Stancu, Zaharia

Born Oct. 7,1902, in Salcia, in the district of Teleormanul; died Dec. 5, 1974, in Bucharest. Rumanian writer and political leader. Academician of the Academy of the Socialist Republic of Rumania (SRR; 1955). Member of the Rumanian Communist Party (1945) and of its Central Committee (1969). Member of the State Council of the SRR (1969).

Stancu graduated from the faculty of philosophy and philology of the University of Bucharest in 1932. His first published works were the poems in the collection Simple Songs (1927). He also wrote publicist works, defending workers’ rights in the leftist and democratic press. During World War II, Stancu was imprisoned in a concentration camp for antifascist activity. After Rumania’s liberation (1944), he was director of the National Theater from 1946 to 1952. He was later editor in chief of Gazeta literará from 1958 to 1968 and chairman of the Writers’ Union of the SRR from 1966 to 1974.

After the war, Stancu published primarily prose. His novel Barefoot (1948; Russian translation, 1957), the epic Bitter Roots (vols. 1–5, 1958–59), and the novels Mad Forest (1963; Russian translation, 1971) and Wind and Rain (1969; Russian translation, 1973)—the last two of which were autobiographical—provide a sweeping picture of Rumania’s sociopolitical life before and after the war. Stancu was awarded the State Prize of the SRR (1954).