Notification
The Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania (IICCR) merged with The National Institute for the Memory of the Romanian Exile (INMER), thus resulting a new institution, namely The Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of the Romanian Exile (IICCMER).
Grigore Gafencu, Derniers Jours de L’Europe / The Last Days of Europe, Curtea Veche Publishing House, 2011
“Considering the finesse of his political judgement as minister of foreign affairs and representative of Romania in Moscow at such a dramatic moment, as well as his writing skills, Grigore Gafencu was perceived abroad, during World War II and the ten years that followed, as the most brilliant and representative Romanian personality”. Neagu Djuvara, historian
Grigore Gafencu (1892-1957) was a Romanian politician and diplomat, author of Preliminaries of the Eastern War. From the Moscow Agreement (23 August 1939) to the Hostilities in Russia (22 June 1941) /1944 and The Last Days of Europe. A Diplomatic Journey in 1939/1946. He also kept a diary which greatly contributes to the knowledge of the Romanian and international political life.
Angelo Mitchievici, Shadows of Paradise, Humanitas Publishing House, 2011
A refined analyst of Romanian communism, a subtle connoisseur of the relationship between intellectuals and totalitarianism in a century of ideological storms, Angelo Mitchievici discusses and presents the fascination with the USSR experienced by so many cultural and political personalities in Romania and France. From Romain Rolland and Henri Barbusse to Panait Istrati, Alexandru Sahia, Geo Bogza, Zaharia Stancu, Mihail Sadoveanu, G. Călinescu and Tudor Arghezi, we discover in Angelo Mitchievici’s book an authentic panorama of human blindness, of commitments and fervours subjected to the communist illusion. What I have once called the “frenzy of submission” is discussed here with minute – even surgical – rigour.
Angelo Mitchievici convincingly explores the circumstances which made the betrayal of intellectuals possible, along with the Soviet “icons” thanks to whom the most abject abdications seemed triumphs. In Shadows of Paradise, Mitchievici pinpoints, in a coherent and persuasive manner, the way in which the fascination exerted by the USSR surpassed the limits of temporary ideological intoxications in order to become the matrix of other similar pathologies related to the destruction of the critical mind. (Vladimir TISMĂNEANU)
Winter School: Human Rights in Romania’s Recent History, Bran (Braşov County), 8-13 January 2012
The authors of the best four civic campaigns were invited to participate in the “Human Rights in Romania’s Recent History” Winter School. The project aims to create an interactive environment for middle school and high school students by co-opting them in team building activities and debates on the issue of communism. The initiative attempts to consolidate democratic values among students and teachers, as well as to promote the pedagogy of liberty and the respect for human rights.
Mihai Burcea, Marius Stan, Mihail Bumbes, The Dictionary of Officers and Civil Employees of the General Management of Penitentiaries, Polirom Publishing House, vol. II, 2011. Foreword by Dennis Deletant
The Dictionary of Officers and Civil Employees of the General Management of Penitentiaries represents a useful work for the reconstitution of the multiple aspects of the communist concentration system. The concise style, the new and rich information confer this work the value of document: the professional and moral profiles of those who served this repressive institution outline its history. The second volume continues with the presentation of the employees who administrated the central apparatus of the communist prison system by means of the existing information within their professional files: name, date of birth, work experience etc. The history of Party members’ control procedures, the status of civil employees with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and their work relations with the military cadres are presented as well, together with the mass and public organisations where the military and the civil employees were enlisted. Local structures (penitentiaries, colonies and work units), an analysis of the military pension system and of the salary provisions regarding the military personnel with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as statistics referring to prisoners incarcerated in the interval 1948-1989 will be detailed within the third and fourth volumes of the Dictionary.
Clara Mareş, The Glass Wall. Ion D. Sîrbu in the Securitate Archives, Curtea Veche Publishing House, 2011
The volume is the outcome of three years’ research with the archives of the National Council for the Studying of the Securitate Archives. The author aimed to map out the way the repressive system functioned. The book presents in detail, in chronological order, an interval of more than 32 years of relentless surveillance, as well as the way in which Ion D. Sîrbu faced this infernal challenge.
The Glass Wall. Ion D. Sîrbu in the Securitate Archives focuses on a writer who tried to survive freely and honestly, living by the words “Do not judge me by what I have done, but by what I have refused to do.”
The Law on Declaring August 23rd the Day for the Commemoration of the Victims of Fascism and Communism and December 21st the Day for the Memory of the Victims of Communism in Romania
The IICCMER has initiated, since the spring of 2010, as legislative project on Declaring August 23rd the Day for the Commemoration of the Victims of Fascism and Communism and December 21st the Day for the Memory of the Victims of Communism in Romania. The Project aims to honour the memory of the victims of fascism and communism as totalitarian regimes. It reflects the recommendations of the Prague Declaration and those issued by the Parliament of Europe and the European Council. The above-mentioned project was adopted by the Romanian Parliament as Law no. 198/7 November 2011. This Law will allow for the development of coherent policies of remembrance and it will offer the opportunity to set up a pedagogy that would educate young generations in the light of respect for all the victims of totalitarian regimes.
CALL FOR PAPERS FOR 2012
Communism, Nationalism and State Building in Post-War EuropeHistory of Communism in Europe, new series, vol. III/2012
The forthcoming issue of History of Communism in Europe will focus on the topic of Communism, Nationalism and State Building in Post-War Europe. The emergence of communism as praxis after the Second World War overlapped with the need of certain nations to reinforce their claim for statehood. This gave rise to a series of historical phenomena that reshaped post-war Europe. In this context, any research on these transformations must address a series of questions: What is the role of national ideology in postwar state formation? How do various ideologies (e.g. communism and nationalism) interact in the complex processes presupposed by state building? Is there a pattern of state formation in communist Europe in comparison with Western Europe or elsewhere? If so, which were the short and long term consequences of it within a post-conflict landscape? Which narratives of identity were employed as post-1945 Europe took shape? Which were the incumbent tensions as a Soviet bloc of socialist nations came about? Nevertheless, the main issue to be addressed remains that of the differences that appeared from 1945 onwards between the institutionalization of communist polities on the basis of national communities and the consolidation of a supposedly unitary camp of Marxist-Leninist regimes. Moreover, at the end of the day, the legacies of the second half of the twentieth century could be better explained if analyzed from the point of view of the tribulations of nationalizing nation-states (to use Rogers Brubaker’s coinage) across the East and West divide.
More detailsIICCMER’s Yearbook: Repression and Social Control in Communist Romania, Polirom Publishing House, 2011
The Yearbook brings together contributions dealing with the following topics: the institutions and agents instrumental to repression during the communist period; the methods of mobilization, co-option, and social control; and, the practices of the communization of culture and science in Romania. Moreover, the Yearbook contains case studies that offer relevant data on the anti-communist resistance, the victims of repression, and the situation of religious communities under the communist regime. The new issue provides an interdisciplinary and nuanced inquiry on the consequences of communist rule over Romanian society.
Among the authors are: Vladimir Tismăneanu, Paul Hollander, Smaranda Vultur, Cristian Vasile, Bogdan C. Iacob, Mihail Neamțu, Andi Mihalache, Silviu B. Moldovan, Liviu Pleșa, Luciana M. Jinga, Dumitru Lăcătușu, etc. The contributions in the Yearbook make use of archival documents that have only recently been available to scholars, thus providing a novel insights on the various topics analyzed.
More detailsThe End of Silence:The Final Report and the Democratic Future of Romania (In Memoriam Vaclav Havel)
By Vladimir TismăneanuI am dedicating this article to the memory of Vaclav Havel (1936-2011) critical intellectual, anti-communist dissident, founder of Charter ’77, playwright, president of post-communist Czechoslovakia, then president of the Czech Republic, author of the timeless essay “The Power of the Powerless”. Together with Pope John Paul II, Andrei Sakharov, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Vaclav Havel symbolised what I called the reinventing of politics - the courage to defy revolutionary Machiavellism and to reaffirm the rights of subjectivity in a world dominated by obtuse bureaucracies and totalizing ideologies. To Havel, co-author of the Declaration of Prague, speaking the truth about communism as well as fascism was an explicit imperative. Vaclav Havel’s death fills with grief the community of those who believe that human rights are universal and non-negociable, that the crimes against humanity are exempt from prescription.
More detailsDecember 2011: The Launch of IICCMER’s International Yearbook, History of Communism in Europe, vol. II
Moreover, within the project entitled The Assuming of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania/Aufarbeitung Der Kommunistischen Diktatur in Rumänien, undertaken by Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur in collaboration with the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of the Romanian Exile, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, and the Romanian Cultural Institute, Dr. Bogdan Cristian Iacob, Secretary of IICCMER’s Scientific Council, presented the activity of the Institute and the Yearbook.
More details