"Mateism", growing during the late stages of the interwar period, took the aspect of an underground cultural phenomenon during the communist regime. Tașcu Gheorghiu, a Surrealist author whose Bohemian lifestyle was itself described as a reflection of "Craii...", had memorized large sections of the novel and could recite them by heart. According to Eugen Simion, dramatist Aurel Baranga is reputed to have done the same. During communism, Gheorghiu published a translation from Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's "The Leopard", which literary critic Carmen Mușat believes was marked by the tone of "mateism". Caragiale's aesthetics contrasted with those of the 1950s Socialist Realist establishment. However, after the death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin signaled a relative change in cultural tenets, Communist Party affiliate and writer Petru Dumitriu wrote in favor of recovering supposed "realistic sections" of works by both Mateiu Caragiale and Tudor Arghezi. Eugen Simion writes that, late in the same decade, students at the University of Bucharest were investing their time trying to determine the exact location of houses described in "Craii...". Also according to Eugen Simion, an attempt by poet Anatol E. Baconsky to republish the volume was met with a stiff reaction from the censorship apparatus, and, as a consequence of this episode, the main Communist Party organ, "Scînteia", renewed its campaign against Caragiale. Matei Călinescu recalled that, "during the dark 1950–60 decade", he clandestinely read "Craii..." and shared his thoughts on it with a group of friends, noting that this was part of a "secret life" which contrasted with the rigors one had to obey in public.