The Bărăgan – the Romanian’s Exile

The vast desert, the steppe, towards the East. If the East means hope, in communism the road is the opposite, towards degradation, “pohod na Sibir”. In Russia you hear: “they sent him to Siberia”. In Romania they said: “The Romanian people took him to Bărăgan”. The meaning is the same: without judgement, without guilt, to extermination.

It began in 1949 and reached its climax in 1951.

One train after the other, loaded with troops and armaments, twinned with the Soviet one, moved day and night towards the border with Yugoslavia, a country that dared to withdraw from the Cominform.

Other cattle trains, loaded with Swabians of all ages, came from the same border and stopped at Lehliu, Slobozia, Ianca. Other trains, also cattle trains, filled with whole villages, regardless of nationality, from Mehedinți, Caraș-Severin and Timiș counties, continued to arrive at the same CFR stations in 1949-1950. Before leaving their homes, they were forced to plant barbed wire fences against the threat of American imperialism.

Some of the orphans of fate were able to take with them cattle, wagons, a bed or a table, because the hearts of the communist leaders of the localities had left them.

Some families left unpacked, to the good fortune of those who were not at home. After resting long enough to feed their babies and catch their breath, they set off again, further east, and stopped again as darkness fell. The militiaman’s voice thundered over the whole herd: “Here, between four stakes, is your home and your food. Here you will sleep and here you will eat. Here is your village. You are not allowed to go anywhere else!

The people couldn’t believe it. All they could see was the sky above and the weeds all around. Not a shadow of a tree, not a sound of life.

The next day, when the sun came up, they began to suffer. The earth was turned over and turned into a defensive wave against the merciless wind, also from the east.

The strongest of them walked for hours in search of water, water to drink. Thirst tortured them, the heat suffocated them, the rain bit them to the skin. Villages of shanty towns began to grow, as in the time of the barbarians, now in the “age of bright socialism”.

New settlements appeared with names like Rubla, Dâlga, Lățești, Răchitoasa, Olaru, Perieți, Luci-Giurgeni, Măzăreni, Zăgana-Vădeni, Cătești.

Here were “displaced” 45,000 Swabians, 15,000 Serbs, 10,000 Romanians from the western border and hundreds of Bessarabians. They founded the “Voivodship of Suffering”; they opened a new chapter in the life of Romania: administrative punishment.

So that “everything would prosper and the world would be happy”, these “foundations” were placed under the care of the Ministry of the Interior, which provided them with working conditions. During the day they worked in collective households to provide food for children and the elderly, and at night they dug the fields.

But in August 1951, new regulations were introduced to ‘improve their standard of living’. They were forbidden to live in the slums. It was unworthy of our century.

They were all forced to go out, build houses and get some sun. But still from the ground. The caring state gave each house a door and a window. For the roof they could choose between reed, straw or thatch.

In the evenings, when people returned from work, they were busy making the straw clay. Autumn was just around the corner and winter had already arrived from the east. Some of the older people were unable to make their straw clay in time to dry. This was due to both their helplessness and the lack of water to knead the soil.

People were living in prison. The Ministry of the Interior forced them to go every week to get visas. The militiamen worked “very hard”. They had to visit the deportees at night.

Very often they would turn their barracks upside down, for no other reason than so that the deportees wouldn’t think they were being ignored.

After Stalin’s death, when the political prisoners’ sentences had expired and the administrative prisoners’ suffering was over, it was decided to take them to Bărăgan to enjoy their freedom after years of imprisonment.

Young or old, male or female. Accompanied by militiamen “so that they would not get lost”, they arrived and were accommodated in the barracks.

One political prisoner, who had lost his eyesight due to forced labour, was not allowed to go to his family, but was taken to the Bărăgan. True communist humanitarianism!

Among them, among the thousands of political prisoners who passed through: Adăscăliței Vasile from Vaslui, Almăjan Ion, Amariei Ion from Botoșani, Ambruș Petru, doctor from Timișoara (Răchitoasa), Andreescu, Andreica Aurel, Antonescu Măria (Lățești), Anca Victor, Lawyer, Bucharest, Atanasiu Victor, Lawyer from Pitești, Andreescu Aurel, Aristide Jean, Lawyer Fălticeni, Asnavorian, Lawyer Bucharest, Balanov Petre, Officer Fălticeni, Bangu Petru, Baurceanu Ionică, student Bucharest, Betea, secretary of Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu, Bejan Dumitru, priest from Hârlău, Bentoiu Aurelian, lawyer, Brătianu Ion, Bucharest, Bratu Alexandru, lawyer from Bucharest, Caciuc Leonard from Storojineț, Codreanu Ileana, married to Praporgescu, Caloianu Petre from Bucharest, Câmpeanu Radu from Bucharest, Căpățâneanu Dumitru from Olt County, former minister, Caraza Grigore, teacher, Neamt, Caratana Nicolae from Constanța, Cașu Dumitru, teacher Rădăuți, Cazacu Marcel, student Rădăuți, Chiriță from Buzău, Chirnoagă Virgil, colonel (Lățești), Ciocârlie Dumitru, teacher from Banat, Comăneanu Sutașu, teacher, Cosma Marin, farmer from Vrancea, Cosgărea Ion, Costea Gheorghe from Tomnatic, Timișș, Constantinescu Klaps Costel, Cracă Marin, engineer from Olt, Crăcăna, Bessarabian, Cristea from Târgu-Ocna, Crișan Ianoș from Mireșu Mare, Baia Mare County, Cureliuc Alfred, Storojineț, Damian Viorel, engineer Timișoara, Demetrescu Camil, Bucharest (Valea Călmățui), Droch, engineer Buzău, Dinulescu Ecaterina, teacher from Purani, Drăguș Dumitru, priest, Drăgoescu Vlad, student from Craiova, Dumitrescu Marin, student from Bucharest, Dumitrescu Oscar, worker, Dumitrescu Constantin, lawyer from Bucharest, Dumitrescu Coco, University professor, Evolceanu Nicolae, student from Bucharest, Folea Ion, officer from Târnave, Funkenstein Herman, farmer from Banat, with three children, Gavrilă, farmer from Botoșani, Ghica Alexandru, student from Bucharest, Gligor, officer from Aiud, Goma Paul, student from Bucharest, Grigore Vasile, commissioner, Hudici Vasile, university professor from Iași, Holban Mircea, officer, Ioanițescu D. R., Ilie Ion, Professor Craiova, Iliescu Dumitru, Lawyer Buzău, Uiescu Ion, Professor, Municipality of Cuptoare Severin, Lacaze Frederica from Bucharest, Leucuția Aurel from Bucharest (Lățești), Lungu N. Dumitru, Lungu Neagu, Bucharest, Lupan Petru, student, Lupașcu Ion, worker, Lupoiu Petru, student, Manea Ion, engineer (Lățești), Marcoci, doctor, Marino Adrian, Măcrineanu, Mândreanu C., teacher Sibiu, Merceanu Grigore, Mereu Ion, priest, Mihalache Niculina from Dobrești-Muscel, Miron Gheorghe from Corlea, jud. Roman, Mihalache Andrei from Bucharest, Muller Helmut, Mihăiescu Radu, student, Mirică Traian, student (Valea Călmățui), Niculescu Radu-Buzești, Nicolae Măria, pilot, Nicoară Th., student Brăila, Noveanu Arthur, Oniga Dumitru, poet, Stupca-Suceava, Pop Ghiță, former minister (Lățești), Popovici, former secretary of Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu, Pandurescu Gh. from Banat, Pantazi Ion, cavalry officer from Bucharest (Valea Călmâțui), Panteș Ion, engineer from Bihor, Pop Remus, deputy from Cluj, Penescu Nicolae, former minister, Praporgescu, colonel, Pițigoi Marin, lawyer from Argeș, Pizone Benedict, captain of engineers, Popa Gheorghe, teacher from Băsești commune, jud. Bacău, Pop Romulus (Bimbo), doctor, Popescu Dumitru, general, former minister, Rațiu Alexandru, priest, Rusu Marius, engineer, Sabou Ioan from Gârla Mare, Mehedinți County, Săiceanu, student, Spineanu Cezar, teacher from Targoviste, Șoltuz Mircea, student from Iași, Stamate Constantin, doctor from Vaslui, Stanciu Constantin from Dolj, Stan Ion, worker from Bucharest, Surdulescu Radu, student, Stângu Nicolae, partisan farmer from Banat, Strat Gheorghe, university professor, Stoicescu Constantin, priest from Buzău, Tarția Mihai, PNȚ youth leader. Teodorescu C., lawyer from Bucharest, Totoroanță, accountant, Tomescu Petre, university professor, former minister, Trifan Traian, lawyer from Brasov, Tonea Ion, engineer from Năsăud, Truță Ion, from Olt County, Vaida Emilia, Vasile, Botoșani, Vorovenciu Ion from Bucharest, Verzea Nina, Vețeleanu Ion, engineer from Bucharest, Vintilescu Virgil, Vaida Mimi-Bratu, pianist from Bucharest.

The political prisoners brought to Bărăgan had their families hundreds of kilometres away. They didn’t have an ounce. Those close to them brought them the necessities of life to people who were destitute, mostly sick or old. Security Service registered them all.

After a few years, they framed some of the Bărăgan people on the grounds that they had received help from family or relatives. This was the case of Nicolae Penescu, who was sentenced to 8 years together with his son Vladimir Penescu, who had brought food and clothes to his father.

Another example is that of Niculina Mihalache, who received visits from her grandchildren while her husband was imprisoned. This led to a trial, they were sentenced and some of them died for taking a piece of bread to their sick and elderly aunt.

It was not the last case. They were numerous. But let’s leave room for a “true” story to unfold. Mrs Niculina Mihalache was arrested in July 1947.

From the Ministry of the Interior she was taken to Jilava, where she spent 17 years in prisons and forced labour. After being in Mislea prison from 1951 to 1954, she was sent to Dumbrăveni. From there she was taken with Măria Antonescu to Romanian Siberia, where she was forced to live.

In 1955 she was in Dâlga, a settlement in the middle of the Bărăgan, where people lived in huts made of clay bricks covered with straw. It was a new administrative unit, set up by the Romanians from the Banat, who were brought in and thrown out into the open by order: “Get along”. What happened here was identical to the life of millions of Estonians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Poles, Bessarabians who were taken to Siberia.

In prison you had a piece of bread, a pot and a roof. From the prison, Mrs Niculina Mihalache, 65 years old, was taken directly to Dâlga, without any personal belongings, without any income, and placed in the hut of a Banat woman whose husband had died in the deportation. Water was brought from the only well two kilometres away. Fortunately, she had the help of old Crăcăna, a Bessarabian peasant who had been in prison, and who brought her a cup of water from his brothel nearby.

The village shop was 20 kilometres away. There was no firewood. Straw was the only fuel for those who had it. The crimson had no obstacles from the frozen east to here.

In July 1955, in the scorching heat, Mrs Niculina Mihalache was picked up and carried on foot about 20 km to the district militia. There, in the courtyard, she was kept until the afternoon, when a security captain from the Ministry of the Interior informed her that, due to her husband’s stubbornness, her compulsory residence had been extended for another 48 months.

Ion Mihalache refused to make the statement that Patriarch Iustinian Marina and Mihai Ralea had come to request on behalf of Gheorghiu Dej. Others, including Tătărăscu and Titel Petrescu, were released after signing.

For Mrs Niculina Mihalache, it was the first news in 8 years that her husband was alive: the poor woman told Vicu that, at these words, although uttered with the hatred of a security officer, she felt that everything had suddenly changed: her legs no longer hurt, the fatigue in her body had disappeared and even the people in front of her seemed to have human faces.

To the amazement of those present, she found herself saying several times: “Thank you, thank you, Ionica is alive. Thank you!”

Life was hard. If anyone dared to visit her, they had to go through security and sign in. There were people who brought her food and wood by car from hundreds of miles away, who supported her because, sick and old, she had no way of living. From time to time, in the middle of the night, she was woken up by the security guards who searched her house, ransacked it, threw away her belongings and swore at her.

One day, the Security Service lieutenant Diaconescu came to her in a rage and asked her why she didn’t die because she was still living in the dirt, adding in a harsh voice: “Because of you, I have to stay here in the dirt and walk around with muddy toilets!”The old woman from Banat was sick and at night she had delirious dreams, dreaming that she was at home in the middle of the night. Twice a week the security guard would drive her home. Mrs Mihalache thought she was going to the doctor. When she returned, the old woman was silent, looking down and moaning.

One day, when she came back, she went to the curb and fell on her knees before Mrs Niculina Mihalache and said: “Forgive me! Every time they took me there, there were some officers who were strangers to these places, and they always described me to you. Today they asked me to sign a paper in which they said bad things about you and promised that if I apologised they would let me go home to Cruceni, in the Banat. And I signed so that I could go home. Forgive me!” and she was overcome with tears.

Mrs Mihalache bent down, took her in her arms and said: “I am glad that God gave me to help you to get to your work and to the house you have worked so hard to build. May you have a peaceful old age.”

After the old woman left, a refugee from Bessarabia was brought to the village. She openly admitted that she was an informer for the Security forces and the militia, telling them everything she saw and heard: “If I don’t, they threaten to send me to my village in Tighina, which is under Russian occupation. And I won’t be able to find anybody there, because you know that they have long since been driven from their homes”.

This was the atmosphere in which Mrs Niculina Mihalache lived until she was arrested in September 1958. Relatives and close friends of the family were implicated in the new security plot. After a harsh investigation, in which barbaric methods were used, the following people were convicted: the priest Gh. Tomescu from Țigăneti-Muscel, who died in prison, the lawyer Gh. Popescu, who died in Botoșani prison, the doctor Belizarie, who died the morning the security forces came to arrest him.

Mrs Niculina Mihalache was also sentenced and sent to prison, this time with her daily meal guaranteed.

In fact, the year 1958 was marked by a new persecution of political prisoners, which did not spare even those under house arrest. On the night of 19/20 September, hundreds of people were taken from the slums of Bărăgan to stand trial.

Only from the village of Răchitoasa, which belonged to the commune of Luciu-Giurgeni Ialomița County, 62 people were picked up that night. In order to justify these new abuses, since they had no other grounds, they resorted to fabrications, completely imaginary accusations. To illustrate this, I would like to point out that the chief accountant of the Luciu-Giurgeni farm, Ion Almăjan, was arrested and accused of having aided and abetted and made a pact with the forced labourers. Everyone knew that a chief accountant could do nothing to help workers working miles away from his office. He could not even offer them an extra kilo of ‘beans’ on the working day. They also arrested Dumitra Lungu, Neagu Lungu’s wife, who was under house arrest, on the grounds that she had been an intermediary between Bărăgan and Bucharest when she visited her husband.

These childish reasons for the arrest of opponents at that time were aimed at setting them up again, forcing them to acknowledge in writing the achievements of the regime and at the same time to become opponents of their own convictions or those of their best friends.

(Cicerone Ionitoiu – Graves without crosses. Contributions to the Chronicle of the Romanian Resistance to the Dictatorship. Volume III)