Re-education in Romanian communist prisons was a series of processes initiated after the establishment of the communist regime at the end of World War II that targeted people who were considered hostile to the Romanian Communist Party, primarily members of the fascist Iron Guard, as well as other political prisoners, both from established prisons and from labor camps. The purpose of the process was the indoctrination of the hostile elements with the Marxist–Leninist ideology, that would lead to the crushing of any active or passive resistance movement. Reeducation was either non-violent – e.g., via communist propaganda – or violent, as it was done at the Pitești and Gherla prisons.
Theoretical background Philosopher Mircea Stănescu claimed that the theoretical foundation for the communist version of the reeducation process was provided by the principles defined by Anton Semioniovici Makarenko, a Russian educator born in Ukraine in 1888. This claim was disputed by historian Mihai Demetriade, who indicated that there is "no link or resemblance, neither structural nor causal with the works of the psychologist and educator Makarenko". Demetriade further indicated that the claim is mainly associated with the groups around the fascist Iron Guard, and had been publicly promoted by anti-communist activist Virgil Ierunca.
Mircea Stănescu also asserted that another important factor was the definition of morality itself and that Lenin had reportedly stated any action that seeks the welfare of the party is considered moral, while any action that harms it is immoral. As such, moral itself is a relative concept, it follows the needs of the group. A certain attitude shall be regarded as moral at a given time, while immoral at another moment; in order to decide, the person must respect the program as defined by the collective (the party).
Mihai Demetriade observed that violence within Iron Guard groups was rather common, both in public (such as the ritual murder of Mihai Stelescu), as well as in camps where many were imprisoned after the 1941 Legionnaires' rebellion and Bucharest pogrom. A notable case was the group of Iron Guard members interned in Rostock after the failed rebellion: a suspected traitor was severely tortured by its colleagues, the process being very similar to the one applied later in Pitești and Suceava. Demetriade concludes that torture and violence was part of the "Guardist anatomy" and "the prison administration created a favourable context for it to develop".
Context
In March 1949, the Operational Service (OS) was constituted, this being the first designation of prison security (securitate), on the initiative of Gheorghe Pintilie, head of the Securitate. Its first commander was Iosif Nemeș. The Operational Service was subordinated to the Securitate, and not to the General Penitentiary Directorate (GPD). The GPD was handling the administrative responsibilities, under direct watch of the Securitate, while the OS was responsible with gathering intelligence from the political prisoners. After the entire intelligence structure was completed, the information flow was as follows: once retrieved from the informants, it reached the political officer of the incarceration unit, who personally handed them to the head of the OS. The data were analyzed and the summary, together with the original files, were handed over to the Securitate.
After the installment of the communist regime, the prison system went through a transition period. Up to 1947, the detention regime was rather light, as the political prisoners were entitled to receive home packages, books, were granted access to discuss with family and even organize cultural events. Gradually, the Securitate harshened the conditions, as the entire mechanism grew more solid. The old guards were replaced with new ones, adapted to the new society, the detention regime got rougher, beatings and torture during inquiry became common practice, together with mock trials.
At first, the main target during the investigation were members of the Iron Guard and of former historical parties. Later, they were joined by those who opposed collectivization, who tried to illegally cross the border, members of resistance and, generally, opposers of the regime, even in nonviolent ways. Mircea Stănescu asserts that the communist regime did not consider imprisonment as a form of penitence, but a method of elimination from the social and political life, and, eventually, as a political reeducation environment.
Detention centers
The main detention centers dedicated to the re-education of political prisoners in Communist Romania were at Suceava, Pitești, Gherla, Târgu Ocna, Târgșor, Brașov, Ocnele Mari, and Peninsula. These re-education penitentiaries were characterized by the application of torture methods in order to convert the detainees to the communist ideology.
Suceava Suceava prison was a detention place for Iron Guard members located in northern and central Moldavia, many of whom arrived here following the massive arrests from the night of 14–15 May 1948. From within the prisoners group, the first to approach the reeducation concept were Alexandru Bogdanovici and Eugen Țurcanu. Bogdanovici had a long history of legionnaire activity: first arrested in 1943; he was sentenced to 6 years correctional detention; the second sentence – three years – was received in 1945, for taking part in the Ciucaș Mountains resistance. On his last arrest, in 1948, he was practically leader of the Iron Guard Student Community in Iași. Eugen Țurcanu was arrested on 3 July 1948, after he was reported taking part to Iron Guard meetings and as a member of the Câmpulung Moldovenesc Iron Guard Brotherhood (FDC 36 Câmpulung).
Although at this time the inquiries of the Siguranța (acting as political police and soon to be reorganized into the Department of State Security after the NKVD model) were already violent in nature, the Suceava reeducation process itself began as non-violent. Initiated by Bogdanovici in October 1948, it consisted of: communist propaganda among Iron Guard prisoners, anti-Iron Guard propaganda, papers based on the historical materialism theses, lectures from works by Lenin and the history of the Soviet Union, creation of poetry and songs with communist undertone. Țurcanu even created an Organization for Detainees with Communist Beliefs (ODCB), whose structure was modeled based on the Communist Party, and all the supporters of the reeducation were registered. Finally, the process extended through the prison, every cell containing its own reeducation committee, responsible for the action coordination.
Aside from Bogdanovici and Țurcanu, of those that initiated the action at Suceava and became more involved in other prisons, several stood out: Constantin Bogoș, Virgil Bordeianu, Alexandru Popa, Mihai Livinschi, Maximilian Sobolevski, Vasile Pușcașu, Dan Dumitrescu, and Nicolae Cobâlaș. The motivations behind these ex-legionnaires switching sides were varied, but generally included the hope of getting a lesser punishment after the initial "generous" retribution and obtaining several amenities while incarcerated (packages from home, mail, etc.) Up to 100 prisoners joined the reeducation plan by April 1949.
Pitești
Starting with September–October 1948, Pitești Prison was designated as a detention facility for students who were members of the Iron Guard (legionnaires). The prison warden was Alexandru Dumitrescu. Following the reorganization of the Securitate and the creation of the Operational Service, to each prison an Operational Bureau was designated. The first political officer assigned to Pitești was Ion Marina.
Țurcanu and the group he was part of were moved to Pitești from Suceava on 21 April 1949. Țurcanu became in time an informant of the Operational Bureau, being supported by Iosif Nemes, head of the Operational Service. Aware that non-violent reeducation methods were not efficient, as the legionnaire students were refusing to affiliate to the communist agenda and the intelligence data was scarce, a violent reeducation program is initiated, at the direct proposal of Țurcanu and Marina.
The Pitești detention regime was optimal for such an initiative. In the second part of 1949, the conditions worsened considerably: the prison sections were isolated and the communication channels between the inmates cut off. The cells were over-crowded and the food had a low caloric content. (maximum 1,000 calories per day). There was little to no medical assistance, the sanitary program was done on a group basis, many did not get to the toilet in the allocated time and had to do it in their own food tins, which had to be later washed. Beatings from the guardians were common and the most severe penalties included the solitary ("casimca"), a small isolation cell, without light of ventilation, extremely cold in winter, while the floor was flooded with water and urine. As the program progressed, exterior walls were built around the prison, and within the penitentiary perimeter, the inside and outside yards, so far separated by barbed wire fences, were now completely isolated by concrete walls.
Violent reeducation began on 25 November 1949, in cell 1 correction, on the initiative of a group led by Țurcanu. The reeducation ensemble and torture methods were perfected in time, but the process itself did not change. At first, two groups were moved into the same room: the reeducation device (shock group) and the target group. Apportionment of detainees inside the prison cells was done based on the political officer's indications.
Prior to this assembly, through the prisons informant network (of which the reeducation ensemble was part of), compromising data was gathered on the victims, such as Legionnaire membership, information they hid during the inquiry, anti-communist activity not declared etc. After a relative calm exploratory period, during which the target group members were questioned concerning their attitude towards the iron-guard movement and communist party, they were asked to unmask themselves and adhere to the reeducation movement, violence and torture followed. The violent stage was Makarenko's explosion, and was done collectively.
Beating were ferocious, inmates were clubbed or trampled unconscious, many times unrecognizable after the violent treatment. Tortures were varied; if initially the sole purpose was to humiliate the prisoners, who were forced to wear the toilet bucket on their head, crawl on the floor or eat without using their hands, later it followed to reach an extensive physical wear, which made them more susceptible to crack: they went for days without water, were forced to stay in uneasy positions such as lying down with the head raised and a needle pointing back of the neck or to remove and put back their shoe laces for hours on end; for the resistant ones, a total mental breakdown was attempted, as they were made to eat feces, behave as pigs when food was provided (eat without cutlery and grunt), walk on all fours in circle, each licking the anus of the one in front or behave in obscene and perverted ways during mock religious services.
According to Virgil Ierunca, Christian baptism was gruesomely mocked. Guards chanted baptismal rites as buckets of urine and fecal matter were brought to inmates. The inmate's head was pushed into the raw sewage. His head would remain submerged almost to the point of death. The head was then raised, the inmate allowed to breathe, only to have his head pushed back into the sewage.
Ierunca further states that "prisoners' whole bodies were burned with cigarettes; their buttocks would begin to rot, and their skin fell off as though they suffered from leprosy. Others were forced to swallow spoons of excrement, and when they threw it back up, they were forced to eat their own vomit.