Gheorghe Cristescu was a 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 socialist and, for a part of his life, communist militant

Militant

The word militant, which is both an adjective and a noun, usually is used to mean vigorously active, combative and aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in 'militant reformers'. It comes from the 15th century Latin "militare" meaning "to serve as a soldier"...

. Nicknamed "Plăpumarul" ("The Blanket Maker"), he is also occasionally referred to as "Omul cu lavaliera roşie" ("The man with the red four-in-hand necktie

Necktie

A necktie is a long piece of cloth worn for decorative purposes around the neck or shoulders, resting under the shirt collar and knotted at the throat. Variants include the ascot tie, bow tie, bolo tie, and the clip-on tie. The modern necktie, ascot, and bow tie are descended from the cravat. Neck...

"), after the most notable of his accessories.

Early activism

Born in Copaciu (at the time part of Ilfov County

Ilfov County

Ilfov is the county that surrounds Bucharest, the capital of Romania. It used to be largely rural, but after the fall of communism, many of the county's villages and communes developed into high-income commuter towns, which act like suburbs or satellites of Bucharest...

, presently in Giurgiu County

Giurgiu County

Giurgiu is a county of Romania, in Muntenia, with the capital city at Giurgiu.- Demographics :In 2002, it had a population of 297,859 and the population density was 84/km².* Romanians – over 96%* Roma – 3.5%, and others.- Geography :...

), Cristescu trained as a blanket-maker and became the owner of a blanket-making shop. Active in socialist circles as early as 1898, he soon became a leading member of the Romanian Social-Democratic Workers' Party (up to 1899, when the Party disbanded). In 1900, he joined the leadership of the only surviving group of the Party, its Bucharest

Bucharest

Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....

 socialist circle, România Muncitoare

România Muncitoare

România Muncitoare was a socialist newspaper, published in Bucharest, Romania....

(led by 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...

).

Up until the creation of a Romanian Social Democratic Party

Romanian Social Democratic Party (defunct)

The Romanian Social Democratic Party was a social-democratic political party in Romania. It published the magazine România Muncitoare, and later Socialismul, Lumea Nouă, and Libertatea.-Early party:...

 (PSDR) on January 31, 1910, Cristescu was one of the leaders of the short-lived Socialist Union of Romania. Soon after a Romanian Railways

Caile Ferate Române

Căile Ferate Române is the official designation of the state railway carrier of Romania. Romania has a railway network of of which are electrified and the total track length is . The network is significantly interconnected with other European railway networks, providing pan-European passenger...

 employee named Stoenescu attempted to assassinate Premier Ion I. C. Brătianu

Ion I. C. Bratianu

Ion I. C. Brătianu was a Romanian politician, leader of the National Liberal Party , the Prime Minister of Romania for five terms, and Foreign Minister on several occasions; he was the eldest son of statesman and PNL leader Ion Brătianu, the brother of Vintilă and Dinu Brătianu, and the father of...

 on December 9, 1909, Cristescu, alongside other România Muncitoare activists (including I. C. Frimu

I. C. Frimu

Ion Costache Frimu was a Romanian socialist militant and politician, a leading member of the Romanian Social Democratic Party and labor activist...

 and Dumitru Marinescu), was arrested and interrogated on suspicion of having inspired the action. From 1910 to 1916, he was one of the PSDR's leaders; in 1908-1920, he was active in the trade union movement.

In 1916, the Party was banned for its activities in support of the Zimmerwald Conference

Zimmerwald Conference

The Zimmerwald Conference was held in Zimmerwald, Switzerland, from September 5 through September 8, 1915. It was an international socialist conference, which saw the beginning of the end of the coalition between revolutionary socialists and reformist socialists in the Second International.-...

 at a time when Romania entered 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...

 on the Entente side. After the Central Powers

Central Powers

The Central Powers were one of the two warring factions in World War I , composed of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria...

 offensive (see Romanian Campaign

Romanian Campaign (World War I)

The Romanian Campaign was part of the Balkan theatre of World War I, with Romania and Russia allied against the armies of the Central Powers. Fighting took place from August 1916 to December 1917, across most of present-day Romania, including Transylvania, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian...

), he remained active in enemy-occupied Bucharest, and kept contacts with Social Democratic Party of Germany

Social Democratic Party of Germany

The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...

 with the help of German

German Empire

The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...

 soldiers who sympathized with the latter. In 1918, when Romanian authorities resumed control, Cristescu and many other leaders of the PSDR (Ecaterina Arbore

Ecaterina Arbore

Ecaterina Arbore, Arbore-Ralli or Ralli-Arbore , daughter of Zamfir Arbore , was a Romanian, Soviet and Moldovan communist activist and official.-Early life:She trained towards a medical...

, Constantin Popovici, Ilie Moscovici, and Constantin Titel Petrescu

Constantin Titel Petrescu

Constantin Titel Petrescu was a Romanian politician and lawyer. He was the leader of the Romanian Social Democratic Party.He was born in Craiova, the son of an employee of the National Bank in Bucharest...

 among them) were arrested on charges of collaboration.

The PSDR re-emerged in November 1918, as 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...

, with Cristescu becoming one of its representatives in Parliament

Parliament of Romania

The Parliament of Romania is made up of two chambers:*The Chamber of Deputies*The SenatePrior to the modifications of the Constitution in 2003, the two houses had identical attributes. A text of a law had to be approved by both houses...

 after the elections of 1919. In this capacity, he became noted in debates over the imprisonment of Mihai Gheorghiu Bujor, a Romanian citizen who had joined the Russian

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....

 Red Army

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

 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....

 during the October Revolution

October Revolution

The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...

, and who had been tried for treason

Treason

In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...

. Constantin Argetoianu

Constantin Argetoianu

Constantin Argetoianu was a Romanian politician, one of the best-known personalities of interwar Greater Romania, who served as the Prime Minister between September 28 and November 23, 1939. His memoirs, Memorii. Pentru cei de mâine. Amintiri din vremea celor de ieri Constantin Argetoianu...

, who negotiated a failed merger of the Socialist Party into the People's League in late 1919, stated that Moscovici voiced criticism of his party's 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...

 wing, where, as Argetoianu formulated it, "the blanket-maker Cristescu and others were agitating".

In the early elections of 1920, Cristescu, together with 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...

 and Boris Stefanov

Boris Stefanov

Boris Stefanov was a Romanian communist politician, who served as general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1936 to 1940.-Early life and activism:...

, was not validated into Parliament, despite having carried the popular vote. He was eventually confirmed for office.

Communism

Although he had originally voted against Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...

's thesis as a delegate of the socialists 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...

 World Congresses in 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...

 (with Eugen Rozvan

Eugen Rozvan

Eugen Rozvan was a Hungarian-born Romanian communist activist, lawyer, and Marxist historian, who settled in the Soviet Union late in his life.-Biography:...

, Constantin Popovici, Ioan Flueraş

Ioan Flueras

Ioan Flueraş was a Romanian social democratic politician and a victim of the communist regime.-Early activities:...

, David Fabian, and Alexandru Dobrogeanu-Gherea), and despite Rozvan's suspicions that he 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...

", he became more and more radical, supporting the transformation of the Party along 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....

 lines, but showed himself opposed to control from Russia. In deliberations for the 1920 vote, he expressed his opposition to Comintern control over local parties, and subsequently met with Lenin - Cristescu later claimed that the Russian leader had accepted his dissent and had offered some "non-political" concessions to the Romanian socialists (the claim was partly backed by a testimony of Dobrogeanu-Gherea). During the Congress, both Cristescu and Dobrogeanu-Gherea were ridiculed at home by the non-communist press (their bourgeois status, in contrast to their activism, was highlighted in the nicknames "Cristescu-Blanket Maker" and "Dobrogeanu-Restaurant", the latter of which alluded to the business Dobrogeanu-Gherea was managing in Ploieşti

Ploiesti

Ploiești is the county seat of Prahova County and lies in the historical region of Wallachia in Romania. The city is located north of Bucharest....

).

Cristescu led the faction that separated itself after the Party's Congress of May 8–12, 1921, and was elected as the first general secretary

General secretary

-International intergovernmental organizations:-International nongovernmental organizations:-Sports governing bodies:...

 of the newly formed Socialist-Communist Party (soon to be 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...

). Those maximalists

Maximum programme

In Marxist theory, a maximum programme consists of a series of demands which will achieve socialism.The concept of a maximum programme comes from the Erfurt Programme of the SPD, later mirrored by much of the Socialist International. The maximum is contrasted with a minimum programme of immediate...

 who had designated themselves as "communists" (including Gheorghe Cristescu) were arrested and indicted in the Dealul Spirii Trial: Romanian authorities attempted to connect them with 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...

, a terrorist of uncertain affiliation who had detonated a bomb inside the Romanian Senate

Senate of Romania

The Senate of Romania is the upper house in the bicameral Parliament of Romania. It has 137 seats , to which members are elected by direct popular vote, using Mixed member proportional representation in 42 electoral districts , to serve four-year terms.-Former location:After the Romanian...

 on December 8, 1920. The charge against the communists was based on their rejection 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...

 as a concept, and their commitment to "World revolution

World revolution

World revolution is the Marxist concept of overthrowing capitalism in all countries through the conscious revolutionary action of the organized working class...

" and the Comintern, which raised suspicion that they were trying to overthrow the existing order through actions such as that of Goldstein. Constantin Argetoianu

Constantin Argetoianu

Constantin Argetoianu was a Romanian politician, one of the best-known personalities of interwar Greater Romania, who served as the Prime Minister between September 28 and November 23, 1939. His memoirs, Memorii. Pentru cei de mâine. Amintiri din vremea celor de ieri Constantin Argetoianu...

, Interior Minister in the second Alexandru Averescu

Alexandru Averescu

Alexandru Averescu was a Romanian marshal and populist politician. A Romanian Armed Forces Commander during World War I, he served as Prime Minister of three separate cabinets . He first rose to prominence during the peasant's revolt of 1907, which he helped repress in violence...

 cabinet and main instigator of the arrest, later admitted that his order lacked legal grounds, and stated that he had given Cristescu approval to hold congress with the knowledge that Comintern policies were to be submitted to a vote, thus causing the faction to incriminate itself.

Most of the accused were acquitted, an important reason for this being Cristescu's convincing testimony (alongside a hunger strike

Hunger strike

A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...

 endured by most on the bench, as well as the absence of sufficient evidence). Cristescu depicted Goldstein as an anarchist, and declared most of the witnesses who had connected the terrorist with the Party to be spies

Espionage

Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...

 for the Siguranţa Statului secret police

Secret police

Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....

.

Dissidence

Cristescu started questioning his Party's policies after the decision taken by the Balkan Communist Federation

Balkan Communist Federation

The Balkan Federation was a project about the creation of a Balkan federation or confederation, based mainly on left political ideas.The concept of a Balkan federation emerged at the late 19th century from among left political forces in the region...

 during its 1923 Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 Conference. The Federation had adopted the official Soviet policy recommending that 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....

, Bukovina

Bukovina

Bukovina is a historical region on the northern slopes of the northeastern Carpathian Mountains and the adjoining plains.-Name:The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became...

, 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...

 and Southern Dobruja

Southern Dobruja

Southern Dobruja is an area of north-eastern Bulgaria comprising the administrative districts named for its two principal cities of Dobrich and Silistra...

 (or all of Dobruja

Dobruja

Dobruja is a historical region shared by Bulgaria and Romania, located between the lower Danube river and the Black Sea, including the Danube Delta, Romanian coast and the northernmost part of the Bulgarian coast...

) be given the right to secede from Romania. Due to the ethnic composition of these regions, he could not accept that minorities be given self-determination

Self-determination

Self-determination is the principle in international law that nations have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or external interference...

 (especially since this implied not autonomy or independence, but rather satisfaction of territorial demands that other nations had on Romania). Cristescu allegedly called for the party to revise its program in respect to these points, and thus resume legal activities.

Notably clashing with his nominal subordinate Marcel Pauker

Marcel Pauker

Marcel Pauker was a Romanian communist militant and husband of the future Romanian Communist leader Ana Pauker....

 over such issues, he did all in his power to prevent the Party from adopting a clear point of view: when his attitude was investigated by the Balkan Communist Federation (1924), he had to resign his position, being excluded from the Party in 1926. According to 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...

, Cristescu's marginalization inside the Workers and Peasants' Bloc (created as an umbrella group for the outlawed Communist faction) was a major factor in his conflict with other activists.

1930s, persecution, and rehabilitation

After creating his own minor grouping, the Socialist Party of Workers (later known as Independent Socialist Party), in 1928, Cristescu joined the minor and Unitary Socialist Party in 1932 (a 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...

 group led by Leon Ghelerter, Ştefan Voitec

Stefan Voitec

Ştefan Voitec was a Romanian socialist and communist journalist, politician, and statesman of Communist Romania.-Biography:...

, and Constantin Popovici, it eventually dissolved itself under pressure from the Communist Party in 1944). He retired from politics in 1936.

His daughter Tita Cristescu, a former Miss Romania who had become the mistress of Liviu Ciulei (a famous lawyer and father of the director Liviu Ciulei

Liviu Ciulei

Liviu Ciulei was a Romanian theater and film director, film writer, actor, architect, educator, costume and set designer. During a career spanning over 50 years, he was described by Newsweek as "one of the boldest and most challenging figures on the international scene".-Biography:Born in...

), died in mysterious circumstances in 1936 — most likely, she was murdered; Ciulei, arrested on charges that he had poisoned her, was acquitted later in the same year. A theory in circulation indicates Maria Suciu, Tita's maid, as the killer.

During the first years of Communist Romania

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...

, he was severely persecuted for his political views, being arrested and imprisoned in the Danube-Black Sea Canal

Danube-Black Sea Canal

The Danube – Black Sea Canal is a canal in Romania which runs from Cernavodă on the Danube to Agigea and Năvodari on the Black Sea...

 labour camps from 1950 to 1954. Released through the first 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...

 of political prisoner

Political prisoner

According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....

s (occurring very soon after Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...

's death), Cristescu spent his remaining years in relative anonymity. While his name was cleared by 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...

's rehabilitation

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...

 policies, his uncomfortable opinions were censored

Censorship

thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...

 and he was subject to Securitate

Securitate

The Securitate was the secret police agency of Communist Romania. Previously, the Romanian secret police was called Siguranţa Statului. Founded on August 30, 1948, with help from the Soviet NKVD, the Securitate was abolished in December 1989, shortly after President Nicolae Ceaușescu was...

 surveillance until the day he died. Although occasionally hailed up as an anti-Comintern communist during a time when the Ceauşescu regime developed a nationalist

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...

discourse, Cristescu avoided being associated with the party he had helped found.