Cable from the Chinese Embassy in Romania, 'Summary Report on Romania’s Reaction to the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union'

Confidential

Incoming #453

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Incoming Telegram

Summary Report on Romania’s Reaction to the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

(61) Embassy in Romania, No. 79

The Romanians have already held several meetings since their delegation returned from attending the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. November 8 is the 60th birthday of Gheorghiu-Dej. RWP Central Committee members, alternate members, first secretaries, and chairmen of the People’s Congress in every state arrived at the capital city to celebrate Gheorghiu-Dej’s birthday. According to the Polish ambassador, they held a meeting on this occasion. On November 17, the Politburo held a meeting again, and claimed publicly that they discussed agricultural problems. From November 20-21, the Central Committee held another meeting and summoned Politburo members, some Central Committee members, ministers from the party and the government, first secretaries and chairmen of the People’s Congress in every state, leaders of mass organizations, chief editors of central newspapers, state planning committee members, and leaders in economic institutions. The meeting discussed and completed the national plan for 1962. The meeting contents were highly confidential, and its resolutions have not yet been published. However, we surmise that the Romanians offered a gist of the 22nd Congress and discussed policies related to the congress. Our Xinhua News reporter found out that the Cluj state held a party representative meeting from November 12-23, when this reporter visited Cluj. We think this meeting has some relation with the 22nd Congress as well. 

The 22nd Congress attacked Stalin and Albania harshly. Although some confused people agreed with this attack [on Stalin and Albania], it raised doubts and discontent among many more people. Although we have not been in touch with too many people and most [of the people we talked with] were university students, we believe their reactions represent a good amount of thoughts among the public. They felt confused about the decision to relocate Stalin’s body. Senior students from Parhon University spontaneously launched a discussion about Stalin’s reputation. Some students even wanted to reinvestigate “the first discussion”[1] and “more discussion”[2] to find theoretical support. They expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that Romania’s leaders were following Khrushchev. One student from the Petroleum Academy said, “Romania was just copying the Soviet Union, unlike China, which has its own opinion.” Some students even said, “Now Albania has gained a better position; it got independence.” This means that Romania is “not independent.” Students were angry about the unreasonable attack on Albania. Some students said, “They were attacking Albania, but I don’t see why.” Because of these feelings, Romanian students asked Chinese students to read out the Albanian Workers’ Party’s announcement from the People’s Daily. Some of them even hinted that Romanian leaders were accomplices in evil [bangxiang zuo’e] and said, “although the head is broken (referring to Romanian leaders), the body parts were still in good shape (referring to the Romanian people).” 

The reminiscing about Stalin and the sympathy for Albania among the Romanian people were not feelings that came from nowhere. First, although Stalin made some severe mistakes in his last years, his significant contributions cannot be erased. “First discussion” (yi lun)and “More Discussion” (zai lun) had a significant impact on the Romanian people, and therefore people could reach a correct opinion about Stalin. Second, Stalin, not Khrushchev, was the person who led the Soviet people and the Red Army to defeat Fascist Germany and liberate a series of countries, including Romania. Naturally, people miss Stalin with a thankful heart. Third, the Soviet Union’s chauvinism in how they treat fraternal countries has impacted the Romanian people. Because of that, when a big country like the Soviet Union attacks and accuses a small country like Albania without evidence, this creates even more anger toward Soviet chauvinism. Fourth, there are thousands of Albanian people living in Romania. They lived here for a long time and established a friendly relationship with the Romanian people. They have made contributions to Romania’s economic development. Therefore, it is very hard for Romanians to treat Albanians as the enemy, unlike Yugoslavs. 

Although Romania held a lengthy meeting on two critical issues – de-Stalinization and the Soviet-Albanian relationship – they did not publish their decisions, because of the above mentioned reasons.

In fact, in order to make Khrushchev happy, Romania started the anti-Stalin campaign as early as the end of last year. During that time, through its Grand National Assembly, Romania changed the name of Stalin State and Stalin City back to Brașov. According to a TASS reporter, when Gheorghiu-Dej visited the Lenin-Stalin tomb during his visit to the Soviet Union in July and August, he pointed at Stalin’s body and said, “This is not Stalin; this is Brașov.” Gheorghiu-Dej attacked Stalin and praised Khrushchev again when he met fraternal counties’ delegations at his 60th birthday party. However, since the 22nd Congress, Romania has not taken any further action on this issue. Streets, neighborhoods, parks, and buildings named after Stalin in Brașov have not had their names changed. The big Stalin statue in front of the Stalin Park was still there. (On November 17, Central newspapers used “Cultural Relaxation Park of the Capital City” instead of “Stalin Cultural Relaxation Park.” It might be a hint that Romania is going to change the name). Also, although Romanian newspapers reported the resolution to remove Stalin’s body from Lenin’s tomb, they did not report that the Soviets had already relocated Stalin’s tomb to the corner of the Kremlin. The rename of Stalingrad and Stalinabad was only reported in the bulletin section. It is easy to miss if people are not paying attention to it. The above case shows that the renaming of Stalin State and Stalin City last year caused unrest among people. Therefore, if Romania did not do its political work well and released more anti-Stalin measures, it might cause further discontent among the people. 

Romania participated in Khrushchev’s attack on Albania that he launched at the 22nd Congress. However, compared to other Eastern European countries, Romania launched fewer public attacks on Albania. According to the content, it is true that sometimes Romanians used harsh words. For example, one article that Gheorghiu-Dej wrote for Soviet “Communist” magazine slandered Albania, saying that they were serving the interests of imperialism. In general, Romanian attacks on Albania are briefer than in other fraternal countries. However, it does not mean that Romania did not take an active role in the attack. On the contrary, the limitation and behind-the-scenes blockade that Romania imposed on Albania became much stronger. Romanian behavior was an attempt to block Albania from the socialist camp. After the end of the 22nd Congress, Romania carried out a series of actions, including the ousting of Albanian students; preventing the Albanian embassy from releasing its newsletter; dispatching undercovers to monitor the activity of the Albanian embassy; not allowing the [North] Korean ambassador to invite Albanian diplomats to Gheorghiu-Dej’s birthday party. Also, the Romanian government tried to block Romanian people from getting the truth about the Soviet-Albanian relationship. In order to do that, Romania stopped the release of People’s Daily (Romanian publishers never received issues of People’s Daily after October 23). They also seized Nhân Dân, which Vietnamese students ordered, since Nhân Dân published articles on Albania in their recent issues. 

The attacks on Albania are also attacks on our country. This point was confirmed by the Romanian people. However, until now, Romanian leaders and newspapers have not published anything related to us. Nonetheless, Romanian’s attitude towards us is clearly colder. During the October Revolution anniversary, Romanian leaders even verbally provoked us publicly (usually, mid to low-level officials would not do that). We counterattacked the provocation seriously. Although Romania still held a cold attitude in recent Sino-Romanian diplomatic activities, they kept ordinary diplomatic politeness. The Romanian attitude was fine when receiving our delegations, but they avoided mentioning any political problems. The Romanians were also imposing more restrictions and limitations on us. Around two weeks after the 22nd Congress started, Romanians blocked the delivery of People’s Daily. After we followed up with this problem several times, they delivered the newspaper only from November 11. Chinese students haven’t received anything until November 16. For now, there is no sign of a newspaper shortage. Outside the embassy, the Romanian government also dispatched undercovers to monitor us. We still saw them from time to time recently. (We assume that the Romanian government fears that the Romanian people will get close to us. They also want to monitor our activities.) Because we are a big nation and hold our truth, Romania did not impose too many restrictions. For example, when we held the cultural exhibition of Hunan local art, Romania had to invite Albanian embassy officials while blocking Yugoslav embassy officials. 

Because Romanian leaders have a right-wing mindset and kept the same pace as Khrushchev, Romania has a deep ideological gap with China and Albania. Moreover, because the Romanian economy relies on the Soviet Union, they will continue to follow Khrushchev in the anti-Stalin campaign and the attitude toward Albania. However, because the Romanian people were not satisfied with those policies, we predict that the Romanian government will not go too far. On the one hand, they are observing what other East European countries said about those problems. On the other hand, the Romanian government criticizes Albanian leaders internally. By spreading one-sided propaganda, the Romanian government will use every dirty method to block voices from Albania and force the Romanian people to accept their interpretation which obscures the truth. Every public institution and enterprise named after Stalin will be renamed, but the Romanian government will do this when they think the resistance is weak. Besides accusing Albania publicly from time to time, the Romanian government will mainly use internal pressure and restrictions to achieve its goals. If the Soviet Union and other countries continue to add pressure on Romania, Romania might go further in its criticisms of Albania. In such circumstances, Romania’s attitude towards us will further deteriorate. Restrictive policies might become tougher in order to isolate us. 

[Chinese] Embassy in Romania

November 24, 1961