Aspects of Romanian Stalinism's History: Ana Pauker, A Victim of Anti-Semitism?

Born in 1893 in a village in Moldavia (eastern Romania), a daughter of a Jewish religious leader, Ana Pauker moved to Bucharest, Romania's capital, as a young girl. There she eventually joined the old socialist movement, also embraced by her future husband, Marcel Pauker. According to Vladimir Tismaneanu, she was "probably the leading figure of Romanian Stalinism. " An instructor in the Komintern with the French Communist party in the early 1930s, Ana Pauker was arrested by the Romanian authorities in 1935. Her trial had a strong impact both in Romania and abroad. Sentenced to 10 years in jail, she became a world class celebrity, her name being given to an artillery unit of the International Brigade fighting in the Spanish civil war. [...]