Abuz, traumă, memorie. Realități și consecințe ale comunismului românesc

Editori: Lucian Vasile, Florin S. Soare, Constantin Vasilescu

 

Prezentarea autorilor (7-12)

Cuvânt-înainte (Constantin Vasilescu) (pp. 13-18)

 

Partea I

Oameni și instituții în „Zorii Comunismului”

Ilegalitate, putere, decădere. Biografia lui Emilian Angheliu (Constantin Vasilescu) (pp. 21-78)

Detached from the tumult of the 20th century, the following biography exemplifies the complexity of an era and shows the fragility of the human condition under totalitarianism. Although between the two world wars Emilian Angheliu was an assumed communist militant, bearing all the shortcomings of his views, the past did not immunize him against the repression of the regime he wanted so much. Having held important positions since August 23, 1944 (deputy, deputy minister, etc.), he had to endure disgrace and repression together with anti‑communist opponents. As an irony of history, his political career ended where it began: in prison. How was it possible and what is the legacy of this unusual existence, here are two fundamental questions whose answer is to be found in the biography that follows.

Keywords: nomenclature, repression, political prisoners, Emilian Angheliu

Conduite carcerale interbelice și destine politice în România după 23 august 1944. Cazul Iuliu Orban (Diego-Maricel Ciobotaru) (pp. 79-131)

In 1934, Iuliu Orban leaves Cluj’s Street of Happiness, where he lived with his wife, with only 40 lei in his pockets. He takes a train to Bucharest, more focused on family matters than the political scheme to overthrow the Carlist regime. Arrested and tried, he’s sentenced to ten years in prison. From behind bars, he watches his youth, family, and businesses crumble. His path leads him to Jilava, near the „Nicadors”, where he also connects with the communist movement in prison. Striving to survive, he aims to prove authorities that his imprisonment in the „Precup group” was unjust and seeks release, even resorting to becoming an informant for the penitentiary authorities. At Doftana, his ties with the „comrades” grow stronger. After 23 August 1944, at the age of 36, he becomes head of the People’s Sports Organisation. In this chapter we want to explain how this young merchant from Cluj became the head of the organization that set the tone in Romanian sports, right after the war, in the entourage of important political actors such as Prime Minister Petru Groza. What had recommended him for this strategic leadership position, at a time when sport was, according to the Communist Youth Union, one of the levers seriously considered to capture the interest of the „masses”? Who had promoted the young Iuliu Orban and what were his links with the Romanian communist movement? Last, but not least, we also want to present his professional and personal career after 1948, when he fell into disgrace with his former collaborators and Communist Party leaders.

Keywords: sport, postwar, Romanian Communist Party, Popular Sport Organization, Iuliu Orban, Emil Bodnăraș, Victor Precup, Doftana

Represiunea politică în România comunistă: victime directe și colaterale. Cazul familiei avocatului Constantin Pilat (Cosmin Budeancă) (pp. 133-162)

The chapter is based on documents from the CNSAS archive and follows the biographies of Constantin Pilat and his wife, Florica. Constantin was born on April 5th, 1908, in Botoșani, he had a PhD in Law and Philosophy in France (1933), he was a landlord, an industrialist. After August 23rd, 1944, he was the president of the Botoșani National Liberal Party and a member of its Central Committee. The communist regime completely changed his and his wife’s socio­professional trajectories. In the fall of 1945, he „committed an aggression […] against [prime minister] Dr. Petru Groza”, for which he was convicted. He was also arrested several times and involved in several economic sabotage trials between 1946­1947, being acquitted. On February 5th, 1948, the Botoșani Court sentenced him to three months of suspended correctional prison for insulting the public authority. His appeal was accepted, the classification was changed to public instigation, and on April 28th, 1949, the Iași Court sentenced him in absentia to two years of correctional prison. Following an appeal, the sentence was annulled, the case was reopened and, in the end, he received a sentence of two years of correctional prison. On November 28th, 1950, he was sentenced by the Bucharest Court to four months in prison for instigation and was released on March 26th, 1951 from the Gherla penitentiary, after undergoing violent re­education, as a result of which he was left with serious consequences. Re­arrested on April 17th, 1951, he was sentenced to two years in correctional prison and then sent to labor camps until October 25th, 1955. After his release from prison, he worked as a technician at the Bucharest Construction Trust, until 1961, when he was retired due to illness (due to the beatings he received during re­education in Gherla prison). After his release he remained under the attention of the Securitate, but he was also used as an informant to get information about various former political figures with whom he was in contact. His wife, Florica Pilat, owner of a fortune of 380 hectares of land, was also a victim of the communist regime. She was arrested on December 30, 1958 and sentenced to 23 years of hard labor and released on July 28th, 1964. She remained under the surveillance of the Security even after her release. In May 1995, the Supreme Court of Justice overturned the sentence by which she was convicted in 1959.

Keywords: National Liberal Party, communist repression, political prisoners, Securitate

Muzeele de istorie ale PCR și memorializarea figurilor de comuniști persecutați sub regimurile politice de dinainte de 23 august 1944 (Cristian Vasile) (pp. 163-190)

The communist takeover in Romania automatically involved a radical change in the profile of cultural policies, including the composition of the national, regional and county museum network. Our chapter aims to follow the process of museum reorganization especially after March 6, 1945, with special attention paid to the way of evoking the historical past of the Communist Party and of the „revolutionary and democratic movement in Romania”. The latter title will be found in the name of an important Museum in Bucharest, established on the ruins of the former „Carol I” National Art Museum. First of all, I emphasized how the Exhibition (then the Museum) located in the former Brătianu Establishment (renamed „Nicolae Bălcescu”) became an embryo of the Party History Museum and how the appropriation of the concept of revolution took place. I then focused on the initial attempts to develop some exhibition/museum concepts coming either from the ideological departments of the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party (Central Section of Political Education; Directorate of Propaganda and Agitation), or from the Romanian Association for Strengthening Relations with the Soviet Union and the Romanian branch of Fédération Internationale des Anciens Prisonniers Politiques du fascisme. The latter, also known as the Association of Former Anti‑Fascist Political Detainees from Romania, would deal – under the supervision of the Romanian Communist Party’s Central Committee – with the museum concept of the former Doftana penitentiary. Last but not least, I tried to outline the circumstances in which the Romanian‑Russian Museum appeared and to trace the impact it had in the cultural and museological milieux.

Keywords: Romanian Museums, Communist Museums, Romanian Agitprop, Permanent exhibition/Museum „Moments from the People’s Struggle”, Doftana Museum, Romanian-Russian Museum

 

Partea a II-a

Continuități represive și practici nocive în „Era Ceaușescu”

Agricultură, corupție și control de partid în România primilor ani ai lui Nicolae Ceaușescu (Cosmin Popa)  (pp. 193-222)

This chapter examines the policy of the communist regime in Romania during the early years of the reign of Nicolae Ceaușescu in regards to the fight against corruption in agriculture. Ceaușescu viewed socialized agriculture as a suitable environment to observe economic realities due to poor organization and limited party presence among cooperative peasants and rural intellectuals. Despite the expected effects of his measures of peasant involvement in agricultural households, he provided new opportunities for enrichment to officials within the system by increasing the transfer of state resources to private interests, thereby increasing the rate of transfer. Despite the public condemnation of some „manifestations of moral decay” and the discovery of an impressive number of corruption schemes involving party officials and activists in the late ’60s, the regime shifted the pressure from the party apparatus to the population in an attempt to curb theft in agriculture. This indicated that the regime considered corruption practiced by party and state members a negligible phenomenon, easily manageable as long as political control over central and local elites remained very strong.

Keywords: agriculture, corruption, communism, Nicolae Ceaușescu

Evadare din „epoca de aur”. Strategii de trecere frauduloasă a frontierei în comunism (anii ’70‑’80) (Lucica Păcurar) (pp. 223-274)

Emigration to the West was a dream for a part of the citizens of the Socialist Republic of Romania. The phenomenon was active during the entire period of the communist regime, but reached its peak at the end of the ’80s, both as a result of the deep internal crisis, and as an effect of the changes felt in the Socialist Bloc, following the reform process initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev. As a result of the restrictive emigration policy, emigration through illegal means, either by refusing to return to the country after visa expiration or by fraudulent border crossing, was the only way out for some of those who aspired to a free life in the West. If the first method represented a relatively safe way to escape, fraudulent border crossing involved major risks, leading to detention, interrogation in brutal conditions or even to the death of those who tried. The strategies used by the escapees were diverse and sometimes so ingenious that they could compete with the scripts of action movies. A wide range of methods has been implemented to deceive the vigilance of the border guards, from the „ordinary” crossing of the border strip or swimming across the Danube to the hijacking of aircrafts. These events are recorded both in archives and in oral history sources. Leaving aside the spectacular side of the subject, its approach from the perspective of historical research, as well as the recovery of the memory of the entire phenomenon of illegal emigration, complete the knowledge of the repressive nature of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s dictatorship.

Keywords: emigration, border crossing, repression, communism

Descurcăreți și supraviețuitori în regimul Ceaușescu (Dan Mihai Țălnaru) (pp. 275-313)

In a regime where power was not a means to govern but an end in itself, the population adopted new attitudes, techniques, customs, which became social practices, some in contradiction with the country’s laws, yet indispensable for survival – the central institution of everyday life under communism. Emerging during the relatively liberalizing periods of the 7th and 8th decades, and pervasive in the 1980s, „resourcefulness” – „descurcăreala” was, without a doubt, the primary concern of daily existence. Resourcefulness through petty theft, embezzlement, bribery, and corruption in a parallel economy, subversive to the national one, utilizing its networks of production and distribution for generating illicit individual or group incomes, was the sole „modus vivendi” with the long‑promised prosperity.

Keywords: communism, economic corruption, black market, embezzlement, scarcity

Secvențe din fostele cămine‑spital pentru minori din perioada comunistă (Florin S. Soare) (pp. 315-349)

In 1966, the Ceaușescu regime initiated one of the most restrictive and aggressive pro‑natalist policies, which generated an impressive number of victims. The increase in the numbers of unwanted children and of those abandoned, born with malformations, are direct effects of this policy, effects not recognized by the state leadership. He tried to hide this problem by isolating these minors in rural orphanages, far from the cities, where they were kept in unsanitary conditions, malnourished, underdeveloped, all of which lead to an unimaginable rate of deaths and to outline the premises of an extermination regime. How was this possible, what was the origin of these children, what was the institutionalization mechanism, how many died in these centers, from what causes they died and who are responsible, is the subject I propose in this study.

Keywords: demographic policy, orphanages, unwanted children, unrecoverable children

Memoria unei disidențe: radiografia proceselor în cazul Gheorghe Ursu (Simona Deleanu) (pp. 351-371)

For more than three decades, the family of the dissident Gheorghe Ursu sought to bring to justice those responsible for his death in 1985. As early as 1990, investigations showed the responsibility of the Securitate and the Militie in this case. Thus, four trials took place in which several people involved were convicted in turn, but only the last one brought to justice the former Securitate officers who violently investigated him. The first trial found guilty only Marian Clita, the recidivist inmate who abused him in the cell, and in the second trial the culprits were the heads of the Militia prison, Tudor Stănică and Mihai Creangă. The first convicted Securitate officer was the one who stole and destroyed the pages from the diary, but without having a direct connection to the death and the investigation of the dissident. Only a few years ago, the two investigating officers, Marin Pîrvulescu and Vasile Hodiș, were brought to justice. The case of Gheorghe Ursu thus became one of the most publicized cases of crime, but also one of the most important cases in transitional criminal justice. He is also important because the Securitate officers responsible for his violent death are the first to be charged with crimes against humanity under the new Criminal Code and current European legislation. And the inclusion of this case in the so‑called „Trial of Communism” also determined a symbolic victory in transitional justice.

Keywords: dissent, Securitate, communism, transition, justice

 

Partea a III-a

Reflectări și consecințe ale comunismului în exil

Tematica religioasă reflectată în revista BIRE (Liliana Corobca) (pp. 375-397)

The Information Bulletin of Romanians in Exile (BIRE) first appeared in Paris weekly, then, after the first year of its publication, bimonthly, edited without interruption from February 1, 1948 to March 1, 1990, i.e. for 42 years, being the longest‑running publication from exile. The religious theme is highlighted in the pages of this magazine, along with the socio‑political situation in the country, the changes caused by the new power, the excesses, the abuses of the communists, but also the activity of the exile, cultural events in exile and in the country etc. Most of the materials in this field refer to the state of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Romania after 1945, but there are also articles about the destruction of churches, the fate of some priests, news about the Greek‑Catholic Church, religious opposition in general, the persecution of religious minorities, interviews and records about religious personalities who chose the path of exile etc. With the mention that some information was exaggerated or incorrect, we selected and presented some texts about the activity of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Paris, the group of texts Where are you, „patriarchy”? (about religious „tourism”), information about the Greek Catholic Church, as well as more important religious events in communist Romania and in exile.

Keywords: exile, the communist regime, the Information Bulletin of Romanians in Exile (BIRE), the Orthodox Church, the Greek Catholic Church, religious minorities

Metode de acțiune ale securității, factori cauzali de traumă și victime în exil (Anca Stângaciu) (pp. 399-421)

Securitatea, the oppressive and repressive institution of the Romanian state, through its external structures, operated differently abroad than in the country precisely because physical repression, terror, arrests or other types of aggressive actions, except for some rather particular but serious cases, could not be used as methods in the democratic world; the solution was the adoption of more subtle means, but with equally destructive consequences, applied in such a way as to stir up dissensions, accentuate suspicions, exploit fears or manipulate emotions, all with the aim of destructing and dividing the exile. For instance, the various methods of attracting collaboration were mostly achieved through gradual approach and manipulation or even persuasion, which does not mean that in exile there was no action to penetrate and infiltrate the anti‑communist structures through the use of harsh means, such as threats, intimidation or even attacks, including with homemade bombs. After 1960 and especially after 1965, Securitatea did, indeed, appeal to the emotional component, including guilt, in order to exploit personal situations or to arouse strong feelings, using various forms of persuasion, distortion or disinformation, but not the frameworks of the causative factors of physical trauma and emotional stress in the exile camps must be left aside, which all refugees went through, but with, of course, different intensities. The chapter refers to the methods of action of the Securitate and the multiple traumatic experiences in exile, but also to the trauma‑causing situations or traumatic events, their manifestations, intensities and consequences, i.e. traumatic reactions or post‑traumatic stress and their memory; by calling on archival primary sources, memoirs and interviews or conversations held personally with prominent personalities of the real anti‑communist exile in the United States of America, France, Italy and Germany. The approach to the traumatic side of the exile phenomenon includes the experiences of groups such as those of former political party leaders, members of religious denominations or structures, committees, associations

Keywords: exile, memory, trauma, stress, repression, Securitate

 

Anuarul „Abuz, traumă, memorie. Realități și consecințe ale comunismului românesc” este disponibil pe site-ul Polirom, precum și în librării.