Authors

Discussion

According to data collected by the Military Justice Service within the Ministry of War at the conclusion of World War I, approximately 65% of the cases adjudicated by the more than thirty Courts Martial convened during the conflict pertained to desertion and related offenses. Currently, there is a notable absence of comprehensive research on desertion in the Romanian army during World War I, as the topic has been largely overlooked in favour of a triumphalist, heroic narrative celebrating Romania's achievement of its national aspirations at the war's end.

My presentation will adopt both an institutional perspective, examining the coercive and punitive functions attributed to military justice by military and civilian authorities, as well as a social perspective, addressing key questions concerning the scope of desertion, the political and social motivations driving soldiers to desert, and the dynamics governing relationships between soldiers and officers.