Securitate

The Securitate (, Romanian for Security) was the popular term for the Departamentul Securității Statului (Department of State Security), the secret police agency of Communist Romania. Previously, the Romanian secret police was called Siguranța Statului. It was founded on August 30th, 1948, with help from the Soviet NKVD. Following the overthrow of Nicolae Ceaușescu in 1989, the DSS lived on until 1991, when Parliament approved a law reorganizing the DSS into various subdivisions.