Chivu Stoica

Chivu Stoica
President of the Council of State of Romania
In office 24 March 1965 – 9 December 1967
Prime Minister	Ion Gheorghe Maurer
Preceded by	Ion Gheorghe Maurer (Acting) Ştefan Voitec (Acting) Avram Bunaciu (Acting)
Succeeded by	Nicolae Ceauşescu
Prime Minister of Romania
In office 21 October 1955 – 21 March 1961
President	Petru Groza Mihail Sadoveanu (Acting) Anton Moisescu (Acting) Ion Gheorghe Maurer
Preceded by	Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
Succeeded by	Ion Gheorghe Maurer
Personal details
Born	8 August 1908(1908-08-08) Smeeni, Romania
Died	18 February 1975(1975-02-18) (aged 66) Bucharest, Romania
Political party	Communist Party

Chivu Stoica (8 August 1908 – 18 February 1975) was a leading Romanian Communist politician.

Stoica was born in Smeeni, Buzău County, the sixth child of a ploughman.^[1] At age 12 he left home, and started working as an apprentice at Căile Ferate Române, the state railway corporation. In 1921, he moved to Bucharest, where he worked as a boilermaker at the Vulcan, Lemaitre, and Malaxa companies. There he met Gheorghe Vasilichi, who recruited him into the Communist Party.^[1]

In spring 1931, Stoica started working for the Griviţa Railway Yards, where he met Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, Vasile Luca, and Constantin Doncea; together, they started organizing a strike.^[1] On August 20, 1934, he was sentenced to 15 years of prison for his role in the Griviţa Strike of 1933.^[2] At Târgu Jiu prison, he was close to Gheorghiu-Dej, who may have wanted Stoica to be his successor as General Secretary.

He was a member of the Central Committee of the Romanian Worker's Party from 1945 to 1975, and of the Politburo. He served as Prime Minister of Romania between 1955 and 1961 and as President of the Council of State of Romania from 1965 until 1967.

In his later years, he fell out of favour with Nicolae Ceauşescu and his wife Elena. His death, by a hunting rifle bullet to the head, was ruled a suicide.^[3]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} (Romanian) Paula Mihailov Chiciuc, "Din înaltul ordin al partidului", Jurnalul Naţional, July 18, 2006
2. ^ (Romanian) Stelian Tănase, Dej - omul resentimentului, from Magazin Istoric
3. ^ (Romanian) http://www.iiccr.ro/ro/istoria_comunismului_in_romania/biografiile_nomenklaturii/#Stoica%20Chivu

• (Romanian) Final Report of the Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania, pp. 649-50
• (Romanian) Lavinia Betea, "Zvonurile 'epocii de aur'" ("Rumours from the 'Golden Age'"), Jurnalul Naţional, January 15, 2007

Political offices
Preceded by Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej	Prime Minister of Romania 1955–1961	Succeeded by Ion Gheorghe Maurer
Preceded by Ion Gheorghe Maurer Acting	President of the Council of State of Romania 1965–1967	Succeeded by Nicolae Ceauşescu
Preceded by Ştefan Voitec Acting
Preceded by Avram Bunaciu Acting

Persondata
Name	Stoica, Chivu
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	8 August 1908
Place of birth	Smeeni, Romania
Date of death	18 February 1975
Place of death	Bucharest, Romania