Gheorghe Gaston-Marin

Gheorghe Gaston-Marin , born as Gheorghe Grossman , (born April 14, 1918 in Chișineu-Criş , † February 25, 2010 in Bucharest ) was a Romanian communist of Jewish descent. He fought in the French Resistance and later held various high offices in the field of industrial and economic planning in the communist leadership of Romania. He is considered the "conductor of the area-wide electrification of Romania". In the last few years of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej's government he supported the establishment of diplomatic relations with western states such as the USA .

biography

Early life

Gheorghe Grossman was born into a Jewish family. He attended the Romanian high school in Petroșani . He did his baccalaureate in Deva , the district capital, as was customary at the time. During his youth he was a member of the Zionist movement Poalei Zion , whose Romanian branch was founded in 1907.

Education

Immediately after his military service he traveled to France in 1937 , where he wanted to study mathematics and physics in Paris . He enrolled at the Sorbonne to study mathematics and physics, with the aim of later teaching in the field. Due to a lack of financial resources, however, he had to choose an alternative, and since he was interested in technology and research, he decided to study engineering. In addition to Paris, Grenoble, Toulouse and Nancy had polytechnic institutes at that time . Grenoble enabled him to begin his studies immediately. He studied from February 1938 to 1940 at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Energy of the Polytechnic Institute of the University of Grenoble . In 1940 he received his engineering degree. He held the disputatio of his doctoral thesis in 1941 at the same institute, but did not receive a title because he was considered a communist and since he had now joined the Maquis and acted against the German occupiers.

He married a French woman with whom he had a boy in 1945.

French Resistance and Communist

Before going to Grenoble, he occasionally took part in Communist meetings in Paris in 1937, where he met Maurice Thorez and Jacques Duclos . At that time, however, his political interests were still small.

The Second World War broke out during his studies and after the French campaign , Grenoble was also occupied by the Wehrmacht . Even before the armistice, Gaston-Marin (then his name was Grossman) volunteered for the French army, but was turned away because of the impending collapse. He was advised by the recruiting office to make his way through southern France to North Africa and to volunteer with the French troops in North Africa. Together with like-minded people, he set out for the south, but they were stopped by gendarmes and sent back.

The Resistance was particularly active in Grenoble and the République Libre du Vercors , proclaimed by the Maquis in Vercors south of Grenoble , became a symbol of the resistance of the French population against the German occupation.

He became active in the French Resistance and in 1942 became a member of the French Communist Party (parti communiste français) . There he received the code name Gaston Marin , which he kept as the official surname after the end of the war.

As a maquisard , he mainly acted in the south of France. He became head of the Resistance émigré groups ( FTP-MOI ) for the South-West region. In July 1944 he took part in the liberation of Carmaux ( Département Tarn ), in which 120 German soldiers were captured. Days later he also took part in the liberation of Albi in the same department.

Political career

After the end of the Second World War, he returned to Romania with his French wife and child. This was done with false Yugoslav papers issued to them by the Yugoslav embassy in Paris.

At first he was assigned by the Romanian Communist Party (Partidul Comunist Român - PCR) to the party's Bihor district committee. A recommendation from Gheorghe Vasilichi , who had also fought in the French Resistance and whom he knew from Paris, and who also held a high position among the Romanian Communists, helped him get in touch with Gheorghiu-Dej, who was looking for an advisor on energy issues. So he came to Bucharest and was appointed advisor to the President of the Council of Ministers (1945–1948). He then became Secretary General and Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Economic Affairs ( Ministerul Economiei Naționale ) (1948-1949). In 1946 he took part in the Paris Peace Conference as the Romanian envoy .

Between 1949 and 1982 he held various high offices in the field of national economic planning. He was Minister for Electrical Energy and Electrotechnical Industry from 1949–1954, President of the State Committee for Planning from 1954–1965, Vice-President of the Council of Ministers from 1962–1969, and at the same time he was President of the State Committee for Nuclear Energy from 1955–1966.

He was a member of the Grand National Assembly from 1952 to 1985 and a member of the Central Committee of the PCR from 1960 to 1984. In May 1961 he was awarded the medal "A 40-a aniversare de la înființarea Partidului Comunist din România" ("The 40th anniversary of the founding of the Romanian Communist Party").

Foreign policy successes

After attending the funeral service of the assassinated American President John F. Kennedy in 1963, he made a decisive contribution to improving Romania's diplomatic and economic relations with Western countries, including the United States. The American President Lyndon B. Johnson supported this course and as a result Romania achieved a privileged status among the communist-ruled states in this regard.

Member of governments

Gheorghe Gaston-Marin was a member of the following governments: Petru Groza government (4), Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej government (1), Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej government (2), Chivu Stoica government (1), Chivu Stoica government (2), Ion government Gh. Maurer (1), Government of Ion Gh. Maurer (2), Government of Ion Gh. Maurer (3), Government of Ion Gh. Maurer (4), Government of Ion Gh. Maurer (5), Government of Manea Mănescu (1), Manea Mănescu government (2), Ilie Verdeț government (1), Ilie Verdeț government (2).

End of political career

Gaston-Marin was both politically and privately closely connected with the then Romanian President Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej and since 1945 Secretary General of the PCR and supported his political course.

Gheorghiu-Dej died of lung cancer in March 1965, one day after his re-election. Within a few hours, Nicolae Ceaușescu was determined to be his successor. After Ceauşescu came to power, Gaston-Marin was removed from the government and was no longer represented in any government.

1969–1982 Gaston-Marin was President of the State Committee for Awards before he was excluded from all public functions by Nicolae Ceaușescu.

Late life

In 1989 Gaston-Marin emigrated to Israel , but later returned to Romania. He died on February 25, 2010 in Bucharest (Romania).

family

During the Second World War was his family who recently in Cluj , (at that time Cluj, Romania Hungary) lived by the Hungarian authorities of Horthystischen regime to Auschwitz deported . His father was killed by gas immediately upon arrival , and his mother and 20-year-old sister, who had scarlet fever , were shot.

Scientific work

Gaston-Marin has published several scientific papers, including steel smelting in high-frequency furnaces ( "Încălzirea oțelului prin cuptoare de înaltă frecvență" ), which served as the theoretical basis for a corresponding plant in Algeria.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} A murit Gaston Marin, "dirijorul" electrificării României article on the death of Gaston-Marin, www.jurnalul.ro
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Cu Gaston Marin despre Rezistenţa franceză, Ceauşescu, electrificare, Canal, Kremlin, Casa Albă , jurnalul.ro, 2006 interview with Gheorghe Gaston-Marin from Lavinia Betea, published February 27, 2010 (Romanian, accessed 10 October 2010)
3. ↑ Poalei Tziyon (Poale Zion) - Definition, Zionism and Israel - Encyclopedic Dictionary (accessed October 10, 2010)
4. ↑ Grenoble , Ordre de la libération, French version ( Memento of the original of February 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. / Grenoble , Ordre de la libération, English version ( Memento of the original of October 20, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Retrieved October 10, 2010)  
5. ↑ Maquis du Vercors , French Wikipedia article
6. ↑ Lavinia Betea - Gaston Marin - Din Rezistența franceză în partidul comunist , article in "Jurnalul Național", March 5, 2007 (article no longer available, October 10, 2010)
7. ↑ Moșteniri ale culturii iudaice ( Memento of the original from March 13, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ("Heritage of Jewish Culture"), list of Romanian-Jewish personalities (Romanian; accessed October 10, 2010)