ABSTRACT

The immediate post-war period caused a further dramatic upheaval in the traditional society of the village. This chapter examines the development of the agrarian question in Romania in the final years before the Communist take-over in 1948. The focus is mainly on those measures introduced at the end of the war to redistribute rural land and encourage the reconstruction of war-torn Romania. The chapter focuses on examining the practical consequences of the post-Communist debates concerning the Communist regime, in particular debates concerning its origins and its power base. In the debates in the Romanian Parliament concerning the scope of restitution, the 1945 law was accepted as the last legitimate land reform before collectivisation. The chapter discusses the implementation of this law, in particular the ways in which it was integrated into the wider programme of Communist revolution in Romania.