Constantin Doncea

After spending much of World War II in the Soviet Union, he returned to Romania, where he helped establish a Communist regime.

They, his judges and the press all perceived him as the strike leader, while the Comintern created a "Doncea myth" that made him into the most recognizable figure of the Romanian proletariat.

[1] On January 3, 1935, together with fellow Grivița strikers Dumitru Petrescu and Gheorghe Vasilichi, he made a daring escape from prison that created a press sensation.

[3] After spending time in various safe houses, the trio managed to leave Romania through Halmeu, passing into Czechoslovakia before ending up in Moscow.

After fleeing Spain in February 1939 as the war neared its conclusion, he was interned in a camp at Saint-Cyprien in the south of France, where he was secretary of the Romanian volunteers' party organization and of the Dimitrov Battalion.

[5] Upon the August 1944 legalization of the PCR (PMR from 1948, shortly after the establishment of a communist regime), he held a number of posts over the next two decades.

That year marked the 25th anniversary of the Grivița strike,[7] and his problems stemmed from a speech he delivered before the Mihai Roller-led party history institute, during sessions the latter organized there in 1955–1956.

[7] This formed part of a broader purge directed at party veterans, including Vasile Bâgu and Grigore Răceanu.