Valter Roman - Misplaced Pages

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Valter or Walter Roman (born Ernst or Ernő Neuländer; October 9, 1913-November 11, 1983) was a Romanian communist politician, activist, soldier and engineer, one of the high-ranking members of the Romanian Communist Party (PCR) and active inside several other communist parties during his lifetime (the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, the French Communist Party, and the Communist Party of Spain).

He was the father of Petre Roman, himself a politician of the post-1989 period.

Biography

Early life

Born in Nagyvárad (today Oradea, part of Austria-Hungary at the time), he was the child of Jewish parents whose first language was Hungarian. Roman obtained an electrotechnical engineering degree in Brno (Czechoslovakia).

Spanish Civil war and World war II

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 — according to one source, it was then that he first adopted the name Valter Roman, while also using the pseudonym bore the name G. Katowski. Roman was wounded twice before leaving for the Soviet Union.

Roman worked at the Kalinin plane factory in 1938-1941, and later for one of the Comintern sections, and, during World War II, for the Institute for Scientific Research (1941–1945). At the time, Roman also headed the Romanian-language radio station of the Comintern (România Liberă). He returned to Romania in July 1945 as the political locum tenens of General Mihail Lascăr, commander of the Soviet-organized Horia, Cloşca şi Crişan Division.

High profile

Under the communist regime, Roman became a Romanian Army general (Major General after May 1, 1948) with political responsabilites (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).

Close to the Ana Pauker "Muscovite wing" of the PCR, he came into conflict with the leadership around Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej. Purged from the PCR and Army on charges of "Titoism" and "espionage", he was rehabilitated after the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953, He was also head of Editura Politică (1954-1983).

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: after the Red Army invaded Hungary, he accompanied Gheorghiu-Dej and 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.

In 1961, he was also among the Party leaders who spoke out against Iosif Chişinevschi and other former leaders who had been marginalized by Gheorghiu-Dej. 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.

A Hero of the Socialist Labor, Roman was also employed as a University professor.

Works

Sociology of the science

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")

References

Template:Ro icon Final Report of the Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania
Paula Mihailov, "Figuri moscovite ale comuniştilor români" ("Muscovite Figures of the Romanian Communists") in Jurnalul Naţional, February 28, 2007</ref>
Vladimir Tismăneanu, Stalinism pentru eternitate, Polirom, Iaşi, 2005 ISBN 973-681-899-3 (translation of Stalinism for All Seasons: A Political History of Romanian Communism, University of California Press, Berkeley, 2003, ISBN 0-52-023747-1)