Valahian Journal of Historical Studies Vol. 12, Winter 2009 Romania’s peace feelers (March 1943 - April 1944): views from Helsinki Silviu MILOIU 1 Keywords: World War II, Romania, Finland, perceptions, armistice, comparison Abstract This paper analyzes the Finnish diplomacy and media have perceived Romania’s attempts to extricate herself from the war on Nazi Germany’s side. The significance of such a research rests with the fact that, as Romania, Finland also envisaged a way to withdraw from war and any Romanian step taken to that effect, as the paper demonstrates, was attentively monitored by Finnish decision-makers. Moreover, according to an agreement the two countries had concluded back in July 1941, they exchanged information about sensitive issues regarding their foreign and security policies and therefore the quality of knowledge of each other’s intentions was valuable. Sometimes, information affecting the most important interests of the other country could be exchanged, as this paper describes. he Stalingrad Battle marked a turning-point in the history of the World War II and was perceived as such both in Bucharest and Helsinki. When seen against the background of the failure of the Third Reich to conquer Moscow and thus end the war in the first year from its outbreak, the German defeat caused at least equal worries and amazedness in Bucharest as the French defeat at the hands of the Wehrmacht in the summer of 1940. The subsequent series of Soviet victories only added to the Finnish and Romanian leaders’ preoccupation with what the future had in stock for their countries. It was not only the change of the strategic initiative on the Eastern Front and elsewhere which worried them. Under the pressure of the changes taking place on the Eastern Front, the opposition groups started to unite in a peace front aimed at convincing the power holders to distance themselves from Berlin and find a compromise with the Western Allies. 2 The drama of both the elite and the opposition was that the West was far away and had only limited 1 Reader at Valahia University of Târgovişte 2 There a vast literature on this topic in the historiography of both countries. Authors such as Ion Calafeteanu, Andreas Hillbruber, Gheorghe Buzatu, Valeriu Florin Dobrinescu, Florin Constantiniu, Marin Radu Mocanu, Ioan Scurtu, Marcel Dumitru Ciucă, Radu Ioanid or Paul D. Quinlan are but a few authors who have approached this subject, while the diaries, memoirs and interviews of Alexandru Cretzianu, Constantin Sănătescu, Ioan Hudiţă, King Mihai I, Gheorghe Barbul, Ion Gheorghe, Mircea Ionniţiu, King Carol II represent an important contribution to the topic. In the case of Finlandţs road to armistice, auhtors such as Olli Vehviläinen, J.E.O. Screen, Thede Palm, Georg Enckell, John Henry Wuorinen, Tuomo Polvinen, William Trotter, Seppo Myllyniemi, Max Jakobson, Markku Jokisipilä, Jukka Nevakivi, R. Michael Berry, Alexei Komarov numbered among those who have dealt with this subject, whereas the memoirs or diaries of Risto Ryti, Marshal Gustav Mannerheim, Erwin Linkomies, Väinö Tanner, Georg Gripenberg and others are equally valuable in understanding the drive towards Finnish armistice. T