THE SOCIALIST SACRED: ATHEISM, RELIGION, AND MASS CULTURE IN ROMANIA, 1948-1989 BY ZSUZSÁNNA MAGDÓ DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2016 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor Maria Todorova, Chair and Director of Research Professor Keith Hitchins Professor Mark Steinberg Associate Professor Zsuzsa Gille ii ABSTRACT Drawing on new archival sources, official publications, and oral histories, I challenge the self-portrayal of socialist civilizations as scientific, secular, and the “other” of everything religious. Between 1948 and 1989, the Romanian communist regime sought to disenchant believers with a scientific, materialist worldview. Yet, it likewise strove to imbue citizens’ lives with socialist sacred meaning. My work demonstrates that we cannot understand late socialism’s contradictory drive for rationalization and re-enchantment without examining how elites produced knowledge about atheism and lived religion. This dissertation analyzes elite interactions with believers and the Central Committee from 1948, when transforming religiosity emerged as a party priority, to the end of the socialist era. My chapters focus on science popularizers, preservationists, sociologists, and folklorists in institutions of cultural administration and research newly created to manage socialist beliefs and behavior. These elites shaped the place of religion and atheism in Romanian society while competing for resources within the centralized structure of the Party-State. Their voices mattered because they engaged believers for whom national and religious belonging coincided. Elites also provided specialized knowledge for party organs committed to achieve convergence between ideology and citizens’ subjectivity. This dissertation combines approaches from cultural history, anthropology, and sociology to reveal key sites of conceptual labor and expert power within purportedly monolithic party- states. I also historicize the re-composition of lived religion by examining how religious majorities and minorities engaged with a socialist ideology that competed to provide overarching meaning to individual and collective life. On a broader scale, my work provides a comparative iii history of atheism in Eastern Europe by de-centering the Soviet Union and illuminates the socialist experiment as part of a global modernity, inherently defined by a tense yet interdependent relationship between disenchantment and sacralization. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the 1980s, the Ceaușescu regime was still ideologically committed to enforced secularization. Yet, barely in primary school, my friend Krisztina and I went unencumbered to catechism every week, watched movies of saints’s lives, and prepared enthusiastically for our First Communion at the Roman-Catholic parish in our hometown, Csíkszereda (Miercurea Ciuc). In the years that followed the violent death of Romanian communism in 1989, religious organizations across the country seemed to provide existential grounding, communal belonging, and moral direction to generations that grappled with the myriad, everyday uncertainties of post- socialist transition. I first observed this changing landscape of belief at the Franciscan monastery in Csíksomlyó (Șumuleu-Ciuc). Over the course of the 1990s, this Marian pilgrimage site turned on Whitsundays into a place for the largest international gathering of ethnic Hungarians outside Hungary, a development that lent an unmistakable nationalist overtone to religious ceremonies. I also witnessed the re-composition of lived religion through my involvement with the Taizé Community in France. The center of a global ecumenical youth movement, Taizé had extended its reach to former socialist countries and was immensely popular at the time: it provided unique, affordable opportunities for travel in the Schengen Area, offered prized chances to meet youth from across the world, and expressed commitment to religious tolerance when the Yugoslav Wars were still ongoing. These are some of the experiences that inspired the work that follows. The ensuing pages, however, could not have materialized without generous support from multiple institutions, scholars, friends and family. Grants from Open Society Foundations enabled me to become the first woman to hold a university degree in my family and amply assisted my pursuits for two years in the doctoral program. The American University in Bulgaria (AUBG) provided a unique environment for v reflection and growth as it brought together the last socialist generation from multiple countries across Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union with whom family stories could be exchanged and experiences compared. Professors Frederick Anscombe in history and Robert Phillips in political science were inspiring teachers. I owe special thanks to them for being so incredibly invested in our progress. At the University of Illinois, the Department of History funded most of my research, facilitating two years of archival investigations in Romania and participation at numerous international conferences. The Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center similarly provided much needed support for travel to the annual conventions of the Association for the Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. Over the years, a number of scholars and colleagues have assisted me in carrying this project from design to completion. I benefited from tremendous intellectual independence from my advisor, Professor Maria Todorova, who was a model of scholarly rigor while also being a wonderful source of encouragement and support whenever I needed. Professor Keith Hitchins readily put his impressive library at my disposal, allowing me to comb through his collections at my own pace. Conversations over coffee were an absolute treat because I could test half-baked arguments and listen to his recollections about intellectual life in Ceaușescu’s Romania. Professor Mark Steinberg always knew what literature I needed to read, provided sharp commentaries, and posed fascinating questions invaluable for taking this project forward. While speaking Hungarian with Professor Zsuzsa Gille always transported me to a different world, her sociological reading of my work helped enrich my view of experts in socialism. One of the best decisions in my career was to work with Professor Antoinette Burton. She not only provided the critical nudge to commence writing on this project but also continues to be a source of motivation for pushing the boundaries of the discipline and of my professional interests. I also vi owe much to Professor Tamara Chaplin. Tamara tirelessly critiqued summaries of this work and provided guidance in tackling the challenges beyond the defense. Members of the Eastern European Reading Group have read through and enhanced various aspects of the forthcoming chapters. I thank Jovana Babović, Richard Esbenshade, Miloš Jovanović, Stefanos Katsikas, Anca Mândru, Veneta T. Ivanova, and Peter Wright for sharing their time and thoughts. At international conferences, this project benefited from questions, comments, and presentations from James T. Andrews, Emily Baran, James Björk, Monica Black, Maria Bucur, Heather Coleman, Miriam Dobson, Catriona Kelly, Patrick Hyder-Patterson, Maike Lehmann, Sonja Luehrmann, Igor Polianski, Felix Robin Schulz, Asif A. Siddiqi, Stephen A. Smith, Victoria Smolkin-Rothrock, Eren Tasar, Helena Tóth, Larry Wolff, and Glennys Young. Victoria Smolkin-Rothrock, Emanuela Grama and Zoltán Novák kindly shared their dissertations, allowing me to build on their work. In Romania, Nándor Bárdi, Stefano Bottoni, Dorin Dobrincu, Ioan Drăgan, Gábor Egry, József Gagyi, Attila Gidó, József D. Lőrincz, Zoltán Novák, Lehel Peti, Zoltán Rostás, Levente Salat, Gábor Sipos, Zoltán Sóos, Virgiliu Țârău and Cristian Vasile have generously shared their knowledge and contacts. Zoltán Mihály Nagy was instrumental in opening doors at the Archive of the State Secretariat for Cults and inspired me to request ministerial approval for access to the repositories of the Ministry of Culture and National Patrimony, the Ministry of Tourism and Regional Development, and the National Institute for Historical Monuments. Fanning my sense of adventure, archivists at these locations gave me the rare freedom to comb through collections that were uninventoried and often in a state of decay, not out of any fault of theirs. Above all, friends and family provided me with invaluable endorsement every step of the way. Enikő Biró Laczikó, Ionuț Lăcustă, Erika Papp, and Kinga Székely opened their homes to vii me in Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca, making my stay tremendously enjoyable. In Champaign- Urbana, it was rewarding to share the journey with Margit Almási, Fedja Buric, Utathya Chattopadhyaya, Ștefania Costache, Leila Fuladi, Maria Cristina Galmarini, Diana Georgescu, Anca Glonț, Anca Mândru, Karen Rodriguez’G, Deirdre Ruscitti, Irina Spektor-Marks, Pelin Tığlay, Peter Wright and many others. Nazanine Agassi, Anna Jacobs, Jan Adamczyk, Joseph Lenkart, Olga and Lyosha Svinarski stepped in during some watershed periods. In the final years, Comrade Ivanova became a treasured friend. Her coaching skills will never cease to amaze me. Jane Hedges, Pia Nathani, Jeremie Smith, and Maggie Wetzel provided precious perspective. Amit Ray was great company and eased life on many occasions. Ushnish Ray opened up worlds, offered tremendous stimulation and challenge