Romania: House of Cards

Romania's status as Eastern Europe's “maverick” began in thè early 1960s, when the Romanian Party Secretary Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej attempted to resist Khrushchev's de-Stalinization efforts. Although part of the “home” faction of the minuscule Romanian Communist Party (membership in 1944 was 884!), Dej was just as Stalinist as those in the “Muscovite” group who had entered Romania on the heels of the Red Army. His strategy for consolidating power was to mobilize nationalism (both within the Party and in the population at large) by resisting Khrushchev's liberalizing influence on Romanian political life and his effort to integrate Romania's economy into Comecon.