Emil Bodnăraş

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. ["Final Report", p. 646]

Biography

Early life

Bodnăraş was born to a Ukrainian father and a German mother in 1904, in Bukovina, then under Austrian rule. ["Final Report", p. 646; Lazitch, p. 105] He graduated as a valedictorian the Military Academy of Bucharest in 1923. [Lazitch, p. 105] 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, [Lazitch, p. 105] became a Soviet spy and defected to the USSR in 1931. ["Final Report", p. 43, 646] 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. ["Final Report", p. 43, 646; Betea]

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. ["Final Report", p. 43, 646; Arvatu]

Bodnăraş participated in the August 23, 1944 coup led by King Michael against the government of Ion Antonescu. He organized underground paramilitary units [Arachelian] 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. [Vasile] 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. [Arachelian]

He became a member of the Politburo. ["Final Report", p. 40] . During March 1945 and November 1947 he became the head of the secret intelligence service affiliated with the Council of Ministries's presidency. ["Final Report", p. 38] From this position he was one of the orchestrators of the electoral fraud from 1946 ["Final Report", p. 131] and of the Tămădău Affair. ["Final Report", p. 40]

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). ["Final Report", p. 646]

Under Gheorghiu-Dej

He held several important positions under Dej: Minister of Defense, army general, vice premier. ["Final Report", p. 646] 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. ["Final Report", p. 43 n. 32] During his tenure, the Sovietization of the Romanian Army occurred. [Oroian; Vankovska, Wiberg, p. 115; "Final Report", p. 125] 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. [Pacepa, p. 357-358]

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. ["Final Report", p. 64, 70, 73]

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. ["Final Report", p. 77-78]

It seems he also had a key role in influencing Nikita Khrushchev's decision to withdraw Soviet forces from Romania in 1958. ["Final Report", p. 43 n. 32, p. 205] [Arachelian]

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. ["Final Report", p. 96]

Under Ceauşescu

Bodnăraş transferred his loyalty to Ceauşescu, [Pacepa, p. 130-131] receiving in exchange the position of vice president of the State Council, and remained a member of the Communist elite until his death. ["Final Report", p. 100, 646] The town of Milişăuţi was named "Emil Bodnăraş" from around 1970 to 1990.

Notes

References

*ro icon [http://www.beius.ro/raport%20final_%20cadcr.pdf Final Report] of the Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania
*fr icon Branko Lazitch, "Les partis communistes d'Europe, 1919-1955", Les Iles d'Or, Paris, 1956
*ro icon [http://www.jurnalul.ro/articol_37763/bodnaras___cetatean_sovietic.html Lavinia Betea, "Bodnăraş - cetăţean sovietic" ("Bodnăraş - Soviet citizen")] in "Jurnalul Naţional", October 4, 2005
*ro icon [http://www.jurnalul.ro/articol_37832/rafuiala_cu_seful_in_stil_gangsteresc.html Cristina Arvatu, "Răfuială cu şeful in stil gangsteresc" ("Settling accounts with the boss in gangster style")] , in "Jurnalul Naţional", October 5, 2005
*ro icon [http://ziua.net/display.php?id=183279&data=2005-08-23 Vartan Arachelian, "Falsificatorii" ("The deceivers")] , in "Ziua", August 23, 2005
*ro icon Miron Vasile, "Bodnăraş unelteşte, la Palat, deschiderea frontului prin 'Poarta Iaşiului'", in "Historia", August 2004
*ro icon Teofil Oroian, "Scurta cronica a consilierilor (1948/1949 - 1959/1960)" ("Soviet counsellors in the Romanian army: A brief historical perspective"), in "Dosarele Istoriei", December 2003
*Biljana Vankovska, Håkan Wiberg, "Between past and future: civil-military relations in the post-communist Balkans", I. B. Tauris, 2003, ISBN 1860646247
*Ion Mihai Pacepa, "Red Horizons: The True Story of Nicolae and Elena Ceauşescus' Crimes, Lifestyle, and Corruption", Regnery Publishing, 1990, ISBN 0895267462
*ro icon [http://arhiva.informatia.ro/Article26567.phtml Cristina Scorţariu, "Repunerea pe soclu a lui Bodnăraş aduce nemulţumiri în rândul istoricilor"] , in "Informaţia", August 13, 2003
*ro icon [http://www.mapn.ro/fotodb/ministrii/75_G Minister of Defense's photo album - Bodnăraş Emil]