All in the First Family

Indulging his fondness for state visits once again, Rumania's maverick Communist ruler Nicolae Ceausescu last week was in the middle of a 17-day, eight-nation tour of Africa and the Middle East. One thing he surely spent little worrying about was his political base back home. In his absence there was hardly an important area of national life that was not watched over by some relative he had placed in a top position over the years.

At 61 , Ceausescu himself holds an impressive number of the levers of power in Rumania. Since he became Communist Party boss in 1965, the brusque and stocky onetime shoemaker has not only had himself designated President of the Republic and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces but also chairman of the State Council and the Defense Council.

His immediate family has not exactly under-achieved either. His wife Elena, 62, an engineer by training, presides over the chemical industry and is a member of the two highest party bodies, the Permanent Bureau and the Executive Political Committee. Elder Son Valentin, 32, is a physicist at Rumania's sole nuclear research facility. Daughter Zoe, 29, is head of the mathematics department at the Henri Coanda Institute of Inventions. Son Nicolae ("Nicu"), 27, is secretary of the Union of Communist Youth.

Of Ceausescu's five brothers, Ilie is a major general, Ion is a deputy minister of agriculture, Marin is a counsel at the Rumanian embassy in Vienna, and Florea is a senior editorial writer for the party newspaper, Scinteia. His brother Nicolae (in Rumania, brothers sometimes have the same first name) is consul-general in Kiev.

Then there are the in-laws and lesser relatives. Last month the prime ministership was held by Manea Manescu, husband of Ceausescu's sister Maria. When he retired because of ill health, the job went to another brother-in-law, Ilie Verdet husband of Ceausescu's sister Reghina. Three other family members are Deputy Prime Ministers, including Elena's brother Gheorghe Petrescu; he is in charge of Rumania's arms-making industry.

Among Rumania's 21.5 million citizens, Ceausescu's family-fostering ways have stirred no great undertow of resentment. After all, nepotism is an old Balkan tradition and may be a small price to pay for a new one that Ceausescu himself has invented: keeping independent of the Soviets. In both areas Ceausescu has proved himself an adept.

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