Chivu Stoica

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

Stoica was born in Smeeni, Buzău County, the sixth child of a ploughman. At age 12 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, Lemaitre, and Malaxa companies. There he met Gheorghe Vasilichi, who recruited him into the Communist Party.

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 August 20, 1934, he was sentenced to 15 years of prison for his role in the Grivița Strike of 1933. At Târgu Jiu prison, 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 Worker's Party from 1945 to 1975, and of the Politburo. He served as Prime Minister of Romania between 1955 and 1961 and as President of the State Council of Romania (de facto head of state) from 1965 until 1967.

In his later years, he fell out of favour with Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife Elena. His death, by a hunting rifle bullet to the head, was ruled a suicide.

His first wife was Ecaterina (b. Klein), and his second one was Maria (b. Manolescu), an engineer, with whom he had a daughter.