Constantin Istrate: the atypical biography of torturer from Communist Romania (article)
by Mihai Burcea
published Autumn 2014 in the journal Archiva Moldaviae, 6:2014
During the communist regime, tens of thousands of officers and NCOs belonging to Securitate, Militia, and Penitenciaries, have served the repressive apparatus. Among them, an impressive number of militaries who have gone beyond their duties by personally participating to or giving orders for (VOs or written ones) murder, torture and mutilation of thousands of inmates, be they political prisoners or just common law criminals. Their deeds remained unpunished for the most part, although they were breaking the Communist Constitution and the legislation in force. The current study, which was initially released in the cyberspace (February 22, 2014), presents the case of an officer of the Ministry of the Internal Affairs germane to the classic typology of cadres that the Communist regime used to recruit in order to run and administer the Romanian penitentiary system.