"AUTODIZOLVAREA" FRONTULUI PLUGARILOR (1953)
THE SELF-DISSOLUTION” OF THE PLOUGHMEN FRONT (1953)

Summary/Abstract: The Ploughmen Front was just from its beginning (1933) one of the most obedient political organization to The Romanian Comunist Party, this attitude being emphasized in the years that followed The Second World War. This organization was probably the most loyal to the communists in the attempt of taking over the power in the state. The communists saw and had in the Ploughmen Front the most efficient antidote against the national peasantry members in the villages, where the party had a great influence. The Ploughmen Front was an organization artificially developed after the war, especially to counteract the National Peasantry Party in the rural areas. After the communist party regime had become official, its interest in maintaining The Ploughmen Front disappeared. The less and less important attributions which this organization was having, eventually came to the decision of self-dissolution, but that was in fact, a dissolution decided and put in practice by the communists. In 1952 the role and the attributions of the Ploughmen Front totally disappeared. In fact, this organization was no longer useful because the Romanian Workers Party (Labor Party) had already created more efficient structures in the territory, such as the People’s Councils and it no longer needed the ploughmen’s party structures. Things became more clearly on the 24th of September1952, when a new constitution of the Popular Republic of Romania was adopted. This new constitution said that the Romanian Workers Party was „the leading force both for the working class organizations and for the state bodies and institutions”.Under these circumstances it was obvious that the Ploughmen Front had become an obsolete organization in spite of the fact that Mr. Petru Groza was still having an important role in the state. The so-called „self dissolution” was decided on the 7th of February 1953 during a meeting of the leaders of the Ploughmen Front. The Central Committee of the Ploughmen Front „carefully” presented the reasons of the dissolution to the county committees. The meetings for dissolutions took place in a „healthy” atmosphere in departments and counties and all the members unanimously voted for it. But in the village organizations there was an attitude of dissatisfaction and surprise. And all these because the Front was seen as a communist organization. The proper process of the self-dissolution of the Ploughmen Front lasted until the 22nd of March 1953, when the last issue of its newspaper was printed. All the properties which belonged to the organizations of the Ploughmen Front in the departments and counties were given to the communist party husbandry. All the reference archives, the library and all the materials kept in departments and counties were handed over, too. In the villages, all the materials such as subscription stamps, booklets, party membership cards were handed over to the party department organizations. In case that the village organiz

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