COMMUNISTS: A Girl Who Hated Cream Puffs

(6 of 7)

Ana Pauker, personally incorruptible, started sweeping the day she became Foreign Minister. For two days, her ministry was surrounded by troops while the housecleaning was in progress; she even purged three elevator men. In recent weeks, Communist big shots have toppled into jail like so many drunks on Saturday night; Ana has had to transform two theaters into prisons. Among those arrested: beautiful Florica Bagdasar, Minister of Public Health; General Michael Lascar of Pauker's own Tudor Vladimirescu division; General Constantin Ionescu, chief of the General Staff; Constantin Doncea, deputy mayor of Bucharest, colonel in the Red army, member of the Communist Central Committee, and Pauker's old comrade. Said she: "Doncea fell into petty bourgeois habits ... I advise all Communists not to sleep on their glory, and take heed from this lesson . . ."

Ana can be prim these days. Last June, in a discussion of plans for receiving Hungary's Premier Lajos Dinnyes, Ana said: "I've heard Dinnyes likes to have girls presented to him. This won't happen in Bucharest; I don't approve of official assignations." Hungarian Communists, hurt by Ana's attitude, say that Comrade Dinnyes found his own girls without any help from Comrade Pauker.

Supper for the Kids. Ana faces a bigger problem than personal morals among Balkan Reds. Many of her Rumanian party colleagues are tainted with the "nationalist" heresy.

Oldtime Party Leader Lucretiu Patra-scanu was ousted from the Ministry of Justice and jailed, along with his wife, a few months ago. There is no question of baksheesh in his case. His sin is in wanting a Communist Rumania for the Rumanian, rather than the Russian, Communists.

All the Balkans are seething with the battle between Ana and the "nationalists." A Rumanian who lives in a town near the frontier told an American: "This is the damndest clearing station you ever saw. Every night it's full of anti-Pauker Communists escaping into Yugoslavia and anti-Tito Communists running the other direction into Rumania."

Meanwhile, amid these half-hidden battles, life has some compensations for Ana. Her two daughters Marie and Tania (both in their early 20s) are with her. She is very proud of Marie, who was educated in France under Maurice Thorez' care. Her son Vladimir is a lieutenant in the Rumanian army. Sometimes Ana leaves a meeting saying: "I must go now to get supper for my children."

Communist agents and diplomats returning from the West always remember to bring Ana presents. Nylons are especially welcome; like many fat women, she has shapely ankles. Ana lives well and loves good food—although she scorns the luxury of most Rumanian Communists. Sometimes after a late meeting the comrades drop around to her house, and she thuds about the kitchen, throwing together a snack; she makes a wonderful omelet.