The Department of State Security ( Romanian : Departamentul Securității Statului ), commonly known as the Securitate ( pronounced [sekuriˈtate] , lit. ' Security ' ), was the secret police agency of the Socialist Republic of Romania . It was founded on 30 August 1948 from the Siguranța with help and direction from the Soviet MGB .
127-599: The Securitate was, in proportion to Romania's population, one of the largest secret police forces in the Eastern bloc . The first budget of the Securitate in 1948 stipulated a number of 4,641 positions, of which 3,549 were filled by February 1949: 64% were workers, 4% peasants , 28% clerks, 2% persons of unspecified origin, and 2% intellectuals . By 1951, the Securitate's staff had increased fivefold, while in January 1956,
254-531: A " sovietization " of Central Europe. In addition to reparations, Stalin pushed for "war booty", which would permit the Soviet Union to directly seize property from conquered nations without quantitative or qualitative limitation. A clause was added permitting this to occur with some limitations. At first, the Soviets concealed their role in other Eastern Bloc politics, with the transformation appearing as
381-688: A "loophole" through which Eastern Bloc citizens could still move west. The 3.5 million East Germans that had left by 1961, called Republikflucht , totaled approximately 20% of the entire East German population. In August 1961, East Germany erected a barbed-wire barrier that would eventually be expanded through construction into the Berlin Wall , effectively closing the loophole. With virtually non-existent conventional emigration, more than 75% of those emigrating from Eastern Bloc countries between 1950 and 1990 did so under bilateral agreements for "ethnic migration". About 10% were refugee migrants under
508-628: A Poliției de Siguranță in Romanian) members. However, before long, Pantiușa ordered anyone who had served the monarchy's police in any capacity arrested, and in the places of the Royal Security Policemen, he hired ardent members of the Romanian Communist Party (PCR), to ensure total loyalty within the organization. Several Securitate operatives were killed in action, especially in the early 1950s. As listed by
635-1188: A Romanian official was commissioned by the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities in 1985 to write a report on human rights in Romania . He was due to present it in Geneva in June 1987, but he was prevented by the Romanian state. The official explanation was that he had a heart attack, but Mazilu eventually sent in 1988 a letter to the Chairman of the UN subcommission in which he talked about repressive measures taken against him after he refused to give up working on this project, including surveillance and intimidation. On March 10, 1989, six senior members ( Silviu Brucan , Gheorghe Apostol , Alexandru Bârlădeanu , Grigore Răceanu , Corneliu Mănescu and Constantin Pîrvulescu ) of
762-610: A broader democratic basis in Poland. He stated that the new government's primary task would be to prepare elections. However, the 1946 Polish people's referendum (known as the "Three Times Yes" referendum) and the subsequent 1947 Polish parliamentary election did not meet democratic standards and were largely manipulated. The parties at Yalta further agreed that the countries of liberated Europe and former Axis satellites would be allowed to "create democratic institutions of their own choice", pursuant to "the right of all peoples to choose
889-481: A commission led by Ilie Verdeț to go to Lupeni and discuss with the miners, but they were apprehended by the miners, who demanded Ceaușescu to come. Ceaușescu came to Lupeni on the same day and in front of the angry crowd, he agreed to have a six-hour day throughout the Jiu Valley, to build factories that would provide employment for the miners' wives and daughters and to that no punishment would be given against
1016-577: A death sentence and execution. A number of other high ranking Bulgarian officials were also jailed. Stalin and Hungarian leader Mátyás Rákosi met in Moscow to orchestrate a show trial of Rákosi opponent László Rajk , who was thereafter executed. The preservation of the Soviet bloc relied on maintaining a sense of ideological unity that would entrench Moscow's influence in Eastern Europe as well as
1143-812: A declaration to some foreign journalists, in which he warned Ceaușescu that "a period of crisis has opened up in relations between the Romanian Communist Party and the working class" and he warned that this may lead to an isolation from both the West and the East. Brucan was reprimanded by the Party and put under house arrest , but he was released following a visit of the American United States Deputy Secretary of State John C. Whitehead to Bucharest. Dumitru Mazilu ,
1270-419: A distance. In addition to emigration restrictions, civil society, defined as a domain of political action outside the party's state control, was not allowed to firmly take root, with the possible exception of Poland in the 1980s . While the institutional design of the communist systems were based on the rejection of rule of law, the legal infrastructure was not immune to change reflecting decaying ideology and
1397-482: A large-scale party programs to train personnel who would meet political requirements. Former members of the middle-class were officially discriminated against, though the state's need for their skills and certain opportunities to re-invent themselves as good Communist citizens did allow many to nonetheless achieve success. Communist regimes in the Eastern Bloc viewed marginal groups of opposition intellectuals as
SECTION 10
#17327722927851524-710: A late September 1947 meeting of all communist parties in Szklarska Poręba , Eastern Bloc communist parties were blamed for permitting even minor influence by non-communists in their respective countries during the run up to the Marshall Plan. In the former German capital Berlin, surrounded by Soviet-occupied Germany, Stalin instituted the Berlin Blockade on 24 June 1948, preventing food, materials and supplies from arriving in West Berlin . The blockade
1651-660: A member of the Comecon or the Warsaw Pact. Parting with the USSR in 1948, Yugoslavia did not belong to the East, but it also did not belong to the West because of its socialist system and its status as a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement . However, some sources consider Yugoslavia to be a member of the Eastern Bloc. Others consider Yugoslavia not to be a member after it broke with Soviet policy in
1778-561: A modification of Western " bourgeois democracy ". As a young communist was told in East Germany, "it's got to look democratic, but we must have everything in our control". Stalin felt that socioeconomic transformation was indispensable to establish Soviet control, reflecting the Marxist–Leninist view that material bases, the distribution of the means of production, shaped social and political relations. The Soviet Union also co-opted
1905-586: A number of work conflicts, such as the Jiu Valley miners' strike of 1977 and the Braşov Rebellion of 1987. Dissent from within the Romanian Communist Party came for the first time from Constantin Pîrvulescu , a veteran party member who, in 1979, during the 12th Party Congress , accused Ceaușescu of putting personal interests in front of those of the party. Pîrvulescu was excluded from the party, but, in 1989, together with other five party veterans signed
2032-458: A poison which would cause cardiac arrest. Nevertheless, Haiducu refused the order by defecting to the French authorities. Only a few months after Goma's lettes, the first major strike occurred on a Romanian company. The immediate cause of the strike was the new July 1977 legislation which ended disability pensions for miners and increased the retirement age for miners from 50 to 53. Ceaușescu made
2159-419: A potential threat because of the bases underlying Communist power therein. The suppression of dissidence and opposition was considered a central prerequisite to retain power, though the enormous expense at which the population in certain countries were kept under secret surveillance may not have been rational. Following a totalitarian initial phase, a post-totalitarian period followed the death of Stalin in which
2286-408: A public relations campaign against the western policy change and communists attempted to disrupt the elections of 1948 preceding large losses therein, while 300,000 Berliners demonstrated and urged the international airlift to continue. In May 1949, Stalin lifted the blockade, permitting the resumption of Western shipments to Berlin. After disagreements between Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito and
2413-521: A thousand employees of the Nicolina rolling stocks factory in Iași protested pay cuts; 150 of the strikers were fired from the factory. On November 15, 1987, a group of several thousand workers from Steagul Roșu plant assembled in order to go and vote in the local elections. Instead they marched toward the city centre (where the local headquarters of the Party was located), singing " Deșteaptă-te, române! ",
2540-510: A unified Soviet command structure. Beginning in 1964, Romania took a more independent course. While it did not repudiate either Comecon or the Warsaw Pact, it ceased to play a significant role in either. Nicolae Ceaușescu 's assumption of leadership one year later pushed Romania even further in the direction of separateness. Albania, which had become increasingly isolated under Stalinist leader Enver Hoxha following de-Stalinization , undergoing an Albanian–Soviet split in 1961, withdrew from
2667-620: A variety of restrictions preventing foreigners from residing with ordinary citizens, keeping them from gaining access to foreign embassy compounds and requesting asylum, and requiring them to report any contact with foreigners to the Securitate within twenty-four hours. Directorate IV was responsible for similar counterespionage functions within the armed forces, and its primary mission was identifying and neutralizing Soviet penetrations. The Directorate for Foreign Intelligence conducted Romania's espionage operations in other countries, such as those of Western Europe. Among those operations sanctioned by
SECTION 20
#17327722927852794-564: A world of democracy and peace". While meeting with Stalin and Roosevelt in Tehran in 1943, Churchill stated that Britain was vitally interested in restoring Poland as a politically independent country. Britain did not press the matter for fear that it would become a source of inter-allied friction. In February 1945, at the conference at Yalta , Stalin demanded a Soviet sphere of political influence in Central Europe. Stalin eventually
2921-543: Is replaced by a socialist encirclement". In 1939, the USSR entered into the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany that contained a secret protocol that divided Romania, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Finland into German and Soviet spheres of influence. Eastern Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Bessarabia in northern Romania were recognized as parts of the Soviet sphere of influence . Lithuania
3048-519: The Comecon ( East Germany , Poland , Czechoslovakia , Hungary , Romania , Bulgaria , and Albania ). In Asia , the Eastern Bloc comprised Mongolia , Vietnam , Laos , Kampuchea , North Korea , South Yemen , Syria , and China . In the Americas , the countries aligned with the Soviet Union included Cuba from 1961 and for limited periods Nicaragua and Grenada . The term Eastern Bloc
3175-538: The Comecon in accordance with Stalin's desire to enforce Soviet domination of the lesser states of Central Europe and to mollify some states that had expressed interest in the Marshall Plan , and which were now, increasingly, cut off from their traditional markets and suppliers in Western Europe. The Comecon's role became ambiguous because Stalin preferred more direct links with other party chiefs than
3302-792: The Communist Bloc ( Combloc ), the Socialist Bloc , and the Soviet Bloc , was the collective term for an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe , Asia , Africa , and Latin America that were aligned with the Soviet Union and existed during the Cold War (1947–1991). These states followed the ideology of Marxism–Leninism , in opposition to the capitalist Western Bloc . The Eastern Bloc
3429-730: The East German Stasi was even more ubiquitous than the Securitate; counting informers, the Stasi had one spy for every 6.5 East Germans. During the period 1980–1989, the Securitate recruited over 200,000 informants, the largest number in its history, and about a third of the estimated number of 650,000 collaborators dating back to 1948; in 1989 alone, more than 25,000 recruitments were carried out. According to CNSAS [ ro ] data, of those 200,000 new recruits, 158,000 were men. About 30,200 had higher education and more than 4,300 were students. Most collaborators came from
3556-513: The Letter of the Six , an open letter which was a left-wing critique of Ceaușescu. The Romanian Revolution of December 1989 began as an act of dissent, as people began supporting Hungarian pastor László Tőkés , who was about to be evicted for dissent. Starting with the mid-1960s, a counterculture developed in Romania among the Romanian youth and students. While this culture shared the aesthetics of
3683-668: The National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives (abbreviated CNSAS , for Consiliul Național pentru Studierea Arhivelor Securității ) "is the authority that administrates the archives of the former communist secret services in Romania and develops educational programs and exhibitions with the aim of preserving the memories of victims of the communist regime." The General Directorate for Technical Operations (Direcția Generală de Tehnică Operativă — DGTO)
3810-610: The Ogaden War in 1977. Although not Marxist–Leninist , leadership of Ba'athist Syria officially regarded the country as part of the Socialist Bloc and established a close economic, military alliance with the Soviet Union. Many states were accused by the Western Bloc of being in the Eastern Bloc when they were part of the Non-Aligned Movement . The most limited definition of the Eastern Bloc would only include
3937-667: The Romanian Police . Directorate V were bodyguards for important governmental officials. Colonel Dumitru Burlan was the chief of bodyguards of President Nicolae Ceaușescu , and served once as his stand-in (double), but was not able to protect Ceaușescu from arrest and execution during the Romanian Revolution of 1989. In the 1980s under the rule of the Romanian Communist Dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu , Romania's secret police
Securitate - Misplaced Pages Continue
4064-632: The Romanian Revolution of 1989, the Directorate for Security Troops was disbanded and replaced first by the Guard and Order Troops ( Trupele de Pază și Ordine ), and in July 1990 by the Gendarmerie . The Directorate for Militia controlled Romania's Miliția , the standard police force, which carried out regular policing tasks such as traffic control, public order, etc. In 1990 it was replaced by
4191-646: The Soviets occupied the territories . In June 1941, Germany broke the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact by invading the Soviet Union . From the time of this invasion to 1944, the areas annexed by the Soviet Union were part of Germany's Ostland (except for the Moldavian SSR ). Thereafter, the Soviet Union began to push German forces westward through a series of battles on the Eastern Front . In
4318-681: The Warsaw Pact was formed partly in response to NATO 's inclusion of West Germany and partly because the Soviets needed an excuse to retain Red Army units in Hungary. For 35 years, the Pact perpetuated the Stalinist concept of Soviet national security based on imperial expansion and control over satellite regimes in Eastern Europe. This Soviet formalization of their security relationships in
4445-560: The coup d'état of 23 August . Its stated purpose was to "defend democratic conquests and guarantee the safety of the Romanian People's Republic against both internal and external enemies." The Securitate was created with the help of SMERSH , the NKVD counter-intelligence unit. The SMERSH operation in Romania, called Brigada Mobilă ("The Mobile Brigade"), was led until 1948 by NKVD colonel Alexandru Nicolschi . The first Director of
4572-648: The 'Securitate' received six-figure payments from Ikea . According to declassified files at the National College for Studying the Securitate Archives , Ikea agreed to overcharge for products made in Romania and some of the overpayment funds were deposited into an account controlled by the Securitate. [REDACTED] This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain . Country Studies . Federal Research Division . Eastern bloc The Eastern Bloc , also known as
4699-851: The 1948 Tito–Stalin split . In 1922, the Russian SFSR , the Ukrainian SSR , the Byelorussian SSR and the Transcaucasian SFSR approved the Treaty of Creation of the USSR and the Declaration of the Creation of the USSR, forming the Soviet Union . Soviet leader Joseph Stalin , who viewed the Soviet Union as a "socialist island", stated that the Soviet Union must see that "the present capitalist encirclement
4826-483: The Bloc were instructed to foster intra-leadership conflict and to transmit information against each other. This accompanied a continuous stream of accusations of "nationalistic deviations", "insufficient appreciation of the USSR's role", links with Tito and "espionage for Yugoslavia". This resulted in the persecution of many major party cadres, including those in East Germany. The first country to experience this approach
4953-434: The Comecon's indirect sophistication; it played no significant role in the 1950s in economic planning. Initially, the Comecon served as cover for the Soviet taking of materials and equipment from the rest of the Eastern Bloc, but the balance changed when the Soviets became net subsidizers of the rest of the Bloc by the 1970s via an exchange of low cost raw materials in return for shoddily manufactured finished goods. In 1955,
5080-595: The Communist government were industrial espionage to obtain nuclear technology, and plots to assassinate dissidents, such as Matei Pavel Haiducu was tasked with, though he informed French authorities, faking the assassinations before defecting to France. The Directorate for Penitentiaries operated Romania's prisons, which were notorious for their horrendous conditions. Prisoners were routinely beaten, denied medical attention, had their mail taken away from them, and sometimes even administered lethal doses of poison. Some of
5207-410: The Directorate for Security Troops as there were in the regular army . They adhered to stricter discipline than in the regular military, but were rewarded with special treatment and enjoyed far superior living conditions compared to their countrymen. They guarded television and radio stations, as well as PCR buildings. In the event of a coup , they would have been called in to protect the regime. After
Securitate - Misplaced Pages Continue
5334-500: The Eastern Bloc reflected Moscow's basic security policy principle that continued presence in East Central Europe was a foundation of its defense against the West. Through its institutional structures, the Pact also compensated in part for the absence of Joseph Stalin's personal leadership since his death in 1953. The Pact consolidated the other Bloc members' armies in which Soviet officers and security agents served under
5461-408: The Eastern Bloc, despite attempts by authorities to jam the airways. Under the state atheism of many Eastern Bloc nations, religion was actively suppressed. Since some of these states tied their ethnic heritage to their national churches, both the peoples and their churches were targeted by the Soviets. In 1949, the Soviet Union , Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia , Hungary, Poland, and Romania founded
5588-863: The Eastern European countries into its sphere of influence by making reference to some cultural commonalities. Moscow-trained cadres were put into crucial power positions to fulfill orders regarding sociopolitical transformation. Elimination of the bourgeoisie 's social and financial power by expropriation of landed and industrial property was accorded absolute priority. These measures were publicly billed as "reforms" rather than socioeconomic transformations. Except for initially in Czechoslovakia, activities by political parties had to adhere to "Bloc politics", with parties eventually having to accept membership in an "antifascist bloc" obliging them to act only by mutual "consensus". The bloc system permitted
5715-792: The Geneva Convention of 1951. Most Soviets allowed to leave during this time period were ethnic Jews permitted to emigrate to Israel after a series of embarrassing defections in 1970 caused the Soviets to open very limited ethnic emigrations. The fall of the Iron Curtain was accompanied by a massive rise in European East-West migration. Famous Eastern Bloc defectors included Joseph Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva , who denounced Stalin after her 1967 defection. Dissent in Romania under Nicolae Ceau%C8%99escu Dissent in Romania under Nicolae Ceaușescu describes
5842-444: The Jackal to assassinate Pacepa. Forced entry into homes and offices and the planting of microphones was another tactic the Securitate used to extract information from the general population. Telephone conversations were routinely monitored , and all internal and international fax and telex communications were intercepted. In August 1977, when the Jiu Valley coal miners' unions went on strike , several leaders died prematurely, and it
5969-446: The Party headquarters through the back entrance while the crowd tore down the headquarters' sign, smashed the windows, forced their way inside by breaking the wooden gates and destroyed the content, throwing posters, files, equipment onto the street. These were set alight and a similar ransacking occurred on the People's Council building on the opposite side of the road. Soon, police and military vehicles carrying armed soldiers came, as
6096-480: The Party occurred during the 12th Party Congress, when Constantin Pîrvulescu , an old-time party member, took the floor and argued against the re-election of Ceaușescu, arguing that he puts the personal glorification in front of the interest of the Party and the country. As a result, he was stripped of his delegate to the congress and placed under house arrest. Following the Braşov Rebellion, on November 26, 1987, former deputy director of Scînteia Silviu Brucan handed
6223-468: The Polish rejection of the Plan with a huge 5-year trade agreement, including $ 450 million in credit, 200,000 tons of grain, heavy machinery and factories. In July 1947, Stalin ordered these countries to pull out of the Paris Conference on the European Recovery Programme, which has been described as "the moment of truth" in the post- World War II division of Europe. Thereafter, Stalin sought stronger control over other Eastern Bloc countries, abandoning
6350-410: The Romanian Communist Party signed a letter (the Letter of the Six ) made public to BBC . Since they sent the letter directly abroad rather than discussing it in the Party, it shows that the Party was completely under the rule of Ceaușescu and that no party mechanism allowed discussion of party policy. Unlike Doina Cornea, they did not argue for a democratic pluralism , but only a pluralism within
6477-405: The Securitate had 25,468 employees. At its height, the Securitate employed some 11,000 agents and had half a million informers for a country with a population of 22 million by 1985. The Securitate under Nicolae Ceaușescu was one of the most brutal secret police forces in the world, responsible for the arrests, torture , and deaths of thousands of people. Following the Romanian Revolution in 1989,
SECTION 50
#17327722927856604-460: The Securitate was NKVD general Gheorghe Pintilie (born Panteleymon Bondarenko , nicknamed "Pantiușa"). Alexandru Nicolschi (by then a general) and another Soviet officer, Major General Vladimir Mazuru , held the deputy directorships. Wilhelm Einhorn was the first Securitate secretary. As Vladimir Tismăneanu says, "If one does not grasp the role of political thugs such as the Soviet spies Pintilie Bondarenko (Pantiușa) and Alexandru Nikolski in
6731-454: The Soviet Union regarding Greece and Albania , a Tito–Stalin split occurred, followed by Yugoslavia being expelled from the Cominform in June 1948 and a brief failed Soviet putsch in Belgrade. The split created two separate communist forces in Europe. A vehement campaign against Titoism was immediately started in the Eastern Bloc, describing agents of both the West and Tito in all places as engaging in subversive activity. Stalin ordered
6858-478: The Soviet Union to exercise domestic control indirectly. Crucial departments such as those responsible for personnel, general police, secret police and youth were strictly Communist run. Moscow cadres distinguished "progressive forces" from "reactionary elements" and rendered both powerless. Such procedures were repeated until Communists had gained unlimited power and only politicians who were unconditionally supportive of Soviet policy remained. In June 1947, after
6985-448: The Soviets had refused to negotiate a potential lightening of restrictions on German development, the United States announced the Marshall Plan , a comprehensive program of American assistance to all European countries wanting to participate, including the Soviet Union and those of Eastern Europe. The Soviets rejected the Plan and took a hard-line position against the United States and non-communist European nations. However, Czechoslovakia
7112-504: The Warsaw Pact in 1968 following the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia . In 1917, Russia restricted emigration by instituting passport controls and forbidding the exit of belligerent nationals. In 1922, after the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR , both the Ukrainian SSR and the Russian SFSR issued general rules for travel that foreclosed virtually all departures, making legal emigration impossible. Border controls thereafter strengthened such that, by 1928, even illegal departure
7239-437: The Warsaw Pact states and the Mongolian People's Republic as former satellite states most dominated by the Soviet Union. Cuba 's defiance of complete Soviet control was noteworthy enough that Cuba was sometimes excluded as a satellite state altogether, as it sometimes intervened in other Third World countries even when the Soviet Union opposed this. Post-1991 usage of the term "Eastern Bloc" may be more limited in referring to
7366-407: The West and Tito. Despite the initial institutional design of communism implemented by Joseph Stalin in the Eastern Bloc, subsequent development varied across countries. In satellite states, after peace treaties were initially concluded, opposition was essentially liquidated, fundamental steps towards socialism were enforced, and Kremlin leaders sought to strengthen control therein. Right from
7493-399: The Western Counterculture of the 1960s (for instance hippie fashion or rock and roll ) and its anti-authoritarianism , from an ideological point of view, it wasn't integrated in the worldwide countercultural movement. The counterculture used nationalist rhetoric and unlike its Western or Yugoslav counterpart, where it embraced the " New Left " and opposed the Vietnam War , in Romania, it
7620-417: The abuses of the early era of Socialist Romania and demanded more freedom of thought and expression, as well as a better standard of living. The counterculture did support some goals with the government, such as reform and the independence from the Soviet Union . The end of the culture of protest within the counterculture came in December 1968 when a group of a few hundred student protesters were beaten by
7747-425: The aftermath of World War II on the Soviet-Finnish border , the parties signed another peace treaty ceding to the Soviet Union in 1944, followed by a Soviet annexation of roughly the same eastern Finnish territories as those of the prior interim peace treaty as part of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic . From 1943 to 1945, several conferences regarding Post-War Europe occurred that, in part, addressed
SECTION 60
#17327722927857874-455: The beginning, Stalin directed systems that rejected Western institutional characteristics of market economies , capitalist parliamentary democracy (dubbed "bourgeois democracy" in Soviet parlance) and the rule of law subduing discretional intervention by the state. The resulting states aspired to total control of a political center backed by an extensive and active repressive apparatus, and a central role of Marxist–Leninist ideology. However,
8001-413: The conversion of the Cominform into an instrument to monitor and control the internal affairs of other Eastern Bloc parties. He also briefly considered converting the Cominform into an instrument for sentencing high-ranking deviators, but dropped the idea as impractical. Instead, a move to weaken communist party leaders through conflict was started. Soviet cadres in communist party and state positions in
8128-410: The core of the system, with their names becoming synonymous with raw power and the threat of violent retribution should an individual become active against the State. Several state police and secret police organizations enforced communist party rule, including the following: The press in the communist period was an organ of the state, completely reliant on and subservient to the communist party. Before
8255-413: The counterculture, it greatly diminished its scale. Critics of the regime were routinely harassed by the police, expelled from the party or fired their workplace and they often fled abroad. Some artists and intellectuals, such as Cornel Chiriac , fled to Western Europe , while others, such as Adrian Păunescu (who was attacked in 1972 for his subversive activities and complaints about censorship ) joined
8382-594: The country's population who had accepted total obedience. Those who secured membership in this selective group received considerable rewards, such as access to special lower priced shops with a greater selection of high-quality domestic and/or foreign goods ( confections , alcohol , cigars , cameras , televisions , and the like), special schools, holiday facilities, homes, high-quality domestic and/or foreign-made furniture, works of art, pensions, permission to travel abroad, and official cars with distinct license plates so that police and others could identify these members from
8509-563: The country's population with vicious rumors (such as supposed contacts with Western intelligence agencies), machinations, frameups, public denunciations, encouraging conflict between segments of the population, public humiliation of dissidents, toughened censorship and the repression of even the smallest gestures of independence by intellectuals. Often the term "intellectual" was used by the Securitate to describe dissidents who had higher education qualifications, such as college and university students, writers, directors, and scientists, who opposed
8636-406: The country. They got the support of Paul Goma and Gheorghe Calciu , a dissident orthodox priest. Its manifesto called for the legalization of independent trade unions and the right to free association . As some of its members, including Cană and economist Gheorghe Broșoveanu were arrested, the union protested against the repression through an open letter . The next chairman of the trade union
8763-437: The education area, approximately 8,500, and in second place were members of the clergy, almost 4,200. More than 3,600 doctors and nurses were informants, and 800 came from the legal professions. In the arts sector, over 1,000 recruits included 110 actors, 50 directors, 120 artists, 410 instrumentalists, 210 painters, and 55 sculptors. Less than 5% of the number of new informants (about 8,500) came from rural areas. After Ceaușescu
8890-436: The end of the Cold War: the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (from 1967), the People's Republic of the Congo (from 1969), the People's Republic of Benin , the People's Republic of Angola and People's Republic of Mozambique from 1975, the People's Revolutionary Government of Grenada from 1979 to 1983, the Derg / People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia from 1974, and the Somali Democratic Republic from 1969 until
9017-546: The entire division was reorganized and was charged with rooting out dissent in the PCR. A top secret division of this Directorate was formed from forces loyal personally to Ceaușescu and charged with monitoring the Securitate itself. It acted almost as a Securitate for the Securitate, and was responsible for bugging the phones of other Securitate officers and PCR officials to ensure total loyalty. The National Commission for Visas and Passports controlled all travel and immigration in and out of Romania. In effect, traveling abroad
9144-401: The exercise of terror in Romania during the most horrible Stalinist period, and their personal connections with Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej and members of his entourage, it is difficult to understand the origins and the role of the Securitate". Initially, many of the agents of the Securitate were former Royal Security Police (named General Directorate of Safety Police — Direcția Generală
9271-495: The form of government under which they will live". The parties also agreed to help those countries form interim governments "pledged to the earliest possible establishment through free elections" and "facilitate where necessary the holding of such elections". At the beginning of the July–August 1945 Potsdam Conference after Germany's unconditional surrender, Stalin repeated previous promises to Churchill that he would refrain from
9398-503: The former believing Soviet leader Stalin to be a "devil"-like tyrant leading a vile system. When warned of potential domination by a Stalin dictatorship over part of Europe, Roosevelt responded with a statement summarizing his rationale for relations with Stalin: "I just have a hunch that Stalin is not that kind of a man. ... I think that if I give him everything I possibly can and ask for nothing from him in return, noblesse oblige, he won't try to annex anything and will work with me for
9525-579: The future structure of the "Polish region". Soviet authorities immediately started a campaign of sovietization of the newly Soviet-annexed areas . Soviet authorities collectivized agriculture, and nationalized and redistributed private and state-owned Polish property. Initial Soviet occupations of the Baltic countries had occurred in mid-June 1940, when Soviet NKVD troops raided border posts in Lithuania , Estonia and Latvia , followed by
9652-520: The harshest prisons were those at Aiud , Gherla , Pitești , Râmnicu Sarat , and Sighet , as well as the forced labor camps along the Danube–Black Sea Canal and at Periprava . From 1948 to 1955, the penitentiaries operated by this Directorate were grouped into 4 categories: Gradually, a large number of penal colonies and labor camps were established as a form of political detention for administrative detainees and became an integral part of
9779-921: The internal news bulletin on the occasion of Securitate's twentieth anniversary, in 1968, these included major Constantin Vieru, senior lieutenant Ștefan Vămanu, lieutenant Iosif Sipoș, sub-lieutenant Vasile Costan, platoon leader Constantin Apăvăloaie and corporal Alexandru Belate. Furthermore, lieutenant Ionel Jora was killed by the son of a suspect he had apprehended. The Securitate surveillance took place in different ways: general intelligence surveillance ( supraveghere informativă generală , abbreviated "S.I.G."); priority intelligence surveillance ( supraveghere informativă prioritară , abbreviated "S.I.P."); clearance file ( mapă de verificare , abbreviated "M.V."); individual surveillance dossier ( dosar de urmărire individuală , abbreviated "D.U.I."); target dossier ( dosar de obiectiv ),
9906-419: The late 1980s, Eastern Bloc radio and television organizations were state-owned, while print media was usually owned by political organizations, mostly by the local communist party. Youth newspapers and magazines were owned by youth organizations affiliated with communist parties. The control of the media was exercised directly by the communist party itself, and by state censorship, which was also controlled by
10033-506: The letter because they are afraid of the Securitate and that the only two Romanians not afraid of the Securitate are him and Ceaușescu. Despite the intimidations of the Securitate, Goma's letter got over 200 signatures (including the support of psychiatrist Ion Vianu and literary critic Ion Negoiţescu ), but it was denounced by Ceaușescu, who attacked "the traitors of the country". As he wrote an even harsher letter to Ceaușescu, Goma
10160-581: The liquidation of state administrations and replacement by Soviet cadres. Elections for parliament and other offices were held with single candidates listed and the official results fabricated, purporting pro-Soviet candidates' approval by 92.8 percent of the voters in Estonia, 97.6 percent in Latvia, and 99.2 percent in Lithuania. The fraudulently installed "people's assemblies" immediately declared each of
10287-404: The miners who organized the strike. After this, the crowds dispersed and the miners continued working. The promises were not kept, as in the following months, the Securitate began its investigations and repression, with 4000 miners being sent to other mining areas and others imprisoned. Neither were the concessions regarding the six-hour day and the retirement age were kept, the only promise kept
10414-701: The new authorities assigned the various intelligence tasks of the Securitate to new institutions. The General Directorate for the Security of the People (Romanian initials: DGSP, but more commonly just called the Securitate) was officially founded on 30 August 1948, by Decree 221/30 of the Presidium of the Great National Assembly . However, it had precursors going back to August 1944, following
10541-647: The parties entered into an interim peace treaty granting the Soviet Union a portion of the eastern region of Karelia (10% of Finnish territory), and the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic was established by merging the ceded territories with the KASSR . After a June 1940 Soviet Ultimatum demanding Bessarabia, Bukovina , and the Hertsa region from Romania, the Soviets entered these areas, Romania caved to Soviet demands and
10668-525: The party. Media served as an important form of control over information and society. The dissemination and portrayal of knowledge were considered by authorities to be vital to communism's survival by stifling alternative concepts and critiques. Several state Communist Party newspapers were published, including: The Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) served as the central agency for collection and distribution of internal and international news for all Soviet newspapers, radio and television stations. It
10795-898: The penitentiary system. The most important ones were along the Danube–Black Sea Canal , the Brăila Pond , and the lead mines in northern Romania. Specific locations included: Arad, Baia Mare, Baia Sprie, Bârcea Mare, Bicaz, Borzești, Brad, Brâncovenești, CRM Bucharest, Buzău, Capu Midia, Castelu, Cavnic, Câmpulung, Cernavodă, Chilia Constanța, Chirnogi, Crâscior, Culmea, Deduleşti, Doicești, Domnești, Dorobanțu, Dudu, Fântânele, Fundulea, Galeșu, Giurgeni, Ghencea, Iași, Ițcani, Km. 31, Lucăcești, Mărculești, Mogoșoaia, Nistru, Onești, Onești Baraj, Peninsula/Valea Neagră, Periprava , Periș, Poarta Albă, Roșia Montană, Roșia Pipera, Roznov, Salcia, Grădina, Băndoiu, Strâmba, Stoeneşti, Piatra-Frecăței, Saligny, Sibiu, Simeria, Slatina, Spanțov, Tătaru, Târnăveni, Toporu, Vlădeni, Zlatna. The Directorate for Internal Security
10922-408: The people in the crowd tried to flee. Some were beaten up and arrested, while others were arrested from their home in the middle of the night. The following days, all the outstanding debts to the workers had been paid and food shops had been stocked. The state media kept silence about the protests for weeks and it only acknowledged the disturbances on December 2, when Radio Bucharest announced that
11049-447: The philosophy of the Romanian Communist Party. Assassinations were also used to silence dissent, such as the attempt to kill high-ranking defector Ion Mihai Pacepa , who received two death sentences from Romania in 1978, and on whose head Ceaușescu decreed a bounty of two million US dollars . Yasser Arafat and Muammar al-Gaddafi each added one more million dollars to the reward. In the 1980s, Securitate officials allegedly hired Carlos
11176-547: The police and their leaders were arrested. Ceaușescu warned against any art and political positions that were against the regime in 1969, while the following year, he explicitly banned such countercultural activities and in 1971, with the July Theses , a "mini- Cultural Revolution " began that demanded strict conformity. The Romanian Communist Party took over the film, theatre and literary communities and demanded them to adhere to socialist realism . While this did not end
11303-517: The potential Soviet annexation and control of countries in Central Europe. There were various Allied plans for state order in Central Europe for post-war. While Joseph Stalin tried to get as many states under Soviet control as possible, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill preferred a Central European Danube Confederation to counter these countries against Germany and Russia. Churchill's Soviet policy regarding Central Europe differed vastly from that of American President Franklin D. Roosevelt , with
11430-654: The power of the local Communist elites. The port city of Trieste was a particular focus after the Second World War. Until the break between Tito and Stalin, the Western powers and the Eastern bloc faced each other uncompromisingly. The neutral buffer state Free Territory of Trieste , founded in 1947 with the United Nations, was split up and dissolved in 1954 and 1975, also because of the détente between
11557-401: The primary method of Communist rule shifted from mass terror to selective repression, along with ideological and sociopolitical strategies of legitimation and the securing of loyalty. Juries were replaced by a tribunal of professional judges and two lay assessors that were dependable party actors. The police deterred and contained opposition to party directives. The political police served as
11684-525: The prior appearance of democratic institutions. When it appeared that, in spite of heavy pressure, non-communist parties might receive in excess of 40% of the vote in the August 1947 Hungarian elections , repressions were instituted to liquidate any independent political forces. In that same month, annihilation of the opposition in Bulgaria began on the basis of continuing instructions by Soviet cadres. At
11811-468: The regime's propaganda machine. Paul Goma , a Bessarabian -born writer, provided the earliest challenge to the Ceaușescu regime in the spring of 1977. Goma had challenged the previous communist governments of Romania: in 1956, he read at university a chapter of a novel describing a student movements similar to the one of Hungarian Revolution of 1956 . In 1968, the manuscript for his novel, Obstinato ,
11938-499: The same annual pool of conscripts that the armed services used. The police performed routine law enforcement functions including traffic control and issuance of internal identification cards to citizens. Organized in the late 1940s to defend the new regime, in 1989 the security troops had 20,000 soldiers. They were an elite, specially trained paramilitary force organized like motorized rifle (infantry) units equipped with small arms, artillery, and armored personnel carriers, but their mission
12065-593: The sharp 1953 increase was fear of potential further Sovietization with the increasingly paranoid actions of Joseph Stalin in late 1952 and early 1953. 226,000 had fled in just the first six months of 1953. With the closing of the Inner German border officially in 1952, the Berlin city sector borders remained considerably more accessible than the rest of the border because of their administration by all four occupying powers. Accordingly, it effectively comprised
12192-504: The song of the 1848 Revolution and chanting "Down with the dictatorship!". They were joined by Braşov tractor plant workers and Brașov locals. It was five days after the implementation of a decree on reducing the heating on private dwellings (part of the 1980s austerity policy in Romania ) and after a second month with wage cuts due to failure to meet production targets (which couldn't be done due to lack of commercial orders ), corroborated with food shortages. The apparatchiks fled from
12319-399: The states forming the Warsaw Pact (1955–1991) and Mongolia (1924–1991), which are no longer communist states. Sometimes they are more generally referred to as "the countries of Eastern Europe under communism", excluding Mongolia, but including Yugoslavia and Albania which had both split with the Soviet Union by the 1960s. Even though Yugoslavia was a socialist country, it was not
12446-791: The strike being quelled by the Securitate. Further strikes were started at the Heavy Machinery Plant and the Refrigeration Plant in Cluj-Napoca , as well as at the glass factory in Turda in November 1984 following the reduction of the bread ration and pay cuts for failure to fill the targets. Like in Jiu Valley, the Party promised to meet the demands of the workers and Securitate launched an investigation and moving some workers to other areas. On February 16, 1987, about
12573-413: The substitution of autonomous law. Initially, communist parties were small in all countries except Czechoslovakia, such that there existed an acute shortage of politically "trustworthy" persons for administration, police, and other professions. Thus, "politically unreliable" non-communists initially had to fill such roles. Those not obedient to communist authorities were ousted, while Moscow cadres started
12700-402: The target being, for example, an institute, a hospital, a school, or a company; case dossier ( dosar de problemă ), the targets being former political prisoners, former Iron Guard members, religious organizations, etc.; and element dossier ( dosar de mediu ), targeting writers, priests, etc. In the 1980s, the Securitate launched a massive campaign to stamp out dissent in Romania , manipulating
12827-499: The three corresponding countries to be "Soviet Socialist Republics" and requested their "admission into Stalin 's Soviet Union". This formally resulted in the Soviet Union's annexation of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia in August 1940. The international community condemned this annexation of the three Baltic countries and deemed it illegal. In 1939, the Soviet Union unsuccessfully attempted an invasion of Finland , subsequent to which
12954-442: The vestiges of democratic institutions were never entirely destroyed, resulting in the façade of Western style institutions such as parliaments, which effectively just rubber-stamped decisions made by rulers, and constitutions, to which adherence by authorities was limited or non-existent. Parliaments were still elected, but their meetings occurred only a few days per year, only to legitimize politburo decisions, and so little attention
13081-424: The voicing of disagreements with the government policies of Communist Romania during the totalitarian rule of Nicolae Ceaușescu after the July Theses in 1971. Because of Ceaușescu's extensive secret police (the Securitate ) and harsh punishments, open dissent was rare. Notable acts of dissent include Paul Goma 's 1977 letters to Ceaușescu, the founding of SLOMR (an independent workers' union) in 1979 and
13208-538: The workers' representatives decided to dismiss the management which had illegally reduced the wages of the workers. It also noted that the workers "who engaged in acts that are alien to our society" will be moved or be punished according to the law. The Securitate investigated the protests and, by December, it compiled a list of 425 workers who were held. The group trial led to 60 protesters to be jailed for " hooliganism ", being sentenced for jail terms of between one and four years. The earliest case of dissent from within
13335-477: Was Albania , where leader Enver Hoxha immediately changed course from favoring Yugoslavia to opposing it. In Poland , leader Władysław Gomułka , who had previously made pro-Yugoslav statements, was deposed as party secretary-general in early September 1948 and subsequently jailed. In Bulgaria , when it appeared that Traicho Kostov, who was not a Moscow cadre, was next in line for leadership, in June 1949, Stalin ordered Kostov's arrest, followed soon thereafter by
13462-410: Was skeptical of socialism , even if liberal socialism . Although they were aware of the movements in the west, they never shared their goals or had any interest in declaring solidarity with them. A dissident community flourished as Romania became more liberal and allowed more freedom of expression . Nonconformist literature, film, theatre, music, philosophy boomed as young intellectuals challenged
13589-488: Was about the creation of jobs for the miners' families. Throughout the Jiu Valley strikes, there was a total media blackout about the event. A group of 15 workers at the shipyards of Turnu Severin , helped by an MD, Ionel Cană , founded a free trade union, the founding declaration of which was broadcast on the Radio Free Europe on March 4, 1979. It soon attracted over 2400 signatures from workers throughout
13716-642: Was added in a second secret protocol in September 1939. The Soviet Union had invaded the portions of eastern Poland assigned to it by the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact two weeks after the German invasion of western Poland, followed by co-ordination with German forces in Poland. During the Occupation of East Poland by the Soviet Union , the Soviets liquidated the Polish state, and a German-Soviet meeting addressed
13843-569: Was all but impossible for anyone but highly placed Party officials, and any ordinary Romanian who applied for a passport was immediately placed under surveillance. Many Jews and ethnic Germans were given passports and exit visas through tacit agreements with the Israeli and West German governments. The Directorate for Security Troops acted as a 20,000-strong paramilitary force for the government, equipped with artillery and armoured personnel carriers . The security troops selected new recruits from
13970-709: Was an integral part of the Securitate' s activities. Established with the assistance of the KGB in the mid-1950s, the DGTO monitored all voice and electronic communications in the country. The DGTO intercepted all telephone, telegraph, and telex communications coming into and going out of the country. It secretly implanted microphones in public buildings and private residences to record ordinary conversations among citizens. The Directorate for Counterespionage conducted surveillance against foreigners—Soviet nationals in particular—to monitor or impede their contacts with Romanians. It enforced
14097-634: Was caused, in part, by early local elections of October 1946 in which the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) was rejected in favor of the Social Democratic Party, which had gained two and a half times more votes than the SED. The United States, Britain, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and several other countries began a massive "Berlin airlift", supplying West Berlin with food and other supplies. The Soviets mounted
14224-701: Was considerably different. The security troops were directly responsible through the Minister of the Interior to Ceaușescu. They guarded important installations including PCR county and central office buildings and radio and television stations. The Ceaușescu regime presumably could call the security troops into action as a private army to defend itself against a military coup d'état or other domestic challenges and to suppress antiregime riots, demonstrations, or strikes. To ensure total loyalty amongst these crack troops, there were five times as many political officers in
14351-421: Was convinced by Churchill and Roosevelt not to dismember Germany. Stalin stated that the Soviet Union would keep the territory of eastern Poland they had already taken via invasion in 1939 with some exceptions , and wanted a pro-Soviet Polish government in power in what would remain of Poland. After resistance by Churchill and Roosevelt, Stalin promised a re-organization of the current pro-Soviet government on
14478-510: Was denied publication and so was his next novel, Gherla , both of which were published in French and German translations. Becoming frustrated with the ban of his writings and inspired by the Czechoslovak Charter 77 , Goma wrote a letter of support to Pavel Kohout . Finding few friends willing to sign it, he invited Nicolae Ceaușescu to sign it. In a letter addressed to Ceaușescu, he told him that he can't find people to sign
14605-521: Was eager to accept the US aid; the Polish government had a similar attitude, and this was of great concern to the Soviets. In one of the clearest signs of Soviet control over the region up to that point, the Czechoslovakian foreign minister, Jan Masaryk , was summoned to Moscow and berated by Stalin for considering joining the Marshall Plan. Polish Prime minister Józef Cyrankiewicz was rewarded for
14732-523: Was effectively halted in the early 1950s, with the Soviet approach to controlling national movement emulated by most of the rest of the Eastern Bloc. However, in East Germany , taking advantage of the Inner German border between occupied zones, hundreds of thousands fled to West Germany, with figures totaling 197,000 in 1950, 165,000 in 1951, 182,000 in 1952 and 331,000 in 1953. One reason for
14859-444: Was effectively impossible. This later included internal passport controls , which when combined with individual city Propiska ("place of residence") permits, and internal freedom of movement restrictions often called the 101st kilometre , greatly restricted mobility within even small areas of the Soviet Union. After the creation of the Eastern Bloc, emigration out of the newly occupied countries, except under limited circumstances,
14986-586: Was excluded from the Writers' Union, arrested and attacked in a variety of magazines such as Săptămâna , Luceafărul and Contemporanul . After an international appeal, he was released and in November 1977 he went into exile in France. Goma continued to criticize the Ceaușescu regime from Paris and in 1982, the Romanian authorities ordered a Romanian secret agent, Matei Pavel Haiducu , to kill Goma, together with another dissident, Virgil Tănase by injecting
15113-532: Was frequently infiltrated by Soviet intelligence and security agencies, such as the NKVD and GRU . TASS had affiliates in 14 Soviet republics, including the Lithuanian SSR , Latvian SSR , Estonian SSR , Moldavian SSR . Ukrainian SSR and Byelorussian SSR . Western countries invested heavily in powerful transmitters which enabled services such as the BBC , VOA and Radio Free Europe (RFE) to be heard in
15240-400: Was later discovered that Securitate doctors had subjected them to five-minute chest X-rays in an attempt to have them develop cancer. After birth rates fell, Securitate agents were placed in gynecological wards while regular pregnancy tests were made mandatory for women of child-bearing age, with severe penalties for anyone who was found to have terminated a pregnancy. The Securitate's presence
15367-541: Was often called the " Second World ", whereas the term " First World " referred to the Western Bloc and " Third World " referred to the non-aligned countries that were mainly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America but notably also included former pre-1948 Soviet ally Yugoslavia , which was located in Europe. In Western Europe , the term Eastern Bloc generally referred to the USSR and Central and Eastern European countries in
15494-660: Was often used interchangeably with the term Second World . This broadest usage of the term would include not only Maoist China and Cambodia , but also short-lived Soviet satellites such as the Second East Turkestan Republic (1944–1949), the People's Republic of Azerbaijan (1945–1946) and the Republic of Mahabad (1946), as well as the Marxist–Leninist states straddling the Second and Third Worlds before
15621-515: Was originally given the task of monitoring the activities going on in the PCR. But after Ion Mihai Pacepa's defection in 1978 and his exposing details of the Ceaușescu regime, such as the collaboration with Arab radical groups, massive espionage on American industry targets and elaborate efforts to rally Western political support, international infiltration and espionage in the Securitate only increased, much to Ceaușescu's anger. In order to solve this problem
15748-616: Was ousted, the new authorities replaced the Securitate with a few special and secret services like the SRI ( Romanian Intelligence Service ) (with internal tasks such as counterespionage), the SIE ( Foreign Intelligence Service ), the SPP ( Protection and Guard Service ) (the former Directorate V), the STS ( Special Telecommunications Service ) (the former General Directorate for Technical Operations), etc. Today,
15875-460: Was paid to them that some of those serving were actually dead, and officials would openly state that they would seat members who had lost elections. The first or General Secretary of the central committee in each communist party was the most powerful figure in each regime. The party over which the politburo held sway was not a mass party but, conforming with Leninist tradition, a smaller selective party of between three and fourteen percent of
16002-414: Was sentenced to 18 months in prison for "passing state secrets to Amnesty International ". Ceaușescu introduced a series of very harsh austerity measures in order to cut the imports and repay the debts acquired from the Western banks. Food and energy were rationized and the real value of the wage was cut. In September 1983, miners from seven metal mines of Maramureș went on strike to protest pay cuts,
16129-574: Was so ubiquitous that it was believed one out of four Romanians was an informer. In truth, the Securitate deployed one agent or informer for every 43 Romanians, which was still a high enough proportion to make it practically impossible for dissidents to organize. The regime deliberately fostered this sense of ubiquity, believing that the fear of being watched was sufficient to bend the people to Ceaușescu's will. For example, one shadow group of dissidents limited itself to only three families; any more than that would have attracted Securitate attention. In truth,
#784215