Lideri politici decedați la Sighet: Ioan C. „Ioanci” Pop, președintele organizației P.N.Ț. Alba
Political Leaders Who Died in Sighet: Ioan C. “Ioanci” Pop, President of the National Peasants' Party Alba

Summary/Abstract: Starting with the summer of 1946, in the context of the parliamentary election campaign, leaders of the Romanian Communist Party Alba made strong efforts to politically annihilate their most important political opponent in the county, Ioan C. Pop, leader of the extensive county organisation of the National Peasants' Party. The political factor in power in the county (the Romanian Communist party) acted co-ordinately together with the county forces from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Siguranța and Police) and with the judicial power (the prosecution) to stage and provoke the incident from Izvorul Bank (August 3, 1946) to physically abuse Ioan C. Pop, and then to arrest him and bring him before the court. Even if “Ioanci” Pop was subsequently acquitted, the county leaders of the Romanian Communist Party fully attained their desired political goal at the respective political moment, namely that of maintaining the leader of the National Peasants' Party Alba under arrest throughout the election campaign and elections in the fall of 1946. After a period of freedom of only a few months, Ioan C. Pop was again arrested in the summer of 1947, in the new repressive framework against the National Peasants' Party established in the whole country, using as a pretext the failed escape attempt from Tămădău of the central leaders of this party. Released from detention after half a year, “Ioanci” Pop was again arrested after only two months (in March, 1948), again during an election campaign (for the Great National Assembly), with the county communist leaders being afraid also this time that he might gather around him the opponents of the regime. Arrested for the simple reason that he preserved common memorabilia of the National Peasants' Party from the interwar period, he was sentenced to 8 months of prison, but the communist regime continued its abuse of him, freeing him from detention almost one year after the date of expiring of his sentence. Understanding that – due to his notorious political activity from the past in favour of the National Peasants' Party – the communist regime was decided to use any means to arrest him again and that it was only a matter of time before he would be imprisoned again, Ioan C. Pop withdrew in Sibiu, refusing to return in Alba Iulia and to be contacted by family members, relatives and friends, not wanting to expose also them to eventual arrests. An opportune precaution, so that only over several months he was arrested and imprisoned in Sighet together with the other former interwar ministers detained in “The Night of Dignitaries” (5/6 May, 1950), despite the fact that his advanced age (70 years) and poor health did not offer him too many chances to survive in penitentiary. The death of C. Pop in Sighet (March 10, 1953) closed, like a black corollary, the ever- tightening circle of the repressive actions taken by the political power of communist type – through institutions of the state – against a political adversary: it started with attacking him at propagandistic level, then with physical abuse and especially with his elimination from the political life of the county (which we think it was the main goal considered), continued with numerous arrests, and abusive convictions, refuse of release him from prison at the expiration of the sentence and in the end imprisonment in Sighet for indefinite time in expectation of his death.

• Details
• Contents