ld communism, was still alive, Romania was an obedient satellite, and
Stalinism was the hallmark of communist rule. Even before Stalin's
death in March 1953, however, there was dissension in the Romanian
communist ranks as a Moscow-oriented group vied for power with
indigenous Communists. The latter group was eventually victorious and,
after a series of purges, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej emerged as a party
strong man; the first glimmerings of a distinctive brand of Romanian
communism can be traced to this period in the early 1950s.

The blending of nationalism and communism did not, however, ameliorate
the conditions that existed in the country. Gheorghiu-Dej was a
totalitarian ruler, the party brooked no opposition, few basic freedoms
for the people existed except in the constitution, and the secret police
was an effective instrument of control over the people. Gheorghiu-Dej
did, however, establish a foundation, albeit a very shaky one, for a
structure of national communism. He and his successor, Ceausescu,
strengthened this structure through the years to the point that Romania
became known as the most independent of the former Soviet satellites
with the exception of Yugoslavia, which has been traveling its own path
since 1948.

The Socialist Republic of Romania, ruled in early 1972 by Ceausescu and
the PCR, comprised over 91,700 square miles and contained a population
of more than 20.6 million. The size and shape of modern Romania is
remarkably similar to the ancient country of Dacia, which was conquered
by the Romans in the early second century A.D. and became a province of
the Roman Empire. Although Roman occupation lasted only about 165 years,
it is to the mixture of Roman legionnaires and colonists with indigenous
Dacians that modern Romanians trace their origin. These Daco-Romans are
almost absent from history's pages for several centuries, but Romanian
historians state that they existed in the mountains, tending their
flocks and fending off the vast migrations and avoiding absorption by
invaders who used the territory as a crossroads into the Balkans or into
Europe. After they did achieve some semblance of autonomy during the
Middle Ages, primarily in the historic provinces of Moldavia and
Walachia, they were always pressured by powerful empires that existed
during various historic epochs, and a great portion of former Dacia, the
province of Transylvania, was occupied by Magyars (Hungarians) and was
not joined to R