Editing Ion Antonescu (section)

===Political underground===
[[File:N. Ceaușescu și alți deținuți politici în lagărul de la Tg. jiu.jpg|thumb|320px|[[Political prisoner]]s of the Antonescu regime, photographed in [[Târgu Jiu]] camp, 1943. [[Nicolae Ceaușescu]], future leader of [[Communist Romania]], is second from left]]
Organized [[resistance movement]]s in Antonescu's Romania were comparatively small-scale and marginal. In addition to a [[Zionism|Zionist]] underground which aided Jews to pass through or flee the country,<ref>Deletant, pp. 216–219, 225–229, 337–339; Oldson, pp. 7–8; Penkower, p. 148sqq</ref> the regime was confronted with local political movements of contrasting shades. One of them comprised [[far left]] and [[left-wing]] elements, which Antonescu's rise to power had caught in an unusual position. The minor [[Romanian Communist Party]], outlawed since the rule of [[Ferdinand I of Romania|Ferdinand I]] for its [[Comintern]]ist national policies, had been rendered virtually inactive by the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact|German-Soviet non-aggression pact]]. Once reanimated by [[Operation Barbarossa]], the PCR was unable to create an actual [[Resistance during World War II|armed resistance movement]], although it was able to coordinate the policies of several other small leftist groups.<ref>''Final Report'', p. 324; Cioroianu, pp. 44–45, 55, 126–132, 151–154; Deletant, pp. 238–239, 344; Gella, p. 172. In addition to the PCR, these included the [[Ploughmen's Front]] and the Socialist Peasants' Party (Cioroianu, pp. 55, 126–127, 132, 151–154).</ref> Speaking shortly before the invasion of the Soviet Union, and adopting the "[[Jewish Bolshevism]]" position, Antonescu ordered authorities to compile lists comprising "the names of all Jewish and communist agents", who were to be kept under close surveillance.<ref>''Final Report'', pp. 65, 243; Browning, p. 276</ref> Among people arrested on suspicion of communism, Jews were sent to Transnistrian sites such as [[Vapniarka]] and [[Rîbnița]], while others were interned in regular facilities such as those in [[Caransebeș]] and [[Târgu Jiu]].<ref>''Final Report'', pp. 104–105, 143; Cioroianu, pp. 42–52, 132–134; Deletant, pp. 116, 123, 196–198, 219, 225, 238–239, 254, 303, 311, 332–333, 335–336, 340, 343–344</ref> In all, some 2,000 Jewish Romanian deportees to the region had been accused of [[political crime]]s (the category also included those who had tried to escape forced labour).<ref>''Final Report'', p. 143; Ioanid, p. 233</ref> According to one estimate, people held on charges of being communists accounted for just under 2,000 people, of whom some 1,200 were jailed in Romania proper.<ref>Deletant, pp. 72, 303, 332</ref> [[Capital punishment in Romania|Capital punishment]] was used against various [[Partisan (military)|partisan]]-like activists,<ref>Frankowski, p. 217. According to Deletant (p. 72), 72 communists believed to be Soviet agents or partisans were executed in 1940–1944, from a total of 313 PCR members sentenced to death. The rest had their sentences commuted.</ref> while the vast majority of communist prisoners in Rîbnița were massacred in March 1944.<ref>''Final Report'', p. 105; Deletant, p. 225</ref> At the other end of the political spectrum, after the [[Legionnaires' rebellion and Bucharest pogrom|Legionary Rebellion]] and the [[Iron Guard]]'s decapitation, many Legionaries who opposed the regime, and whom Antonescu himself believed were "communists in [Legionary] green shirts",<ref name=d72/> were killed or imprisoned.<ref>''Final Report'', pp. 62–63; Achim, p. 169; Deletant, pp. 71–72, 302–303, 311; Griffin (1993), p. 127; Laqueur, p. 205; Ornea, pp. 219, 346; Veiga, pp. 299, 313. Antonescu notably ordered the execution of 7 out of 20 Guardists sentenced to death for their roles in the [[Jilava Massacre]] (Deletant, p. 302).</ref> An Iron Guardist underground was nevertheless formed locally, and probably numbered in thousands.<ref name=rg93127/> Some of Antonescu's [[political prisoner]]s from both camps were given a chance to redeem themselves by joining units on the Eastern Front.<ref>They included the Iron Guardist [[Haig Acterian]] (Ornea, p. 219) and, possibly, the communist [[Ion Gheorghe Maurer]] (Cioroianu, p. 134).</ref>

Although repressed, divided and weak, the PCR capitalized on the Soviet victories, being integrated into the mainstream opposition. At the same time, a "prison faction" emerged around [[Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej]], opposing both the formal leadership and the so-called "Muscovite" communists who had taken refuge in the Soviet Union before the war.<ref>Cioroianu, pp. 43–46, 48–52; Deletant, pp. 332, 344; Roper, pp. 14–16</ref> While maneuvering for control within the PCR during and after 1944, "prison" communists destroyed a third group, formed around the PCR's nominal leader [[Ștefan Foriș]] (whom they kidnapped and eventually killed).<ref>Cioroianu, pp. 46, 48–49, 62, 134</ref> The PCR leadership was still suffering from a crisis of legitimacy after beginning talks with the larger parties.<ref>Deletant, pp. 343–344; Gella, p. 172; Roper, pp. 13–16</ref> The Soviets and "Muscovite" communists campaigned among Romanian [[Prisoner of war|prisoners of war]] in order to have them switch sides in the war, and eventually managed to set up the [[Tudor Vladimirescu Division]].<ref>Cioroianu, pp. 128, 134–135, 140, 171, 265; Gella, p. 172; Roper, pp. 14–15</ref>