Soviet alliances, nor have they changed the basic nature of their communist government. Their actions have demonstrated that their goals have been to lessen the influence of the Soviet Union in Romania's domestic and foreign affairs, at the same time they themselves maintained an absolute, single-party monopoly of power.

After issuing their declaration of independence, the Romanians in subsequent years earned a reputation for opposition to the Soviet Union within the Warsaw Pact and COMECON as well as in the conduct of their relations with noncommunist states. Pursuit of these goals has sometimes led the Romanians into situations that have been considered dangerous by outside observers, and the leadership has often expressed fears of Soviet retaliation against Romania's independent line.

One obvious result of the independent status has been the resurgence of Romanian nationalism. Ceausescu, when he talks about "Romania for the Romanians," even though he may be speaking in the context of building a communist society, receives wide popular support and, at times, appears to have genuine appeal among the people he rules. In contrast to the new nationalism, during the early years of the Romanian communist era it was generally accepted (at least by party members) that the Soviet Union deserved to be emulated in every aspect of national life. Not only were the party and government patterned on Soviet models, but the entire social and economic life of the country was altered to the point of almost losing its Romanian uniqueness.

Russian became a required language in the schools, and the history books were rewritten to play down the traditional orientation toward Western Europe and to highlight Russian influence in the country, which had been considerable since the time of Tsar Peter the Great but which had not always been beneficial from the Romanian point of view. Pseudoscholars intent on the Russification of their country were publishing papers in the late 1940s "proving" that the ancient Dacians, to whom modern Romanians trace their ancestry, were actually Slavic tribes—a thesis that had never before been suggested. Other spurious scholarship attempted to show that the Romanian language was Slavic-based rather than Latin-based as linguists had clearly shown.

While Josef Stalin, Soviet dictator and generally acknowledged leader of world communism, was still alive, Romania was an obedient satellite, and Stalinism was the hallmark of communist rule. Even before Stalin's death in March 1953, however, there was dissension in the Romanian communist ranks as a Moscow-oriented group vied for power with indigenous Communists. The latter group was eventually victorious and, after a series of purges, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej emerged as a party strong man; the first glimmerings of a distinctive brand of Romanian communism can be traced to this period in the early 1950s.

The blending of nationalism and communism did not, however, ameliorate the conditions that existed in the country. Gheorghiu-Dej was a totalitarian ruler, the party brooked no opposition, few basic freedoms for the people existed except in the constitution, and the secret police was an effective instrument of control over the people. Gheorghiu-Dej did, however, establish a foundation, albeit a very shaky one, for a structure of national communism. He and his successor, Ceausescu, strengthened this structure through the years to the point that Romania became known as the most independent of the former Soviet satellites with the exception of Yugoslavia, which has been traveling its own path since 1948.

The Socialist Republic of Romania, ruled in early 1972 by Ceausescu and the PCR, comprised over 91,700 square miles and contained a population of more than 20.6 million. The size and shape of modern Romania is remarkably similar to the ancient country of Dacia, which was conquered by the Romans in the early second century A.D. and became a province of the Roman Empire. Although Roman occupation lasted only about 165 years, it is to the mixture of Roman legionnaires and colonists with indigenous Dacians that modern Romanians trace their origin. These Daco-Romans are almost absent from history's pages for several centuries, but Romanian historians state that they existed in the mountains, tending their flocks and fending off the vast migrations and avoiding absorption by invaders who used the territory as a crossroads into the Balkans or into Europe. After they did achieve some semblance of autonomy during the Middle Ages, primarily in the historic provinces of Moldavia and Walachia, they were always pressured by powerful empires that existed during various historic epochs, and a great portion of former Dacia, the province of Transylvania, was occupied by Magyars (Hungarians) and was not joined to Romania until after World War I.

The great majority of the people are ethnic Romanians, although two sizable minority groups, Hungarian and German, still resided within Romania's borders in 1972. Other, much smaller, minority groups include Jews, Ukrainians, Serbs, Russians, Bulgarians, Czechs and Slovaks, Tatars, Turks, and Gypsies. Most of the lesser minorities have been assimilated to some degree, particularly in the use of the Romanian language in the conduct of their daily affairs. The Hungarians and the Germans, however, have resisted assimilation, and their education, business, and social lives are carried on in their native tongues. Their cultural traditions also reflect their Hungarian or German background rather than that of the country in which they live.

The religious affiliations of the people follow very closely their ethnic differentiations. The vast majority of ethnic Romanians are members of the Romanian Orthodox Church, which is one of the autocephalous branches of the Eastern Orthodox church. The Romanian Orthodox Church was traditionally considered the state or national church, which, with its great size, gave it a favored position. Although its near-monopoly position was contested by Roman Catholics, Uniates, and several Protestant denominations, particularly after the post-World War I inclusion of Transylvania within Romania's borders, it still remained the predominant religion and was able to retain this position even after the communist takeover.

The Hungarians of Romania are Roman Catholics, Calvinists, and Unitarians; similarly, the Germans are divided between Roman Catholicism and Lutheranism. These religions suffered a period of repression under the Communists, some of their clergy being imprisoned and some of their churches falling into disrepair because of lack of funds. Nevertheless, their adherents still numbered in the hundreds of thousands in the early 1970s, and the former vigorous effort by the government to discourage the practice of religion seems to have softened as the regime concentrates on dissuading young people from the acceptance of religious beliefs rather than trying to eliminate such beliefs in older generations.

The post-World War II Romanian Jewish community has shrunk considerably through emigration to Israel, which has been allowed by the government and encouraged by Jewish leaders. There continue to be many Jewish enclaves, particularly in urban areas, but because Jews have not been listed separately in official statistics since the mid-1950s, it is difficult to estimate how many remain in the country. There are several operating synagogues, but most Jewish services are led by laymen because emigration has drained away almost all rabbis and none are being trained in the country; the last rabbinical school was closed during the late 1950s because of lack of faculty and students.

Most of the small Slavic minorities belong to the Orthodox faith, and the few remaining Muslims—Turks and Tatars—retain their adherence to Islam and have their principal mosque in the port city of Constanta. Relatively small numbers of