Between campaigns against bourgeois culture and making the ideology of the Socialist Offensive intelligible to the masses with cliches and stereotypes, an  anti-intellectual  tone grew in propaganda. [ 157 ]  Soviet leaders posed as common people, lacking interest in such matters as fine art and ballet, even as they selectively chose from  working class culture . [ 165 ]


In the 1920s, much Soviet propaganda for the outside world was aimed at capitalist countries as plutocracies, and claiming that they intended to destroy the Soviet Union as the workers' paradise. [ 112 ]   Capitalism, being responsible for the ills of the world, therefore was fundamentally immoral. [ 166 ]


Fascism was presented as a terroristic outburst of  finance capital , and drawing from the  petit bourgeoisie , and the middling peasants, equivalent to kulaks, who were the losers in the historical process. [ 167 ]


During the early stages of World War II, it was overtly presented as a war between capitalists, which would weaken them and allow Communist triumph as long as the Soviet Union wisely stayed out. [ 168 ]  Communist parties over the world were instructed to oppose the war as a clash between capitalist states. [ 169 ]


After World War II, the United States of America was presented as a bastion of imperial oppression, with which non-violent competition would take place, as capitalism was in its last stages. [ 170 ]


Campaigns against the society of Imperial Russia continued well into the Soviet Union's history. One speaker recounted how men had had to serve for twenty-five years in the imperial army, to be heckled by an audience member that it did not matter, since they had had food and clothing. [ 171 ]


Children were informed that the "accursed past" had been left far behind them, they could become completely "Red". [ 6 ]


The Soviet press showed little favor towards its neighboring states.  Poland  was a subject of this approach from the very beginning. In general, the  Soviet press  portrayed  Poland  as a  fascist  state, that belonged to the same club as  Germany  and  Italy . [ 172 ]


Anti-Polish propaganda was heavily used in the  Polish-Soviet War , when the Bolsheviks sought to subjugate that newly independent nation, in 1920 as well as during the 1939  Soviet invasion of Poland  and subsequent  annexation of Eastern Poland 1939–1941 . [ 173 ]  (see Fig 1)


Poland's  capitalist  government and its chief of state, Marshal  Józef Piłsudski , were fierce anti-communists; all parties or groups affiliated with Communist activities were banned and its members sent to  Bereza Kartuska concentration camp  in  eastern Poland . This potentially fueled Soviet propaganda against the  Polish state  and vice versa. The posters often featured capitalist mustached  Poles  dressed as lords, barons, nobles or generals holding a whip over enslaved  Ukrainians  and  Belarusians , which were a minority in Poland at the time.


The Soviet Union perpetrated multiple atrocities against the Polish people, most notably the  Katyn massacre  of military officers and intelligentsia in 1940. [ 174 ]


Many Soviet and Communist writers and artists participated in the  Spanish Civil War  ( Mikhail Koltsov ,  Ilya Ehrenburg ) or supported the Republicans. Popular revolutionary poem  Grenada  by  Mikhail Arkadyevich Svetlov  was published in 1926.


Professor Mamlock  and  The Oppenheim Family  were released in 1938 and 1939 respectively.


In the face of massive Soviet bewilderment, the  Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact  was defended by a speaker in  Gorky Park . [ 175 ]  Molotov defended it in an article in  Pravda  proclaiming that it was a treaty between states, not systems. [ 175 ]  Stalin himself devised diagrams to show that  Neville Chamberlain  had wanted to pit the USSR against Nazi Germany, but Comrade Stalin had wisely pit  Great Britain  against Nazi Germany. [ 175 ]


For the duration of the pact, propagandists highly praised Germans. [ 176 ]  Anti-German or anti-Nazi propaganda like  Professor Mamlock  was banned.


After the beginning of  Operation Barbarossa , Stalin himself declared in a 1941 broadcast that Germany waged war to exterminate the peoples of the USSR. [ 177 ]   Propaganda published in  Pravda  denounced all  Germans  as killers, bloodsuckers, and cannibals, and much play was made of atrocity claims. [ 178 ]   Hatred was actively and overtly encouraged. [ 163 ]   They were told that the Germans took no prisoners. [ 179 ]   Partisans were encouraged to see themselves as avengers. [ 180 ]   Ilya Ehrenburg  was a prominent propaganda writer.


Many anti-German films in the Nazi era revolved about the  persecution of Jews in Germany , such as  Professor Mamlock  (1938) and  The Oppenheim Family . [ 112 ]   Girl No. 217  depicted the  horrors inflicted on Soviet POWs , especially the enslavement of the main character Tanya to an inhuman German family, [ 181 ]  reflecting the harsh treatment of  OST-Arbeiter  in Nazi Germany.


Despite their own treatment of religion, a revival of Orthodoxy was permitted during World War II to demonize Nazism as the sole enemy of religion. [ 182 ]


Vasily Grossman  and  Mikhail Arkadyevich Svetlov  were war correspondents of the  Krasnaya Zvezda  ( Red Star ).


Soviet propaganda to Germans during World War II was at pains to distinguish between the ordinary Germans and their leaders, the  Hitlerites  (Nazis), and declaring they had no quarrel with the people. [ 183 ]  The only way to discover if a German soldier had fallen alive into Soviet hands was to listen; the radio would announce that a certain prisoner would speak, then give some time for his family to gather and listen, and fill it with propaganda. [ 15 ]
A National Committee for 'Free Germany' was founded in Soviet prisoner-of-war camps in an attempt to foment an uprising in Germany. [ 184 ]


Anti-fascism  was commonly used in propaganda aimed outside the USSR during the 1930s, particularly to draw people into  front organizations . [ 185 ]  The  Spanish Civil War  was, in particular, used to quash dissent among European communist parties and reports of Stalin's growing totalitarianism. [ 186 ]


In face of the threat of Nazi Germany, the international claims of communism were played down, and people were recruited to help defend the country on patriotic motives. [ 114 ]  The presence of a real enemy was used to inspire action and production in face of the threat to the  Father Soviet Union , or  Mother Russia . [ 187 ]  All Soviet citizens were called on to fight, and soldiers who surrendered had failed in their duty. [ 188 ]  To prevent retreats from Stalingrad, soldiers were urged to fight for the soil. [ 189 ] [ 187 ]


Russian history was pressed into providing a heroic past and patriotic symbols, although selectively, for instance praising men as state builders. [ 190 ]   Alexander Nevsky  made a central theme the importance of the common people in saving Russia while nobles and merchants did nothing, a motif that was heavily employed. [ 191 ]  Still, the figures selected had no socialist connection. [ 163 ]  Artists and writers were permitted more freedom, as long as they did not criticize Marxism directly and contained patriotic themes. [ 192 ]  It was termed the " Great Patriotic War " and stories presented it as a fight of ordinary people's heroism. [ 193 ]


While the term  motherland  was used, it was used to mean the Soviet Union, although primarily Russian national heroes were used to inspire the soldiers. [ 194 ]  Appeals were also made that the home of other nationalities was the home of their own. [ 195 ]


Many Soviet citizens found treatment of soldiers who fell into enemy hands as "traitors to the Motherland" as suitable for their own grim determination, and "not a step back" was supposed to inspire soldiers to fight with self-sacrifice and heroism. However, this was in fact realized via  NKVD -led  barrier troops  that shot retreating soldiers in the back. [ 196 ] [ 193 ]


This continued after the war in a campaign to remove supposed " anti-patriotic elements ". [ 197 ]


In the 1960s, memories of the  Great Patriotic War  were revived to bolster support for the regime, with all accounts carefully censored to prevent accounts of Stalin's early incompetence and defeats, and their heavy cost. [ 198 ]


Throughout the history of the Soviet Union, the concept of a socialist utopia was heavily proselytized by the Soviet government. Under the Khrushchev administration, this idea of a Soviet utopia was worked heavily into the concept of space travel and spreading across the world. [ 199 ]  The accomplishments in space were closely tied to a sense of utopia and the idea that communism was superior to other forms of government. In a press release after Sputnik's launch the Soviet Union states that "...our contemporaries will witness how the freed and conscientious labour of the people of the new socialist society makes the most daring dreams of mankind a reality." [ 200 ]  The concept of success in science and space exploration were closely tied to the concept of a new socialist society and the utopia that would be created in that society.


Trotsky and a small group of Communists regarded the Soviet Union as doomed without the spread of the revolution internationally. [ 202 ]   The victory of Stalin, who regarded the construction of socialism in the Soviet Union as a necessary exemplar to the rest of the world and represented the majority view, [ 203 ]  did not, however, stop international propaganda.


In the 1980s, the US  Central Intelligence Agency  (CIA) estimated that the budget of Soviet propaganda abroad was between $3.5 and $4 billion. [ 204 ]


Propaganda abroad was partly conducted by Soviet intelligence agencies.  GRU  alone spent more than $1 billion for propaganda and  peace movements  against  Vietnam War , which was a "hugely successful campaign and well worth the cost", according to GRU defector  Stanislav Lunev . [ 205 ]  He claimed that "the GRU and the KGB helped to fund just about every  antiwar movement  and organization in America and abroad". [ 205 ]


According to  Oleg Kalugin , "the Soviet intelligence was really unparalleled. ... The KGB programs – which would run all sorts of  congresses , peace congresses, youth congresses,  festivals ,  women's movements ,  trade union  movements, campaigns against U.S. missiles in Europe, campaigns against neutron weapons,  allegations  that  AIDS  ... was invented by the CIA ... all sorts of  forgeries  and faked material – [were] targeted at politicians, the academic community, at the public at large." [ 206 ]


Soviet-run movements pretended to have little or no ties with the USSR, often seen as noncommunist (or allied to such groups), but were controlled by the USSR. [ 207 ]  Most members and supporters, did not realize that they were instruments of Soviet propaganda. [ 207 ] [ 208 ]  The organizations aimed at convincing well-meaning but naive Westerners to support Soviet overt or covert goals. [ 209 ]  A witness in a US congressional hearing on Soviet cover activity described the goals of such organizations as to "spread Soviet propaganda themes and create false impression of public support for the foreign policies of Soviet Union." [ 208 ]


Much of the activity of the Soviet-run peace movements was supervised by the  World Peace Council . [ 207 ] [ 208 ]  Other important front organizations included the  World Federation of Trade Unions , the  World Federation of Democratic Youth , and the  International Union of Students . [ 208 ]  Somewhat less important  front organizations  included: Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Organization,  Christian Peace Conference ,  International Association of Democratic Lawyers , International Federation of Resistance Movements,  International Institute for Peace ,  International Organization of Journalists ,  Women's International Democratic Federation  and  World Federation of Scientific Workers . [ 210 ]  There were also numerous smaller organizations, affiliated with the above fronts. [ 209 ] [ 211 ]


Those organizations received in total more than 100 million dollars from the USSR every year. [ 207 ]


Propaganda against the United States and the greater Western world included the following actions: [ 212 ] [ page needed ]


Psalm 127  is the 127th psalm of the  Book of Psalms , beginning in English in the  King James Version : "Except the Lord build the house". In  Latin , it is known by the  incipit  of its first 2 words,  "Nisi Dominus" . [ 1 ]  It is one of 15 " Songs of Ascents " and the only one among them attributed to  Solomon  rather than  David .


In the slightly different numbering system used in the Greek  Septuagint  and the  Latin Vulgate , this psalm is  Psalm 126 .


The text is divided into five verses. The first two express the notion that "without God, all is in vain", popularly summarized in Latin in the motto  Nisi Dominus Frustra . The remaining three verses describe  progeny  as God's blessing.


The psalm forms a regular part of  Jewish ,  Catholic ,  Lutheran ,  Anglican  and other Protestant liturgies. The Vulgate text  Nisi Dominus  was set to music numerous times during the  Renaissance  and  Baroque  periods, often as part of  vespers , including  Claudio Monteverdi 's ten-part setting as part of his 1610  Vespro della Beata Vergine ,  Marc-Antoine Charpentier , (3 sets), H 150, H 160, H 231, Handel's  Nisi Dominus  (1707) and two settings by  Antonio Vivaldi . Composers such as  Adam Gumpelzhaimer  and  Heinrich Schütz  set the German  "Wo Gott zum Haus" .


The following table shows the Hebrew text [ 2 ] [ 3 ]  of the Psalm with vowels alongside an English translation based upon the  JPS 1917  translation (now in the  public domain ).


According to Jewish tradition, Psalm 127 was written by David and dedicated to his son Solomon, who would build the  First Temple . [ 4 ]  According to  Radak , verses 3–5, which reference "sons", express David's feelings about his son Solomon; according to  Rashi , these verses refer to the students of a Torah scholar, who are called his "sons". [ 4 ]


The psalm's superscription calls it "of Solomon", [ 5 ]  but Christian theologian  Albert Barnes  noted that "in the  Syriac Version , the title is, "From the Psalms of the Ascent; spoken by David concerning Solomon; it was spoken also of  Haggai  and  Zechariah , who urged the rebuilding of the Temple". [ 6 ]  The  Authorized Version  describes the psalm as "a Song of degrees for Solomon", [ 7 ]  and  Wycliffe 's translators recognised both options. [ 8 ]  Isaac Gottlieb of  Bar Ilan University  suggests that the reference in verse 2 to "his beloved" ( yedido ) "recalls Solomon's other name,  Yedidiah ". [ 9 ]


Charles Spurgeon  calls Psalm 127 "The Builder's Psalm", noting the similarity between the Hebrew words for sons ( banim ) and builders ( bonim ). He writes:


We are here taught that builders of houses and cities, systems and fortunes, empires and churches all labour in vain without the Lord; but under the divine favour they enjoy perfect rest. Sons, who are in the Hebrew called "builders", are set forth as building up families under the same divine blessing, to the great honour and happiness of their parents. [ 10 ]


Spurgeon also quotes the English preacher  Henry Smith  (1560–1591): "Well doth David call children 'arrows' [v. 4]; for if they be well bred, they shoot at their parents' enemies; and if they be evil bred, they shoot at their parents". [ 10 ]


The  Midrash Tehillim  interprets the opening verses of the psalm as referring to teachers and students of Torah. On the watchmen of the city mentioned in verse 1,  Rabbi Hiyya ,  Rabbi Yosi , and  Rabbi Ammi  said, "The [true] watchmen of the city are the teachers of Scripture and instructors of Oral Law". On "the Lord gives" in verse 2, the Midrash explains that God "gives" life in  the world to come  to the wives of Torah scholars because they deprive themselves of sleep to support their husbands. [ 11 ]


One Biblical Scholar,  Earnst Wilhelm Hengstenberg,  made the following observations of how Psalm 127 is the center of a delicate structure in the Psalms ofAscent, Psalms 120 to Psalms 134: [ 12 ]


The whole is grouped around Psalm 127, which was composed by Solomon, which stands in he middle between te first and the last of the pilgrim poems.  On both sides there stands a heptade [ a grouping of seven] of Pilgrim Songs, consisting of two songs by David and five new ones which have no name... Each heptade contains the name Yahweh 24 times.
 [ 13 ]


The translation of the psalm offers difficulties, especially in verses 2 and 4.  Jerome , in a letter to  Marcella  (dated 384 AD), laments that  Origen 's notes on this psalm were no longer extant, and discusses the various possible translations of  לֶחֶם הָעֲצָבִים  (KJV "bread of sorrows", after the  panem doloris  of  Vulgata Clementina ; Jerome's own translation was  panem idolorum , "bread of idols", following the Septuagint (LXX), and of  בְּנֵי הַנְּעוּרִֽים  (KJV "children of the youth", translated in LXX as  υἱοὶ τῶν ἐκτετιναγμένων  "children of the outcast"). [ 14 ]


There are two possible interpretations of the phrase  כֵּן יִתֵּן לִֽידִידֹו שֵׁנָֽא  (KJV: "for so he giveth his beloved sleep"): The word "sleep" may either be the direct object (as in KJV, following LXX and Vulgate), or an  accusative  used  adverbially , "in sleep", i.e. "while they are asleep". The latter interpretation fits the context of the verse much better, contrasting the "beloved of the Lord" who receive success without effort, as it were "while they sleep" with the sorrowful and fruitless toil of those not so blessed, a sentiment paralleled by  Proverbs  10:22 (KJV "The blessing of the L ORD , it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.").  Keil and Delitzsch  (1883) accept the reading of the accusative as adverbial, paraphrasing "God gives to His beloved in sleep, i.e., without restless self-activity, in a state of self-forgetful renunciation, and modest, calm surrender to Him". [ 15 ]


However,  Alexander Kirkpatrick  in the  Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges  (1906) argues that while the reading "So he giveth unto his beloved in sleep" fits the context, the natural translation of the  Hebrew  text is still the one given by the ancient translators, suggesting that the Hebrew text as transmitted has been corrupted (which would make the LXX and Vulgate readings not so much "mistranslations" as correct translations of an already corrupted reading). [ 16 ]


English translations  have been reluctant to emend the translation, due to the long-standing association of this verse with  sleep  being the gift of God. [ 17 ]   Abraham Cronbach  (1933) refers to this as "one of those glorious mistranslations, a mistranslation which enabled Mrs. Browning to write one of the tenderest poems in the English language", [ 18 ]  referring to  Elizabeth Barrett Browning 's poem  The Sleep , which uses "He giveth his beloved Sleep" as the last line of each stanza.


Keil and Delitzsch (1883) take  שֶׁבֶת , "to sit up", as confirmation for the assumption, also suggested by 1 Samuel 20:24, that the custom of the Hebrews before the Hellenistic period was to take their meals sitting up, and not reclining as was the Greco-Roman custom. [ 19 ]


In Judaism, Psalm 127 is recited in some communities as part of the series of psalms read after the  Shabbat   afternoon service  between  Sukkot  and  Shabbat HaGadol . [ 20 ]


It is also recited as a prayer for protection of a newborn infant. [ 21 ]


Since the  early Middle ages , this psalm was traditionally recited or sung at the  Office of None  during the week, specifically from  Tuesday  until  Saturday  between  Psalm 126  and  Psalm 128 , following the  Rule of St. Benedict . [ 22 ]
In the current texts of the  Liturgy of the Hours , Psalm 127 is recited at  Vespers  on the third Wednesday of the four-week liturgical cycle. It is also used at  Second Vespers in the Common texts for the feasts of both the Blessed Virgin Mary and of all Holy Women.


The pro-natalist  Quiverfull  movement invokes the less quoted latter part of the psalm, verses 3–5 concerning the blessings and advantages of numerous offspring, as one of the foundations for their stance and takes its name from the last verse ("Happy is the man that hath his  quiver full  of them [i.e. sons]"). [ 23 ]


The Vulgate text of the psalm,  Nisi Dominus , has been set to music many times, often as part of  vespers  services. Settings from the  classical period  use the text of the  Sixto-Clementine Vulgate  of 1592, which groups  Cum dederit dilectis suis somnum  ("as he gives sleep to those in whom he delights") with verse 3 rather than verse 2 (as opposed to Jerome's text, and most modern translations, grouping the phrase with verse 2). Notable compositions include: [ 24 ]


"Wo Gott zum Haus"  is a German metrical and rhyming paraphrase of the psalm by  Johann Kolross , set to music by  Luther  (printed 1597) and by  Hans Leo Hassler  ( c.  1607 ).  Adam Gumpelzhaimer  used the first two lines for a canon,  Wo Gott zum Haus nicht gibt sein Gunst / So arbeit jedermann umsonst  ("Where God to the house does not give his blessing / There toils every man in vain").  Heinrich Schütz  composed a metred paraphrase of the psalm, "Wo Gott zum Haus nicht gibt sein Gunst",  SWV  232, for the  Becker Psalter , published first in 1628; He set  Wo der Herr nicht das Haus bauet , SWV 400, in 1650.


Nisi Dominus Frustra  ("Without God, [it is] in vain") is a popular motto derived from the psalm's first verse, as an abbreviation of "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it". It is often inscribed on buildings. It has been the motto in the  coat of arms of the City of Edinburgh  since 1647, [ 28 ]  and was the motto of the former  Metropolitan Borough of Chelsea . [ 29 ]  It was similarly the motto of the  King's Own Scottish Borderers , [ 28 ]  and the motto of the Inglises of  Cramond [ 30 ]  shared with Bishop  Charles Inglis  and his descendants.


It has been adopted as the motto for numerous schools in Great Britain, including  King Edward VI High School, Stafford , [ 31 ]   Melbourn Village College , London, [ 32 ]  and as the insignia of  Glenlola Collegiate School  in Northern Ireland. [ 33 ]  Other schools with this motto are  St Joseph's College, Dumfries ,  Villa Maria Academy (Malvern, Pennsylvania) ,  Rickmansworth School  (Nisi Dominus Aedificaverit),  The Park School, Yeovil ,  Bukit Bintang Girls' School , Bukit Bintang Boys' Secondary School,  St Thomas School, Kolkata ,  Kirkbie Kendal School ,  Richmond College, Galle ,  Mount Temple Comprehensive School , Dublin, Ireland,  Durban Girls' College , Durban, South Africa, and  Launceston Church Grammar School , Tasmania, Australia. [ 34 ]


The  Aquitanian  city of  Agen  takes as its motto the second verse of the psalm,  "Nisi dominus custodierit civitatem frustra vigilat qui custodit eam" : "Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain" (verse 1a, NIV version).


Edinburgh Napier University , established in 1964, has "secularized" the city's motto to  "Nisi sapientia frustra"  ("without  knowledge/wisdom , all is in vain").


Quiverfull  is a  Christian  theological position that sees large families as a blessing from God. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ]  It encourages procreation, abstaining from all forms of  birth control ,  natural family planning , and  sterilization reversal . [ 4 ]  The movement derives its name from  Psalm  127:3–5, where many children are metaphorically referred to as the arrows in a full  quiver .


Some sources have referred to the Quiverfull position as  providentialism , [ 5 ]  while other sources have simply referred to it as a manifestation of  natalism . [ 6 ] [ 7 ]


It is most widespread in the  United States  but it also has adherents in  Canada , [ 8 ]   Australia ,  New Zealand , the  United Kingdom , and elsewhere. [ 1 ]  One 2006 estimate put the number of families which subscribe to this philosophy as ranging from "the thousands to the low tens of thousands". [ 4 ]


As birth-control methods advanced during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many  conservative Christian  movements issued official statements against their use, citing their incompatibility with biblical beliefs and ideals.


In addition, there are those who contend that Quiverfull's "internal growth" model is a manifestation of a broader trend which is reflected in the lifestyles of such groups as  Orthodox Jews  (particularly  Haredi  and  Hasidic Jews ) and certain Christians including Orthodox  Calvinists  of the  Netherlands , traditional  Anabaptists  (such as  Old Order Amish ,  Old Colony Mennonites , and certain  Conservative Mennonites ), some traditional Methodists of the  conservative holiness movement , and  Laestadian Lutherans of Finland . [ 9 ] [ 10 ] [ 11 ]  The former may also be a case of a manifestation of a movement of opinion within some ethnic, linguistic, religious, regional, or other identifiable groups whose members have expressed concern about their continued existence for historical or other reasons. Such philosophies and groups are diverse amongst themselves—being found in all segments and sectors of the political spectrum—and they usually represent, to varying extents, the diversity within their group. The manifestations of such movements and opinions include everything from comparatively high rates of in-group marriage being applauded and gently suggested, to more explicit calls for  endogamy  such as is the case with the  Druze , [ citation needed ]  to concerns which were expressed by  Protestants  in  Northern Ireland  about a higher birth rate amongst  Catholics , to  Decree 770  which was issued by  Nicolae Ceaușescu 's government in  Romania  with regard to contraception, and other  population  topics as part of its local variant of the  North Korean  ideology of  Juche . [ citation needed ]


In 1930, the  Lambeth Conference  issued a statement permitting birth control: "Where there is a clearly felt moral obligation to limit or avoid parenthood, complete abstinence is the primary and obvious method", but if there was morally sound reasoning for avoiding abstinence, "the Conference agrees that other methods may be used, provided that this is done in the light of Christian principles". Primary materials on the contemporary debate indicate a wide variety of opinion on the matter. [ 12 ]  In the decades that followed, birth control became gradually accepted among many other mainline Protestants, even among some conservative evangelicals. [ 13 ] [ 14 ] [ 15 ] [ 16 ]


In the 20th century, Quiverfull as a modern  Christian movement  began to emerge. [ 17 ] [ need quotation to verify ]  Nancy Campbell began publishing her magazine  Above Rubies , which promotes and glorifies stay-at-home mothers who have as many children as possible, in 1977. [ 18 ]  While Campbell is in measure responsible for formulating Quiverfull ideas, [ citation needed ]  the movement sparked most fully after the 1985  publication  of  Mary Pride's  book  The Way Home: Beyond Feminism, Back to Reality .


In her book, Pride chronicled her metaphorical journey away from what she labeled  feminist  and  anti-natal  ideas of  happiness  (within which she had lived as an  activist  before her  conversion  to  conservative   evangelical Christianity  in 1977) toward her discovery of happiness surrounding what she portrayed as the biblically mandated role of wives and mothers as bearers of children and workers in the home under the  authority  of a  husband . Pride wrote that such a lifestyle was generally biblically required of all married Christian women, but feminism had duped most Christian women without their awareness, especially in their acceptance of birth control. [ 16 ] [ 19 ]


As the basis for her arguments, Pride selected numerous  Bible verses  in order to lay out what she saw as the  biblical role of women . These included verses which she interpreted as perpetuating her advocacy of compulsory childbearing and her opposition to the use of  birth control  which (in her view) was promoted by "the feminist agenda" by which she had formerly lived. Pride's explanations then became a spearheading basis of Quiverfull.


The name of the Quiverfull movement comes from  Psalm 127:3–5 , which Pride cited in  The Way Home : [ 19 ]


Lo, children are an heritage of the L ORD :
and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man;
so are children of the youth.
Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them:
they shall not be ashamed,
but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.


Pride stated in her book: "The church's sin which has caused us to become unsavory salt incapable of uplifting the society around us is selfishness, lack of love, refusing to consider children an unmitigated blessing. In a word,  family planning ." [ 19 ]


After the publication of Pride's  The Way Home , her ideas spread through informal  social networks . Around this time, numerous church  pastors  issued  sermons  which were in accord with Pride's ideas and various small publications and a few Quiverfull-oriented books appeared. [ citation needed ]


As the  Internet  expanded several years later, the informal networks gradually took on more organized forms as Quiverfull adherents developed numerous Quiverfull-oriented organizations, books,  electronic mailing lists ,  websites , and digests, most notably  The Quiverfull Digest . The largely decentralized "Quiverfull" movement resulted. [ 4 ] [ 20 ]


From their onset, Quiverfull ideas have sometimes had a polarizing effect among Christians who hold to them and Christians who are skeptical of or disagree with them. [ 16 ] [ 21 ]


Quiverfull authors and adherents express their core motivation as a desire to obey God's commandments as stated in the Bible. Among these commandments, " be fruitful and multiply ", [ 22 ]  "behold, children are a gift of the Lord", [ 23 ]  and passages showing God acting to open and close the womb [ 24 ]  are interpreted as giving a basis for their views. Quiverfull adherents typically maintain that their philosophy is first about an open, accepting and obedient attitude toward the possibility of bearing children. Within the view, this attitude may result in many, few or even no children, because God Himself maintains sole provenance over conception and birth. The duty of the Quiverfull adherent is only to maintain an "open willingness" to joyfully receive and not thwart however many children God chooses to bestow.  Contraception  in all its forms is seen as inconsistent with this attitude and is thus entirely avoided, as is  abortion .


Quiverfull's principal authors and its adherents also describe their motivation as a  missionary effort  to raise up many children as Christians to advance the cause of the Christian religion. [ 1 ]  Its distinguishing viewpoint is to eagerly receive children as blessings from God, [ 1 ] [ 3 ]  eschewing all forms of  contraception , including  natural family planning , and  sterilization . [ 4 ] [ 19 ]


According to journalist Kathryn Joyce, writing in the magazine  The Nation : "[T]he Quiverfull mission is rooted in faith, the unseen," even if "its mandate to be fruitful and multiply has tangible results as well." [ 4 ]  Others remark that Quiverfull resembles other world-denying fundamentalist movements that grow through internal reproduction and membership retention such as  Orthodox Jews  (particularly  Haredi  and  Hasidic Jews ), and certain Christian denominations (such as the  Amish  and  Mennonites , and  Laestadian Lutherans  in Finland). Many are thriving as seculars and moderates have transitioned to below-replacement fertility. [ clarification needed ] [ 25 ] [ 26 ]


The principal Quiverfull belief is that Christians should maintain a strongly welcoming attitude toward the possibility of bearing children. With minor exceptions, adherents reject birth control use as completely incompatible with this belief.


Most Quiverfull adherents regard children as unqualified blessings, gifts that should be received happily from God. Quiverfull authors Rick and Jan Hess argued for this belief in their 1990 book:


"Behold, children are a gift of the Lord." (Psa. 127:3) Do we really believe that? If children are a gift from God, let's for the sake of argument ask ourselves what other gift or blessing from God we would reject. Money? Would we reject great wealth if God gave it? Not likely! How about good health? Many would say that a man's health is his most treasured possession. But children? Even children given by God? "That's different!" some will plead! All right, is it different? God states right here in no-nonsense language that children are gifts. Do we believe His Word to be true? [ 1 ]


Quiverfull authors such as Pride, Provan, and Hess extend this idea to mean that if one child is a blessing, then each additional child is likewise a blessing and not something to be viewed as economically burdensome or unaffordable. When a couple seeks to control family size via birth control they are thus "rejecting God's blessings" he might otherwise give and possibly breaking his commandment to "be fruitful and multiply." [ 1 ] [ 19 ] [ 27 ] [ 28 ]


Accordingly, Quiverfull theology opposes the general acceptance among mainline Protestant Christians of deliberately limiting family size or spacing children through birth control. For example, Mary Pride argued, "God commanded that sex be at least potentially fruitful (that is, not deliberately unfruitful). ... All forms of sex that shy away from marital fruitfulness are perverted." [ 19 ]  Adherents believe that God himself controls via  Providence  how many and how often children are conceived and born, pointing to Bible verses that describe God acting to "open and close the womb" (see  Genesis 20:18 ,  29:31 ,  30:22 ;  1 Samuel 1:5-6 ;  Isaiah 66:9 ). [ 1 ] [ 29 ]  Hess and Hess state that couples "just need to trust God to provide them with the perfect number of children for their situation." [ 1 ]


Some Quiverfull adherents base their rejection of birth control upon the belief that the  Genesis creation  and post– Noahic flood  Bible passages to "be fruitful and multiply" (see  Genesis 1:22 ;  9:7 ) are un-rescinded biblical commandments. For example,  Charles D. Provan  argues:


"Be fruitful and multiply"... is a command of God, indeed the first command to a married couple. Birth control obviously involves disobedience to this command, for birth control attempts to prevent being fruitful and multiplying. Therefore birth control is wrong, because it involves disobedience to the Word of God. Nowhere is this command done away with in the entire Bible; therefore it still remains valid for us today. [ 27 ]


Quiverfull advocates such as Rick and Jan Hess and  Rachel Giove Scott  believe that the  Devil  deceives Christian couples into using birth control so that children God otherwise willed to create are prevented from being born. [ 1 ] [ 29 ]  In addition, a Quiverfull adherent was quoted in the 2001  Calgary Herald  as making this statement: "Children are made in God's image, and the enemy hates that image, so the more of them he can prevent from being born, the more he likes it." [ 8 ]


Adherents view  barrenness , referred to as an "empty quiver", as something to be accepted from God as His choice, which then becomes a matter of prayer in the hope that God may decide to miraculously intervene. Quiverfull adherents also see  infertility treatments  as a usurpation of God's  providence  and accordingly reject them. [ 30 ]  Adoption is viewed as a positive option through which couples can also rely on God's providence to send children. Biblical references to God's love for the orphan and the belief that people are saved through adoption into God's family are often noted.


Some circles do accept medical interventions, since improving opportunities for pregnancy is not seen to guarantee it any more than with any healthy couple. Also, some reproductive health problems may be seen as symptomatic of other health problems which need to be addressed generally. [ citation needed ]


Not all Quiverfull families and authors agree with each statement which was made by the movement's principal authors.


Samuel Owens considers the possibility that some aspects of a fallen universe may sometimes justify the option to use a  non–potentially abortive birth control method . These aspects of a fallen universe include serious illnesses, inevitable  Caesarean sections , and other problematic situations, such as disabling mental instability and serious marital disharmony. Owens additionally argues that birth control may be permissible for married couples who are called to a "higher moral purpose" than having children, such as caring long-term for many  orphans  or serving as career  missionaries  in a dangerous location. [ 31 ]


Despite some variances, all Quiverfull families and authors agree that God's normative ideal for happy, healthy and prosperous married couples is to take no voluntary actions that will prevent them from having children. [ 1 ] [ 3 ]


Quiverfull adherents maintain that God "opens and closes the womb" of a woman on a case-by-case basis, and that any attempts to regulate fertility are usurpation of divine power. Thus, the defining practice of a Quiverfull married couple is not to use any form of birth control and to maintain continual "openness to children," that is to say, engaging in routine  sexual intercourse  with no attempt to limit the possibility of  conception . This practice is irrespective of the time of the month during the menstrual cycle, and is considered by Quiverfull adherents to be the principal—if not the primary—aspect of their Christian calling in submission to the Lordship of  Christ . [ 32 ]


Proponents of the Quiverfull movement also regard  contraceptive pills  and other similar contraceptives as unacceptable abortifacients. [ 33 ]


Some Quiverfull adherents advocate for  birth spacing  through  breastfeeding , so that the return of fertility after childbirth could be delayed by  lactational amenorrhea . [ 34 ]


Quiverfull authors and adherents advocate for and seek to model  a return to   biblical patriarchy . [ 35 ]  Mary Pride has more recently attempted to distance herself from the patriarchy movement and from a focus on the father's role in training daughters. In a column published in her magazine  Practical Homeschooling  in 2009, as well as in the afterword to the 25th-anniversary edition of  The Way Home , Pride clarified her position that it is primarily mothers, not fathers, who should teach girls about women's roles and duties. [ 36 ] [ 37 ]  As Emily McGowin notes in her 2018 book  Quivering Families , however, "[Pride] differentiates herself from these approaches without denying the underlying gender hierarchy and pronatalism." [ 38 ]


Quiverfull authors typically organize family governance to reflect an "umbrella of protection" with the mother as a  homemaker  under the  authority  of her  husband  and the children under the authority of both. Parents seek to largely shelter their children from aspects of culture deemed adversarial to their religious beliefs. [ 39 ]  Additionally, Quiverfull families strongly incline toward  homeschooling  and toward  homesteading  in a  rural  area. However, exceptions exist in substantial enough proportions that these latter two items are general and are often idealized correlations to Quiverfull practices and not integral parts of them. [ 40 ]


Quiverfull adherents Brad and Dawn Irons run  Blessed Arrows Sterilization Reversal Ministry . The couple advocates for Quiverfull ideas while providing funding, physician referrals, and support to Christians wishing to undergo  sterilization  reversal surgery. [ 41 ]
 Institute in Basic Life Principles  founder  Bill Gothard  advocates for reversals, saying that sterilized couples have "cut off children" and should devote themselves instead to "raising up godly seed".


The movement has been criticized by journalists from  Glamour Magazine  for what they perceive to be  sexism  and a demeaning approach to women. [ 42 ]


James B. Jordan  maintains that, while children are indeed blessings, they are only one among a wide range of blessings God offers, and prayerfully choosing foci among them is part of prudent Christian  stewardship . [ 43 ]


John Piper 's Desiring God Ministries has published some comments that relate to Quiverfull:


Just because something is a gift from the Lord does not mean that it is wrong to be a steward of when or whether you will come into possession of it. It is wrong to reason that since A is good and a gift from the Lord, then we must pursue as much of A as possible. God has made this a world in which tradeoffs have to be made and we cannot do everything to the fullest extent. For kingdom purposes, it might be wise not to get married. And for kingdom purposes, it might be wise to regulate the size of one's family and to regulate when the new additions to the family will likely arrive. As  Wayne Grudem  has said, "it is okay to place less emphasis on some good activities in order to focus on other good activities." [ 44 ]


Some women who have left the Quiverfull movement are now vocally critical of it. [ 45 ]   Vyckie Garrison  spent 16 years living the Quiverfull lifestyle and had seven children before leaving her husband and ultimately becoming an atheist. She told  Vice  that her health was negatively affected by so many births and that over time, her husband became "a tyrant." [ 46 ]  Garrison founded the blog  No Longer Quivering  to share her own story and the stories of other women who had been harmed by the Quiverfull lifestyle. [ 47 ]  The blog is now maintained by Suzanne Titkemeyer, another former Quiverfull adherent who describes her years in the movement as "disastrous." [ 48 ]


Likewise, some children who were raised in Quiverfull homes have grown up to speak out against the movement. In 2018, Eve [Hännah] Ettinger and Kieryn Darkwater started a podcast called  Kitchen Table Cult  in which they discuss their experiences of being raised Quiverfull and connect the ideology to current events such as the election of  Donald Trump . [ 49 ]  In a 2015 interview about their upbringing, Ettinger said that in Quiverfull families, "the parents are just as confused as the kids, and often are struggling with deep-set psychological issues and need as much therapy and compassion as the kids do to recover from the dehumanizing reality of trying to have a perfect Quiverfull family to please a demanding and holy God." [ 50 ]


CFCtoo , an advocacy group for survivors of the Quiverfull community  Christian Fellowship Center , is advocating for New York to amend their mandated reporting laws to include clergy. [ 51 ] [ 52 ] [ 53 ]  CFCtoo argues that such laws are necessary to combat the Quiverfull movement's propensity for "incest, child sexual abuse, and systematic abuse coverups based on a twisted understanding of biblical forgiveness." [ 54 ] [ 55 ]


Race suicide  was an alarmist  eugenicist  theory, coined by American sociologist  Edward A. Ross  around 1900 and promoted by, among others,  Harry J. Haiselden . [ 1 ]  According to the American Eugenics Archive, "race suicide" conceptualizes a hypothetical situation in which the death rate of a particular " race " supersedes its birth rate. [ 2 ]


As a propagandistic theory akin to  white genocide , race suicide was mechanized to induce fear in dominant and/or majority "races" (i.e. the " white race ") that their community was dying off and being replaced by more fertile immigrant "races". This term was likewise deployed to proliferate the ideology of  Eugenics  among the international public throughout the 20th century. [ 2 ]  Moreover, the concept of "race suicide" predominantly placed blame on women, as supposed agents of reproduction. With its roots in  Nordicism , the application of this alarmist theory varied based on the targeted community and/or country. [ 3 ]


The theory of race suicide is fundamentally rooted in and influenced by the internationally popularized and  pseudoscientific  theory of  Eugenics , which advocates for the universal improvement of the human gene pool through the elimination of certain "races" deemed "unfit" for reproduction. [ 4 ]  In the United States, "unfit" races have historically included minorities such as immigrants and African Americans, people with mental and physical disabilities, people in poverty, institutionalized people, and/or people convicted of crimes. Eugenics sought to eliminate these people, such that their "undesirable traits and behaviors" would be effectively weeded out of the human population over time. [ 4 ]


Race suicide rhetoric induced fear in dominant groups and institutions by eliciting Eugenics and suggesting that these "undesirable" and "unfit" racial groups were proliferating, while the "desirable" and "fit" racial groups were essentially "killing themselves" by failing to sufficiently reproduce. [ 5 ]  As a result of  fear-mongering , race suicide theorists in the 20th century turned to socio-political institutions, pseudoscientific  propaganda , and social policy. [ 6 ]  They believed that such policies would supposedly prevent race suicide before the "unfit" racial groups replaced the "fit" ones. In doing so, they gave rise the theory of Eugenics. [ 5 ] [ 6 ]


In this age of international eugenic propaganda, "Race suicide theorists believed that natural evolutionary dynamics were disrupted in the age of industry, and that  social policy  was needed to ensure that the supposedly superior 'races' did not disappear." [ 2 ]  This propaganda ran throughout newspapers and educational spaces. This eugenic propaganda also contributed to conversations pertaining to  forced sterilization  of the "unfit", "hypersexual", and those with "hereditary defectiveness". [ 7 ]  For example, S. Fred Hogue first released his weekly pro-eugenics column in the  Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine  in 1935. In one column entitled "Shall We Halt Race Suicide", he wrote: "It is self-evident that if the unfit are to be permitted to reproduce at the present alarming rate, they will wreck civilization ... To prevent this form of race suicide, it is absolutely essential that the unfit shall not be permitted to continue to reproduce their kind." [ 7 ]


The first element to disentangling "race suicide" and the racialization of women of color is  hypersexualization . Hypersexualization is an objectifying portrayal of people, most often women, usually of color, as excessively sexual. The objectification was instrumental in perpetuating concerns of race suicide because many people assumed women of color were reproducing at higher rates and seducing white men, therefore reducing the white race's size – a pseudoscientific "fact" with no basis in truth. [ 8 ]


The hypersexualization of women of color was not only socially perpetuated but was systemically ingrained into U.S. institutions. For instance, the first immigration legislation that set the parameters for who could enter the country was the  Page Act of 1875 . [ 9 ]  This law barred Chinese women from migrating to the U.S. out of fear that they were immoral and diseased prostitutes. [ 9 ]  The  1924 Johnson-Reed Act , which was passed partly to "combat the specter race suicide", [ 10 ] : 352   brought this to an extreme by banning all Asian Americans. More broadly, the Act engaged in a racialized operation of tightening the borders by setting national quotas for immigrants. This "hardened anti-Black racism and turned Asians and Latino/as into immutable others". [ 10 ] : 353   To help pass such laws, influential scientific figures like  Harry H. Laughlin  testified before Congress, warning of a race suicide if such dynamics, partly based on an assumption of hypersexuality, prevailed and immigration law failed to be strong enough. [ 10 ] : 357


Incarceration institutions perpetuated ideas of hypersexuality. Jails imprisoned women for deviating from norms of sexuality. Black people, especially during the  Jim Crow era , were sent to prisons at disproportionate rates. [ 11 ]  When these women of color were incarcerated, they were not sent to reformatories like white women, but rather, they resided in custodial prisons like men. [ 11 ]


Case law provides additional evidence for hypersexual racialization and race suicide anxieties.  Rhinelander v. Rhinelander  (1925), for instance, painted a Black woman as a hypersexual " vamp " who took advantage of her white husband. [ 12 ]  The white man, Leo Rhinelander, claimed that his wife lied about her ancestry. The trial lawyers portrayed Alice Jones as a "sexually aggressive woman who seduced the younger Leo Rhinelander". [ 12 ] : 167   This is the image of a "vamp", which is a woman who seduces men, most often applied specifically to women of color. [ 12 ]  The case echoed societal fears of race corruption, specifically that white men's relations with hypersexual black women could inevitably contribute to  " 'race suicide' or the demise of the white race". [ 12 ] : 170   On the cultural side, films like  The Black Stork  crafted images of seductive enslaved women, [ 13 ]  while the  Dragon Lady  and  Lotus Blossom  cinematic stereotypes villainized Asian American women as temptresses. [ 9 ]  Institutional and cultural mechanisms in the U.S. worked in tandem to promote the image of women of color as hypersexualized and thus threatening to the survival of the white race.


A common diagnosis in the earlier twentieth century dubbed " hysteria " also played a role in the  racialization  of women and, in turn, racial suicide fears. Hysteria was an illness apparently plaguing white, upper-class women. [ 14 ]  The sickness purportedly caused (white) women to be frail, weak, and not reproduce, which endangered the longevity of the white race. [ 14 ]


Hysteria played into racializing dynamics largely because the chief cause was the "overcivilization" of white women, which was put in a binary opposition to hardy "savages" – a category for women of color. [ 14 ]  Examples of this dynamic are evident in the  American Journal of Obstetrics  during the 1880s. For instance,  George J. Engelmann [ 14 ]  published several articles that concluded these "primitive" (Black, Mexican, Native American, Asian American, poor Appalachian white) and "savage" women experienced labor as "short and easy", compared to overcivilized white women. [ 15 ]  Joseph Johnson gathered similar observations, specifically on enslaved women, noting that there were "surprisingly few preternatural or instrumental cases [forceps deliveries] among them". [ 16 ]  Doctor Lucien Warner explicitly tied race and gender when he explicated that Black women and other immigrants were robust workers who had "comparative immunity from uterine disease" relative to white women. [ 17 ]  Overall, George Beard best summarized these dynamics in 1881 when explicitly surmised, "nervous disease scarcely exists among savages or barbarians, or semi-barbarians or partially civilized people". [ 18 ]


The categorization and diagnosis of hysteria were founded in societal and "scientific" ideas that women of color, savage women, were robust, strong, fertile, and threatening – partly related to their hypersexuality, as many evolutionary theories pointed to hypersexuality as a sign of being uncivilized, [ 19 ]  and partly related to their innate " savagery ". Upper-class white women were weak, fragile, nervous, and infertile. These dynamics, where women of color were fertile and birthing while hysterical white women were not, inevitably exacerbated race suicide concerns. [ 14 ] : 266


Early race suicide rhetoric in the  United States  suggested a differential birth rate between native-born  Protestant  and immigrant  Catholic  women, or more generally between the "fit" (white, wealthy, educated Protestants) and the "unfit" (poor, uneducated, criminals, diseased, disabled, minorities).  Fear-mongering  tactics relied on the idea that the "fit" group would ultimately dwindle to the point of extinction if they did not adopt an urgency to reproduce. This rhetoric was later extended to further entrench the eugenic claim that  African Americans  and other immigrants "races" with growing populations were "unfit," " hypersexual ," and "dangerous." [ 20 ]


In 1902,  Theodore Roosevelt , the President of the United States, called race suicide "fundamentally infinitely more important than any other question in this country," arguing to the American public that "the man or woman who deliberately avoids marriage, and has a heart so cold as to know no passion and a brain so shallow and selfish as to dislike having children, is in effect a criminal against the race, and should be an object of contemptuous abhorrence by all healthy people." Likewise, in 1905, he argued that a man or woman who is childless by choice "merits contempt." [ 21 ] [ 22 ]


This political agenda further targeted women and criticized them for choosing not to fulfill their "duty" of getting married and having children and thus maintaining the White population. In contrast, the growing non-White population was overly exaggerated in order to frame the situation as an alarming matter. [ 23 ]  Many newspaper articles claimed that this great increase was a threat that these non-White groups would have greater participation and more of an influence in politics in the future. [ 24 ]  In contrast, women who left a "legacy" after their death by having numerous children, and subsequently, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, were openly praised for helping to "fight against" the idea of race suicide. [ 25 ]


As the  teddy bear , which was named after  Theodore Roosevelt , increased in popularity, some individuals were worried that young girls who did not play with dolls as often would lose their "motherly instincts". Criticism of the teddy bear was another form of fear mongering, as these people claimed it contributed to the concept of race suicide. [ 26 ]


In response to Theodore Roosevelt's public warning against the idea of race suicide, some individuals also extended this concept, suggesting restrictions not only on non-White races, but also to individuals in lower economic classes due to "economic and educational reasons". [ 27 ]  It was no longer only political figures, but also  ministers ,  educators , and other individuals in leadership positions who were pushing for legislation to encourage White Americans to marry and have children. [ 28 ]  For example,  Alexander Graham Bell  publicly expressed his support for this agenda. [ 29 ]


The 1938 movie  Race Suicide  criticized women who chose not to get married or have children, with the line "Are Modern Women Cheaters?" standing out in its movie poster. [ 30 ]


Many propaganda images were also created and distributed through avenues, such as newspapers. A popular symbol that was used was the  stork , a bird often associated with the idea of "bringing babies". One example is an illustration from 1903 created by Samuel D. Ehrhart, which is displayed to the right. It depicted an "idle" stork of the upper class not fulfilling its duty, while the "strenuous" stork of the lower class was constantly working and increasing that population. [ 31 ]


Similarly in  Canada ,  W. Stewart Wallace , the author of "The Canadian Immigration Policy," endorsed the idea of race suicide. "The Canadian Immigration Policy" cited the native-born population's "struggle to keep up appearances in the face of the increasing competition" as a purported cause of its low birth rate. Wallace claimed that immigrants did not increase a nation's population but merely replaced it. [ 32 ]


Reichsbund der Kinderreichen  (RDK or RdK),  Reich's Union of Large Families  or literally:  Reich's League of those wealthy in children , was one of the most important  pronatalist  groups founded in Germany after  World War I .
To qualify as a member of this league a family should have at least four children. Widows were also admitted.


The German Large Family League was forcefully  nazified  after the  Nazi takeover of power  in 1933. As such its goal became the preservation and promotion of the German  hereditarily healthy   Aryan  family ("Erhaltung und Förderung der deutschen, erbgesunden, arischen Familie").


The RDK was renamed  Reichsbund Deutsche Familie, Kampfbund für erbtüchtigen Kinderreichtum  (literally  German Family Reich's League, Struggle League for a Hereditarily Strong Offspring ), in April 1940, in the first years of  World War II . Its new acronym became  RDF  and Dr.  Robert Kaiser  became its new leader.
 [ 1 ]  Under Dr. Kaiser, the RDF became essentially a  propaganda  organization,  promoting marriages  and natality among the youth despite the war-related difficulties.


As a Nazi organization the German Large Family League was disbanded after Nazi Germany's  defeat in World War II . The  American Military Government  issued a special law outlawing the Nazi party and all of its branches. This  Denazification  decree was also known as "Law number five".


(partly)


The  Révolution nationale  ( French pronunciation:   [ʁevɔlysjɔ̃   nɑsjɔnal] ,  National Revolution ) was the official  ideological  program promoted by the  Vichy regime  (the “French State”) which had been established in July 1940 and led by Marshal  Philippe Pétain . Pétain's regime was characterized by  anti-parliamentarism ,  personality cultism ,  xenophobia , state-sponsored  anti-Semitism ,  promotion of traditional values , rejection of the constitutional  separation of powers , and  corporatism , as well as opposition to the theory of  class conflict . Despite its name, the ideological policies were  reactionary  rather than  revolutionary  as the program opposed almost every change introduced to  French society  by the  French Revolution . [ 1 ]


As soon as it was established, Pétain's government took measures against the “undesirables”, namely  Jews ,  métèques  (foreigners),  Freemasons , and  Communists . The persecution of these four groups was inspired by  Charles Maurras ’ concept of the "Anti-France", or "internal foreigners", which he defined as the "four confederate states of Protestants, Jews, Freemasons and foreigners". [ citation needed ]  The regime also persecuted  Romani people ,  homosexuals , and  left-wing  activists in general. Vichy imitated the  racial policies of the Third Reich  and also engaged in  natalist  policies aimed at reviving the "French race" (including a sports policy), although these policies never went as far as  Nazi eugenics .


The ideology of the French State (Vichy France) was an adaptation of the ideas of the  French far-right  (including  monarchism  and  Charles Maurras ’  integralism ) by a crisis government that was a  client state , born out of the  defeat of France  against  Nazi Germany . It included:


None of these changes were forced on France by Germany. The Vichy government instituted them voluntarily as part of the National Revolution, [ 6 ]  while Germany interfered little in internal French affairs for the first two years after the armistice as long as public order was maintained. It was suspicious of the aspects of the National Revolution that encouraged French patriotism, and banned Vichy veteran and youth groups from the Occupied Zone. [ 7 ]


"I have never known what the National Revolution was, it was never defined and it was an expression that personally I never used [...] Everyone put his own desire, ideal and the regime that he saw into these words, but the National Revolution was never defined in any form at any time."


The  Révolution nationale  was never fully defined by the Vichy regime although it was frequently invoked by its most enthusiastic supporters. Philippe Pétain himself was rumoured to dislike the term and only used it four times in his wartime speeches. [ 8 ]  As a result, different factions formed different views of what it meant which conformed with their own ideological views about the regime and the postwar future. [ 8 ]


The  Pétainistes  gathered those who supported the personal figure of Marshal Pétain, considered at that time a war hero of the  Battle of Verdun . The  Collaborateurs  include those who collaborated with  Nazi Germany  or advocated collaboration, but who are considered more moderate, or more opportunistic, than the  Collaborationistes , advocates of a French fascism.


Supporters of collaboration were not necessarily supporters of the National Revolution, and vice versa.  Pierre Laval  was a collaborationist but was dubious about the National Revolution, while others like  Maxime Weygand  opposed collaboration but supported the National Revolution because they believed that reforming France would help it avenge its defeat. [ 7 ]


Those who supported the ideology of the National Revolution rather than the person of Pétain himself could be divided, in general, into three groups: the counter-revolutionary reactionaries; the supporters of a  French fascism ; and the reformers who saw in the new regime in opportunity to modernize the state apparatus. The last current would include opportunists such as the journalist  Jean Luchaire  who saw in the new regime career opportunities.


These were part of the  counter-revolutionary  branch of the  French far right , the oldest one being composed of  Legitimists , monarchist members of the  Action française  (AF), etc. But the Vichy regime also received support from large sectors of the liberal  Orleanists , in particular from its mouthpiece,  Le Temps  newspaper. [ 9 ]


The supporters were, however, in the minority. Although the Vichy government initially had substantial support from those who were glad that the war was over and expected that Britain would soon surrender, and Pétain remained personally popular during the war, by late autumn 1940 most French hoped for a British victory and opposed collaboration with Germany. [ 6 ]


In 1941,  Nobel Prize  winner  Alexis Carrel , who had been an early proponent of  eugenics  and  euthanasia  and was a member of  Jacques Doriot 's  French Popular Party  (PPF), went on to advocate the creation of the  French Foundation for the Study of Human Problems  ( Fondation Française pour l’Etude des Problèmes Humains ), using connections to the Pétain cabinet (specifically, French industrial physicians  André Gros  and Jacques Ménétrier). Charged with the "study, under all of its aspects, of measures aimed at safeguarding, improving and developing the  French population  in all of its activities," the Foundation was created by  decree  of the Vichy regime in 1941, and Carrel appointed as “regent”. [ 10 ]


Vichy's policy concerning sports found its origins in the conception of  Georges Hébert  (1875–1957), who denounced professional and spectacular competition, and like  Pierre de Coubertin , founder of the  Olympic Games  was a supporter of amateurism. Vichy's sport policy followed the moral aim of "rebuilding the nation", was opposed to  Léo Lagrange ’s sport policy during the Popular Front, and was specifically opposed to  professional sport  imported from the  United Kingdom . They also were used to engrain the youth in various associations and federations, as done by the  Hitler Youth  or Mussolini's  Balilla .


On 7 August 1940, a  Commissariat Général à l’Education Générale et Sportive  (General Commissioner to General and Sport Education) was created. Three men in particular headed this policy:


In October 1940, the two General Commissioners prohibited professionalism in two federations (tennis and wrestling), while permitting a three-year delay for four other federations (football, cycling, boxing and  Basque pelota ). They prohibited competitions for women in cycling or  association football . Furthermore, they prohibited, or spoiled by seizing the assets of, at least four uni-sport federations ( rugby league ,  table tennis ,  Jeu de paume  and  badminton ) and one multi-sport federation (the FSGT). In April 1942, they additionally prohibited the activities of the UFOLEP and USEP multi-sport federations, also seizing their goods which were to be transferred to the “National Council of Sports”.


The  Romanian National Conservative Party  ( PNCR ,  Romanian :  Partidul Național Conservator Român ) is a Romanian right-wing  political party , founded in late 2023 by Petre Cristian Bărnuțiu. In December 2023,  MEP   Cristian Terheș  left  PNȚCD  and joined the party, becoming its leader, and the party under his leadership joined the  AUR Alliance . Terheș became the head of the AUR Alliance list for the  2024 European Parliament election in Romania , and under his leadership the alliance won second place and 6 seats in the  European Parliament .


The Romanian National Conservative Party was initially registered on 4 October 2023, and was finally registered on 7 November 2023. [ 1 ]  According to the party, its founder, Petre Cristian Bărnuțiu, is the great-grandson of  Simion Bărnuțiu , the ideologist of the  revolutionary national movement of Transylvanian Romanians in 1848 . [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ]


On 10 December 2023, at the party congress,  MEP   Cristian Terheș  was elected as its chairman. [ 5 ]  On 1 December 2023, Terheș joined the PNCR, leaving the  Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party  and depriving it of representation in the  European Parliament . [ 6 ]  Terheș said that "in the face of globalist neo-Marxist attacks that want to transform the EU from a union of sovereign states into an empire led from Brussels by unelected bureaucrats, the solution is to defend national values, and this is what the PNCR will do". [ 3 ]


On 14 December  2023,  Alliance for the Union of Romanians  leader  George Simion  announced that PNCR had joined the  AUR Alliance  to participate in the 2024 elections. [ 7 ] [ 8 ]  PCNR leader Terheș became the leader of the AUR Alliance list for the  2024 European Parliament election in Romania . [ 9 ]


As of May 2024, PNCR was a member of the  European Christian Political Movement  and the  European Conservatives and Reformists   group in the European Parliament . [ 10 ] [ 11 ] [ 12 ]


On  9 June 2024 , PNCR leader  Terheș  was re-elected as a Member of the European Parliament on the  AUR Alliance  list. Five members of the  Alliance for the Union of Romanians  were elected from the alliance list too. On 19 June 2024, all 6 elected  AUR Alliance  MEPs were accepted into the  European Conservatives and Reformists  group. [ 13 ] [ 14 ]


According to the PNCR, the platform consists of promoting the defense and promotion of Romanian conservative, constitutional and national values both in Romania and abroad, as well as sovereignty, integrity and national unity. PCNR states that it intends to promote the values of the supremacy of the Constitution, sovereignty, Christian values and the market economy. [ 6 ]


Cristian Terheș  was previously known for his outspoken campaigns against the  COVID-19 lockdown  and  vaccinations , as well as his support for accepting  Ukrainian refugees . [ 5 ]


1   AUR Alliance  members:  AUR  (5 MEPs), PNCR (1 MEP) and the other party members did not achieved any mandates ( ARN , PRR and BUN).


Orphanhood in Romania  became prevalent as a consequence of the  Socialist Republic of Romania 's  natalist  policy under  Nicolae Ceaușescu . Its effectiveness led to an increase in birth rates at the expense of adequate  family planning  and  reproductive rights . Its consequences were most felt with the collapse of the regime's social safety net during the  1980's Romanian austerity period , which led to widespread institutional neglect of the needs of orphans, with severe consequences in their health, including high rates of HIV infection in children, and well-being. A series of international and governmental interventions have taken place since the 1990s to improve the conditions in orphanages and reform the country's child protection system.


Under  Nicolae Ceaușescu , both  abortion  and  contraception  were forbidden. Ceaușescu believed that population growth would lead to economic growth. [ 1 ]  In October 1966,  Decree 770  was enacted, which banned abortion except in cases in which the mother was over forty years of age or already had four children in care. [ 2 ]  Birth rates especially rose during the years of 1967, 1968 and 1969. [ 3 ]  By 1977, people were taxed for being childless. [ 1 ]


Children born in these years are popularly known as  decreței , from the diminutive of the  Romanian language  word "decret", meaning " decree ". This increase in the number of births resulted in many children being abandoned in orphanages, which were also occupied by people with disabilities and mental illnesses. Together, these vulnerable groups were subjected to institutionalised neglect, physical and sexual abuse, and drug use to control behaviour.


The U.S. Consul in Bucharest from 1987 to 1991, Virginia Carson Young, noted that many of the children were not actually orphans, but were in fact children who had parents unable to afford such large families, with such a situation being created by the mandated natalist requirements. The parents had placed them in orphanages, often with the intention of picking them up at an older age.


The conditions in orphanages had declined after 1982, as a result of Ceauşescu's decision to seize much of the country's economic output in order to repay its foreign debt. [ 4 ]  Due to the  economic downturn , electricity and heat in orphanages were often intermittent and food was scarce. [ 1 ]


Though conditions in orphanages were not uniform, [ 5 ]  the worst conditions were mostly found in institutions for disabled children. [ 4 ]  One such example, the  Siret  children's psychiatric hospital, lacked both medicines and washing facilities, and physical and sexual abuse of children was reported to be common. [ 4 ]  In another case, the  Sighetu Marmației  institution for disabled children, the children were often tied to their own beds or dangerously restrained in their own clothing. [ citation needed ]


Because the staff had failed to put clothes on them, the children would spend their day naked and be left sitting in their own feces and urine. Nurses who worked at the institutions were not properly trained, and often abused the children. Dirty water was used for baths, and the children were thrown in three at a time by the staff. [ 6 ]  Due to the abuse children received from staff, older children learned to beat the younger ones. All children, including girls, had their heads shaved, which made it difficult to differentiate one another. Many had delayed cognitive development, and many did not know how to feed themselves. [ 6 ]


Physical needs were not met, as many children died of minor illness or injuries such as cataracts or anaemia. Many starved to death. Physical injuries that had to do with development included fractures that had not healed right, resulting in deformed limbs. [ 6 ]


Some children in the orphanages were infected with HIV/AIDS due to the practice of using  unsterilised instruments . [ 7 ]  Orphanages failed to meet even the most basic needs of the children. [ 7 ]  In addition to the distress of living in an orphanage, children faced further displacement when they were moved from one orphanage to another without being told in advance. Usually, they had to change institutions first when they reached three years of age, and again when they reached six years of age. The harshest fate was reserved to children deemed as "irrecuperable" who were considered "unproductive" and assigned to the Labour Ministry. After the fall of the regime, former staff claimed corporal punishment of all children was encouraged as "appropriate discipline", and that staff who did not beat the children were considered weak. [ 5 ]


The true number of children who lived in orphanages during the communist era is not known, due to the fact that it is not possible to obtain reliable data on practices and policies that took place under the regime. According to some sources, in 1989 there were approximately 100,000 children living in orphanages. [ 5 ]  Other sources put the figure at 170,000. [ 8 ]  Overall, it is estimated that about 500,000 children were raised in orphanages. [ 5 ]


After the December 1989  Romanian Revolution , an initial period of economic and social insecurity followed. The 1990s was a difficult transition period, and it is during this period that the number of  street children  was very high. Some ran away or were thrown out of orphanages or abusive homes, and were often seen  begging , inhaling ' aurolac ' from sniffing bags, and roaming around the  Bucharest Metro . This situation was presented in a 2001 documentary called  Children Underground , which depicted the life of Romanian street children.


After the fall of the communist regime, after the conditions in the orphanages were made public, adoption was promoted as a solution. As a result, large numbers of children were adopted by foreigners in the 1990s and early 2000s. Nevertheless, there were many irregularities, fueled by corruption and loose regulations. As a result, in 2004, the government banned  international adoption , except by grandparents. The ban was passed under pressure from the EU, which Romania later joined in January 2007, in order to curb the abuses of the system. [ 9 ]


As the realities of life in Romanian orphanages emerged after December 1989, the reaction outside Romania was of shock at the plight of the orphans, and numerous charities were established. [ 10 ]  Numerous fund-raising activities have been conducted by various parties, such as the 1990 album  Nobody's Child: Romanian Angel Appeal , which was compiled by  George  and  Olivia Harrison  for AIDS-infected orphans. [ 11 ]  Along with fund-raisers, Westerners and Europeans adopted many Romanian children after the exploitation of their conditions. However, strict laws prevented many adoptions and the process of adoption became complex. [ 12 ]


In September 2005,  Emma Nicholson, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne , the  European Parliament 's  rapporteur  for Romania, stated "Romania has profoundly reformed [from top to bottom] its child protection system and has evolved from one of the worst systems in Europe to one of the best." [ 13 ]


Improving the situation of orphans had been made a condition of Romanian entry into the  European Union , but an investigation by  BBC  journalist  Chris Rogers  in 2009 revealed that conditions in some institutions are still very poor and large numbers of institutionalized and traumatized people are still held in inadequate conditions, with many apparently having entered the system post-Ceauşescu. The institutions housed adults at this time, who did not get adequate medical attention as they suffered injuries and physical problems due to improper care. [ 14 ]  In early 2011, two  British  charities  Hope and Homes for Children  and  ARK  launched a plan to complete the reform of the Romanian Child Protection Systems and close all large children's homes in Romania by 2020. [ 15 ]


Because of the neglect the children suffered, many grew up with physical and mental delays. Children with obvious mental delays or disorders were given false diagnoses from untrained nurses or doctors. [ 6 ]  According to Jon Hamilton, "A lot of what scientists know about parental bonding and the brain comes from studies of children who spent time in Romanian orphanages during the 1980s and 1990s." [ 16 ]  The conditions of the orphanages showed that not only is nutrition vital to a child's development, but also basic human contact. [ 17 ]


Due to lack of human contact, babies developed without stimulation, which led to  self stimulation such as hand flapping or rocking back and forth . With these characteristics, children were often misdiagnosed to have mental disabilities and forced to move to another institution. They were also given psychiatric medication to treat their behaviors, or they were tied to their beds to prevent self-harm. [ 18 ]


Even after being adopted, children had problems forming attachments to their new parents. When testing the children's responses in comparison to other children, scientists monitored their brain responses to seeing their adoptive mothers or an unfamiliar woman. The results, according to scientist  Nim Tottenham , state, "The amygdala signal was not discriminating Mom from strangers." [ 16 ]  According to other MRI studies, children who grew up in Romanian orphanages had physically smaller brains than average children who developed properly. [ 16 ]


According to  attachment theory , "The most important tenet of attachment theory is that an infant needs to develop a relationship with at least one  primary caregiver  for the child's successful social and emotional development, and in particular for learning how to effectively regulate their feelings." In the Romanian orphanages, children had grown accustomed to neglect in early infancy. [ 16 ]  Because of the struggle to form emotional attachment to others, such as adoptive parents, children had trouble adapting to their new lives after being adopted.


Additionally to physical effects, the legal attributes of being disowned include a loss of legal surname, in addition to first names being assigned as numbers. Young children brought to orphanages typically cannot remember their names and because of this are named by their caretakers.


Number of children in the care of the state between 1997–2022:


S.O.S. Romania  ( Romanian :  S.O.S. România ) is a  far-right  political party in Romania that was founded in 2021. The party is considered to be a  right-wing populist ,  socially conservative , and  irredentist  outfit. Additionally, the party is known for its  Eurosceptic  stance, and is considered more radical than the right-wing  Alliance for the Union of Romanians  (AUR). S.O.S Romania has been described as being closely tied to Russia. [ 8 ] [ 26 ]  Since 2022, the party has been led by  Diana Șoșoacă , then a member of the  Senate of Romania , who had been elected on the AUR list. [ 27 ]


The party was founded in November 2021 by Maricel Viziteu and Adeluța and Gabriel Gib, the latter being a former member of the  Romanian Socialist Party  (PSR). [ 2 ]  It became known on the Romanian political landscape in May 2022 after senator  Diana Șoșoacă , elected on the  Alliance for the Union of Romanians  (AUR) list, joined the party and later became its leader. [ 27 ]


Political analyst and former politician  Miron Mitrea  stated that the party had 5–6% in the election polls as of July 2023. [ 28 ] [ 29 ]  Șoșoacă replied that it is more popular than 5–6% and told people not to trust the polls. [ 30 ]


On 13 October 2023, S.O.S. Romania expressed its intention to join the  Identity and Democracy Party  in the European Parliament. [ 31 ] [ 32 ]  However, it was later reported the S.O.S. Romania would join an alliance led by  Alternative for Germany  instead. [ 33 ]  On 28 June 2024, the Alternative for Germany declined the application of S.O.S. Romania to join their European Parliament group, [ 34 ]  with the Hungarian nationalist party  Our Homeland Movement  stating that this was at their request. [ 35 ]


Șoșoacă demanded  Romanian withdrawal from the European Union . [ 36 ]  and is also critical of  NATO . [ 37 ]  On the party's website, it claims that it opposes "Russian and Chinese dictatorships", and that it supports Romania's EU membership, preferring to be called  Eurorealist  rather than Eurosceptic. [ 38 ]  Sosoaca has openly supported the Russian Federation, and visited the Russian embassy multiple times. [ 39 ]  She visited the embassy of Russia in Bucharest on the  12 June . [ 40 ]  The party's president,  Diana Șoșoacă , was accused of promoting  antisemitic  conspiracy theories, after being rejected from the  2024 presidential run . She paid tribute to the former  Legionary  leader  Corneliu Zelea Codreanu [ 41 ]  and made a call to  antisemitism . [ 42 ] [ 43 ] [ 44 ] [ 45 ] [ 46 ] [ 47 ]


The party is also a proponent of  Greater Romania , demanding Ukraine to return to Romania the territories annexed in 1940 during the  Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina , which are today part of Ukraine. [ 48 ]  Due to this, Ukraine imposed sanctions on Șoșoacă, who is the party's president. [ 28 ]


The  Socialist Republic of Romania  ( Romanian :  Republica Socialistă România ,  RSR ) was a  Marxist–Leninist   one-party   socialist state  that existed officially in  Romania  from 1947 to 1989 (see  Revolutions of 1989 ). From 1947 to 1965, the state was known as the  Romanian People's Republic  ( Republica Populară Romînă ,  RPR ). The country was an  Eastern Bloc  state and a member of the  Warsaw Pact  with a dominant role for the  Romanian Communist Party  enshrined in  its constitutions . Geographically, RSR was bordered by the  Black Sea  to the east, the  Soviet Union  (via the  Ukrainian  and  Moldavian SSRs ) to the north and east,  Hungary  and  Yugoslavia  (via  SR Serbia ) to the west, and  Bulgaria  to the south.


As  World War II  ended,  Romania , a former  Axis  member which had  overthrown their pro-Axis government , was occupied by the  Soviet Union  as the sole representative of the  Allies . On 6 March 1945, after mass demonstrations by communist sympathizers and political pressure from the Soviet representative of the  Allied Control Commission , a new pro-Soviet government that included members of the previously outlawed  Romanian Workers' Party  was installed. Gradually, more members of the Workers' Party and communist-aligned parties gained control of the administration and pre-war political leaders were steadily eliminated from political life. In December 1947,  King   Michael I  was forced to  abdicate  and the People's Republic of Romania was declared.


At first, Romania's scarce post-war resources were drained by the " SovRoms ," new tax-exempt Soviet-Romanian companies that allowed the Soviet Union to control Romania's major sources of income. [ 7 ]  Another drain was the  war reparations  paid to the Soviet Union. However, during the 1950s, Romania's communist government began to assert more independence, leading to, for example, the withdrawal of all Soviet troops from Romania by 1958. [ 8 ]  Overall, from the 1950s to the 1970s, the country exhibited high rates of economic growth and significant improvements in infant mortality, life expectancy, literacy, urbanization, and women's rights, but then stagnated in the 1980s. [ 9 ]


In the 1960s and 1970s,  Nicolae Ceaușescu  became General Secretary of the Communist Party (1965), Chairman of the State Council (1967), and the newly established role of  President  in 1974. Ceaușescu's denunciation of the 1968  Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia  and a  brief relaxation in internal repression  led to a positive image both at home and in the West. However, rapid economic growth fueled in part by foreign credits gradually gave way to an  austerity  and  political repression  that led to  the violent fall  of his  totalitarian  government in  December 1989 . [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ]


Many people were executed or died in custody during communist Romania's existence, most during the Stalinist era of the 1950s. While judicial executions between 1945 and 1964 numbered 137, [ 10 ]  deaths in custody are estimated in the tens or hundreds of thousands. [ 11 ] [ 12 ] [ 13 ]  Others were arrested for political, economical, or other reasons and suffered imprisonment or torture.


The  1965 Constitution  remained in effect after its dissolution and was amended to reflect Romania's transition to democracy. It was replaced by the  current constitution  on 8 December 1991, after a  nationwide referendum  abolished the socialist system of government completely and replaced it with a  semi-presidential system .


When  King Michael , supported by the main political parties, overthrew  Ion Antonescu  in August 1944, breaking Romania away from the  Axis  and bringing it over to the  Allied  side, Michael could do nothing to erase the memory of his country's recent active participation in the  German invasion of the Soviet Union . Romanian forces fought under Soviet command, driving through Northern  Transylvania  into Hungary proper, and on into  Czechoslovakia  and Austria. However, the Soviets treated Romania as a conquered territory, [ 14 ]  and Soviet troops continued to occupy the country on the basis of the Romanians having been active Nazi allies with a fascist government until very recently. [ citation needed ]


The  Yalta Conference  had granted the Soviet Union a predominant interest in Romania. The  Paris Peace Treaties  did not acknowledge Romania as an  allied co-belligerent , as the Romanian army had fought hard against the Soviets for the better part of the war, changing sides only when the tides started to turn. The Communists, as all political parties, played only a minor role in King Michael's first wartime government, headed by General  Constantin Sănătescu , though their presence increased in the one led by  Nicolae Rădescu . This changed in March 1945, when Dr.  Petru Groza  of the  Ploughmen's Front , a party closely associated with the Communists, became prime minister. His government was broad-based on paper, including members of most major prewar parties except the fascist  Iron Guard . However, the Communists held the key ministries, and most of the ministers nominally representing non-Communist parties were, like Groza himself,  fellow travelers .


The King was not happy with the direction of this government, but when he attempted to force Groza's resignation by refusing to sign any legislation (a move known as "the royal strike"), Groza simply chose to enact laws without bothering to obtain Michael's signature. On 8 November 1945, King Michael's  name day , a pro-monarchy demonstration in front of the  Royal Palace  in  Bucharest  escalated into street fights between opposition supporters and soldiers, police and pro-government workers, resulting in dozens of killed and wounded; Soviet officers restrained Romanian soldiers and police from firing on civilians, and Soviet troops restored order. [ 15 ]


Despite the King's disapproval, the  first Groza government  brought  land reform  and women's  suffrage , the former gave the party widespread popularity among peasants from the South and East while the latter gained it the support of educated women. However, it also brought the beginnings of Soviet domination of Romania. In the  elections of 19 November 1946 , the Communist-led Bloc of Democratic Parties (BPD) claimed 84% of the votes. These elections were characterized by widespread irregularities, including intimidation, electoral fraud, and assassinations [ 16 ]  Archives confirm suspicions at the time that the election results were, in fact, falsified. [ 17 ]


After forming a government, the Communists moved to eliminate the role of the  centrist  parties; notably, the  National Peasants' Party  was accused of espionage after it became clear in 1947 that their leaders were meeting secretly with United States officials. A  show trial  of their leadership was then arranged, and they were put in jail. Other parties were forced to "merge" with the Communists. In 1946 and 1947, several high-ranking members in the pro- Axis  government were executed as war criminals, primarily for their involvement in  the Holocaust  and for attacking the Soviet Union. Antonescu himself was executed 1 June 1946. [ citation needed ]


By 1947, Romania remained the only monarchy in the  Eastern Bloc . On 30 December that year, Michael was at his  palace in Sinaia  when Groza and  Gheorghiu-Dej  summoned him back to Bucharest. They presented him with a pretyped instrument of abdication and demanded that he sign it.  With pro-Communist troops surrounding his palace and his telephone lines cut, Michael was forced to sign the document.  Hours later,  Parliament  abolished the monarchy and proclaimed Romania a  People's Republic . In February 1948, the Communists merged with the Social Democrats to form the  Romanian Workers' Party .  However, most independent-minded Socialists were soon pushed out. Meanwhile, many non-Communist politicians had either been imprisoned or fled into exile. [ citation needed ]


The communist regime was formalized with the  constitution of 13 April 1948 . The new constitution was a near-copy of the  1936 Soviet Constitution . While it guaranteed all manner of freedoms on paper, any association which had a "fascist or anti-democratic nature" was forbidden. This provision was broadly interpreted to ban any party not willing to do the Communists' bidding, and gave a legal façade to political repression.


Although the 1948 Constitution and its two successors provided a simulacrum of religious freedom, the regime in fact had a policy of promoting  Marxist–Leninist atheism , coupled with  religious persecution . The role of religious bodies was strictly limited to their houses of worship, and large public demonstrations were strictly forbidden. In 1948, in order to minimize the role of the clergy in society, the government adopted a decree nationalizing church property, including schools. [ 18 ]  The regime found wiser to use religion and make it subservient to the regime rather than to eradicate it. [ 19 ]  The communist government also disbanded the  Romanian Greek-Catholic Uniate Church , declaring its merger with the  Romanian Orthodox Church . [ 20 ]


The early years of communist rule in Romania were marked by repeated changes of course and by numerous arrests and imprisonments as factions contended for dominance. The country's resources were also drained by the Soviet's  SovRom  agreements, which facilitated shipping of Romanian goods to the Soviet Union at nominal prices.


On 11 June 1948, all banks and large businesses were  nationalized .


In the communist leadership, there appear to have been three important factions, all of them  Stalinist , differentiated more by their respective personal histories than by any deep political or philosophical differences. Later historiography claimed to identify the following factions: the "Muscovites", notably  Ana Pauker  and  Vasile Luca , who had spent the war in Moscow and the "Prison Communists", notably  Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej , who had been imprisoned  during the war.


Pauker and her allies were accused of deviating to the left and right. For instance, they were initially allied on not liquidating the rural bourgeoise, but later shifted their position. Ultimately, with  Joseph Stalin 's backing, Gheorghiu-Dej won out. Pauker was purged from the party (along with 192,000 other party members);  Pătrășcanu  was executed after a  show trial .


Gheorghiu-Dej , a committed Stalinist, was unhappy with the reforms in  Nikita Khrushchev 's Soviet Union after Stalin's death in 1953. He also balked at  Comecon 's goal of turning Romania into the "breadbasket" of the East Bloc, pursuing an economic plan based on  heavy industry  and energy production. The government closed Romania's largest labor camps, abandoned the  Danube–Black Sea Canal  project, halted rationing and hiked workers' wages. These factors combined to put Romania under Gheorghiu-Dej on a relatively independent and nationalist route.


Gheorghiu-Dej identified with  Stalinism , and the more liberal Soviet government threatened to undermine his authority. In an effort to reinforce his position, Gheorghiu-Dej pledged cooperation with any state, regardless of political-economic system, as long as it recognized international equality and did not interfere in other nations' domestic affairs. This policy led to a tightening of Romania's bonds with China, which also advocated national self-determination and opposed Soviet hegemonism.


Gheorghiu-Dej resigned as the party's general secretary in 1954 but retained the premiership; a four-member collective secretariat, including  Nicolae Ceaușescu , controlled the party for a year before Gheorghiu-Dej again took up the reins. Despite its new policy of international cooperation, Romania joined the Warsaw Treaty Organization ( Warsaw Pact ) in 1955, which entailed subordinating and integrating a portion of its military into the Soviet military machine. Romania later refused to allow Warsaw Pact maneuvers on its soil and limited its participation in military maneuvers elsewhere within the alliance.


In 1956, the Soviet premier,  Nikita Khrushchev , denounced Stalin in a  secret speech  before the Twentieth Congress of the  Communist Party of the Soviet Union  (CPSU). Gheorghiu-Dej and the leadership of the  Romanian Workers' Party  ( Partidul Muncitoresc Român, PMR ) were fully braced to weather de-Stalinization. Gheorghiu-Dej made Pauker, Luca and Georgescu scapegoats for the Romanian communist past excesses and claimed that the Romanian party had purged its Stalinist elements even before Stalin died in 1953. In all likelihood, Gheorghiu-Dej himself ordered the violence and coercion in the collectivization movements, since he did not rebuke those who perpetuated abuses. In fact, Pauker reprimanded any cadre who forced peasants, and once she was purged, the violence reappeared.


In October 1956, Poland's communist leaders refused to succumb to Soviet military threats to intervene in domestic political affairs and install a more obedient  politburo . A few weeks later, the Communist Party in Hungary virtually disintegrated during a popular revolution. Poland's  defiance  and Hungary's popular uprising inspired Romanian students to organize meetings in București, Cluj and Timișoara calling for liberty, better living conditions, and an end to Soviet domination. Under the pretext that the Hungarian uprising might incite his nation's own revolt, Gheorghiu-Dej took radical measures which meant persecutions and jailing of various "suspects", especially people of Hungarian origin. He also advocated swift Soviet intervention, and the Soviet Union reinforced its military presence in Romania, particularly along the Hungarian border. Although Romania's unrest proved fragmentary and controllable, Hungary's was not, so in November Moscow mounted a  bloody invasion  of Hungary.


After the Revolution of 1956, Gheorghiu-Dej worked closely with Hungary's new leader,  János Kádár , who was installed by the Soviet Union. Romania took Hungary's former premier (leader of the 1956 revolution)  Imre Nagy  into custody. He was jailed at Snagov, north of Bucharest. After a series of interrogations by Soviets and Romanian authorities, Nagy was returned to  Budapest  for trial and execution.


Romania's government also took measures to reduce public discontent by reducing investments in heavy industry, boosting output of consumer goods, decentralizing economic management, hiking wages and incentives, and instituting elements of worker management. The authorities eliminated compulsory deliveries for private farmers but reaccelerated the collectivization program in the mid-1950s, albeit less brutally than earlier. The government declared collectivization complete in 1962, when collective and state farms controlled 77% of the  arable land .


Despite Gheorghiu-Dej's claim that he had purged the Romanian party of Stalinists, he remained susceptible to attack for his obvious complicity in the party's activities from 1944 to 1953. At a plenary PMR meeting in March 1956,  Miron Constantinescu  and  Iosif Chișinevschi , both  Politburo  members and deputy premiers, criticized Gheorghiu-Dej. Constantinescu, who advocated a Khrushchev-style liberalization, posed a particular threat to Gheorghiu-Dej because he enjoyed good connections with the Moscow leadership. The PMR purged Constantinescu and Chișinevschi in 1957, denouncing both as Stalinists and charging them with complicity with Pauker. Afterwards, Gheorghiu-Dej faced no serious challenge to his leadership. Ceaușescu replaced Constantinescu as head of PMR cadres.


The cadres – anyone who was not a rank-and-file member of the Communist Party – were deemed the Party's vanguard, as they were entrusted with the power to construct a new social order and the forms of power that would sustain it. They still underwent extensive surveillance, which created an environment of competition and rivalry.


Once the Communist government became more entrenched, the number of arrests increased. The General Directorate of People's Security, or ' Securitate ', was established in 1948 with the stated aim "to defend the democratic conquest and to ensure the security of the Romanian People’s Republic against the plotting of internal and external enemies". [ 21 ]


All strata of society were involved, but particularly targeted were the prewar elites, such as intellectuals, clerics, teachers, former politicians (even if they had left-leaning views), and anybody who could potentially form the nucleus of anti-Communist resistance. According to figures, in the years between 1945 and 1964, 73,334 people were arrested. [ 21 ]


The existing prisons were filled with political prisoners, and a new system of forced labor camps and prisons was created, modeled after the Soviet Gulag. A decision to put into practice the century-old project for a  Danube–Black Sea Canal  served as a pretext for the erection of several labor camps, where numerous people died. Some of the most notorious prisons included  Sighet ,  Gherla ,  Pitești , and  Aiud , and forced labor camps were set up at lead mines and in the  Danube Delta .


One of the most notorious and infamous brainwashing experiments in Eastern Europe's history took place in Romania, in the political prison of Pitești, a small city about 120 km (75 mi) northwest of Bucharest. This prison is still infamous in Romania for the so-called 'Pitești experiment' or Pitești phenomenon, conducted there between 1949 and 1952. The  prison in Pitești  and the Pitești experiment aimed to 'reeducate' the (real or imagined) opponents of the regime. It involved psychological and physical torture of prisoners, and the submission of them to humiliating, degrading and dehumanizing acts. Tens of people died in this 'experiment', but its aim was not to kill the people, but to 'reeducate' them. Some of those who were thus 'reeducated' later became torturers themselves. Of those who survived Pitești, many either took their own lives or ended up in mental institutions. [ 22 ]


The Communist government also decided on the  deportation of peasants  from the  Banat  (south-west from Transylvania, at the border with Yugoslavia), started on 18 June 1951. About 45,000 people were forcibly "resettled" in lesser populated regions on the eastern plains ( Bărăgan ). The government decision was directed towards creating a  cordon sanitaire  against  Tito 's  Yugoslavia , but was also used as an intimidation tactic to force the remaining peasants to join collective farms. Most deportees lived in the Bărăgan for 5 years (until 1956), but some remained there permanently.