Emil Calmanovici
Encyclopedia
Emil Calmanovici was a Romania
n engineer, businessman, and communist
militant. Known for the financial support he gave to the Romanian Communist Party
(PCR) during the late 1930s and early 1940s, he became a political prisoner
of the Communist regime
after being implicated in the show trial
of his collaborator Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu
. Calmanovici died in mysterious circumstances in Aiud prison
, while on recovery from a hunger strike
.
family in Piatra Neamţ
, he was the son of Mendel and his wife Ana, who ran a business in the town. A graduate of the University of Munich
and the University of Berlin
, where he was confronted with the establishment of the Nazi regime
and became an avid reader of Karl Marx
and Vladimir Lenin
, he also amassed a fortune in his youth, owing to his real estate
investments. Calmanovici decided to dedicate his wealth to the PCR cause, at a time when the party was outlawed.
By the end of World War II
, when they were nationalized
, his properties included two construction enterprises, additional shares in a logging
company centered in his native town, seven apartments, and over 18,000 m² in Bucharest
real estate.
, the renovation of the Central Committee
seat in Bucharest, a clandestine radio station, and a kindergarten for children of party members. He estimated that his investments totaled 30 million lei
in 1942 currency, which he argued was over 75% of his total income. Calmanovici took pride in noting that this contribution was by far the highest of all those recorded (including that of Jacques Berman). In addition, he contended, nationalization of his wealth had brought the state over 1 billion lei in 1947 currency.
Inside the PCR, he kept only sporadic contacts with the "prison faction", a group led by Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
(according to one account, during the time when Gheorghiu-Dej was held in Doftana prison
, Calmanovici sent him a jacket as a gift). Instead, he was close to Pătrăşcanu's maverick group (later known as the "Secretariat faction"), a fact which, in time, contributed to his arrest and imprisonment (both of which were instigated by members of the "prison faction").
and participated in Operation Barbarossa
, he was among those charged with establishing contacts between the Communists and other opposition groups. At the time, his relation with the pro-Allied
financier Alexandru Ştefănescu helped him gain intimate knowledge of various negotiations between the National Peasants' Party
(PNŢ) and the National Liberal Party
(PNL) on one side and Ion Antonescu
's dictatorial government on the other, as well as of the latter's tentative moves to withdraw Romania from its alliance with Nazi Germany
through a compromise with the Western Allies (the 1943 unsuccessful mission of Barbu Ştirbey
to Cairo
). Calmanovici forwarded his information to the PCR's Remus Koffler, which helped the group approach and influence the PNŢ leader Iuliu Maniu
to form an alliance against Antonescu (one which enlisted support from the Soviet Union
).
After the fall of Antonescu's regime and the onset of Soviet occupation
in August 1944, when the PCR first entered government, Calmanovici became an esteemed party member and officially-endorsed industrialist. In the spring of 1945, his Bucharest house served as a meeting place for PCR and pro-Communist forces who planned and succeeded in toppling Prime Minister Nicolae Rădescu
(after a series of street clashes, Rădescu was replaced with the Ploughmen's Front
leader Petru Groza
, whose cabinet was controlled by the PCR). Following this, he was appointed a technical director of the Bucharest Constructions Institute and was involved in enforcing Soviet standards and expertise.
on May 26, 1951. Several days earlier, Calmanovici had met with Constantin Pîrvulescu
. At this meeting, Calmanovici asked Pîrvulescu to use his status as head of the Party Control Commission to grant him a decoration (Calmanovici was stiffly refused, on the grounds that such self-promotion was unprecedented).
Documents involving the 1943-1944 contacts between Calmanovici, Pătrăşcanu, Koffler, and Maniu (who was already imprisoned on such charges following the Tămădău Affair
) were interpreted as evidence that the former two had been spying for the Western Allies. In full, the accusation read: "as an agent of the English
espionage services he forwarded information about the PCR, taking part in the criminal action to destroy the party and support the anti-Soviet war
".
Calmanovici stated that, early on, authorities had presented him with the claim that he was kept in custody in order to aid in the process of compiling a history of the PCR. Starting in summer 1951, he was subject to a series of Securitate interrogations, which concluded that he had not contributed to hostile activities and that he was able to support his case with "sufficient guarantees".
In December, Calmanovici, who had devoted his spare time to learning Russian
, was supposed to be released from custody. Instead, his case was reviewed by a new group of Securitate officials, who obeyed Gheorghiu-Dej and alleged that the latter's rival, Minister of the Interior Teohari Georgescu
, was not enforcing party doctrine (Georgescu was to be himself ousted in 1952). On orders from Alexandru Drăghici and Vladimir Mazuru, under the supervision of several Soviet envoys, Securitate cadres were to induce Calmanovici to confess having spied in Romania during and after the World War. The officer who had originally argued in favor of his release was criticized for having displayed "lack of vigilance", and ordered to resume interrogation.
In several appeals to the PCR leadership (Gheorghiu-Dej, Pîrvulescu, Chivu Stoica
, Emil Bodnăraş
and others) Calmanovici repeatedly stated his innocence and dismissed accusations that he was a bourgeois
figure with insufficient political education. In another personal letter, he compared allegations of espionage with those made by Alexander Kerensky
about Vladimir Lenin
prior to the October Revolution
in Russia
.
). His inquisitors soon rejected the story, and argued that it was additional proof of "provocation" on Calmanovici's part.
Eventually, he agreed to sign his name to a confession drawn up by the PCR, in return for a promise that he was to be given at most a four-year sentence. It has been argued that the document endorsed by Calmanovici was directly inspired from the similar one handed over by Nikolai Bukharin
during the 1938 Moscow
Trial of the Twenty One
. In its final form, it also incriminated Calmanovici of Zionism
and spying in favor of the Western Allies
(the United States
, or, alternatively, the United Kingdom
).
Consequently, Calmanovici was indicted in Pătrăşcanu's 1954 trial, where, despite early promises, the court ultimately sentenced him to life imprisonment
and forced labor
. The sentence was given on counts of crime against peace
and high treason
. As Pătrăşcanu and Koffler were being swiftly executed in Jilava
, he and the other persons sentenced (including, among others, Alexandru Ştefănescu, Petre Pandrea, Harry Brauner
, Lena Constante
, and Pătrăşcanu's wife Elena) were dispatched to the infamous Aiud prison
, on their way to various facilities.
As a consequence, the Securitate decided to stage a set of circumstances which were to incriminate him further: in 1955, Calmanovici was escorted out of Aiud and into a villa in Săftica, where he received a humane treatment while being interrogated by Vasile Posteucă. A guard was instructed to approach him and earn his confidence, to the point where Calmanovici trusted him with carrying out a message he had written on linens; addressed to his former employees and meant to be forwarded to Jewish communists in the Western world
, these exposed the fallacies and major irregularities of his trial. (In similar appeals, Calmanovici had also meant to bring his case to the attention of the Cominform
.) After the guard handed the letters over to his superiors, Calmanovici was chained and moved back into Aiud.
He decided to publicize his innocence by beginning a hunger strike
, which eventually led physicians on duty to force-feed
him. His diet at the time went against medical guidelines for people with malnutrition
, and was the most likely cause of his death by gastrointestinal perforation
— two prison staff members later attested that this was done on purpose, as a method of assassination. It has also been noted that Calmanovici's signed statement according to which he was abandoning the hunger strike and was accepting the treatment, extracted only hours before his death, was immediately communicated to higher authority (unlike any other such statement of the time).
Of his group, Calmanovici was the only one to die in custody (all others were released ca. 1964, when they benefited from an amnesty
).
in April 1968 by Nicolae Ceauşescu
, following a change in policy which was meant to discredit his deceased predecessor Gheorghiu-Dej and the former Securitate chief Alexandru Drăghici.
The new inquiry, overseen by Ion Popescu-Puţuri, found that Calmanovici had been the victim of systematic abuse. Among others, it was established that Calmanovici's arrest had been operated on the basis of Gheorghiu-Dej's personal views, that the charges had for long not been communicated to Calmanovici, that Soviet agents had openly intervened in interrogations, and that, like virtually all other defendants, he had been repeatedly beaten and otherwise torture
d to ensure a forced confession
.
Calmanovici's son became a resident and later a citizen of Sweden
, becoming known under the name Gad Calmgran. He worked as a journalist, and was a collaborator for the newspaper Dagens Nyheter
.
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 engineer, businessman, and communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
militant. Known for the financial support he gave to 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...
(PCR) during the late 1930s and early 1940s, he became a political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
of the Communist regime
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...
after being implicated in the show trial
Show trial
The term show trial is a pejorative description of a type of highly public trial in which there is a strong connotation that the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal to present the accusation and the verdict to the public as...
of his collaborator Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu
Lucretiu Patrascanu
Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu was a Romanian communist politician and leading member of the Communist Party of Romania , also noted for his activities as a lawyer, sociologist and economist. For a while, he was a professor at Bucharest University...
. Calmanovici died in mysterious circumstances in Aiud prison
Aiud prison
Aiud prison is a prison complex in Aiud, central Transylvania, Romania.It is infamous for its political inmates, especially during the reign of Romania's by Nazi allies and later communists...
, while on recovery from a hunger strike
Hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...
.
Early life and financial success
Born to a JewishHistory of the Jews in Romania
The history of Jews in Romania concerns the Jews of Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is nowadays Romanian territory....
family in Piatra Neamţ
Piatra Neamt
Piatra Neamț , , ; is the capital city of Neamţ County, in the historical region of Moldavia, eastern Romania. Because of its privileged location in the Eastern Carpathian mountains, it is considered one of the most picturesque cities in Romania...
, he was the son of Mendel and his wife Ana, who ran a business in the town. A graduate of the University of Munich
Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich
The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich , commonly known as the University of Munich or LMU, is a university in Munich, Germany...
and the University of Berlin
Humboldt University of Berlin
The Humboldt University of Berlin is Berlin's oldest university, founded in 1810 as the University of Berlin by the liberal Prussian educational reformer and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt, whose university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities...
, where he was confronted with the establishment of the Nazi regime
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
and became an avid reader of Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
and Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
, he also amassed a fortune in his youth, owing to his real estate
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
investments. Calmanovici decided to dedicate his wealth to the PCR cause, at a time when the party was outlawed.
By the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, when they were nationalized
Nationalization
Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...
, his properties included two construction enterprises, additional shares in a logging
Logging
Logging is the cutting, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks.In forestry, the term logging is sometimes used in a narrow sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard...
company centered in his native town, seven apartments, and over 18,000 m² in Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
real estate.
Party financier
According to Calmanovici's statements, he had contributed massive sums to various PCR enterprises between 1937 (the year when he joined the group) and 1944, being responsible for the purchase of a printing pressPrinting press
A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium , thereby transferring the ink...
, the renovation of the Central Committee
Central Committee
Central Committee was the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, whether ruling or non-ruling in the twentieth century and of the surviving, mostly Trotskyist, states in the early twenty first. In such party organizations the...
seat in Bucharest, a clandestine radio station, and a kindergarten for children of party members. He estimated that his investments totaled 30 million lei
Romanian leu
The leu is the currency of Romania. It is subdivided into 100 bani . The name of the currency means "lion". On 1 July 2005, Romania underwent a currency reform, switching from the previous leu to a new leu . 1 RON is equal to 10,000 ROL...
in 1942 currency, which he argued was over 75% of his total income. Calmanovici took pride in noting that this contribution was by far the highest of all those recorded (including that of Jacques Berman). In addition, he contended, nationalization of his wealth had brought the state over 1 billion lei in 1947 currency.
Inside the PCR, he kept only sporadic contacts with the "prison faction", a group led by 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...
(according to one account, during the time when Gheorghiu-Dej was held in Doftana prison
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...
, Calmanovici sent him a jacket as a gift). Instead, he was close to Pătrăşcanu's maverick group (later known as the "Secretariat faction"), a fact which, in time, contributed to his arrest and imprisonment (both of which were instigated by members of the "prison faction").
Late 1940s
During the war, when Romania joined the Axis PowersAxis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
and participated in Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
, he was among those charged with establishing contacts between the Communists and other opposition groups. At the time, his relation with the pro-Allied
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
financier Alexandru Ştefănescu helped him gain intimate knowledge of various negotiations between the National Peasants' Party
National Peasants' Party
The National Peasants' Party was a Romanian political party, formed in 1926 through the fusion of the Romanian National Party from Transylvania and the Peasants' Party . It was in power between 1928 and 1933, with brief interruptions...
(PNŢ) and the National Liberal Party
National Liberal Party (Romania)
The National Liberal Party , abbreviated to PNL, is a centre-right liberal party in Romania. It is the third-largest party in the Romanian Parliament, with 53 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 22 in the Senate: behind the centre-right Democratic Liberal Party and the centre-left Social...
(PNL) on one side and 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...
's dictatorial government on the other, as well as of the latter's tentative moves to withdraw Romania from its alliance with Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
through a compromise with the Western Allies (the 1943 unsuccessful mission of Barbu Ştirbey
Barbu Stirbey
Prince Barbu Ştirbey was briefly Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Romania in 1927. He was the son of Prince Alexandru Ştirbey and his wife Maria Ghika-Comăneşti, and grandson of another Barbu Dimitrie Ştirbey , who was Prince of Wallachia and died in 1869.He married Princess Nadèje Bibescu about...
to Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
). Calmanovici forwarded his information to the PCR's Remus Koffler, which helped the group approach and influence the PNŢ leader Iuliu Maniu
Iuliu Maniu
Iuliu Maniu was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian politician. A leader of the National Party of Transylvania and Banat before and after World War I, he served as Prime Minister of Romania for three terms during 1928–1933, and, with Ion Mihalache, co-founded the National Peasants'...
to form an alliance against Antonescu (one which enlisted support from the Soviet Union
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....
).
After the fall of Antonescu's regime and the onset of Soviet occupation
Soviet occupation of Romania
The Soviet occupation of Romania refers to the period from 1944 to August 1958, during which the Soviet Union maintained a significant military presence in Romania...
in August 1944, when the PCR first entered government, Calmanovici became an esteemed party member and officially-endorsed industrialist. In the spring of 1945, his Bucharest house served as a meeting place for PCR and pro-Communist forces who planned and succeeded in toppling Prime Minister Nicolae Rădescu
Nicolae Radescu
Nicolae Rădescu was a Romanian army officer and political figure. He was the last pre-communist rule Prime Minister of Romania, serving from December 7, 1944 to March 1, 1945....
(after a series of street clashes, Rădescu was replaced with the Ploughmen's Front
Ploughmen's Front
The Ploughmen's Front was a Romanian left-wing agrarian-inspired political organisation of ploughmen, founded at Deva in 1933 and led by Petru Groza. At its peak in 1946, the Front had over 1 million members.-History:...
leader Petru Groza
Petru Groza
Petru Groza was a Romanian politician, best known as the Prime Minister of the first Communist Party-dominated governments under Soviet occupation during the early stages of the Communist regime in Romania....
, whose cabinet was controlled by the PCR). Following this, he was appointed a technical director of the Bucharest Constructions Institute and was involved in enforcing Soviet standards and expertise.
Arrest
Relations between Calmanovici and the PCR degenerated abruptly toward the end of the 1940s, and he was arrested by the SecuritateSecuritate
The Securitate was the secret police agency of Communist Romania. Previously, the Romanian secret police was called Siguranţa Statului. Founded on August 30, 1948, with help from the Soviet NKVD, the Securitate was abolished in December 1989, shortly after President Nicolae Ceaușescu was...
on May 26, 1951. Several days earlier, Calmanovici had met with Constantin Pîrvulescu
Constantin 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...
. At this meeting, Calmanovici asked Pîrvulescu to use his status as head of the Party Control Commission to grant him a decoration (Calmanovici was stiffly refused, on the grounds that such self-promotion was unprecedented).
Documents involving the 1943-1944 contacts between Calmanovici, Pătrăşcanu, Koffler, and Maniu (who was already imprisoned on such charges following 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...
) were interpreted as evidence that the former two had been spying for the Western Allies. In full, the accusation read: "as an agent of the English
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
espionage services he forwarded information about the PCR, taking part in the criminal action to destroy the party and support the anti-Soviet war
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
".
Calmanovici stated that, early on, authorities had presented him with the claim that he was kept in custody in order to aid in the process of compiling a history of the PCR. Starting in summer 1951, he was subject to a series of Securitate interrogations, which concluded that he had not contributed to hostile activities and that he was able to support his case with "sufficient guarantees".
In December, Calmanovici, who had devoted his spare time to learning Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, was supposed to be released from custody. Instead, his case was reviewed by a new group of Securitate officials, who obeyed Gheorghiu-Dej and alleged that the latter's rival, Minister of the Interior Teohari Georgescu
Teohari Georgescu
Teohari Georgescu was a high-ranking member of the Romanian Communist Party.-Life:Born in Bacău, he was the third of seven children of Constantin and Aneta Georgescu. Georgescu, whose formal education ended after the fourth grade, began his career as an assistant in his father's store...
, was not enforcing party doctrine (Georgescu was to be himself ousted in 1952). On orders from Alexandru Drăghici and Vladimir Mazuru, under the supervision of several Soviet envoys, Securitate cadres were to induce Calmanovici to confess having spied in Romania during and after the World War. The officer who had originally argued in favor of his release was criticized for having displayed "lack of vigilance", and ordered to resume interrogation.
In several appeals to the PCR leadership (Gheorghiu-Dej, Pîrvulescu, Chivu Stoica
Chivu Stoica
Chivu Stoica was a leading Romanian Communist politician.Stoica was born in Smeeni, Buzău County, the sixth child of a ploughman. At age 12 he left home, and started working as an apprentice at Căile Ferate Române, the state railway corporation...
, Emil Bodnăraş
Emil Bodnaras
Emil Bodnăraş was an influential Romanian Communist politician, an army officer, and a Soviet agent...
and others) Calmanovici repeatedly stated his innocence and dismissed accusations that he was a bourgeois
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
figure with insufficient political education. In another personal letter, he compared allegations of espionage with those made by Alexander Kerensky
Alexander Kerensky
Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky was a major political leader before and during the Russian Revolutions of 1917.Kerensky served as the second Prime Minister of the Russian Provisional Government until Vladimir Lenin was elected by the All-Russian Congress of Soviets following the October Revolution...
about Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
prior to the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
.
Confession and trial
In February 1953, Calmanovici gave in to Securitate violence and presented operatives with a fabricated account, stating that he had been part of a network of spies presided over by Milton (a name he came up with after recalling the 17th-century poet John MiltonJohn Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
). His inquisitors soon rejected the story, and argued that it was additional proof of "provocation" on Calmanovici's part.
Eventually, he agreed to sign his name to a confession drawn up by the PCR, in return for a promise that he was to be given at most a four-year sentence. It has been argued that the document endorsed by Calmanovici was directly inspired from the similar one handed over by Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin , was a Russian Marxist, Bolshevik revolutionary, and Soviet politician. He was a member of the Politburo and Central Committee , chairman of the Communist International , and the editor in chief of Pravda , the journal Bolshevik , Izvestia , and the Great Soviet...
during the 1938 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...
Trial of the Twenty One
Trial of the Twenty One
The Trial of the Twenty-One was the last of the Moscow Trials, show trials of prominent Bolsheviks, including the Old Bolsheviks. The Trial of the Twenty-One took place in Moscow in March 1938, towards the end of Stalin's Great Purge.-The Trial:...
. In its final form, it also incriminated Calmanovici of Zionism
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
and spying in favor of the Western Allies
Western Allies
The Western Allies were a political and geographic grouping among the Allied Powers of the Second World War. It generally includes the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth, the United States, France and various other European and Latin American countries, but excludes China, the Soviet Union,...
(the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, or, alternatively, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
).
Consequently, Calmanovici was indicted in Pătrăşcanu's 1954 trial, where, despite early promises, the court ultimately sentenced him to life imprisonment
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
and forced labor
Penal labour
Penal labour is a form of unfree labour in which prisoners perform work, typically manual labour. The work may be light or hard, depending on the context. Forms of sentence which involve penal labour include penal servitude and imprisonment with hard labour...
. The sentence was given on counts of crime against peace
Crime against peace
A crime against peace, in international law, refers to "planning, preparation, initiation, or waging of wars of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the foregoing"...
and high treason
High treason
High treason is criminal disloyalty to one's government. Participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state are perhaps...
. As Pătrăşcanu and Koffler were being swiftly executed in Jilava
Jilava
Jilava is a commune in Ilfov county, Romania, near Bucharest. It is composed of a single village, Jilava.The name derives from a Romanian word of Slavic origin meaning "humid place". Jilava was the location of a fort built by King Carol I of Romania, as part of the capital's defense system...
, he and the other persons sentenced (including, among others, Alexandru Ştefănescu, Petre Pandrea, Harry Brauner
Harry Brauner
Harry Brauner was a Romanian ethnomusicologist, and composer, professor of music, director of the Institut de Folklor in Bucharest . He is the brother of Victor Brauner and the husband of Lena Constante. Harry Brauner is known as Constantin Brăiloiu's disciple and colleague...
, Lena Constante
Lena Constante
Lena Constante was a Romanian artist, essayist and memoirist, known for her work in stage design and tapestry. A family friend of Communist Party politician Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu, she was arrested by the Communist regime following the conflict between Pătrăşcanu and Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej...
, and Pătrăşcanu's wife Elena) were dispatched to the infamous Aiud prison
Aiud prison
Aiud prison is a prison complex in Aiud, central Transylvania, Romania.It is infamous for its political inmates, especially during the reign of Romania's by Nazi allies and later communists...
, on their way to various facilities.
Imprisonment and death
Calmanovici, who was kept in almost complete isolation, managed to contact other inmates, an infraction which was added to his criminal record.As a consequence, the Securitate decided to stage a set of circumstances which were to incriminate him further: in 1955, Calmanovici was escorted out of Aiud and into a villa in Săftica, where he received a humane treatment while being interrogated by Vasile Posteucă. A guard was instructed to approach him and earn his confidence, to the point where Calmanovici trusted him with carrying out a message he had written on linens; addressed to his former employees and meant to be forwarded to Jewish communists in the Western world
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
, these exposed the fallacies and major irregularities of his trial. (In similar appeals, Calmanovici had also meant to bring his case to the attention of the Cominform
Cominform
Founded in 1947, Cominform is the common name for what was officially referred to as the Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties...
.) After the guard handed the letters over to his superiors, Calmanovici was chained and moved back into Aiud.
He decided to publicize his innocence by beginning a hunger strike
Hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...
, which eventually led physicians on duty to force-feed
Force-feeding
Force-feeding is the practice of feeding a person or an animal against their will. "Gavage" is supplying a nutritional substance by means of a small plastic tube passed through the nose or mouth into the stomach, not explicitly 'forcibly'....
him. His diet at the time went against medical guidelines for people with malnutrition
Malnutrition
Malnutrition is the condition that results from taking an unbalanced diet in which certain nutrients are lacking, in excess , or in the wrong proportions....
, and was the most likely cause of his death by gastrointestinal perforation
Gastrointestinal perforation
Gastrointestinal perforation is a complete penetration of the wall of the stomach, small intestine or large bowel, resulting in intestinal contents flowing into the abdominal cavity. Perforation of the intestines results in the potential for bacterial contamination of the abdominal cavity...
— two prison staff members later attested that this was done on purpose, as a method of assassination. It has also been noted that Calmanovici's signed statement according to which he was abandoning the hunger strike and was accepting the treatment, extracted only hours before his death, was immediately communicated to higher authority (unlike any other such statement of the time).
Of his group, Calmanovici was the only one to die in custody (all others were released ca. 1964, when they benefited from an amnesty
Amnesty
Amnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent people, without changing the laws defining the offense. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the...
).
Rehabilitation and legacy
Like all defendants in the Pătrăşcanu trial, Calmanovici was rehabilitatedRehabilitation (Soviet)
Rehabilitation in the context of the former Soviet Union, and the Post-Soviet states, was the restoration of a person who was criminally prosecuted without due basis, to the state of acquittal...
in April 1968 by 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...
, following a change in policy which was meant to discredit his deceased predecessor Gheorghiu-Dej and the former Securitate chief Alexandru Drăghici.
The new inquiry, overseen by Ion Popescu-Puţuri, found that Calmanovici had been the victim of systematic abuse. Among others, it was established that Calmanovici's arrest had been operated on the basis of Gheorghiu-Dej's personal views, that the charges had for long not been communicated to Calmanovici, that Soviet agents had openly intervened in interrogations, and that, like virtually all other defendants, he had been repeatedly beaten and otherwise torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
d to ensure a forced confession
Forced confession
A forced confession is a confession obtained by a suspect or a prisoner under means of torture, enhanced interrogation technique or duress.Depending on the level of coercion used, a forced confession may or may not be valid in revealing the truth...
.
Calmanovici's son became a resident and later a citizen of Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, becoming known under the name Gad Calmgran. He worked as a journalist, and was a collaborator for the newspaper Dagens Nyheter
Dagens Nyheter
is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It has the largest circulation of Swedish morning newspapers, followed by Göteborgs-Posten and Svenska Dagbladet, and is the only morning newspaper that is distributed to subscribers across the whole country. In 2009 DN had a circulation of 316,000, reaching 881...
.