Communism has cast a long shadow over Romania. The passage of little over a quarter of a century since the overthrow in December 1989 of Romania’s last Communist leader, Nicolae Ceaușescu, offers a symbolic standpoint from which to penetrate that shadow and to throw light upon the entire period of Communist rule in the country. An appropriate point of departure is the observation that Romania’s trajectory as a Communist state within the Soviet bloc was unlike that of any other. That trajectory has its origins in the social structures, attitudes and policies in the pre-Communist period. The course of that trajectory is the subject of this inquiry.

Yosef Govrin was the Israeli Ambassador to Romania in the twilight of the communist era. Govrin describes Israeli-Romanian relations as he observed them from 1985 to 1989 after which the leader of Romania was deposed.

Yosef Govrin was the Israeli Ambassador to Romania in the twilight of the communist era. Govrin describes Israeli-Romanian relations as he observed them from 1985 to 1989 after which the leader of Romania was deposed.