Alexandru Bârlădeanu (or ''Bîrlădeanu''; 25 January 1911 – 13 November 1997) was a Romanian Marxian economist and statesman who was prominent during the communist regime until being sidelined in 1968. In his later years, following the collapse of the regime, he served as Senate President.
Biography
Origins and early career
Bârlădeanu was born into a family of teachers in Comrat in the Imperial Russian province of
Bessarabia
Bessarabia () is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds of Bessarabia lies within modern-day Moldova, with the Budjak region covering the southern coa ...
. Lavinia Betea "Alexandru Bârlădeanu: Spion, speculant, retrograd, degradat cinic și moral" ''Jurnalul Național'', 18 June 2010; accessed April 3, 2012 Dan Drăghia Biography at the 1990 Mineriad section of the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of the Romanian Exile site; accessed April 3, 2012 According to an interview he gave late in life, he was neither Gagauz nor Jewish, as sometimes claimed, but an ethnic Romanian. His great-grandfather came from the
Bârlad
Bârlad () is a city in Vaslui County, Romania. It lies on the banks of the river Bârlad (river), Bârlad, which waters the high plains of Western Moldavia.
At Bârlad the railway from Iași diverges, one branch skirting the river Siret (river ...
area but settled in Bessarabia, while his mother was the daughter of a Romanian Orthodox priest who had attended the seminary in
Huși
Huși (, Yiddish//''Hush'', , German language, German: ''Hussburg'') is a municipiu, city in Vaslui County, Romania, former capital of the disbanded Fălciu County in the historical region of Western Moldavia, Romanian Orthodox Church, Romanian O ...
. His parents divorced before he turned two. Following the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia, his father, a National Liberal Party–Brătianu affiliate, was deported to Siberia, where he died. He attended primary school in the villages where his mother taught,Sabin Ivan, ''Radiografii parlamentare: De vorbă cu Alexandru Bârlădeanu'', pp. 149-51, 156. Constanța: Editura Ex Ponto, 1998, 978-973-938512-1 finishing at Căușeni in 1921, studying in Tighina in 1921–1926 and attending the Boarding High School in
Iași
Iași ( , , ; also known by other #Etymology and names, alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the Cities in Romania, third largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical ...
from 1926 to 1928, when he earned his ''
baccalauréat
The ''baccalauréat'' (; ), often known in France colloquially as the ''bac'', is a French national academic qualification that students can obtain at the completion of their secondary education (at the end of the ''lycée'') by meeting certain ...
''. Too poor to enroll at the University of Iași, he returned to Bessarabia. His first job was in 1928, as a functionary at the Tighina school inspectorate. For the following eight years, he was a mathematics tutor for high schoolers and substitute teacher at the commercial school and the apprentices' school in Iași. From 1929 to 1931, he attended
Politehnica University of Bucharest
Politehnica University of Bucharest () is a technical university in Bucharest, Romania founded in 1818.Gheorghe Zane for the preceding three years. During the communist regime, he twice intervened to have Zane released from prison, the second time unsuccessfully. Generally thought to have joined the banned
Romanian Communist Party
The Romanian Communist Party ( ; PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave an ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that would replace the social system ...
(PCR) in 1943, other sources place the date at 1935. In either case, the student environment at Iași had drawn him into communist circles by 1933, a move bolstered by his reading of Marxist texts and the widespread poverty of the period. Between 1934 and 1936 he headed the communist-inspired student organization "United Centers", worked on the leftist newspaper ''Manifest'', and was an active member of the Antifascist League, the Tighina Antifascist Committee and '' Amicii URSS''. In 1936, he was also in the leadership of the Iași section of the Democratic Students' Front. During this period, he came to know
Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu
Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu (; 4 November 1900 – 17 April 1954) was a Romanian 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 ...
, who had arrived in Iași to defend a client.
The June 1940 Soviet occupation of Bessarabia found him on vacation there; he chose to remain and become a Soviet citizen, while his mother, aunt and sister sought refuge in Romania. In September 1940 he began working at the Institute for Scientific Research in
Chișinău
Chișinău ( , , ; formerly known as Kishinev) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Moldova, largest city of Moldova. The city is Moldova's main industrial and commercial centre, and is located in the middle of the coun ...
, forced to flee in June 1941 following the province's recapture by Romania. Ending up in the Karaganda area, for nearly two years he was a teacher, school director, miner and party activist on a
kolkhoz
A kolkhoz ( rus, колхо́з, a=ru-kolkhoz.ogg, p=kɐlˈxos) was a form of collective farm in the Soviet Union. Kolkhozes existed along with state farms or sovkhoz. These were the two components of the socialized farm sector that began to eme ...
, until being sent to
Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
in 1943 to resume his studies. An active member of the Romanian communist exile circle in the Soviet Union during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, he worked in the Romanian-language division of
Radio Moscow
Radio Moscow (), also known as Radio Moscow World Service, was the official international broadcasting station of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics until 1993, when it was reorganized into Voice of Russia, which was subsequently reorga ...
(1943–1945); contributed to
TASS
The Russian News Agency TASS, or simply TASS, is a Russian state-owned news agency founded in 1904. It is the largest Russian news agency and one of the largest news agencies worldwide.
TASS is registered as a Federal State Unitary Enterpri ...
and to ''Graiul liber'', the newspaper of Romanian prisoners in the Soviet Union (1943–1946); and was a teacher at the Romanian section of the anti-fascist school for prisoners (1944–1946), heading it in 1945. A member of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...
, he undertook the latter task as a party employee, helping indoctrinate Romanian prisoners. He also studied political economy at the Plekhanov Moscow Institute of the National Economy from 1943 to 1946 on a scholarship from the Chișinău institute. He taught there as well during his last year of study, but did not graduate because he left the country. He was brought back to Romania in June 1946 at the PCR's request, officially joining the party after recommendations from Leonte Răutu and
Mihail Roller
Mihail Roller (, first name also Mihai, also known as Rolea or Rollea; Mihai Stoian"Mihail Roller între 'nemuritorii' de ieri și de azi" ''România Literară'', 32/1999 6 May 1908 – 21 June 1958) was a Romanian communist activist, historian a ...
. From June to November 1946, he worked as instructor and assistant director at the central committee's economic section, beginning a rise that was aided by his start in an important position and his educated background.
Years in power
His return to Romania saw him beginning to hold influential positions in economic ministries. In 1946, he was chosen economic expert on the government committee participating in the negotiation of the Paris Peace Treaties. In December 1946 he became secretary general at the National Economy Ministry, serving until the following August, when he was transferred to the Industry and Commerce Ministry in an equivalent position, remaining until March 1948. He was thus part of the group that enacted the 1947 monetary reform. Following the establishment of a Communist regime, he was, together with Gheorghe Gaston Marin, a creator of the planned economy imposed on the country, serving successively during 1948 as deputy Industry and then Commerce Minister. Top posts in foreign trade and planning came: Minister of Foreign Trade (1948–1954), vice president (1954) and president (1955–1956) of the State Planning Committee, deputy prime minister for economic issues (1955–1965 and 1967–1969) and first deputy prime minister (1965–1967). As Romania's representative at the
Comecon
The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, often abbreviated as Comecon ( ) or CMEA, was an economic organization from 1949 to 1991 under the leadership of the Soviet Union that comprised the countries of the Eastern Bloc#List of states, Easter ...
between 1955 and 1966, he frustrated Soviet plans for creating a supranational economic area, earning him the enmity of
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...
. During the same period, he also represented Romania at the
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE or UNECE) is an intergovernmental organization or a specialized body of the United Nations. The UNECE is one of five regional commissions under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Econom ...
. Meanwhile, he began opening the economy to the West, signing economic and commercial agreements with France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium as early as 1959, later promoting ties to West Germany and Italy. In 1964, he helped conceive a foreign policy declaration of active neutrality within the communist bloc, wherein Romania was no longer subservient to the Soviet Union but neither embraced the militant outlook of China under
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...
.
He was a member of the
Romanian Academy
The Romanian Academy ( ) is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 active members who are elected for life.
According to its bylaws, the academy's ma ...
Iași
Iași ( , , ; also known by other #Etymology and names, alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the Cities in Romania, third largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical ...
and
Constanța
Constanța (, , ) is a city in the Dobruja Historical regions of Romania, historical region of Romania. A port city, it is the capital of Constanța County and the country's Cities in Romania, fourth largest city and principal port on the Black ...
areas. Bârlădeanu was in the party leadership for nearly fifteen years, sitting on the central committee from 1955 to 1969, and was one of the party's ideologues. An alternate member of the politburo under
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (; 8 November 1901 – 19 March 1965) was a Romanian politician. He was the first Socialist Republic of Romania, Communist leader of Romania from 1947 to 1965, serving as first secretary of the Romanian Communist Party ...
from 1962 to 1965, followed by a stint as full member (March–July 1965), he joined the political executive committee (CPEx) and the permanent presidium at the ninth party congress in July 1965 under Gheorghiu-Dej's new successor,
Nicolae Ceaușescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu ( ; ; – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian politician who was the second and last Communism, communist leader of Socialist Romania, Romania, serving as the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 u ...
. From 1960 to 1962, he was president of the
Romanian Football Federation
The Romanian Football Federation (; FRF) is the governing body of football in Romania. They are headquartered in the capital city of Bucharest and affiliated with FIFA and UEFA since 1923 and 1955 respectively. The Federation organizes the men's ...
. As such, he sidelined the national football team from competition, withdrawing it from the
1962 FIFA World Cup qualification
A total of 56 teams entered the 1962 FIFA World Cup FIFA World Cup qualification, qualification rounds, competing for a total of 16 spots in the final tournament. Chile national football team, Chile, as the hosts, and Brazil national football team, ...
on the grounds that it would lose anyway and had no need to participate in capitalist propaganda.
Banishment and return to public life
He entered into conflict with
Elena Ceaușescu
Elena Ceaușescu (; born Lenuța Petrescu; 7 January 1916 – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian communist politician who was the wife of Nicolae Ceaușescu, General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party and leader of the Socialist Republic o ...
as head of the national council for scientific research, which he began heading at the end of 1967, resigning from all his posts in December 1968, although he remained on the central committee and the CPEx until the following August. This forced retirement saw colorless apparatchiks appointed in his stead to supervise scientific and technological research, further solidifying Elena's rise to the apex of political power. With economic experts like him long sidelined, by the late 1970s, the dictator's wife was far more influential than any civil or military official; of her, Bârlădeanu wrote that "hateful vindictiveness, stupidity, nastiness, insensitivity and brazenness" were her "most obvious" negative qualities. In later years, he and Paul Niculescu-Mizil helped create the myth of a "patriotic faction" within the party where a radical break was marked between early Stalinism and post-1960 developments; Bârlădeanu in particular fostered the image of a benign Gheorghiu-Dej in contrast to Ceaușescu. During the two decades after his fall from grace, he ran into trouble with the authorities twice: once in the 1970s for publishing an article in '' Contemporanul'' without approval, and once in the 1980s for discussing with Gheorghe Apostol how Ceaușescu might be removed from the leadership. He also encountered difficulties while selling expensive goods, confiscated during the nationalization process, that he had acquired. In March 1989, he was a signatory of the Letter of the Six, terrified of Ceaușescu's approach to the command economy; the regime responded by placing him under house arrest, while accusing him of being a spy and a speculator and removing him from the party.
Following the fall of the regime at the end of that year, he was awarded important posts and honors as an elder statesman of the National Salvation Front (FSN), and as part of its council belonged to a group who had fallen foul of Ceaușescu. Among the positions he held was the Senate Presidency, from June 1990 to October 1992, having been elected in May for a Bucharest seat. While in this office, he spoke in January 1991 in commemoration of Bucharest pogrom and several months later delivered a message for the 50th anniversary of the
Iași pogrom
The Iași pogrom (, sometimes anglicized as Jassy) was a series of pogroms launched by governmental forces under Marshal and Leader Ion Antonescu in the Romanian city of Iași against its History of the Jews in Iași, Jewish community, which la ...
, in spite of a widespread climate of anti-Semitism at the time.Radu Ioanid, "Romania", in David S. Wyman and Charles H. Rosenzveig, ''The World Reacts to the Holocaust'', p.247-48. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1996, That year also saw open conflict between him and
Prime Minister
A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
Petre Roman
Petre Roman (; born 22 July 1946) is a Romanian engineer and politician who was Prime Minister of Romania from 1989 to 1991, when his Third Roman cabinet, government was overthrown by the Mineriad, intervention of the miners led by Miron Cozma ...
and the latter's ally Adrian Severin over the speed of price liberalization and economic privatization, with Bârlădeanu, at the forefront of the FSN's more cautious wing, unsuccessfully pushing for a slower pace. Lavinia Betea "Război între Senat și Guvern: Bârlădeanu versus Petre Roman" ''Jurnalul Național'', 9 February 2011; accessed April 3, 2012 Additionally, in 1990–1991, he was co-president of the committee charged with writing a new constitution, and was for a time honorary director of the FSN's newspaper ''Azi''. In 1991, he quit (or was removed from) the FSN and withdrew from politics altogether in 1993. In 1995, eulogizing Corneliu Coposu, he publicly declared that, although the two men belonged to the same generation, it was the latter who had chosen the right path.Biografiile nomenklaturii , at the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of the Romanian Exile site; accessed April 3, 2012 He died in Bucharest in 1997.
His first wife, whom he married in June 1946, was Russian. She was followed by the actress Marcela Rusu, and then by Mihaela, a researcher at the Academy's Institute of Linguistics. He had a son who emigrated to France prior to 1989 and a daughter. Lavinia Betea "Cei din urmă ajunși primii" ''Jurnalul Național'', 22 January 2007; accessed April 4, 2012 Bârlădeanu‘s awards included Commander of the Order of the Crown (1947) and the Order of the Star of the Romanian People’s Republic, second class (1959).Dobre ''et al.'', p. 93