Emil Bodnaras
Encyclopedia
Emil Bodnăraş was an influential Romania
n Communist
politician, an army officer
, and a Soviet
agent
. He was involved in many of the events of Communist Romania
, thus making him a complex figure of Romanian Communism.
father and a German
mother in 1904, in Iaslovăţ
, Suceava County
, Bukovina
, then under Austrian
rule. His military career as an artillery
officer was interrupted by a conflict with a member of the Romanian Royal House
. He was transferred to a garrison
in Bessarabia
where he was contacted by Communist elements, became a Soviet spy and defected to the USSR in 1931. He returned to Romania in 1935 and fulfilled different special missions for Soviet military intelligence
. Caught by accident, Bodnăraş was sentenced to ten years in prison. Imprisoned at Braşov
, Doftana
and Caransebeş
, he entered the Romanian Communist Party
in 1940 becoming a key figure in Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
's faction. He was released in 1942.
, was a key participant in the political elimination and physical isolation of Ştefan Foriş
, the General Secretary
of the Party. The three of them dominated the leadership of the Party until Dej's escape from prison in August of the same year. After the massive bombing of Bucharest on April 4, 1944, Bodnăraş and Rangheţ captured Foriş and forced him to sign his deposition at gunpoint.
Bodnăraş participated in the August 23, 1944 coup led by King Michael
against the government of Ion Antonescu
. He organized underground paramilitary
units and together with colonel
Dumitru Dămăceanu
coordinated the weakening of a segment of the Moldavia
n front called "Poarta Iaşiului" against the Soviet offensive of August 1944
. He was part of a group of communists who took custody of Ion Antonescu after his arrest, and took him and Mihai Antonescu
to a safe house, before handing the two prisoners to Soviet troops.
He became a member of the Politburo
. During March 1945 and November 1947 he became the head of the secret intelligence service affiliated with the Council of Ministries's presidency. From this position he was one of the orchestrators of the electoral fraud from 1946
and of the Tămădău Affair
.
His enormous influence was due to permanent direct contact with the Soviet secret services (he was reporting on each of the Romanian Communist Party leaders, as revealed later in the case of Ana Pauker
).
, vice premier
. On December 27, 1947 he became Minister of Defense, taking over the position previously held by Mihail Lascăr
. He held this office until October 3, 1955, while in 1956 he became Minister of Transportation. During his tenure, the Sovietization
of the Romanian Army occurred. Bodnăraş sent several Romanian Communists to Moscow
to be trained in a special military school, among them the young Nicolae Ceauşescu
, who became a close and zealous collaborator and was appointed general and political commissar of the military forces.
He remained one of Gheorghiu-Dej's supporters until Dej's death, and he resisted the restructurations of the Party proposed by Iosif Chişinevschi
and Miron Constantinescu
.
During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Bodnăraş led a body authorized to intervene and even to open fire in crisis situations. In November, together with Gheorghiu-Dej he also led the Romanian delegation to Hungary, to discuss with János Kádár
and support the suppression of the Hungarian revolution.
It seems he also had a key role in influencing Nikita Khrushchev
's decision to withdraw Soviet forces
from Romania in 1958.
After the death of Gheorghiu-Dej in March, 1965, Bodnăraş, as one of the most influential members of the Politburo, decided to support Ceauşescu instead of Gheorghe Apostol
or Alexandru Drăghici, thus facilitating Ceauşescu's ascension to the position of General Secretary of the Party.
was named Emil Bodnăraş from September 7, 1976 to May 20, 1996.
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n Communist
Romanian Communist Party
The Romanian Communist Party was a communist political party in Romania. Successor to the Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to communist revolution and the disestablishment of Greater Romania. The PCR was a minor and illegal grouping for much of the...
politician, an army officer
Officer (armed forces)
An officer is a member of an armed force or uniformed service who holds a position of authority. Commissioned officers derive authority directly from a sovereign power and, as such, hold a commission charging them with the duties and responsibilities of a specific office or position...
, and a Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
agent
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
. He was involved in many of the events of Communist Romania
Communist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
, thus making him a complex figure of Romanian Communism.
Early life
Bodnăraş was born to a UkrainianUkrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
father and a German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
mother in 1904, in Iaslovăţ
Iaslovat
Iaslovăț is a commune located in Suceava County, Romania. It is composed of a single village, Iaslovăț, part of the then-commune of Milișăuți until 2002, when it was split off.The village is the birthplace of Communist politician Emil Bodnăraș....
, Suceava County
Suceava County
Suceava is a county of Romania, in the historical region of Moldavia and few villages in Transylvania, with the capital city at Suceava.- Demographics :...
, Bukovina
Bukovina
Bukovina is a historical region on the northern slopes of the northeastern Carpathian Mountains and the adjoining plains.-Name:The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became...
, then under Austrian
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
rule. His military career as an artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
officer was interrupted by a conflict with a member of the Romanian Royal House
Romanian Royal Family
The current Romanian royal family , an integral part of the larger royal house of Romania, consists of the family of King Michael I of Romania who bear a royal title...
. He was transferred to a garrison
Garrison
Garrison is the collective term for a body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, but now often simply using it as a home base....
in Bessarabia
Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
where he was contacted by Communist elements, became a Soviet spy and defected to the USSR in 1931. He returned to Romania in 1935 and fulfilled different special missions for Soviet military intelligence
GRU
GRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation...
. Caught by accident, Bodnăraş was sentenced to ten years in prison. Imprisoned at Braşov
Brasov
Brașov is a city in Romania and the capital of Brașov County.According to the last Romanian census, from 2002, there were 284,596 people living within the city of Brașov, making it the 8th most populated city in Romania....
, Doftana
Doftana prison
Doftana was a Romanian prison. Built in 1895, it was used in the 1930s to detain political prisoners, among them the future president Nicolae Ceauşescu. It is situated close to the village with the same name, in the Telega commune...
and Caransebeş
Caransebes
Caransebeş is a city in Caraş-Severin County, part of the Banat region in southwestern Romania. It is located at the confluence of the river Timiş with the river Sebeş, the latter coming from the Ţarcu Mountains. To the west, it is in direct contact with the Banat hills...
, he entered the Romanian Communist Party
Romanian Communist Party
The Romanian Communist Party was a communist political party in Romania. Successor to the Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to communist revolution and the disestablishment of Greater Romania. The PCR was a minor and illegal grouping for much of the...
in 1940 becoming a key figure in Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej was the Communist leader of Romania from 1948 until his death in 1965.-Early life:Gheorghe was the son of a poor worker, Tănase Gheorghiu, and his wife Ana. Gheorghiu-Dej joined the Communist Party of Romania in 1930...
's faction. He was released in 1942.
1944-1947
In 1944, Bodnăraş, together with Iosif Rangheţ and Constantin PîrvulescuConstantin Pîrvulescu
Constantin Pîrvulescu was a Romanian communist politician, one of the founders of the Romanian Communist Party , and, eventually, an active opponent of Communist Romania's leader Nicolae Ceauşescu...
, was a key participant in the political elimination and physical isolation of Ştefan Foriş
Stefan Foris
Ştefan Foriş was a Romanian communist activist and journalist who served as general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party between 1940 and 1944....
, the General Secretary
General Secretary
The office of general secretary is staffed by the chief officer of:*The General Secretariat for Macedonia and Thrace, a government agency for the Greek regions of Macedonia and Thrace...
of the Party. The three of them dominated the leadership of the Party until Dej's escape from prison in August of the same year. After the massive bombing of Bucharest on April 4, 1944, Bodnăraş and Rangheţ captured Foriş and forced him to sign his deposition at gunpoint.
Bodnăraş participated in the August 23, 1944 coup led by King Michael
Michael I of Romania
Michael was the last King of Romania. He reigned from 20 July 1927 to 8 June 1930, and again from 6 September 1940 until 30 December 1947 when he was forced, by the Communist Party of Romania , to abdicate to the Soviet armies of occupation...
against the government of Ion Antonescu
Ion Antonescu
Ion Victor Antonescu was a Romanian soldier, authoritarian politician and convicted war criminal. The Prime Minister and Conducător during most of World War II, he presided over two successive wartime dictatorships...
. He organized underground paramilitary
Paramilitary
A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....
units and together with colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
Dumitru Dămăceanu
Dumitru Damaceanu
Dumitru Dămăceanu was a Romanian army officer in World War II, later promoted to Brigadier-General, who played a predominant role in the Royal coup of August 23, 1944....
coordinated the weakening of a segment of the Moldavia
Moldavia
Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...
n front called "Poarta Iaşiului" against the Soviet offensive of August 1944
Battle of Romania (1944)
The Jassy–Kishinev Operation, named after the two major cities, Iaşi and Chişinău, in the staging area, was a Soviet offensive against Axis forces, which took place in Eastern Romania from 20–29 August 1944...
. He was part of a group of communists who took custody of Ion Antonescu after his arrest, and took him and Mihai Antonescu
Mihai Antonescu
Mihai Antonescu was a Romanian politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister during World War II.-Early career:...
to a safe house, before handing the two prisoners to Soviet troops.
He became a member of the Politburo
Politburo
Politburo , literally "Political Bureau [of the Central Committee]," is the executive committee for a number of communist political parties.-Marxist-Leninist states:...
. During March 1945 and November 1947 he became the head of the secret intelligence service affiliated with the Council of Ministries's presidency. From this position he was one of the orchestrators of the electoral fraud from 1946
Romanian general election, 1946
The Romanian general election of 1946 was a general election held on November 19, 1946, in Romania. Officially, it was carried with 79.86% of the vote by the Romanian Communist Party , its allies inside the Bloc of Democratic Parties , and its associates — the Hungarian People's Union , the...
and of the Tămădău Affair
Tamadau Affair
The Tămădău Affair was an incident that took place in Romania in the summer of 1947, the source of a political scandal and show trial.It was provoked when an important number of National Peasants' Party leaders, including party vice president Ion Mihalache, had been offered a chance to flee...
.
His enormous influence was due to permanent direct contact with the Soviet secret services (he was reporting on each of the Romanian Communist Party leaders, as revealed later in the case of Ana Pauker
Ana Pauker
Ana Pauker was a Romanian communist leader and served as the country's foreign minister in the late 1940s and early 1950s...
).
Under Gheorghiu-Dej
He held several important positions under Dej: Minister of Defense, army generalArmy General
For the army rank of General, as opposed to the specific rank of Army General, see General officer.Army General is a title used in many countries to denote the rank of General nominally commanding an army in the field...
, vice premier
Premier
Premier is a title for the head of government in some countries and states.-Examples by country:In many nations, "premier" is used interchangeably with "prime minister"...
. On December 27, 1947 he became Minister of Defense, taking over the position previously held by Mihail Lascăr
Mihail Lascar
Mihail Lascăr was a Romanian General during World War II, and Minister of Defense from 1946 to 1947.After graduating from the Infantry Officer School in 1910 with the rank of 2nd lieutenant, he fought in the Second Balkan War and in World War I, being promoted to major...
. He held this office until October 3, 1955, while in 1956 he became Minister of Transportation. During his tenure, the Sovietization
Sovietization
Sovietization is term that may be used with two distinct meanings:*the adoption of a political system based on the model of soviets .*the adoption of a way of life and mentality modelled after the Soviet Union....
of the Romanian Army occurred. Bodnăraş sent several Romanian Communists to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
to be trained in a special military school, among them the young Nicolae Ceauşescu
Nicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...
, who became a close and zealous collaborator and was appointed general and political commissar of the military forces.
He remained one of Gheorghiu-Dej's supporters until Dej's death, and he resisted the restructurations of the Party proposed by Iosif Chişinevschi
Iosif Chisinevschi
Iosif Chişinevschi , born Iosif Roitman, was a Romanian communist politician. The leading ideologue of the Romanian Communist Party from 1944 to 1957, he served as head of its Agitprop Department from 1948 to 1952 and was in charge of propaganda and culture from 1952 to 1955...
and Miron Constantinescu
Miron Constantinescu
Miron Constantinescu was a Romanian communist politician, a leading member of the Romanian Communist Party , as well as a Marxist sociologist, historian, academic, and journalist...
.
During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Bodnăraş led a body authorized to intervene and even to open fire in crisis situations. In November, together with Gheorghiu-Dej he also led the Romanian delegation to Hungary, to discuss with János Kádár
János Kádár
János Kádár was a Hungarian communist leader and the General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, presiding over the country from 1956 until his forced retirement in 1988. His thirty-two year term as General Secretary makes Kádár the longest ruler of the People's Republic of Hungary...
and support the suppression of the Hungarian revolution.
It seems he also had a key role in influencing Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
's decision to withdraw Soviet forces
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
from Romania in 1958.
After the death of Gheorghiu-Dej in March, 1965, Bodnăraş, as one of the most influential members of the Politburo, decided to support Ceauşescu instead of Gheorghe Apostol
Gheorghe Apostol
Gheorghe Apostol was a Romanian politician, deputy Prime Minister of Romania and a former leader of the Communist Party, noted for his rivalry with Nicolae Ceauşescu.-Early life:...
or Alexandru Drăghici, thus facilitating Ceauşescu's ascension to the position of General Secretary of the Party.
Under Ceauşescu
Bodnăraş transferred his loyalty to Ceauşescu, receiving in exchange the position of vice president of the State Council, and remained a member of the Communist elite until his death. The town of MilişăuţiMilisauti
Milișăuți is a town located in Suceava County, Romania. The town administers three villages: Bădeuți, Gara and Lunca. Iaslovăţ village was also part of Milişăuţi until 2002, when it was split off to form a separate commune.-References:...
was named Emil Bodnăraş from September 7, 1976 to May 20, 1996.