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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 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1947–1989[1] | |||||||||
| Motto: Proletari din toate țările, uniți-vă! ("Proletarians of all countries, unite!") | |||||||||
| Anthem: Zdrobite cătușe (1948–1953) Te slăvim, Românie (1953–1975) E scris pe tricolor Unire (1975–1977) Trei culori (1977–1989) | |||||||||
 The Socialist Republic of Romania in 1989 in dark green | |||||||||
| Status | Warsaw Pact member | ||||||||
| Capital and largest city | Bucharest | ||||||||
| Official languages | Romanian | ||||||||
| Religion | State atheism (de jure) Romanian Orthodox (dominant) | ||||||||
| Demonym(s) | Romanian | ||||||||
| Government | Unitary one-party Marxist–Leninist socialist republic
| ||||||||
| 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 | Great National Assembly | ||||||||
| Historical era | Cold War | ||||||||
| 30 December 1947 | |||||||||
| 13 April 1948 | |||||||||
| 24 September 1952 | |||||||||
• Complete independence from Soviet influence | 22 April 1964 | ||||||||
| 21 August 1965 | |||||||||
| 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 | ||||||||
| ISO 3166 code | RO | ||||||||
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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 World War II ended, Romania, a former Axis member which had overthrown their pro-Axis government, was occupied by the Soviet Union as the sole representative of the Allies. On 6 March 1945, after mass demonstrations by communist sympathizers and political pressure from the Soviet representative of the Allied Control Commission, a new pro-Soviet government that included members of the previously outlawed Romanian Workers' Party was installed. Gradually, more members of the Workers' Party and communist-aligned parties gained control of the administration and pre-war political leaders were steadily eliminated from political life. In December 1947, King Michael I was forced to abdicate and the People's Republic of Romania was declared.
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, Nicolae Ceaușescu became General Secretary of the Communist Party (1965), Chairman of the State Council (1967), and the newly established role of President in 1974. Ceaușescu's denunciation of the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and a brief relaxation in internal repression led to a positive image both at home and in the West. However, rapid economic growth fueled in part by foreign credits gradually gave way to an austerity and political repression that led to the violent fall of his totalitarian government in December 1989.[2][3][4]
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.
- ^ A Political Chronology of Europe. Europa Publications. 2001. p. 198. ISBN 0-203-40340-1. Retrieved 29 June 2023.
28 December 1989: The name of the country was changed by decree to Romania.
- ^ a b Horga, Ioan; Stoica, Alina (2012). "Totalitarianism in Europe. Case Study: Romania between Left-Wing and Right-Wing Dictatorships (1938-1989)". SSRN 2226915.
- ^ a b Thompson, M.R. (2010). "Totalitarian and Post-Totalitarian Regimes in Transitions and Non-Transitions from Communism". Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions. 3: 79–106. doi:10.1080/714005469. 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
- ^ Zwass, Adam (1995). From Failed Communism to Underdeveloped Capitalism: Transformation of Eastern Europe, the Post-Soviet Union, and China. M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 1563244616.[page needed]
- ^ "Final report" (PDF). www.ucis.pitt.edu. December 1989.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
CBanwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Balázs Szalontai, The Dynamics of Repression: The Global Impact of the Stalinist Model, 1944–1953. Russian History/Histoire Russe Vol. 29, Issue 2–4 (2003), pp. 415–442.
- ^ Tony Judt, Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945, Penguin Press, 2005. ISBN 1-59420-065-3. "In addition to well over a million in detainees in prison, labor camps, and slave labor on the Danube-Black Sea Canal, of whom tens of thousands died and whose numbers don't include those deported to the Soviet Union, Romania was remarkable for the severity of its prison conditions."
- ^ Cioroianu, Adrian (2005), Pe umerii lui Marx. O introducere în istoria comunismului românesc, Bucharest: Editura Curtea Veche, ISBN 978-973-669-175-1. During debates over the overall number of victims of the Communist government between 1947 and 1964, Corneliu Coposu spoke of 282,000 arrests and 190,000 deaths in custody.
- ^ Anne Applebaum, Gulag: A History, Doubleday, April, 2003. ISBN 0-7679-0056-1. The author gives an estimate of 200,000 dead at the Danube-Black Sea Canal alone.