„FRONTUL APĂRĂRII NAŢIONALE. CORPUL DE HAIDUCI” ÎN LUPTĂ CONTRA REGIMULUI COMUNIST ÎN SUD-ESTUL MUNŢILOR APUSENI (1948-1952)
„FRONTUL APARARII NATIONALE. CORPUL DE HAIDUCI” [NATIONAL DEFENCE FRONT. OUTLAWS’ BODY] FIGHTING COMMUNIST REGIME IN SOUTH-EASTERN APUSENI MOUNTAINS

Summary/Abstract: The communist regime’s sustained offensive, meant to obtain a total control of the Romanian State and society led to responses. At the end of the 1940s, numerous anticommunist armed resistance groups appeared; one of the most important areas where this phenomenon manifested itself was the Apuseni Mountains. Among the most important organizations of this region there was „Frontul Apărării Naţionale. Corpul de Haiduci” (National Defence Front. Outlaws’ Body), under the direction of Major Nicolae Dabija and engineer Traian Macovei. The organization was founded in 1948, the action area being situated on the Eastern flank of the Apuseni Mountains, in Muntele Mare, near the communes of Bistra and Câmpeni. In the autumn of 1948, a group settled in Muntele Mare, where they built a fortified shelter (a „blockhouse”). At the same time, in the localities down the mountains, supporting groups were made up (for instance „Liga Apuseană a Moţilor”/Moţi’s Western League) and a genuine network providing information about the authorities’ actions. Major Nicolae Dabija was the constructor of one of the most ambitious plans that the Resistance in Romania had made, comparing with Colonel Ion Uţă’s one, the leader of a Resistance group in the region of Banat. The goal was to start an insurrection in 1949, when the war between the Soviets and the Americans was expected to begin; the armed actions were then meant to occupy the State institutions, the armament and ammunition deposits, as well as the strategic points (the defiles of Mureş, Someş, Olt, Prahova and Dorna). The group created and spread anticommunist handbills, for the population’s mobilization. Furthermore, it made up an information network in Bucharest and tried from there to establish connections with the western diplomatic milieus. All these underlined the existence of a strategic, not only a tactic, vision, although the external factor was probably too much relied on. Well informed about the activity of the „National Defence Front. Outlaws’ Body”, the authorities started, at the beginning of March 1949, an ample action against the group. In the fight taking place in Muntele Mare were killed or caught several partisans. At the same time, members and people who had supported the group, from the localities around or from Bucharest, were arrested. A trial taking place in October 1949 at Sibiu had as a result the sentence to death of several members of the group in the mountains, including Major Dabija, as well as numerous and hard imprisonment decisions. Securitate did not execute only the ones who had received the capital punishment, but also many of those sentenced to prison, in which case we can speak of real assassinations. The same thing happened to some of the partisans caught in the mountains, or to their supporters, who were executed on the spot, without mention of a trial...

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