Customer Reviews

Communist Terror in Romania: Gheorghiu-Dej and the Police State, 1948-1965

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An excellent summary of the Communist reign of terror in Romania during the Gheorghiu-Dej era! This book is a detailed and comprehensive compendium of specific events that enable the reader to understand the magnitude of Communist repression and human rights violations in post-World War II Romania. The footnotes are numerous and at times lengthy, but they nevertheless provide valuable background information to the issues discussed.

Very little has been written about this brutal Romanian communist tyrant who, with Soviet "counselors" sitting at his side, thoroughly embraced the Stalinist style of repression and implemented massive gulag-type projects to keep the people too busy and tired to criticize his regime. Even after Stalin's death, when Khrushchev was promoting de-Stalinization, Dej held tenaciously to Stalin's techniques, including show trials and the execution of political opponents. His successor, another tyrant (Ceausescu), wanted to portray himself as a more "humane" dictator and was partially responsible for burying Dej's story. But Dennis Deletant brings Dej back on stage and places his pattern of communist terror in the spotlight.

I did not have the chance to learn at school the true history of the country I was born in. The communist regime twisted the events giving them a totally different meaning in order to boost and justify their political agenda. Eventually, the events of december 1989 gave romanian people at least the chance to read and understand what really happened after the soviet occupation started in 1944. I was deeply impressed about how brutal the regime eliminated the elite of the country, ousted the Monarchy and transformed Romania into a soviet puppet-state for decades to come. I can now explain what happened to us. Thanks, Mr. Deletant!