Page "Adevărul" Paragraph 47

By the mid 1930s, the tension between Adevărul and the increasingly pro-fascist Universul degenerated into open confrontation.

Emil Pauker's newspapers were by then also being targeted by the new fascist movement known as the Iron Guard, led by former LANC member Codreanu: in 1930, one of its editors was shot by a follower of Codreanu, but escaped with his life.

According to the recollections of PCR activist Silviu Brucan, the Iron Guardists, who supported Universul, attacked distributors of Adevărul and Dimineaţa, prompting young communist and socialists to organize themselves into vigilante groups and fight back, which in turn led to a series of street battles.

Beginning 1935, the scandals also involved Sfarmă-Piatră, a virulent far right newspaper headed by Nichifor Crainic and funded by Stelian Popescu, the new publisher of Universul.

While engaged in this conflict, Adevărul stood out among local newspapers for supporting the PCR during a 1936 trial of its activists which took place in Craiova, and involved as a co-defendant Simion Pauker's daughter-in-law, Ana Pauker.

Mainstream politico Constantin Argetoianu, citing an unnamed Adevărul journalist, had it that Emil Pauker, otherwise an outspoken anti-communist, was trying to protect even the more estranged members of his family.

With the change in management, some of the established Adevărul authors moved to Universul.

This was the case with C. Bacalbaşa ( 1935 ) and Batzaria ( 1936 ).

In his Universul columns, the latter displayed a degree of sympathy for the extreme right movement.