Tudor Postelnicu

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Tudor Postelnicu (born November 13, 1931 in Provița de Sus , Prahova district ; † August 12, 2017 in Bucharest ) was a Romanian politician of the Romanian Communist Party PMR (Partidul Muncitoresc Român) and from 1965 PCR (Partidul Comunist Român) , who under from 1978 to 1987 head of the State Security Department (Departamentul Securității Statului) of the Ministry of the Interior, the infamous Securitate , and from 1987 to 1989 Minister of the Interior.

Life

Communist youth and party functionary

Postelnicu graduated from the sixth grade elementary school in 1943 and then found employment as a factory worker in the machine factory in Moreni , where he then worked as an iron lathe operator from 1947 to 1951. During his activity there he joined the Communist Youth Association UTC (Uniunea Tineretului Comunist) in 1945 and between September 1950 and April 1951 was first secretary of the Committee of the Communist Union of Workers' Youth UTM (Uniunea Tineretului Muncitor) in the Moreni machine factory and then of April to June 1951 responsible for organization in the UTM City Committee of Moreni. He then acted between June and November 1951 as an instructor and most recently as head of the Physical Culture and Sport section in the UTM Committee of Câmpina . In November 1951 he briefly attended the officers' school of the Ministry of the Interior, which he left a few months later. Subsequently, from 1952 to 1954 he was head of the workers section and a member of the UTM committee of Câmpina and, after a subsequent visit to the management school of the UTM Central Committee, took over the post of first secretary of the UTM committee of Câmpina from 1954 to 1959 and belonged to it also to the UTM committee of Ploieşti . During this time he was last between 1956 and October 1959 Secretary of the UTM Committee of Ploieşti and then acted from October 1959 to June 23, 1964 as Deputy Head of the Organization Section and as a member of the office of the UTM Central Committee.

In August 1964, Postelnicu moved to the party headquarters of the Romanian Communist Party PMR (Partidul Muncitoresc Român) and was an instructor in the mass organization section until October 21, 1969, and most recently in the organization section of the Central Committee. During this time he completed a course at the party college " hochtefan Gheorghiu " in 1967 and was secretary of the PCR party committee in the Olt district between October 1969 and February 1971 . He then took over the post as Secretary for Organization in 1971 and then between June 15, 1976 and March 7, 1978 as First Secretary of the PCR Committee and at the same time as President of the Executive Council of the People's Council in the Buzau district . During this time he completed his PhD at the Bucharest Business Academy .

Head of the Securitate and Minister of the Interior

On March 3, 1978 Postelnicu first became president of the Central Commission of the Ministry of the Interior for Orders, Instructions and Regulations. Just four days later, on March 7, 1978, State Secretary (Ministru secretar de stat) and head of the State Security Department (Departamentul Securității Statului) of the Interior Ministry, the infamous Securitate . He held this post for more than nine years until October 5, 1987. At the Twelfth Party Congress of the PCR (November 19 to 23, 1979) he became a member of the Central Committee (ZK) of the PCR and was a member of this body until the fall of Nicolae Ceaușescu in the course of the Romanian Revolution on December 22, 1989. In 1980 he also became a member of the Grand National Assembly (Marea Adunare Națională) for the first time , where he initially represented the constituency of Videle and most recently from 1985 to December 22, 1989 the constituency of Băicoi . In 1984, the former Defense Minister and then Deputy Prime Minister General Ion Ioniță , together with Lieutenant General Nicolae Militaru , a former commander of the 2nd Army, planned a coup d'état to depose Ceaușescu during a state visit to Ceaușescu in the Federal Republic of Germany . However, this failed early after two generals involved in the planning had betrayed the planned arrest of Ceaușescu's closest confidants ( Emil Bobu , Ion Dincă , Tudor Postelnicu, Ion Coman and Ilie Ceaușescu ). At the thirteenth party congress of the PCR (November 19-22, 1984) he was also a candidate for the Political Executive Committee of the PCR Central Committee and was a member of it until December 22, 1989.

On October 5, 1987, Postelnicu finally succeeded George Homoştean and took over the office of Minister of the Interior (Ministru de Interne) , which he held until December 22, 1989. In his function as head of the Securitate and as Minister of the Interior between March 7, 1978 and December 22, 1989, he was also a member of the Defense Council of the Socialist Republic of Romania . At the beginning of the revolution he belonged to Nicolae Ceaușescu and Elena Ceaușescu , Prime Minister Constantin Dăscălescu , Gheorghe Oprea , Manea Mănescu , Ion Dincă, the Secretary of the Central Committee for Cadres and Organization Emil Bobu, the head of the Securitate Iulian Vlad , Defense Minister Vasile Milea and Vice Defense Minister Ilie Ceaușescu among the few politicians who were privy to the planned crackdown on the revolution. On the morning of December 17, a Sunday, several thousand demonstrators gathered again in Timișoara . Military marched in several parts of the city. The student dormitories were not locked this time and the students joined the demonstrators. This time the district party committee was guarded by soldiers , but the demonstrators succeeded in routing them and storming the building. The soldiers were then armed. At lunchtime, a civil off-road vehicle appeared near the party committee, and the first shots with a machine gun were fired from its window. At about the same time, the Politburo members Ion Coman and Ilie Matei flew from Bucharest to Timișoara, accompanied by four generals : Chief of Staff Ștefan Guşă , the first deputy minister of defense Victor Stănculescu , the commander of the chemical armed forces, Mihai Chi Luftac and Air Force General Ardeleanu. After their departure, a dramatic meeting of the Politburo took place in Bucharest . Ceaușescu charged the attending ministers Tudor Postelnicu (Interior) and Vasile Milea (Defense) as well as Securitate boss Vlad the allegation of not having provided the security forces in Timișoara with live ammunition and threatened to resign. At the urging request of the Politburo, he withdrew the threat.

On February 2, 1990 Dincă was sentenced to life imprisonment together with Manea Mănescu, Ion Dincă and Emil Bobu . This was later commuted to a 14-year prison term before he was released early in 1997.

honors and awards

Postelnicu has received several awards for his longstanding services, including the Order of Labor Third Class (Ordinul Muncii) , in 1962 the Star of the People's Republic of Romania, Fourth Class (Ordinul Steaua Republicii Populare Române), and in 1981 the Order of Defense of the Fatherland, Second Class ( Ordinul Apărarea Patriei ) .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The December Revolt and the Coup D'Etat - 1989. Origins Of The National Salvation Front (NSF)
  2. ↑ Thomas Kunze: Nicolae Ceausescu: Eine Biographie , 2009, ISBN 3861535629 , p. 370.
personal data
SURNAME Postelnicu, Tudor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Romanian politician (PCR)
DATE OF BIRTH November 13, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Provița de Sus , Prahova County
DATE OF DEATH August 12, 2017
Place of death Bucharest