The “Right Deviation” of Ana Pauker Available to Purchase

This paper argues that the accusation of “Right Deviationism” levelled against Romanian Communist leader Ana Pauker in May 1952 was in fact based on truth, that Pauker openly opposed forcibly collectivizing a resistant peasantry and therefore scaled back collectivization efforts in late 1950 and 1951. Though Pauker was appointed Central Committee Secretary with responsibility over agriculture when collectivization was officially launched in March 1949, she was absent from the country when the Romanian Workers Party launched a campaign of forced collectivization in the summer of 1950, and took decisive steps to reverse such a policy upon resuming her duties at the end of that year—essentially halting further collectivization throughout 1951. In doing so Pauker appears to have been closely allied to CC Secretary and Finance Minister Vasile Luca, who promoted a pro-peasant policy resembling Bukharin's throughout the postwar period, and was apparently opposed by General Secretary Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej. It also appears that Pauker's line on collectivization in 1951 went against the wishes of the Soviet Union, which imposed collectivization on its satellites at that time.