Elisabeta Rizea

Fought against the communist regime from the mountains

Elisabeta Rizea was a Romanian peasant woman who joined an anti-communist resistance group in the ’50s. In Romania, unlike Poland and Czechoslovakia, there was little organised resistance, but there were small isolated resistance groups in the mountains.

Rizea’s uncle was killed by the secret police. It was one of the reasons for her to join the resistance. She provided the resistance fighters with money and food, and because she also spied on the government, she could provide the resistance with crucial information.

The status quo in Elisabeta Rizea’s time:

Between 500 000 and 2 million Romanians were killed by the communist regime.

At its height, the Securitate, communist Romania’s notorious secret police, employed some 11 000 agents. It was one of the most brutal secret police forces in the world, responsible for the arrest, torture, and death of thousands.

Half a million citizen-informers spied on their neighbours, colleagues and relatives (in a country with a population of 22 million by 1985).

It was a hard life for people who opposed the regime. They were permanently threatened and severely restricted in their daily lives. Elisabeta Rizea was imprisoned at various times, and endured torture that handicapped her for the rest of her life. But she never betrayed her comrades who were fighting to give the Romanian people a just life.

After the fall of the Soviet Union Rizea’s story became known to the public. It changed the image of the role of women, once considered passive, under the authoritarian regime. Rizea represented those women who fought against the oppressor and suffered the consequences.

THE PRESENT