On 23 August 1944, King Michael I of Romania, alongside politicians from allied opposition parties led a coup against Romanian Conducător, Marshal Ion Antonescu, and his fascist government. The successful coup, now known as King Michael's Coup, was organized in part due to the Romanian governments alignment with Nazi Germany and the Axis Powers. The day after the coup, the Army Group Dumitrescu and the Romanian Fourth Army joined the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts of the Red Army in southeastern Romania to fight the axis in a Soviet-led offensive in the major cities of Iași and Chișinău. By 30 August, Soviet troops reached Bucharest and restored the Soviet presence in the Moldovan SSR. On 12 September 1944, Romania signed the Moscow Armistice with the Allies, which confirmed the Soviet-Romanian border as it was on 1 January 1941. Romania later participated alongside the Red Army in the Soviet-led offensive into Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Austria. The Soviet Army continued to have a presence in Romania until 1958.
The events of 23 August were held in high regard during the socialist era, with the 1952 Constitution of Romania referring to those events as the "Liberation of Romania by the Glorious Soviet Army". In honor of the event, the company that is now FAUR was named 23 August Works in 1948. In the communist Socialist Republic of Romania, Liberation Day was the main holiday of the state. It was declared a national holiday by the Resolution #903 of the Council of Ministers on 18 August 1949. Although neglected for a period in favor of the International Workers' Day on 1 May, its importance became great in the 70s during Ceaușescu's rule. A grand military parade on Aviators' Square in the presence of the President of Romania and General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party would be held annually, with large parades held on jubilee anniversaries. The parade was organized by the Romanian People's Army and featured infantry, navy, artillery, the Patriotic Guards, the Miliția and Troops of the Directorate for Security as well as military vehicles/aircraft such as the TR-85, Volkov missiles and the IAR-93 Vultur. : Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu, Teohari Georgescu, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, Lothar Rădăceanu, Ștefan Voitec. In 1984, on the 40th anniversary of liberation, the ceremonies were attended by the General Secretary of the East German SEDErich Honecker, Chinese President Li Xiannian, PLO President Yasser Arafat, and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe as well as featured the medalists at the 1984 Summer Olympics. In 1989, the national day celebrations took place on Ştirbei Vodă Street past the Dâmbovița Center, the balcony of which was used by Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu to watch the festivities in the last Communist-style parade in Romania marking the sapphire jubilee anniversary year of the coup. The August 23 Order was a Romanian decoration established by decree No. 190 of the State Council of People's Republic on 3 June 1959. It was created to commemorate the events of 23 August, thus the first decorated persons were the participants in King Michael's Coup. Subsequently, it was granted to military and civilian personnel, as well as Romanian and foreign officials.
Since 1990
The Law 10/1990, promulgated on 1 August 1990 by President Ion Iliescu, moved the national holiday to 1 December, the Great Union Day. Since 2011, Romania has observed the European Union-wide Day for Commemoration of the Victims of Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes, commemorating the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact on this day in 1939. Liberation Day is still commemorated in its original form among the civilian population and even in neighboring Moldova.
