To elaborate on this a bit more; post war Romanian politics were, after the proclamation of a socialist state, dominated by two factions. One faction was the ‘Pauker’ or ‘Moscow’ faction that was predominantly more ‘moderate’ leaning with some ‘reformist’ influence (within the context of Marxism-Leninism, though there was supposedly ‘Titoist’ influence as well) and the other faction was the ‘Prison Faction’ which tended to be more statist and slightly more strict in their social policy. Gheorghe was a member of the latter.
If you are looking for my opinion, I think it could’ve been better, the Prison Faction were a bit too pragmatic for my taste and their admiration for Stalin didn’t prove to translate into a commitment to socialism (with Romania cozying up to the West after Stalin’s death and hardliners being side-lined in favor of Ceaucescu).
I think Pauker would’ve made a very competent leader to guide Romania on a socialist path, and that Apostol would’ve likely done far better than Ceaucescu. Though all things considered Romania wasn’t terrible, and even with the miscalculations made by Ceaucescu, I believe a majority of Romanians regard the country as worse without communism.
Ive heard an joke on internet that every romanian who lived during ceaucesco did not liked it, but that they still think he was the best goverment romania ever haved.
I suppose it depends on what you mean by ‘good’ or ‘bad’, and what you are using as a metric for determining as such.
To elaborate on this a bit more; post war Romanian politics were, after the proclamation of a socialist state, dominated by two factions. One faction was the ‘Pauker’ or ‘Moscow’ faction that was predominantly more ‘moderate’ leaning with some ‘reformist’ influence (within the context of Marxism-Leninism, though there was supposedly ‘Titoist’ influence as well) and the other faction was the ‘Prison Faction’ which tended to be more statist and slightly more strict in their social policy. Gheorghe was a member of the latter.
I would say the metric is similar to how it was the soviet union during Stalin and Lenin. But you could also say why you think it was good.
If you are looking for my opinion, I think it could’ve been better, the Prison Faction were a bit too pragmatic for my taste and their admiration for Stalin didn’t prove to translate into a commitment to socialism (with Romania cozying up to the West after Stalin’s death and hardliners being side-lined in favor of Ceaucescu).
I think Pauker would’ve made a very competent leader to guide Romania on a socialist path, and that Apostol would’ve likely done far better than Ceaucescu. Though all things considered Romania wasn’t terrible, and even with the miscalculations made by Ceaucescu, I believe a majority of Romanians regard the country as worse without communism.
Ive heard an joke on internet that every romanian who lived during ceaucesco did not liked it, but that they still think he was the best goverment romania ever haved.
Hmm I see. Do you have any documentation or works about it?
I did a ton of research around a year ago on it, I’d have to fish around for links and the like.