King Michael's coup

Historical Context Note

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.8.4: Romanian Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Calin Andrei Mihailescu (University of Western Ontario)

Domains

Changes of government, elections and reigns
Dictatorships and coups

Dates

Date of occurrence 1944-08-23

Places

Romania (Location)

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

King Michael of Romania led a successful coup with support from opposition politicians and the army, successfully deposing the Antonescu-led governemtn. In a proclamation broadcast on the radio, the King issued a cease-fire just as the Red Army was penetrating into Romanian territory, proclaimed Romania's loyalty to the Allies, announced the acceptance of the armistice offered by Great Britain, the United States, and the USSR, and declared war on Germany. This, however, did not stop the rapidly advancing Soviet force, which captured more than 100,000 Romanian soldiers who were then sent to the Soviet Union's prison camps, where most of them perished. It has been suggested that the coup may have shortened World War II by six months.

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

117 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "King Michael's coup". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 May 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=7111, accessed 16 April 2024.]

Save this article