Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (1901-65) was a communist activist and one of the first socialist leaders of Romania. Born to a peasant family in eastern Romania, Gheorghiu-Dej became a railway worker and was active in the trade union movement. In 1933 he was arrested for organising strikes and spent more than a decade in prison. While behind bars Gheorghiu-Dej was able to maintain his political involvement, forging alliances with men like Nicolae Ceausescu. Gheorghiu-Dej escaped in 1944 and participated in the coup that brought communists to power in Romania. In late 1945 he was appointed General-Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party. Like his idol Joseph Stalin, Gheorghiu-Dej used this position to consolidate and increase his power over the party. He did this by removing Moscow-trained communists and replacing them with close allies like Ceausescu.
During the late 1940s, Gheorghiu-Dej set about transforming Romania into a Stalinist state. He developed the Securitate, a secret police force modelled on Soviet agencies, and ordered the construction of a network of prison and labour camps. Gheorghiu-Dej also oversaw a problem of rapid industrialisation and agricultural collectivisation. Stalin’s death (1953) and Nikita Khrushchev‘s rejection of Stalinist methods (1956) initiated a rift between Gheorghiu-Dej’s regime and the Soviet Union. The Romanian leader became critical of Moscow, while drawing closer to communist China and North Korea. Gheorghiu-Dej also fostered improved relations and trade deals with Western governments, particularly Britain, France and West Germany. Gheorghiu-Dej died from lung cancer in March 1965.
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