Petru Groza , (December 7th 1884 - January 7th, 1958) was an important political figure of the inter-war period in Romania, and became chief of the Coalition government of 1945 with 1952.
Groza, which founds a country radical organization named the Front of the Plowmen ( Frontul Plugarilor ) during the Grande Depression, becomes Head of State in 1945 at the time when Nicolae Rădescu, a military general of scale, which briefly ensured the capacity at the end of the Second world war, is resigned by the Commissaire of the People representing for the Foreign affairs of the Soviet Union, Andrei Y. Vishinsky.
With Groza as Head of the State until 1952, the king of Romania, Michel Ier of Romania ( Mihai Al României ) are forced to abdicate in 1947, when the nation becomes officially the Popular republic of Romania.
Although its authority and its capacity of Head of the State are compromised by the relations with the Soviet Union, Groza governs the consolidation of the law Communiste in Romania, and is replaced Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej in 1952.
Its childhood and its career
Born easy parents with Băcia, a small town close to Deva in Transylvania, Groza has many opportunities in its youth and its career to establish relations and a degree of notoriety which will be shown very useful for the continuation in its political career. Groza begins its higher learning in Romania, at the university of Bucharest, before continuing them with Leipzig and Berlin.
The day before the First World War, Groza finishes its studies and turns over to Deva for travaiialer like lawyer. In 1918, Groza emerges on the political scene by obtaining a station with the Leading Conseil of Transylvania ( Consiliul Dirigent ), that it keeps the two following years. For this period of its life, Groza establishes a collection of political contacts, while working in various religious and political organizations of Transylvania. From 1919 with 1927, for example, Groza obtains the station of representative to the Synode and the Congress of the Rumanian orthodoxe Église.
Beginning 1920, Groza starts to occupy the post of minister for Transylvania and of Minister for Labor Public and Communications. At that time, it piles up a personal fortune as a Landowner easy and is established an important reputation like Layman in the Rumanian Orthodoxe Church, a station which will be useful to him later with the Rumanian Communist party which hopelessly tries to attract the support of the Église of the East which is the religious group most popular of the nation in 1945.
Rise with the capacity
In spite of its short withdrawal of the public life in 1928 after having held of the minor political stations, Groza reconsiders the front of the scene in 1933, by melting a radical political organization at country base, the Front of the Plowmen. Although the movement initially started to be opposed at the levels debt increasingly higher of the Rumanian peasants during the recession and to the incapacity of the Parti National Peasant to carry assistance to the most marginalized country class, in 1944 the organization is mainly under control of the Communists.
Whereas the Communist party has a little more than one thousand of ahérents official in 1944, the Rumanian communist chiefs are forced to establish a broad coalition of political organizations. This coalition includes/understands four major organizations: the Rumanian Company for the Friendship with the Soviet Union, the Union of the Patriots of Romania, the Patriotic Defense of Romania and, by far most widespread in the people, the Face of the Plowmen of Groza. Thanks to its position as political leader of the largest organization of the communist face, Groza can remain eminent in the Rumanian political arena when the Face of the Plowmen joined the Rumanian Communist party to create the Front National Démocratique in October 1944.
The eminent position of Groza inside Front National Démocratique offers the occasion to him to become head of government, when in January 1944, the government of the general Nicolae Rădescu meets the savage opposition of the Communists Anna Pauker and Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, because of the fault proven of Rădescu to negotiate correctly with the fascistic sympathizers.
The Communists then mobilize the workers to assemble series of demonstrations against Rădescu, and in February the demonstrations degenerate into violent riots. Whereas the Communists claim slightly that the army responsible for died innocent civilians, Rădescu minimizes its own popular support, lorqu' it declares that the Communists would be foreign without God nor nation . In answer, a Soviet delegation carried out by Andrei Y. Vishinsky, the political police chief with the Foreign affairs arrives at Bucharest to force Rădescu to resign and installs Groza as chief of the government the March 6th 1945.
The Groza government
To confirm the installation of Groza as Head of the Rumanian State, of the elections are held the November 19th 1946. In spite of the fact that the Face of the Plowmen became part of the coalition which failed to constitute a majority with the Large National Assembly, faked elections " confirment" Groza as head of government, in spite of the sharp protests of the the United States and the the United Kingdom which believe that, taking into account the agreements signed with the Conférence of Yalta in 1945, that only temporary governmental authorities representative of the population should be constant by more the great powers.
Consequently, the Groza government is regarded in a permanent way as foreigner in the United States and the United Kingdom, which supported the influence of the forces monarchists under the king Michel Ier of Romania ( Mihai Al României ).
In spite of the recriminations of the two powers, the communist representation within the Groza government is in fact much weaker than that of the other traditional Rumanian parties. The important figures in the Rumanian Communist party, Pauker and Gheorghiu-Dej, plead that the Groza government maintains a frontage of coalition government, and functions in such manner so that the partic ommunist can at the end gangner the confidence of the masses, because the support for the doctrines in the immediate future post-war period is relatively weak among the general population, with only a one thousand of members of the party as in 1945.
This is why important characters like Pauker and Gheorghiu-Dej do not have official stations in the government of Groza and, in the place of this, hope to initiate reforms wanted by the Communists. Groza maintains the illusion of a coalition government, by naming members of various political trainings at stations in its cabinet and while insisting on the immediate goals of the government in not-ideological generic terms. He declares in a meeting of cabinet the March 7th 1945, for example, that the government seeks to guarantee safety and the order for the population, applies desired policies of Land reform, and concentrates on the " cleaning rapide" Bureaucracy of the state, by pursueing the War criminal and the persons in charge of the war crimes committed under the fascistic government of Ion Antonescu.
The head of government
In its first days of head of government, Groza obtains its first important success. The March 10th 1945, the Soviet Union is of agreement to yield the north of the Transylvania, a territory which belonged to the Romania of 1918 with 1940. Groza promises that the rights of each Ethnicity will be guaranteed (particularly those of the Hungarian), whereas Joseph Stalin had declared that the houvernement preceding one of Rădescu had allowed such a degree of Sabotage and of Terrorisme in the area which it would not be possible to deliver the territory to the Rumanian . Consequently, on the only guarantee of Groza, the Soviet government decides to satisfy the petition of the Rumanian government . The acquisition of this territory, approximately fifty-eight Rumanian percent in 1945, is regarded as a major success of the Groza mode.
Groza continues to improve the image of its government by reinforcing the position of the Communist party with a series of political reforms. Thus it eliminates any antagonistic element in the bureaucracy from the government and in the lately acquired territory of Transylvania, it returns three prefects, including that of the capital of the area, that of Cluj. The returned prefects are immediately replaced by the official ones of the government, directly engaged by Groza, in order to reinforce the elements loyal supporters in the local government of the area. Groza promises also a series of land reforms to the profit of the military personnel, by confiscation of the properties of the traitors and the collaborators during the Hungarian occupation under Miklós Horthy, the mode of Ferenc Szálasi, and the Nazi Germany.
In spite of the appearance of liberalism following the agreement on the vote of the women, Groza continues reforms which try to muzzle the activity of the Médias dissenting policies of the nation. During the first month of its presidency, Groza operated to close Romania Nouă , a popular newspaper published by sources close to Iuliu Maniu, the chief of traditional Country National Parti, in major dissension with the reforms of Groza. In one month, Groza closes nine newspapers of province and a series of periodicals which, according to dires of Groza, were the products of those which had served Fascism and the Hiltérisme .
Groza continues its repression by limiting the number of the political parties. Although Groza had promised to purge only individuals of the governmental bureaucracy and Diplomatic corps just after its takeover, it begins in June 1947 to attack whole political organizations, by stopping key members of the Country National Party, and imprisons Maniu for its political crimes against the Rumanian people .
In August of the same year, the Country National Party and the Parti National Liberal Romania are dissolved and in 1948, the government coalition incorporates the Parti the Rumanian Workers (forced union of the Communists and the members of the Parti Social Rumanian Democrat) and the Hungarian Popular union, then reducing the political opposition in the state.
Groza also runs up against the remaining monarchical forces of the nation, under king Michel. Although these powers are tiny under the Groza mode, king Michel symbolizes the memory of Rumanian traditional monarchy, and at the end of 1945, the king presses Groza to resign. The king supports that Romania must respect the agreements of Yalta, while allowing the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union to take part each one in the rebuilding of the government of post-war period, and by incorporating a broader force of coalition, that it had already organized. Groza refuses the application flatly, and the relations between the two men remain tended the following years; Groza and the king differs the continuation from the war criminals and the agreement of the Rumanian citizenship on a purely honorary basis with Stalin, in August 1947. Finally, in December 1947, Groza forces king Michel to abdicate, and abolishes monarchy by declaring the state like " firmly; Populaire" republic;.
Results of Groza
After Gheorghiu-Dej succeeds Groza in 1952, it occupies the position of Head of the State during six years until 1958, and dies of operational complications to the stomach in 1958. Although not being an official member of the Communist party, Groza allowed the gradual introduction of a Communist regime in Romania. By playing a part not easily independent of the Soviets and chiefs of the Communist party, Groza allowed the development of the Party communsite on more solid bases, and, through the repression of the media and the political organizations, limited any form of opposition or dissidence in the state. After having eliminated the king, and having declared the nation " republic populaire" , Groza facilitated the transition towards a Communist regime under Gheorghiu-Dej.
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