National Peasants' Party in the context of "Romanian Communist Party"

The 1944 Romanian coup d'état, better known in Romanian historiography as the Act of 23 August (Romanian: Actul de la 23 august), was a coup d'état led by King Michael I of Romania during World War II on 23 August 1944. With the support of several political parties, the king removed the government of Ion Antonescu, which had aligned Romania with Nazi Germany, after the Axis front in northeastern Romania collapsed in the face of a successful Soviet offensive. The Romanian Army declared a unilateral ceasefire with the Soviet Red Army on the Moldavian front, an event viewed as decisive in the Allied advances against the Axis powers in the European theatre of World War II. The coup was supported by the Romanian Communist Party, the Social Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party, and the National Peasants' Party who had coalesced into the National Democratic Bloc in June 1944.

The Democratic Nationalist Party or Nationalist Democratic Party (Romanian: Partidul Naționalist-Democrat, PND) was a political party in Romania, established by historian Nicolae Iorga (who was also its longest-serving leader) and jurist A. C. Cuza. Its support base was in the lower reaches of the Romanian middle class, and, especially through Cuza's ideology, it reflected the xenophobia, economic antisemitism, and producerism of that particular environment. The PND was a weak challenge to the mainstream political forces, either conservative or liberal, failing in its bid to become Romania's third-strongest party. By 1916, it was effectively split between Iorga's moderates and Cuza's radicals, suspending its activity for the remainder of World War I.

The PND reemerged as a significant force in Greater Romania, after November 1918. It frequently changed names and refined its official stance, becoming closely aligned with Iorga's evolving ideas on society and politics. During the early 1920s, it trailed to the left of the political spectrum, caucusing with the Peasants' Party, and supporting a "Democratic Bloc" coalition against the National Liberals; its far-right faction seceded and became the National-Christian Defense League. Around 1925, the PND itself returned to national conservatism, briefly merging with the Romanian National Party, but resuming independence in 1926, when the latter merged into the National Peasants' Party. It reemerged with an agenda supporting technocracy and corporatism, and was brought to power in 1931, when King Carol II appointed Iorga as Prime Minister.

The Peasants' Party (Romanian: Partidul Țărănesc, PȚ) was a political party in post-World War I Romania that espoused a left-wing ideology partly connected with Agrarianism and Populism, and aimed to represent the interests of the Romanian peasantry. Through many of its leaders, the party was connected with Poporanism, a cultural and political trend in turn influenced by Narodnik ideas. In 1926, it united with the Romanian National Party to form the National Peasants' Party (PNȚ).

The International Agrarian Bureau (IAB; Czech: Mezinárodní Agrární Bureau, French: Bureau International Agraire), commonly known as the Green International (Zelená Internacionála, Internationale Verte), was founded in 1921 by the agrarian parties of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Yugoslavia. The creation of a continental association of peasants was championed by Aleksandar Stamboliyski of the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union, but originated with earlier attempts by Georg Heim. Following Stamboliyski's downfall in 1923, the IAB came to be dominated by the Republican Party of Farmers and Peasants in Czechoslovakia, whose member Karel Mečíř served as its first leader. Mečíř was able to extend the IAB beyond its core in Slavic Europe, obtaining support from the National Peasants' Party in Greater Romania; as an ideologue, Milan Hodža introduced the Green International to European federalism.

Hodža also redefined international agrarianism as a "Third Way" movement. The Bureau was thus a key competitor with the Krestintern, or "Red Peasant International", which existed as a proxy of the Communist International (or Comintern). In 1929 to 1934, the IAB also gathered allegiances from parties in other areas of the continent, managing to draw the Croatian Peasant Party away from the Krestintern, and helping to create the French Agrarian and Peasant Party. This drive was interrupted by the spread of fascism, which identified Greens as its enemies—although some sections of the IAB came to favor cooperation with the various fascist movements. From 1933, Nazi Germany also interfered directly in the politics of IAB countries. Germany's occupation of Czechoslovakia, and subsequently its takeover of Continental Europe, put an end to IAB activities, though attempts were still made to revive it from London.

Iuliu Maniu (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈjulju maˈni.u] ; 8 January 1873 – 5 February 1953) was a Romanian lawyer and politician. He was a leader of the National Party of Transylvania and Banat before and after World War I, playing an important role in the Union of Transylvania with Romania.

Maniu served as Prime Minister of Romania for three terms during 1928–1933, and, with Ion Mihalache, co-founded the National Peasants' Party. Arrested by the ascendant communist authorities in 1947 as a result of the Tămădău affair, he was convicted of treason in a show trial and sent to Sighet Prison, where he died six years later.

The Romanian Front (Romanian: Frontul Românesc, FR) was a fascist party created in Romania in 1935. Led by former Prime Minister Alexandru Vaida-Voevod, it originated as a right-wing splinter group from the mainstream National Peasants' Party (PNȚ). While in power, Vaida had an ambiguous approach to the Iron Guard, and constructed his own radical ideology; the FR had a generally xenophobic program of positive discrimination, being implicitly (and eventually explicitly) antisemitic. It was subsumed to the policies of King Carol II, maneuvering between the mainstream National Liberals, the PNȚ's left-wing, and the more radically fascist Guardists. Vaida tried to compete with the former two and appease the latter, assuming fascist trappings such as the black-shirted uniform. Like the Guard, he supported aligning Romania with the Axis powers, though he also hoped to obtain their guarantees for Greater Romania's borders. The FR's lower echelons included Viorel Tilea and other opponents of Vaida's approach, who believed in Romania's attachments to the League of Nations and the Little Entente.

Albeit invested with the king's trust and counting experienced politicians among its cadres, the FR was always a minor force in Romanian politics, and was habitually defeated in by-elections. Its peak influence was recorded during the local elections of June 1937, when it emerged as the second most popular party in Ilfov County. Early on, it was courted by other radical groups, narrowly failing to absorb the National Agrarian Party. It came to depend on the more powerful National Christian Party, with which it formed a political alliance in 1935. Called "National Bloc", it too failed to produce a full merger between its components, as Vaida had qualms about the unchecked Germanophilia of his partners; his Romanianization project was also regarded as too mild by National Christian standards. In later years, the FR made several sustained efforts to reunite with, or to absorb, the "centrist" wing of the PNȚ.

General elections were held in Romania in December 1937. The Chamber of Deputies was elected on 20 December, whilst the Senate was elected in three stages on 22, 28 and 30 December. Voting was by universal male suffrage, making them the last elections held before women could vote.

The National Liberal Party remained the largest party, winning 152 of the 387 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 97 of the 112 the Senate seats. However, unlike all previous elections organised by partisan governments, the results did not give the governing party a majority. The National Liberals' unexpectedly poor showing prevented it from creating a government on its own (obtaining 40% of the vote would have automatically awarded them a large parliamentary majority). They ruled out a coalition with their arch-rivals, the second-placed National Peasants' Party, or with the third-placed Iron Guard's Everything for the Country Party. King Carol II invited the fascist Octavian Goga to form a government, though his National Christian Party finished fourth and had an avowedly anti-Semitic platform. Goga's government was formed on 29 December 1937.

The Tămădău affair (Romanian: Afacerea Tămădău, Înscenarea de la Tămădău – "the Tămădău frameup" – or Fuga de la Tămădău – "the Tămădău flight") was an incident that took place in Romania in July 1947. It was the source of a political scandal and show trial.

It was provoked when an important number of National Peasants' Party (PNȚ) leaders, including Party Vice-President Ion Mihalache, had been offered a chance to flee Romania, where the Communist Party (PCR), the main force in the Petru Groza government, already had a tight grip on power with backing from the Soviet Union (see Soviet occupation of Romania). The affair signalled some of the first official measures taken against opposition parties as a step leading to the proclamation of a people's republic at the end of that year (see Socialist Republic of Romania).