Emil Bodnăraş

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Emil Bodnăraş (1904– January 24, 1976) was an influential Romanian Communist politician, an army officer, and a Soviet agent. He was involved in many of the events of Communist Romania, thus making him a complex figure of Romanian Communism.[1]

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Bodnăraş was born to a Ukrainian father and a German mother in 1904, in Bukovina, then under Austrian rule.[2] He graduated as a valedictorian the Military Academy of Bucharest in 1923.[3] His military career as an artillery officer was interrupted by a conflict with a member of the Romanian Royal House. He was transferred to a garrison in Bessarabia where he was contacted by Communist elements,[4] became a Soviet spy and defected to the USSR in 1931.[5] He returned to Romania in 1935 and fulfilled different special missions for Soviet military intelligence. Caught by accident, Bodnăraş was sentenced to ten years in prison. Imprisoned at Braşov, Doftana and Caransebeş, he entered the Romanian Communist Party in 1940 becoming a key figure in Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej's faction. He was released in 1942.[6]

[edit] 1944-1947

In 1944, Bodnăraş, together with Iosif Rangheţ and Constantin Pîrvulescu, was a key participant in the political elimination and physical isolation of Ştefan Foriş, the General Secretary of the Party. The three of them dominated the leadership of the Party until Dej's escape from prison in August of the same year. After the massive bombing of Bucharest on April 4, 1944, Bodnăraş and Rangheţ captured Foriş and forced him to sign his deposition at gunpoint.[7]

Bodnăraş participated in the August 23, 1944 coup led by King Michael against the government of Ion Antonescu. He organized underground paramilitary units[8] and together with colonel Dumitru Dămăceanu coordinated the weakening of a segment of the Moldavian front called "Poarta Iaşiului" against the Soviet offensive of August 1944.[9] He was part of a group of communists who took custody of Ion Antonescu after his arrest, and took him and Mihai Antonescu to a safe house, before handing the two prisoners to Soviet troops.[10]

He became a member of the Politburo.[11]. During March 1945 and November 1947 he became the head of the secret intelligence service affiliated with the Council of Ministries's presidency.[12] From this position he was one of the orchestrators of the electoral fraud from 1946[13] and of the Tămădău Affair.[14]

His enormous influence was due to permanent direct contact with the Soviet secret services (he was reporting on each of the Romanian Communist Party leaders, as revealed later in the case of Ana Pauker).[15]

[edit] Under Gheorghiu-Dej

He held several important positions under Dej: Minister of Defense, army general, vice premier.[16] On December 27, 1947 he became Minister of Defense, taking over the position previously held by Mihail Lascăr. He held this office until October 3, 1955, while in 1956 he became Minister of Transportation.[17] During his tenure, the Sovietization of the Romanian Army occurred.[18] Bodnăraş sent several Romanian Communists to Moscow to be trained in a special military school, among them the young Nicolae Ceauşescu, who became a close and zealous collaborator and was appointed general and political commissar of the military forces.[19]

He remained one of Gheorghiu-Dej's supporters until Dej's death, and he resisted the restructurations of the Party proposed by Iosif Chişinevschi and Miron Constantinescu.[20]

During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Bodnăraş led a body authorized to intervene and even to open fire in crisis situations. In November, together with Gheorghiu-Dej he also led the Romanian delegation to Hungary, to discuss with János Kádár and support the suppression of the Hungarian revolution.[21]

It seems he also had a key role in influencing Nikita Khrushchev's decision to withdraw Soviet forces from Romania in 1958.[22][23]

After the death of Gheorghiu-Dej in March, 1965, Bodnăraş, as one of the most influential members of the Politburo, decided to support Ceauşescu instead of Gheorghe Apostol or Alexandru Drăghici, thus facilitating Ceauşescu's ascension to the position of General Secretary of the Party.[24]

[edit] Under Ceauşescu

Bodnăraş transferred his loyalty to Ceauşescu,[25] receiving in exchange the position of vice president of the State Council, and remained a member of the Communist elite until his death.[26] The town of Milişăuţi was named Emil Bodnăraş from around 1970 to 1990.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Final Report, p. 646
  2. ^ Final Report, p. 646; Lazitch, p. 105
  3. ^ Lazitch, p. 105
  4. ^ Lazitch, p. 105
  5. ^ Final Report, p. 43, 646
  6. ^ Final Report, p. 43, 646; Betea
  7. ^ Final Report, p. 43, 646; Arvatu
  8. ^ Arachelian
  9. ^ Vasile
  10. ^ Arachelian
  11. ^ Final Report, p. 40
  12. ^ Final Report, p. 38
  13. ^ Final Report, p. 131
  14. ^ Final Report, p. 40
  15. ^ Final Report, p. 646
  16. ^ Final Report, p. 646
  17. ^ Final Report, p. 43 n. 32
  18. ^ Oroian; Vankovska, Wiberg, p. 115; Final Report, p. 125
  19. ^ Pacepa, p. 357-358
  20. ^ Final Report, p. 64, 70, 73
  21. ^ Final Report, p. 77-78
  22. ^ Final Report, p. 43 n. 32, p. 205
  23. ^ Arachelian
  24. ^ Final Report, p. 96
  25. ^ Pacepa, p. 130-131
  26. ^ Final Report, p. 100, 646

[edit] References

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