page_title: Marius Nasta
section_title: Persecution by the communist regime and death
hierarchical_section_title: Marius Nasta / Persecution by the communist regime and death
caption_attribution_description: English: Commemorative Medal issued on the centenary of the birth of Marius Nasta
context_page_description: Marius Nasta was a Romanian physician and scientist renowned for his work in the field of tuberculosis. He was a member of the Romanian Academy and President of the Union of the Societies of Medical Sciences. He reduced mortality from tuberculosis and played a leading role in the development of a national strategy involving the research, prophylaxys and treatment of tuberculosis as well as the establishment of a network of sanatoria and clinics for the treatment of pulmonary diseases in Romania. Nasta laid the foundations for the teaching of modern epidemiology of tuberculosis, set up the first Chair of Phthisiology at the Bucharest Faculty of Medicine and fostered research in the field of bacteriology. He founded and directed a leading hospital and research center in the field of respiratory medicine called Institutul de Ftiziologie. In 1959, his career was cut short by the Romanian communist regime that "exposed" him for his "cosmopolitan behavior".
context_section_description: Given the success of the "National Program for the Control of TB", the communist regime was keen to showcase its results outside Romania. Marius Nasta was permitted to travel on lecture tours outside Romania (see Academic career section). He was convinced of the importance of microbial genetics in his field and increasingly critical of some of the influential Romanian scientists who favored Trofim Lysenko's pseudo scientific ideas. He was also appalled by the abuses perpetrated by the regime on geneticists who were followers of Mendelian genetics. Nasta favored the introduction of new methods for the detection of TB based on chemo-prophylaxis, and became increasingly concerned about the excessive use of outdated X ray machines which had damaging side effects on patients. This brought him in direct conflict with Voinea Marinescu, the communist Minister of Health, who viewed such concerns as criticisms. Although supported by the communist regime in his professional endeavors, Nasta was regarded with suspicion as he remained politically unaffiliated (unlike some of his distinguished peers, he refused to join the ranks of the Romanian communist party) and was married to someone whom the communists regarded as a former member of the "landowning class".
  By the end of the 1950s, Romania's Stalinist rulers felt increasingly threatened by the changes in leadership in the Soviet Union and by possible internal unrest following the Hungarian revolution of 1956. A new terror wave followed in Romania and included reprisals aimed at those who were suspected of criticism against the regime. In this context, Marius Nasta's scientific views, his personal profile, his circle of friends (see Personal life section) and his frequent travels on scientific missions outside Romania were used against him by the communists. In 1958, the Romanian Department of State Security (the "Securitate") opened a secret investigation on Nasta who was suspected of being an agent of the British Secret Intelligence Service recruited in Switzerland during a lecture tour earlier that year. Close surveillance of both him and his immediate family for several years found no evidence to support the Securitate's suspicion. In April 1959, Marius Nasta and his wife were publicly shamed and "exposed" during one of the leading show trials of the decade. The accusations leveled against them consisted in "making disparaging comments against the popular-democratic regime and against socialism, listening to imperialist radio stations, and spreading rumors and insults against the foreign policy of the Soviet Union". The "sentence" applied following the "trial", consisted in him being stripped of all his teaching and managerial positions. Deeply affected by the persecutions both him and his family were subjected to, Marius Nasta developed terminal cancer in 1963 and died in Bucharest in April 1965.
caption: Commemorative Medal issued in 1990, on the centenary of the birth of Marius Nasta
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