Archives: THE MOTORCYCLE OF AIUD(9.04.2007) (2007-08-20) Last updated: 2007-08-20 19:09 EET Print

In communist prisons, which will never be described extensively enough for us to understand what really happened inside, detainees fought hard to survive, both physically and psychologically. The late philosopher Petre Tutea recollected how, exhausted after long labour hours and tortured by investigators, the detainees could still find the strength to engage in conversations, to give lectures on history, philosophy, theology, politics and law. They did all that in order not to fall prey to despair and learnt new things from each other to keep their mind active. Additionally, some of them even wrote poetry and composed music.



The detainees who were engineers by profession, used their professional knowledge, even if they didnt have the necessary equipment, to implement their ideas. An example of devotion to ones profession in inhuman detention conditions was given by three prisoners, aeronautical engineers who created a motorcycle in the Aiud prison. The team made up of engineer Adrian Stambuleanu, a former technical director at the Romanian Plane Manufacturing Plant, IAR Brasov, central Romania, colonel engineer Costel Nicolau, former technical director of the Romanian aeronautical industry during the war and engineer Sorin Tulea, test pilot at IAR Brasov set an example of devotion to their profession, as you can rarely see. They were helped by 30 other detainees, former skilled workers in plane manufacturing factories.



In the summer of 1954, the three engineers were called by the commander of the prison, after he had received a strange letter. The Interior Ministry had called on the head of the prison to set up a team of specialists from among the detainees and provide them with the necessary tools to manufacture a motorcycle. The team was set up and a special hall was equipped with precision equipment that the detainees had asked for. The equipment included among others a treatment furnace, a high precision lathe, an all- purpose cutter, a planer, a valve rectifying machine, measurement and control devices and a lay-out table.



Our guest, engineer Sorin Tulea, recollects his state of psychical degradation at the start of the project. The recording was made back in 2000 by our colleagues from the centre of Oral History of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation.



In March 1954, I was very depressed, my state of mind was by far worse than the dramatic atmosphere in prison. The cause of my misery was my finding out that engineer Constantin Matasaru, former president of the Managing Board of the Romanian Star Oil Company had died in the prisons infirmary. He was part of the so-called group of oil specialists who were sentenced to lifetime forced labour in Aiud. I pulled some strings and I managed to get to the prisons morgue, to light a candle for him. I had made the candle from the tallow we used to grease driving belts. I had to chase away a rat which was nibbling at poor old Costica Matasarus ear. He had been my mothers husband and had practically raised me, and made me an honest man.



The engineers divided their work. Stambuleanu, an authority in thermal engines, had to make the thermal and endurance calculations and work out the general idea of the engine. Nicolau had to design the 4 gear and clutch box and also the change (speed) gear. Tulea had to make the drawings of the whole device, its sub-system, engine, including the ignition, carburattion, conveyance, brakes and suspension. In August 1955, the motorcycle was ready. On the testing stand, the engine had 8000 rotations per minute; Tulea was the one who tested it for two days in the factorys courtyard.



Sorin Tulea recalls the curious inspections made before the motorcycles completion.



With colonel Koller, a stern yet objective man, coming to the head of the prison, a series of inspections made by a group of Securitate colonels started. They came in groups of 5- or -6 and all of them were biologically standardized so to say: they were short, thick-set, short-legged, with long hands, a thick neck and fallen jaws. Sometimes these people were accompanied by 2-3 men in civilian clothes who were obviously different. Their stiff attitude towards us and their companions was a give-away: these people were Russians. I was amazed by the interest they took in the building of our motorcycle design. We dubbed them Moscows eyes and we started getting suspicious over the fact that the motorcycle had political implications. We got even more suspicious when in early August such a Russian-Romanian group came with three photographers who took pictures of us all from all angles, as well as of the motorcycle that was not finished yet. Why did they took pictures of us? It was obvious these Russians didnt come to Aiud to take pictures for their albums, but to show those pictures to the others. But to whom? And to what purpose?



In 1996, 42 years on from the event, Sorin Tulea found the explanation for the Interior Ministrys weird desire that the prisoners build a motorcycle.



A major political event occurred in the summer of 1955, when in middle of the Cold War, the Russians tried to improve their relations with the United States. They started preparations for this project in the summer of 1954. The US delegation was to meet the Russians in Geneva. It was necessary for the Russians to produce evidence that they were not as savage as it was rumored and that all the accusations leveled against them were unjustified. To prove that, the Russians, experts in forging photos, came with a series of snapshots. This is the only explanation for the presence of the Russian photographers in Aiud in August 1955, when the motorcycle was almost finished. This also explains the Russians annoyance at the prisoners failure to meet the deadline. The coincidence between the two dates was much too evident: in the summer of 1954 the Russian commenced preparations for a meeting with the Americans. This was also the year that saw the beginning of the aberrant works for the construction of that motor bike. The summer of 1955 and the completion of these works in a tense atmosphere and in the presence of the Russian photographers coincided with the US-Soviet meeting in Geneva. So, am I not entitled to believe that the construction of that motor bike, by Stambuleanu, Nicolau and me was politically motivated? I do believe it was politically motivated. Otherwise we cannot explain the mobilization of technical experts in Aiud for the completion of that project; there is also no other explanation for the report made by the Russians either.



After his release, engineer Stambuleanu claimed the bike, which was finally given to him. And after his death, the rusty bike was saved from the scrape yard by Sorin Tulea in 1990. Reconditioned, the bike is currently on display at the Memorial of the Victims of Communism located in Sighetul Marmatiei, northern Romania.