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72-625: After the National Salvation Front 's decision to transform itself into a political party, an anti-Communist demonstration took place in Bucharest's Victoria Square (Piața Victoriei), organised by the Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party (PNȚ-CD), National Liberal Party (PNL), and other historical and newly founded oppositional smaller parties. Even though the anti-Communist demonstration started out (and

144-521: A decisive victory (over two thirds of the votes) in the May 20th elections. However, a small group decided to continue protests and staged a hunger strike. Following attempts of the authorities to clear up the University Square, where the protesters had been squatting during the previous months, some among the protesters grew violent and attacked the police headquarters and the national television station. When

216-587: A delegation of miners. Cornel Tomescu, head of the sector within the General Secretariat of the Government, said that upon arrival in Victoria Square, the miners were not violent. "The miners were calm, they did not shout slogans to the Government or the president and they were sitting on the caldera." During this period, altercations with counter-protesters and security forces broke out. A Government building

288-543: A million informers for a country with a population of 22 million by 1985. The Securitate under Nicolae Ceaușescu was one of the most brutal secret police forces in the world, responsible for the arrests, torture , and deaths of thousands of people. Following the Romanian Revolution in 1989, the new authorities assigned the various intelligence tasks of the Securitate to new institutions. The General Directorate for

360-716: A multitude of reasons ranging from religious oppression in members such as László Tőkés and alleged mismanagement and marginalization of undesirables within the Communist party in members such as Ion Iliescu. In the following years, the naming identity between the power body created in December 1989 and the group signing the November 1989 leaflets led some to question whether the National Salvation Front (FSN) existed as an underground organization. According to Silviu Brucan , this

432-534: A new mineriad , only this time they were stopped by the police at Stoenești , Olt . In the clash that followed, 100 policemen and 70 miners were wounded and at least one miner died. Cozma was arrested and sent to a prison in Rahova . Ion Iliescu pardoned Cozma's sentence on December 15, 2004, a few days before his term ended, but revoked the decision two days later, having faced the outrage of Romanian and international media and politicians. Cozma successfully challenged

504-596: A number of questions about Ceaușescu's mismanagement of the economy and human rights violations , while the second letter appealed to the Congress not to re-elect Ceaușescu. The creation of the FSN was officially announced to the public by Ion Iliescu in radio and TV addresses on 22 December 1989, after the overthrow of Ceaușescu in the Romanian Revolution . The FSN proclaimed itself the supreme power within Romania. Within four days,

576-622: A variety of restrictions preventing foreigners from residing with ordinary citizens, keeping them from gaining access to foreign embassy compounds and requesting asylum, and requiring them to report any contact with foreigners to the Securitate within twenty-four hours. Directorate IV was responsible for similar counterespionage functions within the armed forces, and its primary mission was identifying and neutralizing Soviet penetrations. The Directorate for Foreign Intelligence conducted Romania's espionage operations in other countries, such as those of Western Europe. Among those operations sanctioned by

648-457: Is difficult to understand the origins and the role of the Securitate". Initially, many of the agents of the Securitate were former Royal Security Police (named General Directorate of Safety Police — Direcția Generală a Poliției de Siguranță in Romanian) members. However, before long, Pantiușa ordered anyone who had served the monarchy's police in any capacity arrested, and in the places of

720-758: Is worth noting what Băsescu, stemming as a presidential candidate from the Democratic Party (PD), as part of the Justice and Truth Alliance (DA), remarked rhetorically in a live TV debate with Adrian Năstase , stemming from the Social Democratic Party (PSD), before the 2004 run-off presidential election : "You know what Romania's greatest curse is right now? It's that Romanians have to choose between two former Communist Party (PCR) members." Securitate The Department of State Security ( Romanian : Departamentul Securității Statului ), commonly known as

792-574: The Assembly of Deputies and the Senate . Petre Roman remained Prime Minister, and its government started cautious economic reforms. After growing tensions between Iliescu and Roman, on 7 April 1992, Iliescu and many other members left the FSN and created the Democratic National Salvation Front ( Romanian : Frontul Democrat al Salvării Naționale , FDSN), which eventually developed to be

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864-719: The East German Stasi was even more ubiquitous than the Securitate; counting informers, the Stasi had one spy for every 6.5 East Germans. During the period 1980–1989, the Securitate recruited over 200,000 informants, the largest number in its history, and about a third of the estimated number of 650,000 collaborators dating back to 1948; in 1989 alone, more than 25,000 recruitments were carried out. According to CNSAS  [ ro ] data, of those 200,000 new recruits, 158,000 were men. About 30,200 had higher education and more than 4,300 were students. Most collaborators came from

936-648: The National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives (abbreviated CNSAS , for Consiliul Național pentru Studierea Arhivelor Securității ) "is the authority that administrates the archives of the former communist secret services in Romania and develops educational programs and exhibitions with the aim of preserving the memories of victims of the communist regime." The General Directorate for Technical Operations (Direcția Generală de Tehnică Operativă — DGTO)

1008-714: The Romanian Communist Party (PCR) wrote an open letter to President Nicolae Ceaușescu that criticised his abuses of power and his economic policies. The so-called " Letter of the Six " was circulated in the Western media and read on Radio Free Europe . In 1989, before the 14th Congress of the Romanian Communist Party, two letters signed "National Salvation Front" began circulating. They were read on Radio Free Europe on 27 August and 8 November. The first letter had

1080-591: The Romanian Police . Directorate V were bodyguards for important governmental officials. Colonel Dumitru Burlan was the chief of bodyguards of President Nicolae Ceaușescu , and served once as his stand-in (double), but was not able to protect Ceaușescu from arrest and execution during the Romanian Revolution of 1989. In the 1980s under the rule of the Romanian Communist Dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu , Romania's secret police

1152-612: The Romanian Revolution of 1989, the Directorate for Security Troops was disbanded and replaced first by the Guard and Order Troops ( Trupele de Pază și Ordine ), and in July 1990 by the Gendarmerie . The Directorate for Militia controlled Romania's Miliția , the standard police force, which carried out regular policing tasks such as traffic control, public order, etc. In 1990 it was replaced by

1224-679: The Securitate ( pronounced [sekuriˈtate] , lit.   ' Security ' ), was the secret police agency of the Socialist Republic of Romania . It was founded on 30 August 1948 from the Siguranța with help and direction from the Soviet MGB . The Securitate was, in proportion to Romania's population, one of the largest secret police forces in the Eastern bloc . The first budget of

1296-564: The gendarmes at Costești was crossed by the miners and near Râmnicu Vâlcea a Gendarmerie unit was ambushed by the miners. Reaching Râmnicu Vâlcea, they sequestered the prefect of Vâlcea County . Radu Vasile , Prime Minister at the time, negotiated an agreement with Miron Cozma, the miners' leader, at the Cozia Monastery , nearby. On 14 February 1999, Cozma was found guilty for the 1991 mineriad and sentenced for 18 years in prison. The miners led by Cozma left for Bucharest attempting

1368-538: The Communist government were industrial espionage to obtain nuclear technology, and plots to assassinate dissidents, such as Matei Pavel Haiducu was tasked with, though he informed French authorities, faking the assassinations before defecting to France. 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. Some of

1440-412: The Directorate for Security Troops as there were in the regular army . They adhered to stricter discipline than in the regular military, but were rewarded with special treatment and enjoyed far superior living conditions compared to their countrymen. They guarded television and radio stations, as well as PCR buildings. In the event of a coup , they would have been called in to protect the regime. After

1512-471: The FSN against what he noted as "fascist forces, trying to destabilise the country". This has resulted in what were named the first and second Mineriads . FSN agreed to allow other parties to participate in the provisional government. The new governing body, the Provisional Council of National Unity ( Romanian : Consiliul Provizoriu de Uniune Națională , CPUN), still dominated by FSN, would run

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1584-477: The FSN formed an interim government with Ion Iliescu being the president and Petre Roman as the interim Prime Minister. The initial membership of FSN came from diverse backgrounds: intellectuals, students, army officers, but the leaders were mostly former Communist officials (see List of members of the National Salvation Front Council ). People flocked to the National Salvation Front (FSN) for

1656-412: The FSN into a political party. Some members of FSN, like Dumitru Mazilu, Mircea Dinescu , Ion Caramitru , Andrei Pleșu , Dan Hăulică, Gabriel Liiceanu , or Doina Cornea resigned before FSN became a political party. On 6 February 1990, the FSN, transformed itself into a political party, in order to be able to run in the upcoming elections. Except for a few newspapers, FSN had extensive control over

1728-546: The Jackal to assassinate Pacepa. Forced entry into homes and offices and the planting of microphones was another tactic the Securitate used to extract information from the general population. Telephone conversations were routinely monitored , and all internal and international fax and telex communications were intercepted. In August 1977, when the Jiu Valley coal miners' unions went on strike , several leaders died prematurely, and it

1800-513: The Jiu Valley to Bucharest to confront the demonstrators. The rest of Romania and the world watched the government television broadcasts of miners and other unionized workers brutally grappling with students and other protesters. Over the course of a month-long demonstration in University Square , many protesters had gathered with the goal of attaining official recognition for the 8th demand of

1872-564: The National Salvation Front (FSN), more specifically the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Democratic Liberal Party (PDL), the latter which ultimately merged into the National Liberal Party (PNL) in 2014, governed or participated in government coalitions from 1990 until today. The former President Traian Băsescu entered politics as an FSN member and served as Minister of Transportation in several FSN governments. It

1944-466: The Romanian mass-media, particularly the state owned television company and the newly founded Adevărul newspaper. Anti-FSN demonstrations were mounted by the Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party (PNȚ-CD) and the National Liberal Party (PNL) in late January and late February 1990, that degenerated into violence against state authorities. In turn, Iliescu called on the working class to support

2016-732: The Royal Security Policemen, he hired ardent members of the Romanian Communist Party (PCR), to ensure total loyalty within the organization. Several Securitate operatives were killed in action, especially in the early 1950s. As listed by the internal news bulletin on the occasion of Securitate's twentieth anniversary, in 1968, these included major Constantin Vieru, senior lieutenant Ștefan Vămanu, lieutenant Iosif Sipoș, sub-lieutenant Vasile Costan, platoon leader Constantin Apăvăloaie and corporal Alexandru Belate. Furthermore, lieutenant Ionel Jora

2088-449: The Securitate in 1948 stipulated a number of 4,641 positions, of which 3,549 were filled by February 1949: 64% were workers, 4% peasants , 28% clerks, 2% persons of unspecified origin, and 2% intellectuals . By 1951, the Securitate's staff had increased fivefold, while in January 1956, the Securitate had 25,468 employees. At its height, the Securitate employed some 11,000 agents and had half

2160-814: The Security of the People (Romanian initials: DGSP, but more commonly just called the Securitate) was officially founded on 30 August 1948, by Decree 221/30 of the Presidium of the Great National Assembly . However, it had precursors going back to August 1944, following the coup d'état of 23 August . Its stated purpose was to "defend democratic conquests and guarantee the safety of the Romanian People's Republic against both internal and external enemies." The Securitate

2232-473: The agitation and most of the brutality was the work of Iliescu’s government agents who had infiltrated and disguised themselves as miners. The Romanian miners of the Jiu Valley were called by the newly elected power to Bucharest to end the riots that broke up on 13 June 1990. As President Ion Iliescu put it, the miners were called to save the "besieged democratic regime" and restore order and democracy in Bucharest. The government trucked in thousands of miners from

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2304-557: The country from early February 1990 until the elections. Another, much larger, demonstration (the Golaniad ) against FSN's participation in the elections was organised in April 1990 and lasted 52 days, until 13–15 June, when it was violently dispersed by the third Mineriad . The FSN had strong support among the peasants and the urban industrial workers, while the PNL and PNŢCD had strong support among

2376-563: The country's population with vicious rumors (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. Often the term "intellectual" was used by the Securitate to describe dissidents who had higher education qualifications, such as college and university students, writers, directors, and scientists, who opposed

2448-479: The current Social Democratic Party ( Romanian : Partidul Social Democrat , PSD). Petre Roman remained leader of the FSN. On 28 May 1993, the party was renamed Democratic Party – National Salvation Front ( Romanian : Partidul Democrat – Frontul Salvării Naționale , PD-FSN), before shortening its name to Democratic Party (PD) in 1998. The National Salvation Front (FSN) has had a major impact on post-1989 Romanian politics . The two parties that emerged from

2520-425: The demonstrators' pleas to non-violence, several persons started throwing stones into the Government building. Riot police and army forces intervened to restore order, and on the same night, 4,000 miners headed to Bucharest. Opposition leaders and independent media speculated that the demonstration was manipulated by the Securitate and the FSN. Miners maintained their relative innocence of the violence, claiming that

2592-467: The deputy directorships. Wilhelm Einhorn was the first Securitate secretary. As Vladimir Tismăneanu says, "If one does not grasp the role of political thugs such as the Soviet spies Pintilie Bondarenko (Pantiușa) and Alexandru Nikolski in the exercise of terror in Romania during the most horrible Stalinist period, and their personal connections with Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej and members of his entourage, it

2664-533: The director of the Autonomous Directorate of Oil, Benone Costinaș, were assaulted in the Petrosani town hall. A group of miners then went to the Petrosani train station, where they demanded and were refused the use of trains for the miners to travel to Bucharest. On the morning of September 25, around 10.00 am, the miners from the Jiu Valley arrived at Băneasa railway station on several trains. Upon hearing

2736-438: The education area, approximately 8,500, and in second place were members of the clergy, almost 4,200. More than 3,600 doctors and nurses were informants, and 800 came from the legal professions. In the arts sector, over 1,000 recruits included 110 actors, 50 directors, 120 artists, 410 instrumentalists, 210 painters, and 55 sculptors. Less than 5% of the number of new informants (about 8,500) came from rural areas. After Ceaușescu

2808-593: The entire division was reorganized and was charged with rooting out dissent in the PCR. A top secret division of this Directorate was formed from forces loyal personally to Ceaușescu and charged with monitoring the Securitate itself. It acted almost as a Securitate for the Securitate, and was responsible for bugging the phones of other Securitate officers and PCR officials to ensure total loyalty. The National Commission for Visas and Passports controlled all travel and immigration in and out of Romania. In effect, traveling abroad

2880-535: The first weeks after the collapse of the communist regime . It subsequently became a political party, the largest post-communist party, and won the 1990 election with 66% of the national vote, under the leadership of then-President Ion Iliescu , who was elected with 85% of the vote. Iliescu nominated again Petre Roman as the Prime Minister of the first cabinet formed after the first free and fair elections. After

2952-452: The fourth ” mineriadă ”, Roman was forced to resign. The controversy between the two national leaders was finalized in 1992, at the national Congress of FSN, when the party split in two: the Democratic National Salvation Front (FDSN), under the leadership of President Iliescu; and FSN, under the leadership of Petre Roman (in 1993, it was the renamed as the Democratic Party (PD). The National Salvation Front (FSN) founded by Iliescu and Roman

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3024-414: The full term, Cozma was finally released on 2 December 2007, but was restricted from returning to either Petroșani or Bucharest. National Salvation Front (Romania) The National Salvation Front ( Romanian : Frontul Salvării Naționale , FSN ) was the most important political organization formed during the Romanian Revolution in December 1989, which became the governing body of Romania in

3096-523: The harshest prisons were those at Aiud , Gherla , Pitești , Râmnicu Sarat , and Sighet , as well as the forced labor camps along the Danube–Black Sea Canal and at Periprava . From 1948 to 1955, the penitentiaries operated by this Directorate were grouped into 4 categories: Gradually, a large number of penal colonies and labor camps were established as a form of political detention for administrative detainees and became an integral part of

3168-466: The intellectuals in urban areas. As popular anger was directly primarily at the Ceaușescu family , the FSN benefited from the institutional links of the disbanded Communist Party and needed no specific program in order to win the elections, being a catch-all party . FSN and its candidate Ion Iliescu comfortably won the legislative and presidential elections on 20 May 1990, obtaining a majority in both

3240-521: The legality of the withdrawal of the pardoning, and on the 14th of June 2005 he was freed by the Judge Court of Dolj county. However, on September 28, 2005, Cozma was sentenced by the Romanian High Court of Cassation and Justice to serve 10 years in prison for the January 1999 Mineriad, which included time already served. His request to be released on parole was denied on June 2, 2006. After serving

3312-414: The miners attacked the Government building with new forces and called for the Government to be dismissed. Representatives of the miners met for private talks with government officials. Miron Cozma threatened that if by 12:00 PM the resignation of the prime minister was not announced, he would call 40,000 trade unionists from Pipera, adding that probably no one wants a civil war. At 12:00, Alexandru Bârlădeanu,

3384-405: The miners from the Jiu Valley began a general strike and requested that Prime Minister Petre Roman visit Petroșani to listen to their grievances. The trade union leader Miron Cozma warned representatives of the Government that if the miners' dissatisfactions were not resolved as demanded, the miners will come in large numbers to Bucharest. During this time the sub-prefect, Ionel Botoroaga, and

3456-409: The miners returned to the Jiu Valley with the promise made that their demands would be addressed. Two days later Miron Cozma and the president of the country Ion Iliescu signed a statement that formally ended the mineriad. The Jiu Valley miners left again for Bucharest, unhappy with the governmental reduction of the subsidies, which would result in the closing of the mines. The barricade installed by

3528-493: The news that the miners were heading to the capital, the Prime Minister and President Ion Iliescu unsuccessfully tried several maneuvers to prevent them from reaching their destination. Led by the miners' union leader, Miron Cozma, the first stop was made in Victoriei Square, where the miners asked for a meeting with Prime Minister Petre Roman. When he did not appear, they asked for his resignation. Roman then agreed and met with

3600-598: The opposition newspaper România Liberă claimed that on 29 June 1990 over 40 bodies were buried in a common grave in Străulești , near Bucharest. Conspiracy theories and rumors circulated as to the origins and development of the mineriad, with some believing that both the Romanian Presidency and Secret Service had a hand in it. Later parliamentary inquiries into the potential role of the Secret Service contributed to

3672-899: The penitentiary system. The most important ones were along the Danube–Black Sea Canal , the Brăila Pond , and the lead mines in northern Romania. Specific locations included: Arad, Baia Mare, Baia Sprie, Bârcea Mare, Bicaz, Borzești, Brad, Brâncovenești, CRM Bucharest, Buzău, Capu Midia, Castelu, Cavnic, Câmpulung, Cernavodă, Chilia Constanța, Chirnogi, Crâscior, Culmea, Deduleşti, Doicești, Domnești, Dorobanțu, Dudu, Fântânele, Fundulea, Galeșu, Giurgeni, Ghencea, Iași, Ițcani, Km. 31, Lucăcești, Mărculești, Mogoșoaia, Nistru, Onești, Onești Baraj, Peninsula/Valea Neagră, Periprava , Periș, Poarta Albă, Roșia Montană, Roșia Pipera, Roznov, Salcia, Grădina, Băndoiu, Strâmba, Stoeneşti, Piatra-Frecăței, Saligny, Sibiu, Simeria, Slatina, Spanțov, Tătaru, Târnăveni, Toporu, Vlădeni, Zlatna. The Directorate for Internal Security

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3744-448: The philosophy of the Romanian Communist Party. Assassinations were also used to silence dissent, such as the attempt to kill high-ranking defector Ion Mihai Pacepa , who received two death sentences from Romania in 1978, and on whose head Ceaușescu decreed a bounty of two million US dollars . Yasser Arafat and Muammar al-Gaddafi each added one more million dollars to the reward. In the 1980s, Securitate officials allegedly hired Carlos

3816-405: The police were unable to contain the violence, Iliescu appealed to the miners to "defend the country". Special trains transported some 10,000 miners to the capital, where the miners violently confronted anyone they saw as opposing the government. The official figures state that during the third mineriad, seven people were killed and more than a thousand were wounded. In contrast to state statistics,

3888-430: The popular Proclamation of Timișoara , which stated that communists and former communists (including President Iliescu himself) should be prevented from holding official functions. Supporters of the opposition were dissatisfied with Iliescu's first government, which was made up mostly of former communists , claiming that it implemented reforms very slowly or not at all. The protests mostly ended after Iliescu’s FSN obtained

3960-658: The president of the Senate, announced on the public television the dismissal of the Romanian Government. The mining union leader asks the miners to go home because their claims have been resolved. In the afternoon of that day, the miners entered the Assembly Hall of the Assembly of Deputies and requested the resignation of President Ion Iliescu and the resolution of all the claims for which they came to Bucharest. Following discussion,

4032-499: The same annual pool of conscripts that the armed services used. The police performed routine law enforcement functions including traffic control and issuance of internal identification cards to citizens. Organized in the late 1940s to defend the new regime, in 1989 the security troops had 20,000 soldiers. They were an elite, specially trained paramilitary force organized like motorized rifle (infantry) units equipped with small arms, artillery, and armored personnel carriers, but their mission

4104-465: The successors of the two most important pre-Communist Romanian parties, more specifically the National Peasants' Party (PNŢ) and the National Liberal Party (PNL), were founded and registered. At first, the FSN announced that it would not be nominating candidates in the forthcoming elections. However, Silviu Brucan then launched the concept of the big party and supported the transformation of

4176-403: The target being, for example, an institute, a hospital, a school, or a company; case dossier ( dosar de problemă ), the targets being former political prisoners, former Iron Guard members, religious organizations, etc.; and element dossier ( dosar de mediu ), targeting writers, priests, etc. In the 1980s, the Securitate launched a massive campaign to stamp out dissent in Romania , manipulating

4248-429: The widespread public mistrust of the post- Ceaușescu intelligence service. Government inquiries would show that the miners had indeed been "joined by vigilantes who were later credibly identified as former officers of the Securitate", and that for two days, the miners had been aided and abetted by the former Securitate members in their violent confrontation with the protesters and other targets. On September 24, 1991,

4320-565: Was all but impossible for anyone but highly placed Party officials, and any ordinary Romanian who applied for a passport was immediately placed under surveillance. Many Jews and ethnic Germans were given passports and exit visas through tacit agreements with the Israeli and West German governments. The Directorate for Security Troops acted as a 20,000-strong paramilitary force for the government, equipped with artillery and armoured personnel carriers . The security troops selected new recruits from

4392-707: Was an integral part of the Securitate' s activities. Established with the assistance of the KGB in the mid-1950s, the DGTO monitored all voice and electronic communications in the country. The DGTO intercepted all telephone, telegraph, and telex communications coming into and going out of the country. It secretly implanted microphones in public buildings and private residences to record ordinary conversations among citizens. The Directorate for Counterespionage conducted surveillance against foreigners—Soviet nationals in particular—to monitor or impede their contacts with Romanians. It enforced

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4464-557: Was attacked by some groups, leading to the evacuation of the building. In the evening, the miners, led by Cozma, headed towards the Romanian Television and University Square. They then went to the Cotroceni Palace to discuss with President Ion Iliescu the conditions under which they were willing to withdraw. Cozma demanded the dismissal of Prime Minister Roman in exchange for a cessation of the miners' protest. On September 26,

4536-693: Was considerably different. The security troops were directly responsible through the Minister of the Interior to Ceaușescu. They guarded important installations including PCR county and central office buildings and radio and television stations. The Ceaușescu regime presumably could call the security troops into action as a private army to defend itself against a military coup d'état or other domestic challenges and to suppress antiregime riots, demonstrations, or strikes. To ensure total loyalty amongst these crack troops, there were five times as many political officers in

4608-498: Was created with the help of SMERSH , the NKVD counter-intelligence unit. The SMERSH operation in Romania, called Brigada Mobilă ("The Mobile Brigade"), was led until 1948 by NKVD colonel Alexandru Nicolschi . The first Director of the Securitate was NKVD general Gheorghe Pintilie (born Panteleymon Bondarenko , nicknamed "Pantiușa"). Alexandru Nicolschi (by then a general) and another Soviet officer, Major General Vladimir Mazuru , held

4680-542: Was intended to be) non-violent, the protesters charged the Parliament building and demanded the resignation of the FSN party. After that, the FSN started talks with the parliamentary opposition parties. The miners boarded the trains at Gara de Nord and departed to their homes, but not before President Ion Iliescu thanked them for their services. Less than a month after the January mineriad, another anti-Communist manifestation took place in Bucharest on February 18. Despite

4752-494: Was killed by the son of a suspect he had apprehended. The Securitate surveillance took place in different ways: general intelligence surveillance ( supraveghere informativă generală , abbreviated "S.I.G."); priority intelligence surveillance ( supraveghere informativă prioritară , abbreviated "S.I.P."); clearance file ( mapă de verificare , abbreviated "M.V."); individual surveillance dossier ( dosar de urmărire individuală , abbreviated "D.U.I."); target dossier ( dosar de obiectiv ),

4824-402: Was later discovered that Securitate doctors had subjected them to five-minute chest X-rays in an attempt to have them develop cancer. After birth rates fell, Securitate agents were placed in gynecological wards while regular pregnancy tests were made mandatory for women of child-bearing age, with severe penalties for anyone who was found to have terminated a pregnancy. The Securitate's presence

4896-605: Was not the case, as the letters were written by Alexandru Melian, a professor at the University of Bucharest , who had no connection to the leaders of the NSF. This was contradicted by Nicolae Militaru , who claimed that he, together with Ion Iliescu, led a clandestine National Salvation Front which asked Melian to write this appeal. On 27 December, the FSN decreed the abolition of the one-party system and called for free elections. Shortly afterwards, two major political parties claiming to be

4968-518: Was originally given the task of monitoring the activities going on in the PCR. But after Ion Mihai Pacepa's defection in 1978 and his exposing details of the Ceaușescu regime, such as the collaboration with Arab radical groups, massive espionage on American industry targets and elaborate efforts to rally Western political support, international infiltration and espionage in the Securitate only increased, much to Ceaușescu's anger. In order to solve this problem

5040-420: Was ousted, the new authorities replaced the Securitate with a few special and secret services like the SRI ( Romanian Intelligence Service ) (with internal tasks such as counterespionage), the SIE ( Foreign 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. Today,

5112-575: Was so ubiquitous that it was believed one out of four Romanians was an informer. In truth, the Securitate deployed one agent or informer for every 43 Romanians, which was still a high enough proportion to make it practically impossible for dissidents to organize. The regime deliberately fostered this sense of ubiquity, believing that the fear of being watched was sufficient to bend the people to Ceaușescu's will. For example, one shadow group of dissidents limited itself to only three families; any more than that would have attracted Securitate attention. In truth,

5184-555: Was the common root of two of the largest active political parties in post-communist Romania: the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Democratic Party (PD, later the Democratic Liberal Party , PDL, after the merger with a splinter group from PNL, the Liberal Democratic Party , PLD). In 2014, the second party (the former PD; then PDL) merged into the National Liberal Party (PNL). In March 1989 six prominent members of

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