Grigore Ion Răceanu was a Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

n communist

Communism

Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

 politician and opponent of Nicolae Ceauşescu

Nicolae Ceausescu

Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...

.

Born in Cojocna

Cojocna

Cojocna is a commune in Cluj County, Romania. It is composed of eight villages: Boj-Cătun, Boju, Cara, Cojocna, Huci, Iuriu de Câmpie, Morişti and Straja.- Demographics :...

, Cluj County

Cluj County

Cluj ; is a county of Romania, in Transylvania, with the capital city at Cluj-Napoca.-Demographics:In 2007, it had a population of 692,316 and a population density of 104/km².*Romanians – 80%*Hungarians – 17.5%*Roma – 2.5%-Geography:...

, he became a train driver for Căile Ferate Române

Caile Ferate Române

Căile Ferate Române is the official designation of the state railway carrier of Romania. Romania has a railway network of of which are electrified and the total track length is . The network is significantly interconnected with other European railway networks, providing pan-European passenger...

. He was also a trade union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

 leader, being one of the organizers of the strikes of Cluj

Cluj-Napoca

Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...

 in 1929-1933. He became a member of the underground Romanian Communist Party

Romanian Communist Party

The Romanian Communist Party was a communist political party in Romania. Successor to the Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to communist revolution and the disestablishment of Greater Romania. The PCR was a minor and illegal grouping for much of the...

 in 1936. Toward the end of the 1930s, he moved to Braşov

Brasov

Brașov is a city in Romania and the capital of Brașov County.According to the last Romanian census, from 2002, there were 284,596 people living within the city of Brașov, making it the 8th most populated city in Romania....

, where he worked for Industria Aeronautică Română

Industria Aeronautica Româna

Industria Aeronautică Română or Romanian Aeronautic Industry in English, is a Romanian aerospace manufacturer founded in 1925. Based in Ghimbav, near Braşov, Romania, the company employs around 1200 specialists including more than 170 engineers...

. In September 1940, he organized a protest in Braşov against the Second Vienna Award

Second Vienna Award

The Second Vienna Award was the second of two Vienna Awards arbitrated by the Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Rendered on August 30, 1940, it re-assigned the territory of Northern Transylvania from Romania to Hungary.-Prelude and historical background :After the World War I, the multi-ethnic...

.

During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Răceanu lived in Bucharest

Bucharest

Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....

, where his views conflicted with those of Ştefan Foriş

Stefan Foris

Ştefan Foriş was a Romanian communist activist and journalist who served as general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party between 1940 and 1944....

, the leader of the Communist Party. Răceanu criticized the stance of the party on its obedience to the orders of the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

, especially on the annexation of Bessarabia

Bessarabia

Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....

 and Northern Bukovina in 1940. Due to this, in 1942, he was excluded from the party.

After the war, Răceanu was accepted again as a member of the party, but soon after, in 1958, he was excluded again and arrested as an Enemy of the people

Enemy of the people

The term enemy of the people is a fluid designation of political or class opponents of the group using the term. The term implies that the "enemies" in question are acting against society as a whole. It is similar to the notion of "enemy of the state". The term originated in Roman times as ,...

 for his opinions, being freed from prison in 1960. Grigore Răceanu married Ileana Pop and became the stepfather of Mircea Răceanu

Mircea Raceanu

-Early life:He was the son of two Transylvanian members of the underground Romanian Communist Party in the 1930s: a Romanian worker named Ileana Pop and a Jewish carpenter named Andrei Bernat, who was killed by Fascists during World War II. Mircea was born in Văcăreşti prison, where his mother was...

, who later became a noted diplomat.

In March 1989, he was one of the six old-time Communists (alongside him: Gheorghe Apostol

Gheorghe Apostol

Gheorghe Apostol was a Romanian politician, deputy Prime Minister of Romania and a former leader of the Communist Party, noted for his rivalry with Nicolae Ceauşescu.-Early life:...

, Alexandru Bârlădeanu, Silviu Brucan

Silviu Brucan

Silviu Brucan was a Romanian communist politician. Though he disagreed with Nicolae Ceauşescu's policies, he never gave up his communist beliefs and did not oppose communist ideology...

, Corneliu Mănescu

Corneliu Manescu

Corneliu Mănescu was a Romanian diplomat born in Ploieşti. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania from 1961 to 1972 and as President of the United Nations General Assembly from 1967 to 1968....

, and Constantin Pîrvulescu

Constantin Pîrvulescu

Constantin Pîrvulescu was a Romanian communist politician, one of the founders of the Romanian Communist Party , and, eventually, an active opponent of Communist Romania's leader Nicolae Ceauşescu...

), who signed a letter ("The Letter of the Six

Letter of the Six

In March 1989, Silviu Brucan, together with five other Communist dignitaries , signed the open letter known as Scrisoarea celor şase - "The Letter of the Six"....

") which criticized Ceauşescu's policies. As a result of this letter, he was named a traitor and put on house arrest, being freed after the 1989 Romanian Revolution.