Cordali, Adriana. Book Review. “Deletant, Dennis i . Romania under Communism: Paradox and Degeneration. London and New York: Routledge, 2019. 622 pp.” Published in the collection “Routledge Histories of Central and Eastern Europe,” Dennis Deletant’s book Romania under Communism: Paradox and Degeneration is an exhaustive and diligently researched account of Romania’s history of the twentieth century, as well as a detailed chronicle of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s descent from utopia into dystopia. Although it is organized chronologically, in the second part the author arranges the arguments around compliance and dissent vis-à-vis the regime. In his profound analysis, he often brings up the same events and details in more than one context to illustrate more vividly various historical interpretations. The richness of detail and factual information makes it hard to select points that may be more noteworthy than others, and thus, it is up to the careful reader to discover and appreciate fully the experience offered by Deletant’s book Romania under Communism. From the first part of the book, the reader learns important facts about the period before the installation of communism. It is largely known that the Romanian Communist Party was in fact on the fringes of Romanian politics before the end of the Second World War, lacked popularity, and was seen as a tool of the Soviet Union. The Party became part of the Moscow-based Communist International (Comintern) after internal struggles between minimalist and maximalist factions in May 1921 and was banned on April 11, 1924 for twenty years (5). While many people may know about the events of the time, Deletant’s analyses of the various twentieth century regimes engender a better understanding of the flow of history. For the generations born in Romania under totalitarianism, as well as people in countries that have never experienced such a regime, chapter 2 explains King Michael’s coup and the circumstances surrounding this important historical moment. The young king acted with patriotism, at a time when Marshal Antonescu’s regime had narrow popular support but was loyal to Germany. King Michael knew that the lack of Allied presence in the Balkans left Romania undefended in case of German occupation, as shown in a letter by French Minister Henri Spitzmuller to Sir Hughes Knatchbull-Hugessen, the British Ambassador to Turkey (29). In general, the Communist Party’s role in the coup was exaggerated, and the Communists denied any credit to the King and the major historical parties for it. Deletant explains that the real events surrounding “the King’s crucial act in ordering the arrest of Marshal Antonescu on 23 August 1944, was largely unknown in Romania before the overthrow of the Communist regime” (42). This demystification is possible today due to accounts by contemporaries of Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu and Gheorghe Gheorgiu-Dej. Romania missed a number of opportunities to avoid the totalitarianism implemented by Soviet Russia. Chapter 3, “The Application of the Totalitarian Blueprint,” offers the necessary insight into the gradual yet violent installation of communism in post-war Romania. The author documents the moments when governments were formed and dissolved, when the King was forced by M. Vyshinsky to accept the Petru Groza government of March 6, 1945. Clark Kerr, the