8. Up until 1940, Romania was a monarchy but one in which a large landholder oligarchy was dominant. Until World War II, although there had been some Western investments in Romania's petroleum, metallurgy and chemical industries, its economy was predominantly agricultural. Squeezed between German and Russian ambitions in Balkans, Romania became an ally of the Nazis and was ruled during World War II by Marshall Ion Antonescu and his Iron Guards, a fascist and xenophobic regime which committed anti semitic massacres which were so bloody and disorderly that they met with Adolf Eichman's disapproval. Romanian politics during the inter war period had a comic opera quality. Parliamentary democracy never took hold in Romania because of a fundamental clash between eastern and western oriented factions, which Hutchins described as follows: one held Rumania to be part of Europe and thus destined to develop economically and socially [like] the West and the other that emphasized the country's inherent agrarian character and the consequent need to cleave to tradition" (1071).
Kaplan said "political life [in Romania] is characterized by a peculiar mysticism and theatricality" (14). After the 1989 revolution, Gilberg was pessimistic about the chances of democracy succeeding because of the "basic authoritarianism of much of the working class and peasantry" (412).
Ceaucescu established a totalitarian regime which was extreme even by post war Eastern European standards. There had been some relaxation of political and economic rigidity and liberalization of culture during the Khrushchev era. After he consolidated power, Ceausescu effectively silenced all dissent in Romania. Hitchins described his 24 year rule as "the nightmare of living under the Securitate, the black uniformed bodyguard of a regime of voluptuous crue
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