Gogu Rădulescu

Gheorghe "Gogu" Rădulescu (5 September 191424 May 1991) was a Romanian journalist, economist, and high-ranking figure of the communist regime. Of mixed Romani and Russian heritage, he began his leftist and anti-fascist militancy in the early 1930s, while a student at the Commercial Academy in Bucharest. He established a Democratic Students' Front, which embarked on a direct confrontation with the fascist Iron Guard, as well as with the conservative establishment of the Romanian Kingdom; supported by the clandestine Romanian Communist Party (PCR) and its Union of Communist Youth (of which he was a member from 1933), Rădulescu networked with moderate leftists and independents. In 1935, he organized a training camp in Moieciu, which was nearly broken up by the Gendarmes. In 1937, he was kidnapped and tortured by Iron Guard affiliates, and then also expelled from the Communist Youth for his apparent insubordination. Taking his doctorate in 1938, Rădulescu worked as a researcher for the Institute of Economic Conjecture, under his communist friend Belu Zilber.

During the early stages of World War II, Rădulescu was called to serve as a Lieutenant in the Romanian Land Forces. He deserted shortly before, or during, Operation Barbarossa (June 1941), surrendering to the Red Army. He was granted the same status as Romanian prisoners of war, and was transported to camps deep inside the Soviet Union. In 1943, he was recovered by the PCR's exile wing, or "Muscovite faction", and was tasked with recruiting Romanian captives for the Tudor Vladimirescu Division. Rădulescu returned in 1946, two years after the Soviet conquest of Romania, and was integrated into the country's new administrative apparatus. He was allowed to join the PCR (or "Workers' Party") in 1949, the year when he also rose to the position of Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade. In 1952, he was caught up in the roundup of alleged " right-wing deviationists" and wreckers of the economy, and arrested by the Securitate; he was allowed to preserve a teacher's post, and was slowly reintegrated politically, then fully rehabilitated, with the onset of Romanian de-satellization.

Rădulescu became a Minister of Internal Trade in 1956, but established his international profile from 1959, when he was Minister of Trade, and then of Foreign Trade, as well as serving continuously as Deputy Prime Minister in 1963–1979. Embraced by Nicolae Ceaușescu and his national-communists, who took control of the PCR in 1965, Rădulescu was granted a quasi-permanent seat on the Central Committee and its Politburo (or "Executive Committee"). He played a part in socialist industrialization by 1970, when he was instrumental in prospecting international markets, especially in developing countries, as well as in negotiating loans with the French Rothschilds. Later that decade, he renounced his positions in government, and was instead assigned to lead the Higher Court of Financial Control. Spurred on by his novelist wife Dorina, and already cultivating the poet Miron Radu Paraschivescu, he established his own literary circle, or "court", centered on his rural property in Comana. Rădulescu both undermined and selectively enforced communist censorship—specifically, against his ideological enemy Mircea Eliade; he was seen in the writers' community as rather more liberal than the standard ''nomenklatura''.

As protector of the ''România Literară'' circle, with a say in the affairs of the Writers' Union, Rădulescu emerged as a selective critic of national-communism—while also fully participating in Ceaușescu's personality cult. In 1986, he took a public stand against " Protochronism", which he controversially depicted as an offshoot of interwar fascism. The Securitate followed closely his contacts with other political figures, noting him as a probable conspirator against the regime and a critic of its austerity policies; Rădulescu was still present by Ceaușescu's side throughout the Romanian Revolution of 1989, though he advised against its violent repression. He was immediately after captured and indicted for genocide and economic crimes by the National Salvation Front, but escaped prosecution due to his poor health, and died at a nursing home in 1991. The controversy—surrounding his political positioning, his cultural profile, and his role in various intrigues—was prolonged over the following decades.

Biography

Early life and FSD

Born in Bucharest on 5 September 1914, Gheorghe Rădulescu was almost exclusively known under the pet name "Gogu" to the age of sixty. Pál Bodor, "Egy portré — és rövid története (II.) Tegnapi, titkos segítők", in ''Magyar Nemzet'', 23 July 1990, p. 9 Though officially listed as having "Romanian nationality and citizenship", he was the son of a Romani musician ('' Lăutar'') father and a Russian mother, who had met on tour in Saint Petersburg. Lavinia Betea
"Gogu – patronul artelor"
in ''Jurnalul Național'', 6 September 2005 Lavinia Betea
"Gogu Rădulescu, patronul 'cenaclului' de la Comana (fragmente)"
in ''Jurnalul Național'', 20 May 2010 One of his acquaintances, Egon Balas, described Gogu as a man of "strange features, horesembled a Tatar khan". He and his four siblings were paternally orphaned in 1923, with the eldest brother, Alexandru, playing violin for cinema-goers, as a means to support the others. After graduating from Cantemir High School, where he was colleagues with future Surrealist Gellu Naum, Romulus Rusan, "Memoria activă. O lege anulată", in '' Vatra'', Issues 600–601, March–April 2021, p. 12 young Rădulescu embraced a career in economics. He took a diploma from the Higher-level Commercial School No 2 in 1931, enlisting at the Commercial Academy (Faculty of General Economics) the following year.

Rădulescu graduated from the Academy in 1937, as one of the few diploma-holders of lower-class origins; by then, he was in engaged to Dorina Rudich. A PCR militant of Jewish ethnicity, she was born at Roznov on 23 May 1909, Alexandru Piru, "Un omagiu postum", in ''România Literară'', Issue 22/1989, p. 8 and was noted as a good friend of poet Ilarie Voronca. They were married in 1938, when Dorina was a typist for Lafayette General Store in Bucharest. Rădulescu's own communist activity was being monitored by agents of the Siguranța. His file included the mention: " ewas the organizer and leader of all student action and strikes �� as part of communist propaganda work during the school year 1935—1936." As an economist and journalist, Rădulescu openly embraced historical materialism with an October 1935 article in ''Revista de Studii Sociologice și Muncitorești'', describing Italian fascism as a "brazen dictatorship of the bourgeoisie". His fiancee, meanwhile, contributed a series of anti-fascist articles and sketch stories in Petre Pandrea's '' Cuvântul Liber''.Marius Ghiță, "Dorina Rădulescu — o viață trăită și retrăită", in '' Ramuri'', Issue 9/1983, p. 11 Rădulescu also became a contributor, with a column on student affairs.Zigu Ornea, "Confruntări. Tudor Teodorescu-Braniște, romancier", in ''România Literară'', Issue 9/1985, p. 4

In May or June 1935,Constantin Petculescu, "Lupta revoluționară și democratică a studențimii române. Tineri demni de tinerețea lor", in ''Magazin Istoric'', June 1975, p. 38 Rădulescu had set up the Democratic Students' Front (FSD). It was designed as a method of curbing the rise of Iron Guard fascists, and functioned as a legal annex of the outlawed PCR. Headquartered at Batiștei Street 26, in downtown Bucharest, the FSD primarily included communist students—Rădulescu, Miron Constantinescu, Mihnea Gheorghiu, Corneliu Mănescu, Manea Mănescu—and teachers— Eduard Mezincescu, Florica Mezincescu, Pompiliu Macovei. Rădulescu was the FSD's country-level president, with Mihail I. Dragomirescu as a general secretary. They maintained permanent contact with the Union of Communist Youth (UTC), through "a comrade with the conspiratorial name Emil, who remains unidentified to this day", and then through Constantinescu and Tatiana Leapis-Bulan. Most members were also affiliated with the UTC, but some, like Petre Vulpescu, represented the Popovici Socialists, and a "very small number" were Social Democrats. Despite its far-leftist coloring, the organization also came to include National Peasantists, Radical Peasantists, as well as independents.

In a 1984 article, poet Alexandru Voitin recalled that Rădulescu was an "occasional songwriter", who had "put together" an FSD march honoring peasant hero Vasile Ursu Nicola. Rădulescu obtained support from painter Victor Brauner, who had previously affiliated with the French Revolutionary Artists; Victor tried to convince his brother, the composer Harry Brauner, to write "revolutionary hymns" in support of the cause. The FSD put out its own magazine, ''Studentul Român'', between 27 June 1935, and 31 May 1936. Dragomirescu obtained imprimatur from the Siguranța after submitting a false list of editors, including the non-communist Pericle Martinescu (who was not informed of this until 1981). After Ispas Zâmbrea, who organized an FSD chapter in Teleorman County, also created a self-defense unit, ''Studentul Român'' advised all his readers to copy his example.

On 16 March 1936, Rădulescu himself was at Chișinău, appearing as a defense witness for Petre Constantinescu-Iași—an academic who had been charged with activities in support of the PCR after setting up an Anti-Fascist Committee. In his deposition, Rădulescu "pokeabout the political currents in the universities", informing the jury that the FSD had allied itself with Constantinescu-Iași. In late 1935, he had embarked on a collaboration with the Crusade of Romanianism, which had broken out of the Guard; the organization were able to cancel a Guardist protest. He followed the same pattern in June 1936, when he sealed a pact with Dem I. Dobrescu and his Citizens' Committees, managing to "prevent fascist hooligans from creating disorder." He was himself arrested by the Siguranța at some point in 1936, and, during interrogations by Commissioner Turcu, was invited to become an informant, but refused. Turcu reportedly warned him that his activities were closely followed, and that, unless he gave up on the PCR, he would end up "rotting in jail".

On 25 July 1936, ''Cuvântul Liber'' hosted a piece by Rădulescu and Ilie Constantinovski, in which they announced the FSD summer camp in Moieciu, which was partly an answer to Guardist camps, and also promised to train students in offering assistance to local peasants. The event took place in August, and brought Rădulescu himself to Moieciu, where he lectured about the Great Depression in Romania. After the right-wing ''Universul'' published an expose about the FSD camp as a "communist nucleus", Rădulescu and Constantinovski returned with another article in ''Cuvântul Liber'', reporting that the Iron Guard and National-Christian Defense League were recruiting the wealthy peasants of Predeal and Satulung for a violent march on Moieciu. Preparing themselves for this confrontation (including by purchasing eight revolvers), the students were instead surrounded by the local Gendarmes, on 9 August. In the resulting siege, the FSD voted to go on a hunger strike, as a means of publicizing their cause; on 12 August, Rădulescu and his colleagues published a letter of protest in '' Dimineața'' daily, noting that the Romanian left was suffering under a "regime of terror", whereas the "tens of Guardist camps carry on with their Hitlerite propaganda, totally unhindered". Negative publicity forced the Gendarmes to lift their siege, allowing the camp to function until its scheduled closure, on 20 August; five days later, ''Dimineața'' hosted a sympathetic reportage by Stephan Roll, which was effectively a pierce of UTC propaganda. Overall, Rădulescu's activism largely failed at generating a following in the student body.

Wartime desertion and return

During the Spanish Civil War (1936–1937), Rădulescu helped recruit local volunteers for the International Brigades. He befriended a number of left-wing activists and journalists, variously including Roll, N. D. Cocea, Miron Radu Paraschivescu, Paul Păun, Alexandru Sahia, Virgil Teodorescu, Dolfi Trost, and Ștefan Voicu. In 1952, he recounted that his first mentors were Constantinovski (who "instilled in me a great love for the Soviet Union") and Vulpescu. Another reported connection was D. I. Suchianu, who allowed Rădulescu's contributions to appear in '' Viața Romînească'' magazine. His own party records suggests that he joined the UTC in 1933, but also that he was excluded in 1937, when his FSD mandate also ended. Researcher Stelian Tănase suggests that Rădulescu lost his membership in 1938, when the UTC's loyalism to the Soviet cause was verified by the Communist International. Vulpescu, who had been integrated into the UTC and been granted favors as its Secretary, was purged "in the same session", for his alleged Trotskyism. Tănase also notes that Rădulescu's expulsion, which followed months of inactivity on his part, was taken by a vote of his friends, including Constantinescu and Constanța Crăciun. The PCR bureaucracy recorded his "anarchic outlook" as the main reason for his removal, adding that he "no longer had links with the revolutionary movement" during the 1940s. Rădulescu himself claimed that he effectively joined the PCR in 1938—the year in which, on Leonte Răutu's advice, he began forging papers and organizing conspiratorial houses in support of more prestigious militants. He acknowledged that, if the UTC expulsion had ever been warranted, it was because of his habit of "cracking jokes, with no attention paid as to whether these could be interpreted as politically incorrect", and also because he had unwittingly insulted Constantinescu.

In 1987, Rădulescu justified his FSD work as prompted by the Guard's success: "fascism, with its pernicious propaganda, had seeped deep down into university milieus. We ran into the Guardists everywhere, including at seminars. Most of them were entirely fanatical. And when they ran out of so-called theoretical arguments, they moved on to threats, and just about always followed up on them. There was nothing more saddening than the wet-rope flopping that Guardist students would savagely use, in Guardist safe-houses, against colleagues that did not share their political opinions." This description matches Rădulescu's personal experience: in early 1937, he was kidnapped by Guardist students at the Faculty of Medicine, who took him to their hiding sport and tortured him. This was conceived of as a punishment for Rădulescu having insulted the Guardist Captain, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, and left him incapacitated for some two weeks. The incident was reportedly welcomed by the right-wing essayist Mircea Eliade, who gleefully noted that Rădulescu being "beaten with wet ropes" was only good news. Norman Manea, "Felix culpa. Mircea Eliade és a román fasizmus", in ''Magyar Napló'', Vol. III, Issue 12, October 1991, p. 36 Mihail Sebastian, ''Journal, 1935–1944'', p. 114. London: Random House, 2003. Eliade told Mihail Sebastian that: "It's what should be done to traitors. He, Mircea Eliade, would not have been content with that; he'd have pulled out ădulescu'seyes as well."

In 1938, shortly after completing his mandatory service with the Romanian Land Forces (3rd Regiment), Rădulescu received his doctorate in economics from the Commercial Academy. He became a reviewer at the Institute for Economic Conjecture (ICE), which had been founded by Academy professor Virgil Madgearu, but, as Rădulescu himself notes, was in reality managed by a PCR comrade, Belu Zilber. He and the "charming man" Zilber maintained a "warm friendship" that lasted into their old age. Rădulescu was kept at the ICE throughout the early stage of World War II (when Romania was still neutral territory). In summer 1940, the eastern region of Bessarabia was seized by the Soviet Union. Rădulescu encouraged Dorina, who (in addition to being targeted by antisemitic laws) feared that she would be arrested by the Romanian authorities, to flee into Soviet territory—which was organized as the Moldavian SSR. She followed his advice and they were separated. Rădulescu remained in Bucharest during the Iron Guard's National Legionary State regime (September 1940–January 1941), which disestablished the ICE immediately after taking power; he reports being shocked when the new authorities condoned Madgearu's assassination. He also witnessed the ultimate clash between the Guardists and Ion Antonescu, or " Legionary Rebellion", noting that its violence "demonstrated what sort of 'new world' was desired by these theoreticians of hatred, of caning, of robbery and assassination."

In March or April 1941, Rădulescu found employment at the Institute of Statistics. In June, with Antonescu's regime prepared to wage war on the Soviets as an ally of Nazi Germany, Rădulescu was mobilized to serve as a Lieutenant in the Land Forces. According to historian Lavinia Betea, on 12 June, he received his orders to prepare for the incoming attack on the region. He opted to cross the Prut River into Bessarabia and surrender to the Soviet Border Troops; he managed to do so, but his account of a Romanian mobilization was written off by the Soviets as an act of provocation, and he was arrested as a spy. As the Romanian–German invasion unfolded, Rădulescu was still not credited for his initiative, and instead was dispatched to prisons further inland. A record from 1952 contrarily suggests that Rădulescu deserted on 22 or 23 June, which was after the invasion had begun, by surrendering to the Red Army. At that junction in his life, Rădulescu noted that he had escaped during the confusion caused by shelling in Coropcăuți, on the Siret River

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