Censorship in Communist Romania

Censorship in Romania is the censorship in the state of Romania, in five stages: before World War II, the Groza government period (1945- 1947), the first Communist president Gheorghe period (1947-1965), The second and the last Communist president Nicolae period (1965- 1989), and 1990-Present.

The Romanian Communist Party (PCR) was not even popular back then, and thus, the Romanian society was not highly censored under the democracy before the World War II period.

Up until the beginning of World War ΙΙ, Romania had a tendency to become closer to Western European countries; Romania tried to establish a free market economy, people had an access to an abundance of books from all over the world, one could freely travel around when they had reasonable grounds, there was a thorough education system, and a literature of her own. Though, things were not enough, Romania had its own social infrastructure and people had freedom to some degree.

When it comes to the Romanian Communist Party (PCR), it had no way to gain popular supports from the mass in the context of the Soviet Union being seen as a hostile neighbor until the end of the Second World War. And since many Romanian population were predominantly engaged in agriculture, there was no powerful indigenous working class where the Communist Party could have formed a base.

Petru Groza became the Priemier himself in 1945, and under Soviet occupation, he started to communize Romania; Citizens' Committees were formed to assist the police, and thus, it was justified for these committees and the police to randomly check people's documents on the street, to search people's home without any notification, and to inspect suspicious billeting refugees or Soviet officers. There were also widespread violent repression and abrupt communization of the country in Romania in the context of post-World War II. The supporters of the communist regime labeled the group of opponents as fascists, criminals, or anti-national components under Western interests, and blamed those opponents for destabilizing the country. Groza himself told the British journalist in 1945 that about 90,000 Romanians had been arrested in two months right after he seized the power. Groza also tried to get rid of the final obstacle to complete Soviet domination of Romania: overthrowing the Romanian kingdom run by King Michael. In the last half of 1947, King Michael was still on the regime while Soviet had so much power on Romanian economy. Though prewar Romania had some features of democracy such as a constitution, a parliament, political parties etc, it still had a king, and politically oligarchic. As the King Michael continuously refused to abdicate the throne, Groza threatened him with the civil war. Michael wanted to avoid the bloodshed that he gave in on 30th of December, 1947, and on that same day, the Romanian People's Republic was declared.

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