For 22 centuries, Romania's history has been violent and dramatic. From about 200 B.C., when it was first colonized by the Dacians (a Thracian tribe), to modern times, this territory has seen many invasions and migrations that have left their mark on the country and its inhabitants.
Before the postwar communist regime, Romania looked to the West, particularly France, for cultural, educational, scientific, and social inspiration and development. Among the Balkan countries, Romania was considered the most Gallicized; the French language, along with Romanian, was compulsory in the schools. Beginning in 1948, the Russian language and Soviet institutions were officially promoted in an effort to supplant Western influences in Romanian cultural life. Since the late 1960s, however, Russian has not been compulsory, and German, French, and English are widely taught.
Romania was an independent kingdom from 1881 until December 30, 1947, when the communist-dominated government forced the abdication of King Michael. Before 1938, Romania had a series of governments dominated by a landowning aristocracy, based only nominally on a liberal constitutional system, with a de facto limitation of suffrage. The Social Democratic Party, which controlled the small labor movement, was tolerated by the monarchy but never enjoyed political power. In the 1930s, an anti-Semitic, anti-Soviet, fascist Iron Guard movement threatened the government. In 1940-41, the authoritarian General Antonescu took control of the government and outlawed the Iron Guard. Romania entered World War II on the side of the Axis Powers in June 1941, largely to recover Bessarabia and Bukovina, which had been taken by the Soviet Union in 1940.
A coup led by King Michael and organized by opposition politicians and Soviet intelligence agents, with support of the army, deposed the Antonescu dictatorship on August 23, 1944 (now Romania's national holiday). An armistice, secretly negotiated at Cairo, was signed September 12 and brought Romanian forces into the war on the side of the Allies against the Germans in Transylvania, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. Romania, which had suffered extensive losses in the fighting against the Soviet Union, incurred additional heavy casualties.
The peace treaty, signed at Paris on February 10, 1947, confirmed the Soviet annexation of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina and ceded a largely Bulgarian-populated area of southern Dobrudja to Bulgaria. It also reincorporated into Romania that portion of northern Transylvania granted to Hungary in 1940 under German and Italian arbitration between Romania and Hungary. In addition, the treaty required substantial war reparations by Romania to the Soviet Union.
Soviet occupation forces supported communist organizers, while the non-communist political leaders were steadily eliminated from political life. In March 1945, King Michael was forced to appoint a communist-front government. The King abdicated under pressure in December 1947, when the Romanian Peoples Republic was declared. With their accession to power, the communists effectively subordinated national Romanian interests to those of the Soviet Union. Since the early 1960s, however, there has been a resurgence of Romanian nationalism and the emergence of several significant policy differences between Romania and the Soviet Union. Under a new constitution adopted in 1965, the name of the country was changed to the Socialist Republic of Romania.
In 1968, a sweeping reorganization of the administrative structure and territorial division was carried out. The new territorial division was reminiscent of that existing before the imposition of the Soviet-style regime.
Current Political Conditions
The transition immediately after World War II from the pro-German dictatorship of Ion Antonescu to the dictatorship of Moscow-trained communists was rapid. After 1947, the new government followed the Soviet example of agricultural collectivization and forced industrialization accompanied by a remodeling of the state along totalitarian communist lines.
A general de-Russification of the country began in the early 1960s, as the Romanian leadership displayed increasing autonomy from the Soviet Union in the control of its internal affairs, following the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1958. The growth of political nationalism was, at times, accompanied by some relaxation of internal restrictions, with periodic amnesties leading to the release of some political prisoners and reduced sentences for others. A degree of liberality toward cultural creativity was shown in the 1969-71 period. Beginning in the mid-1960s, there was a marked increase in cultural relations with the West, although, in absolute terms, the level remained low and has since fallen back.
Political leadership since the late 1950s has been stable. Nicolae Ceausescu has been in office for more than two decades--party chief since 1965, Chief of State since December 1967, and President of the Republic since 1974.
An extensive internal security apparatus remains a dominant influence on Romanian life. Restrictions on civil liberties and basic freedoms are pervasive. Although the governments nationalistic policies have been popular, recent years have seen increasing manifestations of public discontent, as Romania's economic policies and problems have taken a toll on the country's standard of living. Recent years also had witnessed growing pressure on the ethnic Hungarian and other minorities to assimilate into the majority culture.
Source: U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs, June 1988.