“The Chivu Stoica Plan” (September 1957). A Step on the Road to the “Open Balkans”

Abstract

The author unravels the history (from June to September 1957) of the origin, formalization and promotion of the initiative of the Romanian government (“the Chivu Stoica Plan”) to organize multilateral cooperation in the Balkan region. An analysis of the course of events is presented as a result of a study of recently declassified documents from Russian archives (RGANI, AVP RF). The consulting of them allowed the author to supplement significantly previous knowledge of the course of events and their various actors, identify in detail the degree of participation of the Soviet Union in them, clarify and expand the agenda of issues discussed during interactions between Bucharest and Moscow, and clarify the dates and planned options for the development of this initiative. This article supplements and corrects pre-existing opinions of world historiography about the allegedly sharply negative attitude of the Kremlin to this proposal of the Romanian leadership, as well as the perception of this initiative by historians as not only aiming to establish multilateral regional cooperation but also as a result of the Soviet bloc’s desire to establish a nuclear-free zone in the Balkans already in 1957.