In the 1970s, Bogza and several of his Writers' Union colleagues became involved in a bitter conflict with the nationalist "Săptămâna" magazine, which was led by novelist Eugen Barbu (who was also one of the persons overseeing censorship in Communist Romania). In 1979, "România Literară" published evidence that, in his writings, Barbu had plagiarized works of Russian literature. Rumors spread that Geo Bogza had orchestrated the scandal, after he had been confronted with an initiative to transform the Union into a "Union of Communist Writers". The latter initiative was recorded by the Securitate, who, in a report of 1978, attributed it to Barbu and poet Adrian Păunescu. According to various speculations made ever since, Bogza contacted one of Barbu's former protegés, who admitted that he had earlier copied texts by various authors to be selectively included in Eugen Barbu's novels.