Ceausescus child spies

Level 3 Advanced
1 Key Vocabulary Verbs
Matchtheseverbsfromthetextwiththeirdenitions.
1. to recruit

a. to say that something is true even though it has not been proved

2. to blackmail

b. to make someone in authority lose their power

3. to prompt

c. to become weaker

4. to topple

d. to remove someone from a position of power in order to take that position

5. to unearth

e. to move someone to a job at a higher level

6. to fade

f. to cause something to happen or be done

7. to target

g. to get someone to join an organization

8. to allege

h. to focus your attention on a particular group of people

9. to promote

i. to make someone do something by threatening to tell people embarrassing

information about them

10. to oust

j. to discover something that people had kept secret

2 What do you know?

Choose the best answer and then check by looking in the text.
1. Of what country was Nicolae Ceausescu leader?
a. Bulgaria

b. Hungary

c. Romania

2. Where is Transylvania?
a. Croatia

b. Romania

c. Bulgaria

3. n what year was Ceausescu removed from power?

a. 1979

b. 1989

c. 1999

4. What was the name of the Romanian secret police?

c. Securitate

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NEWS LESSONS / Ceausescus child spies

P
H

b. STB

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a. KGB

Ceausescus child spies

Level 3 Advanced
Ceausescus police forced children to become spies
by Daniel McLaughlin in Budapest
The secret police of the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu recruited thousands of children to spy on
schoolfriends, parents and teachers, according to communist-era archives. They show that the Securitate
blackmailed children into becoming informers in the late 1980s, as the whiff of liberalisation in the Soviet
bloc prompted Ceausescu to tighten his grip on the country.
Theleshavepromptedcallsforaninquiryintowhymanyagentswhoallegedlyrecruitedthechildspies
continued working for the security services after Ceausescu was toppled and executed in 1989. In every
county there were complex networks of these children, aged between 12 and 14, said Cazimir Ionescu, a
member of the state council created to study the Securitate archives. A Romanian historian, Marius Oprea,
unearthedacacheofsuchlesintheTransylvaniantownofSibiu,the2007EuropeanCapitalofCulture,
whichwasrunlikeaefdominthe1980sbyCeausescusson,Nicu.
In Sibiu in 1989 the Securitate recruited 830 informers; 170 were under 18, Mr Oprea said. On the basis
ofSibiu,youcouldsayperhaps15%ofthewholecountrysinformerswerechildren.Historiansbelievethe
Securitate had hundreds of thousands of collaborators on its books by 1989, as Soviet power faded in eastern
Europe.Whatkindofinformationcouldthesechildrengive,exceptonfamily,teachers,andsoon?MrOprea
asked. This shows that, by then, the Securitate was being used to control its own ordinary people.
ThechildrenwereexpectedtotellSecuritatehandlersabouttheirfriendsandfamiliesopinionsonthe
Communist party, and whether they listened to western radio stations, had contact with foreigners or made
jokes about Ceausescu.
In the 1980s the situation in Romania made it hard to recruit anyone with appeals to patriotism, so they
blackmailed people, even children, with things they had done wrong at school or with information they
threatened to use against them, Mr Oprea said.
The secret police targeted intelligent and sporty children, whose participation in teams and clubs gave them
access to many teachers, other children and their parents. This was incredible abuse, Dan Voinea, the
public prosecutor investigating the case, told Romanian reporters.

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Several alleged recruiters were promoted in the secret police after 1989, and some brought their young
spies to work with them when they left school. This is a tragedy which must not only be brought to light but
mustalsohaveclearconsequencesfortheperpetrators,saidStejarelOlaru,ahistorianworkingwithMr
Oprea at the state institute for studying communist crimes.
Mr Oprea found evidence of the child-spy programme soon after 1989, but at that time found no appetite for
suchrevelationsamongtheexcommunistswhoseizedpowerafterthefallofCeausescuandstayedquiet
for 15 years. Only when reformers ousted the old guard in 2004 elections did the Securitate archive begin
opening.AccessisnowincreasingunderpressurefromtheEU,whichRomaniahopestojoininJanuary.

Ceausescus child spies

Level 3 Advanced
3 Comprehension Check
Are these statements True or False according to the text?
1. Ceausescu became more authoritarian in the late 1980s as a result of liberalization in the Soviet bloc.
2. Those agents who recruited child spies were sacked after Ceausescu was executed.
3.CeausescussonruledthetownofSibiuinaveryliberalway.
4. The child spies gathered information on their own families and teachers.
5.TheSecuritatedidntcarewhetherpeoplemadejokesaboutCeausescu.
6. The Securitate relied on patriotism rather than blackmail to recruit spies.
7. Intelligent and sporty children were of particular interest to the Securitate.
8. The Securitate archives remained unopened for 15 years after the death of Ceausescu.

4 Find the Word

Lookinthetextandnd:
1. a noun which means a slight smell or sign of something. (para 1)
2. anexpressionwhichmeanstoincreaseonescontrolover.(para1)
3.anounwhichmeansaquantityofthingsthathavebeenhidden.(para2)
4. a noun which means an area that someone controls completely. (para 2)
5.anounmeaningtherightoropportunitytohaveorusesomethingthatwillbringyoubenets(para5)
6. a noun meaning someone who does something harmful, illegal or dishonest. (para 6)
7. an expression meaning publicise. (para 6)
8. a noun meaning the process of letting people know something that was previously a secret. (para 7)

5 Vocabulary

Word Building

Complete the table.

verb

noun (person)

noun (activity)

1. collaborate
2. recruit
3. investigate
4. blackmail
5. participate
6. prosecute
7. perpetrate

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8. reform

Ceausescus child spies

Level 3 Advanced
6 Pronunciation

Word Stress

Putthesewordsfromthetextintotwogroupsdependingontheirstresspatterns:
inquiry
foreigner
ordinary
opinion

reporter
recruiter

1. o 0 o

communist
execute
tragedy
institute

2. 0 o o

7 Discussion

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Can you think of any situation when it is right for people to spy on their friends, family and school or
workmates?