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{{Short description|Romanian communist activist and intelligence officer}}
'''Alexandru Nikolski''' (also known as '''Alexandru Nikolski''', born '''Boris Grünberg''' (], ], ], ] – ], ], ], ]) was a ] chief in ] in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
{{Infobox spy
| honorific_prefix =
| name = Alexandru Nicolschi
| honorific_suffix =
| nickname =
| image = <!-- Deleted image removed: ] -->
| caption =
| allegiance = ]
| service =
| serviceyears =
| rank = ]
| operation =
| awards = ]<br />{{ill|Order of Tudor Vladimirescu|de|Orden Tudor Vladimirescu}}
| codename1 =
| codename2 =
| other =
| birth_name = Boris Grünberg
| birth_date = {{Birth date |1915|6|2|mf=y}}
| birth_place = ], Russia (now in ], Moldova)
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1992|4|16|1915|6|2|mf=y}}
| death_place = ], Romania
| buried =
| height =
| nationality = Russian, Soviet,
]n
| religion =
| residence =
| parents =
| spouse = {{ill|Vanda Nicolschi|ro}}
| children =
| occupation =
| alma_mater =
| signature =
}}


'''Alexandru Nicolschi''' (born '''Boris Grünberg''', his chosen surname was often rendered as '''Nikolski''' or '''Nicolski'''; {{langx|ru|Александр Серге́евич Никольский}}, {{lang|ru-latn|Alexandr Sergeyevich Nikolsky}}; June 2, 1915 – April 16, 1992) was a ]n ] activist, ] ] and officer, and ] chief under the ]. Active until 1961, he was one of the most recognizable leaders of violent political repression.
In December 1940, after the ]s occupied ], he joined the ]. After training as ] in ], he was sent on May 26, 1941 to Romania on a spying mission. He was caught by Romanian border guards, and, after a short trial, sentenced to life in prison. After spending three years in ] prison, he was set free by Soviet troops on August 28, 1944. <ref name="oprea"> Marius Oprea, ''Alexandru Nicolschi''</ref> After that, he rose rapidly through the ranks of the ].


==Biography==
At the founding of the Securitate on August 30, 1948, ] ] became the first Director of this organization. The positions of Deputy Directors went to two Soviet officers: ]s Nicolschi and ]. Nobody could be appointed to the Securitate's leadership without their approval.<ref name="memorial">, page for Room 14, The Security Police (Securitate) between 1948 and 1989</ref>
Nicholschi played an important role in the brainwashing experiment carried out by the Communist authorities in 1949-1952 at the ].<ref name="cioroianu">], ''Pe umerii lui Marx. O introducere în istoria comunismului românesc'' ("On the Shoulders of Marx. An Incursion into the History of Romanian Communism"), ], Bucharest, 2005</ref>
During the construction of the ], torture was applied by a Securitate squad led by Nikolschi, as a means to obtain forced confessions.<ref name="hossu">, in '']'', March 11, 2006</ref>
==References==
<div class="references-small" style="-moz-column-count:2; column-count:2;">
<references/>
</div>
*''Banalitatea răului. O istorie a Securitătii in documente'' (''The Banality of Evil: A History of the Securitate in Documents'', edited by Marius Oprea, Polirom, Iaşi, 2002.


==External links== ===Early life===
Born to a Jewish family in ], on the eastern bank of the Dniester river (part of ] at the time), he was the son of Alexandru Grünberg, a miller.<ref>Bălteanu, p. 46</ref> In 1932, he joined the local section of the Romanian ], a wing of the ] (PCdR);<ref>Bălteanu, p. 46; Deletant, p. 19</ref> in 1933, due to his political activities, he was arrested and held for two weeks by the Romanian ], ].<ref name="Deletant, p. 19">Deletant, p. 19</ref> Later in the 1930s, as associates of ] ], he and ] were elected to the internal ] (which was doubled by a controlling body inside the Soviet Union).<ref>Tismăneanu, p. 93</ref> In 1937, he joined the ranks of the Moscow-controlled PCdR. He did his military service in the Signals Regiment of ] in 1937–39,<ref name="Deletant, p. 19; Miruna Munteanu">Deletant, p. 19; Miruna Munteanu</ref> being discharged with the rank of ].<ref name="Miruna Munteanu">Miruna Munteanu</ref> He subsequently worked for the telephone exchange in ].<ref name="Deletant, p. 19" />
*

In December 1940, following the onset of the ], Grünberg became a Soviet citizen,<ref name="Bălteanu, p. 47">Bălteanu, p. 47</ref> joined the ], and trained as a spy in ] (Cernăuți).<ref>Adameșteanu; Deletant, p. 19; Bălteanu, p. 46-47; Tismăneanu, p. 45, 297</ref> He was sent undercover into Romania on May 26, 1941, <!-- or May 16, according to Munteanu article; needs checking -->
carrying papers with the name ''Vasile Ștefănescu'', in order to report on ] movements in preparation for ] (the invasion of the Soviet Union by ], in which Romanian troops, under the command of ] ], participated; ''see ]'').<ref>Bălteanu, p. 47; Deletant, p. 19</ref> He was apprehended by Romanian border guards after just two hours (according to subsequent reports, he was given away by the fact that he could not express himself in ]).<ref name="Deletant, p. 19" />{{dubious|As a corporal of the Romanian army, with 2 years of service, and after working in Romanian Chișinău at the phone exchange for another year? Needs some explanation.|date=April 2020}} His case was investigated June 6–12 by the Special Investigations Service's Lieutenant Colonel Emil Velciu; Nicolschi confessed he had been recruited into Soviet intelligence by NKVD Captain Andreev.<ref name="Miruna Munteanu" /> After a short trial, he was sentenced to ] and ] on August 7, 1941.<ref>Bălteanu, p. 47; Deletant, p. 19; Miruna Munteanu</ref> He was sent to prison in ], and then ], where other Soviet spies, such as Vladimir Gribici and Afanasie Șișman, were also held.<ref name="Deletant, p. 19; Miruna Munteanu" /> It was during the time that he began using his adopted name and passed himself off as an ].<ref name="Deletant, p. 19" />

===Detective Corps===

He was set free by the ] ] on August 28, 1944, and benefited from a general ].<ref>Adameșteanu; Frunză, p. 150</ref> In October, Nicolschi was incorporated into the ], becoming an ],<ref name="Bălteanu, p p. 19">Bălteanu, p. 47; Deletant, p. 19; Pop, "Antanta extremelor...", p. 36; Tudor & Pavelescu</ref> while, in parallel, he rose rapidly through the ranks of the PCR.<ref name="Bălteanu, p. 47" /> In May 1945, just after the end of ] in Europe, he was present in ], where he was entrusted with the task of transporting ] and his group of collaborators (], ], {{ill|Piki Vasiliu|ro|Constantin Z. Vasiliu}}, and others, all of whom had been captured by the Soviets) from ] back to Romania.<ref>Tudor & Pavelescu</ref> On April 9, 1946, it was he who signed the release papers when these prisoners were taken back to Romania by Soviet Lieutenant Colonel Rodin to face trial.<ref name="Miruna Munteanu" />

Under the ] Communist-controlled government, Nicolschi was appointed head of the Detective Corps.<ref name="Bălteanu, p p. 19" /> At the time, Nicolschi, together with ] ], was contacted by ], a ] activist who oversaw the main interior branch of the ] (claiming to represent ]'s exiled leadership of the movement).<ref>Enuță, p. 30-33; Aurel Dragoș Munteanu; Pop, "Antanta extremelor...", p. 35-36</ref> Petrașcu, who had just been arrested, offered his subordinates' support for the National Democratic Front, which was an alliance controlled by the Communists (in the process, he avoided a direct mention of the Communist Party, and later carried on parallel negotiations with the opposition ], PNȚ).<ref name="Enuță, p. 33">Enuță, p. 33</ref> Georgescu and Nicolschi agreed to the deal, and allowed Iron Guard's affiliates (the Legionaries) to emerge from the underground, awarding them identity papers and employment on the condition that they disarmed themselves.<ref name="Enuță, p. 33" /> Georgescu was persuaded by Nicolschi to let Petrașcu go free;<ref>Pop, "Antanta extremelor...", p. 36</ref> the minister later confessed that this was done on suspicion that the Iron Guard would otherwise provide support for the National Peasantist leaders: "The PNȚ's attempts, successful up to a certain extent, of attracting Legionaries into their party, giving them a legal possibility to act against the regime".<ref>Georgescu, in Pop, "Antanta extremelor...", p. 36</ref>

According to Georgescu, as a direct result of the understanding, as much as 800 Iron Guard affiliates applied for recognition, including a number of people who had "returned from ] after ], having diversion as their purpose".<ref>Georgescu, in Enuță, p. 33; Pop, "Antanta extremelor...", p. 37</ref> In autumn 1945, the two Communist representatives intervened to have sizable groups of Iron Guard members set free from various labor camps,<ref>Enuță, p. 34; Pop, "Antanta extremelor...", p. 36-37</ref> while Petrașcu was awarded a degree of liberty in resuming political contacts.<ref>Enuţă, p. 34; Aurel Dragoș Munteanu; Pop, "Antanta extremelor...", p. 36-37</ref> On Georgescu's orders, Nicolschi drew up a list of Legionaries who had been imprisoned for lesser crimes under ]'s regime, a document which formed the basis of pardons.<ref name="Pop, Antanta extremelor..., p. 37">Pop, "Antanta extremelor...", p. 37</ref> Most of the newly released persons were subsequently kept under surveillance by Nicolschi and his Detective Corps.<ref name="Pop, Antanta extremelor..., p. 37" /> An unknown number of Petrașcu's supporters consequently joined the Communist Party, as part of a large wave of new members.<ref>Enuță, p. 34-35</ref>

===Mobile Brigade===
Nicolschi was later assigned General Inspector of the traditional ], ], where he and ] led the will-to-be communist security force "Mobile Brigade", entrusted with silencing political opposition.<ref>Bălteanu, p. 47; Deletant, p. 19; Pacepa; Golopenția</ref> The unit, which was to become an embryo for the "]", comprised an active cell of Soviet ] envoys.<ref>Bălteanu, p. 47; Pacepa; Pop, "1950. Legația S.U.A..."; Tănase</ref> At the time, Nicolschi himself rose to the rank of ] in the MGB.<ref name="Pacepa">Pacepa</ref>

Together with ], Nicolschi ordered a wave of arbitrary arrests in 1946–1947, which – according to some sources – came to mark the lives of as many as 300,000 people.<ref name="Bălteanu, p. 47" /> He also played a role in the killing of ], who, after being toppled from his position as General Secretary, had been kept in seclusion;<ref name="Golopenţia">Golopenția</ref> it was Nicolschi who ordered Foriș' mother to be drowned in the ].<ref>Betea, p. 45; Golopenția</ref> In 1967, he indicated that one of his subordinates, a certain "comrade (Gavril) Birtaș" of the ] section, had taken the initiative:
<blockquote>Comrade Birtaș had received the indication to talk to her and get her to return to Oradea and admit herself into an old people's home. Details of how Comrade Birtaș has accomplished the mission are not known to me.<ref>Nicolschi, in Betea, p. 45</ref></blockquote>

In early 1948, after the PCR forced ] ] to ], Nicolschi escorted the latter out of the country and as far as ].<ref name="Pacepa" /> During May, Nicolschi, together with ], engineered a series of trials for ], which notably implicated the industrialists ] and ], who were accused of having destroyed their own enterprises as a means to resist ].<ref>Deletant, p. 17; Golopenția</ref>

===Securitate crimes===
After the founding of the Securitate on August 30 of that year, ] ] (Pantelei Bodnarenko) became the first Director of this organization. The positions of Deputy Directors went to two ]s Nicolschi and ], both of whom were at the same time Soviet KGB officers;<ref>''The Security Police...''; Adameșteanu; Bălteanu, p. 46, 47; Golopenţia; Pacepa; Pop, "1950. Legația S.U.A..."; Tismăneanu, p. 297</ref> nobody could be appointed to the Securitate's leadership without their approval.<ref>''The Security Police...''</ref> Together, they oversaw the creation of the massive Communist Romanian penal system and communist terror apparatus, starting in February 1950.<ref>Cesereanu; Pacepa; Tismăneanu, p. 43</ref> As historian ] argues, this was made possible by the Soviet agents and their relations with the group around emerging Communist leader ]: "if one does not grasp the role of political thugs such as the Soviet spies Pintilie Bodnarenko (Pantiușa) and Alexandru Nikolski in the exercise of terror in Romania during the most horrible ] period, and their personal connections with Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej and members of his entourage, it is difficult to understand the origins and the role of the Securitate".<ref>Tismăneanu, p. 43</ref>

Upon introducing the new Securitate policies, Nicolschi presented a series of ideological imperatives, resumed in sentences such as:
<blockquote>The rust of ]ism has begun to gnaw at us . Our apparatus cannot be gnawed at, but this is an aspect .<ref>Nicolschi, in Cesereanu</ref></blockquote>

Involved in the interrogation of ], he ensured Soviet intervention in the proceedings,<ref name="Golopenţia" /> and was personally responsible for the arrest of ].<ref name="Golopenţia" /> He also played a leading role in the ] experiment provoked by the Communist authorities in 1949–1952 at the ];<ref>Cesereanu; Cioroianu, p. 317; Frunză, p. 150; Golopenția</ref> he encouraged ] to carry out the task<ref>Cioroianu, p. 317</ref> and carried out regular inspections, during which he would ignore evidence of ].<ref>Bacu, Chapter XXI</ref> During that time, Nicolschi also supervised the ] of hundreds of minors at ]; these minors (some as young as 12) were subjected to psychological experiments and beaten with the intention of being trained in the spirit of the "]".<ref name="Mihai">{{cite web|url=https://adevarul.ro/stiri-locale/ploiesti/inchisoarea-ingerilor-singura-puscarie-pentru-1618230.html|title="Închisoarea îngerilor", singura pușcărie pentru copii din lume. Comuniștii au experimentat la Târgșor reeducarea minorilor "refractari sistemului"|lang=ro|first=Dana|last=Mihai|newspaper=]|date=April 26, 2015|access-date=January 28, 2023}}</ref> In the inquiry preceding the ] for sabotage at the ], he led a squad of torturers that was entrusted with obtaining ]s from Gheorghe Crăciun and other employees.<ref>Hossu-Longin</ref>

As early as 1949, Nicolschi was arguably the first Securitate senior officer to become known for his brutality outside the ].<ref name="Deletant, p. 19" /> This came after a Romanian refugee to ], ], recounted the manner in which, four years earlier, she had been tortured by a team of which Nicolschi was a member, and indicated that the latter had been one of the three to have threatened her with guns.<ref name="Deletant, p. 19" /> She also detailed various torture methods (including vicious beatings of detainees) Nicolschi personally engaged in during interrogations at Malmaison Prison.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://bucovinaprofunda.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/alexandru_nicolschi-iiccr-48-p.pdf|title=Alexandru Nicolschi, ilegalist comunist, spion sovietic, deținut și general de securitate|author1=Mihai Burcea|author2= Marius Stan|publisher=]|website=bucovinaprofunda.com|language=ro|access-date=August 6, 2024}}</ref> According to a 1992 article for '']'', Nicolschi ordered the murder of seven prisoners (allegedly the leaders of an ]) in transit from ] in July 1949.<ref>Deletant, ''Communist Terror...'', pp. 122–123.</ref>

===Inner-Party conflicts and retirement===
Although an associate of ]'s "Muscovite wing",<ref>Frunză, p. 151</ref> Nicolschi maintained links with ], and relied on his NKVD-MGB credentials to survive political turmoil caused by the fall of Pauker, ], and ] ].<ref>Bălteanu, p. 47; Tănase; Tismăneanu, p. 43</ref> Pauker was officially accused, among other things, of having welcomed the ] into the Party, although her degree of involvement in the deal remains disputed<ref>Enuță, p. 35</ref> (while Nicolschi is credited with having initiated it, it was also proposed that his Soviet superiors had played a part in the decision).<ref>Enuță, p. 35; Aurel Dragoș Munteanu</ref>

He apparently rallied with Gheorghiu-Dej, and, despite the fact that he was still a Soviet citizen, he was decorated with the high distinction '']''.<ref name="Bălteanu, p. 47" /> In 1953, he became a General Secretary in the ].<ref>Adameșteanu; Deletant, p. 19; Bălteanu, p. 47</ref> At around that time, his suspicion towards Gheorghiu-Dej allegedly led him to ] in the latter's office.<ref name="Adameşteanu">Adameșteanu</ref>

In 1961, after Gheorghiu-Dej began adopting anti-Soviet themes in his discourse, Nicolschi, promoted to Lieutenant General, was sidelined and forced into retirement,<ref>Adameșteanu; Bălteanu, p. 47; Tismăneanu, p. 297</ref> without being denied the luxuries reserved for the ].<ref name="Adameşteanu" /> In 1971, he was awarded the {{ill|Order of Tudor Vladimirescu|de|Orden Tudor Vladimirescu}}, 2nd class.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://lege5.ro/Gratuit/gu4tqoju/decretul-nr-157-1971-privind-conferirea-unor-ordine-ale-republicii-socialiste-romania|title=Decretul nr. 157/1971 privind conferirea unor ordine ale Republicii Socialiste România|lang=ro|publisher=Buletinul Oficial|volume= 96|date=August 6, 1971|website=lege5.ro|access-date=May 11, 2024}}</ref> He lived through the ] years, and died in ], two years after the ] of 1989, as the result of a ].<ref name="Bălteanu, p. 47" /> This happened on the very same day he was presented with a ] from the Prosecutor General, who had received a formal notification from the victims' families and the ] (Nicolschi was scheduled for hearings on April 17, 1992).<ref>Adameșteanu; Bălteanu, p. 47</ref> The following day, he was incinerated at ].<ref name="oprea" >Oprea</ref>

Alongside Pintilie and Mazuru, Nicolschi features prominently in theories that the early Securitate was controlled by ] (as notably voiced by the press of the ultra-] ]).<ref name="Deletant, p. 20-21">Deletant, p. 20-21</ref> Referring to this, ] historian ] claims that of the total 60 leaders of the Securitate Directorate, 38 were ethnically ], while 22 were divided between 5 other communities (in this statistic, Deletant counts Nicolschi as an ethnic Russian).<ref>Deletant, p. 21</ref> He concluded that "the numbers drawn from ethnic minorities, although disproportionate, do not appear to be excessive".<ref name="Deletant, p. 20">Deletant, p. 20</ref> Deletant also is of the opinion that, while there is indication that the ethnic origin of top officials was obscured,<ref name="Deletant, p. 20" /> "there is no evidence to suggest the ']' of officers of other ethnic origins".<ref name="Deletant, p. 20-21" />

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==References==


*{{cite web|url=https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/sighet-memorial-room-14-the-security-police-securitate-between-1948-and-1989/kgEnOOcn1HMfig?hl=en|title=Sighet Memorial: Room 14 – The Security Police (Securitate) between 1948 and 1989|publisher=]|access-date=December 15, 2020}}
]
*{{cite news|author=Gabriela Adameșteanu|author-link=Gabriela Adameșteanu| url=https://www.observatorcultural.ro/articol/crimele-neglijate-ale-comunismului-2/ |title=Crimele neglijate ale comunismului. O sintagmă neinspirată|lang=ro|trans-title=The Neglected Crimes of Communism. An Ill-Inspired Syntagm| magazine=]|volume=326|date=June 26, 2006|access-date=August 24, 2023}}
*Dumitru Bacu, , Soldiers of the Cross, ], 1971 (translation of ''Pitești, Centru de Reeducare Studențească'', Madrid, 1963)
*Valeriu Bălteanu, "1948–1958: Control, supraveghere, verificare, dominație. Agenții NKVD și consilierii sovietici din MAI și Securitate" (1948–1958: Control, Supervision, Verification, Domination. NKVD Agents and Soviet Advisers in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Securitate"), in ''Dosarele Istoriei'', 3/1996
*Lavinia Betea, "Testamentul lui Foriș" ("Foriș' Last Will"), in ''Magazin Istoric'', April 1997
* {{in lang|ro}} Gabriel Catalan, Mircea Stănescu, "Scurtă istorie a Securității" ("Short history of the Securitate"), in '']'', (2004), p.&nbsp;38–53
*{{in lang|ro}} ], ("The Securitate's «Language»"), at ''Memoria.ro'' (review of ], ''Banalitatea răului. Istoria Securității în documente'')
*], ''Pe umerii lui Marx. O introducere în istoria comunismului românesc'' ("On the Shoulders of Marx. An Incursion into the History of Romanian Communism"), ], Bucharest, 2005
*], ''Ceaușescu and the Securitate'', ], ], 1995
*{{cite book|author=Dennis Deletant|authorlink=Dennis Deletant|title=Communist Terror in Romania. Gheorghui-Dej and the Police State, 1948-65|pages=122–123|publisher= ]|location=London|year= 1999|isbn=9781850653868}}
*Almira Enuță, {{lang|ro|"Infiltrarea partidului comunist de către legionari. Suflete verzi cu berete roșii"}} ("The Communist Party's Infiltration by Legionaries. Green Souls with Red Berets"), in ''Dosarele Istoriei'', 4/1997
*Victor Frunză, ''Istoria stalinismului în România'' ("The History of Stalinism in Romania"), ], Bucharest, 1990
*{{in lang|ro}} {{ill|Sanda Golopenția|ro|
Sanda Golopenția-Eretescu}}, ("Introduction to Anton Golopenția's ''Ultima carte'' (The Inquisitors)"), at ''Memoria.ro''
*{{in lang|ro}} Valentin Hossu-Longin, ("The Trial of the Death Canal"), in '']'', March 11, 2006
*{{Cite web|author=Aurel Dragoș Munteanu|url= https://jurnalul.ro/special-jurnalul/comunisti-si-verzi-esecul-aliantei-dorite-de-moscova-11950.html|title=Comuniști și verzi – Eșecul alianței dorite de Moscova|trans-title=Communists and Greens – Failure of the Alliance Desired by Moscow|newspaper=]|date=September 20, 2006|access-date=December 15, 2020|language=ro}}
*{{in lang|ro}} Miruna Munteanu, , in '']'', June 28, 2003
*{{in lang|ro}} ], ("The Life of Alexandru Nicolschi"), ], March 17, 2021
*{{in lang|ro}} ], ("It's Time for the Securitate to be Repudiated"), part IV, in '']'', October 8, 2005
*Adrian Pop,
**"Antanta extremelor politice românești. «Pactul» legionari - guvernul Groza" ("The Entente of Romanian Political Extremes. The Legionaries - Groza Government «Pact»"), in ''Dosarele Istoriei'', 4/1997
**{{in lang|ro}} ("1950. The US Legation Informs: The USSR's Domination over Romania Cannot Be Loosened"), in ''Magazin Istoric''
*{{in lang|ro}} ], ("Gheorghiu-Dej, the Man of Grudges"), in ''Magazin Istoric''
*], ''Stalinism pentru eternitate'', ], ], 2005 {{ISBN|973-681-899-3}} (translation of ''Stalinism for All Seasons: A Political History of Romanian Communism'', ], ], 2003, {{ISBN|0-520-23747-1}})
*{{Cite web|author1=Alina Tudor|author2= Șerban Pavelescu| url=http://www.itcnet.ro/history/archive/mi1997/current10/mi28.htm |title=Moscova – închisoarea Liubianka. Mareșalul Antonescu: alte interogatorii|trans-title=Moscow – Lubyanka Prison. Marshal Antonescu: Other Interrogations|magazine=]|year=1997|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070328200644/http://www.itcnet.ro/history/archive/mi1997/current10/mi28.htm|archive-date= 2007-03-28|language=ro}}


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Latest revision as of 12:01, 29 October 2024

Romanian communist activist and intelligence officer
Alexandru Nicolschi
BornBoris Grünberg
(1915-06-02)June 2, 1915
Tiraspol, Russia (now in Transnistria, Moldova)
DiedApril 16, 1992(1992-04-16) (aged 76)
Bucharest, Romania
NationalityRussian, Soviet, Romanian
SpouseVanda Nicolschi [ro]
AwardsOrder of the Star of the Romanian People's Republic
Order of Tudor Vladimirescu [de]
Espionage activity
AllegianceSoviet Union
RankLieutenant general

Alexandru Nicolschi (born Boris Grünberg, his chosen surname was often rendered as Nikolski or Nicolski; Russian: Александр Серге́евич Никольский, Alexandr Sergeyevich Nikolsky; June 2, 1915 – April 16, 1992) was a Romanian communist activist, Soviet agent and officer, and Securitate chief under the Communist regime. Active until 1961, he was one of the most recognizable leaders of violent political repression.

Biography

Early life

Born to a Jewish family in Tiraspol, on the eastern bank of the Dniester river (part of Imperial Russia at the time), he was the son of Alexandru Grünberg, a miller. In 1932, he joined the local section of the Romanian Union of Communist Youth, a wing of the Romanian Communist Party (PCdR); in 1933, due to his political activities, he was arrested and held for two weeks by the Romanian secret police, Siguranța Statului. Later in the 1930s, as associates of General Secretary Vitali Holostenco, he and Vasile Luca were elected to the internal Politburo (which was doubled by a controlling body inside the Soviet Union). In 1937, he joined the ranks of the Moscow-controlled PCdR. He did his military service in the Signals Regiment of Iași in 1937–39, being discharged with the rank of corporal. He subsequently worked for the telephone exchange in Chișinău.

In December 1940, following the onset of the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, Grünberg became a Soviet citizen, joined the NKVD, and trained as a spy in Chernivtsi (Cernăuți). He was sent undercover into Romania on May 26, 1941, carrying papers with the name Vasile Ștefănescu, in order to report on Romanian Army movements in preparation for Operation Barbarossa (the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany, in which Romanian troops, under the command of Marshal Ion Antonescu, participated; see Romania during World War II). He was apprehended by Romanian border guards after just two hours (according to subsequent reports, he was given away by the fact that he could not express himself in Romanian). His case was investigated June 6–12 by the Special Investigations Service's Lieutenant Colonel Emil Velciu; Nicolschi confessed he had been recruited into Soviet intelligence by NKVD Captain Andreev. After a short trial, he was sentenced to life imprisonment and hard labor on August 7, 1941. He was sent to prison in Ploiești, and then Aiud, where other Soviet spies, such as Vladimir Gribici and Afanasie Șișman, were also held. It was during the time that he began using his adopted name and passed himself off as an ethnic Russian.

Detective Corps

He was set free by the Red Army occupying Romania on August 28, 1944, and benefited from a general amnesty. In October, Nicolschi was incorporated into the police force, becoming an inspector, while, in parallel, he rose rapidly through the ranks of the PCR. In May 1945, just after the end of World War II in Europe, he was present in Moscow, where he was entrusted with the task of transporting Ion Antonescu and his group of collaborators (Mihai Antonescu, Constantin Pantazi, Piki Vasiliu [ro], and others, all of whom had been captured by the Soviets) from Lubyanka back to Romania. On April 9, 1946, it was he who signed the release papers when these prisoners were taken back to Romania by Soviet Lieutenant Colonel Rodin to face trial.

Under the Petru Groza Communist-controlled government, Nicolschi was appointed head of the Detective Corps. At the time, Nicolschi, together with Minister of the Interior Teohari Georgescu, was contacted by Nicolae Petrașcu, a fascist activist who oversaw the main interior branch of the Iron Guard (claiming to represent Horia Sima's exiled leadership of the movement). Petrașcu, who had just been arrested, offered his subordinates' support for the National Democratic Front, which was an alliance controlled by the Communists (in the process, he avoided a direct mention of the Communist Party, and later carried on parallel negotiations with the opposition National Peasants' Party, PNȚ). Georgescu and Nicolschi agreed to the deal, and allowed Iron Guard's affiliates (the Legionaries) to emerge from the underground, awarding them identity papers and employment on the condition that they disarmed themselves. Georgescu was persuaded by Nicolschi to let Petrașcu go free; the minister later confessed that this was done on suspicion that the Iron Guard would otherwise provide support for the National Peasantist leaders: "The PNȚ's attempts, successful up to a certain extent, of attracting Legionaries into their party, giving them a legal possibility to act against the regime".

According to Georgescu, as a direct result of the understanding, as much as 800 Iron Guard affiliates applied for recognition, including a number of people who had "returned from Germany after August 23, 1944, having diversion as their purpose". In autumn 1945, the two Communist representatives intervened to have sizable groups of Iron Guard members set free from various labor camps, while Petrașcu was awarded a degree of liberty in resuming political contacts. On Georgescu's orders, Nicolschi drew up a list of Legionaries who had been imprisoned for lesser crimes under Ion Antonescu's regime, a document which formed the basis of pardons. Most of the newly released persons were subsequently kept under surveillance by Nicolschi and his Detective Corps. An unknown number of Petrașcu's supporters consequently joined the Communist Party, as part of a large wave of new members.

Mobile Brigade

Nicolschi was later assigned General Inspector of the traditional secret police, Siguranța Statului, where he and Serghei Nicolau led the will-to-be communist security force "Mobile Brigade", entrusted with silencing political opposition. The unit, which was to become an embryo for the "Securitate", comprised an active cell of Soviet MGB envoys. At the time, Nicolschi himself rose to the rank of colonel in the MGB.

Together with Alexandru Drăghici, Nicolschi ordered a wave of arbitrary arrests in 1946–1947, which – according to some sources – came to mark the lives of as many as 300,000 people. He also played a role in the killing of Ștefan Foriș, who, after being toppled from his position as General Secretary, had been kept in seclusion; it was Nicolschi who ordered Foriș' mother to be drowned in the Crișul Repede. In 1967, he indicated that one of his subordinates, a certain "comrade (Gavril) Birtaș" of the Oradea section, had taken the initiative:

Comrade Birtaș had received the indication to talk to her and get her to return to Oradea and admit herself into an old people's home. Details of how Comrade Birtaș has accomplished the mission are not known to me.

In early 1948, after the PCR forced King Michael I to abdicate, Nicolschi escorted the latter out of the country and as far as Vienna. During May, Nicolschi, together with Marin Jianu, engineered a series of trials for sabotage, which notably implicated the industrialists Radu Xenopol and Anton Dumitru, who were accused of having destroyed their own enterprises as a means to resist nationalization.

Securitate crimes

After the founding of the Securitate on August 30 of that year, Lieutenant General Gheorghe Pintilie (Pantelei Bodnarenko) became the first Director of this organization. The positions of Deputy Directors went to two Major Generals Nicolschi and Vladimir Mazuru, both of whom were at the same time Soviet KGB officers; nobody could be appointed to the Securitate's leadership without their approval. Together, they oversaw the creation of the massive Communist Romanian penal system and communist terror apparatus, starting in February 1950. As historian Vladimir Tismăneanu argues, this was made possible by the Soviet agents and their relations with the group around emerging Communist leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej: "if one does not grasp the role of political thugs such as the Soviet spies Pintilie Bodnarenko (Pantiușa) and Alexandru Nikolski in the exercise of terror in Romania during the most horrible Stalinist period, and their personal connections with Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej and members of his entourage, it is difficult to understand the origins and the role of the Securitate".

Upon introducing the new Securitate policies, Nicolschi presented a series of ideological imperatives, resumed in sentences such as:

The rust of bureaucratism has begun to gnaw at us . Our apparatus cannot be gnawed at, but this is an aspect .

Involved in the interrogation of Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu, he ensured Soviet intervention in the proceedings, and was personally responsible for the arrest of Lena Constante. He also played a leading role in the brainwashing experiment provoked by the Communist authorities in 1949–1952 at the Pitești Prison; he encouraged Eugen Țurcanu to carry out the task and carried out regular inspections, during which he would ignore evidence of torture. During that time, Nicolschi also supervised the re-education of hundreds of minors at Târgșor Prison; these minors (some as young as 12) were subjected to psychological experiments and beaten with the intention of being trained in the spirit of the "Communist new man". In the inquiry preceding the show trial for sabotage at the Danube-Black Sea Canal, he led a squad of torturers that was entrusted with obtaining forced confessions from Gheorghe Crăciun and other employees.

As early as 1949, Nicolschi was arguably the first Securitate senior officer to become known for his brutality outside the Eastern Bloc. This came after a Romanian refugee to France, Adriana Georgescu-Cosmovici, recounted the manner in which, four years earlier, she had been tortured by a team of which Nicolschi was a member, and indicated that the latter had been one of the three to have threatened her with guns. She also detailed various torture methods (including vicious beatings of detainees) Nicolschi personally engaged in during interrogations at Malmaison Prison. According to a 1992 article for Cuvântul, Nicolschi ordered the murder of seven prisoners (allegedly the leaders of an anti-communist resistance movement) in transit from Gherla Prison in July 1949.

Inner-Party conflicts and retirement

Although an associate of Ana Pauker's "Muscovite wing", Nicolschi maintained links with Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, and relied on his NKVD-MGB credentials to survive political turmoil caused by the fall of Pauker, Vasile Luca, and Minister of the Interior Teohari Georgescu. Pauker was officially accused, among other things, of having welcomed the Iron Guard into the Party, although her degree of involvement in the deal remains disputed (while Nicolschi is credited with having initiated it, it was also proposed that his Soviet superiors had played a part in the decision).

He apparently rallied with Gheorghiu-Dej, and, despite the fact that he was still a Soviet citizen, he was decorated with the high distinction Steaua Republicii Populare Române. In 1953, he became a General Secretary in the Interior Ministry. At around that time, his suspicion towards Gheorghiu-Dej allegedly led him to plant microphones in the latter's office.

In 1961, after Gheorghiu-Dej began adopting anti-Soviet themes in his discourse, Nicolschi, promoted to Lieutenant General, was sidelined and forced into retirement, without being denied the luxuries reserved for the nomenklatura. In 1971, he was awarded the Order of Tudor Vladimirescu [de], 2nd class. He lived through the Nicolae Ceaușescu years, and died in Bucharest, two years after the Romanian Revolution of 1989, as the result of a heart attack. This happened on the very same day he was presented with a subpoena from the Prosecutor General, who had received a formal notification from the victims' families and the Association of Former Political Prisoners (Nicolschi was scheduled for hearings on April 17, 1992). The following day, he was incinerated at Cenușa Crematorium.

Alongside Pintilie and Mazuru, Nicolschi features prominently in theories that the early Securitate was controlled by ethnic minorities (as notably voiced by the press of the ultra-nationalist Greater Romania Party). Referring to this, British historian Dennis Deletant claims that of the total 60 leaders of the Securitate Directorate, 38 were ethnically Romanian, while 22 were divided between 5 other communities (in this statistic, Deletant counts Nicolschi as an ethnic Russian). He concluded that "the numbers drawn from ethnic minorities, although disproportionate, do not appear to be excessive". Deletant also is of the opinion that, while there is indication that the ethnic origin of top officials was obscured, "there is no evidence to suggest the 'Romanianisation' of officers of other ethnic origins".

Notes

  1. Bălteanu, p. 46
  2. Bălteanu, p. 46; Deletant, p. 19
  3. ^ Deletant, p. 19
  4. Tismăneanu, p. 93
  5. ^ Deletant, p. 19; Miruna Munteanu
  6. ^ Miruna Munteanu
  7. ^ Bălteanu, p. 47
  8. Adameșteanu; Deletant, p. 19; Bălteanu, p. 46-47; Tismăneanu, p. 45, 297
  9. Bălteanu, p. 47; Deletant, p. 19
  10. Bălteanu, p. 47; Deletant, p. 19; Miruna Munteanu
  11. Adameșteanu; Frunză, p. 150
  12. ^ Bălteanu, p. 47; Deletant, p. 19; Pop, "Antanta extremelor...", p. 36; Tudor & Pavelescu
  13. Tudor & Pavelescu
  14. Enuță, p. 30-33; Aurel Dragoș Munteanu; Pop, "Antanta extremelor...", p. 35-36
  15. ^ Enuță, p. 33
  16. Pop, "Antanta extremelor...", p. 36
  17. Georgescu, in Pop, "Antanta extremelor...", p. 36
  18. Georgescu, in Enuță, p. 33; Pop, "Antanta extremelor...", p. 37
  19. Enuță, p. 34; Pop, "Antanta extremelor...", p. 36-37
  20. Enuţă, p. 34; Aurel Dragoș Munteanu; Pop, "Antanta extremelor...", p. 36-37
  21. ^ Pop, "Antanta extremelor...", p. 37
  22. Enuță, p. 34-35
  23. Bălteanu, p. 47; Deletant, p. 19; Pacepa; Golopenția
  24. Bălteanu, p. 47; Pacepa; Pop, "1950. Legația S.U.A..."; Tănase
  25. ^ Pacepa
  26. ^ Golopenția
  27. Betea, p. 45; Golopenția
  28. Nicolschi, in Betea, p. 45
  29. Deletant, p. 17; Golopenția
  30. The Security Police...; Adameșteanu; Bălteanu, p. 46, 47; Golopenţia; Pacepa; Pop, "1950. Legația S.U.A..."; Tismăneanu, p. 297
  31. The Security Police...
  32. Cesereanu; Pacepa; Tismăneanu, p. 43
  33. Tismăneanu, p. 43
  34. Nicolschi, in Cesereanu
  35. Cesereanu; Cioroianu, p. 317; Frunză, p. 150; Golopenția
  36. Cioroianu, p. 317
  37. Bacu, Chapter XXI
  38. Mihai, Dana (April 26, 2015). ""Închisoarea îngerilor", singura pușcărie pentru copii din lume. Comuniștii au experimentat la Târgșor reeducarea minorilor "refractari sistemului"". Adevărul (in Romanian). Retrieved January 28, 2023.
  39. Hossu-Longin
  40. Mihai Burcea; Marius Stan. "Alexandru Nicolschi, ilegalist comunist, spion sovietic, deținut și general de securitate" (PDF). bucovinaprofunda.com (in Romanian). Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania. Retrieved August 6, 2024.
  41. Deletant, Communist Terror..., pp. 122–123.
  42. Frunză, p. 151
  43. Bălteanu, p. 47; Tănase; Tismăneanu, p. 43
  44. Enuță, p. 35
  45. Enuță, p. 35; Aurel Dragoș Munteanu
  46. Adameșteanu; Deletant, p. 19; Bălteanu, p. 47
  47. ^ Adameșteanu
  48. Adameșteanu; Bălteanu, p. 47; Tismăneanu, p. 297
  49. "Decretul nr. 157/1971 privind conferirea unor ordine ale Republicii Socialiste România". lege5.ro (in Romanian). Buletinul Oficial. August 6, 1971. Retrieved May 11, 2024.
  50. Adameșteanu; Bălteanu, p. 47
  51. Oprea
  52. ^ Deletant, p. 20-21
  53. Deletant, p. 21
  54. ^ Deletant, p. 20

References

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