Alexandru Nicolau

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Alexandru Nicolau
Donskoy Cemetery, Moscow
NationalityRomanian, Soviet
Other namesAleksandr Aleksandrovich Nikolau
Alma materUniversity of Bucharest
University of Paris
Occupation(s)Lawyer, socialist activist, communist activist
Employer(s)Communist University of the National Minorities of the West
Moscow Institute of Foreign Languages
Political partySocial Democratic Party of Romania
Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Alexandru Nicolau (

Soviet Russia after a successful prison escape. During the later part of his life he held teaching positions at several Soviet universities, before falling victim to the Great Purge in 1937. His name was posthumously rehabilitated
both in the Soviet Union and in his native Romania.

Biography

Early life and activity

Nicolau was born in

Constantin Dobrogeanu Gherea, Ecaterina Arbore and others, he represented the Bucharest Socialist Club at the Fifth Congress of the Social Democratic Party of Romania (PSDR),[7] being elected a member in the committee of the party's publishing house.[8] In order to escape harassment from the authorities, Nicolau chose to leave Romania for Paris, where he continued his law studies at the Sorbonne, and joined the French Section of the Workers' International.[9][10][11]

World War I and Russian Revolution

In 1916, Romania joined World War I on the side of the Entente and imposed an immediate ban on the local socialist movement, which had adopted a militant pacifist stance. Nicolau reacted by publishing in Paris a study highly critical of the Romanian ruling classes, titled The Crime of the Romanian Oligarchy. Returning to Romania later in the war, he was kept under constant surveillance by Siguranța, the secret police.[10] Nicolau was present in Iași during the revolutionary agitation which emerged during the 1917 May Day celebrations and under the impression of the February Revolution. Along the other social-democrats, he supported the position of the PSD leader Christian Rakovsky, who believed the situation in Romania was not ripe for the overthrow of the monarchy.[12][10]

Romania volunteer regiment marching in Odessa in January 1918

Joining Rakovsky and Bujor, Nicolau left in June 1917 for Russia,

Odessa and, along with Bujor, Ion Dic Dicescu, and Alter Zalic, he was one of the organisers and afterwards leaders of the Romanian Committee for Social-Democratic Action established in the city.[15][10][3][14] Nicolau also became the editor of Lupta ("The Struggle"), which presented itself as the successor of România Muncitoare (renamed in 1914 to Lupta zilnică, "The Daily Struggle").[10][3] After the October Revolution, the Romanian socialists in Odessa saluted the new developments. Becoming increasingly communist in outlook, they also began agitating for a revolution in their home country.[16] Such views were publicly expressed by Nicolau during his speech at the 2nd Congress of Rumcherod.[11] In order to help the Soviets secure power in Southern Russia, on December 28, 1917, the committee established the Romanian Revolutionary Military Committee, which counted Nicolau, Bujor, and Dicescu among its leaders.[17] The Revolutionary Committee worked in close cooperation with the Rumcherod, which provided it with material support.[18] During the following period, two Romanian volunteer battalions were established by recruiting Romanian soldiers in Bessarabia and the Russian Black Sea ports, as well as workers who had been evacuated to Southern Russia.[10][19][20] Between January and March 1918, the volunteers participated along the local Red Guards in battles against the troops of the Ukrainian People's Republic, the regular Romanian Army which had occupied Bessarabia, as well as against the Central Powers armies advancing from the Northwest.[21]

The occupation of Odessa by

Lenin.[24] During August 1919, as the Soviets regained Odessa, Nicolau was one of the editors of the short-lived newspaper Scânteea
.

Later life and death

Alexandru Nicolau returned to Romania in 1920, however he was soon apprehended by the authorities, and imprisoned in

Third World Congress of the Communist International, held in Moscow in June 1921.[26] Nicolau also joined the Romanian section of the Communist University of the National Minorities of the West, where he lectured on topics such as history and social sciences, and worked as a teacher for the Moscow Institute of Foreign Languages.[9][25]

Nicolau was among the Romanian Communist refugees in Soviet Russia who in 1924 signed a memorandum calling for the creation of a

Moldovan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.[27]

Arrested on August 14, 1937, during the

Donskoy Cemetery
in Moscow.

He was posthumously rehabilitated on September 15, 1956, through a decision of the Soviet Supreme Court during the De-Stalinisation campaign.[9] In a symbolic gesture, his name was also rehabilitated in Romania during the April 1968 Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party.

Notes

  1. ^ Cruceanu 1973, p. 131.
  2. ^ Popescu-Puțuri & Georgescu 1971, pp. 267–268.
  3. ^ a b c d Liveanu 1967, p. 895.
  4. ^ Calendarul Muncei 1913, p. 89.
  5. ^ Popescu-Puțuri & Georgescu 1971, pp. 269–271.
  6. ^ Petrescu n.d., pp. 245–246.
  7. ^ Bacalbașa 1936, p. 95.
  8. ^ Calendarul Muncei 1913, p. 65.
  9. ^ a b c Memorial.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h Popescu-Puțuri & Georgescu 1971, p. 271.
  11. ^ a b Manusevich et al. 1967, p. 410.
  12. ^ Matichescu 1967, p. 870.
  13. ^ Petrescu n.d., pp. 292–293.
  14. ^ a b Manusevich et al. 1967, p. 67.
  15. ^ Unc 1967, p. 847.
  16. ^ Unc 1967, p. 848.
  17. ^ Manusevich et al. 1967, p. 411.
  18. ^ Manusevich et al. 1967, p. 412.
  19. ^ Unc 1967, p. 849.
  20. ^ Manusevich et al. 1967, pp. 413–414.
  21. ^ Manusevich et al. 1967, pp. 414–415.
  22. ^ Manusevich et al. 1967, p. 416.
  23. ^ Manusevich et al. 1967, p. 418.
  24. ^ Manusevich et al. 1967, p. 419.
  25. ^ a b Popescu-Puțuri & Georgescu 1971, p. 272.
  26. ^ Stănescu 1971, p. 61.
  27. ^ Galuschenko 2009.

References

  • Calendarul Muncei pe anul 1913 [Labour almanac 1913] (in Romanian). Bucharest: Cercul de Editură Socialistă. 1913.
  • Bacalbașa, Constantin (1936). Bucureștii de altă dată 1910–1914 [The Bucharest of yesteryear 1910–1914] (in Romanian). Vol. IV (2 ed.). Bucharest:
    OCLC 1079078435
    .
  • Cruceanu, Mihail (1973). De vorbă cu trecutul... [Talking to the past...] (in Romanian). Bucharest: Editura Minerva.
  • Galuschenko, Oleg Sergeevich (2009). Молдаване или Румыны? Взаимоотношения между бессарабцами и румынскими политэмигрантами накануне создания Молдавской АССР [Moldavians or Romanians? Interrelations between the Bessarabians and the Romanian political emigrants before the creation of the Moldavian ASSR]. Приднестровье XXI (in Russian) (20). Tiraspol: Tiraspol School of Political Studies. Archived from the original on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 3 February 2014.
  • Liveanu, V. (1967). "Pravda despre mișcarea revoluționară din România (1917–1921)" [Pravda about the revolutionary movement in Romania (1917–1921)]. Studii. Revistă de istorie (in Romanian). XX (5). Bucharest: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România: 891–904.
    ISSN 0567-6304
    .
  • Manusevich, A. Ya.; Birman, M. A.; Klevanskiy, A. Kh.; et al., eds. (1967). Интернационалисты: Трудящиеся зарубежных стран — Участники борьбы за власть советов [The internationalists. Workers of the foreign countries — participants in the battle for Soviet power] (in Russian). Moscow: Nauka.
  • Matichescu, O. (1967). "Acțiunile revoluționare din Iași desfășurate în cursul lunii Mai 1917" [Revolutionary activities in Iași during May 1917]. Studii. Revistă de istorie (in Romanian). XX (5). Bucharest: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România: 863–880.
    ISSN 0567-6304
    .
  • Petrescu, Constantin Titel (n.d.). Socialismul în România: 1835–6 septembrie 1940 [Socialism in Romania: 1835–September 6, 1940] (in Romanian). Bucharest: Biblioteca Socialistă.
  • Popescu-Puțuri, Ion; Georgescu, Titu, eds. (1971). "Alexandru Nicolau". Purtători de flamuri revoluționare [Revolutionary standard bearers] (in Romanian). Bucharest: Editura Științifică.
  • Stănescu, Marin C. (1971). Mișcarea muncitorească din România în anii 1921–1924 [The labour movement in Romania between 1921 and 1924] (in Romanian). Bucharest: Editura Politică.
  • Unc, Gheorghe (1967). "Participarea unităților militare revoluționare române la lupta pentru apărarea Revoluției din Octombrie" [The participation of the Romanian revolutionary military units in the defence of the October Revolution]. Studii. Revistă de istorie (in Romanian). XX (5). Bucharest: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România: 846–862.
    ISSN 0567-6304
    .
  • "Жертвы политического террора в СССР" [Victims of political terror in the USSR] (in Russian). Memorial. Retrieved 3 February 2014.
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