# Romanian People's Republic

From 1947 to 1965, the state was known as the Romanian People's Republic (Republica Populară Romînă, RPR). The country was an Eastern Bloc state and a member of the Warsaw Pact with a dominant role for the Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its constitutions. Geographically, RSR was bordered by the Black Sea to the east, the Soviet Union (via the Ukrainian and Moldavian SSRs) to the north and east, Hungary and Yugoslavia (via SR Serbia) to the west, and Bulgaria to the south.

## Early years

Early years of communist rule in Romania marked by repeated changes and numerous arrests and imprisonments as party factions sought dominance. State resources were also drained by the SovRom agreement with the Soviet Union, which facilitated the shipment of Romanian goods to the Soviet Union at low prices. On 11 June 1948, all banks and large companies were nationalized.
Within the communist leadership, there were three main factions, all of them Stalinist in ideology, which distinguished them more by their personal history than by political differences. or deep philosophical. The three factions were:
* "Muscovites", such as Ana Pauker and Vasile Luca, spent the war in Moscow.
* "Communist prisoners", such as Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, were held in wartime.
* "Communist Secretariat", this group was less strongly Stalinist, like Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu. He managed to survive the Antonescu era by hiding in Romanian territories and has participated in extensive government after King Mihai's 1944 Coup.
Ultimately, with the help of Joseph Stalin, Gheorghiu-Dej and his "Communist Prisoners" faction were victorious. Pauker was purged from the party (along with 192,000 other party members) and Pătrăşcanu was executed after a show trial.

## The Gheorghiu-Dej Era

Gheorghiu-Dej, a Stalinist supporter, was unhappy with Nikita Khrushchev's reforms in the Soviet Union after Stalin's death in 1953. He also strongly opposed the goals of Comecon to turn Romania into the "granary" of the Eastern Bloc, attempted to implement an economic plan based around heavy industry and energy production, closed Romania's largest labor camps, abandoned the Danube-Black Sea Canal project, ended rationing and raised wages. Furthermore, there remained resentment towards the Soviet Union as the historical Romanian lands remained part of that country as the Moldavian SSR. These factors combined to make Romania under Gheorghiu-Dej more independent and nationalistic. .
Gheorghiu-Dej considered himself a Stalinist, and the more liberal Soviet government at the time threatened to undermine his authority. In an effort to strengthen his position, Gheorghiu-Dej promised to cooperate with any country, regardless of its political-economic system, provided that international equality was recognized and non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries. This policy led to the strengthening of Romania's relations with China, which also advocated national self-determination and opposed Soviet hegemonism.
Gheorghiu-Dej resigned as party general secretary in 1954 but remained prime minister; a joint secretariat consisting of four party members, including Nicolae Ceauşescu, controlled the party cell a year before Gheorghiu-Dej regained control. Despite the new policy of international cooperation, Romania joined the Warsaw Pact in 1955, which required the subordination and integration of part of the country's military into Soviet armaments. However, Romania refused to allow Warsaw Pact maneuvers in its country and reduced its participation in military maneuvers in the alliance's member states.
In 1956, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalin in his Secret Speech before the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Gheorghiu-Dej and the leadership of the Romanian Workers' Party (Partidul Muncitoresc Român, PMR) immediately prepared for the de-Stalinization movement. Gheorghiu-Dej made Pauker, Luca and Georgescu scapegoats for past Communist excesses and claimed that the PMR had purged Stalinists even before Stalin died in 1953.
In October 1956, the Polish communist leader refused to bow to Soviet military threats, which demanded their intervention in domestic politics and appointed more loyal members of the politburo to him. A few weeks later, the communist party in Hungary was nearly destroyed during a people's revolution. The Polish challenge and the Hungarian popular uprising inspired Romanian students and workers to demonstrate in universities and industrial cities calling for freedom, better living conditions, and an end to Soviet domination. Under the pretext that the Hungarian uprising might incite an uprising in his own country, Gheorghiu-Dej took radical measures that meant the persecution and imprisonment of various "suspects", especially those of Hungarian origin. He also advocated immediate Soviet intervention, and the Soviet Union strengthened its military presence in Romania, especially along the Hungarian border. While the Romanian unrest proved fragmented and controlled, Hungary's was not, so in November, Moscow launched a bloody invasion of Hungary. Romania offered to take part in a military intervention in Hungary in 1956, but Nikita Khrushchev rejected the idea.
After the 1956 Revolution, Gheorghiu-Dej worked closely with Hungary's new leader, János Kádár, who had been installed by the Soviet Union. Romania was tasked with detaining the former Hungarian prime minister (and leader of the 1956 revolution) Imre Nagy. He was imprisoned in Snagov, north of Bucharest. After a series of interrogations by Soviet and Romanian authorities, Nagy was returned to Budapest for trial and execution.
In Transylvania, the Romanian government merged the Romanian and Hungarian language universities in Cluj, ended the Hungarian Bólyai University, and also worked to gradually eliminate Hungarian education in secondary schools by converting them to Romanian.
Gheorghiu-Dej spread fears that Hungary wanted to take over Transylvania. He took a two-pronged approach to the problem: he arrested the leaders of the Hungarian People's Alliance, and under Soviet pressure, he established the Hungary's autonomous region, in the Székely region.
The Romanian government also took steps to reduce public discontent by reducing investment in heavy industry, increasing production of consumer goods, decentralizing economic management, increasing wages and incentives, and institutionalizing elements of worker management. The authorities abolished compulsory delivery for private farmers but also accelerated the collectivization program in the mid-1950s, although not as brutally as before. The government declared collectivization complete in 1962, when state collective farms controlled 77% of the arable land.
Although Gheorghiu-Dej claimed that he had purged Romania of Stalinists, he remained vulnerable to attack because of his apparent involvement in party activities from 1944–1953. At the PMR plenary meeting in March 1956, Miron Constantinescu and Iosif Chişinevschi, both members of the Politburo and deputy prime minister, criticized Gheorghiu-Dej. Constantinescu, who advocated Khrushchev-style liberalization, posed a particular threat to Gheorghiu-Dej because he enjoyed good relations with the Moscow leadership. The PMR expelled Constantinescu and Chişinevschi from the party in 1957, denouncing them as Stalinists and accusing them of having ties to Pauker. Thereafter, Gheorghiu-Dej faced no serious challenges to his leadership. Ceauşescu replaced Constantinescu as head of the PMR cadres.

## Persecution, the labor camp system and anti-communist resistance

The harsh persecution of real or perceived enemies of the Communist government began with the Soviet occupation in 1945. Although the Romanian government was considered an ally against Nazi Germany, the Soviet army acted like an occupying army and could arrest almost anyone deemed "fascist" or "anti-Soviet".
As the Communist government became stronger, the number of arrests increased. All levels of society were involved, but especially targeted were the pre-war elite, such as intellectuals, priests, teachers, former politicians (even if they were left-wing) and anyone who could potentially form the core of the anti-communist resistance.
The existing prisons were filled with political prisoners, and eventually a new system of prisons and labor camps was created, modeled on the Soviet Gulag. The old project of the Danube-Black Sea Canal was used as an excuse to build several labor camps, in which many people died. Some of the most notorious prisons included Sighet, Gherla, Pitești and Aiud, and forced labor camps were set up in the tin mines and in the Danube Delta.
One of the most popular brainwashing experiments in Eastern Europe took place in Romania, at the Pitești political prison, located 120 kilometers northwest of Bucharest. This prison is known in Romania for the ‘Pitești Experiments’ or Pitești Phenomenon, which were carried out there between 1949 and 1952. The Pitești Experiments were designed to ‘re-educate’ enemies of the regime (real or imagined), involving psychological and physical torture, and subjecting them to humiliation, degrading and inhumane treatment. Dozens of people died in the ‘experiments’, but the goal was not to kill people, but to ‘re-educate’ them. Some of those who were 're-educated' later became their own torturers, and many of the survivors of Piteşti committed suicide or ended up in mental hospitals.
The communist regime also carried out deportations of peasants from the Banat (southwestern Transylvania, on the Yugoslav border), starting from June 18, 1951. About 45,000 people were forcibly "settled" in the less populated areas of the eastern plains (Bărăgan). The government's decision was aimed at creating a cordon sanitaire against Josip Broz Tito and his Yugoslavia. This policy also used intimidation tactics to force the remaining peasants to join collective farms. Most of the deportees stayed in Baragan for 5 years (until 1956), but some remained there permanently.
There was also anti-communist resistance, which took an organized form, and many people opposed to the government took up arms and a number of partisan groups were formed, consisting of 10-40 people. There were attacks on police posts and sabotage. Some famous partisans were Elisabeta Rizea from Nucşoara and Gheorghe Arsenescu. Although large numbers of secret police officers and army troops joined forces against them, armed resistance in the mountains continued until the early 1960s, and one of the best-known partisan leaders was not captured until 1974.
Another form of anti-communist resistance (this time non-violent), was the student movement of 1956. In reaction to the anti-communist uprising in Hungary, there was an echo felt throughout the Eastern bloc. Protests broke out in several university centers, leading to numerous arrests and expulsions. The most organized student movement took place in Timişoara, where 3000 were arrested. In Bucharest and Cluj, organized groups were formed to try to make policies more favorable to the anti-communist movement in Hungary and coordinate their activities. The government's reaction was to immediately arrest students or suspend them from their programs, some teachers were fired, and new associations were formed to monitor student activities.
Tens of thousands of people were killed as part of the repression and farm collectivization ian in Communist Romania especially under Gheorghiu-Dej.
* ↑ Elena Dragomir, Mircea Stănescu, 'The Media vs. Historical Accuracy. How Romania's Current Communist Trials Are Being Misrepresented', http://www.balkanalysis.com/romania/2015/01/11/the-media-vs-historical-accuracy-how-romanias-current-communist-trials-are-being-misrepresented/ Archived 2017-09-12 at the Wayback Machine.
* ↑ "Trei mii de studenți timișoreni, arestați și torturați", România liberă, 25 October 2007.
* ↑ Valentino, Benjamin A (2005). Final solutions: mass killings and genocide in the twentieth century. Cornell University Press. pp. 91–151.
* ↑ Rummel, Rudolph, Statistics of Democide, 1997.