Everything about Grigore Preoteasa totally explained
Grigore Preoteasa (
August 25 1915-
November 4 1957) was a
Romanian
communist activist, journalist, and politician, who served as
Communist Romania's
Minister of Foreign Affairs between
October 4,
1955 and the time of his death.
Biography
Born in
Bucharest as the son of a worker for the
Romanian Railways (CFR), he attended the
University of Bucharest's Faculty of Letters during the 1930s, and began his association with the
Romanian Communist Party (PCR or PCdR) during the
Griviţa Strike. First arrested the following year, he was repeatedly sentenced to prison terms (in
Jilava,
Doftana,
Craiova,
Miercurea-Ciuc, and
Caracal).
After 1936, Preoteasa joined the leadership of the Democratic Students' Front (
Frontul Studenţesc Democrat or
Frontul Democratic Universitar), an
anti-fascist organization created by the PCR in opposition to
Iron Guard influence and headed by
Gheorghe Rădulescu,
Miron Constantinescu, and
Constanţa Crăciun. He was consequently one of the most important
cadres involved in
agitprop, but, like his fellow activists
Ion Popescu-Puţuri,
Alexandru Iliescu, and
Grigore Răceanu, appears to have been occasionally critical of guidelines imposed on the PCR by the
Soviet Union and the
Comintern.
A contributor to the PCR's illegal newspaper
România Liberă, he was
interned with other opponents of the
Ion Antonescu dictatorship at a camp in
Târgu Jiu for the larger part of
World War II; despite Preoteasa's imprisonment, materials signed in his name can be found in
România Liberă issues from that same period — this has been attributed to 1950s forgery by the Communist Party's History Section (printing issues that had never existed was meant to mask the group's inactivity during
World War II).
He escaped together with his friend
Nicolae Ceauşescu in the summer of 1944, before Antonescu's toppling (
see Romania during World War II). As two among the few
intellectuals to stand at the party's forefront, Preoteasa and Constantinescu initially approached the group around
Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu in opposition to
General Secretary Ştefan Foriş, but, after Foriş was deposed, sided with new leader
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (the latter was sympathetic to Preoteasa, having worked with his father at the
Griviţa CFR facilities in Bucharest).
Serving as editor in chief of
România Liberă between late 1944 and 1946 and press officer in the propaganda Ministry (after 1945), he frequently attacked the opposition to the PCR-backed
Petru Groza cabinet, and wrote against the
National Peasants' Party in particular.
He was gradually promoted by Gheorghiu-Dej after their faction won supremacy inside the
Romanian Workers' Party (PMR, the new name of the PCR after 1947). Selected a member of the
Central Committee in December 1955, replacing
Leonte Răutu as head of the Propaganda Section, he became secretary of the Central Committee and deputy member of the
Politburo in June 1957. He was probably seen by Gheorghiu-Dej as a replacement for Răutu, who was by then falling out of favor.
As minister, Preoteasa was noted for handling the aftermath of the
Hungarian Revolution of 1956, and for detaining on Romanian soil those
Hungarian politicians who had been captured by the Soviets — including
Imre Nagy (kept in a
Securitate building in
Snagov) and
Georg Lukács. Following a request from
János Kádár, Romanian authorities referred to many of these arrests as "granting
asylum", implying that the Soviets had extended their protection in the face of
counterrevolution. His government office was taken over by
Ion Gheorghe Maurer in July 1957.
A member of the PMR delegation to the 40th anniversary of the
October Revolution in
Moscow (alongside Gheorghiu-Dej,
Chivu Stoica,
Alexandru Moghioroş,
Ştefan Voitec, Ceauşescu, and Răutu), Preoteasa died at
Vnukovo International Airport, minutes after their
Aeroflot aircraft missed the landing field and caught fire. According to witnesses, Preoteasa was the only person standing at the time, telling others that he was glad not to have been asked to wear a
seat belt; when control of the airplane was lost, he remarked, probably in jest, "This wasn't in the schedule", which were to be his last words.
Recurring speculations that the incident had been specifically designed to kill Preoteasa, or that it was meant by the Soviets for Gheorghiu-Dej as relations between the latter and
Nikita Khrushchev had soured dramatically, are contradicted by the fact that Ceauşescu, Răutu, and other passengers all sustained serious injuries while the Soviet crew was killed. Commentators tend to agree that his death did facilitate Ceauşescu's maneuvering for power after 1964.
Legacy
Preoteasa was married to Ecaterina, and fathered a son George and daughter Ilinca, who was a high-ranking member of the
Union of Communist Youth; previously married to
Adrian Năstase, who was
Prime Minister of Romania in 2000-2004, she emigrated to the
United States.
His name was given to the Bucharest House for Student Culture and kept until the
Romanian Revolution of 1989. The name endured as a common reference for the club after that date: "La Preoteasa" ("In Preoteasa") is the name of a song performed by Romanian rock band
Sarmalele Reci on their first album
Ţara te vrea prost.
Further Information
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