The horror methods of the Security: torture, re-education and the suppression of Romanian elites

In the 1950s, Romanians experienced the worst oppression during the communist regime. Through the Security, full of brutalized elements, those classified as enemies of the people, i.e. intellectuals, village householders, entrepreneurs were beaten and tortured.

Security listening office

The communists came to power in Romania with the support of the Red Army, Soviet agents, but also a massive electoral fraud. In other words, they did not have a solid mass base. In addition, numerous anti-communist partisan groups had formed in Romania and the idea of ​​collectivization had sparked revolt in many rural communities.

That is precisely why, in order to effectively Stalinize Romania and to transform Romanians from “gentlemen” into “comrades”, the communist authorities established a political police following the Soviet model, with a name that is a sad memory for many Romanians. It is, of course, the dreaded Security.

In the 50s, the Securitate, through its workers, had the tough mission to break any form of anti-communist resistance and at the same time to intimidate the population. From the very beginning, in that terrible decade of murders and extortions, the Securitate targeted the “enemy elements”, i.e. village householders, entrepreneurs, intellectuals, all those who might challenge the regime or oppose resistance. Many clogged the prisons.

But before they got behind bars, they had to go through the caudal forks of the Security investigations. Here they were tortured and beaten. The remaining testimonies indicate the cruelty and the way in which the security guards, generally recruited from the very bottom categories of society, with poor education, beat Romania's urban and rural elites.

1950s security guard quality: uneducated, violent and jobless

The General Directorate of People's Security was officially established in 1948, by a decree of the Presidium of the Grand National Assembly of the People's Republic of Romania. According to historians, the foundations of the Security were laid as early as 1944, by a division of the NKVD led in Romania until 1948 by Colonel Alexandru Nicolski (real name Boris Grünberg). Its mission was to replace the secret services in the countries occupied by the USSR with Soviet-type structures. The founding decree gave the Security the role of “to defend democratic conquests and ensure the security of the Romanian People's Republic against the machinations of internal and external enemies”.

As an organizational structure, it included ten national departments with almost 1200 employees. The number of security guards has increased from one year to the next. And this because the missions of “fighting the enemies of the people” were more and more demanding and the “reactionary elements” were more and more numerous. In 1956 it reached over 12,800 employees, of which over 10,500 were Security officers.

Security guards were recruited, from the very beginning, from among the lower ranks of society. Especially among unskilled workers and poor peasants. That is, from among those afflicted with social and economic frustrations who couldn't wait to “process” bourgeois, landlords, intellectuals and other “exploiting” categories. Initially the recruitment was done under the close observation of Soviet advisers, people with experience in the political police.

“From the very beginning, the Soviet advisers, who supervised the selection, recruitment and training of cadres, focused on people with poor professional training, coming especially from unskilled workers. The preference for people with a 'healthy social origin' was reflected in the composition of the DGSP cadres, immediately after its establishment: 64% workers, 4% peasants, 28% civil servants, 2% intellectuals and 2% with unspecified origin(…) On December 31, 1951, the scheme was staffed with 10,423 cadres. Of these, 4,173 were of labor origin, 3,484 came from poor peasants, 508 from middle-class peasants, 143 from agricultural workers, 853 from civil servants, 131 from small craftsmen, and 107 came from families of small traders”specified the historian Florin Banu in “Profile of the Security employee in the 50s”, from “Totalitarianism and Resistance”.

The overwhelming majority of those entering the ranks of the Security in the 50s were individuals without much schooling. Most had seven grades. Only 2-3% of all security guards had higher education. There were also individuals who did not go beyond primary school. Most of them had entered the Security only after completing a “Security Course” of a maximum of half a year. “There were elements that didn't stick to the job even in the factory,” testified Gheorghe Apostol.

“Among the workers, those declassified elements who formed, in Marxist terminology, the lumpenproletariat (…) Such people generally felt unable to acquire a job and even less to improve it. Security ensured them a better social position, a sense of personal safety (the risk of being arrested almost disappeared, which was not small in the years when practically anyone could be arrested for various accusations), much more consistent accusations, and all he asked for in return was blind obedience and the most brutal behavior with the “enemies of the people”Florin Banu added in the same article.

Many security guards in the 50's were not even capable of making comprehensible reports, they could barely write their names. Instead, they beat with gusto and sent innocent people to prison, ready to be flogged. For example, Major Security Lieutenant Constantin Oancă was described as straight “Vicious bully. Almost illiterate. Signed with great difficulty”.

That is why the methods used to extract statements from the “enemies of the people” were not surprising. The security guards had turned into torturers rather than investigators. Lacking empathy, poorly educated, they beat mercilessly. Some interrogated persons also confessed what they had not done because of torture.

“They beat me worse than animals”

The fight was constant in the Security investigations in the 50s. In fact, the investigators did not necessarily want to know the truth but to make the arrested say what the security wanted to hear. They were to arrest as many “enemies of the people” as possible and make them confess to all the atrocities.

And this was achieved through torture. The security guards were patient, that was just their job. They could beat and blackmail a man for days. In some cases, brute force was simply applied. The one detained by the Security was beaten until he passed out. He was then taken to the cell. The next day he started all over again. Until he gave names and confessed.

“I, who had done nothing concrete and was treated like that, said the others. They beat me cruelly, stepped on my feet and I didn't say anything. In my mind I was praying to God and Jesus Christ to help me keep quiet. I also fainted during investigations. They beat me worse than animals. Then I was taken to be investigated by the Securitate in Iasi, I was beaten again. I was sleeping directly on the cement and with a bright light constantly on. I don't even remember what I ate, it was so little. I don't know how I survived”testified Vasile Maluș, in 2016.

Another political prisoner, originally Jewish, confesses how he was beaten by a Security officer, the top, also Jewish. In this case, the brute force was masked by a wet towel. There were some more “elegant” officers who wanted to mask the torture. “I counted four blows on the back, delivered, however, after I had been covered with a wet towel, so that the marks could not be seen. All the while I heard the voice of a young lieutenant, who, with the excess of Jewish zeal, insisted not only on assisting the beating, but also on pulling my bangs.” testified a political prisoner quoted in “Security/ Structures, cadres, objectives and methods 1948-1967”, of CNSAS.

Generally, for the less educated elements of the Security, the beating was most handy. Simple, unimaginative, brutal and effective. As raw methods documented in the work of Cezar Zugravu, a former political prisoner, “Torture methods from the Security, from prisons and from extermination camps”, are mentioned, the beating of the soles, the beating of the palms with a whip or an ox goad, but also the unchained blows with fists and feet.

“Free” blows were usually applied to the neck, jugular veins, abdomen and face. The beatings on the soles were applied over the shoes after the victim was lying down and tied to a table. As a result of the beatings on the soles, the whole body was shaken and suffered.

Rats, cats and crucifixions

But there were also security guards with imagination, even if sick. For example, a cat was inserted under the victim's shirt. The rescuer would wake up the cat, scare it or annoy it, and it, wanting to get out, would dig its claws into the skin of the person under investigation. Obviously, the cat was not let out quickly, to prolong the torment. Then there was the special cell, a favorite method of the Bucharest security guards, where the prisoner was left for days on end only in the company of rats.

The victim was undressed before being brought into that room. Obviously there were other brutal methods like sandbagging. The victim was lying on a table, tied up and hit with a sandbag. Internal organs were often dislocated and death occurred. Crucifixion on the wall was also practiced among the methods.

As the name suggests, the victim was caught with arms and legs spread by strings on pulleys. She was raised above the ground beaten and starved until she confessed what she had not done. In addition to these there were nail crushing, nail pulling or beating with thin wooden sticks on the back.

Among the harshest was the beating on the testicles. Resiţi history teacher Mircea Rusnac, author of the blog “Istoria Banatului”, made a documentary dedicated to the torture of Vida Nenica and the methods she used.

“About her activity as a torturer, numerous testimonies of former prisoners who knew her have been collected over time. They all spoke with great horror when they referred to her. We continue to exemplify, to complete the portrait of a female executioner from the Stalinist era. The Greek-Catholic bishop of Lugoj, then in hiding, Ioan Ploscaru, enumerating the methods of coercion used by the security guards, mention: >”says Mircea Rusnac.