The Labor Strike of 13 December 1918

Steliu Lambru, 20.12.2021, 12:36

At the end of WWI, the world was in search mode. It was searching for peace, for a better world, but at the same time searching for a way to restore the old order of things. Old and new ideas were clashing. In that tumult, revolutionary ideas seemed to many as the best idea. The war had generated great hardships, and radical solutions had gained ground, as had the Bolshevik revolutions in Russia, Hungary, and Germany. Against this background, in the center of Bucharest on 13 December 1918, a labor strike by workers in print shops would come to a tragic conclusion. 6 were left dead and 15 wounded when the army intervened against people demanding their rights.

Of course, this brief description merits explanation, and historian Ioan Scurtu brings it to us:

“In Bucharest, the headquarters of the Socialist Party was right in the center of the city, behind the Kretzulescu Church. The workers started marching from there, aiming to reach the Royal Palace. First they took a detour on Campineanu Street, seeking to turn onto Victoria Avenue. When they got close to the National Theater, the army set up a barricade. The workers were asked to disperse, but they insisted on shouting their grievances in front of the palace. They did not back down, shouting slogans such as Freedom!, and We want Bread!, or We want affordable rent!. The army opened fire. In the press release the next day, the government said that it was a riot, that the army had retaliated when it was shot upon by the workers. 6 were left dead and 15 wounded, all of them workers. The press release was a red herring, and Liberal politician I. G. Duca in his memoirs clearly states that the army was the only party shooting, and that the violence had been extreme.”

The protest was small scale, but it gained notoriety at the time, as well as after 1945. The communist regime installed by the Soviet army blew out of proportion the reaction of the regime to the march. Here is Ioan Scurtu:

“The number of dead has been disputed. When I got to Bucharest, in 1957, and up to 1990, near the partially rebuilt building of the National Theater there was a monument with a sign saying that, on 13 December 1918, 102 workers had been killed upon orders from the bourgeois government. In 1967 I visited Gheorghe Cristescu, who had been Socialist Party secretary, and had become Communist Party secretary. Among other things, he told me about the number of the dead claimed by the monument.. He told me he had told his comrades to go to each sector of the city and register the number of dead on that day, 13 December 1918. 102 had died that day, but obviously most of them had nothing to do with that movement.”

We asked Ioan Scurtu if the organizers of the protest had been inspired by the Bolshevik revolution model, which was the worst accusation brought against the protesters.

“The Socialist Party had its demands at that time. It was demanding the removal of the bourgeoisie and of exploitation, it demanded a republican Romania. But the protest itself was not under these demands. Of course, the government tried to chalk the protest off to political motives. In the press release it was said that, in collusion with the Bolsheviks in Moscow and the Communists in Budapest, the workers sought to upturn the existing social order. The very next day, on 14 December, the government published the executive order to break up land holdings above 100 ha in order to distribute land to the peasants. The decree was meant to prevent uprisings in villages. The peasants were pleased with the land distribution and the agrarian reform.”

The memory of the behavior of the Russian army in Romania in the winter of 1917 to 1918 was not a pleasant one for Romanians, both the authorities and the population. The anarchy and violence perpetrated by the Russians drunk on Bolshevism were extremely destabilizing. We asked Ioan Scurtu if the government acted excessively because of the potential for major instability.

“We should once again go to I. G. Duca. He said that, after about 7 years from the events, he spoke to the general who had ordered the repression, and he boasted that he ordered the army to open fire upon his own initiative. He, General Margineanu, supposedly had called PM Ion Bratianu, who told him that under no circumstances should he open fire. He was told to find means to disperse the protesters without extreme violence. Margineanu supposedly said that he had assumed responsibility, and so he had managed to stifle Romanias leaning towards Bolshevism. It is certain that the government did not denounce this action, and General Margineanu was decorated by King Ferdinand.”

The print shop labor strike of 13 December 1918 was a marginal episode for Romanian society at the time. However, it is of importance for forming a complete picture of what was the end of an era.