Petre Țuțea in the Securitate’s encirclement
The word “genius” has been used to describe Petre Țuțea by contemporaries—friends, foes, informers, and political police investigators alike. In the 1940s, Petre Pandrea spoke of him as a genius, a designation that persisted even during Țuțea’s imprisonment in the 1950s, when he became one of the martyrs of Romania’s communist prisons. His peers continued to regard him as a genius after 1964, up until his death. Life’s abrupt twists had forced him to transform from a legislator, holding a law degree and specialised in economics, into a philosopher and orator who tirelessly gathered young minds around him. He spoke to them of freedom and dignity and sought relentlessly to confront communism—a regime he ultimately perceived as a virulent, deadly disease.
For those unfamiliar with Țuțea, or who have heard little about him, it is important to begin with the most significant details drawn from a statement he penned himself on 6 April 1960. This statement is found on page 48 of information file 149821, Volume I of the CNSAS archives, composed while he was politically interned at the Ocnele Mari camp. The file itself spans 20 volumes.
Graduating in 1929 from the University of Cluj’s Faculty of Law, Țuțea earned a Doctor of Laws at 27. During his doctorate, he began a journalistic career, collaborating with Bazil Gruia for the newspaper of the National Peasant Youth. He practiced law in Hunedoara County for only a year, and in 1932, together with Mircea Grigorescu and Petre Pandrea, founded the magazine Stînga, of which only a few issues appeared.
1933 marked a decisive moment in Țuțea’s career as an economist. He was appointed assistant to the economic adviser at the Romanian legation in Berlin, where he remained until 1935. Recalled to the Ministry of National Economy, Industry and Trade, he served there until his arrest on 12 April 1948. Although formally a doctor of law, his true vocation lay in economics.
In November 1940, he travelled to Moscow to negotiate economic agreements, remaining there until 1941. Upon returning to Romania, he served as director at the Ministry of Industry and Trade until 23 August 1944. From then until his arrest, he held several positions at the Ministry of National Economy: director of export promotion, official in the directorate of studies and documentation, and finally in the directorate of agreements. A report from 4 April 1948 (Service II/Office 2, General Directorate of State Security, File 58035) offers insight into his personality: “Petre Țuțea does not work politically at present, remains in total reserve, and is hostile to the trade union and political work of the employees of the Ministry. Since Gheorghe Gheorghiu Dej’s appointment as head of the ministry, Țuțea has been sidelined and not entrusted with important work. In the personnel files, he appears on the trade union’s January 1948 ‘purge list of the state apparatus.’”
An earlier attempt to remove Țuțea from the Ministry occurred on 20 February 1948. Paradoxically, the General Directorate of State Security intervened to prevent his dismissal—likely to monitor him at work, but also because of his exceptional qualities: “Not being part of the current regime, Petre Țuțea is not used for secret work. After consultation with the Ministry, it was decided not to dismiss him for the time being.” Despite this reprieve, he was demoted from director to a simple civil servant.
Yet his destiny was irrevocably broken. On 12 April 1948, Țuțea was arrested by the General Security organs and imprisoned at Rahova (later State Security), where he was investigated until 2 July 1948. He was subsequently transferred to the Special Intelligence Service, returned to Rahova, and in September 1948 was moved to the Ministry of Interior for further investigation. By 10 November, he was imprisoned at Jilava, and on 23 April 1949, he was interned at Ocnele Mari. He was released in 1953. In a later statement to the Securitate regarding confiscated manuscripts, he admitted: “I do not know the reasons for this internment in the Ocnele Mari camp; I only suspect that I was right-wing until 1944” (File I/49821, Vol. 7, file 139, ACNSAS).
In 1956, Țuțea was arrested again, tried, and sentenced to 18 years’ hard labour. Sentence No. 241 of 20 December 1957 (Military Tribunal of the Second Military Region, File 2828/957) states: “Petre Țuțea is tried, remanded in custody since 22 December 1956, sent to trial for the crime of sedition against the social order.” The judgment records: “The Tribunal, in the name of the people, unanimously sentences Petre Țuțea to 10 years’ correctional imprisonment and 5 years of correctional prohibition for incitement against the social order.”
File I 149821 ACNSAS, Vol. I, Line 44, reflects Țuțea’s influence on interlocutors, especially in state affairs. An unsigned report titled Dr Petre Țuțea, economic negotiator for Romania in Moscow, Berlin, and Budapest recounts a discussion at the Modern restaurant between German and Hungarian economic negotiators—“high-class intellectuals”—who marveled at Țuțea’s commanding presence and formidable interventions: “Don’t be surprised. At the present historical moment, Germany is a colony of Romania… I put my boot on the table. Pay or I won’t give.”
In Volume I, Petre Pandrea portrays Țuțea: “What is Dr Petre Țuțea? An almost brilliant philosopher, who, following Socrates’ example (he knows Greek philosophy very well), engages in civic affairs disinterestedly, without coveting honours like sordid politicians. Țuțea has a European and historical perspective. To this day, his life is crystal clear.”
Pandrea’s plea reflects his hope to mitigate the communist regime’s cruelty: “Given the exceptional intellectual capacity and European education of this philosopher, a peasant’s son and intellectual proletarian, and therefore an asset to our people… a political trial would be childish. Conviction would be tantamount to the murder of this hyper-nervous temperament and fragile philosophy. Preferential treatment in prison, as befits poets and philosophers, should include air, books to soothe the nerves, cold showers, and extreme politeness.”
Țuțea was deeply invested in Romania’s destiny. His speeches reveal a visionary mindset: “Who and what can prevent enlightened leadership from civilising the Black Sea coast, so our steps descend on marble? What obstacles hinder industry on par with the world’s best or agriculture that competes with the finest? A nation-state develops inwardly to look outward with confidence. Romanian life unfolds within Romanian space; the life of the Romanian state must extend beyond its borders to bear the title of a state” (Tab 3, Vol. 3, File I 149821 ACNSAS).
After release, Țuțea endured constant Securitate persecution. Files show measures to: limit his entourage, isolate and compromise him, restrict relationships, control his correspondence, and surveil visitors. In spring 1968, a personal file describes him as “a bohemian, strongly dominated by his ego… unsuited for the current political and economic situation” (Tab 2, Vol. 10). By 1969, his philosophical gatherings among students marked him as a danger to the communist regime. Reports noted his “idealistic anti-Marxist views” and “emphasis on the nationalist character of his ideas” (Tab 269, Vol. 11).
Surveillance intensified, particularly after Ceaușescu’s 1971 visit to Korea. A Plan of Measures in the File on the Informative Persecution of Țuțea Petre ordered informants to track his contacts, correspondence, and literary works. By 1978, he faced escalating harassment: surveillance of visitors, confiscation of manuscripts, and suppression of his writing. The 1980s brought constant monitoring; guards were stationed outside his home, and all visitors were documented.
By 1989, even in the final year of Romania’s communist regime, Petre Țuțea remained under strict observation. Files detail surveillance of his philosophical works, including his projected five-volume Christian Anthropology, of which three volumes—Man, Systems, Styles—were completed. Authorities sought to prevent circulation of his ideas both domestically and abroad and to isolate him from ideological allies.
Petre Țuțea’s intellectual and moral legacy remains indelible: “Socialist society is in stagnation… I am old enough to watch, with detachment, as a world calling itself materialistic buries itself daily, having buried and tortured human lives for what it presented as an ideal, which in reality was a poor source of favours and privileges” (information note, 10.04.1981).
A concise encyclopaedic entry summarises his life: “Țuțea Petre (1902–1991, Boteni, Muscel County), Romanian thinker and orator. Reflections in the Socratic manner on philosophical-religious themes: man, knowledge, love, God (‘Philosophia perennis’, ‘Between God and my people’, ‘Man. A Treatise on Christian Anthropology’). Political prisoner.”
(Ioana Diaconescu, România Literară)