Ștefan Voitec (also rendered Ștefan Voitech,Politics and Political Parties, pp. 264, 554 Stepan Voitek;V. Kolesnik, "Spioonide Internatsionaal (Trotskistid faschistlikkude luureasutuste tegevuses)", in Edasi, Issue 105/1937, p. 2 June 19, 1900 – December 4, 1984) was a Romanian Marxist journalist and politician who held important positions in the state apparatus of Communist Romania. Debuting as a member of the Socialist Party of Romania in his late teens, he formed the Socialist Workers Party of Romania, then the United Socialist Party, while also engaging in human rights activism and advocating prison reform. The mid-1930s brought him into contact with the Romanian Communist Party, with whom he formed tactical alliances; however, he rejected its political line, and was for a while known as a Trotskyist. In 1939, he joined the consolidated Social Democratic Party, which reunited various socialist groups outlawed by the National Renaissance Front. During World War II, despite ostensibly withdrawing form political life to do research, Voitec served as the party's Secretary and joined the anti-fascist underground. Some reports suggest that he was also a committed anti-communist, critical of the Soviet Union to the point on endorsing war in the East. As a war correspondent, Voitec made contributions to Nazi propaganda, an issue which made him vulnerable to blackmail in later decades.
From June 1944, Voitec played a part in plotting the anti-fascist coup, negotiating a unified platform with communist Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu. Following this regime change, he emerged as a leader of the legalized Social Democrats. In November, he became Minister of Education, serving under increasingly communized governments to December 1947. Himself won over by Marxism-Leninism, Voitec directed a purge of the teaching staff, and engineered his party's alliance with, then absorption by, the Communist Party. Voitec was a member of the unified group's Politburo, and represented Dolj County, then Electroputere factory, in the Great National Assembly; he also served as member of the first republican presidium in 1948, and was briefly the Deputy Prime Minister to Petru Groza. Criticized for his leniency and inconsistencies in applying party dogma, he was sidelined and placed under Securitate surveillance in the early 1950s.
After serving as head of Centrocoop, which grouped Romania's consumers' cooperatives, Voitec returned to the forefront in 1955–1956, when he was reappointed minister, then Deputy Premier. In 1961, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej also included him on the State Council, as Assembly Chairman. As such, Voitec sanctioned the rise of Nicolae Ceaușescu, participating in his investiture as the first President of Romania (1974). Though his offices were by then largely ceremonial, he used his position to demand privileges for other former Social Democrats, and also obtained reconsideration for Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea, the Romanian Marxist classic. Shortly before dying of cancer in 1984, Voitec reportedly expressed regret for his communist conversion, which led to his second marginalization by Ceaușescu. He is remembered for his contributions to cultural development, responsible in large part for the establishment of Craiova University, the National Theater Craiova, and Magazin Istoric journal.
Biography Youth Born in Corabia on June 19, 1900, Voitec declared himself an ethnic Romanian, but was also Italian on his mother's side.Dumitrescu, pp. 314, 324, 325. See also Pandrea, p. 422 Collateral relatives reportedly include the Zanolinis of Friuli, one of whom is doctor Liviu Zanolini.Corina Țucu, "Livio Zanolini – Fiul celor două Patrii 'surori, dar atât de diverse...'", in Europa. Revistă de Știință și Artă în Tranziție, Issue 1/2009, p. 86 Political memoirist Petre Pandrea, who left hostile notes on Voitec being born in a city of "idiots", also claims that his paternal lineage was Czech, and that Ștefan had eight sisters. The father, Pandrea claims, was a minor clerk, ruined by alcoholism and gambling, who had eventually left his family.Pandrea, p. 422 As reported years later by politician Ștefan Andrei, Voitec adhered to a moderate strain of socialism, which presupposed toleration of Christian religiosity and even a personal belief in God.Andrei & Betea, p. 281
Fluent in Romanian, Italian, and French, young Voitec graduated from Craiova's prestigious high school, Carol I.Dumitrescu, pp. 314, 325 Aged 18, he became active in the Socialist Party of Romania, writing for its organ Socialismul, as well as for one of the newspapers known as Scânteia.Dumitrescu, pp. 314–315. See also Dobre et al., p. 626; Petculescu, p. 37 As reported by Pandrea, Voitec was in 1920 a leader of the Socialist Youth Section, on par with Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu. The party as a whole split the following year, with the far-left section emerging as the Romanian Communist Party (PCR, or PCdR), which was soon outlawed; Voitec stayed with the moderate sections, while Pătrășcanu established the Union of Communist Youth.Pandrea, pp. 419–420 As reported in 1974 by his friend and party colleague Ion Pas, Voitec and himself stood for the Socialists' "centrist current", though they still had "comradely rapports" with PCR activists.Pas, p. 38 In August 1923, Voitec signed up for the League of Human Rights, founded by intellectuals of various hues, and led by Vasile Stroescu.Petrescu, pp. 382–386. See also Dumitrescu, p. 325 In April of the following year, he signed a letter of protest against Pătrășcanu's arrest for communist subversion.Francesco Guida, "Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu, la principale vittima delle 'purghe' nella Romania comunista: una rivisitazione", in Francesco Guida (ed.), Intellettuali versus democrazia. I regimi autoritari nel Sud-est europeo 1933–1953, pp. 390–391. Rome: Carocci Editore, 2010. In 1924, Voitec was himself arrested at Corabia by Romania's intelligence arm, the Siguranța. He and 15 co-defendants were fully acquitted in September 1925."Cum se termină înscenările siguranței", in Facla, September 29, 1925, p. 2
In the meantime, Voitec took a degree from the University of Bucharest School of Polytechnics and Mathematical FacultyDumitrescu, p. 325 (though Pandrea claims he never actually graduated). During his student years, he rallied with the Union of Independent Students, where he was colleagues with Șerban Cioculescu, Octav Livezeanu, Timotei Marin, and Dionisie Pippidi.Petculescu, pp. 37–38 Finding employment as a substitute teacher at Sfântul Iosif High School in Bucharest,Dobre et al., p. 626 he was forced out of the profession by the state authorities, in 1925. He worked as an editor of Socialismul in 1925–1927, while also reaching out to the "bourgeois democratic press", provided it was "independent and honest".Petrescu, pp. 258–259 He was for a while a junior editor of Adevărul daily, alongside Iosif Aurescu, who described Voitec as a "tiny little man, of indeterminate age".Ion Cristofor, "Cărți, autori, destine", in Tribuna, Issue 3, October 2002, p. 7 Journalist George Macovescu also notes that, "for a while", Voitec was the "staunch and careful" curator of Adevăruls reference library and reading room.George Macovescu, "Contrapunct: Dialog trecut azi în folclor", in Manuscriptum, Vol. VIII, Issue 3, 1977, p. 156 He married an Italian woman,Tomašić, p. 489 Victoria Voitec, who is said to have suffered from a chronic illness which required changes of climate; they had a daughter, born in October 1934.
By February 1926, Voitec and Lothar Rădăceanu had joined the Federation of Socialist Parties, which they represented at negotiations to form a political alliance with the PCR front organization, or Peasant Workers' Bloc (BMȚ).Mihail Rusenescu, "Relațiile Partidului Comunist cu alte partide în anii 1922—1928", in Studii. Revistă de Istorie, Vol. 24, Issue 5, 1971, p. 1002 In July 1926, he was co-opted by the League Against Terror, alongside Pătrășcanu, Traian Bratu, Constantin Costa-Foru, Mihail Cruceanu, Elena Filipovici, Gala Galaction, Eugen Heroveanu, Barbu Lăzăreanu, Constantin Mille, Panait Mușoiu, Constantin Ion Parhon, Eugen Relgis, Mihail Sadoveanu, Gheorghe Tașcă, and Paul Zarifopol."Terrorellenes liga alakul Romániában. Az új liga első proklamációja", in Új Kelet, July 7, 1926, p. 3 Voitec was also briefly affiliated with the Social Democratic Party (PSDR), created in 1927 (the year of "great efforts to unify the non-communist left")Grancea, p. 12 around Constantin Titel Petrescu. By July 1928, he had joined a faction led by Leon Ghelerter, which was expelled from the PSDR for insubordination. On July 15, they formed their own Socialist Workers Party of Romania (PSMR).N. Jurcă, "Considerații privind politica de alianțe a Partidului Social-Democrat (1927—1930)", in Anuarul Institutului de Istorie și Arheologie Cluj, Vol. XXIX, 1988–1989, pp. 277–278 This new group attempted to unify radical socialists opposed to the PSDR's reformist stance.Politics and Political Parties, pp. 262–263; Dumitrescu, pp. 315–316, 325; Marin, pp. 219–221; Oane, p. 199; Petrescu, pp. 408–410 As a short-term goal, it favored a cartel with the BMȚ during the December 1928 election.Oane, p. 199 However, it also denounced the PCR as "sectarian", and recruited from its disenchanted members.Politics and Political Parties, p. 262 Over the following period, Voitec and his colleagues gravitated toward Trotskyism,Pandrea, p. 423 Florin Mihai, "Scindați în două tabere", in Jurnalul Național, January 30, 2007 Petre Opriș, Comuniștii români, serviciile secrete sovietice și ironia istoriei, Contributors.ro, June 18, 2018 Stelian Tănase, "Belu Zilber (III)", in Revista 22, Vol. XIV, Issue 702, August 2003 which deepened their ideological break with the outlawed PCR. According to Pandrea, Voitec was also an accountant for a credit cooperative "founded with Jewish American money", which also sponsored Caritas Hospital, serving Romanian Jews. Pandrea alleges that Voitec and Ghelerter used money they "pinched out" of this enterprise to finance the PSMR, a "two-, three-, four-, five-member party".Pandrea, pp. 220–221
PSU years
Their PSMR was later joined by breakaways from the PCR, beginning with Gheorghe Cristescu; Constantin Popovici also joined, turning the group into a United Socialist Party (PSU).Petrescu, p. 410; Tismăneanu (2003), pp. 59–60. See also Dumitrescu, pp. 316, 325; Marin, pp. 219–220; Oane, pp. 199–200 Unlike the PCR, this new alliance was viewed as harmless by Romanian authorities.Oane, p. 200 Both Voitec and Ghelerter spoke at the workers' meeting in Grivița on May Day 1930, during which "a number of communists who wished to provoke scandal were removed from the location.""Sărbătorirea zilei de 1 Mai in țară și în străinătate. Mișcările sedițioase au eșuat", in Adevărul, May 5, 1930, p. 5 In 1929, Voitec had been co-opted by the Amnesty Committee, an intellectuals' pressure group which demanded lenience for prisoners serving time on political charges. Serving on its Initiative Committee, he was colleagues with Costa-Foru, Cruceanu, Galaction, Parhon, Pătrășcanu, Nicolae Alexandri, and Petre Constantinescu-Iași.Constantinescu-Iași, p. 206 Reportedly, in 1933 Voitec arranged for the newly released Mihail Gheorghiu Bujor to be interned and cared for by Ghelerter.Marin Ștefan, Florian Tănăsescu, "Pagini de istorie descrifrată. Lenin contra Regelui Ferdinand", in Magazin Istoric, November 1993, p. 13