Historian Vladimir Tismăneanu indicated that he was one of the few genuine left-wing intellectuals associated with the regime during the 1950s—alongside Anatol E. Baconsky, Ovid Crohmălniceanu, Geo Dumitrescu, Petru Dumitriu, Paul Georgescu, Gheorghe Haupt, Eugen Jebeleanu, Mihail Petroveanu, and Nicolae Tertulian. According to Tismăneanu, this group was able to interpret the cultural policies endorsed by Romania's leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 threatened to disrupt communism in neighboring countries, when the regime turned against advocates of liberalization such as Miron Constantinescu, Mihail Davidoglu, Alexandru Jar, and Ion Vitner. Commenting on this, Vladimir Tismăneanu noted that Geo Bogza and all others failed to distance himself from the new repressive mood, and that the group's silence indirectly helped chief ideologist Leonte Răutu and his subordinate Mihai Beniuc to restore effective control over the Romanian Writers' Union.