Ion Stoian (1927 - 2012)
Ion Stoian (1927 - 2012)

Summary/Abstract: Ion Stoian was the last minister of Foreign Affairs of socialist Romania, appointed in November 1989, one month before the regime’s fall. Stoian was born in a humble family from the Prahova region, one of the most important industrial sites in interwar Romania from where many future socialist leaders originated. Forced to abandon school because of the lack of financial means during the Second World War, the teenager Ion Stoian began his apprenticeship to become a turner. A skilled worker by profession, after the war, he showed interest in politics as well and was recruited for one of the multiple schools created by the Communist Party to train a new political bureaucracy. At the beginning of the 1950s, Ion Stoian started a long career as a professional activist. This biography helps to explore: the typicality and atypicality of Stoian’s career; how the first generation of socialist functionaries was recruited and trained; the most important positions held until 1989; his role in the fall of the regime and during the first moments of transition to post-socialism; Stoian’s fate during post-socialism.

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