e embryonic
communist dictatorship. Accordingly, in a meeting in December requested
by Groza and Gheorghiu-Dej, King Michael was forced to abdicate under
the threat of civil war. On the same day the government announced the
creation of the Romanian People's Republic. This action represented the
last step in the seizure of power and placed Romania under complete
communist control.

THE COMMUNIST STATE

Having seized effective control of the government, the Communists
embarked on a program of organizing the state along totalitarian lines.
As the first step toward consolidating their position, the Communists
initiated extensive purges and liquidation of anticommunist elements in
preparation for the holding of new parliamentary elections. The
carefully controlled elections held in March 1948 overwhelmingly favored
the single list of candidates put forward by the People's Democratic
Front, which received 405 of the 414 seats. The new National Assembly
met the following month, adopted a constitution modeled after that of
the Soviet Union, and formalized the establishment of the Romanian
People's Republic.

Over the next five years the country rapidly assumed the characteristics
of a satellite state of the Soviet Union. The Allied Control Commission
was withdrawn by mutual consent, and the Soviets were given the right to
retain occupation troops in the country beyond the 1947 peace treaty
date on the basis of an alleged need to protect the lines of
communication with other Soviet forces being maintained in Austria.
Under these favorable conditions and with close party supervision,
locally appointed people's councils had little difficulty in
administratively organizing the local governments in accordance with the
Soviet system.

Soviet-style instruments of control also appeared in a broad pattern in
all major fields and included the collectivization of agriculture, the
nationalization of industry, the centralization of control of the
national economy on a planned basis, and the creation of militia and
police forces whose function was to maintain the authority of the
communist regime and to eliminate all actual or potential opposition to
its policies.

The 1951-53 show trials and political purges within the communist ranks,
which were spearheaded from Moscow, served more to strengthen than to
weaken Romanian leadership in the party. Although Gheorghiu-Dej, a
native leader, had headed the party as its general secretary s