Rolul lui Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej în elaborarea politicii externe şi în direcţionarea relaţiilor româno-sovietice (1960-1965)
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej’s Role in Shaping Romania’s Foreign Policy. The Romanian-Soviet Relationship (1960-1965)

Summary/Abstract: The Soviet Russia’s influence on Romania had a significant impact on the country’s foreign policy. For a long time, the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, strictly limited Romania’s international involvement and Mutual Assistance signed by the Popular Republic of Romania and U.S.S.R. on February 10th 1948. According to the treaty, the friends and the foes of U.S.S.R were to become Romania’s own friends and foes. Politically weak, but backed up by the tanks of the Red Army, the Romanian Communist Party followed faithfully the Soviet lead in international politics. During Stalin’s lifetime the communist regime in Romania never objected to obeying Kremlin’s decisions in international affairs. Even after Stalin’s death, Gheorghiu-Dej was careful not to lose sight of the Soviet model. Nevertheless, after 1953 the first signs of autonomy appeared, especially in economy. The “sovroms” were abandoned in agriculture, and the Soviet advisors were no longer welcome. The first decisive victory in international politics was won when the Soviet army left Romania (1958). Gheorghiu-Dej capitalized on this, he become more popular in the country and started making plans for a more independent foreign policy. N. S. Hrushciov, the new leader of Kremlin, decided to take new measures about domestic policies with a view to solving economic problems and reducing tensions caused by large-scale repression. The Secret Report, read at the 20th Congress of P.C.U.S. (February 1956), had significant consequences: during the autumn of the same year the Budapest revolution broke out. Gheorghiu-Dej’s loyalty to the Soviet Russia was to be rewarded by Moscow with support for his own projects. The peak of the conflict between U.S.S.R and Mao’s China, as well as the rockets’ crisis in Cuba (1962), provided Gheorghiu-Dej with the opportunity to set his regime free from the Soviet domination. The first disagreements were on economic issues, in particular on role, which was to be played by C.A.E.R. Taking advantage of favorable international circumstances, the leader of P.M.R. managed to pursue an independent line of foreign policy, whose best example remains the April Declaration (1964). The document, regarded as Gheorghiu-Dej’s political testament, marks the peak of Romania’s independent international politics. Nevertheless, it has to be mentioned that Romania could not develop a truly independent international politics while remaining a member of the Treaty of Warsaw and of C.A.E.R., two of Moscow’s most important instruments of control and manipulation.

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