Romania ROMANIAN COMMUNIST PARTY
Communist Party Central Committee Headquarters, Bucharest
Courtesy Scott Edelman
Palace of the Council of State; May Day banner reads, "May Our Dear
Fatherland, the Romanian Socialist Republic, Live Long and
Flourish"
Courtesy Scott Edelman
Founded in 1921, the Communist Party was declared
illegal in
1924 and forced underground until 1944. Because of the
party's
association with Moscow, it was unable to attract broad
support.
The communists came to power as a result of the Soviet
occupation
of Romania during the final year of the war. With Soviet
backing,
the party gradually consolidated power and sought to
extend its
base of popular support. In early 1948, it merged with a
wing of
the Social Democratic Party to form the Romanian Workers'
Party. By
the end of 1952, however, almost all of the Social
Democrats had
been replaced by Communists.
Data as of July 1989
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