Military Occupation and Diplomacy: Soviet Troops in Romania, 1944-1958

In 1958, after 14 years of military occupation, Khrushchev withdrew the USSR’s troops from Romania as part of a political move intended to encourage the withdrawal of Western military forces from Europe. In analyzing this crucial historical episode, Sergiu Verona’s study illustrates the dynamics of Soviet military presence in Romania and provides a framework for understanding Soviet security policy, then and now, as well as the interaction between Soviet military objectives and diplomacy. Drawing on recently declassified archival material in the USA and the UK, the author considers Khrushchev’s reversal of Stalinist expansionism by examining the motivation, function and operation of the initial occupation of Romania; Soviet diplomacy and its perception by the USA and other Western powers; the process by which Khrushchev decided to withdraw Soviet troops from that country, and the impact of this decision on Soviet policy. Verona extends his analysis to the present, providing comparisons between Khrushchev’s and Gorbachev’s approaches to Eastern Europe, noting that similarities exist not only in domestic policies but in the realm of foreign policy as well.