Heavy Fabric

The Kingdom of Romania was a historical state in south-eastern Europe that existed from 1881 to 1947. Its direct predecessor was the Principality of Romania, which was formed in 1861/62 from the constituent principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, but was initially still under the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire. It was not until the Russo-Turkish War of 1877/78 that the political independence of the principality was achieved and it proclaimed itself a kingdom in 1881. The first king was Charles I (1839-1914), who, like all his successors, came from the House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.

Before the First World War (1914-1918), the territory only comprised the historical landscapes of Wallachia and parts of Moldavia and Dobruja. However, as a member of the victorious powers of the First World War, the territory was massively expanded and more than doubled after the end of the war. Among other regions, Bessarabia, Bukovina, Transylvania and parts of the Banat now also fell to the kingdom. This is why Romania in the interwar period is also referred to as “Greater Romania”; the state before 1918 as the “Old Kingdom”.

With the rise of nationalist and fascist groups in the 1930s, the country became increasingly unstable. By mid-1940, despite its attempt to remain neutral in the Second World War, Romania had to hand back large parts of the territories it had gained in 1918. In the same year, a military dictatorship was established, which now effectively exercised the power of government. A short time later, the country entered the war on the side of the Axis powers and in close cooperation with National Socialist Germany. In 1944, King Michael I (1921-2017) staged a coup d'état against his own government, as a result of which the country joined the Allies and declared war on the German Reich. Only around three years later, at the end of 1947, the now ruling Romanian Communist Party forced Michael to abdicate and proclaimed the Romanian People's Republic.

Yugoslavia was a southeastern European state that existed, with interruptions and in slightly changing borders, from 1918 to 1992 and 2003, respectively. The capital and largest city of the country was Belgrade. Historically, a distinction is made in particular between the period of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 1918 to 1941 (also called 'First Yugoslavia') and communist Yugoslavia from 1945 (the so-called 'Second Yugoslavia') under the dictatorial ruling head of state Josip Broz Tito (1892-1980). The disintegration of Yugoslavia from 1991 and the independence aspirations of several parts of the country eventually led to the Yugoslav Wars (also called the Balkan Wars or post-Yugoslav Wars). Today, the successor states of Yugoslavia are Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Soviet Union (SU or USSR) was a state in Eastern Europe, Central and Northern Asia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It emerged from the so-called Soviet Russia, the successor state of the Russian Empire. The Russian Soviet Republic formed the core of the union and at the same time its largest part, with further constituent republics added. Their number varied over time and was related to the occupation of other countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), Soviet republics that existed only for a short time (Karelo-Finlandia) or the division or merger of Soviet republics. In addition, there were numerous autonomous republics or other territorial units with an autonomy status that was essentially limited to linguistic autonomy for minorities.

Before its formal dissolution, the USSR consisted of 15 Soviet republics with a population of approximately 290 million people. At around 22.4 million km², it was the largest territorial state in the world at the time. The Soviet Union was a socialist soviet republic with a one-party system and an absence of separation of powers.