Leonte Tismăneanu

Leonte Tismăneanu (born Leonid Tisminetski; 1913–1981) was a Romanian communist activist and propagandist.

Born into a Jewish family in Soroca, Bessarabia, Russian Empire (now in Moldova), he joined the Romanian Communist Party (PCR) in the early 1930sStalinism pentru eternitate, p.38. He engaged in illegal communist activities in Bucharest, Galaţi, Brăila and Soroca. Later, he fought as a volunteer in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War, losing his right arm at the age of 24.Goşu; Stalinism pentru eternitate, p.38 In 1939, Tisminetski left for the Soviet Union, where he became a student of the Moscow State Linguistic University. After the start of Operation Barbarossa, in which Romania took part (see Romania during World War II), he worked with Ana Pauker, Leonte Răutu, and Vasile Luca for the Romanian language branch of Radio Moscow, first as a newsreader, then as a writer.

In 1948, Tisminetski and his family were sent to Soviet-occupied Romania, where he changed his name in 1949 to Leonte Tismăneanu, at the request of the PCR.Stalinism pentru eternitate, p.320 He was named deputy director of Editura PMR, later Editura Politică, the publishing house of the Communist PartyStalinism pentru eternitate p.333 and also held...
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