Confiscated group photograph of Inochentists Romania
Item
Title
Confiscated group photograph of Inochentists Romania
Fotografie de grup a inochentiștilor confiscată România
Description
This confiscated photograph was included in a personal file of an Inochentist leader alongside several others collated by the Romanian Securitate. The image shows the male leader flanked by two women from the community. Such group and community photographs feature heavily amongst the corpus of confiscated images in the secret police archives in Romania as for the secret police they were a convenient means of tracing networks and personal relationships of the religious underground.
The case file does not state when the images were confiscated but from an Informer Report that appears elsewhere in the personal file we learn that in February 1965 the members of a “sisterhood” of Inochentist women were being investigated by the Securitate because of their links to the leader in the photograph, a “Saint” referred to by his flock as the prophet “Elisha” with the initials C.A. The informer, “Dan Gheorghe” (not his real name), who had either infiltrated the group or been recruited from within it, after a conversation with the “sisters” reported the following:
“She [one of the leaders of the group] told me that the militia man [who lived next door to her] got hold of a photograph of her with C. A. and M. and that if she is asked by the militia if she knows C. A., that she won’t say no because the militia have the photograph, but if she is asked about other “brothers” in the group she will say nothing even if they cut her into pieces. I asked her how the photograph reached the militia and she told me that she was photographed together with those I mentioned above, then she sent the photograph to C. A. through the post and in this way the militia had made a copy of the photograph” (CNSAS I 237454, vol. 3, 57.).
This short extract from the Informers Report tells us a lot about the biography of this particular photograph revealing how the image was produced by members of the community, how it was shared, how it was intercepted by the secret police and finally how it was transformed into incriminating evidence that could be used to identify members of the underground community. This example serves to illustrate the text/image relationship as the Informers Report engages the photograph as evidence of the meeting with C.A. The image, however, is in stark contrast to the text that describes it; the text incriminates and implicates the image in a conspiratorial narrative, whereas the intention of the producers of the image was to commemorate a significant act of devotion to the group’s spiritual leader, which they preserved despite the risk that the photograph posed to the community.
Three copies of a photograph, together with a number of others, appear compiled on a single page of the secret police file and are described as “photographs of the elements [meaning the individuals under surveillance] from the operation of group no. 70.”
For related entries see:
The case file does not state when the images were confiscated but from an Informer Report that appears elsewhere in the personal file we learn that in February 1965 the members of a “sisterhood” of Inochentist women were being investigated by the Securitate because of their links to the leader in the photograph, a “Saint” referred to by his flock as the prophet “Elisha” with the initials C.A. The informer, “Dan Gheorghe” (not his real name), who had either infiltrated the group or been recruited from within it, after a conversation with the “sisters” reported the following:
“She [one of the leaders of the group] told me that the militia man [who lived next door to her] got hold of a photograph of her with C. A. and M. and that if she is asked by the militia if she knows C. A., that she won’t say no because the militia have the photograph, but if she is asked about other “brothers” in the group she will say nothing even if they cut her into pieces. I asked her how the photograph reached the militia and she told me that she was photographed together with those I mentioned above, then she sent the photograph to C. A. through the post and in this way the militia had made a copy of the photograph” (CNSAS I 237454, vol. 3, 57.).
This short extract from the Informers Report tells us a lot about the biography of this particular photograph revealing how the image was produced by members of the community, how it was shared, how it was intercepted by the secret police and finally how it was transformed into incriminating evidence that could be used to identify members of the underground community. This example serves to illustrate the text/image relationship as the Informers Report engages the photograph as evidence of the meeting with C.A. The image, however, is in stark contrast to the text that describes it; the text incriminates and implicates the image in a conspiratorial narrative, whereas the intention of the producers of the image was to commemorate a significant act of devotion to the group’s spiritual leader, which they preserved despite the risk that the photograph posed to the community.
Three copies of a photograph, together with a number of others, appear compiled on a single page of the secret police file and are described as “photographs of the elements [meaning the individuals under surveillance] from the operation of group no. 70.”
For related entries see:
Această fotografie confiscată a fost inclusă în dosarul personal al unui lider inochentist alături de alte câteva fotografii colaționate de Securitate. Imaginea îl reprezintă pe lider flancat de două femei din cadrul comunității. Astfel de fotografii de grup, respectiv ale membrilor comunității constituie o proporție importantă din întregul corpus de imagini confiscate și păstrate în arhivele poliției secrete din România, ele fiind un mijloc la îndemână prin care poliția secretă urmărea rețelele și relațiile personale din cadrul religiilor clandestine.
Dosarul nu precizează când au fost confiscate imaginilor, dar, din raportul unui informator care apare în altă secțiune a aceluiași dosarul personal, aflăm că în februarie 1965 membrele unui grup de „surori” inochentiste au fost investigate de Securitate din cauza legăturilor cu liderul din fotografie, un „Sfânt” pe care adepții săi îl numeau profetul „Elisha” sau C. A. Informatorul, sub numele fictiv „Dan Gheorghe”, care fie se infiltrase în grup, fie fusese recrutat de Securitate din interior, raporta următoarele în urma unei conversații cu „surorile”: “Mi-a spus apoi că miliția a prins fotografie de a ei cu C.A. și M. și că dacă ea va fi întrebată de miliție dacă-l cunoaște pe C.A., nu poate să spună că nu, deoarece miliția are fotografia respectivă, însă dacă va fi întrebată și alți “frați” din grupare nu va spune nimic chiar dacă taie bucățele din ea. Am întrebat-o cum de a ajuns fotografia lor la miliție și mi-a spus că ea s-a fotografiat împreună cu cei de mai sus, și apoi a trimis fotografia lui C.A. prin poștă și în felul acesta miliția ți-a scos o copie după fotografia lor.”(CNSAS I 237454, vol. 3, 57).
Acest scurt fragment din nota informativă ne oferă informații importante despre biografia acestei fotografii, respectiv felul în care imaginea a fost produsă de membrii grupului, apoi distribuită, interceptată de poliția secretă și, în final, a devenit probă incriminatorie, fiind folosită pentru identificarea membrilor comunității clandestine. Acest exemplu ilustrează raportul dintre text și imagine în măsura în care, în nota informativă, fotografia figurează ca dovadă a întâlnirii cu C. A. În schimb, imaginea contrastează puternic cu textul care o descrie; textul incriminează și implică imaginea într-o intrigă conspirativă, în timp ce intenția celor care au produs imaginea a fost de a comemora un gest de devotament substanțial față de liderul spiritual, păstrând astfel memoria gestului în ciuda riscului pe care fotografia îl reprezenta pentru comunitate.
Trei cópii ale fotografiei, alături de alte câteva, apar compilate pe o singură filă din dosarul poliției secrete, însoțite de descrierea: „fotografii ale elementelor [indivizii] din operațiunea de grup nr. 70”.
Pentru rubrici similare, vezi:
Subject
Communism and Religion
Material culture--Religious Aspects
Religious groups
Communism--Romania
Evidence photographs
Confiscations
Communism and Christianity
Communism--History--20th century
Secret police (secret service)
Surveillance
Totalitarianism
Creator
James A. Kapaló
Source
Consiliul Național pentru Studierea Arhivelor Securității (CNSAS)
Publisher
This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme No . 677355
Date
1965
Rights
Copyright for these images belongs to Consiliul Național pentru Studierea Arhivelor Securității - CNSAS
Format
image/tif
Language
RO
Type
image
Identifier
CNSAS I237454 vol.1
Coverage
Romania 20th century
Bibliographic Citation
James A. Kapaló, "Confiscated group photograph of Inochentists Romania"
Date Created
2018
