Eugen Cristescu, director general al SSI în perioada 1940–1944
Eugen Cristescu, General Director of the Special Intelligence Service during 1940-1944

Summary/Abstract: Eugen Cristescu (b. April 3, 1895, commune of Grozești, Bacău County – d. June 12, 1950, Văcărești Penitentiary), eminent official of State Security, was general director of the Special Intelligence Service (SSI) during 1940–1944. As head of the Service and then asdeputy director and director of the Security Police, he contributed „to several operations and discoveries in the field of state security”.Since becoming active in the Security, Cristescu was known as an opponent of the Iron Guard, he was on the ‘blacklist’ drawn up by the legionaries since April 3, 1936. Cristescu managed tenaciously to control the legionary problem, providing Ion Antonescu with all the elements he needed to emerge victorious in the final confrontation in January 1941 (the legionary rebellion). Eugen Cristescu – is the author of the valuable report entitled „The organization and activityof the Special Intelligence Service”, which includes 276 pages of holographic manuscript, undated (published by the historian Cristian Troncotă in „Eugen Cristescu. The ace of the Romanian secret services”). According to this study, Eugen Cristescu is „the only official of the national secret services who presents himself to posterity with a real work’. On September 1, 1944, Cristescu submitted his report on his resignation from the position of General Director of SSI. General Constantin Sănătescu, the President of the Council of Ministers, formally accepted his resignation, without realizing that it was not legal. After his arrest on September 24, 1944 (following the disclosure of his whereabouts by those he had saved and protected during the war against the Germans – Iuliu Maniu and Ion Mihalache), Cristescu was investigated by the Romanian authorities, then in Moscow, where he remained until the beginning of April 1946. After being imprisoned in the penitentiaries of Dumbrăveni, (Sibiu) and Aiud, Eugen Cristescu died on June 12, 1950 in the Văcărești penitentiary.

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