TOTALITARIANISM IN ROMANIA

After the removal of Alexandru Ioan Cuza (1866) - the leader who created Romanian United Principalities in 1859 - till 1938 Romania did not undergo any coup d'etat. It evolved slowly and hesitantly but within the limits of parliamentarism and civilization towards a gradual extension of democracy. But from 1938 on, each political regime was imposed by a palace coup: Carol II in 1938, Ion Antonescu in 1940, king Mihai I, and then the Communist party in 1947. Each new regime justified its coming to power by referring to Romania's old problems. Each promised to set them right but instead of doing that, each of these successive regimes established even more authoritative institutions so that eventually authoritarianism reached the threshold of totalitarianism.

I. ROYAL DICTATORSHIP (Carol II - 1938)

• The first dictatorship in Romania was set up when the Constitution of 1938, given by the King Carol II, came into force. This constitution kept hardly any of the old democratic institutions, established by the constitutions of Cariol I (1866) and Ferdinand (1923)
  
  
• First of all, it didn't include citizens' rights, but only their duties
  
  
• It prohibited among other things, 'to preach by word of mouth or in written form the changing of the state form of government', a formula which put outlawed political opposition
  
  
• In order to guarantee the public peace, the death penalty was established in time of peace too - a stipulation which had not been included in any of previous constitutions
  
  
• At the same time the king was putting an end to the separation of powers and assumed both executive and legislative authorities, depriving the Senate and the Chamber of deputies of any meaningful roles. The Chambers were to meet at least once a year but only on the sovereign's initiative, while the previous parliaments worked as self-governing institutions.
  
  
• The historic parties, the National Liberal Party and the National Tsaranist Party (the agrarian Romanian party; in Romanian tsaranist means "made for the welfare of peasants") although suppressed, kept their framework of organisation to a considerable extent. At first the king hoped to make them join the new regime but neither the liberals, nor the tsaranists were willing to co-operate, continuously protesting against the dictatorship and asking for a return to the old parliamentary regime.
  
  
• King Carol II decided in the end to organize a new institution, the Front of National Rebirth, which all the citizens, and especially the officials, were invited to join. So by January 1939 the Front counted 3.5 million members. It was the first "mass party" in the history of the country and soon the membership of the Front was a necessary condition for social promotion.
  
  
• The regime of the royal dictatorship was not a regime of a fascist or Nazi type; both its nationalism and anti-semitism were moderate, and some civil liberties were still in force. A monarchic missionarism desirous of internal peace and social harmony seemed to be dominant. The regime lacked any programmatic document which could have defined its principles and structure. It functioned slowly leaving the impression of improvisation and superficiality. The royal palace published in 1939, for the use of the citizens, a volume of 278 pages entitled "Royal slogans", including some of the king's speeches meant to be directions for farmers, intellectuals and handicraftsmen. We can consider this "manual" as a first start of the cult of personality in Romania.
  
  
• The national reconciliation demanded by the king on grounds of the national interest and the country's protection from the external danger could never be achieved. Between February 1938 and September 1940 the king and the Iron Guard (a legionnaire group - pro-fascist group controlling Romania in the 30's) fought a life-and-death struggle to which hundreds of legionnaires fell victims. Almost the whole leadership of the movement, headed by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, was assassinated in 1938. This included Armand Calinescu - the Prime Minister of the country and the "iron hand" of regime - killed by the legionnaires in September 1939.
  
  
• Under the pressure of Nazi Germany the royal dictatorship slipped towards the right, more because of political necessity than conviction. In the spring of 1939 Romania had very few allies to count on, the old system of alliances, scrupulously built after 1918, broke up as a result of the growth of German influence and the appeasement policy of the great western powers.
  
  
• After the fall of France, Carol II hoped to save the throne, the regime and the borders of the country by a rapidly approaching Germany and adopting some internal measures that would attract Hitler's sympathy. The pro-western prime Minister was replaced by a pro-German one. The Iron Guard, which had been severely criticized and was prohibited and decimated by then - was invited to join the government. Its leader, Horia Sima, first became state sub-secretary of the Ministry of National Education, then minister of Arts and Cults. Anti-semitism, moderate till then and limited to its economical, social and cultural aspects - took on aggravating forms, on the one hand due to Germany's pressure and, on the other hand in hope of gaining the benevolence of the new masters of Europe. So on 9th August 1940 there appeared a decree "for stopping marriages between Romanian and Jewish people" and on 31st of August there was one strictly limiting the access of Jewish people to public education.
  
  
• All these measures, taken at the last moment, could not yet save the royal dictatorship from destruction. Unpopular inside Romania and seen with suspicion in Berlin, it could not survive the last test to which it had been put by Hitler through the Dictate of Vienna (30th August 1940) by which Romania was forced to concede Northern Transylvania to Hungary.
  
  
• Confronted with general hostilities and the beginning of an Iron-Guard uprising, the king empowered general Ion Antonescu to make up a new government, giving him dictatorial power. In less than 24 hours, the latter delivered an ultimatum asking the king to abdicate and leave the country (6th of September 1940). King Mihai I, at the age of 19, became again king (as he had been between 1927 and 1930) while Antonescu assumed the title of "Head of the Romanian State and President of the Council of Ministers". On the 13th of September 1940 Romania was proclaimed a "national Iron-Guardist state".