This is a list of senior Securitate officers. The General Direction for the Security of the People, better known by its Romanian abbreviation, Securitate, was officially founded on August 30, 1948 by Decree 221/30. However, it had effectively existed since August 1944, when communists began to infiltrate the Ministry of Internal Affairs on a large scale, with help from SMERSH, an NKVD unit charged with demolishing existing intelligence agencies and replacing them with Soviet-style bodies in the Soviet-occupied countries of Eastern Europe.
From its inception, the Securitate engaged in a terror campaign against "class enemies". The campaign was led from the position of Minister of Interior by Teohari Georgescu in 1948–1952, and Alexandru Drăghici in 1952–1965, seconded in the position of Deputy Interior Minister (until 1960) and Chief of Securitate by Gheorghe Pintilie. Although the largest number of victims was registered between 1948 and 1952, the campaign continued until 1965.
In 1948, the Securitate had a personnel of 3,973 of all ranks; of those, 1,151 belonged to the national directorates and 2,822 to the regional directorates. [1]
Jilava is a commune in Ilfov County, Muntenia, Romania, near Bucharest. It is composed of a single village, Jilava.
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.
Șerban Vodă Cemetery is the largest and most famous cemetery in Bucharest, Romania.
Dumitru Burlan is a Romanian former Securitate officer.
The Sighet Prison, located in the city of Sighetu Marmației, Maramureș County, Romania, was used by Romania to hold criminals, prisoners of war, and political prisoners. It is now the site of the Sighet Memorial Museum, part of the Memorial of the Victims of Communism.
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.
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.
Ghencea Cemetery is located in Ghencea neighbourhood of Bucharest, on Ghencea Boulevard, in Sector 6. The cemetery has two sections, civilian and military.
The Axis order of battle at Stalingrad is a list of the significant land units that fought in the Battle of Stalingrad on the side of the Axis Powers between September 1942 and February 1943.
Aiud Prison is a prison complex in Aiud, Alba County, located in central Transylvania, Romania. It is infamous for the treatment of its political inmates, especially during World War II under the rule of Ion Antonescu, and later under the Communist regime.
Serghei Nicolau was a Romanian communist espionage chief and a Securitate general.
The Palace of the National Military Circle, also known as the Officers' Circle Palace is located on Constantin Mile street in Bucharest, Romania. It was built in 1911, based on plans drawn by chief architect Dimitrie Maimarolu, using French neoclassical style. The beneficiary was the Officers' Circle of the Bucharest military garrison, which was founded in 1876.
Ioan Rășcanu was a Romanian general during World War I. He held the post of Minister of War from September 27, 1919 to December 16, 1921. After entering politics, he was elected deputy in Parliament, and served as Mayor of Vaslui (1938–1942) and Bucharest (1942–1944). Arrested in 1947 by the early communist regime, he died several years later at Sighet Prison.
Jilava Prison is a prison located in Jilava, a village south of Bucharest, Romania.