Professional Affiliation

PhD in History, National Council for the Study of Securitate Archives, Bucharest, Romania

Expert Bio

Liviu Taranu is a Romanian historian, a graduate of the Faculty of History of "Al. I. Cuza," Iaşi (1998), and holds a doctorate in history (2006). He is the author of a doctoral thesis on Romania in the Council for Reciprocal Economic Aid (1949-1965). Since 2000, he works as a counselor at the National Council for the Study of Security Archives. He is a member of the Scientific Council of the Institute of the Romanian Revolution and coordinator of the Research Center of the European Foundation Titulescu.

He is the author of dozens of studies on the history of Romanian communism, author volumes and volumes published in collaboration.

He is editor of the "CNSAS Caietele", a journal published in 2008, which publishes studies on the history of the Securitate and the Communist regime in Romania

Wilson Center Project

Repression and Intelligence. Securitate and the Mechanisms of Power in Romania (1948-1989)

Project Summary

The history of the Securitate as a fundamental institution of the communist regime in Romania is closely connected to the Romanian Communist Party’s evolution, the unique leading force of the society for more than four decades. Therefore, neither the origin, nor the functioning or the dissolution of the Securitate, could be analyzed and understood without taking into account the ideological fundaments of the regime that it had served and protected. There are three essential aspects of the history of the Securitate: the personnel and the evolution of the personnel policy, the means and methods of work, respectively the directions of action of the Securitate. But the center of gravity of the research are the objectives, methods and means of work of the Securitate.

Major Publications

Securitatea. 1948-1989, vol. I, Târgoviște,Cetatea de Scaun Publishing House, 2016; 477 p. (with Florian Banu)

Securitatea și intelectualii în România anilor ’80 (Security and intellectuals in Romania of the 80s,) Targoviste, Cetatea de Scaun Publishing House, 2013

"Pe luna decembrie nu mi-am făcut planul…”. Românii în „epoca de aur”. Corespondență din anii ’80, ("On December I did not make my plan ...". Romanians in the "golden age". Correspondence from the 80s), Cetatea de Scaun Publishing House, Târgovişte, 2012.