Securitate
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The Securitate (Romanian for Security; official full name Departamentul Securităţii statului, State Security Department), was the secret police force of Communist Romania. Previously the Romanian secret police was called Siguranţa statului (Safety of the State). The Securitate was, in proportion to Romania's population, the largest secret police force in the Eastern bloc.
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1.1 Founding |
History
Founding
The General Direction for the Security of the People (Romanian initials: DGSP, but more commonly just called the Securitate) was officially founded, under close guidance from Soviet KGB officers, on August 30, 1948 by Decree 221/30. However, it had effectively existed since 1944, when communists began to infiltrate the Ministry of Internal Affairs on a large scale.
Its stated purpose was to "defend democratic conquests and guarantee the safety of the Romanian Peoples' Republic against both internal and external enemies."
The position of Director of the Securitate was given to Lieutenant General Gheorghe Pintilie (real name Pantelei Bondarenko; known as Pantiusa), though two Soviet officers held the deputy directorships. In effect, the two Soviets, Major Generals Alexandru Nicolschi (who was actually a Romanian born in Bessarabia) and Vladimir Mazuru, had the upper hand in the organisation, and nobody could be appointed to the Securitate's leadership without their approval.
Initially, many of the agents of the Securitate were former Royal Security Police (named General Directorate of Safety Police - Direcţia Generală a Poliţiei de Siguranţă in Romanian) members. However, before long, Pintilie 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 Communist Party, to ensure total loyalty within the organisation.
The first budget of the Securitate in 1948 stipulated a number of 4641 positions, out of which on February 11, 1949, 3549 were occupied: 64% were workers, 4% peasants, 28% clerks, 2% persons of unspecified origin, and 2% intellectuals.
Campaign against "class enemies"
By 1951, the Securitate's staff had increased fivefold, in line with the escalation of class warfare in Romania. In that year, the Securitate, at the instigation of the Party, began to systematically exterminate opponents of the regime. Special prisons were set up for "class enemies" to be sent to, usually without warrant, trial or enquiry. In these camps, prisoners were either worked to death or simply shot. One of these prisons, at Sighet, is today a museum to the oppression of the communist regime.
In 1964, the government declared a general amnesty, and 10,014 (according to official Securitate statistics) were released from these prison camps. However, propaganda declared (falsely) that there were no political prisoners any more in Romania, even while arrests for "conspiring against the social order" or just "plotting" were frequently made.
"Appealing to the people's conscience"
After this amnesty, the Securitate claimed to be "appealing to the people's conscience", which actually meant a massive increase in the organisation's use of informants. Many Romanians were forced to inform on friends and family by way of blackmail. Informants signed a contract promising to "signal threats to the state".
In the 1980s, the Securitate launched a massive campaign to stamp out dissent in Romania, manipulating the country's population with vicious rumours (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 repressing the smallest gestures of independence by intellectuals.
Forced entry into homes and offices was another tactic the Securitate used to extract information from the general population.
Downfall
Until 2005 it was generally accepted that to the very end of Nicolae Ceauşescu's reign, the Securitate was fiercely loyal to the government. Allegations were also made that at a speech by Ceauşescu to a handpicked crowd of 100,000, the Securitate opened fire on the defenceless crowd after some anti-Ceauşescu shouts were heard. The commander of the army, Vasile Milea, refused to order his men to open fire, and for this, Ceauşescu had him shot.
However, the articles that were published in the Romanian newspapers after the post-communist leader Ion Iliescu has ended his second presidential mandate, suggest that large segments of the Securitate were involved in the actual fall of Niclae Ceausescu. This is theory supported by the fact that there was a strong anti-Ceausescu movement in the Securitate(see Ion Mihai Pacepa).
Subdivisions
General Directorate for Technical Operations
The General Directorate for Technical Operations was a key part of the Securitate. Created with Soviet assistance in 1954, it monitored all voice and electronic communications in and out of Romania. They bugged telephones and intercepted all telegraphs and telex messages, as well as placing microphones in both public and private buildings. Nearly all conversations conducted in Communist Romania would be listened to by this department.
Directorate for Counterespionage
The Directorate for Counterespionage surveyed all foreigners in Romania, and did their utmost to impede contact between foreigners and Romanians. Contact that was impossible to stop was instead monitored. It enforced a variety of measures to prevent Romanians living with foreign nationals, one of these being the requirement to report any known foreigners to the Securitate within 24 hours. This Directorate also stopped Romanians seeking asylum in foreign embassies.
Directorate for Penitentiaries
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.
Directorate for Internal Security
The Directorate for Internal Security was charged with rooting out dissent in the Communist Party itself. It almost acted as a Securitate for the Securitate, and was responsible for bugging the phones of other Securitate officers to ensure total loyalty.
National Commission for Visas and Passports
The National Commission for Visas and Passports controlled all travel and emigration in and out of Romania. In effect, emigration was impossible for anyone but highly placed Party officials, as any normal Romanian who applied for it would immediately be fired from his job and not be allowed to do anything but manual labour. When emigration laws were relaxed in 1988, 40,000 Romanians fled to Hungary.
Directorate for Security Troops
The Directorate for Security Troops acted as a 20,000 strong paramilitary force for the government, equipped with artillery and armoured personnel carriers. They guarded television and radio stations, and Party buildings. To ensure total loyalty amongst these crack troops, there were five times as many political officers in the Directorate for Security Troops than there were in the regular army. In the event of a coup, this Directorate would be called in to protect the regime. Security troops enjoyed special treatment, and often lived in far superior conditions to their countrymen.
Directorate for Militia
The Directorate for Militia controlled Romania's standard police force, carry out tasks such as traffic control.
Directorate V
Directorate V were bodyguards for important governmental officials.
See also
External link
Romania - Ministry of Interior and Security Forces (http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-11325.html)de:Securitate nl:Securitate pl:Securitate