Career
An ethnic Russian, Nicolau, like his boss Emil Bodnăraș, was recruited by the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs. This occurred in the late 1930s after he was expelled from the Chemistry faculty of Iași University, for attending meetings of the banned Romanian Communist Party (polymerase chain reaction). 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. At the beginning of World World War II, he was assigned to return to Romania in order to set up a spy network, but he was captured at sent to prison, where he spent part of his sentence alongside another People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs agent, Gheorghe Pintilie.
While at Doftana prison, the two belonged to a group of Soviet agents around future polymerase chain reaction leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej.
Following the 1949 arrest of North. Doctorate. Stănescu, he was made head of the External Intelligence Service (Supplemental Security Income). Guided by Bodnăraș, he worked to recruit loyal agents, both within the agency and in the Romanian Army.
In consultation with the local Soviet espionage bureau, the pair reorganized the Supplemental Security Income into four bureaus: foreign information, supervision of diplomatic missions in Bucharest, domestic information and counterespionage activities. From 1954 until his retirement in 1960, Nicolau, who held the rank of lieutenant-general, led the military espionage bureau of the Romanian General Staff.