The Socialist Republic of Romania was a Marxist–Leninist one-party socialist state that existed officially in Romania from 1947 to 1989. From 1947 to 1965, the state was known as the Romanian People's Republic. 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 to the north and east, Hungary and Yugoslavia to the west, and Bulgaria to the south.
Iuliu Maniu was a Romanian lawyer and politician. He was a leader of the National Party of Transylvania and Banat before and after World War I, playing an important role in the Union of Transylvania with Romania.
Petru Groza was a Romanian politician, best known as the first Prime Minister of the Communist Party-dominated government under Soviet occupation during the early stages of the Communist regime in Romania, and later as the President of the Presidium of the Great National Assembly from 1952 until his death in 1958.
Liberalism and radicalism are important political movements in Romania. Many political parties from these traditions have had important historical roles and substantial support, including representation in the Parliament of Romania. Not all Romanian political parties relevant to this tradition have explicitly described themselves as liberal or radical.
The Romanian Communist Party was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave an ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that would replace the social system of the Kingdom of Romania. After being outlawed in 1924, the PCR remained a minor and illegal grouping for much of the interwar period and submitted to direct Comintern control. During the 1920s and the 1930s, most of its activists were imprisoned or took refuge in the Soviet Union, which led to the creation of competing factions that sometimes came into open conflict. That did not prevent the party from participating in the political life of the country through various front organizations, most notably the Peasant Workers' Bloc. During the mid-1930s, due to the purges against the Iron Guard, the party was on the road to achieving power, but the dictatorship of king Carol II crushed this. In 1934–1936, PCR reformed itself in the mainland of Romania properly, with foreign observers predicting a possible communist takeover in Romania. The party emerged as a powerful actor on the Romanian political scene in August 1944, when it became involved in the royal coup that toppled the pro-Nazi government of Ion Antonescu. With support from Soviet occupational forces, the PCR pressured King Michael I into abdicating, and it established the Romanian People's Republic in December 1947.
The Romanian Social Democratic Party was a social-democratic political party in Romania. In the early 1920s, the Socialist Party of Romania split over the issue of affiliation with the Third International. The majority, which supported affiliation, evolved into the Communist Party of Romania in 1921, while the members who opposed the new orientation formed various political groupings, eventually reorganizing under a central leadership in 1927. From 1938 to 1944, the party was outlawed but remained active in clandestinity. After 1944, it allied with the Communists and eventually was forced to reunite with them to form the Workers' Party of Romania in 1948. It published the magazines Socialismul, Lumea Nouă, and Libertatea. After the end of the Communist single-party system in 1989, a group of former members created a new party which proclaimed itself the direct descendant of the PSD.
Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on 19 January 1947, the first since World War II. According to the official results, the Democratic Bloc, dominated by the communist Polish Workers Party (PPR) and also including the Polish Socialist Party (PPS), People's Party (SL), Democratic Party (SD) and non-partisan candidates officially received 80% of the vote and 394 of the 444 seats in the Legislative Sejm. The largest opposition party, the Polish People's Party, was officially credited with 28 seats. However, the elections were characterized by violence; anti-communist opposition candidates and activists were persecuted by the Volunteer Reserve Militia (ORMO). The elections were heavily manipulated, and the opposition claimed that it would have won in a landslide had the election been conducted in a fair manner.
Lothar or Lotar Rădăceanu was a Romanian journalist and linguist, best known as a socialist and communist politician.
The Ploughmen's Front was a Romanian left-wing agrarian-inspired political organisation of ploughmen, founded at Deva in 1933 and led by Petru Groza. At its peak in 1946, the Front had over 1 million members.
General elections were held in Romania on 19 November 1946, in the aftermath of World War II. The official results gave a victory to the Bloc of Democratic Parties, together with its associates, the Hungarian People's Union and the Democratic Peasants' Party–Lupu. The elections marked a decisive step towards the disestablishment of the Romanian monarchy and the proclamation of a Communist regime at the end of the following year. Breaking with the traditional universal male suffrage confirmed by the 1923 Constitution, it was the first national election to feature women's suffrage, and the first to allow active public officials and army personnel the right to vote. The BPD, representing the incumbent leftist government formed around Prime Minister Petru Groza, was an electoral alliance comprising the PCR, the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the Ploughmen's Front, the National Liberal Party–Tătărescu (PNL–Tătărescu), the National Peasants' Party–Alexandrescu (PNȚ–Alexandrescu) and the National Popular Party.
General elections were held in Romania in June 1931. The Chamber of Deputies was elected on 1 June, whilst the Senate was elected in three stages on 4, 6 and 8 June. The result was a victory for the governing National Union, an alliance of the National Party, the National Liberal Party, the German Party, the Agrarian Union Party, the Vlad Ţepeş League, the Agrarian League and several other parties. The Union won 289 of the 387 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 108 of the 113 seats in the Senate elected through universal vote. The five seats won by the Communist-dominated Peasant Workers' Bloc were ultimately invalidated by the new Parliament.
Parliamentary elections were held in Romania on 30 November 1952. They were the second held under communist rule, and the first under a constitution adopted that September. They were also the first held after longtime Prime Minister Petru Groza handed the post to Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, who as leader of the communist Romanian Workers' Party (PMR) had been the country's de facto leader since the communists seized full power in 1947.
Parliamentary elections were held in Romania on 3 February 1957. Voters were presented with a single slate of candidates from the People's Democratic Front (FDP), which was dominated by the Romanian Workers Party (PMR). The Front won all 437 seats in the Great National Assembly.
Parliamentary elections were held in Romania on 5 March 1961. Voters were presented with a single list from the People's Democratic Front (FDP), which was dominated by the Romanian Workers Party (PMR). The Front won all 465 seats in the Great National Assembly.
Parliamentary elections were held in Romania on 7 March 1965. Voters were presented with a single list from the People's Democratic Front (FDP), which was dominated by the Romanian Workers Party (PMR). The Front won 465 seats in the Great National Assembly.
The National Liberal Party–Tătărescu was a liberal and social liberal political party in the Kingdom of Romania and then in the Socialist Republic of Romania. It was established as a breakaway faction from the main, historical National Liberal Party (PNL) in 1944. From December 1947 onwards, the party was generally referred to as the National Liberal Party–Bejan (PNL-Bejan), as initial leader Gheorghe Tătărescu resigned from the party and was replaced by the party's second and last leader, Petre Bejan, before being banned or dissolved by the Communist authorities in 1950.
The National Peasants' Party–Alexandrescu was a political party in Romania.
The National Popular Party was an antifascist political party in Romania, founded during World War II as the underground Union of Patriots. The latter had defined itself as a spontaneous movement of resistance to the dictatorial regime of Ion Antonescu, but was largely known as a front for the illegal Romanian Communist Party. Its founders—Dumitru Bagdasar, Gheorghe Vlădescu-Răcoasa, Simion Stoilow—were closely cooperating with PCdR men, but also with liberal opposition forces. Repressed by the authorities, the UP made a comeback after the pro-Allied August 23 Coup of 1944, when it endured as a small ally of the communists—mostly controlled directly by them, but sometimes rebellious.
The People's Democratic Front was an electoral alliance in Romania from 1944 to 1968, dominated by the Romanian Communist Party (PCR). It formed the government of Romania from 1946 to 1968, and from 1948 onward was effectively the only legal political organization in the country.
Romulus Zăroni or Zeroni was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian politician and agronomist, who collaborated with Petru Groza in establishing the left-agrarian Ploughmen's Front, and served as Minister of Agriculture in 1945–1946. Generally associated with the ethnographic region known as Țara Hațegului, he was of peasant origins—during his political ascendancy, he presented himself as a destitute smallholder, but was in fact from a well-to-do family, and was himself a prosperous entrepreneur. Though enshrined in popular memory as a dimwitted blunderer, Zăroni had in fact taken an agricultural specialist's diploma in Weimar Germany, and was well-read; he was also noted as an amateur poet and author of political manifestos. Before consolidating his political partnership with Groza, he had carved out his own political path as a Romanian nationalist and an advocate of prohibition. He had caucused with the Agrarian League, and had appeared on its lists for legislative elections in 1932.
