Petru Groza

For the city in Romania formerly known as Dr. Petru Groza, seeȘtei.

Petru Groza
President of the Presidium of the Great National Assembly
In office 12 June 1952 – 7 January 1958
Preceded by	Constantin Ion Parhon
Succeeded by	Ion Gheorghe Maurer
President of the Council of Ministers
In office 6 March 1945 – 2 June 1952
Monarch	Michael I(1945–1947)
President	Constantin Ion Parhon (1947–1952)
Deputy	Gheorghe Tătărescu (1945–1947) Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej(1948–1952)
Preceded by	Nicolae Rădescu
Succeeded by	Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
Vice President of the Council of Ministers
In office 4 November 1944 – 28 February 1945
Monarch	Michael I
Prime Minister	Constantin Sănătescu Nicolae Rădescu
Preceded by	Mihai Antonescu
Succeeded by	Gheorghe Tătărescu
President of thePloughmen's Front
In office 1933–1953
Succeeded by	Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej(party merged with theRomanian Workers' Party)
Minister of State
In office 30 March 1926 – 4 June 1927
Prime Minister	Alexandru Averescu
Minister of Public Works
In office 30 March 1926 – 14 July 1926
Prime Minister	Alexandru Averescu
Preceded by	Traian Moșoiu
Succeeded by	Constantin Meissner
Personal details
Born	(1884-12-07)7 December 1884 Bácsi,Hunyad County,Transleithania,Austria-Hungary(nowBăcia,Romania)
Died	7 January 1958(1958-01-07)(aged 73) Bucharest,Romanian People's Republic
Nationality	Romanian
Political party	Romanian National Party (1918–1920) People's Party (1920–1933) Ploughmen's Front (1933–1953) Independent (1953–1958)
Alma mater	University of Budapest Leipzig University
Profession	Lawyer
Signature

Petru Groza(7 December 1884 – 7 January 1958) was a Romanian politician, best known as the firstPrime Ministerof theCommunist Party-dominated government underSovietoccupationduring the early stages of theCommunist regime in Romania,and later as the President of the Presidium of theGreat National Assembly(nominal head of state of Romania) from 1952 until his death in 1958.

Groza emerged as a public figure at the end ofWorld War Ias a notable member of theRomanian National Party(PNR), preeminent layman of theRomanian Orthodox Church,and then member of theDirectory Council of Transylvania.In 1925–26 he served as Minister of State in the cabinet ofMarshalAlexandru Averescu.In 1933, Groza founded aleft-wingAgrarianorganization known as thePloughmen's Front(Frontul Plugarilor). Theleft-wingideas he supported earned him the nicknameThe RedBourgeois.

Groza became Premier in 1945 whenNicolae Rădescu,a leadingRomanian Armygeneral who assumed power briefly following the conclusion ofWorld War II,was forced to resign by theSoviet Union's deputyPeople's Commissarfor Foreign Affairs,Andrei Y. Vishinsky.During Groza's tenure, Romania'sKing,Michael I,was forced toabdicateas the nation officially became a "People's Republic".Although his authority and power as Premier was compromised by his reliance upon theSoviet Unionfor support, Groza presided over the onset of full-fledged Communist rule in Romania before eventually being succeeded byGheorghe Gheorghiu-Dejin 1952 and became the President of the Presidium of the Great National Assembly until his death in 1958.

Early life

Born as one of the three sons of a wealthy couple inBácsi(now called Băcia), a village nearDéva(today Deva) inTransylvania(part ofAustria-Hungaryat the time), his father Adam was a priest. Groza was afforded a variety of opportunities in his youth and early career to establish connections and a degree of notoriety, which would later prove essential in his political career.He attended primary school in his native village, then in Kastély (nowCoștei) and Lugos (nowLugoj) in theBanat.In 1903, he graduated from the HungarianReformedhigh school (now theAurel Vlaicu High School) in Szászváros (nowOrăștie). That autumn, he began his law and economics training inHungary,studying at theUniversity of Budapest.In 1905, he took courses at theUniversity of Berlin,heading toLeipzig Universityin 1906. He obtained a doctorate from the latter institution in 1907.

Career

After completing his studies, Groza returned to Deva to work as alawyer.DuringWorld War Ihe served as a soldier in the 8thHonvédRegiment. In 1918, at the war's end, he emerged on the political scene as a member of theRomanian National Party(PNR) and obtained a position on theDirectory Council of Transylvania,convened byethnic Romanianpoliticians who had voted in favour ofunion with Romania;he maintained his office over the course of the following two years.

Throughout this period of his life, Groza established a variety of political connections, working in various Transylvanian political and religious organizations. From 1919 to 1927, for example, Groza obtained a position as a deputy inSynodand Congress of theRomanian Orthodox Church.In the mid-1920s, Groza, who had left the PNR after a conflict withIuliu Maniuand had joined thePeople's Party,served as the Minister for Transylvania and Minister of Public Works and Communications in theThird Averescu cabinet.

During this period in his life, Groza was able to amass a personal fortune as a wealthylandownerand establish a notable reputation as a prominentlaymanwithin the Romanian Orthodox Church, a position which would later make him invaluable to aRomanian Communist Party(PCR) that was campaigning to attract the support ofEastern OrthodoxChristians who constituted the nation's most numerous religious group in 1945.

Politics

Rise to power

Groza in a formal attire portrait

Despite having briefly retired from public life in 1928 after holding a series of political posts, Groza reemerged on the political scene in 1933, founding a peasant-based political organization, thePloughmen's Front.

Although the movement originally began in order to oppose the increasing burden of debt carried by Romania's peasants during theGreat Depression in Romaniaand because theNational Peasants' Partycould not help the poorest peasants, by 1944 the organization was essentially under Communist control.The Communist Party wished to seize power but was too weak to seize it alone – post-communist historiography would later claim that in 1944 it had only about a thousand members. Accordingly, the Romanian communist leaders decided to create a broad coalition of political organizations.

This coalition was composed of four major front organizations: theRomanian Society for Friendship with the Soviet Union,theUnion of Patriots,thePatriotic Defense,and, by far the most widely backed by the Romanian populace, Groza's Ploughmen's Front.Being a chief political actor in the largest of the Communist front organizations, Groza was able to assert himself in a position of eminence within the Romanian political sphere as the Ploughmen's Front joined the Communist Party to create theNational Democratic Frontin October 1944(it also included theSocial Democrats,Mihai Ralea'sSocialist Peasants' Partyand theHungarian People's Union,as well as other minor groups). He was first considered by the CommunistLucrețiu Pătrășcanufor the post of Premier in October 1944.

Groza withGheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej(center),Gheorghe Tătărescu,Petre Constantinescu-Iași,Andrey Vyshinsky,andIvan Susaikovat theBucharest North railway station,14 March 1945

Groza's prominent status within the National Democratic Front afforded him the opportunity to succeed General Nicolae Rădescu as premier when, in January 1945, top Romanian communist leaders, namelyAna PaukerandGheorghe Gheorghiu-Dejrebuked Rădescu with allegedly failing to combat "fascistsympathizers ".With the help ofSoviet authorities,the Communists soon mobilized workers to hold a series of demonstrations against Rădescu, and by February many had died because the demonstrations often led to violence. While the communists claimed that theRomanian Armywas responsible for the deaths of innocent civilians,Rădescu weakened his own popular support by stating that the communists were "godless foreigners with no homeland".In response,Andrey Vyshinsky,the Soviet vice commissar of foreign affairs, traveled to Bucharest and allegedly gave King Michael an ultimatum—unless he sacked Rădescu and replaced him with Groza, Romania's independence would be at risk. The king had hoped that GeneralGheorghe Avramescu,who commanded theRomanian 4th Armyin the fight to liberate Transylvania and Hungary, would be designated the next prime minister, but, while Michael was waiting on 2 March for Avramescu to return from the front to Bucharest, theNKVDarrested Avramescu inSlovakia,and he died the next day.Faced with mounting Soviet pressure, Michael complied, and Groza became prime minister on 6 March 1945.

The Groza cabinets

Groza gave key portfolios such as defence, justice, and the interior to the Communists. It nominally included ministers from theNational LiberalsandNational Peasantsas well, but the ministers using those labels werefellow travellerslike Groza, and had been handpicked by the Communists.

Despite the annoyance of the two powers, the Communists constituted only a minority in Groza's cabinet. The leading figures in the Romanian Communist Party,Paukerand Gheorghiu-Dej, wanted the Groza government to preserve the façade of a coalition government and thus enable the Communists to win the confidence of the masses, since right after the Second World War the communists enjoyed very little political support. For this reason top communist figures like Pauker and Gheorghiu-Dej did not join Groza's cabinet. They planned to gradually impose an out-and-out Communist regime under the veil of the existing coalition government.Byconflatingthe successes of the regime with their Party, Pauker and Gheorghiu-Dej hoped to win support for the party and lay the foundations for aone-party state.Accordingly, Groza maintained the illusion of a coalition government, appointing members of diverse political organizations to his cabinet and formulating his government's short-term goals in broad, non-ideological terms. He stated at a cabinet meeting on 7 March 1945, for example, that the government sought to guarantee safety and order for the population, implement desiredland reformpolicies, and focus on a "swift cleanup" of the statebureaucracyand immediate prosecution ofwar criminals,i.e., officials of theFascistwartime regime of MarshalIon Antonescu(seeRomania during World War IIandRomanian People's Tribunals).

To confirm Groza in office, elections were held on19 November 1946.The count was rigged in order to give an overwhelming majority to the Bloc of Democratic Parties, a Communist-dominated front that included the Ploughmen's Front. Years later, historianPetre Țurleareviewed a confidential Communist Party report about the election that showed the BPD had, at most, won 47 percent of the vote. He concluded that had the election been conducted honestly, the opposition parties would have won enough votes between them to form a coalition government—albeit with far less than the 80 percent support long claimed by opposition supporters.

In the mind of the Groza government, the 1946 election confirmed it in office. This claim was made in the face of protests by the United States and the United Kingdom who held that, pursuant to the agreements reached at theYalta Conferencein 1945, only "interim governmental authorities broadly representative of the population", should be supported by the major powers.As a result, Groza's government was permanently estranged from the United States and the United Kingdom, who nominally supported the waning influence of the monarchist forces underKingMichael I.

As Prime Minister

Groza (left), withGheorghe TătărescuandGheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej,on a visit to Bulgaria, July 1947

Within days of becoming premier, Groza delivered his first major success. On 10 March 1945, the Soviet Union agreed to return to RomaniaNorthern Transylvania,a territory of over 45,000 km²(17,000 sq mi) that had been assigned toHungarythrough the 1940Second Vienna Awardsponsored byGermanyandItaly.Groza promised that the rights of eachethnic groupwithin the restored territory would be protected (mainly, as a reference to theHungarian minority in Romania), whileJoseph Stalindeclared that the previous government under Rădescu had permitted such a large degree ofsabotageandterrorismin the region that it would have been impossible to deliver the territory to the Romanians. As a result, only after Groza's guarantee of ethnicminority rightsdid the Soviet government decide tosatisfy the petition of the Romanian government.The recovery of this territory, nearly fifty-eight percent Romanian in 1945, was hailed as a major accomplishment within the formative stages of the Groza regime.

Groza continued to improve the image of his own government while strengthening the position of the Communist Party with a series of political reforms. He proceeded to eliminate any antagonistic elements in the government administration and, in the newly acquired Transylvanian territory, removed three city prefects, including that of the region's capital,Cluj.Theprefectsremoved were immediately replaced by loyal government officials directly appointed by Groza, so as to strengthen loyalist elements in local government in the region. Groza also promised a series of land reform programs to benefit military personnel, which would confiscate and subsequently redistribute all properties in excess of 125 acres (51 ha) in addition to all the property oftraitors,absentees,and all who collaborated with the wartime Romanian government, theHungarianoccupiers duringMiklós HorthyandFerenc Szálasi's régimes, andNazi Germany.

Despite giving the appearance of liberal democracy by grantingwomen's suffrage,Groza pursued a series of reforms attempting to clamp down on the prominence of politically dissidentmediaoutlets in the nation. During the first month of his premiership, Groza acted to close downRomania Nouă,a popular newspaper published by sources close toIuliu Maniu,leader of the traditional National Peasants' Party who disagreed widely with Groza's attempted reforms. Within a month of his assumption of the premiership, Groza shut down over nine provincial newspapers and a series of periodicals which, Groza declared, were products of those, "who served Fascism andHitlerism".Groza soon continued this repression by limiting the number of political parties allowed within the state. Although Groza had promised to purge only individuals from the government bureaucracy anddiplomatic corpsimmediately after assuming power, in June 1947 he began to prosecute entire political organizations, as, after theTămădău Affair,he arrested key members of the National Peasants' Party and sentenced Maniu to life in prison "for political crimes against the Romanian people".By August of that year, both the National Peasants' Party and theNational Liberal Partyhad been dissolved and in 1948, the government coalition incorporated theRomanian Workers' Party(the forced union of communists andRomanian Social Democrats) and theHungarian People's Union,effectively minimizing all political opposition within the state.

Royal strike and political crisis

On August 18, Roy Melbourne presented to Foreign Minister Gheorghe Tătărescu a verbal note showing that the American government "wants the establishment of a representative regime made up of all democratic groups in this country". Consequently, the United States will only sign a final peace treaty with a fully recognized democratic government. Both Groza and Tătărescu rejected the note, declaring it null and void. They argued that the US could not address a government it did not recognize. British diplomats also sent such a note, but the government had the same attitude.

Faced with Groza's refusal to resign, King Michael instituted, on August 21, the royal strike and no longer agreed to countersign the government's documents. At the December 1945 Conference, it was decided that the situation should be resolved by appointing one PNL and PNȚ member each to the government, after which free elections would be organized and freedom of "press, speech, religion and association" would be ensured. Maniu warned that without the neutrality of the Ministries of Interior and Justice, free elections could not take place in Romania, but the decision had to be followed. On January 7, 1946,Emil Hațieganu,from PNȚ, andMihail Romniceanu,from PNL took the oath as ministers. Basically, the decisions in Moscow represented the victory of the Soviet point of view, the government of Petru Groza being recognized by the USA and Great Britain on February 5, 1946.

During his term as premier, Groza also clashed with the nation's remainingmonarchistforces underKingMichael I.Although his powers were minimal within Groza's regime, King Michael symbolized the remnants of the traditional Romanian monarchy and, in late 1945, the King urged Groza to resign. The King maintained that Romania must abide by the Yalta accords, allowing the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union to each have a hand in post-war government reconstruction and the incorporation of a broader coalition force he had already organized. Groza flatly rejected the request, and relations between the two figures remained tense over the next few years, with Groza and the King differing on the prosecution of war criminals and in the awarding of honorary Romanian citizenship to Stalin in August 1947.

Early on the morning of 30 December 1947, Groza summoned Michael back to Bucharest, ostensibly "to discuss important matters"; the king had been preparing for a New Year's party atPeleș CastleinSinaia.When Michael arrived, Groza presented the king with a pretyped instrument of abdication and demanded that Michael sign it. According to Michael's account,when he refused, Groza threatened to launch a bloodbath and arrest thousands of people.Michael eventually signed the document, and a few hours later parliament abolished the monarchy and declared Romania a republic.

The elections of November 1946

Groza on a 1946 Romanian stamp

After the failure of the royal strike, Mihai adopted a more cautious position with the government. In view of the elections, the governmental political forces constituted, on May 17, 1946, the Bloc of Democratic Parties to submit joint lists for the elections. BPD consisted of PCR, PSD, PNL-Tătărescu, PNȚ-Alexandrescu, FP, and PNP. Instead, the democratic parties, PNȚ, PNL, and PSDI, failed in their attempt to create a common opposition front. The government also amended the electoral law, so that for the first time in history, women could also participate in the electoral process. The election campaign was carried out by numerous and serious abuses by government forces and exacerbated opposition attacks against them. Although Washington and London repeatedly gave Maniu guarantees that the elections to be held would be free and supervised by the Western powers, the government did not hesitate to use Stalin's dictum in the electoral process: "It doesn't matter who voteswith whom, it matters who count the votes ".The elections took place on November 19, 1946, with a massive turnout. The official published results were: BPD – 69.81%, PNȚ – 12.88%, UPM – 8.32%, PNL – 3.78%, PȚD – 2.36%.

Immediately, the opposition accused the government of fraud, with Maniu claiming that the results had been reversed, so that in fact the PNȚ had won. Instead, the governing parties claimed that the election results reflected the citizens' adherence to the BND program, and the minor incidents that occurred were provoked by the opposition. In fact, it was the same Romanian electoral tradition that the government declared that the elections were fair, while the opposition accused them of fraud.

The same divergence existed between Moscow and the British and American officials. Reports arrived in Washington from the diplomatic mission of the Western powers and from the Ministry of the Interior in Bucharest, which had the same divergent content. The US and Great Britain limited themselves to some formal declarations, the agreement on the division of spheres of influence having been taken a long time ago. The memoirs prepared by Maniu and Brătianu were not taken into account, and on December 1, 1946, King Michael delivered the Opening Message of the Assembly of Deputies: "I am happy to be among the representatives of the country, gathered today for the first time, after a long interruption of parliamentary life."

On February 10, 1947, Romania signed the Peace Treaty with the Allied and Associated Powers, so the regime of the Armistice Convention officially ended. This fact meant that Great Britain and the USA no longer had any leverage to intervene in favor of the opposition, Romania passing under the exclusive control of the USSR.

Removal of opposition

After the parliamentary elections, the essential political objective of the Groza government was to seize all power in the state and liquidate any forms of opposition. The plan was drawn up by the Minister of the Interior,Teohari Georgescu,andPanteley Bodnarenko,a Soviet intelligence officer. Since the beginning of 1947, the communist authorities have carried out numerous arrests against political opponents by committing serious abuses. On July 14, 1947, the Home Office authorities managed to set a trap for the main peasant-national leaders, who were preparing to leave for Great Britain to inform Western diplomats about the real situation in the country. TheTămădău affairwas labeled as an act of national treason and turned into a major political case.

In order to allow the involvement of PNȚ and Iuliu Maniu, the authorities extended the charges from fraudulent attempt to leave the country to activities of a political nature. On July 30, 1947, through a journal of the Council of Ministers, it was decided to dissolve the National Peasant Party. On the same day, the Assembly of Deputies was convened, during which, based on a report drawn up by Teohari Georgescu, the dissolution was approved with 294 votes for and one against. The diary stated: "The National-Peasant Party under the presidency of Mr. Iuliu Maniu is and remains dissolved on the date of publication in the Official Monitor of this Journal. The same dissolution decision also includes all county, network and communal organizations of the aforementioned party, military, youth, women's organizations and any other organizations or associations led by this party".

On November 1, the National Liberal Party decided to cease its activity. Five days later, the Assembly of Deputies adopted a motion of no confidence in Gheorghe Tătărescu, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the vice-president of the Council of Ministers. The following day, PNL-Tătărescu representatives resigned from the government. The trial of the PNȚ leaders took place between October 29 and November 4.

The sentence was established in advance, based on accusations without material cover, based not on evidence, but on political indications coming from Moscow and presented in legal form in Bucharest. Iuliu Maniu and Ion Mihalache were the only ones sentenced to hard prison for life.

Proclamation of the Republic

On November 12, King Michael and Queen Mother Elena went to London to witness the marriage of PrincessElizabeth,the heir to the British Crown. Here, he met PrincessAna de Bourbon-Parma.The two went toLausanne,Switzerland, where they unofficially got engaged on December 6, 1947. Asking for the approval of the Romanian government, the answer that came 10 days later states that the marriage was not opportune at that time.

The international press was already starting to speculate that the Romanian sovereign would stay abroad for a woman, abandoning his constitutional prerogatives. To refute the speculations, on December 18, Michael boarded the train in Lausanne and arrived in Bucharest three days later. After a meeting with Petru Groza, where no conclusion was reached, Michael and his mother went to Sinaia for the winter holidays. On Christmas Eve,Emil Bodnăraș(who, according to some information, had just arrived from Moscow, where he had received from Stalin the instructions regarding the organization of the abdication of King Michael), was inaugurated asMinister of National Defense.

At around 20:30 on the evening of December 29, King Michael was informed about Groza's formal request to grant him an audience the next day, at 10:00. Initially, he assumed it was about his marriage. In the morning of December 30, 1947, the king, together with the queen-mother and some people from the Court moved to Bucharest, and around 12:00 they arrived at the palace on Kiseleff road. In 15 minutes Petru Groza also arrived, who was accompanied by Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej. Groza was the first to address, "Well, Your Majesty, the time has come to arrange an amicable parting." Surprised, Michael asked what he meant by these words. "The problem of ending the monarchy. After all, I warned you that you need to prepare for something like this. You must understand that there is no place for a king in Romania anymore," Groza declared. The king retorted, "It is not you who can tell me to go. This matter must be decided by the people".

Groza states that the government will arrange the material problems so that the royal family can lead a comfortable life. Also, Gheorghiu-Dej alluded to a possible lawsuit that could be filed "His Majesty". At that moment, Michael declared that "your proposal raises serious constitutional issues". "We've thought of everything," Groza replied, pulling out a sheet of white parchment paper from the folder he'd been holding since the audience began. "I will study this paper," declares the king, hoping to buy more time. Precise horror: "You must read now. We are not leaving this house until the paper is signed, even if we have to stay here until tonight. Our people are waiting for the news of the abdication. If we don't have your signature, there will be trouble."

At that point, the king went into the next room, where the Palace Marshal informed him that the guard had been changed, the palace was surrounded by troops, and telephone communications were down. When he returned to the room, Michael asked why all these measures were taken. "The people are impatient Sire, we have been here for quite a long time," answered Groza. "What if I refuse to sign"?, asked the king. Groza resorted to a last threat: "You saw, everything was foreseen. A civil war may break out. We cannot be responsible for anyone's security. And you will bear the responsibility".

In a report from December 1990, Michael claimed that Groza and Gheorghiu-Dej resorted to blackmail: "They told me that the members of the government, that is, the communists, would have to, in order to counteract any form of opposition, execute over a thousand of students among those who had been arrested in the last year". He also stated that Groza "came up to me and asked me to feel his waistcoat near the pocket. He said to me: Touch! And he had the gun in his pocket, giving the explanation: So that what happened to Antonescu doesn't happen to me." After this, Michael sits down at the table and signs the abdication document.

At 15:30 the Council of Ministers met. Petru Groza announced the act of abdication and a government proclamation was issued to the country. This informed the king's abdication and appreciated that "Thus, the Romanian people acquired the freedom to build a new form of state — the People's Republic". At 19:10, under the presidency ofMihail Sadoveanu,the extraordinary meeting of the Assembly of Deputies opened.

Two bills were unanimously approved. The first took note of the abdication of King Michael I, for himself and his descendants, theConstitution of Romaniawas abrogated, and the new official name of the state became theRomanian People's Republic.It was also specified that the legislative power will be exercised by the Assembly of Deputies until its dissolution and the meeting of a Constituent National Assembly, which will be held at a date fixed by the Assembly of Deputies. It will adopt the new Constitution of the RPR. Through the second project, the members of the Provisional Presidium of the RPR were appointed:Constantin Ion Parhon,president, Mihail Sadoveanu,Ștefan Voitec,Gheorghe Stere,andIon Niculi,vice presidents. The meeting ended after only one hour.

President of the MAN presidium

On February 24, 1948, the Assembly of Deputies was dissolved. Three days later, the People's Democracy Front was established, an electoral alliance formed by the Romanian Workers' Party (the new name adopted by the communists following the merger with the PSD), the Plowmen's Front, PNL-Bejan, and the Hungarian People's Union. On March 28, the elections were held for theGreat National Assembly,the unicameral legislative forum of the RPR. The first objective of the Great Assembly was to draft a new fundamental law. The Constitution of the Romanian People's Republic was promulgated on April 13, 1948.

Groza kept his mandate as prime minister until June 2, 1952. Ten days later he replaced Constantin Ion Parhon as president of the presidium of theGreat National Assembly,the institution that symbolically ensured the leadership of the RPR. He remained in this position until the end of his life.

Petru Groza and Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej meeting with agricultural workers, February 1955

Starting from 1948, the communist authorities began to impose the Stalinist model of organization and management of society. On June 11, 1948, the Groza government passed the law for thenationalization of industry.This measure aimed at the destruction of private property and generalized public ownership in industry, banking, and transport. The State Planning Committee was created, which ensured economic development on a planned basis, based on economic centralism. Starting from 1951, the economic organization plan was for five years (thefive-year plans).

Also following the Soviet model, the Collective Agricultural Farms and the State Agricultural Farms were established, which indicated the types of crops and fixed the prices of agricultural goods. Peasants were allowed to keep small plots of land, but which did not exceed 0.15 ha (0.37 acres). On the international level, Romania was a founding member ofComecon(1949) and of theWarsaw Pact(1955).

Old and sick, Groza was forced to accept, on February 7, 1953, the dissolution of the Plowers' Front, a competitor and thorn in the side of the communists. However, he did not join the PMR, thus achieving the political feat of placing himself in leading positions within the regime without ever having been a party member. One explanation may be the ability with which he managed to attract the support and trust of Stalin, recalled in one of his political notes:

I approached him. He was sitting on a kind of shack, slightly higher than the floor. I threw myself on my knees, kissed his feet, and said to him: At last I have attained my ideal of a little child. This day will be the most beautiful day of my life. Stalin, obviously impressed, took me by the arm, lifted me up, hugged me. My circus made a special impression on him and I won him over. I was an unparalleled theatrical artist!

Death

Groza stepped down as premier in 1952, and was succeeded by Gheorghiu-Dej. He was then named president of the Presidium of theGreat National Assembly(de jurehead of state of Romania), a post he held until 1958, when he died from complications following a stomach operation.He was buried atGhencea Cemetery;his remains were later moved to theCarol Park Mausoleum,and finally to the cemetery in his native village,Băcia.

His daughterMaria Groza,who had served as his personal secretary, was later active in her own right as a diplomat and politician.

Legacy

Fallen statue of Petru Groza next to theMogoșoaia Palace(2010)

The mining town ofȘteiinBihor Countywas namedDr. Petru Grozaafter him, a name it kept until after theRomanian RevolutionofDecember 1989.After his death in 1958,Transylvania Boulevardin Bucharest was renamedDr. Petru Groza Boulevard;it is now named afterGheorghe Marinescu.There are streets named after Groza inCluj-Napoca,Galați,andMedgidia.

A 4.5 m (15 ft) bronze statue of Groza, placed on a redCarrara marblepedestal, was unveiled inDevain 1962. The monument, designed by sculptorConstantin Baraschi,was removed in 1990, and replaced in 1999 by a statue ofTrajan;in 2007, Groza's statue was transported to Băcia.Another statue of him, sculpted byRomulus Ladea,was inaugurated in theCotrocenineighborhood of Bucharest in 1971; this statue was taken down in 1990, and replaced in 1993 by a monument to the Artillery Heroes.As of 2010, it lies in an open field near theMogoșoaia Palace,next to a statue ofVladimir Leninthat used to be in front ofCasa Scînteii.

References

Literature

• Adrian Cioroianu(2005)Pe umerii lui Marx. O introducere în istoria comunismului românesc( "On the Shoulders of Marx. An Incursion into the History of Romanian Communism" ),Editura Curtea Veche,Bucharest,ISBN978-973-669-390-8