Sentence of hard labour No. 24 of 1 March 1960
Sentence no. 24 in case 201/1960 of the Military Tribunal of the First Region of Bucharest (excerpts)
Military Tribunal of the 1st Military Regiment of Bucharest – Basic Court Case No. 201/1960
Sentence no. 24
Today, 1st March 1960
Military Tribunal of the 1st Military Regiment – Military Court – composed, according to the law, of
President: Colonel de Just. Dimitriu D. Adrian
Judge: Major de Just. Petrescu Ioan
Popular Advisor: Colonel Chimirel Iancu
Lieutenant Colonel Bob Horațiu
Major Cosmițăl Aurel
Prosecutor: Cpt. de Just. Stănescu Pompiliu
Secretary of the session: T. Petrescu Joițeanu
After pronouncing the sentence in the criminal case no. 201/1960, the court retired to the council chamber to deliberate in secret, in accordance with the provisions of the law on guilt and the application of punishment in the case in question:
(…) [1]
The accused, Steinhardt Nicu Aurelian, an enemy of the democratic-popular regime in the P.R.R., a defender of the former bourgeois-muslim regime, had known Noica Constantin since 1925 and maintained close relations with him until around the time of the anti-Soviet war, when Noica Constantin went abroad.
In 1954, having learnt from the co-defendant Strelisker Beatrice that Noica Constantin was living in the town of Câmpulung, he went there and re-established contact with Noica Constantin, on which occasion he also met the co-defendant Paleologu Alexandru and they held hostile discussions, agreeing that Noica would write a work in which he would interpret the writings of the German philosopher Hegel in a hostile manner and distribute it to their circle of friends.
In 1957, when Noica Constantin finished writing the work entitled Povestiri din Hegel, the defendant Steinhardt Nicu Aurel also participated in the dissemination of this work, and in the autumn of that year, together with Paleologu Alexandru, Dumitriu Paul and Rădulescu Mihai, who knew of Noica Constantin’s connections with the legionary refugees Cioran Emil and Eliade Mircea, who were in France, he also put himself at their service, deciding to multiply several copies of Cioran Emil’s article entitled “Letter to a friend from afar”, published in the West and addressed to Noica Constantin.
As a result of this agreement, Dumitriu Paul removed from the Special Fund of the Library of the Academy of the Russian Federation the French magazine Nouvelle Revue Frangaise, which contained Cioran Emil’s article, and reproduced it – then with the help of the co-defendant Strelisker Beatrice, after which the defendant Steinhardt Nicu also participated in the distribution of the reproduced copies.
The defendant Steinhardt Nicu Aurel also actively participated in the hostile discussions at the homes of the co-defendants Strelisker Beatrice and Paleologu Alexandru, as well as at the home of Rădulescu Mihai, where clandestine meetings were organised and where the hostile writings of the legionary refugees from the West, Cioran Emil and Eliade Mircea, entitled The Temptation to Exist and The Forbidden Forest, which had been smuggled into the country by the Acterian Sadova Mana, were disseminated. After reading these writings, he also distributed them to co-defendants Al. George Sergiu and Paleologu Alexandru.
These facts were admitted by the defendant Steinhardt Nicu Aurel both before the investigating authorities and in court, and his admissions are corroborated by the testimonies of the co-defendants Noica Constantin, Paleologu Alexandru, Strelisker Beatrice, which corroborate each other, and by the testimonies of the witnesses Dimitriu Paul, Rădulescu Mihai, to which are added the material corpus delicti from the case file.
Thus, before the court, the defendant Steinhardt Nicu Aurel admits that in 1954, in Câmpulung Muscel, through the co-defendant Strelisker Beatrice, he resumed contact with the co-defendant Noica Constantin, on which occasion he learned from Noica Constantin about the works he was writing.
He then admits that he met Noica Constantin in Bucharest at meetings held at Paleologu Alexandru’s, Strelisker Beatrice’s and at his home, that the discussions began with literary topics and ended with all sorts of discussions, adding that they also discussed Noica’s works Anti-Goethe and Povestiri din Hegel, as well as the works of the refugees Cioran Emil and Eliade Mircea.
He admits that he also received the writings of Cioran Emil and Eliade Mircea from Noica Constantin, who had them brought to him from Sadova Măria in France, adding that these writings, The Temptation to Exist and The Forbidden Forest, have a content forbidden to our regime, that these works were circulated among their acquaintances, and that he also gave Eliade’s book The Forbidden Forest to the co-defendant Al. George Sergiu after reading it, and gave Cioran’s to Stahl.
He states that these writings were praised at meetings at Beatrice Strelisker’s house, as well as at his own, that he agreed to have Cioran copy Emil’s article, publish it in the Nouvelle Revue Francaise, reproduce it and then distribute it to their friends, that he also received a copy, which he read, and claims that he soon destroyed it when he realised that it was forbidden material, which he was not allowed to keep on his person.
He admits that he was also aware of Noica C-tin’s reply to this letter, which Noica had read, and claims that he advised Noica not to send it, i.e. not to enter into correspondence with Cioran Emil.
In his reply to Noica’s letter, Noica claims that he advised Emil Cioran not to write to him, i.e. not to correspond with Cioran Emil, and that at the meetings at the house of Alexandru Paleologu or Beatrice Strelisker, as well as at his house, they discussed in general, and that in 1957 they also discussed the so-called theory of false values, showing in a spiteful way that there was no freedom of the press and of thought in the P.R.R., adding that Noica Constantin, Strelisker Beatrice, Alexandru Paleologu, Gheorghe Vetra, Mihai Rădulescu and himself usually took part in these discussions.
It follows from the above that the defendant admits to the alleged acts and that he is aware of the malicious content of both the discussions and the works praised.
On the basis of the defendant’s admission, which is corroborated by the statements of the co-defendants Noica Constantin, Paleologu Alexandru, Strelisker Beatrice and the witnesses Paul Dimitriu and Mihai Rădulescu, as well as the evidence in the case file, the court finds that the defendant Steinhardt Nicu Aurel has proved the acts of which he is accused.
Applying Article 209(2)(a) of the Criminal Code, in conjunction with the penultimate paragraph of this Article and Article 25(6) of the Criminal Code, the Court unanimously sentences Steinhardt Nicu Aurel to 12 (twelve) years of hard labour, 7 (seven) years of deprivation of civil rights and total confiscation of his personal property for the crime of conspiracy against social order.
He has been in pre-trial detention since 4 January 1960 under Article 463 of the Penal Code.
Under Article 304 of the Criminal Code, he was ordered to pay 1,000 lei in court costs.
AMJ, DIM, criminal case file no. 118988, volume 9, ff. 395^03, 412.
(Nicu Steinhardt in the Securitate files, pp. 93, 106-108)
[1] For the full sentence, see Prigoana, Trial Documents. C. Noica, N. Steinhardt, AL Paleologu, A. Acterian, S. Al. George, Al. O. Teodoreanu, Editura Vremea, Bucharest, 1996, pp. 432-519.