Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (Romanian pronunciation:[ˈɡe̯orɡeɡe̯orˈɡi.uˈdeʒ]^ⓘ; 8 November 1901 – 19 March 1965) was a Romanian politician. He was the firstCommunist leader of Romania from 1947 to 1965, serving as first secretary of theRomanian Communist Party (ultimately "Romanian Workers' Party", PMR) from 1944 to 1954 and from 1955 to 1965, and as the first CommunistPrime Minister of Romania from 1952 to 1955.

Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
Official portrait, 1948
General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party[a]
In office 30 September 1955 – 19 March 1965
Preceded by	Gheorghe Apostol
Succeeded by	Nicolae Ceaușescu
In office 2 October 1944 – 19 April 1954
Preceded by	Ștefan Foriș
Succeeded by	Gheorghe Apostol
President of the State Council
In office 21 March 1961 – 19 March 1965
Preceded by	Ion Gheorghe Maurer (as President of the Presidium of Great National Assembly)
Succeeded by	Chivu Stoica
President of the Council of Ministers
In office 2 June 1952 – 2 October 1955
Preceded by	Petru Groza
Succeeded by	Chivu Stoica
First Vice President of the Council of Ministers
In office 15 April 1948 – 2 June 1952
Prime Minister	Petru Groza
Preceded by	Gheorghe Tătărescu
Minister of Industry and Commerce
In office 1 December 1946 – 14 April 1948
Prime Minister	Petru Groza
Preceded by	Petre Bejan
Minister of Public Works
In office 6 March 1945 – 30 November 1946
Prime Minister	Petru Groza
Preceded by	Virgil Solomon
Succeeded by	Ion Gh. Vântu
Minister of Communications
In office 4 November 1944 – 30 November 1946
Prime Minister	Constantin Sănătescu Nicolae Rădescu Petru Groza
Succeeded by	Nicolae Profiri [ro]
Personal details
Born	8 November 1901 Bârlad,Vaslui County,Kingdom of Romania
Died	19 March 1965(1965-03-19) (aged 63) Bucharest,Romanian People's Republic
Cause of death	Lung cancer
Resting place	Carol Park,Bucharest,Romania(until 1991) Bellu Cemetery,Bucharest,Romania(after 1991)
Political party	Communist Party of Romania (1930–1965)
Spouse	Maria Alexe
Signature
a.^First Secretary of the Romanian Worker's Party (from February 1948)

Born inBârlad (1901), Gheorghiu-Dej was involved in the communist movement's activities from the early 1930s. Upon the outbreak ofWorld War II in Europe, he was imprisoned byIon Antonescu's regime in theTârgu Jiu internment camp, and escaped only in August 1944. After the forces ofKingMichael ousted Antonescu and had him arrested for war crimes, Gheorghiu-Dej together with prime-ministerPetru Groza pressured the King into abdicating in December 1947, marking the onset of out-and-out Communist rule in Romania.

Under his rule, Romania was considered one of theSoviet Union's most loyal satellite states, though Gheorghiu-Dej was partially unnerved by the rapidde-Stalinization policy initiated byNikita Khrushchev at the end of the 1950s. Gheorghiu-Dej stepped up measures that greatly increased trade relations between Romania and the Western countries. At the same time his government committed human rights violations within the country.

He died oflung cancer in March 1965. His once protégéNicolae Ceaușescu succeeded him asGeneral Secretary.

Gheorghiu-Dej was the son of a poor worker fromBârlad,^[1] his father was Tănase Gheorghiu and his mother, Ana. At the age of two he was adopted by his uncle Nicolae Gheorghe Ionescu fromMoinești,Bacău County and attended secondary school in the current school no. 1 "Ștefan Luchian". After finishing school, he worked at a sawmill, at a weaving mill, and then worked for carpenters inPiatra Neamț andMoinești. He also had a younger sister named Tinca Gheorghiu.

Poverty made him leave school early on and start working at the age of 11.^[1] Due to his age and the lack of professional training, he often changed jobs, eventually settling to be anelectrician.^[1] Working at a factory inComănești, he joined the workers' union and participated in the1920 Romanian general strike, during which all the participants were dismissed.^[1]

A year later, he was hired as an electrician at theGalați tramway company, where he was also fired after organizing protests against the 9-hour workday and for higher wages.^[1] He was later hired by theRomanian Railways (CFR) workshops in Galați.^[2]

As the workers' standard of living was already low, theGreat Depression in Romania began eroding it much more so. In 1930, Gheorghiu became more politically active, joining theCommunist Party of Romania.^[2] He was assigned to organize agitation in the Romanian Railways workshops inMoldavia.^[2]

On 15 August 1931 Gheorghiu was accused of "communist agitation" and punitively transferred toDej, a town inTransylvania, where he continued the union activity.^[2] The union presented a petition in February 1932 to the CFR Railways, demanding better working conditions and higher wages. As a response, the CFR Railways closed down the Dej plant and fired all the workers, including Gheorghiu, who was deprived of the opportunity to be hired by any other CFR Railways workshop in the country.^[3]

During this time, Gheorghiu got the moniker Gheorghiu-Dej from theSiguranța (secret police), in order for his name to be differentiated from other union activists called Gheorghiu.^[3] After his dismissal from the CFR Railways workshop, Gheorghiu became even more active in organizing the unions and coordinating the workers ofIași,Pașcani, and Galați.^[4]

On the night of 14–15 July 1932 he was arrested for placing "subversive posters on the walls and poles ofGiulești Road", being held in theVăcărești Prison.^[5] Defended by lawyerIosif Schraier, he was freed because the posters were meant to be related to the elections, during the electoral campaign for the1932 Romanian general election.^[5]

Gheorghiu-Dej was briefly arrested again on 3 October 1932, at the end of a workers' meeting in Iași, after he urged the workers to "unite for the fight against the capitalist class", on alleged charges of having hit apolice commissioner.^[6] He was freed as the charges were found to be false.^[6]

In January 1933, the Romanian Government announced some even more stringentausterity measures that included new wages cuts, which led to the radicalization of the workers.^[7] Gheorghiu-Dej, together with union presidentConstantin Doncea, led the Bucharest workers to the big strike that became known as the CFR RailwaysGrivița Strike of 1933.^[7]

As the negotiations failed, the government feared ageneral strike, so it declared astate of siege in Bucharest and other cities.^[8] Gheorghiu-Dej was arrested during the night of 14–15 February 1933.^[9]

Gheorghiu-Dej was sentenced to prison in the same year by amilitary court,^[10] serving time inDoftana and in other facilities. In 1935–1936 he was detained atOcnele Mari Prison, together withChivu Stoica.^[11] In 1936 he was elected to the party'sCentral Committee and became leader of theprison faction of thecommunist party (party members who were incarcerated in Romania, a term distinguishing them from party members living in exile, mainly in theSoviet Union: theMuscovite faction).

As a known activist, he was detained atTârgu Jiu internment camp during all ofIon Antonescu's regime and most ofWorld War II period, and escaped only on 10 August 1944, a few days before thefall of the regime. He becamegeneral secretary in 1944 after theSoviet occupation, but did not consolidate his power until 1952, after he purgedAna Pauker and herMuscovite faction comrades from power. Ana Pauker had been the unofficial leader of the Party since the end of the war.

While in prison, Gheorghiu-Dej metNicolae Ceaușescu. They were imprisoned after a rally organized by the communist party, of which both Ceaușescu and Gheorghiu-Dej were members. Gheorghiu-Dej taught Ceaușescu in prison Marxist-Leninist theories and principles, and kept him close as Gheorghiu-Dej steadily gained power after their release from prison in 1944.^[12] During 1946–1947, he was a member of Romania'sGheorghe Tătărescu-led delegation to theParis Peace Conference.

On 30 December 1947, Gheorghiu-Dej and Prime MinisterPetru Groza forcedKingMichael I toabdicate. Years later, Albanian Communist leaderEnver Hoxha alleged that Gheorghiu-Dej personally pulled a gun on the King and threatened to kill him unless he gave up the throne.^[13] Hours later, Parliament, fully dominated by Communists and their allies after theelections held a year earlier, abolished the monarchy and declared Romania a People's Republic. From this moment onward, Gheorghiu-Dej was thede facto most powerful man in Romania.

Soviet influence in Romania underJoseph Stalin favoured Gheorghiu-Dej, largely seen as a local leader with strongMarxist-Leninist principles. The economic influence of Moscow was protected by the creation of the"Sov-Rom" companies, which directed Romania's commercial exchanges to unprofitable markets (mainly the Soviet Union).^[14] Up until Stalin's death and even afterwards, Gheorghiu-Dej did not amend repressive policies, such as the works employingpenal labour on theDanube-Black Sea Canal. On orders from Gheorghiu-Dej, Romania implemented also the massiveforced collectivization of land in the rural areas.

Gheorghiu-Dej became the architect of a new semi-autonomous foreign and economic policy under the Warsaw Pact and CAER at the end of the sixth decade. He decided to create a heavy industry, an initiative that contradicted the Muscovite plans that had reserved for Romania the role of granary of the communist bloc. Thus, the Galați Steel Plant was created, the construction of which was to be made with funds from the IMF. Production was based on iron ore imported from India and Australia. In 1952, construction began of the Borzești Petrochemical Platform with the first combine (Refinery no. 10) and the related city of Onești, mostly with the workforce of political prisoners. Also, in 1953, the Bârlad Bearing Company was put into operation, which later developed reaching a number of approx. 9,000 employees, about 1/9 of the city's population (approx. 80,000 inhabitants in 1989).

Romania became one of the world's leading steel-producing countries, the machine building industry expanded considerably, and the chemical industry was overdeveloped, with an oil refining capacity far in excess of domestic raw material production. Romania began to produce, at high cost prices but of inferior quality, civil and military aircraft, tanks, maritime vessels, helicopters, automobiles and computers.^{[citation needed]}

A large-scale development was achieved by three industrial branches: the steel industry , the petrochemical industry and the machine building industry. Romania, lacking sufficient sources of domestic raw materials, was forced to rely on imports, sometimes obtained at extremely high prices. In addition, the decrease in demand for steel, of machine tools and petrochemical products on the world market, in the last decade of the Gheorghiu-Dej regime, limited the possibilities of exporting Romanian industrial products and, implicitly, massively reduced the foreign exchange funds thus obtained. The lack of competitiveness of Romanian products, mainly due to their poor quality and outdated technologies, forced Romania to sell its industrial goods at prices lower than their production costs, mostly onThird World markets and often within barter or credit exchanges.

The first five years of theRomanian People's Republic saw a period of collective leadership, withfellow traveler Groza serving as prime minister. However, in 1952, Groza stepped down from the premiership and became head of state as Chairman of the Presidium of theGreat National Assembly. Gheorghiu-Dej succeeded him, becoming the first Communist to hold the post. He thus combined the two most powerful posts in Romania in his own hands, with full Soviet approval.[1]

Gheorghiu-Dej briefly gave up the first secretaryship of the Communist Party in 1954 toGheorghe Apostol, retaining the premiership. However, he was still the actual leader of Romania, and he regained the party leadership in 1955, at the same time handing the premiership toChivu Stoica. In 1961, he became head of state as the president of the newly createdState Council.

Gheorghiu-Dej was at first unsettled byNikita Khrushchev's reforms in the new process ofDe-Stalinization. He then became the architect of Romania's semi-autonomous foreign and economic policy within theWarsaw Pact and theComecon, in the late 1950s, notably by initiating the creation of aheavy industry in Romania which went against Soviet directions for theEastern Bloc as a whole (e.g., the new large-scale steel plant inGalați, which relied on iron resources imported fromIndia andAustralia). Ironically, Romania under Gheorghiu-Dej was once considered one of the most loyal among the Soviet satellites, and thus there is a tendency to forget "who first established the pattern of foreign policy openness and 'liberalness' coupled with domestic repression".^[15] The ideological steps undertaken were made clear by the ousting of the "Sov-Rom" companies, together with the toning down of Soviet-Romanian common cultural ventures. In 1958 theRed Army withdrew its last troops from Romania (a personal achievement of Gheorghiu-Dej). The officialHistory of Romania made then reference to a RomanianBessarabia, as well as other topics which tensed relations between the two communist countries. Moreover, the final years of Dej's regime saw the publishing ofKarl Marx - newly discovered - texts dealing withRussia'simperial policy in previously Romanian and now Soviet regions.

Yet, theSecuritate was still Dej's instrument of choice,^[16] and Romania joined the other Warsaw Pact countries' wave of repression after theHungarian Revolution of 1956 – incidentally,Hungarian leaderImre Nagy was shortly detained on Romanian soil.

In his late years, Gheorghiu-Dej established diplomatic relations with theFirst World, including theUnited States. Such steps were highly encouraged byPresidentLyndon B. Johnson, who had come to see Romania as an almost friendly^[vague] Communist country in theCold War context (1963).^{[citation needed]} Also, manypolitical prisoners were released in 1964.^[17][18]

In the early years of Gheorghiu-Dej's rule, Romania's relations with the West were tense, marked by accusations ofUnited States espionage and Romanian human rights violations. There were also low levels of trade between Romania and the West, as Romania tied itself to the Soviet Union and the other satellite nations; in 1950, Romania's economic plan involved 89% of trade to be solely with theSoviet Bloc.^[19][20]

Later, however, Romania's willingness to trade with the West became more apparent. For example, 1952 saw the first publication of the journalRomanian Foreign Trade, which offered opportunities to Western traders to buy Romanian goods, such aspetroleum andgrain. Western publications also recognized the potential for Romania to sell its products on the world market. An article fromThe Times of 29 August 1953 wrote: "[Romania] could, for instance, it is thought, obtain higher prices on the world market for much of what she is forced to export to Russia, foodstuffs included, in return for machinery and aid", As Gheorghiu-Dej realized, if Romania were able to trade with the West thestandard of living would likely rise.

From 1953, the West gradually relaxed their export controls, which had limited the products that the U.S., Great Britain, and France could export toEastern Europe. Gheorghiu-Dej, eager to establish interaction between Romania and the West, relaxed travel restraints on Western diplomats inBucharest and allowed Western journalists more access to Romania. In early 1954, Romania also appealed to Great Britain about having talks to resolve Romania's outstanding claims, to which Great Britain agreed in December of that year.

Romania's foreign policy towards the West was closely tied to its policy toward the Soviet Union; Romania could only develop trading with the West if it asserted its independence from the intensely anti-West Soviet Union. Gheorghiu-Dej realized this, and thus emphasized Romania's sovereignty. In the Second Party Congress, which opened on 23 December 1955, Gheorghiu-Dej gave a five-hour speech in which he stressed the idea of national communism and Romania's right to follow its own interests, rather than be forced to follow another's (referring to the Soviet Union). Gheorghiu-Dej also discussed opening up trade with the West. In an attempt to increase the dialogue between Romania and the West, in 1956 Gheorghiu-Dej instructed the new ambassador to the U.S. to meet with bothSecretary of StateJohn Foster Dulles and then withPresidentDwight D. Eisenhower. As a result of these meetings, theU.S. Department of State expressed interest in increasing the interaction between the two nations, including possibly establishing a library in Bucharest.

Romania's interaction with the West temporarily decreased, however, with the1956 Hungarian Revolution and the violent response of the Soviet Union to the uprising. Still, Gheorghiu-Dej continued to strengthen the independence from the Soviet Union. For example, Romanian schools dropped the Russian language requirement. And, obviously, Romania endorsed the Moscow Declaration of 1957 which stated that "Socialist countries base their relations on the principles of complete equality, respect for territorial integrity, state independence and sovereignty, and non-interference in one another's affairs… The socialist states also advocate the general expansion of economic and cultural relations with all other countries…" These statements coincided with Gheorghiu-Dej's claims to national sovereignty and independence.

In fact, by 1957 Romania had substantially increased its Western trade; in that year trade with the West had increased to 25% of Romania's total trade. By the early 1960s, Romania under Gheorghiu-Dej was more industrialized and productive. After World War II 80% of the population had worked in agriculture, but by 1963, 65% did. And, despite the decrease in hands working the land, agricultural productivity had actually increased. Additionally, Gheorghiu-Dej had successfully begun a strong shift in trade towards the West, further separating it from the Soviet Union; Romania imported much of its industrial equipment fromWest Germany, Great Britain, and France. This trade pattern followed Gheorghiu-Dej's economic plan, which he made clear to Great Britain and France in 1960, when he sent his head of foreign intelligence toParis andLondon in order to clarify Romania's desire to interact with the West and disregardComecon orders.

By 1964 Gheorghiu-Dej had made a trading agreement with the U.S. that allowed Romania to buy industrial products from them. The agreement came as a result of U.S. businesses' complaints that they were losing money toWestern Europe. During his presidency, PresidentJohn F. Kennedy, concerned with these businesses' losses, used his powers to increase trade between the U.S. and Eastern Europe, a policy which PresidentLyndon Johnson also followed.

Thus, Gheorghiu-Dej greatly increased trade with the West, making Romania the first Soviet Bloc country to trade with the West, completely independently. Through his policy of national sovereignty, Gheorghiu-Dej increased the popularity of Romania in the West. National U.S. publications moved away from reports in the early 1950s ofhuman rights abuses and oppression, towards articles from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s of Romanian de-satellization. In the early 1960s,The Times also reported often on Gheorghiu-Dej's and Romania's increased economic ties with the West. Gheorghiu-Dej's successful efforts to expand Romania's foreign relations, especially those with the West, were evident at his March 1965 funeral, attended by 33 foreign delegations, including a special French envoy sent by GeneralCharles de Gaulle. Gheorghiu-Dej's policies set the stage for his successor,Nicolae Ceaușescu, to carry Romania's new course even further.

Gheorghiu-Dej died oflung cancer in Bucharest on 19 March 1965.^[21]Gheorghe Apostol has claimed that Gheorghiu-Dej himself designated him party leader in waiting; in any case many perceived him as such in 1965. But Prime MinisterIon Gheorghe Maurer, who had developed hostility towards him, made sure that Apostol was prevented from taking power, rallying the Party leadership instead around longtime Gheorghiu-Dej protégéNicolae Ceaușescu. Securitate generalIon Mihai Pacepa, who defected to the United States in 1978, wrote that Ceaușescu had allegedly told him about "ten international leaders the Kremlin killed or tried to kill"; Gheorghiu-Dej was among them.^[22]

Gheorghiu-Dej was buried in amausoleum in Liberty Park (nowCarol Park) in Bucharest. In 1991, after theRomanian Revolution, his body was exhumed and reburied atBellu Cemetery.^[23] The Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest, renamed to Polytechnic Institute "Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej" Bucharest in his honour, is now known as thePolitehnica University of Bucharest. In the early 1950s, one of theSectors of Bucharest (roughly, the present-daySector 6) was named after him.^[24] The city ofOnești was once namedGheorghe-Gheorghiu Dej. Also, theRussian city ofLiski was, from 1965 to 1990, namedGeorgiu-Dezh in his honour.

Gheorghiu-Dej was married to Maria Alexe and they had two daughters,Vasilica [ro] (1928–1987) and Constantina (1931–2000).

• Neagoe-Pleșa, Elis (2014). "Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej și "procesul ceferiștilor" (1933–1934)". InCioroianu, Adrian (ed.).Comuniștii înainte de comunism: procese și condamnări ale ilegaliștilor din România [Communists before communism: trials and convictions of the illegalists in Romania](PDF) (in Romanian). Bucharest:Editura Universității București.ISBN 978-606-16-0520-0.
• Deletant, Dennis (1999).Communist terror in Romania: Gheorghiu-Dej and the Police State, 1948–1965. New York:St. Martin's Press.ISBN 0-312-21904-0.OCLC 40762619.

• Chicago Tribune, July 4, 1964; p. 11; Tito Socialism Wins Support in Balkans; Donald Starr.
• The Times, Saturday, August 29, 1953; p. 7; Issue 52713; col F. "Communism In Rumania Arrests And Collectives In A Satellite State From Our Special Correspondent".
• The Times, Saturday, May 11, 1963; p. 7; Issue 55698; col C. "Comecon Meets In Warsaw Preparing For Party Secretaries' Talks".
• The Times, Tuesday, Nov 26, 1963; p. 9; Issue 55868; col D. "Rumania Leader At Yugoslavia Steel Centre Power Project On Danube".
• The Times, Monday, Apr 13, 1964; p. 10; Issue 55984; col A. "Mr. Khrushchev's Allies To Meet This Week Rumania Still Stands Aloof From China Dispute From Our Special Correspondent".
• The Times, Monday, Jun 08, 1964; p. 10; Issue 56032; col F. "Signs Of Coming Russian Clash With Rumania Background To President Tito's Leningrad Visit Today From Our Own Correspondent".
• The Times, Friday, Dec 11, 1964; p. 13; Issue 56192; col F. "Rumanian Drive For Independence".
• The Times, Friday, Jan 22, 1965; p. 9; Issue 56226; col A. "Warsaw Pact Warning On M.L.F. Counter-Measures Threatened".
• The Times, Thursday, Mar 25, 1965; p. 10; Issue 56279; col E. "Rumania Affirms Independence".

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