Craiova Prison is a prison located in

Craiova Craiova (, also , ), is Romania's 6th Cities in Romania, largest city and capital of Dolj County, and situated near the east bank of the river Jiu River, Jiu in central Oltenia. It is a longstanding political center, and is located at approximatel ...

, Romania. IICCR DA023 Craiova prison Dej Stoica Vasilichi Doncea Petrescu Rozemberg

The prison was originally located outside the city, but was later included within its boundaries. When it was built of stone and brick in 1894–1897, it was a modern, horseshoe-shaped structure on three levels. Each of these had 30 cells; initially, the number of inmates did not exceed 300, but the total swelled to over 850 following the 1907 peasants’ revolt. Until 1944, it housed both common criminal and political prisoners, especially members of the banned

Romanian Communist Party The Romanian Communist Party ( ro, Partidul Comunist Român, , PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that woul ...

. These included

Gheorghe Vasilichi Gheorghe Vasilichi (7 September 1902 – 30 October 1974) was a Romanian Communist politician and statesman. Biography Early life and career Vasilichi was born in to a peasant family. He worked after school as a tinsmith and belonged to the ...

Constantin Doncea Constantin Doncea (September 26, 1904 – November 4, 1973) was a Romanian communist activist and politician. A railway worker, he played an important part in the Grivița Strike of 1933. Subsequently, imprisoned, he escaped and ended up in Mo ...

, and Dumitru Popescu, who managed to escape. Following the establishment of a communist regime in 1947, the number of political prisoners grew constantly; at first, these were mainly National Peasants' Party affiliates. While conditions were relatively mild during the first wave of arrests in 1945–1947, when the communists had not yet fully consolidated power, they worsened sharply in the following years. Underfeeding led to endemic hunger and advanced anemia; this was exacerbated by those who cooked and served the food, common criminals who would take part of the political prisoners’ portions for themselves. Punishment for political detainees was harsher, and included an isolation cell. They were interrogated by teams of Securitate secret police agents inside the prison, as the basements in their building had become overcrowded with detainees. Some died following beatings by Securitate and

Militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

personnel, their general state of health already weakened by conditions behind bars.Muraru, pp. 276-81 In the early 1950s, many peasants from the surrounding

Oltenia Oltenia (, also called Lesser Wallachia in antiquated versions, with the alternative Latin names ''Wallachia Minor'', ''Wallachia Alutana'', ''Wallachia Caesarea'' between 1718 and 1739) is a historical province and geographical region of Romania ...

region were sent to Craiova. They were accused of sabotaging collectivization or of abetting the anti-communist resistance movement. The prison served as a transit center before they were sent on to the

Danube–Black Sea Canal The Danube–Black Sea Canal ( ro, Canalul Dunăre–Marea Neagră) is a navigable canal in Romania, which runs from Cernavodă on the Danube river, via two branches, to Constanța and Năvodari on the Black Sea. Administered from Agigea, it ...

or other labor camps. A relaxation followed the death of

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

in 1953; this was reversed amidst the wave of arrests that occurred when the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was crushed, so that the number of detainees grew from a capacity of 1,100 to some 1,800. Notable inmates include ,

Nicolae Penescu Nicolae Penescu (28 February 1897 – 28 February 1981) was a Romanian lawyer and politician. A member of the National Peasants' Party (PNȚ), he was the Ministry of Administration and Interior (Romania), interior minister from 4 November to ...

, , Radu Câmpeanu, Corneliu Coposu, ,

Ioan Carlaonț Ioan Carlaonț (19 October 1885 – 6 February 1952) was a Romanian major general, who led an anti-communist resistance movement in Oltenia after World War II. He was the older brother of General Dumitru Carlaonț. He was born in Miculești, G ...

Ioan Hudiță Ioan is a variation on the name John found in Romanian, Bulgarian, Russian, Welsh (), and Sardinian. It is usually masculine. The female equivalent in Romanian and Bulgarian is Ioana. In Russia, the name Ioann is usually reserved for the clergy ...

, and

Richard Wurmbrand Richard Wurmbrand, also known as Nicolai Ionescu (24 March 1909 – 17 February 2001) was a Romanian Evangelical Lutheran priest, and professor of Jewish descent. In 1948, having become a Christian ten years before, he publicly said Communism an ...

, most of whom were transferred to other prisons in due time. Detainees during the 2000s included ,

Omar Hayssam Omar Hayssam ( ar, عمر هيثم, born January 3, 1963) is a Syrian-born Romanian financier who was sentenced ''in absentia'' to 20 years in prison after a Romanian court found him guilty of masterminding the kidnapping of three Romanian journa ...

, and

Miron Cozma Miron Cozma (born August 25, 1954) is a former Romanian labor-union organizer and politician, and leader of Romania's Jiu Valley coal miners' union. He is best known for his leading the miners of the Jiu Valley during the September 1991 Mineriad ...

Notes

References

* {{coord, 44.3217, 23.8123, type:landmark_region:RO, display=title Prisons in Romania Buildings and structures in Craiova