Romania's King Michael: The Coup That Changed History

In August 1944, Romania's young King Michael I pulled off one of the most daring acts of World War II: a palace coup that overthrew the pro-Nazi dictator Ion Antonescu and flipped Romania from the Axis to the Allies. This episode dives into the tense hours of August 23, the secret negotiations with the opposition parties, the arrest of Antonescu, and the immediate aftermath as the Red Army swept into Bucharest. We explore Michael's upbringing, his fraught relationship with his father Carol II, and his role as a figurehead under Antonescu. The coup saved tens of thousands of lives and shortened the war in Eastern Europe, but it also led to decades of Soviet domination. We also touch on the subsequent Soviet occupation, the forced abdication of Michael in 1947, and his long exile. How did a 22-year-old king outmaneuver a dictator? What happened to the Romanian army after the turn? And why did the West fail to support Michael after the war? This is the story of a king who chose conscience over power, and paid the price.

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