Every capital city has its secrets, but Bucharest has a couple of unusual ones. One of them is this monument, currently located in the downtown Cismigiu Park. To understand why it’s there, we have to go back to the dark days of World War 2. Operation Tidal Wave As I’ve written about before, one of the strangest bits of historical trivia is that Romania is … Continue reading The Great Liberators
Trigger warning: if discussion about the Russian language threatens your self-identity, stop reading now! Few Romanians know that their tax dollars have been paying to broadcast news in the Russian language since 1975. Yes, you read that right. Radio Romania International, a state-funded broadcaster operating out of Bucharest had been treacherously providing news content in English, French, Serbian, Arabic, Spanish, Italian, German, (Mandarin) Chinese, Ukrainian, … Continue reading Your Tax Dollars at Work
Have you ever seen this photograph before? It is, quite possibly, the single most important photograph ever taken in the 20th century. The woman on the far right, holding a baby, is Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna Romanova. The young man in the back is Crown Prince Carol. The photograph was taken on July 14, 1914, in Constanta, Romania. Although no one quite knew it at … Continue reading The Russian Queen of Romania That Almost Was
Over the years, I’ve documented a deep-seated fear and loathing for Russia amongst Romanians, and I really want to know why. Setting aside, momentarily, reactions to the policies of Russian President Vladimir Putin since 2000, I wanted to know if there is any factual basis for all this enmity. Therefore, I decided to go through the last 500 years of history and see what I … Continue reading Why Do Romanians Hate and Fear Russia?
Romanian is an interesting and colorful language, but it’s actually quite rare to find an entire set of words that are strictly derived from Latin. One such case involves everyday kitchen utensils. Knife = cuțit Spoon = linguriţă Fork = furculiţă The Romanian word for “knife” comes directly from the Latin term cotitus which means “sharpened” (Ro: ascuțit) from the Latin word cotis which means … Continue reading Sharpy, Licky, and Mini Pitchfork
All Things Romania 