The Securitate was the popular term for the Departamentul Securității Statului, the secret police agency of the Socialist Republic of Romania. Previously, before the communist regime, Romanian secret police was called Siguranța Statului. It was founded on 30 August 1948, with help and direction from the Soviet MGB. Following the Romanian Revolution in 1989, the new authorities assigned the various intelligence tasks of the DSS to new institutions.
Ion Gheorghe Iosif Maurer was a Romanian communist politician and lawyer, and the 49th Prime Minister of Romania. He is the longest serving Prime Minister in the history of Romania.
Radu Gyr was a Romanian poet, essayist, playwright and journalist.
Elisabeta Rizea was a Romanian anti-communist partisan in the Făgăraș Mountains of northern Wallachia. After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, she became the symbol of Romania's anti-communist resistance. She was twice imprisoned for her activities, suffering extensive torture on the second occasion.
Alexandru Nicolschi was a Romanian communist activist, Soviet agent and officer, and Securitate chief under the Communist regime. Active until 1961, he was one of the most recognizable leaders of violent political repression.
The Romanian anti-communist resistance movement was active from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s, with isolated individual fighters remaining at large until the early 1960s. Armed resistance was the first and most structured form of resistance against the communist regime, which in turn regarded the fighters as "bandits". It was not until the overthrow of Nicolae Ceaușescu in late 1989 that details about what was called "anti-communist armed resistance" were made public. It was only then that the public learned about the several small armed groups, which sometimes termed themselves "hajduks", that had taken refuge in the Carpathian Mountains, where some hid for ten years from authorities. The last fighter was eliminated in the mountains of Banat in 1962. The Romanian resistance was one of the longest lasting armed movements in the former Eastern Bloc.
Gheorghe Pintilie was a Soviet and Romanian intelligence agent and political assassin, who served as first head of the Securitate (1948–1958). Born as a subject of the Russian Empire in Tiraspol, he was briefly employed as a manual laborer, and trained as a locksmith, before joining the Red Army cavalry and seeing action in the Russian Civil War. The NKVD shortlisted him for espionage missions in the 1920s, and in 1928 sent him on for such clandestine work in the Kingdom of Romania. Bodnarenko was apprehended there some nine years later, and sentenced to a twenty-years' imprisonment. While at Doftana, he became the ringleader of imprisoned Soviet spies, together with whom he joined the Romanian Communist Party (PCR). He expressed his loyalty toward Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, the jailed communist and emerging factional leader; their tight political camaraderie lasted into the late 1950s.
Vin americanii! was a slogan used in Romania in the 1940s and 1950s, encapsulating the hope that an American-led invasion of Eastern Europe would topple the Soviet-backed, Communist-dominated government installed in early 1945. This notion helped sustain an anti-communist resistance movement and emboldened the civilians who aided it.
Iosif Capotă was a physician who, after the Soviet occupation of Romania, became the leader of an anti-communist resistance group in the Mărgău–Huedin area.
Parliamentary elections were held in Romania on 17 March 1985. The Front of Socialist Unity and Democracy (FDUS), dominated by the Romanian Communist Party (PCR) and including other mass organisations, was the only group to contest the elections, and no prospective candidate could run for office without the Front's approval. Consequently, FDUS candidates won all 369 seats in the Great National Assembly, also ensuring the rubber-stamp confirmation of Nicolae Ceaușescu as President of Romania. The Assembly which elected him included several members of the Ceaușescu family, namely his wife Elena, son Nicu, and brother Ilie. Continuity was also ensured by other incumbents, including Nicolae Giosan as Assembly chairman and Constantin Dăscălescu as Prime Minister.
Alexandru Moghioroș was a Romanian communist activist and politician.
Ion Gavrilă Ogoranu was a member of the fascist paramilitary organization Iron Guard, who between 1948 and 1955, after the Soviet occupation of Romania and the establishment of the Romanian People's Republic, became the leader of an underground anti-communist paramilitary group in the Făgăraș Mountains.
Leon Șușman was a member of the fascist paramilitary organization the Iron Guard who, following the Soviet occupation of Romania and establishment of the Romanian People's Republic, became the leader of an anti-communist paramilitary group in the Apuseni Mountains.
Major Nicolae Dabija, knight of Order of Michael the Brave, was an officer of the Romanian Royal Army and a member of the anticommunist armed resistance in Romania. He was the leader of the "National Defense Front–The Haiduc Corps" resistance group in the Apuseni Mountains.
Serghei Nicolau was a Romanian communist espionage chief and a Securitate general.
Mișu Dulgheru was a Romanian communist activist and spy. A clerk by trade, he rose through the secret police as the Romanian Communist Party consolidated its hold on power between 1944 and 1947, while from 1948 through 1952, he played an important role as an officer in the new Securitate. Subsequently, arrested as part of a wider purge, he was released after an investigation lasting over two years, but never regained his earlier prestige. Late in life, he left his native country for Israel and, later, Canada.
Toma Arnăuțoiu was a Romanian officer who led a small group of anti-communist resistance fighters in the Southern Carpathian foothills between 1949 and 1958. It ended up as one of the most enduring resistance groups in Eastern Europe.
Events from the year 1951 in Romania. The year saw the Bărăgan deportations.
Events from the year 1962 in Romania. The year saw the end of the collectivization of agriculture and increasing de-satellization of Communist Romania as the country last publicly supported the Soviet Union against China and took part is Warsaw Pact army exercises.
Paraschiva Iubu, also called as Coca Iubu, was a Romanian architect who was active during the 1960s and 1970s. She was an important early member of architect Octav Doicescu's team. Her notable contributions include the Romanian National Opera, Bucharest and the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest, both were designed in collaboration with Doicescu.
Kingdom of Romania