Haig Acterian was arrested when the Guard violently clashed with Ion Antonescu's forces in January 1941 ("see Legionnaires' Rebellion and Bucharest Pogrom"), and detained until after Operation Barbarossa (the German invasion of the Soviet Union, to which Romania contributed as an Axis country; "see Romania during World War II"). Acterian, like other prisoners, was offered the choice of remaining in prison or joining the war effort as a soldier on the Eastern Front; he was declared missing during battles in the Kuban, and was probably killed at that time.