Condemned but not Forgotten: The Fate of Pro-British Activists in Romania, 1945–1964

Abstract

With the imposition of Communist rule in 1945, Romania was forced to turn its back on the West and face eastwards. This meant that anyone with a link to the West, especially those Romanians who had assisted SOE, became suspect in the eyes of the new regime. Such figures, having played their part in the defeat of Nazi Germany, now found themselves to be the targets of the Western Allies’ erstwhile partner, the Soviet Union, and its surrogate Romanian Communist Party. Those deemed to be opponents of the new Communist order attracted particular attention. Contact with the West became a cardinal sin with which the leaders of the established democratic parties could be charged, tried and removed from the political scene. Such was the fate of Iuliu Maniu, the head of the National Peasant Party, of Constantin (Dinu) Br˘atianu,¹ the head of the National Liberal Party, and of Titel Petrescu, the secretary-general of the Social Democratic Party.²