Ilie B. Moscovici (also known as Tovilie;Stahl, p.20 28 November 1885 – 1 November 1943) was a Romanian socialist militant and journalist, one of the noted leaders of the Romanian Social Democratic Party (PSDR). A socialist since early youth and a party member since its creation in 1910, he returned from captivity in World War I to lead the PSDR from Bucharest, and involved himself in a violent clash with the Romanian authorities. He mediated between reformist and Bolshevik currents, and helped establish the Socialist Party of Romania (PS) as a fusion of both tendencies. Moscovici served as a PS representative in Chamber, but was deposed over his instigation of the 1920 general strike, then imprisoned. Although he voted against the creation of a Communist Party from the rump PS and criticized Comintern interference in Romanian affairs, he was again apprehended in 1921. Together with the communists, he appeared as a defendant in the Dealul Spirii Trial.
Moscovici spent the 1920s and 1930s on reconstructing the PSDR and enlarging its basis, sometimes together with, and sometimes against, the moderate socialist Constantin Titel Petrescu. He was the party's representative to the Labor and Socialist International, a participant in antifascist causes, and a publisher of Marxist literature. Seen as the Social Democratic doctrinaire, he continued to take stands against the Communist Party and the Soviet Union, cautioning against the formation of a "popular front".
Persecuted by the far-right for his politics and his Jewish ethnicity, Moscovici was still active in the clandestine PSDR by the time of World War II. He died, after a long illness, before his party's involvement in the Coup of 1944. In later years, after the PSDR was absorbed by the Communist Party, Moscovici's contribution was censored out of socialist history. His work was carried on by his daughter, Mira Moscovici, who helped reestablish an independent PSDR in 1990, during the country's post-communist era. Moscovici's relatives include French social scientist Serge Moscovici and his son, the politician Pierre Moscovici.
Biography
Early life and World War I Moscovici was born on 28 November 1885, in Băiceni village, Iași CountyIancu Braunștein, Evreii în prima universitate din România, II. Medici și farmaciști, 1881–1929, Editura Gr. T. Popa, Iași, 2004, p.20–21. (just outside Pașcani, where he always owned a townhouse).Filitti II, p.10 He is known to have completed his secondary studies at the National College in Iași, and to have enlisted at the local university faculty of medicine in 1906. He was already active in Marxist milieu, scattered after the earlier split of the Romanian Social-Democratic Workers' Party. Young Moscovici joined up with Leon Ghelerter's "Social Studies Circle", where he became comrades with Mihail Gheorghiu Bujor, Ottoi Călin, Max Wexler, and Emanoil Socor.Petrescu, p.162, 219, 247 He was a frequent contributor to the socialist press, in magazines such as România Muncitoare or Lupta, and translated under the pen name I. Nour.Mihail Straje, Dicționar de pseudonime, anonime, anagrame, astronime, criptonime ale scriitorilor și publiciștilor români, Editura Minerva, Bucharest, 1973. p.460, 495.
In 1910, Moscovici and the entire Social Studies Circle became members of the Social Democratic Party (PSDR), founded as Romania's new socialist party. At the second party congress, in June 1912, Moscovici and Constantin Popovici were rapporteurs on workers' compensation issues.Petrescu, p.248 The following year, with Romania's entry into the Second Balkan War, Moscovici was drafted as a medic into the Romanian Land Forces, and sent to the Bulgarian front; he witnessed first-hand the failures of sanitation and healthcare in the army, as some 5,600 soldiers died of cholera and other treatable causes.Petrescu, p.256
Upon his return to Bucharest, Moscovici reported to his party about the matter, and organized a public protest against Conservative Party rule. Joining him in this effort were other veterans of the Bulgarian campaign, including his lifelong friends Constantin Titel Petrescu and Toma Dragu, alongside the socialist physician Ecaterina Arbore. The authorities moved to organize a court-martial, but withdrew the request when faced with public outcry.Petrescu, p.257 In August 1913, Moscovici was in Dobreni commune, Neamț County, addressing the local peasants and trying to get them interested in the PSDR agenda.Ioan Scurtu, "Contribuții privind mișcarea țărănească din România în perioada 1907–1914", in Studii. Revistă de Istorie, Nr. 3/1968, p.519
In 1916, at the height of World War I, Romania declared war on the Central Powers; she lost the subsequent battle, and the legitimate government was forced to withdraw to Iași, presiding over a rump Romanian state. Again mobilized as a reserve officer, Constantin C. Gomboș, "Însemnări din prizonieratul german" , in Historia, May 2006 Moscovici was captured by the German Army, interned, and transported to Germany as a prisoner of war. In May 1917, he was at the POW camp in Krefeld, sharing captivity with the likes of Alexandru D. Sturdza and Mircea Florian. Set free by the time of Romania's peace with the Central Powers, Moscovici returned to Bucharest, which was still occupied by German troops. For a while, he turned to regular journalism, and, with A. de Herz, Liviu Rebreanu, Scarlat Froda and Barbu Lăzăreanu, put out a theatrical daily, Scena. He left after a few months and was replaced with Așer Penijel.I. Peltz, Amintiri din viața literară, Cartea Românească, Bucharest, 1974, p.22. Most of his fellow prisoners were also repatriated on 19 May 1918.
During the interval, Moscovici also resumed his contacts with the PSDR, which was hostile to the German occupiers and undecided about the government in Iași. Moscovici resumed his militancy, cooperating with Gheorghe Cristescu and other Bucharest socialists. As the PSDR general secretaryȘerbulescu, p.25 (later co-chair of the Executive Committee),Liveanu, p.100 he was one of the main figures in attendance at the social-democratic club on Sfântul Ionică Street, Bucharest. Alongside its core of PSDR activists, the club was frequented by self-styled "Bolsheviks", including David FabianTismăneanu, p.85 and the teenaged Belu Zilber. The latter recalls that Moscovici, who did not share his radicalism, was "a figure of rare magnanimity, with an ancestral Judaic passion for ideas."
Socialist Party and 1918 trial The party openly rejected the peace with Germany, but did so by invoking Wilsonian principles, including the slogan of "peace with no annexations".Petrescu, p.291–293 The German crackdown brought ended with the arrest of Moscovici and his colleagues, and their detainment at Văcărești.Petrescu, p.292 After the November Armistice (Germany's unexpected defeat), the PSDR gained importance in the disorganized territory, from which the Germans were hastily withdrawing. In 1922, Moscovici himself wrote that the party missed out on an opportunity for revolution, because it "refused" to do so. Although the workers' guard outnumbered the Gendarmerie, the PSDR agreed to allow censorship of its press, and did not participate in the oil industry strikes of 30 November.Liveanu, p.100–102
On 11 December, the PSDR transformed itself into the Socialist Party of Romania. Its program, written down by Șerban Voinea in 1919, specified that the members stood for "scientific socialism" and the socialization of property, but also for reformism (in the absence of a revolutionary class).Petrescu, p.321–327 The PS was immediately approached for secretive talks by radicalized members of the establishment, grouped in the People's Party (PP). The central issue was the PS' nominal support for republicanism, which was also espoused by some of the PP doctrinaires—though not by the party leader, General Alexandru Averescu. In exchange for support, Averescu was ready to co-opt the PS into a future government.Petrescu, p.314 Moscovici was among the PS representatives who discussed the matter with PP emissaries Constantin Argetoianu and P. P. Negulescu. In the end, the socialists were adamant in their rejection of a compromise.Petrescu, p.314–315
Although favoring non-engagement, Moscovici and Cristescu approved of the typesetters' call to a general strike on 25 December, after it became apparent that the outcome was inevitable. For his part, Moscovici was in contact with centrist newspaper proprietors such as Grigore Filipescu, who wanted to organize their own solidarity strike against censorship.Liveanu, p.102; Petrescu, p.318 Even though they did not take part in organizing the actual workers' strike, the PS men were immediately identified as culprits by the authorities, who amassed a Chasseurs' Regiment around the Sfântul Ionică building.Liveanu, p.102–103; Petrescu, p.316–320 It was at that moment, on 26 December, that Moscovici and other moderates took the initiative, and sent couriers at factories throughout the city, calling union men to leave their stations and rally on the army-occupied street.Liveanu, p.103–104; Petrescu, p.318
In hindsight, Moscovici referred to this as a hasty action, leading into a trap set by the authorities.Liveanu, p.104; Petrescu, p.318–319 In later communist historiography, he was condemned for "not posing [himself] the problem of organizing the workers' revolutionary fight, [...] so as the masses would avoid bloody attacks by the authorities, or respond to such attacks with due force."Liveanu, p.106 Some tens of workers were killed when the Chasseurs' Regiment fired on the columns gathering at Teatrului Square, on Calea Victoriei; up to 500 people, including labor organizer I. C. Frimu, were arrested.Liveanu, p.104–106; Petrescu, p.318–321, 336–338. See also Vasile Th. Cancicov, Impresiuni și păreri personale din timpul războiului României, Vol. II, Atelierele Universul, Bucharest, 1921, p.717–718 Although more violent columns of workers managed to resist the onslaught and reportedly negotiated a ceasefire, the authorities maintained the mood of repression for several months.
A large segment of PS activists (48 men), was court-martialled on various charges: with Cristescu, Popovici, Voinea and Alecu Constantinescu, Moscovici was indicted of sedition and "bringing offense" to King Ferdinand I.Petrescu, p.320–321 A celebrity defense team, comprising Petrescu, Constantin Mille, Constantin Costa-Foru, N. D. Cocea, Constantin Angelescu, Radu D. Rosetti, and D. R. Ioanițescu, managed to obtain acquittals for most of the defendants.Petrescu, p.321 The party continued to threaten with strike actions during the closing months of 1919, and, although it won seats in the November election, boycotted Parliament.Petrescu, p.329–336 In parallel, the PS committees negotiated an understanding with socialist Romanians from those former regions of Austria-Hungary which had been incorporated into Greater Romania. In October 1920, the PS absorbed the Bukovina Social Democratic Party and the Transylvania Social Democratic Party. The reorganized party, an uneasy alliance of reformists and Bolshevized radicals, held sway over the 156 trade unions in Greater Romania, having blocked out competition from syndicalism and anarchism.Ghiulea, p.44–45 It counted 148,500 as its total members.Petrescu, p.327
1920 strike