Ceausescu opponent Gheorghe Apostol has died​

Luni, 23 august 2010, 11:49 English | Top News

Gheorghe Apostol, a former communist leader who was among a group of six prominent Communists who criticized the Ceausescu regime, died at the age of 97 on Saturday, according to Romanian TV news channel Realitatea TV. Apostol was a former leader of the Romanian Communist Party who was the main candidate to run against Ceausescu for the position of Party president after the death of Ceausescu's predecessor, Gheorghe Gheorghiu Dej.

Apostol joined the communist party in 1934. He served twice as first deputy president of the Council of Ministers. He also served as first secretary of the Romanian Communist Party Central Committee, a member of the Political Bureau and in other top positions.

By mid seventies, he was dismissed under "moral" grounds and later sent as ambassador to South America countries.

In 1989, the year of the anti-Communist revolution, he along other former top Communist officials - Alexandru Barladeanu, Corneliu Manescu, Grigore Raceanu, Constantin Parvulescu and Silviu Brucan - signed a letter in which he criticized the policies of the Ceausescu regime. "The letter of the six" was read on March 11, 1989 on BBC and Free Europe radio stations. The signatories were later arrested and placed under home arrest.