Border clahes 1968, Romania - Soviet Union

Some preffer to shut. Others to say some words, and after that to shut.

What is the true?

Iama

Hi Iamandi,

Was this supposed to be related to Romania's non-participation in the Warsaw Pact's occupation of Czechoslovakia?

Cheers,

Sid.

In 1968, Ceausescu issued his famous order for the army, authorising any unit to open fire without asking for permission from the higher echelon, if enemy units tried to cross the border.

I guess such an order was motivated by some serious border incidents.

I think this is a myth, and the Soviet Union ignored Romania's official position towards the events in Czechoslovakia. But that did not prevent Ceausescu to believe himself in the middle of attention.

The order is real, it is no myth.

I was not refering to Ceausescu's order, but to the border clashes.

I have some talks with ex. high ranking army officers who were active in that time and they confirmed some things - was not a myth. They were from different cittys, at different period of times - when i made my questions.

The only thing who looks like a myth was....

Some youngest ones says... was rocket propelled grenades launchers with a new tipe of projectile. Others, older ones, says another thing but they stoped to give more details.

Only one person says something about antitank mines and some brave engineers (genisti). I read something like that in an issue of "RIM" but i don't remember right, i think was something related to another momment - not for 1968.

Iama

There is an interesting article in Adevarul daily about the Rumanian perspective of the 1968 invasion of CSSR (in Rumanian only):
http://www.adevarulonline.ro/index.jsp?pag...ticle_id=147721

Gen. Dénes

I gave a link here on this forum what USSR position regarding Romania in 1968.Put it simply they did not care too much.Thier course of action was : first lets deal with the Czech and then with Romania.But their realized immediately that this is a gold mine for them.And they let the fool to make his act.What followed,we all know.

That move regarding Czechoslovakia was actually not that stupid. It did help the Romanian government get it's hands onto some really interesting internatinal loans and deals. What they did with the money is, however, a different story.

As for the mobilisaton order, it was serious enough. I remember my grandfather (who had an important position in the logistics department at the time) telling me that they took the thing seriously and there were defensive preparations on the Romanian side. But I don't remind him ever mentioning any serious incident with the Soviets. After all, if they really wanted to go in they would have porbably went in all out and that would have been it. It was the height of the Cold War and the U.S.S.R. was arguably the world's largest super-power. They had no need for minor skirmishes or fabricated justification.

Otherwise, if one is to consider minor incidents, there were always some. But I don't think they were actually connected to the events in Czechoslovakia. At some point my grandfather told me about the Russians crushing the ice on the Chilia branch of the Danube with artillery fire and our engineers having to take care of the occasional unexploded rounds. This happened without any underlying tension between us and the Soviets. Things like that could have also happened in '68 but it doesn't mean that the Russians were hostile or trying to invade. I guess it all falls into Russians acting like Russians.

According to the interview with General r. Ion GHEORGHE, Chief of General Staff (1965-1974), published in "Document" Nr. 1(27)/2005, AN VIII:

Translation:
By radio interception, we found out that at the border with USSR there were massed 10-12 big units, at the border with Bulgaria 4-5 big units, and at the border with Hungary 2-3 big units.
Through the frontier guards and specific sources we got more information and we learned that at Albita, the Soviet military were in field uniforms, in the open, carrying out reconnaissance missions in the view of future operations. It is not excluded that everything was a diversion, but nevertheless it did happen. At Reni, for example, at night they were launching pontoons at water. The same in Bulgaria, between Giurgiu and Oinacu.


However, no other incidents are mentioned.