Great source concerning Romania in WW 1, Enciclopedia României, ediţia 1938-1943

Browsing on the internet I stumbled upon the virtual library of the Economical Science Faculty (ASE) in Bucharest. There I found a scanned (free and downloadable) version of the monumental “Enciclopedia României”, edited and coordinated by the eminent sociologist Dimitrie Gusti between 1938 and 1943 (http://www.biblioteca.ase.ro/resurse/resurse_electronice/autor_lucrari.php?aut=9 - only the first and third volume available). I had the chance to read part of the book in the past (the printed edition) and I consider it to be a first hand documentary source in many aspects. Among other things, the first volume hat no less then three chapters dedicated to Romania’s actions in WW 1 - a thoroughly detailed account, including almost every conceivable aspect, from the general aspects to specialized things like the training of the reserve officers, the daily/weekly transport capacity of the Russian railways which were supposed to support the transport of supplies for the Romanian army or the quality of the various artillery shells available. The main bibliographical source used (but not the only one) is the excellent end extensive three volume work of C. Kiriţescu, “Istoria razboiului pentru intregirea României, 1916-1919”. In my oppinion this book still constitutes up tu date the number one source related to Romania in WW 1. Beside the fact that is a detailed but very pleasant reading, Kiriţescu’s book has the capital advantage of explaining the strategical and tactical military actions for the profanes.

A few bad news now: first, Enciclopedia is (obviously) available only in Romanian. Second, the quality of the scanning is quite poor (though the text is still perfectly readable), and it affects the numerous photos and illustrations. The third (and the worse, in my opinion) is the fact that the scanned version is black and white only. Still the book is a must for everyone interested in Romania’s participation in WW 1.

This post has been edited by Agarici on August 14, 2009 11:11 pm

Thanks for sharing with us, Agarici! The ASE library also has interesting books on Romania's economic history.

hi,
thanx for shareing this info with us, i search some lybraries for this book and of course i didn't find'it , but i find this aunction on okazii http://www.okazii.ro/catalog/31079710/Enci...8-4-volume.html
this are the pictures with
http://www.okazii.ro/catalog/31079710/Enci...8-4-volume.html
maybe somebody will have enough money to buy'it even the seller look's a bit suspect... ( 0 calificative ) but i can't judge it only for that reason whitout knowing it ...
my best, Alex

The price is exaggerated.

The volumes can be found at big libraries like the National Library in Bucharest, or the Library of the University (BCU), according to their online catalogs. This might also be true for local libraries or archives older than 1947.

A very interesting set of analysis done by professional IR and military historians, presented at a conference commemorating 90 years since Romania entered WW 1.

Many aspects concerning this topic, debated on this forum (such as Romania preparedness for the war, the structure and competence of the Romanian HQ and so on) are also addressed in these documents:

http://www.mapn.ro/diepa/ispaim/files/occa...pers_9_2007.pdf

On the mentioned source I found some figures which made me curious: some authors say that Romania lost in ww1 800.000 people dead, others say 339.000. Which figure is real? How many of these loses were military and how many civilians?

At page 54 one author says a romanian division has in ww1 28.000 men. Can one point how strong in number was a romanian division in ww1, because 28.000 men looks too much for me?

Constantin Kiritescu in his Istoria razboiului pentru intregirea Romaniei gives the following numbers of losses for the 1916-1919 period (it includes the Romanian-Hungrarian conflict in 1919):

1. KIA, died of wounds or disease: 2,161 officers and 146,631 soldiers
- 1,913 officers and 95,454 soldiers nominally identified
- 248 officers and 51,177 soldiers not identified

2. POWs: 4,134 officers and 216,902 soldiers
- of which 169 officers and 70,335 soldiers died while held captive

That gives a total of 219,346 military personnel dead.