The imposition of Communist ideology was a misfortune for millions in Eastern Europe, but never for Dennis Deletant. Instead, it drew him to Romania. The renowned historian’s association with the country and its people dates back to 1965, when he first visited. Since then, Romania has made Dennis appreciate the value of shrewd dissimulation, in the face of the state’s gross intrusion in the life of the individual. This vivid memoir charts his first-hand experience of the Communist era, coloured by the early 1970s surveillance of his future wife Andrea; his contacts with dissidents; and his articles and BBC World Service broadcasts, which led to his being declared persona non grata in 1988. In Search of Romania also considers how life went on under dictatorship, even if it was largely mapped out by the regime. How did individual citizens negotiate the challenges placed in their path? How important was the political police, the Securitate, in maintaining compliance? How did dissent towards the regime manifest? How did all this affect the moral compass of the individual? Why did utopia descend into dystopia under Ceaușescu? And how has his legacy influenced the difficult transition to democracy since the collapse of Communism?
Deletant (Romanian studies, U. of London) provides an extensive history and examination of the Securitate, Ceausescu's secret police. The first two chapters address the methods used to impose Communist rule in Romania and revolutionize Romanian society. Subsequent chapters deal with Transylvania and Ceaucescu's appeals to national sentiment, the role of Bessarabia in cultivating support, compliance and dissent, central planning, repression in the years 1978 to 1989, and the present state of affairs. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
"A history of Romania traces the author's intellectual development throughout his extensive visits to the country, sharing his observations about its reflection of European politics, geography and key events while exploring the indelible role of Vladimir Putin."--NoveList.
This is the first volume to overview the complex Romanian transitional justice effort, detail the political negotiations that have led to the adoption and implementation of relevant legislation, and assess these processes in terms of their timing, sequencing, and impact on democratization.
Eva Zimmermann is eight years old, and she has just discovered she is Jewish. Such is the life of an only child living in postwar Bucharest, a city that is changing in ever more frightening ways. Eva's family, full of eccentric and opinionated adults, will do absolutely anything to keep her safe—even if it means hiding her identity from her. With razor-sharp depictions of her animated relatives, Haya Leah Molnar's memoir of her childhood captures with touching precocity the very adult realities of living behind the iron curtain. Under a Red Sky is a 2011 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.
This book is the first synthesis of the history of communism in Romania, from the founding of the Romanian Communist Party in 1921 to the revolution that led to the downfall of Communist dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu in December 1989. This book is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the development of communism in Romania and the impact of four decades of communist rule on Romanian society. Romania Under Communist Rule is divided into three parts. The first presents the period of Soviet domination and the consolidation of the Communist regime in Romania during the period from 1947 to 1955. The second discusses the Romanian Communist Party's efforts at autonomy in the period from 1956 to 1969, including the withdrawal of Soviet troops form Romania in 1958, and the coming to power of Nicolae Ceaucescu after the death of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej in 1965. The third and final section of the book analyzes the neo-Stalinist dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaucescu, culminating in the overthrow of the communist regime in Romania as a result of the December 1989 revolution. The author, Dennis Deletant, is a leading specialist on Romanian history and culture. Professor of Romanian studies at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at the University of London, he is recognized as the leading authority on Romanian history in Great Britain.
In 1930s Bucharest, some of the country’s most brilliant young intellectuals converged to form the Criterion Association. Bound by friendship and the dream of a new, modern Romania, their members included historian Mircea Eliade, critic Petru Comarnescu, Jewish playwright Mihail Sebastian and a host of other philosophers and artists. Together, they built a vibrant cultural scene that flourished for a few short years, before fascism and scandal splintered their ranks. Cristina A. Bejan asks how the far-right Iron Guard came to eclipse the appeal of liberalism for so many of Romania’s intellectual elite, drawing on diaries, memoirs and other writings to examine the collision of culture and extremism in the interwar years. The first English-language study of Criterion and the most thorough to date in any language, this book grapples with the complexities of Romanian intellectual life in the moments before collapse.
British Clandestine Activities in Romania during the Second World War is the first monograph to examine the activity throughout the entire war of SOE and MI6. It was generally believed in Britain's War Office, after Hitler's occupation of Austria in March 1938, that Germany would seek to impose its will on South-East Europe before turning its attention towards Western Europe. Given Romania's geographical position, there was little Britain could offer her. The brutal fact of British-Romanian relations was that Germany was inconveniently in the way: opportunity, proximity of manufacture and the logistics of supply all told in favour of the Third Reich. This held, of course, for military as well as economic matters. In these circumstances the British concluded that their only weapon against German ambitions in countries which fell into Hitler's orbit were military subversive operations and a concomitant attempt to draw Romania out of her alliance with Germany.
Vlad and the Vampire : The Double Life of DraculaRomania is best known to the world as Dracula's country. But go there and ask about Dracula and you'll be puzzled. The Count remained until very recently unknown in his own homeland. Romanian communists banned all vampire fiction until 1990. Even nowadays Romanians have a schizophrenic attitude towards Dracula. They are tempted to transform Dracula into a tourism agent to cash in Western money, but at the same time they're afraid they may be bartering away their history. Romania's problem is that Dracula lived for real. He was neither a vampire, nor a count and never reigned in Transylvania. The stories about Vlad III Dracula, a 15th century warlord prince of Wallachia, a small Romanian principality, were horror best sellers long before Bram Stoker's famous novel. According to a 1499 pamphlet published by Ambrosius Hubler at Nuremberg, “Dracula the voivode was a bloodthirsty man who impaled people and roasted them... and chopped them like cabbages.” To Romanians he is still a national hero. The Romanian national poet Mihai Eminescu called upon Vlad to bring down his wrath upon the guilty. Romania's schizophrenic dilemmaThe fact that Bram Stoker chose Transylvania as place of origin for his vampire frustrates many Romanian nationalists, some of whom even bet on Vasile Barsan's historical theory about a conspiracy against Vlad Tepes – led by king Matthias Corvinus in the 15th century, refined with a vampirical touch in the 19th century by Arminius Vambery, a Hungarian scholar and spy, allegedly Stoker's informant, and immortalized on the silver screen in the 20 century by Hungarian-born actor Bela Lugosi. “The complete fusion between the fictional Count and the historic figure of the Prince began in 1972, with the publishing of In Search of Dracula by Radu Florescu and Raymond McNally, two historians who argued that Bram Stoker based his vampire on Vlad”, says writer Elisabeth Miller. Bram Stoker's Dracula directed by Francis Ford Coppola is the most famous Dracula film in history. About the time Coppola's movie appeared in 1992, Romanians were discovering they could market the fictional Dracula. The government planned to build a Dracula Park hoping to attract a million visitors per year. The project met a huge opposition and its supporters were forced to step back. Dracula Park: the essence of Romanian's mixed feelings (opportunism and resentment) towards Dracula This book also explores other interesting issues for any Dracula fan:• Where is Transylvania and how did it become the land of vampires? • Why Romanian communists banned Dracula as representative of the “decadent” West? • How was Vlad Tepes myth built after 19th century • Behind the scenes of the Dracula Park odyssey • Dracula's three castles in Romania • What are the links between Stoker's Dracula and the Eastern European roots of the vampire myths? • What are the must-see places if you visit Romania in search of Dracula? Searching for Dracula in RomaniaThis travelogue is a very informative, brilliantly written work which will definitely be liked by those who're interested in vampires, Dracula in particular and Romania. Everything's described exactly, very knowledgeably and thoroughly – says Ekaterina Buley, President of the Russian Chapter of the Transylvanian Society of Dracula.For behind the scenes information about Gruia's books:-->http://www.catalingruia.com/ -->https://www.facebook.com/ByCatalinGruia
