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,Banu & Banu, p. 246; Dobre et al., p. 505; Petrescu, p. 147 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",Tănase (2010), p. 91 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, [who] resembled 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,Banu & Banu, p. 246; Dobre et al., p. 505 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."Semnal", in România Liberă, 9 December 1978, p. 2 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: "[he] was the organizer and leader of all student action and strikes […]. as part of communist propaganda work during the school year 1935—1936."Dragomirescu, p. 15 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".Grigore Traian Pop, "Revista de Studii Sociologice și Muncitorești", in Ramuri, Issue 5/1981, p. 11 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 MayDragomirescu, p. 14 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.Dragomirescu, passim; Rădulescu, p. 8; Tismăneanu, pp. 99, 303, 320 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.Alexandru Voitin, "Bicentenar Horia. Soliloc despre Procesul Horia", in Teatrul, Issue 3/1984, pp. 4–5 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.Paul Teodorescu, "Pictorul Victor Brauner", in Ateneu, Issue 8/1967, p. 6 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).Pericle Martinescu, Jurnal intermitent, pp. 265–266. Constanța: Ex Ponto, 2001. 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.Ion Bîlă, "Lupta revoluționară și democratică a studențimii române. 'Ridicăm aici glasul'", in Magazin Istoric, June 1975, pp. 39–40
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 "[spoke] about the political currents in the universities", informing the jury that the FSD had allied itself with Constantinescu-Iași."Procesul antifasciștilor din Chișinău. Ziua a X-a", in Curentul, 18 March 1936, p. 9 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.Sándor Cseresnyés, "Aki könyvvel védekezett a revolversortűz ellen. Stelescu: Tisztán érzem ma, hogy halálom órája már nincs messze", in Brassói Lapok, 20 July 1936, p. 5 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."Gh. I. Ioniță, "Activitatea desfășurată de Comitetele cetățenești pentru revendicări general-democratice (1936–1937)", in Analele Institutului de Istorie a Partidului de lîngă C. C. al P. M. R., Vol. X, Issue 2, 1964, p. 99 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.Tănase (2010), p. 92 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".