Tămădău affair

The PCR victory in the 1946 general election, achieved through widespread electoral fraud,[1] 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 Stalinism and committed supporter of the Western Allies, the PNŢ was the main target for PCR hostility. According to journalist Victor Frunză, the PNŢ and the National Liberal Party were already targeted for having backed attempts (during World War II) by the Conducător Marshal Ion Antonescu to sign a separate peace with the Allies (see Romania during World War II).[3] In late October 1946, the PNŢ entered into open conflict with the authorities; the first volley was to send a secret report to the Secretary General of the United Nations, heavily critical of government policies.[4]

The Communist press alleged that the National Peasants' Party had been organizing a wide network of armed resistance (groups cited in that context may have indeed existed as early as 1947, and probably merged into the resistance movement of the 1950s).[5] At the same time, the Communists press applauded the dissidence of various PNŢ leaders such as Anton Alexandrescu, Nicolae L. Lupu, and Victor Eftimiu.[6]

Several details of the Affair are still unclear. The offer to flee Romania was quickly discovered (as the government declared) or, as claimed by journalist Victor Frunză, had already been investigated, and, in the hope of discrediting the opposition party, partly facilitated by agents of Teohari Georgescu, Minister of the Interior.[7] In October 1947, Maniu declared that:

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 Haţieganu 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 (46 km from Bucharest), Siguranţa Statului and armed soldiers arrested a number of prominent PNŢ 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 photo reporter was also present in order to provide maximum exposure to the flight attempt.[9]

The scandal was centered on the charge of treason ("of the people's interests"), provoked by the allegation that those arrested had attempted to establish a government in exile.[7] Victor Frunză argues that "in democratic states" citizens should have an "unconditional right to a passport" in order to leave the country whenever they want and therefore the accusations of illegal border crossing, flight and treason should not have been brought.[10] Calls for a trial of the entire party were voiced by the Communist press (notably by Silviu Brucan), and Maniu himself, although not present at Tămădău, was argued to have planned the escape.[10] Arrested while under treatment in a sanatorium,[11] Maniu later admitted to the fact, and indicated that he was prepared to assume complete responsibility:

[After Haţieganu'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]

Later the same day (July 14, 1947), authorities stormed into the PNŢ headquarters and confiscated all documents held in the archive, a move followed by other searches for documents in various locations.[12] On July 19, the Assembly of Deputies of Romania voted to outlaw the party press (including Dreptatea), and to lift the parliamentary immunity of PNŢ deputies — the entire party leadership was arrested on the same day, and the party was banned on July 30 (on the basis of a report filed by Teohari Georgescu).[13] In parallel, Soviet authorities handed Teohari Georgescu the handwritten testimony of a former Abwehr agent, Alfred Petermann, who alleged that Maniu had worked as an agent for the British Secret Intelligence Service during the war, keeping contact with Alfred Gardyne de Chastelain.[14]

All those involved and those judged to have been involved were sentenced to harsh penal labour sentences: Maniu died in Sighet prison in 1953, and Mihalache in Râmnicu Sărat ten years after.[15][16] Most other important party activists were sentenced in the following years;[17] Corneliu Coposu, who was to lead the reestablished party after the Romanian Revolution of 1989, was also arrested and imprisoned in connection with the Tămădău Affair.

Constantin Titel Petrescu, leader of a splinter group of the Social Democratic Party (one which had refused cooperation with the Communists), also came up during the trial — he was later tried and convicted.[18] 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.[19]

The episode was soon after used against the Foreign Minister, Gheorghe Tătărescu, leader of the National Liberal Party-Tătărescu (which, although aligned with the Communists, had by then criticized several Communist policies). He was attacked by the PCR newspaper Scînteia for having allegedly failed to act against a pro-Maniu conspiracy inside his ministry, unceremoniously demoted, and replaced by the Communist activist Ana Pauker.[20]

• (in Romanian) Silviu Brucan, "Pedeapsa trebuie să fie maximă!" ("The Penalty Must be the Maximum One!"), article of November 10, 1947, republished by Adevărul