His adventurous youth, with two prison terms served for illegal political acti- vity, culminated in his self-exile to the Soviet Union, where he spent the larger part of World War I. Specializing in agitprop and becoming friends with communist militant Ana Pauker, Räutu made his way back to Romania during the communization process of the late 1940s, and became a feared potentate of the Romanian communist regime. As head of the Communist Party'snew Agitprop Section, he devised some of the most controversial cultural policies, and managed to survive Pauker's downfall in 1952. As Gheorghiu-Dej's assistant, Räutu played a leading part in all the successive avatars of Romanian communism: he was a Stalinist and Zhdanovist before 1955, an anti-revisionist until 1958, and a national communist since. Duringthis long transi- tion, he instigated (and gave a Marxist backing to) the successive campaigns against Gheorghiu-Dej's political adversaries, selectively purged academia of suspected anti-communists, and deposed some of his own supporters. He became widely hated for his perceived lack of scruples, depicted by disgraced communist writers as "the perfect acrobat" or "Malvolio". Räutu preserved some of his influence after his natio- nal communist friend Nicolae Ceausescu took over the party leadership. He lost his Agitprop prerogatives, but became instead rector of the party's own Stefan Gheorghiu Academy, and still played a part in defining the official dogmas.