Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0299/02991.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 21KB | 343 lines

$Unique_ID{COW02991}
$Pretitle{360}
$Title{Romania
Chapter 2B.   World War II}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Eugene K. Keefe}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{soviet
party
communist
national
romanian
romania
government
country
front
control}
$Date{1972}
$Log{}
Country:     Romania
Book:        Romania, A Country Study
Author:      Eugene K. Keefe
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1972

Chapter 2B.   World War II

     The first claims against Romania were made by the Soviet Union, which in
June 1940 demanded the immediate cession of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina.
Under German pressure Romania acceded to these demands, as well as to the
later loss of northern Transylvania, which Germany and Italy transferred to
Hungary at a joint conference held in Vienna on August 30, 1940. A third loss
of territory, also under German pressure, followed one week later with the
return of southern Dobruja to Bulgaria, which had already entered the war on
the side of Germany.

     The crisis caused by these territorial losses had a serious impact within
the country. King Carol was forced to appoint a pro-German cabinet, and the
government was heavily infiltrated with members of the Iron Guard, most of
whom were released from custody under German pressure. A national protest
against the king in early September culminated in his abdication in favor of
his son, Michael. A new government under General Ion Antonescu was formed,
composed almost entirely of members of the Iron Guard, whose leader was made
vice premier. German troops entered the country under the pretext of
protecting the oilfields, and on November 23, 1940, Romania joined Germany,
Italy, and Japan in the Anti-Comintern Pact.

     In January 1941 members of the Iron Guard, attempting to seize full
control of the government, initiated a terroristic campaign that was
suppressed with much bloodshed by the Romanian army, which had remained loyal
to the government. With the continued support of the Germans, Antonescu
dissolved the Iron Guard and formed an almost exclusively military
dictatorship. After stabilization of the government, Romania entered the war
against the Soviet Union and incurred heavy losses in the prolonged fighting
on the eastern front.

     After the defeat of the German and Romanian forces at Stalingrad in early
1943, the Soviets mounted a counteroffensive, which by mid-1944 had liberated
the southwestern portions of the Soviet Union and had advanced deep into
Romania and threatened Bucharest. On August 23, 1944, King Michael, with the
support of the major political and military leaders, overthrew the regime of
Antonescu, halted all fighting, and installed a new, moderate, coalition
government. Under the terms of the armistice that followed, Romania reentered
the war on the side of the Allies, agreed to reparation payments, and accepted
the military occupation of the country until the conclusion of a final peace
settlement.

     Romanian forces that continued the war were committed in support of the
Soviet army in Transylvania, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. Those engaged on
the Moldavian front were disarmed, and control over the greater part of the
country was maintained by the Soviets. Among the occupation troops stationed
in Romania was the communist-indoctrinated "Tudor Vladimirescu" division, a
force composed of captured Romanian prisoners that had been organized after
the German-Romanian defeat at Stalingrad. In addition, the Soviets were given
the chairmanship of the Allied Control Commission, the joint body that was
established to administer the occupied country.

COMMUNIST SEIZURE OF POWER

     The several conferences held by the Allied powers concerning postwar
arrangements and the understandings that resulted from bilateral discussion
among individual leaders indicated that the Soviet Union was to become
the dominant military and political power in the Balkans. As a result, the
Soviets, from the outset of their period of occupation, acted determinedly
to consolidate their position within Romania and to influence the development
of a permanent postwar governmental system designed along communist lines.

     Although Romania had surrendered in August 1944, it took several
months to create a government stable enough to carry out essential programs.
The first postwar coalition regimes included relatively few Communists who
ostensibly cooperated with the revived traditional political parties.
Despite their small numbers, however, they vigorously engaged in disruptive
antigovernment tactics to prevent the stabilization of political authority
along democratic lines. This course of action was dictated by the general
weakness of the Communists who had surfaced after the war and was handicapped
by the absence of partisan or resistance organizations, which could have
been used as a basis for expanding political control.

     Lacking popular support, the Communist Party set about creating mass
organizations, labor unions, and front organizations through which they could
increase their power. Among the leaders in these activities were Gheorghe
Gheorghiu-Dej, an early Communist who had been imprisoned during the war,
and Ana Pauker, who had spent the war years in Moscow before returning
to Romania after the entry of Soviet forces. By the fall of 1944 the
Communists had been successful in grouping a leftist-oriented agrarian party
called the Plowman's Front, splinter elements of the Social Democratic
Party, various labor unions, and several social welfare organizations
into the National Democratic Front. The front became the principal instrument
through which the party worked to achieve political dominance.

     The National Democratic Front received recognition in the December
1944 government of General Nicolae Radescu and, although given a number of
important posts, was generally held to a role subordinate to that of the
National Peasant, the Liberal, and the Social Democratic parties. In late
January 1945 after a visit to Moscow by Pauker and Gheorghiu-Dej, the leftist
leadership within the government initiated a virulent campaign of disorder,
agitation, and denunciation against Radescu and called for the replacement
of his regime with one to be formed by the National Democratic Front.

     The anti-Radescu campaign was prolonged and intensified by the Communists
who, through their control of the printer's union, were able to silence the
opposition press and thus enhance their own propaganda. In February 1945,
during a staged demonstration, the Communists provoked an incident in which
several participants were killed. Demands were made for Radescu's arrest,
and he was forced to seek asylum within a foreign mission. Using this latest
incident as a pretext, Soviet Deputy Commissar for Foreign Affairs Andrei
Vyshinsky, who arrived from Moscow within two days of the event, forced King
Michael to accept a National Democratic Front government to be headed by
Petru Groza, the leader of the Plowman's Front and longtime communist
sympathizer.

     The government installed by Groza on March 6, 1945, was dominated by
Communists and fellow travelers and represented an effective seizure of power
by relatively peaceful means. Although a few dissident former members of the
Liberal and National Peasant parties were given posts to maintain the facade
of representative government, no leaders or representative members of the
historic political parties were included.

     After recognition by the Soviet Union in August 1945 and by the United
States and Great Britain in February 1946, the Groza government held
rigged elections for the Grand National Assembly and emerged with 379 of the
414 seats. Having thus achieved legislative as well as executive control,
the Communists proceeded methodically during the following year to eliminate
all political opposition. National Peasant and Liberal leaders were arrested
and tried, and these two major parties were outlawed in June 1947. This action
was followed in the spring of 1948 by