Groza, Petru

Groza, Petru 

Born Dec. 7, 1884. in Bǎcia. district of Hunedoara; died Jan. 7, 1958, in Bucharest. Rumanian politician and statesman. Doctor of law.

Groza attended the universities of Budapest, Berlin, and Leipzig. From 1921 to 1922 and 1926 to 1927 he was a cabinet minister. In 1927 he broke with the reactionary People’s Party, and in 1933 he founded and assumed leadership of the Plowmen’s Front, a democratic peasant organization. Between 1943 and 1944, Groza was repeatedly arrested and sent to concentration camps. After the overthrow of the fascist military dictatorship in Rumania (August 1944) he was deputy prime minister (from November 1944 to February 1945) in the coalition governments. In March 1945. he was head of a government that represented the democratic forces in the Rumanian People’s Republic. From December 1947 to June 1952, Groza was chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Rumanian People’s Republic, and from June 1952 until the end of his life he was chairman of the Presidium of the Grand National Assembly of the Rumanian People’s Republic.

WORKS

In drum spré socialism: Discursuri şi întrevederi politice, 1947–1948. [Bucharest] 1950.
In umbra celulei. Malmaison, 1943–1944, Sarna. [No place, 1945.]