Eugen Rozvan
Encyclopedia
Eugen Rozvan was a Hungarian
-born Romania
n communist
activist, lawyer, and Marxist
historian, who settled in the Soviet Union
late in his life.
, Transylvania
(part of Austria-Hungary
at the time), he was of ethnic Romanian
origin. Rozvan attended the University of Budapest, where he became a supporter of socialist
ideals. He continued his studies in Law at the University of Berlin, and, after graduation, returned to his homeland and enrolled in the Social Democratic Party of Transylvania and Banat. Rozvan was drafted in the Austro-Hungarian Army
during World War I
, and fell prisoner to Imperial Russian forces on the Eastern Front
, returning in 1920.
After the Aster Revolution
, he was offered positions in the hierarchy of the main ethnic Romanian group, the National Romanian Party, but refused to join it and gave his support to the far left
. Following the latter's success in rallying the Social Democrats to the cause of union with Romania, Rozvan became critical of his grouping, but eventually joined the Transylvanian section of the Socialist Party of Romania
(PS). Instead, his brother Ştefan became a National Party local leader, and his politics clashed with those of Eugen Rozvan to the point where, as prefect of Hunedoara County
, he organized the repression of the Lupeni Strike of 1929
.
He was elected to a leadership position inside the PS (August 1920), and was designated to serve on its delegation to Bolshevist Russia
, deciding on the issue of affiliation to the Comintern
. With Ioan Flueraş
, he represented the Transylvanian group (the other delegates were Gheorghe Cristescu
, David Fabian, Constantin Popovici, and Alexandru Dobrogeanu-Gherea
). With Rozvan's agreement and the consent of other delegates, Flueraş and Iosif Jumanca were expelled following pressures from Grigory Zinoviev
and Christian Rakovsky
, due to their wartime support for nationalism
and objections raised to Comintern guidelines.
In the spring of 1921, he was a PS delegate from Braşov
to the PS Congress that decided in favor of creating a Communist Party
(PCdR) around the group's Bolshevik
faction. On this occasion, Rozvan expressed his concerns that Cristescu had maintained a "minimalist position
", and the two briefly engaged in a heated polemic.
Immediately after the event, Rozvan and all the PCdR notable members were arrested and implicated in the Dealul Spirii Trial (in connection with the violent actions of Max Goldstein
). All those indicted were freed on July 4, 1922, through the amnesty
ordered by King
Ferdinand I
.
Rozvan remained active inside the outlawed Communist Party, was elected deputy member of its Central Committee
by the Second Congress (October 1922), and helped organize the party's umbrella group, the Workers and Peasants' Bloc, in the region around Oradea
(1926–1931). With Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu
, Imre Aladar, and two others, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies
on Bloc lists (May 1931).
It was during that time that he became critical of Comintern directives regarding the dissolution of Greater Romania
, eventually coming into opposition with the PCdR leadership around Marcel Pauker
, who accused him of "right-wing opportunism
". In 1929, he was expelled from the party, without being notified of it, and his status remained uncertain for the following years.
Rozvan decided to clarify matters by presenting his cause to Soviet authorities, and fled to Moscow
by illegally crossing the Soviet-Romanian border in Bessarabia
. Readmitted to the PCdR in 1934, he was employed by Eugen Varga
at the Lomonosov University
Institute of the World Economy and the World Politics, becoming noted as a scholar of Italian fascism
(the subject of his 1937 Ph.D.
thesis, which was used as a textbook). In the opinion of Vladimir Tismăneanu
, Rozvan's critique of fascism also alluded to the consequences of Stalinism
inside the communist movement.
Rozvan became a victim of the Great Purge
: arrested on December 16, 1937, denounced through the forced confession
s of other prisoners, he was indicted in a kangaroo trial, and officially sentenced to ten years in prison. He was, however, executed soon after, based on an unpublicized sentence.
, who called on the NKVD
to account for his whereabouts. During De-Stalinization
in the 1950s, he was rehabilitated
inside the Soviet Union; the Romanian Communist regime
followed suit only a decade later, in 1968, when Nicolae Ceauşescu
used the questioning of previous policies to justify his own grip on power.
In 1971, a biography of Rozvan was published in Communist Romania, making him one of the few Communist leaders who enjoyed such an honor during Ceauşescu's regime.
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...
-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 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...
activist, lawyer, and Marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
historian, who settled in 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....
late in his life.
Biography
Born in Nagyszalonta (Salonta)Salonta
Salonta is a city in Bihor County, Transylvania, Romania, near the Hungarian border.-Population:According to the last Romanian census from 2002, the city has a population of 18,074, made up of Hungarians , Romanians , Roma , and others .In terms of religion, 51.12% are Reformed , 36.46% Romanian...
, Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
(part of Austria-Hungary
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...
at the time), he was of ethnic Romanian
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
origin. Rozvan attended the University of Budapest, where he became a supporter of socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
ideals. He continued his studies in Law at the University of Berlin, and, after graduation, returned to his homeland and enrolled in the Social Democratic Party of Transylvania and Banat. Rozvan was drafted in the Austro-Hungarian Army
Austro-Hungarian Army
The Austro-Hungarian Army was the ground force of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy from 1867 to 1918. It was composed of three parts: the joint army , the Austrian Landwehr , and the Hungarian Honvédség .In the wake of fighting between the...
during 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...
, and fell prisoner to Imperial Russian forces on the Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War I)
The Eastern Front was a theatre of war during World War I in Central and, primarily, Eastern Europe. The term is in contrast to the Western Front. Despite the geographical separation, the events in the two theatres strongly influenced each other...
, returning in 1920.
After the Aster Revolution
Aster Revolution
The Aster Revolution or Chrysanthemum Revolution was a revolution in Hungary led by leftist liberal count Mihály Károlyi, who founded the Hungarian Democratic Republic....
, he was offered positions in the hierarchy of the main ethnic Romanian group, the National Romanian Party, but refused to join it and gave his support to the far left
Far left
Far left, also known as the revolutionary left, radical left and extreme left are terms which refer to the highest degree of leftist positions among left-wing politics...
. Following the latter's success in rallying the Social Democrats to the cause of union with Romania, Rozvan became critical of his grouping, but eventually joined the Transylvanian section of the Socialist Party of Romania
Socialist Party of Romania
The Socialist Party of Romania was a Romanian socialist political party, created on December 11, 1918 by members of the Romanian Social Democratic Party , after the latter emerged from clandestinity...
(PS). Instead, his brother Ştefan became a National Party local leader, and his politics clashed with those of Eugen Rozvan to the point where, as prefect of Hunedoara County
Hunedoara County
Hunedoara is a county of Romania, in Transylvania, with its capital city at Deva.-Demographics:In 2002, it had a population of 485,712 and the population density was 69/km².*Romanians - 92%*Hungarians - 5%*Romas - 2%*Germans under 1%....
, he organized the repression of the Lupeni Strike of 1929
Lupeni Strike of 1929
The Lupeni Strike of 1929 took place on August 5 and 6 1929 in the mining town of Lupeni, in the Jiu Valley of Transylvania, Romania.-Chronology:...
.
He was elected to a leadership position inside the PS (August 1920), and was designated to serve on its delegation to Bolshevist Russia
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....
, deciding on the issue of affiliation to the Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
. With Ioan Flueraş
Ioan Flueras
Ioan Flueraş was a Romanian social democratic politician and a victim of the communist regime.-Early activities:...
, he represented the Transylvanian group (the other delegates were Gheorghe Cristescu
Gheorghe Cristescu
Gheorghe Cristescu was a Romanian socialist and, for a part of his life, communist militant. Nicknamed "Plăpumarul" , he is also occasionally referred to as "Omul cu lavaliera roşie" , after the most notable of his accessories.-Early activism:Born in Copaciu Gheorghe Cristescu (October 10, 1882...
, David Fabian, Constantin Popovici, and Alexandru Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Alexandru Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Alexandru Dobrogeanu-Gherea or Alexandru Gherea was a Romanian communist militant and son of socialist, sociologist and literary critic Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea...
). With Rozvan's agreement and the consent of other delegates, Flueraş and Iosif Jumanca were expelled following pressures from Grigory Zinoviev
Grigory Zinoviev
Grigory Yevseevich Zinoviev , born Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky Apfelbaum , was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet Communist politician...
and Christian Rakovsky
Christian Rakovsky
Christian Rakovsky was a Bulgarian socialist revolutionary, a Bolshevik politician and Soviet diplomat; he was also noted as a journalist, physician, and essayist...
, due to their wartime support for nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
and objections raised to Comintern guidelines.
In the spring of 1921, he was a PS delegate from Braşov
Brasov
Brașov is a city in Romania and the capital of Brașov County.According to the last Romanian census, from 2002, there were 284,596 people living within the city of Brașov, making it the 8th most populated city in Romania....
to the PS Congress that decided in favor of creating a 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...
(PCdR) around the group's Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
faction. On this occasion, Rozvan expressed his concerns that Cristescu had maintained a "minimalist position
Minimum programme
In Marxist theory, a minimum programme consists of a series of demands for immediate reforms and, in far fewer and less orthodox cases, also consists of a series of political demands which, taken as a whole, realise key democratic-republican measures enacted by the Paris Commune and thus culminate...
", and the two briefly engaged in a heated polemic.
Immediately after the event, Rozvan and all the PCdR notable members were arrested and implicated in the Dealul Spirii Trial (in connection with the violent actions of Max Goldstein
Max Goldstein
Max Goldstein , also known as Coca, was a Romanian revolutionary, variously described as a communist and an anarchist.Born in Bârlad to a Jewish family, he worked as a clerk and moved to Bucharest, where he became a Communist sympathizer...
). All those indicted were freed on July 4, 1922, through the amnesty
Amnesty
Amnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent people, without changing the laws defining the offense. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the...
ordered by King
King of Romania
King of the Romanians , rather than King of Romania , was the official title of the ruler of the Kingdom of Romania from 1881 until 1947, when Romania was proclaimed a republic....
Ferdinand I
Ferdinand I of Romania
Ferdinand was the King of Romania from 10 October 1914 until his death.-Early life:Born in Sigmaringen in southwestern Germany, the Roman Catholic Prince Ferdinand Viktor Albert Meinrad of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, later simply of Hohenzollern, was a son of Leopold, Prince of...
.
Rozvan remained active inside the outlawed Communist Party, was elected deputy member of its 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...
by the Second Congress (October 1922), and helped organize the party's umbrella group, the Workers and Peasants' Bloc, in the region around Oradea
Oradea
Oradea is the capital city of Bihor County, in the Crișana region of north-western Romania. The city has a population of 204,477, according to the 2009 estimates. The wider Oradea metropolitan area has a total population of 245,832.-Geography:...
(1926–1931). With Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu
Lucretiu Patrascanu
Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu was a Romanian communist politician and leading member of the Communist Party of Romania , also noted for his activities as a lawyer, sociologist and economist. For a while, he was a professor at Bucharest University...
, Imre Aladar, and two others, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies
Chamber of Deputies of Romania
The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house in Romania's bicameral parliament. It has 315 seats, to which deputies are elected by direct popular vote on a proportional representation basis to serve four-year terms...
on Bloc lists (May 1931).
It was during that time that he became critical of Comintern directives regarding the dissolution of Greater Romania
Greater Romania
The Greater Romania generally refers to the territory of Romania in the years between the First World War and the Second World War, the largest geographical extent of Romania up to that time and its largest peacetime extent ever ; more precisely, it refers to the territory of the Kingdom of...
, eventually coming into opposition with the PCdR leadership around Marcel Pauker
Marcel Pauker
Marcel Pauker was a Romanian communist militant and husband of the future Romanian Communist leader Ana Pauker....
, who accused him of "right-wing opportunism
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...
". In 1929, he was expelled from the party, without being notified of it, and his status remained uncertain for the following years.
Rozvan decided to clarify matters by presenting his cause to Soviet authorities, and fled to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
by illegally crossing the Soviet-Romanian border in Bessarabia
Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
. Readmitted to the PCdR in 1934, he was employed by Eugen Varga
Eugen Varga
Eugen Samuilovich Varga was a Marxist economist of Hungarian origin.He studied philosophy and economic geography at the University of Budapest. In 1906, he started writing in socialist and academic journals, mainly on economic subjects, but also on other topics...
at the Lomonosov University
Moscow State University
Lomonosov Moscow State University , previously known as Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be one of the oldest university in Russia and to have the tallest educational building in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy...
Institute of the World Economy and the World Politics, becoming noted as a scholar of Italian fascism
Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...
(the subject of his 1937 Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
thesis, which was used as a textbook). In the opinion of Vladimir Tismăneanu
Vladimir Tismaneanu
Vladimir Tismăneanu is a Romanian and American political scientist, political analyst, sociologist, and professor at the University of Maryland, College Park...
, Rozvan's critique of fascism also alluded to the consequences of Stalinism
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...
inside the communist movement.
Rozvan became a victim of the Great Purge
Great Purge
The Great Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1936 to 1938...
: arrested on December 16, 1937, denounced through the forced confession
Forced confession
A forced confession is a confession obtained by a suspect or a prisoner under means of torture, enhanced interrogation technique or duress.Depending on the level of coercion used, a forced confession may or may not be valid in revealing the truth...
s of other prisoners, he was indicted in a kangaroo trial, and officially sentenced to ten years in prison. He was, however, executed soon after, based on an unpublicized sentence.
Rehabilitation
For the following years, Rozvan's fate was the topic of investigations by Comintern leader Georgi DimitrovGeorgi Dimitrov
Georgi Dimitrov Mikhaylov , also known as Georgi Mikhaylovich Dimitrov , was a Bulgarian Communist politician...
, who called on the NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
to account for his whereabouts. During De-Stalinization
History of the Soviet Union (1953-1985)
In the USSR, the eleven-year period from the death of Joseph Stalin to the political ouster of Nikita Khrushchev , the national politics were dominated by the Cold War; the ideological U.S.–USSR struggle for the planetary domination of their respective socio–economic systems, and the defense of...
in the 1950s, he was 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...
inside the Soviet Union; the Romanian Communist regime
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...
followed suit only a decade later, in 1968, when 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...
used the questioning of previous policies to justify his own grip on power.
In 1971, a biography of Rozvan was published in Communist Romania, making him one of the few Communist leaders who enjoyed such an honor during Ceauşescu's regime.