Dosarul de Securitate al istoricului Silviu Dragomir
The Security Files of the Historian Silviu Dragomir

Summary/Abstract: In order to implement the new “cultural revolution”, the communist regime did not hesitate to use coercive measures and even terror against the intellectuals who were forbidden to publish, expelled for academic institutions and often sentenced to many years in prison. Nevertheless, the repression against the intellectuals was less intense than that against other social groups. It was not aimed at the intellectuals as a distinct social class, but rather at particular individuals who had become well-known cultural or political figures between the wars. In most cases they were ex-ministers, representatives of the Iron Guard or leaders of the main political parties. One of the victims of the repression of the communist regime was Silviu Dragomir (1888-1962), a well-known historian from Transylvania. Professor at the University of Cluj, member of the Romanian Academy and important politician, Silviu Dragomir drew the attention of the new authorities as a result of the students’ strike (1946), after which the communist security services (Siguranţa) kept him under surveillance. Because of his opposition to the new regime, professor Dragomir was forced to retire on September 1st 1947. Thus, he shared the fate of many important Romanian intellectuals. In July 1948, when the Romanian Academy became the Academy of the Popular Republic of Romania, Silviu Dragomir was expelled from the institution. Shortly afterwards, he was arrested and tried in the trial involving the Agrarian Bank in Cluj. He was sentenced to one a half years in prison. He served his sentence first at the prison of Caransebeş, then at Sighed (from 1950) where he was to remain, without a trial, until July 1955. The charge was that he had been a minister in pre-communist governments. Kept under surveillance by the communist security services because of his activity as a leader of the National Christian Party and as a member of the Romanian-American Association, Silviu Dragomir was strictly monitored after January 1958, when he became a suspect of espionage for the Great Britain. To keep Silviu Dragomir under surveillance, the security services used informers from among the historians working at the Academy’s Institute of History in Cluj. In the reports handed in to the communist security officers, Silviu Dragomis’s political cultural and scientific activity was purposefully misinterpreted in the light of the party’s Marxist-Leninist ideology. Most informers emphasized the fact that Silviu Dragomir was often very reluctant to talk about politics, which compelled them to discuss mainly scientific topics, in particular, the professor’s research. Although Silviu Dragomir managed to participate again in the scientific life of the period – due recognition has to be paid to a number of friend (Constantin Daicoviciu, Andrei Oţetea) who helped him in this respect –, the informers’ reports testify to the many difficulties he had to face.

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