Rumanian Communist Party

(RCP; Partidul Communist Roman), a political party founded in May 1921 at a Congress of the Socialist Party, thereafter known as the Rumanian Communist Party’s First, or Founding, Congress. The party was called the Socialist-Communist Party of Rumania until late 1922, when it was renamed the Communist Party of Rumania. Between February 1948 and July 1965 it was called the Rumanian Workers’ Party; in July 1965 it took the name Rumanian Communist Party.

The party was organized at a time of revolutionary upswing in Rumania, stimulated by the October Socialist Revolution of 1917 in Russia. The First Congress resolved that the party would join the Comintern, expressed its solidarity with the Russian proletariat, condemned the imperialist policy of unleashing a war against Soviet Russia, and called for the establishment of peaceful relations with neighboring countries. The Second Congress, held in 1922, adopted temporary Party Rules.

The party was outlawed in April 1924 and operated underground until Aug. 23, 1944. In 1929 antiparty elements began a factional struggle that brought the party to the brink of collapse. In 1930 the healthy forces within the party, aided by the Executive Committee of the Communist International, put an end to the factional struggle and restored party unity. The party’s Fifth Congress (December 1931) played an important role in the Rumanian workers’ movement. The Congress discussed the nature, stages, and motive forces of the Rumanian revolution. Guided by the decisions of the Congress, the party applied the tactic of uniting all workers, regardless of their political affiliation, in united Action Committees. The united front tactic was especially successful during the 1933 mass demonstrations of railroad and oil workers, which were led by the party. In subsequent years the party was instrumental in creating the Antifascist Democratic Front of Struggle.

During the fascist military dictatorship (1940–44), which on June 22, 1941, drew Rumania into World War II on the side of fascist Germany, the party led the patriotic forces struggling to overthrow the dictatorship and end the war against the USSR. In June 1943 the Patriotic Anti-Hitlerite Front was established through the party’s efforts. On May 1, 1944, the Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party organized the United Workers’ Front despite the opposition of right-wing Social Democrats. Under the favorable conditions created by the successful offensive of the Soviet Army, the Communist Party organized the Popular Armed Uprising of Aug. 23, 1944, which caused the overthrow of the fascist military regime.

Led by the Communist Party, the persistent struggle of the working masses against reaction resulted in the formation of Rumania’s first democratic government in March 1945, in which members of the working class held the most important positions. On the party’s initiative, an agrarian reform and several other democratic changes were carried out. The National Conference held in October 1945 urged the party to consolidate the people’s democratic system that had emerged and set forth the task of industrialization and electrification. In May 1946 a coalition of democratic parties was formed around a platform drawn up by the Communist Party, and in November 1946 the coalition won the parliamentary elections.

After the abolition of the monarchy on Dec. 30, 1947, and the proclamation of the republic, the party directed the working people’s efforts to carry out the tasks of the socialist revolution. In February 1948 the Communist Party merged, on the basis of Marxism-Leninism, with the Social Democratic Party to form a united party of the working class, the Rumanian Workers’ Party. This was the First (Unification) Congress of the Rumanian Workers’ Party and the Sixth Congress of the Rumanian Communist Party. The Congress marked the end of the struggle to overcome the rift in the Rumanian workers’ movement.

The democratic constitution adopted in April 1948 consolidated the political gains of the working people. The nationalization of the basic means of production in June 1948 destroyed the economic domination of the bourgeoisie and opened the way to socialist industrialization. The Eighth Congress of the Rumanian Communist Party (June 1960) noted that the economic base of socialism had been created in Rumania and that the country had entered the period of completing socialist construction. In March 1965, after the death of G. Gheorghiu-Dej, who from 1945 had served initially as general secretary and later as first secretary of the party’s Central Committee, N. Ceauşescu was elected first secretary of the Central Committee. The Ninth Congress (July 1965) confirmed the complete victory of socialist production relations in the city and countryside.

A new constitution proclaiming Rumania a socialist republic was adopted on Aug. 21, 1965. Article 3 of the Constitution gave legal sanction to the leading political role of the Rumanian Communist Party. The National Party Conference held in December 1967 discussed problems of economic development and ways of improving the organization of the national economy and the country’s public life.

The Tenth Congress (August 1969) discussed the directives for the fourth five-year plan (1971–75) and the basic guidelines for a long-range economic program (to 1980). The Congress established as the main future task the steady expansion and improvement of the country’s economic and technical base and the building of a fully developed socialist society. The National Party Conference held in July 1972 discussed the country’s economic development in the fourth five-year period and in the subsequent 20-year period. It also considered ways of improving the planned management of society and decided to create new party and state organs. The March 1974 plenum of the Central Committee of the Rumanian Communist Party abolished the Standing Presidium of the Central Committee and created the Executive Committee of the Central Committee. The Eleventh Congress (November 1974) adopted a party program, directives for the five-year plan for 1976–80, and the basic guidelines for the country’s social and economic development from 1981 to 1990, and approved changes in the Party Rules (the Executive Committee of the Central Committee was renamed the Political Executive Committee). The National Party Conference held in December 1977 discussed measures aimed at the further social and economic development of Rumania. It also considered ways of raising the living standard of the people, strengthening socialist legality, and developing socialist democracy.

The Rumanian Communist Party participated in the international conferences of communist and workers’ parties held in Moscow in 1957, 1960, and 1969, and in the Conference of Communist and Workers’ Parties of Europe held in Berlin in 1976, and signed the documents adopted by these conferences.

In 1977, the party had 2.7 million members; the rank of candidate was abolished by the new Rules. The party united with the trade unions and other public organizations to form the Socialist Unity Front in November 1968.

By the Party Rules adopted in 1965 (the previous ones had been adopted in 1945), the party’s organizational principle is democratic centralism. The highest body is the Congress; between Congresses it is the Central Committee, which elects from among its members the Political Executive Committee and the Secretariat. N. Ceauşescu is general secretary of the Rumanian Communist Party. The party’s main press organ is the newspaper Scînteia, and its theoretical organ is the magazine Erăsocialist ă.

Table 1 gives a list of the Congresses and Conferences of the Rumanian Communist Party.