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. // Secret police (sometimes political police) are a police organization which operates in secrecy for the national purpose of maintaining national security against internal threats to the state. ... The Soviets pressed for inclusion of Romanias heretofore negligible Communist Party in the post-war government, while non-communist political leaders were steadily eliminated from political life. ... A map of the Eastern Bloc. ...

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. Motto: Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь! (Transliterated: Proletarii vsekh stran, soedinyaytes!) Translation: Workers of the world, unite!) Anthem: The Internationale (1922-1944) Hymn of the Soviet Union (1944-1991) Capital (and largest city) Moscow Official languages None; Russian de facto Government Socialist Republic/Federation of Soviet Republics  - Last President Mikhail Gorbachev  - Last Premier Ivan Silayev... The KGB emblem and motto: The sword and the shield KGB (transliteration of КГБ) is the Russian-language abbreviation for Committee for State Security, (Russian: ; Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti). ... August 30 is the 242nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (243rd in leap years), with 123 days remaining. ... Year 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... Year 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ... This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ... The Interior Minister is a member of a Cabinet in a Government. ...

Its stated purpose was to "defend democratic conquests and guarantee the safety of the Romanian Peoples' Republic against both internal and external enemies." For other uses, see Democracy (disambiguation). ...

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. Lieutenant General is a military rank used in many countries. ... Insignia of a United States Air Force Major General German Generalmajor Insignia Major General is a military rank used in many countries. ... Alexandru Nicolschi (born Boris Grünberg, his chosen surname was often rendered as Nikolski or Nicolski; Russian: Александр Сергеевич Никольский, Alexandr Sergeyevich Nikolsky; June 2, 1915–April 16, 1992) was a Romanian communist activist, Soviet agent, and Securitate chief under the Communist regime, active until the early 1960s. ... 1927 map of Bessarabia from Charles Upson Clarks book Bessarabia or Bessarabiya (Basarabia in Romanian, Besarabya in Turkish, Бесарабія in Ukrainian) is a historical term for the geographic entity in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the East and the Prut River on the West. ...

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. In modern usage, a communist party is a political party which promotes communism, the sociopolitical ideology based on Marxism. ...

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. February 11 is the 42nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... In classical economics and all micro-economics labour is one of three factors of production, the others being land and capital. ... In a detail of Brueghels Land of Cockaigne (1567) a soft-boiled egg has little feet to rush to the luxuriating peasant who catches drops of honey on his tongue, while roast pigs roam wild: in fact, hunger and harsh winters were realities for the average European in the... The word clerk, derived from the Latin clericus meaning cleric, i. ... An intellectual is a person who uses his or her intellect to work, study, reflect, speculate on, or ask and answer questions with regard to a variety of different ideas. ...

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 inquiry. 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. 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... Class conflict is both the friction that accompanies social relationships between members or groups of different social classes and the underlying tensions or antagonisms which exist in society. ... In law, a warrant can mean any authorization. ... In legal parlance, a trial is an event in which parties to a dispute present information (in the form of evidence) in a formal setting, usually a court, before a judge, jury, or other designated finder of fact, in order to achieve a resolution to their dispute. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... World War I firing squad Execution by shooting is a form of capital punishment whereby an executed person is shot by a firearm or firearms. ... Sighet, also spelled Sighetul Marmaţiei (Hungarian: Máramarossziget, Ruthenian: Sihota), formely Sighet, is a city in Maramureş county near Iza river, in Romania. ... The Louvre Museum in Paris, one of the largest and most famous museums in the world. ...

In 1964, the government declared a general amnesty, and 10,014 (according to official Securitate statistics^{[citation needed]}) 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. 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... Look up Amnesty in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... An Australian anti-conscription propaganda poster from World War One Propaganda is a type of message aimed at influencing the opinions or behavior of people. ... A political prisoner is someone held in prison or otherwise detained, perhaps under house arrest, because their ideas or image are deemed by a government to either challenge or threaten the authority of the state. ... In a political sense, conspiracy refers to a group of persons united in the goal of usurping or overthrowing an established political power. ...

"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, although lots of people did it just for personal vendettas. Informants signed a contract promising to "signal threats to the state". To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... An informant (sometimes informer) is someone who provides information to law enforcement agencies. ... For other uses, see Friends (disambiguation), Friendship (disambiguation), and Best Friend (disambiguation) Friendship is a term used to denote co-operative and supportive behaviour between two or more social entities. ... A family in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in 1997 A family consists of a domestic group of people (or a number of domestic groups), typically affiliated by birth or marriage, or by analogous or comparable relationships — including domestic partnership, cohabitation, adoption, surname and (in some cases) ownership (as occurred in the... For other uses, see Blackmail (disambiguation). ...

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 repression of even the smallest gestures of independence by intellectuals. The 1980s refers to the years of 1980 to 1989. ... A rumor (British English: rumour) is a piece of purportedly true information that is circulated without substantiating evidence. ... The term Western World or the West can have multiple meanings depending on its context. ... A frameup refers to the act of framing someone, that is, providing false evidence in order to prove someone guilty of a crime. ... Denunciation refers to the announcement of a treatys termination. ... Censorship is the removal of information from the public, or the prevention of circulation of information, where it is desired or felt best by some controlling group or body, that others are not allowed to access the information which is being censored. ...

Forced entry into homes and offices was another tactic the Securitate used to extract information from the general population. Look up home in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... OFFICE WORK IS SHITE!! NEVER WORK IN ONE! end of. ...

Downfall

The Securitate was abolished in late 1989, when Romania became a democracy after Communist dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu was ousted. Nicolae CeauÅŸescu (IPA ) (January 26, 1918 - December 25, 1989) was the leader of Communist Romania from 1965 until shortly before his execution. ...

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. Nicolae CeauÅŸescu (IPA ) (January 26, 1918 - December 25, 1989) was the leader of Communist Romania from 1965 until shortly before his execution. ...

However, articles published in Romanian newspapers after the post-communist leader Ion Iliescu ended his second presidential mandate suggest that large segments of the Securitate were actually involved in Ceausescu's fall. This is a theory supported by the fact that there was a strong anti-Ceausescu movement in the Securitate (see Ion Mihai Pacepa). Ion Iliescu (born March 3, 1930) is a Romanian politician. ... Ion Mihai Pacepa Ion Mihai Pacepa (born 28 October 1928) is the highest intelligence official ever to have defected from the Soviet bloc to the West. ...

Today a number of millionaires in Romania are suspected or confirmed to have been high-ranking members or collaborators of the Securitate.

The DSS lived on until 1991 when Parliament approved a law reorganizing the DSS into a few special and secret services like the SRI (Romanian Information Service) (with internal tasks such as counterespionage), the SIE (External 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.

The remenants of the Securitate nowadays

Many former Securitate members have remained active after the revolution and have shaped many Romanian events in their favor. It is so that they managed not only to evade prosecution for the crimes. Their role in shaping Romanian politics after 1989 has been documented by historian Marius Oprea.

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. 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The term communications is used in a number of disciplines: Communications, also known as communication studies is the academic discipline which studies communication, generally seen as a mixture between media studies and linguistics. ... The telephone or phone is a telecommunications device which is used to transmit and receive sound (most commonly voice and speech) across distance. ... Telegraphy (from the Greek words tele = far away and grapho = write) is the long distance transmission of written messages without physical transport of letters, originally over wire. ... Teletype machines in World War II A teleprinter (teletypewriter, teletype or TTY for TeleTYpe/TeleTYpewriter) is a now largely obsolete electro-mechanical typewriter which can be used to communicate typed messages from point to point through a simple electrical communications channel, often just a pair of wires. ... A microphone, sometimes referred to as a mike or mic (both IPA pronunciation: ), is an acoustic to electric transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. ...

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. Espionage operations intended to identify enemy spies. ... The hour (symbol: h) is a unit of time. ... A refugee is a person seeking asylum in a foreign country in order to escape persecution, war, terrorism, extreme poverty, famines, and natural disaster. ... A diplomatic mission is a group of people from one nation state present in another nation state to represent the sending state in the receiving State. ...

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. Beating is striking more than once, in violence, beating a drum, etc. ... Medicine is a branch of health science and the sector of public life concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, treatment and possible prevention of disease and injury. ... A British pillar box. ... The skull and crossbones symbol traditionally used to label a poisonous substance. ...

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 placed under surveillance. Many Jews and Germans were given passports and exit visas through taciturn agreements with the Israeli and West German governments, whereby Romania would receive a payment in the thousands of dollars per exit visa. When emigration laws were relaxed in 1988, 40,000 Romanians fled to Hungary. Image of an entry visa valid in Schengen treaty countries. ... For Microsoft Corporations universal login service, see Microsoft Passport Network. ... Look up travel in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Immigration. ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

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. A troop is a military unit, originally a small force of cavalry, subordinate to a squadron and headed by the troop leader. ... A paramilitary organization is a group of civilians trained and organized in a military fashion. ... Historically, artillery (from French artillerie) refers to any engine used for the discharge of projectiles during war. ... Image:APCTalha. ... A political commissar is an officer appointed by a communist party to oversee a unit of the military. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... A coup détat, or simply a coup, is the sudden overthrow of a government, usually done by a small group that just replaces the top power figures. ...

Directorate for Militia

The Directorate for Militia controlled Romania's standard police force, carry out tasks such as traffic control. Nighttime traffic captured by a camera over several seconds. ...

Directorate V

The former "Directia 5 securitate of Ceausescu ruin" and now a symbol of the New Romania

Directorate V were bodyguards for important governmental officials. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (565x768, 149 KB) A rather bizarre building. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (565x768, 149 KB) A rather bizarre building. ... A bodyguard is a person or group of people who professionally protect someone (known as their principal) from personal assault, kidnapping, assassination, loss of confidential information, or other threats. ...

See also

• Ion Mihai Pacepa - defector

Ion Mihai Pacepa Ion Mihai Pacepa (born 28 October 1928) is the highest intelligence official ever to have defected from the Soviet bloc to the West. ...

External link

• Romania - Ministry of Interior and Security Forces