Socialist Party of Romania (1918–1921)
루마니아 사회당 (1918–1921)
A socialist party founded on 11 December 1918 by members of the Social Democratic Party of Romania as it came out of clandestinity. From 1919 it merged with the Social Democratic parties of Transylvania, Banat and Bukovina and by early 1921 had 40,000 to 45,000 members. Divided over affiliation to the Comintern, its maximalist majority accepted Lenin's 21 conditions at the May 1921 congress and became the Socialist-Communist Party, later the Communist Party of Romania.
In depth
The party's roots lay in the Social Democratic Party of Romania, which under Christian Rakovsky took part in the Zimmerwald movement in 1915. Outlawed after Romania entered the war in 1916, it re-emerged at the end of 1918 under the new name, proclaimed its commitment to the dictatorship of the proletariat and backed the radicalised labour movement. Days after its founding, on 26 (O.S. 13) December 1918, troops fired on striking Bucharest typesetters and stormed the party headquarters, arresting general secretary Ilie Moscovici and other leaders.
From May 1919 it negotiated a merger with the Transylvanian and Bukovinian socialists, adopting a single statute in October 1920. It won 7 seats in the Chamber in the 1919 election and 19 Chamber and 3 Senate seats in 1920, but its part in the 1920 general strike brought a severe crackdown. Its newspaper was Socialismul, and by early 1921 it had 27 branches and 40,000 to 45,000 registered members.
Affiliation to the Comintern split it. At the Comintern's Second Congress in 1920 Bukharin demanded that its delegates accept the 21 conditions, expel the reformists and turn Socialismul into a communist paper. The maximalist wing led by Gheorghe Cristescu carried the affiliation at the congress of May 1921 and took the name Socialist-Communist Party, but on 12 May troops stormed the congress and arrested all 51 delegates. Tried in the Dealul Spirii Trial and later amnestied, they formally founded the Communist Party of Romania at their 1922 congress in Ploiești.
The reformists re-established the Socialist Party in January 1922 and merged it into the Federation of Romanian Socialist Parties that May; on 7 May 1927 the Federation's groups united as the Romanian Social Democratic Party. Once in power, the Communist Party encouraged the view that it was the Socialist Party's natural successor.