Vladimir Tismaneanu
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Communism and Post-Communism in Romania : Challenges to Democratic Transition
TITLE : COMMUNISM AND POST-COMMUNISM IN ROMANIA : CHALLENGES TO DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION AUTHOR : VLADIMIR TISMANEANU, University of Marylan d THE NATIONAL COUNCIL FO R EURASIAN AND EAST EUROPEAN RESEARC H TITLE VIII PROGRA M 1755 Massachusetts Avenue, N .W . Washington, D .C . 20036 LEGAL NOTICE The Government of the District of Columbia has certified an amendment of th e Articles of Incorporation of the National Council for Soviet and East European Research changing the name of the Corporation to THE NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR EURASIAN AND EAST EUROPEAN RESEARCH, effective on June 9, 1997. Grants, contracts and all other legal engagements of and with the Corporation made unde r its former name are unaffected and remain in force unless/until modified in writin g by the parties thereto . PROJECT INFORMATION : 1 CONTRACTOR : University of Marylan d PR1NCIPAL 1NVEST1GATOR : Vladimir Tismanean u COUNCIL CONTRACT NUMBER : 81 1-2 3 DATE : March 26, 1998 COPYRIGHT INFORMATIO N Individual researchers retain the copyright on their work products derived from research funded by contract with the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research . However, the Council and the United States Government have the right to duplicate an d disseminate, in written and electronic form, this Report submitted to the Council under thi s Contract, as follows : Such dissemination may be made by the Council solely (a) for its ow n internal use, and (b) to the United States Government (1) for its own internal use ; (2) for further dissemination to domestic, international and foreign governments, entities an d individuals to serve official United States Government purposes ; and (3) for dissemination i n accordance with the Freedom of Information Act or other law or policy of the United State s Government granting the public rights of access to documents held by the United State s Government. -
Festschrift for Immanuel Wallerstein Part I
The Hard-Earned Integration of the East in the World Economic System Silviu Brucan orld socialism was a subsystem of the world-system and as such Wcould not run deeper than the system of which it was a part. Had Lenin realized the workings of the world economic system, he would have concluded that Russia had no chance whatsoever to build an antisystemic economy in the midst of an overpowering world capitalist system. In his earlier writings, Lenin had a glimpse of that reality, hoping that another socialist revolution would break out in Germany, bailing out the Russian one. Instead, as his dream failed to materialize he began a desperate enter- prise: socialism in one country. In retrospective, I venture to say that the pervasive power of the world- system expressed itself in the fact that Lenin and Stalin, unconsciously, conceived both socialist society, as well as the future communist society, within the limits of the industrial system, which historically belongs to the capitalist epoch. This began when Stalin presented industrialization as the goal of socialism (industrialization being essentially a capitalist operation), and ended with Lenin’s defi nition of communism “Soviets plus electrifi cation,”and Stalin’s threshold to communism expressed in terms of millions of tons of pig iron, steel, coal and oil B both indicating the limit of their historical perspective within the industrial system. Never did they formulate a new type of productive forces that would usher in the formation of a postcapitalist society, remaining intellectual prisoners of the industrial system. Silviu Brucan Str. Helesteului 26 Sector 1 71297 Bucuresti Romania journal of world-systems research, vi, 2, summer/fall 2000, 444-453 Special Issue: Festchrift for Immanuel Wallerstein – Part I http://jwsr.ucr.edu issn 1076-156x © 2000 Silviu Brucan 444 445 Silviu Brucan The Hard-Earned Integration of the East in the World Economic System 446 Stalin tried hopelessly to escape from that theoretical framework. -
Romania Redivivus
alexander clapp ROMANIA REDIVIVUS nce the badlands of neoliberal Europe, Romania has become its bustling frontier. A post-communist mafia state that was cast to the bottom of the European heap by opinion- makers sixteen years ago is now billed as the success story Oof eu expansion.1 Its growth rate at nearly 6 per cent is the highest on the continent, albeit boosted by fiscal largesse.2 In Bucharest more politicians have been put in jail for corruption over the past decade than have been convicted in the rest of Eastern Europe put together. Romania causes Brussels and Berlin almost none of the headaches inflicted by the Visegrád Group—Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia— which in 1993 declined to accept Romania as a peer and collectively entered the European Union three years before it. Romanians con- sistently rank among the most Europhile people in the Union.3 An anti-eu party has never appeared on a Romanian ballot, much less in the parliament. Scattered political appeals to unsavoury interwar traditions—Legionnairism, Greater Romanianism—attract fewer voters than do far-right movements across most of Western Europe. The two million Magyars of Transylvania, one of Europe’s largest minorities, have become a model for inter-ethnic relations after a time when the park benches of Cluj were gilded in the Romanian tricolore to remind every- one where they were. Indeed, perhaps the aptest symbol of Romania’s place in Europe today is the man who sits in the Presidential Palace of Cotroceni in Bucharest. Klaus Iohannis—a former physics teacher at a high school in Sibiu, once Hermannstadt—is an ethnic German head- ing a state that, a generation ago, was shipping hundreds of thousands of its ‘Saxons’ ‘back’ to Bonn at 4,000–10,000 Deutschmarks a head. -
Remarks to the People of Romania in Bucharest November 23, 2002
Administration of George W. Bush, 2002 / Nov. 23 the honor of this award. May God bless NOTE: The President spoke at 3:47 p.m. at Romania. Cotroceni Palace. In his remarks, he referred to President Ion Iliescu and Prime Minister Adrian Nastase of Romania. Remarks to the People of Romania in Bucharest November 23, 2002 Salut! Thank you all. Thank you, Mr. The path of freedom you’ve chosen is President. Thank you for being out here not easy, but it’s the only path worth tak- in the rain. Thank you for such a warm ing. I know that your hardship did not end welcome. Laura and I are honored to be with your oppression. America respects in this great country. As we started speak- your labor, your patience, your daily deter- ing, a rainbow appeared. God is smiling mination to find a better life. Your effort on us today. has been recognized by an offer to NATO I’m proud to stand in this great square membership. We welcome Romania into and to bring the good wishes of the Amer- NATO. ican people. Today we reaffirm the friend- NATO’s invitation to join was also a vote ship between your country and mine. I’m of confidence that you will continue the honored to carry a message to the people hard work of political, economic, and mili- of Romania: We proudly invite you to join tary reform. And as you do, you will have NATO, the great alliance of freedom. partners in all the nations of NATO. -
Editors' Notes
Editors’ Notes Sam Beck, Cornell University David Kideckel, Central Connecticut State University Time seems irrelevant in current Central and East European affairs. Each day brings such new, stirring, and seemingly impossible developments that students of the region are hard-put to keep up with them all, let along make sense of what they mean. We are putting out this interim edition of the Review now mainly because of this temporal dissonance. So many things are happening quickly that we thought it best to inform you of a few especially important items now instead of saving them for the larger issue of The Review that should be out sometime in late April or early May. We originally began to put together this special issue to inform you of a letter writing campaign organized by Ken Jowitt and Gail Kligman on behalf of the Romanian diplomat and social scientist, Silviu Brucan. Less than one month ago Brucan was under house arrest in Bucharest in life-threatening conditions. As is par for the current East European course, he is now a leading member of the National Salvation Front; clearly no longer under house arrest. Brucan's release, of course, was a result of the Romanian revolution. The loss of life and property in Romania (e.g. the University of Bucharest library building and collection were severely damaged) compels us to bring to your attention the relief efforts on-going to assist Romania through the winter. Both the International Committee of the Red Cross and the World Health Organization have set up an emergency task force in Bucharest under the direction of the Vice Minister of Health, Dr. -
The Romanian Marsh
Chapter 16 The Romanian Marsh As early as 1988, we started focusing on Romania, using a sister organization, “Second World Center” housed with us in the same office, as a base. The country was a strictly orchestrated communist dictatorship ruled by the megalomanical couple, Nicolae and Elena Ceaucescu’s. While the Ceaucescu maintained a ruthless, repressive machinery at home, they were welcomed with open arms by many countries in the West. Ceaucescu followed a policy independent from Moscow, and that was enough to reap recognition, support, medals and awards from Western governments and royalty. Because it gradually became less and less necessary to support the dissident movement in the Soviet Union through couriers, our small team of associates had the chance to focus their attention on a different country. At the beginning of 1989, we decided to take the chance and try to establish contacts with dissidents in Romania to see how we could best provide assistance. The very first time things went immediately wrong. After a meeting with one of the few well-known dissidents, Silviu Brucan, our courier was stopped by the police. He was released some time later, but with the clear instruction that he had to leave the country. The Romanian authorities, however, did not count on the persistence of the Dutch Ambassador; Coen Stork was not a regular Dutch diplomat. He had a very clear opinion, had no problem expressing it, and organized weekly meetings with other ambassadors in Bucharest to discuss the human rights situation in the country. Coen Stork proposed to our courier that he could stay with him as a guest. -
Download the Full Document About Romania
About Romania Romania (Romanian: România, IPA: [ro.mɨni.a]) is a country in Southeastern Europe sited in a historic region that dates back to antiquity. It shares border with Hungary and Serbia to the west, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova to the northeast, and Bulgaria to the south. Romania has a stretch of sea coast along the Black Sea. It is located roughly in the lower basin of the Danube and almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory. Romania is a parliamentary unitary state. As a nation-state, the country was formed by the merging of Moldavia and Wallachia in 1859 and it gained recognition of its independence in 1878. Later, in 1918, they were joined by Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia. At the end of World War II, parts of its territories (roughly the present day Moldova) were occupied by USSR and Romania became a member of Warsaw Pact. With the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, Romania started a series of political and economic reforms that peaked with Romania joining the European Union. Romania has been a member of the European Union since January 1, 2007, and has the ninth largest territory in the EU and with 22 million people [1] it has the 7th largest population among the EU member states. Its capital and largest city is Bucharest (Romanian: Bucureşti /bu.kureʃtʲ/ (help·info)), the sixth largest city in the EU with almost 2 million people. In 2007, Sibiu, a large city in Transylvania, was chosen as European Capital of Culture.[2] Romania joined NATO on March 29, 2004, and is also a member of the Latin Union, of the Francophonie and of OSCE. -
Ceausescu's Trial and Execution
Online international journal of philosophy WWW.METABASIS.IT May 2009 year IV # 7 PHILOSOPHY AND COMMUNICATION CEAUSESCU’S TRIAL AND EXECUTION by Ruxandra Cesereanu (Babes-Bolyai University - Cluj-Napoca, Romania) Nicolae Ceausescu, the Romanian dictator who got shot in December 1989, after popular revolt movements against the communist regime and after the National Salvation Front took the power, was a head of state endowed with a peasant cunning and with an ambition for power on account of which he never had any scruples. He slyly got rid of his rivals and strategically appointed family members in key positions. He promoted a tribal type of communism. Similarly to all communist leaders, Ceausescu got in power as a Moscow subordinate. Towards the half and the end of his regime he played, however, the nationalist card out of tactics reasons: both in the foreign and domestic politics. At the beginning he wanted to seduce the Western World, offering the image of a communist independent from Moscow, then, towards the end, to make the Romanians’ look turn away from the economic disaster and from the extreme poverty in the country, but also to shut out Gorbachev’s influence, which signified a reformed communism the Romanian dictator was allergic to. During the hasty trial he and his wife were brought to, in December 1989, Ceausescu proved to be almost an autistic individual, shut out in his dictator clichés, a dictator who was never interested in the way Romanians lived and in what their needs were. There were two visible obsessions during the trial: his belief that the Romanians’ popular explosion is exclusively due to a double conspiracy (external and domestic) and his desire to be allowed to speak in front of the ‘working class’ that he still credited as his ally. -
HUNGARIAN PRESS of TRANSYLVANIA Release No. 124
HUNGARIAN PRESS OF TRANSYLVANIA Release No. 124/1987 Bucharest, December 6, 1987 Károly Király Wrote A Letter to Party Leaders During the summer, Károly Király (b. 1930), the dissident ethnic Hungarian politician from Transylvania, has written another letter – criticizing the public state of affairs in Rumania – to President Ceausescu. Semi-official agencies in Bucharest have just now forwarded the text of the letter to us. (See Appendix No. 2) As his writings reveal, Király is disturbed not only by the regular trespasses against human and nationality rights, but also by the flow of diversionary influence and propaganda which aims to set the masses of Rumanians against Hungarians and the neighboring peoples. In order to illustrate his point, he attached an anonymous letter which was mailed to him this year. (See Appendix No. 1.) This letter is a good reflection of the widespread inimical views which -- thanks to the official propaganda efforts -- are gaining greater acceptance among large number of Rumanians. Király sent as copy of his own letter, as well as a copy of the anonymous letter he received, to the country's former Premier, Ion Gheorghe Maurer, who was removed from office by Ceausescu. In his answer, Maurer acknowledges the receipt of the above and thanks Király for them (See Appendix No. 3.). APPENDIX 1 Anonymous Letter Sent to Király Károly, July 20, 1987 Comrade Director! I have been listening to your remarks concerning the situation of Transylvania's Hungarian minority, as broadcast by Radio Free Europe. I have several reasons for disagreeing with you: You [Hungarians] joined the [Communist] Party side by side with the Jews, who proved themselves to be smarter and quicker. -
Soviet-Romanian Relations Under Gorbachev "
FINAL REPORT TO NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR SOVIET AND EAST EUROPEAN RESEARC H TITLE : THE EXTERNALIZATION OF REFORM : SOVIET-ROMANIAN RELATIONS UNDER GORBACHE V AUTHOR : RONALD H . LINDE N CONTRACTOR : UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURG H PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR : RONALD H . LINDEN COUNCIL CONTRACT NUMBER : 803-1 7 DATE : APRIL 1990 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY : "The Externalization of Reform : Soviet-Romanian Relations Under Gorbachev " PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR : Ronald H . Linden The principal aim of this research was to determine i f the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev was applying th e same standards and employing the same practices in it s reactions with the non-reforming East European states, as ha d previous regimes for different purposes . Specifically, th e investigation sought to determine if the USSR was using it s hegemonic position to promote change, in the form o f glasnost, perestroika and reform of regional institutions, i n the same way earlier regimes had acted to prevent reform . While an answer to this question can be offered, th e events of 1989 made this more of a historic than a curren t question . A broader approach to which this research wa s amenable was to look at existing Soviet policies in light o f the revolutions of 1989 and determine what, if anything , remained of post war Soviet policy . The question of how i t reacted to the recalcitrance of the Ceausescu leadership an d how it has reacted to the changes in Romania and elsewhere i n the region since the revolutions remains central . The mai n context of the research was Soviet-East European relations ; that context remains but the dynamics changed dramaticall y enough to extend the research focus in time and breadth . -
Coming to Terms with the Communist Past in Romania: an Analysis of the Political and Media Discourse Concerning the Tismăneanu Report Alina Hogea*
S TSS Vol 2 / Issue 2 16 Studies of Transition States and Societies Coming to Terms with the Communist Past in Romania: An Analysis of the Political and Media Discourse Concerning the Tismăneanu Report Alina Hogea* Abstract This paper looks at the public debates about the communist past, as triggered by the final report on the communist dictatorship in Romania (the Tismăneanu report) and its presidential endorsement in December 2006. The paper employs narrative and discourse analysis to examine the political reactions to the official condemnation of communism, as well as its reflection in several Romanian newspapers. The Tismăneanu report was meant to be a ‘redressive ritual’ that would provide closure to a traumatic past by retrospectively denouncing the meaning of communism, but instead it generated more public debates and political turmoil. This indicates that the contorted path taken by Romania to confront its communist past is not a finished process yet, but rather represents a dynamic field in which social ac- tors are fighting over which events and actors in the past should be collectively remembered, and espe- cially how they have to be represented in the collective memory of post-communist Romania.1 Keywords: collective memory, communism, Romania, politics, media discourse Introduction More than twenty years after the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, Romania is still struggling with its communist past. The Romanian ‘revolution’ remains a debated topic as there is no consensus among scholars, politicians, journalists, and lay people on what exactly happened in December 1989 (revolution or coup d’état) and on the name this political event should take (see more on this topic in Tileagă, 2008 and Văcărescu, 2004). -
NATO As a Factor of Security Community Building
NATO as a Factor of Security Community Building: Enlargement and Democratization in Central and Eastern Europe EAPC-NATO Individual Fellowship Final Report 1999-2001 BY CORNELIU BJOLA CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY International Relations and European Studies Program Email: [email protected] DISCLAIMER The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or the Central European University (CEU), Budapest. The author wishes to thank to the NATO Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council and to the CEU International Relations Department for financial and academic support. List of Tables and Graphs Table 1: Level of political engagement with NATO……………………………………. 29 Table 2: Level of military engagement with NATO…………………………………….. 30 Table 3: Major political-military agreements between Hungary and Romania…………. 32 Table 4: Foreign and military policy orientations……………………………………….. 33 Table 5: Legal basis of the Hungarian and Romanian NSSP……………………………. 36 Table 6: Restructuring of the armed forces……………………………………………… 38 Table 7: Readiness status of the Romanian and Hungarian armed forces………………. 40 Table 8: General framework of democratic civilian control of the military…………….. 43 Graph 1: Major bilateral agreements……………………………………………………. 30 Graph 2: Official high-level meetings…………………………………………………... 31 Graph 3: Trade relations………………………………………………………………… 49 Graph 4: Satisfaction with democracy…………………………………………………... 50 Graph 5: Respect for human rights……………………………………………………… 50 Graph 6: Public support for extremist parties…………………………………………… 50 Graph 7: NATO centripetal influence…………………………………………………… 57 2 TTAABBLLEE OOFF CCOONNTTEENNTTSS INTRODUCTION 4 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 7 RESEARCH DESIGN 11 A) TESTING HYPOTHESES : 11 B) CONSTRUCTION OF VARIABLES , METHODOLOGY: 12 C) CASE STUDIES , DATA SOURCES : 13 I. BUILDING TRUST BETWEEN FORMER ENEMIES 15 SEARCHING FOR A NEW IDENTITY 15 EXPORTING STABILITY TO THE EAST 17 TAKING ON NEW RESPONSIBILITIES 21 II.