Area Handbook for Romania Part 16

As a result of the approval of Ceausescu's recommendations, a number of changes were effected in local government and party organizations.

Certain positions in the party and state organizations were fused, the county or city party first secretary also becoming chairman of the local people's council (see ch. 8). The secretaries of local party units and labor union representatives were included on the councils of the industrial enterprises.

Following the recommendations of the party conference, the day after the conference adjourned the Grand National a.s.sembly convened to elect Ceausescu as president of the Council of State, and it approved legislation to implement most of the other conference decisions. At the same time, the a.s.sembly elected a new Council of State consisting of (in addition to Ceausescu) three vice presidents and fifteen other members.

A new Council of Ministers was also elected, with Maurer again named as prime minister. Apostol was demoted from his position as a first deputy prime minister to his previously held post as chairman of the General Union of Trade Unions. Draghici was removed from the party Secretariat and given a position as a deputy prime minister under Maurer. With the successful demotion of his chief rivals, Ceausescu emerged at the close of 1967 as the undisputed leader of both the party and the state.

Rehabilitation and De-Stalinization

With his power base firmly established, Ceausescu acted to fully disa.s.sociate his regime from the Gheorghiu-Dej era. In April 1968, at a plenary session of the Central Committee, the report of the commission of inquiry, which had been secretly established in late 1965, was made public. The Gheorghiu-Dej regime was severely indicated for fraudulently conspiring to arrange the trial and execution of Patrascanu in 1954 and for violations of justice in the other political show trials of the 1950s. Patrascanu was exonerated of all charges, and several other of the trial victims were officially rehabilitated.

Because of this close a.s.sociation with Gheorghiu-Dej and his position as head of the internal affairs ministry during the period of the trials, the Central Committee dismissed Draghici from all his positions. Apostol and Stoica were censured but were allowed to remain in their posts, although their standing in the party was considerably weakened.

Throughout the 1968-70 period the Ceausescu regime continued a gradual and cautious policy of de-Stalinization in domestic affairs and continued, as well, to a.s.sert the country's independent stance in international relations. The domestic relaxation was limited, however, and, in an address to an a.s.sociation of artists in April 1968, Ceausescu cautioned both intellectuals and artists not to overstep the bounds established by the party.

The invasion of Czechoslovakia by Soviet-led forces of the Warsaw Treaty Organization (Warsaw Pact) in August 1968 posed a crisis to the Ceausescu regime and raised the possibility of Soviet intervention in Romania. Ceausescu's firm denunciation of the invasion, however, served to unify the population behind him. His call for national mobilization and the creation of a home guard for national defense elicited broad popular support and gained him stature as the defender of Romanian independence.

In late 1968 the PCR leadership acted to establish a new national political organization, the Socialist Unity Front, in order to bring representatives of the major ma.s.s organizations and other a.s.sociations into a party-dominated framework for the political mobilization of the population (see ch. 8). As a replacement for the older and largely ineffective People's Democratic Front, the new front organization was structured around a national council and, theoretically, was given advisory powers on important policy matters.

In addition to the PCR, the Socialist Unity Front's National Council included representatives of: labor unions; cooperative farmers'

organizations; consumers' cooperatives; professional, cultural, and scientific a.s.sociations; women's youth, and veterans' organizations; religious bodies; and the councils of the Hungarian, German, Serbian, and Ukrainian minorities. Ceausescu was elected president of the front, and Maurer, the vice president.

The first major activity of the Socialist Unity Front was the conducting of national elections on March 2, 1969. As only the front was allowed to nominate candidates, just one candidate was named for each Grand National a.s.sembly seat. The official results indicated that over 99 percent of the eligible voters cast their ballots and, of these, 99.75 percent endorsed the Socialist Unity Front slate. Elections to the newly organized bodies of local government took place at the same time (see ch. 8).

Convening ten days after the election, the new Grand National a.s.sembly reelected Ceausescu as president of the Council of State and renamed Maurer as prime minister. At the same time, the a.s.sembly enacted legislation establishing the Defense Council that Ceausescu had earlier proposed. Observers of East European political affairs considered the timing of this enactment, coming just three days before an important meeting of the Warsaw Treaty Organization, as a further a.s.sertion of Romania's independent course in international affairs (see ch. 10).

The Tenth Party Congress

Almost 2,000 delegates attended the Tenth Party Congress of the PCR held in Bucharest from August 6 to 12, 1969. In addition, delegations were present from sixty-six foreign communist parties (see ch. 10). The main features of the congress included Ceausescu's unanimous reelection as general secretary of the party for a five-year term, the enlargement of the Central Committee from 121 to 165 members, and the approval of revisions of the party statutes.

Among other things, the statute revisions provided for the election of the Central Committee by secret ballot and transferred the responsibility for electing the general secretary from the Central Committee to the party congress. It was also decided that party congresses would be convened every five years rather than every four so that each congress could discuss and adopt a five-year economic plan for the country. A unique feature of the congress was the division of the delegates into five working commissions, with their sessions open to foreign journalists.

When it came time for the congress to elect the Central Committee, nearly half of the remaining older members were replaced by younger men who were supporters of Ceausescu. Apostol and Stoica were conspicuously not reelected and, immediately after the congress, Apostol was discharged from his position as chairman of the General Union of Trade Unions after being charged with "serious breaches of Communist morality."

Although the modifications in the party statutes were designed to allow for more democratic procedures in party affairs, the principle of centralized control continued to be strongly maintained. Whereas all party members were encouraged to voice their opinions on any given issue, once a decision was adopted the minority was expected to yield to the majority and aid in implementation of policies. The congress resolved that party control and ideological guidance must reach into all aspects of the life of the people.

POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS

The Romanian Communist Party

Originally founded in 1921, the Romanian Communist Party was declared illegal in 1924 and forced into a clandestine existence until the closing years of World War II. After the war, fully supported by the Soviet Union, the party gradually consolidated power and sought to extend its base of popular support through intensified propaganda activity. In early 1948 the PCR merged with one wing of the Social Democratic Party to form the Romanian Workers' Party. By the end of 1952, however, almost all of the former Social Democrats had been expelled from the leading party bodies and replaced by active Communists (see ch. 2).

Organization

Basic decisions concerning the organization, operation, and membership of the PCR are contained in the party statutes, the fundamental doc.u.ment of the party. Originally adopted in May 1948, the statutes have undergone several modifications, with more significant revisions being made in 1955, 1965, 1967, and 1969.

All organs of the party are closely interrelated and operate on the principle of democratic centralism. Derived from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the concept of democratic centralism provides for the election of party bodies at all levels but requires a firm hierarchical subordination of each party organ to the next higher unit. In practice, this means that party programs and policies are directed from a single center and that decisions of higher organs are unconditionally binding on all lower organs as well as on individual members. The statutes call for the free and open discussion of policy questions at congresses, conferences, local membership meetings, and in the party press; however, discipline requires that once a decision is made the minority fully submits to decisions of the majority.

According to the party statutes, the supreme organ of the PCR is the party congress consisting of delegates elected by the county (_judet_) conferences on the basis of one delegate for every 1,000 party members.

As revised in 1969, the statutes call for the convening of a party congress every five years. Duties of the congress include the election of the PCR general secretary, election of the Central Committee and the Central Auditing Commission, and the discussion and adoption of programs and policies proposed by the central organs of the party.

Between congresses the leading party organ is the Central Committee.

Consisting of 165 full members and 120 alternate members, the Central Committee is responsible for the overall direction of all party activities and the implementation of policies established by the party congress. In addition, the Central Committee screens nominations for the more important party and state positions. Party statutes require a plenary session of the Central Committee at least four times a year (see fig. 9).

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Figure 9. Organization of the Romanian Communist Party, 1972._]

After its election by the party congress, the Central Committee in turn elects, from among its own number, the members of the leading party bodies: the Standing Presidium, the Executive Committee, and the Secretariat. The election is largely a formality, however, for in practice the Standing Presidium is the primary center of political power and is a self-perpetuating body. Any change in its membership or in that of the Secretariat is generated from within rather than through a democratic decision of the Central Committee. As general secretary of the party, Ceausescu heads both the Standing Presidium and the Secretariat and chairs the Executive Committee.

To accomplish its administrative tasks the Central Committee is provided with an extensive bureaucratic structure that in many instances parallels the organization of the government ministries. A chancellery office, headed by a chief and three deputies, coordinates the committee's overall administrative activities. Party work is organized under three directorates, each headed by a supervisory secretary, and a number of administrative sections and functional commissions. The directorates, designated as international affairs and propaganda, party organization, and press and cultural affairs, supervise and direct the work of the administrative sections. Not all of these sections are listed in the party statutes or by the party press. A partial listing includes sections for the economy, local administration, propaganda, press, international affairs, party organs and personnel, national minorities, and state security.

In addition to the directorates and administrative sections there were, in 1970, eight formally established commissions directly tied to the Central Committee. These were listed as the commissions for agriculture and forestry; economic problems; ideological and cultural-educational problems; international relations; organizational problems and internal party activity; training of cadres, education, and science; development of the social and state system; and social questions, public health, and living standards.

Two party training inst.i.tutions, the Stefan Gheorghiu Academy of Social-Political Education and the Training of Leading Cadres and the Inst.i.tute of Historical and Social-Political Studies, operate under the direct supervision of the Central Committee. Located in Bucharest, both of these inst.i.tutions are designed to train and indoctrinate key bureaucratic personnel. The Central Committee also maintains a museum of party history in Bucharest.

In charge of all of the political machinery of the PCR, the Standing Presidium of the Central Committee is the party's center for decisionmaking and policy control and, as such, is the most powerful body in the country. There were, at the beginning of 1972, four party leaders who held positions concurrently on the Standing Presidium, the Executive Committee, and the Secretariat: Ceausescu, Manea Manescu, Paul Niculescu-Mizil, and Gheorghe Pana. Political observers considered these men to be the most powerful in the party and, hence, the nation.

All of the nine members of the Standing Presidium are also members of the Executive Committee.

Little information is available on the responsibilities given the Executive Committee, although some observers have described it as providing an administrative link between the Standing Presidium and the Central Committee. In practice it has functioned as a rump Central Committee when the latter is not in session. The Secretariat serves as the continuing administrative unit of the party. It supervises the execution of policies decided upon by the Standing Presidium. Three members of the Secretariat serve as the supervising secretaries of the major directorates of the Central Committee.

Two other important party organs function under the supervision of the Standing Presidium and the Secretariat: the Central Auditing Commission and the Central Collegium, formerly known as the Party Control Commission. Consisting of forty-five members (none of whom may belong to the Central Committee), the Central Auditing Commission is empowered to exercise general control over party financial affairs and examine the management of finances by the various party organs. The nine-member Central Collegium deals with matters of party discipline and serves as a type of appeals court for penalties imposed on members by county or local party committees.

An interlocking of authority and functions at the highest level of the party and state is evidenced in the frequency with which the senior party officials also hold important government posts. All of the members of the Standing Presidium, the Executive Committee, and the Secretariat are also deputies to the Grand National a.s.sembly, and most of them hold other prominent government positions in the Council of State, the Defense Council, or the Council of Ministers.

The party statutes describe the local cell, the basic party unit, as the foundation of the party. Cells exist in factories, offices, cooperatives, military and police units, social and cultural organizations, and residential areas. Some of these cell groups consist of as few as three members, whereas those in the larger enterprises may have as many as 300 members. In 1969 there were an estimated 69,000 of these local party units.

Functions of the local and occupational cell units include the implementation of party directives and programs, the recruitment and indoctrination of new members, and the dissemination of propaganda directed at those outside the party. Members have the duty to partic.i.p.ate in social, economic, and cultural activities, particularly in the direction of the economic enterprises, and to critically examine production and community life in the light of party ideology and goals.

In all of its activities the local cell is required to uphold the discipline of the party and to adhere to the policies established by the ruling bodies of the PCR.

Between the local cell unit and the higher organs of the PCR stands a hierarchy of party committees organized on the county, town, and communal levels. Each of these units is directly subordinate to the next higher level of the party organization. In Bucharest a city party committee supervises the activities of the communal and enterprise cells. Each party committee sets up its own bureau and elects a secretariat. In most cases the secretariat consists of a first secretary, a first vice chairman, and three or more vice chairmen or secretaries.

The activity of the bureaus is conducted through several functional departments, which generally consist of sections on personnel, administration, agitation and propaganda, economic enterprises, youth, and women's affairs. The county and city committees also have their own control commissions and training programs. The first secretary of the county committee also serves as chairman of the county people's council, interlocking the party and government offices (see ch. 8).

The party leadership decided in late 1967 to require the active partic.i.p.ation of the party secretaries in the administrative organs of the enterprises and other inst.i.tutions in their respective areas. County committees are aided in their administrative duties by economic commissions that oversee the general economic development of the county and fix both current and long-range goals. In addition, the economic commissions are charged with the coordination of all economic activity, the conducting of studies and making of proposals for setting production goals, and the allocation of material and human resources in the county.

At each of these levels--county, city, town, and commune--the highest authoritative organ is the party conference, which fills a role on these lower levels similar to that of the party congress on the national level. The party statutes as revised in 1969 call for the convening of conferences every fourth year in the counties, in the city of Bucharest, and in the larger towns. In the communes and smaller towns the conference is required to be held once every two years. Although the conferences are held ostensibly to discuss problems and formulate policies, they serve in practice as transmission belts for the official party line set down by the central PCR authorities. County conferences and the Bucharest city conference elect delegates to the national party congress.

Membership

The PCR emerged at the close of World War II with only about 1,000 members. Four years later, just before its merger with the Social Democratic Party and after an intensive propaganda campaign and a strong membership drive, the party reported over 700,000 members. When the PCR merged with the Social Democratic Party to form the Romanian Workers'

Party in 1948, some 200,000 Social Democrats were added to the membership roll. A purge of so-called hostile and nominal members during 1950 resulted in the expulsion of 190,000 persons from the party, reducing the total membership to about 720,000 at the beginning of 1951.

During the early years of full communist control of Romania, the party considered itself the vanguard of the working cla.s.s and made a sustained effort to recruit workers into party membership. By the end of 1950 the PCR reported that 64 percent of the leading party positions and 40 percent of the higher government posts were filled by members of the working cla.s.s. The efforts to recruit workers into the party have consistently fallen short of the set goals, however, and from time to time throughout the period since 1950 party leaders have decried the fact that the social composition of the membership has not included an adequate proportion of workers.

By 1964 the party membership was reported at 1.2 million. This total was increased to 1.5 million by 1966, a figure that represented about 8 percent of the country's population. Membership composition, in 1966, was reported as 40 percent workers, 32 percent peasants, and 22 percent intelligentsia, with the remaining 6 percent not cla.s.sified.

After Ceausescu's accession to power in 1965, he sought to increase the party's influence, broaden the base of popular support, and bring in new members. At a first step, he eliminated the probationary period, which had varied from one year for industrial workers to two years for peasants, white-collar workers, and intellectuals. Additional members were also sought by enticing those who had belonged to the old Social Democratic Party and the former Socialist Party by dating their membership from the time of their entry into those parties.