Siguranța
Directorate of Police and General Safety Direcția Poliției și Siguranței Generale | |
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Common name | Siguranța Statului |
Agency overview | |
Formed | March 25, 1908 |
Dissolved | 30 August 1948 |
Superseding agency | Department of State Security |
Jurisdictional structure | |
National agency | ROU |
Operations jurisdiction | ROU |
General nature | |
Operational structure | |
Headquarters | Bucharest |
Parent agency | Ministry of Administration and Interior |
Siguranța was the generic name for the successive secret police services in the Kingdom of Romania. The official title of the organization changed throughout its history, with names including Directorate of the Police and General Safety (Template:Lang-ro), the Secret Intelligence Service (Template:Lang-ro), the Special Intelligence Service (Template:Lang-ro) or simply the Intelligence Service (Template:Lang-ro),
History
Created in 1908, in the aftermath of a major peasant revolt, it acted as a political police, supervising, infiltrating and trying to dismantle political groupings considered undesirable by the Romanian governments. Changing its structure several times during the first half of the 20th century, it was ultimately disbanded in 1948, when Romania became a people's republic. Siguranța's role, as well as a large part of its employees, were integrated into the newly founded Department of State Security ("Securitate").