Although there is a rich literature on the protests in 1956 in Poland and Hungary against their Communist regimes, little has appeared in English about the impact of those protests in Romania. Corina Snitar has admirably filled that void with this study. Her consultation and close reading of relevant primary and secondary sources in English and Romanian, combined with her use of previously unpublished British and U.S. diplomatic reports, makes this an original and authoritative contribution to an under-researched topic in Romanian Cold War history.
Until February 1956, to be known as a “Stalinist” was the highest accolade in the Soviet Union and in its East European allied states. Their leaders had all risen to power and been promoted because of their declared loyalty to Joseph Stalin. Then, on the night of 25 February 1956, Nikita Khrushchev turned this ascription on its head. Khrushchev's speech in closed session at the...