Ceaușescu and the Securitate: Coercion and Dissent in Romania, 1965-1989

457 Pages·2015·23.376 MB·English

by  Dennis Deletant

CEAU~ESCU AND THE SECURITATE
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DENNIS DELETANT
Ceau§escu
and the
Securitate
Coercion and Dissent
in Romania, 1965-1989
~~ ~~o~;~~n~~~up
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 1995 by M.E. Sharpe
Published 2015 by Routledge
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Deletant, Dennis, 1946-
Ceau§escu and the Securitate: coercion and dissent in Romania,
1965-1989 I by Dennis Deletant.
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 1-56324-633-3 (alk. paper)
1. Romania. Securitatea. 2. Secret service -Romania.
3. Political persecution -Romania. 4. Ceall§escu, Nicolae.
5. Romania -Politics and government -1944-1989 I. Title.
HV8241.8.A45R634 1995
363.2'83'09498 -dc20 95-30768
CIP
ISBN 13: 9781563246333 (hbk)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book owes much to Maurice Pearton, who throughout its
writing has given encouragement and advice and has read the
manuscript. Several Romanian friends, through their example of
dignity and courage, have a prominent role in the book and
they also helped me to reconstitute dates and events which are
not recorded elsewhere. One or two do not wish to be named,
but they know who they are: I wish to thank them. The names
of others are in the public domain. They are Mariana Celac,
Mircea Dinescu, Andrei Ple§U, and Andrei Pippidi.
Invaluable assistance in my research into Romanian history
has been given for over twenty years by ~erban Papacostea, Paul
Cernovodeanu, Florin Constantiniu and Ion Chiper, all of the
'Nicolae Iorga' Institute of History in Bucharest. Ia§i loan Capro§U
and Alexandru Zub have been staunch friends and colleagues
for almost the same period of time. For aspects of Transylvanian
history (and cuisine and humour), I am especially indebted to
George Cipiiianu of the Institute of History in Cluj.
Over the .y ears it has been my good fortune to meet many
Romanians who have enriched my life with their friendship, con
versation, practical help in times ofd ifficulty and their determination
to overcome the adversities of daily life under Ceau§escu. Among
them are Seta and Alexandru Ionescu, Alexandru and Mihae1a
Hodo§ in Bucharest and Virgil Stanciu and Sever Trifu in Cluj.
Part of this book draws on the experience of contact with them.
My initial interest in Romania was encouraged by the late
Eric Tappe, Emeritus Professor of Romanian Studies at the School
of Slavonic and East European Studies of the University ofLondon.
It was he who supervised my studies in the Romanian language
and literature and provided introductions to his wartime friends
in Bucharest, one of whom, the late Professor Dan Simonescu,
taught me most of what I know about early Romanian culture.
Without the guidance given by both these gentlemen, I would
v
VI Acknowledgements
not have had the linguistic and cultural background to develop
my studies.
For many of the details of political history in the Communist
period I am indebted in particular to the research of Mary Ellen
Fischer, Michael Shafir and Vladimir Tismaneanu. Alexandra
Obreja, Christian Mititelu and Beverley Gray of the BBC
Romanian Section have patiently put up with my request for
archival material and, despite the pressures of broadcasting, have
always been most willing to assist. The enormous contribution
which the Section has made since the war to maintaining the
morale of Romanians by dispelling the lies of the Ceau§escu
regime and by giving a voice, denied by the Communist authorities,
to protest from within the country is exemplified in the pages
of this book.
My greatest debt is to my wife, Andrea, and her parents, Micuta
and Andrei Caracostea. They have been a continual source of
insights into the Romanian mentality. My parents-in-law, despite
imprisonment and losing everything, are proof that one can retain
dignity and humanity through courage and a sense of humour.
It is to them, and to the thousands like them, that this book
is dedicated.
November 1994 DENNIS DELETANT
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements page v
Map Vlll
Preface
lX
Chapters
1. Police Terror and the Imposition of Communist
Rule 1
2. The Securitate and the Removal of Opposition,
1948-1965 13
3. From Terror to Fear: Nicolae Ceau~escu and
the Securitate, 1965-1978 68
4. Ceau~escu's Appeal to National Sentiment: The
Case of Transylvania 107
5. Cultivating Support: The Role ofBessarabia 151
6. Compliance 166
7. Dissent 235
8. Central Planning as Coercion: Systematisation 294
9. The Securitate and Repression, 1978-1989 322
10. Epilogue 386
Bibliography 405
Index 417
Vll
a
i
n
a
m
o
R
PREFACE
An inescapable feature of life in Romania under Ceau.~escu was
the ubiquity of the Securitate or the security police, known officially
for much of the period as the Department ofState Security (Depar
tamentul Securita{ii Statu lui-DSS) of the Ministry of the Interior.
I realized as much from my first contact with the country in
1965 and that realisation was reinforced during many subsequent
visits. My professional and personal involvement with Romania
encompassed the entire duration of Ceau§escu's rule, from 1965
until 1989, and it was inevitable that my frequent visits and my
contacts with historians and writers should attract the Securitate's
attention. In view of my experience of Romal)ia, it was therefore
always a source off rustration to me that the literature on Romania's
history since the imposition of Communist rule in 1945 said
little about the mechanism of terror which Stalin used in Romania
to enforce his will and about the organisation of the Department
ofState Security. This omission was, at first glance, perhaps surpris
ing, given the importance of the institutionalised terror practised
by the Sewritate in buttressing the Communist regime, first under
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej and then under his successor, Nicolae
Ceau§escu. Yet the structure and personnel of the body empowered
to terrorise the population into acceptance of the legislation in
troduced to communise Romania, to arrest the 80,000 peasants
who opposed the land reform of 1949, to imprison and torture
the six Greek Catholic (Uniate) bishops and 600 priests who
refused to accept union with the Romanian Orthodox Church
in the· winter of 1948 and, in Ceau§escu's time, to deport hundreds
of miners from the Jiu Valley after their participation in the strike
of August 1977, remained sketchy.
One might infer from this lack ·of information about the Sewritntc
that as a political force, it was not significant; yet the very fact
that Colonel General Alexandru Draghici, who was appointed
Minister of the Interior in 1952, was one of Ceau.}escu 's rivals
IX