Losing Freedom. The Dramatic Events Which Lead to the Installation of the Communist Regime

At the beginning of the 2 nd World War, the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact gave the Soviet Union the permission to annex Basarabia. Stalin immediately proceeded with the annexation, sending Romania an ultimatum which it could not refuse, as it found itself alone facing the imminence of war.

As the political influence of the monarch weakened, the legionary movement took lead, through a series of assasinations, and the king was forced to hand over the power to a military Government. Thus, the military dictature was installed. Before long, it started imposing radical measures such as the disolution of political parties, the handing over of the administration and public order to the army, radical changes to the suffrage law and the introduction of censorship.

The legionary movement's leaders decided that Romania should join the war on the side of Germany , hoping to regain the lost terriroties in the East. However, the defeat was disastuous and Russia 's counter-strike, in 1944, brought the front on the Romanian territory. Germany 's loss was now within sight, so Romanian political leaders agreed that the political regime imposed by the military dictator was no longer viable. As they brought down the dictatorship, they also signed an armistice with the United Nations in quite unfavourable circumstances: it was decided that the country's territory would be limited, proclaiming Basarabia's annexation to the Soviet Union . Russia 's influence in the region was also silently settled in the armistice. Taking advantage of the circumstances and drawing some of the front parties of Romania into a coallition, the Communist Party, supported by the leaders in Moscow , saw an opportunity to gain ground in its quest for power.

In the next two years, the communists used various schemes to bring about the fall of the legally elected governments and, under the protection and with the cooperation of the Soviet Union, managed to fraud the elections, disolve the opposing parties, arrest bothering political leaders of the opposition and, in the end, force the king to abdicate.   [UP]