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Confronting Romania's Communist Past: A Response to Charles King

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Vladimir Tismaneanu
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Abstract

The report of the Presidential Commission for the Analysis of the Communist Dictatorship in România, issued in December 2006, is the most serious attempt to understand România's communist experience ever produced. Coordinated by the American political scientist Vladimir Tismaneanu, the report covers virtually every aspect of communism as a lived system, from the installation of Communist Party officials during the postwar occupation, through the instruments of coercion, to the fate of religious institutions, the economy, national minorities, and education. The release of the report also contributed to a major political crisis, during which the parliament attempted to unseat the president, Traian Basescu, who had lauded the report and officially condemned communism as an illegitimate system. The question now is whether the commission's report will be used as yet another opportunity to reject history or as a way of helping Românians learn, at last, how to own it.

Type
Review Essay
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 66 , Issue 4 , Winter 2007 , pp. 724 - 727
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 2007

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References

1. Adam Michnik, personal conversation, Bucharest, 9 June 2007. For Michnik's views on lustration, memory, retribution, and the dilemmas of coming to terms with the communist past, see his Letters from Freedom: Post-Cold War Realities and Perspectives (Berkeley, 1998).

2. See Weber, Hermann, “Rewriting the History of the German Democratic Republic: The Work of the Commission of Inquiry,” in Alter, Reinhard and Monteath, Peter, Rewritingthe German Past: History and Identity in the New Germany (Adantic Highlands, N.J., 1997), 203 Google Scholar; see also McAdams, A.James, Judging the Past in Unified Germany (New York, 2001)Google Scholar.

3. See Comisia Internaţională pentru Studierea Holocaustului in România, Raport Final, ed. Friling, Tuvia, Ioanid, Radu, and Ionescu, Mihail E. (Iasi, 2005)Google Scholar. For an excellent comparison between the Wiesel commission and the commision I chaired, see Ruxandra Cesereanu, “Raportul final asupra Holocaustului si raportul final asupra dictaturii comuniste in România,” Revista 22 (5-11 June 2007): 11. For a penetrating analysis of intellectual, political, and moral context of our commission's activity and its final report, see Iacob, Bogdan Cristian, “O clarificare necesară: Condamnarea regimului comunist din România între text si context,” Ideiin Diahg A, no. 8 (35) (August 2007): 11–15 Google Scholar.

4. In February 2006, cinematographer and Civic Alliance vice-chairman Sorin Iliejiu initiated an appeal for the condemnation of communism, gathering support from major trade unions, other civic associations, prominent intellectuals, and thousands of citizens. Iliesju later served as a member of PCACD.

5. Initially, my position was to avoid even looking at any polemic. Later, I decided to examine some of these condemnations, since they are relevant for the state of the public climate in România. I dealt with some of these attacks in my weekly contributions to Cotidianul, Evenimentul Zilei, as well as in interviews with Revista 22, Observator Cultural, Radio Free Europe, BBC, and other places. Many of these articles and interviews are included in my books Democraţie şi memorie (Bucharest, 2006) and Refuzul de a uita (Bucharest, 2007). The latter was launched at the Book Fair in Bucharest, in June 2007, in the presence of Traian Basescu. On that occasion, the president reiterated his support for our work and announced his decision to continue our activity in a reconstituted form, as the Presidential Advisory Commission for the Analysis of the Communist Dictatorship in România. I serve as the chair of the new commission, and historians Dorin Dobrincu and Cristian Vasile are its coordinators.

6. See jowitt, Ken, New World Disorder: The Leninist Extinction (Berkeley, 1992)Google Scholar. For the impact of Jowitt's work, see Tismaneanu, Vladimir, Howard, Marc Morjé, and Sil, Rudra, eds., World Order after Leninism (Seatde, 2006)Google Scholar.

7. For Iliescu's virulent attacks on the commission, the final report, and me personally, see “Eu am fost un lustrat incă din copilarie,” an interview with Ion Iliescu by Corlǎţan, Mirela, Cotidianul, 27 July 2007Google Scholar.

8. See Gabriel Andreescu's two articles: “Raportul privitor la dictatura comunistă: Lumini şi umbre (I),” Ziua, 21 December 2006; “Raportul privitor la dictatura comunista: Lumini şi umbre (II),” Ziua, 28 December 2006; see also “Raportul Tismaneanu, notat cu şapte,” an interview with Michael Shafir by Dan Tapalagă, Ziua de Cluj, 12 January 2007.