Dumitru Petrescu, believed to have been born Gheorghe M. Dumitru,"Condamnarea infractorilor dela atelierele c.f.r. Grivița", in Universul, 4 July 1934, p. 5Gîju, p. 97 also known as Gheorghe Petrescu and Petrescu-Grivița (10 May 1906 – 13 September 1969), was a Romanian general, trade union leader, and Communist Party (PCR) activist. After training as a metalworker in Grivița, he took to left-wing politics, joining the underground communist groups at some point before the railwaymen's strike of February 1933, which he helped organise together with Constantin Doncea and Gheorghe Vasilichi. Arrested by the Romanian Kingdom authorities in its wake, he received a 15-year prison sentence. He broke out of Craiova penitentiary a few months later, together with Vasilichi and Doncea, after overpowering a guard. With support from the International Red Aid, Petrescu made his way into Czechoslovakia, and then headed for the Soviet Union, where he lived until 1944. He worked in publishing and trained as a propagandist at the International Lenin School in Moscow.
During World War II, Petrescu was acknowledged as a member of the PCR's exile, or "Muscovite", faction, which gravitated around Ana Pauker. He helped rallying up Romanian prisoners of war for the Red Army's Tudor Vladimirescu and Horea, Cloșca și Crișan Divisions, emerging as a political commissar and lieutenant colonel. He had a mainly political role in the Soviet conquest of Romania, upon which he was integrated into the Romanian Land Forces, serving as a coordinator of cultural and propaganda efforts, leading toward their transformation into the Romanian people's army. He followed the Romanian army and the Vladimirescu units as they crossed into Northern Transylvania and Hungary, recording his troops' initial bravery and subsequent breakdown during the Battle of Debrecen. Although promoted to major general in 1948, and assigned seats in the Great National Assembly and the Central Committee, Petrescu was pushed aside by the Romanian People's Republic; he had only a brief involvement in the collectivisation of agriculture, as part of a commission that also included Pauker. His marginalisation occurred largely because the communist leader, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, had a more modest pedigree in the railways movement than either Petrescu or Doncea, and as such resented their visibility.
Petrescu displayed his loyalty in 1952, when he assisted Gheorghiu-Dej in toppling Pauker and her "Muscovites"; he himself was Minister of Finance in 1952–1955, replacing the disgraced "Muscovite" Vasile Luca. His administrative career peaked in 1955–1956, when he served as deputy prime minister. Outspoken in his criticism of Gheorghiu-Dej, Petrescu was identified as belonging to a "Doncea group" of factionalists, and expelled from the party in July 1956. He returned to favour in 1965, when Gheorghiu-Dej had died and Nicolae Ceaușescu, as the new general secretary, had introduced a more liberal political line. Reinstated and allowed back on the Central Committee, Petrescu served in various administrative positions, before emerging as vice-president Front of Socialist Unity (in 1968) and of the State Council (in 1969). Already terminally ill with cirrhosis, he died while vacationing in Karlovy Vary; his final assignment had been one of national importance, as a member of the Permanent Presidium of the PCR Politburo. He is remembered as a founding figure of CSA Steaua București and of its football club.
Biography Early career and trials Born to proletarian parents in Bucharest,"Tovarășul Dumitru Petrescu a încetat din viață", in Scînteia, 14 September 1969, p. 1 Petrescu was originally known as Gheorghe Dumitru, before adopting the alias he used in 1933 and throughout life (he was also known under the combined form "Gheorghe Dumitru-Petrescu"). Historian Dan Gîju reports that his exact name may be ultimately unknown, but that Romanian Police records had him as "Gheorghe M. Dumitru"—with the added initial of his carpenter father; Gîju notes a second alias used by the future general, namely "Petrusin". He was described in PCR propaganda as having "experienced from his early childhood terrible exploitation by the bourgeois-landowning regime";"Poporul muncitor propune pe fiii săi cei mai buni drept candidați ai F.D.P. în alegerile pentru Marea Adunare Națională. Circumscripția electorală 'Târgu-Jiu'. Colectivul fabricii de confecții 'Tudor Vladimirescu' a propus candidat in alegerile de deputați în Marea Adunare Naţională pe tovarășul Dumitru Petrescu", in Scînteia Tineretului, 17 October 1952, p. 3 historian Florin Șperlea describes his childhood as having been spent "in a working-class neighborhood", namely among employees of Căile Ferate Române (CFR, the national railway carrier).Șperlea, p. 26 Young Dumitru-Petrescu trained as a manual worker. In 1918, he was an apprentice at the CFR yard in Grivița, but transferred to begin training as a printer at Editura Socec (to October 1920). He returned to the CFR as an metalworking lathe operator, fully employed there from October 1920 to August 1928.Dobre et al, p. 467 During that interval, he was listed as a trusted operative by the Union of Communist Youth, which he reportedly joined in 1922. His four-grade education was supplemented by night school, earning him a diploma in secondary-level commercial studies.
According to at least one account, Petrescu joined the fledgling PCR in 1924, and stayed with it after it was outlawed that same year;Anna Papp, "Figyelő. Románok, magyarok es mások", in Erdélyi Magyarság, Vol. XVI, Issue 58, January–March 2005, pp. 36–37 journalist Paula Mihailov suggests that he only joined in 1932. Paula Mihailov, "Figuri moscovite ale comuniștilor români", in Jurnalul Național, 7 September 2005 Petrescu's official records also suggests that he was a member of the Romanian Social Democratic Party (PSDR) in 1927–1928, and that he then joined the Socialist Workers Party of Romania, with which he was still affiliated in October 1930; in these sources, his PCR membership is precisely dated to July 1932. By then, he had also affiliated with the "unitary trade union"—of which he was a general secretary from 1928.
In early 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, Petrescu helped to organise the Grivița strike, as a leader of the Bucharest union council; this was the culmination of efforts that began in 1932, when Petrescu, together with Gheorghe Vasilichi and Constantin Doncea, considered making pushes for a general strike. Ilarion Țiu, "Dedesubturile evadării comuniștilor", in Jurnalul Național, 12 April 2005 A report by Siguranța agents suggests that non-communist members of the Grivița union regarded Petrescu and the others as their fellow workers, seeing them more favourably than "actual communists" such as Petre Gheorghe.Neagoe-Pleșa (2014), pp. 107–108 A participant in the events, Vasile Bâgu, recalled in 1958 that Petrescu was involved in a warning strike of 28 January–2 February 1933, when he and Doncea, alongside Petre Gheorghe and Hugo Barani, were elected to a committee which presented the workers' demands to the CFR management.Cristina Diac, "Greva de la Grivița din februarie 1933, văzută de protagoniști. O declarație a lui Vasile Bâgu", in Arhivele Totalitarismului, Vol. 20, Issues 3–4, 2012, pp. 206–208
PCR records report that, on the evening of 13 February, Petrescu, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, Nicolae Goldberger and Gheorghe Stoica were present at a conspiratorial meeting of the "communist faction" within the trade-union coalition. Held on Hagi Tudorache Street near Herăstrău, it supposedly "established measures which imposed themselves [...] after government had refused to acknowledge progress made by the strikers on 2 February, and had sealed of the revolutionary unions' house."Gheorghe Neacșu, Gheorghe Tudor, "Comunicări. Locuri și case legate de activitatea Partidului Comunist Român în anii 1924—1933", in Anale de Istorie, Vol. XXII, Issues 5–6, 1976, p. 84 The Siguranța was immediately informed when, on the night of 13–14 February 1933, Petrescu and Doncea met with Barani and Chivu Stoica to give the signal for a revolutionary strike action, planned for 15 February.Neagoe-Pleșa (2014), p. 88 Petrescu was arrested later on 14 February,Dobre et al, p. 467; Neagoe-Pleșa (2014), p. 88 alongside both Doncea and Vasilichi. This did not prevent the limited strike: the workers were pushed to more radical positions "upon hearing that their union leaders had been arrested", and would not conduct negotiations. Prime Minister Alexandru Vaida-Voevod ordered a storming of Grivița by two regiments of the Land Forces, during which seven strikers were killed.Neagoe-Pleșa (2014), pp. 89–91
Petrescu was formally charged on 6 June. His prosecutor, Tiberiu Bărdescu, included him on a list of 58 main culprits, alleged by him to have "instigated the strike and rebellion."Neagoe-Pleșa (2014), pp. 97–98 He was moved with his co-defendants between prisons—Jilava, Văcărești, and ultimately Craiova.Dobre et al, p. 468; Șperlea, p. 26; Vasilichi, pp. 17–19 Sociologist Vladimir Tismăneanu argues that Petrescu also spent time in Doftana Prison, where he became a supporter of Gheorghiu-Dej, who had also been prosecuted for the Grivița strike, and who was emerging as leader of a PCR faction.Tismăneanu, p. 104 During the investigating phase, the authorities realised that grouping Doncea and Petrescu along with other CFR workers held in custody was only helping them diffuse their ideas and consolidate their personal authority. They were separated from other inmates in April.Neagoe-Pleșa (2014), p. 94 The mass trial began on 17 July 1933 at the military tribunal ("war council") of the 2nd Army Corps, in Bucharest; Petrescu was represented in court by lawyer Iosif Șraier.Neagoe-Pleșa (2014), pp. 99–100, 103 Witnesses for the defence included a right-wing former minister, Mihail Manoilescu, who argued that the CFR workers had reason to be upset by the violation of their labour rights, as well as by government inaction in their favour.Neagoe-Pleșa (2014), pp. 103–104
Petrescu himself was "almost defiant" in his addresses to the court, alleging that his judges were mere lackeys for the government and the ruling classes.Neagoe-Pleșa (2014), pp. 104–105 Both Doncea and Petrescu initially received life sentences on 19 August 1933, while Vasilichi and Vasile Luca were given 20-year prison sentences (Gheorghiu-Dej received 15 years); all three main organisers obtained a retrial upon judicial review, in March 1934.Neagoe-Pleșa (2014), pp. 105–106, 108–111. See also Dobre et al, pp. 467–468; Oane, p. 75; Șperlea, p. 26 In various issues between September 1933 and January 1934, the PCR's illegal newspaper, Scânteia, declared that Petrescu and Doncea were victims of "fascist terror", drawing a parallel between their prosecution and the Leipzig Trial in Nazi Germany.Ion Babici, "Documente. Mărturii cu privire la solidaritatea opiniei publice progresiste din România cu Gheorghi Dimitrov și tovarășii săi în timpul procesului de la Leipzig (septembrie–decembrie 1933)", in Anale de Istorie, Vol. XIX, Issue 5, 1973, pp. 135–136, 139–141