Pavel Tcacenco
Encyclopedia
Pavel Tcacenco or Tkachenko was a Russian
-born Romania
n communist activist, a leading member of the communist movements of Bessarabia
and Romania
in the 1920s.
(nowadays part of the unrecognized Trans-Dniester Republic) to Yakov Antipov, a railway worker, and Smaragda Dimitrievna. The date of his birth is unsure. According to his own declaration on the occasion of his arrest in 1926, he was born in 1899, while his Siguranţa
(Romanian secret police) file noted April 7, 1899 as his birth date. However, an article published in 1926 in the newspaper Izvestia of Odessa, mentions 1892 as the year of his birth, while several late Soviet
sources present April 1901 as the month of his birth.
In 1902 the whole family relocated to Bendery. At the age of 14 he began working as an apprentice in the local railway workshops, around this time becoming a supporter of socialism
. After finishing a local high school in 1917, he left for Petrograd to enrol in Law school
. There he joined the Russian revolutionary
movement, adopting the pseudonym Tcacenco. He participated in the Russian Revolutions of February
and October
. In August 1917 he joined the Red Guards
and fought against the forces of White general
Lavr Kornilov
. In late 1917 Tcacenco returned to Bendery, where he helped organise the local supporters of the Bolsheviks, and became one of the leaders of the revolutionary youth organisation.
, a large part of the communist organisation in Chişinău
, the Bessarabian capital, was arrested by the new authorities and put under trial in the Trial of the 108. Tcacenco received the task to restore the organisation, and in October 1919 he was elected secretary of the Chişinău communist committee. Later he would be elected secretary of the regional organisation of the party in Bessarabia. Tcacenco was one of the founders of an illegal typography in Chişinău, and was the editor of Bolşevicul basarabean ("The Bessarabian Bolshevik", in Moldavian), and Bessarabskiy kommunist ("The Bessarabian Communist", in Russian). He also contributed to the restoration of the communist youth organisation in the main city of Bessarabia, and tightened contacts with the local communist-influenced trade unions. At the same time, Tcacenco established contacts with Alecu Constantinescu
, a leading member of Bucharest
's nascent communist movement. The contacts between the two organisations were however soon interrupted as Tcacenco was arrested in Chişinău on August 6/7, 1920, along with several communist activists. Tcacenco succeeded in escaping custody on August 17, 1920, leaving for Iaşi
. On February 19, 1921, the Chişinău court-martial convicted him in absentia
to death.
In Iaşi, Pavel Tcacenco assisted in the organisation of the still chaotic local workers' movement. In March 1921 he participated at the Iaşi Conference of communist organisation, and was elected in the central committee of the Conference. During the debates, he supported the creation of an unified communist movement, part of the Romanian Socialist Party
, and opposed the creation of several provincial parties, as proposed by other delegates. He and most of the delegates to the Conference were arrested by the Romanian authorities on March 26 and during the following days. Tcacenco was included in the group of communist tried in the Dealul Spirii Trial (January-June 1922), when the National-Liberal
government attempted to eliminate the Communist Party by making it responsible for a bomb attack on the Romanian Senate
by anarchist Max Goldstein
. During the trial, Pavel Tcacenco acknowledged he had participated in distributing communist newspapers and manifestos, but denied any connection with the bomb attack. Most of the defendants were ultimately amnestied under public pressure, however Tcacenco received a 2 year jail sentence.
The Supreme Council of Re-examination annulled the sentence on September 22, and disposed a retrial
to take place at the War Council of the 5th Army Corps, in Constanţa
. As the legal proceedings were delayed, Tcacenco escaped custody again on April 2, 1923, and left for Bucharest. He joined the local communist movement, however he was quickly re-apprehended by the authorities. Back in Constanţa, the court decided his 1921 activities had a political character, thus falling under the royal amnesty
of 1922. Nevertheless he was not set free, as he was sent to Chişinău for a retrial of the February 1921 decision. In August 1923 the sentence was quashed, but Tcacenco was ordered to leave the country in 30 days. He subsequently fled Romania, settling temporarily in Prague
, Czechoslovakia
.
, where he worked for the Joint State Political Directorate
in Moscow
. In February 1924 Tcacenco, Grigory Kotovsky, Solomon Timov and other Bessarabian and Romanian communists sent a letter to the Central Committees of the Communist Parties of Russia
and Ukraine, requesting the formation of a Moldovan
national territory. Soon after, a Moldavian Autonomous Oblast
would be created on the left bank of the Dniester
, on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR
. Later that year, Tcacenco left for Viena, where he worked for the apparatus of the Comintern
. In August 1924, at the Third Congress of the Communist Party of Romania, he was elected a member in the Central Committee, and in March and April 1925 he represented the party in the Executive Committee of the Communist International
. There he participated in the political, trade union and peasant commissions. Tcacenco returned to Romania for a short time in July 1925, reintegrating in the local communist movement, however he fled again to Prague as he was notified of an imminent arrest. He succeeded in coming back to Bucharest in 1926, despite a Siguranţa order disposing his arrest at the border. In Romania, he agitated for the Bloc of Workers and Peasants, a legal front organization of the Romanian Communist Party during the 1926 electoral campaign. Tcacenco was a supporter of an united front
comprising, besides the Bloc, the Peasants' Party
, the National Party
and the People's Party.
On August 15, 1926, during a meeting with communist leaders Boris Stefanov
and Timotei Marin, the group was surrounded by the police. Tcacenco was shot, but succeeded in escaping, only to be captured later that day. He was sent to Tighina
for trial, but never appeared before the court, as he was killed by the Romanian secret police. The exact details of his death are disputed. According to one version, he was killed by the Siguranţa in Chişinău. Another version posits that he escaped his guards in Chişinău with the help of local communists, only to be captured the following days near Soroca
, while attempting to cross the Dniester River in the Soviet Union
, and executed. According to a third account, he was shot in Vesterniceni, near Chişinău, while attempting to escape. The location of his remains remains unknown.
, as the Romanian Communist Party gained the power in Romania, Tcacenco was honoured by the official propaganda along other young communists killed by the previous Romanian governments. After 1970, they were all gradually removed from official discourse, as the personality cult of president Nicolae Ceauşescu
singularised the Romanian leader as a hero of the communist youth.
Tcacenco was also celebrated in the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. His name was adopted for several enterprises, cultural institutions, and streets bore his name in Chişinău, Bender, and Tiraspol
. A monument and a museum dedicated to Tcacenco are found in Bender, while a bust was placed in Tiraspol.
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
-born 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 activist, a leading member of the communist movements 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 Romania
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 the 1920s.
Early life and the Russian Revolution
Yakov Antipov was born in the village of NovosavitskayaFrunză, Transnistria
Frunză is a commune in the Slobozia sub-district of Transnistria, Moldova. It is composed of seven villages: Frunză, Andriaşevca Nouă , Andriaşevca Veche , Novocotovsc , Priozernoe , Uiutnoe and Novosaviţcaia station Frunză is a commune in the Slobozia sub-district of Transnistria, Moldova. It...
(nowadays part of the unrecognized Trans-Dniester Republic) to Yakov Antipov, a railway worker, and Smaragda Dimitrievna. The date of his birth is unsure. According to his own declaration on the occasion of his arrest in 1926, he was born in 1899, while his Siguranţa
Siguranţa
Siguranţa was the name used to refer to the several instalments of the secret police of the Kingdom of Romania. Created in 1908, in the aftermath of a major peasant revolt, it acted as a political police, supervising, infiltrating and trying to dismantle political groupings considered undesirable...
(Romanian secret police) file noted April 7, 1899 as his birth date. However, an article published in 1926 in the newspaper Izvestia of Odessa, mentions 1892 as the year of his birth, while several late Soviet
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....
sources present April 1901 as the month of his birth.
In 1902 the whole family relocated to Bendery. At the age of 14 he began working as an apprentice in the local railway workshops, around this time becoming a supporter of socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
. After finishing a local high school in 1917, he left for Petrograd to enrol in Law school
Law school
A law school is an institution specializing in legal education.- Law degrees :- Canada :...
. There he joined the Russian revolutionary
Revolutionary socialism
The term revolutionary socialism refers to Socialist tendencies that advocate the need for fundamental social change through revolution by mass movements of the working class, as a strategy to achieve a socialist society...
movement, adopting the pseudonym Tcacenco. He participated in the Russian Revolutions of February
February Revolution
The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...
and October
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
. In August 1917 he joined the Red Guards
Red Guards (Russia)
In the context of the history of Russia and Soviet Union, Red Guards were paramilitary formations consisting of workers and partially of soldiers and sailors formed in the time frame of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
and fought against the forces of White general
White movement
The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...
Lavr Kornilov
Lavr Kornilov
Lavr Georgiyevich Kornilov was a military intelligence officer, explorer, and general in the Imperial Russian Army during World War I and the ensuing Russian Civil War...
. In late 1917 Tcacenco returned to Bendery, where he helped organise the local supporters of the Bolsheviks, and became one of the leaders of the revolutionary youth organisation.
Activism in Romania
After Bessarabia joined Greater RomaniaGreater Romania
The Greater Romania generally refers to the territory of Romania in the years between the First World War and the Second World War, the largest geographical extent of Romania up to that time and its largest peacetime extent ever ; more precisely, it refers to the territory of the Kingdom of...
, a large part of the communist organisation in Chişinău
Chisinau
Chișinău is the capital and largest municipality of Moldova. It is also its main industrial and commercial centre and is located in the middle of the country, on the river Bîc...
, the Bessarabian capital, was arrested by the new authorities and put under trial in the Trial of the 108. Tcacenco received the task to restore the organisation, and in October 1919 he was elected secretary of the Chişinău communist committee. Later he would be elected secretary of the regional organisation of the party in Bessarabia. Tcacenco was one of the founders of an illegal typography in Chişinău, and was the editor of Bolşevicul basarabean ("The Bessarabian Bolshevik", in Moldavian), and Bessarabskiy kommunist ("The Bessarabian Communist", in Russian). He also contributed to the restoration of the communist youth organisation in the main city of Bessarabia, and tightened contacts with the local communist-influenced trade unions. At the same time, Tcacenco established contacts with Alecu Constantinescu
Alecu Constantinescu
Alexandru "Alecu" Constantinescu was Romanian trade unionist, journalist and socialist and pacifist militant, one of the major advocates of the transformation of the Romanian socialist movement into a communist one....
, a leading member of 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....
's nascent communist movement. The contacts between the two organisations were however soon interrupted as Tcacenco was arrested in Chişinău on August 6/7, 1920, along with several communist activists. Tcacenco succeeded in escaping custody on August 17, 1920, leaving for Iaşi
Iasi
Iași is the second most populous city and a municipality in Romania. Located in the historical Moldavia region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life...
. On February 19, 1921, the Chişinău court-martial convicted him in absentia
In absentia
In absentia is Latin for "in the absence". In legal use, it usually means a trial at which the defendant is not physically present. The phrase is not ordinarily a mere observation, but suggests recognition of violation to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings in a criminal trial.In...
to death.
In Iaşi, Pavel Tcacenco assisted in the organisation of the still chaotic local workers' movement. In March 1921 he participated at the Iaşi Conference of communist organisation, and was elected in the central committee of the Conference. During the debates, he supported the creation of an unified communist movement, part of the Romanian Socialist Party
Romanian Socialist Party
The Romanian Socialist Party is a small Romanian political party with a socialist ideology. It is not represented in parliament. In the 2008 elections, it won 0.01% of the vote in the Chamber of Deputies and 0.02% in the Senate....
, and opposed the creation of several provincial parties, as proposed by other delegates. He and most of the delegates to the Conference were arrested by the Romanian authorities on March 26 and during the following days. Tcacenco was included in the group of communist tried in the Dealul Spirii Trial (January-June 1922), when the National-Liberal
National Liberal Party (Romania)
The National Liberal Party , abbreviated to PNL, is a centre-right liberal party in Romania. It is the third-largest party in the Romanian Parliament, with 53 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 22 in the Senate: behind the centre-right Democratic Liberal Party and the centre-left Social...
government attempted to eliminate the Communist Party by making it responsible for a bomb attack on the Romanian Senate
Senate of Romania
The Senate of Romania is the upper house in the bicameral Parliament of Romania. It has 137 seats , to which members are elected by direct popular vote, using Mixed member proportional representation in 42 electoral districts , to serve four-year terms.-Former location:After the Romanian...
by anarchist Max Goldstein
Max Goldstein
Max Goldstein , also known as Coca, was a Romanian revolutionary, variously described as a communist and an anarchist.Born in Bârlad to a Jewish family, he worked as a clerk and moved to Bucharest, where he became a Communist sympathizer...
. During the trial, Pavel Tcacenco acknowledged he had participated in distributing communist newspapers and manifestos, but denied any connection with the bomb attack. Most of the defendants were ultimately amnestied under public pressure, however Tcacenco received a 2 year jail sentence.
The Supreme Council of Re-examination annulled the sentence on September 22, and disposed a retrial
Trial de novo
In law, the expression trial de novo means a "new trial" by a different tribunal...
to take place at the War Council of the 5th Army Corps, in Constanţa
Constanta
Constanța is the oldest extant city in Romania, founded around 600 BC. The city is located in the Dobruja region of Romania, on the Black Sea coast. It is the capital of Constanța County and the largest city in the region....
. As the legal proceedings were delayed, Tcacenco escaped custody again on April 2, 1923, and left for Bucharest. He joined the local communist movement, however he was quickly re-apprehended by the authorities. Back in Constanţa, the court decided his 1921 activities had a political character, thus falling under the royal amnesty
Amnesty
Amnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent people, without changing the laws defining the offense. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the...
of 1922. Nevertheless he was not set free, as he was sent to Chişinău for a retrial of the February 1921 decision. In August 1923 the sentence was quashed, but Tcacenco was ordered to leave the country in 30 days. He subsequently fled Romania, settling temporarily in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
.
Exile and demise
He eventually made his way into the Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, where he worked for the Joint State Political Directorate
State Political Directorate
The State Political Directorate was the secret police of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1934...
in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
. In February 1924 Tcacenco, Grigory Kotovsky, Solomon Timov and other Bessarabian and Romanian communists sent a letter to the Central Committees of the Communist Parties of Russia
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
and Ukraine, requesting the formation of a Moldovan
Moldovans
Moldovans or Moldavians are the largest population group of Moldova...
national territory. Soon after, a Moldavian Autonomous Oblast
Moldavian Autonomous Oblast
Moldavian Autonomous Oblast was created on March 7, 1924 within the Ukrainian SSR.The new oblast had four districts, all of them having a Moldovan majority:* Rîbniţa with 48,748 inhabitants, of which 25,387 Moldovans...
would be created on the left bank of the Dniester
Dniester
The Dniester is a river in Eastern Europe. It runs through Ukraine and Moldova and separates most of Moldova's territory from the breakaway de facto state of Transnistria.-Names:...
, on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR
Ukrainian SSR
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic or in short, the Ukrainian SSR was a sovereign Soviet Socialist state and one of the fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union lasting from its inception in 1922 to the breakup in 1991...
. Later that year, Tcacenco left for Viena, where he worked for the apparatus of the Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
. In August 1924, at the Third Congress of the Communist Party of Romania, he was elected a member in the Central Committee, and in March and April 1925 he represented the party in the Executive Committee of the Communist International
Executive Committee of the Communist International
The Executive Committee of the Communist International, commonly known by its acronym, ECCI, was the governing authority of the Comintern between the World Congresses of that body...
. There he participated in the political, trade union and peasant commissions. Tcacenco returned to Romania for a short time in July 1925, reintegrating in the local communist movement, however he fled again to Prague as he was notified of an imminent arrest. He succeeded in coming back to Bucharest in 1926, despite a Siguranţa order disposing his arrest at the border. In Romania, he agitated for the Bloc of Workers and Peasants, a legal front organization of the Romanian Communist Party during the 1926 electoral campaign. Tcacenco was a supporter of an united front
United front
The united front is a form of struggle that may be pursued by revolutionaries. The basic theory of the united front tactic was first developed by the Comintern, an international communist organisation created by revolutionaries in the wake of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.According to the theses of...
comprising, besides the Bloc, the Peasants' Party
Peasants' Party (Romania)
The Peasants' Party was a political party in post-World War I Romania that espoused a left-wing ideology partly connected with Agrarianism and Populism, and aimed to represent the interests of the Romanian peasantry. Through many of its leaders, the party was connected with Romanian populism , a...
, the National Party
Romanian National Party
The Romanian National Party , initially known as the Romanian National Party in Transylvania and Banat , was a political party which was initially designed to offer ethnic representation to Romanians in the Kingdom of Hungary, the Transleithanian half of Austria-Hungary, and especially to those in...
and the People's Party.
On August 15, 1926, during a meeting with communist leaders Boris Stefanov
Boris Stefanov
Boris Stefanov was a Romanian communist politician, who served as general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1936 to 1940.-Early life and activism:...
and Timotei Marin, the group was surrounded by the police. Tcacenco was shot, but succeeded in escaping, only to be captured later that day. He was sent to Tighina
Tighina
Bender or Bendery, also known as Tighina is a city within the internationally recognized borders of Moldova under de facto control of the unrecognized Transnistria Republic since 1992...
for trial, but never appeared before the court, as he was killed by the Romanian secret police. The exact details of his death are disputed. According to one version, he was killed by the Siguranţa in Chişinău. Another version posits that he escaped his guards in Chişinău with the help of local communists, only to be captured the following days near Soroca
Soroca
Soroca is a Moldovan city situated on the Nistru river about 160 km north of Chişinău. It is the administrative center of Soroca District.- History :The city has its origin in the medieval Genoese trade post of Olchionia, or Alchona...
, while attempting to cross the Dniester River in 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....
, and executed. According to a third account, he was shot in Vesterniceni, near Chişinău, while attempting to escape. The location of his remains remains unknown.
Legacy
After World War IIWorld 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...
, as the Romanian Communist Party gained the power in Romania, Tcacenco was honoured by the official propaganda along other young communists killed by the previous Romanian governments. After 1970, they were all gradually removed from official discourse, as the personality cult of president 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...
singularised the Romanian leader as a hero of the communist youth.
Tcacenco was also celebrated in the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. His name was adopted for several enterprises, cultural institutions, and streets bore his name in Chişinău, Bender, and Tiraspol
Tiraspol
Tiraspol is the second largest city in Moldova and is the capital and administrative centre of the unrecognized Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic . The city is located on the eastern bank of the Dniester River...
. A monument and a museum dedicated to Tcacenco are found in Bender, while a bust was placed in Tiraspol.