BACKGROUND OF TOP LEVEL COMMUNIST LEADERS IN RUMANIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00810A006100490006-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 10, 2008
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: March 11, 1955
• Content Type: REPORT

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MFOQMAf OOO N QEpOO Q
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CENTRAL INTEELUGENCE AGENCY
This material contains information affecting the National Defense of the United States within the meaning of the Espionage Laws, Title
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(! ~F1eNoFbTmT1e9F N_'PaT, A eY.
SUBJECT Background of Top Level Communist
Leaders in Rumania
11 March 1955 25X1
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DATE OF INFO.
PLACE ACQUIRED
DATE ACQUIRED
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to Prior to the outbreak of World War II., there were only about 19000 genuine
Communists in Rumania. Today, the Rumanian Communist Party includes many
persons.who., because of their social backgrounds and political beliefs,
are not really Communists. There are the most diversified factions among
the Communist Party. A prominent role is played by the railroad men who
have always been the radical element of the Rumanian workers' movement.
On the other-hand., the political influence of the other trade unions has
always been small. Gheorghe Oheorghiu??Dej, the representative of the
trade union of railroad men therefore plays a dominant role in the country,
while the other trade unions have not sent representatives into the top
leadership of the country. The farmers are distrusted as individualists
by the orthodox Communists. It therefore appears doubtful that Petru
.Groza, the spokesman of the Rumanian farmers and at present President of
the Rumanian Parliament, will maintain his influential position. Groza is
not on good terms with influential men like Iosif Chisinevschi, Emil
Bodnaras and others. Power in Rumania is held by a group of men in-
cluding Chisinevsohi, Gheorghiu Dej, Gheorghe Apostol and Bodnaras.
20 Iosif Chisinevschi has been Vice President of the Rumanian Goverment and
representative of the Rumanian Communist Party with the Cominform since
1952. He is generally called the "eminence grise&' of the country and is
believed to pull all the political strings., although he likes to stay in
the background. Chisinevschi was born between 1900 and 1905, the son of
a Jewish tailor in Bessarabia. He studied literature and philosophy in
Iasi and later worked as a journalist in Bucharest for various leftist
newspapers. Since he was not a Rumanian citizen and in view of his
socialist leanings, he was forced to leave Bucharest at the end of World
War g. He went to Kishinev where he founded the Voice of 'Bessarabia,
a Rumanian newspaper. Chisinevschi hated the Ruman ans an was wa ing
for'the day of revenge. After, Bessarabia had been annexed by the USSR in
19140, he remained in Kishinev 44.continued to publish his newspaper with
Soviet
permission. In 19449 .he returned to Bucharest where at first he
held a minor post as a liaison officer between the Rumanian press and the
Soviet press office. After the Cominform was established, Chisinevschi
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became the liaison man for the leadership of the Rumanian Communist Party.
Although he remained in the wings, it was generally known among the
Rumanian people that certain things such as censorship power and passports
were controlled by him. In 1950, Chisinevschi joined the Rumanian Govern-
ment as chief of the Rumanian Security Police. In 1952s he became Vice
President of the Rumanian Council of Ministers. As liaison officer
attached to the Cominform, he transmitted the directives of Moscow to the
Rumanian Government headed by Gheorghiu Dej and the Communist Party under
Apostol. Well-informed Rumanians believe that Chisinevschi one day will
be the first man of the country. Gheorghiu Dej is not on good terms with
Chisinevschi on whom Dej looks down because Chisinevschi was not one of
the founders of the Rumanian Communist Party. The antipat17 between the
two is mutual. Chisinevschi also dislikes Bodnaras, the Rumanian Minister
of National Defense, whom he fears because of his great popularity with
the Army. On the other hand, Chisinevschi is on good terms with
Alexandry Moghioros, a Vice President of the Council of Ministers.
3. Gheorghe Gheorghiu Dej, the President of the Council of Ministers is still
the most prominent representative of the regime but his position is not
too secure because of his intimate relations with politicians who have
in the meantime fallen into disgrace. Dej was born in Transylvania about
1900. Prior to 1933, he was employed as a skilled worker with the
Rumanian State Railroads. He founded the first Communist cell in Rumania
with Ana Pauker, Bodnaras, Gheorghe Frimu, and Apostol. Dej was always
under the influence of Ana Pauker whom he sacrificed only when the Soviets
definitely demanded her removal from office. When Frimu was shot in a
strike of Rumanian railroad men in 1933, Dej became his successor as
president of the trade union of railroad workers. When the Communist
Party was banned in Rumania, Dej went underground and lived illegally in
the country until 1938. He was then seized by the Rumanian police and
remained under arrest until his liberation by the Soviets in 191414. In
the first Rumanian government coalition, Devi was Minister for Industry
and Trade. In 19146, he attended the peace conference in Paris as the
Rumanian delegate. After the elections of 19146, Dej became Minister of
Labor and, at the same time, deputy secretary general of the Rumanian
Communist Party under Ana Pauker, who then was secretary general. Dej
later replaced Ana Pauker as secretary general of the Communist Party
and also became president of the Council of Ministers. When he had to
give up the post of secretary general of the Communist Party, it was
rumored that Dej would be liquidated because of his nationalist leanings.
Dej's most dangerous antagonist was Vasile Luca, an ethnic Hungarian
from Transylvania who made efforts to infiltrate the Party apparatus
with ethnic Hungarians. This development was disliked by Dej who is a
pure Rumanian. Dej is believed to be rather lukewarm about the Soviets.
Leading officials of Rumanian trade organizations stated that Dej had
opposed the establishment of the so-called "Sovrom corporations" (joint
Soviet-Rumanian enterprises) from the very beginning. Dej, a self-
taught person of great will power, enjoys a certain popularity among the
Rumanian people because of his nationalist leanings.
14. Gheorghe Apostol, at present first secretary of the Rumanian Communist
Party, cones from the trade union movement. He is a rather energetic
person and very ambitious and for this reason is feared by marxy top-
level Party functionaries.
5. Emil Bodnaras, Minister of National Defense and a vice president of the
Council of Ministers, is believed to rank only after Chisinevschi.
Bodnaras -,>as born the son of a farmer in the northern Bucovina. His
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mother was Ukrainian. Bodnaras became an elementary school teacher in
Bessarabia. As a Communist he went to Bucharest in 1920 and there got in
touch with Packer, Frimu and Gheorghiu Dej. Between 1933 and 1935, he
plotted against the life of King Carol II. He was arrested and detained in
prison until 1940. After his release, he went to Moscow where he attended
courses at the Soviet Military Acade y. In 1944, he returned to Rumania as
a general of the Red Array. Between 1944 and 1946, he was chief of the
Rumanian secret police. Bodnaras is very popular in the Rumanian Army be-
cause of the reforms decreed by him. His closest assistants and friends are
General Ion Cambrea, Colonel Tudor Sepianu and General Nicolae Fulga. It
is believed that the strength of this group in conjunction with Dejts
authority has so far saved Ana Pauker's life. Bodnaras maintains relatively
good connections with the Soviets.
6. Ana Pauker, previously secretary general of the Communist Party and for a
long time Rumanian Foreign Minister, has been divested of all power. It
was repeatedly rumored that she had been executed or that a trial was to be
initiated against her. Pauker's influence on the other Communist leaders
in the country is still so great, however, that her word may sti.1.1 rnt*n
some weight in the decisions of the Party. Pauker, who did not complete
her university studies because she became active in the Communist Party at
an early date, is a very intelligent and fascinating person. She was one of
the foundors of the Communist Party in Rumania. Between 1944 and 1943, she
opened a private bank account in Switzerland for her father and brother.
This is the principal charge preferred against her. Her position was still
more shaken in 1950, when a staged trail against Lucretiu Patrascanu was
opened. Patrascanu, a lawyer who had previously defended Packer in court
proceedings., refused to plead guilty. Patrascanu brokedown$ howe;er,after
1
7. The so-called Hungarian infiltration poses a problem in the Rumanian
domestic life. The name of "Hungarian infiltration" is used for the many
ethnic Hungarians who come from Transylvania and obtain leading positions
in the State and Party apparatus. This development is resented by the mass
of the Rumanian people and many Communists. The most important re-
presentative of a nationalist Rumanian line is Dej. It is believed that the
Hungarians will gradually be eliminated from leading positions in the public
life of Rumania. Vasile Luca has been one of the victims of this trend.
The most powerful represen`u-ative of the Hungarian group is at present
aalexandru Moghioros, a vice president of the Council of Ministers.
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