Stalin creates an independent Transylvania after WWII; does it rejoin Romania after 1989?

Foxx

Banned
If Stalin would've created an independent Transylvania after WWII, does Transylvania rejoin Romania after 1989? Or does it remain independent just like Austria did?
 
Why he would do that? Stalin made many things but not things in which wasn't any point at least on his POV.
 
An independent Transylvania would have made no sense. There is no such thing as a "Transylvanian" nationality. [1] You either give it back to Romania or let Hungary keep at least some of it (as in the Second Vienna Award). There are three reasons why Stalin would be likely as in OTL to favor Romania:

First, the Romanians had switched sides in World War II and declared war on the Axis. (Hungary tried to do so, but without success.)

Second, not to restore all of Transylvania to Romania would look like validating an award brokered by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.

Third, though the Romanian Communist Party was smaller than the Hungarian, Stalin considered it more dependable--the Hungarians were notoriously faction-ridden, had been heavily purged in the 1930's, were riddled with police spies, etc.

The closest thing that Stalin came to recognizing the Magyar/Szekely minority in Transylvania was pressuring Romania to create a Magyar Autonomous Region in 1952. As Doug Muir noted in an old soc.history.what-if post "This was sort of Stalin's version of the Vienna Award. It was a sop to the Hungarians, it preserved the image of Socialist Internationalism, but most of all it kept both satellites on their toes -- the Hungarians thinking they might get Transylvania back, the Romanians fearing they might lose it." https://soc.history.what-if.narkive.com/afArlACL/stalin-lets-hungary-keep-some-of-transylvania

[1] You can of course argue that there is also no such thing as a "Moldavian" nationality, but pretending that there was at least served a purpose for Stalin--a justification for getting Bessarabia back.
 
Last edited:
The only rational I could see for independent (Northern) Transylvania is if Stalin decides to to sidestep the Transylvania question entirely by ensuring neither Hungary or Romania gets it. A good compromise leaves both parties unhappy after all.

The issue is that not only is it at odds with Stalin's MO on nationality, it would de facto be considered a victory for Hungary. That's politically difficult for the reasons David T listed.
 
Assuming he does it for whatever reason:

If the "Transylvanian" Communist Party is controlled by Romanians, you'll get a push for unification after destalinization kicks in in the USSR.
If, OTOH, it is evenly split or led by Hungarians, you're going to see massive violence around the same time as events in Hungary kick off.
 
First he would have to take the romanian side which was held by the romanian army who had switched sides and were his allies even after comunism got entrenched in48 i can hardly see any romanian comunist leader giving it away. So i would say an independent transylvania is nigh impossible.
 
Literally the only thing this makes me think of is Anno Dracula where Transylvania is talked about as a sought after vampire homeland. In any non-ASB 1900s TL it stays with Romania though.
 
Top