n, and immediately after the war the Communist Party in Romania appeared more as a confederation of fiefdoms run by individual leaders than the well-directed political weapon envisioned by Lenin. The Party might not have survived without Soviet backing. Soviet control overall hampered the efforts of the Romanian government to administer the country, and the Soviets checked efforts toward democratic elections (Bachman, 1989, pp. 44-45).
Over the next few years the communists consolidated their power and infiltrated more deeply into the government. At the same time, their ranks swelled in the population at large. Soviet control also tightened as different political alliances emerged. In March 1948 the government held elections including the facade of opposition-party candidates for the first time, and the Popular Democratic Front (the Communist Party's umbrella front organization) took 405 of the 414 seats. The new National Assembly proclaimed the creation of the Romanian People's Republic and adopted a Stalinist constitution, an assembly that ostensibly became the supreme organ of state authority, though in reality the Communist Party's Politburo and the state Council of Ministers held the real power. The constitution also included civil and political rights and recognized private property, but it was not long before the authorities renounced the separation of the judiciary and executive and established the Department of State Security, commonly known as the Securitate, the secret police. In 1949 acts considered dangerous to society were made punishable even if the acts were not specifically defined by law as crimes. Economic crimes were now punishable by death. Local "people's councils" were created to further tighten the hold of the central government on the country (Bachman, p. 50).
Romanian society was changed much over the years between 1948 and 1965 under the leadership of Gheorghiu-Dej, who attempted to move the Pa...