National Peasants' Party

History

Formation

Future PNȚ leader Maniu had had his first government experience during the union of Transylvania with Romania. In alliance with the Transylvanian Socialists, his PNR had organized a Transylvanian Directorate, which functioned as that region's transitional government to April 1920. This body was explicitly against regional autonomy, and its distinct initiatives were in the field of social welfare. As regional Minister of Social Welfare, the PNR doctor Iuliu Moldovan introduced eugenics, which also appeared as nativism in the political thought a PNR leader, Alexandru Vaida-Voevod. Based in the Romanian Old Kingdom, the Peasants' Party was founded in December 1918 by schoolteacher Ion Mihalache, with assistance from academics such as Virgil Madgearu and Dimitrie Gusti. The group soon established itself in Bessarabia, also recently united with Romania. This was due to it absorbing much of the Bessarabian Peasants' Party (PȚB), under Pan Halippa and Constantin Stere. In 1921, the PȚ had been joined by Nicolae L. Lupu, formerly of the Labor Party.

In 1919–1920, the PNR was able to outmaneuver the PNL, and, backed by the PȚ, formed Romania's national government, headed by Vaida-Voevod. Mihalache was personally involved in drafting the land reform project, taking a revolutionary stand which greatly increased the proportion of smallholders. Vaida's cabinet was brought down by King Ferdinand I, who openly favored the National Liberals. The PNL's return to power came with the adoption of a new constitution, and with the enactment of land reform, which massively expanded Romania's smallholding class. The latter had an unintended consequence in that it created an electoral pool for the opposition parties; it also gave Peasantists hopes that Romania's economy could still be built around peasant consumers. At this stage, both the PȚ and the PNR were opposed to the Constitution, seeing it as imposed on the Romanian public by the PNL, and arguing that it left the country open to future abuse of power. PNR absorbed another PȚB faction, led by Ion Pelivan, in 1923.

The two opposition groups embarked on a long series of negotiations, eventually producing a set of principles for merger. They began in May 1924, as informal talks between Stere and the PNR's Vasile Goldiș, resulting in a preliminary agreement that June. During this process, the PȚ shed much of its radical platform. However, left-wing Peasantists supported their ideologue Stere, who had a controversial past, for a leadership position in the unified body. This proposal was strongly opposed by figures on the PNR's right-wing such as Vaida and Voicu Nițescu. The unification was only made possible once Mihalache "sacrificed" Stere. The two-party collaboration was successfully tested during the August 1925 elections for the Agricultural Chambers, a professional consultative body. In the local election of early 1926, both parties ran a United Opposition Bloc, in conjunction with Alexandru Averescu's People's Party (PP); also joining them was a Peasant Workers' Bloc (BMȚ), which acted as a legal front for clandestine Romanian Communist Party (PCdR). The PP withdrew from this pact once Averescu was called by Ferdinand to take power. Maniu was a first choice, but eventually discarded for his association with Mihalache, whom Ferdinand regarded as a dangerous radical.

PNȚ cabinets

Maniu was sworn in as Prime Minister on October 10, 1928, leading the first of eight PNȚ government teams. This saw an extension of the welfare state and the regulation of labor through collective bargaining. Maniu's first cabinet had Moldovan as Labor Minister, using this position to advance his program in "biopolitics". His tenure saw the adoption of laws which set the working day at a maximum 10 hours and limited child labor; the effort to unify social insurance was completed in 1933. Endorsed by the Social Democratic Party (PSDR), this government team was put to the test during the December 1928 elections, which are often recognized as free from abuse and government interference, and which it still won in a landslide—with almost 78% of the vote. This result was partly owed to its alliance with the PSDR, the Jewish National People's Party, the German Party, and the Ukrainian Nationalists. At this early stage, the PNȚ was fully controlled by Maniu, who ordered PNȚ members of Parliament to sign resignations that he would file and enact upon in case of insubordination.

In June 1930, a trans-party group of Carlist supporters engineered a coup against the Regency, which ended with Carol's return and enthronement. The PNȚ briefly divided itself into backers of the coup and those who, like Maniu, remained more cautious. From July 1930, Carlist ideologue Nae Ionescu proposed a National Peasantist "mass dictatorship", which implied dissolving all other parties. Such ideas were contained by Maniu, who spoke out in favor of maintaining and cultivating electoral democracy, and by Carol, who would have rather formed a multi-party coalition. Ionescu's dictatorial optimism was published just as the Carol was antagonizing the PNȚ mainstream. Soon after his victory, the new King informed Maniu that he did not intend to honor his promises, causing a rift between monarch and government; Maniu resigned, was persuaded to return within days, and then resigned for good in October, handing the premiership to party colleague Gheorghe Mironescu.

Historian Barbara Jelavich sees Maniu's resignation as "ill-considered", effectively leaving Romania's electorate without an administration that "best represented [its] option". Carol ultimately asked Mironescu to resign in April 1931, and replaced him with Iorga, who led a minority cabinet. The National Peasantists were defeated by their PNL rivals in the election of June 1931, taking just 15% of the vote. Again called to power, with Vaida at the helm, they had a comeback with the early election of 1932, taking 40%. Carol persuaded Maniu to become Prime Minister in October. He resigned again in January 1933, after a row with Carol, who wanted Mihalache stripped of his post at Internal Affairs. Vaida returned as PNȚ Prime Minister, holding on to that position until November 13. Maniu had stepped down as PNȚ leader in June 1931, leaving Mihalache in charge to July of the following year; he then returned and held on to his seat to January 1933, when he was replaced by Vaida. Maniu and his supporters were now in the minority, issuing reprimands against Vaida's alliance with Carol.

Vaida schism and "popular front"

From March 1933, Lupu began attacking his former colleagues by bringing up alleged government corruption, in what became known as the "Škoda Affair". Maniu dismissed this as Carol's attempt to weaken the PNȚ, though the king's maneuvering permanently damaged the reputation of PNȚ-ists such as Romulus Boilă. Won over by Carol's political vision, Vaida lost the party chairmanship in March 1935, and inaugurated a new schism, creating his very own far-right party, the Romanian Front (FR), during the following month. Maniu also lost his grip on the PNȚ, and Mihalache was voted in for his second term. His relationship with Maniu reached a low point, with Mihalache hinting that he could order the PNR leadership expelled if they did not comply to his agenda. Under his watch, the PNȚ adopted a new statute in 1934, and a new program at the second party congress in April 1935. These pledged the party to a careful selection of cadres from the ranks of peasantry and youth, fully committing them to the project of establishing a "peasant state". The architects were figures on the left of the party—Ralea, Andrei, Mihail Ghelmegeanu, and Ernest Ene—, who worked from drafts first presented in Ralea's Viața Românească. During their ascendancy, in March 1934, Lupu and his followers were welcomed back into the PNȚ. This merger saw the party being joined by historian Ioan Hudiță, who later became one of Maniu's dedicated supporters.

From May 1935, the PNȚ held massive rallies, showcasing Mihalache's ambition of forming a new cabinet. Party unity was enforced by the decision of centrist Transylvanians such as Corneliu Coposu to side with democratic traditions and reject Vaida's penchant for far-right authoritarianism. In 1935, Coposu became leader of the national youth wing, called Tineretul Național Țărănesc (TNȚ), proceeding to purge Vaidists from the various party organizations. Maniu's nephew and potential successor, Ionel Pop, also took a stand against antisemitism, expressing horror at any attempt to align Romania with Nazi Germany. Anti-Nazism was likewise voiced by Facla, causing its editorial offices to be stormed by the National-Christian Defense League (LANC).

The Vaidist dissidence resulted in scuffles throughout Transylvania. In one such incident, PNȚ-ist Ilie Lazăr was reportedly shot in the arm. Only some 10% or 15% of PNȚ cadres were attracted by Vaida's group. Overall, however, the National Peasantist failure to address the economic needs of its own constituents resulted in a steady decrease of its voting share—many peasants switched to supporting the Iron Guard or any of the other far-right parties. The explicitly fascist National Christian Party (PNC), founded as a merger of the LANC and Goga's National Agrarians, was especially adept at canvassing the peasant vote in Bessarabia, veering it toward antisemitism. Alongside the FR, it earned Carol's blessing to establish a "nationalist parliamentary bloc", specifically designed to keep the PNȚ out of power.

1937 crisis

The mid 1930s also consolidated a PNȚ "centrist" wing, represented by Armand Călinescu, and supported by Ghelmegeanu. This faction favored a full clampdown on the Iron Guard, but hoped to achieve its defeat in close alliance with Carol. At the third general congress of April 4–5, 1937, which was to be the PNȚ's last, inner-party stability appeared to be threatened by "intrigue and ambition", although shows of unity were made in various rallies. During that interval, prosecutors brought R. Boilă to trial for his participation in the "Škoda Affair". He and all other defendants were acquitted. Coposu, who attempted to show that the case was instrumented by Carol as revenge against his PNȚ opponents, was found guilty of lèse-majesté and spent three months in prison.

Ahead of legislative elections in December 1937, Carol invited Mihalache to form a cabinet, but also tried to impose some of his own selections as ministers; Mihalache refused to comply. As a result of this failure, Maniu returned as chairman of the PNȚ—he would serve as such uninterruptedly, to July 1947. Immediately after taking over, he proceeded to reinforce party discipline, obtaining promises of compliance from left-wingers Lupu and Madgearu. His return also allowed the formation of a right-wing section in Bucharest. Its leader, Ilariu Dobridor, openly argued for Lupu to be expelled from the party.

The PNȚ completely revised its alliances, agreeing to limited cooperation with the Iron Guard and the Georgist Liberals. The three parties agreed to support "free elections" and still competed against each other; however, the pact's very existence shocked the liberal mainstream, especially after revelations that PNȚ cadres could no longer criticize the Guard. Călinescu and Ghelmegeanu's group was alienated, openly describing the pact as morally unsound, and preferring full cooperation with Carol; Mihalache also dissented, but on democratic grounds. The events caught the PCdR underground by surprise: in November, its leader Ștefan Foriș had urged his colleagues to vote PNȚ, even in preference to the PSDR. A "workers' delegation", made up of PSDR and PCdR activists, visited Maniu and insisted that he should revise the "non-aggression pact". The scandal divided Romania's left-wing press: newspapers such as Adevărul remained committed to Maniu, though communist sympathizers such as Zaharia Stancu and Geo Bogza went back on their support for a PNȚ-led popular front, and switched to endorsing the PȚR. By contrast, Dobrescu and his Committees deserted Iunian on December 1, and were folded back into the PNȚ.

FRN and National Legionary regimes

An international backlash against Goga's staunch antisemitism had also made Carol reconsider his choices. Initially, he favored creating a new majority coalition with the Iron Guard and the PNȚ (though demanding that Maniu be kept out of any such formula). Goga was deposed on February 10, 1938, when all political groups prepared for repeat elections. The Peasant Guards had been revived in January, taking the name of "Maniu Guards", and were divided into two main commands: Lazăr took over in Transylvania, and General Rujinschi in the Old Kingdom. The project also involved Victor Jinga, tasked by Maniu with supervising the Guards' expansion into the provinces. Beza had left the project and, in January 1938, was attempting to form his own "Workers and Peasants' Party".

At the height of the electoral campaign, the PNȚ and the PNL sought to obtain a new understanding with Carol, fearing that the PNC and the Iron Guard would form a powerful fascist alliance, and then a totalitarian state. Under pressure from the PNȚ base, Maniu revoked the pact with the Iron Guard, leaving that group entirely isolated on the political scene. He had instead initiated talks with the PȚR. This produced a "common constitutional front" before January 18, with negotiations continuing for the PNL's adherence to it. The PNȚ again sought grassroots communist support: in Vâlcea County, it shared a list with the "Democratic Union", assigning eligible positions to a PCdR militant Mihail Roșianu and a communist-sympathizing priest, Ioan Marina.

Carol rejected Maniu's proposals, and used the opportunity for an anti-democratic self-coup. Despite vocal protests by Maniu and the PNL's Dinu Brătianu, he inaugurated a royal dictatorship, leading to the creation of a catch-all National Renaissance Front (FRN). The PNȚ attempted to sabotage the authoritarian Constitution, instructing members to cast a negative vote in the February 24 plebiscite. The attempt was unsuccessful, and the party continued to lose ground over the following months. On March 30, it was outlawed together with all other traditional parties.

The new government integrated much of the PNȚ's center, with Călinescu at Interior Affairs; Andrei, Ghelmegeanu, and Ralea, alongside Grigore Gafencu and Traian Ionașcu, became prominent FRN dignitaries, as did Moldovan. Gusti and Rădulescu-Motru were also co-opted into joining the exodus during late 1938. More junior PNȚ-ists such as Adrian Brudariu abandoned the National Peasantist cause, allegedly joining the FRN for material benefits. Maniu and Popovici could still count on their core Transylvanian constituency, which helped them circulate a December 1938 memorandum calling on Carol to restore civil liberties. Coposu was arrested and detained for distributing copies of that document.

Resisting Antonescu

The PNȚ continued to exist semi-clandestinely, obtaining repeated assurances from Antonescu that the various territorial chapters would not be harassed by the Iron Guard, and complaining whenever he failed to keep them. According to Siguranța reports, it was always more active than the PNL. Its quarters were informally acknowledged as being Ciulei House, an apartment complex located at Sfinților Street 10, Bucharest. From late 1940, Maniu channeled anti-Nazi discontent by forming an association called Pro Transilvania and a newspaper, Ardealul, both of which reminded Romanians that Antonescu was not interested in a reversal of the Vienna Award. The Guardist takeover also pushed some National Peasantists into exile: facing a death sentence at home, Beza made his way to Cairo, where he formed a Free Romania Movement under British supervision. Viorel Tilea and Ion Rațiu opted not to return from England, serving as liaisons between the PNȚ and the British war ministry.

Towards the end of 1940, Antonescu became dissatisfied with the Guard partnership. The Guard organized the Jilava Massacre and various other murders of old-regime politicians, including Madgearu. This caused alarm for other figures of the PNȚ, in particular Mihalache and Lupu; Ghiță Pop took Madgearu's position at the party secretariat. In the aftermath, Maniu pleaded with the Conducător that he should reinstate order and individual security. After a brief civil war in January 1941, the Guard was removed from power and again repressed. German reports identified PNȚ-ist generals as most active in destroying the National Legionary regime; armed PNȚ civilians, including Lupu, assisted the Army at various locations in Bucharest.

Following the events, Antonescu had renewed hopes that he could co-opt the PNȚ and then PNL on his cabinet. Both parties refused the offer. During February, Maniu openly criticized Antonescu for abandoning Northern Transylvania and for previously condoning Guardist abuse. He also argued that a legalized PNȚ would have been a more efficient and legitimate actor in purging the Guard. In April, he attempted to organize a rally against the invasion of Yugoslavia, but called it off when Antonescu warned him that demonstrators would be fired upon. Later that year, Maniu and Coposu engaged in encrypted correspondence with the Western Allies, preparing for an anti-Nazi takeover in Romania; they aligned themselves closely with Britain, seeking to obtain direct advice from Winston Churchill.

The PNȚ and the PNL welcomed Romania's participation in the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union, since it returned Bessarabian lands to Romania. However, both parties protested when Antonescu gave the order to advance beyond interwar borders and annex Transnistria. This period also signaled Romania's participation in the Holocaust, heralded by the Iași pogrom. These crimes were also vocally condemned by the PNȚ and the PNL in letters to Antonescu. Maniu still refused to believe that Antonescu had a genocidal agenda and, when interviewed by American diplomats, played down the pogrom's importance. By 1942, having been informed that Britain and the US intended to assess and punish all antisemitic crimes, he told Romanian ministers that the deportation of Bessarabian Jews risked destroying Romania; Mihalache also added his input, describing deportations as "alien to the humanitarian traditions of our people." Antonescu largely tolerated such insubordination, but also curbed it at regular intervals. In August 1942, he threatened to "castigate in due course" Maniu and others who opposed "cleansing this nation totally of the [Jewish] blight."

1944 revival

In June 1944, the PNȚ and PNL agreed to form a Bloc of Democratic Parties (BPD) alongside the PCdR and Social Democrats, preparing for the "King Michael Coup" of August 23. By then, Coposu and Cezar Spineanu were stockpiling firearms in PNȚ buildings, preparing for a BPD confrontation with the authorities. The Bloc existed largely because Maniu believed he could obtain Soviet lenience toward Romania following an armistice, and "only stood to enhance [the communists'] position". The plot involved statistician Sabin Manuilă, who acted as a PNȚ representative; a disciple of Moldovan, he had been involved with Antonescu's project to persecute Jews and deport Romanies, but also protected some 5,000 Jewish specialists working under his watch. Shortly before the coup, Maniu clashed with PCdR envoy Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu, who had wanted the BPD to be joined by Ralea and other FRN eminences. Though largely unaware about any conspiracy, the PNȚ's lower echelons organized a pro-Allied rally at Bellu cemetery on August 20. Meeting with its leaders, Maniu expressed the hope that Antonescu himself would take Romania out of the Axis. Some 2,000 people were allegedly involved in this demonstration, but not all members would commit to a publicized protest: those from the Old Kingdom feared that they would lose their jobs, while Transylvanians pushed for radicalization.

The coup achieved its immediate goals. Dreptatea, which had been banned in 1938, reentered print on August 27, 1944. Openly active from September, the PNȚ moved office to Clemenceau Street 6, which would remain its headquarters until dissolution. Maniu was initially offered the premiership, but opted out, arguing that the position should go to a military man for the war's duration. Historian Vlad Georgescu singles this out as Maniu's "real mistake": "[It] deprived the country of the only leadership that could have been strong and popular, the only party that could have rallied the people around a truly democratic program. In refusing to take over in 1944, Maniu [...] caused a power vacuum into which the Communist Party moved." A military-civilian cabinet was formed by General Constantin Sănătescu. Since the National Peasantists and PCdR envoys could not agree on a list of ministers, these were recruited from Michael I's courtiers, with party men serving only as ministers without portfolio; Leucuția and Solomon were the PNȚ's representatives. The promotion of such comparatively minor figures was criticized by the party's youth, leaving Maniu to acknowledge the brain drain which had affected National Peasantism ever since Călinescu and Ralea's defections.

As described by scholar Lucian Boia, from 1945 the PNȚ emerged from the coup "believing itself the country's great party", which made it adopt a policy of "political and moral intransigence". By 1947, it had 2.12 million card-carrying members; as noted by Georgescu, it ranked ahead of all other parties, albeit "neither numbers nor popularity could bring it to power." Maniu preserved regional influence in reconquered Northern Transylvania, organized from September 1944 under a Committee of the Liberated Regions. This was presided upon by Ionel Pop. Commissariat rule often veered into an antimagyarism that was only ever curbed by the Red Army after a "six-week killing spree". Various reports, including oral testimonies by Peasant Guard members and volunteers who answered calls printed in Ardealul, suggest that local Hungarians were victims of numerous lynchings, either tolerated of encouraged by the Commissariat.

Against Groza

Rădescu was toppled following a massacre of communist-and-allied protesters, later revealed as a false flag operation carried out by PCdR militias. In early March 1945, the FND took over in government, with Petru Groza, of the Ploughmen's Front, as Prime Minister. The PNȚ remained in the opposition, viewing the takeover as a coup. Although it sent representatives when Groza celebrated the full recovery and pacification of Northern Transylvania, these were purposefully selected from among the party youth. Groza engineered a takeover of all local administration, only failing to do so in six counties. These were progressively made to submit by selective arrests among the opposition activists and by the institution of political censorship, resulting in the closure of other PNȚ newspapers. Emil Hațieganu reported that 40 party newspapers had been shut down since 1944; Dreptatea itself was banned in March, and could only briefly reemerge in January 1946. A standoff between the King and Groza was saluted by the National Peasantists, who participated in a massive monarchist rally in November 1945. Many, including Coposu, were arrested during the clampdown.

During May 1945, while organizing Antonescu's trial by a Romanian People's Tribunal (with which it hoped to discredit Maniu as a Nazi collaborator), the government also ordered massive arrests among its cadres. A large number of PNȚ regional activists, as well as PNȚ youth who had participated in the November rally, were detained at camps in Caracal and Slobozia, but ultimately released in December 1945. While Maniu dissociated himself from the movement, Groza was supported by the communists' "popular assemblies", which openly called for the PNȚ and PNL to be outlawed and repressed. Churchill's electoral defeat in July was read as an additional bad omen by Maniu, who noted that Labour had no sympathy for Romanian anti-communists. He asked Rațiu not to return from England, but continue to serve as his lobbyist.

Other PNȚ men and women were by then involved in the establishment of an armed anti-communist resistance. Founded by three Ardealul volunteers in 1944, the group Haiducii lui Avram Iancu asked Maniu for assistance. It received no such endorsement, although communist prosecutors would claim that it and all other such units were financed by the party leadership. General Aurel Aldea, who spoke for Haiducii, had credentials as an adversary of the Iron Guard, but also viewed the PNȚ as inefficient and unpatriotic. In early 1945, some PNȚ members had affiliated with the National Resistance Movement, operated by a dissident Iron Guard member, George Manu. Its democratic and fascist wings remained generally hostile to one another. Maniu was still "reluctant to collaborate" with various resistance groups, "since many manifested anti-Semitic and ultra-nationalist sentiments." From April 1946, PNȚ men networked in Suceava County between the Sumanele Negre partisans and an American envoy, Ira Hamilton. This and various other resistance units took in members of the Peasant Guards. In June, the US Central Intelligence Group worked with the PNȚ to set up a sleeper network, tasked with opening up a second front in case of a Soviet attack on Turkey. The local organization was infiltrated by the Soviets and soon after repressed. Dreptatea still published regular praise of the Soviet Union, but did so on the advice of American envoys, and hoping to ensure the party's survival under occupation.

1947 clampdown

According to official records, the election was a landslide communist win. In-depth reporting suggests that the scrutiny was falsified by Groza's administration, with the PNȚ taking most votes. PCdR internal documents have the PNȚ and PNL together at 52%, with over 70% reached in Dorohoi, Maramureș, Muscel, Olt, and Rădăuți. The PNȚ claimed 70% of the vote nationally, with the PNL at 10%. Maniu concluded that his party had been invested with full confidence by the Romanian public, and therefore that it should form government. When the official results were published, the PNȚ Central Executive Committee demanded a new vote; its effort to raise awareness was nullified by King Michael, who ratified all parliamentary mandates. The unicameral legislature assigned 377 mandates to Groza's BPD, while the opposition had 37, of which 32 were held by the PNȚ and 2 by the PȚD-L. Among those elected was Mara Lazăr, wife of Ilie, who reportedly won by 93% in her husband's constituency.

Maniu ordered PNȚ deputies not to attend Assembly sessions. During this parliamentary strike, the BPD started its "brutal offensive" and "final assault" against the National Peasantists. In early 1947, Pantelimon Chirilă, who had reorganized the PNȚ branch in Rădăuți County, had to retire from politics after being beaten up. Local activists were by then being re-arrested, though the authorities agreed to spare PNȚ deputies (by then numbering 33 people) and some in the central structures, including Mihalache and Penescu. These events prompted Maniu to publicly ask for American troops to be sent to Romania on a peacekeeping mission. In that context, the regime confiscated leaflets, allegedly sent out by the Peasant Guards, which called for a popular uprising and for "death to the communists", while referring to Antonescu as "an archangel and a martyr". According to police reports, the PNȚ worked with YMCA and the Friends of America Association to build a solid base in Severin County, but was divided over the possibility of recruiting among the Iron Guard's clandestine networks.

Groza's government then staged the "Tămădău Affair", which centered on Mihalache's attempt to leave the country clandestinely on July 14, 1947. The party headquarters was searched by police agents, and Maniu was arrested on July 19, accused of having colluded alongside Mihalache, Grigore Gafencu, and a number of foreign agents. The controversy offered a pretext for outlawing the PNȚ by a parliament act on July 29. Both the PNL and the PȚD-L endorsed this measure, resulting in a 294-to-1 majority. A show trial took place, and sentences were passed against PNȚ cadres, from seniors Maniu and Mihalache (both of whom would die in prison) to the more junior Carandino. Coposu was also arrested, and held without trial until 1956, when he was sentenced for high treason.

Final resurgence

From 1954, with the advent of national communism and Romania's interest in joining the United Nations, violent repression was toned down by unprecedented clemency. As noted at the time by Premier Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, the release of political prisoners was a dogwhistle to the National Peasantist diaspora that "they should return home [and] no harm will come to them." Government agencies were by then directly probing into RNC activities. After capturing Crăciunaș, who became a communist double agent, they had direct access to the PNȚ Central Committee; they likewise blackmailed Veniamin into becoming their informant. The RNC remained factionalized: in 1964, Bessarabian PNȚ-ist Anton Crihan withdrew from its presidium over disagreements with other members.

PNȚ cells had continued to be formed in Romanian prisons. One such group was animated by Coposu and reportedly envisaged a democratic cabinet, with Gheorghe Zane as Premier. Although integrated into professional and social life, survivors of political repression were sometimes vocal dissidents. The Bucharest student movement of 1956 came with slogans such as "Down with the communists" and "Long live the National Peasants' Party". During the following year, the regime resumed its persecution, targeting more minor National Peasantists, including a 7-man cell in Ploiești, and arresting Vasile Georgescu Bârlad on charges that he was plotting to reestablish the party. Though he had been active in the Ploughmen's Front, Adrian Brudariu was arrested in December 1956, and sentenced for his earlier involvement with the PNȚ. Securitate agents noted that a Bessarabian wing of the PNȚ, which included an aged Halippa, was actively networking with other exiles and discussing plans for a post-Soviet Moldova. Also in 1957, Aiud Prison witnessed a hunger strike organized by PNȚ-ist and Guardist prisoners. Towards the end of the decade, the Securitate gathered evidence that a group of Bărăgan deportees, including Cezar Spineanu, were working on a new PNȚ platform.

Under Nicolae Ceaușescu, the PMR, renaming itself Romanian Communist Party (PCR), began extending recognition for interwar underground activists, or "illegalists", who were allowed to join its nomenklatura. Ceaușescu's guidelines resulted in scores of PNȚ leftists being honored with that title. Such overtures were not welcomed by the PNȚ-ist mainstream. Party cells were still being organized by former prisoners after that moment, often resorting to forms of passive resistance. From 1968, the National Peasantist exile recognized Coposu as a leader of the internal underground; his attempt to reorganize the party in the open was curbed by the Securitate in 1970. Meanwhile, Beza, having caused a series of embarrassments for the PCR regime, was allowed to emigrate in 1971. In 1973, several PNȚ-ists, including Coposu, Ionel Pop, Ion Diaconescu, Ion Puiu, and V. Ionescu-Galbeni, organized a memorial service for Maniu. The Securitate intervened in force, fearing that as many as 10,000 people would show up. Later that decade, Carandino issued his memoirs of party life in samizdat form, managing to have them published abroad in 1986.

Ideology

Economic and social outlook

Lucian Boia describes the PNȚ as an "eclectic" group "lacking a unified doctrine"; another historian, Damian Hurezeanu, speaks of the 1930s PNȚ as a "wide array spanning the distance between left-wing peasant radicalism and the nationalist right". Early on, the more powerful component of this mix was the former Romanian National Party (PNR). It had been formed in Austria-Hungary, specifically Transylvania, with the goal of channeling the Romanian vote, and following the establishment of Greater Romania in 1918–1922, led the rebellion against PNL centralism. One element which impeded categorization was Maniu's notorious reserve about declaring himself for or against various issues or approaches—leading him to be nicknamed "The Sphinx". Scholar Dimitrie Drăghicescu noted in 1922 that, overall, there was no ideological incompatibility between the PNL and the Transylvanians, proposing that Maniu and his entourage were primarily national liberals of bourgeois extraction, who had no doctrine of their own.

A similar point is made by Heinen, according to whom the PNR was by 1926 a "classic bourgeois-democratic" force, different from the PNL only in that it took up "Transylvanian interests". Stephen Fischer-Galați questions the consensus that Maniu was a liberal, referring to the PNȚ-ist leadership model as a "controlled democracy"; according to the scholar, Maniu and Carol differed only in the emphasis they placed on the premiership and the throne, respectively. Historian Vasile Dobrescu believes that PNR influence was the true conservative current of the unified party. Overall, according to Boia, Maniu "made few investments in ideology, he only had tactical refinements." In one of his pronouncements on the matter, Maniu explained that the PNR was non-ideological, being instead the unified voice of the Transylvanian Romanian community, "with all its centuries-old aspirations".

Through its "Peasantist" legacy, the PNȚ had a connection with the various strains of 19th-century agrarianism. PNL doctrinaire Ștefan Zeletin proposed that this group was a local avatar of "Physiocracy", in that they rejected mercantilism and saw the rural classes as a source for economic advancement. He dismissed such manifestations as typical of "primitive capitalism", and ultimately as doomed. As seen by Drăghicescu, the PȚ blended an Old-Kingdom component, which originated with the peasant associations founded by Constantin Dobrescu-Argeș and Toma Dragu, and a "foreign" component, which was Constantin Stere's Poporanism. Also according to Drăghicescu, the PȚ had managed to absorb the PNL's own agrarian wing (or Labor Party), becoming in part a replica of the latter.

Nationalism

National Peasantism understood cultural nationalism as being compatible with democracy. Especially through its Transylvanian core, which had overseen the union process, the party saw Greater Romania as the product of democratic consultation. According to Maniu, Trianon "did not create, but merely acknowledged for an international public, a union between Transylvania and the Romanian Kingdom." As seen by Maniu, popular sovereignty was always ensured and verified through mass gatherings, replicating the Great National Assembly of Alba Iulia of 1918—though he remained skeptical of revolutionary masses. His unusually strict commitment to the democratic process was ridiculed by adversaries as "legalistic frenzy".

Maniu and many other PNR leaders belonged to a religious minority, namely the Greek Catholic Church. Sometimes chided by its bishops for favoring the predominant Eastern Orthodoxy, the PNȚ was still described by missionary priest Rafael Friedrich as "closest to the Catholic Church". The party mainstream stood by the promise of corporate rights for ethnic minorities, all of which would have found their place in the agrarianist state. As noted by Harre, this goal, "as well as the demand for a democratization and decentralization of the country might have calmed down many ethnic conflicts during the interwar period." In addition to sealing pacts with the minority parties, the PNȚ ran openly non-Romanian candidates on its lists; examples include Jews Tivadar Fischer, Mayer Ebner and Salomon Kinsbrunner, as well as Constantin Krakalia and Volodymyr Zalozetsky-Sas, who were Ukrainian. A Jewish steel magnate, Max Auschnitt, financed PNȚ projects both in interwar Romania and in exile.

The PNȚ's governments, with Aurel Vlad as Minister of Arts, were criticized by the Union of Romanian Jews for tolerating discrimination, in particular against Jews and Judaism; Vlad also informed minority leaders that decentralization had been postponed indefinitely. Shortly before the Lupeni debacle of 1929, regional representatives, including Augustin Popa, spoke out in favor of restoring economic nationalism. German Romanians, who had been especially enthusiastic about the PNȚ-ist promise to decentralize Romania, switched to supporting the Nazified German People's Party. Connections between PNȚ-ists and minorities were reactivated after World War II, when the PNȚ registered mass enlistments by non-Romanian anti-communists, including Swabians in Lugoj and Jews in Târgu Neamț.

Cosmopolitanism was supported by the various doctrinaires, including, in the mid 1930s, Ralea and Constantin Rădulescu-Motru. Both argued for non-xenophobic, secular, and conciliatory nationalism in polemics with one-time PNȚ associates such as Nae Ionescu and Nichifor Crainic. In 1937, Madgearu spoke about "Romanianization" as a goal of National Peasantist policies, but argued that this could only be achieved through price controls. A year after, Mihalache made reference to the "Jewish Question" and described the PNȚ as "equally nationalist" to all other parties, but still rejected "negative" antisemitism. The party's Transylvanian circles criticized fascism from a moderate nationalist position: Iuliu Moldovan's "biopolitics" and scientific racism had numerous points of contact with far-right antisemitism, but always remained more democratic than similar programs advanced by Romanian fascists. Ionel Pop argued in 1936 that vandalizing Jewish property was a cowardly act and a deflection, hinting that "Christian parties" would have done better to focus on chasing out an "evil spirit" that lurked in the corridors of power.

PNȚ symbols

Before 1938, the PNȚ used as its electoral symbol a plain circle—which party propaganda also described as a "ring", "wheel", or "sun". Originally used by the Progressive Conservative Party, and then, briefly, by Mihalache's PȚ, it was imposed on the PNR by its allies during the formation of the National–Peasant Bloc in 1926. Coincidentally or not, most of the PNȚ's rivals on the interwar agrarian scene, from the National Agrarian Party and the Romanian Front to the Radical Peasants' Party and the Lupists, used circular icons as their logos. The similarities had various results: while the Front claimed to have lost votes in the resulting confusion, the PȚD-L "would have reportedly taken no mandates had it not used for a sign two overlaid wheels".

The PNȚ made a point of not using any political color. According to a 1936 communique jibing at the rise of fascism, the Peasant Guards could only wear badges showing the Romanian tricolor—"and not signs borrowed from our [country's] centuries-old enemies." Colored symbols were unofficial, but attested from 1928, when PNȚ organizations in Bihor had tens of flags of unspecified shades. Formed the following year, Voinici groups also carried such symbols, and had a hierarchy which included "flag-bearers". Accounts of the period suggest that these carried the Romanian tricolor, or flags inscribed with the party name. Additionally, Voinici appropriated the Roman salute, which became their official greeting.

In 1930, peasant voters from the Bessarabian town of Vaisal are known to have rallied under a red flag with a circle. Months after, the party newspaper Țara de Mâine informed its readers that "the symbolic color of peasant (or agrarian, agricultural etc.) parties is green." A rally held in June 1932 saw the various chapters carrying either flags marked with circles of square-shaped green flags. PNȚ youths appeared at a June 1935 rally in Iași wearing green shirts—with green described as the "party color". This custom was also observed at 1936 marches, during which National Peasantist youths flew green flags, described in one account as bearing a golden clover. Distinctively, the Peasant Guards of Argeș County had green and triangular pennons, while party cells observed in Mehedinți used both green banners and national flags defaced with the circle. Reports of these rallies also suggest that PNȚ cadres used both the Roman salute, of alleged fascist inspiration, and the raised fist, which had leftist connotations. By October 1936, Eftimiu had composed Cântecul țăranilor ("Song of the Peasants"), which was used as a party anthem.

Scissions and mergers

Parties seceded from the PNȚ

Peasants' Party–Lupu (1927)

Democratic Peasants' Party–Stere (1931)

Radical Peasants' Party (1933)

Romanian Front (1935)

Socialist Peasants' Party (1938)

National Peasants' Party–Alexandrescu (1944)

Democratic Peasants' Party–Lupu (1946)

Parties absorbed by the PNȚ

Peasants' Party–Lupu (1937)

Electoral history

Legislative elections

Notes:

1 Almost always, the government was named before parliamentary elections and confirmed afterwards.