Romanian Front (Russian Empire)

The Romanian Front (Russian: Румынский фронт) was an army group level command[a] of the Imperial Russian Army and the Romanian Army during the First World War.

The Romanian Front, late 1916

Overview edit

The front was created in mid-December 1916 out of the headquarters of the former Russian Danube Army, following the defeat of Romanian Army forces at the Battle of Turtucaia in Southern Dobrudja. Nominally. the commanding officer of the front was King Ferdinand I of Romania; however, the de facto power lay in his "deputies," which were Imperial Russian Army generals delegated by the Russian Stavka.[citation needed]

Initially the front consisted of three armies: the Russian 4th, 6th, and 9th Armies. Soon it was joined by the forces of the Romanian 1st Army under General Constantin Cristescu and the Romanian Second Army under Alexandru Averescu, and, in September 1917, by the Russian 8th Army.

Following the October Revolution of 7 November 1917, the front was merged with the Southwestern Front as the Ukrainian Front under administration of the Central Rada of Ukraine.

Composition edit

Command edit

Commander in Chief
Deputies of the Commander in Chief
Chief of Staff
  • 12.12.1916 – 08.04.1917 – General Mikhail Shishkevich
  • 17.04.1917 – 15.10.1917 – General Nikolai Golovin
  • 23.10.1917 – ? – General Georgiy Viranovskiy

Componenets edit

Original composition (December 1916)
Later added (Summer 1917)
Other formations (uncertain status)

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ A "front" is the Russian equivalent of an army group, not to be confused with a geographic theater of operations.