Social Democracy In Interwar Romania

The history of social democracy in Romania begins in late 19th century, in 1893, with the emergence of the Social Democratic Workers Party

Steliu Lambru, 28.10.2019, 14:13

In Romania between the wars, and in fact the entire world, when passions ran no less high than now, people had relationships going beyond political, class, and ethnic differences. The history of social democracy in Romania begins in late 19th century, in 1893, with the emergence of the Social Democratic Workers Party. Socialist ideas were not that new at that time, they had been spreading into Romania since the 1870s. In 1910, the Social Democratic Party was created on the remains of the former 1893 party. In 1918, the Social Democratic Party of Romania changed its name into the Socialist Party, with several splinters appearing as well. In 1927, the many socialist groups created the Social Democratic Party, which existed until 1945-1948, when it was absorbed by the Communists.

Social Democratic militants in interwar Romania were of various conditions. Mira Moscovici, one of the daughters of Social Democrat leader Ilie Moscovici, spoke to the Radio Romania Center for Oral History in 1994 about the movement and its people:

“In the old Social Democratic movement people were idealistic. The party could not offer any benefit, you couldnt build a career. It was said that Social Democracy was a disease of bookworms. Many valuable intellectuals came, in their youth, in conflict with parents and society; before they built a career they were idealists, romantics, therefore socialists. Then, in time, that went away. They either moved to other parties, or just became highly qualified professionals. Many writers, artists, men of culture, were in the socialist movement as students. People who were disinterestedly joining the movement made a strong connection. Being in the movement could also be dangerous, which led to much needed solidarity, which I call human warmth.”

Some important names in the interwar Romanian Social Democratic movement were Ion Flueras, Iosif Jumanca, Constantin Titel Petrescu, Ilie Moscovici, and Serban Voinea, intellectuals and social activists who promoted social values and applied them. Mira Moscovici recalled her parents friendship with Ion Flueras, a Social Democratic parliamentarian:

“Flueras was one of the leaders of the trade union and Social Democratic movements Transylvania. He was an MP and wanted to move to Bucharest. They had a daughter the same age as my older sister, and they thought to move her to school there, then join her. It took them more than a year to do that. Their daughter stayed with us, naturally. Mother set up for her a small couch in our room. When they finally moved, they got a home in Brutus Street, right next to the party headquarters, next to Izvor Bridge. We also moved in the area, we were neighbors, and we spent a lot of time together. When we moved to Vatra Luminoasa neighborhood, and we had houses one next to each other. During Antonescus rule, when they took away our telephone, we used the phone in the Flueras household. When they kicked us out of our house, illegally, they gave us room there to put our possessions, furniture, etc. We had very close and warm relations.”

Human ties built themselves up naturally, many times overcoming possible differences people had at some point or another. Mira Moscovici recalled her fathers status, which did not prevent him from being close to people which theoretically should have been adversaries:

“I want to talk about human relations again. In 1920, after father got arrested at the general strike, the military prosecutor was a captain, Vasile Chiru. And they became friends. When he was called in for questioning, Chiru announced mother that father was with him. Then she would go with my sister to see father and talk to him. Colonel Chiru (he had been made a colonel by then) suffered because of his role in the general strike trial, he was arrested during the time of the Communists. After he investigated father, they stayed friends, and worked together with him in cleaning up the Romanian economy. Also, during Antonescu he stood witness in a court proceeding to affirm fathers presence at the front line and his military status.”

The persecution against Jewish Social Democrats inflicted by the Fascist regime was terrible. But even then some peoples behavior ran contrary to the regime, as Mira Moscovici told us:

“These relationships worked during Antonescus dictatorship, and even during the Legionnaire rebellion. We had trouble with our neighbors, who wanted to grab the house we were living in, and we got lots of love from Father Bedreag from the Iancu Nou church in our neighborhood, who told us to stay with him to keep away from the Legionnaire rebellion. That wasnt even needed, though, because we always had a few friends from the old movement who stayed with us. We met people who had been in the Legionnaire movement, in the leadership, such as Radu Mironovici, who, in spite of the severity in the movement, was a fair man who helped us.”

Romanian Social Democracy was part of reality in a complicated Romania, with a complicated history, which every social and political movement wanted to leave its imprint on.