material loses, (my opinion - similar to what is happening now in Ukraine). 2. In Romania, some politicians of that period talks about some intervention of communist leaders of China in favour of Romania.
Romania has been our Ally since WW1, they helped liberate us in WW2 and didn't invade us in 1968, huge thanks to Albania too
Bloody good video. Great voiceover (wonderful voice) and exact, yet flowing, use of the English language.
I just thought maybe a sentence or two on Yugoslavia saying even though it was part of the Iron Curtain it wasn't in the Warsaw Pact. And its history with the non-aligned movement.
Great documentary!!! 👍👍👍
As Czech I highly appreciate for that videos, thank You! Please pay attention, there was another factor so called "The inv itation letter"
Ceasceucu wanted an independent Romania, just as Yugoslavia was, without Russian domination. He said if they invade us, every town, every village and every factory will be a fortress where the aggressors will die. Tito declared a general mobilization and took in large numbers of refugees. Just before the invasion, he visited Prague and was greeted by large crowds of people with slogans such as "Who is sorry that Jozif Tito is here today? Stalin!.The Hungarian and Polish soldiers were also very uncomfortable and the East Germans had to leave quickly because their uniforms were reminiscent of the Wehrmacht and the Czech officers said that if they did not leave immediately they would not be able to keep their men in the barracks.
Amazing video as always, in an upcoming video, it would be amazing if you could cover the war between the Roman Empire and The Kingdom of Kush, it's really under covered and is one of the only times Rome lost a war.
Nicely explained.
Proud of Ceaușescu and my country! Greets to the czech and slovak brothers❤️🤗
As a Pole I feel sorry
Recently I was in Prague and saw the statue in memory of that event and just felt ashamed for my country
It's a disgusting part of our history but we were Soviet puppets with Soviet leaders so please don't be mad at us
Love from Poland ❤️🇵🇱🇪🇺
Well, today is not of a much difference. We are a puppet of the EU. You think if EU will veto the EU money for Poland Czechia or Slovakia will vote agains EU?!
We exchange the USSR with EUSSR 2.0..
@@adrianstere ok I see you have no idea of politics and I wont even comment that, comparing the USSR to EU man you really dont know what communism is, long live the Future EU federation !
@@adrianstere EU is nowhere near as bad as the USSR, and that's coming from a Brit.
The relationship between the Polish and Czech people is distrustful so no surprise
I was born in Prague and was 4 during the invasion, lived close to where they housed the troops.
Saw bumper to bumper tanks up and down the street as far as you can see, tons of troops everywhere :o
😳
Dad got us the heck out of there as fast as he could 😁
I'm Polish and I absolutely hate it that we were made to attack Czechoslovakia. It was not the decision of our people.
🇨🇿❤️🇵🇱
@Ivan Kodonev You are wrong. Poland were under soviet occupation same as Czechoslovakia, a lot of soviets got polish citizenships and then joined polish pepoles army. Comparing soldiers of country which invaided other country, and civil pepole who didnt have a choice, other than just look how polish-soviet soldiers cross border is 2 diffrent things. Also i will remind you, Czechs backstabbed Poland while polish-bolshevik and took disputable region of silesia wihout any voting. Shame on you!
@Ivan Kodonev "Can you explain how these two things are different?" Yes, you compared Germans executing orders of goverment elected in democratic way and Poles who was occupied by Germans, and then by soviets, who didnt decided about that. You are talking like Poland and rest of warsaw pact was allies of USSR, failed revolutions against soviets were also in "shame" states such as Poland and Hungary. In same way I can say Czech were ally of Germany during WWII, they supported them with industry, etc. And, does Czechs had a choice??? Same case with Poland, you cant have buttpain because polish COMMUNIST army, fought with czech uprasing, which would fail anyway, Poles abolished communism as first country in warsaw pact, pepole was against army, police, goverment and communist regime in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria etc. And no, Czech took advantage of polish-bolsevik war to takeover sliesa while Poles barely defended their independence. Btw whats the matter about "shame on you", you really blamed second person because only
of fact he is Polish? Thats kind pathetic tho.
@Ivan Kodonev No, they couldn't refuse, refusing order was same as betrayal and this could end with even death penalty. Yep you are right, polish army/police were brainwashed. Only condition to get to polish police then, was only be a commie, some of Polish soldiers thought they are helping "communist brothers" but it was soldiers not civils. Yes, attack on Czechoslovakia is shady element in Polish history, and as a Pole I apologize, but you need to know Poles weren't just bad communists which were Czech and Slovak enemies. Situation in Czechoslovakia and Poland were same. Czech pepole vs Czech State and Polish Pepole against Polish State. The point is it wasn't Czech pepole against Polish pepole. It was Czech pepole vs Polish state, and again from perspective of Poland it was mistake.
I don't think you know how the war works 🤔🤔 not the decision of our people he said 😅😅, when have you heard a state that gave the people a right to chose who they atack or not.
Stop making excuses, damn, Poland was on the bad side of the history here, Period.