Relations between Poland and the Romanian principalities began in the Middle Ages. At times they were conflictual, such as the battles in the Cozminer’s Cove between the Polish king Jan Albert and the Moldavian prince Stephen the Great. But more often than not, Poland and the Romanian voivods were allies.
In the face of the Ottoman threat, King Kazimir of Poland sent 2,000 knights to help Stephen the Great. Another Moldavian voivode, Alexander the Good, sent Moldavian soldiers to help the Poles in their fight against the Teutonic knights.
For various periods of time, the voivodes of Moldavia and even Wallachia were vassals of the Polish kings. And a prince of Transylvania, Stephen Bathory, became king of Poland. Another Transylvanian prince, Gheorghe Rakoczi II, also tried to ascend the Polish throne, but failed.
Links between Romanians and Poles also flourished intellectually. Two of the most important Romanian authors, Grigore Ureche and Miron Costin, were educated in Poland, in the town of Bar.
King Stefan Bathory also founded the first university in present-day Romania. It is the Jesuit College founded in Cluj in 1581, today Babeș-Bolyai University. The first professors of this college came from the Jesuit College in Vilnius, also founded by King Stephen Bathory, and the first rector of the Cluj college was the Polish Jesuit Jakub Wujek, who translated the Bible into Polish.
Also as a historical parallel, the territories that make up Poland and Romania today were under the influence of three empires in the modern period. In the case of Poland, it was the Russian Empire, the Austrian Empire and the German Empire, and in the case of Romania it was the Russian Empire, the Austrian Empire and the Ottoman Empire.
Romania gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877 and became a kingdom in 1881. But most of the territory inhabited by Romanians was in neighbouring empires. So for Romanians, as for Poles, the First World War was an opportunity for national freedom.
For both peoples, a new stage began. Poland regained its independence on 11 November 1918 and Romania completed its national unity on 1 December 1918. But the rebirth of the two peoples was not without its dangers. Both Romania and Poland had to fight armed battles after the official end of the First World War to defend their territories. There were small conflicts, such as between Poland and Czechoslovakia, but for both countries the main enemy remained Bolshevism. Both Romania and Poland fought against Russian Bolshevism, and the Romanian army also fought in the west against the Soviet Republic of Hungary.
From those days, a true comradeship was born. After liberating Bukovina, the Romanian army took part in the liberation of Pocau, which went to Poland. Romania recognised Poland’s independence in January 1919 and a few weeks later established diplomatic relations with Poland at legation level. From 1938, the legations were upgraded to embassy status.
A formal alliance also emerged between Romania and Poland, which operated for most of the interwar period. Poland’s leader, Marshal Josef Pilsudski, became a personal friend of King Ferdinand I and Queen Mary. Moreover, as the Polish and Romanian army staffs were working on joint defence plans against Soviet Russia, Marshal Josef Pilsudski was appointed supreme commander of the Allied armies that were to operate on the Eastern Front.
According to documents in the Romanian archives, in the late 1920s and early 1930s, Josef Pilsudski was considering the restoration of the monarchy in Poland, and the candidate under consideration was Prince Nicholas of Romania, the youngest son of King Ferdinand I and Queen Mary. Already, Romania’s Royal Family was involved in a web of dynastic alliances. Princess Elisabeth of Romania had become Queen of Greece, Princess Maria of Romania had become Queen of Yugoslavia, and Princess Ileana of Romania was to become Archduchess of Habsburg.
But the death of Josef Pilsudski put an end to these plans. Josef Beck, who was not so favourable to Romania, took over as head of Polish diplomacy. Josef Beck believed more in an alliance with Hungary, which was Romania’s enemy.
Against this background of cooling Polish-Romanian relations, the Second World War broke out. Romania decided to honour its old friendship with Poland. In September 1939, Romania received 100,000 Polish refugees, 60,000 of them soldiers. Poland’s president, government and Polish treasury were rescued by Romania. On 17 September 1939, the 82 tonnes of Polish gold were loaded onto a British ship in the port of Constanta and eventually sent to London, where they financed the fight for Poland’s freedom.
Also in the name of its old friendship with Poland, Romania refused Nazi Germany’s proposal to annex Poland. During the Second World War, Romanian and Polish exiles collaborated in London. And after the Second World War, Romania and Poland shared the same tragic fate: they lost their territories in the east, occupied by the USSR, and were turned into Soviet colonies.
The year 1989 marked a return to freedom for Romania and Poland. Today, the two countries are partners in the European Union, allies in NATO and have rediscovered their old friendship in the face of the same old enemy: Russia.
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