1957 – Militari francezi în România după 40 de ani
French Soldiers in Romania after 40 Years

Summary/Abstract: This study analyses the manner in which the political regime in Bucharest, which was installed following Romania’s entry into the Soviet sphere of influence, commemorated in August 1957 four decades since the Battle of Mărășești by inviting a group of former members of the French Military Mission who were active on the Romanian Front between October 1916 and March 1918. The group of the former French combatants was led by General Victor Pétin, the chief of staff of the French Mission and subsequently the military attaché in Romania.The visit of the French veterans highlighted a certain openness of the regime in Bucharest towards Western countries and especially towards France, for whom Romanians had a special fondness. At the same time, the organizing of the commemoration of the Battle of Mărășești, marking four decades since the largest Romanian military confrontation during the Great War, symbolizes the beginning of a delimitation from the Stalinist vulgate of the 1950s regarding the character of Romania’s participation to the confragration and the events that eventually led to the establishment of the national unitary state in 1918.

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