Social Democratic Workers' Party of Romania

The history of socialism in Romania begins in 1834, when an aristocrat named Teodor Diamant (1810-1841) established a utopian socialist colony based on the ideas of French writer Charles Fourier in the town of Scăieni, located north of Bucharest.[1] This experiment in agricultural communitarianism was terminated in 1836.[1]

During the decade of the 1870s, socialist ideas again began to gain attention in Romania, particularly among certain university students in Bucharest.[1] Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea (1855-1920) is the best remembered among these early advocates of Marxist ideas in Romania.[1]

In 1893 the PSDMR was established in an effort to unite various radical individuals in a unitary political organization.[1]

The PSDMR was particularly strong in the city of Bucharest and it grew to about 6,000 members by 1897.[1]

In February 1900 the PSDMR split between a reformist wing that sought to unite all pro-democracy forces, socialist and non-socialist, in a single political party and a radical wing that sought to continue the political fight not just for political democracy but also for the cause of socialist economy.[1] The reform wing was absorbed into the ranks of the National Liberal Party and continued their political efforts in that organization.

After about five years of a weak underground existence, the radical wing of the PSDMR reemerged as the Socialist Union of Romania (Uniunea Socialistă din România), working closely with the emerging trade union movement in Bucharest.[1]

In February 1910 the Socialist Union of Romania determined to establish a new national political organization known as the Romanian Social Democratic Party (PSDR) and dissolved itself to join the ranks of that new organization.[1]