Tătaru Mare Island (Romanian: Insula Tătaru Mare/Ostrovul Tătaru) is a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

n island in the northernmost branch of the Danube Delta.

Characteristics

The island has a surface area of and is of high importance to the local agriculture, its soil having a yearly output of up to 5 tons of wheat or 10 tons of corn per hectare. The island is home to the eponymous Ostrovu Tătaru village, within the

Chilia Veche Chilia Veche (Romanian pronunciation: /kiˈlija ˈveˈke/; meaning ''Old Chilia''; uk, Стара Кілія, translit=Stara Kiliia) is a commune in Tulcea County, Northern Dobruja, Romania, in the Danube Delta. It gave its name to the Chilia bra ...

commune. Starting 2015, a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

-funded

minimum security prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

functions on the island.

History

The island was part of Romania until the start of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. In the fall of 1940, the Romanian Danube islands of Tătaru Mare, Dalerul Mic, Dalerul Mare, Maican and Limba were occupied by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. All of the five islands were re-occupied by

Axis An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to: Mathematics * Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis * Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinat ...

-aligned

in July 1941 (''

Operation München Operation München ( ro, Operațiunea München) was the Romanian codename of a joint German-Romanian offensive during the German invasion of the Soviet Union in World War II, with the primary objective of recapturing Bessarabia, Northern Bukov ...

''), only to be lost again in 1944 after

King Michael's Coup King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the ti ...

. In early 1948, the Soviet Union agreed to return Tătaru Mare Island back to Romanian rule, the only one of the five Danube islands ultimately recovered by Romania.Grigore Stamate, Editura Militară, 1997, ''Frontiera de stat a României'', p. 79 (in Romanian)

Maps

References

{{reflist River islands of Romania Islands of the Danube Romania–Soviet Union relations Romania–Ukraine border Military history of Romania during World War II