Emil Calmanovici

Emil Calmanovici (March 1896 – March 12, 1956) was a Romanian engineer, businessman, and communist militant. Known for the financial support he gave to the Romanian Communist Party (PCR) during the late 1930s and early 1940s, he became a political prisoner of the Communist regime after being implicated in the show trial of his collaborator Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu. Calmanovici died in mysterious circumstances in Aiud Prison, while on recovery from a hunger strike.

Biography

Early life and financial success Born to a Jewish family in Piatra Neamț, he was the son of Mendel and his wife Ana, who ran a business in the town. A graduate of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and the University of Berlin, where he was confronted with the establishment of the Nazi regime and became an avid reader of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin,

By the end of World War II, when they were nationalized, his properties included two construction enterprises, additional shares in a logging company centered in his native town, seven apartments, and over 18,000 m2 in Bucharest real estate.

Party financier According to Calmanovici's statements, he had contributed massive sums to various PCR enterprises between 1937 (the year when he joined the group) and 1944, being responsible for the purchase of a printing press, the renovation of the Central Committee seat in Bucharest, a clandestine radio station, and a kindergarten for children of party members. He estimated that his investments totaled 30 million lei in 1942 currency, which he argued was over 75% of his total income. Calmanovici forwarded his information to the PCR's Remus Koffler, which helped the group approach and influence the PNȚ leader Iuliu Maniu to form an alliance against Antonescu (one which enlisted support from the Soviet Union).

Arrest Relations between Calmanovici and the PCR degenerated abruptly toward the end of the 1940s, and he was arrested by the Securitate on May 26, 1951.

Calmanovici stated that, early on, authorities had presented him with the claim that he was kept in custody in order to aid in the process of compiling a history of the PCR. Starting in summer 1951, he was subject to a series of Securitate interrogations, which concluded that he had not contributed to hostile activities and that he was able to support his case with "sufficient guarantees".

In several appeals to the PCR leadership (Gheorghiu-Dej, Pîrvulescu, Chivu Stoica, Emil Bodnăraș and others) Calmanovici repeatedly stated his innocence and dismissed accusations that he was a bourgeois figure with insufficient political education.

Confession and trial In February 1953, Calmanovici gave in to Securitate violence and presented operatives with a fabricated account, stating that he had been part of a network of spies presided over by Milton (a name he came up with after recalling the 17th-century poet John Milton).

Consequently, Calmanovici was indicted in Pătrășcanu's 1954 trial, where, despite early promises, the court ultimately sentenced him to life imprisonment and forced labor. The sentence was given on counts of crime against peace and high treason. A guard was instructed to approach him and earn his confidence, to the point where Calmanovici trusted him with carrying out a message he had written on linens; addressed to his former employees and meant to be forwarded to Jewish communists in the Western world, these exposed the fallacies and major irregularities of his trial.

Rehabilitation and legacy Like all defendants in the Pătrășcanu trial, Calmanovici was rehabilitated in April 1968 by Nicolae Ceaușescu, following a change in policy which was meant to discredit his deceased predecessor, Gheorghiu-Dej, and the former Securitate chief, Alexandru Drăghici.

The new inquiry, overseen by Ion Popescu-Puțuri, found that Calmanovici had been the victim of systematic abuse. Among others, it was established that Calmanovici's arrest had been operated on the basis of Gheorghiu-Dej's personal views, that the charges had for long not been communicated to Calmanovici, that Soviet agents had openly intervened in interrogations, and that, like virtually all other defendants, he had been repeatedly beaten and otherwise tortured to ensure a forced confession.

Calmanovici's son became a resident and later a citizen of Sweden, becoming known under the name Gad Calmgran. He worked as a journalist, and was a collaborator for the newspaper Dagens Nyheter.