In 1945, the Soviet Union all but forced King Michael to appoint
Petru Groza as
Prime Minister. Soviet emissary
Andrei Vyshinsky had warned the king that he would be placing Romania's very existence at risk unless he complied. The following year, Groza's pro-Communist government oversaw an
election that resulted in a parliament in which the Communist-dominated Bloc of Democratic Parties won over four-fifths of the seats (over 91 percent counting the BPD's allies). The election was far from free; Communist unions hindered delivery of opposition newspapers, and Communist operatives harassed opposition workers. Over the next two years, the Communists, with Groza's help, consolidated their hold on the country. The turning point came in the second half of 1947, when the government initiated a campaign of harsh repression against the remaining opposition parties. The
National Peasants' Party and
National Liberal Party, the two largest opposition parties, were dissolved by the government. Hours later, the Communist-dominated parliament abolished the monarchy and proclaimed Romania a "people's republic". A month before the elections, the Communists and part of the Social Democrats merged to form the Romanian Workers' Party (PMR). However, Communists retained key posts in the merged party, and used the principle of
democratic centralism to ensure that the Social Democratic half complied with the new order. The Social Democrats were gradually pushed out altogether, leaving the PMR as a renamed and enlarged PCR. At the same time, the National Democratic Front, an electoral alliance dominated by the PMR, was reorganized as the People's Democratic Front. The Front rapidly took on a character similar to other "
national fronts" in the emerging Soviet bloc. The front's minor parties became completely subservient to the PMR, and had to accept the PMR's "
leading role" as a condition of their continued existence. Despite this, Groza, leader of one of those minor parties, the
Ploughmen's Front, remained prime minister. ==Results==