Cariera unui fost agent NKVD în anii „puterii populare” din România: Simion Babenco, I
The career of a former NKVD agent during the years of „people's power” in Romania: Simion Babenco, I

Summary/Abstract: In the 1920s and 1930s, the USSR dispatched hundreds of agents and couriers to Romania to take pulse of the society, the armed forces, the political Russian emigration to this country, as well as information about the leaders of the main parliamentary political parties. This study examines the case of such a spy (Simion Babenco) who was entrusted by the Soviet secret services to establish an informative residence in Moldova. Babenco was supposed to gather information, via recruited Romanian citizens, about the Romanian units quartered in the garrisons of Buzău and Focşani. Unfortunately for him, Babenco was arrested by the Siguranţă in the summer of 1939, just few weeks after crossing the border illegally. He was tried by a military tribunal and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for attempted espionage. During detention, he meets the future leader of the Romanian Workers' Party, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, as well as other Soviet spies captured on Romanian ground, most of whom had been around Dej during detention and after communists seized power. The political fate of Babenco after August 23, 1944 was deeply influenced by the proximity to Dej and his entourage.

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