Borilă, who was married to Ecaterina Abraham, a Romanian communist of Jewish origin, was father to Iordana (or Dana), who fell in love with and married Ceaușescu's oldest son, Valentin.

For their part, many opposition deputies believed that Romanian communists needed to be scolded, not stamped out.

A key moment in the narrative shows Nikita Khrushchev rewarding Drăghici's services with an impractical radio receiver while the other Romanian communists look on.

In 1948, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (who led Romania until 1965) said, "The calling of the Romanian communists penetrated the miners' ranks and showed them the path to the struggle".

Relentlessly politicized by their communist leaders, the Tudor Vladimirescu Division became a politically reliable military formation of the Romanian communists.

Coliu spent the World War II years in Moscow with other Romanian communists, and was a devoted collaborator of Ana Pauker's.

Like other Romanian communists he was arrested several times, then sentenced and released again.

From 1931 to 1936, he oversaw the activities of Romanian communists in exile to the Soviet Union, and served as General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party (PCdR).

He was interned in Romania until 1944, and deported back to Poland by Romanian communists in 1945.

In January 1938, he commanded the Romanian communists' artillery battery "Tudor Vladimirescu".