Ana Pauker: The Rise and Fall of a Jewish Communist

From Publishers Weekly
Virtually unknown internationally today, Pauker appeared on a 1948 Time cover, described inside as "the most powerful woman alive." In Romania, she's remembered as a dogmatic, fanatically subservient Stalinist, emblematic of the terror and repression of the 1947-1952 period in which she served as foreign minister and more briefly as de facto behind-the-scenes leader. Levy easily refutes this image, since Pauker was purged on Stalin's urging precisely for being too soft. What's more difficult is to discover who she really was. Levy concisely describes the recurrent, historically precarious position of European Jews as social pioneers eventually viciously displaced as "parasites" a pattern repeated with revolutionaries like Pauker. Though ultimately unsuccessful in avoiding this fate, she displayed high levels of historical self-awareness, acting in often surprising ways. The central chapters explore her roles in agriculture, party purges and Jewish emigration, which provoked the major accusations against her. As agriculture secretary she opposed forced collectivization and supported higher prices for agricultural products; as a party leader, she opposed the purge of popular leader Lucretiu Patrascanu and the foreign, disproportionately Jewish veterans of the Spanish Civil War and the French Resistance, while her complex relations to her Jewish heritage, identity and compatriots were typically demonized by the anti-Semitism that doomed her. Though Pauker the person remains enigmatic, the political figure's complexities and contradictions, as portrayed by Levy, belie the caricature her homeland clings to, and challenge simplistic notions of the Cold War's darkest hours. 20 b&w photos, 1 map. (Mar.) Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
In his introduction, Levy describes Ana Pauker as "the daughter of poor religious Jews rising to the pinnacle of power in a country traditionally disdainful of both Jews and women." Officially Romania's foreign minister from 1947 to 1952--the first woman to hold such a post--Pauker was actually the unofficial head of Romania's Communist Party after World War II, and for a number of years she was the country's true behind-the-scenes leader. Levy examines Pauker's life and career; the evidence reveals a person characterized more by contradictions than by dogmatism, a Communist leader fanatically loyal to Stalin and the Soviet Union but actively opposing the Stalinist line and deliberately defying Soviet directives on a number of important issues. The remainder of the study covers her years in power and subsequent purge. The book will be of interest to students of the history of communism in Eastern Europe and of one of its most important figures. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


the Nation
"Ana Pauker is a rip-roaring story . . . Levy pulls off a surprising feat by offering a credible defense for . . . her actions."


Jerusalem Post
"Levy's warm absorbing and well-documented political biography brings the life of this important figure to well-deserved attention."


Jerusalem Report
"A careful reexamination of the largely overlooked Ana Pauker. [Levy's] use of documents and witnesses is solid."


Forward
"A meticulously documented political biography of a powerful Jewish communist leader in Romania."


Choice
"[P]rovides a . . . portrait of this Romanian communist leader who played a major, international role during . . . the Cold War."


Times Literary Supplement
"[Pauker's] life was indeed destructive and sad, adding more than fair share to the sum of human misery."


Book Description
Ana Pauker, when she is remembered at all, is thought of as the puppet of Soviet communism in Romania, blindly enforcing the most brutal and repressive Stalinist regime. Robert Levy's new biography changes the picture dramatically, revealing a woman of remarkable strength, dominated by conflict and contradiction far more than by dogmatism. Telling the story of Pauker's youth in an increasingly anti-Semitic environment, her commitment to a revolutionary career, and her rise in the Romanian Communist movement, Levy makes no attempt to whitewash Pauker's life and actions, but rather explores every contour of the complicated persona he found expressed in masses of newly accessible archival documents.


From the Back Cover
"This is not a psychodrama. Rather, this is a sociopolitical tragedy, extremely valuable, deeply researched, and fascinating. There is very little that is as important as this book about any of the top communist leaders other than the most famous ones such as Lenin, Stalin, and Mao. . . .The subject is so important, the book so well done and so revealing, and the human interest so compelling, Levy's book will become one of the essential works on the history of communism in Eastern Europe."-Daniel Chirot, author of Modern Tyrants "This outstanding, thought-provoking political biography of one of the most prominent figures of European communism offers an original and balanced approach to Pauker's contradictory role in the history of both Romanian and international communism. . . . Engagingly written and very convincingly structured, this is not a dry historical account but a vivid reconstruction of a turbulent political life."-Vladimir Tismaneanu, author of Fantasies of Salvation


About the Author
Robert Levy completed a Ph.D. in history at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1998.


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A sociopolitical tragedy will become one of the essential works on the history of communism in Eastern Europe.  — (Daniel Chirot, author of Modern Tyrants)


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