Gheorghe Apostol - With Gheorghiu-Dej

With Gheorghiu-Dej

He was among the most prominent collaborators of Gheorghiu-Dej. As members of the so-called prison faction, opposed to the large group of Party members who had taken refuge in the Soviet Union prior to 1944, Gheorghe Apostol and Gheorghiu-Dej walked the fine line between Stalinism and reformism. Thus, Communist Romania did not steer away from Soviet policies until 1953, and Gheorghiu-Dej even got Joseph Stalin's approval for the removal of rival Ana Pauker (still regarded as a leftwing extremist by Apostol—see the interview linked below), as well as for the elimination of Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu (a Romanian communist who was not completely loyal to the Soviets). After Stalin's death in 1953, the regime in Romania, headed by the same inner circle, was largely opposed to Nikita Khrushchev and de-Stalinization, while carrying out its own reforms and attempting to cut off most economic ties to the Soviet Union.

Apostol continued to be the favoured link between the Party (then named Partidul Muncitoresc Român, PMR – "Romanian Workers' Party") and the trade unions. At the same time, he climbed steadily in the Party hierarchy. He joined the Central Committee in 1945 and the Politburo in 1948. He was Minister of Agriculture in 1953–54, a member of the Great National Assembly legislative body, whose President he also was from April 1948 to June 1948, September 1950 to April 1951 and March 1952 to June 1952, and recipient of several national honours. In 1954, Gheorghiu-Dej briefly gave up the first secretaryship of the party to Apostol, while remaining as prime minister. However, it was understood that Gheorghiu-Dej still held the real power, and he formally took back the party leadership in 1955.

According to Apostol himself, an ailing Gheorghiu-Dej would have decided to appoint him as his successor in 1964: as confirmation, Apostol was sent to represent the Romanian government at Jawaharlal Nehru's funeral. Ion Gheorghe Maurer would have rallied the Party leadership around the neutral option represented by Ceauşescu, making sure that Apostol did not represent a threat upon Gheorghiu-Dej's death.