5. Resistance, Uprisings

Room 18, ground floor: Collectivization. Resistance and repression

Room 48, 1st floor: The anti-Communist resistance in the mountains

Room 74, 2nd floor: The Maramureș Resistance

Room 49, 1st floor: 1956: Student movements in Romania

The transfer of agricultural properties to state control was made by different means and in several stages. In the first years after the agrarian reform, Communists promised not to make any more “kolkhozes”. Nevertheless, the State introduced the system of “mandatory quotas”, forcing the peasants to yield important parts of their crops, to force them into bankruptcy and enough desperation to join “collective farms” and “joint farming”. Whoever “shirked from the quotas” would automatically become a “saboteur”, being arrested and convicted.

Overall view of Room 18: Collectivization. Resistance and repression
The Plenary of the Romanian Workers’ Party of 3-5 March 1949 decided it was time for a declared transition to the Soviet-type collectivization.

Detail from Room 18: Collectivization. Resistance and repression
In the spirit of the “class fight”, peasants were divided into three categories: “poor”, “well-off” and “kulaks”. Fighting against the “wavering” “kulaks” and “well-offs”, the poor had to “be convinced” of the advantages of joining Collective Agricultural Institutions (G.A.C.).

Detail from Room 18: Collectivization. Resistance and repression
Peasants signing their adhesion to join the collective (propaganda image)

Detail from Room 18: Collectivization. Resistance and repression
The resistance was significant. During the first years after the plenary, activists sent on field were met with refusals and chased away, and in many communes there were open revolts and fights with the police troops, which ended in dead, injured, convictions and deportations.

Photo: Map of anti-Collectivization uprisings. Detail from Room 18: Collectivization. Resistance and repression
The uprising of Vadu Roșca (Galați Region), where nine people died, was repressed, they say, by Nicolae Ceaușescu himself. In other villages, cannons were fired to intimidate and “convince” peasants.

Photo: Simion Stana, a peasant of the Şepreuş commune, executed following the uprising against collectivization in the summer of 1949 (family photo).

Detail from Room 18: Collectivization. Resistance and repression
According to the data provided by the Romanian Workers’ Party (PMR) itself, over 80,000 peasants were arrested between 1949-1952, of which 30,000 ended up receiving prison sentences. Increasingly more peasants lost their lives or freedom in the uprisings of 1959-1962.

Photo: Anghelina Bălțatu, peasant, a participant to the Dobrotești revolt, March 1961, the one ringing the bells for the peasants to gather. She was arrested on 8 March 1961 and received an administrative conviction of 36 months in prison. Incarcerated in Jilava, Arad, and Periprava, she was released on 23 April 1962.

Detail from Room 18: Collectivization. Resistance and repression
After thirteen years of terrorising and impoverishing the peasants, the collectivization was ultimately declared completed by Gheorghiu-Dej on 27 April 1962, in front of 11,000 peasants dressed in traditional wear, brought from all the districts and regions of the country!

The results announced by Dej in his speech in front of the plenary of the Great National Assembly: 96% of the country’s arable surface and 3,201,000 families had been included in the collectivist structures.

Detail from Room 18: Collectivization. Resistance and repression

Resistance against Communism started to show right after the country’s occupation by the Red Army. Not only those directly opposing the instauration of Communism, Army purges, collectivization or introducing Communism in school were arrested, investigated, trialled and convicted, but also their relatives, siblings or parents who would help. In front of this massive wave of aggressions, a good part of the targeted people hit the mountains, organized in formations or partisan groups.

Photo: Romania’s map, marking the most numerous resistance groups, suggests the spread of this phenomenon. Detail from Room 48: The anti-Communist resistance in the mountains
Between 1945-1959 we find partisans both in the Eastern Carpathians, and in the Southern Carpathians (in Făgăraș, Retezat, Semenic), in the Western Carpathians and in the Bukovinian Subcarpathians, as well as in the forests of Babadag, in the Gutâi and Țibleș Mountains. The created formations (consisting, on average, of 10 to 40 people), were not a major threat to the Communist power, but, as long as they were free, they were undermining the regime’s pretence of holding full control over the country. They were made of young people, old men, women (some of them even pregnant or with young children), peasants, former army officers, lawyers, doctors, students, workers. They were all ages, all social categories.

Detail from Room 48: The anti-Communist resistance in the mountains
Defensive weapons consisted of rifles, revolvers and machine guns left over from the war, but these groups were always facing an acute lack of ammunition. They were supported by villagers, who would bring them food, clothes and would often provide shelter in wintertime. The Communist propaganda branded them all “bandits”.

Photo: Gavril Vatamaniuc and Vasile Marciuc, members of the resistance group led by Vasile Motrescu (a reconstitution photograph taken by the Securitate after their arrest). Detail from Room 48: The anti-Communist resistance in the mountains
Victor Lupşa was the leader of the “Vlad Ţepeş II” anti-Communist organization. He was sentenced to death in absentia in 1951. He remained hidden until November 1955, when he surrendered himself to the Securitate. He was executed on 3 December 1956, in the Iaşi penitentiary.

“My father in ’55, after that lying decree was given, the one on 23 August ’55, that all the fugitives in the mountains who would surrender, they would be forgiven and left alone, and when he saw they were not arresting anyone, he went on and gave himself up as well. And after he gave himself up, they started arresting even those who had turned themselves in before and whom they had left alone. That is when my mother was arrested the second time over.”
Ioan Stoe, son of V. Lupșa

Detail from Room 48: The anti-Communist resistance in the mountains
Vasile Motrescu was the leader of a resistance group active in the Bukovina area. He was sentenced to death, in absentia, in July 1956. He was captured in January 1958 and executed on 29 July 1958, in the Botoşani penitentiary.

Gheorghe Motrescu, Vasile’s brother: “They sentenced him to death based on Decree 199 in ’50, article 6, paragraph 1… And it was 29–30 July when they exe-cuted my brother. That’s what I heard… it was all hearsay, I’m not sure… on the Botoșani target range.“

Photo: Vasile Motrescu in the door of the hovel where he lived (a reconstitution photograph taken by the Securitate). Detail from Room 48: The anti-Communist resistance in the mountains
Teodor and Avisalon Şuşman were members of the anti-Communist resistance group led by Teodor Şuşman (Senior), active in the Răchiţele area.

On 1/2 February 1958, surrounded by the Securitate in the village of Tranişu, the commune of Valea Drăganului, the two brothers prefer to burn to death in the sieged shed where they were hiding, rather than surrender.

Photo: the carbonized bodies of brothers Teodor and Avisalon Şuşman (photo taken by the Securitate). Detail from Room 48: The anti-Communist resistance in the mountains
Photo: the remains of the barn where the Șușman brothers burned to death (photo taken by the Securitate). Detail from Room 48: The anti-Communist resistance in the mountains
Lucreţia Jurj Costescu

(1928-2004)

Member of the anti-Communist resistance group led by Teodor Şuşman Senior. She was arrested in August 1954 and convicted to hard labour for life for “conspiracy against social order”.

Her husband, Mihai Jurj, was shot in 1954, during an armed stand-off with Securitate troops.

“One of us had to get away to tell the tale, so that we would not stay dead. So those who died should not remain anonymous, so someone should speak!”
Lucreţia Jurj

Detail from Room 48: The anti-Communist resistance in the mountains
On the night of 18 July 1959, the leaders of the “Muscel Outlaws” group, which had been active in the Făgăraș Mountains for 10 years, brothers Petre and Toma Arnăuțoiu, are executed in the Jilava penitentiary, together with the other members of the group, sentenced to death by decisions 107 and 108 of 19 may 1959 and 119 of 4 June 1959 of the Military Tribunal of the 2nd Military Region of Bucharest

Photo: Toma Arnăuţoiu in arrest at Piteşti, 1958. Detail from Room 48: The anti-Communist resistance in the mountains
The group led by Toma Arnăuţoiu held up from 1949 to 1958, fighting the Securitate, having their own losses, but doing much more damage to the ranks of the respective forces. Ultimately, the partisans entered a total and quasi-perfect clandestinity, which was largely owed to a rather wide and loyal network of supporters.

The repression was terrible and extended, several lots were trialled by the Military Tribunal of Bucharest in 1959, giving 16 death sentences, including Toma Arnăuţoiu, but also numerous years in jail.

Photo: the hovel where the Arnăuţoiu group members were hiding when captured. Detail from Room 48: The anti-Communist resistance in the mountains
The Toma Arnăuţoiu resistance group was considered one of the most important in Romania, and for long periods of time it was placed by the Securitate at the very top of “mountain gangs” lists.

Photo: the door of the hovel where the Arnăuţoiu group members were hiding when captured. Detail from Room 48: The anti-Communist resistance in the mountains
Between 21 and 25 June 1949, a trial that was well-staged by Communist authorities took place at the Timișoara Military Tribunal. A wide propaganda campaign was also organized, with numerous articles printed, manifestations in the villages and towns of Banat, and telegrams sent by the “working people” requesting the death penalty for the partisans.

5 of the partisans, including leader Spiru Blănaru, were sentenced to death by shooting. The others received from 10 years to life in hard labour.

Detail from Room 48: The anti-Communist resistance in the mountains

The room is dedicated to the wide anti-Communist movement which manifested itself spontaneously in Maramureș between 1947-1960.

Detail from Room 74: The Maramureș Resistance
Nicolae Pop

A forest ranger, leader of the anti-Communist resistance group active in the Ţibleş Mountains from 1949 to 1953.

While fighting in the mountains, Nicolae Pop was joined by two of his children, Achim and Aristina.

Nicolae Pop was captured by the Securitate in January 1953. As he was paralysed, he died shortly after while in Securitate arrest. His children were arrested in March 1953, Achim being sentenced to 22 years of hard labour, and Aristina to 20 years of hard labour.

Detail from Room 74: The Maramureș Resistance
From 1947 onwards, in addition to common-law offenders, The Sighet prison also held Maramureș locals detained for political offences: peasants who did not manage to pay their quotas on agricultural products, prominent figures of the democratic parties, pupils and students, members of anti-Communist organisations.

Photo: Two of the students arrested and held in Sighet. Detail from Room 74: The Maramureș Resistance
Groups of partisans and supporters from all social categories (peasants, priests, forest rangers, clerks, students, pupils) took to the mountains and opposed, guns in hand, the Securitate troops.

Detail from Room 74: The Maramureș Resistance

The echoes of the October 1956 revolution in Hungary were nevertheless felt in all Eastern-European countries.

In Romania, students were the ones who reacted immediately. Protests were organized in a few university centres, resulting in numerous arrests and expulsions from their studies.

The best organized student movement was in Timișoara.

On 27 October 1956, students of the Faculty of Mechanics from the Polytechnical Institute of Timişoara created an initiative group to organize a student meeting, scheduled for 30 October.

Photo: The leaders of the Timișoara students: Aurel Baghiu, Caius Muțiu, Teodor Stanca. Detail from Room 49: 1956: Student movements in Romania
Over 3,000 students attended the student meeting of October. Students also presented a programme of grievances in 12 points (among them: the exclusion of the Russian language from the higher education curriculum, the reduction of Marxism classes, scholarships for all students, university autonomy, but also the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Romania, the de facto liquidation of the Stalin personality cult, the dissolution of mandatory quotas paid by the peasants, the increase of wages for workers).

The result was the arrest of over 2,000 students and the sentencing of 30 of them, considered to be the leaders, on the charge of “public upset”.

Photo: The map of Timișoara with the places where student protests took place. Detail from Room 49: 1956: Student movements in Romania
Various student protests were held in Bucharest and Cluj in October and November 1956.

The authorities’ reaction was immediate: students were arrested, classes were suspended, some teachers were purged, and student associations were created, meant to keep a closer eye on student activities.

Photo: the garrison building in Becicherecul Mic where the 2,000 arrested students of Timișoara were taken for investigations. Detail from Room 49: 1956: Student movements in Romania