Nationalization in Romania

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The nationalization of the means of production was a measure taken by Romania’s new Communist authorities in order to lay the foundation of socialism. The act that allowed this measure to take place was Law 119, adopted by the Great National Assembly on June 11, 1948. Article 1 decreed subject to nationalization “all the wealth of the soil not in the property of the State at the time of entry into force of the Constitution of the Romanian People’s Republic, as well as individual enterprises, societies of any type and private industrial, bank, insurance, mining, transport and telecommunications associations”. Nationalized (in fact confiscated without any form of compensation) were 8,894 industrial, mining, transport, banking and insurance companies, followed in November 1948 by 383 cinemas and medical-sanitary facilities. By 1950, the same fate had befallen chemical enterprises, pharmacies and remaining economic entities, including a significant number of homes. The nationalization begun in 1948, together with the collectivization of agriculture (1949-62), were decisive in undoing the capitalist economy and establishing a socialist economy based on state-owned or cooperative property.