Starting out as a minor player, the Communist Party rose to power after August 1944, when the Red Army broke into Romania. Until then, Romania had sided with Nazi Germany in World War II, before King Mihai agreed to switch sides to limit bloodshed and save the country from total loss. However, by 1947, the Communists had dissolved all other political parties and had forced the king into exile. They oppressed anyone believed to be against the communist ideology, and carried out arrests, deportations and executions on a massive scale against the so called "enemies of the people''.. It’s believed that between 1947 and1957, over half a million people were killed as a result of these measures.