The Union of Democratic Priests in Romania was a subordinate pro-Communist organisation created by the Romanian Communist Party in 1944 as part of the national front strategy imposed by the Soviets in occupied Eastern Europe. Its aim was to rally Romanian Orthodox clergy who, because of their strong traditional anti-communism, would not otherwise be willing to join the RCP or other pre-existing subordinate organisations. The RPC needed to “re-educate” and “politically mobilise” the priests rather than antagonise them until it was fully in power. Although the UDPR is mentioned in many studies of the establishment of the Communist regime in Romania (especially its first leader, Fr. Constantin Burducea, and its most famous manifestation, the General Congress of Priests, 16 and 17 October 1945), little is known about it. This dearth of information is partly because of the lack of historical evidence for other aspects of the UDPR’s existence and partly because historians probably regard the UDPR as inconclusive and uninteresting at a time of transition when a whole world was collapsing, and other events/political formations seemed more appealing. Be that as it may, there are still interesting aspects to be discovered about the UDPR, which we try to address in this study and which ultimately help us to better understand the changes in the relationship between church and state that began at that time and, more broadly, the turbulent period between 1944 and 1948. Based on Romanian and Soviet archival documents, newspapers of the time and published diaries, this study aims to shed light on some lesser-known aspects, such as the UDPR’s relationship with other pro-Communist organisations and with the ministry for religious denominations, the reason why the Soviets refused to send a delegation to the General Congress of Priests, the UDPR’s official newspaper and the involvement of two of its members (Constantin Burducea and Constantin Dolea) in the repression, namely in the first arrest of Father Arsenie Boca in 1945.

[1] A screen-type political alliance, formed on 12 October 1944 and dominated by the CP, whose aim was to see the Communists seize power. In the 1946 campaign, a new alliance called the Democratic Party Bloc replaced the NDF. Gheorghe Onișoru, “Frontul Național Democrat” [National Democratic Front], in Dan Cătănuș, ed., România 1945–1989. Enciclopedia regimului comunist. Instituții de partid, de stat, obștești și corporatiste [Romania 1945–1989. Encyclopaedia of the Communist Regime. Party, State, Public and Corporate Institutions] (București: Institutul Național pentru Studiul Totalitarismului, 2012), 276–78.

[2] Ioan Scurtu, ed., România. Viața politică în documente. 1945 [Romania. Political life in documents. 1945] (București: Arhivele Naționale ale României, 1994), 137.

[3] Arhivele Naționale ale României (hereafter NAR) [National Archives of Romania], CC of the RCP Fund, Administrative-Political Section, file no. 50/1945, 2.

[4] See Adrian Cioroianu, “Un stalinist de catifea: prof. Petre Constantinescu-Iași – militant pro-comunist, abonat la trenurile europene, inculpat într-un proces politic, propagandist al guvernului Petru Groza și pensionar al lui Nicolae Ceaușescu” [A velvet Stalinist: Prof. Petre Constantinescu-Iași - pro-Communist militant, subscriber to the European trains, defendant in a political trial, propagandist of the Petru Groza government and pensioner of Nicolae Ceaușescu], in Adrian Cioroianu, ed., Comuniști înainte de comunism. Procese și condamnări ale ilegaliștilor din România [Communists before Communism. Processes and Convictions of Illegalists in Romania] (București: Editura Universității București, 2014), 125–68.

[5] NAR, Russian Xerographs Collection, Package XIII, file no. 7, 2.

[6] Ibid.

[7] The installation of this first Communist government was more than a change of government – it was a change of regime, a regime that would last for forty-five years in Romania. For more details and interpretations of the events of 6 March 1945, see Florin Constantiniu, O istorie sinceră a poporului român [An Honest History of the Romanian People] (București: Univers Enciclopedic, 2011), 443–49.

[8] NAR, CC of the RCP Fund, Administrative-Political Section, file no. 76/1949, Stanciu Stoian, “Situation of the Religious Denominations in Romania. Their Internal and External Political Position”, 11.

[9] Ibid.

[10] NAR, Direcția Generală a Poliției (hereafter DGP) Fund, file no. 54/1945, 189.

[11] In August 1945, to protest against the abuses of a government not recognised by the Western powers, King Michael I broke off all relations with it and refused to sign any further acts presented to him by Communist ministers.

[12] Constantiniu, O istorie sinceră, 449.

[13] Cristian Vasile, Biserica Ortodoxă Română în primul deceniu comunist [The Romanian Orthodox Church in the First Decade of Communism] (București, Curtea Veche, 2005), 193.

[14] М. V. Shkarovsky, “Православная Румынская Церковь в 1918–1950 годах” [The Orthodox Romanian Church in the Years 1918–1950] Вестникцерковной истории no. 1/2 (2011): 201.

[15] See Constantiniu, O istorie sinceră, 444–445.

[16] Н. А. Кривовой, ed., Письма Патриарха Алексия I в Совет по делам Русской Православной Церкви при Совете народных комиссаров - Совете министров СССР. 1945–1970 гг. [N. A. Kyrovoy, ed., Letters of Patriarch Alexei I to the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church under the Council of People’s Commissars - Council of Ministers of the USSR. 1945–1970] (Moskva: ROSSPEN, 2009), vol 1, 79, n. 2.

[17] Virgiliu Țârău, Alegeri fără opțiune. Primele scrutinuri parlamentare din Centrul și Estul Europei după cel de-al Doilea Război Mondial [Elections without Options. The First Parliamentary Elections in Central and Eastern Europe after the Second World War] (Cluj-Napoca: Eikon, 2005), 459; Constantiniu, O istorie sinceră, 452–53.

[18] Dudu Velicu, Biserica Ortodoxă în perioada sovietizării. Însemnări zilnice, vol. 1, 1945–1947 [The Orthodox Church in the Period of Sovietisation. Daily Notes, vol. 1, 1945–1947] (București: Arhivele Naționale ale României, 2004), 59.

[19] Renașterea XXIV, no. 11–12 (Craiova: November-December 1945): 426–427.

[20] Ibid., 427–428.

[21] See for more details on this subject Ana-Maria Iancu (Rădulescu), Relațiile Bisericii Ortodoxe Române cu Statul. Studiu de caz: Mitropolia Olteniei (1939–1964) [Romanian Orthodox Church – State Relations. A Case Study: The Metropolis of Oltenia (1939–1964)] (Craiova: Editura Mitropoliei Olteniei, 2023).

[22] Arhiva Consiliului Național pentru Studierea Arhivelor Securității (hereafter ANCSSA) [Archive of the National Council for the Study of Securitate Archives], Informative Fund, file no. 361287.

[23] Înainte, organul Comitetului Regional din Oltenia al Partidului Comunist din România, redactor responsabil Mihail Roșianu [Forward, organ of the Romanian Communist Party's Oltenia Regional Committee, editor-in-chief Mihail Roșianu] III, no. 417 (9 March 1946).

[24] ANCSSA, Network Fund, file no. 215948, 3.

[25] Renașterea, XXIV, no. 7–8 (July-Aug. 1945), 348.

[26] Vasile, Biserica Ortodoxă Română, 64–65.

[27] Власть и церковь в Восточной Европе. 1944–1953. Документы российских архивов в 2 двух томах., vol. 1 1944–1948 [Power and Church in Eastern Europe. 1944–1953. Documents of Russian Archives in 2 volumes, vol. 1, 1944–1948] (Moskva: ROSSPEN, 2009), 241–45.

[28] NAR, DGP Fund, file no. 54/1945, 211.

[29] Due to the royal strike, when King Michael refused to sign any ministerial appointments, Constantin Burducea was not officially removed from his post until March 1946. Afterwards, the ministry for religious denominations operated on an interim basis, initially under the ad interim minister of arts, Mihail Ralea, from 8 March 1946, and later under the president of the Council of Ministers, Petru Groza, until November 1946.

[30] NAR, DGP Fund, file no. 54/1945, 211, 208.

[31] Ibid., 204.

[32] Ibid.,188.

[33] He was regarded as a protégé of the influential Communist politician Emil Bodnăraș, Moscow’s henchman, and of Archbishop Emilian Antal, who was rumoured at the time to have promoted him to the ministry for religious denominations despite his political background. See Vasile, Biserica Ortodoxă Română, 87–88; Velicu, Biserica Ortodoxă, vol. 1, 125, 137, 247.

[34] NAR, DGP Fund, file no. 54/1945, 189.

[35] Ibid., 204.

[36] NAR, CC of the RCP Fund, Administrative-Political Section, file no. 76/1949, 11.

[37] Lumina Creștină I, no. 13–16 (15 February 1947).

[38] Ibid.

[39] For example, events such as the 1946 election campaign, the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of the Romanian People’s Republic on 30 December 1947, as well as the 1948 elections to the Great National Constituent Assembly.

[40] President of the UDPR Rotunda section in Romanați (today Olt county), he gained some notoriety between 1944 and 1948 and was a member of the Ploughmen’s Front. For a short biography, see Ana-Maria Rădulescu, Slujitori ai Bisericii din Olt și Romanați, prigoniți în timpul regimului comunist [Church Servants from Olt and Romanați, imprisoned during the Communist regime] (Slatina: Editura Episcopiei Slatinei și Romanaților, 2013), 314.

[41] The latter two are the authors of perhaps the most virulent articles published in Lumina Creștină, on 15 August 1946 and 28 March 1948, in which they ‘unmask’ the ‘reactionaryism’ and ‘pro-imperialism’ of the Catholic denominations in Romania, using particularly aggressive language with a virulence that matches that of the secular Communist press, and in which they directly or indirectly refer to the speeches on the subject made by Communist leader Vasile Luca.

[42] According to his diary, he enjoyed the many occasions when his old articles were reprinted in the Communist or pro-Communist press, in order to earn the money needed to live comfortably in difficult times. Gala Galaction, Jurnal 1947–1952. Pagini inedite necenzurate [Diary 1947–1952. Uncensored unpublished pages] (București: Vestala, 2006).

[43] He is the author of some interesting articles on theological subjects and on the presence of the church in public life, including a self-critical treatment of the errors of contemporary Romanian theology. These articles have not yet entirely lost their relevance, such as the one entitled ‘The Romanian Intellectual and Religion’, published in Lumina Creștină I, no. 3–4 (15 August 1946), 3. In this article, he criticises a general category of intellectuals who believe that ‘religion is a phenomenon of the past, therefore anachronistic, living today by virtue of inertia, destined to be replaced in the more or less near future by values of a different kind’. In fact, anyone who can read between the lines, as the clergy of the time probably did, can discern the criticism of the ‘doctrinaires of materialism’. It was a rather courageous criticism at the time and in the publication in question, albeit indirect, and it echoed a much more radical criticism made by another member of the UDPR, the future great preacher and confessor Fr. Constantin Galeriu, then priest in the commune of Podul Văleni, county of Prahova, from a leaflet (Our Mission) published in September 1945 under the auspices of the UDPR, Prahova Section.

[44] Fr. I. Gagiu, “Human rehabilitation,” Lumina Creștină I, no. 3–4 (15 August 1946): 3–4.

[45] Fr. Vasile Gregorian, “Missionary activity of theological students,” Lumina Creștină I, no. 3–4 (15 August 1946): 6–7.

[46] Lumina Creștină I, no. 3–4 (15 August 1946): 3.

[47] NAR, CC of the RCP Fund, Administrative-Political Section, file no. 50/1945, 2 v.

[48] Ibid., DGP Fund, file no. 54/1945, 203.

[49] Ibid., 204.

[50] Ibid., CC of the RCP Fund, Administrative-Political Section, file no. 50/1945, 2 v.

[51] Ibid., Partidul Național al Poporului (hereafter NPP) Fund, file no. 17, 14.

[52] Ibid., Presidency of the Council of Ministers Fund, Petru Groza Cabinet, file no. 17/1948, 93.

[53] Ibid., CC of the RPC Fund, Administrative-Political Section, file no. 76/1949, Stanciu Stoian, “Situation of the Religious Denominations in Romania: Their Internal and External Political Position”, 11.

[54] Velicu, Biserica Ortodoxă, vol. 1, 17–19.

[55] NAR, CC of the PCR Fund, Administrative-Political Section, file no. 76/1949, Stanciu Stoian, “Situation of the Religious Denominations in Romania. Their Internal and External Political Position”, 12–14.

[56] Ibid., DGP Fund, file no. 54/1945, 209.

[57] Velicu, Biserica Ortodoxă, vol. 1, 159.

[58] NAR, CC of the PCR Fund, Administrative-Political Section, file no. 76/1949, Stanciu Stoian, “Situation of the Religious Denominations in Romania: Their Internal and External Political Position”, 11.

[59] In an undated document that is identifiable from the events it mentions as early 1946. NAR, CC of the PCR Fund, Administrative-Political Section, file no. 50/1945, 1–2v.

[60] Ibid., 2v.

[61] Ibid., DGP Fund, file no. 54/1945, 209.

[62] Ibid., CC of the PCR Fund, Administrative-Political Section, file no. 76/1949, Stanciu Stoian, “Situation of the Religious Denominations in Romania. Their Internal and External Political Position”, 12.

[63] Ibid., DGP Fund, file no. 54/1945, 168.

[64] Власть и церковь в Восточной Европе. 1944–1953. Документы российских архивов в 2 двух томах, vol. 1 1944–1948 [Power and Church in Eastern Europe. 1944–1953. Documents of Russian Archives in 2 volumes, vol. 1, 1944–1948] (Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2009), 11.

[65] Mihail Vitalievici Șkarovski, “Biserica Ortodoxă Rusă în secolul XX” [The Russian Orthodox Church in the 20th century], in Christine Chaillot, ed., Biserica Ortodoxă din Europa de Est în secolul XX, [The Orthodox Church in Eastern Europe in the 20th century] (București: Humanitas, 2011), 443–45.

[66] Marcel Varga, “Judeţul Botoșşani în primele luni ale ocupaţiei sovietice. Memoriile inedite ale prefectului Dimitrie Russu (7 aprilie–17 august 1944)” [Botoșani County in the First Months of the Soviet Occupation. Unpublished Memoirs of Prefect Dimitrie Russu (7 April–17 August 1944)], Archiva Moldaviae III (2011): 337–38.

[67] Constantiniu, O istorie sinceră, 435.