Serghei Nicolau (born Sergey Nikonov; 22 September 1905–1999) was a Romanian communist espionage chief and a Securitate general.
[1] His studies abroad, in Brussels and Marseille, were paid for, and in the latter city, he was part of the local French Communist Party leadership.
[1] In December 1937 he was arrested with the entire ring (including his brothers, Alexandru and Valerian Nicanov) and was sentenced to hard labor for life for having collected and transmitted to the GRU secret military information.
[7] In October 1949, the former communist Minister of Justice Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu and his wife, Elena, were handed over to the SSI for questioning on the personal order of Gheorghiu-Dej, acting on instructions from Aleksandr Sakharovsky, the chief MGB adviser to the Ministry of the Interior.
Nicolau protested this practice to Gheorghiu-Dej, who refused to intervene, since he was seeking at the time the support of the Soviets in his campaign against the Ana Pauker faction of the PCR.
As a result, Nicolau was removed as head of the SSI on 6 January 1953, and replaced by Vasile Vâlcu [ro];[3] according to Pintilie, he was punished by the Soviets "in some way that remained between them.