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Romulus Zăroni

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Romulus Zăroni (28 April 1906 – 23 October 1962) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian politician, who collaborated with Petru Groza in establishing the left-agrarain Ploughmen's Front.

Biography[edit]

Zăroni was born on 28 April 1906 in Hunyad County, Transylvania (the region as a whole was in the Hungarian partition of Austria-Hungary). Sources report his exact birthplace as either Hășdat[1] (now part of Hunedoara city) or Nădăștia de Sus[2] (absorbed by Călan). In some descriptions, he is listed as "a simple man [and] a peasant from Țara Hațegului", located further to the south, on what was then the border with the Kingdom of Romania; his parents are known to have been named Ioan and Eva.[3] His official biography noted that he was the son of "destitute plow-wielding peasants", and that he himself "toiled from his earliest years to for his parents' sliver of land, to earn himself a bitter loaf of bread."[2] Various sources contradict this take, describing the Zăronis as a family of wealthy peasants, or chiaburi.[4]

Attending primary school in Nădăștia de Sus, Romulus witnessed the union of Transylvania with Romania, during which he had enrolled at Decebal National College in Deva.[5] Young Zăroni reportedly got interested in the "workers' movements and the proletariat's struggle", which became main subjects on his reading list.[2] He is known to have studied at an agricultural school in Weimar Germany, returning as a trained agronomist with a direct involvement in improving working techniques—upon his return, he set up a model farm.[6] He also rallied with the peasants' protest movement, formed in reaction to the Great Depression; as one of Petru Groza's "closest collaborators", he helped establish the Ploughmen's Front in early 1933, when he was aged 26.[2] In February of that year, he published in the local newspaper a sketch of the Front's political program. It called on all peasants to unite into a single political-and-professional organization, while also demanding that the state abolish its corts of arbitration, or Agricultural Chambers, seeing them as instruments of exploitation.[7]

Zăroni was thereafter vice president of thew Front at a national level,[8] as well as leader of the its plasă-level organization in Hunedoara—in which capacity he "stood up to the landowners and the exploiters", convincing various peasants that they should never vote for the dominant parties.[2] He therefore competed with a dominant agrarian force, the National Peasants' Party (PNȚ), but still had friendly contacts with some of its representatives, including Corneliu Coposu. The latter provided some biographical detail on Zăroni, reporting that he had once attended a congress of the International Agrarian Bureau in Prague.[9] Zăroni's activity, and that of the Front, became intertwined with efforts undertaken by the underground Romanian Communist Party (PCR, or PCdR). According to the latter's official reports, Zăroni had grown "convinced that the working class, with the Communist Party at its helm, was the only political force that could express the workers' community aspirations toward a dignified and free life". He therefore militated "for the industrial workers' alliance with the toiling peasantry".[1] Zăroni took the initiative in sealing pacts with the PCR and its satellites: in September 1935, he signed the accord of Băcia, which crated an alliance between the Front's and the Hungarian People's Union (MADOSZ), which represented pro-communist sections of the Hungarian Romanian community; in December, he approved of the Țebea alliance with the United Socialists.[10] He was however supportive of drawing the PNȚ into a popular front, and once traveled to Bucharest to present his case.[11] He also kept up with the anti-communist side of the peasants' movement, and subscribed to the more centrist Cuvântul Satelor of Șoșdea (as one of its few regular readers in all of Hunedoara County); this publication described Groza's movement and the fascist Iron Guard as equally dangerous for the peasantry.[12]

Zăroni was largely unknown to Romanians outside of Hunedoara County, with his name only appearing rarely in the central press; he was however familiar to the Kingdom's secret service, the Siguranța, as well as to the Romanian Police.[13] He was an unsuccessful candidate in the local election-rounds of early 1937, losing first at Deva and then at Hunedoara.[14] Ahead of general elections in December 1937, he contributed a "propaganda brochure"[15] advising peasants not to give in to the lure of fascist parties; the text was admiringly quoted in the left-wing daily, Dimineața, which depicted Zăroni as a spiritual legatee of the peasant leader Vasile "Horea" Nicola.[16] With this contribution, Zăroni paid public homage to the traditional institutions: nationhood, Christianity, and monarchy; describing himself as committed to all three, he also challenged the fascists' perception of either nation or faith (specifically rejecting their scientific racism, racial antisemitism, and elitism).[16] His core proposal was toward the establishment of a "clean democracy", providing representation to the peasants, and blocking out all dictatorial projects.[17] Shortly after, the Hunedoara branches of the Groza party and the PNȚ sealed an alliance with each other. Zăroni appeared on the shared electoral list, but again failed to get himself elected.[18]

During World War II, which saw the establishment of successive fascist regimes in Romania, Zăroni was sporadically active—police records show him trying to revive the Ploughmen's Front clandestinely, mainly by participating in p[ropaganda rallies, alongside Groza and others.[19] His career took off after the coup of 23 August 1944, which toppled the pro-Nazi regime of Ion Antonescu and briefly restored multiparty democracy. The coup also inaugurated a Soviet occupation, saluted in the Front's propaganda as a "liberation by the glorious Army of the Soviet Union".[2] The reestablished Ploughmen's Front had him as a member of its Central Committee down to a general congress on 24 June 1945, when he joined the executive committee.[2] From 4 November 1944, he had been serving in the Second Sănătescu cabinet as the Second Minister of Agriculture and Undersecretary of State, charged with overseeing a new land reform.[2] He maintained this position in the Rădescu cabinet, to 28 February 1945.[20] On 6 March 1945, with Groza taking over as Premier, Zăroni became Minister of Agriculture and Secretary of State.[2][21] His activities included attending the 13 March celebration in Cluj, which marked the Romanian recovery of Northern Transylvania; he traveled there by train, alongside junior members of the parliamentary opposition, as well as PCR leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej and Soviet envoy Andrey Vyshinsky.[22] At that stage, Groza and Zăroni managed to subdue the opposition at Cuvântul Satelor, which was relaunched as a propaganda sheet for the Ploughmen's Front.[12]

The Front and the PCR-dominated Bloc of Democratic Parties had Zăroni as a candidate in the legislative election of November 1946, during which he took a seat in the Assembly of Deputies for Târnava-Mică County.[2] Upon a reshuffle on 30 November 1946, he was made Minister of Co-operation.[2][23] As claimed by his official biographies, he "devoted all his energy and power to the establishment of the people's democratic regime and the construction of socialism."[1] During his tenure, the monarchy was abolished, leading to the establishment of a Romanian people's republic; the Bloc of Democratic Parties was similarly transformed into a People's Democratic Front (FDP). A program of nationalization was also being enacted, sparking controversy within the government arc: as noted by journalist György Beke, Zăroni's ministry took over the private co-operatives, which were almost universally managed by Hungarian Romanian peasants, despite being met with repeated protests from Gyárfás Kurkó of the MADOSZ.[24] In the election of March 1948, Zăroni ran for a renewal of his parliamentary mandate, being first on the FDP electoral list in Târnava-Mică.[2] The Assembly of Deputies was soon after transformed into a Great National Assembly, in which he continued to serve continuously for the remainder of his life.[1]

It is possible, but not fully attested, that Zăroni completed his education during his time in office, as a part-time student at the University of Bucharest Faculty of Agronomy.[25] He had by then had his own conflict with the governing "Romanian Workers' Party" (or PMR), as the PCR was known during that stage of its history; as a result, he was deposed from his ministerial post on 13 April 1948, and sent to manage the consumer's co-operative network, or Centrocoop.[26] He was instead awarded a seat on the presidium of the Great National Assembly, on which he served between 1948 and 1952.[27] Ahead of parliamentary elections in November 1952, he switched seats, becoming a representative of Ilia precinct, in Hunedoara Region.[28] When the Ploughmen's Front was disestablished in 1955, he requested, and obtained, membership in the PMR.[1] Stripped of his Centrocoop office, though not also of his parliamentary seat, he was professionally integrated as manager of a collectivized farm in Tunari, outside Bucharest.[29]

Zăroni died on 23 October 1962, "after a long period of severe suffering".[1] Two days later, his body was laid in state at the Trade Unions' House of Culture, with several party leaders (including Alexandru Moghioroș and Florian Dănălache) serving as his honor guard; he was then taken to burial, by oxcart, to Ghencea Cemetery.[30] The former minister was survived by four children: Romulus Jr, Victoria and Remus, all from his first marriage, and Ovidiu, from his second. Ovidiu, who reached the rank of Colonel in the Romanian Land Forces, was the only one still alive in 2013.[31]

Public image[edit]

During his ministerial tenure, Zăroni acquired the image of a fumbling cretin—"semi-literate, mediocre, incompetent."[32] This was enshrined by clandestine epigrams, most likely penned by Păstorel Teodoreanu, which referred to him as Groza's pet ox, an Incitatus to his Caligula.[29] As a result, "he was preserved in collective memory long after he no longer held any political offices, with his activity in tackling land reform and the collectivization of agriculture, but most of all with his many blunders."[33] The popular verdict was challenged after the Romanian Revolution of 1989 by several people who knew Zăroni, including his former rivals inside the PNȚ. They include Coposu, who once visited Zăroni in his home, being impressed by his fluency in German and his study room, with as many as 800 books on show.[34] Gabriel Țepelea, a PNȚ man and a literary historian, has similar recollections from having traveled together with Zăroni in 1945. As Țepelea reports: "Contrary to the humorous folklore that had come to target Zăroni, he sure didn't seem to me like he was intellectually inferior. In fact, he himself had a sense of humor, recounting, with a sort of studied nonchalance, some of the jokes and anecdotes that had him for a protagonist."[35] A similar account had been provided in 1998 by journalist Silviu N. Dragomir: "I learned from verified sources that he carried around a special notepad, in which he wrote down all the jokes and epigrams that circulated at his expense."[29]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Romulus Zăroni", in Neuer Weg, 25 October 1962, p. 2
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Cui dăm votul și încrederea noastră. Romulus Zăroni ministrul cooperației și membru în comitetul executiv al Frontului Plugarilor candidează în jud. Târnava Mică", in Frontul Plugarilor, 26 March 1948, p. 5
  3. ^ Radu & Budeancă, pp. 60, 61
  4. ^ Radu & Budeancă, pp. 61–62
  5. ^ Radu & Budeancă, p. 61
  6. ^ Radu & Budeancă, pp. 61–62
  7. ^ Radu & Budeancă, pp. 62–63
  8. ^ Radu & Budeancă, p. 60
  9. ^ Radu & Budeancă, p. 62
  10. ^ Radu & Budeancă, pp. 63–64
  11. ^ Radu & Budeancă, p. 64
  12. ^ a b Vali Corduneanu, "Un manuscris inedit din 1953 reconstituie istoria longevivei mișcări de la gazeta Cuvântul Satelor", in Agenda Senzațional, Vol. V, Issue 36, December 1935, p. 1
  13. ^ Radu & Budeancă, p. 60
  14. ^ Radu & Budeancă, p. 64
  15. ^ Radu & Budeancă, p. 65
  16. ^ a b "Dimineața în Ardeal. Cum grăesc strănepoții lui Horia. De ce nu pot fi țăranii extremiști. O interesantă broșură a unui plugar din Hunedoara — Dela redacția noastră din Cluj", in Dimineața, 22 October 1937, p. 12
  17. ^ Radu & Budeancă, pp. 65–66
  18. ^ Radu & Budeancă, p. 64
  19. ^ Radu & Budeancă, p. 66
  20. ^ Radu & Budeancă, p. 60
  21. ^ Radu & Budeancă, p. 60
  22. ^ Țepelea & Șimăndan, pp. 58–61
  23. ^ Radu & Budeancă, p. 60
  24. ^ György Beke, "Magyar áfium", in Háromszék, 17 September 1996, p. 3
  25. ^ Radu & Budeancă, p. 61
  26. ^ Radu & Budeancă, pp. 60–61
  27. ^ Radu & Budeancă, p. 61
  28. ^ "Consfătuirile delegaților oamenilor muncii pe circumscripții", in Apărarea Patriei, 1 November 1952, p. 2
  29. ^ a b c Silviu N. Dragomir, "Capra Vecinului. Din rezistența anticomunistă a intelectualității române", in Cotidianul, 14 February 1998, p. 6
  30. ^ "Funeraliile tovarășului Romulus Zăroni", in Scînteia, 26 October 1962, p. 5
  31. ^ Radu & Budeancă, p. 61
  32. ^ Radu & Budeancă, p. 61
  33. ^ Radu & Budeancă, p. 61
  34. ^ Radu & Budeancă, p. 62
  35. ^ Țepelea & Șimăndan, p. 60

References[edit]

  • (in Romanian) Sorin Radu, Cosmin Budeancă, "Romulus Zăroni: un personaj politic atipic de la jumătatea secolului XX", in Anuarul Institutului de Investigare a Crimelor Comunismului și Memoria Exilului Românesc, Vol. IX, 2014, pp. 59–87.
  • Gabriel Țepelea, Emil Șimăndan, Călătorie prin veac. Arad: Editura Fundației Ioan Slavici, 2000. ISBN 973-99000-2-X
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