Liberation of Romania

Romania was the first foreign country that the Red Army entered. The troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front (Ivan Konev) reached the Prut River which was the state border between the USSR and Romania on March 26, 1944. The Red Army had liberated dozens of cities and towns in the northeastern part of the country by mid-May. The Soviet government proclaimed that “it does not pursue the goal of acquiring any part of the Romanian territory or changing the existing social system in Romania…”

The Jassy-Kishinev Strategic Offensive of the Red Army against the German Army Group South Ukraine started on August 20, and continued until August 29.

It was carried out by the 3rd (Fyodor Tolbukhin) and 2nd (Rodion Malinovsky) Ukrainian Fronts in association with the Black Sea Fleet (Filipp Oktyabrsky) and the Danube Military Flotilla (Sergey Gorshkov).

As a result, the German Army Group South Ukraine was swiftly defeated. 22 German divisions and almost entire Romanian army were destroyed. A popular uprising in Romania began on August 23. The units of the 2nd Ukrainian Front entered Bucharest already liberated by Romanian patriots on August 31.

From that time on, the 1st and 4th Romanian Armies alongside the Red Army were fighting against Germany. Together they completed the liberation of the country on October 25, 1944.

126 formations and units of the Red Army and Navy were awarded the honorary titles of Kishinev, Jassy, Focșani, Rîbnița, Constanța, etc. The total loses of the Red Army during the liberation of Romania amounted to 286,000 soldiers with 69,000 of them killed.