Florin-Răzvan MIHAI, National Institute for the Study of Totalitarianism, Romanian Academy
THE SOVIET COMMUNIST PARTY, ITS EASTERN SATELLITES AND THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNIST MOVEMENT.
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE BULGARIAN AND ROMANIAN COMMUNIST PARTIES (1964-1989)
Etudes balkaniques (Sofia) 2017 N 4
Abstract: After the end of the Second World War, in Romania and Bulgaria there were communist regimes loyal to the Soviet Union and to the General Secretary of the CPSU, Joseph Stalin, so that premises were in place for “relations of friendship and cooperation between the two parties and nations” in the name of “the unity of the socialist countries and of the communist movement.” And this was actually true until the mid-1960s, when the policy of the Romanian Communist Party towards the USSR, the hegemonic ruler of this political system, began to change. Without ever getting into an open conflict, the Romanian-Bulgarian ties were affected by the situation, and as Romania continued its autonomous evolution amid the other satellite-countries, disputes became more and more common. This study endeavours to discuss the manner in which the positioning of both countries within the international communist movement and vis-à-vis the Soviet regime and its decisions influenced the relationships between the two countries.
Keywords: International Relations, Hegemony оf USSR, Balkans Geopolitics, International Communist Movement, Satellite-Countries in Communist Political System