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Memory of Nations: Democratic Transition Guide” (ISBN 978-80-86816-01-2)

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Memory of Nations: Democratic Transition Guide” (ISBN 978-80-86816-01-2) MEMORY OF NATIONS Democratic Transition Guide [ The Romanian Experience ] CONTENTS AUTHORS TRANSFORMAtion of the politiCAL SYSTEM . 3 ISTVÁN BANDI Research Fellow at the Historical Archives of Hungarian State DISMAntling the stATE SECURITY Security (since 2011). His field of research covers the activi- APPARATUS ........................... 7 ties of Romanian-Hungarian Secret Service against churches in the second part of the 20th century and the history of Ro- REGIME ARCHIVES ...................... 20 manian Secret Services in the 20th century. LUSTRATION .......................... 25 ŞTEFAN BOSOMITU Senior Researcher at the Institute for the Investigation of INVESTIGATION AND proseCUTION Communist Crimes and the Memory of Romanian Exile (IIC- of the Crimes of the regime ........... 29 CMER) (since 2010) and Associate Researcher at the Roma- nian Institute for Recent History (IRIR) (since 2012). REHABILITAtion of VICTIMS AND COMPENSATIONS ................... 32 STEFANO BOTTONI Senior Fellow at the Research Center for the Humanities, EDUCATION AND preservATION of sites Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Hungary). His main re- of CONSCIENCE ........................ 37 search fields are the communist nationality policy in East- ern Europe and the social impact of state security on the So- Timeline of the mAJOR EVENTS .......... 41 viet Bloc countries. He has been a Consultant Member of the Vladimir Tismăneanu-led Presidential Commission for SOURCES USED AND furTHER READING . 43 the Analysis of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania (2006). LUCIANA JINGA Senior Researcher (since 2007) and Executive Director (2012–2013) of the Institute for the Investigation of Com- munist Crimes and the Memory of Romanian Exile (IICC- MER). Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Historical Research in Western France (CERHIO) at the University of Angers, France (since 2017). This case study is a part of the publication “Memory of Nations: Democratic Transition Guide” (ISBN 978-80-86816-01-2). This publication is available to download at www.cevro.cz/guide. [ 2 ] MEMORY OF NATIONS: DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION GUIDe – THE ROMANIAN EXPERIENCE TRANSFORMAtion of the politiCAL SYSTEM STEFANO BOTTONI The impossible trANSFORMATION turned into a dissident during the 1980s, and who played a key of the CeAușesCU REGIME FROM WITHIN behind-the-scenes role in the setting-up of the new power struc- ture. The preamble announced the creation of FSN, which was The configuration of the postcommunist Romanian political sys- “supported by the Romanian army” by “all the healthy forces”. It tem was heavily influenced by the abrupt and violent overturn announced the dissolution of all “power structures”: the govern- of the Communist regime, led since 1965 by Nicolae Ceaușescu. ment and the State Council. The entire executive power was as- Romania was the only Eastern European country where the com- sumed by the Council of the National Salvation Front, formed by munist system collapsed in December 1989 upon a popular up- 38 members who represented a heterogeneous conglomerate of rising that ended up in a bloody revolution claiming more than Army staff, former communist bureocrats, genuine revolutionar- one-thousand victims. The peculiarly oppressive and person- ies, artists, and intellectuals. On December 27, Ion Iliescu was alized feature of the Romanian communist regime had made elected head of the CNSF. The second part of the proclamation it impossible in the 1980s for the emergence of a moderate, contained ten main objectives, the first of them being the aboli- businesslike, pro-Western faction within the ruling party. Those tion of the one-party system (the PCR was outlawed by decree who were dissatisfied with Ceauşescu’s personality cult did not on January 12, 1990, and on January 18 another decree ordered attempt to modernize the system, but contrived palace revolu- the nationalization of all party properties) and the establishment tions based on the models of the interwar political machinations of a multiparty and democratic government. The declaration that had occurred in Romania, or the military putsch that had called for free elections in April of 1990, and declared the sepa- overthrown Marshal Antonescu in August 1944. Ceauşescu’s ration of powers between the branches of governement. Other potential party opponents were marginalized, and even disap- provisions concerned the restructuring of the economy, stop- peared, while opposition activity among Romania’s intelligent- ping the destruction of villages, and the protection of civil rights sia remained confined to a few individual exceptions, and this of national and ethnic minorities. The chaotic transition from also prevented the internal reception of Soviet perestroika and the personalized dictatorship of Ceaușescu to a pluralist politi- glasnost. Between December 21 and 22, 1989, the active inter- cal system went along with the public debate over the “mister- vention of the Army and the discrete support from the politi- ies” of the revolution. The bloody overturn of the Ceauşescu cal police (Securitate) played a decisive role in bringing down regime had left open questions, the most important of which Ceaușescu’s absolute power. The exceptionally closed nature of was the never attempted identification of those “terrorists” who the Romanian dictatoship predestinated it to a non-negotiated, were responsibile for the death of hundreds of people. Behind violent falldown. this, the most sensitive issue was around the ambiguous role played by the security forces. How was it possible that the all- powerful Securitate failed to suppress the small demonstration The 1989 REVOLUTION AND the NATIONAL of solidarity with the persecuted protestant reverent László SALVATION FRONT Tőkés in Timișoara, on December 15–16, paving the way for the emergence of a revolutionary movement? From the first mo- According to the database of the Romanian Revolution of ment, the new power structures overemphasized the positive December 1989, no less than 1,290 casualties could be iden- role of the Romanian Army, underlying the beneficent function tified on December 17–31. Most of them were civilians and played by the only political institution that had emerged from were shot dead during the convulsive days between the fall of the upheaval, the NSF. The logical and factual shortcomings of Ceauşescu’s dictatorship on December 22, and the execution the official narrative started to emerge shortly after the events, of the presidential couple. Nicolae and Elena Ceauşescu faced when it became clear that the Army and other state agencies had a drumhead court-martial, created at the request of the Coun- been involved in mass shootings before changing sides. Anti- cil of the National Salvation Front (CNSF) which happened on communist revolutionaries from Timişoara and those affiliated December 25, after a short mock trial. The National Salvation with liberal right wing (anti-Iliescu), post-communist political Front (NSF) was a transitional power structure created on De- parties conceded that the 1989 events started as a genuine popu- cember 22, 1989 to handle the chaotic situation of the victorious lar revolt but ended in a “hijacked” or “expropriated” revolu- revolution. The first public statement of the new power struc- tion. Most scholars agree that Ion Iliescu and “Gorbachevist” ture was issued early on the evening of December 11. The com- pro-reform communists coalesced around him seized power on muniqué of the NSF was broadcast by the state television and December 22 and expropriated the revolution via the National read by Ion Iliescu, a former party apparatchik who had been Salvation Front. Despite its democratic appearance, the CNSF marginalized by Ceaușescu, but enjoyed the support of both became the expression of authoritarian tendencies because it the internal opposition and the Soviet embassy in Bucharest. acted as the only legitmate representative of the newly estab- The crucial text was based on a draft prepared before the flight lished democracy. Not surprisingly, the key personalities of of Ceaușescu from Bucharest, and amended by Silviu Brucan, the Romanian transition were two former party and nomen- a former communist propagandist and diplomat who had klatura members: Ion Iliescu and Petre Roman. MEMORY OF NATIONS: DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION GUIDe – THE ROMANIAN EXPERIENCE [ 3 ] REBRANDing the olD ELITE: the eARLY and the reshaped the political police to slow down market re- POST-COMMUNIST POLITICAL SYSTEM forms. In December 1992 he was reelected president, formally re- signing from the leadership and membership of the NSF, which, Ion Iliescu (b. 1930) belonged to a group of old-guard Com- after a split and the departure of its liberal and anti-Communist munist activists dismissed by Ceauşescu, and who opposed his activists, changed its name to the Democratic National Salvation personal rule; they were supported by the CPSU first secretary, Front, and then to the Party of Social Democracy in Romania, in Mikhail Gorbachev, as an alternative leadership for Romania. 1993. In 1992–96 market reforms were slowly introduced, but Ili- After the Timișoara riots, on 22 December 1989, Iliescu took escu and the PSDR-based government were reluctant to integrate the lead of the CNSF. In February 1990 Iliescu became head of the country within the European Union and NATO. Until 1995, the Provisional Council of National Unity (PCNU), while con- Iliescu and the PSDR cooperated with the extreme nationalists trary to the previous promises, the CNSF announced that
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