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Romania Period from 1965 to 1970
After becoming PCR first secretary in March 1965,
Ceausescu's
first challenge was consolidating his power. Posing a
major threat
to his authority were three of his predecessor's closest
associates--Chivu Stoica, a veteran party leader; Gheorghe
Apostol,
first deputy prime minister and a former PCR first
secretary; and
Alexandru Draghici, minister of interior and head of the
powerful
state security apparatus.
A temporary compromise was found in a system of
collective
leadership with Ceausescu acting as head of the party and
Stoica
becoming president of the State Council and, as such, head
of
state. Apostol remained first deputy minister, and
Draghici kept
the position of minister of interior. Ion Gheorghe Maurer,
who had
served as prime minister under Gheorghiu-Dej, retained
that
position. At the same time, changes were made in the party
statutes
to prevent one man from holding dual party and government
offices
as Gheorghiu-Dej had done.
At the Ninth Party Congress in July 1965, Ceausescu was
able
to add a number of supporters to an enlarged PCR Central
Committee
and to change his title to general secretary. At the same
time a
new body was added to the party hierarchy--the Executive
Committee,
which stood between the Standing Presidium and the Central
Committee. Although Ceausescu was not able to gain full
control of
the Executive Committee immediately, in time the new body
provided
him the means to place his supporters in the leading PCR
organs and
to implement his own policies.
Political observers identified three principal factions
within
the PCR during the 1965-67 period: Ceausescu and his
supporters;
the veteran party men led by Stoica, Apostol, and
Draghici; and the
intellectuals, represented by Maurer. Those people allied
with
Ceausescu, who was forty-seven years old when he came to
power,
tended to be men of his own generation and outlook, and
whenever
possible he engineered their appointment or promotion into
important party, government, and military positions.
One of Ceausescu's foremost concerns was what he termed
the
vitalization of the PCR. To achieve this end, he not only
brought
younger people into the top party organs but also sought,
for a
limited time, to broaden the professional skills
represented in
those bodies through the recruitment of technicians and
academicians. At the same time, he allowed increased
technical and
scientific contacts with Western nations and lifted the
ban on
works by certain foreign writers and artists, thereby
gaining
support among intellectuals.
Data as of July 1989
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