Figure 1.--Greeks have at times played an important role in Romanian history. In the modern era, Greeks came to play a role in Romanian commercece and business. Here are two unidrntifiefd Romanian-Greek boys, probably in the 1930s. It was a studio portrait from Galantz, a Black Sea port. The Greek population was concentrated in eastern Romania, especially in port cities. The boys are wearing the kilted Tsolia, a kind of Greek nationl dress.

There is also a Greek minority in Romania and there has been one for an incredible 27 centuries. The northern Black Sea was not only the source of trade vgiids from Russian rivers flown south, but also the western terrminus of what is now known as the Silk Road. The Greeks were a seafaring people and entered the Black Sea where they established coastal trading colonies. This was at a time when the modern Romanian ethnic population, the Dacians, was just beginning to form. Greeks have at times played an important role in what is now Romania. Trajan famously coquered the Dacians berining them within the Romnan Empire (2nd century AD). For many years,the Greeks were part of the elite, but over time became fully integrated into Romanian society. By the 19th century, Romania was no longer a destination for large numbers of Greek exiles and migrants. America and other countries to the West were the more popular choice. The Greeks that came to Romania were from a generally humble status of society. Greeks came to play an imprtant commercial role in Romania as traders and shop keepers a well as some entrepreneurs. Many Greeks worked as sailors, both in the Black Sea and on the Danube. The Romanian annexation of Dobruja substabtially added to the Greek population (1878). Dobruja is a coastal province located along the Black Sea and this had a much higher Greek population than interior provinces. The Greek involvement in commerce made them a target of the Communist regime that sezed power at the end of World War II (1945). The Communists seized private propertty as well as that of Greek cultural organizations. The security forces arrested hundreds of ethnic Greeks. Many were committed to concentration camps and used as slave labor. The major construction project employing slave labor was the Danube-Black Sea Canal. At the same time, a wave of Greeks entered Romania. After the failure of the Communists in the Greek Civil War (1947-49), the Communists evacuated their strongholds in norhern Greece and broughout many children with them.

Related Style Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[Return to the Msin Greek Diaspora page]
[Return to the Main Romanian minority page]
[Return to the Main Romanian page]
[Return to the Main countries page]
[Return to the Main Romanian Folk Costume page]
[Return to the Main Romanian history page]
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Created: 2:36 AM 9/3/2021
Last updated: 2:36 AM 9/3/2021