Early life Constantinescu was said to be born in
Chișinău,
Bessarabia, at a time when the region was experiencing the aftermath of the
October Revolution. (During the same month, the
Moldavian Democratic Republic was proclaimed, leading to the union of Bessarabia with the
Kingdom of Romania). According to fellow communist
Alexandru Bârlădeanu, Constantinescu was born in
Odesa. Widely believed to be an illegitimate son of the
geologist Gheorghe Munteanu-Murgoci, Constantinescu retreated to a
Romanian Orthodox monastery a short while after receiving his
bachelor's degree. According to Bârlădeanu, Constantinescu used this period to decide between siding with the
fascist Iron Guard and joining the PCR. and became involved in
agitprop campaigns. During the 1930s, he attended the
University of Bucharest's Faculty of Letters and Philosophy, becoming one of sociologist
Dimitrie Gusti's most notable students. With Bârlădeanu,
Grigore Preoteasa,
Gheorghe Rădulescu,
Constanța Crăciun, and others, Constantinescu founded the
anti-fascist Frontul Studențesc Democrat (FSD, the
Students' Democratic Front) in 1935. The group was, in effect, an outlet of the Communist Party — its entire leadership continued to carry party work throughout the FSD's existence. The following year, as the UTC was dissolved, Constantinescu was among the few of its members to continue political activity in PCR ranks. In 1938, during the
National Renaissance Front regime established by
King Carol II, the Communist Party ordered him to reestablish the UTC.
World War II and Scînteia In
World War II, authorities were alarmed by his alleged contacts with the
Soviet Union and
NKVD agents, at the time when
Ion Antonescu's regime allied itself with
Nazi Germany and took part in
Operation Barbarossa (
see Romania during World War II). At the end of 1940 he was sent by the Communist Party's central leadership to
Galați in order to coordinate the local cells, comprising, among others, future
Securitate operative
Ionel Jora. Constantinescu was arrested there in January 1941, after a local communist was captured while distributing anti-fascist flyers. Eventually, he was
interned, initially in the
Târgu Jiu camp. Kept alongside other prominent activists in the
Caransebeș Prison, where he is believed to have been included in Gheorghiu-Dej's projected Soviet-backed government, he became the focus of attention from penal authorities after being caught while composing messages addressed to the outside (upon discovery, he attempted to swallow all the rolling papers he had written on). Consequently, the administration separated Communist prisoners into two groups: Constantinescu's was sent to
Lugoj prison. Constantinescu led the panel of journalists towards Stalinist guidelines, and encouraged a
personality cult around Gheorghiu-Dej, whose biography he helped falsify. He was himself praised in the PCR press, and papers circulated the notion that he worked as much as 14 or 16 hours a day as a rule. Through his editorials of 1947, Constantinescu signaled an attack on
Foreign Minister Gheorghe Tătărescu, leader of the
National Liberal Party-Tătărescu and associate of the Communists in the
Petru Groza government, who had criticized his allies' economic and social policies.
Politburo and Planning Committee ,
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, and
Vasile Luca Taking a seat on the
Politburo, as its youngest member, in early 1945, Constantinescu, who lacked training in
economics, After the outbreak of PCR inner conflicts between
Ana Pauker's "Muscovite wing" and Gheorghiu-Dej's "prison faction", he kept a low profile, and did not take sides, (he had also been the one to voice official accusations against
Vasile Luca in February 1952). Surviving Pauker's fall, he personally witnessed the
20th Congress of the
Soviet Communist Party and became interested in the Soviet call for
De-Stalinization, beginning talks on the topic with
Italian Communist Party leader
Palmiro Togliatti. In 1956, his Planning Committee reached an agreement with Soviet authorities regarding the dissolution of
SovRoms (enterprises which had placed a strain on Romanian economy, having directed its resources to the Soviet Union). Constantinescu was also charged with carrying out Gheorghiu-Dej's program of partial
rehabilitation offered to cultural figures such as the writer
Tudor Arghezi, the philosopher
Lucian Blaga, and the historian
Constantin C. Giurescu. In the aftermath of the
1956 Revolution in
Hungary, he was sent to
Cluj, in order to exercise tighter control over a region with significant
Hungarian population.
1956 clash with Gheorghiu-Dej In 1956, together with the pro-Soviet
Iosif Chișinevschi, Constantinescu observed the increasingly hostile relations between
Nikita Khrushchev and Gheorghiu-Dej, and ultimately decided to attack the latter in public (identifying him with Stalinism and citing the history of
Securitate political violence). The two had been probably encouraged by Khrushchev, and attempted in vain to rally
Alexandru Moghioroș to their cause. Accused of "attempt to direct the party towards
liberal anarchy and
revisionism", he was nonetheless convoked to express criticism of the writers
Alexandru Jar,
Mihail Davidoglu and
Ion Vitner, all of whom had displayed similar support for reform. Constantinescu was purged by the Party Plenum in June 1957; he was marginalized, but kept his freedom and was allowed to work as a
lector for the Pedagogic Institute, and later as a researcher for the Romanian Academy's Institute for Economics and the
Nicolae Iorga Institute of History in
Bucharest (led by
Andrei Oțetea at the time). Active in the revival of sociology studies after the Stalinist period, he was notably engaged with
Henri H. Stahl on the
Bibliotheca Historica Romaniae research project. Countering earlier accusations, Gheorghiu-Dej eventually included Constantinescu and Chișinevschi on various lists of "Stalinists", as well as accusing them of having supported the "Muscovite wing" in its alleged actions against the PCR itself. During the 1957 Plenum, as well as in 1961,
Nicolae Ceaușescu was fully endorsing Gheorghiu-Dej's theories on the subject, and, initially indicating that, unlike the two opponents, he held
Joseph Stalin in esteem, alleged that Constantinescu had little understanding of Marxist principles (although his was, in all likelihood, much less significant).
Rehabilitation and later life Following Gheorghiu-Dej's death, Ceaușescu's rise brought a wave of
rehabilitations; Constantinescu's own name was cleared upon PCR inquiry which presented its results in April 1968. He was consequently reinstated to the top echelon, and served as
Minister of Education for a short period, He was elected vice-president of the
State Council in November 1972, a position he will hold concurrently with the office of president of the
Great National Assembly, succeeding
Ştefan Voitec from 28 March until his death on 18 July. Until his death, he was forced to cede part of his party status to Ceaușescu, who was officially praised for having reorganized the
Union of Communist Youth in 1938, a task which had actually been carried out by Constantinescu. ==Personal life==