1. Maison des Sciences de l’Homme & UnIversity of Burgundy, Dijon
The afterlife of interwar French Communists: a group portrait from Communist Romania Mihai Burcea & Corina Dobos, University of Bucharest Research project supported by the National Research Council, CNCS-UEFISCDI, Grant Nr. PN-II-PCE
Maison des Sciences de l’Homme &
UnIversity of Burgundy, Dijon
A Global Party. The French Communist Party in a Transnational Perspective ( )
DIJON, 25-27th of May 2016

2. Romanians in the French Resistance (1969)
1951/1952
Cristina Luca-Boico files (Romanian State Archives)
Romanians in the French Resistance (1969)
Mihai Patriciu files (Romanian State Archives)
Different sources & layers of interpretation

3. MEMBERS, SYMPATHIZERS, CONSPIRATORS AND "FELLOW TRAVELERS“
MEMBERS, SYMPATHIZERS, CONSPIRATORS AND "FELLOW TRAVELERS“. SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF ROMANIA IN ITS ILLEGAL ERA -PROSOPOGRAPHIES.
Research project supported by the National Research Council, CNCS-UEFISCDI, Grant Nr. PN-II-PCE , at University of Bucharest. Director: prof. univ. dr. Adrian Cioroianu.
8530 personal records (members and supporters, connected with the Romanian Communist Party (RCP) in the first during its years of ‘underground existence’ ( ) indentified at NAR-Headqurters/ Archival Fund nr. 95.

4. The project: a prosopographical database
the digitization of these personal records in a prosopographical data-base with connected digital-applications, available online for free.
Prosopographical study–
The collective biography of a group—the external features of a population group that the research has determined has something in common (profession, social origins, geographic origins.etc) (H. De Ridder-Symoens).
The inquiry into the common characteristics of a group of historical actors by means of a collective study of their lives (N. Bulst and Ph. Genet).

5. A time of Moving sands… Moments of Scandal
These files --- results of an exhaustive survey conducted by between The survey was organized by the Membership Office of the Central Committee of the RWP in and aimed at obtaining an accurate account of the members and supporters of the Communist Party before 1944.
‘traitors’, ‘spies’, ‘deviationists’, ‘titoists’, Zionists-
Stalinist purges in the Communist block ( )
- November May 1950:
investigation of the Party Members–
led to massive exclusions
(around of the 1948 members 40%)
Oct/December
Following the Rajk trial & scandal
a Special Party Commission was created
in order to investigate the presumed
spies & traitors of the RWP– fighters in the
International Brigades & the French Resistance
- February –May 1952:
Elimination of the “Muscovite group”: Vasile Luca, Ana Pauker, Teohari Georgescu

6. 1951/1952 survey: 39 respondents indicate a relationship with France (FCP, French Ressitance: FTPF// FTPF-MOI, French internment camps
Search – terms: French Communist Party, International Brigades, French Resistance, Paris, France, camp, Spanish Communist Party, USSR,
Search upon individual names
1. BODNAR (BLUM) ERVIN
2. BOICO MIHAIL (ROSNER MEIER)
3. BRILL SULLY
4. CHERCIMAN SARAH
5. CHIOREAN GH.
6. COLER JEAN
7. CRISTESCU PAVEL
8. FILIP GH.
9. GOLDNER ELISABETA-ROSENFELD
10. GOLDSTEIN (CIGHEL) CLARA
11. GROPARU (GRUBER) AUREL
12. GRUIA (KLEIN)SARI
13. GRUIA (GOLDBERGER) STEFAN
14. HOLBAN (BRUHMAN) BORIS
15. IACOBOVICI ARNOLD
16. IOSIFOVICI JACQUES
17. LAZAR MARGARETA
18. LEVAI VASILE
19. LIEBLICH (CHERCIMAN) TANIA
20. LUCA (MARCUSOHN) CRISTINA
21. LUNCAȘ EUGENIA
22. MARINESCU ION (TURMIN SIGMUND)
23.MIHAILEANU PETRE
(HERSCOVICI LEON)
24. MORARU NICOLAE-NICU
25. NECULCEA MIKAIL
26. PATRICIU (GRUENBERGER) MIHAIL
27. PETRE IOSIF (BRAUNFELD) MARIOARA
28. PHILIPP ERNST
29. PHILIPP MARGARETA
30. PRUTEANU PAUL
31. SERBAN BASIL
32. SERBAN (REYNAL) LUCIENNE
33. SIMANDAN ILIE
34. SIMANDAN VETURIA
35. SPITZER CAROL
36. SUCIU PETRE (SCHARF NUSSEN)
37.TISMĂNEANU (MARCUSSOHN) HERMINA
38.TISMĂNEANU (TISMINEŢKI) LEONTE
39. ZALAMANOVICI SOFIA

7. Romanian Emigration in (inter)war France
Political refugees – different degrees (leftists & communists from Romania)
Workers (economic crisis)
Students (cultural connections)
Volunteers in the International Brigades in Spain who tranzi- ted France in their road to Spain// many of them would return after 1939 in France//internment camps
1939: 2000 Romanian volunteers in the French Army
Romanian citizens’ organizations in France
POLITICAL: the group of the Romanian Communists affiliated to the CC of the FCP (1935); the Romanian National Front (1943)- groups toghether more structures affiliated to the French Resistance
CULTURAL: „Înfrățirea”, & „Solidaritatea” (Popular Front)
1945: Assoc. „France-Roumanie”
Journals:La Roumanie libre (French & Romanian)- 1943, a publication of the Romanian in the French Rezistance , Izbânda, Gazeta Românească

8. 24 respondents: members of the French Communist Party
7 respondents: no time details on their membership in the FCP : BOICO MIHAIL (ROSNER MEIER),GOLDSTEIN (CIGHEL) CLARA, GROPARU (GRUBER) AUREL, GRUIA (GOLDBERGER) STEFAN, LUNCAȘ EUGENIA, SIMANDAN ILIE, SPITZER CAROL )
2 respondents btw : Suciu Petre (Scharf Nussen), Lazar Margareta
3 respondents: became members of the FCP during their confinement in French internment camps ( ): JEAN COLER , MIHAIL PATRICIU (GRUENBERGER), BASIL SERBAN
1920s: 1 respondent: PAUL PRUTEANU,
1930s- 6 respondents:
SULLY BRILL ,TANIA LIEBLICH
LUCIENNE SERBAN (REYNAL)
VETURIA SIMANDAN,PETRE SUCIU (SCHARF NUSSEN), SOFIA ZALAMANOVICI
1940s( ) : 5 respondents
SARAH CHERCIMAN, GH. CHIOREAN , FILIP GHEORGHE, CRISTINA LUCA (MARCUSOHN)
ION MARINESCU (TURMIN SIGMUND)
9 women, 15 males/// 13 Jews, 1 Hungarian, 1o Romanians///
Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Strasbourg, Grenoble, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Cannes....

9. Overlapping communist identities
8 fighters in the International Brigades// 7 prisoners in French internment camps
3 War prisoners (Germany & France ) –all volunteers in the French Army ( )
8 Members of FTPF/FTP-MOI // 4 had leadership functions:
Cristina Luca– information division of FTP-MOI Paris// Romanian detachment ( ), political responsible (1944)
Mihai Patriciu FTP-MOI Paris// Romanian detachment ( ) technical responsible
Basil Serban- chief of FTP-MOI for Southern France
Gh. Filip – interregional military commander and political responsible of FTP-MOI, led the Villeurbanne/Lyon insurrection (1944)
3 in the Volunteers’ Committees for helping the International Brigades
3 MOPR activists
„Liberté” battalion, Sept led by Boris Holban
6 -- cultural associations & mass organizations of Romanian emigration and PCF ‘Infratirea’, `Liga evreiasca’, ‘Originari din Basarabia’

10. Back to Romania…
22: whole or parts of 2nd WW years spent in France/Germany (camps included)
2/24 are expelled from France around 1930 (Belgium and Switzerland) and return to Romania in the early 1930’s.
22 return (go) to Romania btw and 1948
5- the years in the PCF are acknowledged as Party seniority// 10 – they are not acknowledged as such, for 3 the years in the PCS & PCF are acknowledged as such, for 2 their membership in the PCF is under revision, while 2 did not answer
17 btw

11. 1951/1952: professional situations of the respondents
5 work for the Ministry of the Interior & the Securitate: command functions
BODNAR (BLUM) ERVIN
BOICO MIHAIL
CHIOREAN GH.
GROPARU AUREL
PATRICIU MIHAIL
8 work in other Ministries:
Foreign Affairs, Health, Economics, Industry
4 work in different cultural & educational institutions (libraries, kindergardens)
2 work in Institutions of Political education
2 –administrative functions in different institutions
2 work in media: press & radio
1 works in factory

12. : a group portrait
(Somehow) affected by the 1949 Party investigation
Keep (less) important positions in State administration
they were not put on trial or in arrested
-after the ‘illegalists’ ( most of the FCP members included) are ‘recuperated’, rehabilitated
The seniority years in the PCF are acknowledged– special pensions
Legitimizing tool for Ceausescu, kept away from the structures of power (state administration/political life)
1969- Romanians in the French Resistance : 25 memoirs
1952- the fall of the ‘Muscovite group’ – more serious consequences
Cristina Luca Boico// Ana Pauker
Mihail Patriciu// Teohari Georgescu
1958- marks a turning point in the gradual process that started in 1952 : ‘illegalists’ ( FCP included)– most of them are removed from they key positions in state administration & party life
The afterlife of the FCP– internal struggles for power of the RCP
- Future research questions: homogenity of the group after 1952–