Socialist Republic of Romania
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Romanian People's Republic (1947–1965) Republica Populară Română (1947–1958) Republica Populară Romînă (1958–1965) Socialist Republic of Romania (1965–1989) Republica Socialistă România | |||||||||
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1947–1989[1] | |||||||||
Motto: | |||||||||
Status | Warsaw Pact member | ||||||||
Capital and largest city | Bucharest | ||||||||
Official languages | Romanian | ||||||||
Demonym(s) | Romanian | ||||||||
Government | Unitary Marxist–Leninist one-party socialist republic
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General Secretary | |||||||||
• 1947–1965 | Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej | ||||||||
• 1965–1989 | Nicolae Ceaușescu | ||||||||
Head of state | |||||||||
• 1947–1952 (first) | Constantin Ion Parhon | ||||||||
• 1967–1989 (last) | Nicolae Ceaușescu | ||||||||
Head of government | |||||||||
• 1947–1952 (first) | Petru Groza | ||||||||
• 1982–1989 (last) | Constantin Dăscălescu | ||||||||
Legislature | Fall of Ceaușescu | 22 December 1989[5] | |||||||
• Name changed to "Romania" | 28 December 1989[1] | ||||||||
8 December 1991 | |||||||||
HDI (1990 formula) | 0.863[6] very high | ||||||||
Currency | Leu | ||||||||
Calling code | 40 | ||||||||
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Socialist Republic of Romania |
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The Socialist Republic of Romania (Romanian: Republica Socialistă România, RSR) was a Marxist–Leninist one-party socialist state that existed officially in Romania from 1947 to 1989 (see Revolutions of 1989). 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.
As
At first, Romania's scarce post-war resources were drained by the "SovRoms," new tax-exempt Soviet-Romanian companies that allowed the Soviet Union to control Romania's major sources of income.[7] Another drain was the war reparations paid to the Soviet Union. However, during the 1950s, Romania's communist government began to assert more independence, leading to, for example, the withdrawal of all Soviet troops from Romania by 1958.[8] Overall, from the 1950s to the 1970s, the country exhibited high rates of economic growth and significant improvements in infant mortality, life expectancy, literacy, urbanization, and women's rights, but then stagnated in the 1980s.[9]
In the 1960s and 1970s,
Many people were executed or died in custody during communist Romania's existence, most during the Stalinist era of the 1950s. While judicial executions between 1945 and 1964 numbered 137,[10] deaths in custody are estimated in the tens or hundreds of thousands.[11][12][13] Others were arrested for political, economical, or other reasons and suffered imprisonment or torture.
The 1965 Constitution remained in effect after its dissolution and was amended to reflect Romania's transition to democracy. It was replaced by the current constitution on 8 December 1991, after a nationwide referendum abolished the socialist system of government completely and replaced it with a semi-presidential system.
History
Eastern Bloc |
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Soviet occupation and rise of the Communists
When
The
The King was not happy with the direction of this government, but when he attempted to force Groza's resignation by refusing to sign any legislation (a move known as "the royal strike"), Groza simply chose to enact laws without bothering to obtain Michael's signature. On 8 November 1945, King Michael's name day, a pro-monarchy demonstration in front of the Royal Palace in Bucharest escalated into street fights between opposition supporters and soldiers, police and pro-government workers, resulting in dozens of killed and wounded; Soviet officers restrained Romanian soldiers and police from firing on civilians, and Soviet troops restored order.[15]
Despite the King's disapproval, the first Groza government brought land reform and women's suffrage, the former gave the party widespread popularity among peasants from the South and East while the latter gained it the support of educated women. However, it also brought the beginnings of Soviet domination of Romania. In the elections of 19 November 1946, the Communist-led Bloc of Democratic Parties (BPD) claimed 84% of the votes. These elections were characterized by widespread irregularities, including intimidation, electoral fraud, and assassinations[16] Archives confirm suspicions at the time that the election results were, in fact, falsified.[17]
After forming a government, the Communists moved to eliminate the role of the
By 1947, Romania remained the only monarchy in the
The communist regime was formalized with the
Although the 1948 Constitution and its two successors provided a simulacrum of religious freedom, the regime in fact had a policy of promoting
Romanian People's Republic
Early years
The early years of communist rule in Romania were marked by repeated changes of course and by numerous arrests and imprisonments as factions contended for dominance. The country's resources were also drained by the Soviet's SovRom agreements, which facilitated shipping of Romanian goods to the Soviet Union at nominal prices.
On 11 June 1948, all banks and large businesses were nationalized.
In the communist leadership, there appear to have been three important factions, all of them
Pauker and her allies were accused of deviating to the left and right. For instance, they were initially allied on not liquidating the rural bourgeoise, but later shifted their position. Ultimately, with Joseph Stalin's backing, Gheorghiu-Dej won out. Pauker was purged from the party (along with 192,000 other party members); Pătrășcanu was executed after a show trial.
Gheorghiu-Dej era
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Gheorghiu-Dej, a committed Stalinist, was unhappy with the reforms in Nikita Khrushchev's Soviet Union after Stalin's death in 1953. He also balked at Comecon's goal of turning Romania into the "breadbasket" of the East Bloc, pursuing an economic plan based on heavy industry and energy production. The government closed Romania's largest labor camps, abandoned the Danube–Black Sea Canal project, halted rationing and hiked workers' wages. These factors combined to put Romania under Gheorghiu-Dej on a relatively independent and nationalist route.
Gheorghiu-Dej identified with Stalinism, and the more liberal Soviet government threatened to undermine his authority. In an effort to reinforce his position, Gheorghiu-Dej pledged cooperation with any state, regardless of political-economic system, as long as it recognized international equality and did not interfere in other nations' domestic affairs. This policy led to a tightening of Romania's bonds with China, which also advocated national self-determination and opposed Soviet hegemonism.
Gheorghiu-Dej resigned as the party's general secretary in 1954 but retained the premiership; a four-member collective secretariat, including Nicolae Ceaușescu, controlled the party for a year before Gheorghiu-Dej again took up the reins. Despite its new policy of international cooperation, Romania joined the Warsaw Treaty Organization (Warsaw Pact) in 1955, which entailed subordinating and integrating a portion of its military into the Soviet military machine. Romania later refused to allow Warsaw Pact maneuvers on its soil and limited its participation in military maneuvers elsewhere within the alliance.
In 1956, the Soviet premier,
In October 1956, Poland's communist leaders refused to succumb to Soviet military threats to intervene in domestic political affairs and install a more obedient politburo. A few weeks later, the Communist Party in Hungary virtually disintegrated during a popular revolution. Poland's defiance and Hungary's popular uprising inspired Romanian students to organize meetings in București, Cluj and Timișoara calling for liberty, better living conditions, and an end to Soviet domination. Under the pretext that the Hungarian uprising might incite his nation's own revolt, Gheorghiu-Dej took radical measures which meant persecutions and jailing of various "suspects", especially people of Hungarian origin. He also advocated swift Soviet intervention, and the Soviet Union reinforced its military presence in Romania, particularly along the Hungarian border. Although Romania's unrest proved fragmentary and controllable, Hungary's was not, so in November Moscow mounted a bloody invasion of Hungary.
After the Revolution of 1956, Gheorghiu-Dej worked closely with Hungary's new leader, János Kádár, who was installed by the Soviet Union. Romania took Hungary's former premier (leader of the 1956 revolution) Imre Nagy into custody. He was jailed at Snagov, north of Bucharest. After a series of interrogations by Soviets and Romanian authorities, Nagy was returned to Budapest for trial and execution.
Romania's government also took measures to reduce public discontent by reducing investments in heavy industry, boosting output of consumer goods, decentralizing economic management, hiking wages and incentives, and instituting elements of worker management. The authorities eliminated compulsory deliveries for private farmers but reaccelerated the collectivization program in the mid-1950s, albeit less brutally than earlier. The government declared collectivization complete in 1962, when collective and state farms controlled 77% of the arable land.
Despite Gheorghiu-Dej's claim that he had purged the Romanian party of Stalinists, he remained susceptible to attack for his obvious complicity in the party's activities from 1944 to 1953. At a plenary PMR meeting in March 1956, Miron Constantinescu and Iosif Chișinevschi, both Politburo members and deputy premiers, criticized Gheorghiu-Dej. Constantinescu, who advocated a Khrushchev-style liberalization, posed a particular threat to Gheorghiu-Dej because he enjoyed good connections with the Moscow leadership. The PMR purged Constantinescu and Chișinevschi in 1957, denouncing both as Stalinists and charging them with complicity with Pauker. Afterwards, Gheorghiu-Dej faced no serious challenge to his leadership. Ceaușescu replaced Constantinescu as head of PMR cadres.
The cadres – anyone who was not a rank-and-file member of the Communist Party – were deemed the Party's vanguard, as they were entrusted with the power to construct a new social order and the forms of power that would sustain it. They still underwent extensive surveillance, which created an environment of competition and rivalry.
Persecution, the labour camp system and anti-communist resistance
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History of Romania |
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Romania portal |
Once the Communist government became more entrenched, the number of arrests increased. The General Directorate of People's Security, or 'Securitate', was established in 1948 with the stated aim "to defend the democratic conquest and to ensure the security of the Romanian People’s Republic against the plotting of internal and external enemies".[21]
All strata of society were involved, but particularly targeted were the prewar elites, such as intellectuals, clerics, teachers, former politicians (even if they had left-leaning views), and anybody who could potentially form the nucleus of anti-Communist resistance. According to figures, in the years between 1945 and 1964, 73,334 people were arrested.[21]
The existing prisons were filled with political prisoners, and a new system of forced labor camps and prisons was created, modeled after the Soviet Gulag. A decision to put into practice the century-old project for a Danube–Black Sea Canal served as a pretext for the erection of several labor camps, where numerous people died. Some of the most notorious prisons included Sighet, Gherla, Pitești, and Aiud, and forced labor camps were set up at lead mines and in the Danube Delta.
One of the most notorious and infamous brainwashing experiments in Eastern Europe's history took place in Romania, in the political prison of Pitești, a small city about 120 km (75 mi) northwest of Bucharest. This prison is still infamous in Romania for the so-called 'Pitești experiment' or Pitești phenomenon, conducted there between 1949 and 1952. The prison in Pitești and the Pitești experiment aimed to 'reeducate' the (real or imagined) opponents of the regime. It involved psychological and physical torture of prisoners, and the submission of them to humiliating, degrading and dehumanizing acts. Tens of people died in this 'experiment', but its aim was not to kill the people, but to 'reeducate' them. Some of those who were thus 'reeducated' later became torturers themselves. Of those who survived Pitești, many either took their own lives or ended up in mental institutions.[22]
The Communist government also decided on the deportation of peasants from the Banat (south-west from Transylvania, at the border with Yugoslavia), started on 18 June 1951. About 45,000 people were forcibly "resettled" in lesser populated regions on the eastern plains (Bărăgan). The government decision was directed towards creating a cordon sanitaire against Tito's Yugoslavia, but was also used as an intimidation tactic to force the remaining peasants to join collective farms. Most deportees lived in the Bărăgan for 5 years (until 1956), but some remained there permanently.
Anti-communist resistance also had an organized form, and many people opposing the government took up arms and formed partisan groups, comprising 10–40 people. There were attacks on police posts and sabotage. Some of the famous partisans were Elisabeta Rizea from Nucșoara and Gheorghe Arsenescu. Despite the numerous secret police (Securitate) and army troops massed 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, non-violent this time, was the student movement of 1956. In reaction to the anti-communist revolt in Hungary, echoes were felt all over the Eastern bloc. Protests took place in some university centers resulting in numerous arrests and expulsions. The most-organised student movement was in Timișoara, where 3000 were arrested.[23] In Bucharest and Cluj, organised groups were set up which tried to make common cause with the anti-communist movement in Hungary and coordinate activity. The authorities' reaction was immediate – students were arrested or suspended from their courses, some teachers were dismissed, and new associations were set up to supervise student activities.
Tens of thousands of people were killed as part of repression and agricultural collectivization in Communist Romania primarily under Gheorghiu-Dej.[24][25]
Ceaușescu government
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First years
On 21 August 1965, following the example of Czechoslovakia, the name of the country was changed to "Socialist Republic of Romania" (Republica Socialistă România, RSR) and PMR's old name was restored (Partidul Comunist Român, PCR; "Romanian Communist Party").
In his early years in power, Ceaușescu was genuinely popular, both at home and abroad. Agricultural goods were abundant, consumer goods began to reappear, there was a cultural thaw, and, what was important abroad, he spoke out against the
Ceaușescu refused to implement measures of
Universities were also founded in small Romanian towns, which served to train qualified professionals, such as engineers, economists, planners or jurists, necessary for the industrialization and development project of the country. Romanian healthcare also achieved improvements and recognition by the World Health Organization (WHO). In May 1969, Marcolino Candau, Director General of this organization, visited Romania and declared that the visits of WHO staff to various Romanian hospital establishments had made an extraordinarily good impression.[27]
The social and economic transformations resulted in improved living conditions for Romanians. Economic growth allowed for higher salaries which, combined with the benefits offered by the state (free medical care, pensions, free universal education at all levels, etc.) were a leap compared to the pre-WWII situation of the Romanian population. Certain extra retributions were allowed for the peasants, who started to produce more.[27]
Human rights issues
Concerned about the country's low birthrates, Nicolae Ceaușescu enacted an aggressive
These pro-natalist measures had some degree of success, as a baby boom resulted in the late 1960s, with the generations born in 1967 and 1968 being the largest in the country's history. The natalist policies temporarily increased birth rates for a few years, but this was followed by a later decline due to an increased use of
Other restrictions of human rights included invasion of privacy by the secret police (the "Securitate"), censorship and relocation, but not on the same scale as in the 1950s.
During the Ceaușescu era, there was a secret ongoing "trade" between Romania on one side and Israel and West Germany on the other side, under which Israel and West Germany paid money to Romania to allow Romanian citizens with certified Jewish or German ancestry to emigrate to Israel and West Germany, respectively.
Industrialization
Ceaușescu's Romania continued to pursue Gheorghiu-Dej's policy of
Prior to the mid-1970s, Bucharest, as most other cities, was developed by expanding the city, especially towards the south, east and west. High density residential neighbourhoods were built on the outskirts of the city, some (such as
The
Thus, the policy towards the city after the earthquake was not one of reconstruction, but one of demolition and building anew. An analysis by the Union of Architects, commissioned in 1990, claims that over 2000 buildings were torn down, with over 77 of very high architectural importance, most of them in good condition. Even Gara de Nord (the city's main railway station), listed on the Romanian Architectural Heritage List, was scheduled to be torn down and replaced in early 1992.
Despite all of this, and despite the much-questioned treatment of HIV-infected orphans,[33] the country continued to have a notably good system of schools. Also, not every industrialization project was a failure: Ceaușescu left Romania with a reasonably effective system of power generation and transmission, gave Bucharest a functioning subway, and left many cities with an increase in habitable apartment buildings.
1980s: severe rationing
Before austerity, Romania had made considerable progress in many areas. Between 1950 and 1973, Romania joined Yugoslavia and Bulgaria in achieving average annual growth rates that were above both the Central European and the West European average. During the first 3 post-war decades, Romania industrialized faster than Spain, Greece, and Portugal. The infant mortality rate plummeted from 139 per 1,000 during the interwar period to 35 in the 1970s. During the interwar period, half the population was illiterate, but under the communist government illiteracy was eradicated. The population became urbanized, women's rights greatly improved, life expectancy grew, among many other achievements.[9][34]
Romania continued to make progress. High rates of growth in production created conditions for raising living standards of the people. From 1950 to the mid-1980s, average net wages increased more than eightfold. The consumption fund increased 22-fold, and a broad program of building cultural facilities and housing was carried out. Over 80 percent of the country's population had moved to new apartments during this period.[35]
Despite all this, living standards in the country remained some of Europe's lowest and as early as 1981, there were clear signs of public discontent, such as riots and an angry mob throwing rocks at Ceaușescu's helicopter while it made a flight to Transylvania that October. Ceaușescu desired to repay Western loans, and thus enacted a harsh austerity policy, including rationing of food, gas, heating and electricity. People in cities had to turn to natural gas containers ("butelii") or charcoal stoves, even though they were connected to the gas mains. With full-scale food rationing in place, the Communist Party published official guidelines on how Romanians could eat nutritiously while reducing their calorie intake by 25%. There was a shortage of available goods for the average Romanian. By 1984, despite a high crop yield and increased food production, wide-scale food rationing was introduced. The government promoted it as "rational eating" and "a means to reduce obesity". Most of what was available were export rejects, as most of the quality goods were exported, even underpriced, in order to obtain hard currency, either to pay the debt, or to push forward in the ever-growing pursuit of heavy industrialization.[citation needed]
Measures in the mechanization and chemicalization of farming helped to increase the output of agricultural products. In 1950, more than 300 kg of cereals was gathered per head of the population; by 1982 this amount had increased to 1 ton per person. Meat production increased from 29.5 to 100 kg.[35]
In spite of the Soviet-let boycott, Romania participated in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. At that time, it was the only Soviet-aligned country to participate in the Olympic Games.
In the late 1980s, the United Nations Human Development report classified Romania as having had high human development. The life expectancy was 71 years, the literacy rate was 96%, and the Real GDP per capita was $3000.[36]
By 1985, despite Romania's huge refining capacity, petroleum products were strictly rationed with supplies drastically cut, a Sunday curfew was instated, and many buses used
Systematization: demolition and reconstruction
Systematization (Romanian: Sistematizarea) refers to the program of urban planning carried out under Ceaușescu's regime. After a visit to North Korea in 1971, Ceaușescu was impressed by the Juche ideology of that country, and began a massive campaign shortly afterwards.
Beginning in 1974, systematization consisted largely of the demolition and reconstruction of existing villages, towns, and cities, in whole or in part, with the stated goal of turning Romania into a "multilaterally developed socialist society". The policy largely consisted in the mass construction of high-density blocks of flats (blocuri).
During the 1980s, Ceaușescu became obsessed with building himself a
Last years: increased social control
Control over society became stricter and stricter, with an East German-style phone bugging system installed, and with the Securitate recruiting more agents, extending censorship and keeping tabs and records on a large segment of the population. By 1989, according to CNSAS (the Council for Studies of the Archives of the Former Securitate), one in three Romanians was an informant for the Securitate. Due to this situation, income from tourism dropped substantially, the number of foreign tourists visiting Romania falling by 75%, with the three main tour operators that organized trips in Romania leaving the country by 1987. Ceaușescu also started becoming the subject of a vast personality cult, his portrait on every street and hanging in every public building.
By 1988, with perestroika and glasnost policies in effect in the Soviet Union and China undergoing economic reforms, Romania's Stalinist sociopolitical system began to look increasingly out-of-place, but all attempts were made to keep the populace isolated from events going on outside the country. Also, while the West had been willing in the past to overlook Ceaușescu's human rights record in lieu of his independent, anti-Soviet stance, this was becoming less relevant with the Cold War winding down. As such, Romania started coming under fire from the United States and its allies, but such complaints were merely brushed off as "unwelcome interference in our nation's internal affairs".
There was also a revival of the effort to build:
- the Danube–Black Sea Canal, which was completed;
- a nationwide canal system and irrigation network, some of which was completed, but most of which is still a project, or was abandoned;
- an effort to improve the railway system with electrification and a modern control system;
- the Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant;
- a national Porțile de Fier power station on the Danube in cooperation with Yugoslavia;
- a network of oil refineries;
- a fairly developed oceanic fishing fleet;
- naval shipyards at Constanța;
- a good industrial basis for the chemical and heavy machinery industries;
- a rather well-developed foreign policy; and
- new towns via the Romanian rural systematization program.
Pollution
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Another legacy of this era was pollution: Ceaușescu's government scored badly on this count even by the standards of the Eastern European communist states. Examples include Copșa Mică, with its infamous Carbon Powder factory (in the 1980s, the whole city could be seen from satellite as covered by a thick black cloud), Hunedoara, or the plan, launched in 1989, to convert the unique Danube Delta – a UNESCO World Heritage Site – to plain agricultural fields.
Downfall
Brașov Riot
December 1989 was the last act of a finale that had started in 1987, in Brașov. The anti-communist riot in Brașov on 15 November 1987 was the main political event that announced the imminent fall of communism in Romania.[37]
The revolt started at the enterprise of Trucks Brașov, as a strike that began on the night of 14 November, on the night-shift, and it continued the next morning with a march downtown, in front of the Council of the Romanian Communist Party.[citation needed]
The population heard about this event through Radio Free Europe. As Emil Hurezeanu tells it: "I remember that Neculai Constantin Munteanu, the moderator of the show, started the broadcast: 'Brașov! So Brașov! Now it started!' This was the tone of the whole broadcast. We had interviews, information, interpretations of some political interpretations, older press articles announcing open street protests against Ceaușescu."[This quote needs a citation]
The reprisals against the strikers were rapid. The workers were arrested and imprisoned and their families were terrorized, but this act of courage on the part of the workers of Brașov set the stage for future mass revolts.[citation needed]
Hurezeanu continues: "... All these have been turned into an offensive. The reaction of the regime was expected.. Very soon it was seen that the regime wants to hide it, to cancel it, practically not to respond to claims, not to take measures, to change anything, not to turn this protest into a public debate or even inside the party, in the Political Executive Committee. And then, the recipe of street confrontations with the regime became the only...possible. It became the leitmotif of all the media analysis. [...] It was the beginning of an action against the system that comprises more items. It was a labor protest in a citadel of Ceaușescu, it was an antidictatorial message, it was a clear political context: the pressures of Moscow, Ceaușescu's refusal to accept the demands of Gorbachev, the breaking with the West, who changed the views towards the regime – all these have made us to believe that the beginning of the end was coming".[This quote needs a citation]
Protests in 1989 before the Revolution
In March 1989, several leading activists of the PCR protested in a letter that criticized the economic policies of Nicolae Ceaușescu, but shortly thereafter Ceaușescu achieved a significant political victory: Romania paid off its external debt of about US$11 billion several months earlier than even the Romanian dictator had expected. Ceaușescu was formally reelected secretary general of the Romanian Communist Party—-the only political party of the Romanian Socialist Republic—-on 14 November at the party's XIVth Congress.
On 11 November 1989, before the party congress, on Bucharest's Brezoianu Street and Kogălniceanu Boulevard, students from Cluj-Napoca and Bucharest demonstrated with placards that read "We want Reforms against the Ceaușescu government."[This quote needs a citation] The students–Mihnea Paraschivescu, Grațian Vulpe, the economist Dan Căprariu from Cluj and others–were arrested and investigated by the Securitate at the Rahova Penitentiary , accused of propaganda against the socialist society. They were released on 22 December 1989 at 14.00. There were other letters and other attempts to draw attention to the economic, cultural, and spiritual oppression of Romanians, but they served only to intensify the activity of the communist police and the Securitate.[citation needed]
Revolution
On 16 December, a protest broke out in
Riots and protests resumed the following day, 17 December. The rioters broke into the District Committee building. The army failed to establish order and chaos ensued, with gunfire, fighting, burning of cars, and casualties.
Unlike the Soviet Union at the same time, Romania had not developed a large, privileged elite. Ceausescu's family maintained all control of politics and Communist Party officials were paid poorly and often rotated from job to job, thus preventing any potential political rivals from developing a base of support. This prevented the rise of the Gorbachev-era reformist Communism found in Hungary or the Soviet Union. Ceausescu was so bitterly opposed to reform that he went as far as to call for a Warsaw Pact invasion of Poland after its Communists decided to treat with the opposition–a marked turn from his vehement opposition to the invasion of Czechoslovakia two decades earlier.
Similarly, unlike in Poland, Ceaușescu reacted to strikes entirely through a strategy of further oppression. Romania was nearly the last of the Eastern European communist governments to fall; its fall was also the most violent up to that time.
Protests and riots broke out in Timișoara on 17 December and soldiers opened fire on the protesters, killing about 100 people. After cutting short a two-day trip to Iran, Ceaușescu gave a televised speech on 20 December in which he condemned the events of Timișoara, saying he considered them an act of foreign intervention in the internal affairs of Romania and an aggression through foreign secret services on Romania's sovereignty, and declared National Curfew, convoking a mass meeting in his support in Bucharest for the next day. The uprising of Timișoara became known across the country, and on the morning of 21 December, protests spread to Sibiu, Bucharest and elsewhere.[citation needed]
Matters came to a head on 21 December, when Ceausescu's speech at the
Controversy over the events of December 1989
For several months after the events of December 1989, it was widely argued that Ion Iliescu and the National Salvation Front (FSN) had merely taken advantage of the chaos to stage a coup. While, ultimately, a great deal did change in Romania, it is still a subject of contention among Romanians and other observers as to whether this was their intent from the outset, or merely pragmatic playing of the cards they were dealt. By December 1989 Ceaușescu's harsh and counterproductive economic and political policies had cost him the support of many government officials and even the most loyal Communist Party cadres, most of whom joined forces with the popular revolution or simply refused to support him. This loss of support from government officials ultimately set the stage for Ceaușescu's demise. The Romanian army also was a factor in the regime's fall as it suffered from severe budget cuts while vast sums were spent on the Securitate, leaving them severely discontented and unwilling to save Ceaușescu.[citation needed]
Politics
RSR's political framework was a socialist republic run by a single party, the Romanian Communist Party. All of its legislative meetings took place in Bucharest.
Foreign relations
Romania's foreign policy was aligned with all nations that were aligned with the Soviet Union. Under Ceaușescu it enjoyed strategic relations with the Western Bloc and the Non-Aligned Movement, and it was the only Eastern Bloc country not to boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Following the Sino-Soviet split, Romania also maintained relations with China and North Korea as well as the Chinese-backed Khmer Rouge-ruled Democratic Kampuchea.
Romania joined the United Nations on 14 December 1955 (see United Nations Security Council Resolution 109) as well as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in 1972. In July 1980, Romania signed a comprehensive trade agreement with the European Economic Community; which in turn became the European Union in 1993 when Romania joined in 2007.
Legacy
Despite the prolonged economic and social crisis between 1982 and 1989 and the following austerity measures; mostly due to the fast and stunning economic growth that was followed by the decline,[41] many Romanians still view the Socialist era of their country positively,[42] looking back nostalgically at an era of perceived stability and safety as opposed to the recent economic and political instability, and also the post-communist corruption that were resilient after 1989, being considered a major problem in the country.[43] More than 53% of Romanians responded in polls that they would prefer to live once again under the Communist regime,[44] and 63% think that their lives were better under it.[45][46] The last and longest ruling leader of the Communist regime, Ceaușescu, also enjoys a high amount of approval in polls: In 2010, 41% of Romanians would vote for Ceaușescu, by 2014 this percentage reached 46%. In December 2018, 64% of people had a good opinion of Ceaușescu, making him the president with the highest amount of approval in the country.[47]
On the other hand, after the fall of the communist regime, Romania began shifting its political and economic policies from support (albeit tepid) for Moscow to aligning itself with Brussels and Washington by joining NATO in 2004 and the European Union in 2007. Today, the "apologetic presentation" of Nazi and communists governments and denigrating their victims in the audio-visual media is forbidden by decision of the National Audiovisual Council. Dinel Staicu was fined 25,000 lei (approx. 9,000 United States dollars) for praising Ceaușescu and displaying his pictures on his private television channel (3TV Oltenia).[48]
Gallery
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Flag (1947–1948)
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Flag (1948)
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Flag (1948–1952)
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Flag (1952–1965)
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Flag (1965–1989)
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Emblem (1948)
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Emblem (1948–1952)
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Emblem (1952–1965)
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Emblem (1965–1989)
See also
- Administrative divisions of the People's Republic of Romania
- History of Romania since 1989
- List of Romanian communists
- Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania
- Romania in World War II
- Scânteia, the Romanian Communist Party's newspaper.
- Systematization (Romania)
- Captive Nations
Notes
References
- ISBN 0-203-40340-1. Retrieved 29 June 2023.
28 December 1989: The name of the country was changed by decree to Romania.
- ^ SSRN 2226915.
- ^ S2CID 145789019.
- ^ a b Dîrdală, Lucian-Dumitru (2011). The End of the Ceaușescu Regime – A Theoretical Convergence (PDF) (Report). Retrieved 21 May 2019.
- ^ Binder, David; Times, Special to The New York (23 December 1989). "Upheaval in the East: Overview; Ceausescu Flees a Revolt in Rumania but Divided Security Forces Fight on". The New York Times.
- ^ Human Development Report 1990, p. 111
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- deported to the Soviet Union, Romania was remarkable for the severity of its prison conditions."
- ISBN 978-973-669-175-1. During debates over the overall number of victims of the Communist government between 1947 and 1964, Corneliu Coposuspoke of 282,000 arrests and 190,000 deaths in custody.
- ISBN 0-7679-0056-1. The author gives an estimate of 200,000 dead at the Danube-Black Sea Canal alone.
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This is documented by the book's revision, available at (in Romanian) librarie.net - ISBN 0691128340
- ISBN 978-0-375-42532-5.
- ISBN 978-1-4165-5845-3.
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External links
- ceausescu.org, an extensive website on Communist Romania.
- memorialsighet.ro, a memorial site dedicated to the victims of Communism in Romania, based at Sighet prison.
- Euxeinos 3/2011: Romanian Communism between Commemoration, Nostalgia, and Scientific Debate