„Camarila” lui Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
Gheorghe Gheorghiu Dej’s Inner Circle

Summary/Abstract: Like all other Communist leaders, Gheorghiu-Dej could not have gained and kept power without the help of a strong group of supporters. This group of supporters which formed Gheorghiu-Dej’s inner circle has variously been described as “membrii bandei comuniste de la Doftana, Caransebeş, Târgu Jiu” (Stelian Tănase), “coechipierii lui Dej” (Florin Constantiniu) and “clica Gheorghiu-Dej” (Belu Zilber). Since the early years after the Communists took power in Romania, Gheorghiu-Dej had surrounded himself by a group of supporters who would him faithfully during the conflicts with his opponents within the Communist party. Given the party’s stormy history, Dej would never have managed to eliminate his political rivals if it had not been for this inner circle of staunch supporters. Dej also used some of the more influential Communists from his inner circle in order to gain access to some political figures in Kremlin. Well aware of the fact that he could not become the leader of the Romanian Communist Party without Moscow’s support, Gheorghiu-Dej tried to secure Stalin’s sympathy. This was one the reasons why be surrounded himself with a large number of Russian spies whom he had met during the time he spent as a political prisoner. Gheorghiu-Dej gradually created a team of faithful supporters who allowed him to monitor closely the whole party apparatus. After all, the more areas of political activity Dej’s inner circle could control, the more important was the leader’s influence on the party. In spite of his leadership abilities, Gheorghiu-Dej would never have managed to become the leader of the Romanian Communist Party without the help of a number of trustworthy supporters. He needed these people in order to ‘eliminate’ Ştefan Foriş, Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu and other people who had become undesirable. The help of Dej’s inner circle was vital in 1956 when Iosif Chişinevschi and Miron Constantinescu took advantage of the favorable circumstances brought about by Hruşciov’s revisionism and tried to take over the leadership of the Party.

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