“Secu’s List”
In 2002, IRIR started drafting a list with the names of all the Securitate (Secret Police) members from 1949 till 1989. The researchers who launched this vast undertaking under the coordination of historian Marius Oprea were: Sorin Cucerai, Armand Goșu, Stejărel Olaru and Nicolae Videnie. The name index with A and B was published in 2003 by Academia Cațavencu, and reprinted in 2007 by the same Academia Cațavencu. [more in Romanian]
The “Tanase Affair”In 1982 France, the “Tanase Affair”, as the media dubbed it, was the top story of newspapers and TV programs for months. The rather inconclusive way the affair ended in the fall of 1982 left a lot of open questions. Certain was only the fact that Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu had ordered his Secret Service to assassinate writers Virgil Tanase and Paul Goma, exiled in Paris, and that the plot had been thwarted by the French counter-intelligence (DST) in cooperation with the Romanian secret agent Matei Haiducu, a double agent of the DST.
After four years of intensive research, a documentary film (in development at Libra Film) and a book will reveal the real background of the “Tanase Affair”, and will spell out mysteries left unsolved for more than a quarter of century. [more in Romanian]
“Kill the Music!”
“Kill the Music” is the working title of a documentary film about the famous radio DJ Cornel Chiriac, about the significance of the phenomenon he has represented. Millions of young Romanians have listened religiously to his music program Metronom, broadcast by Radio Free Europe. Thousands of these young people sent him letters requesting music, and quite a few went to jail because of this. Cornel Chiriac was assassinated in March 1975 in Munich, Germany. [more in Romanian]
A Securitate agent at Radio Free Europe
His code name was “GX-36”. But he was also referred to as “Kraus”. Other code names were “Konrad”, “Aurel Bantas” and “Alexandru Sirbu”. He managed for a very short period of time to fulfill Securitate’s golden dream: to infiltrate Radio Free Europe. Beginning of 1979, “GX-36”, or “Kraus”, became employed as an editor with RFE’s Romanian Department. Fortunately, for only a couple of months. [more in Romanian]
The Hernu File
The famous French case of the “Hernu File” has Romanian origins. IRIR holds the French translation of the Romanian file taken surreptitiously from the Securitate archives in 1992 and given to the DST, the French counter-intelligence service. In order to recover this important document for the benefit of historians, researchers, and all those interested, IRIR will translate this file back into Romanian and make it public. Until then, let’s remember:October 1996. An article published by the weekly L’Express started a huge outrage in France by stating that Charles Hernu, former Defense Minister between 1981 and 1985, had been a KGB agent. [more in Romanian]
