Béla Breiner, also rendered as Bela Brainer (13 February 1896 – 10 March 1940), was an Austro-Hungarian-born communist activist, who served as acting general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party (PCR or PCdR) during the early stages of World War II. The son of a Hungarian Jewish and working-class family, he was child laborer who acquired skills in metallurgy, moving from his native Nagyvárad (Oradea) to Budapest. Breiner was also involved in the labor unrest, and joined the Social Democratic Party of Hungary at age sixteen. His contribution in the field of socialist propaganda made him a political suspect by the time of World War I, and he was punished with conscription into the Hungarian Landwehr—though he continued to proselytize among his fellow soldiers. Breiner was enthusiastic about the Aster Revolution, and went on to fight for the Hungarian Soviet Republic, resulting in his brief imprisonment by the Romanian Land Forces during the expedition of 1919.
Breiner settled in Greater Romania after the Hungarian defeat, and involved himself in organizing the general strike of 1920. He was then a founding member of the PCR, opting to preserve his membership after the group had been outlawed, and then emerging as its regional head in Crișana. In 1926, shortly after joining the central committee, he was arrested by the Romanian authorities, and reportedly tortured. A tribunal sentenced him to a five-years term in prison, which he served at Doftana. Upon release, he traveled clandestinely into the Soviet Union, where he participated in the PCR's fifth congress—which confirmed his own induction by the party secretariat, as well as his role in editing Scînteia, the underground newspaper. While engaged with masterminding the strike action at Grivița, he was again picked up by the Romanian authorities, who had uncovered a Comintern network that was sponsoring the PCR. Breiner benefited from a more lenient regime, at Văcărești, and was thereafter involved in a campaign to improve prison conditions across the country.
The PCR had by then been largely neutralized, and had effectively lost its general secretary, Boris Stefanov, who had exiled himself in Soviet territory. From 1937, Breiner served as the senior member of a triumvirate party leadership, alongside Ștefan Foriș and Ilie Pintilie; he himself spent most of 1938 in Moscow, seeking (and finally obtaining) recognition from the Comintern. While there, he began contributing denunciations of his colleagues, which were used as justification for their extermination in the Great Purge. Himself disgraced by Soviet political realignments, Stefanov ultimately abandoned his position as general secretary in 1939, leaving Breiner to take over in a provisional capacity. He was by then seriously ill with stomach cancer, which ultimately killed him March 1940. Political homages, muted by political circumstances during his cremation ceremony, were taken up publicly by the communist regime between 1948 and 1989. Several landmarks were named after him during that interval, when he was also publicly celebrated as a working-class hero.
Biography Early life Breiner was born on 13 February 1896Maria Covaci, "Un exemplu de devotament și sacrificiu pentru cauza poporului. 75 de ani de la nașterea lui Bela Brainer", in Drum Nou, 13 February 1971, p. 4Moisa, p. 223 as a subject of the Hungarian Crown, in Nagyvárad (Oradea). Though sometimes described as having Hungarian ethnicity,Nicoleta Ionescu-Gură, "Studiu introductiv", in Florica Dobre, Liviu Marius Bejenaru, Clara Cosmineanu-Mareș, Monica Grigore, Alina Ilinca, Oana Ionel, Nicoleta Ionescu-Gură, Elisabeta Neagoe-Pleșa, Liviu Pleșa, Membrii C.C. al P.C.R. (1945–1989). Dicționar, p. 6. Bucharest: Editura Enciclopedică, 2004. he was noted by researcher Eva Țuțui as one of several far-left activists who belonged to Nagyvárad's Hungarian Jewish community.Eva Țuțui, "Unele particularități ale evreilor din provinciile integrate", in Nicolae Cajal, Hary Kuller (eds.), Contribuția evreilor din România la cultură și civilizație, p. 90. Bucharest: Federation of Jewish Communities of Romania, 1996 Both his parents were destitute workers in the local industry;V. Pîrvu, V. Neagu, "Un vrednic fiu al clasei muncitoare. 75 de ani de la nașterea lui Bela Brainer", in Clopotul, 16 February 1971, p. 3 their union also produced another son, Ludovic.Burcea (2024), p. 13 At the age of twelve, Béla began working in a factory, training himself as a lathe operator. He was treated with cruelty by his employers, and, by the age of fourteen, had contributed to several protests of trainees against the beatings they were receiving regularly. His first place of employment was Jakab Weinberger's factory, also in Nagyvárad. Upon being recognized as a journeyman at the age of sixteen, he could also join the trade union; shortly after, he also entered the Social Democratic Party of Hungary (MSZDP). He was immediately recognized for his skills as a propagandist.
During the earliest stages of World War I, Breiner was employed at one of the major metallurgical plants on Csepel, in southern Budapest, and was recognized by the local branch of the MSZDP as a reliable cadre. He is said to have actively opposed the war effort, resulting in his being arrested and sent to the front."10 ani dela moartea lui Bela Brainer", in Opinia, 10 March 1950, p. 2 He then served in the Hungarian Landwehr and saw action in the trenches—but also continued to be active as a socialist, helping diffuse his ideology among his army comrades. The latter activity intensified after the October Revolution. Breiner also supported the Aster Revolution, joining the effort to preserve the Hungarian People's Republic and its territorial claims. Upon its transformation into a Hungarian Soviet Republic, he actively resisted the Romanian military intervention: some sources indicate that he did so out of Nagyvárad, by organizing his fellow workers, while others suggest that he was taken prisoner by the Romanian Land Forces on the front lines—but that he then managed to escape.
Breiner's native city, renamed as "Oradea" or "Oradia Mare", was attached to Greater Romania. He made his way back to the region, and rejoined the labor movement. According to historian Gabriel Moisa, Breiner and Eugen Rozvan were the two main organizers of a Socialist Party branch in Oradea.Moisa, pp. 223–224 In 1920, Breiner helped organize a general strike among Oradea workers, as part of the nation-wide labor conflict. He joined the PCR upon its creation as a legal party, in 1921, and was its main activist until October 1923, when Rozvan, returning from a tour of Transylvania, assumed the position of a local leader.Moisa, p. 225 Breiner opted to continue in PCR ranks when it was outlawed and repressed in 1924, and, by 1925, was its regional organizer in all of Crișana.Ilarion Țiu, "Aliatul lui Stalin", in Jurnalul Național, 8 June 2005, p. 27 In March 1926, during court proceedings involving almost 100 PCR defendants, Breiner was tried in absentia, and sentenced to a five-year term on charges of having "infiltrated" Romania as a foreign agent. He and his co-defendant Jenő Fülöp (also credited as Eugen Fuelop) allegedly fled Oradea before sentencing."Új kommunista per a kolozsvári hadbíróság előtt. A hadbíróság leszállította az elmúlt évben in contumaciam hozott ítéletét", in Új Kelet, Issue 230/1927, p. 5
At Doftana Ștefan Foriș, who attended a high-level PCR meeting in October 1926, reports that Breiner, also present there, was co-opted on the central committee during the proceedings.Diac, p. 205. See also Moisa, p. 226 Still tasked with organizing the communist underground in Transylvania, and using his Oradea home for clandestine meetings,Gheorghe Neacșu, Gheorghe Tudor, "Comunicări. Locuri şi case legate de activitatea Partidului Comunist Român în anii 1924 — 1933", in Anale de Istorie, Vol. XXI, Issues 5–6, 1976, p. 80 Breiner was ultimately arrested at Sibiu in early November 1926. Foriș claims that he had been "most certainly" betrayed by a suspected infiltrator, namely Willy Roth, and notes that his place on the central committee went to Petre Imbri.Diac, p. 205 One of Breiner's official biographies claims that torturers were specially brought in from Bucharest, and that, despite being subjected to "barbaric" torments, "he never gave them any of his comrades' names". He was still tried for sedition, beginning in October 1927. At the time, the prosecution alleged that he and Fülöp had been sponsored by the Soviet Union with a "large sum of dollars". Through his lawyers Eugen Dunca and Ilariu Popescu, Breiner denied that this was true."Proces comunist la Cluj", in Cuvântul, 17 October 1927, p. 2 The Sixth Army Corps in Cluj originally ruled that he should serve eight years behind bars, but Dunca and Popescu appealed for clemency, and had his sentence reduced this to the original five years.
Breiner served his time in Doftana—where he immediately connected with other communists and took care of their political education. His biographies suggest that he was tortured and otherwise mistreated, to the point where his general health was greatly affected. He was later freed, and could help organize the PCR's fifth congress, held inside the Soviet Union in 1931.Burcea (2016), p. 38. See also Moisa, p. 228 Breiner traveled clandestinely to Moscow, where he used the pseudonym "Orlov". Once welcomed there in October 1931, he also helped eleven other delegates cross the border illegally—a twelfth delegate was prevented from leaving, his cover blown by his need to address a medical emergency.Burcea (2016), p. 38 In 1932, Breiner was elected a member of the PCR central committee and secretariat. In this capacity, he took charge of editing Scînteia newspaper, and also helped instigate the protest movement that became the Grivița strike of 1933.
Before the strike had broken out, Breiner himself had been detained: in April 1932, he was picked up alongside fellow activist Pavel Bojan after a sting operation on Rozelor Street, Bucharest.Pavel Bojan, "Nu bate! Viața de zi cu zi la Doftana", in Magazin Istoric, February 1970, p. 16 In May, a mandate for his arrest was upheld by the Ilfov County tribunal, which followed up on accusations that he had circulated "subversive manifestos" alongside comrades Árpád Weiss and Moscu Parlacu."Cronica judiciară. Comuniști arestați", in Epoca, 17 May 1932, p. 3 He was then sentenced to another three years behind bars. This was immediately after the authorities had captured Gustav Arnold, an agent of the Comintern, who had tried to launder 1.2 million lei as funds set aside for the PCR. The investigation had pointed to Breiner and Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu as Arnold's personal contacts in the communist underground.Stelian Tănase, "Afacerea Agabekov. Rețeaua Cominternului", in Jurnalul Național, 1 June 2005, p. 27. See also Moisa, pp. 228–229 The case against him was made during a mass trial, where lawyer Paul Moscovici represented Breiner and his co-defendant Sara Tzan, as well as several communist bill-stickers; during the proceedings, Moscovici challenged testimonies according to which Breiner had met Arnold in Berlin."Palatul Justiției. Procesul marelui grup de comuniști", in Dimineața, 22 December 1932, p. 10
Secretariat advancement