Surviving 1956: Gheorghe gheorghiu-dej and the ‘cult of personality’ in Romania

Abstract

In 1956 Khrushchev’s ‘Secret Speech’, the Polish unrest and the Hungarian uprising created the greatest unrest in Eastern Europe since the establishment of communism. The influence of those events was felt differently in the countries of the Soviet Bloc and local leaders adopted various tactics in their attempts to contain the challenge posed to the status quo by those proceedings. This chapter deals with the impact of Khrushchev’s speech in Romania. It attempts to identify the strategies adopted by the Romanian leadership to diminish its influence and to get rid of those who, using this opportunity, attacked the position of the general secretary of the Romanian Workers’ Party (RWP), Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej. This specific episode has been examined by various scholars. Dennis Deletant analyses it as part of a larger investigation of the role played by the political police during the Gheorghiu-Dej regime, as one of the main charges lodged against him was of the use of terror and intimidation prior to 1956.1 Stelian Tănase and Vladimir Tismăneanu approach the events of 1956 in terms of individual and interest group conflicts within the party.2 This chapter focuses primarily on the investigation of the accusations regarding strictly the ‘personality cult’. Furthermore, it will explore the strategies adopted by Gheorghiu-Dej to restrain the consequences of the speech and its employment by his opponents.