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symbolThe
Romanian Communist Party (
Romanian language:
, PCR) was a
Communist Party in Romania. Successor to the Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to communist revolution and the disestablishment of Greater Romania. The PCR was a minor and illegal grouping for much of the interwar period, and submitted to direct Comintern control. During the 1930s, most of its activists were imprisoned or took refuge in the Soviet Union, which led to the creation of separate and competing factions until the 1950s.
The Communist Party emerged as a powerful actor on the Romanian political scene in August 1944, when it became involved in the
King Michael Coup that toppled the pro-Nazi Germany government of Ion Antonescu. With support from
Soviet occupation of Romania, the PCR was able to force King of Romania Michael I of Romania into exile, and establish the Communist Romania in 1948, becoming the dominant, and later single Single-party state until 1989.
In 1947, the Communist Party absorbed much of the Romanian Social Democratic Party (defunct), while attracting various new members. In the early 1950s, the PCR's dominant wing around Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, with support from
Joseph Stalin, defeated all the other factions and achieved full control over the party and country. After 1953, the Romanian Communists did not apply History of the Soviet Union (1953–1985), and, in time, theorized a "national path" to Communism. This
Nationalism stance was continued under the leadership of Nicolae Ceauşescu. Following an episode of liberalization in the late 1960s, Ceauşescu again adopted a hard line, and imposed the
July Theses. At the time, the PCR massively and artificially increased in size, while being entirely submitted to the will of its general secretary. Its disappearence was a direct consequence of the
Romanian Revolution of 1989.
The PCR coordinated several organizations during its existence, including the
Union of Communist Youth, and organized training for its
cadres at the Ştefan Gheorghiu Academy. In addition to
Scînteia, its official platform and main newspaper between 1931 and 1989, the Communist Party issued several local and national publications at various points in its history (including, after 1944,
România Liberă).
History
Socialist-Communists: creation
Main article: Socialist Party of Romania
.
The mine owner to the miner: "A socialist, you say? My son is a socialist too, but without going on Strike action..., that is why he already has his own capital..."The party was founded in 1921 when the
Bolshevik-inspired
Maximum programme faction won control of Romania's
Social democracy party - the
Socialist Party of Romania, successor to the defunct
Romanian Social-Democratic Workers' Party and the short-lived
Romanian Social Democratic Party (defunct) (the latter was refounded in 1927, reuniting those opposed to communist policies).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.23-27; Frunză, p.21-22 The establishment was linked with the socialist group's affiliation to the Comintern (just before the latter's Third Congress): after a delegation was sent to Bolshevist Russia, a group of moderates (including
Ioan Flueraş, Iosif Jumanca, Leon Ghelerter, and Constantin Popovici) left at different intervals beginning in May 1921.Frunză, p.25-28
The party renamed itself the
Socialist-Communist Party (
) and, soon after, the
Communist Party of Romania (
or
PCdR). Competition with other socialist groups brought a drastic reduction in its membership — from the ca. 40,000 members the Socialist Party had, the new group was left with as much as 2,000Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.45; Communist press, 1923, in Frunză, p.30 or as little as 500;Allegations in the Social-Democratic press, 1923, in Frunză, p.30; Iordachi I.2 at the end of
World War II, it had only around 1,000 members.US Library of Congress: "The Communist Party". According to PCR leader
Iosif Rangheţ: " on August 23, 1944, our party had, in Bucharest, 80 party members, not more, not less. And throughout the land our party had less than 1,000 party members, including our comrades in prisons and concentration camps." (Rangheţ,
April 25-April 27,
1945, in Colt). In the late 1940s,
Ana Pauker allegedly gave the same estimate (Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.45; Frunză, p.202).
The early Communist Party had little influence in Romania due to the country's lack of
Industry, which resulted in a relatively small working class and a large peasant population, the minor impact of
Marxism among Romanian intellectuals, the success of state repression in driving the party underground and limiting its activities, and the party's "anti-national" policy as it began to be stated in the 1920s—supervised by the Comintern, and calling for the breakup of Greater Romania, which was regarded as a
Colonialism entity "illegally occupying"
Transylvania,
Dobruja, Bessarabia and Bukovina (regions that had been denied the right of
self-determination).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.18-45; Frunză, p.38-48, 63-72; Iordachi, I.2; Pokivailova, p.48; Troncotă, p.19-20; Veiga, p.222 In 1924, the Comintern provoked Romanian authorities by encouraging the Tatarbunary Uprising in southern Bessarabia, in an attempt to create a Moldovenism republic on Romanian territory;Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.36; Frunză, p.71; Troncotă, p.19; Veiga, p.115 also in that year, a
Moldavian ASSR, roughly corresponding to
Transnistria, was established inside the Soviet Union.
At the same time, the left-wing political spectrum was dominated by Poporanism, an original ideology which partly reflected
Narodnik influence, placed its focus on the peasantry (as it notably did with the early advocacy of
cooperative farming by
Ion Mihalache's
Peasants' Party (Romania)), and usually strongly supported the post-1919 territorial status quo—although they tended to oppose the Centralized government it had come to imply. (In turn, the early conflict between the PCdR and other minor socialist groups has been attributed to the legacy of Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea's quasi-Poporanist ideas inside the latter, as an intellectual basis for the rejection of
Leninism.)Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.47-48
The PCdR's "foreign" image was due to the fact that Romanians were a minority in its ranks until after the end of World War II:Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.18, 44 between 1924 and 1944, none of its General Secretary was of Romanian ethnicity. Interwar period Romania had a minority population of 30%, and it was largely from this section that the party drew its membership—a large percentage of it was comprised of History of the Jews in Romania,
Hungarian minority in Romania and Bulgarians.Iordachi, I.2; Pokivailova, p.47 Actual or perceived ethnic discrimination against these minorities added to the appeal of Communist revolution ideas in their midst.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.18
PCdR: Comintern and internal wing
Shortly after its creation, the PCdR's leadership was alleged by authorities to have been involved in Max Goldstein's bomb attack on the Parliament of Romania; all major party figures, including the general secretary Gheorghe Cristescu, were prosecuted in the Dealul Spirii Trial.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.27-30
Constantin Argetoianu, the
List of Romanian Ministers of the Interior in the Alexandru Averescu,
Take Ionescu, and Ion I. C. Brătianu cabinets, equated Comintern membership with
Conspiracy (political), ordered the first in a series of repressions, and, in the context of trial, allowed for several communist activists (including Leonte Filipescu) to be shot while in custody — alleging that they had attempted to flee.Troncotă, p.18-19 Consequently, he stated his belief that "communism is over in Romania",Argetoianu, June 1922, in Troncotă, p.19 which allowed for a momentary relaxing of pressures — begun by King of Romania
Ferdinand I of Romania's granting of an
amnesty to the tried PCdR.Troncotă, p.19
The PCdR was thus unable to send representatives to the Comintern, and was virtually replaced abroad by a delegation of various activists who had fled to the Soviet Union at various intervals (Romanian groups in Moscow and
Kharkiv, the sources of a "
Muscovite wing" in the following decades).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.37, 44; Deletant & Ionescu, p.4-5; Frunză, p.38-39 The interior party only survived as an underground group after it was outlawed by the Brătianu government through the
Mârzescu Law (named after its proponent, Minister of Justice
Gheorghe Gh. Mârzescu), passed in April 1924; Comintern sources indicate that, around 1928, it was losing contact with Soviet overseers.Frunză, p.32-33 In 1925, the question of Romania's borders as posed by the Comintern led to protests by Cristescu and, eventually, to his exclusion from the party (
see Balkan Communist Federation).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.38-39; Frunză, p.49-50
Around the time of the party's Fifth Congress in 1931, the Muscovite wing became the PCdR's main political factor: Joseph Stalin replaced the entire party leadership, including the general secretary Vitali Holostenco — appointing instead Alexander Stefanski, who was at the time a member of the Communist Party of Poland.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.41; Frunză, p.51-53
Through regained Comintern control, the interior wing began organizing itself as a more efficient conspirative network.Troncotă, p.20-22 The onset of the Great Depression in Romania, and the series of strikes infiltrated (and sometimes provoked) by the interior wing signified relative successes (
see Lupeni Strike of 1929), but gains were not capitalized — as lack of ideological appeal and suspicion of
Stalinism directives remained notable factors.Frunză, p.58-62 In parallel, its leadership suffered changes that were meant to place it under an ethnic Romanian and working class leadership — the emergence of a Stalin-backed group around
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej before and after the large-scale Griviţa Strike of 1933.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.41-43; Frunză, p.53-62
In 1934, Stalin's
Popular Front doctrine was not fully passed into the local party's politics, mainly due to the Soviet territorial policies (culminating in the 1939
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) and the widespread suspicion other left-wing forces maintained toward the Comintern.Frunză, p.85; Pokivailova, p.48 The Communists did, nevertheless, attempt to reach consensus with other groupings on several occasions (in 1934-1943, they established alliances with the Ploughmen's Front, the
Hungarian People's Union (Romania), and the Socialist Peasants' Party), and small Communist groups became active in the leftist sections of mainstream parties.Veiga, p.223 In 1934, Petre Constantinescu-Iaşi and other PCdR supporters created
Amicii URSS, a pro-Soviet group reaching out to
intellectuals, itself banned later in the same year.Cioroianu,
Pe unerii..., p.110-118; "Comunismul şi cel care a trăit Iluzia"
During the Romanian general election, 1937, the Communists backed
Iuliu Maniu and the National Peasants' Party against King Carol II of Romania and the Gheorghe Tătărescu government (who had intensified repression of Communist groups),Veiga, p.223 finding themselves placed in an unusual position after the Iron Guard, a Fascism movement, signed an electoral pact with Maniu;Veiga, p.235 participation in the move was explained by Communist historiography as provoked by the Romanian Social Democratic Party (defunct)' refusal to collaborate with the PCdR.Frunză, p.84
PCdR: late 1930s decline
In the years following the elections, the PCdR entered a phase of rapid decline, coinciding with the increasingly Authoritarianism tone of King Carol's regime (but in fact inaugurated by the 1936 trial of Ana Pauker and other high-ranking Communists in
Craiova).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii.., p.43, 170-171; Frunză, p.84, 102-103 Journals viewed as associates of the party were closed down, and all suspected PCdR activists faced detention (
see Doftana Prison).Pokivailova, p.48; Veiga, p.223-224
Siguranţa Statului, the Romanian secret police, infiltrated the small interior wing and probably obtained valuable information about its activities.Pokivailova, p.47 The financial resources of the party, ensured by Soviet support and by various satellite organizations (collecting funds in the name of causes such as pacifism or support for the
Second Spanish Republic side in the
Spanish Civil War), were severely drained — by political difficulties at home, as well as, after 1939, by the severing of connections with Moscow in France and
First Republic of Czechoslovakia.Pokivailova, p.46-47
Consequently, the Executive Committee of the Comintern called on Romanian Communists to infiltrate the National Renaissance Front (FRN), the newly-created sole legal party of Carol's dictatorship, and attempt to attract members of its structures to the revolutionary cause.Pokivailova, p.48
Until 1944, the group active inside Romania became split between the "
prison faction" (detainees who looked to Gheorghiu-Dej as their leader) and the one around Ştefan Foriş and
Remus Koffler.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.42, 44, 48-50; Deletant & Ionescu, p.4-5 The exterior faction of the party was decimated during the
Great Purge: an entire generation of party activists was killed on Stalin's orders, including, among others,
Alexandru Dobrogeanu-Gherea, David Fabian,
Ecaterina Arbore,
Imre Aladar, Elena Filipescu, Dumitru Grofu,
Ion Dic Dicescu,
Eugen Rozvan,
Marcel Pauker, Alexander Stefanski,
Timotei Marin, and
Elek Köblös.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii.., p.42-43; Frunză, p.90-91, 151, 215; Pokivailova, p.45 It was to be
Ana Pauker's mission to take over and reshape the surviving structure.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.43, 52, 171-172; Frunză, p.103-104, 149-154, 215
PCdR: World War II
Main article: Romania during World War II
In 1940, Romania had to cede Bessarabia and
Bukovina to the Soviet Union and
Southern Dobruja to Bulgaria (
see Soviet occupation of Bessarabia, Treaty of Craiova); in contrast with the general mood, the PCdR welcomed both gestures along the lines of its earlier activism.Frunză, p.72; Pokivailova, p.48 Official history, after ca. 1950, stated that the PCdR protested Northern Transylvania's cession to
Hungary later in the same year (the
Second Vienna Arbitration), but evidence is inconclusiveFrunză, p.72, 105-107, 127 (party documents attesting the policy are dated after Nazi Germany's
Operation Barbarossa).Frunză, p.106-107 As the border changes sparked a political crisis leading to an Iron Guard takeover — the
National Legionary State — the interior wing's confusion intensified: the upper echelon faced investigation from
Georgi Dimitrov (as well as other Comintern officials) on charges of "
Trotskyism",Pokivailova, p.48 and, since the FRN had crumbled, several low-ranking party officials actually began collaborating with the new regime.Pokivailova, p.48 At around the same time, a small section of the exterior wing remained active in France, where it eventually joined the French Resistance to
German occupation of France in World War II — it included
Gheorghe Gaston Marin and the
Francs-tireurs' Olga Bancic.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.52; Frunză, p.103, 402
As Romania came under the rule of
Ion Antonescu and, as an
Axis Powers country, joined in the German
Operation Barbarossa, the Communist Party began approaching traditional parties that were engaged in semi-clandestine opposition to Antonescu: alongside the Romanian Social Democratic Party (defunct), it began talks with the National Peasants' Party' and the National Liberal Party (Romania) parties. At the time, virtually all the interior leadership was imprisoned at various locations (most of them
Internment near
Târgu Jiu).Frunză, p.122-123, 138 In June 1943, after troops were suffering major defeats on the Eastern Front (World War II), the PCdR proposed that all parties form a
Blocul Naţional Democrat ("National Democratic Bloc"), in order to arrange for Romania to withdraw from its alliance with Nazi Germany.Frunză, p.123 The ensuing talks were prolonged by various factors, most notably by the opposition of the National Peasants' Party leader Iuliu Maniu, who, alarmed by Soviet successes, was trying to reach a satisfactory compromise with the Western Allies (and, together with the National Liberals' leader
Dinu Brătianu, continued to back negotiations initiated by Antonescu and
Barbu Ştirbey with the United States and the
United Kingdom).Frunză, p.123-125; 130-131
In early 1944, as the Red Army reached and crossed the
Prut River (
see Battle of Târgul Frumos), the self-confidence and status gained by the PCdR made possible the creation of the Bloc, which was designed as the basis of a future anti-Axis government.Frunză, p.125 Parallel contacts were established, through Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu and
Emil Bodnăraş, between the PCdR, the Soviets, and King of Romania Michael of Romania.Frunză, p.131-133, 139 A seminal event also occurred during those months:
Ştefan Foriş, who was still general secretary, was deposed by with Soviet approval by a the rival "
prison faction" (at the time, it was headed by former inmates of the prison in
Caransebeş); replaced with the Troika (triumvirate) formed by Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej,
Constantin Pîrvulescu, and
Iosif Rangheţ, Foriş was discreetly assassinated in 1946.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.49-50, 62; "Comunismul şi cel care a trăit Iluzia"; Frunză, p.400-402 Several assessments view Foriş' dismissal as the complete rupture in historical continuity between the PCdR established in 1921 and what became the ruling party of
Communist Romania.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.50; Frunză, p.213, 218-221, 402
greet Romania's new ally, the Red Army, on August 31,
1944On August 23, 1944, King Michael, a number of Romanian Armed Forces officers, and armed Communist-led civilians supported by the National Democratic Bloc arrested dictator
Ion Antonescu into a safe and seized control of the government (
see King Michael Coup).Frunză, p.128-137 King Michael then proclaimed the old 1923 Constitution of Romania in force, ordered the Romanian Army to enter a ceasefire with the Red Army on the Moldavian front, and withdrew Romania from the Axis.Frunză, p.126-129 Later party discourse tended to dismiss the importance of both the Soviet offensive and the dialogue with other forces (and eventually described the coup as a revolt with large popular support).Frunză, p.130-145
The King named General
Constantin Sănătescu as
List of Prime Ministers of Romania of a
coalition government which was dominated by the National Peasants' Party and National Liberal Party, but included Pătrăşcanu as Minister of Justice - the first Communist to hold high office in Romania. The Red Army entered Bucharest on August 31, and thereafter played a crucial role in supporting the Communist Party's rise to power as the Soviet military command virtually ruled the city and the country (
see Soviet occupation of Romania).Frunză, p.171, 178-190
PCdR: in opposition to Sănătescu and Rădescu
After having been underground for two decades, the Communists enjoyed little popular support at first, compared to the other opposition parties (however, the decrease in popularity of the National Liberals was reflected in the forming of a splinter-group around Gheorghe Tătărescu, the National Liberal Party-Tătărescu, who later entered an alliance with the Communist Party). Soon after August 23, the Communists also engaged in an increasingly violent campaign against Romania's main political group of the times, the National Peasants' Party, and its leaders
Iuliu Maniu and Ion Mihalache. The conflict's first stage was centered on Communist allegations that Maniu had encouraged violence against the Hungarian minority in Romania in newly-recovered Northern TransylvaniaFrunză, p.163-170 — at a time when the region's status was being assessed by the
Paris Peace Treaties, 1947.
The Communist Party, engaged in a massive recruitment campaign,Frunză, p.201-212; according to Rangheţ: "After 3 months of our party's legal existence, in October, we had almost 5-6,000 party members. What is this to say? That we expanded the
cadres, party members, by only very, very little, if we are to keep in mind the present legal situation, if we keep in mind that, through our party's work, thousands, tens and hundreds of thousands workers were rallied. During this time, when our party only had 5-6,000 party members, we held large, huge protests against the realities in our country, in Bucharest as well as throughout the land..." (Rangheţ, April 25-27, 1945, in Colt) was able to attract ethnic Romanians in large numbers — workers and intellectuals alike, as well as former members of the Fascism
Iron Guard.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.297; Frunză, p.208 By 1947, it grew to around 710,000 members.Barbu, p.190 Although the PCR was still highly disorganized and factionalized,Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.51-52; Deletant & Ionescu, p.4-5; Frunză, p.218-219 it benefited from Soviet backing (including that of
Vladislav Petrovich Vinogradov and other Soviet appointees to the Allied Commission).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.45, 59-61 After 1944, it was leading a paramilitary wing, the Patriotic Defense (
Apărarea Patriotică, disbanded in 1948),Frunză, p.176 and a cultural society, the Romanian Society for Friendship with the Soviet Union.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.106-148
On PCdR initiative, the National Democratic Bloc was dissolved on October 8, 1944; instead, the Communists, Social Democrats, the Ploughmen's Front,
Mihai Ralea's Socialist Peasants' Party (which was absorbed by the former in November),Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.154 the Hungarian People's Union (MADOSZ), and Mitiţă Constantinescu's
Union of Patriots (Romania) formed
Frontul Naţional Democrat (the "National Democratic Front", FND) which, campaigned against the government, demanding the appointment of more Communist officials and sympathizers, while claiming Democracy legitimacy and alleging that Sănătescu had dictatorial ambitions.Barbu, p.187-189; Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.55-56; Frunză, p.173-174, 220-222, 237-238, 254-255 The FND was soon joined by the Liberal group around Tătărescu, Nicolae L. Lupu's
Democratic Peasants' Party (the latter claimed the legacy from the defunct
Peasants' Party (Romania)), and
Anton Alexandrescu's faction (separated from the
National Peasants' Party).Frunză, p.186-190
Sănătescu resigned in November, but was persuaded by King
Michael I of Romania to form a second government which collapsed within weeks. General Nicolae Rădescu was asked to form a government and appointed Teohari Georgescu to the List of Romanian Ministers of the Interior, which allowed for the introduction of Communists into the security forces.Barbu, p.187-188; Frunză, p.174-177 The Communist Party subsequently launched a campaign against the Rădescu government, culminating in a February 13, 1945 demonstration outside the
National Museum of Art of Romania, and followed a week later by street fighting between Georgescu's Communist forces and supporters of the National Peasants' Party in Bucharest.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.56; Frunză, p.180-181 In a period of escalating chaos, Rădescu called for elections. The Soviet deputy foreign minister Andrey Vyshinsky went to Bucharest to demand to the monarch that he appoint Communist sympathizer Petru Groza as Prime Minister, offering that Romania would be given sovereignty over Transylvania if he agreed, and intimating a Soviet takeover of the country if he did not.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.157; Frunză, p.180-184 King Michael, under pressure from Soviet troops who were disarming the Romanian military and occupying key installations,Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.156-157; Frunză, p.181-182 agreed and dismissed Rădescu, who fled the country.Frunză, p.183-184
PCdR: First Groza cabinet
On March 6, Groza became leader of a Communist-dominated government and named Communists to lead the
Romanian Armed Forces as well as the ministries of the
List of Romanian Ministers of the Interior (Georgescu),
Ministry of Justice (Romania) (
Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu), Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (Romania) (
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej), Propaganda (Petre Constantinescu-Iaşi) and Ministry of Public Finance (Romania) (Vasile Luca).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.57 The non-Communist ministers came from the Social Democrats (who were falling under the control of the pro-Communists
Lothar Rădăceanu and
Ştefan Voitec) and the traditional Ploughmen's Front ally, as well as, nominally, from the National Peasants' and National Liberal Party (Romania) parties (followers of Tătărescu and Alexandrescu's dissident wings).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.93; Frunză, p.187-189
As a result of the Potsdam Conference, where Western Allies governments refused to recognize Groza's administration, King Michael called on Groza to resign. When he refused, the monarch went to his summer home in
Sinaia and refused to sign any government decrees or bills (a period colloquially known as
greva regală - "the royal strike").Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.61-64, 159-161 Following Anglo-American mediation, Groza agreed to include politicians from outside his electoral alliance, appointing two secondary figures in their parties (the National Liberal
Mihail Romaniceanu and the National Peasants'
Emil Haţieganu) as Minister without Portfolio (January 1946).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.63, 159-160 At the time, Groza's party and the PCR came to publicly disagree on several agrarian issues, before the Ploughmen's Front was eventually pressured into supporting Communist tenets.Cioroianu, p.161-162
In the meantime, the first measure taken by the cabinet was a new land reform that advertised, among others, an interest into peasant issues and a respect for property (in front of common fears that a
Leninism program was about to be adopted).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.58-59; Frunză, p.198-200, 221 Although contrasted by the Communist press with its previous equivalent, the measure was in fact much less relevant — land awarded to individual farmers in 1923 was more than three times the 1945 figures, and all effects were canceled by the 1948-1962 collectivization.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.58; Frunză, p.200, 221
It was also then that, through Pătrăşcanu and Alexandru Drăghici, the Communists consecrated their control of the legal system — the process included the creation of the
Romanian People's Tribunals, charged with investigating
war crimes, and constantly supported by
agitprop in the Communist press.Frunză, p.228-232 During the period, government-backed Communists used various means to exercising influence over the vast majority of the press, and began infiltrating or competing with independent cultural forums.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.77-93, 106-148; Frunză, p.240-258 Economic dominance, partly responding to Soviet requirements, was first effected through the
SovRoms (created in the summer of 1945), directing the bulk of Romanian trade towards the Soviet Union.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.67-71, 372-373; Frunză, p.381
PCR: 1945 restructuring and second Groza cabinet
Main article: Romanian general election, 1946
The Communist Party held its first open conference (October 1945, at the Mihai Viteazul High School in Bucharest) and agreed to replace the
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej-
Constantin Pîrvulescu-Iosif Rangheţ Troika (triumvirate) with a joint leadership reflecting an uneasy balance between the external and internal wings: while Gheorghiu-Dej retained his general secretary position, Ana Pauker, Teohari Georgescu and
Vasile Luca became the other main leaders.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.62, 91-93, 174-176, 194-195; Frunză, p.219-220 The post-1945 constant growth in membership, by far the highest of all Eastern Bloc countries,Barbu, p.190-191 was to provide a base of support for Gheorghiu-Dej. The conference also saw the first mention of the PCdR as the
Romanian Communist Party (PCR), the new name being used as a
propaganda tool suggesting a closer connection with the national interest.Frunză, p.220
Party control over the security forces was successfully used on November 8, 1945, when the Bucharest populace gathered in front of the
National Museum of Art of Romania to express solidarity with King Michael, who was still refusing to sign his name to new legislation, on the occasion of his November 8 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics).Frunză, p.233 Demonstrators were faced with gunshots; around 10 people were killed, and many wounded.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.62; Frunză, p.233 The official account, according to which the Groza government responded to a coup attempt,Frunză, p.234 was dismissed in many recent researches.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.64-66; Frunză, p.234-239
The PCR and its allies won the Romanian general election, 1946, although there is evidence of widespread electoral fraud.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.64-66; Frunză, p.287-292 The following months were dedicated to confronting the National Peasants' Party, which was annihilated after the Tămădău Affair and
show trial of its entire leadership.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.95-96; Frunză, p.287-308 On
December 30,
1947, the Communist Party's power was consolidated when King Michael was forced to Abdication and a "People's Republic", firmly aligned with the Soviet Union, was proclaimed.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.97-101
PMR: creation
In February 1948, the Communists ended a long process of infiltrating the
Romanian Social Democratic Party (defunct) (ensuring control through electoral alliances and the two-party
Frontul Unic Muncitoresc — Singular Workers' Front, the PCR had profited from the departure of
Constantin Titel Petrescu's group from the Social Democrats in March 1946). The Social Democrats fused with he PCR to form the
Romanian Workers' Party (
Partidul Muncitoresc Român, PMR) which remained the ruling party's official name until 1965 (when it returned to the designation as
Romanian Communist Party).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.93-94; Frunză, p.259-286, 329-359 Nevertheless, Social Democrats were excluded from most party posts and were forced to support Communist policies on the basis of
democratic centralism;US Library of Congress: "The Communist Party"; Frunză, p.274, 350-354 it was also reported that only half of the PSD's 500,000 members joined the newly-founded grouping.Deletant & Ionescu, p.2 Capitalizing on these gains, the Communist government banned almost all other political parties after winning purely formal elections in 1948 (the
Ploughmen's Front and the
Hungarian People's Union dissolved themselves in 1953).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.292; Frunză, p.355-357
A new series of economic changes followed: the National Bank of Romania was passed into full
public ownership (December 1946),Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.72-73 and, in order to combat the Romanian leu's devaluation, a surprise
monetary reform was imposed as a Stabilisation policy measure in August 1947 (with disastrous consequences on the livelihoods of middle class citizens);Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.73-74 the Marshall Plan was being overtly condemned,Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.74 while
nationalization and a
planned economy were enforced beginning June 11, 1948.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.74-75 The first Five-year plans of Romania, conceived by
Miron Constantinescu's Soviet-Romanian committee, was adopted in 1950.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.75-76 Of newly-enforced measures, the arguably most far-reaching was collectivization — by 1962, when the process was considered complete, 96% of the total arable land had been enclosed in
Collective farming, while around 80,000 peasants faced trial for resisting and 17,000 others were uprooted or
Penal transportation for being
chiaburi (the Romanian equivalent of
kulaks).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.76, 251-253; Deletant & Ionescu, p.3-4; Frunză, p.393-394, 412-413 In 1950, the party, which viewed itself as the Vanguard party,US Library of Congress: "The Communist Party"; Deletant & Ionescu, p.3 reported that people of Proletariat origin held 64% of party offices and 40% of higher government posts, while results of the recruitment efforts remained below official expectations.US Library of Congress: "The Communist Party"
PMR: internal purges
During the period, the central scene of the PMR was occupied by the conflict between the "
Muscovite wing", the "
prison wing" led by
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, and the newly-emerged and weaker "
Secretariat wing" led by
Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu. After October 1945, the two former groups had associated in neutralizing Pătrăşcanu's — exposed as "
bourgeois" and progressively marginalized, it was ultimately decapitated in 1948.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.194-195, 200-201; Frunză, p.359-363; 407-410 Beginning that year, the PMR leadership officially questioned its own political support, and began a massive campaign to remove "foreign and hostile elements"Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, in Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.299 from its rapidly expanded structures.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.297, 298-300 In 1952, with Stalin's renewed approval,Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.180 Gheorghiu-Dej emerged victorious from the confrontation with Ana Pauker, his chief "Muscovite" rival, as well as purging Vasile Luca, Teohari Georgescu, and their supporters from the party — alleging that their various political attitudes were proof of "Right Opposition".Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.180-182, 200-203; Frunză, p.403-407; Tismăneanu, p.16 Out of a membership of approximately one million, between 300,000Cioroianu, p.299 and 465,000US Library of Congress: "The Communist Party" members, almost half of the party, was removed in the successive purges. The specific target for the "verification campaign", as it was officially called, were former
Iron Guard affiliates.Deletant & Ionescu, p.5
The move against Pauker's group echoed Stalinism purges of
Jews in particular from other Communist Parties in the Eastern bloc — notably, the
Rootless cosmopolitan campaign in which Joseph Stalin targeted Jews in the Soviet Union, and the Prague Trials in
History of Communist Czechoslovakia which removed Jews from leading positions in that country's Communist government.Deletant & Ionescu, p.5-6; Frunză, p.403-407 At the same time, a 1952 Constitution of Romania, replacing its 1948 precedent, legislated Stalinist tenets,Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.103; Deletant & Ionescu, p.3 and proclaimed that "the people's democratic state is consistently carrying out the policy of enclosing and eliminating
Capitalism elements".1952 Constitution, in Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.103-104 Gheorghiu-Dej, who remained an orthodox Stalinist,Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.195-196; Tismăneanu, p.19, 22-23 took the position of List of Prime Ministers of Romania while moving Petru Groza to the List of Presidents of Romania. Executive and PMR leaderships remained in Gheorghiu-Dej's charge until his death in 1965 (with the exception of 1954-1955, when his office of PMR leader was taken over by
Gheorghe Apostol).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.204
From the moment it came to power and until Stalin's death, as the
Cold War erupted, the PMR endorsed Soviet requirements for the Eastern Bloc. Aligning the country with the Cominform, it officially condemned
Josip Broz Tito's
Titoism in
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia; Tito was routinely attacked by the official press, and the Romanian-Yugoslav Danube border became the scene of massive agitprop displays (
see Tito-Stalin split and Informbiro).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.197-198
PMR: Gheorghiu-Dej and de-Stalinization
Uncomfortable and possibly threatened by the reformist measures adopted by Stalin's successor,
Nikita Khrushchev, Gheorghiu-Dej began to steer Romania towards a more "independent" path while remaining within the Soviet orbit during the late 1950s . Following the 20th Congress of the CPSU of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union, in which Khurshchev initiated History of the Soviet Union (1953-1985), Gheorghiu-Dej issued propaganda accusing Pauker, Luca and Georgescu of having been an arch-Stalinists responsible for the party's excesses in the late 1940s and early 1950s (notably, in regard to collectivization) — despite the fact that they had occasionally opposed a number of radical measures advocated by the General Secretary.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.76, 181-182, 206; Frunză, p.393-394 After that purge, Gheorghiu-Dej had begun promoting PMR activists who were perceived as more loyal to his own political views; among them were Nicolae Ceauşescu,Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.391-394; Deletant & Ionescu, p.7, 20-21; Tismăneanu, p.12, 27-31 Gheorghe Stoica,
Ghizela Vass,Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.201
Grigore Preoteasa,Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.210-211
Alexandru Bârlădeanu,Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.207, 375; Frunză, p.437
Ion Gheorghe Maurer, Gheorghe Gaston Marin, Paul Niculescu-Mizil, and Gheorghe Rădulescu;Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.375; Frunză, p.437 in parallel, citing Khrushchevite precedents, the PMR briefly reorganized its leadership on a plural basis (1954-1955),Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.204; Deletant & Ionescu, p.7; Tismăneanu, p.10-12 while Gheorghiu-Dej reshaped party doctrine to include ambiguous messages about Stalin's legacy (insisting on the defunct Soviet's leader contribution to Marxist thought, official documents also deplored his
personality cult and encouraged Stalinists to
self-criticism).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.206, 217-218; Deletant & Ionescu, p.7-8, 9; Frunză, p.424-425; Tismăneanu, p.9, 16
In this context, the PMR soon dismissed all the relevant consequences of the Twentieth Soviet Congress, and Gheorghiu-Dej even argued that De-Stalinization had been imposed by his team right after 1952.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.206, 217; Deletant & Ionescu, p.8, 9; Frunză, p.430-434; Tismăneanu, p.15-16, 18-19 At a party meeting in March 1956, two members of the
Politburo who were supporters of Khruschevite reforms,
Miron Constantinescu and Iosif Chişinevschi, criticized Gheorghiu-Dej's leadership and identified him with Romanian Stalinism.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.136, 206-207; Deletant & Ionescu, p.8-9; Frunză, p.425; Tismăneanu, p.11-12, 16-19, 24-26 They were purged in 1957, themselves accused of being Stalinists and of having been plotting with Pauker.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.136, 208; Tismăneanu, p.22, 23-24, 27 Through Ceauşescu's voice, Gheorghiu-Dej also marginalized another group of old members of the PMR, associated with Constantin Doncea (June 1958).Tismăneanu, p.29-30
On the outside too, the PMR, leading a country that had joined the
Warsaw Pact, remained an agent of political repression: it fully supported Khurshchev's invasion of
People's Republic of Hungary in response to the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, after which
Imre Nagy and other dissident Hungarian leaders were imprisoned on Romanian soil.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.198-200, 207; Deletant & Ionescu, p.9-13; Frunză, p.426-428-434; Tismăneanu, p.19-23 The Hungarian rebellion also sparked student protests in such places as Bucharest,
Timişoara,
Oradea,
Cluj-Napoca and
Iaşi, which contributed to unease inside the PMR and resulted in a wave of arrests.Deletant & Ionescu, p.10-11, 34; Tismăneanu, p.21, 31 While refusing to allow dissemination of Soviet literature exposing Stalinism (writers such as Ilya Ehrenburg and
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn), Romanian leaders took active part in the campaign against Boris Pasternak.Frunză, p.429
Despite Stalin's death, the massive police apparatus headed by the
Securitate (created in 1949 and rapidly growing in numbers)Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.291-294; Deletant & Ionescu, p.4 maintained a steady pace in its suppression of "Enemy of the people", until as late as 1962-1964 — in 1962-1964, the party leadership approved a mass
amnesty, extended to, among other prisoners, ca. 6,700 guilty of political crimes.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.221, 314-315; Deletant & Ionescu, p.19 This marked a toning down in the violence and scale of repression, after almost twenty years during which the Party had acted against political opposition and Romanian anti-communist resistance movement, as well as against
Religion in Romania (most notably, the Romanian Roman-Catholic Church and Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic Churches).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.268-318; Frunză, p.367-370, 392-399 Estimates for the total number of victims in the 1947/1948-1964 period vary significantly: as low as 160,000Barbu, p.192 or 282,000Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.313 political prisoners, and as high 600,000Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.313 (a great number were killed or died in custody - according to an estimate, about 190,000 people).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.313 Notorious penal facilities of the time included the Danube-Black Sea Canal,
Sighet prison, Gherla prison, Aiud,
Piteşti prison, and Râmnicu Sărat; another method of punishment was Bărăgan deportations.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.300-319; Frunză, p.394-399
PMR: Gheorghiu-Dej and the "national path"
Nationalism penetrated official discourse, largely owing to Gheorghiu-Dej's call for economic independence and distancing from the
Comecon.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.212-217, 219, 220, 372-376; Frunză, p.440-444 Moves to withdraw the country from Soviet overseeing were taken in quick succession after 1953. Khrushchev allowed Constantinescu to dissolve the SovRoms in 1954,Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.208 followed by the closing of Romanian-Soviet cultural ventures such as
Editura Cartea Rusă at the end of the decade.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.218-219, 220; Deletant & Ionescu, p.19; Frunză, p.456-457
Industrialization along the PMR's own directives highlighted Romanian independence — one of its consequences was the massive
steel-producing industrial complex in Galaţi, which, being dependent on imports of
iron from overseas, was for long a major strain on Romanian economy.Frunză, p.442 In 1957, Gheorghiu-Dej and
Emil Bodnăraş persuaded the Soviets to withdraw their Soviet occupation of Romania from Romanian soil.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.345-352; Deletant & Ionescu, p.13-15 As early as 1956, Romania's political apparatus reconciled with
Josip Broz Tito, which led to a series of common economic projects (culminating in the Đerdap venture).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.214; Frunză, p.442, 445, 449-450
An drastic divergence in ideological outlooks manifested itself only after autumn 1961, when the PMR's leadership felt threatened by the Soviet Union's will to impose the condemnation of Stalinism as the standard in communist states.Tismăneanu, p.37-38, 47-48 Following the
Sino-Soviet split of the late 1950s and the Soviet-Albanian Relations in 1961, Romania initially gave full support to the Khrushchev's stance,Tismăneanu, p.34-36 but maintained exceptionally good relations with both the People's Republic of ChinaCioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.215, 218; Frunză, p.437, 449, 452-453; Tismăneanu, p.14-15, 43-44, 50 and
History of Communist Albania.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.215; Frunză, p.437, 449; Tismăneanu, p.14-15, 50 Romanian media was alone among Warsaw Pact countries to report Chinese criticism of the Soviet leadership from its source;Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.215; Frunză, p.438 in return, Maoism officials complimented Romanian nationalism by supporting the view that Bessarabia had been a traditional victim of Russian
imperialism.Frunză, p.452-453
The change in policies was to become obvious in 1964, when the Communist regime offered a stiff response to the
Valev Plan, a Soviet project of creating trans-national economic units and of assigning Romanian areas the task of supplying agricultural products.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.216; Frunză, p.440-441, 454-457; Deletant & Ionescu, p.17; Iordachi I.2, II.1; Tismăneanu, p.45-46 Several other measures of that year also presented themselves as radical changes in tone: after Gheorghiu-Dej endorsed
Andrei Oţetea's publishing of
Karl Marx's Russophobia texts (uncovered by the People's Republic of Poland historian
Stanisław Schwann),Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.220; Deletant & Ionescu, p.18; Frunză, p.453 the PMR itself took a stand against Khrushchevite principle
symbolThe
Romanian Communist Party (
Romanian language:
, PCR) was a
Communist Party in
Romania. Successor to the
Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to communist revolution and the disestablishment of Greater Romania. The PCR was a minor and illegal grouping for much of the interwar period, and submitted to direct Comintern control. During the 1930s, most of its activists were imprisoned or took refuge in the
Soviet Union, which led to the creation of separate and competing factions until the 1950s.
The Communist Party emerged as a powerful actor on the Romanian political scene in August 1944, when it became involved in the King Michael Coup that toppled the pro-
Nazi Germany government of
Ion Antonescu. With support from
Soviet occupation of Romania, the PCR was able to force
King of Romania Michael I of Romania into exile, and establish the
Communist Romania in 1948, becoming the dominant, and later single
Single-party state until 1989.
In 1947, the Communist Party absorbed much of the
Romanian Social Democratic Party (defunct), while attracting various new members. In the early 1950s, the PCR's dominant wing around Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, with support from Joseph Stalin, defeated all the other factions and achieved full control over the party and country. After 1953, the Romanian Communists did not apply
History of the Soviet Union (1953–1985), and, in time, theorized a "national path" to Communism. This
Nationalism stance was continued under the leadership of Nicolae Ceauşescu. Following an episode of
liberalization in the late 1960s, Ceauşescu again adopted a hard line, and imposed the
July Theses. At the time, the PCR massively and artificially increased in size, while being entirely submitted to the will of its general secretary. Its disappearence was a direct consequence of the
Romanian Revolution of 1989.
The PCR coordinated several organizations during its existence, including the Union of Communist Youth, and organized training for its
cadres at the
Ştefan Gheorghiu Academy. In addition to
Scînteia, its official platform and main newspaper between 1931 and 1989, the Communist Party issued several local and national publications at various points in its history (including, after 1944,
România Liberă).
History
Socialist-Communists: creation
Main article: Socialist Party of Romania
.
The mine owner to the miner: "A socialist, you say? My son is a socialist too, but without going on Strike action..., that is why he already has his own capital..."The party was founded in 1921 when the
Bolshevik-inspired Maximum programme faction won control of Romania's Social democracy party - the
Socialist Party of Romania, successor to the defunct
Romanian Social-Democratic Workers' Party and the short-lived
Romanian Social Democratic Party (defunct) (the latter was refounded in 1927, reuniting those opposed to communist policies).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.23-27; Frunză, p.21-22 The establishment was linked with the socialist group's affiliation to the Comintern (just before the latter's Third Congress): after a delegation was sent to Bolshevist Russia, a group of moderates (including
Ioan Flueraş,
Iosif Jumanca,
Leon Ghelerter, and Constantin Popovici) left at different intervals beginning in May 1921.Frunză, p.25-28
The party renamed itself the
Socialist-Communist Party (
) and, soon after, the
Communist Party of Romania (
or
PCdR). Competition with other socialist groups brought a drastic reduction in its membership — from the ca. 40,000 members the Socialist Party had, the new group was left with as much as 2,000Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.45; Communist press, 1923, in Frunză, p.30 or as little as 500;Allegations in the Social-Democratic press, 1923, in Frunză, p.30; Iordachi I.2 at the end of World War II, it had only around 1,000 members.US Library of Congress: "The Communist Party". According to PCR leader
Iosif Rangheţ: " on
August 23,
1944, our party had, in
Bucharest, 80 party members, not more, not less. And throughout the land our party had less than 1,000 party members, including our comrades in prisons and
concentration camps." (Rangheţ,
April 25-
April 27,
1945, in Colt). In the late 1940s, Ana Pauker allegedly gave the same estimate (Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.45; Frunză, p.202).
The early Communist Party had little influence in Romania due to the country's lack of Industry, which resulted in a relatively small working class and a large peasant population, the minor impact of Marxism among Romanian
intellectuals, the success of state repression in driving the party underground and limiting its activities, and the party's "anti-national" policy as it began to be stated in the 1920s—supervised by the Comintern, and calling for the breakup of Greater Romania, which was regarded as a Colonialism entity "illegally occupying" Transylvania,
Dobruja, Bessarabia and
Bukovina (regions that had been denied the right of
self-determination).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.18-45; Frunză, p.38-48, 63-72; Iordachi, I.2; Pokivailova, p.48; Troncotă, p.19-20; Veiga, p.222 In 1924, the Comintern provoked Romanian authorities by encouraging the
Tatarbunary Uprising in southern Bessarabia, in an attempt to create a
Moldovenism republic on Romanian territory;Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.36; Frunză, p.71; Troncotă, p.19; Veiga, p.115 also in that year, a Moldavian ASSR, roughly corresponding to Transnistria, was established inside the Soviet Union.
At the same time, the
left-wing political spectrum was dominated by
Poporanism, an original ideology which partly reflected
Narodnik influence, placed its focus on the peasantry (as it notably did with the early advocacy of cooperative farming by Ion Mihalache's Peasants' Party (Romania)), and usually strongly supported the post-1919 territorial status quo—although they tended to oppose the
Centralized government it had come to imply. (In turn, the early conflict between the PCdR and other minor socialist groups has been attributed to the legacy of
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea's quasi-Poporanist ideas inside the latter, as an intellectual basis for the rejection of
Leninism.)Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.47-48
The PCdR's "foreign" image was due to the fact that Romanians were a minority in its ranks until after the end of World War II:Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.18, 44 between 1924 and 1944, none of its General Secretary was of Romanian ethnicity.
Interwar period Romania had a minority population of 30%, and it was largely from this section that the party drew its membership—a large percentage of it was comprised of History of the Jews in Romania, Hungarian minority in Romania and Bulgarians.Iordachi, I.2; Pokivailova, p.47 Actual or perceived ethnic discrimination against these minorities added to the appeal of Communist revolution ideas in their midst.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.18
PCdR: Comintern and internal wing
Shortly after its creation, the PCdR's leadership was alleged by authorities to have been involved in
Max Goldstein's bomb attack on the
Parliament of Romania; all major party figures, including the general secretary
Gheorghe Cristescu, were prosecuted in the
Dealul Spirii Trial.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.27-30
Constantin Argetoianu, the
List of Romanian Ministers of the Interior in the
Alexandru Averescu, Take Ionescu, and Ion I. C. Brătianu cabinets, equated Comintern membership with
Conspiracy (political), ordered the first in a series of repressions, and, in the context of trial, allowed for several communist activists (including Leonte Filipescu) to be shot while in custody — alleging that they had attempted to flee.Troncotă, p.18-19 Consequently, he stated his belief that "communism is over in Romania",Argetoianu, June 1922, in Troncotă, p.19 which allowed for a momentary relaxing of pressures — begun by
King of Romania Ferdinand I of Romania's granting of an
amnesty to the tried PCdR.Troncotă, p.19
The PCdR was thus unable to send representatives to the Comintern, and was virtually replaced abroad by a delegation of various activists who had fled to the
Soviet Union at various intervals (Romanian groups in Moscow and Kharkiv, the sources of a "
Muscovite wing" in the following decades).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.37, 44; Deletant & Ionescu, p.4-5; Frunză, p.38-39 The interior party only survived as an underground group after it was outlawed by the Brătianu government through the
Mârzescu Law (named after its proponent, Minister of Justice
Gheorghe Gh. Mârzescu), passed in April 1924; Comintern sources indicate that, around 1928, it was losing contact with Soviet overseers.Frunză, p.32-33 In 1925, the question of Romania's borders as posed by the Comintern led to protests by Cristescu and, eventually, to his exclusion from the party (
see Balkan Communist Federation).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.38-39; Frunză, p.49-50
Around the time of the party's Fifth Congress in 1931, the Muscovite wing became the PCdR's main political factor:
Joseph Stalin replaced the entire party leadership, including the general secretary
Vitali Holostenco — appointing instead Alexander Stefanski, who was at the time a member of the Communist Party of Poland.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.41; Frunză, p.51-53
Through regained Comintern control, the interior wing began organizing itself as a more efficient conspirative network.Troncotă, p.20-22 The onset of the
Great Depression in Romania, and the series of strikes infiltrated (and sometimes provoked) by the interior wing signified relative successes (
see Lupeni Strike of 1929), but gains were not capitalized — as lack of ideological appeal and suspicion of
Stalinism directives remained notable factors.Frunză, p.58-62 In parallel, its leadership suffered changes that were meant to place it under an ethnic Romanian and working class leadership — the emergence of a Stalin-backed group around
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej before and after the large-scale
Griviţa Strike of 1933.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.41-43; Frunză, p.53-62
In 1934, Stalin's
Popular Front doctrine was not fully passed into the local party's politics, mainly due to the Soviet territorial policies (culminating in the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) and the widespread suspicion other left-wing forces maintained toward the Comintern.Frunză, p.85; Pokivailova, p.48 The Communists did, nevertheless, attempt to reach consensus with other groupings on several occasions (in 1934-1943, they established alliances with the
Ploughmen's Front, the
Hungarian People's Union (Romania), and the
Socialist Peasants' Party), and small Communist groups became active in the leftist sections of mainstream parties.Veiga, p.223 In 1934,
Petre Constantinescu-Iaşi and other PCdR supporters created
Amicii URSS, a pro-Soviet group reaching out to
intellectuals, itself banned later in the same year.Cioroianu,
Pe unerii..., p.110-118; "Comunismul şi cel care a trăit Iluzia"
During the Romanian general election, 1937, the Communists backed Iuliu Maniu and the National Peasants' Party against King
Carol II of Romania and the Gheorghe Tătărescu government (who had intensified repression of Communist groups),Veiga, p.223 finding themselves placed in an unusual position after the
Iron Guard, a Fascism movement, signed an electoral pact with Maniu;Veiga, p.235 participation in the move was explained by Communist
historiography as provoked by the Romanian Social Democratic Party (defunct)' refusal to collaborate with the PCdR.Frunză, p.84
PCdR: late 1930s decline
In the years following the elections, the PCdR entered a phase of rapid decline, coinciding with the increasingly Authoritarianism tone of King Carol's regime (but in fact inaugurated by the 1936 trial of
Ana Pauker and other high-ranking Communists in
Craiova).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii.., p.43, 170-171; Frunză, p.84, 102-103 Journals viewed as associates of the party were closed down, and all suspected PCdR activists faced detention (
see Doftana Prison).Pokivailova, p.48; Veiga, p.223-224 Siguranţa Statului, the Romanian secret police, infiltrated the small interior wing and probably obtained valuable information about its activities.Pokivailova, p.47 The financial resources of the party, ensured by Soviet support and by various satellite organizations (collecting funds in the name of causes such as
pacifism or support for the
Second Spanish Republic side in the
Spanish Civil War), were severely drained — by political difficulties at home, as well as, after 1939, by the severing of connections with Moscow in
France and First Republic of Czechoslovakia.Pokivailova, p.46-47
Consequently, the Executive Committee of the Comintern called on Romanian Communists to infiltrate the National Renaissance Front (FRN), the newly-created sole legal party of Carol's dictatorship, and attempt to attract members of its structures to the revolutionary cause.Pokivailova, p.48
Until 1944, the group active inside Romania became split between the "
prison faction" (detainees who looked to Gheorghiu-Dej as their leader) and the one around Ştefan Foriş and
Remus Koffler.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.42, 44, 48-50; Deletant & Ionescu, p.4-5 The exterior faction of the party was decimated during the
Great Purge: an entire generation of party activists was killed on Stalin's orders, including, among others, Alexandru Dobrogeanu-Gherea,
David Fabian,
Ecaterina Arbore, Imre Aladar, Elena Filipescu,
Dumitru Grofu, Ion Dic Dicescu,
Eugen Rozvan, Marcel Pauker,
Alexander Stefanski, Timotei Marin, and
Elek Köblös.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii.., p.42-43; Frunză, p.90-91, 151, 215; Pokivailova, p.45 It was to be Ana Pauker's mission to take over and reshape the surviving structure.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.43, 52, 171-172; Frunză, p.103-104, 149-154, 215
PCdR: World War II
Main article: Romania during World War II
In 1940, Romania had to cede Bessarabia and Bukovina to the Soviet Union and Southern Dobruja to
Bulgaria (
see Soviet occupation of Bessarabia, Treaty of Craiova); in contrast with the general mood, the PCdR welcomed both gestures along the lines of its earlier activism.Frunză, p.72; Pokivailova, p.48 Official history, after ca. 1950, stated that the PCdR protested
Northern Transylvania's cession to Hungary later in the same year (the
Second Vienna Arbitration), but evidence is inconclusiveFrunză, p.72, 105-107, 127 (party documents attesting the policy are dated after Nazi Germany's
Operation Barbarossa).Frunză, p.106-107 As the border changes sparked a political crisis leading to an Iron Guard takeover — the
National Legionary State — the interior wing's confusion intensified: the upper echelon faced investigation from
Georgi Dimitrov (as well as other Comintern officials) on charges of "Trotskyism",Pokivailova, p.48 and, since the FRN had crumbled, several low-ranking party officials actually began collaborating with the new regime.Pokivailova, p.48 At around the same time, a small section of the exterior wing remained active in France, where it eventually joined the
French Resistance to German occupation of France in World War II — it included
Gheorghe Gaston Marin and the
Francs-tireurs' Olga Bancic.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.52; Frunză, p.103, 402
As Romania came under the rule of
Ion Antonescu and, as an Axis Powers country, joined in the German Operation Barbarossa, the Communist Party began approaching traditional parties that were engaged in semi-clandestine opposition to Antonescu: alongside the Romanian Social Democratic Party (defunct), it began talks with the National Peasants' Party' and the National Liberal Party (Romania) parties. At the time, virtually all the interior leadership was imprisoned at various locations (most of them
Internment near Târgu Jiu).Frunză, p.122-123, 138 In June 1943, after troops were suffering major defeats on the
Eastern Front (World War II), the PCdR proposed that all parties form a
Blocul Naţional Democrat ("National Democratic Bloc"), in order to arrange for Romania to withdraw from its alliance with Nazi Germany.Frunză, p.123 The ensuing talks were prolonged by various factors, most notably by the opposition of the National Peasants' Party leader
Iuliu Maniu, who, alarmed by Soviet successes, was trying to reach a satisfactory compromise with the
Western Allies (and, together with the National Liberals' leader Dinu Brătianu, continued to back negotiations initiated by Antonescu and Barbu Ştirbey with the United States and the United Kingdom).Frunză, p.123-125; 130-131
In early 1944, as the Red Army reached and crossed the Prut River (
see Battle of Târgul Frumos), the self-confidence and status gained by the PCdR made possible the creation of the Bloc, which was designed as the basis of a future anti-Axis government.Frunză, p.125 Parallel contacts were established, through
Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu and
Emil Bodnăraş, between the PCdR, the Soviets, and King of Romania
Michael of Romania.Frunză, p.131-133, 139 A seminal event also occurred during those months:
Ştefan Foriş, who was still general secretary, was deposed by with Soviet approval by a the rival "
prison faction" (at the time, it was headed by former inmates of the prison in
Caransebeş); replaced with the
Troika (triumvirate) formed by
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej,
Constantin Pîrvulescu, and
Iosif Rangheţ, Foriş was discreetly assassinated in 1946.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.49-50, 62; "Comunismul şi cel care a trăit Iluzia"; Frunză, p.400-402 Several assessments view Foriş' dismissal as the complete rupture in historical continuity between the PCdR established in 1921 and what became the ruling party of
Communist Romania.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.50; Frunză, p.213, 218-221, 402
greet Romania's new ally, the Red Army, on
August 31,
1944On August 23, 1944, King Michael, a number of
Romanian Armed Forces officers, and armed Communist-led civilians supported by the National Democratic Bloc arrested dictator
Ion Antonescu into a safe and seized control of the government (
see King Michael Coup).Frunză, p.128-137 King Michael then proclaimed the old
1923 Constitution of Romania in force, ordered the Romanian Army to enter a
ceasefire with the Red Army on the Moldavian front, and withdrew Romania from the Axis.Frunză, p.126-129 Later party discourse tended to dismiss the importance of both the Soviet offensive and the dialogue with other forces (and eventually described the coup as a revolt with large popular support).Frunză, p.130-145
The King named General Constantin Sănătescu as
List of Prime Ministers of Romania of a coalition government which was dominated by the National Peasants' Party and National Liberal Party, but included Pătrăşcanu as Minister of Justice - the first Communist to hold high office in Romania. The Red Army entered
Bucharest on August 31, and thereafter played a crucial role in supporting the Communist Party's rise to power as the Soviet military command virtually ruled the city and the country (
see Soviet occupation of Romania).Frunză, p.171, 178-190
PCdR: in opposition to Sănătescu and Rădescu
After having been underground for two decades, the Communists enjoyed little popular support at first, compared to the other opposition parties (however, the decrease in popularity of the National Liberals was reflected in the forming of a splinter-group around Gheorghe Tătărescu, the National Liberal Party-Tătărescu, who later entered an alliance with the Communist Party). Soon after August 23, the Communists also engaged in an increasingly violent campaign against Romania's main political group of the times, the National Peasants' Party, and its leaders Iuliu Maniu and
Ion Mihalache. The conflict's first stage was centered on Communist allegations that Maniu had encouraged violence against the
Hungarian minority in Romania in newly-recovered
Northern TransylvaniaFrunză, p.163-170 — at a time when the region's status was being assessed by the Paris Peace Treaties, 1947.
The Communist Party, engaged in a massive recruitment campaign,Frunză, p.201-212; according to Rangheţ: "After 3 months of our party's legal existence, in October, we had almost 5-6,000 party members. What is this to say? That we expanded the cadres, party members, by only very, very little, if we are to keep in mind the present legal situation, if we keep in mind that, through our party's work, thousands, tens and hundreds of thousands workers were rallied. During this time, when our party only had 5-6,000 party members, we held large, huge protests against the realities in our country, in Bucharest as well as throughout the land..." (Rangheţ, April 25-27, 1945, in Colt) was able to attract ethnic Romanians in large numbers — workers and intellectuals alike, as well as former members of the Fascism Iron Guard.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.297; Frunză, p.208 By 1947, it grew to around 710,000 members.Barbu, p.190 Although the PCR was still highly disorganized and factionalized,Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.51-52; Deletant & Ionescu, p.4-5; Frunză, p.218-219 it benefited from Soviet backing (including that of Vladislav Petrovich Vinogradov and other Soviet appointees to the
Allied Commission).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.45, 59-61 After 1944, it was leading a
paramilitary wing, the Patriotic Defense (
Apărarea Patriotică, disbanded in 1948),Frunză, p.176 and a cultural society, the
Romanian Society for Friendship with the Soviet Union.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.106-148
On PCdR initiative, the National Democratic Bloc was dissolved on October 8, 1944; instead, the Communists, Social Democrats, the
Ploughmen's Front,
Mihai Ralea's
Socialist Peasants' Party (which was absorbed by the former in November),Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.154 the Hungarian People's Union (MADOSZ), and Mitiţă Constantinescu's Union of Patriots (Romania) formed
Frontul Naţional Democrat (the "National Democratic Front", FND) which, campaigned against the government, demanding the appointment of more Communist officials and sympathizers, while claiming
Democracy legitimacy and alleging that Sănătescu had dictatorial ambitions.Barbu, p.187-189; Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.55-56; Frunză, p.173-174, 220-222, 237-238, 254-255 The FND was soon joined by the Liberal group around Tătărescu,
Nicolae L. Lupu's
Democratic Peasants' Party (the latter claimed the legacy from the defunct
Peasants' Party (Romania)), and Anton Alexandrescu's faction (separated from the
National Peasants' Party).Frunză, p.186-190
Sănătescu resigned in November, but was persuaded by King Michael I of Romania to form a second government which collapsed within weeks. General Nicolae Rădescu was asked to form a government and appointed
Teohari Georgescu to the List of Romanian Ministers of the Interior, which allowed for the introduction of Communists into the security forces.Barbu, p.187-188; Frunză, p.174-177 The Communist Party subsequently launched a campaign against the Rădescu government, culminating in a February 13,
1945 demonstration outside the
National Museum of Art of Romania, and followed a week later by street fighting between Georgescu's Communist forces and supporters of the National Peasants' Party in Bucharest.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.56; Frunză, p.180-181 In a period of escalating chaos, Rădescu called for elections. The Soviet deputy foreign minister Andrey Vyshinsky went to Bucharest to demand to the monarch that he appoint Communist sympathizer Petru Groza as Prime Minister, offering that Romania would be given sovereignty over Transylvania if he agreed, and intimating a Soviet takeover of the country if he did not.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.157; Frunză, p.180-184 King Michael, under pressure from Soviet troops who were disarming the Romanian military and occupying key installations,Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.156-157; Frunză, p.181-182 agreed and dismissed Rădescu, who fled the country.Frunză, p.183-184
PCdR: First Groza cabinet
On March 6, Groza became leader of a Communist-dominated government and named Communists to lead the
Romanian Armed Forces as well as the ministries of the
List of Romanian Ministers of the Interior (Georgescu), Ministry of Justice (Romania) (Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu), Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (Romania) (Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej), Propaganda (
Petre Constantinescu-Iaşi) and Ministry of Public Finance (Romania) (Vasile Luca).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.57 The non-Communist ministers came from the Social Democrats (who were falling under the control of the pro-Communists
Lothar Rădăceanu and
Ştefan Voitec) and the traditional
Ploughmen's Front ally, as well as, nominally, from the National Peasants' and
National Liberal Party (Romania) parties (followers of Tătărescu and Alexandrescu's dissident wings).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.93; Frunză, p.187-189
As a result of the Potsdam Conference, where Western Allies governments refused to recognize Groza's administration, King Michael called on Groza to resign. When he refused, the monarch went to his summer home in Sinaia and refused to sign any government decrees or bills (a period colloquially known as
greva regală - "the royal strike").Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.61-64, 159-161 Following Anglo-American mediation, Groza agreed to include politicians from outside his electoral alliance, appointing two secondary figures in their parties (the National Liberal Mihail Romaniceanu and the National Peasants'
Emil Haţieganu) as Minister without Portfolio (January 1946).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.63, 159-160 At the time, Groza's party and the PCR came to publicly disagree on several agrarian issues, before the Ploughmen's Front was eventually pressured into supporting Communist tenets.Cioroianu, p.161-162
In the meantime, the first measure taken by the cabinet was a new
land reform that advertised, among others, an interest into peasant issues and a respect for property (in front of common fears that a Leninism program was about to be adopted).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.58-59; Frunză, p.198-200, 221 Although contrasted by the Communist press with its previous equivalent, the measure was in fact much less relevant — land awarded to individual farmers in 1923 was more than three times the 1945 figures, and all effects were canceled by the 1948-1962
collectivization.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.58; Frunză, p.200, 221
It was also then that, through Pătrăşcanu and
Alexandru Drăghici, the Communists consecrated their control of the legal system — the process included the creation of the Romanian People's Tribunals, charged with investigating war crimes, and constantly supported by agitprop in the Communist press.Frunză, p.228-232 During the period, government-backed Communists used various means to exercising influence over the vast majority of the press, and began infiltrating or competing with independent cultural forums.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.77-93, 106-148; Frunză, p.240-258 Economic dominance, partly responding to Soviet requirements, was first effected through the
SovRoms (created in the summer of 1945), directing the bulk of Romanian trade towards the Soviet Union.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.67-71, 372-373; Frunză, p.381
PCR: 1945 restructuring and second Groza cabinet
Main article: Romanian general election, 1946
The Communist Party held its first open conference (October 1945, at the
Mihai Viteazul High School in Bucharest) and agreed to replace the Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej-
Constantin Pîrvulescu-Iosif Rangheţ
Troika (triumvirate) with a joint leadership reflecting an uneasy balance between the external and internal wings: while Gheorghiu-Dej retained his
general secretary position,
Ana Pauker, Teohari Georgescu and
Vasile Luca became the other main leaders.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.62, 91-93, 174-176, 194-195; Frunză, p.219-220 The post-1945 constant growth in membership, by far the highest of all Eastern Bloc countries,Barbu, p.190-191 was to provide a base of support for Gheorghiu-Dej. The conference also saw the first mention of the PCdR as the
Romanian Communist Party (PCR), the new name being used as a propaganda tool suggesting a closer connection with the national interest.Frunză, p.220
Party control over the security forces was successfully used on November 8, 1945, when the Bucharest populace gathered in front of the
National Museum of Art of Romania to express solidarity with King Michael, who was still refusing to sign his name to new legislation, on the occasion of his November 8 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics).Frunză, p.233 Demonstrators were faced with gunshots; around 10 people were killed, and many wounded.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.62; Frunză, p.233 The official account, according to which the Groza government responded to a coup attempt,Frunză, p.234 was dismissed in many recent researches.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.64-66; Frunză, p.234-239
The PCR and its allies won the Romanian general election, 1946, although there is evidence of widespread
electoral fraud.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.64-66; Frunză, p.287-292 The following months were dedicated to confronting the National Peasants' Party, which was annihilated after the Tămădău Affair and show trial of its entire leadership.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.95-96; Frunză, p.287-308 On December 30, 1947, the Communist Party's power was consolidated when King Michael was forced to
Abdication and a "
People's Republic", firmly aligned with the Soviet Union, was proclaimed.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.97-101
PMR: creation
In February 1948, the Communists ended a long process of infiltrating the Romanian Social Democratic Party (defunct) (ensuring control through electoral alliances and the two-party
Frontul Unic Muncitoresc — Singular Workers' Front, the PCR had profited from the departure of
Constantin Titel Petrescu's group from the Social Democrats in March 1946). The Social Democrats fused with he PCR to form the
Romanian Workers' Party (
Partidul Muncitoresc Român, PMR) which remained the ruling party's official name until 1965 (when it returned to the designation as
Romanian Communist Party).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.93-94; Frunză, p.259-286, 329-359 Nevertheless, Social Democrats were excluded from most party posts and were forced to support Communist policies on the basis of democratic centralism;US Library of Congress: "The Communist Party"; Frunză, p.274, 350-354 it was also reported that only half of the PSD's 500,000 members joined the newly-founded grouping.Deletant & Ionescu, p.2 Capitalizing on these gains, the Communist government banned almost all other political parties after winning purely formal elections in 1948 (the Ploughmen's Front and the Hungarian People's Union dissolved themselves in 1953).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.292; Frunză, p.355-357
A new series of economic changes followed: the National Bank of Romania was passed into full public ownership (December 1946),Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.72-73 and, in order to combat the
Romanian leu's
devaluation, a surprise
monetary reform was imposed as a
Stabilisation policy measure in August 1947 (with disastrous consequences on the livelihoods of middle class citizens);Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.73-74 the
Marshall Plan was being overtly condemned,Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.74 while
nationalization and a
planned economy were enforced beginning June 11, 1948.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.74-75 The first
Five-year plans of Romania, conceived by
Miron Constantinescu's Soviet-Romanian committee, was adopted in 1950.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.75-76 Of newly-enforced measures, the arguably most far-reaching was
collectivization — by 1962, when the process was considered complete, 96% of the total
arable land had been enclosed in
Collective farming, while around 80,000 peasants faced trial for resisting and 17,000 others were uprooted or
Penal transportation for being
chiaburi (the Romanian equivalent of
kulaks).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.76, 251-253; Deletant & Ionescu, p.3-4; Frunză, p.393-394, 412-413 In 1950, the party, which viewed itself as the Vanguard party,US Library of Congress: "The Communist Party"; Deletant & Ionescu, p.3 reported that people of Proletariat origin held 64% of party offices and 40% of higher government posts, while results of the recruitment efforts remained below official expectations.US Library of Congress: "The Communist Party"
PMR: internal purges
During the period, the central scene of the PMR was occupied by the conflict between the "
Muscovite wing", the "
prison wing" led by Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, and the newly-emerged and weaker "
Secretariat wing" led by Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu. After October 1945, the two former groups had associated in neutralizing Pătrăşcanu's — exposed as "
bourgeois" and progressively marginalized, it was ultimately decapitated in 1948.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.194-195, 200-201; Frunză, p.359-363; 407-410 Beginning that year, the PMR leadership officially questioned its own political support, and began a massive campaign to remove "foreign and hostile elements"
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, in Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.299 from its rapidly expanded structures.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.297, 298-300 In 1952, with Stalin's renewed approval,Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.180 Gheorghiu-Dej emerged victorious from the confrontation with
Ana Pauker, his chief "Muscovite" rival, as well as purging
Vasile Luca,
Teohari Georgescu, and their supporters from the party — alleging that their various political attitudes were proof of "Right Opposition".Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.180-182, 200-203; Frunză, p.403-407; Tismăneanu, p.16 Out of a membership of approximately one million, between 300,000Cioroianu, p.299 and 465,000US Library of Congress: "The Communist Party" members, almost half of the party, was removed in the successive purges. The specific target for the "verification campaign", as it was officially called, were former
Iron Guard affiliates.Deletant & Ionescu, p.5
The move against Pauker's group echoed
Stalinism purges of
Jews in particular from other Communist Parties in the
Eastern bloc — notably, the
Rootless cosmopolitan campaign in which Joseph Stalin targeted Jews in the Soviet Union, and the
Prague Trials in
History of Communist Czechoslovakia which removed Jews from leading positions in that country's Communist government.Deletant & Ionescu, p.5-6; Frunză, p.403-407 At the same time, a
1952 Constitution of Romania, replacing its 1948 precedent, legislated Stalinist tenets,Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.103; Deletant & Ionescu, p.3 and proclaimed that "the people's democratic state is consistently carrying out the policy of enclosing and eliminating Capitalism elements".1952 Constitution, in Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.103-104 Gheorghiu-Dej, who remained an orthodox Stalinist,Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.195-196; Tismăneanu, p.19, 22-23 took the position of
List of Prime Ministers of Romania while moving
Petru Groza to the List of Presidents of Romania. Executive and PMR leaderships remained in Gheorghiu-Dej's charge until his death in 1965 (with the exception of 1954-1955, when his office of PMR leader was taken over by
Gheorghe Apostol).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.204
From the moment it came to power and until Stalin's death, as the
Cold War erupted, the PMR endorsed Soviet requirements for the
Eastern Bloc. Aligning the country with the
Cominform, it officially condemned Josip Broz Tito's
Titoism in Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia; Tito was routinely attacked by the official press, and the Romanian-Yugoslav
Danube border became the scene of massive agitprop displays (
see Tito-Stalin split and Informbiro).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.197-198
PMR: Gheorghiu-Dej and de-Stalinization
Uncomfortable and possibly threatened by the reformist measures adopted by Stalin's successor,
Nikita Khrushchev, Gheorghiu-Dej began to steer Romania towards a more "independent" path while remaining within the Soviet orbit during the late 1950s . Following the 20th Congress of the CPSU of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union, in which Khurshchev initiated History of the Soviet Union (1953-1985), Gheorghiu-Dej issued
propaganda accusing Pauker, Luca and Georgescu of having been an arch-Stalinists responsible for the party's excesses in the late 1940s and early 1950s (notably, in regard to collectivization) — despite the fact that they had occasionally opposed a number of radical measures advocated by the General Secretary.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.76, 181-182, 206; Frunză, p.393-394 After that purge, Gheorghiu-Dej had begun promoting PMR activists who were perceived as more loyal to his own political views; among them were Nicolae Ceauşescu,Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.391-394; Deletant & Ionescu, p.7, 20-21; Tismăneanu, p.12, 27-31 Gheorghe Stoica, Ghizela Vass,Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.201 Grigore Preoteasa,Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.210-211
Alexandru Bârlădeanu,Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.207, 375; Frunză, p.437 Ion Gheorghe Maurer, Gheorghe Gaston Marin,
Paul Niculescu-Mizil, and Gheorghe Rădulescu;Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.375; Frunză, p.437 in parallel, citing Khrushchevite precedents, the PMR briefly reorganized its leadership on a plural basis (1954-1955),Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.204; Deletant & Ionescu, p.7; Tismăneanu, p.10-12 while Gheorghiu-Dej reshaped party doctrine to include ambiguous messages about Stalin's legacy (insisting on the defunct Soviet's leader contribution to Marxist thought, official documents also deplored his
personality cult and encouraged Stalinists to
self-criticism).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.206, 217-218; Deletant & Ionescu, p.7-8, 9; Frunză, p.424-425; Tismăneanu, p.9, 16
In this context, the PMR soon dismissed all the relevant consequences of the Twentieth Soviet Congress, and Gheorghiu-Dej even argued that De-Stalinization had been imposed by his team right after 1952.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.206, 217; Deletant & Ionescu, p.8, 9; Frunză, p.430-434; Tismăneanu, p.15-16, 18-19 At a party meeting in March 1956, two members of the
Politburo who were supporters of Khruschevite reforms,
Miron Constantinescu and
Iosif Chişinevschi, criticized Gheorghiu-Dej's leadership and identified him with Romanian Stalinism.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.136, 206-207; Deletant & Ionescu, p.8-9; Frunză, p.425; Tismăneanu, p.11-12, 16-19, 24-26 They were purged in 1957, themselves accused of being Stalinists and of having been plotting with Pauker.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.136, 208; Tismăneanu, p.22, 23-24, 27 Through Ceauşescu's voice, Gheorghiu-Dej also marginalized another group of old members of the PMR, associated with
Constantin Doncea (June 1958).Tismăneanu, p.29-30
On the outside too, the PMR, leading a country that had joined the Warsaw Pact, remained an agent of political repression: it fully supported Khurshchev's invasion of People's Republic of Hungary in response to the
Hungarian Revolution of 1956, after which
Imre Nagy and other dissident Hungarian leaders were imprisoned on Romanian soil.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.198-200, 207; Deletant & Ionescu, p.9-13; Frunză, p.426-428-434; Tismăneanu, p.19-23 The Hungarian rebellion also sparked student protests in such places as Bucharest,
Timişoara, Oradea, Cluj-Napoca and Iaşi, which contributed to unease inside the PMR and resulted in a wave of arrests.Deletant & Ionescu, p.10-11, 34; Tismăneanu, p.21, 31 While refusing to allow dissemination of Soviet literature exposing Stalinism (writers such as Ilya Ehrenburg and
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn), Romanian leaders took active part in the campaign against Boris Pasternak.Frunză, p.429
Despite Stalin's death, the massive police apparatus headed by the
Securitate (created in 1949 and rapidly growing in numbers)Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.291-294; Deletant & Ionescu, p.4 maintained a steady pace in its suppression of "Enemy of the people", until as late as 1962-1964 — in 1962-1964, the party leadership approved a mass amnesty, extended to, among other prisoners, ca. 6,700 guilty of political crimes.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.221, 314-315; Deletant & Ionescu, p.19 This marked a toning down in the violence and scale of repression, after almost twenty years during which the Party had acted against political opposition and
Romanian anti-communist resistance movement, as well as against Religion in Romania (most notably, the
Romanian Roman-Catholic Church and Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic Churches).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.268-318; Frunză, p.367-370, 392-399 Estimates for the total number of victims in the 1947/1948-1964 period vary significantly: as low as 160,000Barbu, p.192 or 282,000Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.313 political prisoners, and as high 600,000Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.313 (a great number were killed or died in custody - according to an estimate, about 190,000 people).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.313 Notorious penal facilities of the time included the
Danube-Black Sea Canal,
Sighet prison,
Gherla prison,
Aiud,
Piteşti prison, and
Râmnicu Sărat; another method of punishment was
Bărăgan deportations.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.300-319; Frunză, p.394-399
PMR: Gheorghiu-Dej and the "national path"
Nationalism penetrated official discourse, largely owing to Gheorghiu-Dej's call for economic independence and distancing from the Comecon.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.212-217, 219, 220, 372-376; Frunză, p.440-444 Moves to withdraw the country from Soviet overseeing were taken in quick succession after 1953. Khrushchev allowed Constantinescu to dissolve the SovRoms in 1954,Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.208 followed by the closing of Romanian-Soviet cultural ventures such as Editura Cartea Rusă at the end of the decade.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.218-219, 220; Deletant & Ionescu, p.19; Frunză, p.456-457 Industrialization along the PMR's own directives highlighted Romanian independence — one of its consequences was the massive steel-producing industrial complex in Galaţi, which, being dependent on imports of
iron from overseas, was for long a major strain on Romanian economy.Frunză, p.442 In 1957, Gheorghiu-Dej and Emil Bodnăraş persuaded the Soviets to withdraw their Soviet occupation of Romania from Romanian soil.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.345-352; Deletant & Ionescu, p.13-15 As early as 1956, Romania's political apparatus reconciled with Josip Broz Tito, which led to a series of common economic projects (culminating in the
Đerdap venture).Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.214; Frunză, p.442, 445, 449-450
An drastic divergence in ideological outlooks manifested itself only after autumn 1961, when the PMR's leadership felt threatened by the Soviet Union's will to impose the condemnation of Stalinism as the standard in communist states.Tismăneanu, p.37-38, 47-48 Following the Sino-Soviet split of the late 1950s and the Soviet-Albanian Relations in 1961, Romania initially gave full support to the Khrushchev's stance,Tismăneanu, p.34-36 but maintained exceptionally good relations with both the People's Republic of ChinaCioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.215, 218; Frunză, p.437, 449, 452-453; Tismăneanu, p.14-15, 43-44, 50 and
History of Communist Albania.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.215; Frunză, p.437, 449; Tismăneanu, p.14-15, 50 Romanian media was alone among Warsaw Pact countries to report Chinese criticism of the Soviet leadership from its source;Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.215; Frunză, p.438 in return, Maoism officials complimented Romanian nationalism by supporting the view that Bessarabia had been a traditional victim of Russian imperialism.Frunză, p.452-453
The change in policies was to become obvious in 1964, when the Communist regime offered a stiff response to the
Valev Plan, a Soviet project of creating trans-national economic units and of assigning Romanian areas the task of supplying agricultural products.Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.216; Frunză, p.440-441, 454-457; Deletant & Ionescu, p.17; Iordachi I.2, II.1; Tismăneanu, p.45-46 Several other measures of that year also presented themselves as radical changes in tone: after Gheorghiu-Dej endorsed Andrei Oţetea's publishing of
Karl Marx's Russophobia texts (uncovered by the
People's Republic of Poland historian Stanisław Schwann),Cioroianu,
Pe umerii..., p.220; Deletant & Ionescu, p.18; Frunză, p.453 the PMR itself took a stand against Khrushchevite principle
Romanian Communist Party - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Romanian Communist Party (Romanian: Partidul Comunist Român, PCR) was a communist political party in Romania. Successor to the Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania ...
Category:Romanian Communist Party - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Subcategories. This category has the following 2 subcategories, out of 2 total. C [+]
Romanian Communist Party
Description of the flag. image located by István Molnár, 3 March 2007 Source: http://www.h-u-m-rueegg.li/marken-ru.htm. The PCR flag consisted of a simple hammer and sickle ...
Stalinism for All Seasons. The History of the Romanian Communist Party
The Cold War International History Project aims to disseminate new information and perspectives on the history of the Cold War, in particular new findings from previously ...
20 May 1970 Romanian Communist Party Central Committee 1445/1970 ...
Comrade Nicolae Ceausescu, Secretary General of the Romanian Communist Party, informed the members of the committee of the discussions held in Moscow on the day s of 18-19 May of ...
INEX: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Romanian Communist Party)
Table of Contents. 1 History. 1.1. Early history; 1.2. Gaining power; 1.3. Stalinism; 1.4. Ceauşescu Era; 2 Membership; 3 Organization; 4 General secretaries; 5 Other notable ...
www.ceausescu.org - the leading infosource on the web about Ceausescu ...
... and was arrested as a revolutionary; he spent the late 1930s and early 40s in prison, where he became acquainted with the future first secretary of the Romanian Communist party ...
Romanian Communist Party - Powerset
Romanian Communist Party: The Romanian Communist Party (Romanian: , PCR) was a communist political party in Romania. Successor to the Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of ...
Romanian Communist Party
Description of the flag. The PCR flag consisted of a simple hammer and sickle inside a wheat wreath containing the letters PCR. Located on a stamp displayed at http://www.h-u-m ...
Romanian History
By 1969 Nicolae Ceausescu had established undisputed power within the Romanian Communist Party. Ceausescu stuck faithfully to Soviet ideology in his economic policy making ...
