Everything about Valter Roman totally explained
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"Walter Roman" redirects here. For the American engineer, see Walter G. Roman.
Valter or
Walter Roman (
October 9,
1913 –
November 11,
1983), born
Ernst or
Ernő Neuländer, was a
Romanian
communist activist and soldier. During his lifetime, Roman was active inside the
Romanian,
Czechoslovakian,
French, and
Spanish Communist parties as well as being a
Comintern cadre. He started his military career as a volunteer in the
International Brigades during the
Spanish Civil War, and rose to prominence in
Communist Romania, as a high-level politician and military official.
Valter was the father of
Petre Roman, a
post-1989 politician, who served as
Prime Minister.
Biography
Early life
Born in Nagyvárad (today
Oradea, in
Austria-Hungary at the time), he was the child of
Jewish parents whose first language was
Hungarian. In later testimonies, he indicated that his ethnic background wasn't entirely relevant to him: "
Germans said I was a
Hungarian, Hungarians that I was
Romanian, Romanians said that I was Jewish, but Jews said I was a communist, although I wasn't yet one at the time".
Roman obtained a degree in
Electrical engineering in
Brno,
Czechoslovakia.
Military career
Initially active inside the PCR's
agitprop section, he was a volunteer in a Romanian artillery unit of the
International Brigades during the
Spanish Civil War (
see also Jewish volunteers in the Spanish Civil War) — according to one source, it was then that he first adopted the name
Valter Roman, while also using the pseudonym
G. Katowski. Wounded twice during combat, Roman eventually left for the
Soviet Union.
In 1938-1941, Roman worked at a plane factory in
Kalinin, later for one of the
Comintern sections, and, during
World War II, for an Institute for Scientific Research (1941–1945). During the period, he married Hortensia Vallejo, who was originally from
Santander, Spain.
At the time, Roman also headed the
Romanian-language radio station of the Comintern (
România Liberă), broadcasting
propaganda against the regime of
Ion Antonescu and Romania's actions on the
Eastern Front as an ally of
Nazi Germany (
see Romania during World War II). He returned to
Soviet-occupied Romania in July 1945, as the
political commissar for the Soviet-organized
Horia, Cloşca şi Crişan Division, commanded by General
Mihail Lascăr.
Under the
communist regime, Roman became a general in the
Romanian Army (
Major General after
May 1,
1948) with political responsabilities (Chief of the Army Directorate for Education, Culture, and Propaganda, 1946; Chief of the Superior Political Direction of the Romanian Army and
Chief of Staff, 1947-1951), and
Minister of Telecommunications (
March 29,
1951-
January 24,
1953). At the time, he declared himself in favor of recruiting a new military force "from the ranks of the
working class, of the toiling peasantry and of the
progressive intelligentsia".
Close to the
Ana Pauker "Muscovite wing" of the PCR, he came into conflict with the party leadership around
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej. Initially removed from his Army position in 1950, at the same time as all
cadres who had fought in the International Brigades or the
French Resistance, Roman was deposed from government office, purged from the PCR and Army on charges of "
Titoism" and "espionage", and singled out for a possible
show trial (1952). He became subject to daily interrogations by the Party Control Commission.
Pressures on him were relaxed after the death of
Joseph Stalin in 1953, and Roman became head of
Editura Politică (1954-1983). He remained a suspect at a time when Gheorghiu-Dej felt increasingly threatened, was subject to a "vote of censure" in 1954, and was completely
rehabilitated only in 1956.
Party leadership
In 1956 and 1957, as a high-ranking member of the Communist Party, Valter Roman was involved in deciding Romanian policies in regard to the
Hungarian Revolution of 1956, which threatened to spark similar actions in Romania. He spent late October in
Budapest, sending back reports which inflamed sentiments by presenting alleged revolutionary violence. After the
Red Army invaded
Hungary, he accompanied Gheorghiu-Dej, the writer
Mihai Beniuc, and other local Communists to Budapest, where the three of them reviewed the situation and expressed approval of Soviet policies. Later on, he was involved in interrogating
Imre Nagy during his detainment in
Snagov, while also ensuring contacts between Nagy and Soviet officials.
An associate of
Leonte Răutu, Roman seconded
Emil Bodnăraş in the 1959 process of writing and compiling Party history, with a mission to highlight both Gheorghiu-Dej's role in the 1944 toppling of
Ion Antonescu's regime and the insurrectional character of the coup.
In 1961, he was among the Party leaders who spoke out against
Iosif Chişinevschi and other former leaders who had been since marginalized, such as Pauker (whom he accused of having maintained contacts with Soviet police chief
Lavrentiy Beria),
Boris Stefanov, and
Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu. He also rallied with Gheorghiu-Dej's positive views on
de-Stalinization, claiming that Pauker's fall had been a sign of Romania parting with
Stalinism. At the time, he argued that Pauker and her collaborator
Vasile Luca had viewed him with suspicion based on his participation in the Spanish Civil War.
After Gheorghiu-Dej's death, he approved of the change in course indicated by
Nicolae Ceauşescu, and joined in condemning the
1968 Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia (at the time, he notably quoted
Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea's statement that "
socialism and truth are inseparable"). Elected to the
Central Committee on
July 24,
1965, he was in office until his death.
Decorated a
Hero of the Socialist Labor, Roman was also employed as a University professor. By the 1970s, he was becoming opposed to the Ceauşescu leadership and questioned
Leninism itself; a diary entry of 1975 shows that he resented the massive enrollment of obedient
cadres into the PCR, and speculated that "when
Lenin elaborated the concept of the
new-type party he took inspiration from, he also thought of
Ignacio de Loyola, of his «
company of Jesus», of what it represented from the point of view of discipline, of obedience, hence there later emerged many negative consequences and, first of all, the deterioration of human character, of human integrity".
Controversies
Several aspects of Roman's past remain under dispute.
In 2000, investigations by
Russian historian Tofik Islamov concluded that, after Soviet authorities charged
Maxim Litvinov to investigate the issue of
Northern Transylvania, disputed between Romania and Hungary, Roman approached the commission in late 1944 with plans to have
Transylvania declare itself independent (under a common guarantee from the Soviets and
Western Allies).
Petre Roman has repeatedly contested the conclusion, advancing documents which, he argued, proved that his father was in favor of Transylvania's status inside Romania.
In his own reply to Petre Roman's arguments, Islamov repeated his statements, and contended that views such as those attributed to Valter Roman were commonplace among
internationalists of the time. He also cited Valter Roman's own 1944 statement — according to the document, Roman viewed both Hungary and Romania as guilty of waging war on the Soviet Union, arguing that the region (Transylvania) was "an ethnographic conglomerate" with a tradition of regional
sovereignty, economic independence, and status as "the most
progressive part of the country".
In 2006, Petre Roman was involved in a polemic with former
Securitate chief and defector
Ion Mihai Pacepa over the extent to which Valter Roman took part in political repression in the wake of the Hungarian Revolution.
Works
Essays
- Revoluţia industrială în dezvoltarea societăţii ("The Industrial Revolution in Social Development")
- Eseuri despre revoluţia ştiinţifică şi tehnică ("Essays on the Scientific and Technical Revolution")
Memoir
Sub cerul Spaniei ("Under the Skies of Spain")Further Information
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