Constantin Doncea

Constantin Doncea (26 September 1904 – 4 November 1973) was a Romanian communist activist and politician. A railway worker, he played an important part in the Grivița Strike of 1933. Subsequently, imprisoned, he escaped and ended up in Moscow. He then joined the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. After spending much of World War II in the Soviet Union, he returned to Romania, where he helped establish a Communist regime. Doncea held a series of posts under the new order, but in 1958 he was removed from the party after clashing with its leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej. In his later years, he was rehabilitated by the latter's successor, Nicolae Ceaușescu.

Biography

Beginnings, strike action and Spain Doncea was born in Cocu, Argeș County and was a lathe operator by profession. He practiced this work at the Pitești Căile Ferate Române (CFR) state railway deposit and at the Grivița CFR yards in Bucharest. He joined the banned Romanian Communist Party (PCR) in 1931, was a member of the party cell at Grivița and head of the Bucharest rail workers' trade union committee. He belonged to the strike committee during the Grivița Strike of 1933, After spending time in various safe houses, the trio managed to leave Romania through Halmeu, passing into Czechoslovakia before ending up in Moscow. There, they enrolled in classes at the Moscow State V. I. Lenin Pedagogical Institute, but the Romanian-language section was disbanded before they could graduate.

In 1938, he went to France, where he soon enrolled as a volunteer in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War, He became an alternate member of the PMR's central committee (February 1948 – June 1958), with the following assignments: deputy Constructions Minister (February 1948 – March 1950); major-general of the people's army (1950); head of the air-defense command (March 1950 – May 1952); control committee of the central committee following his retirement from active military service (May 1952); Harvest Minister (March 1956 – February 1957) and president of the state committee for pricing agricultural products (February 1957 – June 1958). There, he appeared to minimize the PCR's role during the strike, although he later tried to correct the slip. At the eventual party session, a list of accusations against him was read by Nicolae Ceaușescu, the main charges being that he had not given enough credit to the party and had undervalued the contribution of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, by then party leader. At the same time, he was criticized for excessive self-promotion, one of his sharpest accusers being his former jail mate Vasilichi, who was seeking to save his own position. Following the session, Doncea was removed from the central committee and from the party itself. This formed part of a broader purge directed at party veterans, including Vasile Bâgu and Grigore Răceanu.

Later years After his exclusion from the party, Doncea became head of a Ialomița County collective farm, working from 1958 to March 1964. He was rehabilitated after Ceaușescu succeeded Gheorghiu-Dej in 1965.

Doncea was elected to the Assembly of Deputies for Argeș County in 1946 and obtained a Bucharest seat in the Great National Assembly (MAN) in 1948, holding it until 1952. Later, he sat for Vedea in the Pitești Region from 1957 to 1961. His awards included the Order of the Star of Romania, officer rank (1947); the Order of the Star of the Romanian Socialist Republic, second class (1948); and the 50th anniversary of the PCR medal (1971).