Emil Bodnăraș (10 February 1904 – 24 January 1976) was a Romanian communist politician, an army officer, and a Soviet agent, who had considerable influence in the Romanian People's Republic.Final Report, p. 646

Early life

Bodnăraș was born to a Ukrainian father and a German mother in 1904, in Iaslovăț, Suceava County, Bukovina, then under Austro-Hungarian rule.

While studying law at the University of Iași, he joined the far-right National Romanian Fascio, and later, in 1924, the National Christian Defense League, led by A. C. Cuza.{{cite news|url=https://adevarul.ro/stil-de-viata/cultura/cum-isi-cinsteste-statul-roman-criminalii-1654256.html|title=Cum își cinstește statul român criminalii. Fantomele trecutului de pe străzile noastre|language=ro|newspaper=Adevărul|first1=Laurențiu|last1=Ungureanu|first2= Dinu |last2= Zară|date=September 25, 2015|access-date=February 24, 2025}} He was expelled from the University and enrolled in the Timișoara military school, graduating in 1930 as the top of his class.

His career as an artillery officer in the Romanian army was interrupted by a conflict with a member of the Romanian Royal House. He was transferred to a garrison in Bessarabia where he was contacted by Communist elements, became a Soviet spy and defected to the USSR in 1931.Final Report, p. 43, 646 He returned to Romania in 1935 and fulfilled different special missions for Soviet military intelligence. Caught by accident, Bodnăraș was sentenced to ten years in prison. Imprisoned at Brașov, Doftana, and Caransebeș, he entered the Romanian Communist Party in 1940, becoming a key figure in Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej's faction. He was released in 1942.Final Report, p. 43, 646; Betea

Arrest and the leadership entry of the RCP

In 1935, Bodnăraș returned illegally to Romania to carry out special missions entrusted by the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) - Soviet foreign military-intelligence agency. However, he was recognized on the train and denounced by one of his former schoolmates. In May 1935 he was sentenced to 10 years of hard work for deserting in time of peace, theft of official acts and crimes against state security. After re-judging, the sentence was reduced to only five years of imprisonment. He was imprisoned in Aiud, Galați, Brașov, Doftana, and Caransebeș prisons. At Doftana Prison he became friends with Gheorghiu-Dej,Dennis Deletant, Teroarea comunistă în România. Gheorghiu-Dej și statul polițienesc, 1948–1965; trad. de Lucian Leuștean. Iași, Polirom, 2001, p. 51. {{ISBN|973-683-783-1}} and in 1940 he became a member of the RCP.

Being in Brașov Prison, Bodnăraș learned that he had lost Romanian citizenship, being a civil servant in the Soviet Union. "In Brașov Prison I got the USSR citizenship through an official communication made by the Soviet embassy, on the basis of a request that my brother made to the embassy on my behalf. Being a Soviet citizen in those years was advantageous, a citizen of Romania who received Soviet citizenship was a person with whom it was not advisable to be violent or to beat", explained Bodnăraș personally in a stenograph in 1952.Betea, Bodnăraș – cetățean sovietic

On November 7, 1942, he was released from Caransebeș Prison, at the request of the SSI (Romanian Intelligence Service). Upon release, "the comrades also gave me a large amount of money, 50,000 lei, which I hid in a box to be sent to my brother with my clothes and things, and personally, I held 10,000 lei. At that time it was a lot of money". He paid 8,000 lei to the security commissioner who issued the documents, to convince him to go over the detail of the Soviet citizenship, which - according to the law - led to the placement in the camp.Betea, Bodnăraș – cetățean sovietic He arrived in Galați, where he was sheltered by his brother, Manole. When released, Bodnăraș joined the "national" fraction of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej. The rest of the money he used to organize - for two years - a lime, cement, and tile business, based in Galați, which allowed him to trip freely through the country, although he was supervised by the Intelligence Service. In Bucharest, Bodnăraș used to get information from an agent named Kendler, a timber trader who - at Bodnaraș's order - paid 30,000 lei per month to Colonel Enache Borcescu, member of the General Staff of the Army, for information on Romanian and German troops movements. The common place of meetings between Kendler and Borcescu was a Greek Catholic church in Bucharest (according to an interview made by Dennis Deletant with Traian Borcescu, on March 8, 1995). He also arrived at Târgu Jiu, where, simulating an "appendicitis cramps" attack, was hospitalized in the same hospital room with a "sick" patient Gheorghiu-Dej. There, the maneuvers for the annihilation of the RCP's secretariat led by Ștefan Foriș, were drafted; also, the alliance plans were made to create a national front and the decision on Dej's escape was adopted.Betea, Bodnăraș – cetățean sovietic

1944–1947

In 1944, Bodnăraș (together with Iosif Rangheț and Constantin Pîrvulescu) was a key participant in the political elimination and physical isolation of Ștefan Foriș, the General Secretary of the Party. The three of them dominated the leadership of the Party until Dej's escape from prison, in August of the same year. After the massive bombing of Bucharest on 4 April 1944, Bodnăraș and Rangheț captured Foriș and forced him to sign his deposition at gunpoint.Final Report, p. 43, 646; Arvatu

Bodnăraș participated in the 23 August 1944 coup led by King Michael I against the government of Ion Antonescu. He organized underground paramilitary unitsArachelian and coordinated the weakening of a segment of the Moldavian front called "Poarta Iașiului" against the Soviet offensive of August 1944.{{cn|date=February 2025}} He was part of a group of communists who took custody of Ion Antonescu after his arrest, and locked him together with Mihai Antonescu in a safe house, before handing them to the Red Army troops.

He became a member of the Romanian Politburo.Final Report, p. 40 During March 1945 and November 1947 he became secretary-general of the "Council of Ministers"' presidency, being in charge of secret intelligence services.Final Report, p. 38 From this position he was one of the orchestrators of the electoral fraud of 1946Final Report, p. 131 and of the Tămădău Affair.

His enormous influence was due to permanent direct contact with the Soviet secret services (he was reporting on each of the Romanian Communist Party leaders, as revealed later on in the case of Ana Pauker).

Under Gheorghiu-Dej

He held two important positions under Gheorghiu-Dej: Minister of Defense and Vice Premier. On 27 December 1947 he became Minister of Defense, taking over the position previously held by Mihail Lascăr. He held this office until 3 October 1955, while in 1956 he became Minister of Transportation.Final Report, p. 43 n. 32 During his tenure, a Sovietization of the Romanian Army occurred.Oroian; Vankovska, Wiberg, p. 115; Final Report, p. 125 Bodnăraș sent several Romanian Communists to Moscow to be trained in a special military school, among them the young Nicolae Ceaușescu, who became a close and zealous collaborator and was appointed general and political commissar of the military forces.Pacepa, p. 357-358

He remained one of Gheorghiu-Dej's supporters until Dej's death, and he resisted the restructurations of the Party proposed by Iosif Chișinevschi and Miron Constantinescu.Final Report, p. 64, 70, 73

During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Bodnăraș led a body authorized to intervene and open fire in crisis situations. In November, together with Gheorghiu-Dej, he headed up the Romanian delegation visiting Hungary, which held discussions with János Kádár about the support of the suppression of the Hungarian revolution.Final Report, p. 77-78 It seems he also had a key role in influencing Nikita Khrushchev's decision to withdraw the Red Army from Romania in 1958.Final Report, p. 43 n. 32, p. 205 According to Khrushchev's memoirs, Bodnăraș proposed the withdrawal of the troops at a time which was not in consideration of by the Soviet leaders, while they were expected to stay until the end of the Cold War.Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, Sergeĭ Khrushchev. Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev: Statesman, 1953–1964, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2007, page 706, {{ISBN|0-271-02935-8}}

File:Primirea la Consiliul de Stat a cardinalului Dopfner (11 noi. 1971).jpg, 1971]]

After Gheorghiu-Dej's death in March 1965, Bodnăraș, as one of the most influential members of the Politburo, decided to support Ceaușescu instead of Gheorghe Apostol or Alexandru Drăghici, thus facilitating Ceaușescu's ascension to the position of General Secretary of the Party.Final Report, p. 96

Under Ceaușescu

File:Mormântul lui Emil Bodnăraș din Iaslovăț.jpg]]

Bodnăraș transferred his loyalty to Ceaușescu,Pacepa, p. 130-131 receiving in exchange the position of vice president of the State Council, and he remained a member of the Communist élite until his death.Final Report, p. 100, 646 He died in 1976 in Bucharest and was buried in his native village, Iaslovăț. The town of Milișăuți was renamed Emil Bodnăraș from 7 September 1976 to 20 May 1996.

Notes

References

{{in lang|ro}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20070218131409/http://www.beius.ro/raport%20final_%20cadcr.pdf Final Report] of the Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania
{{cite news|url=https://jurnalul.ro/scinteia/istoria-comunismului/bodnaras-cetatean-sovietic-36053.html |author=Lavinia Betea|title=Bodnăraș – cetățean sovietic|language=ro|trans-title=Bodnăraș – Soviet citizen|newspaper=Jurnalul Național|date= October 4, 2005|access-date=February 24, 2025}}
{{in lang|ro}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20051227192550/http://www.jurnalul.ro/articol_37832/rafuiala_cu_seful_in_stil_gangsteresc.html Cristina Arvatu, "Răfuială cu șeful in stil gangsteresc" ("Settling accounts with the boss in gangster style")], in Jurnalul Național, October 5, 2005
{{in lang|ro}} [http://www.adevarul.ro/actualitate/adevaratul_ceausescu/Sforarul-_Bodnaras_si_lectia_crimei_politice_0_539946343.html Lavinia Betea, "'Sforarul' Bodnăraș și lecția crimei politice" ("The Schemer Bodnăraș and the Lesson of Political Crime")]{{dead link|date=September 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, in Adevărul, August 22, 2011
{{in lang|ro}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20071011104913/http://ziua.net/display.php?id=183279&data=2005-08-23 Vartan Arachelian, "Falsificatorii" ("The deceivers")], in Ziua, August 23, 2005
{{in lang|ro}} Miron Vasile, "Bodnăraș uneltește, la Palat, deschiderea frontului prin 'Poarta Iașiului'", in Historia, August 2004
{{in lang|ro}} Teofil Oroian, "Scurta cronica a consilierilor (1948/1949 – 1959/1960)" ("Soviet counsellors in the Romanian army: A brief historical perspective"), in Dosarele Istoriei, December 2003
Biljana Vankovska, Håkan Wiberg, Between past and future: civil-military relations in the post-communist Balkans, I. B. Tauris, 2003, {{ISBN|1-86064-624-7}}
Ion Mihai Pacepa, Red Horizons: The True Story of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu's Crimes, Lifestyle, and Corruption, Regnery Publishing, 1990, {{ISBN|0-89526-746-2}}
{{in lang|ro}} [https://www.amosnews.ro/arhiva/repunerea-soclu-lui-bodnaras-aduce-nemultumiri-randul-istoricilor-13-08-2003 Cristina Scorțariu, "Repunerea pe soclu a lui Bodnăraș aduce nemulțumiri în rândul istoricilor"], in Informația, August 13, 2003
{{in lang|ro}} [http://www.mapn.ro/fotodb/ministrii/75_G Minister of Defense's photo album – Bodnăraș Emil]