This is a list of senior Securitate officers. The General Direction for the Security of the People, better known by its Romanian abbreviation, Securitate, was officially founded on August 30, 1948 by Decree 221/30. However, it had effectively existed since August 1944, when communists began to infiltrate the Ministry of Internal Affairs on a large scale, with help from SMERSH, an NKVD unit charged with demolishing existing intelligence agencies and replacing them with Soviet-style bodies in the Soviet-occupied countries of Eastern Europe.
From its inception, the Securitate engaged in a terror campaign against "class enemies". The campaign was led from the position of Minister of Interior by Teohari Georgescu in 1948–1952, and Alexandru Drăghici in 1952–1965, seconded in the position of Deputy Interior Minister (until 1960) and Chief of Securitate by Gheorghe Pintilie. Although the largest number of victims was registered between 1948 and 1952, the campaign continued until 1965.