Radiant Romania

From the big beautiful castles and houses, to the peaceful open land, Romania is an amazing country, but it has gone through many changes and overcome a lot of adversity. The cultural, social, and political changes all came together over the past 100 years to be quite interesting. There were times the people loved the country and times where people despised their country and its leaders. Many ups and downs are still happening, but things are nowhere near as bad as it could’ve been if things hadn’t radically changed.

Starting in 1920, Romania became a founder of the League of Nations. Nothing crazy happened over the next 10 years until in 1930 when Carol II became the 4th King of Romania. He happened to be the king all the way up until September of 1940 when he was abdicated as King. Just before King Carol II was abdicated, the Soviet Union invaded Romania. Romania just 4 years later in 1944 were occupied by Soviet troops and became a satellite of the U.S.S.R in 1948. What the Soviet Union brought with them was the downfall of Romania until 1989 and this was none other than communism. These events also led to Romania being part of the Axis powers during World War II.

The people 0f Romania hated being in war and being seen as a communist country, they never wanted anything to do with Communism. They were too weak to fight back at the time and ended up just falling in line. A lot happened from 1950-1970 though as Romania signed the Warsaw Act and Nicolae Ceausescu becomes the first President of Romania. They became the first country in Eastern Bloc to establish economic relations with the European countries. During this time President Nixon visited Romania being the first U.S. president to ever visit a communist country. In 1980, Romania’s 4^th communist constitution was ratified, and it was one of three communist countries to take part in the summer Olympics in Los Angeles, USA.

The tables turn though when in 1989, Romania revolted and fought for democracy.  Their first constitution proclaiming themselves a democratic and social republic, deriving from the people, was signed in 1991.

There were 2 different presidents who held office during the 1990’s. The first being Ion Iliescu and the second in the late 90’s was Emil Constantinescu. In the early 2000’s, Ion Iliescu returned as president after winning the election yet again and joins NATO. Later in the 2000’s, Traian Basescu becomes the 4^th President of Romania and Emil Bloc is Prime Minister. Presently, the people of Romania protest against the Prime Minister and then Klaus Iohannis became the 5^th President of Romania. Florin Citu is the present 2021 Prime Minister and Klaus Iohannis still holds the president title today.

Romania has developed into a country with no crazy, modern culture. The years of being a communist country put

that all on hold. Politically it is a semi-presidential representative democratic republic where the Prime Minister is the head of government while the President represents the country internationally.

As a society, they are very religious and ethnic Romanians who follow the practices of Eastern Orthodoxy participate in elaborate customs and ceremonies during Holy Week and at Easter. Romanians tend to be shy and don’t say too much. Overall, it is a beautiful country with many cool features but just a complete different way of life.