Ştefan Voitec
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Ştefan Voitec (1900—December 5, 1984) was a Romanian socialist and communist journalist, politician, and statesman of Communist Romania.
[edit] Life
Born in Corabia, Voitec and was active in the Socialist Party of Romania and, after 1927, in Constantin Popovici's Unitary Socialist Party, then in the Social Democratic Party (PSDR). Trained as a schoolteacher, he also worked on PSDR newspapers, before retiring from political life during World War II.
An advocate of between the PSDR and the Romanian Communist Party (PCR), he was Minister of Education - appointed with communist backing in Constantin Sănătescu's post-war government, and remaining in office through subsequent cabinets until the official disestablishment of the Kingdom of Romania. His mandates were marked by an officially-endorsed Stalinist campaign in education, as well as by measures taken to remove and replace non-communist teachers and professors. In 1946, he was a member of the Gheorghe Tătărescu-led Romanian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference.
Together with Lothar Rădăceanu, he led the wing of the PSDR that called for an alignment with PCR policies, causing the split with Constantin Titel Petrescu's Independent Socialist Party in March 1946; the main PSDR was absorbed by the PCR in November 1947.
Together with Constantin Ion Parhon, Mihail Sadoveanu, Gheorghe Stere, and Ion Niculi, Voitec was a member of the People's Republic Presidium - created by Law No. 363 after the forced abdication of King Michael I on December 30, 1947. He served as Deputy Prime Minister in Petru Groza's second cabinet, but was sidelined after falling out of favor with the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.
Returning to prominence after 1953, he occupied important positions under Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej and Nicolae Ceauşescu: again Deputy Prime Minister in 1956-1961 (in the cabinets of Chivu Stoica and Ion Gheorghe Maurer), he was then Chairman of the Grand National Assembly (the legislative body) until 1974, and as such signed the decree that declared Romania to be a Socialist Republic.
In 1980, Voitec was elected a full member of the Romanian Academy. He died in Bucharest while in office as one of the twelve Vice-Presidents of Romania.
