The end of the debunking process

After what Colonel Zeller said in Pitești, that the debunkings would continue, either in Gherla or elsewhere, in freedom (repeated by Țurcanu in Gherla and experienced by us in the torture chambers), no one believed that the tortures would ever stop.

But since everything in life has a beginning and an end, closer or further away, and since nothing happens without God’s will, the debunkings stopped on 1 January 1952. This happened after Teohari Georgescu, Ana Pauker and Vasile Luca were removed from the government. Gheorghiu Dej, with Stalin’s permission, thus took over the leadership of the party and the state.

It should be noted, however, that Nicolski, the Russian-backed head of the Securitate, remained in his post until Dej’s death. Hence the conclusion that the Moscow occult had him as an agent with the specific task of dealing with the exposure.

Of course, the three ministers who controlled the key ministries: Interior, Foreign Affairs and Economy, were no strangers to the unmasking, nor was Gheorghiu Dej.

However, as a result of these events, Turcanu and his team were not released, but investigated, sentenced to death and executed.

I believe that another reason for stopping the debunkings was the fact that he had been abroad on their behalf, with all the secrecy that this entailed.

It is not known exactly where the order to stop the debunkings came from, from Dej or from Moscow. Because the West, already aware of what was happening in Romania, had begun to ask the Russians about one thing or another. And that embarrassed their foreign policy.

For us in Gherla, the departure of Juberian and some of Țurcanu’s aides was a question mark.

It was also said that none of those who remained in Gherla would be willing to continue Țurcanu’s work.

At the same time, the new political officer had started a rumour, which most of us did not believe, that Țurcanu and his aides had been released. Those who believed it fell for it and signed pledges, becoming informers and informers. It was like fishing in troubled waters, and those who fell into the trap never recovered. The others, who had the strength to refuse, made a full recovery, found themselves and rebuilt their souls and moral strength, rescuing themselves from the morass of despair. I met many of them in prison and then in freedom.

The tortures and humiliations had worked on our weakness and helplessness, and most of us melted and collapsed under them.

But after that, when there was no more physical torture, who could find an excuse for those who had made the pact with the Securitate, except perhaps that in their consciences the humiliations had not stopped, but had continued out of inertia?

It seems to me that the unmaskings did not cease because of the will of men, but because God had mercy on those who were too much tried, and put an end to this iniquity without precedent in the annals of universal history.

However, the cessation of the debunkings was the wake-up call that awakened our consciences and made us understand that nothing on earth is eternal and that the fear of endless torment was only the product of our state of mind, the delirium of collective madness and demonic possession. So all those who understood that only faith in God could save us from this collapse recovered completely, without resentment, forgiving and understanding those who had tortured them, be they comrades, friends or enemies.

(Dumitru Bordeianu – Confessions from the Swamp of Despair)