1. Petru Groza was a Romanian politician, best known as the first Prime Minister of the Communist Party-dominated government under Soviet occupation during the early stages of the Communist regime in Romania, and later as the President of the Presidium of the Great National Assembly from 1952 until his death in 1958.
In 1933, Petru Groza founded a left-wing Agrarian organization known as the Ploughmen's Front.
Petru Groza was afforded a variety of opportunities in his youth and early career to establish connections and a degree of notoriety, which would later prove essential in his political career.
Petru Groza attended primary school in his native village, then in Kastely and Lugos in the Banat.
Petru Groza obtained a doctorate from the latter institution in 1907.
From 1919 to 1927, for example, Petru Groza obtained a position as a deputy in Synod and Congress of the Romanian Orthodox Church.
Petru Groza was first considered by the Communist Lucretiu Patrascanu for the post of Premier in October 1944.
Petru Groza gave key portfolios such as defence, justice, and the interior to the Communists.
Accordingly, Petru Groza maintained the illusion of a coalition government, appointing members of diverse political organizations to his cabinet and formulating his government's short-term goals in broad, non-ideological terms.
Petru Groza promised that the rights of each ethnic group within the restored territory would be protected, while Joseph Stalin declared that the previous government under Radescu had permitted such a large degree of sabotage and terrorism in the region that it would have been impossible to deliver the territory to the Romanians.
Petru Groza continued to improve the image of his own government while strengthening the position of the Communist Party with a series of political reforms.
Petru Groza proceeded to eliminate any antagonistic elements in the government administration and, in the newly acquired Transylvanian territory, removed three city prefects, including that of the region's capital, Cluj.
Petru Groza promised a series of land reform programs to benefit military personnel, which would confiscate and subsequently redistribute all properties in excess of 125 acres in addition to all the property of traitors, absentees, and all who collaborated with the wartime Romanian government, the Hungarian occupiers during Miklos Horthy and Ferenc Szalasi's regimes, and Nazi Germany.
Petru Groza soon continued this repression by limiting the number of political parties allowed within the state.
Basically, the decisions in Moscow represented the victory of the Soviet point of view, the government of Petru Groza being recognized by the USA and Great Britain on 5 February 1946.
Petru Groza flatly rejected the request, and relations between the two figures remained tense over the next few years, with Petru Groza and the King differing on the prosecution of war criminals and in the awarding of honorary Romanian citizenship to Stalin in August 1947.
Early on the morning of 30 December 1947, Petru Groza summoned Michael back to Bucharest, ostensibly "to discuss important matters"; the king had been preparing for a New Year's party at Peles Castle in Sinaia.
When Michael arrived, Petru Groza presented the king with a pretyped instrument of abdication and demanded that Michael sign it.
In 15 minutes Petru Groza arrived, who was accompanied by Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej.
Petru Groza announced the act of abdication and a government proclamation was issued to the country.
Petru Groza kept his mandate as prime minister until 2 June 1952.
Petru Groza remained in this position until the end of his life.
On 11 June 1948, the Petru Groza government passed the law for the nationalization of industry.
Old and sick, Petru Groza was forced to accept, on 7 February 1953, the dissolution of the Plowers' Front, a competitor and thorn in the side of the communists.
Petru Groza was sitting on a kind of shack, slightly higher than the floor.
Petru Groza stepped down as premier in 1952, and was succeeded by Gheorghiu-Dej.
Petru Groza was then named president of the Presidium of the Great National Assembly, a post he held until 1958, when he died from complications following a stomach operation.
Petru Groza was buried at Ghencea Cemetery; his remains were later moved to the Carol Park Mausoleum, and finally to the cemetery in his native village, Bacia.
The monument, designed by sculptor Constantin Baraschi, was removed in 1990, and replaced in 1999 by a statue of Trajan; in 2007, Petru Groza's statue was transported to Bacia.