Mircea Răceanu

His parents were two Transylvanian members of the underground Romanian Communist Party (PCR) in the 1930s: a Romanian worker named Ileana Pop and a Jewish carpenter named Andrei Bernat, who was killed at Rîbnița by Fascists in 1944. Mircea was born in Văcărești Prison, where his mother was sentenced for Communist activities. After World War II, his mother married another old-time Communist, Grigore Răceanu. Răceanu grew up in Bucharest, studying at the Ion Luca Caragiale High School and later in Moscow at the State Institute of International Relations. ==Diplomatic career==

Răceanu started work at a department which dealt with the Romania–United States relations, and with time he was named the chief of this department. In 1969, he started working at the Embassy of Romania in Washington, D.C. and, between 1974 and 1979, he was the first secretary in the same embassy. After returning to Romania, he was the chief of the North America department, which dealt with the United States and Canada. Between 1982 and January 1989, he was the chief of diplomacy department which dealt with the relations with all the countries of the Americas. Răceanu further stated that, during a talk with Rabbi Arthur Schneier, Nicolae Ceaușescu said that he did not actually leak any real secrets, but "betrayed me personally". He was sentenced to death in July 1989, but in September, Ceaușescu commuted the sentence to 20 years of prison. ==After the Revolution==

Răceanu was freed from , Bucharest, on December 23, 1989, during the Romanian Revolution. He also spoke at several political rallies, including one in Bucharest and another at the border with Soviet Moldavia, claiming that the aides of Ceaușescu still held the key positions in the new government. Silviu Brucan, a member of the National Salvation Front, said that he went to the U.S. Embassy in Romania and told a political officer that it would be best if Răceanu would leave for the United States. In the following days, according to Răceanu's declarations, there were two attempts to kill him, after which he decided to move to the United States. Răceanu settled in a Washington, D.C. suburb and became an American citizen in 1992. In 1993, the Romanian court announced that his sentence was still valid, as that he was illegally released in 1989. Six years later, on June 11, 1999, a group of Romanian intellectuals asked that his sentence be overturned because Răceanu was an "anti-Communist fighter"; however, the sentence was reaffirmed, while the deputy attorney general declared that it was "impossible to rehabilitate Mircea Răceanu". A year later, Romania's supreme court of Justice, the High Court of Cassation and Justice, annulled the sentence and cleared Răceanu of all the accusations. He was awarded the National Order of Merit in 2002 by President Ion Iliescu for "helping Romania become a democracy". Răceanu died on April 25, 2026, at the age of 90. ==Publications==

In 2000, a book of his titled ''Infern '89 had a list of the Securitate members among the Romanian diplomats. In 2005, he published in Romania a book named Cronologie comentată a relațiilor româno-americane'', which is a history of relations between Romania and the United States. • Romania Versus the United States: Diplomacy of the Absurd, 1985-1989, with Roger Kirk; Palgrave Macmillan (1994) • România împotriva Statelor Unite: Diplomaţia absurdului, 1895-1989, Silex, Bucharest (1995) (Translation) • ''Infern '89: povestea unui condamnat la moarte'' Silex, Bucharest (2000) • '''' Silex, Bucharest, (2005) ==References==