The latter had defined itself as a spontaneous movement of resistance to the dictatorial regime of Ion Antonescu, but was largely known as a front for the illegal Romanian Communist Party (PCdR, later PCR).

The UP's roots were planted in a semi-clandestine intellectual movement that opposed Antonescu's regime in general and, in particular, its support for Nazi Germany and the other Axis Powers, and its commitment to war against the Soviet Union.

As listed by historian Corneliu Crăciun, the group's explicit goals were: "sabotaging the war industry, resisting the dispatch of men on the anti-Soviet front, organizing partisans into detachments, annulling the Vienna Diktat, peace with the USA, England and the USSR.

[3] Bagdasar was educated abroad, where he became inspired by American progressivism,[4] while Stoilow had frequented meetings of pro-Allied intellectuals, some of whom supported the mainstream National Peasants' Party (PNȚ).

[8] According to various accounts, România Liberă was managed from Bucharest by George Ivașcu, on his spare time from editing the pro-Antonescu gazette Vremea and with only marginal interventions from the PCdR.

[14] Vlădescu-Răcoasa was the first person identified as leader of the UP,[4] while Agiu was designated Caretaker; Constantinescu-Iași and Bagdasar were tasked with co-opting intellectuals, while Levente served as the administrator and Magheru directed work in the provinces.

[18] Outside of the Front, the UP still maintained links with other opposition groups, and was especially close to left-wing Social Democrats (Ion Pas, Ștefan Voitec, Theodor Iordăchescu, Leon Ghelerter).

[4][31] On May 24, 1944, the Union also entered a "National-Democratic Coalition", alongside the National Liberal Party–Tătărescu, Groza's Front, the PSDR, the PSȚ, MADOSZ, and Petre Topa's Democratic Nationalists.

[36] While assuming a public face, the Union had to abandon its political newspaper: România Liberă was seized by the PCdR, and its first issue of this new series, presumed lost, was falsified by the PCR after 1972.

[43] Throughout October, the UP was a participant in the PCdR-organized public rallies against the independent Premier, General Constantin Sănătescu, and his PNȚ and PNL ministers, accusing the cabinet of playing protector to war criminals.

In Jiu Valley and Hunedoara County at large, the UP carried out "democratic work" in favor of miners' welfare, distributing food and setting up price control committees.

[13] By then, Nicu Rădescu and Levente were directly involved in the effort to create and illegally arm a communist-controlled paramilitary force, the Patriotic Combat Formations (Formațiunile de Luptă Patriotică, FLP).

In early November, its representative in the Assembly of Deputies and PNP General Secretary, a Mihail Dragomirescu, played a central part in the sessions which condemned and pushed aside a minor PCR ally, the National Liberal Party–Tătărescu.

[105] During the following months, the PNP was in favor of a bill that politicized and de-professionalized the justice system, introducing juries selected from among the "workers and toiling peasants" by their respective trade unions and corporate bodies.

[110] The subsequent elections were advertised by PMR leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej as a consolidation of "democratic conquests against imperialism", destined to "nip in the bud all attempts by the reaction to rear its head".

[123] România Liberă's Ivașcu rose through the ranks of the PMR until, owing to a case of mistaken identity, was prosecuted for war crimes, imprisoned, then rehabilitated and again assigned party work.

Many scholars see the UP/PNP as mainly a front for the exceedingly minor PCdR, variously describing it as "rather decorative",[125] an "electioneering vent",[126] an "organization designed to fulfill the communists' objectives",[6] a "diversion",[67] "instrument"[127] or "windscreen",[95] and a "quasi-party".

[36][128] Literary historian and former communist politician Pavel Țugui disagrees: with an "antifascist and antiracist program",[12] standing for "various democratic orientations", the UP "did not form any alliances with any party whatsoever between 1942 and spring 1944.

[12] Initially, the UP itself acknowledged that it had a short-term role, presenting itself not as a party, but as a big tent movement of antifascists and PCdR members, irrespective of ethnicity, social class, or creed.

[130][131] In a December 1944 address to the people, Novacu presented the August 23 Coup as top-down seizure of power, rather than as a popular revolution, noting that the action of a few would "impel and enrich the populace".

[134] A female activist, Cornelia Sterian, also explained that "woman must become equal in rights, she must play an active part in the political struggle for a free and fulfilling life.

[135] In its later electoral manifestos, the UP called itself "a political organization in support of the people", consolidating "an independent, democratic and merry Romania",[136] emerging naturally from "the movement of resistance against the Hitlerites and the Antonescu dictatorship".

[139] Writing about the accomplished "historical mission" of 1949, George Călinescu explained that it consisted of "educating non-proletarian working strata to understand and receive the coming social order.

"[116] Reviewing such claims, Păiușan argues that the PNP's objectives interfered with those of other FND members: the Ploughmen's Front and the Alexandrescu Peasantists existed specifically to draw in "the urban middle class.

"[140] As noted by Lucian Blaga, its putative member, the PNP manifestly failed at becoming "an independent autonomous party of the petty bourgeoisie", and was simply "a maneuverable mass".

[156] In Putna County, that is to say Vlădescu-Răcoasa's own fief, the PNP chapter was weakened by disputes over the fascist past of its leaders, including its local secretary, the Orthodox priest Streche.

[165] Engineer Cornel Năstăsescu, who was at once a member of the PNP Committee and a leader of its branch in Năsăud County, made efforts to hide his wartime involvement with building projects that used Jewish labor.

[169] Nevertheless, at official commemorations, PNP activists downplayed the historical impact of episodes such as the Iași pogrom of 1941, noting that, "other than the minor misunderstandings that are inherent to life in common, one can say that [Jews] have been fully embraced by their friends, the Romanian people.

[138] The PNP also reported on abuses committed by paramilitary "citizens' guards", which, it implied, were terrorizing the populace,[184] while activists such as Bagdasar expressed bafflement over the anti-Peasantist rhetorical violence.

[186] Seeing the BPD as an authoritarian instrument, members deserted in significant numbers during 1947,[187] and some even became involved with a group of anti-communist partisans, formed by Gheorghe Arsenescu in Muscel County.