Dumitru Cernicica
Encyclopedia
Dumitru Cernicica was an Austro-Hungarian
-born Romania
n and Hungarian
communist
politician and engineer, who served in various economic-financial positions in the Romanian Communist government
. Being associated with Vasile Luca
, Minister of Finance
, Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party
(PCR) and vice-Premier
, he eventually became a victim of communist repression. A member of the PCR before and after World War II
, he was also clandestinely active within the Communist Party of Hungary
(KMP) in Northern Transylvania
and Budapest
between 1940 and 1944. In 1952, he was arrested and charged with being one in Luca's "right-wing deviationist
", stripped of all positions (including membership of the Great National Assembly
), and incarcerated.
(formerly Máramarossziget, in Austria-Hungary) into a family of workers. His father died in 1916, fighting in World War I
. As a student, Cernicica had a broad range of interests: science, languages, politics.
He became member of the underground PCR in the early 1930s. As an engineering student, he was president of the PCR-led Frontul Studenţesc Democrat (FSD, the Students' Democratic Front) in Cluj
.
After the Second Vienna Award
assigned Northern Transylvania to Hungary, he joined the KMP. During the Nazi occupation of Hungary; 1944-1945, he escaped being handed over to the Gestapo
together with other communists as a result of the actions of Ferenc Keresztes-Fischer
, the Hungarian Minister of Interior and of the Hungarian Police
's Chief Commissioner József Sombor-Schweinitzer, who refused to cooperate with the occupiers. While being detained in Budapest by the pro-Nazi Arrow Cross
regime, Cernicica became friends with László Rajk
, the future minister in Communist Hungary
and victim of a show trial
during the Stalinist
terror regime of Mátyás Rákosi
. During the Arrow Cross-implemented participation in the Holocaust, Cernicica helped hide his Jewish
friends.
After the war, Dumitru Cernicica was called back to Sighet and reintegrated as PCR secretary. He was instrumental in re-establishing the new Romanian administration after a short-lived attempt to incorporate the Romanian-held southern areas of Maramureş
together with the northern areas
into the Soviet Union
as part of the Ukrainian SSR
. Soon, he was appointed to positions in Romania's communist-supported government of Petru Groza
. While being true to the communist cause, his principles have put him at odds with party dogmas. During the first conference of the legalized PCR (October 1945), he spoke up against the appointment to the Central Committee of Nicolae Ceauşescu
, whose appointment was saved by the prominent PCR activist Ana Pauker
. As Comptroller General of the Ministry of Finances and later president of the State Pricing Committee, he was a collaborator of Vasile Luca
, who had been assigned the position of Minister and that of vice-Premier
.
While heading the State Pricing Committee (Comitetul de Stat pentru Preţuri), Cernicica reported a drop in the standard of living—a conclusion at odds with the official dogma of its "continuous growth". As first vice-president of Centrocoop board, which directed activity in the service area, he promoted paying higher acquisition prices to farmers (position endorsed by Vasile Luca). Caught in the plot initiated by PCR leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
to eliminate Luca, Dumitru Cernicica was arrested on June 13, 1952. During the "Luca trial" he was accused of acts of sabotage
against the national economy. He rejected all the accusations but was sentenced to 3 years of corrective jail. The specific sentences were handed over to the military judges on a note from the Central Committee
's Politbureau, hand-written by Gheorghiu-Dej's collaborator Iosif Chişinevschi
.
Following the arrest, his wife—Viola Hedvig Cernicica (née Harmat)—was pressured by Gheorghiu-Dej into divorcing him, but she refused. Vasile Luca, Alexandru Iacob
, Ivan Solymos and Dumitru Cernicica, the co-defendants of the trial, were officially rehabilitated
in 1968, three years after Ceauşescu's succession to the deceased Gheorghiu-Dej. Only Cernicica and Alexandru Iacob survived the jail term.
In 1969, Dumitru Cernicica became vice-president of UCECOM, a board supervising the activity of state-run enterprises. Like most old communists, he was critical of the Ceauşescu regime, on charges of nepotism
and micromanagement
, and was quickly forced into retirement. After the death of his wife in 1992, Cernicica lived mostly in the United States
with his son's family.
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
-born Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n and Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
politician and engineer, who served in various economic-financial positions in the Romanian Communist government
Communist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
. Being associated with Vasile Luca
Vasile Luca
Vasile Luca was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian and Soviet communist politician, a leading member of the Romanian Communist Party from 1945 and until his imprisonment in the 1950s...
, Minister of Finance
Ministry of Public Finance (Romania)
The Ministry of Public Finance of Romania is one of the fifteen ministries of the Government of Romania.The minister's seat is currently held by the Democratic Liberal Party's Gheorghe Ialomiţeanu.The following agencies are subordinated to the Minister:...
, Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party
Romanian Communist Party
The Romanian Communist Party was a communist political party in Romania. Successor to the Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to communist revolution and the disestablishment of Greater Romania. The PCR was a minor and illegal grouping for much of the...
(PCR) and vice-Premier
Prime Minister of Romania
The Prime Minister of Romania is the head of the Government of Romania. Initially, the office was styled President of the Council of Ministers , when the term "Government" included more than the Cabinet, and the Cabinet was called The Council of Ministers...
, he eventually became a victim of communist repression. A member of the PCR before and after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he was also clandestinely active within the Communist Party of Hungary
Hungarian Communist Party
The Communist Party of Hungary , renamed Hungarian Communist Party in 1945, was founded on November 24, 1918, and was in power in Hungary briefly from March to August 1919 under Béla Kun and the Hungarian Soviet Republic. The communist government was overthrown by the Romanian Army and driven...
(KMP) in Northern Transylvania
Northern Transylvania
Northern Transylvania is a region of Transylvania, situated within the territory of Romania. The population is largely composed of both ethnic Romanians and Hungarians, and the region has been part of Romania since 1918 . During World War II, as a consequence of the territorial agreement known as...
and Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
between 1940 and 1944. In 1952, he was arrested and charged with being one in Luca's "right-wing deviationist
Right Opposition
The Right Opposition was the name given to the tendency made up of Nikolai Bukharin, Alexei Rykov, Mikhail Tomsky and their supporters within the Soviet Union in the late 1920s...
", stripped of all positions (including membership of the Great National Assembly
Great National Assembly
The Great National Assembly was the legislature of the Romanian People's Republic and the Socialist Republic Romania. When Communism was overthrown in Romania in December 1989, the National Assembly was replaced by a bicameral parliament, made up of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.The Great...
), and incarcerated.
Biography
Dumitru Cernicica was born in Sighetu MarmaţieiSighetu Marmatiei
Sighetu Marmației , formerly Sighet, is a city in Maramureş County near the Iza River, in north-western Romania. It administers five villages: Iapa, Lazu Baciului, Șugău, Valea Cufundoasă and Valea Hotarului.-Geography:...
(formerly Máramarossziget, in Austria-Hungary) into a family of workers. His father died in 1916, fighting in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. As a student, Cernicica had a broad range of interests: science, languages, politics.
He became member of the underground PCR in the early 1930s. As an engineering student, he was president of the PCR-led Frontul Studenţesc Democrat (FSD, the Students' Democratic Front) in Cluj
Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...
.
After the Second Vienna Award
Second Vienna Award
The Second Vienna Award was the second of two Vienna Awards arbitrated by the Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Rendered on August 30, 1940, it re-assigned the territory of Northern Transylvania from Romania to Hungary.-Prelude and historical background :After the World War I, the multi-ethnic...
assigned Northern Transylvania to Hungary, he joined the KMP. During the Nazi occupation of Hungary; 1944-1945, he escaped being handed over to the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
together with other communists as a result of the actions of Ferenc Keresztes-Fischer
Ferenc Keresztes-Fischer
Ferenc Keresztes-Fischer was a lawyer and a Hungarian politician. He was an advisor of the Pécsi Takarékpénztár Rt. / Pécs Savings Bank Corp. Before he became prefect of Baranya County 1921-1931, prefect of Somogy County 1925-1931 and Interior Minister twice; between 1931-1935 and 1938-1944...
, the Hungarian Minister of Interior and of the Hungarian Police
Law enforcement in Hungary
Law enforcement in Hungary is split among the Police and Border Guards, and the Customs and Excise Authority. Since 2006, the Police has been subject to the Ministry of Justice, when the Ministry of Interior was re-structured to deal with Municipalities and Regional Development...
's Chief Commissioner József Sombor-Schweinitzer, who refused to cooperate with the occupiers. While being detained in Budapest by the pro-Nazi Arrow Cross
Arrow Cross Party
The Arrow Cross Party was a national socialist party led by Ferenc Szálasi, which led in Hungary a government known as the Government of National Unity from October 15, 1944 to 28 March 1945...
regime, Cernicica became friends with László Rajk
László Rajk
László Rajk was a Hungarian Communist; politician, former Minister of Interior and former Minister of Foreign Affairs...
, the future minister in Communist Hungary
People's Republic of Hungary
The People's Republic of Hungary or Hungarian People's Republic was the official state name of Hungary from 1949 to 1989 during its Communist period under the guidance of the Soviet Union. The state remained in existence until 1989 when opposition forces consolidated in forcing the regime to...
and victim of a show trial
Show trial
The term show trial is a pejorative description of a type of highly public trial in which there is a strong connotation that the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal to present the accusation and the verdict to the public as...
during the Stalinist
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
terror regime of Mátyás Rákosi
Mátyás Rákosi
Mátyás Rákosi was a Hungarian communist politician. He was born as Mátyás Rosenfeld, in present-day Serbia...
. During the Arrow Cross-implemented participation in the Holocaust, Cernicica helped hide his Jewish
History of the Jews in Hungary
Hungarian Jews have existed since at least the 11th century. After struggling against discrimination throughout the Middle Ages, by the early 20th century the community grew to be 5% of Hungary's population , and were prominent in science, the arts and business...
friends.
After the war, Dumitru Cernicica was called back to Sighet and reintegrated as PCR secretary. He was instrumental in re-establishing the new Romanian administration after a short-lived attempt to incorporate the Romanian-held southern areas of Maramureş
Maramures
Maramureș may refer to the following:*Maramureș, a geographical, historical, and ethno-cultural region in present-day Romania and Ukraine, that occupies the Maramureș Depression and Maramureș Mountains, a mountain range in North East Carpathians...
together with the northern areas
Northern Maramuresh
Northern Maramuresh is a geographic-historical region comprising roughly the eastern half of the Zakarpattia Oblast in southwestern Ukraine, near the border with Romania...
into the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
as part of the Ukrainian SSR
Ukrainian SSR
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic or in short, the Ukrainian SSR was a sovereign Soviet Socialist state and one of the fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union lasting from its inception in 1922 to the breakup in 1991...
. Soon, he was appointed to positions in Romania's communist-supported government of Petru Groza
Petru Groza
Petru Groza was a Romanian politician, best known as the Prime Minister of the first Communist Party-dominated governments under Soviet occupation during the early stages of the Communist regime in Romania....
. While being true to the communist cause, his principles have put him at odds with party dogmas. During the first conference of the legalized PCR (October 1945), he spoke up against the appointment to the Central Committee of Nicolae Ceauşescu
Nicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...
, whose appointment was saved by the prominent PCR activist Ana Pauker
Ana Pauker
Ana Pauker was a Romanian communist leader and served as the country's foreign minister in the late 1940s and early 1950s...
. As Comptroller General of the Ministry of Finances and later president of the State Pricing Committee, he was a collaborator of Vasile Luca
Vasile Luca
Vasile Luca was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian and Soviet communist politician, a leading member of the Romanian Communist Party from 1945 and until his imprisonment in the 1950s...
, who had been assigned the position of Minister and that of vice-Premier
Prime Minister of Romania
The Prime Minister of Romania is the head of the Government of Romania. Initially, the office was styled President of the Council of Ministers , when the term "Government" included more than the Cabinet, and the Cabinet was called The Council of Ministers...
.
While heading the State Pricing Committee (Comitetul de Stat pentru Preţuri), Cernicica reported a drop in the standard of living—a conclusion at odds with the official dogma of its "continuous growth". As first vice-president of Centrocoop board, which directed activity in the service area, he promoted paying higher acquisition prices to farmers (position endorsed by Vasile Luca). Caught in the plot initiated by PCR leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej was the Communist leader of Romania from 1948 until his death in 1965.-Early life:Gheorghe was the son of a poor worker, Tănase Gheorghiu, and his wife Ana. Gheorghiu-Dej joined the Communist Party of Romania in 1930...
to eliminate Luca, Dumitru Cernicica was arrested on June 13, 1952. During the "Luca trial" he was accused of acts of sabotage
Sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is...
against the national economy. He rejected all the accusations but was sentenced to 3 years of corrective jail. The specific sentences were handed over to the military judges on a note from the Central Committee
Central Committee
Central Committee was the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, whether ruling or non-ruling in the twentieth century and of the surviving, mostly Trotskyist, states in the early twenty first. In such party organizations the...
's Politbureau, hand-written by Gheorghiu-Dej's collaborator Iosif Chişinevschi
Iosif Chisinevschi
Iosif Chişinevschi , born Iosif Roitman, was a Romanian communist politician. The leading ideologue of the Romanian Communist Party from 1944 to 1957, he served as head of its Agitprop Department from 1948 to 1952 and was in charge of propaganda and culture from 1952 to 1955...
.
Following the arrest, his wife—Viola Hedvig Cernicica (née Harmat)—was pressured by Gheorghiu-Dej into divorcing him, but she refused. Vasile Luca, Alexandru Iacob
Alexandru Iacob (communist)
Alexandru Iacob was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian and Hungarian communist politician and economist, who served as Deputy to Vasile Luca within the Romanian Ministry of Finance, and eventually became a victim of repression in Communist Romania...
, Ivan Solymos and Dumitru Cernicica, the co-defendants of the trial, were officially rehabilitated
Rehabilitation (Soviet)
Rehabilitation in the context of the former Soviet Union, and the Post-Soviet states, was the restoration of a person who was criminally prosecuted without due basis, to the state of acquittal...
in 1968, three years after Ceauşescu's succession to the deceased Gheorghiu-Dej. Only Cernicica and Alexandru Iacob survived the jail term.
In 1969, Dumitru Cernicica became vice-president of UCECOM, a board supervising the activity of state-run enterprises. Like most old communists, he was critical of the Ceauşescu regime, on charges of nepotism
Nepotism
Nepotism is favoritism granted to relatives regardless of merit. The word nepotism is from the Latin word nepos, nepotis , from which modern Romanian nepot and Italian nipote, "nephew" or "grandchild" are also descended....
and micromanagement
Micromanagement
In business management, micromanagement is a management style where a manager closely observes or controls the work of her or his subordinates or employees...
, and was quickly forced into retirement. After the death of his wife in 1992, Cernicica lived mostly in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
with his son's family.