Iulian Vlad (; 21 February 1931 – 30 September 2017) was a Romanian government official and last director of the

Securitate The Department of State Security (), commonly known as the Securitate (, ), was the secret police agency of the Socialist Republic of Romania. It was founded on 30 August 1948 from the '' Siguranța'' with help and direction from the Soviet MG ...

secret police force from 1987 to 1989. He was the Securitate's director during the

Romanian revolution The Romanian revolution () was a period of violent Civil disorder, civil unrest in Socialist Republic of Romania, Romania during December 1989 as a part of the revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several countries around the world, primarily ...

Early life

Iulian Vlad was born on 21 February 1931 in Gogoșița in the

Kingdom of Romania The Kingdom of Romania () was a constitutional monarchy that existed from with the crowning of prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as King of Romania, King Carol I of Romania, Carol I (thus beginning the Romanian royal family), until 1947 wit ...

. His parents were Nicolae and Eugenia Vlad. Vlad joined the

Romanian Communist Party The Romanian Communist Party ( ; PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave an ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that would replace the social system ...

in 1946 at the age of 15. He attended the

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest (UB) () is a public university, public research university in Bucharest, Romania. It was founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princely Academy of Bucharest, P ...

and later graduated from the Serbian Marxist-Leninist University.

Security career

Vlad became an employee for the

, the

secret police image:Putin-Stasi-Ausweis.png, 300px, Vladimir Putin's secret police identity card, issued by the East German Stasi while he was working as a Soviet KGB liaison officer from 1985 to 1989. Both organizations used similar forms of repression. Secre ...

force of

Socialist Republic of Romania The Socialist Republic of Romania (, RSR) was a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist One-party state, one-party socialist state that existed officially in Romania from 1947 to 1989 (see Revolutions of 1989). From 1947 to 1965, the state was ...

, in 1951. During

Nicolae Ceaușescu Nicolae Ceaușescu ( ; ; – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian politician who was the second and last Communism, communist leader of Socialist Romania, Romania, serving as the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 u ...

's rule, Vlad became a military education specialist in the

Ministry of Internal Affairs An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law enforcement. In some states, the i ...

. In 1977, Vlad became the director of counterintelligence. In 1983, Vlad served as the deputy minister of internal affairs. On 22 November 1984, Vlad became a member of the Great National Assembly representing Domnești. The following month, he was given the rank of

colonel general Colonel general is a military rank used in some armies. It is particularly associated with Germany, where historically General officer#Old European system, general officer ranks were one grade lower than in the Commonwealth and the United States, ...

. On 5 October 1987, Vlad was appointed as the director of the Securitate, succeeding Tudor Postelnicu. During the 1989

, Vlad pledged his allegiance to Ceaușescu and ordered the Securitate to crush anti-Ceaușescu protestors, imprisoning and killing many in the process. Ceaușescu ordered forces loyal to his government to fire live ammunition at protestors, but Vlad had Securitate forces use blank rounds instead. Vlad later proclaimed that he had joined the revolutionaries' side, but his loyalty was questioned as he did not order Securitate forces to stop attacking the protestors. The revolution was ultimately successful. On 22 December 1989, Vlad was arrested and removed from his positions as director of the Securitate and as a member of the Great National Assembly. Vlad was charged with "complicity to

genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...

" and faced

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life impr ...

, but the chargers were later downgraded to "favoring genocide". Vlad was convicted and sentenced to nine years imprisonment in 1991 and had his rank of colonel general revoked. He appealed the conviction but it was upheld. In 1992, he was further convicted of "aggravative murder" and sentenced to three years' imprisonment. Vlad served four years of his sentenced before being released in 1994.

Later life and death

After Vlad's release from prison, he participated in business negotiations between Romania and China. Vlad died on 30 September 2017 to

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vlad, Iulian 1931 births 2017 deaths People from Dolj County 20th-century Romanian politicians Members of the Great National Assembly Romanian Communist Party politicians Romanian police chiefs Romanian politicians convicted of crimes Securitate generals