After he retired in March 2023, military prosecutor General Catalin Ranco Pitu began an extensive media tour. Among his first and most important stops was a 16 May 2023 interview by journalist Ion Cristoiu (alias “Coroiu,” his alleged codename as an informer for the communist era secret police, Securitate, of Nicolae Ceausescu; I have detailed on this site how Cristoiu launched the journalistic careers of former Securitate influencers–Angela Bacescu, Pavel Corut (aka Paul Cernescu), G.I. Olbojan, etc.). [Cristoiu supported and promoted the “suveranist,” far right, Trumpist cause of AUR Presidential Candidate George Simion in the 2025 Romanian Presidential Election.]

Asked by Cristoiu about the new documents Pitu had studied, Pitu references a series of documents declassified/”desecretized” and delivered to the Military Procuracy in 2017/2018. Because of how Pitu discusses and presents these documents, it is quite clear which file in the so called Dosarul Revolutiei (File of the Revolution) Pitu is talking about. Pitu could say that the documents prepared by various “Army structures”–which he identifies as military aviation, anti-aircraft defense, tank regiments, infantry, the marines–say one thing, but the military prosecutors determined through additional depositions and study that their claims and allegations did not hold up to closer scrutiny. But, no! Pitu instead makes the bombastic claim that “every Army structure…structures…prepared their own very thorough analyses after January 1990 about what happened hour by hour during the Revolution…their conclusions are phenomenal…EACH AND EVERY MATERIAL SHOWS THAT THE TERRORISTS [COUNTERREVOLUTIONARY CEAUSESCU LOYALISTS] DID NOT EXIST…” (from approximately min. 25:30-26:00 in the link below)

It is a brazen, childish and almost child-like claim. The documents in fact argue completely the opposite of what Pitu claims. Pitu seems to assume no one will ever see or read or study the documents he is referencing. He is wrong. Pitu and his believers and supporters are able to continue their media campaign because of access to personalities and platforms, where they never face anything even approaching challenging questions.

Were Pitu to admit that the military concluded exactly the opposite, as they did, then he could be forced to explain the discrepancy. What caused military prosecutors to claim differently? What changed over time and when did it change? It is simply easier to lie and to assume that no one will ever see what these “Army structures” argued.

Below documents from #17 from the Table of Contents at the start of this post. As we will see in a future post, Pitu refers to the document “Constatari” from #15 above in both the Indictment (Rechizitoriul, 2022) and in his book, Ruperea blestemului (2024). So it would be difficult for Pitu to argue that he did not receive or see the following document. Even more than many of the other documents in this 2017/2018 tranche, this document was not in the immediate wake of December 1989. In fact, it is dated December 1992, three full years after the Revolution. The seductive deconstructionist Western academic obsession with “(false) myths” resulting from the confusion and suspicion of the moment and on public narratives designed to influence public opinion, thus faces a real challenge with an internal study, not designed for public distribution, three years after the events.