AT - Abstracts

 Arhivele Totalitarismului 1-2/2009

RADU CIUCEANU, History as Ballast, XXXIII

Radu Ciuceanu, director of the N.I.S.T., president of the N.I.S.T. Scientific Council; Ph.D. in history, also coordinates the research theme The Encyclopedia of the Communist Regime in Romania, 1945-1989. The Anticommunist Resistance. Memoirs: The Seal of the Devil, 2002. Recent book: The Katyn Massacres, N.I.S.T., 2008 (co-author).

Keywords: resistance, repression

CRISTIAN TRONCOTA, Personalities of the Secret Front in Romania: Gheorghe Cristescu

Gheorghe (Gicu) Cristescu was one of the best Romanian secret service specialists in the interwar period and during World War II. Although between November 15, 1940 and August 23, 1944 he was subordinated to his brother, Eugen Cristescu, head of the Special Intelligence Service, their relations were strictly professional. In June 1948 he was sentenced in absentia to forced labor for life, for his alleged involvement in the June 26-31, 1941 massacre of the Jews in Iasi. Apprehended in 1953 in Transylvania, he was successively imprisoned at Deva, Bucharest (Uranus), Fagaras, Gherla, Ramnicu Sarat and Aiud until his release in July 1964. He then worked as an unskilled laborer and died in anonymity in 1975.

Cristian Troncota – Professor, PhD, Faculty of Intelligence, National Intelligence Academy, and Faculty of International Relations, Political Sciences and Security Studies at Lucian Blaga University in Sibiu; research scholar with NIST.

Keywords: Gheorghe Cristescu, secret service, forced labor

MIHAI SERBAN, Purging of the Special Intelligence Service Cadre, 1944-1945

On April 18, 1945, the Special Intelligence Service was transferred from the Ministry of War to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, and its personnel made the object of massive purges. This move targeted mainly those who had acted against the communist movement and Soviet espionage, but the purge was made to appear as defending “democratic” values. Also purged were SIS workers born in Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina.

Mihai Serban – PhD in history at Bucharest University. Currently pursuing a PhD in military science and intelligence at Carol I National Defense University, focusing on Geopolitics.

Keywords: puges of SSI personnel

 

ION CONSTANTIN, Punished for Patriotism: the Case of Onisifor Ghibu in the ‘50s

One of the personalities of Romanian culture that suffered after the communist takeover in Romania was academician Onisifor Ghibu, who had risen to prominence, among other things, by his struggle for Transylvania’s union to Romania on December 1, 1918.  Until his death, he was marginalized, and his works were censored and removed from the academic circuit. On October 31, 1956 Onisifor Ghibu sent Nikita S. Khrushchev a memorandum demanding the right to self-determination for Romanians in Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina and withdrawal of the Soviet troops from Romania. He was arrested and imprisoned until January 1, 1958. Then he was under house arrest in Sibiu.

Ion Constantin – Ph.D. in history, research scholar with NIST; former Romanian diplomat. Recent book: The History of Poland and the Romanian-Polish Relations, 2005.

Keywords: Onisifor Ghibu, repression

IRINA GRIDAN, Parallelism and Convergence. I.Gh. Maurer in the Paris antichamber: discussions for an official meeting (1964) II

This article is a first installment of a series devoted to the French-Romanian relations in the 60’s. The author pursues to throw light on the mechanisms set in motion after the diplomatic negotiations, leading to rapprochement between Bucharest and Paris by the middle of the decade. The year 1964 was a crucial moment for the Romanian-French rapprochement. The article focuses on the discussions that took place before the Romanian Prime Minister I. Gh. Maurer’s visit to Paris in July-August 1964. This visit will influence positively the dynamics of the relations between these two countries.

Irina Gridan is an alumna of the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris. Assistant professor at the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. PhD candidate with a theme devoted to Romanian-Soviet relations between 1950 and 1960, under the guidance of Marie-Pierre Rey.

Keywords: French-Romanian relations, diplomacy

 

ACAD. MIRCEA MALITA, 1968 Prague Seen from Bucharest

The Soviet armed intervention in Czechoslovakia in the night of August 20 to 21 upset international politics. Mircea Malita, at the time deputy minister of Foreign Affairs, remembers how the evolution of the Czechoslovak problem was perceived in Bucharest during the 10-day crisis, both from Romania’s point of view and from the angle of the relations between the world’s two superpowers.

Mircea Malita – Mathematician, politician; deputy minister of Foreign Affairs (1962-1970); secretary-general of ADIRI (Association for International Law and International Relations), 1966-1970; member of the Romanian Academy.

Keywords: Prague Spring, Soviet intervention

GHEORGHE STROE, The Evolution of the Romanian Economy over 1970-1980: The Foreign Debt Crisis

Due to errors pertaining to internal economic strategy and to adverse external circumstances, in the late 70s and early 80s Romania grappled with a severe foreign debt crisis that could only be surmounted by signing a 3-year standby agreement with the IMF in 1981. The external balance was restored in 1983 but the Ceausescu regime decided to pursue a policy of total repayment of the foreign debt. This decision was underlain by the bitter experience of 1981 and by fear that going on with a big foreign debt would have exerted external pressure hard to cope with. The all-out drive to repay the whole of the foreign debt deeply harmed the economy and, moreover, sacrificed the basic living conditions of the population, through shortages of food, heating and lighting and through restrictions that diminished their income by the year, while also deteriorating health care and education.

Gheorghe Stroe – Economist; director, Monetary Policies Directorate (1959-1963) and Foreign Relations Department (1963-1965) at the National Bank of Romania; economic expert with the Economic Planning Department of the CC of the RCP (1966-1967); deputy chairman of the State Planning Committee (1968-1977); first vice-president, counselor, National Bank of Romania (1990-1991).

Keywords: Romania, centralized economy, finance

FLORIAN BANU, A critical approach of the sources regarding the victims of the Communist regime

After the collapse of Communism the public opinion was revealed the terrible crimes of an regime which called itself profoundly humanitarian. The first years after 1989 were characterized by an affluence of publications – many former political prisoners wrote their memoires -, documentary movies, recordings of oral history. This study critically analizes the different numbers of the victims of the Communist regime that all these sources give for real. Although good intentioned, trying to establish a number of the casualties was proved to be very difficult especially when approaches of different authours led to exagerations that threatened to make less credible the real number of the casualties.

Florian Banu is Ph.D. in history, expert at the National Council for the Study of Securitate Archives. Recent volume: Securitatea. Structuri/cadre, obiective şi metode [The Securitate. Structures/Staff, Objectives and Methodes], vol.I: 1948-1967, 2006 (co-edithor).

Keywords: Communist regime, victims, Securitate documents

TATIANA VOLOKITINA, Russian Historiography and Eastern Europe’s Postwar History – A New Approach

The study analyses the evolution of Russian historiography after 1990, focusing on two subjects that were approached differently and made the object of many studies: the Cold War and Stalinism. The article insists on the perpetuation at present of certain characteristics Russian historiography had displayed in the early ‘90s: a fragmented character of the sources – related in many respects to the declassification of archive collections being slowed down, to the prevalence of empirical studies and a low interest in generalizations, theoretical ones included. The author also approaches the fact that a certain disproportion of the chronological dimension has not been overcome yet, which is visible in the much more intense scrutiny of the 1960s and particularly the 1970s and 1980s.

Tatiana Volokitina holds a PhD in History and is a research scholar with the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Keywords: Russian historiography, Cold War, Stalinism

ALEXANDRU V. DIŢĂ, Demetrescu Radu Gyr: An Essential Autobiographical Contribution, IV

Although the name Radu Gyr became a symbol for all the political prisoners, no matter the type of the dictatorship,  his biography is still insufficiently known. In this article we present a document, an autobiography written by Radu Gyr while he was imprisoned, being sentenced to death.

Alexandru V. Diţă is Ph.D. in History, editor. Scientific researcher with the N.I.S.T.

Keywords: Radu Gyr, autobiography

MIOARA ANTON, „Capitalist diversions“: right-wing deviations or                     anti-Semitism?

At the beginning of the 50s, hostility to capitalism became an obsession in the ‘people’s democracies’. The political context of the end of 1952 was dominated by anti-Semitic hysteria. The situation of the Jewish minorities from Eastern Europe was dramatic. All these four documents from the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs represent part of a picture of a time dominated by the obsession of fighting against ‚decadent capitalism’. Ana Pauker’s removal as Foreign Minister launched a new process of removal from the diplomatic apparatus of all those who were considered to be inadequate or class enemies (the cases of George Macovescu, Egon Balas, Emil Lustig and Aurel Farchi). The tone used by Cornel Bogdan, at the beginning of his diplomatic carrier, exemplifies a vindictive rhetoric caused by an external and internal political context which was extremely ambiguous and fluctuating.

Mioara Anton, Ph.D. in History, senior researcher within “Nicolae Iorga” Institute of History and N.I.S.T. Recent book: Romanian Intellectuals in the Communism Archives, Nemira, 2006 (co-author).

Keywords: class enemies, antisemitism, diplomacy

CEZAR STANCIU, The Romanian-Polish Relations Two Years after                   the 1956 Events

The liberal atmosphere and the tendency to break away from Moscow’s influence that accompanied the establishment of the Gomulka regime in Poland in autumn 1956 meant colder relations with Romania, a country still fully subordinated to the hegemonic power in the socialist camp. Only in 1958, when Gomulka came to Bucharest, was that chilling reversed.

Cezar Stanciu – PhD in History from Valahia University in Targoviste; member of the Grigore Gafencu Center for the Research of International Relations History in Targoviste.

the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Keywords: Romanian-Polish relations, 1956

OCTAVIAN ROSKE, The Collectivization of Agriculture. Total Repression, 1957-1962, XXVI

The documents continue the series of historical accounts of the final stage of collectivisation of agriculture between 1958 and 1962. In that case, the abuses are objectively reflected by documents from Moldavia.

Octavian Roske, Ph.D., is senior researcher, Scientific Secretary of the NIST and associate professor with the Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Bucharest. Recent books: Repressive Mechanisms in Romania, 1945-1989. Biographical Dictionary, vol. VII: Q-R, 2008 (coordinator).

Keywords: collectivization, repression

 

CONSTANTIN MORARU, Romanian Foreign Affairs Ministry on Mănescu – Rusk Meeting in New York, October 4, 1963

The author presents the aide-memoire of the meeting between Corneliu Mănescu, Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Dean Rusk, US Secretary of State, that took place on 4th of October, 1963, NYC. The Romanian high official pointed out the issue of Romania's neutrality in case of nuclear conflict between the two super-powers.

Constantin Moraru, PhD in History; expert at the Romanian National Archives. Recent book: Romania’s Foreign Policy (1958-1964), Enciclopedica Publishing House, 2008.

Keywords: foreign policy, American-Romanian relations, the Cuban crisis

DAN CĂTĂNUŞ, Seeking the Sensational: Eugen Barbu and Alexandru Andritoiu in China, 1965

Over May 30 – June 31, 1965 writers Eugen Barbu and Alexandru Andritoiu visited China, where their less orthodox behavior caused discontent both among the hosts and at the Romanian diplomatic office in Beijing.         They asked, for instance, to travel to such forbidden areas as the Tibet,

they refused to visit the Library of the Academia Sinica and they left a performance of the play “Pilot Women” – a play with a contemporary revolutionary theme – soon after it had begun.

Dan Cătănuş, PhD in History, is senior researcher with N.I.S.T.; Recent book: Romanian Intellectuals in the Communism Archives, Nemira, 2006 (co-author).

Keywords: Romanian-Chinese cultural relations

VASILE BUGA, History Repeats Itself: Problems of the Romanian Language and Literature in Chisinau, 1965

Some two months after the Moscow visit of a delegation headed by Nicolae Ceausescu  (September 1965), the leaders of Chisinau reported to Moscow they had difficulties on the ideological front because of the Romanian propagandistic drive. The article reproduces a letter Ivan Bodiul, first secretary of the CC of the CP of Moldova had sent to the CC of the CPSU, signaling “a number of negative situations,” “nationalistic” in nature, that had arisen among part of the intelligentsia in the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, notably the writers.

Vasile Buga is Ph.D., senior researcher with N.I.S.T., coordinator of the Russian and Soviet Studies Center. Recent work: The Fall of the Empire. The Soviet Union in Gorbachev Era, 1985-1989, N.I.S.T., 2007.

Keywords: R.S.S. Moldoveneasca, ideology, Romanian propaganda

Testimonies

ACAD. RAZVAN THEODORESCU, March-April 1959 at the Faculty of History of Bucharest University. Recollections

On March 12 1959, in the main hall of Student House 303 in Cotroceni district, professors Dionisie Pippidi, Mihai Berza and Ion Nestor from the Faculty of History were exposed before a specially convened meeting, starting from their refusal to sign a message in favor of the Greek communist Manolis Glezos. As he sided with his professors, student Razvan Theodorescu was in his turn exposed three weeks later, being accused of conciliatoriness, anti-Sovietism, membership in a spiritualist group, elitism and so on. On April 18, 1959 he was ousted from the Youth Union (UTM) and expelled from the Faculty of History for “inimical political attitude.”

Razvan Theodorescu – Historian, member of the Romanian Academy. Member of the Scientific Board of NIST.

Keywords: 1959 purges, Romanian intellectuals

ION ILIESCU, 1971 – The Year of Ideological Changes in Romania

In February 1971, Ion Iliescu was promoted to the position of secretary of the CC of the RCP in charge of party propaganda. At the plenum of the party’s ideological cadre in July 1971, Nicolae Ceausescu outlined an ideological program designed to reinvigorate ideological and educational action in the party and in society, to make up for the lack of militancy and for the influence of certain petty bourgeois, decadent mentalities. Those criticized at the time included Ion Iliescu, accused of intellectualist tendencies. In November the Executive Committee dismissed him from the position of secretary of the CC of the RCP and assigned him to humbler jobs in Timisoara and then in Iasi. Ion Iliescu establishes a connection between the 1971 ideological veering and Nicolae Ceausescu’s recent visit to countries in Asia, including China and North Korea.

Ion Iliescu – president of Romania (1990-1992, 1992-1996, 2000-2004).

Keywords: 1971 Romanian cultural revolution, Ion Iliescu, Nicolae Ceausescu

Dictionary of Institutions

ALEXANDRU-MURAD MIRONOV, Workers’ Committee

This material is a part of a research project entitled The Communist Regime Encyclopedia in Romania: The Institutions.

As it was intended the workers’ committees were the main instrument of control over the whole social-economical activity. As the representatives of the working masses, these gatherings of employees (industrial, agricultural and commercial workers, engineers, desk clerks, teachers etc.) shared the decision-power with hierarchical appointed managers and directors. After 1969 political decision of accelerating Socialist Romania’s economical and social development, the workers’ committee shared also the responsibility in implementing the five-year plans. Although they lacked real power, the workers’ committee soon became another communist mean of control over ordinary people, by disposing of the distribution over assets and services (houses, holidays, cars).

Alexandru-Murad Mironov is an assistant professor within History Department of the University of Bucharest; a Ph.D. student; senior researcher with the NIST. Recent book: Romanian Intellectuals in the Communist Archives, Nemira, 2006 (co-author).

Keywords: Institutions, worker’s committee

FLORIN-RAZVAN MIHAI, National Council of Women in Romania

The National Council of Women in the RPR/SRR was the leading body of the women’s mass movement in Romania under the communist regime. The single mass organization of women in Romania was set up in 1948 as the Union in Democratic Women in Romania (UFDR). In 1953 UFDR was reorganized as the Committee of Democratic Women in the RPR (1953-1958) and then as the National Council of Women (1958-1989).

Florin-Razvan Mihai – Research assistant with NIST. Graduated from the Faculty of History at Bucharest University. MA in International Relations, Faculty of History, Bucharest University.

Keywords: women’s mass movement in Communist Romania

Biographical Dictionary

FLORI BALANESCU, M. Buracu    (1930-)

Mihai Buracu, Mihail Manoilescu’s godson, was arrested in the night of June 7, 1949; at the time he was a student at the Traian Doda High School in Caransebes. He was put on trial and the Military Court in Timisoara sentenced him, on December 6, 1949, to two years in reformative prison, but he was imprisoned for 5 years at Aiud, Jilava and Targsor. In the autumn of 1950, Mihai Buracu arrived at Peninsula-Valea Neagra. From there he was soon sent to be “re-educated” at Pitesti, for discipline-related reasons, together with a batch of 22 students. He spent two months in room 4 of the prison sickbay where, at age 21, his hair turned completely white. An inmate at the Bicaz prison camp for two years, after a short stay at Onesti, he was moved to the Borzesti prison camp in the autumn of 1953 wherefrom he was released on May 21, 1954. He was then under house arrest at Caransebes. He managed to pass his school-leaving examination and to be admitted at the Philology Faculty in Iasi, open learning, graduating in 1960. He was a teacher for 30 years. In January 1990 he became a member of the National Peasant Party (PNT-CD), president of the Mehedinti branch of the party, president of the Democratic Convention of Romania – Mehedinti branch, and a member of Parliament for PNT-CD.

Flori Balanescu – Researcher with NIST. Recent volume: Flori Stanescu – Paul Goma, Dialogue, Vremea Publishing House, 2008.

Keywords: Mihai Buracu, repression, prison, “reeducation”

ANA-MARIA CATANUS, Gheorghe Calciu-Dumitreasa (1925-2006)

Gheorghe Calciu (1925-2006). Father Gheorghe Calciu was born on November 23, 1925 to a peasant family at Mahmudia in the Danube Delta. While a high school student, he enrolled in the youth organization of the Legionary Movement. As an undergraduate studying medicine, Calciu was arrested and charged, along with other young legionaries, of “activity against national security” on May 21, 1948. He was sentenced to eight years of hard prison. In 1949 he was already at Pitesti when the “re-education” experiment started.  Involved in the second “re-education” trial, Calciu was sentenced to 15 years in prison, that term being cumulated with the initial term in prison. Gheorghe Calciu spent the following years at Casimca Jilavei and Aiud. After his release, he graduated from the Faculty of Theology and was hired at the Theological Seminary in Bucharest. On March 8, 1978, Father Calciu inaugurated the series of sermons “Seven Words to Young People,” delivered as part of the evening meditation during Lent. As a result on June 15 his employment contract was severed. Involved in the creation of SLOMR (the Free Trade Union of Working People in Romania), Gheorghe Calciu was arrested on March 10, 1979. Charged of “treason by transmitting secrets,” Father Calciu was sentenced, under judgment no. 35/May 4, 1979 of the Bucharest Military Court to 10 years in prison, being jailed at Jilava and Aiud. After being released on August 20, 1984, Father Calciu and his family left for the United States.

Ana-Maria Catanus is a researcher with NIST; PhD student. Recent book: Romanian Intellectuals in the Communist Archives, Nemira, 2006 (co-author).

Keywords: Gheorghe Calciu-Dumitreasa, dissidence, reeducation, religion, repression

CRISTINA DIAC, Paul Niculescu Mizil (1923-2008)

Coming from a family of old Socialist and Communist militants, Paul Niculescu-Mizil was promoted by Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej in the higher party and state ranks. His „finest hour” was in the sixties when he played an important role in Romania’s internal and external distancing from Moscow. After the IX-th R.C.P. Congress Mizil got promoted in the highest party position but soon he became undesirable due to his lack of obediency. After 1989 he was very active by writing many article and memory books.

Cristina Diac is PhD student, University of Bucharest; assistant researcher with N.I.S.T. MA in History, University of Bucharest.

Keywords:

Book Reviews

ALEXANDRU MURAD MIRONOV, “Interstitio. East European Review of Historical Anthropology”

This is a review of “Interstitio. East European Review of Historical Anthropology”, December 2007, Volume I, Number 2”, Rethinking History Center, Chişinău.

MIHAI FLORIN, King Carol II’s Party

This is a review of Petre Turlea’s book A King’s Party. The National Revival Front, Enciclopedica Publishing House, Bucharest, 2006.

DAN CATANUS, Taking distance from Moscow

This is a review of Constantin Moraru’s book The Foreign Policy of Romania, 1958-1964, Enciclopedica Publishing House, Bucharest, 2008.

Arhivele Totalitarismului 3-4/2008

RADU CIUCEANU, History as Ballast, XXXII

Radu Ciuceanu, president of the N.I.S.T. Scientific Council; Ph.D. in history, also coordinates the research theme Comparative studies on the formation and activity of the anti-Bolshevik resistance organizations in Romania and Bessarabia, 1940-1989. Memoirs: The Seal of the Devil, 2002. Recent book: A Quiet Man’s Diary. Conspirative Name:The Artist, volume I, 1963-1970, N.I.S.T., 2005

Studies

RADU H. DINU, The Legionary Movement between “Political Religion” and “Collective Effervescence”

When talking about Romania’s native fascist movement, scholars typically refer to it as “one of the rare modern European political movements with a religious structure” willingly inserting “strong elements of Orthodox Christianity in their political doctrine”. However, these preliminary statements remain somehow general when it comes to ascertain the explicit relationship of politics and religion in Romanian fascism. One more specific approach to this issue could at first sight be to clarify the complex personal links between the Romanian clergy and the Legionary Movement. The other certainly more rewarding way to illuminate this reciprocal affinity between politics and religion is rather to ascertain, to what extent Romanian fascism as a whole developed (pseudo-) religious claims and if these claims entered into a conflict with the Orthodox Church. The author starts by discussing the capacity and limits of current political religion theories. In its second part, the article tries to demonstrate how the sacralization of politics can be alternatively reconstructed from a perspective of collective experience employing Émile Durkheim’s concept of “collective effervescence”.

Radu H. Dinu is PhD candidate at the Max-Weber-Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, Erfurt University. Doctoral thesis: “Fascism, Religion and Violence in South-Eastern Europe. A Comparative Study of the Ustasa and the Iron Guard.”

Keywords: Romanian fascist movement, ideology

ION CONSTANTIN, The Road to Truth about Katyn

The Katyn massacres were one of the 20th century’s most tragic experiences, the result of which was that a large part of the Polish elite was destroyed as dictated by the March 5, 1940 decision of the USSR leadership, at head with Stalin. The road to truth about Katyn was extremely difficult, as the Soviet authorities, the secret services and the institutions they controlled did their best to wipe away all traces of the crimes and preclude the identification of those who had ordered and performed the assassinations. They concealed, destroyed and faked evidence, denying any clues and facts. Because for a long time, it was not possible in that country to further try to establish the truth, the Polish exiles took over the task. Only after the collapse of the USSR could the archives of the former Soviet Union be actually accessed and the first investigations be made into the crimes of Katyn.  Eighteen years after the fall of Communism, many aspects related to the destinies of the Poles killed in the spring of 1940 are still obscure.

 Ion Constantin is Ph.D. in history, reasercher within the NIST; former Romanian diplomat. Recent book: The History of Poland and the Romanian-Polish Relations, 2005

Keywords:Katyn massacres, Polish elite, USSR, Stalin

TIBERIU TĂNASE, The Relations between the Legionary Movement and the RCP, 1945-1948

The Iron-Guardist/Legionary Movement (LM) represented a strong and troublesome opponent for the Communist Party in its fighting for power before the setting up of the Communist regime.

For the Iron-Guardist Movement, the Communist – Legionary Pact was a desperate attempt of the legionary group led from inside by Nicoale Petrascu and orchestrated from exile by Horia Sima, an attempt to continue the fight for power under the cover of the Romanian Communist Party.

For the Romanian Communist Party and its representatives, who had already taken the power on March 6th, 1945 through the Petru Groza Government, it was an opportunity to have some agents infiltrated in order to find and arrest the legionnaires. After March 9th, 1945, the repression against LM reached its most violent form of manifestation. For example, members of LM who had been released from prison in 1945, as a consequence of the Communist – Legionary Pact, were arrested again in the night of May 14th/15th, 1948.

Tiberiu Tănase is lecturer at the National Intelligence Academy. PhD candidate at the Faculty of History, Bucharest University. Recent volume: Security and defence in the European Union, 2008 (co-author).

Keywords: the Legionary movement, Romanian Communist Party, repression against members of the L.M.

DUMITRU ŞANDRU, The Waves of Arrests in 1947

The successive arrests ordered in 1947 by the leaders of the new political regime were meant to instill fear in those who opposed Communism, to weaken the resistance of the historical parties, the National Peasant Party (Maniu) and the National Liberal Party (Bratianu), against the anti-capitalist offensive of the Communist Party. Besides, they paved the way for the banning of the political opposition. Although the regime’s repression had a considerable impact on many people in Romania, on the other hand it determined a surge in the armed resistance of the anticommunist organizations set up in various regions and particularly in the mountains.

Dumitru Şandru – PhD in History, is an associate professor with the “Ştefan cel Mare” University in Suceava.

Keywords: armed resistance, Communism, 1947 arrests, historical parties

MIHAIL LANCUZOV, The Dissolution of the National Peasant Party – a New Stage in the Plan on Sovietizing Romania, II

The establishment of Petru Groza’s government on March 6, 1945 was the beginning of a significant change for the Romanian kingdom, from a democratic state to a communist-like totalitarian state. After the outrageous rigging of the November 19, 1946 elections, the next step was to annihilate the opposition by dissolving the democratic parties. The first target was the National Peasant Party. On July 14, 1947 the party was dealt a death blow when the political police agents framed up an attempt to flee the country to a group of Peasant leaders. In a few days, the government outlawed the key opposition party, closed its headquarters, neutralized the press and arrested its leaders.

Mihail Lancuzov – historian, National Museum of History, Bucharest.

Keywords: National Peasant Parties, 1946 elections, repression against opposition movement

DRAGOŞ ZAMFIRESCU, The Meanings of Signing the Romanian-Soviet Treaty from February 4, 1948

The treaty Romania signed with the Soviet Union in February 4, 1948 was concluded at Soviet intiative, without preliminary consulatations, and it marked the official political-military subordination of Romania towards USSR.

Also, the treaty stipulated the giving up of the Island of Snakes to the Soviet Union. The Romanian delegation, led by the Prime Minister Petru Groza and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ana Pauker, didn’t raise any objections, complying to all Soviet demands.

Dragoş Zamfirescu – PhD, is specialized in the study of right-wing extremism in Romania (the interwar years) and of the totalitarian models that emerged after WW2, when the so-called socialist camp came into being.

Keywords:Romanian-Soviet relations, the Island of Snakes

IRINA GRIDAN, Parallelism and Convergence. Underpinnings of the French-Romanian Rapprochement, 1956-1963, I          97

This article is a first installment of a series devoted to the French-Romanian relations in the 60’s. The author pursues to throw light on the mechanisms set in motion after the diplomatic negotiations, leading to rapprochement between Bucharest and Paris by the middle of the decade. That outcome was obvious notably during Gen. de Gaulle’s visit to Bucharest in 1968. Beginning in 1964, western observers highlighted the convergent foreign policy outlooks of the two countries, which was also a leitmotif of the Romanian leaders and diplomats. However, for a better understanding of the so conspicuous rapprochement of the mid-60’s, it is necessary to pinpoint the mechanisms that made it possible, at the beginning of the decade, to resume a dialogue that had severely declined since the onset of the communist power in Romania.

Irina Gridan is an alumna of the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris. Assistant professor at the University of Paris I, Pantheon-Sorbonne. PhD candidate with a theme devoted to Romanian-Soviet relations between 1950 and 1960, under the guidance of Marie-Pierre Rey.

Keywords: French-Romanian relations, diplomacy, general de Gaulle visit, 1968

FLORIN ABRAHAM, The Influence of Anticommunism over Recent Romanian Historiography

The aim of the study is to uncover the relation between political anticommunism, as a dominant meta-ideology in the Romanian intellectual environment, and the studying directions, language and typology of conclusions presented by historiography. The object of this study is made up of research works that can be assimilated to the 1990-2004 historiography focusing on Romanian communism. The analysis grid proposed for understanding how communism influenced Romanian historiography has four pillars: methodological options derived from major historiography currents; frequent study theme; stylistics of the historical discourse; the issue of responsibility/guilt. The predominant ideology which can be identified in the texture of Romanian historiography concerning the 1945-1989 period is anti-communism. The main problem generated by a historiography contaminated by anticommunist ideology is that history contributes to legitimizing a sui generis populism, nourishing the anti-modern discourse of a part of Romanian intelligentsia and political actors that use the anticommunist legitimacy in the public space.

Florin Abraham is Ph.D in History; senior researcher with the NIST. Recent book: Romania’s Transformation: 1989-2006. The Foreign Factors Role, 2006.

Keywords: historiography on Romanian Communism, anticommunist ideology

Documents

ALEXANDRU V. DIŢĂ, Demetrescu Radu Gyr: An Essential Autobiographical Contribution, III

Although the name Radu Gyr became a symbol for all the political prisoners, no matter the type of the dictatorship,  his biography is still insufficiently known. In this article we present a document, an autobiography written by Radu Gyr while he was imprisoned, being sentenced to death.

Alexandru V. Diţă is Ph.D. in History, editor. Scientific researcher with the N.I.S.T.

Keywords: Radu Gyr, autobiography, political prisoner

LAURENŢIU CONSTANTINIU, The Churchill-Stalin Percentages Agreement in Soviet Documents

A major event marking the relations within the Great Alliance and especially the Soviet-British ones, the Percentages Agreement – under which Central and Eastern Europe were assigned to the Soviet sphere of influence – was strongly negated by Soviet historiography, being only acknowledged in 1989. The “art of disposing of others,” as André Fontaine called it in a chapter of his History of the Cold War, appears in the Soviet shorthand account of the conversation during the Churchill-Stalin meeting on October 9, 1944. The article makes available to Romanian specialists, for the first time as far as we know, the full text of the Soviet shorthand minutes of the two meetings on October 9 and 10, 1944, when the Soviet and British delegations debated the Percentages Agreement and its implementation in Central and Southeastern Europe.

Laurenţiu Constantiniu, PhD in History, is lecturer with the University of Bucharest, Department of History.

Keywords: the Percentages Agreement

OCTAVIAN ROSKE, The Collectivization of Agriculture. Total Repression, 1957-1962, XXV

The documents continue the series of historical accounts of the final stage of collectivisation of agriculture between 1958 and 1962. In that case, the abuses are objectively reflected by documents from Moldavia.

Octavian Roske, Ph.D., is Scientific Secretary of the NIST and associate professor with the Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Bucharest. Recent books: Repressive Mechanisms in Romania, 1945-1989. Biographical Dictionary, P, 2007 (coordinator).

Keywords: collectivization of agriculture, repression

DAN CĂTĂNUŞ, Differently about the Romanian-Soviet Relations: The Small Tourist Traffic

Beyond the ups and downs the Romanian-Soviet relations experienced under communism at the level of leaders, contacts between ordinary people continued in a prevailingly positive manner. An example: Romanians used to travel to the USSR, which occasioned small tourist traffic, with advantages to either side. The friendship between the people of the two countries was thus consolidated not through propaganda, but based on the pecuniary interest stimulated by black market exchanges.

Dan Cătănuş, PhD in History, is senior researcher with N.I.S.T.; Ph.D. student. Recent book: Romanian Intellectuals in the Communism Archives, Nemira, 2006 (co-author).

Keywords: Romanian-Soviet relations, small tourist traffic

MIOARA ANTON, After invasion: Romania in the Shadow of the “Brezhnev Doctrine”. September-October 1968

In August 1968, as a consequence of its having condemned the sending of Warsaw Pact troops into Czechoslovakia, Romania was very close to being subject to Soviet military intervention. The enunciation of the “limited sovereignty doctrine“ forced a reevaluation of Romanian foreign policy. The Czechoslovakian lesson obliged the Romanian leadership to be more careful and seek a form of reconciliation with Moscow. Shortly after August 1968, for Romanian diplomats it was obvious that the Soviet foreign policy hadn’t changed its strategies and that its opening to the West meant in fact the strenghtening of control over the communist bloc. Romanian diplomats understood that Bucharest’s foreign policy would be dependent on Soviet goals and that Romania could not ignore the agreement which might arise between the Soviet Union and the United States.

Mioara Anton, Ph.D. in History, senior researcher within “Nicolae Iorga” Institute of History and N.I.S.T. Recent book: Romanian Intellectuals in the Communism Archives, Nemira, 2006 (co-author).

Keywords: 1968, Soviet intervention, Romanian diplomacy

VASILE BUGA, Behind-the-Scenes of Nicolae Ceauşescu’s Rise to the Top

Unraveling the mechanisms whereby Nicolae Ceausescu acceded to the top party position after Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej’s death in March 1965 is still a topical concern of the scientific milieus in Romania, giving rise to speculations. Accounts in the memoirs published after 1990 revealed details known only to a few insiders of the Romanian party and state leadership. In this connection, currently it is unanimously believed that it was Ion Gheorghe Maurer who played the key role in Nicolae Ceausescu’s ascent. The document published here, i.e. the letter Gh. Apostol wrote on July 30, 1970, sent to Nicolae Ceausescu on November 9, 1970, casts fresh light on the circumstances in which Ceausescu was elected to head the party.

Vasile Buga is Ph.D., senior researcher with N.I.S.T., coordinator of the Russian and Soviet Studies Center. Recent work: The Fall of the Empire. The Soviet Union in Gorbachev Era, 1985-1989, N.I.S.T., 2007.

Keywords: Romanian Communist Party, Nicolae Ceausescu ascension to power

SIMION GHEORGHIU, The Agony of the Communist Regime in Romania: the Ceauşescu-Gorbachev Exchange of Messages, Nov. 1989

Moscow’s signaling of an opening when Mikhail Gorbachev took the helm of the USSR was given different interpretations in the Soviet bloc. Some of the satellite countries (Hungary, Poland) adopted an even more reformist stand than that proposed by the Soviet leader, whereas others (Romania, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic) categorically rejected the perestroika-inspired reforms. The leaders of the latter, fearing the Gorbachev-like initiatives would endanger their political power, used ideological arguments to defend their position.  Such was the case of Bucharest leader N. Ceausescu who, alarmed by the changes in Europe in general and by the talk about German unification in particular, requested the USSR to step up the political-ideological struggle and make no concessions to Western Germany. Nicolae Ceausescu’s insistent defense of the GDR is explained by the fear that abandoning a communist member state of the Warsaw Treaty would create a dangerous precedent for the other member states. The text here presents the exchange of messages – unpublished before – between Nicolae Ceausescu and Mikhail Gorbachev, which highlights the deep crisis in the Romanian-Soviet relations in 1989 and the many-sided divergences between Bucharest and Moscow.

Simion Gheorghiu is research assistant with the Nicolae Iorga History Institute. MA, University of Bucharest, PhD candidate.

Keywords: Nicolae Ceausescu, Mikhail Gorbachev, Perestroika

Biographical Dictionary

ANA MARIA CĂTĂNUŞ, Vlad Georgescu

Vlad Georgescu was born on Octomber 29, 1937, in Bucharest. He graduated from the Faculty of History (1959) and after that he was hired at the Romanian-Russian Museum in Bucharest. In 1963 he became a researcher at the Institute of East-European Studies. After an exceptional career in the field of history, Vlad Georgescu became a dissident. On March 1977, he transmitted three hostile materials regarding the Romanian regime to the United States ambassador, in order to be disseminated abroad. One day later, he was arrested and accused of treason. He was released on May 25, 1977. After leaving the country, in 1979, Vlad Georgescu worked for Radio Free Europe as director of the Romanian Section (1983-1988). Vlad Georgescu was also a person who made some compromises, one of them being that, while he was in Romania, he was an informer for the Securitate. He died on November 13, 1988 of  brain cancer.

Ana-Maria Cătănuş is researcher with the NIST; Ph.D. student. Recent book: Romanian Intellectuals in the Communist Archives, Nemira, 2006 (co-author).

Keywords: Vlad Georgescu, dissidence, Securitate

CRISTINA DIAC, Corneliu Mănescu

Corneliu Manescu was born on February 6, 1906 in Ploiesti. In the 30’s he came to the capital city to study at the Law School of Bucharest University. He got closer to the leftist movement through poet Miron Radu Paraschivescu, who introduced him to the Democratic Student Front, a structure close to the Communist Party.  Manescu became a member of the RCP in 1936 but was ousted from the party in 1952. In March 1961, Ion Gheorghe Maurer became prime minister and Corneliu Manescu – foreign minister. Manescu’s term as head of the Romanian diplomacy coincided with what would later be called the “golden decade of the Romanian foreign policy.” In 1972, Corneliu Manescu was removed from his position as chief diplomatist. Between 1977 and 1982 he was Romania’s ambassador in Paris and permanent representative to UNESCO. In 1982 he retired from public life. In 1989 he was one of the six dignitaries to speak out against Ceausescu, so he was expelled from the party, he had to leave his home in Kiseleff  Blvd. and move to the rural settlement of Chitila, being subjected to daily investigation until December 1989.

Cristina Diac is PhD student, University of Bucharest; assistant researcher with N.I.S.T. MA in History, University of Bucharest.

Keywords:Corneliu Manescu, diplomacy

Book Reviews

DUMITRU ŞANDRU, How Others’ Work Is Stolen and History Falsified, a review of the book Agriculture and Petty Politics. One Century of Agrarian Policy in Romania, 1907-2007.

CARMEN RĂDULESCU, The Architecture of a Political Intrusion

This is a review of Ion Mircea Stănescu’s book Architect under Communism, Paideia Publishing House, Bucharest, 2006.

Carmen Rădulescu is graduated in History, “Dimitrie Cantemir”Christian University; assistant researcher within NIST.

ALEXANDRU-MURAD MIRONOV, On Bessarabia, without Passion

This is a presentation of the Italian researcher Alberto Basciani’s book La difficile unione. La Bessarbia e la Grande Romania. 1918-1940 (The Difficult Union. Bessarabia and Greater Romania, 1918-1940), Aracne Publishing House, Rome, 2007.

Alexandru-Murad Mironov is an assistant professor within History Department of the University of Bucharest; a Ph.D. student; senior researcher with the NIST. Recent book: Romanian Intellectuals in the Communist Archives, Nemira, 2006 (co-author).