For Romania, the Second World War was a tragedy: caught between Nazi Germany to the west and the Soviet Union to the east, the country tried, as far as possible, to preserve its territorial integrity while “shaping” its political institutions according to the geopolitical situation. Whereas Romania entered the war in June 1941 under Ion Antonescu’s military dictatorship, switching sides in August 1944 set the country on a new course, this time towards the opposite extreme. Although the king and the traditional political forces hoped to restore democratic institutions, the changes that arrived with the boots of the Soviet army radically transformed Romania.

Everyone Fights, the Communists Win. The PCR’s Moves between August and September 1944

Following his arrest on 23 August 1944, Ion Antonescu was handed over to the Soviets by Emil Bodnăraș, a communist leader trained in the USSR who had already established the “Patriotic Fighting Formations”, a paramilitary organisation intended to help the Communist Party seize power. Having escaped from prison, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej was an ethnic Romanian communist who had been active in the underground movement and around whom the communists present in the country in August 1944 rallied. With the Soviet army, however, Ana Pauker and Vasile Luca arrived from Moscow. Gheorghiu-Dej had to cooperate closely with them, as they represented, at least at that time, the wishes of the Soviet leadership.

Although a rivalry would later emerge between Dej and Moscow’s representatives, at that point the communists focused on gaining, if not power itself, then at least as much influence as possible within the Romanian state. In the autumn of 1944, the “National Democratic Front” (FND) was formed: a political alliance dominated by the Romanian Communist Party and the political successor to the broad coalition built around the National Democratic Bloc. The FND comprised the Communist Party and its satellite organisations, including the Ploughmen’s Front, whose president was the influential interwar businessman and landowner Petru Groza, as well as the Romanian Social Democratic Party and other left-wing groups. The major interwar political parties, namely the National Peasants’ Party and the National Liberal Party, remained outside the Front.

The FND’s main purpose was to create the outward impression of “broad democratic participation” by political parties. In practice, it merely provided cover for the Communist Party’s activities and served as a political instrument through which Stalin could exert pressure on the Romanian state and society. In cooperation with the Soviet authorities, members of the Front engaged in agitation among workers, over whom they began to exercise increasingly strong influence, and among the peasantry.

Romania’s Three Military-Led Governments, Yalta and the Communist Advance

From the moment Ion Antonescu was overthrown, both the king and the traditional political parties recognised that certain concessions would have to be made to the Soviets, particularly as the war effort had to continue, this time against Nazi Germany. What is certain is that nobody knew at the time how far those concessions would go—not even the Romanian communists themselves and, most likely, not even Stalin.

From August 1944 to February 1945, Romania had three governments headed by military officers: the first two by General Constantin Sănătescu and the last by Nicolae Rădescu. Their composition reveals how the communists gradually gained increasing influence: while Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu was the only communist minister in the first government, subsequent governments included other communist leaders, among them Petru Groza and Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej.

In February 1945, the Yalta Conference brought together the leaders of the wartime Allied powers: Great Britain, the United States and the USSR. There, they reaffirmed the principles of establishing broadly representative governments and holding free elections in liberated Europe. In reality, the situation in Romania was increasingly determined by the presence of Soviet authorities and the concessions the Allies implicitly made to Stalin.

Shortly afterwards, a large demonstration organised by the National Democratic Front resulted in clashes and casualties (some sources mention two deaths and 11 injuries). During the demonstration, activists mobilised by the Front also attempted to enter the Ministry of the Interior building.

The Romanian communists and the Soviets used the events for propaganda purposes and demanded Nicolae Rădescu’s resignation. Andrey Vyshinsky, a Soviet prosecutor and Deputy Foreign Minister, arrived in the country a few days later and met with King Michael, denouncing Rădescu as a “fascist” and pressuring the king to appoint a pro-communist government, proposing Petru Groza as its leader. In the context of this appointment, Northern Transylvania also became an instrument of blackmail, as the region’s status remained uncertain at the time.

6 March 1945 and the Communists’ First Major Political Victory

Alongside the events in Bucharest, splits emerged within the historic political parties. Gheorghe Tătărescu, a longstanding and influential member of the National Liberal Party, and Anton Alexandrescu of the National Peasants’ Party left their respective parties in February 1945 and formed dissident groups that cooperated with the National Democratic Front, subsequently participating in the formation of the pro-communist government.

Left with no alternatives in a complicated geopolitical context, the king accepted the formation of a government led by Petru Groza, which took office on 6 March 1945. Shortly afterwards, Romanian administration was restored in Northern Transylvania. The new government seized the opportunity to turn this restoration into a major propaganda spectacle through demonstrations organised in Cluj and Bucharest. The communists presented the recovered territory as a symbol of the new Romanian-Soviet “friendship” and as a success for the new administration. These factors mattered in a society that was traditionally anti-communist, as Romanian society was at the time.

Meanwhile, Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina remained under Soviet control. Romania’s subsequent path would be a tortuous one, ultimately leading to its complete transformation into a communist state.

Recommended Reading

• Scurtu, Ioan, Istoria contemporană a României (1918–2007), Bucharest, Editura Fundației „România de Mâine”, 2007.
• Institutul Național pentru Studiul Totalitarismului, România. Viața politică în documente. 1945, Bucharest.
• Deletant, Dennis, Teroarea comunistă în România. Gheorghiu-Dej și statul polițienesc, 1948–1965, Iași, Polirom.
• Foreign Relations of the United States, 1945, vol. V: Europe, Washington, D.C., U.S. Department of State.
• Banu, Florian, 1945. Un an decisiv pentru România, Bucharest.