The British Labour Party and communist Romania

The British Labour Party is not normally associated with Eastern Europe, and even less so with Romania. However, as archival sources show, after the Second World War, Britain’s governing party did place hopes in Romanian social democracy, which were dashed by the onset of the Cold War. With détente, and its own return to power, Labour would endeavour to cultivate political and economic exchanges with the regime in Bucharest, culminating in Ceaușescu’s State Visit of 1978. However, the roads to socialism followed by British Labour and Romanian communists diverged considerably. More importantly, their relations were over-determined by Cold War realities.