Leonte Răutu (until 1945 Lev Nikolayevich (Nicolaievici) Oigenstein; February 28, 1910 – September 1993) was a Bessarabian-born Romanian communist activist and propagandist, who served as deputy prime minister in 1969–1972. He was chief ideologist of the Romanian Communist Party ("Workers' Party") during the rule of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, and one of his country's few high-ranking communists to have studied Marxism from the source. Răutu was of Jewish origin, though he embraced atheism and anti-Zionism. His adventurous youth, with two prison terms served for illegal political activity, culminated in his self-exile to the Soviet Union, where he spent the larger part of World War II. Specializing in agitprop and becoming friends with communist militant Ana Pauker, he joined the Romanian section of Radio Moscow.
Răutu made his way back to Romania during the communization process of the late 1940s, and, after establishing cultural and political guidelines with his articles in Scînteia and Contemporanul, became a feared potentate of the Romanian communist regime. As head of the Communist Party's new Agitprop Section, he devised some of the most controversial cultural policies, and expanded the scope of ideological censorship, introducing practices such as "processing" and "unmasking". He managed to survive Pauker's downfall in 1952, and supervised a clampdown on her alleged followers. As Gheorghiu-Dej's assistant, he played a leading part in all the successive avatars of Romanian communism: he was a Stalinist and Zhdanovist before 1955, an anti-revisionist until 1958, and a national communist since. During this long transition, he instigated (and gave a Marxist backing to) the successive campaigns against Gheorghiu-Dej's political adversaries, selectively purged academia of suspected anti-communists, and deposed some of his own supporters. He became widely hated for his perceived lack of scruples, depicted by disgraced communist writers as "the perfect acrobat" or "Malvolio".
While maintaining influence during the late stages of Gheorghiu-Dej's rule, Răutu backed the party's "Romanianization" and came to be seen as a self-hating Jew. He preserved some of his prestige after his national-communist friend Nicolae Ceaușescu took over the party leadership, continuing and accelerating Romanianization. Răutu finally lost his Agitprop prerogatives, but remained directly involved in the supervision of cultural affairs, and received high distinctions from Ceaușescu's own hand. After his stint as Deputy Prime Minister, he became rector of the party's own Ștefan Gheorghiu Academy, and still played a part in defining the official dogmas; however, he also tolerated dissenting intellectuals, who criticized national communism from Marxist-Leninist and Neo-Marxist positions. He returned to favor in 1980, as Ceaușescu himself fell back on a stricter interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, but was eventually deposed in 1981, as punishment for his daughter's decision to emigrate. He was kept under watch for his alleged contacts with the KGB and spent the rest of his life in relative obscurity, witnessing the fall of communism in 1989.
Biography
Early activities Rătu's birthplace was Bălți (Byeltsi), a city in the Bessarabia Governorate, Russian Empire, where his father, Nikolai Ivanovich Oigenstein (or Nicolai Ivanovici Oighenstein), worked as a pharmacist. The Oigensteins were Russian-educated Jews, and did not speak Romanian until ca. 1920.Tismăneanu & Vasile, pp. 61–62 Some communist sources suggest that Răutu was born in the Kingdom of Romania, at Fălticeni, but this account is either misled or misleading.Tismăneanu & Vasile, p. 61. See also Dobre et al., p. 508 Lev Nikolayevich (later Leonte or Leonea) was the eldest of three brothers; Dan (later Dan Răutu) was the second-born; the third brother, Mikhail, would later take the name of Mihail "Mișa" Oișteanu.Tismăneanu & Vasile, pp. 62–63, 123–124
Lev witnessed the birth of Greater Romania from Bălți, where he remained until his high-school graduation. He later relocated to the Bukovina region, and, in 1928, was in Bucharest, the national capital.Tismăneanu & Vasile, pp. 22, 23 The future ideologist entered the University of Bucharest to study mathematics, but never graduated. Biografiile nomenklaturii, at the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of the Romanian Exile site; accessed 12 May 2012Tismăneanu & Vasile, pp. 23, 63 (He may also have spent a while at the Bucharest Medical School.)Tismăneanu & Vasile, p. 63 From 1925 to 1934, young Oigenstein made his living as a private tutor, active in Bălți, Cernăuți, and finally Bucharest.Dobre et al., p. 508 He entered the Communist Youth in December 1929 and the party itself in 1931;Dobre et al., pp. 508–509; Tismăneanu & Vasile, pp. 18, 39, 444. See also Betea et al., p. 46 his brother Dan headed the Communist Students Organization from 1932, and was accepted into the party in 1933.Burcea, p. 61 In the years when the Romanian Communist Party (PCR, later "Workers' Party", or PMR) was banned, Lev was editor of the party organ Scînteia and worked with Ștefan Foriș, Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu, Valter Roman, Sorin Toma, Mircea Bălănescu and Tatiana Leapis (later Bulan). Leapis was Răutu's first wife, but left him for Foriș.Tismăneanu & Vasile, pp. 63–64
Characterized as intelligent, ironic and well-informed, Răutu preferred to read Russian and Soviet literature. Although lacking a thorough training in philosophy, he was one of the few PCR activists with a certain knowledge of Marxist and even non-Marxist theory,Dobre et al., p. 51 but despised most forms of continental philosophy and modernism.Tismăneanu & Vasile, pp. 18–20, 22, 23, 33, 57–58, 82–86 Political scientist Vladimir Tismăneanu describes Răutu as comparable with some other Eastern European dogmatic Stalinists, from Jakub Berman and József Révai to Kurt Hager.Tismăneanu & Vasile, pp. 15, 21, 73, 131–132 In this definition, Răutu was a "self-hating intellectual".Tismăneanu & Vasile, p. 58 Historian Lucian Boia believes that, in adopting communism, Răutu forfeited his Jewishness and "became abstract", an "ideological soldier".Boia, p. 295 Tismăneanu also notes that Răutu separated from his Jewish roots very early in life, growing up into Russian culture, condemning all expression of Jewish nationalism, and becoming classifiable as a "non-Jewish Jew".Tismăneanu & Vasile, pp. 18, 51, 68–69, 76, 82–86 Likewise, historian Lucian Nastasă describes Răutu as one of the Romanian communists who were "less dominated by the obsession of ethnic affiliation (the religious one being entirely excluded by the aggressive atheism promoted in the Soviet Union)"; Răutu and others were instead animated by their "obedience to the Soviet Union."Nastasă, pp. 18–19 Communist Silviu Brucan, who worked under Răutu and was also Jewish, recalls that PMR leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej had a condescending view of Răutu as "Jewish and culturally Russian".Brucan, p. 90
Răutu was first tried for sedition while still in the Communist Youth: on August 20, 1930, a Bessarabian tribunal validated arrest warrants for "the Oighenștein brothers", during a round-up of communists and alleged Soviet spies."Spioni sovietici arestați in Nordul Basarabiei", in Cuvântul, August 20, 1930, p. 3 Lev was consequently sentenced to a one-year prison term. He was for a while held in Chișinău jail, then moved to Doftana prison, in the company of other PCR militants, becoming acquainted with many of Romania's future political bosses.Tismăneanu & Vasile, pp. 24, 39, 65, 71, 97. See also Dobre et al., p. 509 Shortly after being released, in 1932, he was again on trial: until 1934, he was again in prison, first at the penitentiary facility of Cernăuți and then at Jilava Prison.Dobre et al., p. 509; Tismăneanu & Vasile, p. 39 This episode ended with him becoming an activist for the communist committee in Bucharest,Tismăneanu & Vasile, p. 39 and head of its Agitprop section. After his breakup with Tatiana Leapis, the young activist met his future wife Natalia "Niunia" Redel, herself Jewish and Russian-educated.Tismăneanu & Vasile, pp. 62, 63–64 Implicated in the communist underground and working for the International Red Aid,Comitetul Foștilor Luptători Antifasciști din Republica Socialistă România, "Natalia Răutu", in Scînteia, January 22, 1975, p. 5 she found employment with a clinic ran by physician Leon Ghelerter, himself politically active with the United Socialists. Iulia Popovici, "Viața și moartea unui comunist basarabean. Iuri Korotkov, tatăl Kirei Muratova", in Observator Cultural, Issue 880, July 2017
As recounted by Sorin Toma, in 1936 or 1937 Răutu personally witnessed, and excused, Foriș's mental breakdown.Burcea, p. 60; Robert Levy, "O abordare psihologică a nomenclaturii comuniste. Banda care a condus România", in Dosarele Istoriei, Vol I, Issue 4, 1996, p. 15 During early 1937, the two men oversaw the expulsion from the party of a young novelist, Alexandru Sahia, whom they depicted as an infiltrator.Tănase, p. 20 Following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Răutu was among those tasked with recruiting Romanian leftists for the International Brigades.Gheorghe I. Bodea, Vida: artist militant, p. 37. Cluj-Napoca: Editura Dacia, 1980. This was one of his final activities in Greater Romania. Answering a call for repatriation,Tismăneanu & Vasile, pp. 24, 65 Răutu and Natalia emigrated to the Soviet Union following the 1940 occupation of Bessarabia. Before leaving, he entrusted his documents to Foriș's lover and secretary, Victoria Sârbu.Tismăneanu & Vasile, p. 65
Although Jewish, Răutu was not dissuaded by the interval of Nazi–Soviet cooperation: once relocated to the Moldavian SSR, he was made co-editor of Pămînt Sovietic ("Soviet Land"), a propaganda magazine.Tismăneanu & Vasile, pp. 24, 39, 65. See also Dobre et al., p. 509 Counted as a Soviet citizen throughout the war,Betea et al., p. 46 he may have also been an ideological instructor for the Bessarabian Communist Party. Lev and Natalia were married in the Soviet Union.Tismăneanu & Vasile, p. 64 Little is known about the couple in the months that followed the Nazi and Romanian attack on the Soviet Union. They escaped Bessarabia, and fled further inland.Tismăneanu & Vasile, p. 66 Răutu himself reported having worked as a mere laborer at two sand quarries and a kolkhoz, between 1942 and 1943.Dobre et al., p. 509. See also Tismăneanu & Vasile, p. 66 He and Natalia had two children, both of whom died, probably of hunger, during the months of Soviet retreat.Tismăneanu & Vasile, p. 69
Communist rise At some point (perhaps in 1943), Răutu became head of the Radio Moscow Romanian-language division, making him a favorite of exile faction leader Ana Pauker's, together with Valter Roman and Petre Borilă.Câmpeanu, pp. 152, 170; Tismăneanu & Vasile, pp. 25, 29–30, 32, 39, 65–72, 445. See also Betea et al., p. 46; Dobre et al., p. 509 According to sociologist and former communist Pavel Câmpeanu, he owed Pauker not only his career, but also his life, since she had made sure that Răutu and the others were never called up for active duty.Câmpeanu, p. 170 This assignment also placed Răutu in direct contact with some of Pauker's colleagues in the Comintern: he replaced Basil Spiru, of Marx University fame, and was supervised by Rudolf Slánský.Tismăneanu & Vasile, pp. 25, 66–67 His other job was as book editor for the Foreign Languages Publishing House. Răutu returned to Romania in 1945 at Pauker's request and immediately rose to the top of the party's propaganda apparatus, as Iosif Chișinevschi's deputy, joining the editorial team of the revived Scînteia,Tismăneanu & Vasile, pp. 32, 39, 40. See also Dobre et al., p. 509 and becoming one of the most active contributors to Contemporanul monthly.Boia, p. 292