The Securitate May Finally Claim Victory: It Rules Romania

For those not old enough to have experienced the fear the communist time intelligence services spread it would be useful de explain how the Securitate controlled the Romanians’ minds.

The lay citizen did not meet face to face the Securitate or its employees, but it was under its thumb via party leaders, workplace managers, prosecutors and judges.

During the Stalinist years Securitatea was all mighty, overriding all other institutions. It could send you straight to prison or forced labor camps in a heart beat.

But in the late years of the Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej leadership and then during the Nicolae Ceausescu rule this was not the case anymore.

The Securitate lost its all-powerful position in favor of the Communist Party.

As an editor-in-chief of the literary section in the young communists’ official daily Scinteia Tineretului, I often received the visit of Securitate officers informing me of the alleged suspect activities of this or that reporter in my newsroom.

As I knew well my co-workers I did not give a second thought to what the Securitate officers told me.

And I was not the only person in a position of middle or top management who acted the same way.

I am sure former president Ion Iliescu, as one of the top communist party leaders, was one of those people too.

The reason for this behavior was simple: everybody knew poor intelligence work or a need to self-justify its activity founded those allegations of the Securitate about this or that person.

If unhappy with the lack of action of the lower echelons of management, the Securitate officers would go higher up, following the chain of command, and ask top managers or top party leaders to act upon their intelligence,

If that did not work either, then the frustration of these Securitate officers was poured into the reports they filed on the people they wanted framed.

And now, 16 years on since the fall of the communism, the Securitate finally gets to do what it was unable to perform during the communist political regime that supported it: to spread havoc inside the current political system.

This almighty regained power might kill again with sheer happiness the deceased Securitate officers if the later were brought back to life.

The ability of the Securitate files to rock the current Romanian politics stems from the fact that we are not faced with a transparent and comprehensive publication of files, but with a selection of files which are declassified.

The case of prominent liberal Mona Musca is proving my point. Never would have dreamed the Securitate officer recruiting her 25 years ago that his work to build up her file would turn that powerful over time.

Musca lost the support of her party and is likely to be ousted from it in a few weeks.

And a lot of other top-ranking today’s politicians are now trembling with fear thinking of what future might bring them.

While the now extinct Securitate turned into the power which finally rules over Romanian politics, better and more efficiently than it did when it actually existed.