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Romania Elimination of Opposition Parties
Announcement of the Marshall Plan, expulsion of
communists from
the French and Italian governments in 1947, and
consolidation of
the Western bloc unnerved Stalin. Anticommunist forces,
though in
disarray, still lurked in Eastern Europe; most of the
region's
communist governments and parties enjoyed meager popular
support;
and the Polish, Czechoslovakian, Bulgarian, and Yugoslav
communist
parties began pursuing independent lines regarding
acceptance of
Marshall Plan aid and formation of a Balkan confederation.
Fearing
the Soviet Union might lose its grasp on Eastern Europe,
Stalin
abandoned his advocacy of "national roads to socialism"
and pushed
for establishment of full communist control in Eastern
Europe with
strict adherence to Moscow's line. To further this goal,
in
September 1947 the Soviet Union and its satellites founded
the
Cominform, an organization linking the Communist Party of
the
Soviet Union (CPSU) and the communist parties of Eastern
Europe,
Italy, and France.
In the second half of 1947, the Romanian Communists
unleashed
full fury against the country's other political parties,
arresting
numerous opposition politicians and driving others into
exile. The
government dissolved the National Peasant Party and
National
Liberal Party, and in October prosecutors brought Iuliu
Maniu, his
deputy, Ion Mihalache, and other political figures to
trial for
allegedly conspiring to overthrow the government. Maniu
and
Mihalache received life sentences; in 1956 the government
reported
that Maniu had died in prison four years earlier. In late
1947, the
Communists struck against their fellow travelers, ousting
the
opportunistic members of the main opposition parties who
had
cooperated in the Communists' takeover. A terror campaign
claimed
many lives and filled prisons and work camps. After
ridding
themselves of all active political opponents, Groza and
Gheorghiu-Dej met with King Michael in December 1947 and
threatened
him with a government strike and possible civil war unless
he
abdicated. After several refusals, the king submitted.
The Romanian Communist Party and one wing of the Social
Democratic Party merged in early 1948 to form the Romanian
Workers'
Party (Partidul Muncitoresc Romān--PMR). Communists held
the
party's key leadership posts and used the principle of
democratic
centralism to silence former Social Democrats. The PMR's
First
Party Congress, in February 1948, chose the triumvirate of
Gheorghiu-Dej, Luca, and Pauker to head the Central
Committee;
Gheorghiu-Dej remained general secretary but still lacked
the power
to dominate the others. The Congress also transformed the
National
Democratic Front into the Popular Democratic Front, the
party's
umbrella front organization. In the same month, the Soviet
Union
and Romania signed a treaty of friendship, cooperation,
and mutual
assistance.
Data as of July 1989
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