December the 1st: The 90-th anniversary of the Great Union of 1918, the National Day of Romania

The popular assembly of Alba Iulia on Dec. 1, 1918 (archive photo)

On December the 1st, 1918, at Alba Iulia, in the e center of Transylvania, the Great National Assembly (Marea Adunare Nationala) approved the unification of Transylvania, Banat, Crisana and Maramures with Kingdom of Romania.

The first of December 1918 represents, for the Romanian people, the triumph of centuries of struggle and sacrifices for achieving the national unitary state. This historical process, taking place on the entire Romanian area, scored significant developments in the 1784's popular revolts, 1821 and 1848's revolutions, the unification of Moldova with Wallachia (Muntenia) in 1859, the Proclamation of Independence after the 1877-78 anti-Ottoman war and was completed with the expression of the self-determination's will, in Chisinau, Cernautzi and Alba Iulia, during the year 1918, of the Romanians living under foreign domination.

Living in separate States, always threatened by the powerful neighbors, with parts of its original territory - Transylvania, Bessarabia, Bucovina, sometimes Dobrogea too - annexed to the three big empires - Ottoman, Habsburgic (later, known as Austro-Hungarian) and Russian, the Romanians always preserved the philosophy of being part of the same nation.

This philosophy of the Romanian nation unity was permanently strengthened by political, military, economic and cultural relationships between the Romanian Kingdoms along the centuries. The 19th century, called the "century of the nationalities", brought a new reality in the Romanians-living space, the consolidation of the Romanian nation, based on unity, consciousness and a common destiny.

The accomplishment of the national aspirations of all Romanians at the end of the First World War (WWI) should be understood as a natural and logical fulfillment of an historical necessity imposed by the evolution of the national state, and not as a result of the Romanian military effort. The WWI did not create the Great Romania, but the will of the Romanian nation did so.

The military victory was not the basis of the national Romanian state, even though the unification of the Romanian provinces was the only reason behind the Kingdom of Romania's entering WWI. The huge human and material sacrifices in the military campaigns in 1916-1918 were rewarded with the collapse of the irrational empires and the affirmation of the right of peoples to self-determination, based on the Woodrow Wilson's principle of nationalities.

The Romanian troops entered Bessarabia at the beginning of 1918 not to install a military dictatorship, but to re-establish order and peace and to hinder the Bolshevik actions aiming at imposing the Soviet power in the province.

The Romanian military had the same role in Bucovina, at the request of the Romanian National Council (the parliament), taking into consideration the disorder created by the retreat of the Austrian military units and the plan of the Ukrainian National Council to annex the Northern Bucovina to Ukraine. The Romanian military intervention came only after the Constituent Assembly of Bucovina decided, in October 14/27, 1918 "the unification of the entire Bucovina with the other three Romanian provinces in one national and independent state".

On 1st of December, 1918, at Alba Iulia, in the e center of Transylvania, the Great National Assembly (Marea Adunare Nationala) approved the unification of Transylvania, Banat, Crisana and Maramures with Kingdom of Romania. The large impressing popular gathering represented the crowning of the previous self-determination acts of unification from Chisinau (March 27/April 9, 1918) and Cernautzi (November 15/28, 1918) stipulating the return of Bessarabia and Bucovina to Romania, respectively.

At the time of the Paris Peace Conference, the Romanian unitary State had been already a reality: The Conference had only to endorse the legitimate decisions taken in Chisinau, Cernautzi and Alba Iulia successively, in 1918. The Versailles and Trianon Treaties represented a political and diplomatic acknowledgement of an inalienable historical right of the Romanian nation.