Elisabeta Rizea
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Elisabeta Rizea (28 June 1912 – 4 October 2003) was a
Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language ** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...
anti-communist partisan in the
Făgăraș Mountains The Făgăraș Mountains ( ro, Munții Făgărașului ; hu, Fogarasi-havasok) are the highest mountains of the Southern Carpathians, in Romania. Geography The mountain range is situated in the heart of Romania, at . The range is bordered in th ...
of northern
Wallachia Wallachia or Walachia (; ro, Țara Românească, lit=The Romanian Land' or 'The Romanian Country, ; archaic: ', Romanian Cyrillic alphabet: ) is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and s ...
. After the
Romanian Revolution The Romanian Revolution ( ro, Revoluția Română), also known as the Christmas Revolution ( ro, Revoluția de Crăciun), was a period of violent civil unrest in Romania during December 1989 as a part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred ...
of 1989, she became the symbol of Romania's anti-communist resistance. She was twice imprisoned for her activities, suffering extensive torture on the second occasion.


Life

Rizea was born in 1912 in Domnești, a village in Argeș County in the
Southern Carpathians The Southern Carpathians (also known as the Transylvanian Alps; ro, Carpații Meridionali ; hu, Déli-Kárpátok) are a group of mountain ranges located in southern Romania. They cover the part of the Carpathian Mountains located between the Pr ...
, to a family of peasants, Ion and Maria Șuța, who lived off a plot of cultivated land. At the age of 19 she moved to a nearby village,
Nucșoara Nucșoara is a Commune in Romania, commune in Argeș County, Muntenia, Romania. It is composed of four villages: Gruiu, Nucșoara, Sboghițești and Slatina. The commune is located in the northern part of the county, on the border with Brașov Co ...
, where she married Gheorghe Rizea, an employee of her uncle, Gheorghe Șuța. After
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, the
Soviet Army uk, Радянська армія , image = File:Communist star with golden border and red rims.svg , alt = , caption = Emblem of the Soviet Army , start_date ...
imposed a
Communist government A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Cominte ...
in Romania. Rizea's uncle, a local leader of the
National Peasants' Party The National Peasants' Party (also known as the National Peasant Party or National Farmers' Party; ro, Partidul Național Țărănesc, or ''Partidul Național-Țărănist'', PNȚ) was an agrarian political party in the Kingdom of Romania. It w ...
, was reportedly killed by the secret police on the day of the elections, though sources disagree whether this happened in 1946 or 1948. This led Rizea's husband to join an anti-communist guerrilla group, Haiducii Muscelului, led by Colonel
Gheorghe Arsenescu Gheorghe Arsenescu (May 31, 1907 – May 29, 1962) was a Romanian Army officer who led an anti-communist resistance movement in post-World War II Romania. Biography Early years and World War II He was born in Câmpulung. His father, Captai ...
. Elisabeta provided the group with food and supplies. On the night of June 18, 1949, members of Arsenescu's group were ambushed by troops of the
Securitate The Securitate (, Romanian for ''security'') was the popular term for the Departamentul Securității Statului (Department of State Security), the secret police agency of the Socialist Republic of Romania. Previously, before the communist regime ...
; in the ensuing firefight, two officers were killed, and the group escaped through a security cordon thrown around the area. As a result, a massive search was launched by Securitate troops and two army battalions. She was arrested for aiding the partisan group, beaten, and taken to
Pitești Prison Pitești Prison ( ro, Închisoarea Pitești) was a penal facility in Pitești, Romania, best remembered for the Mind control, reeducation experiment (also known as ''Experimentul Pitești'' – the "Pitești Experiment" or ''Fenomenul Pitești'' ...
, where she was held for 18 months before being put on trial, and sentenced to seven year's imprisonment. After being released from prison, she continued to provide food and information to the anti-communist fighters in the mountains. When Arsenescu was arrested in 1961, she was again tried, declared "''dușman al poporului''" (
enemy of the people The term enemy of the people or enemy of the nation, is a designation for the political or class opponents of the subgroup in power within a larger group. The term implies that by opposing the ruling subgroup, the "enemies" in question are ac ...
) and sentenced to 25 years, and she was sent to a penitentiary for female political prisoners in Mislea. Three years later, in 1964, she was freed under the terms of a general amnesty. During the twelve years Rizea spent in prison, she was subjected to various forms of
torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. definitions of tortur ...
: according to her own declarations, she was hung by her hair from a hook and beaten until she fainted due to broken ribs, and was also scalped, burned, and beaten with a shovel. Upon her release from prison, she had no hair and she couldn't walk, as her knees had been destroyed by the torture. After the
fall of Communism The Revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, was a revolutionary wave that resulted in the end of most communist states in the world. Sometimes this revolutionary wave is also called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of Nat ...
in 1989, her story became known following an interview included in the 1992 documentary '' Memorialul Durerii'' by . In May 2001 the former
King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
Michael I of Romania Michael I ( ro, Mihai I ; 25 October 1921 – 5 December 2017) was the last King of Romania, reigning from 20 July 1927 to 8 June 1930 and again from 6 September 1940 until his forced abdication on 30 December 1947. Shortly after Michael's ...
visited Rizea at her home in
Nucșoara Nucșoara is a Commune in Romania, commune in Argeș County, Muntenia, Romania. It is composed of four villages: Gruiu, Nucșoara, Sboghițești and Slatina. The commune is located in the northern part of the county, on the border with Brașov Co ...
. During the visit, she told reporters, "When these wretched Communists came to power, they took everything from us, the land, the wooden carts — the hair off our heads. Still, what they could not take was our soul." Rizea died in 2003 of
viral pneumonia Viral pneumonia is a pneumonia caused by a virus. Pneumonia is an infection that causes inflammation in one or both of the lungs. The pulmonary alveoli fill with fluid or pus making it difficult to breathe. Pneumonia can be caused by bacteria, vir ...
, at a hospital in Pitești.


Legacy

In a 2006
poll Poll, polled, or polling may refer to: Figurative head counts * Poll, a formal election ** Election verification exit poll, a survey taken to verify election counts ** Polling, voting to make decisions or determine opinions ** Polling places o ...
conducted by
Romanian Television Televiziunea Română (), more commonly referred to as TVR , is the short name for Societatea Română de Televiziune ("Romanian Television Society"; SRTV), the Romanian public television. It operates six channels: TVR1, TVR2, TVR3, TVR Info, ...
to identify the " 100 greatest Romanians of all time", she came in 58th. When there was a proposal to build a monument in memory of the anti-communist resistance, Rizea's name was the first on the list, and received the most support from Romanian civic organizations. As of 2019, there are plans to turn her house in Nucșoara into a museum. Streets in Iași, Nucșoara,
Timișoara ), City of Roses ( ro, Orașul florilor), City of Parks ( ro, Orașul parcurilor) , image_map = Timisoara jud Timis.svg , map_caption = Location in Timiș County , pushpin_map = Romania#Europe , pushpin_ ...
, and
Voluntari Voluntari () is a town in Ilfov County, Muntenia, Romania. It is located at a distance of 1 km from the northern border of Bucharest (on the DN2 road towards Urziceni) and is thus frequently viewed as a suburb of Bucharest. The population ...
are named after Rizea.


References


External links


Website dedicated to the memory of Elisabeta Rizea
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rizea, Elisabeta 1912 births 2003 deaths 20th-century Romanian women 21st-century Romanian women Members of the Romanian anti-communist resistance movement Romanian women activists People from Argeș County Members of the Romanian Orthodox Church People detained by the Securitate Romanian torture victims Inmates of Pitești prison Deaths from pneumonia in Romania