Mihail Gheorghiu Bujor | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of theGreat National Assembly | |
| In office 1948–1964 | |
| Member of theAssembly of Deputies | |
| In office 1946–1948 | |
| People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs of theBessarabian SSR | |
| In office May 1919 – June 1919 | |
| Preceded by | Daniil Ridel |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1881-11-08)November 8, 1881 |
| Died | June 17, 1964(1964-06-17) (aged 82) |
| Political party | Romanian Communist Party(1921–1964) |
| Other political affiliations | Socialist Party of Romania(1918–1921) Social Democratic Party of Romanai(1910–1918) Social Democratic Workers' Party of Romania(1899–1900) |
| Alma mater | University of Iași |
| Occupation | lawyer, politician, diplomat |
Mihail Gheorghiu Bujor (November 8, 1881 – June 17, 1964) was aRomanian lawyer, journalist andsocialist militant. An important figure in the early Romanian labour movement, he embracedcommunism duringWorld War I and organised Romanian armed detachments inOdesa in support of theOctober Revolution, hoping to foment a revolution in his native country. A political prisoner in Romania for much of theinterwar period and duringWorld War II, he held several minor political offices after theregime change in the late 1940s.
Mihail Gh. Bujor was born inIași, the sixth child of Gheorghe Gheorghiu, a civil servant.[1] The family was somewhat influential in the city, affording the luxury to provide adequate education for all of the twelve children. Three of children died fromtuberculosis, followed shortly by the parents while Mihail was in his teen years. The quick succession of deaths is credited with transforming Mihail into anatheist.[2]
After completing a local high school, Bujor enrolled in theschool of law at theUniversity of Iași, also following the courses of several otherfaculties, such as literature, philosophy, and natural sciences.[1][2] Coming in contact withsocialist ideas, he decided to join theRomanian Social Democratic Workers' Party at age 16; however, he was rejected on account of his young age. He would eventually be admitted at age 18, shortly before the party's demise.[1] While in university, he participated in severalMarxiststudy circles, such as theCircle of Social Studies of the Socialists of Moldavia, organized byMax Wexler and Litman Ghelerter, and theCircle for the Enlightenment of the Workers of Iași.[3][2] Conscripted in 1901, he served in aVânători de munte battalion and was discharged in 1902 with the rank ofsecond lieutenant.[2]
In 1901 Bujor began to write articles forCronica ("The Chronicle"), aBucharest newspaper, and continued to do so until 1904.[2] He subsequently moved to Bucharest and, starting with 1902, also became a regular contributor toRomânia Muncitoare, the main socialist press venue revived byChristian Rakovsky. Among his collaborators were socialist militantsI. C. Frimu andAlecu Constantinescu.[3] After Iosif Nădejde left the newspaper for the more moderateAdevărul, Bujor took over the position ofeditor-in-chief.[2] During this period he led an intense press activity towards the reorganisation of the Romanian socialist movement, coming to be recognised as one of its foremost representatives. He was especially vocal in his support of rebelling peasants during the1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt. Among other actions, he issued a manifesto titledCătre concentrați și rezerviști ("To the assembled andreserve soldiers"), calling on the army to stop firing on the rebels.[3][2]
As a result of his activity, Bujor was elected in theCommittee of the Socialist Union during the second Conference of trade unions and socialist circles of June 1907. The other members of the Committee were Rakovsky, Frimu,N. D. Cocea andGheorghe Cristescu.[2] He continued to contribute to the socialist press, foundingViitorul social ("The social future"), a theoretical journal published in Iaşi in 1907-1908.[3] Among the topics Bujor addressed or militated for was the replacement of thecensitary suffrage used at the time in Romania with theuniversal suffrage. In 1910, the concentrated efforts of the members of theSocialist Union led to the organisation of a Congress for the restoration of theSocial Democratic Party of Romania (PSDR). During the Congress, Bujor, who had taken an important role in its preparations, presented the new party's political platform, as well as its agrarian platform.[3] Both documents were heavily influenced by the thinking ofConstantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea, the main ideologue of the new party.[2] The Congress also elected Bujor in the Executive Committee of the party.[3]
AfterWorld War I started, the Romanian Social Democratic Party adopted apacifist stance and supported theneutrality of Romania. Mihail Gh. Bujor participated in the 1914 extraordinary Congress of the PSDR and the July 1915 Bucharest Inter-Balkan Socialist Conference, which adopted strong anti-war declarations.[3] In 1916 Romania's government decided to join the war on the side of theEntente, and PSDR was outlawed for its positions. TheRomanian campaign however proved disastrous, and the southern half of the country was overrun by the forces of theCentral Powers. Bujor left for Moldavia, the unoccupied part of the country, along with the government and a large part of the population.[4] TheFebruary Revolution of 1917 led to a revival of the socialist movement in Iași, as the local socialist club was reopened and a new newspaper,Social-Democraţia ("Social-democracy"), was published.[5] There, Bujor came into contact with revolutionary elements of theRussian army stationed in Romania, and began militating for a similar evolution in Romania. Thus, in a eulogy at the funerals of former party leaderOttoi Călin on April 16, Bujor denounced war as an instrument foreign to the interests of proletariat and urged the public to extend the influence of the Russian revolution.[6] Considering socialists a threat to its authority and the stability of the front, the Romanian government decided to clamp down on the movement by dissolving the clubs, banning their publications, and arresting their leaders, including Bujor.[5] The imprisonment did not last long, as, after theMay Day parade organised by the Russian military units in Iași, a group of Romanian socialists and workers accompanied by Russian soldiers set him free.[7][4] In the same evening Bujor left forOdesa in southernUkraine, along with Rakovsky, who had been freed in a similar manner on the same day. The local soviet of the Russian soldiers provided them with a train and an armed escort.[8]
In Odesa, Bujor and Rakovsky organised theRomanian Committee for Social-Democratic Action, the latter leaving forPetrograd soon after. The committee, which also included socialistsIon Dic Dicescu,Alexandru Nicolau, and Alter Zalic, sought to mobilize the sizeable Romanian workers population in the region, many of them evacuated from Romania along with strategic factories in the wake of the German invasion. Bujor also maintained contact with the socialists in Iași, supplying them with printed manifestos, and in Odessa he organised a revolutionary armed battalion from local Romanian soldiers.[9] The committee requisitioned several Romanian vessels moored in RussianBlack Sea ports and rechristened them with revolutionary names.[8] Starting with September 5, 1917, the Committee headed by Bujor also began to print the newspaperLupta ("The Struggle"), with the help of local revolutionaries.[4][8] A more radical discourse was adopted, with calls for the extension of the Russian Revolution in Romania and the overthrow of the monarchy. However, the committee supported a bourgeois-democratic revolution rather than an outright socialist one, as Romania was seen as too backward for socialism to succeed. Generally, it was supportive of theRussian Provisional Government, not making clear differences betweenMensheviks andBolsheviks.[10]
After theOctober Revolution, Bujor, although reserved at first, sided with the Bolsheviks, and in December he left for Petrograd to meet the new leadership. The committee also changed its position towards communist revolution in Romania, considering it as both feasible and necessary.[11] In February 1918 Bujor met Lenin, who appointed him a member in theHigh College for the Struggle against Counter-revolution in the South, a provisional military command.[4][8] Together with Dicescu, he edited a collection of secret documents from the Russian diplomatic archives, exposing the negotiations between Romania and Entente predating the former's entry into war, as well as laterFrench-Russian talks dismissing Romanian territorial claims.[12] On January 10, 1918, the Odesa committee was transformed into theRomanian National Committee against the Counter-revolution in Romania, and Bujor was soon joined by Rakovsky. The committee decided to fight against the Romanian government, whom they considered to be controlled by the bourgeoisie and the landowners, and to help start a revolution inside the country. A Soviet offensive in Romanian-controlled Bessarabia was also prepared for late February,[8] but developments on the international scene prevented a major attack. After the signing of theTreaty of Brest-Litovsk and the occupation of Ukraine by theGerman Army, Bujor decided to remain in Odesa. Arrested by the Germans, he was handed over to theWhites, however he was soon set free after a successful Soviet counter-offensive liberated the city.[4] In March 1919 he was appointed to the southern bureau of the newly foundedThird International,[13] and between May and June he served as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs in the provisional government of the short-livedBessarabian Soviet Socialist Republic.[12]
At the end of 1919, Mihail Gh. Bujor returned to Romania, where he militated for the transformation ofSocialist Party of Romania (PSR) into acommunist party. To that end, he wrote several manifestos, pamphlets and articles in the socialist press. Bujor also contributed to the documents that were to be presented in the following congress of the PSR.[4] He would not participate in the congress, as he was arrested in March 1920 by the Romanian authorities. Bujor was sentenced to death for treason, however, following major workers' protests, the sentence was commuted tohard labour for life. Nevertheless, in the1920 general election he won a seat forGalați in theChamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Romanian Parliament. The parliamentary majority invalidated his mandate along with the ones of several other PSR members which had won the popular vote.[4][13] That year, he was detained atOcnele Mari Prison, the first political prisoner to be held there.[14]
Bujor spent most of the interwar period imprisoned atDoftana, with long periods undersolitary confinement. Following a long campaign of socialist and communist-minded intellectuals, he was eventually amnestied in 1934.[13] Bujor attempted to use his position as an early socialist leader and former political prisoner to organise aunited front of the socialist movement of Romania, at the time split between the restoredRomanian Social Democratic Party (PSD), theUnitary Socialist Party (PSU), and thePeasant Workers' Bloc (BMȚ). His initiative, although actively supported by the PSU, failed as the PSD and the communist-dominated BMŢ refused to negotiate with each other.[15] As the Romanian government became increasingly authoritarian, Bujor was arrested again in 1937 and imprisoned atJilava. DuringWorld War II, as Romania joinedNazi Germany in the invasion of theSoviet Union, he was interned along other prominent communists in theTârgu Jiu camp. Set free after Romania joined theAllies, he was elected in the reformed unicameral Parliament in the wake of the1944 coup d'état, and; after the republic was proclaimed in December 1947, he was elected to theGreat National Assembly.[16] In this period, he became a member of the Romanian Society for Friendship with the Soviet Union, and travelled to the Soviet Union, despite his disapproval of theMoscow trials. The elder Bujor received several honorific positions afterJoseph Stalin's death, such as the presidency of the Association of the Former Antifascist Political Prisoners and membership in the General Council of theInternational Federation of Resistance Fighters.[16][13]
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