Romania in 1920-1930. "Greater Romania" between the First and Second World Wars

During the period between the two wars, Romania was one of the most backward countries in Europe. In terms of the share of national income per capita, it ranked 17th in Europe. The share of national income per capita was almost three times less than in France and Germany, and four times less than in England.

The low level of economic development of the country was reflected in the distribution of the self-employed population across sectors of the national economy: according to the 1930 census, only 7.2% of the population of Romania was employed in industry, while in agriculture - 78.2%. The percentage of the population employed in industry was significantly lower in Romania than even in such a backward country as Turkey. Agriculture, which was the main and determining sector of the pre-war Romanian economy, was characterized by exceptional backwardness and being in a state of chronic crisis.

Romania was a country of large landownership with strong vestiges of feudalism. In the hands of a small group of landowners, not exceeding 0.8% of the agricultural population, 57% of the country's total arable area was in the hands. More than seven hundred thousand peasant families had no land at all, and the overwhelming number of peasant farms had an allotment of 1 to 3 hectares, which was insufficient to satisfy even the miserable needs of a peasant family. The Romanian countryside suffered from agrarian overpopulation. Over two million adults were “superfluous” and could not find any use for their labor in agriculture.

Agriculture was dominated by antediluvian technology and old, “old-fashioned” methods of cultivating the land. The main tools of agricultural production were a wooden plow, a sickle, etc. An excess of cheap labor hindered the introduction of advanced agricultural technology. In terms of the technical level of its agriculture, Romania was one of the last places among European countries. According to the 1941 agricultural census, for every 100 households in Romania there were 48 plows, 33.3 harrows, 2.6 seeders, 1.7 reapers and 0.4 tractors. As a result, the yield of major crops was extremely low. In terms of yield, Romania also ranked one of the last in Europe.

Industry was poorly developed, although Romania had rich natural resources and a sufficient amount of labor. The food and textile industries and oil production have developed well. Apart from a few military production enterprises, there was virtually no mechanical engineering in the country. In 1938, mechanical engineering and metal processing, including repair shops and factories for the production of rolling stock, weapons, etc., accounted for only 10% of total industrial production. Before the war, Romania imported 95% of the cars it needed from abroad. There were no electrical and tractor industries, as well as the production of oil equipment, and the chemical industry was very poorly developed. 60% of the iron needed for the country was imported from abroad. Aluminum, copper, and chromium were also imported, although there were deposits of the ores of these metals in Romania itself. Despite the presence of significant coal reserves, its production was low. In electricity production, Romania was inferior to many European countries, which did not even have such large energy resources as Romania had; In 1935, Romania's per capita electricity consumption was 16 times less than Sweden, 15 times less than Switzerland, 6 times less than France, and 4 times less than Austria.

In the world economic system of capitalism, Romania was an agrarian and raw material appendage of the developed imperialist powers. Romania, later than other European countries, embarked on the path of capitalist development. The rule of the military-feudal Turkish empire in Romania, which persisted for four centuries, slowed down the country's transition from feudal production relations to capitalist ones. Only after Russia's victory in the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878 did Romania gain its state independence.

The stagnation and degradation of agriculture, where the harmful effects of feudal remnants were clearly evident, hindered the development of the domestic market and, consequently, the development of industry. From the beginning of the 20th century, capitalism in Romania, not yet sufficiently developed, began to acquire a monopolistic character. Having barely freed itself from the Turkish yoke, Romania fell into submission to the largest imperialist powers, which turned it into an area for the investment of their capital, a source of raw materials and a market for their industry.

Immediately after the First World War, at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, US representative Baruch told the Romanian delegates that American aid to Romania would be provided only if it received oil concessions. For assistance in restoring the Romanian railways, the Americans demanded a concession for their subsequent operation for a period of 25 years. The British also used similar methods. The English representative to the Romanian royal government, Rittigen, told Romanian officials: “We can give everything you want, and a lot of money. But we wish to have English officials in your administration." The bourgeois “historical” parties - the National Liberal and National Tsaranist parties, which replaced each other at the helm of government in post-war Romania, actually pursued a policy of encouraging foreign capital. True, there was a certain difference between them on this issue, but this difference was more in form than in essence.

After the end of the First World War, the National Liberal Party proclaimed the slogan of ousting foreign capital from the Romanian economy and encouraging national Romanian capital. He sounded categorically: “We can handle it ourselves.” However, in reality, the national liberals pursued other goals. Hiding behind this demagogic slogan, the bourgeoisie of the Old Kingdom (Romania within the borders before 1914) sought to become a monopoly intermediary of foreign capital in Romania, and also, under the pretext of “Romanization,” to seize as many enterprises as possible in Transylvania, which was annexed after the First World War.

The National Tsaranist Party, which at that time was in opposition to the National Liberal government, took a different position in relation to foreign capital. In her 1926 program she openly proclaimed “the equality of rights of foreign and Romanian capitalists in the face of law and authority.” Fighting to overthrow the monopoly power of the National Liberals, this party established close cooperation with large international trusts. After the National Tsaranists came to power in 1928, all roads were open to foreign monopoly capital in Romania. In order to justify Romania's cooperation with international monopolies, economists and theorists glorified the "civilizing" role of foreign capital, arguing that without foreign capital Romanian industry would not have been created. Not the least role in attracting foreign capital to the country was played by considerations of personal enrichment of representatives of the ruling circles of Romania. Working closely with foreign capital, the royal family and the largest Romanian capitalists and financiers Ausnit, Malaxa, Mociornitsa, Constantinescu, the Bratianu and Maniu families and others received fabulous profits from the exploitation and robbery of the Romanian people. King Carol II was a major shareholder of the English Vickers and Deterding trusts. Ministers and leaders of bourgeois-landlord parties were supported by foreign capital, acting as members of the administrative councils of joint-stock companies owned by this capital in Romania.

The Social Democratic Party of Romania shared the point of view of the Romanian bourgeoisie on the role of foreign capital in the development of the national economy. In her 1931 program, she spoke out for investment of foreign capital in the national economy of the country, for granting it equal rights with national Romanian capital.

During the period of the global economic crisis of 1929-1933, which completely disorganized the finances and economic life of Romania and made it impossible to pay debts to international monopolies, the latter attempted to deprive Romania of the remnants of economic and political independence. On January 28, 1933, in Geneva, a representative of the Romanian government signed an agreement on the so-called “technical consulting cooperation” of the League of Nations in Romania. According to this agreement, in order to ensure the payment of debts to international finance capital, the country was placed under the control of the League of Nations. The Romanian government was categorically ordered to “take steps to restore fiscal balance and implement financial reform, including debt settlement.” The “Geneva Plan” required “a serious examination of the organization, personnel and methods of recruiting government employees in order to reduce their number and carry out other similar measures.” It was proposed to implement “sacrificial curves” - to reduce the number of workers and employees of state enterprises and institutions by 30%, to reduce wages by 60% and other measures to further attack the living standards of workers.

To monitor the implementation of all these instructions, emissaries were sent to Romania, acting as “advisers” and “experts” of the League of Nations and possessing great powers. Without the approval of the financial "adviser", the Romanian government had no right to make any decisions on financial and economic issues. The same “advisers” were appointed to the “National Bank” and the railway administration.

The adoption of this plan coincided with the moment when the most reactionary circles of the bourgeoisie and landowners became noticeably more active in the country, striving to establish a fascist dictatorship on the Hitlerite model, which in turn contributed to the growth of political struggle. In January-February 1933, clashes took place in Romania between workers, railway workers and oil workers who rose up against “sacrificial curves, poverty, deteriorating living conditions.

Despite a stubborn struggle, foreign capital managed to establish complete control over the Romanian economy and finance by the beginning of the Second World War. He owned 91.9% of the total share capital in the oil industry, 74 in the metallurgical industry, 72 in the chemical industry, 70 in the forestry industry, and 95% in the production of gas and electricity. In 1939, there were 17 banks under the control of foreign capital with a total capital of more than 2 billion lei, which amounted to 1/3 of the total banking capital of Romania. Its share accounted for over 70% of the capital in the country's insurance companies.

French capital was in first place in terms of the size of its contributions to the Romanian economy. Together with Belgian capital, which worked closely with him, he accounted for 65% of foreign investment in the country. Second place was occupied by English capital, which controlled the largest oil enterprises, the most important transport and insurance companies, metallurgical plants, as well as a number of the country's leading banks. Royal Dutch Shell controlled the largest oil company, Astra Romana, whose capital in 1939 reached more than 2 billion lei. Other large companies, such as Steaua Romana (with a capital of 1 billion lei), Unirea (720 million lei), were under the control of the British joint-stock companies Phoenix Oil and Transport Company Limited and General Mining and Finance Corporation Limited." The Vickers Limited concern controlled the largest metallurgical plants in Romania - Resita and N. Malaxa.

As for American capital, although it was significantly inferior to French and English capital, it nevertheless had a fairly strong position in the Romanian economy. The powerful oil trust Standard Oil of New Jersey has deeply penetrated the Romanian oil industry. The branch of this trust in Romania was the Romania Americana company, whose capital in 1939 was 300 million flax. Through Romana Americana, the Rockefeller trust took part in one of the largest oil joint-stock companies in Romania, Creditul Minier, and through the English company Phoenix Oil and Transport Company Limited, it influenced a number of companies with English and Romanian capital. "Romana Americana" in 1929 provided 10%, and together with "Creditul Minier" and "Phoenix" - 27% of Romanian oil production (about 1.3 million tons).

Standard Oil and Royal Dutch Shell reigned supreme in the Romanian oil industry. In 1934, they accounted for 86% of the oil produced. Almost all oil fields were in the hands of these two world trusts.

International trusts, seeking to obtain the highest profits, invested their capital only in those sectors of the Romanian economy where they were provided with exceptionally high incomes, even at minimal costs. The consequence of this was the one-sided, ugly development of the country's national economy, which had a pronounced semi-colonial character. The imperialists prevented the industrialization of Romania, the development of the main branches of heavy industry, and the creation of the basis for the country's economic and political independence. While maintaining the country in the position of their agricultural and raw material appendage, they, under the guise of trade with it, robbed the Romanian people by imposing low prices on Romanian export products and high prices on Romanian imports. The gap between prices was very large. “Romania exchanged the product of the labor of ten agricultural workers for the product of the labor of one industrial worker of the West,” reports the Encyclopedia of Romania. In 1934, the price ratio of Romanian exports and imports was even more unfavorable, expressed as a ratio of 1:13.5.

One foreign expert who visited Romania called for greater influence of international monopoly capital in this country, since, as he wrote, “the Romanian peasant is accustomed to being content with a minimum of amenities and food, and the Romanian worker can, and will no doubt endure, other reductions in wages.” fees." According to the calculations of the Romanian economist G. Leon, the company "Romana Americana" in the period 1920-1939 received an average annual net profit of more than 100 million lei, that is, an amount that was almost 9 times greater than its initial capital.

An important means of enslaving Romania and robbing its working population by foreign imperialists were foreign loans, which the Romanian government took out to pay off debts on old loans, purchase weapons and for other unproductive expenses. The characteristic features of these loans were a high usurious interest rate, which together with all kinds of commissions amounted to at least 10% of the loan amount, an obligation to provide the lender with profitable concessions, to accept foreign controllers into the Romanian state apparatus, etc. It was in a similar way that the American trust Morgan International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation received a concession for the Romanian telephone network in 1930, and even earlier, the Swedish concern Kreiger received a monopoly on the production of matches, and French banking capital then installed its controller in the National Bank. As a result of receiving external loans, the country fell into severe debt bondage to international financial capital. According to the American Institute of International Finance, Romania's debt as of January 1, 1928 amounted to almost 551 million dollars (about 2.8 billion lei). The payment of pre-war debts alone, according to an agreement between the Romanian government and the governments of France, Belgium, Sweden, Germany and Italy, was supposed to end only by 1951. Payments for war debts to the United States, England and France had to be made by Romania until 1989.

During the years of the global economic crisis, due to new loans and the catastrophic fall in the value of the leu, Romania's public debt reached a colossal amount in 1931 - 173 billion lei. At this time, 7 billion lei were sent abroad every year to pay off loan payments. These payments consumed a quarter of the country's annual budget. The entire burden of payments on foreign loans fell on the shoulders of the working people. In 1934-1935, indirect taxes provided 45% of state budget revenues.

The real wages of the Romanian worker, already before the crisis of 1929-1933, were 33% lower than the level of 1916, and by the beginning of the Second World War - by 64%. Unemployment was a terrible scourge. The peasantry was in an exceptionally difficult situation. The gap between the prices of industrial and agricultural products grew steadily. In 1940, compared to 1929, prices for industrial goods consumed by peasants increased by 59.4%, and prices for agricultural products sold by them decreased by 20%. Most peasant farms were in debt to the state, many of them could not pay their debts. The official press involuntarily reported on the appalling poverty of the Romanian peasantry by placing the following announcements: “On September 11, will be sold at auction,” reported “Monitorul Official,” “two women’s scarves, three broken cups, a chipped glass, a thimble, two clubs with the name Costac, Gradu , a spool of thread, an ax handle, a rope, a box of matches, the bottom of a broken glass, a wallet with two lei and two certificates of poverty.”

A wave of workers' strike movement swept across the country. In October 1920, a general strike was held that covered almost all of Romania. The workers demanded higher wages, freedom of activity for political and professional organizations, etc. The revolutionary movement spread to the countryside, where peasants seized landowners' lands, burned the estates of the boyars, and refused to pay taxes. National minorities in the regions annexed to Romania rose up to fight, especially in Bessarabia, where in the period 1918-1924, even according to Romanian statistics, there were more than 150 uprisings. The largest uprising was the uprising of Bessarabian peasants in 1924, which led to the proclamation by the workers of Izmail and Akkerman

Counties of the Moldavian Republic, which lasted for 12 days. Frightened Romanian and foreign capital brought down the most severe repressions on the revolutionary forces of the country. A state of siege was introduced, courts-martials were rampant, and strict censorship was established. The government sent the army to suppress the revolutionary uprisings of workers and peasants, organizing a series of monstrous bloodsheds. On December 13, 1918, a demonstration of Bucharest workers was shot at, over a hundred people were killed. Peasant uprisings were brutally suppressed. At the same time, seeing the inadequacy of these measures, the ruling parties of Romania, in order to weaken the pressure of the revolutionary struggle of the people, were forced to resort to maneuvering and accept some reforms.

In 1919, the upcoming agrarian reform was announced. This reform, legislated in 1921-1922, deceived the hopes of the peasants. It did not solve the agrarian question: large landownership was preserved. Romania continued to be a country with large feudal remnants.

In 1921, the Communist Party was created in Romania. The bourgeois-landowner government tried to strangle the Communist Party in the bud. A trial was staged against the communists, known as the “270” trial, which ended in a brutal sentence for the defendants. In 1924, the Communist Party was outlawed, and membership in it was punishable by ten years in prison; over several years, more than seventy-five thousand people were arrested for revolutionary activities.

The main political parties in Romania during the period between the two wars were the National Liberal and National Tsarist parties. Created back in the 19th century, the National Liberal Party represented the interests of the big bourgeoisie and landowners of the Old Kingdom. The monopoly leader of this party throughout its existence was the Bratianu family, which had strong positions in the financial and industrial spheres, and was also a large owner of land holdings. The National Liberal Party actually ruled Romania for the first ten years after the end of the First World War, being at that time the only major government party in the country.

In 1923, the National Liberal Party government achieved approval of a new constitution. The Constitution declared all kinds of freedoms (press, association in trade unions, etc.). However, soon the constitution soon ceased to satisfy the ruling circles. In order to “correct” it, “emergency laws” and additions began to be published.

Another party, the national-Tzaranist party, was formed in 1926 as a result of the merger of the national and Tzaranist (peasant) parties. The National Party was the spokesman for the interests of the Romanian bourgeoisie of Transylvania. It was headed by Iuliu Maniu, who was one of the richest people in Romania. The Tsaranist Party, led by Ion Mihalache, was the party of the rural bourgeoisie of the Old Kingdom. During the period of revolutionary upsurge, the Tzaranists came out with demands for broad agrarian reform, the introduction of a progressive income tax, the transformation of Romania into a “peasant state,” etc. In their struggle for power, the National Tzaranists took advantage of the growing dissatisfaction of the people with the policies of the National Liberals. They did not skimp on promises to the people. This newly created party was given control of the country at the end of 1928, when, due to the appearance of signs of a new economic crisis in Romania, the revolutionary movement began to grow. Having come to power, the nationalists forgot their promises to improve the material wealth of the people and ensure civil liberties. The policy of the national-Tsaranist government, like the previous national-liberal government, turned out to be entirely subordinated to the interests of bourgeois-landlord circles and foreign monopolies. This party, which called itself “peasant,” refused to complete the agrarian reform. She passed a law in 1929 on the free alienation of lands obtained during the agrarian reform, as well as a law on the conversion of land debts, as a result of which obstacles to the seizure of peasant lands by banks were removed. The wages of workers and employees fell sharply. On this basis, major revolutionary battles broke out again in Romania during the years of the global economic crisis. In August 1929, the Lupeni miners protested, and the National Tsaranist government carried out a bloody massacre. In January - February 1933, railway workers and oil workers waged a heroic struggle.

The sharp intensification of the class struggle in Romania during the years of the global economic crisis led ruling circles to the conclusion that it was necessary to restore the monarchy. The National Tsaranist government took the initiative in this matter. In July 1930, it returned to the country and restored Prince Carol, who had been in exile since 1926, to the throne. The return of Carol, known for his fascist views and dictatorial habits, was caused, as one bourgeois author admits, by the “sharp deterioration” of the internal political situation in Romania and the need to establish “firm power in the country.” The government of the National Liberals, which replaced the National Tsaranists in 1934, continued and strengthened the work of fascisation of the country, begun by its predecessors. On November 24, 1934, all anti-fascist organizations were banned. The military command in its order once again announced a ban on the activities of the Communist Party. Trials were organized against communists and anti-fascists. At the same time, fascist organizations - the Iron Guard, the National Christian Party, etc. - continued to enjoy virtual freedom in their actions.

Romania was the first country to launch an armed intervention against Soviet Russia. Already in November 1917, it committed many aggressive actions towards the Soviet state: Romanian civil and military authorities disarmed the Russian revolutionary units of the Romanian front located in Romania, arrested and shot the commanders and commissars of these units, Romanian troops repeatedly violated the state border, invading to the territory of Bessarabia.

At the beginning of 1918, taking advantage of the difficult situation of Soviet Russia, Romania captured Bessarabia. The Romanian occupiers suppressed the resistance of the population by force of arms. The Romanian government, as the biographer of then Foreign Minister Take Ionescu testifies, sent its troops to Bessarabia with the “full consent of the Entente governments.”

Romania turned into a country of operations against Soviet Russia. Gangs were formed on the territory of Romania, which were then transported to Soviet Russia; trains with ammunition and weapons for Poland passed through Romania. The Entente speculated on the “Bessarabian conflict” it created, using it as a means of putting pressure on the Romanian government. Having provoked the seizure of Bessarabia by Romania, the Entente governments were in no hurry to officially recognize this territory as Romania.

Only in March 1920, the Supreme Council of the Entente sent a letter to the Romanian government signed by Curzon, in which it recognized the sovereignty of the Romanian state over the territory located between the Dniester and the Prut. But... “the future Russian government (i.e., from Romania, presumably, after the non-communist government comes to power, these lands will be taken away), which would be admitted into the society of civilized states,” the right “to apply to the League of Nations” was recognized. on this issue. This statement, which was an example of a carrot-and-stick policy, was supposed to force Romania to join Poland in the third campaign of the Entente.

The Romanian government disrupted the peace negotiations that began in 1920 at the initiative of the Soviet government. In the same way, the work of the Russian-Romanian conference on the peaceful settlement of controversial issues, held from September 22 to October 25, 1921 in Warsaw, turned out to be fruitless due to the obstructionist policy of the Romanian delegation. This behavior of the Romanian delegation was explained by the support of the world powers, which signed the Paris Protocol on October 28, 1920 recognizing Bessarabia as Romania.

The intervention of Western powers thwarted another attempt to regulate relations between the USSR and Romania, which was made in April 1924 at the Soviet-Romanian conference in Vienna. Just before the start of the conference, the French government of Poincare carried out the ratification of the Paris Protocol through parliament. In the first post-war years, the Entente imperialists assigned Romania the role of the gendarme of world reaction in the Balkans. On orders from the West, Romania sent troops to Hungary to help suppress the Hungarian revolution. The reactionary orientation of Romania's foreign policy was reflected in agreements with other capitalist countries. The Polish-Romanian treaty of 1921, which was subsequently renewed every five years, explicitly stated that it was directed against the “eastern neighbor.” By virtue of the Romanian-Polish treaty, supplemented by a military convention, Romania in the event of a Soviet-Polish war was automatically included in it on the side of lord Poland.

Romania was also given a prominent place in plans for a “crusade” against the Soviet Union. The French General Staff, together with the British General Staff, developed a plan according to which the attack on the USSR was initially planned for the spring of 1930, and then was postponed to 1931. Romania was supposed to provoke a border conflict, which could serve as a pretext for the outbreak of war. Having rejected the Soviet Union's proposal to conclude a non-aggression pact in 1929, Romania began open preparations for war against the USSR. Prime Minister N. Iorga said in parliament: “Romania is preparing for war against the barbarian hordes.” The strength of the Romanian army was increased in 1930 to 284 thousand people (not counting the gendarmerie corps) against 153 thousand in 1923. Military spending more than doubled during this period. In 1930, Romania purchased 600 thousand rifles, 30 thousand machine guns, 150 thousand grenades and many other weapons abroad. The Western powers directly supervised the preparation of the Romanian armed forces for the anti-Soviet war. For this purpose, Romania was then visited by the Chief of the American General Staff, General MacArthur, who inspected the Romanian army, as well as the French military missions of Generals Gouraud, Franche d'Espere and others. The British squadron paid a “courtesy visit” to the ports of the country. Under the leadership of the French General Staff, the Conference of the Chiefs of General Staff of Romania, Poland, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia.

As the then Romanian Prime Minister N. Iorga admitted, “Romania has never pursued an independent policy; its foreign policy was that of its strongest ally.” The first decade after the First World War in Romanian foreign policy was characterized by the almost limitless influence of France, which, having created a system of military-political alliances with the countries of the Little Entente and Poland, unsuccessfully laid claim to European hegemony. But after the Locarno Conference, which sharply undermined the authority of France in these countries, Romania also moved towards rapprochement with England and Italy. Anglo-French influence can be easily traced in Romanian foreign policy of the pre-war years, once again emphasizing its dependent nature. A striking example of this is Romania's relations with the Soviet Union.

In the 1930s, due to the growing aggressiveness of Germany, some changes occurred in the policies of the USA, England and France towards the USSR. The ruling circles of these countries, taking into account the increased strength of the Soviet state and the growth of its international authority, are beginning to take certain steps towards regulating and improving their relations with the Soviet Union. The US government moved to establish normal diplomatic relations with the USSR. A non-aggression pact was concluded between France and the Soviet Union, and then, in 1935, a mutual assistance treaty. The Soviet Union was admitted to the League of Nations. It seemed that these powers abandoned their anti-Soviet intrigues and decided to unite with the USSR to fight against the threat from Nazi Germany. Romania, dependent on the main Western powers, also took some steps in this direction. In July 1933, it signed a convention proposed by the Soviet Union to define an aggressor. In June of the following year, the Romanian government finally established diplomatic relations with the USSR. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania, Nicolae Titulescu, played a positive role in the development of Soviet-Romanian relations. Realizing the danger for the country to be defenseless in the face of fascist aggressors who advocated a revision of the Versailles system, he considered it necessary to establish cooperation with the Soviet Union in creating collective security. Titulescu was removed from the post of Foreign Minister. The new Foreign Minister assured the German envoy Fabricius of the Romanian government's desire to cooperate with Germany. In 1937, the extension of the Polish-Romanian military alliance demonstrated the complete solidarity of the ruling circles of Romania and Poland with Nazi Germany on the issue of the fight against the USSR.

The rapprochement with Hitler's Germany stemmed from the very policy of fascisation in the internal political life of Romania, which began to be implemented after the crisis of 1929-1933. The Romanian reaction saw in German fascism a powerful ally in the struggle against the revolutionary and liberation movement of the working masses. Germany's foreign trade expansion in the Balkans, which led to the strengthening of the position of German imperialism in Romania, created the economic basis for this rapprochement. During the period 1933-1936, Germany's share in Romanian exports increased from 10.6 to 17.8%, and in imports from 18.6 to 36.1%. Romania became increasingly dependent on Germany for the sale of agricultural products and other imported goods. In 1935, German imperialism, relying on Romanian farmers and exporters, attempted to strengthen its trade relations in the Romanian oil industry, but then encountered opposition from the Western powers, which were jealous of German penetration into Romania.

Http://alexander-gordelian.narod2.ru/publitsistika/velikaya_ruminiya_mezhdu_pervoi_i_vtoroi_mirovimi_voinami_/

In the 1930s Romania's population exceeded 19 million people. Within the borders of Romania in 1940 lived Romanians (71.9%), Hungarians (7%), Germans (4.1%), Jews (4%), Ukrainians (3.2%), Russians (2.3% ), Bulgarians (2%), Gypsies (1.5%), Turks (0.9%) and other peoples. By the beginning of World War II, interethnic relations in Romania were at the stage of a “smoldering conflict.”

In the second quarter of the twentieth century. in Romania, which developed in the second half of the 18th century, became widespread. the myth of the national exclusivity and national mission of the Romanians, who were declared the descendants and cultural heirs of two great peoples of antiquity - the Romans and the Dacians, who united into a single ethnic entity in the southern foothills of the Carpathians during the reign of the Roman emperor Trajan (53 - 117 AD). They were assigned the role of a civilized people, surrounded by barbarians - Slavs, Turks and Magyars. Gradually, the idea of ​​“Romanianization” of national minorities arose, and anti-Jewish and anti-Gypsy sentiments were also persistent. Since the 1930s Various kinds of Romanian national-radical parties and movements were formed: the Anti-Semitic Union, the National Italian-Romanian Fascist Movement, the National Romanian Fascists, the National Fascist Movement, the Iron Guard.

Despite the fact that the Romanian parliament adopted a law on the rights of national minorities in March 1919, national educational institutions were required to teach in the Romanian language, national periodicals and book publishing houses were closed, national names were changed to the corresponding Romanian names, etc. . It was officially decided to unambiguously classify Moldovans as Romanians.

In June 1934, the Romanian parliament approved the bill “On the use of Romanian workers in private firms,” developed by the government of the National Liberal Party. According to the new law, 80% of the employees of any enterprise had to be Romanians. The Ministry of Industry and Trade sent out a special questionnaire to all private firms, which included a question about the ethnic origin of employees. The introduction of this law resulted in mass layoffs of representatives of national minorities.

At the same time, there were legislative acts that formally ensured the rights of national minorities in emergency conditions. Thus, they had the right to refuse military service in the event of the outbreak of hostilities with the country in which their fellow tribesmen are the “titular nation”. However, as practice has shown, this law was not implemented. Russian citizens of Romania were widely drafted into the army during the war with the USSR. This concerned, in particular, the Lipovan Old Believers, who had lived since the 18th century. in the lower reaches of the Danube. For example, in 1943 - 1944. The officer of the quartermaster service of the Romanian Royal Army was the famous Russian emigrant singer Pyotr Leshchenko.

During the Romanian occupation of Bessarabia and Transnistria, the official use of the Russian language was prohibited here. Romanian was taught in schools. From November 20, 1943, all schools except Romanian ones were closed in Transnistria. In Southern Ukraine there was also a policy of ousting the Russian language in schools.

Romanian “great power” nationalism clashed with the nationalism and separatist sentiments of political movements of national minorities. This applies to Romanian Germans (German Parliamentary Party, Saxon Party), Hungarians (Hungarian National Party), Ukrainians (Bukovina Liberation Movement, Ukrainian Party), Moldovans (Union of Bessarabians, Bessarabian National Union, Union of Struggle for the Liberation of Bessarabia), Jews (Union of Romanian Jews, Jewish State Party, Jewish National Party, Jewish Party, Zionist Federation of Romania, New Zionist Organization), Bulgarians (Bulgarian Party). Their activities, on the one hand, allowed national minorities to fight for their identity and rights, but on the other hand, they extremely radicalized the entire system of interethnic relations in Romania.

The Hungarian, Moldovan and Bulgarian parties advocated the separation of the regions inhabited respectively by Hungarians, Moldovans and Bulgarians from Romania and their reunification with Hungary, the USSR and Bulgaria. The subsequent annexations of part of the territory of Romania by the Soviet Union, Hungary and Bulgaria in 1940 led to massive population movements amounting to hundreds of thousands of people, as well as ethnic clashes and pogroms.

The Romanian Germans were largely guided by the processes taking place in Germany. In 1932, they formed the “National Socialist Mutual Aid Movement of Germans in Romania,” which was soon banned. However, in 1934 it was recreated under a different name - “National Movement for the Revival of the Germans of Romania.” The Fuhrer of the “revivalists” was a former Austrian army officer, Fritz Fabritius. This movement advocated for autonomy for Germans in Romania and found opponents not only in the Romanian authorities and nationalists, but also in the German Evangelical Church in Romania, led by Dr. Hans Otto Roth. In 1940 - 1941, despite the fact that the processes of Romanianization of local Germans stopped, many of them emigrated to Germany. The remaining Volksdeutsche were given the opportunity to voluntarily join the Wehrmacht and SS troops. Police detachments recruited from Bessarabian and Novorossiysk Germans operated on the territory of Transnistria. They took an active part in punitive actions in the zone of Romanian occupation.

In 1940 - 1944 Small ethnic groups in Romania - Armenians, Greeks, Turks, Tatars and others - were subjected to repression and the greatest Romanization. Thus, according to the law of August 8, 1940, their entrepreneurial activities were strictly regulated and limited by interest rates. However, none of the peoples of Romania were subjected to such persecution as the Jews and Gypsies. In the 1920s - 1930s. In Romania, there was a noticeable increase in anti-Jewish sentiment, especially among the Romanian intelligentsia and students. Many universities introduced percentage standards for the admission of Jews. After the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, various Romanian parties began to adopt anti-Semitic programs. In 1935, the National Peasant Party merged with the National Christian Defense League, creating the National Christian Party, whose programmatic demand was the protection of Christian workers “by preferring Romanian ethnic elements” and the “Romanianization of company personnel,” that is, the removal of Jews even from private enterprises.

In 1935, the board of the Legal Association adopted a resolution on the percentage rate for Jewish lawyers. Jews were no longer accepted into the association; Sometimes Jews who were already members of the group were deprived of their licenses.

In 1940, there were 728,115 Jews living in Romania. At the end of the 1930s, after the adoption of legislative acts aimed at ousting Jews from various spheres of economic and intellectual life, the catastrophic impoverishment of the Jewish population of Romania began. Therefore, Jews played a significant role in the socialist and communist movement in Romania.

In the summer of 1940, during the annexation of part of Romanian territory by the Soviet Union, Hungary and Bulgaria, during the retreat, Romanian soldiers carried out pogroms, accompanied by murders. For example, in Dobruja on June 30, 1940, 52 people were killed. Jews were thrown out of refugee trains heading to Romania.

On August 8, 1940, laws were passed in Romania to universally limit the number of Jews in higher education institutions. Jews were also removed from all government positions, including the army.

From September 1940, a period of brutal anti-Jewish terror began, which lasted five months. Jewish shops and businesses were confiscated throughout the country. In order to obtain statements from the owners to transfer property to the Romanians, they were subjected to torture.

On January 21, 1941, the Iron Guard attempted a coup. While some units of the Iron Guard fought with parts of the Romanian army for control of Bucharest, others attacked the Jews of the capital. 125 Jews were killed and 140 were maimed, and several synagogues were destroyed.

Shortly after the start of the war with the USSR, Romanian soldiers carried out a pogrom in Iasi on June 29, 1941; where about 12,000 Jews died.

In Bessarabia, Bukovina, and Southern Ukraine, advancing Romanian troops everywhere took part in the extermination of the Jewish population of the USSR.

In August 1941, Romanian authorities began deporting Jews from Bukovina and Bessarabia, which were under their control, across the Dniester into the German occupation zone. The Germans refused to accept the deportees, shot many, others were sent back to the Romanian zone, where some of them were immediately killed by Romanian gendarmes; many drowned in the Dniester or died from disease and starvation on the way (4,400 people) to the concentration camps of Bessarabia.

Those killed in “death trains”. August 1941

Within five weeks after the start of the war, half of the Jewish population (about 160 thousand people) living in Bessarabia and Bukovina was destroyed. In September 1941, in the territory occupied by the Romanian army, Jews began to be imprisoned in ghettos. In the Romanian occupation zone on the territory of the USSR, they were forced to wear a yellow six-pointed star.

On September 16, 1941, the deportation of Jews from the camps of Bessarabia to Transnistria began. By November 15, when the deportations were stopped, all the Jews of Bessarabia and Bukovina (with the exception of 20,000 Jews of Chernivtsi) were sent to Transnistria. 22,000 people died during the deportation.

In the second half of October 1941, near Odessa, on the personal order of Marshal Antonescu, about 35,000 Jewish residents of the city were shot and burned alive.

In the winter of 1941 - 1942. In Transnistria, mass deaths began among deported Jews from hypothermia (the air temperature at times dropped to -40°), hunger and infectious diseases (typhoid, dysentery). Among adults, mortality reached 70%, among children - 100%. At the beginning of 1942, Romanian gendarmes, Ukrainian police and Sonderkommando "R", where local Germans served, began the systematic extermination of exiles. Thus, in the village of Bogdanovka, Berezovsky district, about 5,000 sick and crippled Jews were herded into barns and burned alive, after which regular executions of the inhabitants (44,000 people) of the local camp began, ending with their total extermination. Total in Transnistria in 1941 - 1944 About 200,000 Soviet and Romanian Jews died.

After the defeat of the Romanian troops at Stalingrad, the authorities' attitude towards Jews changed noticeably. In December 1942, the evacuation of Jews to Turkey began. In total, until September 1944, about 13,000 Jews left Romania on 13 ships.

In October 1943, international Jewish organizations (primarily the Joint) began supplying Jews in Transnistria - money, things, medicines, food. The Romanian government was informed that these organizations were ready to pay a large sum for the return of Jews from Transnistria. Marshal Antonescu allowed the elderly, widows, disabled people of the First World War and former officers of the Romanian army to return.

Return of Jews from Transnistria. 1944

Most Jews returned to Romania in 1944, on the eve of the retreat of Romanian troops from Transnistria. According to the census, at the end of 1945, 428,312 Jews lived in Romania.

Repressions against Roma were also systemic. At the same time, a distinction was made between different tribal groups. The Roma, loyal to the monarchy, had their own political party, the General Union of Gypsies of Romania. Roma served in the Romanian army and took part in battles on the Eastern Front. The attitude towards the nomadic Kalderars and Lingurars was already different. They were considered "inveterate and incorrigible criminals" by the Romanian authorities. They were persecuted and deported from Romania to Transnistria in accordance with carefully crafted instructions. Deportations began in 1942. From June to August, 11,441 nomadic gypsies were sent to concentration camps; Gypsies collected in Romanian prisons - 13,176. Also, all Gypsies living in the occupied territory of the USSR were subjected to repression. About 40,000 Roma from Ochakovsky, Berezovsky and Baltsky districts of Transnistria were deported in 1942 to concentration camps. Of the 20,000 gypsies in Berezovsky district, 11,500 were shot, and 7,000 died of hunger and typhus.

According to the Romanian War Crimes Commission, 36,000 Romanian Roma died.

Since August 1944, national policy in Romania changed dramatically, but remained repressive. Now the Romanian Germans became the target of persecution. During the retreat of the German army from the territory of Romania, a large number of local Germans went west - to Germany, Hungary and Austria. The remaining Germans were subjected to reprisals. In December 1944 - January 1945, 69,332 Romanian Germans were forcibly deported to labor camps in the USSR (mainly in the Donbass). Then during 1945 - 1946. Romanian authorities deported about 750,000 Germans to Germany.

Countries of the world

Early history. Ancient people appeared on the territory of modern Romania no less than 300 thousand years ago. About 4 thousand years BC Neolithic cultures established themselves here, creating numerous settlements. As a result of what began 2 thousand years BC. The mixing of a settled agricultural population and invading pastoral tribes gave birth to the Thracian tribes of the Dacians (Geta), who in 1800-1000 BC. lived in Bronze Age conditions. In the 7th century. BC. Greek colonies arose on the Black Sea coast. Later, the Dacian region became the target of invasions by the Scythians from the east and the Celts from the north. This was the period of the Iron Age. In the 3rd century. BC. The first Dacian states appeared. The most prominent Dacian king, Birebista (7044 BC), created a vast power that stretched from present-day Slovakia to the Black Sea. Then the Dacian territories attract the attention of the Roman Empire

At the end of the 1st century. AD The Romans conquered what is now Dobruja, and in 106 the Roman emperor Trajan, overcoming almost a century of Dacian resistance, defeated the army of King Decebalus and conquered Dacia north of the Danube. The Roman Empire exported gold and other metals from this province. By decree of Trajan, the resettlement of colonists from all over the empire to Dacia began. The settlers quickly mixed with the local population, who adopted the Latin language and many Roman customs. However, already in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Uprisings against Roman power began, during which the Dacians united with the “barbarian” peoples invading the Danube. In 271274 the Romans were forced to leave Dacia and retreat across the Danube.

The subsequent era of the “Great Migration” completely changed the appearance of the former Roman province. The tribes of the Goths, Vandals, Huns, Gepids, Avars and Bulgarians passed through Dacia, devastating it. In the 6th century, the Slavs began to settle here. At the end of the 9th century. a significant part of the territory of present-day Romania was captured by the Hungarians. In the 11th-13th centuries. The Pechenegs, then the Cumans, migrated to the Danube from the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region. In 1241 this area was subjected to a devastating Mongol invasion.

Details of the history of Romania during this period are still unknown. It is assumed that between the 7th and 10th centuries. On the basis of the previously Romanized population of Dacia, the ancestors of modern Romanians appeared, speaking “vulgar Latin”, from which the Romanian language later developed. At the same time, the population was subject to significant influence from neighboring peoples. Christianity according to the Byzantine rite penetrated from Bulgaria, church literature in the Church Slavonic language spread, which then for a long time was the official language of the ancient Romanian principalities.

In the 10th-11th centuries. Small principalities called Banates began to emerge in various parts of Dacia.

In Transylvania and along the Tisza River, these possessions were under the supreme authority of the Kingdom of Hungary since 1000. The kings settled Hungarian and German colonists here. The territory of Transylvania (Semicity) served as the eastern border outskirts of Hungary. Powerful peasant uprisings often broke out here (the largest in 1437–1438 and 1514). After Turkish troops completely defeated the Hungarian forces at the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the Kingdom of Hungary disintegrated and Semigradje became an independent principality. In 1541 it came under the supreme authority of the Ottoman Empire.

The formation of the Romanian principalities on the Danube dates back approximately to the 11th and 12th centuries. According to chronicles, the principality (state) of Wallachia was founded in 1290 by the Semigrad governor Radu Negru, and the Bassarab dynasty created by him ruled until 1654. The creation of the principality of Moldova (Moldova) is attributed to another native of Transylvania, Dragos, and his successor, governor Bogdan Voda (1349). 1365). Wallachia and Moldova were feudal principalities of strong landowners and boyars.

Both states fought a difficult struggle for independence with Poland, Hungary, and then the Ottoman Empire. The Wallachians took part in the unsuccessful battles with the Turks for the Europeans on Kosovo (1389) and Nikopol (1396). In 1410 Wallachia, and in 1450 Moldova were forced to recognize the supreme power of the Ottoman Empire and pay tribute to it.

Ottoman domination. Resistance to the power of the Ottoman sultans was led by the ruler of Moldavia, Stefan the Great (1457–1504), who entered into an alliance with the ruler of Wallachia and tried to rely on the support of the Moscow state by intermarrying with its princes. During his reign, there was a significant flowering of Moldavian culture. However, after his death, Moldova had to submit to the Ottomans again. The Moldavian prince Peter Rares (1527–1546) sought to pursue a policy independent of the Ottomans.

He tried to strengthen the princely power in Wallachia in the mid-15th century. Lord Vlad the Impaler. He brutally suppressed unauthorized boyars, mercilessly dealt with political opponents and the population of rebellious cities, and executed Turkish ambassadors. Gospodar Vlad recaptured the Danube fortresses from the Ottomans and led his army to the Black Sea. Overthrown by the Hungarians, he was in a Hungarian prison for 12 years, and then returned to the throne and resumed the war with the Turks. This time he was defeated and was executed.

Under Michael the Brave (1593–1601), Wallachia briefly managed to regain its independence. He defeated a hundred thousand Turkish army and temporarily united Wallachia, Moldova and Transylvania under his rule. Mikhail was helped by the Russian Tsar Boris Godunov. However, the united state lasted for little more than a year. In 1601, the Transylvanian Germans, with the help of the Austrian army, expelled Mihai from Semigrad, and in 1601 the prince was killed.

Soon after this, real power in Wallachia and Moldova passed into the hands of the boyars. The nobility chose a ruler-voivode, intrigued, trying to place their proteges on the throne. From the second half of the 16th century. rulers were elected from persons pleasing to the Ottomans and who paid a large bribe. Second half of the 16th century. and the entire 17th century. filled with continuous boyar feuds and frequent changes of rulers.

At the beginning of the 18th century. Russian Tsar Peter I entered into an alliance with the Wallachian ruler Constantin Brancoveanu and the Moldavian ruler Dmitry Cantemir. With the help of Russian troops, the rulers tried to overthrow Ottoman rule. Dmitry recognized Russian suzerainty, but Constantine at the last moment went over to the side of the Turks, and the Prut campaign of Peter I ended in failure. After this, the Moldavian ruler fled to Russia, and the Wallachian was executed. In 1711, the Ottoman government began to appoint rulers from foreigners - rich Greek merchants from Constantinople (Phanariots). They received the post for a three-year term, buying it with bribes, and brutally exploited the country; The enslavement of peasants sharply increased.

Russian-Turkish wars in the 18th and 19th centuries. favored the struggle of the Romanian principalities for autonomy. The Kuchuk-Kainardzhi Peace Treaty (1774) granted amnesty to their inhabitants, confirmed freedom of Christian religion and returned confiscated lands to their former owners. These rights were confirmed by the Treaty of Iasi (1791) and the Treaty of Bucharest (1812). The peasant uprising led by former Russian army officer Tudor Vladimirescu in 1821 was directed against the boyars, but at the same time put forward a demand to restore the ancient rights of the principalities and provide them with a constitution. Although the uprising was suppressed, the Phanariot regime was abolished. The Ottoman Empire returned to the boyars the right to elect rulers from among themselves. According to the Akkerman Peace Treaty between Russia and Turkey (1826), the rulers were elected by the boyar assembly diwan for a seven-year term and appointed by the Ottoman government. Finally, in accordance with the Treaty of Adrianople (1829), the Ottoman Empire was prohibited from having fortresses on the left bank of the Danube, and Muslims were prohibited from living in Moldova and Wallachia. Russia was declared the patroness of the principalities, although the payment of tribute to Constantinople continued. The rule of the hospodars became lifelong.

In 1828-1834 Moldova and Wallachia were occupied by Russian troops. In 1829, Count Pavel Kiselev became their de facto ruler (chairman of the divans). Under him, in 1831 the principalities received a constitution “organic statute”, recognized in 1834 by the Ottoman Empire. The election of gospodars was entrusted to meetings of representatives of the boyars, the highest clergy, district deputies from local owners and city deputies from merchants. City merchants were not allowed into the legislative bodies. The situation of the peasants, on the contrary, worsened: feudal duties increased significantly, and the freedom of movement of the peasants was significantly curtailed. On the other hand, the trade independence of the Danube principalities contributed to the development of their economy: craft enterprises were built, the export of grain, timber and honey increased, and a local bourgeoisie was formed.

In 1848, unrest began in the Danube principalities. In Moldova, liberals successfully demanded that the ruler introduce a new constitution, but then the movement quickly fizzled out and repressions began. In Wallachia, rebel liberals and democrats formed a Provisional Government, forced the ruler to provide a constitution, and then abdicate. The Constitution granted peasants ownership of part of the land on which they lived, with compensation paid to the boyars at the expense of the state. In response, Turkish troops were brought into Bucharest, and then the principalities were occupied by the Russian army. The uprising was suppressed. In 1849, Russia and the Ottoman Empire agreed to abolish elections of rulers and appoint them jointly by the two countries. The “Organic Statute” of 1831 was restored.

In the period after 1849, the economy of the principalities developed rapidly. Trade and craft flourished, new craft and industrial enterprises arose. This gave new impetus to the independence movement.

In 1853, during the next war with the Ottoman Empire, Russia again occupied the principalities, but in 1854, under pressure from Austria, Russian troops were withdrawn, and they were replaced by Austrian ones. The Vienna Conference of 1855 and the Paris Treaty of 1856, which ended the Crimean War, abolished the Russian protectorate over Moldova and Wallachia. They received a constitution and became autonomous territories under the supreme authority of Turkey and the protectorate of European states.

The Paris Conference of European Powers in 1858 decided to unite the principalities into “united provinces” with separate rulers. But in 1859, the representative assemblies of Moldova and Wallachia elected a single ruler, boyar Alexandru Ion Cuza. In 1861, both principalities officially united into the state of Romania, while maintaining Turkish suzerainty and paying tribute to the Ottoman Empire.

Romanian state. Prince Cuza enjoyed the support of Russia and France. During his reign, a number of important reforms were carried out: a new constitution was published, serfdom was abolished, part of the land was provided for ransom to the peasants, and the peasantry received voting rights. In his political actions, Cuza sought to imitate Napoleon III. All this caused discontent among both conservatives and liberals, who united in the “Monstrous Coalition.” In 1866, the opposition overthrew Cuza and formed a provisional government. The German prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, a relative of the King of Prussia, was elected to the princely throne.

The new constitution of 1866, developed by the liberals, provided for the creation of a government responsible to parliament, but sharply limited the voting rights of the peasantry. In May 1877, having concluded an alliance with Russia, Romania declared its complete independence from the Ottoman Empire. The Treaty of San Stefano, which ended the new Russian-Turkish war, as well as the Berlin Congress of 1878 confirmed this act. Romania received Northern Dobruja and the port of Constanta, but had to transfer Southern Bessarabia to Russia. This caused discontent among the Romanian authorities and a cooling of relations with Russia. Romania began to move closer and closer to Germany and Austria-Hungary. In 1883 the country entered the Triple Alliance.

In 1881 Romania declared itself a kingdom. King Carol I was on the throne from 1881 to 1914. Under him, the country's rapid economic development continued. The most important industries were created, railways were built, and modern economic institutions were created, mainly on the basis of German capital. Political life was characterized by the struggle between the parties of conservatives and liberals, who alternately formed the government. Thus, in 1876-1888 the liberal cabinet of Ion Bratianu was in power, in 1891-1895 the conservative cabinet of L. Catargiu, in 1895-1899 the liberal government of D. Sturdza, in 1899-1907 the conservative government of G.G. Cantacuzino.

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, the socialist movement began to emerge in Romania. At first it developed under the strong influence of Russian populism, but then moved to the position of European social democracy.

Having suppressed a major peasant uprising in 1907-1908, the liberal government of Sturdza (1907-1911) began to carry out further reforms in agriculture. Laws were adopted on agricultural contracts, on an agricultural bank, and on the abolition of a number of natural duties of peasants. Landowners were asked to voluntarily sell part of their lands to peasants. In 1911–1913, conservatives were again in power (the government of T. Maiorescu). Under them, the country took part in the Balkan Wars in 1912–1913 and received part of Dobruja.

In 1914, the liberals returned to power, promising to introduce universal suffrage and carry out land reform. But all transformations had to be postponed due to the outbreak of the First World War. In Romanian ruling circles there was a struggle between supporters of the German-Austrian coalition and the Entente. After the death of King I in 1914, his nephew King Ferdinand I (1914-1927) began to lean towards the Entente. In 1916, Romania entered the war on its side, but its troops were quickly defeated. The armed forces of Germany and Austria-Hungary occupied three-quarters of the country, including Bucharest. The king and the government of “national unity” fled to Moldova under the protection of the Russian army. In January 1918, the new Prime Minister, General Averescu, negotiated an armistice with the Central Powers. Taking advantage of the revolution in Russia, Romania captured Bessarabia in March 1918. In May 1918, a new, conservative cabinet signed a peace treaty with Germany and Austria-Hungary.

Annexation of new lands. The defeat of Austria-Hungary and Germany in the First World War and the rapid collapse of the Habsburg monarchy radically changed the situation. At the end of 1918, the Romanian army went on the offensive in Transylvania and Bukovina and by February 1919 captured these areas. Having demanded that Hungary recognize these acquisitions, Romania took military action against the Hungarian Soviet Republic. In August 1919, Romanian troops occupied Budapest and remained until November. Under the terms of the Saint-Germain, Neuilly and Trianon peace treaties of 1919-1920, Transylvania, Bukovina, Eastern Banat and Southern Dobrudja joined Romania. The new Romanian kingdom turned out to be significantly larger than the pre-war one. Its stability was complicated by the heterogeneous nature of the country's population. The increase in the number of national minorities contributed to the rise of Romanian nationalism and anti-Semitism. At the same time, the annexation of new, economically developed territories contributed to the progress of industry and trade.

In the fall of 1919, the provisional military government carried out a reform of the electoral law and new elections; in parliament, the majority of deputies now represented the annexed territories. In December 1919, a government was created headed by the leader of the Transylvanian Romanians, Alexandru Vaida-Voevod. It relied on the peasant (Tsaranist) party, national democrats and deputies from the new territories. The government proposed an agrarian reform project, but the king vetoed it.

In March 1920, a new government came to power, created by the leader of the new People's Party, General Averescu. Having dissolved parliament, he appointed local prefects and held new elections, which brought victory to his party. Averescu's cabinet fought the growing labor movement and carried out agrarian reform, which turned out to be primarily in the interests of large landowners. Already in December 1921, King Ferdinand removed the Averescu government, replacing it with the cabinet of T. Ionescu, and in January 1922 with the government of the National Liberal Party led by I. Bratianu. By abolishing the autonomy of the newly annexed regions, dismissing the Avrescian prefects and narrowing the electoral system, the liberals won the general elections in 1922. In foreign policy, the National Liberals focused on France. In the economic sphere, they passed laws to encourage national industry and imposed protective export duties on agricultural products. The process of industrialization began in Romania. The cabinet of I. Bratianu banned the activities of the Communist Party created in 1921, and in 1924 it suppressed the Tatarbunarian peasant uprising in Bessarabia. The Constitution of 1923 defined Romania as a constitutional monarchy. The National Liberals also passed a new electoral law, which gave the party that collected a relative majority of votes absolute dominance in parliament.

However, the elections of 1926 brought a heavy defeat to the National Liberals. They collected only 8% of the votes. The victory was won by the Averescu People's Party (53%). 28% of the votes fell to the National Tsaranist Party, formed in 1924 as a result of the merger of the old Tzaranist Party and the National Party of the Romanians of Transylvania.

Having formed a government, Averescu began to focus his foreign policy on Italy. He ruled without any regard for the opinions of other political parties. In June 1927, King Ferdinand removed him and appointed the “national” government of Barbu Stirbey, which soon fell due to the withdrawal of the liberals. In the new elections, the National Liberal Party returned to power (63%). However, the government of I. Bratianu, which sought to develop national industry, encountered discontent from Western financial circles, which refused Romania a stabilization loan. In 1926-1928 new peasant uprisings were suppressed.

After the death of King Ferdinand I in 1927, the throne was transferred to his young grandson Mihai (the king's son and Mihai's father, Prince Carol, was expelled from the country in 1925). National liberals predominated in the regency council. But Prince Carol was supported by army circles and nationalists, who managed to create a government headed by Iuliu Maniu in November 1928. In the 1928 elections, the Tsaraniists collected 79% of the votes. In 1930, the prince returned to Romania and was proclaimed king under the name of Carol II (1930-1940).

Romania's economic development was interrupted by the agrarian crisis, which began in the late 1920s and reached its peak in 1930. It was caused by the failure of agrarian reform and the low competitiveness of Romanian grain on the world market. The nationalist cabinets of Maniu, Mironescu and Vaida-Voevoda were in power until 1931, when their party lost the elections and after winning the elections in 1932 until the end of 1933. In 1933, the government suppressed mass protests of workers (railroad workers, oil workers, etc.). At the end of 1933, the National Liberals returned to power, promising to save the country from the crisis and receiving 52% of the votes in the elections. The post of Prime Minister in January 1934 was taken by G. Tatarescu. The government began to militarize the economy. In 1936-1937, laws were passed that expanded the powers of the executive branch, strengthened censorship and prohibited the propaganda of “principles of class struggle.” Political trials were transferred to the jurisdiction of military tribunals. The rights of local police authorities increased. Pursuing a nationalist policy, the authorities waged a campaign against the “dominance of alien elements” in Romanian society, limited the entrepreneurial activities of representatives of national minorities and expelled them from the state apparatus. Anti-Semitism and anti-Hungarian sentiments intensified.

In this wave, far-right and fascist organizations intensified, primarily the Iron Guard, created in 1930, led by Corneliu Codreanu, which promoted anti-Semitism and racism and was oriented toward Nazi Germany. In 1937, this movement concluded a “non-aggression pact” with the National Tsaranists, the opposition faction of the National Liberals, etc. The general elections in December 1937 brought the government list headed by G. Tatarescu, who was supported by the king, only 36.5% of the votes. 21% went to the national tsaranists. Fascist and far-right organizations have strengthened significantly: the Iron Guard received 16% of the vote, the anti-Semitic National Christian Party more than 9%. Under these conditions, King Carol II carried out a coup d'etat and appointed an extra-parliamentary government led by the National Christian leader Octavian Goga, and then by the Orthodox Patriarch Miron Cristea. In March 1938, a new dictatorial constitution was adopted, parliament was dissolved, the activities of pariahs were effectively suspended, the opposition press was suppressed and a repressive law “on the protection of state security” was introduced. A new administrative system was introduced. At the same time, the royal dictatorship dealt with its rival, the Iron Guard, in November 1938. The leader of the "guards" Codreanu was shot. In February 1939, the authorities established a single pro-government political group, the National Revival Front.

In March 1939, the new government was headed by Arman Calinescu. In foreign policy, the cabinet tried to maneuver, trying to adapt to the rapidly changing international situation. To neutralize the growing Hungarian claims to Transylvania, Romania entered into an economic agreement with Nazi Germany, but delayed its ratification, seeking security guarantees from Great Britain and France, which were given to it. After the outbreak of World War II, the country declared its neutrality. Germany put increasing pressure on Romania. In September, Prime Minister Calinescu, who had displeased the Nazis, was killed in the Iron Guard putsch. The rebellion was suppressed, and the arrested “guards” were shot.

G. Tatarescu, appointed head of government in November 1939, yielded to pressure from Germany, ratified the economic agreement and amnestied members of the Iron Guard. In 1940, the National Renaissance Front was transformed into the Nation Party.

In June 1940, Soviet troops occupied Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. Tatarescu announced his refusal of British guarantees and then resigned. The new government was headed by Ion Dzhigurtu. In August and September 1940, Germany forced Romania to cede half of the territory of Transylvania to Hungary, and Southern Dobruja to Bulgaria.

Carol II appointed General Ion Antonescu as head of government, who became the de facto dictator of the country (conductor) and also included members of the Iron Guard in his cabinet. He then abdicated the throne in favor of Mihai.

Antonescu finally abolished the constitution, made arrests among British supporters and deprived Jews of Romanian citizenship. Focusing entirely on Germany, he annexed Romania to the Germany-Italy-Japan Pact. This alliance was not prevented by the suppression of a new rebellion of the Iron Guard in 1941 and the execution of 10 thousand of its supporters. Following Germany, Romania entered the war with the USSR, but its troops on Soviet territory were defeated.

In August 1944, the Red Army entered Romania, and King Mihai announced the country's withdrawal from the war. Antonescu was removed and the government of General Constantin Sanatescu was formed with the participation of the National Tsaranists, National Liberals, Social Democrats and Communists. In September, the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition signed a truce with Romania, and in December 1944 the new government was headed by Nicolae Radescu. Left parties oriented toward the USSR formed the National Democratic Front and took power into their own hands in March 1945. The leader of the Agricultural Front organization, Petru Groza, formed a cabinet with the participation of communists, social democrats and certain factions of Tsaranistas and liberals.

In March and April 1945, the authorities carried out agrarian reform, confiscating land from landowners and distributing it among poor and landless peasants. In 1946-1947 the National Bank was nationalized, state control over the credit sector, production and distribution was introduced, and a state monopoly of foreign trade was established. The parliamentary elections of 1946 were still held on a multi-party basis. But in subsequent years, the Tsarani and liberal factions were defeated, the Social Democratic Party was purged and was forced to merge with the Communist Party in 1948, and the Farmers' Front ceased to exist. King Mihai was removed from the throne, and on December 30, 1947 Romania was proclaimed a People's Republic. The country established the undivided dominance of the Communist Party, which adopted the official name of the Romanian Workers' Party (RPP).

Communist regime in Romania. Officially formed in 1948 as a result of the unification of communists and social democrats, the RRP became the only ruling party in the country. In Romania, the creation of a society modeled on the USSR began. In 1948 the nationalization of industry was carried out, and during 1949-1962 collectivization of collectivization was carried out. The Romanian economy developed on the basis of state five-year plans, which put forward industrialization and the primary development of heavy industry as the main task. The concentration of all forces and resources in the hands of the state made it possible to achieve fairly high rates of economic growth at first. Some progress has also been achieved in the cultural field.

According to the constitutions of 1948 and 1952, the highest authority in the Romanian People's Republic (PRR) was the Great People's Assembly, which was elected by universal suffrage for a term of four years. In the intervals between sessions of the meeting, its Presidium, headed by the chairman, acted. This post was held in 1948-1952 by K. Parhon, in 1952-1958 by Petru Groza, and in 1958-1961 by Jon Gheorghe Maurer. Executive power belonged to the government and the Council of Ministers. It was headed until 1952 by P. Groza, in 1952 by 1955 by the leader of the RRP Georgiou Georgiou-Dej, and in 1955 by 1961 by Stoica Kivu. In reality, the first person in the state was the head of the RRP. Moreover, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Romania was under the complete control of the USSR. When an anti-Semitic campaign unfolded in the USSR in the late 1940s, as part of it, the leader of the Romanian communists, Ana Pauker (Jewish by birth), was removed and repressed. Gheorghiu-Dej became the general and then the first secretary of the RRP. Belonging to the Soviet bloc, the RPR joined the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance in 1949, and the Warsaw Pact in 1955.

In the conditions of “de-Stalinization”, which Nikita Khrushchev carried out in the USSR since 1956, the Romanian leadership chose to focus on its own “path to socialism.” In 1957, Soviet troops were withdrawn from the country. In 1964, Gheorghiu-Dej announced that Romania would be independent from the USSR in all matters relating to its sovereignty. Collectivization was completed in 1959-1962. As part of strengthening the powers of the leader of the RRP, a new government body was formed in 1961: the State Council, headed by Georgiu-Dej, the Council of Ministers was headed by J.G. Maurer. In an effort to strengthen the regime, the country's leaders announced a number of social measures: they increased wages and pensions in 1959 and 1964, lowered prices, and introduced child benefits.

After the death of Georgiu-Dej in March 1965, changes took place in the country's leadership system. The leader of Romania was the new first secretary of the RRP, Nicolae Ceausescu; from July 1965, the RRP was renamed the Romanian Communist Party (RCP), and Ceausescu became its general secretary. Kivu Stoica was appointed Chairman of the State Council, and J.G. Maurer was appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers. In 1967, Ceausescu also took the post of Chairman of the State Council, and in 1974 became President of Romania.

In August 1965, Romania was proclaimed a Socialist Republic (SRR). The new constitution consolidated the leading role of the RCP. The main bodies of the state officially remained the Grand National Assembly and the State Council, elected for five years. Since 1975, several candidates were allowed to stand as candidates at local meetings, although all candidates, as before, were subject to approval by the Front for Democracy and Socialist Unity (FDSE), created and controlled by the RCP. Members of the State Council were elected by the national assembly from among the deputies. The State Council was nominally subordinate to the national assembly, but the functions of both branches of government consisted only of ratifying proposals submitted to the RCP for consideration. The Council of Ministers, elected by the National Assembly and responsible to it and the State Council, was the main institution of executive power. Its chairmen were: J.G.Maurer (1965-1974), Manya Manescu (1874-1979), Ilie Verdec (1979-1982), Constantin Deskelescu (1982-1989).

Since 1968, the principle was introduced according to which party leaders at all levels had to simultaneously head the corresponding government bodies.

Under Ceausescu, Romania continued to pursue an independent foreign policy. She refused to take one side or the other in the Sino-Soviet conflict, in 1967 she maintained diplomatic relations with Israel, and in 1968 she did not support the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia. Romania defiantly declared its support for the Non-Aligned Movement.

In domestic policy, a tough course was pursued. Any manifestations of opposition were mercilessly suppressed. Since the 1970s, the Ceausescu personality cult has been growing. In 1983, when he turned 65, he began to be called the “genius of the Carpathians.” They spoke of him as a “conductor” (leader). The Romanian leader's wife, Elena, was also a member of the permanent bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP, and the leader's children and relatives received various government posts.

In the second half of the 1960s, a number of economic measures were adopted, which included, in particular, expanding the financial and economic independence of enterprises and increasing the material incentives of workers. All this did not limit the system of state planning “from above” in any way. Economic growth continued through the 1970s. However, food shortages emerged in the early 1980s, followed by disruptions in electricity production as a result of depleted oil reserves.

Prestigious programs to modernize production, improve the quality and competitiveness of Romanian products failed. Structural imbalances in the economy reached crisis proportions; underutilization of industrial capacity reached 30%. Romania tried to finance its development through Western loans, and the debt to the West exceeded $10 billion. Debts were repaid by reducing imports and increasing the export of goods, including food and consumer goods. In an effort to gain economic independence, the Ceausescu regime began to accelerate the repayment of foreign debt through the introduction of “austerity” and “belt tightening.” In 1975-1989 Romania paid with interest 21 billion dollars. The patience of the masses began to wear thin. The government suppressed protests and strikes (miners, etc.) by force. Ceausescu categorically rejected all calls to implement “perestroika” following the example of Mikhail Gorbachev in the USSR.

In December 1989, riots broke out in the city of Timisoara in protest against the deportation of a Hungarian pastor. On orders from President Ceausescu, the army opened fire and hundreds of people died. But the protests spread to other cities, including the capital. The army leadership refused to support Ceausescu. On December 22, 1989, the president and his wife fled Bucharest by helicopter. They were captured and executed on December 25.

Romania after Ceausescu. Multiparty democracy. Power in the country passed to the Council of the National Salvation Front, created during the uprising and representing, first of all, supporters of reforms. Ion Iliescu, who entered into confrontation with Ceausescu back in the 1970s, was elected its chairman. The Council dissolved the previous government structures. According to his decision, from December 29, 1989, the SRR began to be called simply Romania. The RCP ceased to exist. The new authorities proclaimed a transition to political pluralism, a transformation of the economy with the abandonment of the command-administrative system, and the principles of respecting the rights and freedoms of individuals and national minorities. The activity of the “historical” parties, the National Tsaranists, National Liberals and Social Democrats, resumed. Many new political parties also emerged. In February 1990, the Provisional Council of National Unity was created. Half of the seats in it were allocated to the National Salvation Front (NSF), three seats each were given to representatives of newly created or recreated political organizations. On May 20, 1990, general elections were held in Romania. In the presidential elections, Ion Iliescu won a convincing victory (85% of the vote), ahead of candidates from the National Liberals (11%) and the National Tsaranists (4%). The Federal Tax Service won 263 of 387 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 92 of 119 seats in the Senate. The new government of the country was formed by the representative of the Federal Tax Service, Petru Roman.

Opposition parties continued to try to push former RCP figures out of power. In February and June 1990, right-wing political groups and student activists organized protest camps in central Bucharest, demanding the removal of former communists. In June, protests were suppressed after oppositionists were attacked by thousands of miners visiting the capital, who smashed party bureaus and newspaper offices. But the rapid deterioration of the economic situation, a drop in production, rising inflation to 25% and liberalization of prices for many goods contributed to a new explosion of discontent. In November 1990, demonstrations and blockades resumed in the capital; The opposition created the Civil Forum. The government received emergency economic powers from parliament, purged disloyal officers and began implementing economic reforms. At the beginning of 1991, the authorities announced the liberalization of food prices; in February a law was adopted on the partial privatization of agricultural cooperatives, and in July on the privatization of state-owned enterprises in industry, trade and services.

In September 1991, a ten-thousand-strong miners' demonstration in Bucharest demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Roman, whom protesters accused of soaring prices. During the street clashes, five people were killed and over 400 were injured. President Iliescu ousted Roman and in October appointed non-party specialist Teodor Stolojan, a former finance minister, as prime minister. The new cabinet included not only members of the ruling FTS party, but also representatives of the National Liberal Party (NLP). At the end of 1992, Romania adopted a new constitution, which established the existence of a presidential system with a multi-party system and a market economy.

Meanwhile, most of the main opposition parties created the Democratic Convention (DC) bloc. In February 1992 they managed to win local elections in Bucharest and other large cities. Opposition representative Professor Emil Constantinescu became the mayor of the capital.

The beginning of 1992 was marked by a split in the ruling FTS party. During the confrontation with President Iliescu, former Prime Minister Roman managed to gain support from the Federal Tax Service congress in March. Supporters of President Iliescu left the party and formed a political organization called the Democratic Front for National Salvation (DFNS).

In September 1992, in accordance with the new constitution, presidential and parliamentary elections were held in Romania. In the first round, Iliescu collected 47.3% of the vote, his main rival E. Constantinescu from the Democratic Convention 31.2%, and G. Funar from the extreme nationalist Party of Romanian National Unity (PRNU) 10.9%. In the second, decisive round, Iliescu won, receiving 61.4%. In the parliamentary elections, the DFNS was also successful, which was able to win 117 of 341 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 49 of 143 in the Senate. The Democratic Convention, which included the NLP, NCCDP, Civic Alliance and other opposition parties, received 82 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 34 seats in the Senate. The Federal Tax Service party, led by Roman, got 43 deputy and 18 Senate seats. The Hungarian Democratic Union (HUD), also on the opposition side, had 27 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 12 in the Senate.

Under these conditions, the DFNS could stay in power only by relying on the support of the left Socialist Labor Party (13 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 5 in the Senate), the small centrist Democratic Agrarian Party (5 seats in the Senate) and two extreme nationalist parties PRNE (30 deputies and 14 senators) and “Greater Romania” (16 deputies, 6 senators).

In November 1992, the president appointed non-partisan economist Nicolae Vacaroiu as prime minister, who formed a government of members of the DFNS and persons not affiliated with any political party. It continued its policy of cautious and slow economic reforms, fearing that “shock therapy” would cause a massive outburst of protest. By March 1994, 470 state enterprises were privatized, employing 135 thousand people.

At the same time, the Romanian authorities developed ties with the European Community, signing an association agreement between the country and the EU in February 1993. In October of the same year, Romania was admitted to the European Council.

In 1993, the economic situation improved slightly compared to the previous year. The fall in the gross domestic product (by 15% in 1992) was stopped. However, unemployment continued to rise, exceeding 10%, and price liberalization and the introduction of value added tax caused a surge in inflation (256%). Real incomes of the population fell. In February 1994, trade unions organized a general strike against economic policies.

In October 1993, the government set maximum permissible prices for food products and took control over imports. In 1994, it reached an agreement with the International Monetary Fund: in exchange for a loan of $454 million, Romania pledged to implement austerity measures, cut costs, reduce inflation, and privatize 6,300 enterprises employing 3.8 million over a two-year period. workers. To strengthen the government's position in parliament, the prime minister included two ministers from the PRNE in it in 1994.

The new economic measures immediately encountered public protests. In July 1994, participants in a demonstration of thousands in the capital demanded the resignation of the government, the abolition of restrictions on wage growth and the introduction of a ban on price increases. In the summer of 1994, 64 thousand miners went on strike, they managed to achieve a significant increase in wages. In October 1995, student protests against the deterioration of their financial situation escalated into heavy clashes with the police.

In the field of national policy, the Romanian government pursued a tough course. Hungarian proposals to grant them autonomy in Transylvania were rejected by parliament. In July 1995, an education law was adopted, which significantly limited the rights of national minorities and caused protest demonstrations. In October 1995, after numerous anti-Semitic statements by representatives of the Greater Romania Party, the ruling DFNS was forced, under international pressure, to break the coalition with this nationalist party, which deprived it of its majority in parliament. In March 1996, the alliance of the DFNS with the Socialist Labor Party collapsed, which, together with the nationalists, demanded the rehabilitation of the former dictator Ion Antonescu and the refusal to return state property to the former owners of Jewish nationality. When in September 1996 the Romanian government signed an agreement with Hungary on the inviolability of borders and the rights of national minorities, PRNE left the ruling coalition.

The general elections in November 1996, held in an atmosphere of general dissatisfaction with the rule of the DFNS, brought a landslide victory for the opposition. Iliescu was still in the lead in the first round of the presidential elections (32.3%), beating E. Constantinescu from the Democratic Convention (28.2%) and P. Roman (20.5%), supported by the Social Democratic Union led by the Democratic Party ( former Federal Tax Service). But in the second round, Constantinescu scored 51.4% and was elected head of state.

The former ruling party also lost the parliamentary elections. She managed to win only 91 seats in the Chamber of Deputies (out of 343) and 41 in the Senate (out of 143). The Democratic Convention (DC) received 122 parliamentary and 53 Senate mandates, another 25 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 11 in the Senate were received by its allied VDSR. The Social Democratic Union won 53 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 23 in the Senate. Finally, the nationalist parties PRNU and “Greater Romania” accounted for 37 parliamentary and 15 Senate seats.

The new president appointed Viktor Ciorbea, a former mayor of the capital and a member of the National Center for Christian Democratic Affairs, as prime minister. The government included representatives of the Palace of Culture, the Social Democratic Union and the VDSR. It promised to cut income taxes, encourage foreign investment, introduce a minimum guaranteed pension and develop agriculture. The government program provided for the accelerated privatization of state-owned enterprises, large-scale closure of factories and factories, the adoption of “austerity” measures, and price liberalization. Reducing the budget deficit and inflation. The poor were promised social “compensations.” In exchange, the IMF and World Bank provided the country with loans worth $1.4 billion. In August 1997, the government closed 17 large enterprises and fired about 30 thousand workers.

The Ciorbea government submitted an application for Romania to join NATO, but this request was not accepted in 1997. However, the country continued to focus on the Western bloc. During the Kosovo conflict in 1998-1999, Romania granted NATO aircraft the right to fly over its territory and expressed its willingness to take part in peacekeeping operations in this area (but not in military operations). In 2000, negotiations began on Romania's accession to the EU.

Having come to power, the opposition began to settle scores with its political opponents, accusing them of corruption. The authorities arrested the popular miners' trade union leader Miron Kozma, who was involved in the dispersal of opposition demonstrations in 1990 and protests against Roman's cabinet in 1991. The union demanded the immediate release of the arrested man, but the government did not make concessions (Kozma was released only in the summer of 1998). In August 1997, miners' protests resumed. Until the beginning of 1999, the authorities fired about 90 thousand miners.

At the beginning of 1998, the Chorbya government fell due to acute disagreements within the ruling coalition. The leader of the Democratic Party (PD) Roman hoped to retake the post of prime minister, but the president appointed in April 1998 the head of government to NCDDP member Radu Vasile, who formed a new coalition cabinet.

The new government continued its previous course, but was unable to achieve a significant improvement in the economic situation. Gross domestic product, which fell by 6.5% in 1997, fell another 7.3% in 1998; Unemployment has increased and life expectancy has decreased. The country's external debt exceeded its foreign exchange reserves, and the IMF's recommendations to increase tax collection turned out to be unrealistic. The ruling coalition began to fall apart. The VDSR left the government, dissatisfied with the refusal to open a Hungarian university in Cluj. Romanian nationalism intensified.

At the beginning of 1999, the government announced its intention to close another 30 unprofitable enterprises and mines and thus lay off 90 thousand people. In January, a strike of 20 thousand miners led by Kozma began. Ten thousand miners marched on Bucharest, demanding an end to the mine closures, higher wages and compensation for layoffs. Along the way, thousands of local residents joined the procession; the situation threatened to turn into an uprising. The frightened government hastened to give in and sign an agreement with Kozma, promising to refuse to close some of the mines and increase the miners' wages. But it quickly became clear that the authorities only wanted to gain time. In February 1999, the Supreme Court sentenced Cozma to 18 years in prison for participating in a riot against the Roman government in 1991. The arrest of the trade union leader and three of his supporters caused a new march of miners on Bucharest, involving up to 4 thousand people. This time the authorities were better prepared and suppressed the protest; 2 people died. (M. Kozma was released only after the opposition won the elections).

In the context of further aggravation of the social situation, the struggle for power in the leadership of the largest government party, NCCDP, intensified. In December 1999, twelve of the 17 ministers resigned in protest against the actions of Prime Minister Vasile. Accusing him of delaying reforms, President Constantinescu removed the head of government and appointed in his place the former director of the National Bank, Mugur Isarescu. The main positions in the cabinet were occupied by representatives of the NCCDP, NLP, DP and DSVR. The government promised to achieve EU membership, complete the privatization process by 2001, reduce inflation and the budget deficit, and restore economic growth. But already in the spring of 2000, it received a new heavy blow, when, due to the collapse of the National Investment Fund, the most severe financial crisis since 1989 erupted, affecting at least 500 thousand people. In June, the opposition PSDR won a landslide victory in local elections. In the run-up to the 2000 general elections, the ruling coalition began to fall apart. NLP left the Palace of Culture and announced its intention to speak at them independently. On the contrary, the opposition consolidated its forces. PSDR agreed on cooperation with the Greater Romania party.

The general elections in November-December 2000 were won by the Social Democrats and Nationalists. Iliescu was re-elected president. In the first round, he received 36.4% of the votes, ahead of the leader of “Greater Romania” Corneliu Tudor (28.3%), the PNL candidate Stolojan (11.8%), the head of the Romanian Democratic Convention 2000 Isarescu (9.5%), DP leader Roman (3%) and others. In the second round, Iliescu won a landslide victory over Tudor (66.8%). In the parliamentary elections, the Social Democratic Pole bloc (PDSR, Romanian Social Democratic and Humanist parties) won, although it did not achieve an absolute majority in parliament. The reorganized Democratic Convention failed to get a single candidate into parliament.

After the elections, a government was formed led by PSDR representative Adrian Nastasse.

In subsequent years, the Romanian party system underwent some changes. Both the government and the opposition are trying to consolidate their forces. In June 2001, the PDSR and the RSDP merged into a new ruling party, which elected Prime Minister Nastasse as its chairman. In turn, in 2002, the Alliance for Romania joined the NLP, and the right-wing conservative National Christian Democratic Alliance, founded by former Prime Minister V. Ciorbea. returned to NCCDP. In 2003, NLP and DP Romana entered into an alliance agreement.

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Political life in the period 1918–1937.

Political parties. A direct consequence of the unification of 1918 and the reforms carried out during the First World War, as well as after its end, was the complete eradication of the political system, under which two parties dominated the Old Kingdom - the National Liberals and the Conservatives. Following the passage of laws on universal suffrage and agrarian reform, the Conservative Party collapsed. After 1918, only once, in 1922, did the conservative group under the leadership of Take Ionescu manage to come to power, but in the elections held at the end of that year, it did not receive a single seat in parliament. The Conservative Party disappeared from the Romanian political scene.

The National Liberal Party (NLP) continued to play an important role in the political life of the country after the war. The Liberals were in power from 1914 to 1918 (with a short break in March–November 1918), when they, like other liberal parties in Europe, lost the elections they organized on the basis of universal suffrage. After a short respite associated with the reorganization and expansion of their influence in the annexed territories, the liberals returned to power again in the period 1922–1928. (with a break in March–November 1927) and 1933–1937. (200) In 1922–1927 The liberals achieved the greatest success. The basis of the National Liberal Party was the financial oligarchy, united around the Romanian Bank and led by the Brătianu family. Forced to take into account the conditions that had developed after 1918, liberal leaders developed a new program, which included: the need to adopt a new constitution, implement administrative and legislative unity, achieve economic stabilization, limit the access of foreign capital to the country's economy by implementing the principle of “own resources” ", as well as the establishment of equality between all citizens, etc. In order to strengthen its own organizations in the annexed provinces, the National Liberal Party united with the Peasant Party of Bessarabia and the Democratic Party of the Unification of Bukovina, and in Transylvania managed to attract to its side a number of representatives of the Romanian /560/ elite. Ion I. C. Brătianu was elected chairman of the party, and the top leadership included Vintile Brătianu, I. G. Duca, Constantin I. C. Brătianu, Gheorghe Brătianu, Constantin Angelescu, Gheorghe Tătărescu and others. The main publication of the party was the newspaper "Viitorul" ("Future"). (201)

The death of Ion I. C. Brătianu in November 1927 caused changes in the leadership of this political party. The party was headed by Vintile Brătianu, but a year later the liberals left power. After the death of Ion I. C. Bratianu, several factions formed within the NLP. In 1930, despite the reorganization, disagreements continued to exist within the party. Gheorghe Brătianu created the “NLP Gheorghe Brătianu” (the program of which included the moral renewal of the country, the introduction of strict principles of economy, the reduction of duties and taxes, the establishment of strict control over the property of officials, etc.), and Constantin Argetoianu, who also left the liberals, founded his own political party "Agrarian Union". In December 1930, I. G. Duca was elected to the post of chairman of the NLP. His attempts to restore the prestige of the party were unsuccessful, and three years later he was killed by representatives of the extreme right forces. Constantin (Dinu) Brătianu became the leader of the party. The National Liberal Party returned to power in 1934, but King Carol II appointed Gheorghe Tătărescu, a member of the Young Liberals, as head of government rather than the chairman of the PLP.

At the beginning of the interwar period, the National Liberal Party did not have a political competitor equal in strength; thanks to this circumstance, there was no external pressure on it, and the level of internal tension decreased. In addition, the leader of the liberals, Ion I. C. Bratian, managed to find a common language with King Ferdinand. This situation changed in 1926, when the National Cerenist Party appeared on the Romanian political scene, formed as a result of the merger of the National Party of Transylvania (under the leadership of Iuliu Maniu) with the Peasant Party of the Old Kingdom. Iuliu Maniu was elected as party chairman. Other prominent figures of the party were Alexandru Vaida-Voevod, Ion Mihalache, Nicolae Lupu and others. Although, compared to the liberals, the National Cerenist Party enjoyed wider support from the electorate, it was in power for a rather short time in 1928–1931. and in 1932–1933. (202) /561/

The leaders of the National Tserenists, who had a sense of patriotism, but lacked the political dexterity and flexibility that the liberals possessed, made a number of tactical mistakes, among which was their electoral alliance with the extreme right forces in 1937. This was accompanied by their unsuccessful rise to power precisely during the period global economic crisis. The party program contained very important provisions, such as ensuring the rights and freedoms of citizens, carrying out administrative reform in order to decentralize and strengthen local self-government, removing justice from the influence of political forces, etc. The new party paid special attention to agriculture, based on considerations that Romania should remain an agricultural country. Its main printed organ was the newspaper “Dreptatya” (“Justice”). Having lost power, the National Tsarenist Party remained one of the main opposition forces in relation to dictatorial regimes, advocating the preservation of a democratic system based on the provisions of the Constitution of 1923. At the same time, the party was not without internal contradictions and rivalries, and many of its figures either moved to other parties or created their own political groups. For example, N. Lupu formed a new Peasant Party, while trying to restore the former party under the same name, and E. Filipescu joined the ranks of the People's Party. (203)

In addition to the National Liberal and National Cerani parties, such political forces as the People's Party (led by Marshal Alexandru Averescu, which was represented in the government in 1920–1921 and in 1926–1927), and the Nationalist Democratic Party alternated in power. the party led by the famous historian Nikolai Iorga (1931–1932), the National Christian Party led by Octavian Goga and A.C. Cuza (1937–1938). On the political scene of Romania, such parties as the Socialist Party, the Democratic Party of the Unification of Bukovina (leader Ion Nistor), the Peasant Party of Bessarabia (leader Ion Inculec) showed themselves, and parties of national minorities were also represented (Hungarian Party, Hungarian Union, German Party, People's Swabian Party, Jewish Party, Jewish Union), etc.

As a result of outside influence, parties of extreme left and extreme right forces appeared in Romania, which, however, in the interwar /562/ During this period, they were unable to obtain the required number of votes in the elections to take power. Compared to other European countries, the influence of left-wing parties in the Romanian political arena has been limited. In November 1918, the Social Democratic Party of the Old Kingdom was renamed the Socialist Party and finally severed relations with the Second International. Following the December 1, 1918 vote to unite their province with Romania, the Transylvanian Social Democrats decided to work with the Socialist Party of the Old Kingdom to achieve unity in the labor movement throughout the country. At the congress of the Socialist Party of the Old Kingdom, held in May 1919, an election program was adopted, which was joined by the rest of the country's socialist parties and which provided for the introduction of universal suffrage for persons over 18 years of age, the expropriation of all landowners' land, the nationalization of industry, and the implementation of reforms in favor of the workers, etc. The Congress also decided to include four representatives of Transylvania in the Executive Committee, as well as two representatives each of Bukovina and Bessarabia, which essentially meant the unification of the socialist parties. (204)

In 1921, the Socialist Party was divided into supporters of the Third International (communists) and those who advocated maintaining the social democratic line. In October 1922, the Second Congress of the Communist Party of Romania took place, at which the General Secretary (Gheorghe Cristescu) was elected, the Central Committee was formed and its charter was adopted. According to the charter, the Communist Party of Romania was in the position of a department of the Comintern, unconditionally accepting as its own only the goals and objectives of the Comintern. Throughout the interwar period, the number of the CPR was insignificant. As a result of the adopted program and the ongoing anti-national ideology, as well as after the bloody incidents in the town of Tatarbunary in 1924, near the Romanian-Soviet border, the Communist Party was outlawed. (205)

On the far right flank of the Romanian political struggle was the legionary movement, which was entangled in mysticism, encouraged hatred and intolerance, anti-Semitism and anti-Western sentiments. In the first half of the 20s, the role of /563/ of political parties was absolutely insignificant. The beginning of the legionary movement dates back to 1922–1923, when Corneliu Zelea Codreanu created the Association of Christian Students, and then Professor A.C. Cuza of the University of Iasi founded the National Christian Defense League, which included Codreanu’s society. This organization opposed political parties, spoke out for limiting the role of parliament and for strengthening the role of the monarchy in the political life of the country. The National Christian Defense League created its own paramilitary units, called Lanchiers (Uhlans), who often resorted to violence, mainly against Jews. However, a conflict arose within the League between its leader A.C. Cuza and his closest collaborator Zelea Codreanu. The first gave the League the significance of a broad supra-party national movement and supported the idea of ​​​​conducting educational measures in order to change the mentality of the masses. While Codreanu sought to make it a well-organized party, which would launch an intensified anti-Semitic campaign and use any means (including murder) to achieve its goal. He sought to spread his ideas through the press and at open meetings.

In 1927, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu founded the Legion of Michael the Archangel, which after 1930 was called the “Iron Guard” and had much in common with the extremist parties of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy (glorification of the leader, form of greeting, dress code, anti-Semitism), and its He recruited members and sympathizers primarily from among urban youth, including students, as well as from the ranks of rural priests, workers, peasants and people on the margins of public life. After the assassination of liberal Prime Minister I. G. Duca in 1933, the Iron Guard was outlawed, but the following year it was transformed into a political party called All for the Fatherland. In the elections in 1937, the legionary party took third place, receiving the largest number of votes throughout its existence. After the elimination of its leader by order of the king in 1938, the legionary party, led by Horea Sima, who enjoyed some support from Hitler's Germany, returned to the Romanian political arena in 1940. (206) /564/

Parliament represented the legislative branch, and its activities were carried out on the basis of the 1923 Constitution. It consisted of two chambers (the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies), and the post of chairman of parliament was, as a rule, occupied by a well-known political or cultural figure of the country. The Chamber of Deputies consisted of deputies (residing in Romania and over 25 years of age) who were elected by the adult population through universal, direct, equal, compulsory and secret suffrage. Part of the Senate was made up of members by right, which included the heirs to the throne who had reached the age of 18, the metropolitan of the country, diocesan bishops of two Romanian faiths, heads of churches recognized by the state, the president of the Romanian Academy, former chairmen of the Council of Ministers, whose total experience in this post was four years, former ministers with a total experience of six years, former chairmen of parliamentary chambers, former chairmen of local parliaments of Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia. Members of parliament could make requests to the government, and ministers were responsible for their actions to the legislature. The majority in parliament belonged to representatives of the National Liberal and National Tsarenist parties, and during the meetings important documents for Romanian society were adopted: ratification of peace treaties, approval of the unification acts of Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia with the Romanian Kingdom, administrative law, agrarian reform, law on elections, budget, etc. The most important legislative act was the adoption of a new Constitution in March 1923. In it, Romania was proclaimed a nationally united and indivisible state, whose population was guaranteed the most advanced civil rights and freedoms, which made it possible to consider it one of the most democratic constitutions of its time. The Constitution guaranteed citizens personal freedom, inviolability of housing, freedom of conscience, freedom of speech and press. It contained provisions that guaranteed property rights. According to the basic law of the country, power belonged to the people, who exercised it through their elected representatives on the basis of the principles written in the constitution, including the principle of separation of powers. (207)

Government. According to the 1923 Constitution, executive power was exercised on behalf of the king. Between 1918 and /565/ 1940 38 offices were replaced in Romania. Measures were taken to achieve legislative unity and integration of the annexed provinces, a monetary circulation system was organized with the introduction of a single coin in 1920, agrarian reform was carried out, a law on territorial unity was adopted, and laws were prepared on the economic and cultural development of the country.

One of the most important tasks of most governments in the early post-war years was to carry out agrarian reform. The law on agrarian reform in Oltenia, Wallachia, Moldova and Dobruja was adopted on July 17, 1921, and on July 30 - for Transylvania, Banat, Crisana and Maramures, as well as for Bukovina. These laws generalized those adopted in 1917–1920. legislative acts in this area. Essentially, they had a uniform character, taking into account some unique features of each province. A common provision has become the impossibility of selling or mortgaging the received land until it is fully redeemed. It should be noted, however, that the largest allotments were allocated in Transylvania, where the political consciousness of the peasantry was most developed, and the liberals sought to gain significant support. (208)

Based on the new fundamental law, a law on territorial unity was adopted in July 1925, and a new election law was adopted in March 1926. According to the law on administrative structure, Romania was divided into counties (led by prefects), and these, in turn, were divided into volosts (led by praetors), which consisted of urban or rural communes and villages, headed by mayors. The new law of 1938 on the administrative structure introduced an additional link - tsinuts, each of which united several counties. 10 tzinuts were formed throughout the country, at the head of which the king appointed his governors.

As for the electoral legislation, along with those adopted in 1918–1920. provisions in March 1926, the law on the “electoral bonus” was published, according to which the party that achieved 40% of the total number of votes received 50% of parliamentary seats. The rest of the mandates were distributed among all parties participating in the elections, taking into account the party that won the “electoral bonus”. Although this law contradicted the provisions of the 1923 Constitution, since it favored /566/ Voted only by one political party, it was preserved until 1939. Important legislative acts included laws on the development of education (on primary education in 1924 and on secondary education in 1928), on the structure of the judiciary, etc.

After the unification of Transylvania with Romania, almost 8% of the country's population were Greek Catholics. The Orthodox and Greek Catholic Churches were recognized as "national churches" and enjoyed government support. In February 1925, by a separate law, the Metropolitan of Wallachia was elevated to the rank of Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Miron Cristea became the first patriarch. In May 1928, a law was approved on the general principles of the operation of cults, which provided that, along with the Orthodox, there were also such faiths as the Greek Catholic (Uniate), Catholic, Reformed, Lutheran-Evangelical, Unitarian, Armenian-Gregorian, Jewish Deyskoe and Muslim. Other laws were adopted in the spirit of the new realities that arose. (209)

Justice represented the third power in the state. According to the constitution, judicial decisions were made on the basis of law and were executed in the name of the king. The judges became permanent. In 1924, a law on the structure of the judiciary was adopted. According to this law, representatives of the judiciary could not hold other public positions, be elected to parliament or municipal and county councils, did not have the right to hold administrative positions or be elected to the audit commissions of commercial companies, but enjoyed the right to teach at the country's law faculties or universities at the place of residence. (210)

Monarchy. According to the constitution and charter of the royal family, the king appointed the prime minister, appointed and recalled ministers, approved laws, had the right to conclude agreements and treaties, mint coins, assign awards, and was the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Any official document of the sovereign was signed by the minister who was in charge of the issue under consideration. According to the constitution, the king opened parliamentary sessions by reading his speech from the throne, to which the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate formulated responses. The king announced the closure of the session and could convene extraordinary /567/ parliamentary sessions. The king had the right to dissolve both houses at the same time or one of them. The dissolution decree was to provide for the organization of new elections within two months and the commencement of the work of new legislative chambers within three months. (211)

King Ferdinand, who reigned from 1914–1927, played an important role in the formation and strengthening of the new unified state. On October 15, 1922, the coronation ceremony of Ferdinand and Queen Mary as sovereigns of a united Romania took place at the Unification Cathedral in Alba Iulia. During his reign, a program was implemented to complete the unification process, development and modernization of society, which occurred against the background of the crisis of the dynasty in 1925, when Crown Prince Carol renounced this right and went abroad with his beloved Elena Lupescu. All attempts by Ferdinand to convince Carol to return were in vain, and then at a joint meeting on January 4, 1926, both houses of parliament, taking into account the fact that the crown prince had renounced the throne, proclaimed Mihai, Karol’s son, the heir of King Ferdinand. Karol was forbidden to return to the country, and measures were also taken against those who could oppose this decision made in January 1926. In 1927, King Ferdinand died, and his young grandson Mihai became the heir. A regency council was created, which included Prince Nicolae (Carol's brother), Patriarch of Romania Miron Cristea and the President of the Court of Cassation, Gheorghe Buzdugana, who was replaced after his death by Constantin Sareteanu.

After the death of Ferdinand, an intensified campaign was launched in the country in support of the return of Carol and his installation on the throne. At the head of this campaign was the National Tsarenist Party, which in reality in this way sought to remove the liberals from power. After lengthy negotiations with the Nationalist leaders, Carol returned to the country on June 6, 1930, and two days later the parliament proclaimed him King of Romania under the name Carol II. With him was the “royal camarilla,” which consisted of a significant number of people close to him. (212)

The question of the role of King II in the history of Romania has been and remains the subject of constant debate. For many, Carol II is seen as a forerunner of fascism and a traitor /568/ democracy, was, nevertheless, a man of his time who, although he was not able to completely solve all the problems of the period of the 30s, at least strived to overcome them. His activities showed a lack of respect and trust in the principles of democracy of the interwar period. His political credo was an authoritarian system of government, in which the sovereign became the decisive political factor and the initiator of all political actions. Evidence of this was his attitude towards Iuliu Maniu, who ensured his return from exile and to whom Carol responded with ingratitude. Maniu supported the idea of ​​democracy under the control of a constitutional monarchy; Carol, for his part, believed that the prime minister should only be the executor of the will of the king. The break between the king and Iuliu Maniu is regarded as the end of the democratic experiment. Maniu's resignation from the post of prime minister, the official reason for which was Carol's extramarital affairs with Elena Lupescu, could not hide the real reason for this break, namely the king's refusal to cede the palm to the head of government and submit to nationalist policies. Along with the accusations against Elena Lupescu (who was of Jewish origin), Maniu raised the Jewish question, which in the 1930s was increasingly present in the speeches of political leaders and cultural figures. (213)

Romanian political life in the 1930s was marked by the collapse of democratic institutions. Liberals and nationalists have lost the dominance they enjoyed in the previous decade. The resignation of Iuliu Maniu from the post of prime minister was followed by a period of ministerial leapfrog. (214) In April 1931, a government of national unity was formed under the chairmanship of Nikolai Iorga. Unlike the previous ones, this cabinet was not formed along party lines; all its members were appointed by the king. Such a government was in every way in the interests of the king, who could thus do without the support of major political parties. Government policies in the period 1931–1933. was not particularly dynamic, and specially taken measures to resolve social and economic issues did not lead to any results. /569/

The formation of a new nationalist cabinet under the chairmanship of Alexander Vaida-Voevoda (June 1932 - September 1933) also could not be considered the best solution to the issue. Moreover, as a result of the economic crisis and the suppression of the labor movement by force (for example, the railway strike in February 1933), there was a significant decrease in the popularity of the party. (215) In the fall of 1933, the national-Tsarenist government was replaced by another - the national-liberal one, headed by I. G. Duca. The new prime minister took measures to eliminate the consequences of the economic crisis and reduce tension in the country. He took an irreconcilable position against the Iron Guard, which he disbanded. The Iron Guards took revenge for this by killing him in December of that year.

Appointed to replace I. G. Duca on January 4, 1934, the leader of the “young liberals” Gheorghe Tătărescu headed the government with the longest stay in power in the history of interwar Romania. Until November 17, 1937, it implemented a program that gave a significant impetus to the development of the national economy, especially industry; it supported customs protectionism, the issuance of loans to new enterprises, etc. Particular attention was paid to the armed forces, which were modernized (taking into account the growing manifestations of revisionism in the international arena), agriculture was also supported through the issuance of loans and the adoption of a number of measures that could improve the technical equipment and quality of products in this area. While Tătărescu's government was in power, significant economic growth was achieved, with the result that in 1937 the level of social production increased by 70% compared to 1932, and national income increased by 60%. (216) During this period, the role of the monarchy increased. Transgressing the scope of his powers established by the constitution, Karol influenced the government, which in turn adopted a number of legislative measures that allowed him to completely control the situation in the country. In fact, proposals for the adoption of laws aimed at strengthening the powers of the executive branch and weakening the role of parliament and the opposition came mainly from Karol himself.

The period of the 1930s was largely marked by increasing tensions between the king and the major political /570/ political parties, on the one hand, and between the king and the extreme right forces, on the other. After the assassination of I. G. Duca, for the first time since 1862, censorship was reintroduced, and the government received the right to act solely on the basis of royal decrees. The split within the liberal wing was facilitated by Gheorghe Brătianu, an adherent of the old Bratian tradition (the son of I.I.C. Brătianu, an outstanding historian, but a very mediocre politician) and someone close to King Gheorghe Tătărescu. The Liberals, although they had achieved significant success in the socio-economic and cultural fields, began to gradually lose their popularity, which led to their defeat in the elections at the end of 1937 (217).