The Romanian Volunteer Corps in Russia (), or Volunteer Corps of Transylvanians-Bukovinians (Corpul Voluntarilor ardeleni-bucovineni, Corpul Voluntarilor transilvăneni și bucovineni), was a military formation of World War I, created from ethnic Romanian prisoners of war held by Russia. Officially established in February 1917, it comprised abjurers of the Austro-Hungarian Army, mainly contingents from Transylvania and Bukovina. These had been obliged to fight against Romania, and, once in Russian custody, volunteered for service against the Central Powers. As campaigners for self-determination and union with Romania, they passed political resolutions which, in both tone and scope, announced those adopted on Union Day 1918.
The Corps was effectively an active military reserve of the Romanian Land Forces, and regularly dispatched new units to the Romanian front after June 1917. It helped defend the last stretches of Romania against the Central Powers' unified offensive, and met success in the Battle of Mărășești, but it still lacked a unitary command structure. When the October Revolution in Russia and the Romanian armistice took Romania out of the Entente camp, the Corps was left without backing and purpose. However, it inspired the creation of similar units in Entente countries, most successfully the .
Mobilized volunteers or prisoners symbolically tied to the Corps were left behind in Russia after the Russian Civil War was ignited. Various such individuals formed the Romanian Legion of Siberia, which resisted the Bolsheviks in cooperation with the Czechoslovak Legions and the White movement. These units were ultimately repatriated to Greater Romania in 1920.
Darnytsia Corps
Origins During 1916, Romania entered World War I as an Entente country, in alliance with the Russian Empire against Austria-Hungary and the other Central Powers. After a while, Romania began investigating the fate and loyalties of Austria-Hungarian Romanians who were held in Russian POW camps.Otu, Petre, "Octavian Goga despre revoluția rusă din februarie 1917" ("Octavian Goga on the Russian Revolution of February 1917"), in Magazin Istoric, November 2007, p.20 Estimates for that period place the total population of Bukovinian and Transylvanian Romanians in such facilities, throughout Russia, at 120,000Părean, [p.1, 3]; Șerban (AUASH 2004), p.176 or 130,000. Pop, Marin, "Din viața și activitatea lui Victor Deleu (1876-1940)" ("From Victor Deleu's Life and Activity (1876-1940)") , in Caiete Silvane, March 16, 2007 Meanwhile, in Romania itself there were several thousand Romanian refugees from Austria-Hungary who immediately signed up for service in the Romanian Armed Forces.Părean, [p.3]; Șerban (1997), p.105-106
In Russia, Romanian captives complained about being worse off than prisoners of other Austro-Hungarian ethnicities, a matter which may have contributed to their decision of volunteering into Romanian service.Părean, [p.1]. See also Șerban (AUASH 2004), p.176 Russian authorities were undecided about letting them join, and initially prohibited such initiatives; those who insisted to establish contact with Romania were arrested by the Russian police forces.Părean, [p.1] During the same year, after consultations with Romania, the Russian executive reverted such policies. It was decided that Russia would free at most 15,000 of this demographic group, transferring them to Romania in exchange for a similar number of non-Romanian prisoners from Romanian camps.
Subsequently, those who chose to enlist were together relocated at the special camp in Darnytsia—a suburb of Kyiv, rendered in Romanian as Darnița. In December 1916, that facility held some 200 officers and 1,200 non-commissioned officers, who formed the nucleus (and general command) of a "Romanian Corps".Mamina et al., p.40; Părean, [p.1]. Gocan (p.11) has "approx. 300 officers and 1,500 non-commissioned officers and soldiers" by March 1917 Elected First Senior of the Camp, the 40-year-old Victor Deleu was a legal professional, rank-and-file member of the Romanian National Party (PNR) and journalist from Transylvania, who came to Darnytsia after internment in Kineshma. The other members of Darnytsia camp's leadership body were Pompiliu Nistor, Vasile Chiroiu, Emil Isopescu, Valeriu Milovan, Octavian Vasu and Ioan Vescan.List varies between Părean ([p.1-2]) and Șerban (2001, p.145, 146)
Regardless of such initiatives, Romania tended to give little attention to the potential of recruitment in Russia, as many decision-makers were still uncertain about the devotion of Transylvanians and Bukovinians, and worried that they might be welcoming Austro-Hungarian spies into army ranks.Șerban (AUASH 2004), p.176-177 Additionally, probably half of the 120,000 men excluded themselves from the pool of recruits, as Austrian loyalists, invalids or men who had reason to fear Austria-Hungary's retaliation.Șerban (AUASH 2004), p.176 Support from within Romania was therefore weak, and Russian obstruction still had a part to play, but in January the camp was visited by Lieutenant Colonel Constantin Gh. Pietraru of the Romanian Land Forces, on a mission to evaluate the recruitment project.Șerban (2001), p.145, 146; (AUASH 2004), p.176-177 The reversal of fortunes on the Romanian front had brought a Central Powers' invasion into southern Romania, and the Romanian military authority became pressured into finding new soldiers for the defensive action.Șerban (1997), p.101; (AUASH 2004), p.176-177
February Revolution
Shortly after these events, Russia experienced the February Revolution, which brought to power a liberal Russian Provisional Government. As a consequence of these, the whole transfer project was delayed,Părean, [p.2] but the Russian acceptance of self-determination facilitated renewed political action.Gocan, p.11; Șerban (1997), p.101; (2001), p.145-146; (AUASH 2004), p.176 According to veteran Simion Gocan, the soldiers were inspired by both these revolutionary promises and the American entry into World War I, which seemingly made the Wilsonian Self-Determination an official Entente policy.Gocan, p.11
By Order 1191 of , Romania's Minister of War, Vintilă Brătianu, created the Volunteer Corps as a special formation of the national army.Mamina et al., p.40-41; Părean, [p.2]; Șerban (2001), p.146 On the same day, in Darnytsia, Pietraru was tasked by Chief of Staff Constantin Prezan with equipping the new recruits and organizing them into units.Părean, [p.2]; Șerban (2001), p.146 The honorary command was assigned to Constantin Coandă, who was already the military attaché with Russia's Stavka (General Headquarters).Șerban (2001), p.146 Over the next month, in Mogilev, Coandă again negotiated the Corps' recognition by Stavka. Coandă received the permission, but the number of recruits was no longer clearly specified.
On March 18, Coandă issued a "Pledge" (Angajament), which regulated the status of Corps soldiers in relation to the Romanian Army, and which the recruits had to sign.Părean, [p.2-3]; Șerban (2001), p.146 It integrated the former Austro-Hungarian officers into the Romanian Army, with equivalent ranks, and equated their Austrian service, including time they spent in the POW camps, with active duty under Romanian banners.Părean, [p.2-3] The pledge ended with the words: "May God help us, so that through our blood we may liberate our lands and create a Greater Romania, unified in substance and everlasting."Părean, [p.3] All those who backed out after signing the document were to be considered deserters. Demand for enlistment remained considerable, even though rumor spread that Austro-Hungarian repression forces were by then murdering the families of volunteers and confiscating their property. However, Corps veteran Petru Nemoianu (Nemoian) was later to state that envy and class conflict were also characteristic for the formation, where the intellectual leaders quarreled over the better paid assignments.Nemoianu, p.840-841
In April, Pietraru met with the Provisional Government's Alexander Guchkov, and an agreement was reached regarding the maximum total of troops to be enlisted in the Romanian Corps. Answering to special pleas from Romanian Premier Ion I. C. Brătianu, Guchkov allowed for the recruitment of 30,000 prisoners in his custody.Părean, [p.3]; Șerban (2001), p.146 The order was revised by Alexander Kerensky, who reduced that number to 5,000 prisoners, noting that they were sorely needed as working hands in Russia's agriculture and industry. In practice, Quartermaster Ivan Romanovsky only allowed recruitment to take place in Moscow Military District, ordering that no more than 1,500 prisoners should be taken into account.Părean, [p.3, 4]
Darnytsia manifesto By then, revolutionary examples also inspired the prisoners of Darnytsia to proclaim their own political goals, and openly demand the union of Transylvania with Romania. Their manifesto of , reviewed for publishing by the Transylvanian poet Octavian Goga, was signed by 250 officers and 250 soldiers, and is probably the first unionist statement to be issued by a Transylvanian representative body.Părean, [p.3]; Șerban (1997), p.101; (2001), p.146-148 The document states: "we Romanians, like all other subjugated nations, have grown aware that once and for all that we [...] cannot carry on with our lives within the frame of the Austro-Hungarian state; we [...] demand, with unwavering will, our incorporation into Romania, so that together we may form a single national Romanian state. [...] For the sake of this ideal, we throw in the balance all of what we have, our lives and fortunes, our women and children, our descendants' life and happiness. And we never will stop, lest we vanquish or perish."Gocan, p.12; Mamina et al., p.40
The text, which also survives in slightly different versions, Ivan, Sabin, "Cu voluntarii români în Siberia (1917-1920)" ("With the Romanian Volunteers in Siberia (1917-1920)"), in Memoria. Revista Gândirii Arestate, Nr. 30, 2000 included a brief analysis of the international scene. It paid homage to Russia's democratic program, referenced the "generous" Wilsonian doctrine on self-determination, and looked forward to a congress of "blissful, national and democratic states".Gocan, p.12-13; Șerban (2001), p.147 The manifesto made ample reference to the activity of "traitors" to the Transylvanian cause. As Nemoianu later recounted, there was a disguised reference to the PNR, whose moderate leaders, ostensibly loyal to the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, still tried to achieve Austrian devolution.Nemoianu, p.839-840 More leniently, Gocan argued that the PNR at home was "deeply terrorized" and bound to government by a forcefully signed "declaration of loyalty".
Goga, a civilian refugee in transit through Russia, was supposed to have left Darnytsia with a copy of the appeal. Some argue that he did, and that the subsequent popularization is largely owed to his work as publicist. Such accounts are contradicted by the recollections of another unionist activist, Onisifor Ghibu: "[The appeal] was supposed to be handed down to Goga, on his stopover in Darnița. For whatever reason Goga stopped for a day in Kiev. In such circumstances I was the one designated to hold it".Șerban (2001), p.148 In this version, Ghibu passed it on to Romania's executive, King Ferdinand I and General Prezan.