![Frontul Plugarilor 645](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Frontul_Plugarilor_645.jpg)
The Ploughmen's Front ( ro, Frontul Plugarilor) was a
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...
n
left-wing
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
agrarian-inspired political organisation of
ploughmen, founded at
Deva in 1933 and led by
Petru Groza
Petru Groza (7 December 1884 – 7 January 1958) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian politician, best known as the first Prime Minister of the Communist Party-dominated government under Soviet occupation during the early stages of the Commu ...
. At its peak in 1946, the Front had over 1 million members.
History
Begun in
Hunedoara County
Hunedoara County () is a county ('' județ'') of Romania, in Transylvania, with its capital city at Deva. The county is part of the Danube–Criș–Mureș–Tisa Euroregion.
Name
In Hungarian, it is known as , in German as , and in Slovak ...
, it quickly spread into the
Banat
Banat (, ; hu, Bánság; sr, Банат, Banat) is a geographical and historical region that straddles Central and Eastern Europe and which is currently divided among three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania (the counties of T ...
, and then into the other regions of Romania. Groza, who had been a minister in
Alexandru Averescu
Alexandru Averescu (; 9 March 1859 – 2 October 1938) was a Romanian marshal, diplomat and populist politician. A Romanian Armed Forces Commander during World War I, he served as Prime Minister of three separate cabinets (as well as being ''inter ...
's
People's Party cabinet (1926), aimed to improve the situation of the peasantry (which he believed had been betrayed by the main agrarian group, the
National Peasants' Party
The National Peasants' Party (also known as the National Peasant Party or National Farmers' Party; ro, Partidul Național Țărănesc, or ''Partidul Național-Țărănist'', PNȚ) was an agrarian political party in the Kingdom of Romania. It w ...
), calling for a
social security
Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...
program in the countryside and
tax reform
Tax reform is the process of changing the way taxes are collected or managed by the government and is usually undertaken to improve tax administration or to provide economic or social benefits. Tax reform can include reducing the level of taxati ...
favourable to small holdings. The group was also
republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
in ambitions, probably from the moment it was created (before 1940, Groza was recorded to have said "my last king was
Decebalus
Decebalus (), sometimes referred to as Diurpaneus, was the last Dacian king. He is famous for fighting three wars, with varying success, against the Roman Empire under two emperors. After raiding south across the Danube, he defeated a Roman invas ...
, after whose death I became a republican").
In 1935, the organisation aligned itself with the outlawed
Romanian Communist Party (PCR), an agreement inspired by the
Stalinist ''
Popular Front
A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for the defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault".
More generally, it is "a coalition ...
'' doctrine and signed in
Ţebea (after negotiations overseen by
Scarlat Callimachi).
During this period, the Ploughmen's Front never obtained more than 0.30% of the vote. Outlawed together with all parties in 1938, through a law passed by the
authoritarian regime of
King
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
Carol II
Carol II (4 April 1953) was King of Romania from 8 June 1930 until his forced abdication on 6 September 1940. The eldest son of Ferdinand I, he became crown prince upon the death of his grand-uncle, King Carol I in 1914. He was the first of th ...
, it remained active in clandestinity during the dictatorial rule of
Ion Antonescu (when Groza was detained in 1943–1944), and surfaced after its fall in 1944 and the start of
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
ascendancy and influence (''see
Romania during World War II
Following the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939, the Kingdom of Romania under King Carol II officially adopted a position of neutrality. However, the rapidly changing situation in Europe during 1940, as well as domestic political uph ...
'').
In October of that year, it joined other the PCR-led
National Democratic Front (FND), alongside the
Union of Patriots, the
Union of Hungarian Workers, the
Socialist Peasants' Party, and the
Romanian Social Democratic Party (the Ploughmen's Front absorbed the Socialist Peasants' Party one month later).
In February 1945, although represented inside the
Nicolae Rădescu
Nicolae Rădescu (; 30 March 1874 – 16 May 1953) was a Romanian army officer and political figure. He was the last pre-Communist Romania, communist rule List of Prime Ministers of Romania, Prime Minister of Romania, serving from 7 December 1944 ...
cabinet (as it had been in the
Constantin Sănătescu
Constantin Sănătescu (14 January 1885 – 8 November 1947) was a Romanian general and statesman who served as the 44th Prime Minister of Romania after the 23 August 1944 coup after which Romania left the Axis powers and joined the Allies.
Earl ...
one) it took part in violent incidents that led to its fall. Groza, who was first considered for high political office in late 1944, led the third cabinet after the fall of Antonescu (formed on March 6, 1945); while the government was maneuvered by the PCR, the Ploughmen's Front did hold the Ministry of Agriculture and Royal Domains, which was assigned to
Romulus Zăroni, and that of Culture and Arts, which was assigned to
Mihai Ralea
Mihai Dumitru Ralea (also known as Mihail Ralea, Michel Raléa, or Mihai Rale;Straje, p. 586 May 1, 1896 – August 17, 1964) was a Romanian social scientist, cultural journalist, and political figure. He debuted as an affiliate of Poporanism, th ...
. In late 1947,
Stanciu Stoian became another one of the party's leading members to be presiding over a ministry — that of Religious Affairs; additionally,
Octav Liveazeanu became head on the Information Ministry.
The party ran on a single platform with the PCR during the
1946 general election, which the Groza cabinet won through large-scale
electoral fraud, and had PCR activists such as
Constantin Agiu
Constantin Agiu (November 5, 1891, Dolj County – February 19, 1961, Gura Humorului) was a Romanian Communist politician; he was also President of the Great National Assembly, the unicameral legislature of the Romanian People's Republic.
Bio ...
among its nominal members. It thus played an active part in the proceedings leading to the creation of
Communist Romania.
At the time, PCR leaders began using Antonescu's 1943 crackdown on the Front as an instrument in intra-party fights: after
General Secretary Gheorghiu-Dej had ordered his predecessor
Ştefan Foriş to be abducted and held in secrecy, it was alleged that Foriş' collaborator
Remus Koffler had functioned as an agent for the former secret service (
Siguranţa Statului), and that he had engineered Groza's arrest.
Nevertheless, relations between the Front and Communists were tested at times: after its first congress (July 1945), Groza's party called for the preservation of small, privately owned, agricultural plots and voluntary
cooperative farming
An agricultural cooperative, also known as a farmers' co-op, is a cooperative in which farmers pool their resources in certain areas of activity.
A broad typology of agricultural cooperatives distinguishes between agricultural service cooperativ ...
instead of the
collectivization
Collective farming and communal farming are various types of, "agricultural production in which multiple farmers run their holdings as a joint enterprise". There are two broad types of communal farms: agricultural cooperatives, in which member- ...
advocated by the PCR; in the period known as the "Royal strike" (beginning in the autumn of 1945 and marked by
King
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
Mihai I
Michael I ( ro, Mihai I ; 25 October 1921 – 5 December 2017) was the last King of Romania, reigning from 20 July 1927 to 8 June 1930 and again from 6 September 1940 until his forced abdication on 30 December 1947.
Shortly after Michael's ...
's refusal to sign his name to legislation advocated by the government), Groza, urged on by Zăroni and
Mihail Ghelmegeanu, objected to Soviet pressures on the monarch and even threatened
Vasile Luca
Vasile Luca (born László Luka; 8 June 1898 – 23 July 1963) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian and Soviet communist politician, a leading member of the Romanian Communist Party (PCR) from 1945 and until his imprisonment in the 1950s. ...
that he would withdraw support for the PCR. Eventually, the Front gave in to Communist demands (as a politician whose career survived the group's demise, Groza continued to sporadically clash with the PCR).
In July 1947, the Front was joined by
Nicolae D. Cornăţeanu and other members of the defunct ''National Union for Work and Reconstruction'' (a small political grouping formed by
Constantin Argetoianu
Constantin Argetoianu ( – 6 February 1955) was a Romanian politician, one of the best-known personalities of interwar Greater Romania, who served as the Prime Minister between 28 September and 23 November 1939. His memoirs, ''Memorii. Pentr ...
), and, in 1948, it absorbed the
National Peasants' Party–Alexandrescu (a splinter group of the National Peasants' Party).
The Ploughmen's Front ceased to exist when it dissolved itself in 1953. According to the 1991 testimony of former PCR leader
Gheorghe Apostol
Gheorghe Apostol (16 May 1913 – 21 August 2010) was a Romanian politician, deputy Prime Minister of Romania and a former leader of the Communist Party (PCR), noted for his rivalry with Nicolae Ceaușescu.
Early life
Apostol was born near T ...
, the latter action was instigated by the main party; he also indicated that, in retrospect, Gheorghiu-Dej had found such measures taken against pluralism to be regrettable ("Dej himself said: «What a stupid thing we have done! We could at least have allowed the Ploughmen's Front to exist!»).
[Apostol, in Betea, "Engima..."]
Electoral history
Legislative elections
Notes:
1 BDP members: PSDR (81 deputies), PNL-Tătărescu (75 deputies), Ploughmen's Front, Romanian Communist Party (68 deputies), National Popular Party (26 deputies), PNȚ-Alexandrescu (20 deputies), and 8 independents.
2 FDP members in 1948: Romanian Workers Party
The Romanian Communist Party ( ro, Partidul Comunist Român, , PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that woul ...
and affiliates (190 deputies and 11 independent deputies affiliated to PMR group), Ploughmen's Front, National Popular Party (43 deputies), Hungarian People's Union
The Hungarian People's Union ( hu, Magyar Népi Szövetség, MNSZ; ro, Uniunea Populară Maghiară, UPM) was a left-wing political party active in Romania between 1934 and 1953 that claimed to represent the Hungarian minority in Romania, Hungarian ...
(30 deputies), and Jewish Democratic Committee
The Jewish Democratic Committee or Democratic Jewish Committee ( ro, Comitetul Democrat Evreiesc, CDE, also ''Comitetul Democrat Evreesc'', ''Comitetul Democratic Evreiesc''; he, הוועד הדמוקרטי היהודי; hu, Demokrata Zsidó Komi ...
(5 deputies).
3 FDP members in 1952: Romanian Workers Party
The Romanian Communist Party ( ro, Partidul Comunist Român, , PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that woul ...
and independent affiliates, Ploughmen's Front, Hungarian People's Union
The Hungarian People's Union ( hu, Magyar Népi Szövetség, MNSZ; ro, Uniunea Populară Maghiară, UPM) was a left-wing political party active in Romania between 1934 and 1953 that claimed to represent the Hungarian minority in Romania, Hungarian ...
, and Jewish Democratic Committee
The Jewish Democratic Committee or Democratic Jewish Committee ( ro, Comitetul Democrat Evreiesc, CDE, also ''Comitetul Democrat Evreesc'', ''Comitetul Democratic Evreiesc''; he, הוועד הדמוקרטי היהודי; hu, Demokrata Zsidó Komi ...
. The distribution of mandates is unclear.
Notes
References
*Lavinia Betea,
*
"Engima partidului unic" ("The Riddle of the Single Party") in ''
Jurnalul Național
''Jurnalul Național'' is a Romanian newspaper, part of the INTACT Media Group led by Dan Voiculescu, which also includes the popular television station Antena 1. The newspaper was launched in 1993. Its headquarters is in Bucharest
Buchare ...
'', January 30, 2007
*
"«În umbra celulei»" ("«In the Cell's Shadow»") in ''Jurnalul Național'', January 31, 2006
*
Adrian Cioroianu
Adrian Mihai Cioroianu (born January 5, 1967, Craiova, Romania) is a Romanian historian, politician, journalist, and essayist. A lecturer for the History Department at the University of Bucharest, he is the author of several books dealing with R ...
, ''Pe umerii lui Marx. O introducere în istoria comunismului românesc'' ("On the Shoulders of Marx. An Incursion into the History of Romanian Communism"),
Editura Curtea Veche
Editura Curtea Veche (Curtea Veche Publishing House) is a Romanian publishing house with a tradition in editing works of Romanian literature. After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, Curtea Veche started editing more foreign books, such as BBC #REDIR ...
, Bucharest, 2005
*Victor Frunză, ''Istoria stalinismului în România'' ("The History of Stalinism in Romania"),
Humanitas
''Humanitas'' is a Latin noun meaning human nature, civilization, and kindness. It has uses in the Enlightenment, which are discussed below.
Classical origins of term
The Latin word ''humanitas'' corresponded to the Greek concepts of '' philanthr ...
, Bucharest, 1990
*
Keith Hitchins
Keith Arnold Hitchins (April 2, 1931 – November 1, 2020) was an American historian and a professor of Eastern European history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, specializing in Romania and its history.
He was born in Schenect ...
, ''România, 1866–1947'', Humanitas, Bucharest, 1998 (translation of the English-language edition ''Rumania, 1866–1947'', Oxford University Press, USA, 1994)
Petre Otu, "1946–1947. Se pregătește guvernul Argetoianu!" ("1946–1948. An Argetoianu Government Is Under Preparation!") in ''Magazin Istoric'', May 2000
*M. Ștefan, "În umbra Cortinei de Fier" ("In the Shadow of the
Iron Curtain"), in ''Magazin Istoric'', November 1995
*
Vladimir Tismăneanu
Vladimir Tismăneanu (; born July 4, 1951) is a Romanian American political scientist, political analyst, sociologist, and professor at the University of Maryland, College Park. A specialist in political systems and comparative politics, he is di ...
, ''Stalinism for All Seasons: A Political History of Romanian Communism'',
University of California Press
The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by facult ...
, 2003,
*Nicolae Videnie, "«Alegerile» din martie 1948: epilogul listelor electorale alternative. Obsesia unanimității — primii pași" ("The «Elections» of March 1948: an Epilogue to Alternative Electoral Lists. Unanimity Obsession — The First Steps Taken"), in ''Dosarele Istoriei'', 11/V, 2000
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1933 establishments in Romania
1953 disestablishments in Romania
Agrarian parties in Romania
Defunct agrarian political parties
Defunct socialist parties in Romania
Political parties disestablished in 1953
Political parties established in 1933
Republican parties
Republicanism in the Kingdom of Romania
Socialist Republic of Romania