Military Archives - closed!

[MMM]

Beginning this summer, the Military Archives' insitution in Romania has been severely handicapped. First, some "new" law about the classified documents that says each document is secret until some comission approves its "public disclosure", the "rule of 50 years" being revoked. Of course, any document older than 50 is just formally submitted and could be consulted. The real catch is that everybody working at the Archives was summoned (by the Government) to cease any public relations and get busy on re-calculating the military pensions. The "fun" fact is that everybody who got their pension diminished will sue the Government and most likely get his money back and thus all the work will eventually be for nothing!
Until then, both at Pitesti and at Bucuresti, you have to file a form stating what archive funds you wish to consult, but the answer will be delayed until some unspecified time in the foreseeable future!
AFAIK the "Civilian" State Archives are still working - yet!

This post has been edited by MMM on December 31, 2010 10:46 am

[Radub]

The bit about the "pensions": http://www.gandul.info/news/arhivele-armat...ezolvate-892180

Radu

[MMM]

So even in 2007 (when, BTW, I first visited the military archives in Piteşti) there was "trouble in Paradise"...
The thing about the "pensions" or "retirement paychecks", if it's more politically correct, is that AFAIK the military personnel didn't have (still don't) such a thing as a work carnet in which their income is written, so it's difficult to "guess" what was the correct income for a certain period of time. But are the Military Archives the right institution?!
What about the researchers?

[21 inf]

This is a typical example of romanian authorities paranoia, as it was since forever in Romania.

[MMM]

But now they have the excuse (pretext?!) that "documents are classified according to NATO standards", regardless their age! As if NATO standards apply to 100-years-old documents... The rest of the army is standard, of course!

[Radub]

The "declassification" period differs from one nation to another
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declassification

Once a document is deemed "declassified", it is open to anyone, irrespective of how "embarassing" the information is.

Radu

[MMM]

Both in Pitesti and in Bucharest the guys in charge (actually gals, but... ) told me very clear that the "de-classification" is purely formal, but they don't have the time / manpower for researchers! Not for now...

[Dénes]

MMM was right: "Instanţa supremă a decis definitiv suspendarea aplicării HG 735/2010 privind recalcularea pensiilor stabilite potrivit legislaţiei privind pensiile militare de stat, ale poliţiştilor şi ale funcţionarilor din penitenciare, confirmând astfel o sentinţă a Curţii de Apel (CA) Cluj din septembrie 2010" [Source: Mediafax]

Gen. Dénes

[MMM]

Did they? Anyway, there's the "classified documents" problem, which won't go away so easy. It almost seems that someone ("they") want to limit the access to the military archives...

[MMM]

To "conclude" this thread, after I finally managed to consult some documents in Bucharest: they're not quite closed, but you have to be:
1. very convinced you need something from there, in order to persuade the reluctant personnel
2. very patient, because you need to fil in a lot of paperwork
3. prepared to come to Bucharest (or Pitesti) at least two times before you actually get to see anything.

In the end, I can say that informations are available, but at a high cost!

This post has been edited by MMM on September 05, 2011 03:38 pm

[Arwen]

This topic came as a reply to some of my questions.

Can I still look for info about someone who died? Can anyone request that, if it's about a relative? If I go and say: "I want to see the documents about my grandfather", will I be able to actually see them?

Thanks

[Dénes]

I've been to the Archives in Pitesti 2 weeks ago.
They've changed completely the rules since I was there last time.
This was explained to me the the military unit's commanding officer himself.

If a document was classified as Secret at any point of time, it is now considered also secret. That particular document has to go in front of a committee to be de-secretised (or not). This may take many months, if not years.
I don't know where this leads, but certainly not towards making the historians' lives easier...

I suggest you to write to the archives and tell them what you're after. If your relative was an officer and you can prove you're a close relative of his, you might have a chance. Otherwise not really.

Gen. Dénes

This post has been edited by Dénes on April 18, 2012 06:43 pm

[MMM]

Really late edit: I've just received a letter from the archives announcing me that "the operations of archivistic de-classification" were finalized and thus I may "present myself at the study hall of the institution"...
This should've been funny if it weren't for a couple of facts:
1. There are almost two years since I've made the request (december 2010), which has made the request pretty obsolete, given the fact that a PHD thesis is to be elaborated within three years...
2. My PHD attendant has not survived their speedy request, as he unfortunately passed away last week Professor Ciuperca has passed away
3. I've found some data at Bucharest's archives at the Ministry of Defense.
I might present myself there, anyway, later this month...

This post has been edited by MMM on November 03, 2012 05:14 pm