On June 22, 1941, at 03:15, Romania entered World War II by participating in a joint invasion of the Soviet Union with the forces of Nazi Germany. That participation would bring Romanians a number of bitter defeats and even greater losses, laying the groundwork for changing the country’s political system forever. But it would also result in substantial territorial gains.
In the 1930s, Romania had played a massive role in the Third Reich’s strategy: it shared a huge stretch of border with the Soviet Union, which Nazi Germany was actively planning to invade; it also had access to the Black Sea and possessed oil fields that were key for the German economy. However, Germany wasn’t having any luck in persuading Romania to join in a military alliance with it: Bucharest was consistent in its anti-German policies, such as in its refusal to participate in dividing up Czechoslovakia, as well as taking a neutral, pro-French stance at the start of the war.
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