ABSTRACT
Soon after the formation of the Romanian Workers' Party in February 1948 and even before the new constitution had been enacted in April, the communist leadership under Gheorghiu-Dej moved to consolidate its power, to entrench its leader, and to refashion the country on the Soviet, or more accurately, the Stalinist pattern; Stalinism involved terror and between 1948 and 1956 Romania went through that Stalinist nightmare.
