SPERANŢĂ ŞI ILUZIE ÎN ANII ’50 ASPECTE PRIVIND REZISTENŢA ARMATĂ ANTICOMUNISTĂ ÎN MARAMUREŞ
HOPE AND ILLUSION DURING THE 50’S. MATTERS REGARDING THE ANTICOMMUNIST ARMED RESISTANCE IN MARAMUREŞ

Summary/Abstract: The armed resistance in mountains represented one of the ways in which people fought against communist authorities, beginning with the years that immediately followed the Second World War. The resistance consisted of small groups, of young people in particular, that had various political beliefs, such as: legionaries, liberals, people belonging to the peasant’s party etc. These partisan groups were formed rather spontaneously, having a local character; some of them succeeded to survive till the early 60’s. All the abuses of the occupying Soviet troupes, the purges from the administration or army, the political law suits during the first years of the “popular democracy”, the disappearance of political diversity, all the arrests, sentences and imprisonments, the obligatory conversion to Orthodox Confession, the agriculture’s collectivization and the properties’ nationalization, all these represented factors that damaged the historical evolution of the society. The people in Maramures, as well, were negatively influenced by all these components of the communist institutionalism in Romania, whom had just got back to the realities they had known before the Second World War; all these were decisive factors in their flee in the mountains. Thus, the youngsters, the elders, the women, the villagers, students, lawyers, doctors, and army officers gathered in groups of partisans (from 2 to 20 people) spread all over the Maramures Mountains. They belonged to all ranges of age, social categories and political orientation. Most of the people who chose this alternative hoped in an imminent Soviet–Anglo/American War break that would have lead to the end of the communist regime. This illusion was fed by the information services and western radio stations, leading in the end to that collective psychosis, synthesized in the expression “the Americans are coming” (“vin americanii”). This study does not intend to present the entire resistance phenomenon in the above-mentioned area, but to only underline some aspects regarding certain groups, based on the testimonies of the ex-partisans, together with archive documents. In Maramures, during the 50’s there were several groups acting on both sides of Gutin Mountains; this study presents the activity of the groups located in Izei Valley, Ieud and Dragomiresti-Salistea, as well as in the Lapus area. All these groups represented to the people in these areas factors of hope, since there were lots who did not submitted to the new regime. The authorities replied in force, applying to terror and repression. Treason was also a often applied method, due to the infiltrations of the people working for the repressive state services. The annihilation of the armed resistance in Maramures Mountains had dramatic consequences, resulting in numerous deaths, lots of people sentenced to long years of imprisonment, destroyed families and traumas of the entire rural communities, traumas that even nowadays can still be perceived.

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