Alexandru Drăghici (; September 27, 1913 – December 12, 1993) was a Romanian communist activist and politician. He was Interior Minister in 1952 and from 1957 to 1965, and State Security Minister from 1952 to 1957. In these capacities, he exercised control over the Securitate secret police during a period of active repression against other Communist Party members, anti-communist resistance members and ordinary citizens.
An industrial worker by profession, Drăghici made his entry into the underground communist movement around the age of twenty. He was arrested for illegal political activity, and spent time in prison before and during World War II. He was close to Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej's communist faction, and, as such, rose quickly through the Communist Party ranks. He joined the repressive apparatus shortly before the Romanian communist regime was officially established.
Drăghici was infamous especially for the various campaigns he initiated against selected groups that resisted Marxist-Leninism. He began early on, with purges of the youth movements and teaching staff, joined in the denunciation of Ana Pauker's communist faction, and then focused his attention on the Hungarian-Romanian community. Drăghici is also remembered for his participation in the show trial of Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu, his quashing of the "Ioanid Gang", and his clampdown on religious groups—both Roman Catholic and Romanian Orthodox.
Both Gheorghiu-Dej and Drăghici opposed de-Stalinization, but their talk of national communism and socialist patriotism signaled Romania's emancipation from the Soviet Union. Drăghici still had important assignments after Gheorghiu-Dej's death, but was bitterly opposed to emerging communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu. Ceaușescu used his influence in the party to incriminate Drăghici of all publicly known Securitate crimes, then deposed him. Drăghici was not brought to justice, but lived in anonymity in the Bucharest area from 1968 to 1989. After the overthrow of communism, he lived his final years in Hungary with his family, despite Romanian efforts to have him extradited. Shortly before his death, a trial held in absentia convicted him of incitement to murder.
Biography
Origins and early activity Drăghici was born into a peasant family in the Tisău Commune, Buzău County. Adriana Oprea-Popescu, " 'Am adus cenușa lui Alexandru Drăghici în România, ascunsă sub bancheta mașinii' ", Jurnalul Național, 3 February 2004; accessed April 19, 2012 He attended four grades of primary school and four years of vocational school, becoming a locksmith and mechanic for the Romanian Railways (CFR). Biografiile nomenklaturii , at the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of the Romanian Exile site; accessed April 19, 2012Grigore and Șerbu, p. 311; S. Neagoe, p. 248 In 1930 or 1934 he joined the banned Communist Party (PCR, later PMR). From 1931, he took part in rail workers' strikes, being one of the communist youth leaders at the Bucharest railway yards.Grigore and Șerbu, p. 311
Being part of the PCR's proletarian wing, he quickly ran into trouble for illegal political activity. He was arrested in 1935 and tried in the 1936 Craiova Trial alongside future rival Ana Pauker, receiving a sentence of 9 years and 3 months imprisonment and being labeled a "notorious communist". He spent time at Doftana, Jilava, and Caransebeș prisons before being transferred in April 1944 to the prison camp at Târgu Jiu.S. Neagoe, p. 248 While incarcerated, he joined the PCR nucleus formed around future leader Gheorghiu-Dej, while at the same time becoming a rival to Gheorghiu-Dej's successor, Nicolae Ceaușescu. For decades, Gheorghiu-Dej played one against the other, as a method of controlling each potential rival.Neagoe-Pleșa, p. 157 Drăghici, who enjoyed prison seniority over Ceaușescu, was for a while Gheorghiu-Dej's cellmate, and allegedly acted as his personal servant.Neagoe-Pleșa, pp. 157, 158
Drăghici was freed right after the King Michael Coup in August 1944. By March 1945, he had been assigned to service the PCR's central committee (CC). He took up office as head of its Youth Bureau, working alongside G. Brătescu, the future historian of medicine, and C. Drăgan.Brătescu, pp. 184-88 As recalled by Brătescu, Drăghici had a conflict with party boss Vasile Luca, who objected to the idea of incorporating the Workers' Youth into the Bureau, and who singled out Drăghici for his incompetence in controlling "Progressive Youth" organizations during the 1930s.Brătescu, p. 186 Also according to Brătescu, Drăghici played a role in increasing the PCR's control over student activists, and then in persecuting non-communist fraternal bodies such as YMCA Romania.Brătescu, pp. 187-88, 189–90
Benefiting from his CFR and Caransebeș pedigree at a time when Gheorghiu-Dej's faction turned into a nomenklatura,Bottoni, p. 205; Neagoe-Pleșa, p. 150 Drăghici became an alternate member of the CC in October 1945. He rose to full member in February 1948, after the establishment of a communist regime.S. Neagoe, p. 249 From May 1945 to June 1946, he served as a public prosecutor at the Romanian People's Tribunals. This court was tasked with investigating war crime cases, specifically those related to the Holocaust in Romania. Researchers note that the Bucharest section, where Drăghici had been assigned, sentenced surprisingly few people (187, compared to the 668 sentenced in Cluj), and the punishments were generally lighter.Final Report of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania, Polirom, Iași, 2004, pp. 313–14.
At the PMR's political and administrative section, Drăghici was adjunct (until August 1948) and director (1948–1949).Banu and Banu, p. 11; S. Neagoe, p. 249 Drăghici was elected to the Assembly of Deputies in the 1946 general election. He represented the Hunedoara and Bacău areas in the Assembly of Deputies as well as in the Great National Assembly until 1968. He was president of the latter body from December 1949 to January 1950, and sat on its presidium from 1965 to 1968.
In 1949–1950, Drăghici served as first secretary of the Bucharest party committee. Working closely with agitprop boss Leonte Răutu, he exercised direct influence over the communization of Bucharest schools.Tismăneanu and Vasile, pp. 257-61 He was also assigned to represent the National Federation of Formerly Detained and Deported Antifascists, participating in the designation of communist memorials in such places as Doftana and Lupeni (in memory of both 1930s repression and the 1929 Strike).Cristian Vasile, Literatura și artele în România comunistă. 1948–1953, Humanitas, Bucharest, 2010, p. 166. In 1950 he was promoted directly from common soldier to major general and named head of the Interior Ministry's political directorate.Banu and Banu, pp. 11-2; S. Neagoe, p. 249; Neagoe-Pleșa, p. 158 From 1951, he was also adjunct to the Interior Minister, and from 1950, he sat on the party's organizational bureau. The last three posts all expired in May 1952.
First ministerial posts Drăghici's first stint as Interior Minister came from May to September 1952, when he replaced the disgraced Teohari Georgescu. He put an end to the "reeducation" experiment at the Pitești prison, where inmate Eugen Țurcanu had been allowed to torture his fellow prisoners into submission, but was also involved in setting up the show trial relating to the Danube – Black Sea Canal. The Interior Minister encouraged torture and inhumane treatment of political prisoners, as well as death sentences. An early case was that of Remus Koffler, the disgraced PCR financier. Under Gheorghiu-Dej's watch, Drăghici organized Koffler's interrogation, which involved daily beatings and humiliation. Stelian Tănase, "Koffler, cu K de la Kafka" , Cuvântul, Nr. 294
Additionally, Drăghici took precautionary violent measures against the emerging anti-communist resistance movement, particularly so in Timișoara Region (western Romania). On August 14, he ordered the police structures there to begin "the liquidation and destruction of gangs, bandits and runaways". Ruxandra Cesereanu, "Fortăreața fisurată a Securității" , Revista 22, Nr. 849; accessed May 8, 2012 On October 1, he promoted Pavel Aranici as head of the Ministry's "Gangs" section, whose initial task was uprooting the Banat Mountains partisans. Marius Oprea, "Fiul bucătăresei (V)", Ziarul Financiar, 19 October 2007; accessed May 9, 2012 Also then, the Interior Minister tackled the activity of those Romanian Social Democrats who had refused to align themselves with the communists. According to one account, he approached their imprisoned leader, Ioan Flueraș, promising freedom for him and all his colleagues in exchange for a public penance. Flueraș was killed in prison just days after, allegedly because he refused that bargain. Sorin Radu, "Lichidarea social-democrației din România. Cazul Ion Flueraș (august 1944 – iunie 1953)" , in the 1 December University of Alba Iulia Annales Universitatis Apulensis, Series Historica, Nr. 10/I, 2006, pp. 129–30 Drăghici's term saw the prosecution of Oana Orlea and other teenagers accused of counterrevolutionary activities. However, the Minister was also in contact with self-exiled musical celebrity George Enescu, Orlea's uncle, and may have hinted that Orlea could be released should Enescu return home. Iulia Popovici, "Istoria unor turnătorii", Observator Cultural, Nr. 439, September 2008
Drăghici was promoted to lieutenant general in 1952 and colonel general in 1955. At the May 1952 party plenum, Drăghici was elected a supplementary member of the politburo (together with Ceaușescu and Dumitru Coliu),Tismăneanu, p. 131 sitting as full member from 1955 to July 1965. From 1954, he was assigned to supervise the politburo's own involvement in police work,Bottoni, p. 205 and drafted a list of "our most dangerous compatriots who have settled abroad", including those of the Romanian National Committee government-in-exile—one of them, Aurel Decei, was later kidnapped by Securitate operatives in West Berlin. Liviu Țârău, "Iuliu Maniu și Constantin I.C. Brătianu comemorați la Istanbul, în ianuarie 1956", Anuarul Institutului de Istorie George Barițiu, Vol. 40 (2001)
Drăghici served as State Security Minister from 1952 until March 1957.Grigore and Șerbu, p. 311; S. Neagoe, p. 249 In this position, he collaborated closely with Gheorghiu-Dej and Iosif Chișinevschi to orchestrate the judicial murder of estranged PCR ideologist Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu,Neagoe-Pleșa, p. 159; Tismăneanu, p. 301 as well as spearheaded brutal campaigns of terror against the populace. Backed by Gheorghiu-Dej, Drăghici orchestrated a long series of trials and frame-ups. The party leader placed his trust in Drăghici, who was even given the task of spying on Gheorghiu-Dej's actress daughter, Lica Gheorghiu.Neagoe-Pleșa, p. 159
Under Drăghici's auspices, Gheorghiu-Dej used the Securitate to impose his own political line.Banu and Banu, pp. 11–2 His political liaison, General Evghenie Tănase, would later accuse the new ministry chief of working to replace the entire Securitate officers corps. The measure, inspired by Gheorghiu-Dej's latent nationalism, was intended to show the Soviet Union that "advisers" on security matters were no longer required.Banu and Banu, p. 12 Sources of the day have it that Drăghici wanted "only those with special responsibilities" to be interviewed by the Soviet advisers, and only within the framework of "conventional provisions".Banu and Banu, p. 13