Dan was a leader in the Romanian Revolution, and was a member of the Council of the National Salvation Front, in which he served as secretary of the executive office.
[2] In this phase, he succeeded in getting himself elected as a member of the Union of Communist Youth committee of the faculty and secretary of the organization's Romanian students in Moscow.
In November 1974 he withdrew from political life, apparently because of a difference of views with the then-president of the socialist republic, Nicolae Ceaușescu, concerning management of the country.
[1] With outbreak of the Romanian Revolution, during the power vacuum and the subsequent violence, Marțian Dan, alongside other communist dissidents such as Ion Iliescu, Petre Roman, Dumitru Mazilu, Silviu Brucan, Corneliu Mănescu, Victor Stănculescu and Alexandru Bârlădeanu, promoted the creation of a provisional legislative body, and formed the Council of the National Salvation Front (CFSN) which took power in late December 1989 and oversaw the execution of Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife.
The executive group of the council was composed of former major PCR members, that had never denied their adherence to communist ideals, but that had lost faith in Ceaușescu as a leader.
At the same time, this was renamed the Interim Council of the National Union (CPUN) and it also allowed the participation of other party representatives that had been created after the Revolution's conclusion.
Marțian was secretary of the executive office also in the new entity, which was in charge of holding free elections and enacting the first laws in any democratic sense.
Infighting, especially between Mazilu and Iliescu, plagued the Nation Salvation Front, and made many of its members wary of the new provisional government's ability to arrive at decisions.
In response to this conflict, Iliescu founded the Democratic National Salvation Front (FDSN), while the counterpart party led by Roman maintained the original initials.