(English version below)
Cuprins
1. Studii
Based on unpublished documents from the CNSAS archive and memoirs, the study presents some students’ reactions at the University of Brasov following the punishments imposed on Cătălin Bia, Lucian Silaghi, and Horia Șerban, who had publicly expressed solidarity with the workers arrested after the November 15, 1987, uprising.
Although only his classmates, Lucian and Horia, joined the public protest initiated by Catalin on November 22, many students were dissatisfied with the way the authorities handled the situation: detaining the three in a garage, transporting them in a van to the County Inspectorate of the Ministry of Interior, then expelling them and deporting them to their hometowns.
In the Securitate documents, we identified several students from the Faculties of Forestry and Mechanics who discussed plans to protest on November 22-24, 1987. Through the Securitate’s informative-operative measures, the interventions of the University leadership and the party organizations in the University Center, the students were threatened and discouraged from organizing, so the planned public demonstration did not take place, and the most active among them were warned by the Securitate.
Etichete: solidarizare cu revolta muncitorească, exmatriculare, demascare publică, avertizare, anchetă informativă, rețea informativă, urmărire informativă.
Keywords: solidarity with the workers’ revolt, expulsion, public exposure, warning, informative investigation, informative network, informative surveillance
At the time of his arrest on November 27, 1934, Petre Constantinescu-Iași was a professor of Christian Art at the Faculty of Theology in Chișinău. His arrest stemmed from illegal communist activity, particularly in international settings, where he received orders from the Comintern. The arrest occurred amid the resumption of diplomatic contacts between Romania and the Soviet Union. More troubling was that a professor at a Faculty of Theology was fighting for an atheistic and destructive ideology against the Church, while in Russia the Bolshevik persecution was wreaking havoc among Christians. Although, since his appointment in 1927 as a professor at the Faculty of Theology in Chișinău, his socialist past was known, Constantinescu-Iași had been accepted by the relevant ministry. After his brief arrest and preparation for trial, for more than a year Constantinescu-Iași carried out an intense, overt “anti-fascist activity,” often supported by colleagues in ideological struggle from other countries, such as France, England, or Czechoslovakia. At the same time, his case was unique. For the first time, a university professor was put on trial for communist activity in Romania, in an extremely volatile political context due to the political changes in France and Spain. Also, through his ideological affiliation and his status as a professor in theological education, Constantinescu-Iași posed a threat to the Church and, in general, to Romanian society.
Etichete: Petre Constantinescu-Iași, Facultatea de Teologie, Biserica Ortodoxă Română, comunism.
Keywords: Petre Constantinescu-Iași, Faculty of Theology, Romanian Orthodox Church, communism.
The Romanian Orthodox community is one of the oldest confessions in Hungary. After the First World War, it became a separate organization and, later, during the communist period, a target of the repressive organs. However, beyond the attention paid by the Hungarian Security, this community faced several issues in its functioning, especially regarding the jurisdiction to which it was supposed to belong under Eastern canon law. Based on documents from the Hungarian Secret Police archives, this study will provide a fresh perspective on these issues.
Etichete: Biserica Ortodoxă Română din Ungaria, culte religioase în comunism, Securitatea maghiară
Keywords: Romanian Orthodox Church in Hungary, religious cults under communism, Hungarian Security Service
Military attachés are a representative body within diplomatic missions. Their importance lies in their professional expertise and personal ability to fulfill the objectives set at the beginning of their mission. In this context, the work carried out in Romania in the 1980s was marked by a certain effervescence. Based on concrete facts, we can now learn details unknown at the time, thanks to documents drawn up by the State Security (Securitatea Statului) structures. Thus, at the French embassy, military officers serving as attachés stood out for the dynamism of their actions and were closely monitored by Romanian intelligence services. This case study captures both the activities of military attachés and the set of information-operational measures adopted by the State Security. Moreover, it faithfully mirrors the era and the specific practices of the foreign military, as well as those of the Romanian intelligence organs.
Etichete: atașat militar, supraveghere, dosar de urmărire informativă, rețea informativă, filaj.
Keywords: military attaché, surveillance, informative surveillance file, informative network, stakeout.
Oana Andreea GRIGORESCU, Preotul Ștefan Iamandi în documentele Securității (pag. 123-134)
Around 1960, Stefan Iamandi, a priest from Dragosloveni county, Vrancea, came under the Securitate’s scrutiny because, together with a group from the area where he had lived, he began meeting other people and holding discussions deemed “hostile to the regime”. Drawing on documents from the above-mentioned source, we examine how the political police in communist Romania acted against Church ministers presumed to oppose the communist regime.
Thus, for ideological reasons, the priest Iamandi Stefan was unjustly detained, subjected to repeated interrogations, deprived of his property, and convicted of the crime of “conspiracy against social order,” only to be later pardoned for the remainder of the sentence to be served. The abusive manner in which Iamandi Stefan’s criminal trial was conducted had a strong psychological impact on him, affecting both his family life and how his family was viewed by society.Etichete: drepturile omului, Iamandi Ștefan, urmărire informativă, libertate de opinie, justiție penală comunistă, confiscarea averii, Securitate, interogatoriu, Tribunal Militar.
Keywords: human rights, Iamandi Stefan, informative surveillance, freedom of opinion, communist criminal justice, confiscation of assets, Securitate, inquisition, Military Tribunal
As part of a golden generation, a distinguished builder of Great Romania, and a prominent figure in Romanian administrative and ecclesiastical life for several decades, the Clandestine General Vicar, Dr. Zenovie Pâclișanu, fully integrated himself into the realities of this country, becoming one of the actors in Romanian society of the time. As a historian and a priest, he was fully involved in the life of the Catholic Church in both rites in Romania. But to the Greek Catholic Church, his Church, he dedicated his very life during the well-known times of totalitarian, atheistic-materialist persecution, in fulfillment of his priestly mission.
As a detail, it should be noted that his professional activity produced a large-scale historiographical work, widely appreciated for its unique scientific contribution. Both prelate and historian, he fought firmly yet skillfully, with ethics and elegance, using the full range of means at his disposal.
From this position, he dedicated himself to the Romanian nation, from which he drew the sap of his existence, and to all his exceptional achievements in the field of historical knowledge. His support for the rights of Romanians in Transylvania lasted for almost half a century. Tragically, the harshness of the times left his historiographical work little known, given his total personal involvement in the resistance of the United Romanian Church, outlawed by the communist authorities.
It is also regrettable that the violent interference by the Securitate, the communist political police, under the pretext of investigating his clandestine activity, resulted in the loss of Zenovie Pâclișanu’s life, regardless of whether it was regarded as an accident or a murder.
Etichete: Biserica Catolică din România: Greco-Catolică/Romano-Catolică, Nunțiu/Nunțiatură Apostolică/Apostolică, religioasă recunoscută/Structură/denominațiune religioasă ilegală, Arhiereu/Arhierei, Vicar/Vicariat General, Episcop/Episcop Clandestin.
Keywords: Romanian Catholic Church, Greek Catholic/Roman Catholic, Nuncio/Nunciature, Apostolic, Recognized religious confession/structure/illegal religious denomination, Bishop, General Curacy, Clandestine Bishop.
The petition by writer Ion Caraion to Nicolae Ceaușescu, General Secretary of the PCR, calling for the establishment of a publication to promote authentic literary works reflects the thinking of that generation and its difficult positioning. While it had to start anew, it faced pressure from another generation of writers coming from behind. Ion Caraion saw the proposal to establish this magazine as a way to offer a meaningful voice to his fellow writers.
Against the backdrop of increased censorship, which announced the mini-cultural revolution in 1971, Caraion’s proposal never materialized. This document shows how the artistic world operated within its inner circles, despite the author’s exaggerations.
Etichete: anii „micii liberalizări” literare 1964-1971, publicație – focar, literatură autentică, memoriu, categorii de scriitori, Ion Caraion.
Keywords: the years of the “little literary liberalization” 1964-1971, publication – hotbed, authentic literature, memoir, categories of writers, Ion Caraion.
Silviu B. MOLDOVAN, Chestiunea ucraineană: percepții românești (pag. 181-210)
As a victim of Soviet totalitarianism, Ukrainian identity—distinct from the Russian one—received considerable attention in Bucharest, where tendencies toward forced Russification also emerged in the cultural and ideological spheres during the sixth decade of the twentieth century. In the archives of the former Securitate, a significant number of unpublished documents concerning Ukrainian refugees who arrived in Romania following the Soviet occupation of Kyiv can be found, along with documents relating to the Ukrainian question in general. The intelligence services of interwar Romania also closely monitored potential developments within the Ukrainian space.
In 1954, the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Bucharest published, under the classification „Strictly Secret,” an internal guidance brochure concerning Ukrainian nationalists, which was repealed in 1968 and completely withdrawn from the Securitate units to which it had been distributed. The Banderite partisans who operated in northern Romania for a period, including infiltrations beyond the new Soviet border, are also covered in documents found in the Securitate archives.
Etichete: ucraineni, emigranți, sovietici, Securitate, Hnat Porohivski.
Keywords: Ukrainians, emigrants, Soviets, Securitate, Hnat Porohivski.
This study examines the diplomatic and propagandistic activity carried out by several important Romanian intellectuals – Mircea Eliade, Emil Cioran, and Eugen Ionesco – within the press and cultural services of the Romanian Legations in Western Europe during the period 1940-1944. Drawing on unpublished archival documents, diplomatic correspondence, and specialized critical literature, the article explores the ways in which Romanian cultural diplomacy functioned in the context of the Second World War and the Antonescu regime.
The text highlights the tensions between the autonomy of the cultural act and the political objectives of state propaganda, emphasizing the difficulties encountered by intellectuals who were temporarily integrated into the Romanian diplomatic apparatus. Special attention is devoted to the relationship between culture, propaganda, and ideology, through an analysis of both the concrete contributions made by these three authors to the promotion of Romania’s image abroad and the institutional, financial, and political limitations that constrained such initiatives. At the same time, the study proposes a broader reflection on the compatibility between intellectual vocation and the discipline required by the diplomatic apparatus within a European context marked by war, censorship, and ideological radicalization.
Etichete: diplomație culturală, propagandă, Mircea Eliade, Emil Cioran, Eugen Ionesco, atașați culturali, atașați de presă
Keywords: cultural diplomacy, propaganda, Mircea Eliade, Emil Cioran, Eugen Ionesco, cultural attachés, press attachés
Recenzii. Note de lectură
Abrevieri (pag. 269-270)
Lista autorilor (pag. 271-273)
***
SUMMARY
Studies and documents
Based on unpublished documents from the CNSAS archive and memoirs, the study presents some students’ reactions at the University of Brasov following the punishments imposed on Cătălin Bia, Lucian Silaghi, and Horia Șerban, who had publicly expressed solidarity with the workers arrested after the November 15, 1987, uprising.
Although only his classmates, Lucian and Horia, joined the public protest initiated by Catalin on November 22, many students were dissatisfied with the way the authorities handled the situation: detaining the three in a garage, transporting them in a van to the County Inspectorate of the Ministry of Interior, then expelling them and deporting them to their hometowns.
In the Securitate documents, we identified several students from the Faculties of Forestry and Mechanics who discussed plans to protest on November 22-24, 1987. Through the Securitate’s informative-operative measures, the interventions of the University leadership and the party organizations in the University Center, the students were threatened and discouraged from organizing, so the planned public demonstration did not take place, and the most active among them were warned by the Securitate.
Etichete: solidarizare cu revolta muncitorească, exmatriculare, demascare publică, avertizare, anchetă informativă, rețea informativă, urmărire informativă.
Keywords: solidarity with the workers’ revolt, expulsion, public exposure, warning, informative investigation, informative network, informative surveillance
At the time of his arrest on November 27, 1934, Petre Constantinescu-Iași was a professor of Christian Art at the Faculty of Theology in Chișinău. His arrest stemmed from illegal communist activity, particularly in international settings, where he received orders from the Comintern. The arrest occurred amid the resumption of diplomatic contacts between Romania and the Soviet Union. More troubling was that a professor at a Faculty of Theology was fighting for an atheistic and destructive ideology against the Church, while in Russia the Bolshevik persecution was wreaking havoc among Christians. Although, since his appointment in 1927 as a professor at the Faculty of Theology in Chișinău, his socialist past was known, Constantinescu-Iași had been accepted by the relevant ministry. After his brief arrest and preparation for trial, for more than a year Constantinescu-Iași carried out an intense, overt “anti-fascist activity,” often supported by colleagues in ideological struggle from other countries, such as France, England, or Czechoslovakia. At the same time, his case was unique. For the first time, a university professor was put on trial for communist activity in Romania, in an extremely volatile political context due to the political changes in France and Spain. Also, through his ideological affiliation and his status as a professor in theological education, Constantinescu-Iași posed a threat to the Church and, in general, to Romanian society.
Etichete: Petre Constantinescu-Iași, Facultatea de Teologie, Biserica Ortodoxă Română, comunism.
Keywords: Petre Constantinescu-Iași, Faculty of Theology, Romanian Orthodox Church, communism.
The Romanian Orthodox community is one of the oldest confessions in Hungary. After the First World War, it became a separate organization and, later, during the communist period, a target of the repressive organs. However, beyond the attention paid by the Hungarian Security, this community faced several issues in its functioning, especially regarding the jurisdiction to which it was supposed to belong under Eastern canon law. Based on documents from the Hungarian Secret Police archives, this study will provide a fresh perspective on these issues.
Etichete: Biserica Ortodoxă Română din Ungaria, culte religioase în comunism, Securitatea maghiară
Keywords: Romanian Orthodox Church in Hungary, religious cults under communism, Hungarian Security Service
Valentin VASILE, French military attachés under surveillance in Bucharest (pag. 105-122)
Military attachés are a representative body within diplomatic missions. Their importance lies in their professional expertise and personal ability to fulfill the objectives set at the beginning of their mission. In this context, the work carried out in Romania in the 1980s was marked by a certain effervescence. Based on concrete facts, we can now learn details unknown at the time, thanks to documents drawn up by the State Security (Securitatea Statului) structures. Thus, at the French embassy, military officers serving as attachés stood out for the dynamism of their actions and were closely monitored by Romanian intelligence services. This case study captures both the activities of military attachés and the set of information-operational measures adopted by the State Security. Moreover, it faithfully mirrors the era and the specific practices of the foreign military, as well as those of the Romanian intelligence organs.
Etichete: atașat militar, supraveghere, dosar de urmărire informativă, rețea informativă, filaj.
Keywords: military attaché, surveillance, informative surveillance file, informative network, stakeout.
Oana Andreea GRIGORESCU, Priest Stefan Iamandi in the Securitate documents (pag. 123-134)
Around 1960, Stefan Iamandi, a priest from Dragosloveni county, Vrancea, came under the Securitate’s scrutiny because, together with a group from the area where he had lived, he began meeting other people and holding discussions deemed “hostile to the regime”. Drawing on documents from the above-mentioned source, we examine how the political police in communist Romania acted against Church ministers presumed to oppose the communist regime.
Thus, for ideological reasons, the priest Iamandi Stefan was unjustly detained, subjected to repeated interrogations, deprived of his property, and convicted of the crime of “conspiracy against social order,” only to be later pardoned for the remainder of the sentence to be served. The abusive manner in which Iamandi Stefan’s criminal trial was conducted had a strong psychological impact on him, affecting both his family life and how his family was viewed by society.Etichete: drepturile omului, Iamandi Ștefan, urmărire informativă, libertate de opinie, justiție penală comunistă, confiscarea averii, Securitate, interogatoriu, Tribunal Militar.
Keywords: human rights, Iamandi Stefan, informative surveillance, freedom of opinion, communist criminal justice, confiscation of assets, Securitate, inquisition, Military Tribunal
As part of a golden generation, a distinguished builder of Great Romania, and a prominent figure in Romanian administrative and ecclesiastical life for several decades, the Clandestine General Vicar, Dr. Zenovie Pâclișanu, fully integrated himself into the realities of this country, becoming one of the actors in Romanian society of the time. As a historian and a priest, he was fully involved in the life of the Catholic Church in both rites in Romania. But to the Greek Catholic Church, his Church, he dedicated his very life during the well-known times of totalitarian, atheistic-materialist persecution, in fulfillment of his priestly mission.
As a detail, it should be noted that his professional activity produced a large-scale historiographical work, widely appreciated for its unique scientific contribution. Both prelate and historian, he fought firmly yet skillfully, with ethics and elegance, using the full range of means at his disposal.
From this position, he dedicated himself to the Romanian nation, from which he drew the sap of his existence, and to all his exceptional achievements in the field of historical knowledge. His support for the rights of Romanians in Transylvania lasted for almost half a century. Tragically, the harshness of the times left his historiographical work little known, given his total personal involvement in the resistance of the United Romanian Church, outlawed by the communist authorities.
It is also regrettable that the violent interference by the Securitate, the communist political police, under the pretext of investigating his clandestine activity, resulted in the loss of Zenovie Pâclișanu’s life, regardless of whether it was regarded as an accident or a murder.
Etichete: Biserica Catolică din România: Greco-Catolică/Romano-Catolică, Nunțiu/Nunțiatură Apostolică/Apostolică, religioasă recunoscută/Structură/denominațiune religioasă ilegală, Arhiereu/Arhierei, Vicar/Vicariat General, Episcop/Episcop Clandestin.
Keywords: Romanian Catholic Church, Greek Catholic/Roman Catholic, Nuncio/Nunciature, Apostolic, Recognized religious confession/structure/illegal religious denomination, Bishop, General Curacy, Clandestine Bishop.
The petition by writer Ion Caraion to Nicolae Ceaușescu, General Secretary of the PCR, calling for the establishment of a publication to promote authentic literary works reflects the thinking of that generation and its difficult positioning. While it had to start anew, it faced pressure from another generation of writers coming from behind. Ion Caraion saw the proposal to establish this magazine as a way to offer a meaningful voice to his fellow writers.
Against the backdrop of increased censorship, which announced the mini-cultural revolution in 1971, Caraion’s proposal never materialized. This document shows how the artistic world operated within its inner circles, despite the author’s exaggerations.
Etichete: anii „micii liberalizări” literare 1964-1971, publicație – focar, literatură autentică, memoriu, categorii de scriitori, Ion Caraion.
Keywords: the years of the “little literary liberalization” 1964-1971, publication – hotbed, authentic literature, memoir, categories of writers, Ion Caraion.
Silviu B. MOLDOVAN, The Ukrainian issue, Romanian perceptions (pag. 181-210)
As a victim of Soviet totalitarianism, Ukrainian identity—distinct from the Russian one—received considerable attention in Bucharest, where tendencies toward forced Russification also emerged in the cultural and ideological spheres during the sixth decade of the twentieth century. In the archives of the former Securitate, a significant number of unpublished documents concerning Ukrainian refugees who arrived in Romania following the Soviet occupation of Kyiv can be found, along with documents relating to the Ukrainian question in general. The intelligence services of interwar Romania also closely monitored potential developments within the Ukrainian space.
In 1954, the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Bucharest published, under the classification „Strictly Secret,” an internal guidance brochure concerning Ukrainian nationalists, which was repealed in 1968 and completely withdrawn from the Securitate units to which it had been distributed. The Banderite partisans who operated in northern Romania for a period, including infiltrations beyond the new Soviet border, are also covered in documents found in the Securitate archives.
Etichete: ucraineni, emigranți, sovietici, Securitate, Hnat Porohivski.
Keywords: Ukrainians, emigrants, Soviets, Securitate, Hnat Porohivski.
This study examines the diplomatic and propagandistic activity carried out by several important Romanian intellectuals – Mircea Eliade, Emil Cioran, and Eugen Ionesco – within the press and cultural services of the Romanian Legations in Western Europe during the period 1940-1944. Drawing on unpublished archival documents, diplomatic correspondence, and specialized critical literature, the article explores the ways in which Romanian cultural diplomacy functioned in the context of the Second World War and the Antonescu regime.
The text highlights the tensions between the autonomy of the cultural act and the political objectives of state propaganda, emphasizing the difficulties encountered by intellectuals who were temporarily integrated into the Romanian diplomatic apparatus. Special attention is devoted to the relationship between culture, propaganda, and ideology, through an analysis of both the concrete contributions made by these three authors to the promotion of Romania’s image abroad and the institutional, financial, and political limitations that constrained such initiatives. At the same time, the study proposes a broader reflection on the compatibility between intellectual vocation and the discipline required by the diplomatic apparatus within a European context marked by war, censorship, and ideological radicalization.
Etichete: diplomație culturală, propagandă, Mircea Eliade, Emil Cioran, Eugen Ionesco, atașați culturali, atașați de presă
Keywords: cultural diplomacy, propaganda, Mircea Eliade, Emil Cioran, Eugen Ionesco, cultural attachés, press attachés
Reviews. Reading notes (pag. 239-268)
Abbreviations list (pag. 269-270)
Author’s list (pag. 271-273)