Ion Vincze
Encyclopedia
Ion Vincze was a Romania
n communist
politician and diplomat. An activist of the Romanian Communist Party
(PCR), he was married to Constanţa Crăciun, herself a prominent member of that party.
Born to an ethnic Hungarian family in Lipova
, Arad County
(then Lippa, Austria-Hungary
), he became a member of the Union of Communist Youth
in 1930 and of the then-outlawed PCR the following year. An accountant by profession, he attended Şcoala Superioară de Comerţ and Academia Comercială din Cluj
. In 1935, he was briefly imprisoned for his activities in support of the PCR.
During World War II
, Vincze was in Bucharest
, becoming involved in activities against the fascist
regime of Ion Antonescu
(see Romania during World War II
). By then, he was already in a relationship with Constanţa Crăciun, and allegations later surfaced that she was unsuccessfully courted by the PCR general secretary
, Ştefan Foriş
.
On November 19, 1942, a military tribunal in the city condemned him to hard labour for life, having found that
Vincze was held in Caransebeş
prison, while his lover Crăciun was serving time in Văcăreşti. Petre Pandrea, a PCR activist who was not arrested, visited him and Crăciun, and later recounted that both detainees had been bastinadoed by the authorities during interrogations. Pandrea also left detail on the couple's wedding in custody, indicating that he and his acquaintance, the Roman Catholic
cleric Vladimir Ghika
, were their godparent
s. Later in their life, both Ghika and Pandrea were to be incarcerated by the Romanian communist regime
. In reference to this, Pandrea noted:
Released after the King Michael Coup of August 1944, Vincze held a number of positions in the PCR (which soon after became the Romanian Workers' Party, PMR). His name came up in 1944-1946, when Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
and his inner-PCR faction succeeded in toppling, kidnapping, and ultimately killing their rival Foriş. Among the informal charges brought against Foriş was his alleged attempt to seduce Crăciun during the war years, when she considered herself engaged to Vincze, and of having thus caused her a nervous breakdown
which, it was argued, had facilitated her capture by the authorities.
During the period, Vincze was close to the Ana Pauker
-Vasile Luca
-Teohari Georgescu
faction, which competed with Gheorghiu-Dej's grouping. According to politician Gyàrfás Kurkó, Vincze and Luca secretly oversaw the absorption of smaller Hungarian groups into the new Hungarian People's Union
, a mass organisation which was to function as a close associate of the PMR. On October 5, 1945, he and Luca, together with other communist activists, attended a meeting with representatives of various PCR affiliates, including representatives of the Jewish community
. On this occasion, various party activists issued verbal attacks against the main Jewish anti-communist
currents — the moderates led by Wilhelm Filderman
and the Zionists
represented by A. L. Zissu.
Ion Vincze was elected to the Assembly of Deputies
in the 1946 election
for the Arad
electoral district, as a representative of the PCR-led Bloc of Democratic Parties, and served there until 1948. One of his fellow representatives for Arad County
was the prominent PCR member Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu
. According to Anton Raţiu and Nicolae Betea, two of Pătrăşcanu's collaborators, the results in that constituency were forged by a group of 40 people (including Belu Zilber and Anton Golopenţia). They stated that the president of the county electoral commission collected the votes from local stations and was required to read them aloud — irrespective of the option expressed, he called out the names of the Bloc's candidates. Nicolae Betea also indicated that the overall results for the Bloc of Democratic Parties in Arad County, officially recorded at 58%, were closer to 20%.
A supplementary member of the PMR Central Committee from February 24, 1948 to December 28, 1955, he was Minister of Forestry in the Petru Groza
cabinet, from April 14, 1948 to November 23, 1949. He was subsequently appointed Romania's Ambassador to the People's Republic of Hungary
, at a time when the Hungarian communist politician László Rajk
was being purged by his rival Mátyás Rákosi
.
According to journalist Pál Bodor, Vincze organized secret meetings between Rákosi and the emerging Romanian leader, Gheorghiu-Dej, which took place in Romania's Bihor County
. As a result of these, Gheorghiu-Dej and Rákosi agreed that the Romanian leadership was to arrest and prosecute various ethnic Hungarians who were charged with having supported Rajk's policies. Among these were Gyàrfás Kurkó; Áron Márton
, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Alba Iulia; the urban planner György Sebestyén; and the academics József Méliusz, Lajos Csögör and Edgár Balogh. Pál Bodor believes that Vincze may have played a personal part in the purge.
Vincze returned to Romania soon after, and was Minister of Food Industry from November 23, 1949 to December 15, 1950. He was elected as a deputy to the Great National Assembly
for the Timişoara-Nord seat in Timişoara Region, and served in that body from 1952 to 1957. In late May 1952, when Luca's fall from power signaled his group's defeat by Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
and his partisans, Vincze was noted for abruptly ending his association with Pauker. With Alexandru Moghioroş, Iosif Rangheţ, Gheorghe Stoica and others, he attacked Luca's policies in public, leading to his demotion and subsequent arrest.
He became deputy minister at the Ministry of Internal Affairs after May 28, 1952, under Premiers Groza and Gheorghiu-Dej. Promoted to the rank of Major General
(general-maior) in the Romanian Armed Forces
in June 1952, he also served as chief of the Administrative Section of the Central Committee of the Romanian Workers' Party until January 24, 1956.
Ion Vincze was vice-president of the Party Control Commission between December 28, 1955 and July 24, 1965. At the time, the body was led by Dumitru Coliu, who, together with Vincze, engineered a series of inner-PMR inquiries and investigations that relied on denunciations. This came in the wake of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, after criticism of Gheorghiu-Dej had been voiced at home (notably, by Miron Constantinescu
and Iosif Chişinevschi
). During that period, Coliu, Vincze, Petre Borilă
and Gheorghe Stoica ordered the Securitate
to carry out arrests and organise repressive actions. Alongside Gheorghe Apostol
, Constantin Pîrvulescu
, Moghioroş and Borilă, Vincze was Gheorghiu-Dej's emissary during renewed discussions with Pauker, when they attempted to make her admit that she was guilty of "deviationism".
In 1968, when the new leadership around Nicolae Ceauşescu
offered concessions to ethnic Hungarian intellectuals, it created a Council of Working People of Magyar Nationality, of which Vincze was named vice-president. Upon selection, he reportedly announced to the community that he was "returning to the womb".
Vincze was also vice-president of the Central Party College from July 24, 1965 to August 12, 1969 and a member of the National Council of Romanian Radio and Television from March 8, 1971. He died in Bucharest.
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...
politician and diplomat. An activist 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), he was married to Constanţa Crăciun, herself a prominent member of that party.
Born to an ethnic Hungarian family in Lipova
Lipova, Arad
Lipova is a town in Romania, Arad County, located in the Banat region of western Transylvania. It is situated at a distance of 34 km from Arad, the county capital, at the contact zone of the Mureș River with the Zarand Mountains, Western Plateau and Lipovei Hills...
, Arad County
Arad County
Arad is an administrative division of Romania roughly translated into county in the western part of the country on the border with Hungary, mostly in the region of Crişana and few villages in Banat. The administrative center of the county lies in the city of Arad...
(then Lippa, 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...
), he became a member of the Union of Communist Youth
Union of Communist Youth
The Union of Communist Youth was the Romanian Communist Party's youth organisation, modelled after the Soviet Komsomol. It aimed to cultivate young cadres into the party, as well as to help create the "new man" envisioned by communist ideologues.-History:Founded in 1922, the UTC went underground...
in 1930 and of the then-outlawed PCR the following year. An accountant by profession, he attended Şcoala Superioară de Comerţ and Academia Comercială din 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...
. In 1935, he was briefly imprisoned for his activities in support of the PCR.
During 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...
, Vincze was in 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....
, becoming involved in activities against the fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
regime of Ion Antonescu
Ion Antonescu
Ion Victor Antonescu was a Romanian soldier, authoritarian politician and convicted war criminal. The Prime Minister and Conducător during most of World War II, he presided over two successive wartime dictatorships...
(see Romania during World War II
Romania during World War II
Following the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939, the Kingdom of Romania officially adopted a position of neutrality. However, the rapidly changing situation in Europe during 1940, as well as domestic political upheaval, undermined this stance. Fascist political forces such as the Iron...
). By then, he was already in a relationship with Constanţa Crăciun, and allegations later surfaced that she was unsuccessfully courted by the PCR general secretary
General secretary
-International intergovernmental organizations:-International nongovernmental organizations:-Sports governing bodies:...
, Ştefan Foriş
Stefan Foris
Ştefan Foriş was a Romanian communist activist and journalist who served as general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party between 1940 and 1944....
.
On November 19, 1942, a military tribunal in the city condemned him to hard labour for life, having found that
"He was part of the central leadership of the Communist Party of Romania, being tasked with the indoctrination of the capital's young people. He was ordered by the party to procure false identity cards for members of the Communist Party who were to remain in Romania clandestinely. He took part in conspiratorial sessions. He recruited and instructed new members of the communist movement. He received and spread communist propaganda materials and gave instructions regarding the organisation of a Communist Youth of Romania. He refused to declare to us his place of residence, which indicates that in that place there was to be found an important stock of materials, instructions, and names of important persons who form part of the leadership of the Communist Movement."
Vincze was held in Caransebeş
Caransebes
Caransebeş is a city in Caraş-Severin County, part of the Banat region in southwestern Romania. It is located at the confluence of the river Timiş with the river Sebeş, the latter coming from the Ţarcu Mountains. To the west, it is in direct contact with the Banat hills...
prison, while his lover Crăciun was serving time in Văcăreşti. Petre Pandrea, a PCR activist who was not arrested, visited him and Crăciun, and later recounted that both detainees had been bastinadoed by the authorities during interrogations. Pandrea also left detail on the couple's wedding in custody, indicating that he and his acquaintance, the Roman Catholic
Roman Catholicism in Romania
The Roman Catholic Church in Romania is a Latin Rite Christian church, part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and Curia in Rome. Its administration is centered in Bucharest, and comprises two archdioceses and four other dioceses...
cleric Vladimir Ghika
Vladimir Ghika
Vladimir Ghika was a prince, diplomat, writer, man of charity and the Romanian minister's nephew Grigore Alexandru Ghika, the last prince of Moldavia. Ghika Vladimir's father was John Gregory Ghika, minister of foriegn affairs of Romania. His brother was Dimitrie I. Ghika...
, were their godparent
Godparent
A godparent, in many denominations of Christianity, is someone who sponsors a child's baptism. A male godparent is a godfather, and a female godparent is a godmother...
s. Later in their life, both Ghika and Pandrea were to be incarcerated by 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...
. In reference to this, Pandrea noted:
"I'm not sorry that I and MonsignorMonsignorMonsignor, pl. monsignori, is the form of address for those members of the clergy of the Catholic Church holding certain ecclesiastical honorific titles. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian monsignore, from the French mon seigneur, meaning "my lord"...
Vladimir Gh[i]ka have later been jailed in the prisons set up by these fiancées and grooms [...]. Gratitude is a rare flower. I have forgiven them and I do not forget."
Released after the King Michael Coup of August 1944, Vincze held a number of positions in the PCR (which soon after became the Romanian Workers' Party, PMR). His name came up in 1944-1946, when 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...
and his inner-PCR faction succeeded in toppling, kidnapping, and ultimately killing their rival Foriş. Among the informal charges brought against Foriş was his alleged attempt to seduce Crăciun during the war years, when she considered herself engaged to Vincze, and of having thus caused her a nervous breakdown
Nervous breakdown
Mental breakdown is a non-medical term used to describe an acute, time-limited phase of a specific disorder that presents primarily with features of depression or anxiety.-Definition:...
which, it was argued, had facilitated her capture by the authorities.
During the period, Vincze was close to the 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...
-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...
-Teohari Georgescu
Teohari Georgescu
Teohari Georgescu was a high-ranking member of the Romanian Communist Party.-Life:Born in Bacău, he was the third of seven children of Constantin and Aneta Georgescu. Georgescu, whose formal education ended after the fourth grade, began his career as an assistant in his father's store...
faction, which competed with Gheorghiu-Dej's grouping. According to politician Gyàrfás Kurkó, Vincze and Luca secretly oversaw the absorption of smaller Hungarian groups into the new Hungarian People's Union
Hungarian People's Union
The Hungarian People's Union was a left-wing political party active in Romania between 1934 and 1953, claiming to represent the Hungarian community...
, a mass organisation which was to function as a close associate of the PMR. On October 5, 1945, he and Luca, together with other communist activists, attended a meeting with representatives of various PCR affiliates, including representatives of the Jewish community
History of the Jews in Romania
The history of Jews in Romania concerns the Jews of Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is nowadays Romanian territory....
. On this occasion, various party activists issued verbal attacks against the main Jewish anti-communist
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
currents — the moderates led by Wilhelm Filderman
Wilhelm Filderman
Wilhelm Filderman was a leader of the Romanian-Jewish community between the two wars and a representative of the Jews in the Romanian parliament....
and the Zionists
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
represented by A. L. Zissu.
Ion Vincze was elected to the Assembly of Deputies
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...
in the 1946 election
Romanian general election, 1946
The Romanian general election of 1946 was a general election held on November 19, 1946, in Romania. Officially, it was carried with 79.86% of the vote by the Romanian Communist Party , its allies inside the Bloc of Democratic Parties , and its associates — the Hungarian People's Union , the...
for the Arad
Arad, Romania
Arad is the capital city of Arad County, in western Romania, in the Crişana region, on the river Mureş.An important industrial center and transportation hub, Arad is also the seat of a Romanian Orthodox archbishop and features two universities, a Romanian Orthodox theological seminary, a training...
electoral district, as a representative of the PCR-led Bloc of Democratic Parties, and served there until 1948. One of his fellow representatives for Arad County
Arad County
Arad is an administrative division of Romania roughly translated into county in the western part of the country on the border with Hungary, mostly in the region of Crişana and few villages in Banat. The administrative center of the county lies in the city of Arad...
was the prominent PCR member 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...
. According to Anton Raţiu and Nicolae Betea, two of Pătrăşcanu's collaborators, the results in that constituency were forged by a group of 40 people (including Belu Zilber and Anton Golopenţia). They stated that the president of the county electoral commission collected the votes from local stations and was required to read them aloud — irrespective of the option expressed, he called out the names of the Bloc's candidates. Nicolae Betea also indicated that the overall results for the Bloc of Democratic Parties in Arad County, officially recorded at 58%, were closer to 20%.
A supplementary member of the PMR Central Committee from February 24, 1948 to December 28, 1955, he was Minister of Forestry in the 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....
cabinet, from April 14, 1948 to November 23, 1949. He was subsequently appointed Romania's Ambassador to the People's Republic of 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...
, at a time when the Hungarian communist politician László Rajk
László Rajk
László Rajk was a Hungarian Communist; politician, former Minister of Interior and former Minister of Foreign Affairs...
was being purged by his rival Mátyás Rákosi
Mátyás Rákosi
Mátyás Rákosi was a Hungarian communist politician. He was born as Mátyás Rosenfeld, in present-day Serbia...
.
According to journalist Pál Bodor, Vincze organized secret meetings between Rákosi and the emerging Romanian leader, Gheorghiu-Dej, which took place in Romania's Bihor County
Bihor County
Bihor is a county of Romania, in Crişana, with capital city at Oradea. Together with Hajdú-Bihar County in Hungary it constitutes the Biharia Euroregion.-Demographics:...
. As a result of these, Gheorghiu-Dej and Rákosi agreed that the Romanian leadership was to arrest and prosecute various ethnic Hungarians who were charged with having supported Rajk's policies. Among these were Gyàrfás Kurkó; Áron Márton
Áron Márton
Áron Márton was the bishop of the Roman Catholic Church in Transylvania during World War II and the communist dictatorship in Romania.-Early life:...
, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Alba Iulia; the urban planner György Sebestyén; and the academics József Méliusz, Lajos Csögör and Edgár Balogh. Pál Bodor believes that Vincze may have played a personal part in the purge.
Vincze returned to Romania soon after, and was Minister of Food Industry from November 23, 1949 to December 15, 1950. He was elected as a deputy to 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...
for the Timişoara-Nord seat in Timişoara Region, and served in that body from 1952 to 1957. In late May 1952, when Luca's fall from power signaled his group's defeat by 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...
and his partisans, Vincze was noted for abruptly ending his association with Pauker. With Alexandru Moghioroş, Iosif Rangheţ, Gheorghe Stoica and others, he attacked Luca's policies in public, leading to his demotion and subsequent arrest.
He became deputy minister at the Ministry of Internal Affairs after May 28, 1952, under Premiers Groza and Gheorghiu-Dej. Promoted to the rank of Major General
Major General
Major general or major-general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. A major general is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the ranks of brigadier and brigadier general...
(general-maior) in the Romanian Armed Forces
Romanian Armed Forces
The Land Forces, Air Force and Naval Forces of Romania are collectively known as the Romanian Armed Forces...
in June 1952, he also served as chief of the Administrative Section of the Central Committee of the Romanian Workers' Party until January 24, 1956.
Ion Vincze was vice-president of the Party Control Commission between December 28, 1955 and July 24, 1965. At the time, the body was led by Dumitru Coliu, who, together with Vincze, engineered a series of inner-PMR inquiries and investigations that relied on denunciations. This came in the wake of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, after criticism of Gheorghiu-Dej had been voiced at home (notably, by Miron Constantinescu
Miron Constantinescu
Miron Constantinescu was a Romanian communist politician, a leading member of the Romanian Communist Party , as well as a Marxist sociologist, historian, academic, and journalist...
and 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...
). During that period, Coliu, Vincze, Petre Borilă
Petre Borila
Petre Borilă was a Romanian communist politician who briefly served as Vice-Premier under the Communist regime...
and Gheorghe Stoica ordered the 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...
to carry out arrests and organise repressive actions. Alongside Gheorghe Apostol
Gheorghe Apostol
Gheorghe Apostol was a Romanian politician, deputy Prime Minister of Romania and a former leader of the Communist Party, noted for his rivalry with Nicolae Ceauşescu.-Early life:...
, Constantin Pîrvulescu
Constantin Pîrvulescu
Constantin Pîrvulescu was a Romanian communist politician, one of the founders of the Romanian Communist Party , and, eventually, an active opponent of Communist Romania's leader Nicolae Ceauşescu...
, Moghioroş and Borilă, Vincze was Gheorghiu-Dej's emissary during renewed discussions with Pauker, when they attempted to make her admit that she was guilty of "deviationism".
In 1968, when the new leadership around 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...
offered concessions to ethnic Hungarian intellectuals, it created a Council of Working People of Magyar Nationality, of which Vincze was named vice-president. Upon selection, he reportedly announced to the community that he was "returning to the womb".
Vincze was also vice-president of the Central Party College from July 24, 1965 to August 12, 1969 and a member of the National Council of Romanian Radio and Television from March 8, 1971. He died in Bucharest.