Chapter III

RESURRECTION


The defeat of the central powers

The year 1918 had to bring the decissive.The nations could no longer withstand for a long while now the horrors and privations imposed by the Great War.Especiaaly the central powers were exhausted.austria was not hiding to anyone ,neither to the ally ,nor to the enemy ,that a new winter campaign was alltogether excluded from the domain of possibilities.bulgaria and turkey were at the end of their efforts.germania itself was carrying with great difficulty the burden of the War and the one of its allies ,which they had to support with man and materials.

Tired for more than three years of superhuman effort ,germania was decided that in this year to try the supreme effort to end the War[1].The taking out of the figth of Russia and Romania was making this task easyer.Numerous divisions which have become inutile on the Oriental Front ,have been brougth on the Western Front .With the army in this way considerable increased,equiped with a prodigious technic material ,with new tactical methods of figth ,Ludendorff gave in the spring of the year 1918 the big blow on the French Front."Die Kaiserschlacht "-the battle of the Emperor-unleashed in Picardia at 21st of March .One million german soldiers attack and smash the British Front ,on a width of 60 km.The germans have arrived in front of Amiens.A giant cannon [2] was bombarding Paris from 120 km distance.The emotion has been considerable.Without a doubt,the victory of the germans was a great one.But after thirteen days ,the conqueror had to stop,drained out of powers and blood loss,in front of the new French-British Front ,which has remade itself.

A second offensive have been started at 9th of April in Flandra with the same result ;great inital success ,then tiredness and full stop;the French -British Front shaken ,pushed ,bud solid remade.A third offensive ,started at 27th of May ,against the celebre "Chemin des Dames", brought again the germans at Marna ;the French troops ,surprised and defeated ,maneged this time as well to remake the Front around the great german outing which was threatening Paris from 80 km distance.

The lack of decission of the german victories ,with all the imense losses with which they were linked,have shaken the german moral.The untrust in the victorious ending was gaining terrain more and more.The foreign affairs minister Kuhlman had the courage to declare in Reichstag that the War cannot be waged on the field of battle anymore and thus had to be started the diplomatic tratatives.This sincerity has been ftal to him ;few days latter he had to leave the ministry.

But during this time the Entente ,barriering the blows of the enemy ,was finishing her preparations for the supreme strike.She manages to acomplish the ideea of unique Commandment :Foch will lead the reunited Armies to victory[3].The military organization of United States was beginning to give its fruits.With all the watching of the submarines ,huge convoys of ships were carrying over the ocean and disembarking on the French soil hundred of thousands of American soldiers every month.And the French-British technic has defeated the german one :thousands of tanks ,the newest weapon ,were crowding behind the Front line.Their apparition on to the figthing Front[4] will be decissive for the victory.The mastering of the air has begun also to be on Entente side.There could now be no doubt .The superiority of the Entente was now ensured.The War has reached its big turning point.

At 15th of July the germans begin ,in the presence of the Emperor ,the fourth offensive which had to bring them in front of Paris.But Marna have been for the second time fatal to them.At 18th of July unleashes Foch's counteroffensive .In powerful strikes ,the germans are throwed back over Marna and lose all the gained terrain in the third offensive.A month before ,the austrians tried a last offensive against the Italians ,but have been forced to cross back Piave[5].

The decline of the austro-german military power had started.Foch enterprized the series of blows which make the most formidable battle recorded in the history of states.At 8th of August ,Foch breaks the german Front on Somme .The blow is so strong ,the german defeat is so complete ,that Ludendorff loses his head.He announces the Emperor that the War cannot be won now.The blows flow one after the other .The germans retreat on Siegfried line ,which they think inexpungable ,but are repelled from there too.In unceasless figths ,when on a point when on another of the big field of battle ,French,British ,Americans attack and defeat the germans,conquering their positions ,take tens of thousands of prisoners .The german army has lost not only the offensive strength ,but is on the way of losing the resistance one too.The moral is shaken .The final defeat is sure.The soldier is fed up with War.The cancelaries on Berlin and Viena are waiting for a favorable occassion to offer the peace ,before the unfolding of the War to put them in front of the final desastre.

At once the catastrophe produces in the Orient.In the Balkans ( Balkans Peninsula) ,the Armies of the Entente were keeping for two years the Front in front of Monastir ,as it has been fixed at the ending of figths in the autumn 1916.It is known that the less importance atributed by Joffre and Kitchener to this Front ,had paralized the action of General Sarrail and have been one of the causes of the disastre of the Romanian Campaign of 1916.A better understanding of the importance of the Balkans Front from the part of Marshal Foch made possible the reorganization and strengthening of the Armies at Salonic.In front of the enemy ,made out of austro-hungarian troops in Albania ,bulgarians and germans in Macedonia ,general Franchet d'Esperey ,the new Commander ,had now a strong Army made out of French divisions ,British ones ,Italians,Serb and Greek[6], has streched a continuous Front from the Adriatic Sea to the Egee Sea .

At 15th of September ,Franchet d'Esperey attacks and breaks the center of bulgarian Front ,at Dobropolje;the bulgarians are alltogether demoralized.Incapable to opose resistance ,they begin a desastrous retreat ,which transforms in running.The whole enemy Front is disorganized.Franchet advances with the speed of ligthningstrike.Ten days after the beginning of the battle ,the French Cavalry entered in Uskub[7] .The bulgarians are surrendering in mass [8].The prey of the Allied Armies numbers 77 000 prisoners,three Generals ,1 500 officers ,400 cannons etc;the prisoner army is interned in a huge camp at Florina.The victory of the Allies is complete.At 29th of September ,the bulgarian delegates sign at Salonic the truce which meant the complete capitulation of bulgaria[9],and in a few days, latter ,Tzar Ferdinand of Coburg was abdicating in the favour of hi son Boris[10] and was running over the frontier ,accompanied by Radoslavov and the other accomplices with which they sawed his criminal politic.

The victory in the Balkanic Peninsula was of a considerable importance for the High Leadership of the War.The strategy and politic of the Entente have found themselves at one of the greatest cross roads of the War and went on the good direction.In the big controversy between the "Westerners" and "Easterners" of the Entente,the latter ones have won.The reality of the facts gave them the most brilliant satisfaction .The fate of the War was decided in the Balkans!The victory of Franchet was a decissive one also for the fate of turkey.Exhausted by the lenght of the War and by the defeats suffered in Palestina and Siria [11] ,separated by the two central Empires which were procurring the means of figth and infussioned in an artificial way the force of resistance ,turkey was condemned to leave in its turn the War, and from the alliance, and capitulate.This has even happened in the second half of October[12].

The defeat of bulgaria and taking her out of the figth ,was uncovering completely the flank of the central Empires from the South and opened the large gate to the invasion.Then ,the austro-hungarian armies ,which were retreating through Albania and Serbia ,the Armies of Franchet d'Esperey were advancing victorious ,liberating Serbia and were closing in Danube River.The central powers were garhering in haste whatever they had available to send imediately towards South ,with the intention to reconstitue a new Front.Franchet was at the Danube [13] and was making preparatives to advance towards Budapesta.But at Paris and London ,the politic took again the step ahead strategy.In an imperious telegram ,the first French prime minister Clemenceau invites Franchet d'Esperey "to end his personal initiatives" and to suspend the marching towards Budapesta.The British troops of the Allied Army pass under the Command of a British General and are headed towards Constantinopol[14].

Even during the day of the bulgarian desastre ,austria has made to America the proposition to enter peace tratatives.Face with the catastrophe which was closing with quick steps ,at 5th of October,the two central Empires address to president Wilson the request of closing of a truce on all Fronts ,for the purpose of peace.The agony of the central Empires have started.It will end in a month with the collapsing of the two Empires,with the falling of the Thrones,with the triumph of the rigth one and freedom of the martyr nations.



The events in Europe repercutated in Romania

Romania was watching with her breath taken away of emotion,the unfolding of the events on the French theatre of War.It was without any doubt that the cannons on Lys,Somme,Oise and Marna will decide the validity or invalidity of the Treaty of Bucharest 1918 .On the fields and hills of France of North-East ,and not at Iasi and Bucharest ,was written now the page ,most decissive,of the history of Romania.

The successes of the german offensive in the spring of 1918 brought a deep consternation amongst people in the country.The Romanians were reliving the days of unrest and pain in the autumn of 1916.It seemed as if a catastrophe of Entente is eminent and that the ground is condemned to suffer the german domination.In Bucharest ,the evening communicates ,of german origin,were postered on to the walls of the Post Pallace,and were awaited with unrest by a huge crowd.The triumphants ,showing their satisfaction with insollence ,german officers were giving reading in a loud voice to the telegrames which were announcing the victories:"Bapaume ist gefallen.Peronne ist gennomen..."[16] .They were falling like hummer blows in the hearts of Romanians ,which were listening in quiet and without hope in their souls .In two central points of the Capital huge maps of the War theatre were indicating ,with the help of a red cord ,the progresses of the german armies and the widening of the conquered terrain.The cord has become for Bucharesters the barometer of recording the storm in the West ,and each pushing of it ,corresponding to a new leap of the german Front ahead,was obliterating an illussion and drawned a hope.Cursed cord!With how much missfortune were looking it the Bucharesters and hated it to see it hanged on the neck of the german which was adjusting it with the finger ,with a grim of satisfaction!
......

....
But over the summer the content of the telegrams starts to change.The throwing of the germans over Marna ,the breaking of the german Front on Somme ,are revelator phenomenons.It was the beginning of the end.Changes also the aspect of the street in Bucharest .In front of the communicate at the Post Palace ,the german militars throw sneaked glances ."Vorlesen!"(Read loud) they shout irroniclly Romanians from behind,repeating the scenes from the spring ,with roles and changed intentions.But the germans leave in haste some mombling with threat,others gasp.And on the maps ,the red cord ,so quick before ,gets stubborn to keep a revolting imobility!Romanians make jokes or protest .The germans infuriates and become brutal.There are made arrests in public and the arrestees are carried in punches to the military police section .One day ,in the same time with the collapsing of the Siegfried line,the maps dissappear.It is a pitty that the red cord is not to be found in one of our museums windows of our War ;it drew ,with its red line ,many missfortuned hours from the War life of the enslaved Capital.

In Iasi, the spiritual atmosphere was becomming burden like.The Capital of the resistance starts to hesitate.The Peace of Bucharest and the defeats on the Western Front were starting to leave without hope the stong ones.The leaving of the French Mission left the the Romanians without they strongest support.The polemics of the new newspapers and the campaign of Marghiloman government against the "authors of the War" were producing a discouraging effect ,which a chained press could not neutralize.Still,the political leaders ,Ententophils were at their figthing posts.
.....

......
Unshaken in feelings ,their ideeas and hopes ,the men of state which have declared and led the War were keeping a ferm attitude ,sustaining the moral of the public and cultivating the most tight connections with the representatives of the Entente,which continued to consider us as their Allies.The legations of the Allied countries became a sort of oasis of hopes and courage in the spiritual desert which started to surround us.Here came the political men ,which have remained faithful to the politic of the War ,to keep the contact with the governments which they represented and to refresh the courage.Around them the people were crowding ,to read the real news ,escaped by the censure of the government.The rapports of the foreign ministers of marghiloman government were cold and strict protocolary;the political matters were dealt with Bratianu ,and the military ones with Prezan ,although these ones had no official situation.

The Sovereigns of the country were keeping the same dignified attitude and patriotic ,enduring with bravery all trials ,believing in the final victory of justice and of the cause of their nation.In the hour when it was imposed to receive the peace which was unbirthing the Army ,H.M. the King was going ostentativelly at Husi to receive the oath of the new recruits ,which would be trained to increase and strengthen this Army ,for the turn of the War which was expected.Before they went to their homes ,the soldiers of the I-st Romanian Army and II-nd Romanian Army ,the Mountain Hunters ,the Hunters of the 9th Regiment ,have seen once more their beloved King ,with the looks overwhelmed of sadness ,with slow talk ,drawned in tears ,but with relentless spirit ,bringing them the manhooding word.And when in the heroic Iasi have installed the german military mission in the crowds of friends ,accomplices and vasals ,H.M. the King has retreated at Bicaz ,to not see the odious sight.
........

......
This dispozition was repercutating over the activity of the government .The government was looking to fulfil its public and secret obligations ,contracted to the occupant.Figthing between two extremes,on one hand the effort to be liked by the occupant ,and on the other the fraid to not uncontent and hurt too much the national feelings of the country ,foreseeing the complications which started to be prefelt ,the Marghiloman government started to be suspected by the central powers .The intrigues of the camaradery Carp-Beldiman and of the prusian junkers did not contribute with less to this.It was imputed to Marghiloman delays in surrendering the War material and transporting it in the occupied territory ,hesitations in the judging and punishing of the former Government ,unexecuting the obligation to give amnisty to the desertors and traitors ,toleration of public agitations also through press against the central powers .Because of this delay and hessitations ,the change of ratifications of the treaty of Bucharest ,which was supposed to take place at Viena ,has not been executed.

The press and the governments of the central powers started to become threatening."Herr Marghiloman muss deutlicher werden"(Mr Marghiloman must be more clarified),was the word of order .Towards the end of August ,the governments and general staffs,germans and austro-hungarians started the tratatives with the goal of constraining by army force of "Rebell Romania'.Ludendorff proposed the reopening of a military campaign against Romania.All the competent factors agreed:the foreign ministers Hintze[17] and Burian ,the austro-hungar generalisim von Arz .The troops in Ucraine ,which were available ,have been attentioned to make preparations for the eventuality of an attak over Romania from behind.Romania,disarmed by the treaty of Bucharest ,surrounded from all parts ,would have given to the austro german armies the occassion of an easy victory ,to golden their prestige ,erased by the defeats in the West ,with a cheap shine of false polish.But Emperor Carol of Austria opposed categorically to any movement of troops .he was preparing to make to Wilson an offer of peace and it was indispensable to convince him by deeds of the sincerity of His inttentions ,pacifist ones;a new offensive against a disarmed state would have souned all together discordant with this undertaking .That is why ,the central powers made, only a very strong diplomatic pressure ,of which echo was sounding in press attacks .Marghiloman ,intimidated ,gives in and takes a series of measures which satisfy the occupants ,giving them the impression of a reentering on the way of good intentions.

........

......
At 25th of September ,the delegats of the four states of the enemy was signing at Berlin the protocol by which Dobrogea ,which by the Peace of Bucharest has been attributed to the enmy powers in condominium ,was given entirely and without any restriction to bulgaria.The bulgaro -turkish litige ,which has delayed this solution ,has been overcome.Four days before ,the bulgarian delegate Kolusev was arriving at Sofia with the pretious document in his wallet.But during the same day ,at Salonic was signed another act more important .bulgaria was capitulating and was leaving the figth .Dobrogea belonged to bulgaria just the time needed for the document to travel from Berlin to Sofia!

The leaving of bulgaria of the figth ,in conditions which the central-powers qualified as treason ,changed not only the ballance of the War ,which was inclining more and more on the Entente side,but modified radically also the attitude of the central powers face with their former allies .At Bucharest ,the bulgarians were becoming odios to the germans ;hard words were thrown to them.The bulgarian firms and flags started to be descended.Doma bulgarski ofitiri i vointi from Capsa restaurant was in liquidation .The bulgarians were leaving the country.

A new situation was created both for the austro-german army of occupation ,as for Romania .One and the other feel that they are in the eve of important and decissive events.
.....

The Allied Armies at the Danube

The truce of Salonic was eliminating in fact the central powers from Danube River.The allied army ,germano-austro-bulgarian did not exist anymore.All that could be found as bulgarian army at West of the meridian passing through Uskub-90 000 men -put the arms down and has been made prisoner.The rest of the soldiers entered the country ,demoralised set to uprising[18].The austro-hungar divisions were retreating towards Danube ,abandoning to Franchet d'Esperey terrain ,material and prisoners .At 30th October ,Serbia was eliberated.The germans retreat through bulgaria ,harass with the bulgarians and cross the Danube in Romania.The Balkans Campaign of the central powers has ended;the Balkans Peninsula was lost for the politic of the two Empires.

Concerned ,the governments and headquarters of the central powers have to seek to cover their Southern flank ,uncovered.A new line must be organized along Danube and Sava(Savei).Few divisions from Ucraine ,considered as not being absolutelly indispensable there ,are send in the South of austro-hungary and at the Danube,where have organised with nine divisions a new army under the command of marshal Koves.The occupation army in Romania strengthens with the XI-th german army ,retreated in Balkans Peninsula .Mackensen has to defend with this army the line Danube -Banat -Muntenia ,to cover the back of the central powers and maintain occupied Romania.The germans cannot give up the Romanian petrolium.
.......

......
The commander of the german troops in Romania starts to be tortured by great concerns .He is sure he is going to be attacked from the South.From one moment to another ,he is expecting the apparition of Franchet 's avanguards at Danube.He must confront though with a new threat .The capitulation of turkey is eminent.By the opened narrows ,the Entente could now send her fleet and Army in the Black Sea and to threat also from the flank the german army in Romania .The greatest threat for the army of the marshal was coming however from behind.There, in Moldavia ,was boiling the kneeled and defeated country .The germans were making now illusion about the feelings and intentions of Romania.Her exit from the war has been the effect of isolation in which she has been thrown by the events in Russia.The soul of Romania has remained with the Entente ,and the hostility of Romania towards the central Empires increased thus even more because of the tirany regime imposed to the country by the conquerer.It was to be foreseen that ,imediatelly when the isolation of Romania will cease ,against the protests of loyalism from Marghiloman government ,she will haste to retake her position together with the Allies by which she has been brutally separated .Mackensen knew that the eyes of Romanians are aimed with unrest over the Danube ,where he expects with emotion the apparition of the Allied Armies ,and the arms ,crossed over the chest ,start to open up and seek for the weapon.
.....

.....
The german commander is making is calculations .He has in the occupied territory six figthing divisions and numerous troops of militia ,used in the economy services.Adding the troops in Dobrogea ,the ones brought from Ucraine ,the ones crossed this side of the Danube from bulgaria ,the ones disembarked from Caucaz and Asia Minor after the capitulation of turkey ,as well as the troops of the XI-th army from Banat ,Mackensen has a total of 170 000 men.On the mountaineous frontier of Moldavia ,the army of Archduke Iosif has disolved;there were there only weak detachments of frontier army.it is true that the Romanian Army from Moldavia could not acount for the time being as a threatening figthing force.According to the peace Treaty ,the Romanian Divisions have been reduced to peace effectives ,having fixed by the treaty a total of 20 000 men for Infantry ,3 200 at Cavalry and 9000 for Artillery.The only formations important were the troops in Basarabia :two Divisions ,old,with war effectives and other more recent formations.Great quantities of material and horses have been crossed in the occupied territory and surrendered to the germans.Still,Moldavia had great quantities of material and munitions in Russian deposits and,with all the hardships ,would have gathered quick around the existent nucleus an Army of which value Makensen was introduced to at Marasesti.
.......

.......
The reentering into the figth of the Romanian Army ,together with the apparition of the Allied Armies at the Danube ,was thus an eventuality which opened many probabilities of acomplishing.It would have meant War on two Fronts,an ugly perspective for Mackensen and an impossible figth to sustain.At 12th of October ,marshal Mackensen has received from the great german headquarter the order which was clarifying his mission and was indicating the attitude he mast assume:"The circumstances ask that we keep further Romania ,as much as possible.For this,the group of armies will resist with the forces at its dispozition against the enemy attacks which will be made with weak forces at the Danube.If,however the Entente attacks with strong forces ,then Muntenia would have to be evacuated step by step"159.

Because the military means the germans were considered as insufficient ,Mackensen has been authorized to enter political tratatives,to delay or even obstacle the frightening intervention of Romanians.Romania has to be dizzied with diplomatic tratatives and tempted with gifts.The most important was Dobrogea.From the moment when the bulgarian mate broke the camaradery,germania was finding that is natural to take back the payment.Dobrogea has been again offered to Romania .Ofcourse,the germans were keeping further the railway line Cernavoda-Constanta and the harbour of Constanta.The Romanian government has been adviced to reoccupy Dobrogea from bulgarians which were helding her occupied militarily.The gesture of germany was less serious.On the brink of collapse ,she was offering what she was not capable neither to keep any more,nor even to offer.Marghiloman thought that he can continue his politic of attaching to the central powers ,changing only the form:it will be based on a friendly cooperation with these states.He started the tratatives ,not only for an amical reglementation of Dobrogea matter ,but also for reviewing of other conditions of the peace treaty ,in which the germans ,forced by the grave situation in which they were ,were now willing to give.
......

.....
But the tratatives of Mackensen with Marghiloman ,which were seeking to reach an understanding by which the first one to save his army ,and the second one the government ,did not reach any positive result.Against them rises,indignated ,the national conscience which,realysing better the reality of the situation ,did not understood to bargain with the oppressor which was collapsing ,nor to receive concessions from his part.

Romania martyrized will rise again by her own will and of her Allies .The great referee of the Mondial War assumed as well decissive position ,next to the older Allies ,for Romania and her revendications ,by the importance of the declaration of 6th of November of Lansing ,communicated by the Romanian National Council from Paris ,by which it was afirming the support of the government of United States at the realysing of political rights and territorial of Romania.
.......

The slaves shake the chains

The population of the Capital tasked herself to show in the most clear way which are the feelings towards to the germans and which are the perspectives of an amical liquidation of the occupation regime.

Sunday,3rd of November ,it was a beautiful autumn day ,with sun.Calea Victoriei(boulevard) was full with people.A rumor,came from nowhere ,spreads in the public:at Athene -Palace(hotel in Royal Plaza) ,where is the headquarter of the group of armies Mackensen,O.K.M. ,would have arrived from Rusciuk a dellegation of French officers to negotiate the leaving or capitulation of the german army of occupation .The public realizes that the situation of this army was critical ;that at the Danube arrives the French Army ,and the retreat roads through Ardeal and hungary become more and more unsure ,because of the exiting of the War of austro-hungary[19] and of the revolution preparing.That is why, the news is believed.
.......

........
In front of the big hotel ,people are crowding ,wishing to see and salute the messengers of friendly and victorious France.The women have brought flowers ,the men cheer them for a long time.A Romanian officer appears in the balcony and affirms on his word of honour ,that the news is not exact ;there is no French officer in the Capital .No problem.The crowd remains to cheer ,not the men ,but the ideea .The triumph is near ,and this population ,which endures for two years a heavy burden ,has the right to enjoy ,salutting the aorora of liberty which is announcing.

In the garden of the Romanian Atheneum ,a german military music starts to sing a patriotic piece :"Ich bin ein Preusse..."[20] .But the public cannot allow any more .Protest rise ,first shy ,then vehemently.The mussicians are apostrofated with heavy words :"Sing the Marssilieze!Sing the anthemn of the victorious ,you defeated ones!"The indignated voice of the public ,which shouts ,chokes the sound of the music.The hands and the walking sticks begin to rise up in a threatening way.The daring of the slaves is unheard of ,but the moral of the masters is not the one before.The self estime and pride have vanished.The thought for tomorrow freezes the souls.An instinc of prudence ,neighbour with cowardice ,begins to make way.The mussicians gather their instruments and leave with skin on their teeth.


Strong aclamations salute the first victory of the enslaved Bucharests .From the middle of the crowd ,which now have filled the square in front of the Episcopy ,a voice begins:"Allons enfants de la patria !"[21].And strong ,great ,rise up from thousands of chests the impressionant accents of Marssilieze under the windows of the Great German Hedquarter.It is ,in the first hour of awekening of the enslaved Capital ,the omage brought to the liberator and defiance thrown in the face of the occupant.

German patrols on horses and pedestrians try to break and spread the crowd but the few soldiers are surrounded ,pushed and parallized in their moves.And then ,in the exalted crowd which have lost the sentiment of prudence and of their possibilities ,voices begin to be heard:"Ahead ,to Haupt -Wachel ,down the germans !"Like a torrent which nothing can stop now,the crowd starts to move on Calea Victoriei(boulevard) ,towards Military Circle ,where is the central guard ,Haupt-Wechel.The humiliation ,cowardice and accepting of things ,have vanished.Now there are only eyes which throw flames of hate and fists which rise up in threat .

....

......
The crowd advances in aclamations for the Allies and shouts of hate against the germans.The pols with indicating inscriptions of the german authorities are ripped off and throwed away.Packages with "Gazeta Bucurestilor"(Bucharest Newspaper) are set aflame.The officers of the austro-hungarian army ,of Cech nationality ,Croat or Polish ,which carry the signs of the liberated nations ,are aclaimed and they shout together with the crowd:"Vive la France!".

The germans cannot comprehend the unexpected spectacle and anusual.How,this is the population of the so docile Capital? general Koch ,the military governor of Bucharests,comes to meet the manifestants ,but is apostrofated and hoot after .The automobile makes way difficult through the crowd and runs in full speed ; the general has taken out his sword whith which he cuts furious the air left and rigth.In the Theatre Plaza ,a double cordon of german officers meets the head of the column and tries to scatter it ,hitting with their fists.But the mass ,which follows ,pushes ahead .A short collission produces.captain Rechman ,the chief of military police ,which is in the middle of the cordon ,is put to the ground.But ,from Haupt -Wachel direction arrives now the troop ,with bayonets to arms ,in attacking step.From the lateral streets come in running other troops.The manifestants are scattered ,the troops make square formation ,isollating groups of manifestants and the arrestations begin.On the terras of the Military Circle of Bucharest are brought in fists between bayonets the more daring manifestants or less lucky.After a sumare inquiry they are thrown in the basements of commandature.
.....

.....
The streets are emtying ,the manifestation is over,but the spontane demonstration has made its effect .The probe has been decissive.The germans did not succeed to kill the Romanian spirit .Compressed with brutality ,he was unleashing with viollence now,near the end which was closing in and was throwing in the face of the enemy all the hatered accumulated for two years of tirany ,robbery and humiliation.

The state of siege ,tigthened,is proclaimed in Bucharest ,even in the evening of the day .But the supreme commander of the german army has to notice that there is no terrain for a conciliation politic and that the foreheads facing down,and the bend backs ,which he met through the cancelaries of the german-romanian administration ,did not had behind the masses of the Romanian nation*.

In the same way ,elocvent ,in the same day has pronounced also the other Capital of the country(Iasi,Capital of Moldavia)).In Iasi ,the refugee from Ardel(people from Transilvania) make a demonstration at the statue of Cuza Voda ,followed by a crowd of thousands of people.They request to be drawn the national consequences of the Allies victory against the Central Powers .The crowd leaves in procession to the Royal Palace and applause long H.M. the King of today sacrifices and of tomorrow victories.Then starts to the legation of the Allies ,where they give free course to their feelings of gratitude ,of trust and hopes ,so long without aair.The two big friends of Romanians ,the minister of France Saint Aulaire and general Laffont ,witnesses of our efforts ,talk to the crowd about the great deeds which they are on the way to acomplish.
......

Romania reenters the War

Instructed by the feelings of Romanian people by the manifestations in the eve ,unrested by the proclamation of the truce closed by austro-hungary with Italy[22],which gave a term of 15 days for the pouring of the german armies through the territory of the Monarchy ,threatened by an attack from over the Danube which was eminent,as well as by the reentering of Romania in the War ,which seemed more and more probable ,Mackensen saw himself forced to ask to the great german headquarter the permission to start the retreat of his army endangered.The situation was getting worse every day for the marshal's army.In Transilvania and hungary broke out the revolution[23] ,the communications were unsure ,and the localities were in the mastering of the national guards ,newly formed.The great german headquarter decided the retreat of Mackensen army and gave the marshal the order that,in the case when he will not be able to organize a regulat transport ,to make his way with force through Transilvania .For eexecutng the order ,the marshal occupies Brasov and Sibiu ,making from these two cities cnters of gathering and replenishments.The transports of materials had to start at 5 ,and the ones of the troops at 12th of November.
....

*An analogue feeling happened in Slobozia ,in Ialomita county,an episod,which deserves to be mentioned.Amongst the African prisoners of the French Army ,brought here ,was also a distingished mahomedan Gherainia Mahomed ,of the 7th Tiraliors Algeriean Regiment ,member of an old and noble Algerian family."the Arab prince" ,as he was called in the locality ,was very much estimed and loved by the foreign prisoners and by the Romanian population ,because of his distionction and his culture.He has made medical and farmaceutical studies at Paris and thus was the providence of the wounded and sick from Slobozia.At the news of closing of the French troops at the Danube ,he has started to encourage the population and advice it at organization ,for the figth.The germans have felt it though ;they stake him out and shot him.In the honour cemetery in Slobozia ,among the graves of the French ,British and Romanians ,the inhabitants of the little city take care of them ,and with outstanding piety the grave of the exotic hero ,which have martyred to bring the first ray of manhood to his fellows of sufferings and ideal.

.......
In the same time ,Mackensen intervened next to the Romanian government with the request that the retreat of the german armies from Balkan Peninsula and from Dobrogea ,through the Romanian territory ,to be let to be made without any pursue,either from the Romanians part ,or from Allies part.In the contrar case he will be forced to retaliate by making great damages ;amongst others ,he will blow up the bridge over the Danube River .In the same time ,in the case when the Romanian Army would croos the mountains of Moldavia ,in Transilvania ,to not advance over the line Brasov -Cluj.The marshal expresses the "sympathy " for the national cause of Romanians (sic!) the disgust for bulgarians and hungarians and whishes to say good bye to Romanians as to some friends!

But the leaving of the occupation army which drained out the country for two years ,was not to execute after the will and the program of the germans.There were others who had the right to mix up in this matter.And these were : the victorious ,which was setting them on the run and the victim of until now,which was rising from the ground the fallen weapon.
......

.....
After the capitulation of the bulgarian army ,Franchet d'Esperey has made a new project of campaign ,which was foreseeing:a principal operation for liberating Old Serbia and the entering in hungary ,with the intention to attack germania by South ;a secondary operation through Tracia against Constantinopol ,and finally an operation towards Danube River ,through bulgaria .The goal of the last one was,on one hand to cover the internal flanks of the Armies which were operating towards Belgrade and Constantinopole and on the other one to oppose to the intervention of the austro-german troops from Ucraine and Romania.For this aim has been constituted in Sistov-Rusciuk region ,the Danube Army ,composed of three Divisions :the 30th French Division ,the 16th Colonial ,the Hunters Regiment from Africa and the 27th British Division.The Command of these troops has been given to General Berthelot ,which has been called from Champagne Front of the great battle in France ,to lead the liberating Army of Romania ,to which he was so much connected by the action of reorganization of the Romanian Army.

The truce with hungary [24] and turkey has stopped the evolution of the action of the two wings of the Army in the Balkans.General berthelot started though the advance towards the Danube.But his Army was to weak for the given mission and he needed the absolute colaboration of the Romanian Army.
.......

......
For to make contact with the recognized leaders of the Romanian nation ,the French prime minister ,Clemenceau ,has send a confidential,verbal,message to Victor Antonescu -the former minister of the country ,set to disponibility by Marghiloman government -to be send to H.M. King Ferdinand and Ion Bratianu .After he made contact at Salonic with General Franchet d'Esperey and General Berthelot ,Antonescu under name and French uniform ,rove in a plane piloted by Louis Noel the distance Salonic -Iasi ,over the territory occupied by the german lines ,and landed at Iasi at 22nd of October .In the outter most secret ,Antonescu made contact first with Saint -Aulaire ,then with Bratianu and with General Prezan ,communicating them the action palan of the French:the advance of Franchet towards Belgrade and Budapesta and the one of berthelot towards Bucharests ;the Romanians have to attack the germans ,to end the Peace of Bucharest 1918.;the Romanian Army has to constitute the rigth wing of the Army of Franchet d'Esperey ,in the moment of crosing of Berthelot over the Danube River.Marghiloman government has to be taken down ,for that another government to take with the most discretion the general mobilization measures of the troops.By the makings of Misu ,H.M. King Ferdinand has been brought to knowledge with these propositions.With all the enormous hardships from the technical pont of view military,the resolution has been taken.The King has send two telegrams to Poinicare and Clemenceau ,announcing them the intention to retake arms next to the Allies.Bratianu ,in another telegram ,was expresing the profound emotion with which he was knowledged by the feelings and intentions of France ,manifested especially by the choosing of General Berthelot ,and was asking for details.All three telegrams has been expedited by the American legation ,via New York ,to Paris.

A new aerian communication of General Berthelot brought by Romanians friend ,Robert de Flers ,was asking Romania to mobilize all Divisions which would be able to be gathered and equip with artillery.The Allied Army of Danube and the Romanian one had to operate ,coordonating their action ,in such a way ,to reunite at Ploiesti.The plans of mobilization and of military cooperations have been made by Prezan ,although the General,just as Bratianu ,had no official situation.

In this way Romaia was invited to retake her palce of right next to her glorious Allied ,next to which she nevere ceases to be with her hart not for one moment.And from over the Danube ,the Army of Berthelot was giving her hand.The great friend of Romanians was keeping his word given in the sad night of 12 th of March 1918.he was again next to us in this last hour ,which was to be the one of great score settings and of the decissive success.The Treaty of Bucharest took us out without our will from the ranks of the Allies and closed our way to the room of the Peace Conference.Berthelot was cutting with his sword the shameful seals of this treaty and,by the gate hard hit by the wall ,the Romanian soldier was entering with the weapon in hand to retake his place of right next to the friends since hard moment .Giving expression to this situation ,a poster, glued on to the walls of Iasi ,was representing a French soldier manhooding to figth a Romanian one:"Wake up Romanian ,you are not alone anymore .Remember Marasesti !".
.....

....
One thing was not possible anymore though.It was not possible that the destinies of the country to be presided by Marghiloman ,in this supreme hour of setting the score and of fulfilling of national aspirations.Marghiloman has been the negation of the colaboration with the Entente ,the underwriter of the treaty with the central powers ,one of the protagonists of our attachment to the politic of these powers ,their man of trust.

In the last hour still,he was making the mistake to deal a friendly understanding with the central powers ,although these ones were slipinng vertiginous on the incine of catastrophe.Starting from the belief that germania,although defeated will remain a great power still, and will discuss from equal to equal with the Entente at the Great Congress of Peace ,Marghiloman thought that he will be able to impose himself at the helm of the country obtaining ,with german support ,the realization of the national revendications of the country.That is why ,he has entered tratatives with Mackensen to review favorable to the Treaty of peace in the matter of Dobrogea ,and with the diplomatic attache of austro-hungary at Bucharest ,Demblin ,for the military occupation of Bucovina and Ardeal.The ratification of the peace treaty from Bucharest would have been the price of this well intended attitude of the central Emoires ,which were giving anything ,to not keep anything.

This politic was though unlogic and dangerous.Unlogic ,because was tending to the realizations of our national revendications under the protection just of those which,when they had the power in hand ,opposed with the greatest energy to those ideals and which brought us as enemies the deepest wounds .Dangerous,because this intention woud have risen against us our friends and Allies ,just now when the most complete victory was crowning the efforts made for four years and was making by them the referees of peace and of the Mondial politic.The entering of the Romanian Army in Bucovina ,as a result of an understanding between Marghiloman and austrians ,provoked even the energic protests of the representatives of the Entente at Iasi.
....

......
With the collaps of the Central Powers ,the role of Marghiloman has ended.The dark period of the peace from Bucharest ,of which responsibility has taken over his shoulders ,in the hardest moments of our War ,has closed.The moor has made his duty ;the moor had to leave now.

At 6th of November ,the Sovereign requested for the resignation of Marghiloman government .The ministry has formed under the presidency of General Coanda .By two decrees laws successive were disolved the Chambers of Marghiloman and were annullated all the laws and works made by him .It was ripped from the history of the country by one of the pages of humiliation ,written under the threat and dictatorship of the enemy.The other page will be torn by the bayonet of the soldier.

At 10th of November ,H.M. the King ordered the mobilization of the Army :the decree was countersigned by the new minister of War ,General Eremia Grigorescu ,the hero of Oituz and Marasesti.There could not be found more favorable auspices for the new mobilization of Romanians .The head of the state was addressing them a proclamation by which he announced them the reentering in the figth ,next to the Allies "for that together with them to go definitive tovictory which will bring us the fruits of the entire martyr and of our life".To the soldiers,H.M. the King addresses in an emotional appeal:

Soldiers!

The long awaited hour by the entire Romanian breath and especially by you ,my brave soldiers ,has come finally after long and painful awaiting.The crossing of the Allied trrops over the Danube imposes us as a holly and patriotic duty to take again the arm in hand ,to take out together with them ,the enemy of the country and to bring peace and quiet to the enslaved population.

Your King calls you again to figth to fulfil our dream of so many centuries :Unification of all Romanians ,for which in the years 1916-1917 you fougth with so much bravery.

The spirits of those fallen on the field of honour blesses you for this last effort .The looks of our trustful Allies are aimed with love and trust to our country and her sons;your camarads of arms of the victorious Armies of France and England ,which come in our aid,know your bravery from Oituz ,Marasti and Marasesti;show them that the awaiting time did not weaken the arm of Romanian soldier.Our brothers in Bucovina and from Ardeal call you for this last figth ,that by your elan to bring them liberation from foreign slavery.

The victory is ours and the future will ensure the entire Romanian nation peaceful and happy life.

Ahead thus with our ancestors bravery!

God is with us.

Ferdinand
.......

........
In the same day ,at four in the morning,the military attache of the Romanian Government at Bucharest ,general Eremia ,was waking up marshal Mackensen to hand him a note of Coanda government.The note wa imputing to the marshal,that against the assurances given,this one has increased the strength of his army by incorporating of new units and proceeds to the building of strengthened positions,which has provoked the Allied Armies over the Danube to bombard the Romanian shore.The german commandment has not made serious preparations for the evacuation of the Romanian territory ,although he knew that,after the aurstro-italian treaty requests ,he only has 15 days to leave."To obstacle that Romanian becomes again War theatre ,it is absolutelly necessary that the german troops to leave the Romanian territory in 24 hours.After the pouring of this time ,the troops will have to put down arms and to restrain from any destructions or viollences,for which the german government will be held accountable.We are waiting for the answer until tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock ,being forced,in contrar case ,to appeal to force to reach this result".

It was the ultimatum which contained ,in fact,also the declaration of War.With an irritated gesture ,Mackensen answered by calling telegraphicly his military representative at Iasi and setting to the dispozition of the Romanian officers ,in Bucharest,a special train to lead them outside of the occupied territory.In the same time ,the marshal was ordering to his troops to start the evacuation even in the evening of the day,protecting his retreat by destroying the bridges and of the ,telegraphic communications .

The red dice came again.Romania was reentering the War .This time ,with the old Allies ,trialed and sure ,to clean the shameful stain of the enemy occupation and of the slavery treaty to step to the acomplishing of the great dream of the Romanian hood.

The new mobilization was for the time being ,in fact,almost a simple demonstrative gesture .The greatest part of the demobilized effectives ,officers,men ,horses ,were beyond the occupied territory , supervised by the enemy.The deposits were empty ,the soldiers could not be even dressed,or fed.The events will have to precipitate with such a speed , that the liberation of the occupied territory would acomplish before the intervention of the Romanian soldier.
......

The retreat of Mackensen army and the liberation of Romania trritory

From 6th of November ,the Army of General Berthelot starts to concentrate on Danube ,between Rusciuk and Sistov.During the nigth of 9-10th of November ,Detachments of Regiments 146th anf 210th of French Tiraliors have crossed the big river arm of Danube ,in front of Giurgiu and retrenched in front of Ramadam Islet.German troops ,with machineguns,are posted on the shore of the public garden and of the communal park ;two machineguns are in the valley as advanced post(avanpost).An imense crowd ,the whole Giurgiu ,assists from the shore as to a show ;children of elementary school are around the machineguns.Because of this ,the French are in a difficult position ;of fraid to not make harmless victims ,they do not fire.Behind the hills ,behind Giurgiu ,the german cannons fire rare and without eficacity.
....

......
The situation goes on like this until afternoon.At once arrives the news that the French have crossed the Danube River also further up the water stream ,at Slobozia .German soldiers appear shouting :"Die Franzosen kommen!"[25].The machineguns are lifted from positions and the germans retreat .Groups of school children haste then in to the valley and avallanche in to the French lines with shouts of "Vive la France!".The French begin to advance towards Giurgiu ,with the children mounted on machineguns and enter the city in the delirant aclamations of the population.A short figth takes place in the North of the city with the german arierguards ,which are repelled.Fall also three French soldiers,the first heroic victims of the noble liberating Army .Their bodies are led to the eternity place by the entire city ,which make them a great burial.

On the tracks of the retreating germans ,the French reach Copaceni ,on Arges,where they have to stop .The river has increased to much ,and the great bridge has been blown up by the germans .Other French Detachments have crossed the Danube River at Zimnicea and at Turnu Magurele ,in the nigth of 10-11th of November .From Giurgiu ,Berthelot addresses to the Romanian nation an appeal of manhooding.The French aeroplanes fly over Bucharets and throw the manifest,clipped with small flags in national colours .In spirited words ,the French Commander announces the Romanians that"the hour of justice has rang.All over defeated ,here and there smashed ,the enemy is all over scattering .It has come the hour to burn the piece of paper with which you have been enslaved at Bucharest ".And to the soldiers ,Berthelot addresses the appeal :"To weapons !It is the shout of Romanian patria for which you have suffered .It is the calling of your King ,which have sacrificed everithing for wholing Romania .It is the shout of your ancestors ,of the spirits of Mircea the Old ,Stefan the Great ,of Mihai the Brave .It is the shout of your sons and brothers ,fallen in bravery on the fields of battle from Oituz and Marasesti...And tomorrow you will see the British flag and the French tricolor floating in the wind of victory and unhangings ,next to your tricolor flag!".
....

.......
In the Capital ,the evacuation of the occupation army ,of the numerous military clerks and of the great deposits was made in the first days slow and methodically.In the afternoon of the day of 10th ,in the wake of the Romanian ultimatum ,started to be made in mass ,in disorder.The retreat has transformed in running .The streets are full of the multitude of trucks ,automobiles ,carriages ,which transport to the train station men and luggages.The whole nigth and the next day has lasted the exod.Great manifestations of joy brings the Romanian population in conflict with the military patrols which fire blind shots ,but sometimes in full .The plazas of the Royal Palace and Military Circle of Bucharest are the theatre of the most violent manifestations and repressallies .At the perifery of the city ,the population attacks and robs the deposits of the occupation army .The crowd is went crazy especially in the neighbourhood of Gara de Nord(Northern Train Station of Bucharest) ,where they attack daring the guards next to the train carriages with materials;the soldiers fire and kill many people .Tuesday ,12th of November ,the evacuation of Bucharests has ended .general Koch ,the military governor ,has rove Calea Victoriei in the running of his automobile ,with his revolver in hand .The last german soldiers -the guard at Haupt-Wachel -have been disarmed and made prisoners by Romanian Geandarms ,and the two machineguns ,which on the terras of the Military Circle kept in respect the crowd,are carried in triumph by highschool students to the Police Prefecture.
......

......
The city is in celebration .In a few hours the entire look of it has changed .All firms and german inscriptions have been taken down ,sometimes in the noise of the windows on which they were written.The redactions of the germanophil newspapers ,"Lumina","Steagul","Gazeta" ,are devastated by the crowd.Thousands of flags and carpets pave the houses faces and of balconies ,and the streets are filled by the crowd which,with arms filled with flowers ,await the apparition of the French.But these ones retained few days at Arges , by the difficulty of transports ,do not show up yet.For a few days the Capital will live a life of enervating waiting .All communications are interrupted ;there is no telegraph connection or telephone ,no communication ,either with the French ,or with Moldavia .It is known only that the driveways are filled by german armies in retreat ,which devastate the villages in their way and destroy the communications behind.The services of organized safety are missing ;all nigth echos rifle shots.

Only at 16th of November could be established a link between the government at Iasi and Berthelot ,which is authorized to take administrative measures and of guard in this territory ,without master.The Allied Armies have advanced and acntooned at Jilava ;groups of French and British officers start to appear on to the streets of the Capital and are saluted with enthusiasm by the population.
......

The end of Mackensen army

Mackensen army started the retreat in the nigth of 10 -11th of November on two columns .The Eastern group ,formed by the troops of the 63rd commandment ,which constituted the army on Siret River Front ,was retreating towards Buzau passes,Predeal and Bran with direction Brasov and Sighisoara .The principal group -commandment Scholtz -formed in its majority by troops arrived from bulgaria and Macedonia ,was retreating along Olt Valleys,Jiu and Cerna.The II-nd army ,on line Varset -Cinci Biserici ,was protecting towards West the flank of group of armies Mackensen

The troops in retreat destroy the bridges on the driveways and railways ,set fire to deposits ,disarm and take prisoners ,the Romanian geandarms ,shoot inhabitants ,make requisitions ,rob all they find in their way .To cut the retreat of the german armies ,Berthelot has telegraphied to the Romanian Commandment at Iasi to suspend the advance of the Romanian Army in direction Focsani-Buzau-Ploiesti,which has started ,and to action in direction Oituz -Brasov.

In the day of 12th of November though,Berthelot receives and transmit the news of closing the general truce on all Fronts and of ending of any figthing operation.The germans can now to continue the retreat in complete quiet.At 1st of December ,the last german detachments have crossed the Carpathian Mountains .The Romanian territory was free.

The marching of the german armies is delayed by the heavy winter and by the difficulties in hungary.The soldiers start to enervate and to revolt.They organize in soviets,maltratating their officers ,attack and rob transports ,sell through villages on nothing the stolen things in Romania,the materials of the army and horses.The term foreseen by the truce treaty for the evacuation of the occupied territory by the germans ,has long past.The army is left to continue its road ,but Mackensen is interned by the hungarian government of count Karoly [26] in Foth castle ,near Budapesta.From here he has been transported in the castle of count Chotek ,at Futtak ,near Neusatz ,in the vecinity of Danube River,and from there to Salonic ,from where he has been freed only in November 1919,permitting him to return to germania .marshal Mackensen was fulfilling thus the engagement made to his soldiers ;he was reentering in patria as the last soldier of his army.
......

The resurrection day

In the day of 1st of December 1918 ,the freed Bucharests were dressing the cloth of celebration .The King was reentering in the Capital of the country ahead of his heroic Army .It has been a day of great and overwhelming emotions ,which are given to be lived only to the nations which conquer happiness going through most cruel sufferings.The nigthmare has passed;it has lasted for two years .The awakening has come ;it was as such as we did not even dare to wish for in our most daring creations of our minds.

With pride ,H.M. the King could declare:"When I took the inherritance of the one that put the bases of modern Romania ,I have promissed ahead of the representatives of the nation that will be a good Romanian .I think I have kept my word.Hard have been the times ,great have been the martyrs ,but shinning is the reward ,and today I can say with clear forehead :<<To God and to my people I have the clean conscience >>"-

In this day of Resurrection there has been no inhabitant of the great trialed Capital to not run to see the triumphal cortege and have not been eyes to not shed tears.

In the head of the Royal cortege was the King ,having next to Him ,Queen Maria and General Berthelot ,all three on horse back.After the three makers of victory ,was coming the Army ,the Regiments of Marasesti ,Marasti ,from Oituz and from Ciresoaia .Then ,Units of the Allied Armies ,French,British ,Americans representatives of the illustrious Army which was covered by glory on the fields of battles of the West.

But ,over the shining bayonets ,over the flags fluttering with pride ,the wet eyes of the onlookers were breaking the space ,and the thought was going faster ,aiming further...

....At Alba Iulia ,in the old Capital of Mihai the Great ,was closing in the same time, by the will of Romanian nation ,gathered from all corners of Ardeal ,the greatest act of the history of Romanian hood .

Their Majesties King Ferdinand and Queen Maria of Romania

Romanian Royal Carriage /central military museum of Bucharest

[1] The submarine warfare unlimited,despite the heavy losses provoked to the Entente ,did not train the exitting of Great Britain from the figth ,nor could had obstacle the crossing of Atlantic ocean by the North-American Expeditionary Corps.In these circumstances ,the german commandment put all hopes in a decissive offensive on the Western Front in 1918.
[2] The german cannon "Bertha " built by Krupp factories ,has bombed for the first time Paris at 23rd of March 1918.The goal of the germans was especially a pshychological one:demoralising of the inhabitants of the French Capital.
[3] Ferdinand Foch (1851-1929) ,General and Marshal of France (1918) ,has been tasked by British and French governments -at 26th of March 1918-"to coordinate the action of the Allied Armies on the Western Front".Then,his prerogatives have been enlarged ,becoming the unique Commander on the Front in France.(see G.Clemenceau ,The greatness and biterness of a victory.Memoirs)
[4] At 15th of September 1916 ,in the frame of the British offensive in Somme area (France) have participated for the first time massive the tanks.
[5] "The second Battle of Piave" has been unleashed at 15th of June 1918 .The austrians have attacked from Astico at Adriatic Sea ,obtaining successes on Asiago Plateau and at Grappa and managing to cross Piave.But,at 16th of June their offensive has been blocked ,the Italians counterattacked between Montello and the sea (17th of June) .The austrian failure was obvious at 18th of June.
[6] Grece has entered the War -under the leadership of a cabinet Veinzelos -against the central powers at 29th of June 1917.
[7] The Allies have conquered Uskub-on the Front against bulgaria -at 29th of Septmber 1918.The bulgarian army has been completelly disorganized.
[8] The bulgarian army was relativelly numerous .By the end of 1915 ,when she entered the War ,she had 15 908 officers and 600 772 soldiers and under -officers.
[9] See text of the truce convention ,la Guerre europeenne.Documents 1918 .Conventions d'Armistice passees avec la turquie ,la Bulgarie ,l'Autriche -Hongrie et l'Allemagne par les Puissances alliees et associees,Paris ,1919.
[10] Ferdinand of Bulgaria abdicated at 3rd of october 1918.Boris the III-rd de Saxa-Coburg has been the Czar of Bulgaria in period (1918-1943).
[11] During the campaign of 1918 ,the British have concentrated their forces and efforts in the Close and Middle Orient to take out and destroy Ottoman Empire.In the period 19-30 September 1918 ,the British have unleashed and enterprized a strong offensive in Palestina and Siria .At 30th of September they have occupied Damascus ,and at 26th of October have reached Alepul ,preparing to invade Anatolia.
[12] The truce between the Allies and the Ottoman Empire has been closed at 30th of october 1918 in the Mudros Harbour ray .See text ,in Guerre europeenne.Documents 1918.,la Guerre europeenne.Documents 1918 .Conventions d'Armistice passees avec la turquie ,la Bulgarie ,l'Autriche -Hongrie et l'Allemagne par les Puissances alliees et associees,Paris ,1919
[13] at 1st of November the Serb troops entered in Belgrade.The French Cavalry has reached the the Danube .In other sector the French have reached Danube as well from 19th of October.
[14] Starting from Grece ,from Salonic ,the troops of General G.F. Milne have started the advance towards Constantinopol .At 29th of October 1918 these troops -in which tere were British ,French and Greeks-were threatening directly Constantinopole.
[15] In front of national desastre ,the Kaizer of Germany Wilhelm the II-nd run at 10th of November in Holland,and at 26th of November 1918 has signed the abdication act.Carol the I-st of Habsburg left at 11th of November 1918 austria heading towards hungary .At 13th of November has been however forced to rennaunce his imperial prerogatives and Royal ones.
[16] "Baupaume has fallen,Peronne has been conquered..."
[17] Paul von Hintze replaced Richard von Kuhlmann ahead of foreign ministry.
[18]About the revolt in 27th of September 1918 and proclaiming by bulgarian soldiers uprised of the republic.
[19] austro-hungary and germany requested truce at 27th of october 1918.however the truce between the Entente and austro-hungary has been closed at 3rd of November 1918.
[20] "I am a prusian..."
[21] The first verse of the national anthem of French.
[22] At 27th of October 1918 the Italian troops being in decissive offnsive are victorious at Vittorio Veneto ,breaking the austro-hungar Front and advancing then ,from 31st of October on the entire Fron.austro-hungaria cannot continue the War.In the name of the Entente ,Italy signs the truce with austro-hungaria at Villa Giusti(Padova) .Se text of the accord in Guerre europeenne....la Guerre europeenne.Documents 1918 .Conventions d'Armistice passees avec la turquie ,la Bulgarie ,l'Autriche -Hongrie et l'Allemagne par les Puissances alliees et associees,Paris ,1919
[23] The burgess- democrat revolution unleashes in Budapesta at 30- 31 of October 1918.At 30th of october have started the burgess -democrat revolution in austria .
[24] hungary has signed with the representatives of the Entente the military Convention of truce at Belgrade in the day of 13th of November 1918.
[25]"The French are arriving!"
[26] C.M.Karolyi (1875-1955).hungarian politician.The burgess- democrat revolution in hungary ,started at 30-31 st of october 1918 ,led to the formation of a government by independence party ,radical and social democrst ones,led by C.M. Karolyi.

Chapter IV

THE COLLAPSE OF AUSTRO HUNGARIAN MONARCHY


On the brink of catastrophe

The turn of the War could be felt in austro-hungaria more than anywhereelse;the Habsburg Empire suffered of two sicknesses which undermined her existence.

One of them was the constitutive country ,the originar evil of this artificial organism.The Monarchy has been birthed by forced union or clever one ,of so many nations which had nothing in commune ,to keep them united:not connections of feelings ,nor of permanent interests.When the only element uniting them -the force,started to crumble ,the elements kept by force together started to scatter.

The second disease was the exhaustion provoked by the War .Nowhere ,as in austria itself,the hardships of War were so hard endured.They have become insuportable for a population which did not find the strength for sacrifice in pursuing an ideal.Escaped by the danger of the firsts collissions which endangered her existance ,austria wanted now only a cease of the War with keeping of the "statu quo ante bellum".The anexionist politic of the germans and bulgarians was beginning to press austro-hungary now,which was seeing in the greed of her allies the principal cuse of extending the War.austria was feeling that her existance is threatened by the decomposing ,intern,which was accentuating as the War was extending further.That is why she was looking for peace occassions and was prepared for all kinds of compromises.

This thing was though not easy anymore.Caught between the german militarism and hungarian intolerance ,the Monarchy had to drag after her the projectile of War tight by the leg and to step further on a road at which end did not shine any flame of an ideal to ligth ,to guide and atract.And the road was becoming a calvary ,more and more difficult to climb .The belief in final victory was weaker more and more.The uses connected by successes were more and more problematic.The mozaic of nations which were making the Monarchy were feeling less and less solidar ones with the others;some of them were gravitating outside the borders and were maintaining clear connections with the enemy.The spectrum of hunger was grimming with threat.From one day to another ,austria could remain without bread ,with all the draining out of occupied Romania.Hunger ,tiredness ,discouragment ,pessimism ,these were the characteristics of austro-hungary in the last year of the War.

What was giving an aspect of outstanding gravity to the crisis ,was the fact that even the army was starting to feel the exhaust and general discontent .In different garrisons and in the fleet uprising produces;the soldiers do not want to leave on the Front,maltratate the officers ,devastate deposits and even cities ,rise the red flag .At Judenburg ,in Stiria ,the Sloven soldiers shoot their officers and then refugee in the mountains.A Serb regiment takes with assault the city Cinci Biserici(Five Churches) ,after a machineguns attack.At Plezn,the Cehs(Czechs) refuse to make service anymore and desert in mass .In Cracovia ,the population attacks in street the german officers ,burns the portraits of the Emperors and manifest for the victory of the adversaries.In Budapesta ,the 32th hungarian regiment ,do not want to leave on the Front.In Hertegovina ,a battalion mutinies.At Pola ,the sailors from the arsenals mutiny;the movement stretches to Cattaro[1].The crews of the torpedo boats rise the red flag.
The mutineers arrest the amirals and the officers and ask peace by T.F.F.A naval division is send against them and,only after long tratatives ,manages to disarm the revoltees.A number of 348 sailors are sued and the trials is going until the autumn ,when the guilties are amnisted.

The hunger and uselessness of the figth exasperates the soldiers.They do not want to go to useless slaugther.The former prisoners in Rusia ,freed by the revolution and by the separate peace and returned to their homes ,find their houses destroyed ,families figthing in lacks of all kinds.The fired ones and penssioneers do not want to return on the Front,forging their military papers and wander through the country ,making all kinds of bussinesses.Under different pretexts and missions,the officers make way through the country ;there is a continuous swarming between Ucraine and Italy ,between Italy and the Balkans.The villages are filled by the "hidden ones" ,which the population hides them.The government conceals things,but the contagiousness of unhappyness and the revolt is spreading The man from the country ,used as militar on the Front with obedience ,comes home on leave,stumbols over mizery and suffering of his family ,listens to the free critic and his mind opens over the uselessness of the efforts and the martyrs asked from him.The austro-hungarian army is now an inert organism,agitated by contrar tendencies ,without spirit.She drags hard the yoke of War which some part of the soldiers cannot understand anymore ,and the other part rejects it.A powerful blow -and she will throw down the yoke.
......

Between peace and downfall

Three years has lived austria under absolutist regime .the two pillars of this regime have vanished from the political arena and from this world.Franz Joseph has died in the autumn of 1916 ,and the prime minister Sturgkh fell taken down by the revolver bullet of socialist Adler[2].The new Emperor summoned the parliament ,from which he hoped to find a solution of the problem of nationalities.It was the safety valve of escaping against the brutal detente of public discontents.But three years of War changed many things.The nation,to which it has been asked from the blood sacrifice ,was expressing now with courage the feelings and intentions.Because it was not anymore masses of servants ,trembling under the whip of the master ,but armed nations which were thinking that the time has come to make their own fate and had the strngth to do it.

Numerous manifestations from the War did not let any doubt over the feelings of the nationalities from within the Monarchy.The political refugees have constituted in neutral countries ,in national commeeties ,in connection with the adversary.Regiments of Czechs and Croato-Slovenians were figthing in the Russian armies and Italian ones against austro-hungary.The Czech professor Masaryk was leading in the contries of the adversaries the cruciade to unborn austro-hungary.

At 30th of May 1917 opened the gates of Reichsrat from Veien ,which stayed locked for three years.The attitude of the chiefs of nationalities did not let anything to be desired as precision.Stanek declared in the name of the bohem nation that the dualist form of the Habsburg Monarchy must be removed and the Empire must transform into a federation of national states,free and equal .Based on the natural right of free determination of states and based on the historical wrigths of Bhoemia ,Stanek asked the reunion of all CzechSlovakcs ina democratic state ,in the historical frontiers of the Bohemian state .The punch was good.The death of the dualist Empire was hitting strong in hungary ,which was mastering the Slovak territory.The crown of Saint Venceslas was the breaking of the crown of Saint Stefan ,both mastered by Carol.At the attack started from the North ,came to add the attack started from the South ."The South -slavic Club" has not remained in debt with the reply.He has asked "the unification of all Slovens ,Croats and Serbs living in the territories of the Monarchy in an independent state ,free of any foreign sovereignity ,build on democratic bases ,under the scepter of Habsburg-Lotaringic Dynasty.In the same sense spoke the representatives of the other nations :the Poles which had their national satut ensured by Ruteni.
.....

........
The nations have spoke clearly.The government Clam-Martinitz [3] fell under the imputation that he did not feel well the parliamentary terrain ;the minister of Agriculture Seidler [4] took his place.But the parliament refuses any concur to the government ; refuses the bill for the measures taken during the three years of absolutiste guvernation based on the celebre article 14* ;refuses the sanction of penal condemnations for patria treason.The Emperor thought that he can win the sympathy of the nations by generous gestures ,by clemence measures.he gave the general amnistia to all political condemnees.The act was though interpreted as a constrain measure ,which had nothing in common with the matter of nationalities.

The peace tratatives with Russia sovietic,and the wilsonian program[5] came to give two big blows to austro-hungary ,which have agravated the her intern sitution ,by encouraging the oppressed nations.
.....

(Regiment of soldiers from the former austro-hungarian army of Romanian origin)

......
By the opened window at Brest -Litovsk ,trotki was helding speeches of revolutionary propaganda to the nations of Europe.The right of autodetermination of nations,the sovereign principle postered by the rusian revolution ,was hitting in the political structure of austro-hungary."Each nation has the right to choose the form of state and the connections he wants",spoke sententious trotki .And in the face of the bolsevic dictator ,Czernin ,tight with the door by the need to close as soon as possible the peace ,was entangeled in answers and was seeing himself forced to accept the formulae ,making the reserve that it applies to all nations ,with the exception of those of austro-hungary .But the aliments crisis in austria was threatening with an ending of catastrophe ,and the tratatives ,held on stop by trotki's dialectic and by the annexionist greed of germania ,was eternizing.In absolute need of peace ,not being able to close it with Russia ,Czernin invents the peace with delegations of new born state of Ucraine .trotki attentions the plenipotentiaries of austro-germania that he closes peace "with some delegates without a country ,because the only territory over which this ones dispose still ,are the chambers they occupy in Brest -Litovsk".In vain ,the central powers need very much this first peace of the mondial war ,to impress the adversaries ,and austro-hungary -especially - needs absolutelly by the Ucrainian deposits of food,which they hope are considerable and full to the brim.
......

*The 14th article of Law of 1867 was:"If the need appears to take dispozitions for which the asentiment of the parliament is necessary ,when this one cannot reunite ,then can be published the decrees of the law under the responssibility of the entire ministry".austria has governed the three years from the start of the War under the regime of this article.
.....

To close this peace ,problematic,Czernin is forced to make a humiliating concession and unparalleled grave .He recognizes the revendications of Ucrainians over Galitia ,Bucovina,Rutenia and Holmul and engages ,by a dispozition ,secret, to undergo to a Crown council ,austro-hungar,the solution conform of this matter.In this way,forced by hunger ,the Habsburg Empire bends his necks in front of the boys Sevrjuk and Lubjinski ,which had the pretention to represent Ucraine ;he received in fact the appliance of the principle of autodetermination!

The attitude of Czernin at Brest-Litovsk had an echo in the country.At 6th of January 1918 ,the Czechs unapprove by a solemn motion the Foreign minister of austro-hungary ,which-in his public declarations -was forbiding "any foreign intervention in the intern rapports of the Monarchy'.The motion/document rots the opressing of the CzechSlovak nation by the germans in austria and by the "hungarian oligarhy" and makes appeal directly to international laws ,to establish the form of their future state.The motion says nothing this time about the austrian federative state ,nor about the House of Habsburg.
......

.....
Two days before Wilson was unfolding his peace program ,cristalized in the celebre 14 points.The paragraps about the frontier rectifyings of Italy ,of the evolution by itself of the austro-hungarian nations ,at the Balkans states and at Poland ,were confirming the engagements taken previously by the figthing forces of the Entente and were reading the sentence of death of the dualist Monarchy.

The fate of austro-hungary was now decisively decided .She will have to choose between waiting her death to come from adversaries and taking it by herself.Only one miracle could escape her ;victory.With the desperation of the cards player arrived to his last penny ,austro -hungary was putting her hope ,in the spring of 1918 ,on the daring card which Hindenburg and Ludendorff were playing in France.The game had been lost in June 1918 ,Boroevici made the tentative supreme on the Italian Front on Brenta and Piave .The battle had been lost this time again[6].

Hopless,austria returns at the trials of compromises internal.Reichsrat opens again in summer 1918 .This time under less favorable auspices.The Czechs are inconciliable.The problem of the Slavs from the South had to be let aside ,of fraid to not upset the huingarians ,which have half of the South-Slave territories .With the hungarians ,though,the government is in conflict on the matter of aliments ,which the hungarians refuse to give to austrians.The Poles were irritated because austria has promissed to Ucraine the Polish land Holm.The social -democrats were unpleased because of the attitude of the government at Brest -Litovsk ,in the matter of autodetermination of nations .The scandal provoked by the publishing of the letters of Emperor Carol towards prince Sixt of Bourbon, ,in the matter of separate peace tratatives with the Entente ,forced the Emperor to make the road at Canossa and to increase the subordination of austria towards the german Empire.

The austrian parliament took attitude ,hostile,towards Seidler and was refusing the provissory budget .Seidler fell.his successor has been Hussarek[7] ,Church law professor at vien university ,of which uncolored program of governation was based on compromises ,promisses and oportunism.
.......

.....
In the mean time ,produced the great extern events.At 8th of August ,the French and the British reputed the great victory on Somme.Its effect over Ludendorff has been depressing.The chief of the great german headquarter got the belief that the War cannot be won and so ,must be ended before being directed to dezastre.A conference ,held at Spa ,decided the trying of a meditation of peace by using of a neutral power.It must be made in a moment which the great german headquarter will think favorable and namely ,after a consolidation of the Western Front.But austro-hungary was not capable to wait that moment.The decline of the german military power worsened the internal situation .The nationalities were not hiding their happyness .The CzechsSlovacs have been recognized by Entente as figthing force.In Reichsrat of Vien,the deputies from CzechoSlovaks aclaimed the Czechs figthing in the adversaries ranks ,against the Monarchy ,as some heroes of the nation-and the cannopy of Habsburg Parliament did not collapse over the daring ones.austro-hungary was incapable to held the War and the catastrophe was emminent.

At 14th of September ,Burian ,successor of Czernin ,launched a proposition of peace in the name of austro-hungary ,towards the figthing powers ,inviting them to a meeting of delegates in a neutral country,to proceed to a conversation ,confidential, and without obligations,based on Wilson's proposals.Clemenceau did not answer direc ,but by a speech of the French Senate ,in which he declared that "no tranzaction is possible between law and murder".Lansing ,the Foreign minister of the United States answered by a refussal,about which Reuter agency found that it is important to mention that it has been written in 30 minutes after receiving of the note.In the same time ,produced also the catastrophe of bulgaria .The central powers received a dicessive blow and was isollating turkey which ,defeated by Siria ,was also preparing her exit from the alliance and from figth.

On the Western Front ,the germans suffered defeat after defeat .The resistance was more and more difficult ,and the moral of the nation deeply shaken .Under the burden of defeat,germania bend the knees.At berlin constituted a government parliamentary under the presidency of Max von Baden[8] ,comprising the representatives of the different parties ,including the socialists.At 5th of October ,two radiograms ,left from the two Capitals of the central Empires ,offered to the president of the United States the peace of the fourteen point.
......

Too late!

To unite the talk with the deed,the leaders of austria were making big efforts to create inside the Monarchy a situation in the sens of Wilson's ideeas.It was the best demonstration of sincerity of their intentions ,which the Monarchy was offering to the powerful president.The radical change of the structure of Monarchy in the sense of federalization was the only solution.it was though too late .The Czechs of which state was now recognized by the powers of Entente ,did not want to discuss anymore the matter.The problem of the Slavs in the South was connected by hungaria ,and this one did not want not even "in the tearing of her head" to make any concession:hungaria must be preserved untouched ;even the hungarians were reclaiming the attachment of Dalmatia to hungaria!Send by the Emperor in the the slavic (Slavs people) ,to see personally the situation and to appreciate the gravity ,Tisza listens with surprise and with indignation the wishes of the population ,Autodetermination,national states ,were uncomprehensive things for the intolerant spirit and anacronic of the hungarian sovinist.He saw still that he is on the edge of an abyss and answers furiously to the delegats:
-"It is possible we collapse ,but before we collapse we will find enaugh power to crush you!"
......

.....
The answer is characteristic for hungarian mentality.The pride and blindness of the hungarian men of state will give the blow of death to the austro-hungarian Monarchy ,as they ,until now,have been the most active ferment of her decay.

Tired by discussions in vain with the hungarian nationalities and with the hungarians ,the austrian government decides to haste the ending.At 1st of October ,Hussarek unfolds in Rechsrat the program of reorganization of austria based on federalization.The program was a daring one ,but full of hesitations and inprecissions ,provoked in the most part by the wish to manage the integrity territorial ao the hungarian Kingdom.But the Slavs did not want to discuss anymore:
-"The bhoemian matter will be solved together with the other Mondial matters by the international congress",declared the socialist Czech Tussar.
-"No power in the world will not be able to separate the Croats and Serbs by Slovenians !" exclamed Korosck.
-"We want unique front of the three Slavic states ,from Danzig ,over Prague ,until the Adriatic!" shouted Stanek in front of the prime minister of austria And the request of Hussarek to enter in discussions for finding of the forms most suited for the new organization ,the chorus of the representatives of the nationalities answers:
-Too late!"

Emperor Carol calls the chiefs of nationalities at Baden ,the residence of the great headquarter ,where the Emperor thought himself safe ,under the defence of the trustful Tirolian division"Edelweiss".He hopes that by conversations and interventions will be able to change their minds .All declare though that there is no time for discussions .Facts are needed .And the Emperor decides to address to his nations a manifest by which to announce them the making of the federalization of austria.The decission is about acomplishing two factors at once:his nations and Wilson.The austrian government struggles to find the formula which,making happy some ,to not rise up the others.Because in hungaria is announced the storm.Never hungary will not admit the breaking of her integrity ;a concession made to the Croats and to the Serbs will be followed by concessions to Romanians ,Rutens ,Slovaks ,germans .And Wekerle threatens hussarek with a series of grave repressalies ,from which imediate one is that hungary will not give a grain no more to austria .To keep"the integrity of hungaria " means though to not solve tha Slavs matter from the South and to refuse the unification of Slovaks with the Czechs.
.....

.....
The austrian government has to give in.The Emperor's manifest "To my faithful nations of austria" appears at 17th of October.He announces that "austria will become ,in the sense of the wishes of her nations,a federative state ,in which each nation to form a state community of itself ,in its territory".He admits to the nations the right to free dispozition and makes appeal to the constituting of national advices ,formed by the deputies from the parliament of each nation ,to represent the interests of the nations one from the other ,as to the central government .When however,to give precisse explanations,the manifest held in generalities.Outside the Polish state and by Trieste city ,was not mentioned any other of the other states.The explanations of Hussarek were completing the manifest ;it was foreseen an austro-german Empire ,formed by the german provinces of austria ;a kingdom of Bohemia ,a kingdom of Haliciul(Galitia and Ucraine) ;one of Ilyria ,formed by the unification of the Southern Slavs.The Pols from Galitia were reuniting to the Polish state ,and the matter of Bosnia and Hertegovina and the Romanian matter remained opened ,given their connection with Ucraine .To rest this one ,the manifest had the fatal phrase :"the integrity of the countries of holly hungary will not be touched at all".


The manifest did not produced at all the expected result by its authors.It did not succeed to thank noone and,less than anybody ,just the hungarians which they wanted to treat with care with the price of sacrifying of the other states.the hungaria government answered by the ploclamation of independence[9]."Because -declares Wekerle-austria has organized on federative bases ,we sit on the basis of personal unification and,as a result,we will organize our politic ,under economic rapport as wellas of national defence ,in an independent way'.

The masterpiece of Deak and Beust smashed.The Dualism of 1865 [10] has been unbirthed.

Wekerle thinks that he can satisfy the Croats ,promissing them a reviewing of the treaty of 1868.but the Croatians do not come to the meetings anymore ,of the parliament of hungaria .They do not consider themselves as belonging to hungaria/hungary.

All the nations of the Monarchy reject the manifest .The leaders of the nations ,summoned by president-minister ,decline the invitation or come to make protests.All over are formed national states ,but they assume the governments of the respective countries and do not want to know by the central government of Vien.In Agram ,the national gathering refuses to aknowledge of the exercising of the right of free determination and ask the birthing of "a national state Jugoslav ,on all territories where Slovenians live ,Croats and Serbs regardless of frontiers or provinces".In Lamberg ,the Ucrainian Constituant proclaims "the Ucrainian state which stretches on the whole territory etnographic of Ucraine'.Not the first ,nether the latter ones do not wish to take in to account the old frontiers ,plolitical of the Monarchy;they know now only etnographic borders.The national council Czech ignorrs the manifest:he launches the own proclamation ,in which insists over the fact that the Bohemian matter is not an austrian one anymore ,but an international one .The Poles made already their national state ;they are now outside austria .The italians do not want to discuss ;they are in awaiting for the events .The latter ones ,amongst all,the germans from austria proclaime at 21st of October the austro-german state.
.....

.....
The old austrian state did not exist anymore.It is true,in Vien has remained an austrian government .In their administrative ofices ,there were still working clerks.But the"machine of the state was going in empty,like a mill without grains"199.

In the midst of this chaos ,arrived the answer of Wilson to the proposition of peace made at 5th of October .It was the blow of grace given to a dying one.The government of the United States declared that he cannot occupy by the proposition made ,because the situation has changed by important events .That exists a state of War between CzechSlovaks on one side and germania and austria-hungaria on the other .That the National Czech Council -Masaryk ,Benes-is the government of a figthing force and so ,only this Council is in more right to negotiate the interests of CzechsSlovaks ,than the president of the United States .in the same time ,United States declares that they have recognized the right of freedom of Jugoslavs ,in the most complete way.

austro-hungary ceased to be a unitary state : two states detached by her body.

Blow after blow.At 24th of October ,the aniversary of the defeat at Caporetto,the Italians ,helped by the French and the British ,start an offensive in great style on the whole Front[11].The enemy strikes an army which has now no patria.

Hussareck and Burian resignate.The Emperor names president-minister proferssor Lammasch ,a celebrity in international Law and a known pacifist ;his mission is to liquidate old austria.The Foreign Minister is appointed count Andrassy ;his mission is to liquidate the War .And ,in the nigth of 27-28th of october ,the telegraphic wire was carrying ,from Ballplatz of Vien through Stockholm towards Washington ,the desperate appeal for the separate peace ,which the dying austrohungary was imploring to Wilso;

"The austro-hungarian government declares ready ,without waiting the result of other tratatives ,to enter discussions for closing of a peace between austria-hungaria and the adverse states and of a truce on all austro-hungarian Fronts".

All peace conditions imposed by Wilson were declared as accepted beforehand .The breaking from germania was acomplished .only the peace to come ,before the defeat which was drawing on the Italian Front to not change into desastre .because noone was making any illussion now over the result of the great battle started :the complete collapse of this army without patria ,the overflowing of the armed bands over the austrian territory ,plunder ,anarchy...
but ,on the field of battle ,from the Mondial cancelaries of diplomats ,as from the camps of nationalities ,sounds a fatal echo :too late!
........

Finis austro-hungarie !

The epiation started for the states of the central powers.The pray politic has been defeated and the culprits were waiting for their sentence.bulgaria and turkey were to the ground.austria was collapsing.germania was kneeled down and taken by the fibrilations of her last moves.Alone Ucraine ,overwhelemed by a national frenezy without borders,was cradling in some illussions which touched the unconsciousness.She dennounced the dualism ,broke connections with austria ,was preparing to separate her army ,the leading of the foreign policy and of the finances.the venerable pragmatic sanction ,which for two centuries -from 1713 -has dominated the constitutional life of the Monarchy ,has lived its life.the hungarians wanted to keep only the personal union with austria.With this ,hungary was counting herself disengaged by any responsibility for the War carried so far,without any obligation to the nations which she held oppressed ,at shelter of any threat by the victorious adversary.Clenched in the intangible doctrine of her territories and even of her constitution ,no power in the world coul budge her.The right of nations to autodetermination ,the constitution of national states ,the whole ideology of the russian revolution and the new bible of Wilson ,which has conquered the nations ,had to volatile in front of the frontiers of the independent state of hungary,defended by the milenar crown of Saint Stefan!
.....

.......
The hungarian blindness had in it something pathologic.The hungarian politicians were asking a "sanitary cordon" around ucraine ,which to defend their country against the smels of decay from austria.hungaria had to remain an island unmoved and peaceful in the middle of the stormy ocean which agitated the nations around her.

Amongst the hungarian politicians rises a new man ;count Karolyi[12] ,the chief of the independentist pasoptist(refering to 1848 revolution) hungarian party.Demagog and oportunist ,unfolding with hypocrisy a program of concessions ,democratic,promissing peace ,he earned day by day a popularity which was imposing him as the man of the situation.Leaving the boat which was taking water,he begins to simulate friendly feelings towards the Entente ,declares that is necessary a change of the foreign politics and -through the mouths of his partisans -shouts loud to be heard by Europe :"We are friends of the Entente!".With this oportunist luggage ,count Karolyi was asking the power ,declaring himself the only one able to save hungaria with the credit of his person.

In this time though,the process of liberating the nations was making its way also in hungaris.At 18th of October sounds in hungarian parliament the voice of Romanian deputy Vaida -Voevod.He reads the decission of the Romanian nation ,expressed by the decission taken by the Executive Committe of the National Romanian party at Oradea: the Romanian nation does not recognize the hungarian government and parliament the right as representative of the Romanian nation;the Romanian nation reclaims for her the right to decide alone for her faith and her placement amongst the other free nations ;any decission take by someone else ,than her law organ ,which is the Executive Committe of the National Romanian Party ,will declare it null and without value.The Slovak Juriga follows after the Romanian deputy and asks the same for his nation ,and Ossoinak deputy reclaims peace for Italian Fiume .Shouts of insults cover the speeches of the deputies of the oppressed nations .Wekerle and Apponyi grabs spasmodic the integrity doctrine .but the effect has produced itself.The phantom of collapse ,forced the "sanitary cordon" and went inside the hungar parliament.


...

......
In the general enervation arrive two news which turmoil even more the spirits agitated of the hungarians.At Debretin ,during the solemnity of inauguration of the new university ,in the presence of the Emperor ,the military music has sang the imperial anthem ,the detested one "Gott erhalte ...".In the hungar Chamber is a shout of indignation .So the hungarian independence is not fact :the austrian holly spirit continues to dominate !At once arrives the second news :in Fiume ,a Croat Regiment has breached the hungarian Hanovezi Barracks ,disarmed the hanovezi and has occupied the city.It was the signal of separation of Croatia by hungary by violent way ,the beginning of hungary 's dissasembling .Great emotion.Wekerle announces the resignation of the cabinet ,to make possible the formation of a government to comprise all parties in parliament and outside it ,in this tragic moment .The mission of the new government would have to be the ensuring of the borders of the country and recalling in patria of the soldiers outside the country.
.......

....
At Godollo ,the Royal residence in Budapesta ,is great boiling.The young Emperor-King has on his arms three crisis : of the austrian cabinet ,of the Foreign Ministry and of the hungarian cabinet.For solutionating of this last one ,Karolyi imposes himself ,as the man of the situation .The Emperor hesitates.He do not trust in Karoly ,which wants the breaking with germania and recalling the troops .Carol leaves at Viena to solutionate the other crisis by appointing of Lammasch and of Andrassy .For resolving the crise from hungary ,he has left archduke iosif with full powers ;this one improvises a cabinet Hadik.

Deceptioned and indignated ,Karolyi gives the blow.In the nigth of 25-26th of october ,the representatives of Karolyi party ,together with the socialists and radicals ,gather in "Astoria " hotel ,and constitute in the hungarian National Council and decide to grasp the power in their hands,"for the holly receiving of hungary' ,based on independance in all directions ,of imediate peace ,of imediate recalling of the troops .It is the revolution ,aclaimed by the imense crowd of the workers ,students ,tens of thousands of soldiers run away from the Front ,which were swarming through the city.
....

......
The police and the army of the town garrison associates to the crowd :the revolution is triumphant .In the name of the Monarch ,ArchDuke Iosif passes the power to Karolyi ;Hadik government lasted two days.And imediatelly ,the War Minister ,Bela Linder ,gives the order to the hungarian troops on the Italian Front to leave the Front and to return home.

The last days of October are the days of agony for austro-hungary.On the Italian Front ,after three days of hard resistance ,the catastrophe produces .At Vittorio Veneto [13] ,the soldiers of the hungarian divisions throw away the firsts arms .The austrian Front was broken.The austro-hungarian units start a disorder retreat ,the reserve refuse to enter the figth ,the army enters dissolution.hungarians,Czechs,Croats,Pols ,even austrian germans have only one thought now :to return home.The War had no interest whatsoever for any of the nations of the Monarchy in decomposition ;it was over.At home awaited them a passionate figth :the national figth.The trains and vehicles are taken with assault .The munitions and war material are throwed down,to ease the running.The units in dissolution flood the North of italy ,then step over the frontier of own country,pulverising in bands which arson and rob.The austro-hungar army ceased to exist.

At 29th of october the National gathering in Prague decided the detachment of Bohemia by austria .In the same time the Slovaks were separating from hungaria .The CzechSlovak Republic has been proclaimed [14] in the middle of popular enthusiasm.At Agram ,the National Council voted the resolution by which the Slavs countries from the South were breaking connections with austria and hungary and were declaring their independence[15] .The gathering aclaimed "the union of the entire nation of Slovens ,Croats and Serbs on their entire etnographic territory ,from isonzo to Vardar ,in a sovereign state and independent".The garrison ahead with its commanders , make the oath of faith to the new state.In the sounds of military music ,the population jubilates .The Jugoslav state has been born.austria had no access to the sea anymore .The austro-hungar fleet was threatened to become pray to Italians.To save it,the Emperor gives it as gift to the new Slav state ,the inheriter of the maritime land of austro-hungary.

At 30th of October ,the Emperor was offering the truce to italy.At padua ,the austrian parliamentaries ,after three days of penible discussions ,had to subscribe to the humiliating truce [16] which meant the unbirth of the military power of a great Monarchy which has dominated for centuries the history of Europe.And as ,from the Baltic to the Adriatic ,the revolution was spreading melting huge armies ,collapsing political settlements which seemed eternal and covering under their ruins millenary dynasties ,at Budapesta were taking place two symbolic deeds.
.....

.....
Tisza ,the incarnation of the chauvinist hungarian politic ,the man which had contributed more than anybody else to the collapse of his country by his patriotism without limits, teaching blindness and intolerance ,was falling assasinated by the soldiers ,paying with his life the blame to have been one of the authors of the Great War and of the missfortune of his patria.

And in a hotel room ,the romanian Mitropolit(church head in Orthodox religion) Vasile Mangra ,the man which sold his nation for the mitropoly cane ,just as Judas has sold Christ for a fist of silvers ,was putting an end to his life ,swallowing a strong dose of Veronal.

The last act of the Central Powers was closing to the end.

At the horizon ,appears the fog of arsons ,flamed by the bands of mutineers of the former austro-hungar army .From behind the scene were dissapearing in crowding the leading actors :the Monarchs were losing their crowns ,the generals were breaking their swords .in the middle of the scene were laying the dead bodies of two defeated:the principal intrigant and his toll.

The curtain falls fast...[17]

Chapter V

THE UNIFICATION OF BUCOVINA WITH ROMANIA

Bucovina martyr

On the ruins of Habsburg Empire ,the nations of the former Monarchy were fast to organize themselves in national states.

Bucovina has suffered during the War like no other province of austro-hungaria.Placed in a sensible point of the figthing Front of the Orient,neighbour with Romania ,the conquering of her territory had to satisfy strategig necessities and to use to political demonstrations.Theree times occupied by the Rusians ,three times reoccupied by austrians ,the land of Bucovina have been one by one sweep by the plough of the figthing armies ,the cities and vilages devastated ,the population maltratated and robbed.A police and tirany regime ensured to the austrian colonel Fischer a place of shame in the gallery of the executioneers of the Romanian nation.

A strong national reaction spirited the Romanian population of Bucovina in the decade before the breaking of the War.The influence of the national-cultural movement unfolded by Nicolae Iorga with the help of "Semanatorului" (Sower newspaper) have been overwhelming over the intelectual youth of Bucovina ,and the quadricentenary of Stefan cel Mare,celebrated in 1904 in Bucovina ,as well as the exhibition of 1906 from Bucharest ,brought together the masses of the Romanian hood from Bucovina by the brothers from the old Kingdom.The conscience of the blood relation awakens ,the sympathy for the brothers evolves and the Romanian tricolor(flag) starts to be in all public manifestations present at which the Romanians from Bucovina were taking place.

But the austrian Bucovina had in the person of colonel Fischer ,the commander of the geandarmery in Bucovina ,the most vigilent and ferocious cerberus.The transformation of the Romanian spirit could not escape to the rutined policeman.He gave the alarm ,signalling the great danger :the shaking of the austrian state ideea and the connections which were made between the Romanian politc leaders from Bucovina with the ones in the Kingdom.The Romanian tricolor ,has been considered as seditious embleme and carrying it in the public has been forbidden.In 1913,the precipitation of Romanian in the Balkans conflict made colder the relations of the Kingdom with austria.Fischer set the Romanian population of Bucovina under observation by geandarms ;especially the intelectuals are considered as "infected by nationalist Romanian ideeas " and as partizans of attaching of Bucovina to Romania.

The breakout of the Great War and the introduction of the military dictature has given Bucovina on the hand of colonel Fischer and its geandarms.

Bucovina has been for the first time invaded partially by Russians in the months of September and october 1914,and the second time at the end of November ;this time entirely.The friendly and joyful attitude of the Russians made to establish between them and the Romanian population sympathy relations.The military and civilian clerks from the border of the old Kingdom (Romania) towards Bucovina entered friendly rapports with the Russians and participated together with them at different cordial manifestations,transformed in political manifestations of broderhood of arms for the realization of the national ideal.

In february 1915,the Russians evacuated Bucovina ,over which flowed agin the geandarm soldiers of Fischer .The austrian regime lasted until June 1916 ,when the offensive of Brusilov brought for the third time the Russians in Bucovina .This time the ROmanians enter in the War .The reserve which preserved the Romanians of bucovina dissapeared now .The manifestations of happyness feelings of the Romanians are now out.In August 1917 the Northern part of Bucovina has been evacuated by the Russians ,and in March 1918 ,in the wake of the prliminary peace at Buftea ,had to be evacuated by Romanians also the Southern part.For the third time Fischer rebecomes the master of Bucovina .He declares that he doesen't know in Bucovina but only"germans ,Jews and...traitors".His conduct was conform with this formulae.

The rage of the austrians against the "illegal" conduct of Romanians was increased by the fact that numerous intelectuals from Bucovina ,professors ,teachers,priests ,magistrates ,students and even peasants have left their homes ,some even from the outbreak of the War ,others after every come back of the austrians and went in to the free Kingdom ,where they have aestablished a very plentiful activity of information and propaganda ,by talk and writing ,in the favour of freeing Bucovina.Some entered as volunteers in the figthing Army ;others have crossed into Basarabia to contribute at the awakening of the Basarabian national conscience.The austrian authorities reestablished the link between the action of the refugees from Bucovina in Romania and the feelings of the ones which remained in Bucovina ;what these were feeling was expressed by the refugees .Noticing the dangerous character of the Romanian movement anty-austriac ,the austrian authorities proposed to exterminate it -as the Russophil one- by violent means :arrestations ,internations,deportations ,condemnations and executions .
........