was "filthy calumny", with Gheorghiu-Dej adding: mă piș pe ea! ("I'll piss on it!"). Popescu-Puțuri played up his comrade's suspicions, that the PCR had "fallen into enemy hands", by recounting how Foriș had been allowed to walk out of jail during the Balog round-up of 1939. Gheorghiu-Dej was told by his sources, including Popescu-Puțuri, that the Central Committee was preparing a letter to have him removed from his offices; in his view, therefore, he acted defensively. He had by then vetoed both Rangheț's option, which was to calmly talk Foriș into accepting a new leadership, and the radical plan to have Foriș physically liquidated. Câmpeanu writes that the scheme was also facilitated by other factors: one is that Foriș, a Comintern appointee, had lost his legitimacy once the Comintern had been dissolved; another was the Soviet push into north-eastern Romania, which would have legitimized whoever was general secretary at the moment of Soviet victory—"a general secretary arrested by his own party had little chance of inspiring confidence to the future occupiers." During communications between Gheorghiu-Dej and Bodnăraș, it was agreed in favor of toppling the entire PCR leadership. Two major factors contributed to Bodnăraș's high profile in the affair. One was his disseminating of rumors about having secured Soviet approval, resulting in his being viewed as representing the Soviet MGB; another was circumstantial: the Antonescu regime had allowed Bodnăraș to go free upon the completion of an earlier sentence. While intended as a ruse to document his contacts for the Siguranța, this move also allowed him direct access to Foriș. Capture Bodnăraș himself acknowledged that, despite the animosities, such access was rendered easy by Foriș's own sedentary nature: "Marius [...] would have me around for days on end. His way was to keep you up at night, to have you sleep with him in the same room; he would make the coffee, he would chain smoke and would just jabber on". Gheorghiu-Dej and his associates were rushed into taking the decision by another letter from Foriș. Seemingly congenial, it detailed a plan for a mass prison escape that was fundamentally impractical, and would have exposed those attempting it to the direst of consequences. This persuaded the group that they were engaged in an existential battle with Foriș. Having already sketched out his secret plan, Bodnăraș submitted to Foriș and Petrea one final time on 29 March 1944, when he appeared