Paper title:
 The Communist Takeover in Romania. The Fight for the Control over the Secret Service of Information (March – July 1945)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4316/CC.2023.01.07
Published in:
Issue 1 (Vol. 29) / 2023
Publishing date:
2023-07-31
Pages:
135 - 150
Author(s):
Gheorghe Onișoru
Abstract:
 Control over the institutions of force was essential for the Romanian Communist Party's strategy to seize complete state power. In such a context, the Special Information Service’s politicized activity stood out immediately after the establishment of the Petru Groza government, on March 6, 1945.
Emil Bodnăraș was the key figure appointed for this mission by the party leadership. This study explores the most important period, March – July 1945, using documents from secret archives, some of which have recently been made available to researchers.
Keywords:
 Emil Bodnăraș, Special Information Service, Communist takeover, Cold War, Soviet occupation, Popular democracy.




References:
1. Archive of the National Council for the Study of Security Archives, Fund Penal; Fund S.I.E.
2. Archive of the Romanian Intelligence Service, Fund Penal; Fund Documentary; Fund “Y”.
3. Banu Florian, Emil Bodnăraș, patriot român sau agent sovietic? [Emil Bodnăraș, Romanian patriot or Soviet agent?], in “Enigmele istoriei”, I, 2020, no. 1, pp. 3-8.
4. Banu Florian, Țăranu Liviu (Coords.), Securitatea, 1948 – 1989. Monografie [The Securitate, 1948 – 1989. Monograph], vol. I, Târgoviște, Cetatea de Scaun, 2016.
5. Bottoni Stefano, Reassessing the Communist Takeover in Romania: Violence, Institutional Continuity, and Ethnic Conflict Management, in “East European Politics and Societies”, Vol. 24, 2010, No. 1, pp. 59–89.
6. Central National Historical Archives, Fund Collection 50. Documents elaborated by the repressive organs about the activity of the Romanian Communist Party and revolutionary mass organizations; Fund Presidency of the Council of Ministers. Transcripts; Fund Presidency of the Council of Ministers. Special Information Service; Fund Collection of party files of party members from illegal years who died; Fund C.C. of the R.C.P. Chancellery Section; Fund C.C. of the R.C.P. Administrative Political Section; Fund Ministry of the Interior. Varia; Fund Ministry of National Propaganda. Internal press; Fund Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej. Collection; Fund I.S.I.S.P. Moments from the history of the Romanian people; Fund I.S.I.S.P. Memories and memoirs regarding the revolutionary and democratic labour movement in Romania (fund XVII).
7. Csendes Ladislau-Antoniu, NKVD/ KGB Approaches and Party Control in Romanian Secret Services and Army between 1948 – 1964, in Grúňová Alexandra (Ed.), NKVD/KGB Activities and its Cooperation with other Secret Services in Central and Eastern Europe 1945 – 1989. Anthology of the international conference, Bratislava 14. – 16. 11. 2007, Bratislava, Nation´s Memory Institute, 2008, pp. 79-86.
8. Ministry of the Interior, Organizarea şi funcţionarea organelor Ministerului de Interne de la înfiinţare până în prezent [The organization and functioning of the bodies of the Ministry of the Interior from its establishment until now], Bucharest, 1978.
9. Onișoru Gheorghe, „Stalin și poporul rus...” Democrație și dictatură în România contemporană. Premizele instaurării comunismului [‘Stalin in and the Russian people...’. Democracy and dictatorship in contemporary Romania. The premises of the establishment of communism], Bucharest, Corint Publishing House, 2021.
10. Onișoru Gheorghe, May 15, 1943: Dissolution of the Komintern and its effects on the Communist Party of Romania, in “Analele Universității din Craiova”, Istorie, Vol. XIX, 2014, no. 2, pp.75-84.
11. Onișoru Gheorghe, Revolta „tovarășului de drum”. Memoriul lui Gheorghe Tătărescu din 22 mai 1947 [The revolt of the ‘way comrade’. Gheorghe Tătărescu`s Memoire from Mai,22, 1947], in “Arhivele totalitarismului”, 2022, no. 1-2, p. 93-116.
12. Roske Octavian (Coord.), România 1945 – 1989. Enciclopedia regimului comunist. Represiunea [Romania 1945 – 1989. The Encyclopedia of the Communist Regime. The Repression], vol. IV, S – Ș, Bucharest, I.N.S.T., 2021.
13. S.R.I., Cartea Albă a Securității [The White Paper of Securitate], vol. I, August 23, 1944 - August 30, 1948, Bucharest, 1997.
14. Trașcă Ottmar, Relațiile politice și militare româno-germane, septembrie 1940 – august 1944 [Romanian – German Political and Military Relations, September 1940 – August 1944], Cluj, Argonaut, 2013.
15. Troncotă Cristian, Omul de taină al Mareșalului (The Marshal`s Confident), Bucharest, 2005.