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Romania The Romanian People's Republic
In March 1948 the government held elections that for
the final
time included the facade of opposition-party
participation; the
Popular Democratic Front took 405 of the 414 seats. On
April 13,
1948, the new National Assembly proclaimed the creation of
the
Romanian People's Republic and adopted a Stalinist
constitution.
The assembly ostensibly became the supreme organ of state
authority; in reality, however, the Communist Party's
Politburo and
the state Council of Ministers held the reins of power.
The
constitution also listed civil and political rights and
recognized
private property, but the authorities soon renounced the
separation
of the judiciary and executive and established the
Department of
State Security (Departamentul Securitatii Statului),
commonly known
as the Securitate, Romania's secret police
(see Security and Intelligence Services
, ch. 5). In 1949 acts considered
dangerous to
society became punishable even if the acts were not
specifically
defined by law as crimes, and economic crimes became
punishable by
death. The central government also created and staffed
local
"people's councils" to further tighten its hold on the
country
(see Local Government
, ch. 4).
In June 1948, the national assembly enacted legislation
to
complete the nationalization of the country's banks and
most of its
industrial, mining, transportation, and insurance
companies. Within
three years the state controlled 90 percent of Romania's
industry.
The nationalization law provided reimbursement for
business owners,
but repayments never materialized. In July 1948, the
government
created a state planning commission to control the
economy, and in
January 1949 Romania joined the Council for Mutual
Economic
Assistance
(Comecon--see Glossary),
an organization
designed to
further economic cooperation between the Soviet
satellites.
Romania launched an ambitious program of forced
industrial
development at the expense of agriculture and
consumer-goods
production. In the First Five-Year Plan (1951-55),
planners
earmarked 57 percent of all investment for industry,
allotted 87
percent of industrial investment to heavy industry, and
promised
the workers an 80 percent improvement in their standard of
living
by 1955. The government began construction of the
Danube-Black Sea
Canal, a project of monumental proportions and
questionable
utility.
In 1949 the government initiated forced agricultural
collectivization to feed the growing urban population and
generate
capital. The state appropriated land, prodded peasants to
join
collective farms, and equipped machine stations
(see Farm Organization
, ch. 3) to do mechanized work for the
collective
farms. Government forces besieged rural areas and arrested
about
80,000 peasants for being private farmers or siding with
private
farmers, who were reviled as "class enemies;" about 30,000
people
eventually faced public trial. Forced collectivization
brought
Romania food shortages and reduced exports, and by late
1951 the
government realized it lacked the tractors, equipment, and
trained
personnel for successful rapid collectivization. The
forced
collectivization campaign produced only about 17 percent
state
ownership of Romania's land. The authorities shifted to a
policy of
slow collectivization and cooperativization, allowing
peasants to
retain their land but requiring delivery to the state of a
portion
of their output. Large compulsory-delivery quotas drove
many
peasants from the land to higher-paying jobs in industry.
Industrialization proceeded quickly and soon began
reshaping
the country's social fabric. Although Romania remained a
predominantly agricultural country, the percentage of
industrial
workers increased as peasants left the fields and villages
for
factory jobs and overcrowded city apartments. Trade school
and
university graduates also flocked to the cities. By 1953
government
decrees had made most professionals state employees,
eliminated
private commerce, and bankrupted the commercial
bourgeoisie.
In 1948 the regime determined to reform the social
structure
and inculcate "socialist" values. The authorities tackled
illiteracy, but they also severed links with Western
culture,
jailed teachers and intellectuals, introduced compulsory
Russian-language instruction, rewrote Romania's history to
highlight Russia's contributions, and redefined the
nation's
identity by glossing over its Western roots and stressing
Slavic
influences. Party leaders ordered writers and artists to
embrace
socialist realism and commanded teachers to train children
for
communal life. The state transformed the Romanian Orthodox
Church
into a government-controlled organization, supervised
Roman
Catholic schools, jailed Catholic clergy, merged the
Uniate and
Orthodox churches, and seized Uniate church property.
After 1948
Stalin encouraged anti-Semitism and the Romanian regime
restricted
Jewish religious observances and harassed and imprisoned
Jews who
wished to emigrate to Israel. Despite this pressure,
however, a
third of Romania's Jews had emigrated by 1951.
On June 28, 1948, the Yugoslav-Soviet rift broke into
the open
when the Cominform expelled Yugoslavia. Gheorghiu-Dej
enthusiastically joined in the attack on Yugoslavia's
defiant
leader, Josip Broz Tito, and the Cominform transferred its
headquarters from Belgrade to Bucharest. Romania sheltered
fleeing
anti-Tito Yugoslavs, beamed propaganda broadcasts into
Yugoslavia
denouncing Tito, and called on Yugoslav communists to
revolt.
Tito's successful defiance of Stalin triggered a purge of
East
European communists who had approved Titoist or "national"
approaches to communism.
Romania's purge of Titoists provided cover for a major
internal
power struggle. The authorities imprisoned Patrascanu as a
"national deviationist" and friend to war criminals. In
1949 the
party purged its rolls of 192,000 members. The Muscovite
party
leaders fell next. In 1951 Pauker and Luca celebrated
Gheorghiu-Dej
as the party's sole leader, but in May 1952 Pauker, Luca,
and
Georgescu lost their party and government positions. A
month later,
Gheorghiu-Dej shunted Groza into a ceremonial position and
assumed
both the state and party leadership. The government soon
promulgated a new constitution that incorporated complete
paragraphs of the Soviet constitution and designated for
the PMR a
role analogous to that of the CPSU in the Soviet
Union--the
"leading political force" in the state and society. In
1954 the
military tried and shot several "deviationists" and
"spies,"
including Patrascanu.
Through the purge, Gheorghiu-Dej established a unified
party
leadership of Romanian nationals and forged a loyal
internal
apparatus to implement his policies. Gheorghiu-Dej
elevated young
protégés, including Nicolae Ceausescu, a former
shoemaker's
apprentice who had joined the party at age fourteen and
had met
Gheorghiu-Dej in prison during the war, and Alexandru
Draghici, who
later became interior minister. The PMR's unity allowed it
successfully to assert its interests over Moscow's in the
next
decade.
Data as of July 1989
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