EVANGHELISTUL (1982–1988)

More than six years between two dates. A numbered file. A cover marked STRICT SECRET. And on the line reserved for a codename, one word: EVANGHELISTUL—the Evangelist. Not “dissident.” Not “subversive.” On this cover, this was the name chosen for the man under surveillance. For me, that is the irony: a label used for surveillance also tells a truth about my father. They wrote a file name. I also read a testimony to who he was. That is my reading, not an intention the document can prove. Informative-surveillance file no. 1782 bears these dates: opened 3 April 1982, closed 2 November 1988. The cover alone does not establish uninterrupted surveillance on every day of those years. A separate document from 1987 uses the phrase “autorul principal din cazul Canalul 80”—“the principal author in the Canalul-80 case.” Those words are not on this cover; they come from another page of the story. Photographed source: CNSAS I 098419, volume 1; archive 83805. The stamp dated 21 January 1982 / 0874 predates the opening date. Its precise administrative meaning is not established here; it is not the 1980 arrest date. Working photograph, not a certified copy.