Valter Roman Valter or Walter Roman ( October 9 , 1913 – November 11 , 1983 ) , born Ernst or Ernő Neuländer , was a Romania n communist activist and soldier . During his lifetime , Roman was active inside the Romanian , Czechoslovakian , French , and Spanish Communist parties as well as being a Comintern cadre . He started his military career as a volunteer in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War , and rose to prominence in Communist Romania , as a high - level politician and military official . Valter was the father of Petre Roman , a post - 1989 politician , who served as Prime Minister . Biography . Early life . Born in Nagyvárad ( today Oradea , in Austria - Hungary at the time ) , he was the child of Jewish parents whose first language was Hungarian . In later testimonies , he indicated that his ethnic background was not entirely relevant to him : " Germans said I was a Hungarian , Hungarians that I was Romanian , Romanians said that I was Jewish , but Jews said I was a communist , although I was not yet one at the time " . Roman obtained a degree in Electrical engineering in Brno , Czechoslovakia . Military career . Initially active inside the PCR ' s agitprop section , he was a volunteer in a Romanian artillery unit of the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War ( " see also Jewish volunteers in the Spanish Civil War " ) — according to one source , it was then that he first adopted the name " Valter Roman " , while also using the pseudonym " G . Katowski " . Wounded twice during combat , Roman eventually left for the Soviet Union . In 1938 - 1941 , Roman worked at a plane factory in Kalinin , later for one of the Comintern sections , and , during World War II , for an Institute for Scientific Research ( 1941 – 1945 ) . During the period , he married Hortensia Vallejo , who was originally from Santander , Spain . At the time , Roman also headed the Romanian - language radio station of the Comintern ( " România Liberă " ) , broadcasting propaganda against the regime of Ion Antonescu and Romania ' s actions on the Eastern Front as an ally of Nazi Germany ( " see Romania during World War II " ) . He returned to Soviet - occupied Romania in July 1945 , as the political commissar for the Soviet - organized Horia , Cloşca şi Crişan Division , commanded by General Mihail Lascăr . Under the , Roman became a general in the Romanian Army ( Major General after May 1 , 1948 ) with political responsibilities ( Chief of the Army Directorate for Education , Culture , and Propaganda , 1946 ; Chief of the Superior Political Direction of the Romanian Army and Chief of Staff , 1947 – 1951 ) , and Minister of Telecommunications ( March 29 , 1951 – January 24 , 1953 ) . At the time , he declared himself in favor of recruiting a new military force " from the ranks of the working class , of the toiling peasantry and of the progressive intelligentsia " . Close to the Ana Pauker " Muscovite wing " of the PCR , he came into conflict with the party leadership around Gheorghe Gheorghiu - Dej . Initially removed from his Army position in 1950 , at the same time as all cadres who had fought in the International Brigades or the French Resistance , Roman was deposed from government office , purged from the PCR and Army on charges of " Titoism " and " espionage " , and singled out for a possible show trial ( 1952 ) . He became subject to daily interrogations by the Party Control Commission . Pressures on him were relaxed after the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953 , and Roman became head of Editura Politică ( 1954 – 1983 ) . He remained a suspect at a time when Gheorghiu - Dej felt increasingly threatened , was subject to a " vote of censure " in 1954 , and was completely rehabilitated only in 1956 . Party leadership . In 1956 and 1957 , as a high - ranking member of the Communist Party , Valter Roman was involved in deciding Romanian policies in regard to the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 , which threatened to spark similar actions in Romania . He spent late October in Budapest , sending back reports which inflamed sentiments by presenting alleged revolutionary violence . After the Red Army invaded Hungary , he accompanied Gheorghiu - Dej , the writer Mihai Beniuc , and other local Communists to Budapest , where the three of them reviewed the situation and expressed approval of Soviet policies . Later on , he was involved in interrogating Imre Nagy during his detainment in Snagov , while also ensuring contacts between Nagy and Soviet officials . Nagy was returned to Hungary , secretly tried and executed . According to Fedor Burlatsky , Nikita Khrushchev had Nagy executed , " as a lesson to all other leaders in socialist countries . " An associate of Leonte Răutu , Roman seconded Emil Bodnăraş in the 1959 process of writing and compiling Party history , with a mission to highlight both Gheorghiu - Dej ' s role in the 1944 toppling of Ion Antonescu ' s regime and the insurrectional character of the coup . In 1961 , he was among the Party leaders who spoke out against Iosif Chişinevschi and other former leaders who had been since marginalized , such as Pauker ( whom he accused of having maintained contacts with Soviet police chief Lavrentiy Beria ) , Boris Stefanov , and Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu . He also rallied with Gheorghiu - Dej ' s positive views on de - Stalinization , claiming that Pauker ' s fall had been a sign of Romania parting with Stalinism . At the time , he argued that Pauker and her collaborator Vasile Luca had viewed him with suspicion based on his participation in the Spanish Civil War . After Gheorghiu - Dej ' s death , he approved of the change in course indicated by Nicolae Ceauşescu , and joined in condemning the 1968 Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia ( at the time , he notably quoted Constantin Dobrogeanu - Gherea ' s statement that " socialism and truth are inseparable " ) . Elected to the Central Committee on July 24 , 1965 , he was in office until his death . Decorated a " Hero of the Socialist Labor " , Roman was also employed as a University professor . By the 1970s , he was becoming opposed to the Ceauşescu leadership and questioned Leninism itself ; a diary entry of 1975 shows that he resented the massive enrollment of obedient cadres into the PCR , and speculated that " when Lenin elaborated the concept of the new - type party he took inspiration from , he also thought of Ignacio de Loyola , of his « company of Jesus » , of what it represented from the point of view of discipline , of obedience , hence there later emerged many negative consequences and , first of all , the deterioration of human character , of human integrity " . Controversies . Several aspects of Roman ' s past remain under dispute . In 2000 , investigations by Russia n historian Tofik Islamov concluded that , after Soviet authorities charged Maxim Litvinov to investigate the issue of Northern Transylvania , disputed between Romania and Hungary , Roman approached the commission in late 1944 with plans to have Transylvania declare itself independent ( under a common guarantee from the Soviets and Western Allies ) . Petre Roman has repeatedly contested the conclusion , advancing documents which , he argued , proved that his father was in favor of Transylvania ' s status inside Romania . In his own reply to Petre Roman ' s arguments , Islamov repeated his statements , and contended that views such as those attributed to Valter Roman were commonplace among internationalists of the time . He also cited Valter Roman ' s own 1944 statement — according to the document , Roman viewed both Hungary and Romania as guilty of waging war on the Soviet Union , arguing that the region ( Transylvania ) was " an ethnographic conglomerate " with a tradition of regional sovereignty , economic independence , and status as " the most progressive part of the country " . In 2006 , Petre Roman was involved in a polemic with former Securitate chief and defector Ion Mihai Pacepa over the extent to which Valter Roman took part in political repression in the wake of the Hungarian Revolution .