Chivu Stoica

Chivu Stoica (the family name being Chivu; 8 August 1908 – 18 February 1975) was a leading Romanian Communist politician, who served as 48th Prime Minister of Romania.

Early life
Stoica was born in Smeeni, Buzău County, the sixth child of a ploughman. At age 12, after 5 years of elementary school, he left home, and started working as an apprentice at Căile Ferate Române, the state railway corporation. In 1921, he moved to Bucharest, where he worked as a boilermaker at the Vulcan, Lemaître, and Malaxa companies. He joined the National Peasants' Party (PNȚ), serving as secretary for the Blue Sector of Bucharest until 1929. At the Malaxa works, he met Gheorghe Vasilichi, who recruited him into the Communist Party (PCR) in 1931.

Career
In spring 1931, Stoica started working for the Grivița Railway Yards, where he met Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, Vasile Luca, and Constantin Doncea; together, they started organizing a strike. On 20 August 1934, he was sentenced to 15 years of prison for his role in the Grivița Strike of 1933. He spent time at the Aiud, Doftana, Târgu Ocna, Văcărești, and Caransebeș prisons. In 1935–1936 he was at Ocnele Mari Prison, together with Gheorghiu-Dej. In 1940, his sentence was reduced to 9 years of hard labor. Later, the War Council of the 1st Army Corps pardoned him, but he was interned in the Târgu Jiu camp. At the internment camp, he was close to Gheorghiu-Dej, who may have wanted Stoica to be his successor as General Secretary.

He was a member of the Central Committee of the Romanian Workers' Party from 1945 to 1975, and a member of the Politburo. He was Prime Minister of Romania between 1955 and 1961 and President of the State Council of Romania (de facto head of state) from 1965 until 1967.

Stoica was awarded the Order of the Crown of Romania in the rank of Grand Officer (1947), the Order of the Star of the Romanian People's Republic, 1st class (1948, 1958), the Order of Labor (Romania), 1st class (1959), the title of Hero of Socialist Labour and the Hammer and Sickle Gold Medal (1958), the August 23 Order, 1st class (1959), the Tudor Vladimirescu Order, 1st class (1966), and the title of Hero of the Socialist Republic of Romania (1973).

Death
Suffering of tertiary syphilis, he died aged 66 at his residence in the exclusive Primăverii neighborhood of Bucharest. His death, by a Holland & Holland hunting rifle bullet to the head, was ruled a suicide.

Family
Stoica had three wives. With the first one he had a daughter, Cornelia. His second wife was Ecaterina Micu-Chivu (née Klein), a communist activist who worked after 1947 for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Romanian–Soviet Institute, and the Red Cross, and was a professor at Politehnica University until 1955. The couple had a daughter, Ana; they also adopted a son, but later revoked the adoption. His third wife was Maria Chivu (née Manolescu), an engineer and a party and union activist.