ARHIVELE OLTENIEI - Universitatea din Craiova

94Cezar AvramAccording to the requirements of legitimacy, the juridical support wasprovided by the Constitution of 1948. The Constitution of 1948 2 , debated for thefirst time on April 9 and then ratified unanimously on the 13 th April, was the firstfundamental law, made after the model Soviet Constitution of that time. Themain principles expressed in its 10 titles and 105 articles were “popularsovereignty”, “popular legality”, the unified control of the state, democraticcentralism, popular representation, and the material guarantee of civil rights.Romania became a “popular republic”, a “popular, united and sovereign”state (art. 1, title 1), that came into being as a result of the “first against fascismand imperialism led by the people and especially by the working class” (art. 2 title1). In the Constitution there were also stipulated three types of property:a) state property as “the goods to be used freely by all people”,b) property of the “cooperative organizations”,c) private property (art. 5, tile 2).The new Constitution stated that the “common goods of the peoples” werethe “material base for economic development and nation independence” thatprivate property had “special protection” that the land belongs to those who workit, and that the state protect de rural cooperative organizations to create their ownagricultural enterprises (art. 7, 8, 9, title 2). In article 11, title 2, the Constitutionstates that “when national matters are at stake, the private means of production,banks and insurance societies can become state property, goods of people”, underthe legal conditions of the time. This represented the juridical foundation of thenationalization of the main means of production. Work was proclaimed “eachcitizen’s duty” and the state offered protection to the working class, preventingthem fro being exploited and increasing their living standard (art. 12, 13, title 2).This would give legitimacy to establishing of terror against all those who were infavor of private property, preserving tradition and who were against the simulatedinternationalism of Stalin, “the great friend of peoples”.The Constitution of 1952 3 was the essential juridical base of theexpropriations and nationalizations that took place in the 50s and also a veryimportant document that justified all the responsible and irresponsible acts of thenew leaders in their hunt for “enemies of the people”. The Constitution of thesocialist construction proclaimed Romania “a workmen’s state” that came intobeing as a result of the historical victory of the Soviet Union over Germanfascism and the freedom brought about by the glorious Soviet Army. Thisfreedom gave by working people, led by the Communist Party, “the power tooverthrow the exploiters and to build the state of popular democracy”. The newfundamental law stated the existence of three socio-economic sectors; a) the2 Monitorul Oficial, no. 87 bis, of April 13, 1948.3 Buletinul Oficial, no. 1 of September 27, 1952 (The project was published on June 18an voted by MAN on September 24, 1952); the Constitution was modified on January 29, 1953(art. 43 and 50), January 26, 1954 (art. 43 and 50), April 21, 1954 (art. 54), June 2, 1955 (art. 43and 50), April 4, 1956 (art. 18, 19, 50), March 28, 1957 (art. 43, 56 were modified while art. 50, 59and 60 were annulled, and finally, March 25, 1961 (chapter 3, art. 43, 44, 75).