Lucretiu Patrascanu
Encyclopedia
Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu was a Romania
n communist
politician and leading member of the Communist Party of Romania (PCR), also noted for his activities as a lawyer, sociologist and economist. For a while, he was a professor at Bucharest University
. The author of ample studies of social history
, which expressed Marxist
views, he was at the center of several controversies concerning his attitudes towards nationalism
.
Pătrăşcanu rose to a government position before the end of World War II
and, after having disagreed with Stalinist
tenets on several occasions, eventually came into conflict with the Romanian Communist government
of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
. He became a political prisoner
and was ultimately executed; fourteen years after Pătrăşcanu's death, Romania's new communist leader, Nicolae Ceauşescu
, endorsed his rehabilitation
as part of a change in policy.
to a leading political family, as the son of Poporanist
figure Dumitru D. Pătrăşcanu (Lucreţiu's mother was a scion of the Stoika family of Transylvania
n petty nobility
). He became a Poporanist and later a socialist in his youth, joining the Socialist Party of Romania
in 1919, and working as editor of its newspaper, Socialismul (1921). Professionally, he was educated at the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Law (graduated 1922) and at the University of Leipzig
(earning his PhD
in 1925).
Increasingly radical after the success of the October Revolution
, he was one of the original members of the PCR (known as PCdR at the time) in 1921, Pătrăşcanu and Elek Köblös
were the only two representatives of the group to the 4th Comintern
Congress in Moscow
(November-December 1922) who had been members of the Socialist Party. Alongside the former socialists and the wing of members in exile were Ana
and Marcel Pauker
, both of whom opposed the former socialist group; Ana Pauker was to lead the so-called Muscovite wing of the party after she decided to remain inside the Soviet Union
. Back in Romania, Pătrăşcanu was arrested and imprisoned at Jilava
in 1924 (the year when the party was outlawed); he went on hunger strike
until being relocated to a prison hospital.
At the Kharkiv
Congress of 1928, where he was present under the name Mironov, Pătrăşcanu clashed with the Comintern overseer Bohumír Šmeral
, as well as with many his fellow party members, over the issue of Bessarabia
and Moldovenism
, which was to be passed into a resolution proposing that Greater Romania
was an imperialist
entity. Pătrăşcanu argued:
, and two others, Pătrăşcanu was elected to the Chamber of Deputies
in May 1931 as a candidate for the Workers and Peasants' Bloc, an umbrella group masking the outlawed party. Later in the same year, the 5th Party Congress (held in Soviet exile, at Gorikovo), chose him among the new Central Committee
members — at the moment when Alexander Stefanski rose to the position of general secretary
.
In 1932, he was involved in polemics at the Criterion group, where he and his collaborator Belu Zilber defended a Stalinist
view of Vladimir Lenin
in front of criticism from the right-wing
Mircea Vulcănescu
and Mihail Polihroniade, as well as from the Austromarxist
perspective of Henri H. Stahl
.
Pătrăşcanu again served as the PCdR's representative to the Comintern in 1933, and 1934 (remaining in Moscow until 1935), during which time he is thought to have developed doubts about Stalinism itself. He put these questions aside in order to prioritize opposition to fascism
, and remained active in the PCR. In 1936, he was heading the defense team of PCR members who were facing a much-publicized trial in Craiova
, but was himself denounced as a communist and consequently handed the position to Ion Gheorghe Maurer
.
and, after August 1940, spent time at the Târgu Jiu
internment camp
with Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
and the "prison faction" of the Party (the communists inside Romania, virtually all imprisoned at various stages of the war, as opposed to those who had taken refuge inside the Soviet Union).
Like his fellow activist Scarlat Callimachi
, he was set free by the National Legionary Government
— at a time when the fascist Iron Guard
, who allied Romania with Nazi Germany
, was trying to preserve good relations with the Soviet Union. He subsequently followed orders from Teohari Georgescu
to re-create a defunct outlet of the party, the cultural society Amicii URSS
("Friends of the USSR").
In 1941, following the Legionary Rebellion
, he was again arrested by the regime of Conducător
Ion Antonescu
. After a release from camp for health reasons in 1943, he was under house arrest
in Poiana Ţapului; allowed to settle in Bucharest
later in that year, he remained under supervision in May 1944.
Michael I
's court between 1942 and 1944, who mediated an agreement between the monarch and the Communists regarding a pro-Allied
move to overthrow Antonescu and withdraw Romania, which was fighting the Soviets on the Eastern Front
, from the Axis
.
Pătrăşcanu (together with Emil Bodnăraş
, who maintained links with the Soviets) represented the Communist Party during the clandestine talks with the National Liberal
and National Peasants'
parties, aimed at overthrowing the Antonescu dictatorship. Corneliu Coposu
, who had friendly contacts with Pătrăşcanu at the time, attested that the latter had been selected by the Soviets as representative of the Communists (during negotiations in Cairo
, Nikolai Novikov, the Soviet ambassador to Egypt
, had reportedly first mentioned Pătrăşcanu's name to Barbu Ştirbey
for further contacts). It was also at this time that Gheorghiu-Dej and Bodnăraş, together with Constantin Pîrvulescu
and Iosif Rangheţ, toppled the general secretary Ştefan Foriş
, and assumed leadership of the party (Gheorghiu-Dej had probably attracted Pătrăşcanu's support for the planned move as early as 1943).
According to Mocsony Stârcea, Pătrăşcanu was responsible for a compromise between the Communist Party and institutions of the Romanian monarchy
(allegedly assuring the king that it was not his party's intent to proclaim a republic without a previous referendum
on the matter). Coposu also stated that, through Pătrăşcanu, the Communist Party had entered negotiations with the other opposition groups with the pledge of having abandoned its previous theses regarding the Romanian state.
at the Royal Palace
in Bucharest, during the August 23 Coup (1944). Pătrăşcanu authored the proclamation to the country which the King read on National Radio
immediately after the coup, and, confronting the new Premier Constantin Sănătescu
, imposed himself as a PCR representative on the delegation that signed Romania's armistice
with the Soviets, on September 12, 1944. Present in Moscow
, he contacted Ana Pauker
and Vasile Luca
through their overseer Andrey Vyshinsky
, reestablishing communication between the two major sections of the PCR. Pătrăşcanu joined the Central Committee
in 1945—after having returned to Romania with the Red Army
late in 1944—and was largely responsible for the success his party had in controlling Romania's legal framework for the following years.
During Soviet occupation
, he served on the Politburo
from 1946 to 1947 and held power in the new governments, as Minister without Portfolio
(1944) and Minister of Justice (1944–1948). Pătrăşcanu, who probably attempted to become general secretary
early in 1944 (before Gheorghiu-Dej secured the position for himself), was considered leader of the party's Secretariat Communists (perceived as less willing to follow Stalin's directions).
After the ascension of the Petru Groza
government, Pătrăşcanu was also one of the initiators of purges and persecutions, being responsible for dismissing and arresting members of the civil service
who were considered suspect, for the creation of the Romanian People's Tribunals
, as well as the appointment of prosecutors (promoting Avram Bunaciu
, Constanţa Crăciun, and Alexandra Sidorovici).
Citing a statement by Pătrăşcanu rendered by The New York Times
, British
Trotskyist
commentator Tony Cliff
extended his critique of the people's democracies
of the Eastern Bloc
to the realm of justice systems and retribution for war crime
s. According to the American
newspaper, Pătrăşcanu had reassured media that "industrialists, businessmen and hankers will escape punishment as war criminals"; Cliff also argued that the new course in justice had failed to alter what he saw as Romania's "bureaucratic
and militarist
character".
Pătrăşcanu put pressure on King Michael to sign legislation that went against the letter of the 1923 Constitution
, which contributed to the latter's decision to initiate the "royal strike" (a refusal to countersign documents issued by the Groza executive).
, a collaborator of Gheorghiu-Dej's, later expressed a particular view on the matter of Pătrăşcanu's relations with the rest of the party:
Around February 1945, he began to fear the possibility that Emil Bodnăraş
was planning his assassination and that he intended to blame it on political opponents of the Communist Party (as a means to direct sympathy towards the latter group). He suspected that Bodnăraş had chosen to back Gheorghiu-Dej (allegedly fearing that Pătrăşcanu was betraying the fragile alliance established before the fall of Ştefan Foriş
). Consequently, he attempted to block Bodnăraş' rise to power, and denounced his reputedly corrupt
activities as Secretary in the Interior Ministry to the to other members of the leadership.
Historiography is divided over the possibility of Pătrăşcanu having initially allied himself with the PCR's second in command, Ana Pauker
, in her post-war confrontation with Gheorghiu-Dej. It is apparent that Pătrăşcanu was alarmed by Pauker's close cooperation with Soviet overseers, and especially by her tight connection with Dmitry Manuilsky
; it was also contended that Pauker was intrigued by Pătrăşcanu's self-promotion in front of Soviet overseers during late 1944.
Although, overall, Pătrăşcanu was argued to have been much less revolutionary-minded than various other PCR ideologues, his original perspective on Marxism
remained strongly connected with party doctrine in its most essential points (including his intense advocacy of collectivization, using statistics to point out the existence of a class of chiaburi - the Romanian
equivalent of the Soviet kulak
s). He showed himself surprised when informed that the Soviet Union had planned a rapid communization of the country, and dismissed Vasile Luca
and Pauker's vocal support for the latter policy. Instead, he argued in favor of "making a distinction inside the bourgeoisie
", and opening the Communist Party to collaboration with the National Liberal Party
. Based on this, he denounced Pauker's agreement with Gheorghe Tătărescu
's National Liberal dissidence (the National Liberal Party-Tătărescu, which he called "a gang of con artists
, blackmail
ers, and well-known bribers").
A serious break with the party line occurred in early 1946, when Pătrăşcanu decided to take initiative and intervened in the standoff between King
Michael I
and the Petru Groza
executive (an episode colloquially known as greva regală - "the royal strike
"); with the help of Lena Constante
, he approached the anti-communist
figures Victor Rădulescu-Pogoneanu and Grigore Niculescu-Buzeşti
, calling on them to convince the monarch to resume communications with his government.
, he was actively involved in the PCR's electoral campaign in Transylvania
, and, after drought
and famine
surfaced in several other areas of Romania, he attempted to persuade the peasants of Arad County
to sell their wheat harvest to the government, to be used as aid. Received with suspicion, he later reported that he had eventually been able to carry out the task.
Responding to Hungarian-Romanian clashes, Pătrăşcanu gave a speech in the city of Cluj
, one in which he attempted to identify communism and patriotism
. It stated:
He ran for the position of deputy
in Arad County, and won through various electoral fraud
s (in Arad's case, forty inspectors nominated by the government had sole control over counting and recording the results).
Pătrăşcanu soon received harsh criticism from Gheorghiu-Dej, who branded the views expressed as "chauvinism
" and "revisionism
". In parallel, the National Peasants' Party
, as the main force opposing the PCR, published praises of Pătrăşcanu in its paper Dreptatea
, until Pătrăşcanu met with the editor, Nicolae Carandino
, and explained that such articles were harming his image inside the Communist Party. Nevertheless, Pătrăşcanu's writings of the time show that, in contrast with his 1928 point of view, he had largely accommodated Leninist
principles regarding the national issue and Bessarabia
n topics, although he used more neutral terms than the ones present in official propaganda
, and was known to have deplored the unwillingness of the PCR to reduce and refine its internationalist
policies.
, and, in fact, one of the signatories of the Peace Treaty with Romania. According to Belu Zilber, during this time, he read Arthur Koestler
's Darkness at Noon
(a glimpse into forced confession
s alluding to the 1936-1937 Moscow Trials
, the book was banned throughout the Eastern Bloc
). The attitudes he expressed in Paris
were considered nationalist
by his Soviet overseers, and he himself complained to Gheorghiu-Dej about the party's suspicion surrounding his diplomatic activities.
He was progressively marginalized inside the Party: his texts became subject to censorship
and, on public occasions, his name was mentioned after those of less significant politicians. The Communist press virtually ceased referring to Pătrăşcanu as "comrade
", and used instead the more distant formula "Professor Pătrăşcanu", at the same time as Gheorghiu-Dej's speeches on combating internal currents of the Party. The VIth Party Congress in February 1948 did not confirm his Central Committee membership, and in the months following the event, he was removed from government office.
Belu Zilber claimed that, having himself been subject to suspicion and marginalization, he had attempted to warn Pătrăşcanu of the change in climate, and had asked him to consider fleeing the Eastern Bloc — only to be stiffly refused. Zilber was eventually arrested in February 1948, on suspicion that he had been a Siguranţa Statului agent infiltrating the party.
, Alexandru Drăghici, and Iosif Rangheţ; interrogations were occasionally attended by Gheorghiu-Dej. His file indicates that the secret police
(which was soon to become the Securitate
) had been keeping him under surveillance from as early as the summer of 1946.
In the fall of 1949, Gheorghiu-Dej (apparently contradicting the committee's conclusions) ordered Pătrăşcanu's transfer into the custody of the Secret Service of the Council of Ministers (SSI) under the provisional charge that Pătrăşcanu had not reported various political crimes. A report on "Titoism
" and collaboration with the maverick Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
was presented to the Cominform
: it placed Pătrăşcanu, the Hungarian Republic
's László Rajk
, and Bulgaria's Traicho Kostov
in the same camp, as "imperialist
agents" (see Tito-Stalin split
, Informbiro
). The investigation also implicated Remus Koffler, who had been imprisoned in 1944, during the confrontation between Gheorghiu-Dej and Ştefan Foriş
.
The day after the SSI began its inquiry, Pătrăşcanu attempted suicide by slitting his veins with a smuggled razor blade; upon his recovery, he tried to take his life a second time by swallowing an overdose of sleeping pills.
It was in 1951 that Pătrăşcanu responded to the charges voiced by Gheorghiu-Dej after the Cluj incident, indicating that he had attempted to "answer to the [Hungarian] revisionist
campaign", as well as to aid his party in competing with the appeal of the National Peasants' Party among Romanians in Transylvania (to "take the weapon that was Transylvania away from Maniu
supporters' hands"). He also criticized his own advocacy of a PCR alliance with the National Liberal Party
.
He was accused of having been financed by "bourgeois" figures during the electoral campaign, and even of having been bought by agents of the United States
or of planning, together with Ionel Mocsony Stârcea and Titoist agents, an "imperialist
" insurrection in Săvârşin. The latter allegation also surfaced in the parallel investigations of Koffler and Emil Calmanovici
.
No piece of evidence or confession was provided until after May 1952—that is, after the purge of Ana Pauker
and Teohari Georgescu
, who were accused by the chief Soviet adviser to the Interior Ministry, Alexandr Mihailovich Sakharovskii, of having "sabotaged and postponed investigations" in the Pătrăşcanu case. The Central Committee plenum that purged them assigned the Pătrăşcanu investigation to a team of Securitate officials and their Soviet advisors, directly supervised by Alexandru Drăghici, Alexandru Nicolschi
, and Vladimir Mazuru. In time, authorities also alleged that, before 1944, Pătrăşcanu, like Zilber, had acted as an agent of Siguranţa Statului.
, near Bucharest
, after a show trial
overseen by Iosif Chişinevschi
. It is possible that he was torture
d throughout the questioning conducted on direct orders from the Securitate's Alexandru Drăghici, and he had one leg amputated
for unknown reasons before his trial.
In preparation for the procedures, the Securitate took direct inspiration from the Slánský trials
in Communist Czechoslovakia (where a team of Romanian officers had been sent to take notes) and, possibly, from the Soviet Trial of the Twenty One
(which was allegedly used as template for Calmanovici's fabricated confession).
Pătrăşcanu refused to be represented by a lawyer, and even to organize his own defense. Aside from some outbursts against the prosecutors, he stated:
The actions taken against Pătrăşcanu and others signaled the start of a wave of arrests and prison sentences, including that of his wife, as well as those of Harry Brauner
, Lena Constante
, Petre Pandrea (who was Pătrăşcanu's brother-in-law), Herant Torosian, Mocsony Stârcea, Calmanovici, Victoria Sârbu (who had been Ştefan Foriş
' lover), and Alexandru Ştefănescu. In preparation for the trial, the Securitate organized violent interrogations of political detainees (among others, the National Peasant Party's Corneliu Coposu
and the Liberal politician Bebe Brătianu) or suspects (Gheorghe Tătărescu
, who testified against Pătrăşcanu and was the target of a sharp rebuke from the latter).
Belu Zilber, the first of the group to give in to Securitate pressures and confessed to the charges, was verbally attacked by Pătrăşcanu inside the courthouse — Pătrăşcanu notably accused him of having invented the entire conspiracy account. Records of their various interrogations show that both he and Calmanovici identified Emil Bodnăraş
as the main instigator of their downfall.
in April 1968 by Nicolae Ceauşescu
, in the latter's attempt to discredit his predecessors and establish his own legitimacy. The main target of this campaign, as indicated by a Central Committee resolution, was Drăghici:
A party committee which included Ion Popescu-Puţuri investigated the matter of his arrest and interrogation, concluding that evidence against Pătrăşcanu was fabricated, that he had been systematically beaten and otherwise ill-treated, and that a confession had been prepared for him to sign. This was coupled with various irregularities in procedures (such as the court having been given only 24 hours to assess evidence from years of investigation, and the death penalty having been decided by the party leadership before being imposed on the panel of judges). Evidence was also presented that some of the false confessions were designed as political weapons in internal party struggles (implicating names of politicians who were not facing trial at the time).
At the Party Plenum in late April 1968, Ceauşescu used Pătrăşcanu's case and other ones to single out the negative influence of Drăghici and Iosif Chişinevschi
, while also placing suspicion on Emil Bodnăraş
and Gheorghe Apostol
, who had approved of Pătrăşcanu's purge. All of them were required to express "self-criticism
", while Gheorghiu-Dej was condemned for having "initiated and overseen" the measures.
Ceauşescu profited on the enduring perception of Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu's activities as patriotic and verging on dissidence, while shadowing his fundamental role in the creation of the new penal system in Romania. In fact, although he was frequently quoted and displayed by the regime, Pătrăşcanu's life was usually described in brief and vague sentences. In popular discourse, Pătrăşcanu was also largely identified with positive causes, and remained among the most popular Communist figures after the Romanian Revolution of 1989
toppled the regime.
with his sociological training, producing an original outlook on social evolution (focusing on major trends in Romanian society from the time of the Danubian Principalities
to his day).
Aside from its support for communist tenets, his work shared many characteristics with the prominent currents of the Romanian sociological school (notably, the attention paid to prevailing social contrasts in a peasant-dominated environment), and made occasional use of material provided by Dimitrie Gusti
's comprehensive surveys.
and Wallachia
had forsaken feudalism
by the mid 18th century, maintaining instead a form of serfdom
which had not been affected by the reforms of Hospodar
Constantine Mavrocordatos
. He argued that, whereas feudalism was supported by metayage
, legislation passed by Mavrocordatos had endorsed and prolonged corvée
s, a system consecrated in the 1830s by the new Organic Statute
. In his view, capitalism
had manifested itself mainly as a reactionary
force inside Romanian economy during the time of Phanariote
rules — thus, despite characteristic underdevelopment
(which he also noted), the local economy had not contrasted with the stages postulated by Marxian economics
.
Pătrăşcanu contended that the first relevant social conflict had occurred in 1821, at the time of Tudor Vladimirescu
's Wallachian uprising
. He rejected the notion that, despite Vladimirescu's statements to the contrary, the rebellion had a peasant character, and argued instead that it was evidence of low-ranking boyars and merchants ("the embryo of a class
, that was to become the bourgeoisie
") attempting to emancipate themselves from Ottoman
pressures. In his view, its nationalist
character (see Rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire
) had been manipulated by high-ranking boyars as a measure to dissuade adverse reactions to privilege
s.
, the most successful of similar revolts at the time, was, according to Pătrăşcanu, a mature reaction of bourgeois circles against boyar supremacy ("it only sought [...] to replace a [privileged] minority with another"), but was generally not opposed to preserving an estate
-based economy. He similarly rejected Junimea
s traditional criticism of post-1848 realities, indicating that, in its theory of "forms without substance", the group had failed to note that, as a means to preserve several conservative
tenets, Westernization
in Romania had willingly, and not accidentally, adopted an incomplete form.
In analyzing the history of liberalism and radicalism in Romania
, he concluded that many of the most extreme social reformists had rallied in opposition to land reform
(he saw this phenomenon as having made possible the toppling of Romania's Domnitor
Alexander John Cuza
, whom he saw as a supporter of industrialization). He extended this criticism to socialist
groups other than his own, arguing that the prevalent reformism
was "the cult of legalism
".
These views placed Pătrăşcanu in opposition to other left-wing authors in Romania — namely, the influential Poporanists
, most of whom had emphasized various contradictions between the Marxian model and local realities, using Junimeas theory as a fundament (aside from Pătrăşcanu's own father, these included his contemporary Virgil Madgearu
and, to a certain degree, the Marxist Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
). In parallel, Pătrăşcanu's theories were in sharp contrast with those held by advocates of economic liberalism
, and especially with Ştefan Zeletin's.
, Romania had become subject to "primitive accumulation of capital
", where the role of colonialism
was taken by exploitation of the peasantry. Like Madgearu, he appealed to the works of Rudolf Hilferding
, but used them as a basis to argue that foreign capital
was being accumulated inside Romania, and only transferred further through a limited number of industries. The Marxist historian Henri H. Stahl
has challenged this particular thesis, calling it "highly questionable".
While endorsing some aspects of Dobrogeanu-Gherea's theories regarding the ways in which serfdom was allegedly prolonged, in a discreet form, even after the 20th century, Pătrăşcanu challenged his refusal to investigate the effects of capitalism in rural areas. According to Pătrăşcanu, the establishment of estate leaseholders
, which he viewed as the cause for the 1907 revolt
and other, more minor, peasant rebellions, was not a sign of prolonged feudalism, but one of capitalist penetration into agriculture. Contradicting the Social Democratic
ideologists Lothar Rădăceanu
and Şerban Voinea (whom he accused of having lost contact with the working class
), Pătrăşcanu theorized that the Romanian petite bourgeoisie
was shrinking under pressure from successful capitalists, while rejecting the notion that civil servants belonged to the middle class
.
Arguing in favor of a Romanian communist society during the late 1940s, Pătrăşcanu indicated a series of essential steps to this goal: after discarding all legislation passed by the Ion Antonescu
regime and purging the administrative apparatus, a political amnesty
was to be declared, all properties upwards of 50 hectare
s were to be confiscated, the National Bank passed into state property while trade union
s came under government supervision and a new labour code
was enforced, and civil liberties
were enhanced. Ultimately, a new people's democratic
government was to be imposed, removing all forms of antisemitism and chauvinism
from public discourse and preserving good relations with the Soviet Union
. Polemically, Pătrăşcanu theorized that all these steps were "democratic-bourgeois
", and not socialist in their essence.
The arguably most influential of Pătrăşcanu's writings remains his analysis of the Romanian intelligentsia
, part of Probleme de bază ale României. Transcending Leninist rhetoric, the work postulates a characteristic inability of Romanian intellectual
s in sacrificing petty politics for the common good
, and argues that Romanian elite
s, while in subservience to the State, have traditionally been attracted to extremism
. On one instance in 1945, when theorizing about "intellectual déclassés
", he proposed their "neutralization and systematic supervision".
, by the Ţăndărică Theater in Bucharest). Elena, who was Jewish, avoided the first wave of official anti-Semitic
persecutions at the end of the 1930s (under the Octavian Goga
government) by converting to the Romanian Orthodox Church
(she was baptized
by the socialist sympathiser Gala Galaction
).
Elena Pătrăşcanu was also a party activist, and was instrumental in maintaining links between her husband and other Communist leaders during the early stages of World War II. Implicated in the trial and forced to testify against Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu, she was given eight years in prison.
The Pătrăşcanus had no children.
and filmed, in 1971, by Manole Marcus), centers on the character Petrescu, largely based on Pătrăşcanu, who is persecuted by the party secretary Pavel Stoian (a disguised reference to Gheorghiu-Dej), while living to see his hopes for a better future fulfilled by Mihai Duma (standing for Ceauşescu). For a while after its publication, Puterea şi adevărul was translated into several languages and used as official propaganda
in cultural contacts with the outside world.
In his 1993 film The Mirror
(Începutul adevărului, also known as Oglinda), Sergiu Nicolaescu
cast Şerban Ionescu as Pătrăşcanu.
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 leading member of the Communist Party of Romania (PCR), also noted for his activities as a lawyer, sociologist and economist. For a while, he was a professor at Bucharest University
University of Bucharest
The University of Bucharest , in Romania, is a university founded in 1864 by decree of Prince Alexander John Cuza to convert the former Saint Sava Academy into the current University of Bucharest.-Presentation:...
. The author of ample studies of social history
Social history
Social history, often called the new social history, is a branch of History that includes history of ordinary people and their strategies of coping with life. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in history departments...
, which expressed 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...
views, he was at the center of several controversies concerning his attitudes towards 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...
.
Pătrăşcanu rose to a government position before the end of 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...
and, after having disagreed with 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...
tenets on several occasions, eventually came into conflict with 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...
of 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...
. He became a 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’....
and was ultimately executed; fourteen years after Pătrăşcanu's death, Romania's new communist leader, 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...
, endorsed his 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...
as part of a change in policy.
Early life
Pătrăşcanu was born in BacăuBacau
Bacău is the main city in Bacău County, Romania. It covers a land surface of 43 km², and, as of January 1, 2009, has an estimated population of 177,087. The city is situated in the historical region of Moldavia, at the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, and on the Bistriţa River...
to a leading political family, as the son of Poporanist
Poporanism
The word “poporanism” is derived from “popor”, meaning “people” in the Romanian language. The ideology of Romanian Populism and poporanism are interchangeable. Founded by Constantin Stere in the early 1890s, populism is distinguished by its opposition to socialism, promotion of voting rights for...
figure Dumitru D. Pătrăşcanu (Lucreţiu's mother was a scion of the Stoika family of 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...
n petty nobility
Petty nobility
Petty nobility is dated at least back to 13th century and was formed by Nobles/Knights around their strategic interests. The idea was more capable peasants with leader roles in local community that were given tax exemption for taking care of services like for example guard duties of local primitive...
). He became a Poporanist and later a socialist in his youth, joining 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...
in 1919, and working as editor of its newspaper, Socialismul (1921). Professionally, he was educated at the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Law (graduated 1922) and at the University of Leipzig
University of Leipzig
The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...
(earning his PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in 1925).
Increasingly radical after the success of 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...
, he was one of the original members of the PCR (known as PCdR at the time) in 1921, Pătrăşcanu and Elek Köblös
Elek Köblös
Elek Köblös was an Austro-Hungarian-born Hungarian and Romania communist activist and political leader. He was also known by the pseudonyms Balthazar, Bădulescu, and Dănilă.-Early years:...
were the only two representatives of the group to the 4th 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...
Congress 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...
(November-December 1922) who had been members of the Socialist Party. Alongside the former socialists and the wing of members in exile were Ana
Ana Pauker
Ana Pauker was a Romanian communist leader and served as the country's foreign minister in the late 1940s and early 1950s...
and Marcel Pauker
Marcel Pauker
Marcel Pauker was a Romanian communist militant and husband of the future Romanian Communist leader Ana Pauker....
, both of whom opposed the former socialist group; Ana Pauker was to lead the so-called Muscovite wing of the party after she decided to remain inside 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....
. Back in Romania, Pătrăşcanu was arrested and imprisoned at Jilava
Jilava
Jilava is a commune in Ilfov county, Romania, near Bucharest. It is composed of a single village, Jilava.The name derives from a Romanian word of Slavic origin meaning "humid place". Jilava was the location of a fort built by King Carol I of Romania, as part of the capital's defense system...
in 1924 (the year when the party was outlawed); he went on 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...
until being relocated to a prison hospital.
At the Kharkiv
Kharkiv
Kharkiv or Kharkov is the second-largest city in Ukraine.The city was founded in 1654 and was a major centre of Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire. Kharkiv became the first city in Ukraine where the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in December 1917 and Soviet government was...
Congress of 1928, where he was present under the name Mironov, Pătrăşcanu clashed with the Comintern overseer Bohumír Šmeral
Bohumír Šmeral
Bohumír Šmeral was a Czech politician, leader of the social democracy and one of founders of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.-Early life:...
, as well as with many his fellow party members, over the issue of 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....
and Moldovenism
Moldovenism
Moldovenism is a political term used to refer to the support and promotion of the Moldovan identity and Moldovan culture.Some of its supporters ascribe this identity to the medieval Principality of Moldavia...
, which was to be passed into a resolution proposing that 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...
was an imperialist
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
entity. Pătrăşcanu argued:
"MoldovansMoldovansMoldovans or Moldavians are the largest population group of Moldova...
are not a nation apart and — from a historical and geographical point of view — Moldovans are the same RomaniansRomaniansThe Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
as the Romanians in MoldaviaMoldaviaMoldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...
[on the right bank of the Prut River]. Thus, I believe that the introduction of such a false point renders the resolution itself false."
1930s
With Imre Aladar, Eugen RozvanEugen 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:...
, and two others, Pătrăşcanu 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...
in May 1931 as a candidate for the Workers and Peasants' Bloc, an umbrella group masking the outlawed party. Later in the same year, the 5th Party Congress (held in Soviet exile, at Gorikovo), chose him among the new 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...
members — at the moment when Alexander Stefanski rose to the position of general secretary
General secretary
-International intergovernmental organizations:-International nongovernmental organizations:-Sports governing bodies:...
.
In 1932, he was involved in polemics at the Criterion group, where he and his collaborator Belu Zilber defended a 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...
view of 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...
in front of criticism from the right-wing
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
Mircea Vulcănescu
Mircea Vulcanescu
Mircea Vulcănescu was a prominent Romanian philosopher, economist, ethics teacher and sociologist.-Biography:He studied philosophy and law at the University of Bucharest, graduating in 1925...
and Mihail Polihroniade, as well as from the Austromarxist
Austromarxism
Austromarxism was a Marxist theoretical current, led by Victor Adler, Otto Bauer, Karl Renner and Max Adler, members of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria during the late decades of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the First Austrian Republic...
perspective of Henri H. Stahl
Henri H. Stahl
Henri H. Stahl was a Romanian Marxist cultural anthropologist, ethnographer, sociologist, and social historian.-Biography:...
.
Pătrăşcanu again served as the PCdR's representative to the Comintern in 1933, and 1934 (remaining in Moscow until 1935), during which time he is thought to have developed doubts about Stalinism itself. He put these questions aside in order to prioritize opposition to fascism
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...
, and remained active in the PCR. In 1936, he was heading the defense team of PCR members who were facing a much-publicized trial in Craiova
Craiova
Craiova , Romania's 6th largest city and capital of Dolj County, is situated near the east bank of the river Jiu in central Oltenia. It is a longstanding political center, and is located at approximately equal distances from the Southern Carpathians and the River Danube . Craiova is the chief...
, but was himself denounced as a communist and consequently handed the position to Ion Gheorghe Maurer
Ion Gheorghe Maurer
Ion Gheorghe Iosif Maurer was a Romanian communist politician and lawyer.-Biography:Born in Bucharest to a Saxon father and a Romanian mother of French origin, he completed studies in Law and became an attorney, defending in court members of the illegal leftist and Anti-fascist movements...
.
World War II imprisonment
Pătrăşcanu was imprisoned during World War IIWorld 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...
and, after August 1940, spent time at the Târgu Jiu
Târgu Jiu
Târgu Jiu is the capital of Gorj County, Oltenia, Romania. It is situated on the Southern Sub-Carpathians, on the banks of the river Jiu. Eight villages are administered by the city: Bârseşti, Drăgoeni, Iezureni, Polata, Preajba Mare, Româneşti, Slobozia and Ursaţi.-History:The city takes its name...
internment camp
Internment
Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the meaning as: "The action of 'interning'; confinement within the limits of a country or place." Most modern usage is about individuals, and there is a distinction...
with 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 the "prison faction" of the Party (the communists inside Romania, virtually all imprisoned at various stages of the war, as opposed to those who had taken refuge inside the Soviet Union).
Like his fellow activist Scarlat Callimachi
Scarlat Callimachi (communist activist)
Scarlat Callimachi or Calimachi was a Romanian journalist, essayist, futurist poet, trade unionist, and communist activist, a member of the Callimachi family of boyar and Phanariote lineage...
, he was set free by the National Legionary Government
National Legionary State
The National Legionary State was the Romanian government from September 6, 1940 to January 23, 1941. It was a single-party regime dictatorship dominated by the overtly fascist Iron Guard in uneasy conjunction with the head of government and Conducător Ion Antonescu, the leader of the Romanian...
— at a time when the fascist Iron Guard
Iron Guard
The Iron Guard is the name most commonly given to a far-right movement and political party in Romania in the period from 1927 into the early part of World War II. The Iron Guard was ultra-nationalist, fascist, anti-communist, and promoted the Orthodox Christian faith...
, who allied Romania with Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, was trying to preserve good relations with the Soviet Union. He subsequently followed orders from 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...
to re-create a defunct outlet of the party, the cultural society Amicii URSS
Amicii URSS
Amicii URSS was a cultural association in interwar Romania, uniting left-wing and anti-fascist intellectuals who advocated a détente between their country and Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union Amicii URSS (Romanian for "[The] Friends of the Soviet Union"; , occasionally known as Prietenii URSS , which...
("Friends of the USSR").
In 1941, following the Legionary Rebellion
Legionnaires' Rebellion and Bucharest Pogrom
The Legionnaires' rebellion and the Bucharest pogrom occurred in Bucharest, Romania, between 21 and 23 January 1941.As the privileges of the Iron Guard were being cut off by Conducător Ion Antonescu, members of the Iron Guard, also known as the Legionnaires, revolted...
, he was again arrested by the regime of Conducător
Conducator
Conducător was the title used officially in two instances by Romanian politicians, and earlier by Carol II.-History:...
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...
. After a release from camp for health reasons in 1943, he was under house arrest
House arrest
In justice and law, house arrest is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to his or her residence. Travel is usually restricted, if allowed at all...
in Poiana Ţapului; allowed to settle 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....
later in that year, he remained under supervision in May 1944.
1944 negotiations and the fall of Foriş
In April, Pătrăşcanu was contacted by Ionel Mocsony Stârcea, baron de Foen, marshal of KingKing 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....
Michael I
Michael I of Romania
Michael was the last King of Romania. He reigned from 20 July 1927 to 8 June 1930, and again from 6 September 1940 until 30 December 1947 when he was forced, by the Communist Party of Romania , to abdicate to the Soviet armies of occupation...
's court between 1942 and 1944, who mediated an agreement between the monarch and the Communists regarding a pro-Allied
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
move to overthrow Antonescu and withdraw Romania, which was fighting the Soviets on the Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
, from the Axis
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
.
Pătrăşcanu (together with Emil Bodnăraş
Emil Bodnaras
Emil Bodnăraş was an influential Romanian Communist politician, an army officer, and a Soviet agent...
, who maintained links with the Soviets) represented the Communist Party during the clandestine talks with the National Liberal
National Liberal Party (Romania)
The National Liberal Party , abbreviated to PNL, is a centre-right liberal party in Romania. It is the third-largest party in the Romanian Parliament, with 53 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 22 in the Senate: behind the centre-right Democratic Liberal Party and the centre-left Social...
and National Peasants'
National Peasants' Party
The National Peasants' Party was a Romanian political party, formed in 1926 through the fusion of the Romanian National Party from Transylvania and the Peasants' Party . It was in power between 1928 and 1933, with brief interruptions...
parties, aimed at overthrowing the Antonescu dictatorship. Corneliu Coposu
Corneliu Coposu
-Early life:Coposu was born in Bobota, Sălaj County to the Romanian Greek-Catholic archpriest Valentin Coposu and his wife Aurelia Coposu...
, who had friendly contacts with Pătrăşcanu at the time, attested that the latter had been selected by the Soviets as representative of the Communists (during negotiations in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, Nikolai Novikov, the Soviet ambassador to Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, had reportedly first mentioned Pătrăşcanu's name to Barbu Ştirbey
Barbu Stirbey
Prince Barbu Ştirbey was briefly Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Romania in 1927. He was the son of Prince Alexandru Ştirbey and his wife Maria Ghika-Comăneşti, and grandson of another Barbu Dimitrie Ştirbey , who was Prince of Wallachia and died in 1869.He married Princess Nadèje Bibescu about...
for further contacts). It was also at this time that Gheorghiu-Dej and Bodnăraş, together with 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...
and Iosif Rangheţ, toppled the general secretary 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....
, and assumed leadership of the party (Gheorghiu-Dej had probably attracted Pătrăşcanu's support for the planned move as early as 1943).
According to Mocsony Stârcea, Pătrăşcanu was responsible for a compromise between the Communist Party and institutions of the Romanian monarchy
Kingdom of Romania
The Kingdom of Romania was the Romanian state based on a form of parliamentary monarchy between 13 March 1881 and 30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania...
(allegedly assuring the king that it was not his party's intent to proclaim a republic without a previous referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
on the matter). Coposu also stated that, through Pătrăşcanu, the Communist Party had entered negotiations with the other opposition groups with the pledge of having abandoned its previous theses regarding the Romanian state.
August 23 and government position
The collaboration led to the arrest of Ion Antonescu and Mihai AntonescuMihai Antonescu
Mihai Antonescu was a Romanian politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister during World War II.-Early career:...
at the Royal Palace
National Museum of Art of Romania
The National Museum of Art of Romania is located in the former royal palace in Revolution Square, central Bucharest, Romania, completed in 1937...
in Bucharest, during the August 23 Coup (1944). Pătrăşcanu authored the proclamation to the country which the King read on National Radio
Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company
The Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company , informally referred to as Radio Romania , is the public radio broadcaster in Romania. It operates four national radio channels, and, under the Radio România Regional umbrella, eleven regional radio stations. The four national radio channels are: Radio...
immediately after the coup, and, confronting the new Premier Constantin Sănătescu
Constantin Sanatescu
Constantin Sănătescu was a Romanian statesman who served as the first Prime Minister of Romania after the August 23, 1944 coup, through which Romania left the Axis Powers and joined the Allies....
, imposed himself as a PCR representative on the delegation that signed Romania's armistice
Armistice
An armistice is a situation in a war where the warring parties agree to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, but may be just a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace...
with the Soviets, on September 12, 1944. Present 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...
, he contacted 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...
and 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...
through their overseer Andrey Vyshinsky
Andrey Vyshinsky
Andrey Januaryevich Vyshinsky – 22 November 1954) was a Soviet politician, jurist and diplomat.He is known as a state prosecutor of Joseph Stalin's Moscow trials and in the Nuremberg trials. He was the Soviet Foreign Minister from 1949 to 1953, after having served as Deputy Foreign...
, reestablishing communication between the two major sections of the PCR. Pătrăşcanu joined 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...
in 1945—after having returned to Romania with the 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...
late in 1944—and was largely responsible for the success his party had in controlling Romania's legal framework for the following years.
During Soviet occupation
Soviet occupation of Romania
The Soviet occupation of Romania refers to the period from 1944 to August 1958, during which the Soviet Union maintained a significant military presence in Romania...
, he served on the Politburo
Politburo
Politburo , literally "Political Bureau [of the Central Committee]," is the executive committee for a number of communist political parties.-Marxist-Leninist states:...
from 1946 to 1947 and held power in the new governments, as Minister without Portfolio
Minister without Portfolio
A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister that does not head a particular ministry...
(1944) and Minister of Justice (1944–1948). Pătrăşcanu, who probably attempted to become general secretary
General secretary
-International intergovernmental organizations:-International nongovernmental organizations:-Sports governing bodies:...
early in 1944 (before Gheorghiu-Dej secured the position for himself), was considered leader of the party's Secretariat Communists (perceived as less willing to follow Stalin's directions).
After the ascension of 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....
government, Pătrăşcanu was also one of the initiators of purges and persecutions, being responsible for dismissing and arresting members of the civil service
Civil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
who were considered suspect, for the creation of the Romanian People's Tribunals
Romanian People's Tribunals
The two Romanian People's Tribunals , the Bucharest People's Tribunal and the Northern Transylvania People's Tribunal were set up by the post-World War II government of Romania, overseen by the Allied Control Commission to try suspected war criminals, in line with Article 14 of the Armistice...
, as well as the appointment of prosecutors (promoting Avram Bunaciu
Avram Bunaciu
Avram Bunaciu was a Romanian communist politician who served as the Minister of Justice, Minister of Foreign Affairs and was the acting President of the State Council of Romania.-Early life:...
, Constanţa Crăciun, and Alexandra Sidorovici).
Citing a statement by Pătrăşcanu rendered by The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Trotskyist
Trotskyism
Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...
commentator Tony Cliff
Tony Cliff
Tony Cliff , was a Trotskyist who was a founding member of the Socialist Review Group which went on to become the Socialist Workers Party...
extended his critique of the people's democracies
People's Republic
People's Republic is a title that has often been used by Marxist-Leninist governments to describe their state. The motivation for using this term lies in the claim that Marxist-Leninists govern in accordance with the interests of the vast majority of the people, and, as such, a Marxist-Leninist...
of the Eastern Bloc
Eastern bloc
The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...
to the realm of justice systems and retribution for war crime
War crime
War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...
s. According to the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
newspaper, Pătrăşcanu had reassured media that "industrialists, businessmen and hankers will escape punishment as war criminals"; Cliff also argued that the new course in justice had failed to alter what he saw as Romania's "bureaucratic
Bureaucracy
A bureaucracy is an organization of non-elected officials of a governmental or organization who implement the rules, laws, and functions of their institution, and are occasionally characterized by officialism and red tape.-Weberian bureaucracy:...
and militarist
Militarism
Militarism is defined as: the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests....
character".
Pătrăşcanu put pressure on King Michael to sign legislation that went against the letter of the 1923 Constitution
1923 Constitution of Romania
The 1923 Constitution of Romania, also called the Constitution of Union, was intended to align the organisation of the state on the basis of universal male suffrage and the new realities that arose after the Great Union of 1918. Four draft constitutions existed: one belonging to the National...
, which contributed to the latter's decision to initiate the "royal strike" (a refusal to countersign documents issued by the Groza executive).
Early conflicts with the party
During the late 1940s, he is thought to have begun expressing his opposition to strict Stalinist guidelines; at the same time, Pătrăşcanu had become suspect to the rest of the party leadership for his intellectual approach to socialism. Gheorghe ApostolGheorghe 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:...
, a collaborator of Gheorghiu-Dej's, later expressed a particular view on the matter of Pătrăşcanu's relations with the rest of the party:
"He was a reliable party intellectualIntellectualAn intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...
. But he was also a very arrogant man, self-important, intolerant, and unwilling to communicate with his party comrades. And yet, [Gheorghiu-]Dej treasured him. Between '46-'48, Pătrăşcanu changed quite a lot."
Around February 1945, he began to fear the possibility that Emil Bodnăraş
Emil Bodnaras
Emil Bodnăraş was an influential Romanian Communist politician, an army officer, and a Soviet agent...
was planning his assassination and that he intended to blame it on political opponents of the Communist Party (as a means to direct sympathy towards the latter group). He suspected that Bodnăraş had chosen to back Gheorghiu-Dej (allegedly fearing that Pătrăşcanu was betraying the fragile alliance established before the fall of 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....
). Consequently, he attempted to block Bodnăraş' rise to power, and denounced his reputedly corrupt
Political corruption
Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
activities as Secretary in the Interior Ministry to the to other members of the leadership.
Historiography is divided over the possibility of Pătrăşcanu having initially allied himself with the PCR's second in command, 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...
, in her post-war confrontation with Gheorghiu-Dej. It is apparent that Pătrăşcanu was alarmed by Pauker's close cooperation with Soviet overseers, and especially by her tight connection with Dmitry Manuilsky
Dmitry Manuilsky
Dmitriy Manuilsky, or Dmytro Zakharovych Manuilsky was an important Bolshevik. He was the son of an Orthodox priest from a Ukrainian village. After secondary school he enrolled in the University of St...
; it was also contended that Pauker was intrigued by Pătrăşcanu's self-promotion in front of Soviet overseers during late 1944.
Although, overall, Pătrăşcanu was argued to have been much less revolutionary-minded than various other PCR ideologues, his original perspective on Marxism
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...
remained strongly connected with party doctrine in its most essential points (including his intense advocacy of collectivization, using statistics to point out the existence of a class of chiaburi - the Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
equivalent of the Soviet kulak
Kulak
Kulaks were a category of relatively affluent peasants in the later Russian Empire, Soviet Russia, and early Soviet Union...
s). He showed himself surprised when informed that the Soviet Union had planned a rapid communization of the country, and dismissed 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...
and Pauker's vocal support for the latter policy. Instead, he argued in favor of "making a distinction inside the bourgeoisie
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
", and opening the Communist Party to collaboration with the National Liberal Party
National Liberal Party (Romania)
The National Liberal Party , abbreviated to PNL, is a centre-right liberal party in Romania. It is the third-largest party in the Romanian Parliament, with 53 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 22 in the Senate: behind the centre-right Democratic Liberal Party and the centre-left Social...
. Based on this, he denounced Pauker's agreement with Gheorghe Tătărescu
Gheorghe Tatarescu
Gheorghe I. Tătărescu was a Romanian politician who served twice as Prime Minister of Romania , three times as Minister of Foreign Affairs , and once as Minister of War...
's National Liberal dissidence (the National Liberal Party-Tătărescu, which he called "a gang of con artists
Confidence trick
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility,...
, blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
ers, and well-known bribers").
A serious break with the party line occurred in early 1946, when Pătrăşcanu decided to take initiative and intervened in the standoff between 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....
Michael I
Michael I of Romania
Michael was the last King of Romania. He reigned from 20 July 1927 to 8 June 1930, and again from 6 September 1940 until 30 December 1947 when he was forced, by the Communist Party of Romania , to abdicate to the Soviet armies of occupation...
and 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....
executive (an episode colloquially known as greva regală - "the royal strike
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
"); with the help of Lena Constante
Lena Constante
Lena Constante was a Romanian artist, essayist and memoirist, known for her work in stage design and tapestry. A family friend of Communist Party politician Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu, she was arrested by the Communist regime following the conflict between Pătrăşcanu and Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej...
, he approached the 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:...
figures Victor Rădulescu-Pogoneanu and Grigore Niculescu-Buzeşti
Grigore Niculescu-Buzeşti
Grigore Niculescu-Buzeşti was a Romanian politician who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania....
, calling on them to convince the monarch to resume communications with his government.
1946 elections
During the campaign preceding the rigged elections of 1946Romanian 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...
, he was actively involved in the PCR's electoral campaign in 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, after drought
Drought
A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region...
and famine
Famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including crop failure, overpopulation, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every continent in the world has...
surfaced in several other areas of Romania, he attempted to persuade the peasants of 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...
to sell their wheat harvest to the government, to be used as aid. Received with suspicion, he later reported that he had eventually been able to carry out the task.
Responding to Hungarian-Romanian clashes, Pătrăşcanu gave a speech in the city of 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...
, one in which he attempted to identify communism and patriotism
Patriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
. It stated:
"In the name of the government and of the PCR, I raise my voice against border changes [in connection with the disputed status of newly-recovered Northern TransylvaniaNorthern TransylvaniaNorthern 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...
]. Democratic Romania ensures equal rightsSocial equalitySocial equality is a social state of affairs in which all people within a specific society or isolated group have the same status in a certain respect. At the very least, social equality includes equal rights under the law, such as security, voting rights, freedom of speech and assembly, and the...
to coinhabiting nationalities, but the Magyar population needs to understand that its belonging to the Romanian state is definitive. Nobody has the right to debate our borders."
He ran for the position of deputy
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...
in Arad County, and won through various electoral fraud
Electoral fraud
Electoral fraud is illegal interference with the process of an election. Acts of fraud affect vote counts to bring about an election result, whether by increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates or both...
s (in Arad's case, forty inspectors nominated by the government had sole control over counting and recording the results).
Pătrăşcanu soon received harsh criticism from Gheorghiu-Dej, who branded the views expressed as "chauvinism
Chauvinism
Chauvinism, in its original and primary meaning, is an exaggerated, bellicose patriotism and a belief in national superiority and glory. It is an eponym of a possibly fictional French soldier Nicolas Chauvin who was credited with many superhuman feats in the Napoleonic wars.By extension it has come...
" and "revisionism
Reformism
Reformism is the belief that gradual democratic changes in a society can ultimately change a society's fundamental economic relations and political structures...
". In parallel, the National Peasants' Party
National Peasants' Party
The National Peasants' Party was a Romanian political party, formed in 1926 through the fusion of the Romanian National Party from Transylvania and the Peasants' Party . It was in power between 1928 and 1933, with brief interruptions...
, as the main force opposing the PCR, published praises of Pătrăşcanu in its paper Dreptatea
Dreptatea
Dreptatea was a Romanian newspaper that appeared between 17 October 1927 and 17 July 1947, as a newspaper of the National Peasants' Party. It was re-founded on February 5, 1990 as a publication of the Christian-Democratic National Peasants' Party ....
, until Pătrăşcanu met with the editor, Nicolae Carandino
Nicolae Carandino
Nicolae Carandino was a Romanian journalist, pamphleteer, translator, dramatist, and politician.He was born in Brăila into a family of intellectuals. After completing high school in Brăila in 1923, he went to college in Bucharest, graduating in 1926...
, and explained that such articles were harming his image inside the Communist Party. Nevertheless, Pătrăşcanu's writings of the time show that, in contrast with his 1928 point of view, he had largely accommodated Leninist
Leninism
In Marxist philosophy, Leninism is the body of political theory for the democratic organisation of a revolutionary vanguard party, and the achievement of a direct-democracy dictatorship of the proletariat, as political prelude to the establishment of socialism...
principles regarding the national issue and 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....
n topics, although he used more neutral terms than the ones present in official propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
, and was known to have deplored the unwillingness of the PCR to reduce and refine its internationalist
Proletarian internationalism
Proletarian internationalism, sometimes referred to as international socialism, is a Marxist social class concept based on the view that capitalism is now a global system, and therefore the working class must act as a global class if it is to defeat it...
policies.
Marginalization
In 1946-1947, he was nevertheless a member of the Tătărescu-headed Romanian delegation to the Paris Peace ConferenceParis Peace Treaties, 1947
The Paris Peace Conference resulted in the Paris Peace Treaties signed on February 10, 1947. The victorious wartime Allied powers negotiated the details of treaties with Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Finland .The...
, and, in fact, one of the signatories of the Peace Treaty with Romania. According to Belu Zilber, during this time, he read Arthur Koestler
Arthur Koestler
Arthur Koestler CBE was a Hungarian author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest and, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria...
's Darkness at Noon
Darkness at Noon
Darkness at Noon is a novel by the Hungarian-born British novelist Arthur Koestler, first published in 1940...
(a glimpse into 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 alluding to the 1936-1937 Moscow Trials
Moscow Trials
The Moscow Trials were a series of show trials conducted in the Soviet Union and orchestrated by Joseph Stalin during the Great Purge of the 1930s. The victims included most of the surviving Old Bolsheviks, as well as the leadership of the Soviet secret police...
, the book was banned throughout the Eastern Bloc
Eastern bloc
The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...
). The attitudes he expressed in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
were considered 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...
by his Soviet overseers, and he himself complained to Gheorghiu-Dej about the party's suspicion surrounding his diplomatic activities.
He was progressively marginalized inside the Party: his texts became subject to censorship
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, on public occasions, his name was mentioned after those of less significant politicians. The Communist press virtually ceased referring to Pătrăşcanu as "comrade
Comrade
Comrade means "friend", "colleague", or "ally". The word comes from French camarade. The term is frequently used by left-wing organizations around the globe. "Comrade" has often become a stock phrase and form of address. This word has its regional equivalents available in many...
", and used instead the more distant formula "Professor Pătrăşcanu", at the same time as Gheorghiu-Dej's speeches on combating internal currents of the Party. The VIth Party Congress in February 1948 did not confirm his Central Committee membership, and in the months following the event, he was removed from government office.
Belu Zilber claimed that, having himself been subject to suspicion and marginalization, he had attempted to warn Pătrăşcanu of the change in climate, and had asked him to consider fleeing the Eastern Bloc — only to be stiffly refused. Zilber was eventually arrested in February 1948, on suspicion that he had been a Siguranţa Statului agent infiltrating the party.
Securitate imprisonment and interrogations
On April 28, 1948, Pătrăşcanu was arrested and came under the investigation of a party committee, comprising the high-ranking Communists Teohari GeorgescuTeohari 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...
, Alexandru Drăghici, and Iosif Rangheţ; interrogations were occasionally attended by Gheorghiu-Dej. His file indicates that the 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....
(which was soon to become 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...
) had been keeping him under surveillance from as early as the summer of 1946.
In the fall of 1949, Gheorghiu-Dej (apparently contradicting the committee's conclusions) ordered Pătrăşcanu's transfer into the custody of the Secret Service of the Council of Ministers (SSI) under the provisional charge that Pătrăşcanu had not reported various political crimes. A report on "Titoism
Titoism
Titoism is a variant of Marxism–Leninism named after Josip Broz Tito, leader of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, primarily used to describe the specific socialist system built in Yugoslavia after its refusal of the 1948 Resolution of the Cominform, when the Communist Party of...
" and collaboration with the maverick Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
was presented to the Cominform
Cominform
Founded in 1947, Cominform is the common name for what was officially referred to as the Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties...
: it placed Pătrăşcanu, the Hungarian Republic
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...
's László Rajk
László Rajk
László Rajk was a Hungarian Communist; politician, former Minister of Interior and former Minister of Foreign Affairs...
, and Bulgaria's Traicho Kostov
Traicho Kostov
Traicho Kostov Djunev was a Bulgarian politician, former President of the Council of Ministers and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party....
in the same camp, as "imperialist
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
agents" (see Tito-Stalin split
Tito-Stalin Split
The Tito–Stalin Split was a conflict between the leaders of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which resulted in Yugoslavia's expulsion from the Communist Information Bureau in 1948...
, Informbiro
Informbiro
Informbiro was a period in the history of Yugoslavia characterized by conflict and schism with the Soviet Union...
). The investigation also implicated Remus Koffler, who had been imprisoned in 1944, during the confrontation between Gheorghiu-Dej and 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....
.
The day after the SSI began its inquiry, Pătrăşcanu attempted suicide by slitting his veins with a smuggled razor blade; upon his recovery, he tried to take his life a second time by swallowing an overdose of sleeping pills.
It was in 1951 that Pătrăşcanu responded to the charges voiced by Gheorghiu-Dej after the Cluj incident, indicating that he had attempted to "answer to the [Hungarian] revisionist
Revanchism
Revanchism is a term used since the 1870s to describe a political manifestation of the will to reverse territorial losses incurred by a country, often following a war or social movement. Revanchism draws its strength from patriotic and retributionist thought and is often motivated by economic or...
campaign", as well as to aid his party in competing with the appeal of the National Peasants' Party among Romanians in Transylvania (to "take the weapon that was Transylvania away from Maniu
Iuliu Maniu
Iuliu Maniu was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian politician. A leader of the National Party of Transylvania and Banat before and after World War I, he served as Prime Minister of Romania for three terms during 1928–1933, and, with Ion Mihalache, co-founded the National Peasants'...
supporters' hands"). He also criticized his own advocacy of a PCR alliance with the National Liberal Party
National Liberal Party (Romania)
The National Liberal Party , abbreviated to PNL, is a centre-right liberal party in Romania. It is the third-largest party in the Romanian Parliament, with 53 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 22 in the Senate: behind the centre-right Democratic Liberal Party and the centre-left Social...
.
He was accused of having been financed by "bourgeois" figures during the electoral campaign, and even of having been bought by agents of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
or of planning, together with Ionel Mocsony Stârcea and Titoist agents, an "imperialist
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
" insurrection in Săvârşin. The latter allegation also surfaced in the parallel investigations of Koffler and Emil Calmanovici
Emil Calmanovici
Emil Calmanovici was a Romanian engineer, businessman, and communist militant. Known for the financial support he gave to the Romanian Communist Party during the late 1930s and early 1940s, he became a political prisoner of the Communist regime after being implicated in the show trial of his...
.
No piece of evidence or confession was provided until after May 1952—that is, after the purge of 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...
and 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...
, who were accused by the chief Soviet adviser to the Interior Ministry, Alexandr Mihailovich Sakharovskii, of having "sabotaged and postponed investigations" in the Pătrăşcanu case. The Central Committee plenum that purged them assigned the Pătrăşcanu investigation to a team of Securitate officials and their Soviet advisors, directly supervised by Alexandru Drăghici, Alexandru Nicolschi
Alexandru Nicolschi
Alexandru Nicolschi was a Romanian communist activist, Soviet agent and officer, and Securitate chief under the Communist regime...
, and Vladimir Mazuru. In time, authorities also alleged that, before 1944, Pătrăşcanu, like Zilber, had acted as an agent of Siguranţa Statului.
Trial and execution
Pătrăşcanu was kept in detention until 1954, when he was executed, with Koffler, in JilavaJilava
Jilava is a commune in Ilfov county, Romania, near Bucharest. It is composed of a single village, Jilava.The name derives from a Romanian word of Slavic origin meaning "humid place". Jilava was the location of a fort built by King Carol I of Romania, as part of the capital's defense system...
, near 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....
, after 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...
overseen by 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...
. It is possible that he was torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
d throughout the questioning conducted on direct orders from the Securitate's Alexandru Drăghici, and he had one leg amputated
Amputation
Amputation is the removal of a body extremity by trauma, prolonged constriction, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on individuals as a preventative surgery for...
for unknown reasons before his trial.
In preparation for the procedures, the Securitate took direct inspiration from the Slánský trials
Slánský trials
The Slánský trial was a show trial against elements of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia who were thought to have adopted the line of the maverick Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito...
in Communist Czechoslovakia (where a team of Romanian officers had been sent to take notes) and, possibly, from the Soviet Trial of the Twenty One
Trial of the Twenty One
The Trial of the Twenty-One was the last of the Moscow Trials, show trials of prominent Bolsheviks, including the Old Bolsheviks. The Trial of the Twenty-One took place in Moscow in March 1938, towards the end of Stalin's Great Purge.-The Trial:...
(which was allegedly used as template for Calmanovici's fabricated confession).
Pătrăşcanu refused to be represented by a lawyer, and even to organize his own defense. Aside from some outbursts against the prosecutors, he stated:
"I have nothing to say, except [that I] spit on the charges brought against me."
The actions taken against Pătrăşcanu and others signaled the start of a wave of arrests and prison sentences, including that of his wife, as well as those of Harry Brauner
Harry Brauner
Harry Brauner was a Romanian ethnomusicologist, and composer, professor of music, director of the Institut de Folklor in Bucharest . He is the brother of Victor Brauner and the husband of Lena Constante. Harry Brauner is known as Constantin Brăiloiu's disciple and colleague...
, Lena Constante
Lena Constante
Lena Constante was a Romanian artist, essayist and memoirist, known for her work in stage design and tapestry. A family friend of Communist Party politician Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu, she was arrested by the Communist regime following the conflict between Pătrăşcanu and Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej...
, Petre Pandrea (who was Pătrăşcanu's brother-in-law), Herant Torosian, Mocsony Stârcea, Calmanovici, Victoria Sârbu (who had been 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....
' lover), and Alexandru Ştefănescu. In preparation for the trial, the Securitate organized violent interrogations of political detainees (among others, the National Peasant Party's Corneliu Coposu
Corneliu Coposu
-Early life:Coposu was born in Bobota, Sălaj County to the Romanian Greek-Catholic archpriest Valentin Coposu and his wife Aurelia Coposu...
and the Liberal politician Bebe Brătianu) or suspects (Gheorghe Tătărescu
Gheorghe Tatarescu
Gheorghe I. Tătărescu was a Romanian politician who served twice as Prime Minister of Romania , three times as Minister of Foreign Affairs , and once as Minister of War...
, who testified against Pătrăşcanu and was the target of a sharp rebuke from the latter).
Belu Zilber, the first of the group to give in to Securitate pressures and confessed to the charges, was verbally attacked by Pătrăşcanu inside the courthouse — Pătrăşcanu notably accused him of having invented the entire conspiracy account. Records of their various interrogations show that both he and Calmanovici identified Emil Bodnăraş
Emil Bodnaras
Emil Bodnăraş was an influential Romanian Communist politician, an army officer, and a Soviet agent...
as the main instigator of their downfall.
Rehabilitation
He was posthumously rehabilitatedRehabilitation (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 April 1968 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...
, in the latter's attempt to discredit his predecessors and establish his own legitimacy. The main target of this campaign, as indicated by a Central Committee resolution, was Drăghici:
"[...] the party leadership has uncovered the anti-party line which Alexandru Drăghici, encouraged by servile, uncultured, and decaying elements, has introduced to the [Securitate] bodies' activities, attempting to remove them from party control and to erect them into supreme bodies standing above party and state leadership, thus causing serious harm to activity in various domains, including that of scientific research."
A party committee which included Ion Popescu-Puţuri investigated the matter of his arrest and interrogation, concluding that evidence against Pătrăşcanu was fabricated, that he had been systematically beaten and otherwise ill-treated, and that a confession had been prepared for him to sign. This was coupled with various irregularities in procedures (such as the court having been given only 24 hours to assess evidence from years of investigation, and the death penalty having been decided by the party leadership before being imposed on the panel of judges). Evidence was also presented that some of the false confessions were designed as political weapons in internal party struggles (implicating names of politicians who were not facing trial at the time).
At the Party Plenum in late April 1968, Ceauşescu used Pătrăşcanu's case and other ones to single out the negative influence of Drăghici 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...
, while also placing suspicion on Emil Bodnăraş
Emil Bodnaras
Emil Bodnăraş was an influential Romanian Communist politician, an army officer, and a Soviet agent...
and 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:...
, who had approved of Pătrăşcanu's purge. All of them were required to express "self-criticism
Self-criticism
Self-criticism refers to the pointing out of things critical/important to one's own beliefs, thoughts, actions, behaviour or results; it can form part of private, personal reflection or a group discussion.-Philosophy:...
", while Gheorghiu-Dej was condemned for having "initiated and overseen" the measures.
Ceauşescu profited on the enduring perception of Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu's activities as patriotic and verging on dissidence, while shadowing his fundamental role in the creation of the new penal system in Romania. In fact, although he was frequently quoted and displayed by the regime, Pătrăşcanu's life was usually described in brief and vague sentences. In popular discourse, Pătrăşcanu was also largely identified with positive causes, and remained among the most popular Communist figures after the Romanian Revolution of 1989
Romanian Revolution of 1989
The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...
toppled the regime.
Overlook
In his most important volumes (most of which attracted public attention only after 1944), Pătrăşcanu combined his commitment to Marxism-LeninismMarxism-Leninism
Marxism–Leninism is a communist ideology, officially based upon the theories of Marxism and Vladimir Lenin, that promotes the development and creation of a international communist society through the leadership of a vanguard party over a revolutionary socialist state that represents a dictatorship...
with his sociological training, producing an original outlook on social evolution (focusing on major trends in Romanian society from the time of the Danubian Principalities
Danubian Principalities
Danubian Principalities was a conventional name given to the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, which emerged in the early 14th century. The term was coined in the Habsburg Monarchy after the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca in order to designate an area on the lower Danube with a common...
to his day).
Aside from its support for communist tenets, his work shared many characteristics with the prominent currents of the Romanian sociological school (notably, the attention paid to prevailing social contrasts in a peasant-dominated environment), and made occasional use of material provided by Dimitrie Gusti
Dimitrie Gusti
Dimitrie Gusti was a Romanian sociologist, ethnologist, historian, and voluntarist philosopher; a professor at the University of Iaşi and the University of Bucharest, he served as Romania's Minister of Education in 1932-1933...
's comprehensive surveys.
On feudalism and serfdom
According to Pătrăşcanu, MoldaviaMoldavia
Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...
and Wallachia
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...
had forsaken feudalism
Feudalism
Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for ordering society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.Although derived from the...
by the mid 18th century, maintaining instead a form of serfdom
Serfdom
Serfdom is the status of peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to Manorialism. It was a condition of bondage or modified slavery which developed primarily during the High Middle Ages in Europe and lasted to the mid-19th century...
which had not been affected by the reforms of Hospodar
Hospodar
Hospodar or gospodar is a term of Slavonic origin, meaning "lord" or "master".The rulers of Wallachia and Moldavia were styled hospodars in Slavic writings from the 15th century to 1866. Hospodar was used in addition to the title voivod...
Constantine Mavrocordatos
Constantine Mavrocordatos
Constantine Mavrocordatos was a Greek noble who served as Prince of Wallachia and Prince of Moldavia at several intervals...
. He argued that, whereas feudalism was supported by metayage
Metayage
The Metayage system is the cultivation of land for a proprietor by one who receives a proportion of the produce, as a kind of sharecropping.-Origin and function:...
, legislation passed by Mavrocordatos had endorsed and prolonged corvée
Corvée
Corvée is unfree labour, often unpaid, that is required of people of lower social standing and imposed on them by the state or a superior . The corvée was the earliest and most widespread form of taxation, which can be traced back to the beginning of civilization...
s, a system consecrated in the 1830s by the new Organic Statute
Regulamentul Organic
Regulamentul Organic was a quasi-constitutional organic law enforced in 1834–1835 by the Imperial Russian authorities in Moldavia and Wallachia...
. In his view, capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
had manifested itself mainly as a reactionary
Reactionary
The term reactionary refers to viewpoints that seek to return to a previous state in a society. The term is meant to describe one end of a political spectrum whose opposite pole is "radical". While it has not been generally considered a term of praise it has been adopted as a self-description by...
force inside Romanian economy during the time of Phanariote
Phanariotes
Phanariots, Phanariotes, or Phanariote Greeks were members of those prominent Greek families residing in Phanar , the chief Greek quarter of Constantinople, where the Ecumenical Patriarchate is situated.For all their cosmopolitanism and often Western education, the Phanariots were...
rules — thus, despite characteristic underdevelopment
Underdevelopment
Underdevelopment is a term often used to refer to economic underdevelopment, symptoms of which include lack of access to job opportunities, health care, drinkable water, food, education and housing...
(which he also noted), the local economy had not contrasted with the stages postulated by Marxian economics
Marxian economics
Marxian economics refers to economic theories on the functioning of capitalism based on the works of Karl Marx. Adherents of Marxian economics, particularly in academia, distinguish it from Marxism as a political ideology and sociological theory, arguing that Marx's approach to understanding the...
.
Pătrăşcanu contended that the first relevant social conflict had occurred in 1821, at the time of Tudor Vladimirescu
Tudor Vladimirescu
Tudor Vladimirescu was a Wallachian Romanian revolutionary hero, the leader of the Wallachian uprising of 1821 and of the Pandur militia. He is also known as Tudor din Vladimiri or — occasionally — as Domnul Tudor .-Background:Tudor was born in Vladimiri, Gorj County in a family of landed peasants...
's Wallachian uprising
Wallachian uprising of 1821
The Wallachian uprising of 1821 was an uprising in Wallachia against Ottoman rule which took place during 1821.-Background:...
. He rejected the notion that, despite Vladimirescu's statements to the contrary, the rebellion had a peasant character, and argued instead that it was evidence of low-ranking boyars and merchants ("the embryo of a class
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...
, that was to become the bourgeoisie
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
") attempting to emancipate themselves from Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
pressures. In his view, its 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...
character (see Rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire
Rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire
The rise of the Western notion of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire eventually caused the break-down of the Ottoman millet concept...
) had been manipulated by high-ranking boyars as a measure to dissuade adverse reactions to privilege
Privilege
A privilege is a special entitlement to immunity granted by the state or another authority to a restricted group, either by birth or on a conditional basis. It can be revoked in certain circumstances. In modern democratic states, a privilege is conditional and granted only after birth...
s.
On radicalism and reformism
The Wallachian revolution of 1848Wallachian Revolution of 1848
The Wallachian Revolution of 1848 was a Romanian liberal and Romantic nationalist uprising in the Principality of Wallachia. Part of the Revolutions of 1848, and closely connected with the unsuccessful revolt in the Principality of Moldavia, it sought to overturn the administration imposed by...
, the most successful of similar revolts at the time, was, according to Pătrăşcanu, a mature reaction of bourgeois circles against boyar supremacy ("it only sought [...] to replace a [privileged] minority with another"), but was generally not opposed to preserving an estate
Estate in land
An estate in land is an interest in real property that is or may become possessory.This should be distinguished from an "estate" as used in reference to an area of land, and "estate" as used to refer to property in general....
-based economy. He similarly rejected Junimea
Junimea
Junimea was a Romanian literary society founded in Iaşi in 1863, through the initiative of several foreign-educated personalities led by Titu Maiorescu, Petre P. Carp, Vasile Pogor, Theodor Rosetti and Iacob Negruzzi...
s traditional criticism of post-1848 realities, indicating that, in its theory of "forms without substance", the group had failed to note that, as a means to preserve several conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
tenets, Westernization
Westernization
Westernization or Westernisation , also occidentalization or occidentalisation , is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in such matters as industry, technology, law, politics, economics, lifestyle, diet, language, alphabet,...
in Romania had willingly, and not accidentally, adopted an incomplete form.
In analyzing the history of liberalism and radicalism in Romania
Liberalism and radicalism in Romania
This article gives an overview of Liberalism and Radicalism in Romania. It is limited to liberal parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ denotes another party in this scheme...
, he concluded that many of the most extreme social reformists had rallied in opposition to land reform
Land reform
[Image:Jakarta farmers protest23.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Farmers protesting for Land Reform in Indonesia]Land reform involves the changing of laws, regulations or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution,...
(he saw this phenomenon as having made possible the toppling of Romania's Domnitor
Domnitor
Domnitor was the official title of the ruler of the United Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia between 1859 and 1866....
Alexander John Cuza
Alexander John Cuza
Alexander John Cuza was a Moldavian-born Romanian politician who ruled as the first Domnitor of the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia between 1859 and 1866.-Early life:...
, whom he saw as a supporter of industrialization). He extended this criticism to 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,...
groups other than his own, arguing that the prevalent reformism
Reformism
Reformism is the belief that gradual democratic changes in a society can ultimately change a society's fundamental economic relations and political structures...
was "the cult of legalism
Legalism (Western philosophy)
Legalism, in the Western sense, is an approach to the analysis of legal questions characterized by abstract logical reasoning focusing on the applicable legal text, such as a constitution, legislation, or case law, rather than on the social, economic, or political context...
".
These views placed Pătrăşcanu in opposition to other left-wing authors in Romania — namely, the influential Poporanists
Poporanism
The word “poporanism” is derived from “popor”, meaning “people” in the Romanian language. The ideology of Romanian Populism and poporanism are interchangeable. Founded by Constantin Stere in the early 1890s, populism is distinguished by its opposition to socialism, promotion of voting rights for...
, most of whom had emphasized various contradictions between the Marxian model and local realities, using Junimeas theory as a fundament (aside from Pătrăşcanu's own father, these included his contemporary Virgil Madgearu
Virgil Madgearu
Virgil Traian N. Madgearu was a Romanian economist, sociologist, and left-wing politician, prominent member and main theorist of the Peasants' Party and of its successor, the National Peasants' Party...
and, to a certain degree, the Marxist Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea was a Romanian Marxist theorist, politician, sociologist, literary critic, and journalist....
). In parallel, Pătrăşcanu's theories were in sharp contrast with those held by advocates of economic liberalism
Economic liberalism
Economic liberalism is the ideological belief in giving all people economic freedom, and as such granting people with more basis to control their own lives and make their own mistakes. It is an economic philosophy that supports and promotes individual liberty and choice in economic matters and...
, and especially with Ştefan Zeletin's.
On the 20th century
As part of his reflection on post-1900 realities, Pătrăşcanu contended that, relatively delayed in comparison to economies of the Western worldWestern world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
, Romania had become subject to "primitive accumulation of capital
Primitive accumulation of capital
In Marxist economics and preceding theories, the problem of primitive accumulation of capital concerns the origin of capital, and therefore of how class distinctions between possessors and non-possessors came to be.Adam Smith's account of primitive-original accumulation depicted a peaceful...
", where the role of colonialism
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
was taken by exploitation of the peasantry. Like Madgearu, he appealed to the works of Rudolf Hilferding
Rudolf Hilferding
Rudolf Hilferding was an Austrian-born Marxist economist, leading socialist theorist, politician and chief theoretician for the Social Democratic Party of Germany during the Weimar Republic, almost universally recognized as the SPD's foremost theoretician of his century, and a...
, but used them as a basis to argue that foreign capital
Capital (economics)
In economics, capital, capital goods, or real capital refers to already-produced durable goods used in production of goods or services. The capital goods are not significantly consumed, though they may depreciate in the production process...
was being accumulated inside Romania, and only transferred further through a limited number of industries. The Marxist historian Henri H. Stahl
Henri H. Stahl
Henri H. Stahl was a Romanian Marxist cultural anthropologist, ethnographer, sociologist, and social historian.-Biography:...
has challenged this particular thesis, calling it "highly questionable".
While endorsing some aspects of Dobrogeanu-Gherea's theories regarding the ways in which serfdom was allegedly prolonged, in a discreet form, even after the 20th century, Pătrăşcanu challenged his refusal to investigate the effects of capitalism in rural areas. According to Pătrăşcanu, the establishment of estate leaseholders
Leasehold estate
A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to land or property in which a lessee or a tenant holds rights of real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord....
, which he viewed as the cause for the 1907 revolt
1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt
The 1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt took place in March 1907 in Moldavia and it quickly spread, reaching Wallachia. The main cause was the discontent of the peasants about the inequity of land ownership, which was in the hands of just a few large landowners....
and other, more minor, peasant rebellions, was not a sign of prolonged feudalism, but one of capitalist penetration into agriculture. Contradicting the Social Democratic
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:...
ideologists Lothar Rădăceanu
Lothar Radaceanu
Lothar or Lotar Rădăceanu was a Romanian journalist and linguist, best known as a socialist and communist politician.-Early life and politics:...
and Şerban Voinea (whom he accused of having lost contact with the working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
), Pătrăşcanu theorized that the Romanian petite bourgeoisie
Petite bourgeoisie
Petit-bourgeois or petty bourgeois is a term that originally referred to the members of the lower middle social classes in the 18th and early 19th centuries...
was shrinking under pressure from successful capitalists, while rejecting the notion that civil servants belonged to the middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
.
Arguing in favor of a Romanian communist society during the late 1940s, Pătrăşcanu indicated a series of essential steps to this goal: after discarding all legislation passed by the 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...
regime and purging the administrative apparatus, a political 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...
was to be declared, all properties upwards of 50 hectare
Hectare
The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...
s were to be confiscated, the National Bank passed into state property while trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
s came under government supervision and a new labour code
Labour law
Labour law is the body of laws, administrative rulings, and precedents which address the legal rights of, and restrictions on, working people and their organizations. As such, it mediates many aspects of the relationship between trade unions, employers and employees...
was enforced, and civil liberties
Civil liberties
Civil liberties are rights and freedoms that provide an individual specific rights such as the freedom from slavery and forced labour, freedom from torture and death, the right to liberty and security, right to a fair trial, the right to defend one's self, the right to own and bear arms, the right...
were enhanced. Ultimately, a new people's democratic
People's Republic
People's Republic is a title that has often been used by Marxist-Leninist governments to describe their state. The motivation for using this term lies in the claim that Marxist-Leninists govern in accordance with the interests of the vast majority of the people, and, as such, a Marxist-Leninist...
government was to be imposed, removing all forms of antisemitism and chauvinism
Chauvinism
Chauvinism, in its original and primary meaning, is an exaggerated, bellicose patriotism and a belief in national superiority and glory. It is an eponym of a possibly fictional French soldier Nicolas Chauvin who was credited with many superhuman feats in the Napoleonic wars.By extension it has come...
from public discourse and preserving good relations with 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....
. Polemically, Pătrăşcanu theorized that all these steps were "democratic-bourgeois
Liberal democracy
Liberal democracy, also known as constitutional democracy, is a common form of representative democracy. According to the principles of liberal democracy, elections should be free and fair, and the political process should be competitive...
", and not socialist in their essence.
The arguably most influential of Pătrăşcanu's writings remains his analysis of the Romanian intelligentsia
Intelligentsia
The intelligentsia is a social class of people engaged in complex, mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them...
, part of Probleme de bază ale României. Transcending Leninist rhetoric, the work postulates a characteristic inability of Romanian intellectual
Intellectual
An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...
s in sacrificing petty politics for the common good
Common good
The common good is a term that can refer to several different concepts. In the popular meaning, the common good describes a specific "good" that is shared and beneficial for all members of a given community...
, and argues that Romanian elite
Elite
Elite refers to an exceptional or privileged group that wields considerable power within its sphere of influence...
s, while in subservience to the State, have traditionally been attracted to extremism
Extremism
Extremism is any ideology or political act far outside the perceived political center of a society; or otherwise claimed to violate common moral standards...
. On one instance in 1945, when theorizing about "intellectual déclassés
Lumpenproletariat
Lumpenproletariat, a collective term from Lumpenproletarier , was first defined by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in The German Ideology and later elaborated on in other works by Marx...
", he proposed their "neutralization and systematic supervision".
Personal life
Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu was married to Elena, born Herta Schwamen, who had a career as a stage designer (employed, with Lena ConstanteLena Constante
Lena Constante was a Romanian artist, essayist and memoirist, known for her work in stage design and tapestry. A family friend of Communist Party politician Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu, she was arrested by the Communist regime following the conflict between Pătrăşcanu and Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej...
, by the Ţăndărică Theater in Bucharest). Elena, who was Jewish, avoided the first wave of official anti-Semitic
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
persecutions at the end of the 1930s (under the Octavian Goga
Octavian Goga
Octavian Goga was a Romanian politician, poet, playwright, journalist, and translator.-Life:Born in Răşinari, nearby Sibiu, he was an active member in the Romanian nationalistic movement in Transylvania and of its leading group, the Romanian National Party in Austria-Hungary. Before World War I,...
government) by converting to the Romanian Orthodox Church
Romanian Orthodox Church
The Romanian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It is in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox churches, and is ranked seventh in order of precedence. The Primate of the church has the title of Patriarch...
(she was baptized
Baptism
In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...
by the socialist sympathiser Gala Galaction
Gala Galaction
Gala Galaction was a Romanian Orthodox clergyman and theologian, writer, journalist, left-wing activist, as well as a political figure of the People's Republic of Romania...
).
Elena Pătrăşcanu was also a party activist, and was instrumental in maintaining links between her husband and other Communist leaders during the early stages of World War II. Implicated in the trial and forced to testify against Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu, she was given eight years in prison.
The Pătrăşcanus had no children.
In art
Titus Popovici's play Puterea şi adevărul ("The Power and the Truth"), published in the early 1970s (staged by Liviu CiuleiLiviu 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...
and filmed, in 1971, by Manole Marcus), centers on the character Petrescu, largely based on Pătrăşcanu, who is persecuted by the party secretary Pavel Stoian (a disguised reference to Gheorghiu-Dej), while living to see his hopes for a better future fulfilled by Mihai Duma (standing for Ceauşescu). For a while after its publication, Puterea şi adevărul was translated into several languages and used as official propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
in cultural contacts with the outside world.
In his 1993 film The Mirror
Oglinda
Oglinda , also known as Începutul adevărului , is a controversial 1993 film by Romanian director Sergiu Nicolaescu...
(Începutul adevărului, also known as Oglinda), Sergiu Nicolaescu
Sergiu Nicolaescu
Sergiu Florin Nicolaescu is a Romanian film director, actor and politician. He is best known for his historical films, such as Mihai Viteazul , Dacii , Razboiul Independenţei , as well as for his series of...
cast Şerban Ionescu as Pătrăşcanu.
Published volumes
- Un veac de frământări sociale, 1821-1907 (A Century of Social Unrest, 1821-1907)
- Probleme de bază ale României (Fundamental Problems of Romania)
- Sub trei dictaturi (Under Three Dictatorships)
- Curente şi tendinţe în filozofia românească (Schools of Thought and Tendencies in Romanian Philosophy)