Avram Bunaciu


Avram Bunaciu was a Romanian communist politician who served as the Minister of Justice, Minister of Foreign Affairs and was the acting President of the State Council of Romania.

Early life

Bunaciu was born in Transylvania to a Jewish family. He was a communist intellectual during World War II and had several high ranking positions after the war, mostly within the Ministry of Justice. Bunaciu was a lawyer by profession and close ally to Ion Gheorghe Maurer with whom he defended communists at pre-war trials and was also close to Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej who eventually became the President of Romania. After the war, Bunaciu was the Chief Public Prosecutor at Cluj tribunal which was set up on 22 June 1945 to prosecute war criminals. There were two tribunals in the post-war Romania which were charged with trials of individuals involved in war crimes. Bunaciu was involved in prosecuting mainly crimes committed by Hungarian authorities and their collaborators in Northern Transylvania while the Bucharest tribunal mostly dealt with crimes perpetrated by Romanians under Marshal Antonescu.

Political career

Bunaciu served as the Minister of Justice of Romania from 25 March 1948 until 23 September 1949.
In 1952, Bunaciu was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs when Ana Pauker was the minister. At the time he also was the Chairman of the National Assembly for the Application of Constitution. When Pauker was sacked by the communist leadership aided by Joseph Stalin, Bunaciu left the foreign service and became the rector of the Bucharest University in 1954.
On 13 January 1958 he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. On 20 March 1961, when he left the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he was elected the Vice President of the State Council. From 19 March to 24 March 1965, before Nicolae Ceaușescu came to power, he was the acting President of State Council.