Alexandru Drăghici Alexandru Drăghici ( ; September 27 , 1913 – December 12 , 1993 ) was a Romania n communist activist and politician . He was Interior Minister in 1952 and from 1957 to 1965 , and State Security Minister from 1952 to 1957 . In these capacities , he exercised control over the " Securitate " secret police during a period of active repression against other Communist Party members , anti - communist resistance members and ordinary citizens . An industrial worker by profession , Drăghici made his entry into the underground communist movement around the age of twenty . He was arrested for illegal political activity , and spent time in prison before and during World War II . He was close to Gheorghe Gheorghiu - Dej ' s communist faction , and , as such , rose quickly through the Communist Party ranks . He joined the repressive apparatus shortly before the was officially established . Drăghici ' s negative fame rests especially on his initiation of various campaigns against selected groups that resisted Marxist - Leninism . He began early on , with purges of the youth movements and teaching staff , joined in the denunciation of Ana Pauker ' s communist faction , and then focused his attention on the Hungarian Romanian community . Drăghici is also remembered for his participation in the show trial of Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu , his quashing of the " Ioanid Gang " , and his clampdown on religious groups — both Roman Catholic and Romanian Orthodox . Both Gheorghiu - Dej and Drăghici opposed de - Stalinization , but their talk of national communism and socialist patriotism signaled Romania ' s emancipation from the Soviet Union . Drăghici still had important assignments after Gheorghiu - Dej ' s death , but was bitterly opposed to emerging communist leader Nicolae Ceauşescu . Ceauşescu used his influence in the party to incriminate Drăghici of all publicly known " Securitate " crimes , then deposed him . Drăghici was not brought to justice , but lived in anonymity in the Bucharest area from 1968 to 1989 . He lived his final years in Hungary , with his family , despite Romanian efforts to have him extradited . Shortly before his death , a trial held " in absentia " convicted him of incitement to murder . Biography . Origins and early activity . Drăghici was born into a peasant family in the Tisău Commune , Buzău County . He attended four grades of primary school and four years of vocational school , becoming a locksmith and mechanic for the Romanian Railways ( CFR ) . In 1930 or 1934 he joined the banned Communist Party ( PCR , later PMR ) and took part in rail workers ' strikes from 1931 , being one of the communist youth leaders at the Bucharest railway yards . Being part of the PCR ' s proletarian wing , he quickly ran into trouble for illegal political activity . He was arrested in 1935 and tried in the 1936 Craiova Trial alongside future rival Ana Pauker , receiving a sentence of 9 years and 3 months imprisonment and being labeled a " notorious communist " . He spent time at Doftana , Jilava , and Caransebeş prisons before being transferred in April 1944 to the prison camp at Târgu Jiu . While incarcerated , he joined the PCR nucleus formed around future leader Gheorghiu - Dej , while at the same time becoming a rival to Gheorghiu - Dej ' s successor , Nicolae Ceauşescu . For decades , Gheorghiu - Dej played one against the other , as a method of controlling each potential rival . Drăghici , who enjoyed prison seniority over Ceauşescu , was for a while Gheorghiu - Dej ' s cellmate , and allegedly acted as his personal servant . Drăghici was freed right after the King Michael Coup in August 1944 . By March 1945 , he had been assigned to service the PCR ' s central committee ( CC ) . He took up office as head of its Youth Bureau , working alongside G . Brătescu , the future historian of medicine , and C . Drăgan . As recalled by Brătescu , Drăghici had a conflict with party boss Vasile Luca , who objected to the idea of incorporating the Workers ' Youth into the Bureau , and who singled out Drăghici for his incompetence in controlling " Progressive Youth " organizations during the 1930s . Also according to Brătescu , Drăghici played a role in increasing the PCR ' s control over student activists , and then in persecuting non - communist fraternal bodies such as YMCA Romania . Benefiting from his CFR and Caransebeş pedigree at a time when Gheorghiu - Dej ' s faction turned into a nomenklatura , Drăghici became an alternate member of the CC in October 1945 . He rose to full member in February 1948 , after the establishment of a . From May 1945 to June 1946 , he served as a public prosecutor at the Romanian People ' s Tribunals . This court was tasked with investigating war crime cases , specifically those related to the Holocaust in Romania . Researchers note that the Bucharest section , where Drăghici had been assigned , sentenced surprisingly few people ( 187 , compared to the 668 sentenced in Cluj ) , and the punishments were generally lighter . At the PMR ' s political and administrative section , Drăghici was adjunct ( until August 1948 ) and director ( 1948 – 1949 ) . Drăghici was elected to the Assembly of Deputies in the 1946 general election . He represented the Hunedoara and Bacău areas in the Assembly of Deputies as well as in the Great National Assembly until 1968 . He was president of the latter body from December 1949 to January 1950 , and sat on its presidium from 1965 to 1968 . In 1949 – 1950 , Drăghici served as first secretary of the Bucharest party committee . Working closely with agitprop boss Leonte Răutu , he exercised direct influence over the communization of Bucharest schools . He was also assigned to represent the National Federation of Formerly Detained and Deported Antifascists , participating in the designation of communist memorials in such places as Doftana and Lupeni ( in memory of both 1930s repression and the 1929 Strike ) . In 1950 he was promoted directly from common soldier to major general and named head of the Interior Ministry ' s political directorate . From 1951 , he was also adjunct to the Interior Minister , and from 1950 , he sat on the party ' s organizational bureau . The last three posts all expired in May 1952 . First ministerial posts . Drăghici ' s first stint as Interior Minister came from May to September 1952 , when he replaced the disgraced Teohari Georgescu . He put an end to the " reeducation " experiment at the Piteşti prison , where inmate Eugen Ţurcanu had been allowed to torture his fellow prisoners into submission , but was also involved in setting up the show trial relating to the Danube – Black Sea Canal . The Interior Minister encouraged torture and inhumane treatment of political prisoners , as well as death sentences . An early case was that of Remus Koffler , the disgraced PCR financier . Under Gheorghiu - Dej ' s watch , Drăghici organized Koffler ' s interrogation , which involved daily beatings and humiliation . Additionally , Drăghici took precautionary violent measures against the emerging anti - communist resistance movement , particularly so in Timişoara Region ( western Romania ) . On August 14 , he ordered the police structures there to begin " the liquidation and destruction of gangs , bandits and runaways " . On October 1 , he promoted Pavel Aranici as head of the Ministry ' s " Gangs " section , whose initial task was uprooting the Banat Mountains partisans . Also then , the Interior Minister tackled the activity of those Romanian Social Democrats who had refused to align themselves with the communists . According to one account , he approached their imprisoned leader , Ioan Flueraş , promising freedom for him and all his colleagues in exchange for a public penance . Flueraş was killed in prison just days after , allegedly because he refused that bargain . Drăghici ' s term saw the prosecution of Oana Orlea and other teenagers accused of counterrevolutionary activities . However , the Minister was also in contact with self - exiled musical celebrity George Enescu , Orlea ' s uncle , and may have hinted that Orlea could be released should Enescu return home . Drăghici was promoted to lieutenant general in 1952 and colonel general in 1955 . At the May 1952 party plenum , Drăghici was elected a supplementary member of the politburo ( together with Ceauşescu and Dumitru Coliu ) , sitting as full member from 1955 to July 1965 . From 1954 , he was assigned to supervise the politburo ' s own involvement in police work , and drafted a list of " our most dangerous compatriots who have settled abroad " , including those of the Romanian National Committee government - in - exile — one of them , Aurel Decei , was later kidnapped by " Securitate " operatives in West Berlin . Drăghici served as State Security Minister from 1952 until March 1957 . In this position , he collaborated closely with Gheorghiu - Dej and Iosif Chişinevschi to orchestrate the judicial murder of estranged PCR ideologist Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu , as well as spearheaded brutal campaigns of terror against the populace . Backed by Gheorghiu - Dej , Drăghici orchestrated a long series of trials and frame - ups . The party leader placed his trust in Drăghici , who was even given the task of spying on Gheorghiu - Dej ' s actress daughter , Lica Gheorghiu . Under Drăghici ' s auspices , Gheorghiu - Dej used the " Securitate " to impose his own political line . His political liaison , General Evghenie Tănase , would later accuse the new ministry chief of working to replace the entire " Securitate " officers corps . The measure , inspired by Gheorghiu - Dej ' s latent nationalism , was intended to show the Soviet Union that " advisers " on security matters were no longer required . Sources of the day have it that Drăghici wanted " only those with special responsibilities " to be interviewed by the Soviet advisers , and only within the framework of " conventional provisions " . Together , Gheorghiu - Dej and his minister produced the so - called " Meges Case " , a purge of the Romanian Roman Catholic community . Gheorghiu - Dej recommended his minister to come up with indictments of the Catholic leaders as agents of " foreign , hostile , circles " ; Drăghici ' s order to his police forces , written in ungrammatical Romanian , was to try the Catholics behind closed doors , and then publicize the verdict . The repression resulted in the torture and death of missionary Vladimir Ghika . Also then , Drăghici was involved in the persecution of anti - communist Romanian Jews , especially Zionists . He approved the arrest of barrister Vişinescu , an ethnic Romanian , probably as retribution for his defense of a Jewish woman . As two of Gheorghiu - Dej ' s supporters , Drăghici and his subordinate , Ion Vincze , were instrumental in the liquidation of Ana Pauker ' s inner party faction . Pauker and Luca stood accused of atrocities , but the claims were cherry - picked so that Drăghici ' s own contributions would not be brought to light . Following the purge , he took up a luxurious residence on Şoseaua Kiseleff , and the Paukers , who lived nearby , were forced to move out . Drăghici was himself involved in the surveillance of Pauker family members , including his former colleague Brătescu . Records of the PCR - PMR sessions show that he considered Brătescu a camouflaged fascist . Drăghici vs . de - Stalinization . At the same time , in 1954 , work on the Canal and other labor camps was halted , and beatings in prison outlawed . The " Securitate " was again on the alert just two years later , when de - Stalinization was officially introduced by the Soviet Union . When Romanian intellectuals first heard rumors about Nikita Khrushchev ' s " Secret Speech " , and began questioning Romania ' s own Stalinism , Drăghici extended secret police surveillance to the academic field . The echoes of de - Stalinization were still faint in Romania , and Gheorghiu - Dej himself was never touched by it . In compensation , Ceauşescu spoke against Drăghici during a series of meetings in March 1956 , accusing him of taking advantage of his relations with the leader to bring the party under " Securitate " control . Ceauşescu presented himself as a liberal in contrast with the brutality of the secret police under the command of Drăghici , who was labeled as " fanatical " and " merciless " by political scientist Vladimir Tismăneanu . Cautiously , Ceauşescu took distance from the more virulent of Drăghici ' s critics . So did party boss Emil Bodnăraş , who still made a point of criticizing Drăghici for not sharing his intelligence data with the CC plenum , suggesting to limit Drăghici ' s monopoly over the Romanian secret agencies . Others were more rebellious . Veteran communist Gheorghe Vasilichi exposed himself by openly criticizing Gheorghiu - Dej , and also nominated Drăghici as a wrongdoer : " we still have the cult of personality , we still have haughtiness , even though Comrade Drăghici will tell you he is not haughty " . Drăghici also withstood an attack from Miron Constantinescu , the Marxist - Leninist ideologue , who challenged the politburo about the decade of repression and murder . Drăghici , again supporting Gheorghiu - Dej , informed Constantinescu that he was only incriminating himself , an assessment equally supported by Ceauşescu . While the party leadership , Gheorghiu - Dej included , reprimanded Constantinescu for being " un - party - like " , Drăghici demanded a more serious verdict , that of " anti - party and fractionist " activity . Still , researchers note , the confrontation evidenced that the special relationship between the communist leader and his minister had passed the test of time . Later that year , both Drăghici and Ceauşescu were part of a high command during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 , charged with suppressing unrest by any means necessary , including ordering security forces to open fire . Like other " Securitate " overseers , Drăghici was suspicious of Bolyai University cadres and Hungarian Romanian students . In his opinion , the university promoted deviation from the party line , and " the ideas of Imre Nagy " — on such grounds , the academic institution was infiltrated by the " Securitate " , and ultimately shut down . With his approval , the " Securitate " also began exercising tighter control over the Hungarian Autonomous Region . Nevertheless , when the revolution ' s leaders were arrested and brought to Romania , Drăghici was the only involved party who objected to their being sent to Moscow , which earned him sympathy from the Hungarian government in the early 1990s . Drăghici ' s political peak . In 1957 , Drăghici again became Interior Minister , remaining until July 1965 . His reappointment was a calculated move on Gheorghiu - Dej ' s part : the cabinet was Romanianized through reshuffling , and rebels such as Constantinescu were sidelined . The first priority on Drăghici ' s agenda was dealing with the " Hungarian nationalists " or " Magyar chauvinists " . During May 1957 , he told his subordinates that the Autonomous Region was riddled with saboteurs and collaborators of the anti - communist Ioan Faliboga , and implicitly accused local police of being too lenient . He also chided his subordinates for not purging " hostile elements " from among the Hungarian teaching staff , and called for a trial of community leaders Bishop Márton and Pál Fodor . In his words , these figures were guilty of " conspiracy with the evident purpose of destabilizing the democratic - popular regime . " With Drăghici ' s consent , Bishop Márton was placed under house arrest , but the threat of popular revolt was high , and CC representative János Fazekas had to negotiate a deal with the protesters . Drăghici began issuing new directives , which state his purpose of placing the " Securitate " under full party control ( in effect , under Gheorghiu - Dej ' s command ) , and further away from Soviet influence . Part of Drăghici ' s activity was focused on overturning the contributions of his predecessor , Pavel Ştefan , who had allowed prosecution to open a case against the wardens at Salcia labor camp . These had been found guilty of murdering at least 63 prisoners in their care , and of torturing many others . Drăghici intervened with his superiors , claiming that the court ' s ruling was exaggerated . He obtained , in 1959 , an early release for all of his former employees at Salcia . They were reemployed , with back - pay , and granted a month ' s vacation at the state ' s expense . The late 1950s saw the virtual liquidation of the anti - communist partisans ; part of Drăghici ' s responsibilities included commanding troops to combat that guerrilla force . In December 1957 , he expressed dissatisfaction that the " Securitate " had not yet been able to capture one agent of American or British Intelligence , and not even one working for their " instruments " ( EYP , MAH , Mossad ) . This may have prompted his staff to fabricate espionage cases against suspected dissidents . The " Securitate " and other police forces were left to deal with independent anti - communist cells , whose sabotage actions embarrassed the Romanian communist government . Drăghici was involved in destroying the " Ioanid Gang " , a small group of Jewish Romanian dissidents who had robbed the National Bank , and may even have forced them to act in the filmed reenactment . According to the prosecution in that case , when apprehended , the Ioanids were preparing the assassinations of Drăghici and Leonte Răutu , the latter of whom was tasked by the party with controlling the Jewish community from within . During August 1959 , Drăghici , Nicolae Doicaru and Stasi agents managed to kidnap Oliviu Beldeanu , known for his 1955 attack on the Berne consulate . Against the religious revival . The Ministry ' s attention was focused especially on the Romanian Orthodox revival , that had seen growth after Romania ' s admittance to the United Nations . After 1958 , Minister Drăghici was involved in the clampdown on hesychasm , officially depicted as a recruiting ground for the Iron Guard ( a clandestine fascist movement ) . He reported to the political leadership that many " Iron Guard and reactionary elements " survived in monasteries , and that " monks are always swelling in numbers with the arrival of elements that have been indoctrinated with counterrevolutionary ideas " . Scholar George Enache describes Drăghici ' s claims about fascist activities in the Church as farcical . He notes that the main target for repression , the " Burning Pyre " prayer group ( headed by the incarcerated Sandu Tudor ) , had no links whatsoever with the Guard , and suggests that Drăghici was merely trying to discredit Patriarch Justinian . On Drăghici ' s recommendation , the state nationalized some monastery lands , shut down seminaries , and barred women under 50 from joining the nunneries . According to Church historiographer Iustin Marchiş , Drăghici ' s campaign resulted in the expulsion of at least 5 , 000 monks and nuns . Drăghici is said to have personally ordered the brutal incarceration of Valeriu Anania , writer and monk , who was officially accused of organizing an underground unit for the Iron Guard . Under similar pretense , the " Securitate " arrested writer Vasile Voiculescu and other mystics involved with the " Burning Pyre " . Reportedly , Drăghici also confronted born - again preacher Traian Dorz , of the Orthodox splinter group " Oastea Domnului " , asking him to cease all recruitment ( Dorz refused , and was promptly arrested ) . The Minister was additionally involved , as a denouncer , in the downfall of Zaharia Stancu , disgraced president of the Writers ' Union . While others opened files supposedly tracing Stancu ' s links with the Iron Guard and the mystics , Drăghici also accused the novelist of having spied on the communists imprisoned before 1944 . At the height of the phenomenon , he decided against striking out terror tactics and , in 1963 , ordered " reeducation " experiments in " misleading and demoralising political prisoners " to take place at Aiud prison . Repression against the Orthodox revivalists was at the top of Drăghici ' s agenda even in later years . Citing one of his reports for 1962 , Iustin Marchiş states : " Drăghici [ argued that ] the only internal enemy still confronting the people ' s democratic state was the Romanian Orthodox Church , led at the time by Patriarch Justinian Marina [ . . . ] . This fact , I believe , is a very important point to stress in debating with many of those who claim that the then - Patriarch or the Church leadership as a whole [ . . . ] did nothing [ to resist the regime ] . " 1964 nationalism . As the regime gained surer control over the country , Interior Ministry forces shifted from anti - resistance measures to less violent duties , and a substantial number of personnel were also freed up once political detainees were released in 1964 . Drăghici disowned his favorite " Securitate " man , Aranici , allegedly because Aranici would wear an unbecoming yellow shirt at committee meetings ; the former leader of the " Gangs " section was sent to do menial police work in the provinces . Drăghici himself was given other political assignments . He was deputy prime minister from 1961 to 1965 and 1967 to 1968 , and secretary of the CC from July 1965 to 1967 . From 1965 to 1968 , he was on the CC ' s executive committee and its permanent presidium . In tandem with suppressing most pockets of resistance , the regime experienced a growth in popularity : disagreements between Gheorghiu - Dej and Khrushchev saw Romania drifting away from the Soviet Union , and becoming more independent within the Eastern Bloc . The April 1964 Declaration of the Romanian party , which officially announced that Romania could no longer accept Sovietization , was first ran by the " Securitate " employees . During such informative sessions , Drăghici exceeded in tone the Declaration ' s framework , issuing strong accusations against the Soviets : he alleged that Khrushchev ' s media portrayed Romania as a " Gypsy " nation , that the Soviet envoys were being excessively suspicious of their hosts , that SovRom - type companies had become the butt of jokes in the communist east , and even that the Soviets intended to annex Romania . Turning his attention to the condoned Russification of the 1950s , he exclaimed : " Comrades , there is not one invention , not one thing new in this world , without there also being a Russian coming right up , for them to be telling us that this Russian has in fact ' uncovered ' that new fact , that new invention , beforehand ! ! " [ sic ] . Claiming to cite a SovRom engineer , Drăghici compared the Soviet treatment of Romanians with the apartheid regime . Although Romania still condemned " Titoism " , the speaker paid tribute to neighboring Yugoslavia ' s Eastern Bloc dissidence . The Romanian leadership registered with satisfaction the Declaration ' s genuine popularity , until Gheorghiu - Dej became aware that regular citizens were airing traditional Russophobia , defined as " bourgeois nationalism " in standard communist rhetoric . According to historian Walter M . Bacon , Jr . , Gheorghiu - Dej ' s attempt " to supplant ' bourgeois nationalist ' feelings with ' socialist patriotic ' ones " relied on a political program devised by Drăghici , but was " largely unsuccessful . " Drăghici was also involved in the disinformation campaign launched by the " Securitate " . The latter planted Silviu Crăciunaş , with false anti - communist credentials , inside the Romanian National Committee of Washington , D . C . . Drăghici himself released political captives such as Herant Torosian , indicating through Crăciunaş that Romania would allow them to leave for the West in exchange for foreign currency . This proposal had the added benefit of generating false trust in Crăciunaş amid the Romanian American exiles . According to Drăghici ' s own justification , selling off Romanian nationals to other countries was a banal occurrence , particularly so for Jews emigrating to Israel . He claimed to have collected 6 , 250 , 000 US dollars from this source alone , and to have thus enriched the national budget . As historian Marius Oprea notes , this initiative of his was the culmination of periodic antisemitic purges inside and outside the party structures . Downfall . When Gheorghiu - Dej died in March 1965 , Ion Gheorghe Maurer , Chivu Stoica , and Emil Bodnăraş , fearful of seeing Drăghici come to power , all backed Ceauşescu as the new leader . Maurer also considered that Ceauşescu had stood up to Khrushchev , while Drăghici was seen as a loyal follower of the Soviet Union . Bacon writes : " So powerful was the apparatus of terror that its chief , Alexandru Dr [ ă ] ghici , challenged Ceau [ ş ] escu for political power following Gheorghiu - Dej ' s death . It is a tribute to Ceau [ ş ] escu ' s political agility and confidence that he was able to both purge Dr [ ă ] ghici and launch a brief period of liberalization during the second half of the 1960s . " As a preliminary step , Ceauşescu promoted Drăghici to second in command while placing a former subordinate in the Interior Ministry . This promotion actually marked the beginning of the end for Drăghici ' s career . By talking about liberalization , Ceauşescu made predictable the neutralization of the two most prominent exponents of political repression and cultural dogmatism of the Gheorghiu - Dej era : Drăghici and Răutu , respectively . In late 1965 or early 1966 , Ceauşescu asked Vasile Patilineţ , an expert on political files , to compile documents related to Drăghici ' s involvement in the execution of Pătrăşcanu as part of a wider investigation into Drăghici ' s handling of high - level positions . Ceauşescu desired Drăghici ' s elimination in an effort to " purify " the party , as the crimes committed under Drăghici were public knowledge ; Ceauşescu also selected the former " Securitate " head as a scapegoat for all the repression that had occurred from 1952 to 1965 , and claimed not to have been aware of the beatings carried out after the Hungarian revolution . Drăghici unwittingly aggravated Ceauşescu when , against the national communist plan of discarding the administrative regions , he supported a continued Hungarian autonomy . The two figures still agreed on other national policy aspects , including natalism : they both supported the 1966 ban on abortions . Drăghici fell from power at the CC plenary of April 1968 , when he came into conflict with Ceauşescu for supremacy within the party . The plenary saw Pătrăşcanu rehabilitated and Drăghici excluded from the party altogether . Over the course of the year , he was removed from the CC ' s politburo and permanent presidium ; from the deputy premiership ; and from his officer ' s rank , being downgraded to a common soldier in the reserves . However , he suffered no further consequences , perhaps because he knew too much compromising information . Sent in 1968 to head a state - run agricultural factory in Buftea , Drăghici retired in 1972 . He was given a lavish pension as an older - generation party member and continued to reside in a luxurious Dorobanţi villa . In the 1980s , he was sometimes seen standing in line to buy groceries , a rigid expression on his face , his eyes averted . Late in that decade , he was reportedly pleased by the increasing isolation and seeming self - destruction of Ceauşescu ' s regime . Later years and efforts at prosecution . The communist regime fell in 1989 and in October 1991 , after former political prisoners asked that the late 1960s case against Drăghici be reopened , he and his wife fled to Budapest to the flat of their daughter , who had moved there in 1988 . In its bid to join the Council of Europe , the Romanian government cited the Drăghici case ( and the indictments of his colleagues Gheorghe Homoştean , Tudor Postelnicu , etc . ) as evidence that " those who tortured opponents of President Ceauşescu " were indeed facing trial . In August 1992 , the Romanian general prosecutor asked for Drăghici ' s extradition , but this was denied in December , as the statute of limitations had expired under Hungarian law . However , Hungary ' s Justice Ministry specified that this was not their final word , and requested more information . In December 1992 , the Romanian side renewed its extradition request , arguing that the 1989 Revolution had suspended the statute of limitations , a legally dubious move . The request was again denied . In 1993 new charges were filed against Drăghici for the assassination he had ordered of one Ibrahim Sefit in Sibiu . Sefit was a mentally - ill and alcoholic ethnic Turk from Ada Kaleh who , in 1954 , created a disturbance and began swearing at Drăghici in a cafeteria where the latter was eating . The latter ordered his liquidation ; Sefit was arrested and the same night taken to a forest by a team of four " Securitate " officers , shot , and buried on the spot . Found guilty of incitement to murder at a trial that began in May and sentenced " in absentia " , Drăghici died in Budapest that December . He had refused to grant any interviews and apparently expressed no remorse . He was cremated and his ashes smuggled into Romania by family members . The Catholic Bellu cemetery refused a plot for him , and he was finally buried in a cemetery following a religious service in 2003 . By then , a controversy had erupted regarding the display of his portrait in an official gallery honoring the presidents of Romania ' s Lower Chamber ( nominal successor to the Great National Assembly ) . Posterity . Drăghici was married to Márta Czikó , an ethnic Hungarian . Born in Bucharest , she was an activist in the party when it was banned ; her two brothers , Nándor and Lőrinc , were militants of the left - wing Hungarian People ' s Union . The couple , who met in prison , had a son and a daughter . Drăghici was a committed atheist , and his wife , of a Roman Catholic family , was not religious either ; their children were not baptized . Czikó , whose influence probably helped Pavel Aranici advance through the ranks , was deeply disliked by Elena Ceauşescu , whose own career during the underground period had been far less impressive . Through Márta ' s family , Drăghici was for a while related to Alexandru and Paul Ioanid , leaders of the " Ioanid Gang " and her husband ' s purported would - be assassins , who were two of the " Securitate " s most prominent victims . This connection embarrassed Drăghici , and was kept secret for a long time . With Gheorghiu - Dej , Ceauşescu , and Pauker , Drăghici is a main character in the 1998 novel " Prizonier în Europa " ( " A Prisoner in Europe " ) , by Alex Mihai Stoenescu . This novel shows the " Securitate " chief involved in a complicated relationship with the other leaders , and transmitting Gheorghiu - Dej ' s secrets to the Soviet leadership . A key moment in the narrative shows Nikita Khrushchev rewarding Drăghici ' s services with an impractical radio receiver while the other Romanian communists look on .