Mihail Moruzov
Encyclopedia
Mihail Moruzov was the founder and first head of Romania
's modern domestic espionage agency, the Secret Intelligence Service (SSI), forerunner of today's SRI
.
, Tulcea County
, to Nicolae and Maria Moruzov; he had four brothers and two sisters. The family was of Russian origin, Lipovans
or possibly the descendants of Zaporozhian Cossacks. His grandfather Simion was a priest, as was his father, who served at the Russian church in Tulcea
for forty years.
He was married twice: his first wife's family name was Văraru, and the couple had a daughter, Aurora-Florina; after they divorced, he married Teodora Săndulescu, a professor from Silistra
whom he also divorced. His education was limited, which delayed his permanent appointment as intelligence chief (the position demanded university studies): he was initially paid a daily wage as a temporary employee. In addition to Russian
, which he learned at home, and Romanian
, he knew Ukrainian
, Bulgarian
, Turkish
and Tatar
(languages spoken in his native Dobruja
and the nearby Budjak
).
; the rise of the Iron Guard
; the threat, both internal and external, of Communism, and the increasing authoritarianism of King Carol II
, who, along with other political and military leaders, trusted and stood by Moruzov for his qualities and successes. Self-confident and ambitious, his intrigues included gathering compromising information on certain figures, amplifying and creating new imbroglios, and even betraying the SSI’s activities.
His office was equipped with recording devices (on tapes and discs), bugs, detectors, transparent mirrors, periscopes for indirect observation and sensitive photoelectric cells. His powerful Mercedes-Benz
had a recording device and a two-way radio. After 1936, Moruzov established schools for preparing specialists, such as radio-telegraph operators, photo and film experts, and fingerprinters.
Moruzov had a keen talent for bringing together an impressive network of informants. Horia Sima
was one of these, paid, according to Gheorghe, the brother of his successor Eugen Cristescu
, 200,000 lei
a month. Others included Princess Caradja
(who worked with multiple agencies), Major Cristian Nicolae (a relative of the Brătianu
family), Eugen Titianu (who kept him abreast of events at the newspaper Universul
), Mitiţă Constantinescu
and Victor Iamandi
(who offered information on Dinu Brătianu
and the elder Liberals
), Ghiţă Marincu (who had links to all the main parties), Alexandru Vaida-Voevod
, Nicolae Iorga
(who carried out historical studies for the SSI) and Admiral Ion Coandă. He reserved substantial amounts of money for key figures in the leadership of the Ministry of Defence and the General Staff (one method he used was to rent rooms for them at inflated prices).
His activities drew the ire of Sima and especially Ion Antonescu
, for whose mother, Liţă Baranga, he had drawn up a compromising file, and for whose wife, Maria, he had initiated a bigamy trial. Unfortunately for Moruzov, events in the late summer of 1940 brought his chief adversaries Antonescu and Sima to power as premier (with dictatorial powers) and vice-premier. He was arrested on 6 September 1940 and, before the investigation was complete, was killed in the Jilava Massacre
that 26-27 November, in cell number 1.
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
's modern domestic espionage agency, the Secret Intelligence Service (SSI), forerunner of today's SRI
Serviciul Român de Informatii
The Romanian Intelligence Service is the Romanian domestic intelligence service. It is considered the descendant of the former Departamentul Securităţii Statului , of the Socialist Republic of Romania. The official decree The Romanian Intelligence Service (', SRI) is the Romanian domestic...
.
Early life
Moruzov was born in ZebilSarichioi
Sarichioi is a commune in Tulcea County, Romania. It is composed of five villages: Enisala, Sabangia, Sarichioi, Zebil and Visterna. Besides the ethnic Romanian majority , the commune is home to a sizable Lipovan community ....
, Tulcea County
Tulcea County
Tulcea is a county of Romania, in the historical region Dobruja, with the capital city at Tulcea.-Demographics:In 2002, Tulcea County had a population of 256,492...
, to Nicolae and Maria Moruzov; he had four brothers and two sisters. The family was of Russian origin, Lipovans
Lipovans
Lipovans or Lippovans are the Old Believers, mostly of Russian ethnic origin, who settled in the Moldavian Principality, in Dobruja and Eastern Muntenia...
or possibly the descendants of Zaporozhian Cossacks. His grandfather Simion was a priest, as was his father, who served at the Russian church in Tulcea
Tulcea
Tulcea is a city in Dobrogea, Romania. It is the administrative center of Tulcea county, and has a population of 92,379 as of 2007. One village, Tudor Vladimirescu, is administered by the city.- History :...
for forty years.
He was married twice: his first wife's family name was Văraru, and the couple had a daughter, Aurora-Florina; after they divorced, he married Teodora Săndulescu, a professor from Silistra
Silistra
Silistra is a port city of northeastern Bulgaria, lying on the southern bank of the lower Danube at the country's border with Romania. Silistra is the administrative centre of Silistra Province and one of the important cities of the historical region of Southern Dobrudzha...
whom he also divorced. His education was limited, which delayed his permanent appointment as intelligence chief (the position demanded university studies): he was initially paid a daily wage as a temporary employee. In addition to Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, which he learned at home, and Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
, he knew Ukrainian
Ukrainian language
Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....
, Bulgarian
Bulgarian language
Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
, Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
and Tatar
Tatar language
The Tatar language , or more specifically Kazan Tatar, is a Turkic language spoken by the Tatars of historical Kazan Khanate, including modern Tatarstan and Bashkiria...
(languages spoken in his native Dobruja
Dobruja
Dobruja is a historical region shared by Bulgaria and Romania, located between the lower Danube river and the Black Sea, including the Danube Delta, Romanian coast and the northernmost part of the Bulgarian coast...
and the nearby Budjak
Budjak
Budjak or Budzhak is a historical region in the Odessa Oblast of Ukraine. Lying along the Black Sea between the Danube and Dniester rivers this multiethnic region was the southern part of Bessarabia...
).
Career
From 1917 to 1919 he headed the Dobruja Information and Security Service, then from 1924 to 1940, the Secret Intelligence Service of the Romanian Army, which he was instrumental in creating. His clandestine work took place amid a turbulent backdrop—the socio-economic upheaval following World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
; the rise of the Iron Guard
Iron Guard
The Iron Guard is the name most commonly given to a far-right movement and political party in Romania in the period from 1927 into the early part of World War II. The Iron Guard was ultra-nationalist, fascist, anti-communist, and promoted the Orthodox Christian faith...
; the threat, both internal and external, of Communism, and the increasing authoritarianism of King Carol II
Carol II of Romania
Carol II reigned as King of Romania from 8 June 1930 until 6 September 1940. Eldest son of Ferdinand, King of Romania, and his wife, Queen Marie, a daughter of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second eldest son of Queen Victoria...
, who, along with other political and military leaders, trusted and stood by Moruzov for his qualities and successes. Self-confident and ambitious, his intrigues included gathering compromising information on certain figures, amplifying and creating new imbroglios, and even betraying the SSI’s activities.
His office was equipped with recording devices (on tapes and discs), bugs, detectors, transparent mirrors, periscopes for indirect observation and sensitive photoelectric cells. His powerful Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...
had a recording device and a two-way radio. After 1936, Moruzov established schools for preparing specialists, such as radio-telegraph operators, photo and film experts, and fingerprinters.
Moruzov had a keen talent for bringing together an impressive network of informants. Horia Sima
Horia Sima
Horia Sima was a Romanian fascist politician. After 1938, he was the second and last leader of the fascist and antisemitic para-military movement known as the Iron Guard.-In Romania:...
was one of these, paid, according to Gheorghe, the brother of his successor Eugen Cristescu
Eugen Cristescu
Eugen Cristescu was the second head of the Kingdom of Romania's domestic espionage agency, the Secret Intelligence Service , forerunner of today's SRI. He previously served as head of Siguranţa Statului, the secret police.-Early life:Cristescu was born in Oituz, Bacău County into a large, poor...
, 200,000 lei
Romanian leu
The leu is the currency of Romania. It is subdivided into 100 bani . The name of the currency means "lion". On 1 July 2005, Romania underwent a currency reform, switching from the previous leu to a new leu . 1 RON is equal to 10,000 ROL...
a month. Others included Princess Caradja
Catherine Caradja
Princess Catherine Olympia Caradja was a celebrated Romanian aristocrat and philanthropist. Born in Bucharest, she grew up in England and France, and lived in Romania from 1908 to 1952, when she escaped from the communist regime on a Danube boat...
(who worked with multiple agencies), Major Cristian Nicolae (a relative of the Brătianu
Bratianu
Brătianu is a family of Romanian politicians, founders of the National Liberal Party .They are the following:* Ion Brătianu , PNL president, 1875-1891; Interior Minister, 1867, 1867-1868, 1877-1878, 1878-1879, 1882, 1884-1887; President of the Assembly of Deputies, 1868-1869; Prime Minister,...
family), Eugen Titianu (who kept him abreast of events at the newspaper Universul
Universul
Universul was a mass-circulation newspaper in Romania. It existed from 1884 to 1953, and was run by Stelian Popescu from 1914 to 1943 ....
), Mitiţă Constantinescu
Mitita Constantinescu
Mitiţă Constantinescu was a Romanian economist and liberal politician. He was an advocate of industrialization and a degree of dirigisme.-Biography:...
and Victor Iamandi
Victor Iamandi
Victor Iamandi was a Romanian politician and activist. He served as the Romanian Minister of Justice. He was killed by the Iron Guard during the Jilava Massacre due to the measures he took against the Guard during his ministerial service.-External links:*...
(who offered information on Dinu Brătianu
Dinu Bratianu
Dinu Brătianu , born Constantin I. C. Brătianu, was a Romanian politician, who led the National Liberal Party starting with 1934.-Early career:...
and the elder Liberals
National Liberal Party (Romania)
The National Liberal Party , abbreviated to PNL, is a centre-right liberal party in Romania. It is the third-largest party in the Romanian Parliament, with 53 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 22 in the Senate: behind the centre-right Democratic Liberal Party and the centre-left Social...
), Ghiţă Marincu (who had links to all the main parties), Alexandru Vaida-Voevod
Alexandru Vaida-Voevod
Alexandru Vaida-Voevod or Vaida-Voievod was a Romanian politician who was a supporter and promoter of the union of Transylvania with the Romanian Old Kingdom; he later served three terms as a Prime Minister of Greater Romania.-Transylvanian politics:He was born to a Greek-Catholic family in the...
, Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga was a Romanian historian, politician, literary critic, memoirist, poet and playwright. Co-founder of the Democratic Nationalist Party , he served as a member of Parliament, President of the Deputies' Assembly and Senate, cabinet minister and briefly as Prime Minister...
(who carried out historical studies for the SSI) and Admiral Ion Coandă. He reserved substantial amounts of money for key figures in the leadership of the Ministry of Defence and the General Staff (one method he used was to rent rooms for them at inflated prices).
Downfall
Toward the end of his career, Moruzov’s fascination with the technical aspects of espionage, along with his attitude of indispensability, caused him to neglect his mission of providing intelligence for the nation’s leaders to consider as they saw fit. Eugen Cristescu later wrote: “Moruzov had long become entangled in the network of internal political intrigues [and] had confused political information with politics itself and the informants’ game with the political game. Thus he also fell into the cascade of intrigues between foreign intelligence services that fought for influence in our country”.His activities drew the ire of Sima and especially Ion Antonescu
Ion Antonescu
Ion Victor Antonescu was a Romanian soldier, authoritarian politician and convicted war criminal. The Prime Minister and Conducător during most of World War II, he presided over two successive wartime dictatorships...
, for whose mother, Liţă Baranga, he had drawn up a compromising file, and for whose wife, Maria, he had initiated a bigamy trial. Unfortunately for Moruzov, events in the late summer of 1940 brought his chief adversaries Antonescu and Sima to power as premier (with dictatorial powers) and vice-premier. He was arrested on 6 September 1940 and, before the investigation was complete, was killed in the Jilava Massacre
Jilava Massacre
The Jilava Massacre took place during the night beginning on November 26, 1940, at Jilava penitentiary, near Bucharest, Romania. 64 political detainees were killed by the Iron Guard , with further high-profile assassinations in the immediate aftermath...
that 26-27 November, in cell number 1.