| Departamentul Securității Statului | |
.svg) | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 30 August 1948 (as the DGSP) |
| Preceding agency | |
| Dissolved | 30 December 1989[1] |
| Superseding agency | |
| Type | Secret police |
| Jurisdiction | Romania |
| Headquarters | Bucharest |
| Employees | 11,000 (1985)[2][3] |
| Agency executives |
|
| Parent agency | Ministry of Interior (1948–51, 1955–89) Ministry of State Security (1951–55) |
| Child agency | |
| Part of a series on the |
| Socialist Republic of Romania |
|---|
|
The Department of State Security (Romanian: Departamentul Securității Statului), commonly known as the Securitate (pronounced [sekuriˈtate], lit. "Security"), was the secret police agency of the Socialist Republic of Romania. It was founded on 30 August 1948 from the Siguranța with help and direction from the Soviet MGB.
The Securitate was, in proportion to Romania's population, one of the largest secret police forces in the Eastern bloc.[2] The first budget of the Securitate in 1948 stipulated a number of 4,641 positions, of which 3,549 were filled by February 1949: 64% were workers, 4% peasants, 28% clerks, 2% persons of unspecified origin, and 2% intellectuals.[4] By 1951, the Securitate's staff had increased fivefold, while in January 1956, the Securitate had 25,468 employees.[5] At its height, the Securitate employed some 11,000 agents and had half a million informers[2] for a country with a population of 22 million by 1985.[3] The Securitate under Nicolae Ceaușescu was one of the most brutal secret police forces in the world, responsible for the arrests, torture, and deaths of thousands of people.[2] Following the Romanian Revolution in 1989, the new authorities assigned the various intelligence tasks of the Securitate to new institutions.
- ^ "DECRET nr.33 din 30 decembrie 1989 privind desfiintarea Departamentului securitatii statului". www.cdep.ro. Archived from the original on 2018-08-14. Retrieved 2016-01-23.
- ^ a b c d Smith, Craig S. (December 12, 2006). "Eastern Europe Struggles to Purge Security Services". The New York Times.
- ^ a b Turnock 1997, p. 15
- ^ "Sighet Museum: Room 14 – The Security Police (Securitate) between 1948 and 1989". www.memorialsighet.ro. Memorial of the Victims of Communism and of the Resistance. 11 October 2015. Retrieved July 25, 2022.
- ^ Cristian Troncota, "Securitatea: Începuturile" Archived 2007-12-12 at the Wayback Machine, Magazin Istoric, 1998