Socialist Party of Romania

The Socialist Party of Romania (Romanian: Partidul Socialist din România, commonly known as Partidul Socialist, PS) was a Romanian socialist political party, created on December 11, 1918 by members of the Social Democratic Party of Romania (PSDR), after the latter emerged from clandestinity. Through its PSDR legacy, the PS maintained a close connection with the local labor movement and was symbolically linked to the first local socialist group, the Romanian Social-Democratic Workers' Party. Its creation coincided with the establishment of Greater Romania in the wake of World War I; after May 1919, it began a process of fusion with the social democratic groups of in the former territories of Austria-Hungary — the Social Democratic Parties of Transylvania, Banat and Bukovina. The parties adopted a common platform in October 1920. Progressively influenced by Leninism, the PS became divided between a maximalist majority supporting Bolshevik guidelines and a reformist-minded minority: the former affiliated with the Comintern as the Socialist-Communist Party in May 1921 (officially known as Communist Party of Romania from 1922), while the minority eventually established a new Romanian Social Democratic Party.

The PS had its headquarters in Bucharest, at the Socialist Club on Sfântul Ionică Street No.12, near the old National Theater (located just north of University Square, the street is currently a section of Ion Câmpineanu Street, after the latter was rerouted).^[1] The building eventually also housed all Romanian trade unions of the period, as well as the General Trade Unions' Commission.^[2] The Socialists edited the newspaper Socialismul, headquartered on Academiei Street.^[3]