Local Issues of Northern Transylvania 1944-1945
Jay T. Carrigan, USA
The territory of Transylvania, in the northwestern part of present-day Romania, was incorporated into Hungary until the Treaty of Trianon (June 4, 1920), at which time it was awarded to Romania. As a result of the 2nd Vienna Award (August 30, 1940), the northern portion of this territory was returned to Hungary. Following World War II, it was again incorporated into Romania. These facts alone give this region a rich and interesting postal history.
Picture post card to Budapest, with special VISSZATÉRT ("returned")
cancel of Kolozsvár (Cluj in Romanian) and separate Sept. 13, 1940
Kolozsvár datestamp. The Hungarian stamp commemorates the return of
Northern Transylvania.
What is
little known, even among philatelists, is that Northern Transylvania
achieved a degree of quasi-independence (in civil matters) under the
occupation of the Red Army. Romania, one of the Axis powers, surrendered
unconditionally on August 23, 1944, shortly after her borders were crossed
by Soviet troops.
On September
12, 1944, an armistice was concluded in which the USSR promised to return
Northern Transylvania to Romania, and Romania agreed to commit its military
forces to the allied cause. The 1920 frontier was formally re-established
by the peace treaty of February 10, 1947.Soviet and
Romanian troops first entered Northern Transylvania on September 21, 1944,
and on October 25 finally succeeded in clearing the entire region from the
defending Hungarian and German troops.
In spite of the armistice agreement,
Romanian civil officials were not allowed to assume civil control. The Red
Army continued to hold the area under military occupation, granting autonomy
to each district in civil matters.
Permission to resume civil control over Northern Transylvania was granted on March 11, 1945, and Romanian administration resumed in fact on April 9th. Thus there existed an interregnum period of almost six months, during which Northern Transylvania was neither part of Hungary nor part of Romania, but was also not an independent state.
Censored cover dated August 23, 1944 (date of the coup d'état that overthrew the Antonescu government).
