THE SPIES WHO DEFENDED US: SPY STORIES AND LEGITIMATING DISCOURSES IN CEAUŞESCU’S ROMANIA, 1965–77
THE SPIES WHO DEFENDED US: SPY STORIES AND LEGITIMATING DISCOURSES IN CEAUŞESCU’S ROMANIA, 1965–77

Summary/Abstract: The present paper analyses the intricate issue of legitimation of non-democratic regimes by focusing on the communist regime of Nicolae Ceauşescu during a particular time span, namely, 1965–77. This author contends that the issue of legitimation of communist rule in Romania should be addressed not only from the perspective of recent history and communist studies, but also from the perspective of history of intelligence. Thus, this paper demonstrates that in the particular context of August 1968, the Ceauşescu regime acquired “limited legitimacy through consent.” Furthermore, from the perspective of history of intelligence, this paper argues that certain communist spy novels set forth fictional characters of Securitate officers as defenders of the Romanian “socialist nation” against the hostile actions of Western spies. Thus, for a limited period of time such spy novels contributed to persuading some segments of society to believe that the Securitate’s mission was actually to protect the nation against foreign, that is, Western enemies.

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