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TheRomanian Social Democratic Party (Romanian:Partidul Social Democrat Român, orPartidul Social Democrat, PSD) was asocial-democraticpolitical party inRomania. In the early 1920s, theSocialist Party of Romania split over the issue of affiliation with theThird International. The majority, which supported affiliation, evolved into theCommunist Party of Romania in 1921, while the members who opposed the new orientation formed various political groupings, eventually reorganizing under a central leadership in 1927. From 1938 to 1944, the party was outlawed but remained active in clandestinity. After 1944, it allied with the Communists and eventually was forced to reunite with them to form theWorkers' Party of Romania in 1948. It published the magazinesSocialismul,Lumea Nouă, andLibertatea. After the end of the Communist single-party system in 1989, a group of former members created anew party which proclaimed itself the direct descendant of the PSD.

The first organized party of the Romanian socialists,Romanian Social Democratic Workers' Party was founded in 1893, but was disbanded by the end of the decade after conflicts between the bourgeois leaders, who considered democratic reforms were possible only in alliance with theNational Liberal Party, and the proletarian leaders and members, who wanted to continue as a strictly working class party. Lacking material means and organisational experience, the Marxists were only able to re-organise a socialist party in 1910, when theSocial Democratic Party of Romania was founded. Outlawed duringWorld War I, the party re-emerged in 1918 with a revolutionary programme, rebranding itself as theSocialist Party of Romania (PSR).

As following the war Romania acquired a large extent of new territories, the socialists toned down their objectives in order to accommodate the morereformist-mindedSocial Democratic Party of Transylvania and Banat andSocial Democratic Party of Bukovina. Despite successive declarations in favour of uniting the three parties under a single central leadership, this objective was never completed, as the revolutionary and reformist factions came into open conflict. Unity projects where shattered after the social democrats, including most members of the Bukovina party, an important part of the Transylvanian party, and a minority in old Romania, broke from the party in February 1921, the moment it became clear that the communist faction had gained a majority in the central leadership. The majority of the PSR became increasingly favorable to theBolshevik option, reforming itself as theCommunist Party of Romania (PCdR, laterPCR), in May 1921. A minority wing formed theFederation of Socialist Parties from Romania, which reformed as theSocial Democratic Party in May 1927 and affiliated with the2+1⁄2 International. The leader of the PSD in the following period wasConstantin Titel Petrescu.

The party was a member of theLabour and Socialist International between 1923 and 1940.^[1]

Beginning with the late 1920s several groups left the party dissatisfied with what they perceived as the turn of the PSDR leadership to right-wing politics. Such groups included theSocialist Workers Party of Romania, founded in 1928 by a group aroundLeon Ghelerter (joined in 1931 by former communist leaderGheorghe Cristescu), and theSocialist Party (Partidul Socialist) created in 1933 by a group aroundConstantin Popovici. Shortly after the latter's creation, the factions joined to form theUnitary Socialist Party, only to split again in 1935.

Banned in 1938 by the personaldictatorship ofKingCarol II, the PSD remained active in clandestinity, peacefully resisting to the rise ofFascism, condemning theIron Guard and theNational Legionary State proclaimed in 1940. With the ascendancy ofIon Antonescu and Romania's participation inWorld War II alongside theAxis powers (seeRomania during World War II), the PSD, who remained favourable to theAllies, continued passive resistance to the regime. After theSoviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, the social democrats broke all the ties with thecommunists, who supported the Soviet annexation.^[2]

In April 1944, the PCR and the PSD formed aUnited Workers' Front (Frontul Unic Muncitoresc), which was meant to coordinate actions from the left. In June the two parties, along with theNational Peasants' Party and the National Liberals, created the clandestineNational Democratic Bloc, which succeeded in overthrowing Antonescu's government on August 23, and backed the government ofConstantin Sănătescu which declared war on the Axis.

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Subsequently, PSD entered talks with PCR representativeLucrețiu Pătrășcanu, leading to the creation of theNational Democratic Front(Frontul Naţional Democrat,FND) in February 1945 (which grouped the two parties together withPetru Groza'sPloughmen's Front,Mihai Ralea'sSocialist Peasants' Party, andMitiță Constantinescu'sUnion of Patriots). Meant as anelectoral alliance of the Left, the FND faced accusations from the PSD that it was becoming a tool for the PCR (especially after it had passed resolutions reflectingdemocratic centralism). An internal struggle ensued between the pro-communist wing and Titel Petrescu's supporters; Petrescu's faction (includingLazăr Măglașu) left the PSD in March 1946 to found theIndependent Social Democratic Party (Partidul Social Democrat Independent,PSDI), which presented itself as an independent faction in theNovember 1946 general election - these were won by the FND after a large-scaleelectoral fraud engineered by the Groza government.

The PCR seized full power in December 1947, beginning 42 years of Communist rule in Romania. Under pressure from the PCR to create "a single party of theworking class", the PSD under the leadership ofLothar Rădăceanu andȘtefan Voitec acceptedMarxism-Leninism and reunited with the Communists in February 1948 to create theRomanian Workers' Party (Partidul Muncitoresc Român,PMR). However, the few recalcitrant PSD members were quickly pushed out, leaving the PMR as a renamed and enlarged PCR. The PMR changed its name back to the PCR in 1965.

Several former PSD members, including Titel Petrescu, were victims of political repression and many died in communist prisons. On the other, hand, a number of former PSD members went on to high posts in the PMR/PCR. Most notably, Voitec served as an important official in the government for all but a few years until his death in 1984.

• Social Democratic Labour Youth Union
• Working Women's Union

• (in Romanian)Social Democratic history at the PSD site
• (in Romanian)PSDR program of 1927

• 1927 establishments in Romania
• 1948 disestablishments in Romania
• Defunct socialist parties in Romania
• Members of the Labour and Socialist International
• Political parties disestablished in 1948
• Political parties established in 1927
• Political parties in the Kingdom of Romania
• Romanian Communist Party
• Social democratic parties in Romania

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