Ilie Cătărău
Encyclopedia
Ilie Cătărău was a Bessarabia
n-born political adventurer, soldier and spy, who spent parts of his life in Romania
. Leading a secretive life, he is widely held to have been the main perpetrator of two bomb attacks, which sought to exacerbate tensions between Romania and Austria-Hungary
in preparation for World War I
. Beyond his cover as a refugee from the Russian Empire
, Ilie Cătărău was a double agent
, working for both Russian and Romanian interests.
By 1917, Cătărău was formally committed to anarchism
and communism
, allying himself with Bessarabia's Bolshevik
insurgents. Profiting from favorable circumstances, and nominally servicing the anti-Bolshevik Moldavian Democratic Republic
, he became commander of the 1st Moldavian Regiment in late 1917. In short time, his position and his application of a communist program eroded the Republic's prestige, and his soldiers began openly threatening the Bessarabian government. Cătărău was deposed and arrested by Gherman Pântea
and a unit of Amur Cossacks
, being sent into exile.
After more adventures, which may have taken him as far out as Japan
and Polynesia
, Cătărău faded to relative obscurity. He only returned to history in the 1940s, a conjectural ally of the Romanian communist regime
. In old age, he retreated from political affairs and became a Romanian Orthodox
monk.
(Orgeyev) or the nearby village of Marcăuţi
, both of them located in Russia's Bessarabia Governorate
. Romanian sources traditionally claim that Cătărău was not a member of the ethnic Romanian
community, but rather a Bessarabian Bulgarian
. Story has it that his first career was as an officer of the Imperial Russian Army
, but that he eventually left service "because of persecutions."
At some point in his youth, Cătărău crossed the Russian border into the Kingdom of Romania
, enlisting as a student at the University of Bucharest
Faculty of Letters and Philosophy. Reputedly, he claimed to have suffered repression at the hands of Russian authorities, and therefore qualified as a refugee. A parallel rumor has it that Cătărău was actually being pursued for fraud. His subsequent involvement with the political underground was a matter of concern, and the Siguranţa Statului secret police opened a special file on his activities. However, in 1913, he was registered as a counterintelligence operative with the same agency, receiving monthly payments for his services.
Officially, Cătărău paid allegiance to the Romanian nationalist youth. As later noted by the Arad
newspaper Românul: "At first he passed himself off as a Bessarabian student and issued lively propaganda, in student circles, regarding the sufferings of Bessarabian Romanians. It was therefore easy for him to attract everyone's sympathy. He turned himself into a nationalist and was always present at nationalist rallies." The same source notes that Cătărău infiltrated the Democratic Nationalist Party (PND) of Nicolae Iorga
and A. C. Cuza
. During the 1911 election, he was among the students who traveled to Fălticeni
city to support PND candidates Cuza and Ion Zelea Codreanu; a man of impressive size, he is said to have intimidated potential voters, and to have provoked a brawl. Through Iorga, he even gained access to Crown Prince Carol
. In one instance, when Cătărău resolved his financial difficulties by turning to unskilled manual labor, Iorga and the students popularized his plight and collected funds in his name. In mid 1913, as Romania entered the Second Balkan War
, Cătărău joined the Romanian Land Forces
as a volunteer rifleman.
, Ilie Cătărău underwent a change of lifestyle, which later fueled speculations about Russian payments. According to Românul: "his relationship with the agents of another state grew ever closer and since then he was seen in elegant clothes, he frequented dives where he gambled large sums of money and was seen in the company of the Capital's most elegant hetairai
." He began associating with a Timofei Kiriloff, who was either a Russian or Bulgaria
n expatriate. One reconstructed biographical sketch of Kiriloff presents him as an escapee from the Potemkin mutiny, who supported himself in Bucharest by posing for painters and sculptors (his athletic body is supposedly the model for Friedrich Storck's statues of giants, now in Carol Park
).
Together with Kiriloff, Cătărău was the main suspect behind an act of violence, carried out against Romania's rival neighbor, Austria-Hungary, and targeting the symbols of Hungarian identity. The two are credited as responsible for the planting of dynamite around a Hungarian monument on Tâmpa Hill
, which heavily damaged the structure (September 27, 1913). Later investigation had it that Cătărău and Kiriloff had several times crossed into Transylvania
using false papers.
In February 1914, authorities in several countries identified Cătărău and Kiriloff as responsible for another attack, the letter bomb which exploded at the Hajdúdorog Bishopric
palace, in Debrecen
. The selection of this target was later explained in ethnic terms, since the Bishopric served to Magyarize
the population of Partium
. The standard account is that Cătărău had personally traveled to Bukovina
's main city, Czernowitz
, and sent the bomb across Austria-Hungary.
The subsequent inquiry was notably backed by the Transylvanian Romanian press, which made efforts to distinguish between Romanian political efforts and Cătărău's acts of destruction. Gazeta Transilvaniei called him "a political adventurer" of uncertain loyalties and qualifications. In Bukovina, which was in the non-Hungarian, "Cisleithania
n", half of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, Romanian community leaders also described the "criminal act" as intolerable, condemning foreign attempts to exacerbate ethnic tensions in Transylvania. Cătărău was similarly marginalized by an association of Bucharest University students, who noted: "the public trial is concluded: an adventurer, lacking even the shade of moral discipline, has taken on by accident, and for a short while, the image of a university student". The international press (Arbeiter-Zeitung
, Breslauer Zeitung, Journal des Débats
, Leipziger Neueste Nachrichten) covered the attack and its consequences, highlighting the risky and divisive ethnic politics of Hungarian administrations; in Hungarian newspapers, the focus was on Romanian agitation or ingratitude.
tacitly helped the Hungarian authorities in tacking down the two men, but the Romanian press unwittingly informed them of the chase, allowing them time to escape. Over 26,000 lei
were said to have been spent on telegrams between police stations during the time it took for Cătărău and Kiriloff to drive out of Bucharest and make themselves lost in Ploieşti
. Some speculated that they then left for a Danube
port, either Brăila
or Galaţi
, or that they made their way to the Bessarabian border.
Meanwhile, Police released the initial working suspects, including Romanian artist Silvestru Măndăşescu and Russian migrant worker T. Avramov, whose identity papers were allegedly used by Cătărău and Kiriloff to fend off suspicions. The fugitives were being pursued in several states, and there was even a false alert that they had been spotted in Naples
. The press also reported that an inventive police officer from the Kingdom of Serbia
tricked Hungarian detectives by announcing Cătărău's capture in Skopje
, collected the large reward, and swiftly disappeared. There were additional news that Cătărău had been briefly retained in the Ottoman Empire
, and released when the Ottomans noted that he did not fit the extradition criteria.
Cătărău was never apprehended. By 1916, he had become something of a legend in the criminal underworld of Transylvania: interrogated on charges of burglary, an obscure man stirred passions when he, in an effort to gain notoriety, claimed that he was in reality the Bessarabian bomber. According to some accounts, the real Cătărău had been given safe passage by Romanian authorities, sailed to the Sultanate of Egypt
, and had later reemerged in Bucharest. Romanian journalist and academic Em C. Grigoraş states that something similar was acknowledged by Siguranţa Statului officers. They told him that Cătărău's getaway car was provided by Internal Affairs, and confessed to having pretended not to understand the queries sent in from Austria-Hungary.
Despite his revolutionary nationalist pose, Cătărău was probably a mole
, working for Russian interests. While some note that he may have already had direct connections with Okhrana (the Russian Empire's secret service), others even report on his possible affiliation to the far right
of Russian nationalism
. Allegations thus surfaced that he was a sworn member of the Black Hundreds or the Chamber of the Archangel Michael, both being private militias created by Bessarabian landowner Vladimir Purishkevich
. This account was backed by the veteran Bessarabian anarchist Zamfir Arbore
, who recalled that he and Stelian Popescu
of Universul
newspaper had visited Cătărău in Bucharest. At the time, much was made of Cătărău's possible connection with nationalist leader Aleksei Aleksandrovich Bobrinsky
. A rumor had it that the Russian diplomats made efforts to obscure the relationship, whereas Arbore openly alleged having seen Bobrinsky's visiting card in Cătărău's apartment. Another suspected Russian contact, cited by Romanian sources, was allegedly a Dolgorukov
prince.
Grigoraş sees the matter as a local spy game between the Entente Powers
(Russia included) and the Central Powers
(Austria-Hungary etc.). In his account, Cătărău and his associates were trying to wreck Romania's few remaining links with the Central Powers, and make the country a part of Entente projects in any coming war. Other sections of the Romanian public opinion were less adamant that Cătărău and Kiriloff were the guilty parties, placing the blame directly on the Russian Empire (accused of wanting to encourage a conflict between Romanians and Hungarians) or, contrarily, on Transylvanian Rusyns
incited by Bobrinsky. The Austro-Hungarian Ambassador to Bucharest, Count Ottokar von Czernin, remained skeptical of all Romanian disclaimers, and, in his memoirs, alleged that, whether was guilty or not, "the Romanian authorities certainly were". Grigoraş however notes that Czernin willingly buried the affair, when Archduke Franz Ferdinand
ordered him to prevent a war; he argues that the Entente's hawk lobby resolved the stalemate by organizing the Sarajevo Assassination
.
broke out, Ilie Cătărău was again in Bessarabia. As noted by historian Ion Constantin, the returning activist formalized his Okhrana connection. By 1916, Romania and the Russian Empire were both Entente countries, and the Imperial Russian Army
was helping to organize Romanian defenses (see Romania in World War I). However, the February Revolution
sent the Empire into administrative chaos, amplifying tensions between the Russian Provisional Government
and the Romanian state. The relationship broke down into hostility after the October Revolution
: switching his allegiance to Soviet Russia
, Cătărău reemerged as a figure on the Bessarabian Bolshevik
underground, and took part in the clandestine effort to Bolshevize the various troops still stationed in the region. He was probably in contact with the Soviet state security agency, Cheka
, but was later portrayed by Russian and Soviet sources as a Romanian mole.
The events took place in December 1917, just as anti-Bolshevik forces were setting up a Moldavian Democratic Republic with its capital in Chişinău. Cătărău presented himself as a supporter of the new regime, and was even a guest speaker at the first session of Sfatul Ţării
(its legislative assembly). Reportedly, in his bid to join the new Bessarabian army
, Cătărău failed to convince the officers, but the lower ranks responded positively to his request of "aiding and enlightening" the masses. According to scholar Charles Upson Clark
, he was actually successful at demoralizing and dividing the Bessarabian self-defense forces, increasing the likelihood that the state would crumble, and exposing it to the danger of being engulfed by a Greater Ukraine
. Military historian Vitalie Ciobanu
argues that some of the Republic's main problems of maintaining authority stemmed from Cătărău's activity in Chişinău and from the parallel appointment of Stabskapitän
Popa as head of garrison in Bălţi
.
Soon after being admitted into the garrison, Cătărău became known for propagating communist- and anarchist-inspired messages, such as: "All things belong to the people, the boyars must be killed"; "All things are yours, take hold of them while you still can, before it's too late." Profiting from the breakdown of traditional rank structure, and receiving backing from the military soviet
, he was voted head of the Moldavian 1st Regiment, garrisoned in Chişinău
. Ciobanu, who describes Cătărău as "an overt partisan of anarchy", notes that, for the Chişinău committees which endorsed this appointment, "the social element took precedence over the national one." With this support, and given a free hand to ensure order in the capital city, the new commander embarked on a program of arbitrary confiscations in the rural sectors, targeting the property of affluent peasants. The stolen cattle was kept in the Chişinău Theological Seminary compound, and, in reality, only redistributed to those who would pay Cătărău a special sum of money. There were other corruption schemes of which the regiment stood accused: it put financial pressure on landowners after Cătărău took over the guarding of their estates, in what was originally a move to curb pillaging by deserting or home-bound Russian soldiers. In this context, he is also said to have advanced himself to the rank of Colonel
.
In conflict with Sfatul Ţării, Cătărău began organizing himself for an insurgency: he agitated for a social revolution, set up an armed guard for himself, and began corresponding with Grigory Kotovsky, the self-appointed Bolshevik leader in Tiraspol
, while setting up a reserve arms' depot in Dubăsari
town. His insubordination to the government and his radical views on property were made explicit when he refused to help out against the deserters attacking Soroca
. Replying to the appeal for help, Cătărău wrote: "the Moldavian Democracy, in the name of the soldiers of the Moldavian Regiment, understands that the way to stop the anarchy which has arisen in agrarian matters, is not to use military force, but to [legislate against] the causes which give rise to fire and devastation." Nevertheless, when similar events in Chişinău led the Republic to proclaim a state of emergency
(December 20), one of the regimental battalions patrolled the city streets alongside loyalist units.
The conflict between the Moldavian Republic's Military Director, Gherman Pântea
, and the city garrison flared up in late December. At that moment, Cătărău and his soldiers refused to swear allegiance to God and the Republic, and announced their own parade on January 1, to celebrate the notions of freedom and proletarian internationalism
. In the end, one fourth of the soldiers in Cătărău's command disobeyed his orders and represented the Regiment in the loyalist parade. The rest of the garrison grew worried that the Directors were going to retaliate by arresting their leader, and, on December 27, Cătărău's soldiers made a show of force inside the governmental building. Pântea and the others persuaded them to leave, but afterward centered their attention on an urgent plan to topple and arrest Cătărău.
Ion Inculeţ
, Pântea took care of the issue, arresting Cătărău on New Years' Eve, before the garrison could have its problematic parade. Pântea noted the possibility of discontent and even rebellion in the Moldavian ranks, so he appealed to outside help: a unit of Amur Cossacks
was paid to provide logistical support and intervene in case of trouble, being relocated to Pântea's townhouse. The Director and his Cossack ally Colonel Yermolenko, with Levenzon (commander of a special guard unit), visited Cătărău at Londra Hotel, where Levenzon approached him on the subject of his parade; when Cătărău dropped his guard, the Cossacks pounced on him, and, although some were wounded in a skirmish with Bolshevik soldiers, managed to escort him out of the building.
The charges against Cătărău were espionage in favor of a foreign state and abuse of power. Nonetheless, he was never prosecuted, but promptly expelled over the eastern border, to Odessa
, Ukrainian People's Republic
. His escorts for the swift journey included two former Sfatul Ţării delegates, Grigore Turcuman
and Ion Tudose
. According to Pântea's account, Cătărău intially protested the move, demanding to be allowed to kiss his native soil one final time. Upon arriving to Odessa, he took a rather different stance. Questioned by Commissioner Poplavko of the Central Rada, he stated: "Bessarabian Moldavians are pushing for Romania; I alone will fight for Bessarabia to become united with the Ukraine." To the consternation of Bessarabian officials, Poplavko was satisfied with the answer, and simply opted to release Cătărău.
Before or during the union of Bessarabia with Romania
, the former garrison commander decided to leave Europe altogether. He was sighted in the United States
, Australia
and Japan
. Rumor spread that he was dead, summarily executed by the Romanian state, but another story has it that he settled in Polynesia
, and was even recognized as king by an indigenous tribe
. Unusually, some authors who supported a Greater Romania
were in the process of reconsidering his activity, starting from his 1910s attacks on Hungarian interests. Writing in 1926, the physicist and nationalist militant Vasile Bianu placed Cătărău in "the vanguard of the holy war to reunite the [Romanian] nation", calling him "a guiding light" of patriotic feeling. In France
, where he arrived with a false passport, Cătărău led the life of a delinquent, and spent time in prison. Reputedly, he was jailed for stealing jewels in the property of his American fiancée.
Ilie Cătărău survived World War II
in obscurity, and made it into the Soviet Union
. He resided for a while in the Moldavian SSR
, and was referred to in Soviet propaganda as a hero, for having fought against union with Romania. In the 1950s, Cătărău left the Soviet province and returned to Romania. He tried to capitalize on the newly established Romanian communist regime
, presenting himself as a hero of the cause, and was used by the government as a denunciator of "reactionary
" politicians. Employed by the communist press, he notably took his revenge on Gherman Pântea, who had had a second career as a Romanian state official. As Ion Constantin notes, he accused Pântea "of acts for the most part invented, in order to determine [Pântea's] arrest by the regime's authorities." Cătărău additionally claimed a special communist pedigree, passing himself off as a personal friend of Bolshevik theorist Vladimir Lenin
.
In his final years, Cătărău experienced religious sentiment and became a monk of the Romanian Orthodox Church
. The decision was controversial, and Church authorities had to be persuaded by Premier
Petru Groza
into accepting Cătărău's retreat to a monastery in Transylvania.
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....
n-born political adventurer, soldier and spy, who spent parts of his life in Romania
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...
. Leading a secretive life, he is widely held to have been the main perpetrator of two bomb attacks, which sought to exacerbate tensions between Romania and Austria-Hungary
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...
in preparation for World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Beyond his cover as a refugee from the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, Ilie Cătărău was a double agent
Double agent
A double agent, commonly abbreviated referral of double secret agent, is a counterintelligence term used to designate an employee of a secret service or organization, whose primary aim is to spy on the target organization, but who in fact is a member of that same target organization oneself. They...
, working for both Russian and Romanian interests.
By 1917, Cătărău was formally committed to anarchism
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
and communism
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...
, allying himself with Bessarabia's Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
insurgents. Profiting from favorable circumstances, and nominally servicing the anti-Bolshevik Moldavian Democratic Republic
Moldavian Democratic Republic
The Moldavian Democratic Republic , a.k.a. Moldavian Republic, was the state proclaimed on by Sfatul Ţării of Bessarabia, elected in October-November 1917 in the wake of the February Revolution and disintegration of the political power in the Russian Empire.Sfatul Ţării was its legislative body,...
, he became commander of the 1st Moldavian Regiment in late 1917. In short time, his position and his application of a communist program eroded the Republic's prestige, and his soldiers began openly threatening the Bessarabian government. Cătărău was deposed and arrested by Gherman Pântea
Gherman Pântea
Gherman V. Pântea was a Bessarabian-born soldier, civil servant and political figure, active in the Russian Empire and Romania. As an officer of the Imperial Russian Army during most of World War I, he helped organize the committees of Bessarabian soldiers, oscillating between loyalty to the...
and a unit of Amur Cossacks
Amur Cossacks
The Amur Cossack Host , a Cossack host created in the Amur region and Primorye in the 1850s on the basis of the Cossacks relocated from the Transbaikal region and freed miners of Nerchinsk region....
, being sent into exile.
After more adventures, which may have taken him as far out as Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and Polynesia
Polynesia
Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language, culture and beliefs...
, Cătărău faded to relative obscurity. He only returned to history in the 1940s, a conjectural ally of the Romanian 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...
. In old age, he retreated from political affairs and became a Romanian Orthodox
Romanian Orthodox Church
The Romanian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It is in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox churches, and is ranked seventh in order of precedence. The Primate of the church has the title of Patriarch...
monk.
Early years
Cătărău's origins and early life are shrouded in mystery. He was from the Bessarabian town of OrheiOrhei
Orhei is a city and the administrative centre of Orhei District in Moldova with a population of 25,680. Orhei is approximately 50 kilometers north of the capital, Chişinău.-Demographics:...
(Orgeyev) or the nearby village of Marcăuţi
Marcăuţi, Dubăsari
Marcăuţi is a commune in Dubăsari district, Moldova. It is composed of a single village, Marcăuţi....
, both of them located in Russia's Bessarabia Governorate
Bessarabia Governorate
Bessarabia was an oblast and later a guberniya in the Russian Empire. It was the eastern part of the Principality of Moldavia annexed by Russia by the Treaty of Bucharest following the Russo-Turkish War, 1806-1812...
. Romanian sources traditionally claim that Cătărău was not a member of the ethnic Romanian
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
community, but rather a Bessarabian Bulgarian
Bessarabian Bulgarians
The Bessarabian Bulgarians are a Bulgarian minority group of the historical region of Bessarabia, inhabiting parts of present-day Ukraine and Moldova.- Location and number :-Modern Ukraine:...
. Story has it that his first career was as an officer of the Imperial Russian Army
Imperial Russian Army
The Imperial Russian Army was the land armed force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian army consisted of around 938,731 regular soldiers and 245,850 irregulars . Until the time of military reform of Dmitry Milyutin in...
, but that he eventually left service "because of persecutions."
At some point in his youth, Cătărău crossed the Russian border into the Kingdom of Romania
Kingdom of Romania
The Kingdom of Romania was the Romanian state based on a form of parliamentary monarchy between 13 March 1881 and 30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania...
, enlisting as a student at the University of Bucharest
University of Bucharest
The University of Bucharest , in Romania, is a university founded in 1864 by decree of Prince Alexander John Cuza to convert the former Saint Sava Academy into the current University of Bucharest.-Presentation:...
Faculty of Letters and Philosophy. Reputedly, he claimed to have suffered repression at the hands of Russian authorities, and therefore qualified as a refugee. A parallel rumor has it that Cătărău was actually being pursued for fraud. His subsequent involvement with the political underground was a matter of concern, and the Siguranţa Statului secret police opened a special file on his activities. However, in 1913, he was registered as a counterintelligence operative with the same agency, receiving monthly payments for his services.
Officially, Cătărău paid allegiance to the Romanian nationalist youth. As later noted by the Arad
Arad, Romania
Arad is the capital city of Arad County, in western Romania, in the Crişana region, on the river Mureş.An important industrial center and transportation hub, Arad is also the seat of a Romanian Orthodox archbishop and features two universities, a Romanian Orthodox theological seminary, a training...
newspaper Românul: "At first he passed himself off as a Bessarabian student and issued lively propaganda, in student circles, regarding the sufferings of Bessarabian Romanians. It was therefore easy for him to attract everyone's sympathy. He turned himself into a nationalist and was always present at nationalist rallies." The same source notes that Cătărău infiltrated the Democratic Nationalist Party (PND) of Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga was a Romanian historian, politician, literary critic, memoirist, poet and playwright. Co-founder of the Democratic Nationalist Party , he served as a member of Parliament, President of the Deputies' Assembly and Senate, cabinet minister and briefly as Prime Minister...
and A. C. Cuza
A. C. Cuza
A. C. Cuza was a Romanian far right politician and theorist.-Early life:Born in Iaşi, after attending secondary school in his native city and in Dresden, Cuza studied law at the University of Paris, the Universität unter den Linden, and the Université Libre de Bruxelles...
. During the 1911 election, he was among the students who traveled to Fălticeni
Falticeni
Fălticeni is a city in Suceava County, Romania, capital of the former Baia County . As of 2003 the population is 28,899, and the city covers an area of 28,76 km², of which 25% are orchards and lakes. The city is 25 km away from Suceava, the capital of the county...
city to support PND candidates Cuza and Ion Zelea Codreanu; a man of impressive size, he is said to have intimidated potential voters, and to have provoked a brawl. Through Iorga, he even gained access to Crown Prince Carol
Carol II of Romania
Carol II reigned as King of Romania from 8 June 1930 until 6 September 1940. Eldest son of Ferdinand, King of Romania, and his wife, Queen Marie, a daughter of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second eldest son of Queen Victoria...
. In one instance, when Cătărău resolved his financial difficulties by turning to unskilled manual labor, Iorga and the students popularized his plight and collected funds in his name. In mid 1913, as Romania entered the Second Balkan War
Second Balkan War
The Second Balkan War was a conflict which broke out when Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War, attacked its former allies, Serbia and Greece, on 29 June 1913. Bulgaria had a prewar agreement about the division of region of Macedonia...
, Cătărău joined the Romanian Land Forces
Romanian Land Forces
The Romanian Land Forces is the army of Romania, and the main component of the Romanian Armed Forces. In recent years, full professionalisation and a major equipment overhaul have transformed the nature of the force.The Romanian Land Forces were founded on...
as a volunteer rifleman.
Transylvanian attacks
Upon his return to BucharestBucharest
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....
, Ilie Cătărău underwent a change of lifestyle, which later fueled speculations about Russian payments. According to Românul: "his relationship with the agents of another state grew ever closer and since then he was seen in elegant clothes, he frequented dives where he gambled large sums of money and was seen in the company of the Capital's most elegant hetairai
Hetaera
In ancient Greece, hetaerae were courtesans, that is to say, highly educated, sophisticated companions...
." He began associating with a Timofei Kiriloff, who was either a Russian or Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
n expatriate. One reconstructed biographical sketch of Kiriloff presents him as an escapee from the Potemkin mutiny, who supported himself in Bucharest by posing for painters and sculptors (his athletic body is supposedly the model for Friedrich Storck's statues of giants, now in Carol Park
Carol Park
Carol Park is a public park in Bucharest, Romania, named after King Carol I of Romania. For the duration of the communist regime, it was called Liberty Park ....
).
Together with Kiriloff, Cătărău was the main suspect behind an act of violence, carried out against Romania's rival neighbor, Austria-Hungary, and targeting the symbols of Hungarian identity. The two are credited as responsible for the planting of dynamite around a Hungarian monument on Tâmpa Hill
Tâmpa, Brasov
Tâmpa is a mountain, part of the Postăvarul Massif, located in the southern part of the Eastern Carpathians and almost entirely surrounded by the city of Braşov...
, which heavily damaged the structure (September 27, 1913). Later investigation had it that Cătărău and Kiriloff had several times crossed into Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
using false papers.
In February 1914, authorities in several countries identified Cătărău and Kiriloff as responsible for another attack, the letter bomb which exploded at the Hajdúdorog Bishopric
Roman Catholic Diocese of Hajdúdorog
The Diocese of Hajdúdorog is a diocese of the Byzantine Rite of the Catholic church in Hungary The diocese is located in the city of Hajdúdorog in the Ecclesiastical province of Esztergom-Budapest.-History:* June 8, 1912: Established as Diocese of Hajdúdorog...
palace, in Debrecen
Debrecen
Debrecen , is the second largest city in Hungary after Budapest. Debrecen is the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar county.- Name :...
. The selection of this target was later explained in ethnic terms, since the Bishopric served to Magyarize
Magyarization
Magyarization is a kind of assimilation or acculturation, a process by which non-Magyar elements came to adopt Magyar culture and language due to social pressure .Defiance or appeals to the Nationalities Law, met...
the population of Partium
Partium
Partium or Részek is the name given in Hungarian to the region located to the north and west of Transylvania.-Origin of the name:...
. The standard account is that Cătărău had personally traveled to 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...
's main city, Czernowitz
Chernivtsi
Chernivtsi is the administrative center of Chernivtsi Oblast in southwestern Ukraine. The city is situated on the upper course of the River Prut, a tributary of the Danube, in the northern part of the historic region of Bukovina, which is currently divided between Romania and Ukraine...
, and sent the bomb across Austria-Hungary.
The subsequent inquiry was notably backed by the Transylvanian Romanian press, which made efforts to distinguish between Romanian political efforts and Cătărău's acts of destruction. Gazeta Transilvaniei called him "a political adventurer" of uncertain loyalties and qualifications. In Bukovina, which was in the non-Hungarian, "Cisleithania
Cisleithania
Cisleithania was a name of the Austrian part of Austria-Hungary, the Dual Monarchy created in 1867 and dissolved in 1918. The name was used by politicians and bureaucrats, but it had no official status...
n", half of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, Romanian community leaders also described the "criminal act" as intolerable, condemning foreign attempts to exacerbate ethnic tensions in Transylvania. Cătărău was similarly marginalized by an association of Bucharest University students, who noted: "the public trial is concluded: an adventurer, lacking even the shade of moral discipline, has taken on by accident, and for a short while, the image of a university student". The international press (Arbeiter-Zeitung
Arbeiter-Zeitung (Vienna)
For the Chicago anarchist newspaper, see Arbeiter-Zeitung The Arbeiter-Zeitung was started as a Socialist newspaper on July 12, 1889 by Victor Adler. The paper was banned in 1934 after the Feb. 13 issue , but reappeared on Aug...
, Breslauer Zeitung, Journal des Débats
Journal des Débats
The Journal des débats was a French newspaper, published between 1789 and 1944 that changed title several times...
, Leipziger Neueste Nachrichten) covered the attack and its consequences, highlighting the risky and divisive ethnic politics of Hungarian administrations; in Hungarian newspapers, the focus was on Romanian agitation or ingratitude.
Manhunt and cover-up allegations
A manhunt began shortly after. According to one report, the Romanian PoliceRomanian Police
The Romanian Police is the national police force and main civil law enforcement agency in Romania. It is subordinated to the Ministry of Interior and Administrative Reform.-Duties:The Romanian Police are responsible for:...
tacitly helped the Hungarian authorities in tacking down the two men, but the Romanian press unwittingly informed them of the chase, allowing them time to escape. Over 26,000 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...
were said to have been spent on telegrams between police stations during the time it took for Cătărău and Kiriloff to drive out of Bucharest and make themselves lost in Ploieşti
Ploiesti
Ploiești is the county seat of Prahova County and lies in the historical region of Wallachia in Romania. The city is located north of Bucharest....
. Some speculated that they then left for a Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
port, either Brăila
Braila
Brăila is a city in Muntenia, eastern Romania, a port on the Danube and the capital of Brăila County, in the close vicinity of Galaţi.According to the 2002 Romanian census there were 216,292 people living within the city of Brăila, making it the 10th most populous city in Romania.-History:A...
or Galaţi
Galati
Galați is a city and municipality in Romania, the capital of Galați County. Located in the historical region of Moldavia, in the close vicinity of Brăila, Galați is the largest port and sea port on the Danube River and the second largest Romanian port....
, or that they made their way to the Bessarabian border.
Meanwhile, Police released the initial working suspects, including Romanian artist Silvestru Măndăşescu and Russian migrant worker T. Avramov, whose identity papers were allegedly used by Cătărău and Kiriloff to fend off suspicions. The fugitives were being pursued in several states, and there was even a false alert that they had been spotted in Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
. The press also reported that an inventive police officer from the Kingdom of Serbia
Kingdom of Serbia
The Kingdom of Serbia was created when Prince Milan Obrenović, ruler of the Principality of Serbia, was crowned King in 1882. The Principality of Serbia was ruled by the Karađorđevic dynasty from 1817 onwards . The Principality, suzerain to the Porte, had expelled all Ottoman troops by 1867, de...
tricked Hungarian detectives by announcing Cătărău's capture in Skopje
Skopje
Skopje is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Macedonia with about a third of the total population. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre...
, collected the large reward, and swiftly disappeared. There were additional news that Cătărău had been briefly retained in the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
, and released when the Ottomans noted that he did not fit the extradition criteria.
Cătărău was never apprehended. By 1916, he had become something of a legend in the criminal underworld of Transylvania: interrogated on charges of burglary, an obscure man stirred passions when he, in an effort to gain notoriety, claimed that he was in reality the Bessarabian bomber. According to some accounts, the real Cătărău had been given safe passage by Romanian authorities, sailed to the Sultanate of Egypt
Sultanate of Egypt
The Sultanate of Egypt is the name of the short-lived protectorate that the United Kingdom imposed over Egypt between 1914 and 1922.-History:...
, and had later reemerged in Bucharest. Romanian journalist and academic Em C. Grigoraş states that something similar was acknowledged by Siguranţa Statului officers. They told him that Cătărău's getaway car was provided by Internal Affairs, and confessed to having pretended not to understand the queries sent in from Austria-Hungary.
Despite his revolutionary nationalist pose, Cătărău was probably a mole
Mole (espionage)
A mole is a spy who works for an enemy nation, but whose loyalty ostensibly lies with his own nation's government. In some usage, a mole differs from a defector in that a mole is a spy before gaining access to classified information, while a defector becomes a spy only after gaining access...
, working for Russian interests. While some note that he may have already had direct connections with Okhrana (the Russian Empire's secret service), others even report on his possible affiliation to the far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
of Russian nationalism
Russian nationalism
Russian nationalism is a term referring to a Russian form of nationalism. Russian nationalism has a long history dating from the days of Muscovy to Russian Empire, and continued in some form in the Soviet Union. It is closely related to Pan-Slavism...
. Allegations thus surfaced that he was a sworn member of the Black Hundreds or the Chamber of the Archangel Michael, both being private militias created by Bessarabian landowner Vladimir Purishkevich
Vladimir Purishkevich
Vladimir Mitrofanovich Purishkevich , was a Russian politician before the Bolshevik revolution, noted for his monarchist and antisemitic views...
. This account was backed by the veteran Bessarabian anarchist Zamfir Arbore
Zamfir Arbore
Zamfir Constantin Arbore was a Bukovinan-born Romanian political activist originally active in the Russian Empire, also known for his work as an amateur historian, geographer and ethnographer. Arbore debuted in left-wing politics from early in life, gained an intimate knowledge of the Russian...
, who recalled that he and Stelian Popescu
Stelian Popescu
Stelian Popescu was a nationalist Romanian journalist.From 1914 to 1943, Popescu was director of Universul....
of Universul
Universul
Universul was a mass-circulation newspaper in Romania. It existed from 1884 to 1953, and was run by Stelian Popescu from 1914 to 1943 ....
newspaper had visited Cătărău in Bucharest. At the time, much was made of Cătărău's possible connection with nationalist leader Aleksei Aleksandrovich Bobrinsky
Aleksei Aleksandrovich Bobrinsky
Count Aleksei Aleksandrovich Bobrinsky was Russian historian and nationalist politician.- Biography :Attended St. Petersburg University. Worked in the Chancellery of the Committee of Ministers....
. A rumor had it that the Russian diplomats made efforts to obscure the relationship, whereas Arbore openly alleged having seen Bobrinsky's visiting card in Cătărău's apartment. Another suspected Russian contact, cited by Romanian sources, was allegedly a Dolgorukov
Dolgorukov
Dolgoroukov is the name of a princely Russian family Dolgorukovs of Rurikid stock. Descendants of Mikhail of Chernigov, they took their name from one prince of Obolensk, whose sobriquet was Dolgorouky, or "Long-Armed" in Russian, alluding their lineage to the ancient Persian monarchy. Among its...
prince.
Grigoraş sees the matter as a local spy game between the Entente Powers
Allies of World War I
The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...
(Russia included) and the Central Powers
Central Powers
The Central Powers were one of the two warring factions in World War I , composed of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria...
(Austria-Hungary etc.). In his account, Cătărău and his associates were trying to wreck Romania's few remaining links with the Central Powers, and make the country a part of Entente projects in any coming war. Other sections of the Romanian public opinion were less adamant that Cătărău and Kiriloff were the guilty parties, placing the blame directly on the Russian Empire (accused of wanting to encourage a conflict between Romanians and Hungarians) or, contrarily, on Transylvanian Rusyns
Rusyns
Carpatho-Rusyns are a primarily diasporic ethnic group who speak an Eastern Slavic language, or Ukrainian dialect, known as Rusyn. Carpatho-Rusyns descend from a minority of Ruthenians who did not adopt the use of the ethnonym "Ukrainian" in the early twentieth century...
incited by Bobrinsky. The Austro-Hungarian Ambassador to Bucharest, Count Ottokar von Czernin, remained skeptical of all Romanian disclaimers, and, in his memoirs, alleged that, whether was guilty or not, "the Romanian authorities certainly were". Grigoraş however notes that Czernin willingly buried the affair, when Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria
Franz Ferdinand was an Archduke of Austria-Este, Austro-Hungarian and Royal Prince of Hungary and of Bohemia, and from 1889 until his death, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne. His assassination in Sarajevo precipitated Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia...
ordered him to prevent a war; he argues that the Entente's hawk lobby resolved the stalemate by organizing the Sarajevo Assassination
Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria
On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were shot dead in Sarajevo, by Gavrilo Princip, one of a group of six Bosnian Serb assassins coordinated by Danilo Ilić...
.
Bessarabian revolutionary
Shortly before World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
broke out, Ilie Cătărău was again in Bessarabia. As noted by historian Ion Constantin, the returning activist formalized his Okhrana connection. By 1916, Romania and the Russian Empire were both Entente countries, and the Imperial Russian Army
Imperial Russian Army
The Imperial Russian Army was the land armed force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian army consisted of around 938,731 regular soldiers and 245,850 irregulars . Until the time of military reform of Dmitry Milyutin in...
was helping to organize Romanian defenses (see Romania in World War I). However, the February Revolution
February Revolution
The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...
sent the Empire into administrative chaos, amplifying tensions between the Russian Provisional Government
Russian Provisional Government
The Russian Provisional Government was the short-lived administrative body which sought to govern Russia immediately following the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II . On September 14, the State Duma of the Russian Empire was officially dissolved by the newly created Directorate, and the country was...
and the Romanian state. The relationship broke down into hostility after 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...
: switching his allegiance to Soviet Russia
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....
, Cătărău reemerged as a figure on the Bessarabian Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
underground, and took part in the clandestine effort to Bolshevize the various troops still stationed in the region. He was probably in contact with the Soviet state security agency, Cheka
Cheka
Cheka was the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations. It was created by a decree issued on December 20, 1917, by Vladimir Lenin and subsequently led by aristocrat-turned-communist Felix Dzerzhinsky...
, but was later portrayed by Russian and Soviet sources as a Romanian mole.
The events took place in December 1917, just as anti-Bolshevik forces were setting up a Moldavian Democratic Republic with its capital in Chişinău. Cătărău presented himself as a supporter of the new regime, and was even a guest speaker at the first session of Sfatul Ţării
Sfatul Tarii
Sfatul Țării was, in 1917-1918, the National Assembly of the Governorate of Bessarabia of the disintegrating Russian Empire, which proclaimed the independent Moldavian Democratic Republic in December 1917, and then union with Romania in April 1918.-Russian participation in World War I:In August...
(its legislative assembly). Reportedly, in his bid to join the new Bessarabian army
Military of Moldova
The Moldovan Armed Forces consist of the Ground Forces and Air and Air Defense Forces.- History :Moldova has accepted all relevant arms control obligations of the former Soviet Union...
, Cătărău failed to convince the officers, but the lower ranks responded positively to his request of "aiding and enlightening" the masses. According to scholar Charles Upson Clark
Charles Upson Clark
Charles Upson Clark was a professor of history at Columbia University. He discovered the Barberini Codex, the earliest Aztec writings on herbal medicines extant.-Biography:...
, he was actually successful at demoralizing and dividing the Bessarabian self-defense forces, increasing the likelihood that the state would crumble, and exposing it to the danger of being engulfed by a Greater Ukraine
Greater Ukraine
Greater Ukraine or United Ukraine refers to an irredentist concept of the territory claimed by some Ukrainian nationalist groups outside the Republic of Ukraine which are considered part of national homeland by Ukrainians, based on the present-day or historical presence of Ukrainian populations...
. Military historian Vitalie Ciobanu
Vitalie Ciobanu
Vitalie Ciobanu is a journalist from the Republic of Moldova. He is the editor in chief of Contrafort He is a member of the Writers' Union of Romania, the Moldovan Writers' Union and the Group for Social Dialogue.-Biography:...
argues that some of the Republic's main problems of maintaining authority stemmed from Cătărău's activity in Chişinău and from the parallel appointment of Stabskapitän
Stabskapitän
Stabskapitän is a historic military rank, used in the Prussian and Russian armies. It ranked between the Premierleutnant and Hauptmann/Rittmeister in the Prussian army, and between lieutenant and captain in the Russian army...
Popa as head of garrison in Bălţi
Balti
Balti can refer to:* Balti language, a language spoken in Baltistan in Pakistan and Ladakh in Kashmir* Balti people, Muslims of Ladakhi/Tibetan origin from Baltistan in Pakistan and Ladakh in Kashmir...
.
Soon after being admitted into the garrison, Cătărău became known for propagating communist- and anarchist-inspired messages, such as: "All things belong to the people, the boyars must be killed"; "All things are yours, take hold of them while you still can, before it's too late." Profiting from the breakdown of traditional rank structure, and receiving backing from the military soviet
Soviet (council)
Soviet was a name used for several Russian political organizations. Examples include the Czar's Council of Ministers, which was called the “Soviet of Ministers”; a workers' local council in late Imperial Russia; and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union....
, he was voted head of the Moldavian 1st Regiment, garrisoned in Chişinău
Chisinau
Chișinău is the capital and largest municipality of Moldova. It is also its main industrial and commercial centre and is located in the middle of the country, on the river Bîc...
. Ciobanu, who describes Cătărău as "an overt partisan of anarchy", notes that, for the Chişinău committees which endorsed this appointment, "the social element took precedence over the national one." With this support, and given a free hand to ensure order in the capital city, the new commander embarked on a program of arbitrary confiscations in the rural sectors, targeting the property of affluent peasants. The stolen cattle was kept in the Chişinău Theological Seminary compound, and, in reality, only redistributed to those who would pay Cătărău a special sum of money. There were other corruption schemes of which the regiment stood accused: it put financial pressure on landowners after Cătărău took over the guarding of their estates, in what was originally a move to curb pillaging by deserting or home-bound Russian soldiers. In this context, he is also said to have advanced himself to the rank of 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...
.
In conflict with Sfatul Ţării, Cătărău began organizing himself for an insurgency: he agitated for a social revolution, set up an armed guard for himself, and began corresponding with Grigory Kotovsky, the self-appointed Bolshevik leader in Tiraspol
Tiraspol
Tiraspol is the second largest city in Moldova and is the capital and administrative centre of the unrecognized Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic . The city is located on the eastern bank of the Dniester River...
, while setting up a reserve arms' depot in Dubăsari
Dubasari
Dubăsari is a city in Transnistria, with a population of 23,650. The city is under the administration of the breakaway government of the "Transnistrian Moldovan Republic", and functions as the seat of the Dubăsari sub-district, Transnistria, Moldova.-Name:The origin of the town name is the plural...
town. His insubordination to the government and his radical views on property were made explicit when he refused to help out against the deserters attacking Soroca
Soroca
Soroca is a Moldovan city situated on the Nistru river about 160 km north of Chişinău. It is the administrative center of Soroca District.- History :The city has its origin in the medieval Genoese trade post of Olchionia, or Alchona...
. Replying to the appeal for help, Cătărău wrote: "the Moldavian Democracy, in the name of the soldiers of the Moldavian Regiment, understands that the way to stop the anarchy which has arisen in agrarian matters, is not to use military force, but to [legislate against] the causes which give rise to fire and devastation." Nevertheless, when similar events in Chişinău led the Republic to proclaim a state of emergency
State of emergency
A state of emergency is a governmental declaration that may suspend some normal functions of the executive, legislative and judicial powers, alert citizens to change their normal behaviours, or order government agencies to implement emergency preparedness plans. It can also be used as a rationale...
(December 20), one of the regimental battalions patrolled the city streets alongside loyalist units.
The conflict between the Moldavian Republic's Military Director, Gherman Pântea
Gherman Pântea
Gherman V. Pântea was a Bessarabian-born soldier, civil servant and political figure, active in the Russian Empire and Romania. As an officer of the Imperial Russian Army during most of World War I, he helped organize the committees of Bessarabian soldiers, oscillating between loyalty to the...
, and the city garrison flared up in late December. At that moment, Cătărău and his soldiers refused to swear allegiance to God and the Republic, and announced their own parade on January 1, to celebrate the notions of freedom and proletarian internationalism
Proletarian internationalism
Proletarian internationalism, sometimes referred to as international socialism, is a Marxist social class concept based on the view that capitalism is now a global system, and therefore the working class must act as a global class if it is to defeat it...
. In the end, one fourth of the soldiers in Cătărău's command disobeyed his orders and represented the Regiment in the loyalist parade. The rest of the garrison grew worried that the Directors were going to retaliate by arresting their leader, and, on December 27, Cătărău's soldiers made a show of force inside the governmental building. Pântea and the others persuaded them to leave, but afterward centered their attention on an urgent plan to topple and arrest Cătărău.
Arrest, exile and later life
With the approval of PresidentPresident of Moldova
The President of the Republic of Moldova is the head of state of Moldova.-Description of the post:According to the Article 77 of the Constitution of Moldova , the President of Moldova is the head of the State and represents the State and is the guarantor of national sovereignty, independence, of...
Ion Inculeţ
Ion Inculet
Ion C. Inculeț was a Bessarabian politician and the president of the Moldavian Democratic Republic. Also, he was a minister in Romania.-Early career:...
, Pântea took care of the issue, arresting Cătărău on New Years' Eve, before the garrison could have its problematic parade. Pântea noted the possibility of discontent and even rebellion in the Moldavian ranks, so he appealed to outside help: a unit of Amur Cossacks
Amur Cossacks
The Amur Cossack Host , a Cossack host created in the Amur region and Primorye in the 1850s on the basis of the Cossacks relocated from the Transbaikal region and freed miners of Nerchinsk region....
was paid to provide logistical support and intervene in case of trouble, being relocated to Pântea's townhouse. The Director and his Cossack ally Colonel Yermolenko, with Levenzon (commander of a special guard unit), visited Cătărău at Londra Hotel, where Levenzon approached him on the subject of his parade; when Cătărău dropped his guard, the Cossacks pounced on him, and, although some were wounded in a skirmish with Bolshevik soldiers, managed to escort him out of the building.
The charges against Cătărău were espionage in favor of a foreign state and abuse of power. Nonetheless, he was never prosecuted, but promptly expelled over the eastern border, to Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
, Ukrainian People's Republic
Ukrainian People's Republic
The Ukrainian People's Republic or Ukrainian National Republic was a republic that was declared in part of the territory of modern Ukraine after the Russian Revolution, eventually headed by Symon Petliura.-Revolutionary Wave:...
. His escorts for the swift journey included two former Sfatul Ţării delegates, Grigore Turcuman
Grigore Turcuman
Grigore Turcuman was a Bessarabian politician.- Bibliography :*Gheorghe E. Cojocaru, Sfatul ţării: itinerar, Civitas, Chişinău, 1998, ISBN 9975-936-20-2...
and Ion Tudose
Ion Tudose
- Bibliography :*Gheorghe E. Cojocaru, Sfatul ţării: itinerar, Civitas, Chişinău, 1998, ISBN 9975-936-20-2*Mihai Taşcă, Sfatul Ţării şi actualele autorităţi locale, "Timpul de dimineaţă", no. 114 , June 27, 2008 - External links :* *...
. According to Pântea's account, Cătărău intially protested the move, demanding to be allowed to kiss his native soil one final time. Upon arriving to Odessa, he took a rather different stance. Questioned by Commissioner Poplavko of the Central Rada, he stated: "Bessarabian Moldavians are pushing for Romania; I alone will fight for Bessarabia to become united with the Ukraine." To the consternation of Bessarabian officials, Poplavko was satisfied with the answer, and simply opted to release Cătărău.
Before or during the union of Bessarabia with Romania
Union of Bessarabia with Romania
On , the Sfatul Ţării, or National Council, of Bessarabia proclaimed union with the Kingdom of Romania.-Governorate of Bessarabia:The 1812 Treaty of Bucharest between the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empires provided for Russian annexation of the eastern half of the territory of the Principality...
, the former garrison commander decided to leave Europe altogether. He was sighted in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. Rumor spread that he was dead, summarily executed by the Romanian state, but another story has it that he settled in Polynesia
Polynesia
Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language, culture and beliefs...
, and was even recognized as king by an indigenous tribe
Pacific Islander
Pacific Islander , is a geographic term to describe the indigenous inhabitants of any of the three major sub-regions of Oceania: Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia.According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, these three regions, together with their islands consist of:Polynesia:...
. Unusually, some authors who supported a Greater Romania
Greater Romania
The Greater Romania generally refers to the territory of Romania in the years between the First World War and the Second World War, the largest geographical extent of Romania up to that time and its largest peacetime extent ever ; more precisely, it refers to the territory of the Kingdom of...
were in the process of reconsidering his activity, starting from his 1910s attacks on Hungarian interests. Writing in 1926, the physicist and nationalist militant Vasile Bianu placed Cătărău in "the vanguard of the holy war to reunite the [Romanian] nation", calling him "a guiding light" of patriotic feeling. In France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, where he arrived with a false passport, Cătărău led the life of a delinquent, and spent time in prison. Reputedly, he was jailed for stealing jewels in the property of his American fiancée.
Ilie Cătărău survived 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...
in obscurity, and made it into 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....
. He resided for a while in the Moldavian SSR
Moldavian SSR
The Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic , commonly abbreviated to Moldavian SSR or MSSR, was one of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union...
, and was referred to in Soviet propaganda as a hero, for having fought against union with Romania. In the 1950s, Cătărău left the Soviet province and returned to Romania. He tried to capitalize on the newly established Romanian 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...
, presenting himself as a hero of the cause, and was used by the government as a denunciator of "reactionary
Reactionary
The term reactionary refers to viewpoints that seek to return to a previous state in a society. The term is meant to describe one end of a political spectrum whose opposite pole is "radical". While it has not been generally considered a term of praise it has been adopted as a self-description by...
" politicians. Employed by the communist press, he notably took his revenge on Gherman Pântea, who had had a second career as a Romanian state official. As Ion Constantin notes, he accused Pântea "of acts for the most part invented, in order to determine [Pântea's] arrest by the regime's authorities." Cătărău additionally claimed a special communist pedigree, passing himself off as a personal friend of Bolshevik theorist 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...
.
In his final years, Cătărău experienced religious sentiment and became a monk of the Romanian Orthodox Church
Romanian Orthodox Church
The Romanian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It is in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox churches, and is ranked seventh in order of precedence. The Primate of the church has the title of Patriarch...
. The decision was controversial, and Church authorities had to be persuaded by Premier
Prime Minister of Romania
The Prime Minister of Romania is the head of the Government of Romania. Initially, the office was styled President of the Council of Ministers , when the term "Government" included more than the Cabinet, and the Cabinet was called The Council of Ministers...
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....
into accepting Cătărău's retreat to a monastery in Transylvania.