The Final Report on the Holocaust and the Final Report on the Communist Dictatorship in Romania

Abstract

On 22 October 2003, with the initiative of Romania's president Ion Iliescu, the International Commission for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania (ICSHR) was set up. Nobel laureate for peace and American writer of Romanian origin Elie Wiesel was appointed as its president. In spring 2006, with the initiative of Romania's president Traian Băsescu, the Presidential Commission for the Analysis of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania (CPADCR) was formed. Vladimir Tismăneanu, the American political scientist of Romanian origin, became its president. Both commissions were established with the purpose of producing a final report on the two forms of totalitarianism in Romania: the extreme right totalitarianism between 1940 and 1944, and the extreme left totalitarianism between 1944 and 1989. Both commissions rested on legal and ethical grounds and they addressed Romanians' expectations and dilemmas linked to their recent traumatic history.

Receptarea literaturii sârbe în România. Noi provocări în mileniul III

“…Și, spre lauda lui Milorad Pavić, este scris minunat. (Cesereanu, 2010). Cel de-al doilea roman, Peisaj pictat în ceai, roman-careu de cuvinte încrucișate, apare la o editură presigioasă, de mare tradiție, Univers, în cadrul colecției "A treia Europă", seria "Proza din Europa centrală și de Est", cu sprijinul financiar al Fundației Pro Helvetica, semn că Pavić începuse să-și facă loc în mentalul cultural al editorilor.…”

Communism in retrospect: The rhetoric of historical representation and writing the collective memory of recent past

“…Liberal academic experts (historians or political scientists) have been invested with or, in some cases, have taken the role of opinion leaders. Their role was that of setting the moral agenda of the present, shaping a moral discourse and sensitizing present generations to its responsibilities to the past (Cesereanu, 2008, Poole, 2008Thompson, 2009). In the Romanian context, the role of historians and political scientists was to ensure that emerging elite representations of the communist past speak against alternative ways of organizing and approving knowledge in the public sphere coming from right-wing and ex-communist political attempts of downplaying or even denying the atrocities perpetrated by the communist regime (King, 2007;Tismăneanu, 2007aTismăneanu, , 2008.…”

“…Liberal academic experts (historians or political scientists) have been invested with or, in some cases, have taken the role of opinion leaders. Their role was that of setting the moral agenda of the present, shaping a moral discourse and sensitizing present generations of its responsibilities to the past (Cesereanu, 2008, Poole, 2008Thompson, 2009). In the Romanian context, the role of historians and political scientists was to ensure that emerging elite representations of the communist speak against alternative ways of organizing and approving knowledge in the public sphere coming from rightwing and ex-communist political attempts of downplaying or even denying the atrocities perpetrated by the communist regime (Tismăneanu, 2007a(Tismăneanu, , 2008King, 2007 (Tănăsoiu, 2007;Stan, 2007 According to Hogea (2010), the main political and media themes that emerged in political discourse around the report were related to 'timing (the right moment has already passed), authority (only a non-communist can condemn communism), political capital (witch-hunting), and a new beginning (through the closure of a traumatic past).'…”

Communism and the Meaning of Social Memory: Towards a Critical-Interpretive Approach

“…The main (selfassigned) task of the historian or political scientist is to construct a representation of the recent past by uncovering "the facts about the past" and recounting them "as objectively as possible" (Skinner, 2002: 8 The role of politicians and professional academics was to ensure that official representations of the communist past set the moral agenda of the present, shape a moral public discourse and sensitize present generations of their responsibilities to the past. The "Tismăneanu Report" (henceforth the 'Report') condemning the crimes and abuses of communism in Romania was such an attempt (for more details on the structure and scope of the Report (see Tismăneanu, 2007aTismăneanu, , 2008; for reactions to the Report, see Ciobanu, 2009;Cesereanu, 2008;Hogea, 2010;Stan, 2007;Ernu et al, 2008). The leading author of the Report was Professor Vladimir Tismăneanu, get others to participate in a general vision of justice and "moral identity" (Gergen, 2005: 116) within the national community.…”