Intrarea României în Primul Război Mondial (august 1916). Reacții și reflecții în presa rusă
Romania՚s entry into the First World War (August 1916). Reactions and reflections in the Russian press

Summary/Abstract: Romania՚s entry into the First World War, an anticipated moment after two years of neutrality and intense negotiations with the belligerent camps, produced immediate reactions in the political and military circles of the states involved in the conflict. One of the appearances of these responses to Romania՚s decisive action can be found in the press. Even if it is a subjective source, the press offers the possibility of an analysis of the interests of political circles, editors and financiers of newspapers. The Russian press and its reactions regarding Romania՚s position during the First World War are of particular interest in the research of Romanian-Russian relations from this period. Thus, Russian editors did not avoid the topic of Romania՚s neutrality, periodically there were mentions of Bucharest՚s position. At the same time, the declaration of war and the events that followed this episode were the premises of a stream of articles referring to Romania and its actions within the conflict. The articles were informative, but primarily propaganda, praising Russia՚s new ally and the successful actions of the Romanian Army. The focus on Romania՚s successful offensive was taken over by most of the researched newspapers, even though often the information rendered was repetitive. The articles had several characteristics: informative, with historical, geographical, ethnographic and demographic descriptions, analyses, portraits of the members of the royal family of Romania or various caricatures as reactions to Romania՚s attitude. The problem of researching such a source requires special attention to the historical context and censorship present in autocratic Russia. Thus, the military censorship approved at the beginning of the Great War involved the control and subjective grading of articles. At the same time, the phenomenon involves the censorship of published material and actually reflected Petrograd՚s policy regarding reactions to some events and not necessarily that of public opinion. Special attention was also drawn to the description of some events that exaggerated the Russian presence on the Romanian front, the archive documents combat the writings of the Russian editors. Another significant feature of Russian newspapers highlights several leitmotifs present in most of the newspapers researched regardless of the ideology and nature of the newspapers. Thus, among the repetitive elements was the victorious tradition of the victorious battles of the Russians alongside the Romanians, the myth of Russian “soldier-liberator”, the moral importance of the Romanian intervention and the fact that the territorial cessions will not be made at the expense of Russia. At the same time, the appearance of Romania on a positive note and the praise given to the Romanian Army at that time despite the tense and fluctuating Romanian-Russian relations can suggest Russia՚s interest in Romania՚s entry into the war, not just France՚s, or is it just a hypothesis?

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