Gogu Rădulescu

Gheorghe "Gogu" Rădulescu was a Romanian journalist, economist, and high-ranking figure of the communist regime. Of mixed Romani and Russian heritage, he began his leftist and anti-fascist militancy in the early 1930s, while a student at the Commercial Academy in Bucharest. He established a Democratic Students' Front, which embarked on a direct confrontation with the fascist Iron Guard, as well as with the conservative establishment of the Romanian Kingdom; supported by the clandestine Romanian Communist Party (PCR) and its Union of Communist Youth, Rădulescu networked with moderate leftists and independents. In 1935, he organized a training camp in Moieciu, which was nearly broken up by the Gendarmes. In 1937, he was kidnapped and tortured by Iron Guard affiliates, and then also expelled from the Communist Youth for his apparent insubordination. Taking his doctorate in 1938, Rădulescu worked as a researcher for the Institute of Economic Conjecture, under his communist friend Belu Zilber.