EN
History of Romania shows many examples of using popular armed formations to support fulfilling of national aims, but we can really discuss about such coherent structures, based on military doctrinal and scientific principles, only starting August 1968, when the communist authorities decided to set up the Patriotic Guards (PGs), under de direct command of the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party (CC/RCP). This study is aimed at analyzing the evolution of PGs, their command and control system, organization and functioning, the war fighting principles of employment, training and equipping with combat means. The entire analysis was correlated with the national military doctrine of that time and took into consideration the ideological character of such construction. The invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 was the trigger that generated the establishment of the Romanian PGs as armed combat units of working people in towns and villages, part of the combat forces of the national defence system, aimed at strengthening homeland defence capability. PGs consisted of the Romanian citizens, men and women, organized on territorial and work place principles. Their missions have also developed over time, based on the development of principles for the use of forces in the war of the entire nation, the core concept of the national doctrine. The entire activity of PGs was headed by the Central Command of PGs, a structure under the CC/RCP and supported by the Ministry of the Armed Forces and the Ministry of Interior Affaires, according to the ruling political bodies’ directives.