JPRS ID: 9116 EAST EUROPE REPORT ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL AFFAIRS

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• Document Creation Date: November 1, 2016
• Sequence Number: 2
• Content Type: REPORTS

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JPRS ~/9116 -
2 June 1980
= Eas~ Eura e Re ort
~ p p
- POLITICAL, SOCIOLOGICAL AND MILITARY AFFAIRS
= CFOl~O 4/80)
F~lS FORE~GN BROADCAST INFORMATION SERVICE
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JPRS L/9116
2 June 1.9 80
~ EAST EUROPE REPORT
POLITICAL, SOCIOL06ICAL AND MILITARY AFFAIRS
(FOUO 4%80) -
CONTENTS
ROMAN IA
Report on Robberies of Churches in Bacau `
(Constantin Preda; PENTRU PATRIE, Jan 80) 1
Distributors of Religious Tracts Apprehended
(Radu ~'aida; PII~TRU PATRIE, Jan 80 ) 5
YUGOSLAVIA
Western Comment on Vladimir Dedijer~s New Book
- (Georg Karp; STERN, 17 Apr 80) 9 _
, . .
- a - jZII - ~E - 63 FOUO]
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ROMANIA
REPORT ON ROBBERIES OF CHURCHES IN BACAU
Bucharest PENTRU PATRIE in Romanian No 1, Jan 80 pp 12, 13
[Article by Constantin Pr~da: 'The Night of the Crime']
- [Text] 'It was th~ third night,' Lieutenant Costica Huiban told us. 'Like ~
the night before we entered the church at eleven o'clock. We entered unob-
served and locked the doors behind us. Tt~~e sergeant and I sat in two arm-
_ chairs placed on a carpet so as not to make noise when we moved. In the
quiet of the night in the e~p~y church every sound was amplified to an extra-
ordinary degree. We waited. The walls, the altar and the carpet in the middle �
of the room w~re barely visible from the glx~ner of light that pepetrated the .
narrow windows. From timc to time we heard footsteps on the gr~vel path that '
passed somewhere nearby. We then listened carefully trying to guess where -
they were coming from and headed. Each time we asked ourselves if this might
be the one we waited for.'
~ What had happened? One morning it was discovered that the largest c:iurch In
BACAU had~been burglarized during the night. Once alerted, the investigation
team from the Bacau City Police went immediately to the scene. The culprit
had gained entry by knocking the gri11 away from a window. A pickaxe leaning
against the icon of Saint Nicholas and a_bottled gas tank wrench on the altar `
. table were found insidA the church. All the offering boxes had disappeared and,
along with them a public address system and a suitcase with priests robes
that had been kept in the altar. The~e items were found''abandoned' in the
chapel. A11 the offering boxes were btokan or forced open at the hinges, and
next to them more than ten kilograms of one, three and five lei coins. Evi-
dently the thief only took the bills. There were traces of the crime every-
where. They were gathered up with utmost care.
Based on an examination of the scene of the crime it was dacided that the ~ -
burglar wa~ a minor.or a very slender adult. Otherwise he could not have fit .
in the space between the window bars. A group of suspects was rounded up and
their verification began. However, a surprise occurred when another church
was burglarized a few days later. The modus operandi was the same. Finger-
prints of the left hand we~e collected from the windowsill where the thief
had entered. Three days later yet another burglary of th~ catholic church was
committeed following the same pattern. Meanwhile, the fingerprint studies
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performed by criminologist Major Du~mitru Sandulescu established with certainty `
that only one culprit was involved. Did this individual actually intend to
c~ntinue his series of church burglaries in Bacau? It became necessary to
take additional steps beyond the investigations already underway. Senior
_ Lieutenant George Gavrilescu proposed special security measures far the pro-
tection of church valuables to the office of the archpr3est of Bacau. A study
was made of the possibilities for burglary at other churches. Excluding those
that had already been robbed and several other still under renovation four -
churches were left as possible targets. These had t~ be guarded. That very
day two pnlice officers began standing all night guard in the courtyard of
each of these churches. Nothing unusual was noted during the first two nights.
The third night passed just as quietly except ttiat the bishopric church
in Roman was burglarized. Would the thief return to Bacau? The following
night the police began standing guard inside the c:~urches. The conclusion' =
was reached from the same study that the Church of Saint Gheorghe might be of
most interest to the thief. It was located out of the way and had already
^ been burglarized in 1977. And one of the church's windows was left open to
make it even more attractive. .
Nothing happeiied the first two nights. Lieutenant Costica Huiban explained
what happened the third night, that nigYit to which the �irst passage of this ~
_ report refers. He and Sergeant Vasile Ilie were standing guard fn the church
with the open window. -
'I was sure that the thief would be caught in the act,' the officer told us.
- 'I did.not want another crime to be committed but the thief's next attempt was
a way to bring him to us. It was also the fastest way. I was a bit resentful
in a way that some people who had no idea of the efforts we were making, and
there were rnany, were asking: 'But what are the police doing about this?' -
I wanted t~~ catch the criminal as soon as possible both because it was our
duty to cr~mbat violators and violations of the law and also because the atti-
tudes of some peaple were affected negatively by these criminal acts. Thzre-
fore., wF~ spent hours on end on guard not moving, waitir~g. But the posaibility
for suc.cess existed. Other coworkers were doing the sa~e thing in other
churches while outside the investigations along other paths continued day and
night.
It was past midnight. The fluorescence of my watch showed it to be nearly one
o'clock wh~n we heard the first noise. It was a diff erent noise than the ones
we had been hearing till then. After analyaing it we decided it was the noise
made by climbing ~ver a wall. Then for several seconds someChing like a knife
scratched in the lock of a window~. It was not the w~ndow we had left open. -
Because the person was probably not able to force it open he grew impatient
and broke the glass. You c3n imag~ne our emotions at the time! With hands
grasping our weapons and f.lashlights the sergeant and I waii:ed for the thief
to appear. For twu or three minutes we listened as he tried to enter. Then -
there wss silence. We did not know what happened. Di.d he succeed or give
up? I recalled that a large icon with a framed pictur.e sat directly in front
of the window in question. I imagined that the thief was not able to enter
because of that icon and gave u;~,. Aut what if he had managed to somehow get
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past the picture? I slowly got on my feet and quietly walked nearer. I~
- listened but heard nothing. Then I made out something like a lacket at one
spot, thinking it was him. BuE ~?hat if I was wrong? I covered the front of
my flashlight with my hand, turned it on and left a small beam of light fall
on the ob~ect. It was a robe left by one of the church servants. Perhsps
I should go into the church courtyard in an effort to catch the thief? If
! he hesrd the door opening he would have time to run and disappear. Then all
_ our work would be fruitless. So we decided to continue waiting in hope that
v he would still enter through the open window. But what if he was not going
to enter? ~
' Sergeant Vasile Ilie came over near me. We each leaned against a column and
waited. I don't believe more than a minute paseed, although it seemed very -
long then, when we heard a noise at the open window. He had apparently taken
the bait. We waited for him to enter. I was perspiring. We could not talk
or even use hand signals. But when I sensed that the thief had reached the
front altar both of our flashlights went on simultaneously. I challenged the
thief. I will never forget the sight of those totally surprised eyes that -
shone unnaturally in the two beams of light, eyes that did not comprehend -
from w~here the voice had thundered that ordered him to stop. We~tied him up.
We had brought no handcuffs along, personally not believing that this church
was the most vulnerable. I then remained alone with him while the sergeant
" went to bring a witness, a night watchman on duty nearby, and call the priest -
who lived in.one of the neighboring apartment houses. There in the church~
~ in front of the pries~ and the night watchman he made his first statements ~ _
concerning the church burglaries committed earlier in Bacau, the one in Roman
- and three ether ones committed in Constanta. Afterwards at the police station
his statements apparently included details. His fingerprints matched the
ones found at the previous burglaries and became material evidence. The
following reconstructian was made during the next few days. _
The criminal!s name was M3nea Stoica. He was twenty two years old an~d was ~
from the township of Silistea, Braila District. While still a minor he was
sentenced to three months in prison for a theft committed in school. He
completed eight years of general education and two years professicnal training
to qualify as a ch~emical production operator. Houever, after his military
service he did not wish to go to work. One day his father sent him to a ~
neighbor to borrow some money. When the man gave him the amount requested
~ he saw that there was no more. He also saw where it was kept. A short while ~
later, seeing that th~~ man had.left home, he went to steal the rest. ~But the -
man returned and found him with the seven thousand lei in his hands. As a -
- result a police file w~as made up on Manea. Iiowever, during the investigation
he ran off. He was tried in absentia and sentenced to two years in prison.
At the time of the church burglaries a warrant was out for his arrest.
T spoke with him after his arrest. He has parents and older and younger
brothers and sisters. He did not care about the shame he had brought to them
by his crimes nor about the fact that his parents, religious as they were
his grandfather sold candles at the village church would'condemn him in
their own way when they learn that he had robbed churches.
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I had been told that Manea Stoica was uncaring and, indeed, during our talk -
his indifference to everything was most striking. HoTaever, I persisted
because I could not conceive that such a young soul could ~ave lost every bit
of sensitivity. In the end the only thing that made him cry was the thought
of his youngest brother who from birth had had a iong struggle with sickness
and whom he had taken care of all the while. He loved this brother and was
loved and idolized by him. That was past. When it is learned what he has
- done this won't be the same. I do not think the ~iillage will be able to
keep the little brother from eventually finding out that his big brother has
become a thief. He, the little one, did not see those frightened eyes the
policemen saw the night of the crime. But certainly for a long time whenever
he thinks of the brother he modeled himself af ter he will not be able to hold
, hiE head high. I expreseed these thoughts to Manea Stoica, relling him that
_ besides all the other bad things he had done, he had also.crippled a young
_ soul, perhaps for life. He cried again. I would like to think that this -
was a sign of what' will be aft2r the crime has been paid for.
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~ ROMANIA
DISTRIBUTORS OF RELIGIOUS TRACTS APPREHENDED
Bucharest PENTRU PATRIE in Romanian No 1, Jan 80 p 18
[Article by Radu Vaida: 'Chain of Holy Dealings and Deceptions']
[Text] We shall give the names of the 'pious' sect members implicated in
this criminal case from the very beginning. They are Gheorghe Stancu, Mar.in
, Chirita and Stefan Alexandru, all from Bucnarest; Gheorghe Alexandru from
Ploiesti; and his 'devoutness' Petru Turturica, the sect's preacher also
from Bucharest. We shall also name ti~e less 'pious' George Angelescu, a
former medical assistant involved with the sect through his wife and mother-
in-law a*~d the not at all pious but very interested in the profits resulting
fYom the 'piety' of those mentioned above Ilie Duna, Maria Catana and Ion
Comsa. These morz or less 'pious' succeeded in creating a'holy' chain of
dealings nad deceptions secretly and almost without a noise, particularly since
their chain 'rustled' instead of clan'~cing. The case involved the clandestir.e
reproduction and dissemination of certain mystical religious booklets, many
of which came into the country illegally from abroad. They were harmful
publications due to their ~ackward contents which attempted to negate and
curse ttie discoveries of science and civilization and purely and simply
. advocated mankind's reduction to the state of primitiveness. (Let us not
_ confuse this wasted paper with the legitimate works of the various religions!)
It is sufficient to quote just one sentence from one of these booklets en-
titled '[tadio and Television': 'The buttons of these'devices are controlled
by the devil.' Thus, this holy chain of the dealings and the deceptions of
these more ar less `pious' individuals did not clank, but rustled... like
money, like hundreds of thousands of hundred-lei bills which these 'pious'
ones funneled with '~evout faith and sacrifice' into their own pockets in
the name of the relig3on they preached. And, of caurse, they with cynicism
and without self reproach speculated on the backward mentalities af certain
J people, particularly th~~ elderly.
_ We shall address the core of the issue by quoting from a statement made by
the less pious George Angel~scu: 'Because my mother-in-law belonged to the
' religious sect and my wife also became involved with it I often went to their
_ meetings. There T met Gheorghe Stancu who had been recommended to me by my
. mother-in-law. In the sumnner of 1978 he asked me if I knew anyone who could ,
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reproduce a religious book. Because I had been acquainted for some time with
_ Ilie Duna, nicknamed Iliuta, who was a coworker of mine, I got in touch with
him. He said he would check inta the matter. A few days later he told me he
had spoken with a certain individual and would put me into contact with him.
Thus, one day in October 1978 I had a meeting with Ilie Duna in front of the
Unirea departmen~ store where he introduced me to Mihai Ungureanu. Ungureanu
explained that he was in a position to reproduce the book I had gotten from -
Gheorghe Stancu.
~ I recei~:~ about 93,000 lei from Gheorghe Stancu for the first book. I paid �
both Ungur~anu and Duna frora this and was left with a profit of several
thousand lei....' The poor fellow! Could the less pious George Angelescu have
actually been less gree~y? Hard to believe! _
- `I received 50,000 lei from Gheorghe Stancu for the third book.' In other
words, aess. One wonders why. George Angelescu himself confessed, 'We
ceased with their affair because we were discovered by the police and in-
vestigated for these illegal activities.' Yes inde~d, they were discovered
through a long and difficult operation by a unit of the Bucharest Municipal
- Inspectorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Their work was difficult
and full of unknowns. The chain of holy dealings and deceptions proved to -
be a long one with over forty 'links,' all having names and all huagry for
the rustle of thousands and hundreds of thousands of lei. 'I bought a Dacia
automobile and a radio casaette player recorder with the money I got from
these dealings,' declared one of them. The pious Gheorghe Stancu, one of the
leaders of this illegal operation, a clever and greedp man.who was constantly
ready with holy words on .his lips, calmly admitted, "To date I have received
_ a total of 200,000 lei in various amounts on several occasione from (the
previously named) Alaxandru for the reproduced copies and was due to receive
still 10,000 more.' � -
~
- Alexandru, whose full name 3.s Gheorghe Alexandru, from Ploiesti, had no way
of knowing that his 'brother in the faith', Gheorghe Stancu, the one wiCh holy
words always on his lips, was cheating him and was keeping the lion's share
that resulted both from the 'work' of George Angelescu, Ilie Duna and Mihai '
' Ungureanu as well as from salea! We might mention that the most devout ~ `
Gheorghe Stancu was reaelling the reproduced and bound booklets~at priGes .
much higher than cost and made yet othe'r. business deals with the profits ob-
tained. The holy chain lengthened continuously. For example, the most de- .
- vout preacher Petre Tuturica dealt with Stancu by 'sacrificing' to buy 'holy
books' at a cost of about 70,000 lei and reesold ~hem at a price three to four
times nis cost for a fat profit. The same was also done by Gheorghe Alexandru,
a fellow with a criminal past, who posed as the learned man in the affairs � -
of the sect, delivering sermons and shartng with his brothers in the faith the
rich wealth of knowledge he possessed as a man with a fourCh grade ed-
ucation!
Quite a discrepancy existed between words and deedsl The former leader of the
- sect, who perached the accumulation o~ goo~ deeds and wealth in heaven, ac- -
quired for himself the following earthly possessions: a luxurious villa,
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_ additional buildings and plently of money. A11 done by speculating on the
gullibility of his believers! And in order to deceive them to the fullest he
had ten suits made from the same material so that people would say, 'See how -
like a hermit our preacher isI He only has one suit of clothes, the poor man!'
Thus y~u see the true face df our more or less pious sect members, the
~ fabr~cators of this chain of dealings and deceptions. Some stole like highway
robbers, others only pinching a little for themselves. Some preaching the lies
and others using it like a weapon of self defense. Marin Chirita of Bucharest
also one the the pious ones, went to a wedding and offered booklets of a
myAtico-religious nature for sale at prices as high as 300 lei per copy. When
asked how he acquired them, he calmly answered that they were brought by
'txnknown persons'. or that they were 'thrown to him over a fence.' By whom?
Perhaps by the holy ghost!
These same 'unknown persons' or perhaps who knows what 'holy ghost' also `
filled the trunk of Stefan Alexandru's private car with hundreds of copies "
of the same cheap literature. However, he forgot to mention that with the
help of these same 'unknown persons' he had acquired a house in Bucharest and
_ another in the countryside. But as is commonly known, a lie never gets too
far. And Stefan Atexandru was caught with not just one but several. He was
even turned in by his indignant mother-in-law who claimed to have lent him a
~ large sum of money and also by an acquaintance in whose name he had wanted to
register several objects of value. Of course, these 'ownerless' goods finally
became state property!
'Birds of a feather flock together,' and the thief will join with the liar.
Although the sect preached the commandment 'thou shalt not steal,' some of the
members encouraged others to steal, not from their own pockets, God forbid!,
but from public property. For example, they identified as weak in faith Ili.e
, Duna, an undisciplined fellow who had often been reprimanded at works and
Maria Catana, both of whom were operatars of the copying machine of an insti-
- tute. They alone caused a loss of over 27,000 lei to public property. Where
were the controls that were supposed to be performed by those who were re-
sponsible for the use of the copying machine? The answer to this question `
reminds us in part of the fact that someti.mes those who were supposed ~
to control the use of these machines al~owed themselves to be bribed. This
happeneci to Ion Comsa, an employee of a central research and planning in-
stitute who received a 15,000 lei bribe so he might clos~ his eyes while his
subordinates were engaged in 'evil' dealings. Of course, the necessary earthly
steps were taken and the sword of law was used to cut the links at this end
of the chain, links that go by the names of theft, embezzlement and bribery. -
A'noly' chain of dealings and deceptions, of greed, tric::ery and gross vio-
latians of the law involving the unauthorized reproduction and dissemination ~
of certain anachronistic b~cL~~~ts which bring troubles to the. human conscience
- on the one hand and illicit profits through the exploitation of the gullible-
ness of certain people on the other. Here was a chain that rust~ed with the
sould of hundreds and thousands of hundred-lei bills. It has been torn and -
smashed.
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How many days and nights, how much work, vigilance and effort to uncover the
truth, and how much devotion was required of the officers from the Bucharest
Municipal Inspectorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs who investigated
this very complicated case, a case that was so well hidden under the re-
ligiousness of those involved. They worked tirelessly, with a spirit of
~justice and with complete responsibility and competence. They constantly took
into consideration the letter and spirit of the law that establishes, among
other things, that the publications of religious groups be organized, directed -
and carried out in accordance with their own regulations as approved by law.
Furthermore, the law states that 'the printing, registering or dissemination
without legal authorization of printed matter or records on tape or film in-
tended for use as a means of public information constitutes a violation of the ~
law and is punisYsable....' ,
We are convinced that the more or less 'pious' individuals of this holy chain
of dealings and deceptions were aware that they were violating the law. But
greed and the desire to acquire posaeaeions.... And if they continue to in-
sist in their booklets that the buttons of radios and TV sets are controlled
by satan why did they not refrain from putting their hands.on unearned money,
money that was actually evil. As an old saying goe~: 'Money is the eye of -
the devil....'
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YUGOSLAVIA
WESTERN COI~4ENT ON VLADIMIR DEDIJER'S NEW BOOK
Hamburg STERN in German No 17, 17 Apr 80 pp 278-279
[Article by Georg Karp: "The Battle for Belgrade---A New Book R~veals
Hitherto Unknown Details About Tit~~ and His Disagreement.s With the Kremlin"]
[Text] When Yugoslav historian and author Vladimir Dedi~er, 66, member of
the Serbian Academy of Sciences, writes a book, the Soviets canuot expect
anything pleasant.
That c,�as already the case in 1953, 5 years after the rupture wi.th Moscaw,
when Dedi~er, at the time still a member of the Yugoslav Communist Party's
Cenrral Committee, indictedthe Kremlin leadership's sinister role before
_ and after 1945 in an authorized biography of his friend and former comrade-
in-arms Tito.
The same thing occurred in 1969, when Dedi~er once again squared accounts
with the USSR concerning the events of 1948 in his book "Stalin's Lost Battle."
At that time Yugoslavia had been kicked out of the Soviet bloc because it
wished to find its own nationalist route toward socialism.
The same thing is likely to happen again this year upon publication in the
Unite~ States of Dedijer's latest three-volume work about Tito and Yugoslav-
ia's last 40 years.
The writer and historian ("Sarayevo 1914") reveals hitherto unknown details
~ of Yugoslav-Soviet relations during World War II and provides evidence on
why and how Stalin had collaborated with the Serbian rightwing, ultranation-
alist Chetniks.
As early as the 1930's t~e Kremlin had established contact with members of
the "Serbian Culture Club" in Belgrade, who saw in Stalin "the best defender
of orthodox Serbs against the Catholic Croats and Slovenes." Later on,
_ when Hitler's troops had occupied Yugoslavia, the Soviet generalissimo urged
- the red partisans and the royalist Chetniks to conduct joint operations
against the Gez-~ans and the Italians. As Vladimir Dedi~er, a partisan him-
self a~nd Tito's diarist at the time, ;~old STERN: "Stalin asked us to re-
nounce our revolution and to help put a new royal dictatorship into power." -
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- Tito refusec~. Thereupon the Chetniks, who at the time still enjoyed the
~ support of their Bri~ish allies, started attacking partisan units. Accord-
ing to Dedi~er, Stalin was constantly informed of Che~nik operations until
= th~ end of the war. Stalin's own man served as the Chetnik leader's clo~est -
= political adviser: Belgrade attorney and author Dragiea Vasic. He had since
' 1934 been a member of Section 4 of Che Soviet secret service.
_ L~oking for new evidence about the 1948 conflict, Dedi~er was in luck: "Two
~ hitherto undiscovered messages prove that in 1942 Stalin wRS seeking to
- split our paxty."
~ . ~
~ In a letter to Tito, Stalin expressed his opposition to the formation of a
_ partisar government on liberated territory. In another letter to Edvard
Kardel~ he requeated that the latter prevent Tito's election as chairman,
because "the West might otherwise conclude that we communists want to con-
quer Yugoslavia." Following the aecret dlvision of the Balkans into Eastern
_ and Western zones of influence Tito realized the nature of Stalin's designs ~
on Yugoslavia. Says Dedi~er to STERN: "Tito was the first to recover from
= the ideological binge, long before D~ilas or Kardel~."
The Co~mnunist International (Komintern) had already designated Tito a
Trotskyite in 1937 "because he conaidered the nationalist problem to be
Yugoslavia's key problem" and thereby was in opposition to the Komintern
line. The Croat leader had barely been appointed general secretary of th~ .
Yugoslav communist party when he was placed on Stalin's hit list. Like his ~
predecessor, he was scheduled for elimination after a secret trial. Stalin
reques+~ed a dossier about Tito, containing damaging and compromising depo-
, sitions by Yugoslav Stalinists. When he finally received the dossier, ~
many accusations had been removed from it:. Tito had gotten hold of the ma-
terial in time,and had sanitized iC. In Chis way Tito escaped prosecution ~
while more,than 800 Yugoslav communists were murdered on Stalin's orders.
- As Dedi~er told ~~I~ERN: "Stalin killed more revolutionaries than did the
police forces of all the reactionary regimea put together."
Fxactly 25 years ago Vladimir Dedi~er himself came into conflict with Tito ~
and the party. He was the only Central Committee member to have come out in -
defense of Milovan D~ilas, a critic of the systiem and former fair-haired noy
of the party. Dedijer was expelled from the part.y and~lost hia job as pro- -
fessor of recent history at~Belgrade University. '
Ti.to himself considered D~ilas' attacks upon the party's monopolistic author- .
ity and the subsequent surveillance by his friend and minister of the inter-
, ior, Alexander Rankovic, to,be a"severe disappo3ntment." Says Vl:adimir ~
Dedijer: "Tito was open and honest with eveyone ar9und him. He had thought
~ that the same was true of othera--but DJilas and Rankovic were after hie
- scalp. Their lust for power did them in." ~
In the meantime, Josip Broz~Tito has forgiven hie biographer and buddy. They
met for the first time in many years in November 1978 to diecuss and authoriZe -
-
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- the new book. Says Dedijer: "Personally I feel very close to Tito. The
, same bomb which killed my wife Olga in 1943 had wounded him. Neither of
us can forget that." -
When they said goodbye, Tito said to him with his typical aolemnit~: "Wr~ite,
Vlado, write--but always the truth. Because all of us are much to sub~ective,
~ince we are all the authors and actors of our own drama."
_ COPYRIGHT: 1980 Gruner + Jahr AG & Co.
9273
, CSO: 2300 END
11
FOR OFFTCIAL USE ONLY ~
APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2007/02/08: CIA-RDP82-00850R000200090002-8