Published October 18, 2024 | Version v1
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NICOLAE CEAUSESCU AND THE ARMY. DISSIDENCE AND MILITARY OPPOSITION. 1965 – 1989 (II)

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  • 1. Institute of the Romanian Revolution of December 1989

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During the communist regime in Romania (1945 - 1989), the Romanian Army was at the centre of the attention of the governmental political factor in order to transform it into an armed and secure arm of the Romanian Communist Party (PCR) for the defence of the political, economic and social regime, as well as the independence and sovereignty of the socialist state against foreign intervention, especially by the member states of the Warsaw Treaty. The military institution was “democratised' after 6 March 1945 and, later on, pushed down the slope of a nationalism with clear anti-Sovietism and anti-Russian accents. This study aims at analysing this process of deSovietisation and re-nationalisation of the Romanian Army after 1965, the relations between Nicolae Ceausescu and the Army's leaders, as well as the ability of the Army to position itself in relation to the political and economic failures of Ceausescu regime, through different formulas of opposition and dissidence. Did some of the generals 
of the Romanian Army plan a military coup against Nicolae Ceausescu, with the support of the USSR, or was it just an unjustified fear of Ceausescu regime? The answer to this question, as new documents and testimonies have entered the historiographical circuit after December 1989, confirms that the representatives of Ceausescu regime amplified their fear of the power of the Army and tried to control and rein it in. According to some military decision-makers at the time, the leadership of the Socialist Romanian Army did not dare to think of a military coup against Nicolae Ceaușescu.

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References

  • 1. Anneli Ute Gabanyi, Revoluția neterminată/Unfinished revolution, Bucharest, Romanian Cultural Foundation Publishing House, 1999. 2. Stejărel Olaru, Georg Herbstritt, STASI și Securitatea/STASI and Security, Bucharest, Humanitas Publishing House, 2005. 3. Nicolae Militaru was born on 10 November 1925 in Bălești (Gorj County) and died on 27 December 1996 in Bucharest. The future General of the Romanian Army attended "Mihail V. Frunze" Military Academy in Moscow from 1952 to 1956, becoming, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, chief of staff of the 10th "Ștefan cel Mare" Infantry Division in Iasi, then Commander of the Great Unit (MU), of the 2nd Mechanised Division in Craiova and, later, chief of staff of the 3 rd Army in Cluj-Napoca (1961-1965). On 17 June 1965, he took command of the 3rd Army, which he held until 8 July 1969 when he took command of the 2nd Army in Bucharest. He was promoted to the rank of Colonel-General on 19 August 1974. He remained in that position until 5 June 1978. The historians Petre Opriș and Gavriil Preda have published (in the volume România în Organizația Tratatului de la Varșovia. Documente. 1954 – 1961/ Romania in the Warsaw Treaty Organization. Documents. 1954 – 1961, vol. I, Bucharest, INST, 2008, p. 305 - 306) a document dated 4 March 1961, namely the protocol of the Political Bureau of CC of the PMR, which approved the promotion to the rank of Major-General of 14 colonels, including Colonel Lepădatu N. Militaru (Infantry). In military documents from the 1960's, the future opponent of Nicolae Ceaușescu signed "Militaru Nicolae Lepădat". 4. Constantin Olteanu , O viață de om. Dialog cu jurnalistul Dan Constantin/A life of man. Dialogue with journalist Dan Constantin, Bucharest, Niculescu Publishing House, 2012. 5. Ioan Dan, Teroriștii din '89 /The terrorists of '89, Bucharest, Lucman Publishing House, 2012. "In a discussion I had with him (Nicolae Militaru – author's note), he was keen to explain to me where he was suspected of having collaborated with the KGB or the GRU. He told me that, during the military applications organised under the Warsaw Military Pact, he refused to be helped by the translator in discussions with the Soviet military and, hence the suspicion," General (r) Ioan Dan, former deputy head of the Military Prosecution Directorate, records, referring to General (r) Nicolae Militaru and his links with the intelligence services of USSR. 6. The envelope containing the self-denouncement of Nicolae Militaru remained in the possession of Minister Ion Coman and was handed over in March 1980 to Constantin Olteanu when he took office as Minister of National Defence. In December 1985, the envelope was again handed over to Ion Coman and not to Colonel General Vasile Milea the new Minister of National Defence. In such a situation a question arises: was Nicolae Militaru a secret agent of GRU or just a supporter of USSR policy within the framework of the Warsaw Treaty and in the world? The non-existence in the historiographical circuit of documents from the files of the 4th Military Counterintelligence Division of DSS, with reference to Nicolae Militaru , adds to the mystery surrounding this officer and his role in the confrontation between the intelligence community of socialist Romania, which supported domestic and foreign policy of Nicolae Ceausescu and the KGB & GRU, as instruments of power of the Soviet Union.
  • 7. "In these circumstances, General Ion Coman ,Minister of National Defence, said to me: "When you go to see the comrade, remind him of the dismissal of Militaru as commander of the 2nd Army!". Nicolae Ceausescu , when I referred to General Nicolae Militaru ,asked me: "Why is Coman in such a hurry to have Militaru discharged and seconded?", resulting in the hesitation of the Commander-in-Chief in this case. I only said that I am convinced that the Minister of National Defence is aware of the situation that has arisen", General (r) Constantin Olteanu confessed. 8. Victor A. Stănculescu , Alex Mihai Stoenescu , În sfârșit adevărul.../Finally the truth..., Bucharest, RAO Publishing House, 2009. 9. Sorin Turturică, Adevăruri pătrunse și nepătrunse/Intense and unfathomable truths, in Caietele Revoluției/The revolution notebooks, issue 5/37, 2011. 10. He was born on 15 August 1922 in Timișoara. He graduated the Post-Academic Course for Commanders and Chiefs of Staffs of Units and Large Units at the General Military Academy (January - July 1953), specialization course in the USSR (1956), and "K. E. Voroșilov" Higher Military Academy of General Staff in the USSR (April 1956 - November 1958). Military ranks: Major - August 1949, Lieutenant-Colonel in January 1950, Colonel - September 1951 and Major-General in August 1954. Positions held: Deputy Head of the Cadre Directorate (October 1949 - April 1951), Head of the Organisation - Training Directorate of DSPA (April 1951 - September 1953), Member of the Military Council of the 2nd and 3rd Military Regions and Political Deputy to the Commander of CAAT (August 1953 - September 1956), Political Deputy to the Commander of the General Military Academy (December 1958 - November 1959) and Head of the Control Directorate of DSPA (November 1959 - June 1970). By Decree No. 278 of 4 June 1970, Reserve Major General Stefan Kostyal was stripped of his rank and was listed as a reservist with the rank of private. In the 1980's, he was imprisoned on official charges of stealing energy from his home meter.By Decree No. 108 of 8 February 1990, he was reinstated to the rank of Major General and was entered in the reserve military register with this rank. He died on 1 February 2013. 11. Gavriil Preda, Petre Opriș, România în organizația Tratatului de la Varșovia. 1954 – 1968/Romania in the Warsaw Treaty Organization. Documents. 1954 – 1968, vol. II, Bucharest, National Institute for the Study of Totalitarianism, 2009. 12. See: Virgil Măgureanu , Alex Mihai Mihai Stoenescu De la regimul comunist la regimul Iliescu/From the communist regime to the Iliescu regime, Bucharest, RAO Publishing House, 2008. 13. Ion Iliescu , După 20 de ani. 1989 – an de cotitură în istoria națională și în viața internațională/After 20 years. 1989 – turning year in national history and international life, Bucharest, Semne Publishing House, 2010. 14. For details, see the testimony of General (r) Nicolae Militaru of 25 August 1992 when he asked to be recognised as a "Fighter for the victory in the Romanian Revolution of December 1989", at http://ovidiu-nicolaeceausescu.blogspot.ro/2011/04/declaratie-memoriu-25-august-1992-gen.html. "In the preparations being made, the involvement of the Army, as an institution, in the coup d'état action was completely excluded, as was the use of conventional weaponry, in order to avoid loss of human life. The action was to be carried out by an «assault squad», made up of military personnel of various arms, and the army was to interpose itself between the civilian population, which was taking to the streets in support of the revolutionary forces, and the forces of repression", Nicolae Militaru states in the said memo. 15. After graduating from military school in Romania, he completed the Higher School for Tank and Tank Car Officers (class of 1951, USSR), the Advanced Training Course for Regiment Commanders (1955) and the Military Academy (1957-1959, USSR), with "Very Good" rating and the Gold Medal. General Paul Cheler served as deputy commander of the Infantry and Tank Command (1977-1981) for operational and strategic applications under the Warsaw Treaty, and was four times commander of the "Romanian Front", each time being awarded the "Very Good" rating. He was put on reserve status under Decree No. 30 of 28 February 1985. We mention that he was a colleague at the Military Academy in Moscow with Major General Stefan Kostyal, who attended staff courses organised between April 1956 and November 1958. 16. Dumitru Pletos fought in the Second World War. He graduated from the School of Officers in 1950 and then from the Military Academy in the USSR (1959 - 1961). From 1958 to 1959, he was the commander of the 234th Mechanised Regiment (which became the 36th Mechanised Regiment on 10 January 1959). Subsequently, he was the commander of the 2nd Mechanised Division in Craiova (August 1961 - June 1973) and of "Tudor Vladimirescu - Debrecen" 1st Mechanised Division. In February 1985, he was put on reserve status. 17. With Manea Mănescu and Ion Gheorghe Maurer . 18. Ion Iliescu , Revoluție și reformă/Revolution and reform, Bucharest, Enciclopedică Publishing House, 1994. 19. On 23 September 1993, before the Senate Committee for the Investigation of the Events of December 1989, Nicolae Militaru told about his visit to the Soviet Consulate in Constanta: "On 20 August 1987, I went to Constanta in person and went to the Soviet Consulate General. We were part of the Warsaw Treaty, you know very well. We were extraordinarily afraid, we didn't like ambiguity, even the ambiguity of Gorbachev . So I went there, went to the Consul General and asked three questions. I showed him my card. He walked away from me and after about twenty minutes he came and replied to the three issues. The first issue: that the Soviet Union has no reason and will never interfere in domestic affairs of Romania. So, as such, do as you like. The second issue: that the new authorities would be immediately acknowledged by the Soviet Government. And the third issue, which was the hottest, the most important: there will be no repetition of what happened in August 1968 in Czechoslovakia. I drank the brandy with which he had served me and the coffee, and I left with an extraordinary satisfaction. That was the only contact there was, that I know of, where I was personally involved." The way in which the Soviet intelligence services and the Ministry of External Affairs from Moscow, with the agreement of the PCUS, dealt with the plot of Nicolae Militaru reveals the fact that such actions and such plotters were not in the foresight of the USSR political leadership.
  • 20. Lieutenant General Popa Constantin headed the Army Intelligence Directorate from 26 November 1960 to 10 December 1963, with the rank of Major General. Referring to the period during which MajorGeneral Constantin Popa headed the DIA, the authors of the book Direcția de Informații Militare între ficțiune și adevăr/Military Intelligence Directorate between fiction and truth (Bucharest, 1994, 264 p.) state (p. 142): "General Constantin Popa was an officer with a rich and beautiful general and military culture, close in his relations with the people. He sought to maintain and capitalise on what had been achieved up to that time in the field of military intelligence and showed care and prudence in establishing appropriate relations between the Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff and the similar Soviet body, taking into account the nature of state and military relations with the Soviet Union at that time". 21. Angela Băcescu, România 1989. Din nou în calea năvălirilor barbare/Romania 1989. Again in the way of the barbarian invasions, Cluj-Napoca, Zalmoxis Publishing House, 1994. 22. Cristian Troncotă, Duplicitarii. O istorie a Serviciilor de Informații și Securitate ale regimului comunist din România/Duplicating. A history of the Information and Security Services of the Communist regime in Romania, Bucharest, Elion Publishing House, 2003. Historian Cristian Troncotă mentions in the subchapter Military counterintelligence neutralises Soviet agents the existence of generals and senior officers of the MApN, the Ministry of Interior and the State Security Council proved to be GRU agents: Colonel Iulian Ungureanu, former commander of the School of Officers for the Ministry of the Interior in Oradea and, later, a worker with responsible positions in an operational division in the central body of the CSS; General Floca Arhip, deputy to the Minister of National Defence; General Vasile Petruț, former commander of the Guard Troops and, later, a worker in the Propaganda Directorate of the Higher Political Division of the Army; Colonel Dumitru Cociuban of DIA of the MStM, taken under political protection by Iosif Uglar, substitute member of CC of the PCR and President of the Committee for People's Councils. 23. Marius Oprea, Moștenitorii Securității/Heirs of Security, Bucharest, Humanitas Publishing House, 2004. The historian Marius Oprea writes the following about UM 0110 archive: "It is possible that the answer to the disappearance of the documents of the former 0110 counter-espionage unit in the "Eastern countries" (especially the USSR) may be provided by reviewing the internal documents of the Archives Division of SRI. According to a source who remains anonymous, a large part of the archives of UM 0110, some 40,000 pages, stored at Iasi, was transferred to Bucharest in 1994-1995. Where, it seems, it never went". 24. The archives of the 4th Military Counterintelligence Division were taken over by MApN intelligence structures and are still in their possession. See: interview with the Head of the SRI Archives, Florin Pintilie, in Jurnalul Național, Year XIII, Monday, 16 May 2005, p. 8 - 9. 25. From 1944 to 1946, he was a serving soldier in "Tudor Vladimirescu" 1st Infantry Division, then a non-commissioned gendarme officer from 1946 to 1948. He attended the School of Officers of MAI (1948 - 1949), and on 23 August 1949, he was promoted to second lieutenant and appointed political deputy of the company commander at Rădăuți Training Centre for Border Guards, later on commander of a border guards battalion. He became a captain in 1950 and went on training at "Klement E. Vorosilov" Military Academy in Moscow from 1950 to 1952. On 8 August 1954, he took over the command of the Command of Border Guard and Security Troops. Colonel Ioan Șerb was promoted to the rank of Major General on 30 July 1955 and commanded the Command of Border Guard and Security Troops until 1 March 1960, when all major guard units were transferred from MIA to MFA. On 3 November 1961 he was relieved from the position of Commander of the Border Guard Troops, following the decision of the Political Bureau of CC of the PMR. Major-General Ioan Șerb was appointed as Deputy Commander of the 2nd Army (1961) and on 10 June 1965, he became its Commander, replacing Lieutenant-General Ion Gheorghe . Lieutenant-General Ioan Șerb was appointed commander of the military parade organised in Bucharest on the occasion of the celebration of the National Day of the Socialist Republic of Romania on 23 August 1967. On 7 July 1969, the members of the Permanent Presidium of CC of the PCR approved the release of Lieutenant-General Ioan Șerb from the position of Commander of the 2nd Army and his appointment as Deputy Commander of the Infantry and Tank Command. 26. He served only four years in prison. 27. Ioan Mircea Pașcu was born on 17 February 1949 in Satu Mare. He graduated from the Academy of Economic Studies, Faculty of Foreign Trade in Bucharest (class of 1971) and holds a PhD in Political Science from the Institute of Political Science in Bucharest (1980). He worked as a researcher at the Institute of Political Science in Bucharest, Department of International Relations, being major in international security research (1971-1986) and as a lecturer in the Department of International Relations of "Stefan Gheorghiu" Academy of Social and Political Studies (1986-1989). He was a member of the Foreign Policy Commission of the Council of the National Salvation Front (31 December 1989 - 1 July 1990) and of the Provisional Council for National Unity (9 February 1990 - 15 May 1990). He was Presidential Counsellor and Head of the Foreign Policy Division and Political Analysis Department of the Romanian Presidential Administration (1 July 1990 - 1 October 1992). Lecturer in International Relations at the National School of Political and Administrative Studies (SNSPA) since 1990, Dean of the Faculty of International Relations at SNSPA (1990-1996) and Head of the Department of International Relations at SNSPA since 2004. He has participated in numerous international scientific seminars, research internships and fellowships in the West: the Seminar for American Studies from Salzburg (Austria, 1973), Ford Foundation Fellowship (1979 - 1981), visiting associate professor at St. Catherine's College, Oxford University (1985), Resident Researcher at the Institute of EastWest Security Studies (New York, 1988-1989), Japan Foundation Fellowship, Centre for Slavonic Research, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, and Visiting Researcher at the Japan Forum on International Relations (1992-1993). He was Vice-Chairman of the National Salvation Front (1990-1992) and Vice-Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (1997 - 2006), Member of the Romanian Parliament for Maramureș, Chairman of the Committee for Defence, Public Order and National Security of the Chamber of Deputies (1996 - 2000), Member of the Romanian Parliament for Satu Mare (2000 - 2007), State Secretary in the Ministry of National Defence (22 March 1993 - 22 November 1996), Minister of National Defence from 2001 - 2004. Member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London (since 1993) and of DCAF (Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces) Advisory Committee (since 2002). From 2009 to 2014, he was a Member of the European Parliament on behalf of the Social Democratic Party. 28. Vartan Arachelian , În fața dumneavoastră. Revoluția și personajele sale/In front of you. The revolution and its characters, Bucharest, Nemira Publishing House, 1998. In a television show of journalist Vartan Arachelian and called În fața dumneavoastră, DIA Colonel Paul Sarpe categorically rejected claims that he had travelled to Moscow on 11 December 1989. "It's an aberration, a gross lie", said Colonel Paul Șarpe, a former deputy chief of DIA in December 1989. 29. The members of the delegation, according to the recollections of Ioan Mircea Pașcu , were Ambassador Niculae Micu from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, PhD. Cristian Popișteanu (Manager of Magazin Istoric magazine), a lady from the Institute of World Economy and a gentleman named Iordache from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bucharest. 30. Ioan Mircea Pașcu , Jurnal de..."Front"/Diary of..."Front", Bucharest, RAO Publishing House, 2010. 31. Constantin Olteanu, România - o voce distinctă în Tratatul de la Varșovia. Memorii. 1980 – 1985/Romania - a distinct voice in the Warsaw Treaty. Memoirs. 1980 - 1985, Bucharest, Aldo Publishing House, 1999. "The author (Anneli Ute Gabanyi - editor's note) believes that in December 1985 the Soviet State President Andrei Gromîko allegedly tried to persuade General Constantin Olteanu , the Romanian Defence Minister, to overthrow Ceaușescu . It is certain that Olteanu was received in the USSR with special honours, which did not cease to arouse comment. As a result, Ceaușescu replaced Olteanu with General Vasile Milea . There are rumours from abroad. In any case, things are not simple with General C. Olteanu either", wrote Vremea. Totuși iubirea of 11 March 1991. 32. Roger Kirk, Mircea Răceanu , România împotriva Statelor Unite. Diplomația absurdului (1985 – 1989)/Romania v. United States. The Diplomacy of the Absurd (1985 – 1989), Bucharest, Silex Publishing House, 1995. 33. See: Constantin Corneanu, DIA între loialitate și supiciune/The DIA between loyalty and supposition (1)/ https://www.aesgs.ro/dia-intre-loialitate-si-suspiciune-1/; Idem, DIA între loialitate și supiciune/The DIA between loyalty and supposition (2)/ https://www.aesgs.ro/dia-intre-loialitate-si-suspiciune2/; Idem, DIA între loialitate și supiciune/The DIA between loyalty and supposition (3)/ https://www.aesgs.ro/dia-intre-loialitate-si-suspiciune3/