Horthyist-Fascist Terror in Northwestern Romania [antikvár]

Introduction Fascism in its several national variants — Nazism, Horthyism, Italian Fascisti, etc. — emerged as an ideolog}' and a political trend in the period following the First World War. Giving an assessment of that phenomenon, the General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party Nicolae ieausescu stated: "After the First World War, fascism seized political power in Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Bulgaria and eventually, in the thirties, also in Germany and Spain, while the Japanese militarist regime was established in Asia. By its aggressive, warlike policies, fascism was an increasing threat to the peoples' liberty and independence, to world peace and security." ^ Having come into power in a political climate created by the tolerant attitude of the political circles in a number of countries and at a time when the working class, the patriotic, democratic, progressive forces were not able to close ranks in order to bar their advance, the fascist groups estabhshed totalitarian political regimes; they annulled poHtical and civic rights and freedoms, instituted the practice of suppressing and terrorizing their adversaries, openly proclaimed the doctrine of the supremacy of force not only in domestic affairs but also in foreign relations, aiming at achieving in this manner their designs for the violation and revision of the international treaties and for imperialist expansion which afflicted so many countries and peoples, including the Romanian people. Even before taking the reins of political power and especially afterwards fascism attacked the progressive and democratic forces with unprecedented brutality and violence, it caused, through the introduction of dictatorial regimes and by unleashing the Second World War, the death of tens upon tens of millions of people and the destruction of enormous material assets and numberless works of art, it raised huge obstacles in the way of progress and posed a grave threat to human civilization itself. In the spirit of scientific truth, historiography in this country has made a remarkable contribution toward unmasking the political and ideological roots of fascism and revisionism in their various forms, it revealed the causes ^ Nicolae Ceau^escu, Romania on the Way of Building up the Multilaterally Developed Socialist Society, volume 18, Meridiane Publishing House, Bucharest, 1982, p. 2 17. VII