Tămădău affair
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The Tămădău affair (
It was provoked when an important number of National Peasants' Party (PNȚ) leaders, including Party Vice-President Ion Mihalache, had been offered a chance to flee Romania, where the Communist Party (PCR), the main force in the Petru Groza government, already had a tight grip on power with backing from the Soviet Union (see Soviet occupation of Romania). The affair signalled some of the first official measures taken against opposition parties as a step leading to the proclamation of a people's republic at the end of that year (see Socialist Republic of Romania).
Background
The PCR victory in the 1946 general election was achieved mostly through the implementation of widespread electoral fraud[1] and was followed by the first attempts at anti-communist resistance, including the creation of a "military circle", led by Mihalache.[2]
As the main adversary of
The Communist press alleged that the National Peasants' Party had been organising a wide network of armed resistance (groups cited in that context may have indeed existed as early as 1947 and were probably merged into the resistance movement in the 1950s).[5] Meanwhile, the Communists press applauded the dissidence of various PNȚ leaders such as Anton Alexandrescu, Nicolae L. Lupu, and Victor Eftimiu.[6]
Events
Several details on the affair are still unclear. The offer to flee Romania was quickly discovered, as the government declared, or, as claimed by the journalist Victor Frunză, had already been investigated and, in the hope of discrediting the opposition party, partly facilitated by agents of Interior Minister Teohari Georgescu.[7] In October 1947, PNȚ President Iuliu Maniu declared:
The idea for Mr. Mihalache and a few friends to go abroad was an older one and I had decided at some point to leave myself, in case Mr. Mihalache would not allow himself to leave. This discussion between us lasted for a while, and we were thinking how we could find a means of locomotion. When the question was being debated between the two of us with no one else aware of it, Dr. Emil Hațieganu came to see me. [...] He said: I have two aviators who have a plane at their disposal and have let me know that they have secured 3–4 seats, as they are to leave on an official military mission to Istanbul. I said that I was satisfied by the offer and I that I would designate 3–4 persons to leave.[8]
Early on the morning of July 14, 1947, at the Tămădău airfield (located 46 km (29 mi) from Bucharest), Siguranța Statului and armed soldiers arrested a number of prominent PNȚ politicians, including Mihalache, Nicolae Penescu, Ilie Lazăr, Nicolae Carandino, Dumitru, and Eugen Borcea, all of whom were waiting for airplanes to transport them out of the country. A photoreporter was also present to provide maximum exposure to the flight attempt.[9]
The scandal was centred on the charge of
[After Hațieganu's offer] I spoke to Mr. Mihalache, I specifically asked him to make use of this opportunity and he accepted. Indeed, the moral and political responsibility for the departure of Mr. Mihalache and our friends is mine.[8]
He denied, however, any subversive goal:
The purpose as designed by me was that, through going abroad, they were to inform foreign countries of the situation in Romania.[8]
Outcome
Later the same day (July 14, 1947), authorities stormed into the PNȚ headquarters and confiscated all documents held in the archive, a move followed by other searches for documents in various locations.
The regular sentence for illegally attempting to leave the country was three to six months, but all those involved and those judged to have been involved were sentenced to harsh
Constantin Titel Petrescu, the leader of a splinter group of the Social Democratic Party, which had refused cooperation with the Communists, also came up during the trial and was later tried and convicted.[19] The diplomat Neagu Djuvara, who was present at the Romanian Legation in Sweden, was mentioned in one of the testimonies at the trial and opted not to return to his country.[20]
The episode was soon after used against
References
- ^ Frunză, p.287-292, 297
- ^ Frunză, p.292-293, 295
- ^ Frunză, p.293-295
- ^ Frunză, p.297-298
- ^ Frunză, p.296
- ^ Frunză, p.299
- ^ a b Frunză, p.300-301
- ^ a b c Maniu, in Lăcustă
- ^ Cioroianu, p.95; Frunză, p.301; Vohn
- ^ a b Frunză, p.301
- ^ Cioroianu, p.96; Vohn
- ^ Vohn
- ^ Frunză, p.302-303
- ^ Pokivailova & Chiper, p.44-49
- .
- ^ Both Maniu and Mihalache had been sentenced to life in prison; upon sentencing, Maniu, who was 75, was required to pay 50,000 lei (Frunză, p.388).
- ^ Cioroianu, p.96
- ^ Frunză, p.388
- ^ Frunză, p.389; Petrescu was released in 1955, after the United Kingdom Labour Party had interceded with Nikita Khrushchev. Petrescu consequently declared his loyalty to the Communist party (Frunză, p.390)
- ^ Roman
- ^ Frunză, p.307-308
Sources
- ISBN 9736691756
- Victor Frunză, Istoria stalinismului în România ("The History of Stalinism in Romania"), Humanitas, Bucharest, 1990
- (in Romanian) Ioan Lăcustă, "În București, acum 50 ani" ("In Bucharest, 50 Years Ago"), in Magazin Istoric, October 1997
- Tatiana Pokivailova, Ioan Chiper, "Procesul Maniu în arhivele de la Moscova" ("The Maniu Trial in the Moscow Archives"), in Magazin Istoric, April 2002
- (in Romanian) Toma Roman Jr., "«Politicește, Ion Antonescu habar n-avea ce face»" ("«Politically, Ion Antonescu Had No Idea of What He Was Doing»"), interview with Neagu Djuvara, in Plai cu Boi, No.11
- (in Romanian) Cristina Vohn, "Lovitura de teatru – Înscenarea de la Tămădău" ("Theater Coup – The Tămădău Frameup"), in Jurnalul Național, August 16, 2006
External links
- (in Romanian) Silviu Brucan, "Pedeapsa trebuie să fie maximă!" ("The Penalty Must be the Maximum One!"), article of November 10, 1947, republished by Adevărul
- "Fragment de istorie: Înscenarea de la Tămădău și arestarea unor lideri ai PNȚ (14 iulie 1947)" (in Romanian). Agerpres. July 14, 2022. Retrieved October 19, 2022.