Vladimir Tismaneanu - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Vladimir Tismăneanu is a Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

n and American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

political scientist, political analyst, sociologist, and professor at the University of Maryland, College Park

University of Maryland, College Park

The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...

. A specialist in political system

Political system

A political system is a system of politics and government. It is usually compared to the legal system, economic system, cultural system, and other social systems...

s and comparative politics

Comparative politics

Comparative politics is a subfield of political science, characterized by an empirical approach based on the comparative method. Arend Lijphart argues that comparative politics does not have a substantive focus in itself, but rather a methodological one: it focuses on "the how but does not specify...

, he is director of the University of Maryland's Center for the Study of Post-Communist Societies, having served as chairman of the editorial committee (2004–2008) and editor (1998–2004) of the East European Politics and Societies academic review. Over the years, Tismăneanu was a contributor to several periodicals, including Studia Politica, Journal of Democracy
Journal of Democracy
The Journal of Democracy is a quarterly academic journal established in 1990 and an official publication of the National Endowment for Democracy...

, Sfera Politicii
Sfera Politicii
Sfera Politicii is a monthly political science magazine, published in Romania since 1992. Its articles, written in both English and Romanian, deal with diverse issues in local and international politics....

, Revista 22
Revista 22
Revista 22 is a Romanian weekly magazine, issued by the Group for Social Dialogue and focused mainly on politics and culture....

, Evenimentul Zilei
Evenimentul Zilei
Evenimentul Zilei is one of the leading newspapers in Romania. Based in Bucharest, the Romanian-language daily has a paid daily circulation of 110,000...

, Idei în Dialog and Cotidianul
Cotidianul
thumb|right|Old logo of Cotidianul newspaper, used in the [[inter-war period]], and in the early 1990sthumb|right|The logo used between 2003 and 2007...

. He has also worked with the international radio stations Radio Free Europe

Radio Free Europe

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a broadcaster funded by the U.S. Congress that provides news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East "where the free flow of information is either banned by government authorities or not fully developed"...

and Deutsche Welle

Deutsche Welle

Deutsche Welle or DW, is Germany's international broadcaster. The service is aimed at the overseas market. It broadcasts news and information on shortwave, Internet and satellite radio on 98.7 DZFE in 30 languages . It has a satellite television service , that is available in four languages, and...

, and authored programs for the Romanian Television Company. As of 2009, he is Academic Council Chairman of the Institute for People's Studies, a think tank

Think tank

A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...

of the Romanian Democratic Liberal Party

Democratic Liberal Party (Romania)

The Democratic Liberal Party is a populist, centre-right party in Romania. It was formed on 15 December 2007, when the Democratic Party merged with the Liberal Democratic Party. From 2004 to 2007, the Democratic Party was part of the governing Justice and Truth Alliance...

. Since February 2010, he is also President of the Scientific Council of the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania

Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania

The Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania is a government-sponsored organization whose mission is to investigate the crimes and abuses conducted while Romania was under communist rule prior to December 1989...

.

Acclaimed for his scholarly works on Stalinism

Stalinism

Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...

in general and the Romanian communist regime

Communist Romania

Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...

in particular, as well as for exploring the impact of nationalism

Nationalism

Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...

, national communism

National communism

The term National Communism describes the ethnic minority communist currents that arose in the former Russian Empire after Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik Party seized power in October 1917....

and neo-Stalinism

Neo-Stalinism

Neo-Stalinism is a political term referring to attempts at rehabilitating the role of Joseph Stalin in history and re-establishing the political course of Stalin, at least partially. The term is also used to designate the modern political regimes in some states, political and social life of which...

in the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

and countries of the Eastern Bloc

Eastern bloc

The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...

, Tismăneanu writes from the critical perspective of a civil society

Civil society

Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...

supporter. His other influential texts deal with diverse topics such as Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

history, Kremlinology

Kremlinology

Kremlinology is the study and analysis of Soviet politics and policies based on efforts to understand the inner workings of an opaque central government. The term is named after the Kremlin, the seat of the Russian/Soviet government. Kremlinologist refers to academic, media, and commentary experts...

and the Holocaust. Having moved from a loose Marxist

Marxism

Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...

vision, shaped under the influence of neo-Marxist

Neo-Marxism

Neo-Marxism is a loose term for various twentieth-century approaches that amend or extend Marxism and Marxist theory, usually by incorporating elements from other intellectual traditions, such as: critical theory, psychoanalysis or Existentialism .Erik Olin Wright's theory of contradictory class...

and Western Marxist

Western Marxism

Western Marxism is a term used to describe a wide variety of Marxist theoreticians based in Western and Central Europe, in contrast with philosophy in the Soviet Union...

scholarship, he became a noted proponent of classical liberalism

Classical liberalism

Classical liberalism is the philosophy committed to the ideal of limited government, constitutionalism, rule of law, due process, and liberty of individuals including freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and free markets....

and liberal democracy

Liberal democracy

Liberal democracy, also known as constitutional democracy, is a common form of representative democracy. According to the principles of liberal democracy, elections should be free and fair, and the political process should be competitive...

. This perspective is outlined in both his scientific contributions and volumes dealing with Romania's post-1989 history

History of Romania since 1989

- 1989 revolution :1989 marked the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. A mid-December protest in Timişoara against the eviction of a Hungarian minister grew into a country-wide protest against the Ceauşescu régime, sweeping the dictator from power....

, the latter of which include collections of essays and several published interviews with literary critic Mircea Mihăieş. Vladimir Tismăneanu completed his award-winning synthesis on Romanian communism, titled Stalinism for All Seasons, in 2003.

Tismăneanu's background and work came under intense scrutiny after his 2006 appointment by Romanian President

President of Romania

The President of Romania is the head of state of Romania. The President is directly elected by a two-round system for a five-year term . An individual may serve two terms...

Traian Băsescu

Traian Basescu

Traian Băsescu is the current President of Romania. After serving as the mayor of Bucharest from June 2000 until December 2004, he was elected president in the Romanian Presidential Elections of 2004 and inaugurated on December 20, 2004...

as head of the Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania

Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania

The Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania , also known as the Tismăneanu Commission , is a commission instituted in Romania by President Traian Băsescu to investigate the Communist regime and provide a comprehensive report allowing for the condemnation of...

, which presented its report to the Romanian Parliament

Parliament of Romania

The Parliament of Romania is made up of two chambers:*The Chamber of Deputies*The SenatePrior to the modifications of the Constitution in 2003, the two houses had identical attributes. A text of a law had to be approved by both houses...

on December 18, 2006. There has been much controversy about the choice of Tismăneanu as commission president, about Tismăneanu's choices for commission members, and about the conclusions of the report.

Biography

Born in Braşov

Brasov

Brașov is a city in Romania and the capital of Brașov County.According to the last Romanian census, from 2002, there were 284,596 people living within the city of Brașov, making it the 8th most populated city in Romania....

, Vladimir Tismăneanu is the son of Leonte Tismăneanu

Leonte Tismaneanu

Leonte Tismăneanu was a Romanian communist activist and propagandist.Born into a Jewish family in Soroca, Bessarabia, Russian Empire , he joined the Romanian Communist Party in the early 1930s. He engaged in illegal communist activities in Bucharest, Galaţi, Brăila and Soroca...

, an activist of the Romanian Communist Party

Romanian Communist Party

The Romanian Communist Party was a communist political party in Romania. Successor to the Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to communist revolution and the disestablishment of Greater Romania. The PCR was a minor and illegal grouping for much of the...

since the early 1930s, and Hermina Marcusohn, a physician and one-time Communist Party activist, both of whom were Jewish

History of the Jews in Romania

The history of Jews in Romania concerns the Jews of Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is nowadays Romanian territory....

and Spanish Civil War

Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...

veterans. His father, born in Bessarabia

Bessarabia

Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....

and settled in the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

at the end of the 1930s, worked in agitprop

Agitprop

Agitprop is derived from agitation and propaganda, and describes stage plays, pamphlets, motion pictures and other art forms with an explicitly political message....

structures, returning to Romania at the end of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, and becoming, under the communist regime

Communist Romania

, chair of the Marxism-Leninism

Marxism-Leninism

Marxism–Leninism is a communist ideology, officially based upon the theories of Marxism and Vladimir Lenin, that promotes the development and creation of a international communist society through the leadership of a vanguard party over a revolutionary socialist state that represents a dictatorship...

department of the University of Bucharest

University of Bucharest

The University of Bucharest , in Romania, is a university founded in 1864 by decree of Prince Alexander John Cuza to convert the former Saint Sava Academy into the current University of Bucharest.-Presentation:...

. Progressively after Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej

Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej

Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej was the Communist leader of Romania from 1948 until his death in 1965.-Early life:Gheorghe was the son of a poor worker, Tănase Gheorghiu, and his wife Ana. Gheorghiu-Dej joined the Communist Party of Romania in 1930...

acted against Ana Pauker

Ana Pauker

Ana Pauker was a Romanian communist leader and served as the country's foreign minister in the late 1940s and early 1950s...

, the Tismăneanus were sidelined inside the Romanian nomenklatura

Nomenklatura

The nomenklatura were a category of people within the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key administrative positions in all spheres of those countries' activity: government, industry, agriculture, education, etc., whose positions were granted only with approval by the...

; in 1960, Leonte Tismăneanu was stripped of his position as deputy head of Editura Politică.

Vladimir Tismăneanu grew up in the exclusive Primăverii quarter of Bucharest

Bucharest

Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....

. During his years of study at the Lyceum No. 28, which was then largely attended by students belonging to the nomenklatura, he was in the same year as Nicu Ceauşescu

Nicu Ceausescu

Nicu Ceaușescu was the youngest child of Romanian leader Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu. He was a close associate of his father's political regime and considered the President's heir apparent.-Life during Communism:...

, son of communist leader Nicolae Ceauşescu

Nicolae Ceausescu

Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...

, as well as the children of Leonte Răutu, Nicolae Doicaru and Silviu Brucan

Silviu Brucan

Silviu Brucan was a Romanian communist politician. Though he disagreed with Nicolae Ceauşescu's policies, he never gave up his communist beliefs and did not oppose communist ideology...

.

In his preface to the Romanian-language edition of his 2003 book Stalinism for All Seasons, Tismăneanu indicated that, starting in 1970, he became interested in critiques of Marxism-Leninism and the Romanian communist regime in particular, after reading banned works made available to him by various of his acquaintances (among others, writer Dumitru Ţepeneag

Dumitru Tepeneag

Dumitru Ţepeneag is a contemporary Romanian novelist, essayist, short story writer and translator, who currently resides in France...

and his wife, translator Mona Ţepeneag, as well as Ileana, the daughter of Communist Party dignitary Gheorghe Gaston Marin

Gheorghe Gaston Marin

Gheorghe Gaston Marin was a Romanian former communist politician who had many roles under Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej and Nicolae Ceauşescu. He was born Gheorghe Grossmann in Pădureni Vaslui County...

). He stated that, at the time, he was influenced by Communism in Romania, an analytic and critical work by Romanian-born British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

political scientist Ghiţă Ionescu, as well as by Marxist

Marxism

, Western Marxist

Western Marxism

Western Marxism is a term used to describe a wide variety of Marxist theoreticians based in Western and Central Europe, in contrast with philosophy in the Soviet Union...

, Democratic

Democratic socialism

Democratic socialism is a description used by various socialist movements and organizations to emphasize the democratic character of their political orientation...

and Libertarian Socialist

Libertarian socialism

Libertarian socialism is a group of political philosophies that promote a non-hierarchical, non-bureaucratic, stateless society without private property in the means of production...

scholarship (among others, the ideas of Georg Lukács

Georg Lukács

György Lukács was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher and literary critic. He is a founder of the tradition of Western Marxism. He contributed the concept of reification to Marxist philosophy and theory and expanded Karl Marx's theory of class consciousness. Lukács' was also an influential literary...

, Leszek Kołakowski, Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....

, Antonio Gramsci

Antonio Gramsci

Antonio Gramsci was an Italian writer, politician, political philosopher, and linguist. He was a founding member and onetime leader of the Communist Party of Italy and was imprisoned by Benito Mussolini's Fascist regime...

, and the Frankfurt School

Frankfurt School

The Frankfurt School refers to a school of neo-Marxist interdisciplinary social theory, particularly associated with the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt am Main...

). According to Tismăneanu, his family background allowed him insight into the hidden aspects of Communist Party history, which was comparing with the ideological demands of the Ceauşescu regime, and especially with the latter's emphasis on nationalism

Nationalism

.

He graduated as a valedictorian

Valedictorian

Valedictorian is an academic title conferred upon the student who delivers the closing or farewell statement at a graduation ceremony. Usually, the valedictorian is the highest ranked student among those graduating from an educational institution...

from the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Sociology in 1974, and received his Ph.D.

Ph.D.

A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

from the same institution in 1980, presenting the thesis Teoria Critică a Şcolii de la Frankfurt şi radicalismul de stînga contemporan ("The Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School and Contemporary Left-Wing Radicalism

New Left

The New Left was a term used mainly in the United Kingdom and United States in reference to activists, educators, agitators and others in the 1960s and 1970s who sought to implement a broad range of reforms, in contrast to earlier leftist or Marxist movements that had taken a more vanguardist...

"). During the period, he was received into the ranks of the Union of Communist Youth

Union of Communist Youth

The Union of Communist Youth was the Romanian Communist Party's youth organisation, modelled after the Soviet Komsomol. It aimed to cultivate young cadres into the party, as well as to help create the "new man" envisioned by communist ideologues.-History:Founded in 1922, the UTC went underground...

(UTC), authored several articles which displayed support for the regime, and, as vice-president of the UTC's Communist Student Association, allegedly took part in authoring and compiling propaganda

Propaganda

Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....

aimed at students. He was also contributing to the UTC magazines Amfiteatru and Viaţa Studenţească, where his essentially neo-Marxist

Neo-Marxism

essays were often mixed for publication with endorsements of the official ideology.

Between 1974 and 1981, Tismăneanu worked as a sociologist, employed by the Urban Sociology Department of the Institute Typified Buildings Design in Bucharest. Among his colleagues there were Alexandru Florian, Cătălin Mamali, Dumitru Sandu, Dorel Abraham, Radu Ioanid, Alin Teodorescu and Mihai Milca. Tismăneanu was not given approval to hold an academic position. Around 1977, he was involved in a debate about the nature of Romanian culture

Culture of Romania

Romania has a unique culture, which is the product of its geography and of its distinct historical evolution. Like Romanians themselves, it is defined as the meeting point of three regions: Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and the Balkans, but cannot be truly included in any of them...

, expressing a pro-European perspective in reaction to officially endorsed nationalism in general and, in particular, to the form of Protochronism

Protochronism

Protochronism is a Romanian term describing the tendency to ascribe, largely relying on questionable data and subjective interpretations, an idealised past to the country as a whole...

advocated by Edgar Papu and Luceafărul magazine. His thoughts on the matter, published by Amfiteatru alongside similar writings by Milca, Gheorghe Achiţei, Alexandru Duţu and Solomon Marcus

Solomon Marcus

Solomon Marcus is a Romanian mathematician, member of the Mathematical Section of the Romanian Academy and Emeritus Professor of the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Mathematics...

.

In September 1981, a short while after the death of his father, he accompanied his mother on a voyage to Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, after she had been granted a request to visit the sites where she and her husband had fought as young people. Unlike Hermina Tismăneanu, he opted not to return, and soon after left for Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

, before ultimately settling in the United States in 1982. During his time in Caracas

Caracas

Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...

, he was the recipient of a scholarship at the Contemporary Art Museum.

He lived first in Philadelphia, where he was employed by the Foreign Policy Research Institute

Foreign Policy Research Institute

The Foreign Policy Research Institute is an American neoconservative think tank based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is "devoted to bringing the insights of scholarship to bear on the development of policies that advance U.S...

(1983–1990), while teaching at the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

(1985–1990). At the time, he began contributing comments on local politics to Radio Free Europe

Radio Free Europe

and Voice of America

Voice of America

Voice of America is the official external broadcast institution of the United States federal government. It is one of five civilian U.S. international broadcasters working under the umbrella of the Broadcasting Board of Governors . VOA provides a wide range of programming for broadcast on radio...

, beginning with an analysis of the "dynastic socialism

Socialism

Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...

" in Romania, centered on the political career of Nicu Ceauşescu

Nicu Ceausescu

. His essays on the lives and careers of communist potentates, requested by Radio Free Europe's Vlad Georgescu

Vlad Georgescu

Vlad Georgescu , Romanian historian, was the director of the Romanian-language department of Radio Free Europe between 1983 and 1988.-Biography:...

and aired by the station as a series, were later grouped under the title Archeology of Terror.

In 1990, Tismăneanu received a professorship at the University of Maryland, College Park

University of Maryland, College Park

The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...

and moved to Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

He became editor of East European Politics and Societies in 1998, holding the position until 2004, when he became chair of its editorial committee. Between 1996 and 1999, he held a position on the Fulbright Program

Fulbright Program

The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright-Hays Program, is a program of competitive, merit-based grants for international educational exchange for students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists and artists, founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright in 1946. Under the...

's Selection Committee for South-East Europe

Balkans

The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...

, and, from 1997 to 2003, was member of the Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...

Committee at the American Council of Learned Societies

American Council of Learned Societies

The American Council of Learned Societies , founded in 1919, is a private nonprofit federation of seventy scholarly organizations.ACLS is best known as a funder of humanities research through fellowships and grants awards. ACLS Fellowships are designed to permit scholars holding the Ph.D...

. A fellow at the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen

Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (IWM)

The Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen is an independent institute for advanced study in the humanities and social sciences based in Vienna, Austria...

in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

and the New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

Erich Maria Remarque Institute (both in 2002), he was Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars , located in Washington, D.C., is a United States Presidential Memorial that was established as part of the Smithsonian Institution by an act of Congress in 1968...

in 2001, returning as Fellow in 2005 and 2008-2009. Tismăneanu was also granted fellowship by Indiana University (Bloomington) (2003) and National Endowment for Democracy

National Endowment for Democracy

The National Endowment for Democracy, or NED, is a U.S. non-profit organization that was founded in 1983 to promote US-friendly democracy by providing cash grants funded primarily through an annual allocation from the U.S. Congress...

Barbara Jelavich

Barbara Jelavich was an American professor of history at Indiana University.She was born as Barbara Brightfield and earned multiple degrees in history from the University of California at Berkeley. She received here A.B. honors degree in 1943, her M.A. in 1944, and her Ph.D in 1948...

Award, presented by the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies

American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies

The Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies is a scholarly society dedicated to the advancement of knowledge about the former Soviet Union and Eastern and Central Europe...

for his Stalinism for All Seasons. During the late 1990s, he collaborated with the German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

-based radio station Deutsche Welle

Deutsche Welle

, with a series of broadcasts, most of which he published in Romania as Scrisori din Washington ("Letters from Washington", 2002). He also worked as editor of Dorin Tudoran

Dorin Tudoran

Dorin Tudoran is a Romanian poet, essayist, journalist, and dissident. A resident of the United States since 1985, he has authored more than fifteen books of poetry, essays, and interviews.-Early life:...

's Agora, a political journal of the Romanian diaspora

Romanian diaspora

The Romanian diaspora is the ethnically Romanian population outside Romania and Moldova. The concept does not usually include the ethnic Romanians who live as natives in the states surrounding Romania, chiefly those Romanians who live in Ukraine and Serbia. The diaspora does include the people of...

.

Since the Romanian Revolution of 1989

Romanian Revolution of 1989

The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...

, he has been visiting his native country on a regular basis. Tismăneanu was in Bucharest during June 1990, witnessing the Mineriad

Mineriad

See also The 1990s: the rise and decline of miners' unionsA Mineriad is the term used to name any of the successive violent interventions of miners in Bucharest. These interventions were generally seen as aimed at wrestling policy changes or simply material advantages from the current political...

, when miners from the Jiu Valley

Jiu Valley

The Jiu Valley is a region in southwestern Romania, in Hunedoara county, situated in a valley of the Jiu River between the Retezat Mountains and the Parâng Mountains...

supporting the National Salvation Front put a violent stop to the Golani

Golaniad

The Golaniad was a protest in Romania in the University Square, Bucharest. It was initiated by students and professors at the University of Bucharest....

protest, an experience he claims gave him insight into "barbarity in its crassest, most revolting, form." Other sojourns included 1993-1994 research visits to the Communist Party archives, at the time supervised by the Romanian Army General Staff. Tismăneanu resumed his articles in the Romanian press, beginning with a series on communist leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej

Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej

, which was published by the Writers' Union

Writers' Union of Romania

The Writers' Union of Romania , founded in March 1949, is a professional association of writers in Romania. It also has a subsidiary in Chişinău, Republic of Moldova...

magazine România Literară
România Literară
România literară is a cultural and literary magazine from România founded in 1855 by Vasile Alecsandri and published in Iași between January 1, 1855 until December 3, 1855, when it was suppressed. The new series appeared in October 10, 1855 as a continuation of Gazeta literară...

during the early 1990s. He contributed a weekly column in Jurnalul Naţional
Jurnalul National
Jurnalul Naţional is a Romanian newspaper, part of the Intact media group led by Dan Voiculescu, which also includes the popular TV station Antena 1....

, before moving to Cotidianul
Cotidianul
thumb|right|Old logo of Cotidianul newspaper, used in the [[inter-war period]], and in the early 1990sthumb|right|The logo used between 2003 and 2007...

, and was regularly published by other press venues: Revista 22
Revista 22
Revista 22 is a Romanian weekly magazine, issued by the Group for Social Dialogue and focused mainly on politics and culture....

, Idei în Dialog, and Orizont. He later began contributing to Observator Cultural
Observator Cultural
Observator Cultural is a literary magazine based in Bucharest, Romania. It covers Romania's cultural and arts scene.-External links:*...

and Evenimentul Zilei
Evenimentul Zilei
Evenimentul Zilei is one of the leading newspapers in Romania. Based in Bucharest, the Romanian-language daily has a paid daily circulation of 110,000...

.

Tismăneanu received the Romanian Cultural Foundation

Romanian Cultural Foundation

The Romanian Cultural Foundation is a Romanian non-governmental organization created by writer Augustin Buzura, with the objective of stimulating cultural, artistic and scientific creations, promoting Romanian spiritual values in Romania and abroad, and fostering inter-cultural dialogue...

's award for the whole activity (2001), and was awarded Doctor honoris causa degrees by the West University

West University of Timisoara

The West University of Timişoara is a university located in Timişoara, Romania. Established in 1962, it is organized in 11 Faculties.-Organization:...

of Timişoara

Timisoara

Timișoara is the capital city of Timiș County, in western Romania. One of the largest Romanian cities, with an estimated population of 311,586 inhabitants , and considered the informal capital city of the historical region of Banat, Timișoara is the main social, economic and cultural center in the...

(2002) and the SNSPA university in Bucharest. In its Romanian edition of 2005, Stalinism for All Seasons was a bestseller

Bestseller

A bestseller is a book that is identified as extremely popular by its inclusion on lists of currently top selling titles that are based on publishing industry and book trade figures and published by newspapers, magazines, or bookstore chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and...

at Bookarest, the Romanian literary festival

Literary festival

A literary festival, also known as a book festival or writers' festival, is a regular gathering of writers and readers, typically on an annual basis in a particular city...

.

In 2006, Romanian President Traian Băsescu appointed him head of the Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania

Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania

, which presented its report to the Romanian Parliament in December of that year. As of 2009, Tismăneanu is also Chairman of the Academic Board, Institute of People's Studies—an institution affiliated with the Democratic Liberal Party

Democratic Liberal Party (Romania)

, which in turn is the main political group supportive of Băsescu's policies. The institution is presided upon by political scientist Andrei Ţăranu. The following year, Tismăneanu was chosen by Democratic Liberal Premier

Prime Minister of Romania

The Prime Minister of Romania is the head of the Government of Romania. Initially, the office was styled President of the Council of Ministers , when the term "Government" included more than the Cabinet, and the Cabinet was called The Council of Ministers...

Emil Boc

Emil Boc is the Prime Minister of Romania, having served since December 2008. In June 2004, he was elected Mayor of Cluj-Napoca, the largest city in Transylvania. Boc is also the president of the Democratic Liberal Party, who designated him as Prime Minister in 2008. On October 13, 2009, his...

to lead, with Ioan Stanomir, the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania

Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania

, substituting the National Liberal Party

National Liberal Party (Romania)

The National Liberal Party , abbreviated to PNL, is a centre-right liberal party in Romania. It is the third-largest party in the Romanian Parliament, with 53 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 22 in the Senate: behind the centre-right Democratic Liberal Party and the centre-left Social...

's choice Marius Oprea

Marius Oprea

Marius Oprea is a Romanian historian , poet and essayist.He studied history at the University of Bucharest, and earned a Ph.D. with a thesis on the role and evolution of the Communist-era secret police, the Securitate between 1948 and 1964...

.

Vladimir Tismăneanu is married to Mary Frances Sladek, and has fathered a son, Adam.

Overview

Vladimir Tismăneanu is one of the best-recognized contributors to modern-day political science in both the United States and Romania. Historian Cas Mudde

Cas Mudde

Cas Mudde is a Dutch academic who studies the Extreme Right in Europe. As of 2010 he is a visiting scholar at the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics and visiting associate professor at the political science department DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana...

referred to him as "one of the foremost American scholars on Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe

", while Romanian literary critic and civil society

Civil society

activist Adrian Marino wrote: "The works of the political scientist Vladimir Tismăneanu, who owns a double cultural identity, American and Romanian, indicate a full-scale research agenda. His books are first rate, both in Romanian and in English [...]. They are representative of what has effectively shaped up nowadays into the Romanian political science [...]. When reading and studying Vladimir Tismăneanu, one enters a new realm, where, most importantly, one experiences a novel approach to writing. He rejects the usage of empty and inordinate formulae. He saves the characteristic Romanian creative writing, with its inconsistency and amorphousness, only for the literary trash bin. He sports a jaunty style, utterly lacking any inhibition or obsequiousness. [...] His activity also fills a considerable void. It informs and it disseminates ideas. This is, undoubtedly, his fundamental virtue." According to historian Adrian Cioroianu

Adrian Cioroianu

Adrian Mihai Cioroianu is a Romanian historian, politician, journalist, and essayist. A lecturer for the History Department at the University of Bucharest, he is the author of several books dealing with Romanian history...

, the insight provided to Tismăneanu by his family's oral history

Oral history

Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews...

is "unique", amounting to "actual lessons in history, at a time when [it] was being Orwellian

Orwellian

"Orwellian" describes the situation, idea, or societal condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free society...

ly processed by the [communist] system".

Sociologist Mihai Dinu Gheorghiu sees Tismăneanu and George Voicu as the two main contemporary Romanian sociologists to have "reconverted [to political science] while preserving a rather symbolic link with sociology". At the end of this process, he argues, Tismăneanu "has enjoyed the greatest authority in his field in Romania", while, according to critic Livius Ciocârlie: "Not so long ago, to the question of who is the greatest Romanian politologist, any other politologist would reply that there is only one possible answer: Vladimir Tismăneanu."

Also according to Vasile, Vladimir Tismăneanu's contribution, like those of historians Katherine Verdery and Catherine Durandin, is being purposefully ignored by some Romanian academics, who object to their exposure of national communism

National communism

The term National Communism describes the ethnic minority communist currents that arose in the former Russian Empire after Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik Party seized power in October 1917....

. Vasile nominates such figures as "the pernicious and not altogether innocent continuity" of Communist Romania

Communist Romania

. In contrast, Tismăneanu was a direct influence on the first post-Revolution

Romanian Revolution of 1989

The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...

generation of political scientists and historians. Vasile credits his colleague with having influenced "an entire generation of young researchers of Romania's recent history." As one of them, Cioroianu, writes: "quite a lot of us in the field of historical-social analysis in this country have emerged from underneath Vl[adimir] Tismăneanu's cloak". In Cioroianu's definition, the group includes himself, alongside Stelian Tănase

Stelian Tanase

Stelian Tănase is a Romanian writer, historian, journalist, political analyst, and talk show host. Having briefly engaged in politics during the early 1990s, after the fall of the Communist regime, he has remained a leading figure of the Romanian civil society.A founding member of both the Group...

, Mircea Mihăieş, Marius Oprea

Marius Oprea

, Stejărel Olaru, Dan Pavel

Dan Pavel

Dan Pavel is a Romanian political scientist, academic, politician, journalist and 1989 revolutionary. He was a consultant to Gigi Becali in 2003.-References:...

, Dragoş Petrescu and others. The same author notes that his predecessor had an early and important contribution, equivalent to a "generative enlightenment", by presenting younger researchers with a detailed account of previously obscured phenomena and events. Most of Tismăneanu's works have English and Romanian-language

Romanian language

Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...

editions, and books of his were translated into Polish

Polish language

Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

, Lithuanian

Lithuanian language

Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...

, and Ukrainian

Ukrainian language

Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....

.

In addition to his analytic contribution, Vladimir Tismăneanu earned praise for his literary style. Romanian critics, including Tismăneanu's friend, philosopher Horia-Roman Patapievici

Horia-Roman Patapievici

Horia-Roman Patapievici is a Romanian physicist and essayist who currently serves as the head of the Romanian Cultural Institute. Between 2000 and 2005, he was a member of the National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives, supporting more openness regarding the files of the...

, admire his "passionate" writing. Essayist and România Literară
România Literară
România literară is a cultural and literary magazine from România founded in 1855 by Vasile Alecsandri and published in Iași between January 1, 1855 until December 3, 1855, when it was suppressed. The new series appeared in October 10, 1855 as a continuation of Gazeta literară...

reviewer Tudorel Urian, who contrasts Tismăneanu with what he sees as the regular "self-styled 'analysts' [who] abdicate logic and common sense", opines: "The American professor's articles impress by their very solid theoretical structure, by their always effective argumentation, by their author's correct positioning in relation to the facts invoked [...] and, not least of all, by the elegance of their style. In the world of contemporary politology, Vladimir Tismăneanu is an erudite, doubled by an artist, and his texts are a delight for the reader." According to Tismăneanu's fellow Commission member, historian and political scientist Cristian Vasile, such perspectives are especially true for the choice of "piercing epithet

Epithet

An epithet or byname is a descriptive term accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, divinities, objects, and binomial nomenclature. It is also a descriptive title...

s" defining persons or phenomena discussed in his works. Literary critic Mircea Iorgulescu notes in particular the many nocturnal and ghostly metaphor

Metaphor

A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...

s used by Tismăneanu in reference to totalitarianism

Totalitarianism

Totalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...

, proposing that these reflect "perfectly natural psychoanalytical

Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...

suggestions, for wherever there are ghosts, there are also neuroses

Neurosis

Neurosis is a class of functional mental disorders involving distress but neither delusions nor hallucinations, whereby behavior is not outside socially acceptable norms. It is also known as psychoneurosis or neurotic disorder, and thus those suffering from it are said to be neurotic...

, or, at the very least, obsessions."

Early works

Tismăneanu began his writing career as a dissenting Marxist

Marxism

, sympathizing with the intellectual currents known collectively as neo-Marxism

Neo-Marxism

. His doctoral thesis was cited as evidence that Tismăneanu was "a liberal student of Euro-Marxism

Western Marxism

Western Marxism is a term used to describe a wide variety of Marxist theoreticians based in Western and Central Europe, in contrast with philosophy in the Soviet Union...

" by University of Bucharest professor Daniel Barbu

Daniel Barbu

Daniel Barbu is a Romanian political scientist, publisher, essayist, journalist, and professor at the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Political Science. The head of the Research Institute at the University of Bucharest, and former dean of the Faculty, he was also director of Realitatea...

(who contrasted Tismăneanu with the official ideological background of Communist Romania, as one in a group of "outstanding authors", alongside Pavel Câmpeanu, Henri H. Stahl

Henri H. Stahl

Henri H. Stahl was a Romanian Marxist cultural anthropologist, ethnographer, sociologist, and social historian.-Biography:...

, Zigu Ornea

Zigu Ornea

Zigu Ornea was a Romanian cultural historian, literary critic, biographer and book publisher. The author of several monographs focusing on the evolution of Romanian culture in general and Romanian literature in particular, he chronicled the debates and meeting points between conservatism,...

, and Vlad Georgescu

Vlad Georgescu

Vlad Georgescu , Romanian historian, was the director of the Romanian-language department of Radio Free Europe between 1983 and 1988.-Biography:...

). Tismăneanu also states having been influenced by psychoanalysis, the Frankfurt School

Frankfurt School

The Frankfurt School refers to a school of neo-Marxist interdisciplinary social theory, particularly associated with the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt am Main...

and Existentialism

Existentialism

Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...

, and, from among the Marxist authors he had read at that stage, he cites as his early mentors Antonio Gramsci

Antonio Gramsci

, Georg Lukács

Georg Lukács

, Herbert Marcuse

Herbert Marcuse

Herbert Marcuse was a German Jewish philosopher, sociologist and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory...

and Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary...

.

According to Marino: "Some label [Tismăneanu] as 'Marxist anti-communist

Anti-communism

Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...

'. I'd rather say he used to be one. It seems remarkable to me the manner in which he achieves a freedom of spirit, lucidly and sharply applied to his present critique." Cristian Vasile places the author's "decisive split" with Marxism in the 1980s, during the Radio Free Europe

Radio Free Europe

years, while political scientist and critic Ioan Stanomir defines him as a "liberal-conservative

Liberal conservatism

Liberal conservatism also known as progressive conservatism is a variant of political conservatism which incorporates liberal elements. As "conservatism" and "liberalism" have had different meanings over time and across countries, the term "liberal conservatism" has been used in quite different...

spirit". American scholar Steven Fish writes: "[Tismăneanu] is animated by a passionate liberal spirit, albeit one of a particular type. [His] liberalism is less intimately akin to that of John Locke

John Locke

John Locke FRS , widely known as the Father of Liberalism, was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social...

or Robert Nozick

Robert Nozick

Robert Nozick was an American political philosopher, most prominent in the 1970s and 1980s. He was a professor at Harvard University. He is best known for his book Anarchy, State, and Utopia , a right-libertarian answer to John Rawls's A Theory of Justice...

, or L. T. Hobhouse

Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse

Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse was a British liberal politician and sociologist, who has been considered one of the leading and earliest proponents of social liberalism. His works, alongside that of writers such as T.H. Green and John A. Hobson, occupy a seminal position within the canon of New...

or John Rawls

John Rawls

John Bordley Rawls was an American philosopher and a leading figure in moral and political philosophy. He held the James Bryant Conant University Professorship at Harvard University....

, than it is to that of Isaiah Berlin

Isaiah Berlin

Sir Isaiah Berlin OM, FBA was a British social and political theorist, philosopher and historian of ideas of Russian-Jewish origin, regarded as one of the leading thinkers of the twentieth century and a dominant liberal scholar of his generation...

and, less proximately, John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill was a British philosopher, economist and civil servant. An influential contributor to social theory, political theory, and political economy, his conception of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control. He was a proponent of...

. Tismăneanu shares with Berlin and Mill an uncompromising commitment to pluralism as the highest political value; a celebration of difference, nonconformity, and tolerance; a deep skepticism concerning ultimate solutions, political blueprints, and unequivocal policy prescriptions; and a wariness regarding the subtler danger of majoritarian

Majoritarianism

Majoritarianism is a traditional political philosophy or agenda which asserts that a majority of the population is entitled to a certain degree of primacy in society, and has the right to make decisions that affect the society...

authoritarianism

Authoritarianism

Authoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is usually opposed to individualism and democracy...

." Tismăneanu himself discusses the personal transition: "Originating as I was from the milieu of illegalists [that is, communists active in the pre-1944 underground], [...] I discovered early on the contrast between the official legends and the various fragments of subjective truths as they revealed themselves in private conversations, syncopated confessions and biting ironies. I was also discovering a theme which was to puzzle me throughout my professional career: the relation between communism, fascism

Fascism

Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...

, anti-communism and anti-fascism

Anti-fascism

Anti-fascism is the opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals, such as that of the resistance movements during World War II. The related term antifa derives from Antifaschismus, which is German for anti-fascism; it refers to individuals and groups on the left of the political...

; in short, I was growing aware that, as has been demonstrated by François Furet

François Furet

-Biography:Born in Paris on 27 March 1927, into a wealthy family, François Furet was a brilliant student who graduated from the Sorbonne with the highest honors and soon decided on a life of research, teaching and writing. He received his education at the Lycée Janson de Sailly and at the faculty...

, the relationship between the two totalitarian movements, viscerally hostile to the values and institutions of liberal democracy

Liberal democracy

, was the fundamental historical issue of the 20th century." He credits Ghiţă Ionescu, noted historian of Romanian communism, as his "mentor and model."

In her review of The Crisis of Marxist Ideology in Eastern Europe, political analyst Juliana Geran Pilon

Juliana Geran Pilon

Juliana Geran Pilon is a Romanian-born American political scientist and writer. She is a Professor of Politics and Culture and Director of the Center for Culture and Security at the Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C.-Biography:...

calls Tismăneanu's book "the best analysis of Marxist philosophy since Leszek Kołakowski's monumental trilogy Main Currents of Marxism." The work is Tismăneanu's study into the avatars of Marxism within the Eastern Bloc

Eastern bloc

The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...

, and a contribution to both Kremlinology

Kremlinology

and Cold War

Cold War

studies. It proposes that the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

's policies of Perestroika
Perestroika
Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...

and Glasnost
Glasnost
Glasnost was the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s...

masked an ideological crisis, and that the Bloc's regimes had reached a "post-totalitarian" stage, where repression was "more refined, less obvious, but by no means less effective". He criticizes Marxist opponents of Soviet-style communism for giving in to the ideological allure, and proposes that, although appearing reform-minded, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...

was, in effect, a "neo-Stalinist

Neo-Stalinism

".

The 1990 collection In Search of Civil Society: Independent Peace Movements in the Soviet Bloc is structured around the transformation of the peace movement

Peace movement

A peace movement is a social movement that seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war , minimize inter-human violence in a particular place or type of situation, often linked to the goal of achieving world peace...

s into anti-communist and dissident

Dissident

A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When dissidents unite for a common cause they often effect a dissident movement....

forces in the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of Hungary

People's Republic of Hungary

The People's Republic of Hungary or Hungarian People's Republic was the official state name of Hungary from 1949 to 1989 during its Communist period under the guidance of the Soviet Union. The state remained in existence until 1989 when opposition forces consolidated in forcing the regime to...

, the People's Republic of Poland

People's Republic of Poland

The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...

, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic

Czechoslovak Socialist Republic

The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was the official name of Czechoslovakia from 1960 until end of 1989 , a Soviet satellite state of the Eastern Bloc....

and East Germany. It notably includes articles by two participants in such movements, Hungary's Miklós Haraszti

Miklós Haraszti

Miklós Haraszti is a Hungarian writer, journalist, human rights advocate and university professor. He served the maximum of two terms as the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media from 2004 to 2010...

and Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

's Eduard Kuznetsov

Eduard Kuznetsov

Eduard Kuznetsov is a Soviet dissident, human rights activist, and writer.In 1961, Kuznetsov was arrested for the first time and served seven years in Soviet prisons for making overtly political speeches in poetry readings at Mayakovsky Square in the centre of Moscow and for publishing samizdat...

. American University

American University

American University is a private, Methodist, liberal arts, and research university in Washington, D.C. The university was chartered by an Act of Congress on December 5, 1892 as "The American University", which was approved by President Benjamin Harrison on February 24, 1893...

Warsaw Pact

The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance , or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe...

countries.

Arheologia terorii and Reinventing Politics

With 1992's Romanian-published Arheologia terorii ("The Archeology of Terror"), which reunited the Radio Free Europe essays of the 1980s, Tismăneanu was focusing Romania's communism, in an attempt to identify what set apart from the experience of other Eastern Bloc countries. Cristian Vasile believes it to have been, at the time of its publishing, "one of the few researches on the Romanian communist elite to include prosopographic

Prosopography

In historical studies, prosopography is an investigation of the common characteristics of a historical group, whose individual biographies may be largely untraceable, by means of a collective study of their lives, in multiple career-line analysis...

nuances." Among this group of essays, historian Bogdan Cristian Iacob singles out one dedicated to chief ideologist Leonte Răutu, the so-called "Romanian Zhdanov

Andrei Zhdanov

Andrei Alexandrovich Zhdanov was a Soviet politician.-Life:Zhdanov enlisted with the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1915 and was promoted through the party ranks, becoming the All-Union Communist Party manager in Leningrad after the assassination of Sergei Kirov in 1934...

", as purportedly the first ever analytical writing dedicated to his career.

Much of the text focuses on Romania's dissidents after the start of De-Stalinization

De-Stalinization

De-Stalinization refers to the process of eliminating the cult of personality, Stalinist political system and the Gulag labour-camp system created by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Stalin was succeeded by a collective leadership after his death in March 1953...

, and the peculiarities of this process in Romania. Tismăneanu notes how communist leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej

Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej

, whose dictatorial rule of the 1950s and early 1960s preceded and survived the start of De-Stalinization, was able to exert control over the local intelligentsia

Intelligentsia

The intelligentsia is a social class of people engaged in complex, mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them...

even as civil society and nonviolent resistance

Nonviolent resistance

Nonviolent resistance is the practice of achieving goals through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, and other methods, without using violence. It is largely synonymous with civil resistance...

movements were being created in other parts of the Bloc. It is also noted for its treatment of Gheorghiu-Dej's successor, Nicolae Ceauşescu

Nicolae Ceausescu

Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...

, who associated himself with a message of liberalization

Liberalization

In general, liberalization refers to a relaxation of previous government restrictions, usually in areas of social or economic policy. In some contexts this process or concept is often, but not always, referred to as deregulation...

and nationalist revival, and who made a point of opposing the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia

Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia

On the night of 20–21 August 1968, the Soviet Union and her main satellite states in the Warsaw Pact – Bulgaria, the German Democratic Republic , Hungary and Poland – invaded the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in order to halt Alexander Dubček's Prague Spring political liberalization...

. This gesture, Arheologia terorii argues, was in actuality Ceauşescu's attempt to ideologically legitimize his grip on Romanian society. In his review of the book, literary critic Ion Bogdan Lefter concludes: "One finds here, in the subtext

Subtext

Subtext or undertone is content of a book, play, musical work, film, video game, or television series which is not announced explicitly by the characters but is implicit or becomes something understood by the observer of the work as the production unfolds. Subtext can also refer to the thoughts...

, the premises for an extended debate on themes related to the philosophy of history

Philosophy of history

The term philosophy of history refers to the theoretical aspect of history, in two senses. It is customary to distinguish critical philosophy of history from speculative philosophy of history...

: what are, in reality, the effective relations between the collective destiny of a community and the destinies of individuals who compose it? [...] The [book's] answers are [...] shattering. Looking back into the communist regime's back stages [...] one finds not the faithful prophets of a utopia

Utopia

Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...

, but the morass of disgusting spiritual filth—and one cannot but be horrified by seeing who has been entrusted with the destiny of an entire people".

With the 1994 book Reinventing Politics, the Romanian author looked into the European revolutions

Revolutions of 1989

The Revolutions of 1989 were the revolutions which overthrew the communist regimes in various Central and Eastern European countries.The events began in Poland in 1989, and continued in Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and...

of the previous decade, exploring the shades of repression, the differences in political culture

Political culture

Political culture is the traditional orientation of the citizens of a nation toward politics, affecting their perceptions of political legitimacy.Conceptions...

, and how they related to the fall of communism in various countries. Calling it "a significant contribution", New School

The New School

The New School is a university in New York City, located mostly in Greenwich Village. From its founding in 1919 by progressive New York academics, and for most of its history, the university was known as the New School for Social Research. Between 1997 and 2005 it was known as New School University...

sociologist Jeffrey C. Goldfarb argues: "Tismăneanu is very good at ordering the often confusing details of what he calls 'the birth pangs of democracy.' " Goldfarb objects to the text being "long on historical detail and short on social theory", arguing that: "As a result, [his] attempts at generalization often miss the mark." According to Goldfarb, although Reinventing Politics cautions that the former communist societies risked folding into nationalism, xenophobia

Xenophobia

Xenophobia is defined as "an unreasonable fear of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange". It comes from the Greek words ξένος , meaning "stranger," "foreigner" and φόβος , meaning "fear."...

and antisemitism, its author "does not provide a clear sense of how [this] can be avoided." Goldfarb contends that, while the book expresses support for embarking on the road to an "open society

Open society

The open society is a concept originally developed by philosopher Henri Bergson and then by Austrian and British philosopher Karl Popper. In open societies, government is purported to be responsive and tolerant, and political mechanisms are said to be transparent and flexible...

", it fails to explain how the goal is supposed to be reached. In his review of a 2007 reprint, Romanian cultural historian Cristian Cercel comments on Vladimir Tismăneanu's belief in politics being "reinvented", which implied that power in former communist countries could be shifted to "the powerless" by following the example of Czechoslovak writer and activist Václav Havel

Václav Havel

Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...

. Cercel, who sees this as proof of "well-balanced idealism

Idealism

In philosophy, idealism is the family of views which assert that reality, or reality as we can know it, is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. Epistemologically, idealism manifests as a skepticism about the possibility of knowing any mind-independent thing...

", writes: "Instead of an absolute critical distance, Tismăneanu presents us with a critical engagement at the core of the problem."

From Irepetabilul trecut to Balul mascat

The volume of essays Irepetabilul trecut ("The Unrepeatable Past") also saw print in 1994, and largely dealt with post-communist Romanian history

History of Romania since 1989

. Bogdan Cristian Iacob describes it as "an expression of the priorities of those years, from the perspective of democratization

Democratization

Democratization is the transition to a more democratic political regime. It may be the transition from an authoritarian regime to a full democracy, a transition from an authoritarian political system to a semi-democracy or transition from a semi-authoritarian political system to a democratic...

and civil society consolidation" coupled with "a working site of ideas" for later works. The volume, Iacob notes, is structured as a typical work on the history of ideas

History of ideas

The history of ideas is a field of research in history that deals with the expression, preservation, and change of human ideas over time. The history of ideas is a sister-discipline to, or a particular approach within, intellectual history...

, and, with "beneficent obstinacy", builds on Tismăneanu's "principal themes". In Iacob's view, "the most important" are: "the basic criminality of Bolshevism

Bolshevik

The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....

in any of its incarnations; the attachment to civic liberalism modeled on the experience of Central

Central Europe

Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...

and Eastern European dissidence; the totalitarian past's reclamation [...]; the research into Romania's communist experience; and, not least of all, the local environment's epistemic synchronization with debates in the Anglo-Saxon space

Anglosphere

Anglosphere is a neologism which refers to those nations with English as the most common language. The term can be used more specifically to refer to those nations which share certain characteristics within their cultures based on a linguistic heritage, through being former British colonies...

." Under the influence of Jürgen Habermas

Jürgen Habermas

Jürgen Habermas is a German sociologist and philosopher in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. He is perhaps best known for his theory on the concepts of 'communicative rationality' and the 'public sphere'...

and Karl Jaspers

Karl Jaspers

Karl Theodor Jaspers was a German psychiatrist and philosopher who had a strong influence on modern theology, psychiatry and philosophy. After being trained in and practicing psychiatry, Jaspers turned to philosophical inquiry and attempted to discover an innovative philosophical system...

, the text proposes that social cohesion

Social cohesion

Social cohesion is a term used in social policy, sociology and political science to describe the bonds or "glue" that bring people together in society, particularly in the context of cultural diversity. Social cohesion is a multi-faceted notion covering many different kinds of social phenomena...

is only made possible by the common recognition of past evils around the idea of justice (see Historikerstreit
Historikerstreit
The Historikerstreit was an intellectual and political controversy in late 20th-century West Germany about the historical interpretation of the Holocaust. The German word Streit translates variously as "quarrel", "dispute", or "conflict"...

). In particular, the essays reject the policies of Romania's major post-communist left-wing group, the National Salvation Front and those of its successor, the Social Democratic Party

Social Democratic Party (Romania)

The Social Democratic Party is the major social-democratic political party in Romania. It was formed in 1992, after the post-communist National Salvation Front broke apart. It adopted its present name after a merger with a minor social-democratic party in 2001. Since its formation, it has always...

(PSD), arguing that their policies were a political hybrid designed to block the path of genuinely anti-communist liberalism. Irepetabilul trecut was the first such work to be noted for its biographical sketches of communist leaders.

In 1995, Tismăneanu was again focusing on Gheorghiu-Dej, analyzing the part he played in both the violent communization of the 1950s and the adoption of nationalism in the 1960s. This investigation produced the Romanian-language volume Fantoma lui Gheorghiu-Dej ("Gheorghiu-Dej's Ghost"), expanding on a similarly titled chapter in Irepetabilul trecut. It notably theorizes a difference between national communism and the "national Stalinism" suiting both Gheorghiu-Dej and his successor Ceauşescu. The question "What is left of [Gheorghiu-]Dej's experiment?", is answered by Tismăneanu as follows: "An inept and frightened elite, whose social mobility

Social mobility

Social mobility refers to the movement of people in a population from one social class or economic level to another. It typically refers to vertical mobility -- movement of individuals or groups up from one socio-economic level to another, often by changing jobs or marrying; but can also refer to...

was linked to the nationalist-chauvinist line promoted by Ceauşescu. A sectarian and exclusive vision of socialism

Socialism

, a political style based on terror, manipulation and liquidating one's enemy. An unbound contempt for the spirit and a no less total conviction that humans are a mere maneuverable mass [...]. But most of all [...] an immense scorn for principles, a trampling of all things dignified and honorable, a mental and moral corruption that continues to ravage this social universe that is still being haunted by the ghosts of national Stalinism." The text characterized the dictator himself as a figure who "had managed to unify within his style Jesuitism

Jesuitism

Jesuitism is a label given to particular casuistic approach to moral questions and problems often described by the adjective jesuitical, so called because it was promoted by some Jesuits of the 17th century rather than being the beliefs of the Society of Jesus as a religious order...

and lack of principles, opportunism and cruelty, fanaticism and duplicity."

Historian Lucian Boia

Lucian Boia

Lucian Boia is a Romanian historian, known especially for his works debunking Romanian nationalism and Communism.-Bibliography:* Eugen Brote: Litera, 1974...

highlights the clash between such a vision and that of a patriotic

Patriotism

Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...

, liberal and congenial Gheorghiu-Dej, retrospectively advanced in the 1990s by some of the leader's collaborators, among them Alexandru Bârlădeanu, Silviu Brucan

Silviu Brucan

Silviu Brucan was a Romanian communist politician. Though he disagreed with Nicolae Ceauşescu's policies, he never gave up his communist beliefs and did not oppose communist ideology...

and Ion Gheorghe Maurer

Ion Gheorghe Maurer

Ion Gheorghe Iosif Maurer was a Romanian communist politician and lawyer.-Biography:Born in Bucharest to a Saxon father and a Romanian mother of French origin, he completed studies in Law and became an attorney, defending in court members of the illegal leftist and Anti-fascist movements...

. Boia writes: "In between Bârlădeanu and Tismăneanu, may we be allowed to prefer the latter's interpretation. [...] oblivion is not what we owe [Gheorghiu-Dej], but condemnation, be it moral and posthumous." Vladimir Tismăneanu's reflections on a self-legitimizing, "Byzantine

Byzantinism

Byzantinism or Byzantism is a term used in political science and philosophy to denote the political system and culture of the Byzantine Empire, and its spiritual successors, in particular, the Balkan states, the Ottoman Empire and Russia. The term byzantinism itself was coined in the 19th century...

", discourse in Romanian communism, Ioan Stanomir notes, were also being applied by Tismăneanu to the post-Revolution President of Romania

President of Romania

The President of Romania is the head of state of Romania. The President is directly elected by a two-round system for a five-year term . An individual may serve two terms...

, former Communist Party activist and PSD leader Ion Iliescu

Ion Iliescu

Ion Iliescu served as President of Romania from 1990 until 1996, and from 2000 until 2004. From 1996 to 2000 and from 2004 until his retirement in 2008, Iliescu was a Senator for the Social Democratic Party , whose honorary president he remains....

, who, both argued, did not represent an anti-communist social democracy

Social democracy

Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...

, but a partial return to Gheorghiu-Dej's legacy.

Also in 1995, Tismăneanu published a collection of essays, Noaptea totalitară ("The Totalitarian Night"). It includes his reflections on the emergence of totalitarian regimes throughout the world, as well as more thoughts on Romania's post-1989 history. Writing in 2004, Ion Bogdan Lefter described it as the embryo of later works: "The author moves with essay-like dexterity from the concrete level, of history 'in movement', to the general, that of political philosophies

Political philosophy

Political philosophy is the study of such topics as liberty, justice, property, rights, law, and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are, why they are needed, what, if anything, makes a government legitimate, what rights and freedoms it should protect and why, what form it...

and great 'societal' models, from biographic narrative to the evolution of systems

Political system

A political system is a system of politics and government. It is usually compared to the legal system, economic system, cultural system, and other social systems...

, from anecdote to mentalities. [...] From [such] reflections [...] emerged Tismăneanu's studies on 20th century ideological and political history, and his articles on Romanian subjects have prepared and accompanied the completion of his recent synthesis [Stalinism for All Seasons]."

Balul mascat ("The Masquerade Ball", 1996), was Vladimir Tismăneanu's first book of conversations with Mircea Mihăieş, specifically dealing with political life

Politics of Romania

Politics of Romania take place in a framework of a semi-presidential parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister of Romania is the head of government and the President of Romania exercises the functions of head of state. Romania has a multi-party system. Executive...

in Romania's post-1989 evolution and on its relation to the European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

integration process. Tudorel Urian describes the volume and its successors in the series, all of them published at the end of electoral cycles

Elections in Romania

Romania elects on a national level a head of state – the president – and a legislature. The president is elected for a five year term by the people . The Romanian Parliament has two chambers...

, as "a most reliable indicator of tendencies", and to the authors as "important intellectuals of our age." Urian writes: "Although, at the time when these volumes were published, not everyone was pleased by the precise X-rays to which Vladimir Tismăneanu and Mircea Mihăieş subjected [Romania's politics], excessively vocal counterarguments were never produced. The distance (not just in kilometers) between Washington and Bucharest, the superior analytic accuracy, Professor Tismăneanu's international scientific prestige, the almost exclusive use of readily available sources [...], the democratic values at the core of the interpretations (ones which no honorable political actor could afford to contest publicly) have given these books a considerable dose of credibility [...]."

Fantasies of Salvation

With Fantasies of Salvation, published in 1998, Vladimir Tismăneanu focuses on the resurgence of authoritarian, ethnocratic

Ethnocracy

Ethnocracy is a form of government where representatives of a particular ethnic group hold a number of government posts disproportionately large to the percentage of the total population that the particular ethnic group represents and use them to advance the position of their particular ethnic...

, demagogic

Demagogy

Demagogy or demagoguery is a strategy for gaining political power by appealing to the prejudices, emotions, fears, vanities and expectations of the public—typically via impassioned rhetoric and propaganda, and often using nationalist, populist or religious themes...

and anti-capitalist

Anti-capitalism

Anti-capitalism describes a wide variety of movements, ideas, and attitudes which oppose capitalism. Anti-capitalists, in the strict sense of the word, are those who wish to completely replace capitalism with another system....

tendencies in the political cultures of Post-Communism

Post-Communism

Post-communism is a name sometimes given to the period of political and economic transformation or "transition" in former Communist states located in parts of Europe and Asia, in which new governments aimed to create free market-oriented capitalist economies with some form of parliamentary...

. The text, which is both a historical survey and a political essay, argues: "As the Leninist

Leninism

In Marxist philosophy, Leninism is the body of political theory for the democratic organisation of a revolutionary vanguard party, and the achievement of a direct-democracy dictatorship of the proletariat, as political prelude to the establishment of socialism...

authoritarian order collapsed, societies have tended to be atomized and deprived of a political center able to articulate coherent visions of a common good

Common good

The common good is a term that can refer to several different concepts. In the popular meaning, the common good describes a specific "good" that is shared and beneficial for all members of a given community...

." This process, he argues, favors the recourse to "mythology

Mythology

The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...

", and paradoxical situations such as a post-Holocaust antisemitism in the absence of sizable Jewish communities. He also focuses on the revived antisemitic conspiracy theory

Conspiracy theory

A conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...

according to which Jews had played a leading role in setting up communist regimes (see Jewish Bolshevism
Jewish Bolshevism
Jewish Bolshevism, Judeo-Bolshevism, and known as Żydokomuna in Poland, is an antisemitic stereotype based on the claim that Jews have been the driving force behind or are disproportionately involved in the modern Communist movement, or sometimes more specifically Russian Bolshevism.The expression...

).

Tismăneanu thus sees the political elites and the authoritarian side of the intelligentsia as responsible for manipulating public opinion and "rewriting (or cleansing) of history in terms of self-serving, present-oriented interests". He writes in support of the critical intelligentsia and former dissidents, whom he sees as responsible for resistance to both communism and the far right

Far right

Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...

. Part of the volume deals with "the myth of decommunization

Decommunization

Decommunization is a process of overcoming the legacies of the communist state establishments, culture, and psychology in the post-Communist states. It is similar to denazification after Nazism fell...

", signifying the manner in which local elites may take hold of political discourse and proclaim lustration

Lustration

Lustration is the government process regulating the participation of former communists, especially informants of the communist secret police, in the successor political appointee positions or in civil service positions in the period after the fall of the various European Communist states in 1989 –...

. Although he disagrees with the contrary notion of collective responsibility and sees calls for justice as legitimate, he notes that the special laws targeting communist officials may pose a threat to society.

Steven Fish calls the book "a major contribution to our understanding of the postcommunist political predicament" which "will stand the test of time", noting its "searching treatment of the connection between intellectual and political life", "incorporation of cultural conflict into the analysis of politics", "unabashed humanism

Humanism

Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....

" and "lyrical style", all of which, he argues, parallel works by Isaiah Berlin

Isaiah Berlin

and Fouad Ajami

Fouad Ajami

Fouad A. Ajami , is a MacArthur Fellowship winning, Lebanese-born American university professor and writer on Middle Eastern issues. He is currently a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution....

. However, he criticizes Tismăneanu for his "not strictly correct" conclusion that intellectual former dissidents can be credited with bringing down communism and reforming their countries, replying that the "rough-hewn politicians" Lech Wałęsa

Lech Wałęsa

Lech Wałęsa is a Polish politician, trade-union organizer, and human-rights activist. A charismatic leader, he co-founded Solidarity , the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as President of Poland between 1990 and 95.Wałęsa was an electrician...

and Boris Yeltsin

Boris Yeltsin

Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...

, and the Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

n "pragmatic liberal centrist

Centrism

In politics, centrism is the ideal or the practice of promoting policies that lie different from the standard political left and political right. Most commonly, this is visualized as part of the one-dimensional political spectrum of left-right politics, with centrism landing in the middle between...

" Ivan Kostov

Ivan Kostov

Ivan Yordanov Kostov was Prime Minister of Bulgaria from May 1997 to July 2001 and leader of the Union of Democratic Forces between December 1994 and July 2001....

, are just as important actors. A similar point is made by Cas Mudde

Cas Mudde

, who contends that Tismăneanu's words display "passionate and uncritical support for the dissidents", adding: "For someone so worried about populism

Populism

Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...

, it is remarkable that he does not see the clearly populist elements of the dissidents' 'anti-politics', which he so often praises." Political scientist Steven Saxonberg reserves praise for the manner in which Fantasies of Salvation is written, but objects to Tismăneanu's preference for market liberalism

Market liberalism

The term market liberalism is used in two distinct meanings.Especially in the United States, the term is often used as a synonym to classical liberalism...

at the expense of any form of collectivism

Collectivism

Collectivism is any philosophic, political, economic, mystical or social outlook that emphasizes the interdependence of every human in some collective group and the priority of group goals over individual goals. Collectivists usually focus on community, society, or nation...

, and claims that his focus on new antisemitic trends overlooks the revival of antiziganism

Antiziganism

Antiziganism or Anti-Romanyism is hostility, prejudice or racism directed at the Romani people, also known as Gypsies.As an endogamous culture with a tendency to practise self-segregation, the Romanis have generally resisted assimilation with the indigenous communities of whichever countries they...

. Researchers comment favorably Tismăneanu's rejection of cultural determinism

Cultural determinism

Cultural determinism is the belief that the culture in which we are raised determines who we are at emotional and behavioral levels. This supports the theory that environmental influences dominate who we are instead of biologically inherited traits....

in discussing the Eastern Bloc countries' relation to the Western world

Western world

The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...

and to each other.

As editor of the 1999 collection of essays The Revolutions of 1989 (Re-Writing Histories) (with contributions by Kołakowski and Daniel Chirot), Vladimir Tismăneanu was deemed by British historian Geoffrey Swain an "obvious choice to assemble the contributors." Swain, who called his preface "excellent", states: "It is difficult to argue with [Tismăneanu's] notion that 'these revolutions represented the triumph of civic dignity and political morality over ideological monism

Monism

Monism is any philosophical view which holds that there is unity in a given field of inquiry. Accordingly, some philosophers may hold that the universe is one rather than dualistic or pluralistic...

Sorin Antohi

-Biography:Antohi was born in Târgu Ocna. He received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from the University of Iaşi and a DEA from École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. He taught history at the University of Michigan, at the University of Bucharest and at the Central-European...

, Timothy Garton Ash

Timothy Garton Ash

Timothy Garton Ash is a British historian, author and commentator. He is currently serving as Professor of European Studies at Oxford University. Much of his work has been concerned with the late modern and contemporary history of Central and Eastern Europe...

, Adam Michnik

Adam Michnik

Adam Michnik is the editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wyborcza, where he sometimes writes under the pen-names of Andrzej Zagozda or Andrzej Jagodziński. In 1966–1989 he was one of the leading organizers of the illegal, democratic opposition in Poland...

, Radim Palouš and Haraszti, is another overview of the dissidents' contribution to the end of communism.

Încet spre Europa and Scrisori din Washington

His second book of conversations with Mihăieş, titled Încet spre Europa ("Slowly toward Europe", 2000), touches on various subjects in Romanian society and world politics. Much of it deals with the events of 2000, in particular the country's management by the right-wing Romanian Democratic Convention

Romanian Democratic Convention

The Romanian Democratic Convention was an electoral alliance of several political parties of Romania, active from early 1992 until 2000....

. According to historian Victor Neumann

Victor Neumann

Victor Neumann is a Romanian historian, political analyst, and professor at the West University in Timişoara. He is a well-known specialist in the recent cultural and intellectual histories of Eastern and Central Europe...

, "[The book] suggests the measure to which the public debate needs to be fundamental in educating the elite and the public at large, in structuring civil society and in promoting an articulate discourse for the rejection of extremist political orientations. However, it also shows how such debates have not yet found the right framework or the institutions to promote it. Responsibility for the delay of [social and economic] reforms is not placed on not just the—as yet invertebrate

Invertebrate

An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 97% of all animal species – all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata .Invertebrates form a paraphyletic group...

—political class, but also on the cultural milieus and the media, which favor sterile discussions, world play, obsolete ideologies." He also notes: "The dialogue between Vladimir Tismăneanu and Mircea Mihăieş demonstrates the role of analysis and confrontation of ideas over hasty judgment or temperamental criticism, providing in the end an image as unembellished as possible. [It] places a magnifier over high-ranking institutions such as the Presidency

President of Romania

The President of Romania is the head of state of Romania. The President is directly elected by a two-round system for a five-year term . An individual may serve two terms...

, the Orthodox Church

Romanian Orthodox Church

The Romanian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It is in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox churches, and is ranked seventh in order of precedence. The Primate of the church has the title of Patriarch...

, the school

Education in Romania

According to the Law on Education adopted in 1995, the Romanian Educational System is regulated by the Ministry of Education and Research . Each level has its own form of organization and is subject to different legislation. Kindergarten is optional between 3 and 6 years old...

. The observations are always based on knowledge of the facts."

Part of the volume focuses on the Holocaust, Holocaust denial

Holocaust denial

Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...

, and Romania's responsibility, discussing them in relation with Stéphane Courtois

Stéphane Courtois

Stéphane Courtois is a French historian, an internationally known expert on communist studies, particularly the history of communism and communist genocides, and author of several books...

' Black Book of Communism
The Black Book of Communism
The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression is a book authored by several European academics and edited by Stéphane Courtois, which describes a history of repressions, both political and civilian, by Communist states, including genocides, extrajudicial executions, deportations, and...

. Like Alan S. Rosembaum's Is the Holocaust Unique?
Is the Holocaust Unique? (book)
Is the Holocaust Unique?: Perspectives on Comparative Genocide is a 2000 book edited by Alan S Rosenbaum. In the book, scholars compare the Holocaust to other well-known instances of genocide and mass death...

, Încet spre Europa uses the polemical term "comparative martyrology

Martyrology

A martyrology is a catalogue or list of martyrs , arranged in the calendar order of their anniversaries or feasts. Local martyrologies record exclusively the custom of a particular Church. Local lists were enriched by names borrowed from neighbouring churches...

" on comparisons made between the Holocaust and the Gulag

Gulag

The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...

(or other forms of communist repression). Although he agrees that communism is innately genocidal

Genocide

Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...

, Tismăneanu views the latter claims as attempts to trivialize the Holocaust. He also criticizes some versions of historical revisionism

Historical revisionism

In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of orthodox views on evidence, motivations, and decision-making processes surrounding a historical event...

which, he argues, make it seem like the victims of communism were all "friends of democracy" and "adherents to classical liberalism

Classical liberalism

", but agrees that: "The manner in which communism dealt with [its victims] is utterly illegal and this needs to be emphasized." Tismăneanu, who theorizes a "very complicated, bizarre, perverse, and well-camouflaged" relationship between communism and fascism

Fascism

Kingdom of Romania

The Kingdom of Romania was the Romanian state based on a form of parliamentary monarchy between 13 March 1881 and 30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania...

was exploited by the communist regime, leading to what he calls a "baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

synthesis" of extremes (an idea later expanded upon by essayist Caius Dobrescu).

With 2002's Scrisori din Washington, Tismăneanu constructs a retrospective overview of the 20th century, which he sees as dominated by the supremacy of communism and fascism. Structured around reviewed Deutsche Welle

Deutsche Welle

broadcasts, it also includes short texts on diverse subjects, such as essays about Marxist resistance to established communism, an analysis of the Western far right, conclusions about the Kosovo War

Kosovo War

The term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...

, a debate around the political ideas of interwar

Interwar period

Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....

novelist Panait Istrati

Panait Istrati

Panait Istrati was a Romanian writer of French and Romanian expression, nicknamed The Maxim Gorky of the Balkans. Istrati was first noted for the depiction of one homosexual character in his work.-Early life:...

, and praises of the Romanian intellectuals Virgil Ierunca

Virgil Ierunca

Virgil Ierunca was a Romanian literary critic, journalist and poet...

and Dan Pavel

Dan Pavel

Dan Pavel is a Romanian political scientist, academic, politician, journalist and 1989 revolutionary. He was a consultant to Gigi Becali in 2003.-References:...

. Mircea Iorgulescu criticizes the work for not discussing other relevant phenomena (such as the successes of feminism

Feminism

Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...

, decolonization

Decolonization

Decolonization refers to the undoing of colonialism, the unequal relation of polities whereby one people or nation establishes and maintains dependent Territory over another...

and the environmental movement

Environmental movement

The environmental movement, a term that includes the conservation and green politics, is a diverse scientific, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues....

), and argues that many of the pieces seem American-centered, unfocused or outdated. Iorgulescu also objects to the book's verdict on Istrati's political choices after his split with communism, claiming that Tismăneanu is wrong in assuming that Istrati eventually moved to the far right. He nevertheless argues: "[the book] provides an impressive image of the extraordinary American effort to research, analyze and interpret communism and post-communism." Iorgulescu, who views Tismăneanu as a Romanian equivalent to Michnik, adds: "The circumstance of his living in the United States [...] protects him, for it is not hard to imagine how one would have viewed and behaved toward a Romanian from Romania who has the courage to speak, for instance, about the existence of an anti-Bolshevik Bolshevism. Being himself a critical intellectual, one would understand the origin of his continuous plea for [the intellectual critics] always hunted down by the authoritarian regimes."

Stalinism for All Seasons

With Stalinism for All Seasons, Tismăneanu provides a synthesis of his views on Communist Romanian history leading back to Arheologia terorii, documenting the Romanian Communist Party

Romanian Communist Party

's evolution from the Bolshevik

Bolshevik

wing of the Socialist Party

Socialist Party of Romania

The Socialist Party of Romania was a Romanian socialist political party, created on December 11, 1918 by members of the Romanian Social Democratic Party , after the latter emerged from clandestinity...

to the establishment of a single-party state

Single-party state

A single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a type of party system government in which a single political party forms the government and no other parties are permitted to run candidates for election...

. Tismăneanu himself, reflecting on the purpose of the book, stated his vision of communism as an "eschatological

Eschatology

Eschatology is a part of theology, philosophy, and futurology concerned with what are believed to be the final events in history, or the ultimate destiny of humanity, commonly referred to as the end of the world or the World to Come...

" movement, adding: "Romanian communism was a subspecies of Bolshevik radicalism, itself born out of an engagement between Russian revolutionary tradition and the voluntarist

Voluntarism (action)

Voluntarism is sometimes used to mean the use of, or reliance on voluntary action to maintain an institution, carry out a policy, or achieve an end. In this context the word voluntary action means action based on free will, which in turn means action which is performed free from certain constraints...

version of Marxism." Adrian Cioroianu

Adrian Cioroianu

notes that "Tismăneanu was the first who could ever explain the mirage and the motivation [felt by] Romania's first communists of the '20-'30 decade." The focus on communist conspiracies

Conspiracy (political)

In a political sense, conspiracy refers to a group of persons united in the goal of usurping or overthrowing an established political power. Typically, the final goal is to gain power through a revolutionary coup d'état or through assassination....

and inner-Party struggles for power is constant throughout the book. In a 2004 review published by Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs is an American magazine and website on international relations and U.S. foreign policy published since 1922 by the Council on Foreign Relations six times annually...

magazine, political scientist Robert Legvold sees it as "less a political history of communism than it is a thorough account of leadership battles in the Romanian Communist Party from its origins at the turn of the nineteenth century to its demise in 1989." Also according to Legvold, the author "shed[s] light on the paradoxes of Romanian communism: how a pariah party that was Stalinist to the core eventually turned on its Soviet master and embraced nationalism—how 'national Stalinism' was acceptable to the West as long as it meant autonomy from [the Soviet Union]. That is, until it became grotesque in Nicolae Ceauşescu's last decade, leading to the regime's violent death."

The book title is a direct allusion to Robert Bolt

Robert Bolt

Robert Oxton Bolt, CBE was an English playwright and a two-time Oscar winning screenwriter.-Career:He was born in Sale, Cheshire. At Manchester Grammar School his affinity for Sir Thomas More first developed. He attended the University of Manchester, and, after war service, the University of...

's play A Man for All Seasons
A Man for All Seasons
A Man for All Seasons is a play by Robert Bolt. An early form of the play had been written for BBC Radio in 1954, and a one-hour live television version starring Bernard Hepton was produced in 1957 by the BBC, but after Bolt's success with The Flowering Cherry, he reworked it for the stage.It was...

. It refers to an idea discussed in previous works, that of Romania's special case: Stalinism preserved after the death of Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...

, and returning in full swing during the Ceauşescu years. Noting the role played by party purges in this process, Cioroianu stresses: "Tismăneanu was the first to ever suggest that between the communists of the '30s and those of the '60s one could hardly determine a correspondence, even if the names of some—the lucky ones!—crop up from one period and into the other." Ion Bogdan Lefter notes that it is "paradoxical—in that it is the first American book that Vladimir Tismăneanu dedicated to the subject he was most familiar with." Lefter writes that the idea of "perpetual Romanian Stalinism" is backed by "a weighty demonstration", but is reserved toward the statements according to which Ceauşescu's early "small liberalization" of the 1960s was inconsequential, arguing that, even though "Re-Stalinization" occurred with the April Theses of 1971, "[the regime] could never overturn [the phenomenon] altogether, some of its effects being preserved—at least in part—until 1989." Lefter proposes a more in-depth analysis of this situation, based on the methodology

Methodology

Methodology is generally a guideline for solving a problem, with specificcomponents such as phases, tasks, methods, techniques and tools . It can be defined also as follows:...

of historiography

Historiography

Historiography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...

introduced by the Annales School

Annales School

The Annales School is a group of historians associated with a style of historiography developed by French historians in the 20th century. It is named after its scholarly journal Annales d'histoire économique et sociale, which remains the main source of scholarship, along with many books and...

, which, he argues, would allow more room for "small personal histories".

Initially, Vladimir Tismăneanu had planned to write a review of Romanian history covering the entire modern period, before deciding to concentrate on a more limited subject. Part of the volume relies on never-before published documents to which he had gained access as a young man, through his family connections. It also incorporates his thoughts on the communist legacy in Romania, and in particular his belief that the modified communist dogma endured as a force in Romanian politics

Politics of Romania

even during the post-1989 period. Cioroianu reviews the high praise earned by the volume throughout the Romanian intellectual and educational environments, as "all the appreciations a history volume could have expected". American historian Robert C. Tucker

Robert C. Tucker

Robert Charles Tucker was an American political scientist.Born in Kansas City, Missouri, he was a Sovietologist at Princeton University. He served as an attaché at the American Embassy in Moscow from 1944–1953. He received his PhD degree from Harvard University in 1958; his doctoral dissertation...

calls it "the definitive work on Romanian communism", and Stanomir "a monument of erudition and laconicism

Laconic phrase

A laconic phrase is a very concise or terse statement, named after Laconia , a polis of ancient Greece surrounding the city of Sparta proper. In common usage, Sparta referred both to Lacedaemon and Sparta...

Democraţie şi memorie and Cortina de ceaţă

The 2004 volume of essays, Scopul şi mijloacele ("The Purpose and the Means") is largely an expansion of Noaptea totalitară. It was followed in 2006 by a collection of his press articles, carrying the title Democraţie şi memorie ("Democracy and Memory"), which centers on admiring portraits: those of thinkers, politicians or activists whom he credits with having provided him with an understanding of political phnomenons—Raymond Aron

Raymond Aron

Raymond-Claude-Ferdinand Aron was a French philosopher, sociologist, journalist and political scientist.He is best known for his 1955 book The Opium of the Intellectuals, the title of which inverts Karl Marx's claim that religion was the opium of the people -- in contrast, Aron argued that in...

, Robert Conquest

Robert Conquest

George Robert Ackworth Conquest CMG is a British historian who became a well-known writer and researcher on the Soviet Union with the publication in 1968 of The Great Terror, an account of Stalin's purges of the 1930s...

, Arthur Koestler

Arthur Koestler

Arthur Koestler CBE was a Hungarian author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest and, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria...

, Jacek Kuroń

Jacek Kuron

Jacek Jan Kuroń was one of the democratic leaders of opposition in the People's Republic of Poland. Kuroń was a prominent Polish social and political figure; educator and historian; an activist of the Polish Scouting Association; co-founder of the Workers' Defence Committee; twice a Minister of...

, Czesław Miłosz, Susan Sontag

Susan Sontag

Susan Sontag was an American author, literary theorist, feminist and political activist whose works include On Photography and Against Interpretation.-Life:...

, Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev

Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev

Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev was a Soviet politician and historian who was a Soviet governmental official in the 1980s and a member of the Politburo and Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union...

—and those of Cold War

Cold War

figures such as US President

President of the United States

The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

and Pope

Pope

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...

John Paul II

Pope John Paul II

Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...

. The book also included his earlier calls to have the Securitate

Securitate

The Securitate was the secret police agency of Communist Romania. Previously, the Romanian secret police was called Siguranţa Statului. Founded on August 30, 1948, with help from the Soviet NKVD, the Securitate was abolished in December 1989, shortly after President Nicolae Ceaușescu was...

archives, then managed by the Romanian Intelligence Service, opened for the public, in the belief that liberal democracy

Liberal democracy

has transparency as its prerequisite. Other segments of the book voiced calls for a public debate on the moral legacy of communism, and for the assumption of the "democratic ethos

Ethos

Ethos is a Greek word meaning "character" that is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize a community, nation, or ideology. The Greeks also used this word to refer to the power of music to influence its hearer's emotions, behaviors, and even morals. Early Greek stories of...

" by regular Romanians.

A third volume of Mihăieş-Tismăneanu dialogues was published in 2007, as Cortina de ceaţă ("The Fog Curtain"). According to Tudorel Urian, it is directly linked to its author's involvement in political disputes, and in particular those created around the Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania

Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania

. Therefore, Urian says, it "has a more accentuated polemic character, the two of them being often required to reply to the attacks on them." The volume's title is Tismăneanu's definition of political scandals and supposed media manipulation

Media manipulation

Media manipulation is an aspect of public relations in which partisans create an image or argument that favours their particular interests. Such tactics may include the use of logical fallacies and propaganda techniques, and often involve the suppression of information or points of view by crowding...

in Romania, and the book includes commentary on such events as the arrival to power and eventual breakup of the Justice and Truth

Justice and Truth

The Justice and Truth Alliance was a political alliance comprising two political parties in Romania: the centre-right liberal National Liberal Party and the initially social-democrat Democratic Party , which later switched to center-right ideology.As the political formation with the largest...

alliance; the National Anticorruption Directorate

National Anticorruption Directorate

National Anticorruption Directorate , formerly National Anticorruption Prosecution Office , is the Romanian agency tasked with preventing, investigating and prosecuting corruption-related offenses that caused a material damage higher than €200,000 or whose value of the involved amounts or goods is...

's inquiry into the activities of former Premier

Prime Minister of Romania

Adrian Năstase

Adrian Nastase

Adrian Năstase is a Romanian politician who was the Prime Minister of Romania from December 2000 to December 2004.He competed as the Social Democratic Party candidate in the 2004 presidential election, but was defeated by centre-right Justice and Truth Alliance candidate Traian Băsescu.He was...

and other PSD leaders; the revelations that Chamber

Chamber of Deputies of Romania

The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house in Romania's bicameral parliament. It has 315 seats, to which deputies are elected by direct popular vote on a proportional representation basis to serve four-year terms...

representative Mona Muscă

Mona Muscă

Mona Octavia Muscă is a Romanian philologist and politician. A former member of the National Liberal Party and of the Liberal Democratic Party , she was a member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies for Caraş-Severin County from 1996 to 2004 and for Bucharest from 2004 to 2007...

and Tismăneanu's own colleague Sorin Antohi

Sorin Antohi

had been informants of Communist Romania's secret police

Secret police

Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....

, the Securitate

Securitate

; and criticism of the Commission itself. The book expresses its author's support for the political agenda of Romanian President

President of Romania

The President of Romania is the head of state of Romania. The President is directly elected by a two-round system for a five-year term . An individual may serve two terms...

Traian Băsescu

Traian Basescu

, impeached

Impeachment

Impeachment is a formal process in which an official is accused of unlawful activity, the outcome of which, depending on the country, may include the removal of that official from office as well as other punishment....

by Parliament

Parliament of Romania

and reinstated by an April 2007 referendum

Romanian presidential impeachment referendum, 2007

The Romanian presidential impeachment referendum of 2007 was conducted in order to determine whether the president of Romania Traian Băsescu should be forced to step down.On April 19, 2007 the Romanian parliament suspended Băsescu...

. Urian writes: "supporters of [Băsescu's] agenda will be enthusiastic about the book, and those who reject it will be searching for flaws under a microscope. All shall nevertheless have to read very carefully. This is because, beyond the generic, predictable, direction, it is rich in punctual analyses of a great finesse and in information too easily lost in the daily turmoil, but which, once brought to memory, may render things in a new light."

Refuzul de a uita and Perfectul acrobat

Points similar to those made by Cortina de ceaţă were present in another 2007 book, Refuzul de a uita ("Refusing to Forget"). A collection of scattered articles, it also partly responds to criticism of the Commission. Alongside such pieces stand essays which expand on earlier subjects: portraits of various intellectuals admired by the author (Michnik, Kołakowski, Jeane Kirkpatrick

Jeane Kirkpatrick

Jeane Jordan Kirkpatrick was an American ambassador and an ardent anticommunist. After serving as Ronald Reagan's foreign policy adviser in his 1980 campaign and later in his Cabinet, the longtime Democrat-turned-Republican was nominated as the U.S...

, Vasile Paraschiv

Vasile Paraschiv

Vasile Paraschiv was a Romanian social and political activist.- Biography :Paraschiv was born in Ordoreanu village, Clinceni commune, Ilfov County...

, Jean-François Revel

Jean-François Revel

Jean-François Revel was a French politician, journalist, author, prolific philosopher and member of the Académie française from June 1998...

, Andrei Sakharov

Andrei Sakharov

Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident and human rights activist. He earned renown as the designer of the Soviet Union's Third Idea, a codename for Soviet development of thermonuclear weapons. Sakharov was an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the...

, Aleksandr Zinovyev

Aleksandr Zinovyev

Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Zinovyev was a prominent Russian logician and dissident writer of social critique....

); reflections on populism

Populism

, with case studies of Hugo Chávez

Hugo Chávez

Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...

's Venezuela

Venezuela

and Slobodan Milošević

Slobodan Milošević

Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...

's Yugoslavia; and a posthumous critique of political analyst and former communist activist Silviu Brucan

Silviu Brucan

Silviu Brucan was a Romanian communist politician. Though he disagreed with Nicolae Ceauşescu's policies, he never gave up his communist beliefs and did not oppose communist ideology...

. A section of the volume refers to the controversy surrounding journalist Carol Sebastian, exposed as a Securitate

Securitate

informant after a career in the anti-communist press. Tismăneanu contrasts Sebastian with open supporters of the Ceauşescu regime, grouped around Săptămîna magazine during the 1970s and never exposed in such a manner, and concludes that Sebastian's case stands as "a warning that we must as soon as possible progress to the condemnation of the institutions who have made possible such tragic moral collapses."

With the 2008 volume Perfectul acrobat ("The Perfect Acrobat"), co-authored with Cristian Vasile, Tismăneanu returned to his study of Leonte Răutu, and, in general, to the study of links between Communist Romania's ideological, censorship

Censorship in Communist Romania

Censorship in Communist Romania was widespread and virtually every published document, be it a newspaper article or a book, had to pass the censor's approval...

and propaganda

Propaganda

Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....

apparatuses. The book, subtitled Leonte Răutu, măştile răului ("Leonte Răutu, the Masks of Evil"), also comments on the motivations of writers in varying degrees of collaboration with the communist structures: Tudor Arghezi

Tudor Arghezi

Tudor Arghezi was a Romanian writer, best known for his contribution to poetry and children's literature. Born Ion N. Theodorescu in Bucharest , he explained that his pen name was related to Argesis, the Latin name for the Argeş River.-Early life:Along with Mihai Eminescu, Mateiu Caragiale, and...

, George Călinescu

George Calinescu

George Călinescu was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies...

, Ovid Crohmălniceanu, Petru Dumitriu, Paul Georgescu

Paul Georgescu

Paul Georgescu was a Romanian literary critic, journalist, fiction writer and communist political figure. Remembered as both a main participant in the imposition of Socialist Realism in its Romanian form and a patron of dissenting modernist and postmodern literature, he began his career in...

, Eugen Jebeleanu

Eugen Jebeleanu

Eugen Jebeleanu , Romanian poet, was born in Câmpina, where he attended elementary school. After graduating from high school in Braşov at age 11 in 1922, he published his first poems five years later in the literary review Viaţa literară...

and Miron-Radu Paraschivescu. It attempts to explain in detail how the regime resisted genuine De-Stalinization without meeting many public objections from the leftist intellectuals, a situation defined by Bogdan Cristian Iacob as "the painful absence of an alternative, of an anti-systemic tradition." Răutu's high-ranking career and overall guidelines, both of which survived all changes in the system under Gheorghiu-Dej and Ceauşescu, are taken by the authors as study cases in Romania's post-Stalinist Stalinism. In addition, Iacob notes, "the two authors bring forth irrefutable proof for the unshakable link between word and power in communism". He cites Răutu's own theories about the role education and agitprop

Agitprop

Agitprop is derived from agitation and propaganda, and describes stage plays, pamphlets, motion pictures and other art forms with an explicitly political message....

had in creating the "New Man". Tismăneanu, who deems Răutu "the demiurge

Demiurge

The demiurge is a concept from the Platonic, Neopythagorean, Middle Platonic, and Neoplatonic schools of philosophy for an artisan-like figure responsible for the fashioning and maintenance of the physical universe. The term was subsequently adopted by the Gnostics...

of the infernal system to crush the autonomy of thought in communized Romania", lists the creation of a New Man among the ideologue's main goals, alongside the atomization, mobilization, and homogenization of his target audience. According to Stanomir, "the biographical examination [...] gives birth to a narrative on the rise and fall of a modern possessed man", while the documents presented reveal Răutu's willingness to show fidelity to all policies and all successive leaders, in what is "more than a survival strategy." For Stanomir, the ideologist as Tismăneanu and Vasile show him is a man who replicates religious belief, guided by the principle that "outside the Party there can be no salvation" (see Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus
Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus
The Latin phrase Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus means: "Outside the Church there is no salvation". The most recent Catholic Catechism interpreted this to mean that "all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body."...

). In its introductory section, Perfectul acrobat includes a dialogue of the two authors with a first-hand witness to Răutu's actions, philosopher Mihai Şora. This piece, coupled with a final documentary section, are rated by Stanomir as "outstandingly innovative [...] at the intersection of intellectual discourse, testimonial and the document itself."

Other contributions

Outside the realms of history, political science and political analysis, Vladimir Tismăneanu is a noted author of memoir

Memoir

A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...

s. This part of his work is centered on the volume Ghilotina de scrum ("The Ashen Guillotine

Guillotine

The guillotine is a device used for carrying out :executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which an angled blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the head from the body...

"), also written on the basis of interviews with Mihăieş. The book offers an account of his complicating relationship with Leonte Tismăneanu

Leonte Tismaneanu

, postulating a difference between the everyday father, who has earned his son's admiration for being marginalized by his political adversaries, and a "political father", whose attitudes and public actions are rejected by Vladimir Tismăneanu.

This approach earned praise from two influential intellectual figures of the Romanian diaspora

Romanian diaspora

, critics Monica Lovinescu

Monica Lovinescu

Monica Lovinescu was a Romanian essayist, short story writer, literary critic, translator, and journalist, noted for her activities as an opponent of the Romanian Communist regime. She published several works under the pseudonyms Monique Saint-Come and Claude Pascal. She is the daughter of...

and Virgil Ierunca

Virgil Ierunca

Virgil Ierunca was a Romanian literary critic, journalist and poet...

, whose letter to the author read: "the distances you take from your own background are of most-rare authenticity and tact. You accomplish a radical break, being at the same time participative, negating things only after you have understood them, being dissociated from both roles of judge and defense counsel." Cioroianu also notes: "He is not the only son of (relatively) well-known communists; but he is one of the few to have reached the level of detachment needed in order to X-ray, in a cold and precise way, a political system. Does this seem easy to you? I do not know how many of us would be capable of introspecting with such lucidity our own parents' utopias, phantasms and disappointments". The historian opposes Tismăneanu's approach to that of Petre Roman

Petre Roman

Petre Roman is a Romanian politician and a former Prime Minister of Romania. He served from 1989 to 1991, when his government was overthrown by the intervention of the miners led by Miron Cozma. Roman is a member of the Club of Madrid, grouping 66 democratic former heads of state and government...

, Romania-s first post-1989 Premier

Prime Minister of Romania

, whose attempts at discussing the public image of his father, the communist politico Valter Roman

Valter Roman

Valter or Walter Roman , born Ernst or Ernő Neuländer, was a Romanian communist activist and soldier. During his lifetime, Roman was active inside the Romanian, Czechoslovakian, French, and Spanish Communist parties as well as being a Comintern cadre...

, are argued by Cioroianu to have "failed".

Tismăneanu has contributed the screenplay for Dinu Tănase's documentary film Condamnaţi la fericire ("Sentenced to Happiness"), released in 1992. With Octavian Şerban, he has also authored a series about Communist Romania, which was showcased by the Romanian Television Company.

Early objections

Some who oppose or criticize Tismăneanu's appointment to head the Presidential Commission, his selection of other commission members, or the conclusions in the commission's final report, have drawn attention to several texts he authored in Romania, which they perceive as being Marxist-Leninist

Marxism-Leninism

in content, and his activities inside the Union of Communist Youth

Union of Communist Youth

. Among the critics of Tismăneanu's early activities was philosopher Gabriel Liiceanu

Gabriel Liiceanu

Gabriel Liiceanu is a Romanian philosopher.He graduated from University of Bucharest's Faculty of Philosophy in 1965, and from Faculty of Classical Languages in 1973. He earned a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Bucharest in 1976....

, who stated that they were incompatible with the moral status required from a leader of the Commission. However, Liiceanu endorsed the incrimination of communist regime and eventually the report itself.

After the presentation of the Final Report and the official condemnation of the communist regime by President

President of Romania

The President of Romania is the head of state of Romania. The President is directly elected by a two-round system for a five-year term . An individual may serve two terms...

Traian Băsescu

Traian Basescu

in a joint session of the Romanian Parliament, Liiceanu openly expressed his support for Vladimir Tismăneanu and endorsed the Presidential Commission for the Analysis of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania. In November 2007, Liiceanu's publishing house, Humanitas

Humanitas publishing house

Humanitas is an independent Romanian publishing house, founded on February 1, 1990 in Bucharest by the philosopher Gabriel Liiceanu...

, published in volume format the Final Report. Furthermore, Liiceanu, in the homage to Tismăneanu, when the latter was granted the award of the Group for Social Dialogue

Group for Social Dialogue

The Group for Social Dialogue is a Romanian non-governmental organization whose stated mission is to protect and promote democracy, human rights and civil liberties...

(January 2008), openly retracted his initial statements about Tismăneanu's academic and moral stature: "Vladimir Tismăneanu was the perfect person for completing the task of coordinating the Commission, considering that those who spoke after being exposed to this ideology explained it best. Vladimir Tismăneanu, besides owning such insider knowledge on what is communism at multiple levels, he then had an ideal competence, acquired and validated within the American academic environment, in order to be able to study this subject with both familiarity and distance." Liiceanu concluded: "He is the most qualified intellectual in the world for analyzing Romanian communism. His book Stalinism for All Seasons is the classical study in the field."

Early criticism of Tismăneanu based on allegations of communism was also voiced by writer Sorin Lavric. The author revised his stance soon afterward and, in four separate articles, gave his endorsement to both the Final Report and Vladimir Tismăneanu's later publications.

Political party-level reactions

Several commentators have argued that the negative reception of the Final Report in sections of the press and the political establishment was partly due to the investigation's implications, as the latter's overall condemnation of the communist regime

Communist Romania

has opened the road for further debates regarding the links between various contemporary politicians and the former communist structures. The examples cited include four Senate

Senate of Romania

The Senate of Romania is the upper house in the bicameral Parliament of Romania. It has 137 seats , to which members are elected by direct popular vote, using Mixed member proportional representation in 42 electoral districts , to serve four-year terms.-Former location:After the Romanian...

members: Ion Iliescu

Ion Iliescu

and Adrian Păunescu

Adrian Paunescu

Adrian Păunescu was a Romanian poet, journalist, and politician. Though criticised for praising dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu, Păunescu was called "Romania's most famous poet" in a Associated Press story, quoted by the New York Times.-Life:Born in Copăceni, Bălţi County, in what is now the Republic...

from the PSD, as well as Greater Romania Party

Greater Romania Party

The Greater Romania Party is a Romanian radical right-wing, ultra-nationalist political party, led by Corneliu Vadim Tudor. The party is sometimes referred to in English as the Great Romania Party....

leader Corneliu Vadim Tudor

Corneliu Vadim Tudor

Corneliu Vadim Tudor is leader of the Greater Romania Party , writer, journalist and a Member of the European Parliament...

and Conservative Party

Conservative Party (Romania)

The Conservative Party of Romania is a political party formed in 1991, after the fall of Communism, under the name of the Romanian Humanist Party . From 2005 until December 3, 2006, the party was a junior member of the ruling coalition...

leader Dan Voiculescu

Dan Voiculescu

Dan Voiculescu is a Romanian politician and former business man. He is the Vicepresident of the Romanian Senate and founding president of the Conservative Party in Romania. ....

. The reading of the Final Report by President Băsescu was punctuated with heckling from among the Greater Romania Party Senate and Chamber

Chamber of Deputies of Romania

representatives.

Vladimir Tismăneanu (vladiˈmir tisməˈne̯anu; born July 4, 1951) is a Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

n and American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

political scientist, political analyst, sociologist, and professor at the University of Maryland, College Park

University of Maryland, College Park

The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...

. A specialist in political system

Political system

A political system is a system of politics and government. It is usually compared to the legal system, economic system, cultural system, and other social systems...

s and comparative politics

Comparative politics

Radio Free Europe

and Deutsche Welle

Deutsche Welle

, and authored programs for the Romanian Television Company. As of 2009, he is Academic Council Chairman of the Institute for People's Studies, a think tank

Think tank

of the Romanian Democratic Liberal Party

Democratic Liberal Party (Romania)

. Since February 2010, he is also President of the Scientific Council of the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania

Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania

.

Acclaimed for his scholarly works on Stalinism

Stalinism

in general and the Romanian communist regime

Communist Romania

in particular, as well as for exploring the impact of nationalism

Nationalism

, national communism

National communism

The term National Communism describes the ethnic minority communist currents that arose in the former Russian Empire after Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik Party seized power in October 1917....

and neo-Stalinism

Neo-Stalinism

in the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

and countries of the Eastern Bloc

Eastern bloc

The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...

, Tismăneanu writes from the critical perspective of a civil society

Civil society

supporter. His other influential texts deal with diverse topics such as Cold War

Cold War

history, Kremlinology

Kremlinology

and the Holocaust. Having moved from a loose Marxist

Marxism

vision, shaped under the influence of neo-Marxist

Neo-Marxism

and Western Marxist

Western Marxism

Western Marxism is a term used to describe a wide variety of Marxist theoreticians based in Western and Central Europe, in contrast with philosophy in the Soviet Union...

scholarship, he became a noted proponent of classical liberalism

Classical liberalism

and liberal democracy

Liberal democracy

. This perspective is outlined in both his scientific contributions and volumes dealing with Romania's post-1989 history

History of Romania since 1989

President of Romania

The President of Romania is the head of state of Romania. The President is directly elected by a two-round system for a five-year term . An individual may serve two terms...

Traian Băsescu

Traian Basescu

as head of the Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania

Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania

, which presented its report to the Romanian Parliament

Parliament of Romania

Biography

Born in Braşov

Brasov

, Vladimir Tismăneanu is the son of Leonte Tismăneanu

Leonte Tismaneanu

, an activist of the Romanian Communist Party

Romanian Communist Party

since the early 1930s, and Hermina Marcusohn, a physician and one-time Communist Party activist, both of whom were Jewish

History of the Jews in Romania

The history of Jews in Romania concerns the Jews of Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is nowadays Romanian territory....

and Spanish Civil War

Spanish Civil War

veterans. His father, born in Bessarabia

Bessarabia

Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....

and settled in the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

at the end of the 1930s, worked in agitprop

Agitprop

Agitprop is derived from agitation and propaganda, and describes stage plays, pamphlets, motion pictures and other art forms with an explicitly political message....

structures, returning to Romania at the end of World War II

World War II

, and becoming, under the communist regime

Communist Romania

, chair of the Marxism-Leninism

Marxism-Leninism

department of the University of Bucharest

University of Bucharest

. Progressively after Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej

Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej

acted against Ana Pauker

Ana Pauker

Ana Pauker was a Romanian communist leader and served as the country's foreign minister in the late 1940s and early 1950s...

, the Tismăneanus were sidelined inside the Romanian nomenklatura

Nomenklatura

; in 1960, Leonte Tismăneanu was stripped of his position as deputy head of Editura Politică. Ovidiu Şimonca, "Vladimir Tismăneanu, ameninţat cu moartea", in Observator Cultural
Observator Cultural
Observator Cultural is a literary magazine based in Bucharest, Romania. It covers Romania's cultural and arts scene.-External links:*...

, Nr. 375, June 2007 Cristian Vasile, "Cronici de atelier. Trepte către o istorie a comunismului românesc", in Atelier LiterNet, July 23, 2008; retrieved February 6, 2009

Vladimir Tismăneanu grew up in the exclusive Primăverii quarter of Bucharest

Bucharest

. During his years of study at the Lyceum No. 28, which was then largely attended by students belonging to the nomenklatura, he was in the same year as Nicu Ceauşescu

Nicu Ceausescu

, son of communist leader Nicolae Ceauşescu

Nicolae Ceausescu

Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...

, as well as the children of Leonte Răutu, Nicolae Doicaru and Silviu Brucan

Silviu Brucan

Silviu Brucan was a Romanian communist politician. Though he disagreed with Nicolae Ceauşescu's policies, he never gave up his communist beliefs and did not oppose communist ideology...

Dumitru Tepeneag

Dumitru Ţepeneag is a contemporary Romanian novelist, essayist, short story writer and translator, who currently resides in France...

and his wife, translator Mona Ţepeneag, as well as Ileana, the daughter of Communist Party dignitary Gheorghe Gaston Marin

Gheorghe Gaston Marin

Gheorghe Gaston Marin was a Romanian former communist politician who had many roles under Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej and Nicolae Ceauşescu. He was born Gheorghe Grossmann in Pădureni Vaslui County...

). Vladimir Tismăneanu, "Bizantinism şi revoluţie", in România Liberă
România Libera
România Liberă is one of the leading newspapers in Romania. Based in Bucharest, the Romanian-language daily has a paid daily circulation of 40,000....

, June 17, 2005. Reprint of his preface to Stalinism pentru eternitate. O istorie politică a comunismului românesc, Polirom

Polirom

Polirom or Editura Polirom is a Romanian publishing house with a tradition of publishing classics of international literature and also various titles in the fields of social sciences, such as psychology, sociology and anthropology. The company was founded in February 1995. The first title...

, Iaşi, 2005 He stated that, at the time, he was influenced by Communism in Romania, an analytic and critical work by Romanian-born British

United Kingdom

political scientist Ghiţă Ionescu, as well as by Marxist

Marxism

, Western Marxist

Western Marxism

Western Marxism is a term used to describe a wide variety of Marxist theoreticians based in Western and Central Europe, in contrast with philosophy in the Soviet Union...

, Democratic

Democratic socialism

Democratic socialism is a description used by various socialist movements and organizations to emphasize the democratic character of their political orientation...

and Libertarian Socialist

Libertarian socialism

Libertarian socialism is a group of political philosophies that promote a non-hierarchical, non-bureaucratic, stateless society without private property in the means of production...

scholarship (among others, the ideas of Georg Lukács

Georg Lukács

, Leszek Kołakowski, Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....

, Antonio Gramsci

Antonio Gramsci

, and the Frankfurt School

Frankfurt School

The Frankfurt School refers to a school of neo-Marxist interdisciplinary social theory, particularly associated with the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt am Main...

Nationalism

.

He graduated as a valedictorian

Valedictorian

Profile at the Romanian Presidency site; retrieved October 3, 2007 from the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Sociology in 1974, and received his Ph.D.

Ph.D.

New Left

").The Hour of Romania, International Conference. Dr. Vladimir Tismaneanu, at the Indiana University (Bloomington)'s Russian and East European Institute; retrieved February 6, 2009 During the period, he was received into the ranks of the Union of Communist Youth

Union of Communist Youth

(UTC), authored several articles which displayed support for the regime, and, as vice-president of the UTC's Communist Student Association, allegedly took part in authoring and compiling propaganda

Propaganda

Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....

aimed at students. He was also contributing to the UTC magazines Amfiteatru and Viaţa Studenţească, where his essentially neo-Marxist

Neo-Marxism

essays were often mixed for publication with endorsements of the official ideology.

Between 1974 and 1981, Tismăneanu worked as a sociologist, employed by the Urban Sociology Department of the Institute Typified Buildings Design in Bucharest. Radu Ioanid, "Anatomia delaţiunii. Istoria unui caz de poliţie politică în anii '80", in Observator Cultural
Observator Cultural
Observator Cultural is a literary magazine based in Bucharest, Romania. It covers Romania's cultural and arts scene.-External links:*...

, Nr. 139, October 2002 Among his colleagues there were Alexandru Florian, Cătălin Mamali, Dumitru Sandu, Dorel Abraham, Radu Ioanid, Alin Teodorescu and Mihai Milca. Tismăneanu was not given approval to hold an academic position. Dan Tapalagă, "Turnat de prieteni, demonizat de Securitate: Vladimir Tismăneanu", in Cotidianul
Cotidianul
thumb|right|Old logo of Cotidianul newspaper, used in the [[inter-war period]], and in the early 1990sthumb|right|The logo used between 2003 and 2007...

, July 24, 2006 Around 1977, he was involved in a debate about the nature of Romanian culture

Culture of Romania

, expressing a pro-European perspective in reaction to officially endorsed nationalism in general and, in particular, to the form of Protochronism

Protochronism

Protochronism is a Romanian term describing the tendency to ascribe, largely relying on questionable data and subjective interpretations, an idealised past to the country as a whole...

advocated by Edgar Papu and Luceafărul magazine. His thoughts on the matter, published by Amfiteatru alongside similar writings by Milca, Gheorghe Achiţei, Alexandru Duţu and Solomon Marcus

Solomon Marcus

Solomon Marcus is a Romanian mathematician, member of the Mathematical Section of the Romanian Academy and Emeritus Professor of the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Mathematics...

.

In September 1981, a short while after the death of his father, he accompanied his mother on a voyage to Spain

Spain

, after she had been granted a request to visit the sites where she and her husband had fought as young people.Tismăneanu, in Armand Gosu, "N-am avut de-a face cu Securitatea", in Revista 22
Revista 22
Revista 22 is a Romanian weekly magazine, issued by the Group for Social Dialogue and focused mainly on politics and culture....

, Nr. 849, June 2006 Unlike Hermina Tismăneanu, he opted not to return, and soon after left for Venezuela

Venezuela

, before ultimately settling in the United States in 1982. During his time in Caracas

Caracas

, he was the recipient of a scholarship at the Contemporary Art Museum.

He lived first in Philadelphia, where he was employed by the Foreign Policy Research Institute

Foreign Policy Research Institute

(1983–1990), while teaching at the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

(1985–1990). At the time, he began contributing comments on local politics to Radio Free Europe

Radio Free Europe

and Voice of America

Voice of America

, Bogdan Cristian Iacob, "Persistenţa liberalismului", in Atelier LiterNet, August 20, 2008; retrieved February 9, 2009 beginning with an analysis of the "dynastic socialism

Socialism

" in Romania, centered on the political career of Nicu Ceauşescu

Nicu Ceausescu

. His essays on the lives and careers of communist potentates, requested by Radio Free Europe's Vlad Georgescu

Vlad Georgescu

Vlad Georgescu , Romanian historian, was the director of the Romanian-language department of Radio Free Europe between 1983 and 1988.-Biography:...

and aired by the station as a series, were later grouped under the title Archeology of Terror.

In 1990, Tismăneanu received a professorship at the University of Maryland, College Park

University of Maryland, College Park

The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...

and moved to Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Fulbright Program

's Selection Committee for South-East Europe

Balkans

The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...

, and, from 1997 to 2003, was member of the Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe

Committee at the American Council of Learned Societies

American Council of Learned Societies

. A fellow at the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen

Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (IWM)

The Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen is an independent institute for advanced study in the humanities and social sciences based in Vienna, Austria...

in Vienna

Vienna

, Austria

Austria

and the New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

Erich Maria Remarque Institute (both in 2002), he was Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

in 2001, returning as Fellow in 2005 and 2008-2009. Tismăneanu was also granted fellowship by Indiana University (Bloomington) (2003) and National Endowment for Democracy

National Endowment for Democracy

Barbara Jelavich

Award, presented by the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies

American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies

The Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies is a scholarly society dedicated to the advancement of knowledge about the former Soviet Union and Eastern and Central Europe...

for his Stalinism for All Seasons. During the late 1990s, he collaborated with the German

Germany

-based radio station Deutsche Welle

Deutsche Welle

, with a series of broadcasts, most of which he published in Romania as Scrisori din Washington ("Letters from Washington", 2002). Mircea Iorgulescu, "Românul transatlantic", in Revista 22
Revista 22
Revista 22 is a Romanian weekly magazine, issued by the Group for Social Dialogue and focused mainly on politics and culture....

, Nr. 651, August-September 2002 He also worked as editor of Dorin Tudoran

Dorin Tudoran

's Agora, a political journal of the Romanian diaspora

Romanian diaspora

.

Since the Romanian Revolution of 1989

Romanian Revolution of 1989

The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...

, he has been visiting his native country on a regular basis. Tismăneanu was in Bucharest during June 1990, witnessing the Mineriad

Mineriad

, when miners from the Jiu Valley

Jiu Valley

The Jiu Valley is a region in southwestern Romania, in Hunedoara county, situated in a valley of the Jiu River between the Retezat Mountains and the Parâng Mountains...

supporting the National Salvation Front put a violent stop to the Golani

Golaniad

The Golaniad was a protest in Romania in the University Square, Bucharest. It was initiated by students and professors at the University of Bucharest....

protest, an experience he claims gave him insight into "barbarity in its crassest, most revolting, form." "Supliment 22 plus, nr. 264 - Campania împotriva intelectualilor", in Revista 22

Revista 22

Revista 22 is a Romanian weekly magazine, issued by the Group for Social Dialogue and focused mainly on politics and culture....

, Nr. 979, December 2008 Other sojourns included 1993-1994 research visits to the Communist Party archives, at the time supervised by the Romanian Army General Staff. Tismăneanu resumed his articles in the Romanian press, beginning with a series on communist leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej

Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej

, which was published by the Writers' Union

Writers' Union of Romania

The Writers' Union of Romania , founded in March 1949, is a professional association of writers in Romania. It also has a subsidiary in Chişinău, Republic of Moldova...

Adrian Cioroianu

, "Larga manta a lui Vladimir Tismăneanu", in Dilema Veche
Dilema Veche
Dilema veche , formerly Dilema, is a Romanian weekly journal of culture, criticism and opinion.- History :It was founded as Dilema in 1993 by art critic Andrei Pleşu and up until the end of 2003 it was edited by an independent cultural body, Fundaţia Culturală Română...

, Vol. II, Nr. 101, December 2005 He contributed a weekly column in Jurnalul Naţional
Jurnalul National
Jurnalul Naţional is a Romanian newspaper, part of the Intact media group led by Dan Voiculescu, which also includes the popular TV station Antena 1....

, before moving to Cotidianul
Cotidianul
thumb|right|Old logo of Cotidianul newspaper, used in the [[inter-war period]], and in the early 1990sthumb|right|The logo used between 2003 and 2007...

, and was regularly published by other press venues: Revista 22
Revista 22
Revista 22 is a Romanian weekly magazine, issued by the Group for Social Dialogue and focused mainly on politics and culture....

, Idei în Dialog, and Orizont. Tudorel Urian, "Lecţii de democraţie", in România Literară
România Literară
România literară is a cultural and literary magazine from România founded in 1855 by Vasile Alecsandri and published in Iași between January 1, 1855 until December 3, 1855, when it was suppressed. The new series appeared in October 10, 1855 as a continuation of Gazeta literară...

, Nr. 35/2006 He later began contributing to Observator Cultural
Observator Cultural
Observator Cultural is a literary magazine based in Bucharest, Romania. It covers Romania's cultural and arts scene.-External links:*...

and Evenimentul Zilei
Evenimentul Zilei
Evenimentul Zilei is one of the leading newspapers in Romania. Based in Bucharest, the Romanian-language daily has a paid daily circulation of 110,000...

. Tudorel Urian, "Avatarurile anticomunismului", in România Literară
România Literară
România literară is a cultural and literary magazine from România founded in 1855 by Vasile Alecsandri and published in Iași between January 1, 1855 until December 3, 1855, when it was suppressed. The new series appeared in October 10, 1855 as a continuation of Gazeta literară...

, Nr. 26/2007

Tismăneanu received the Romanian Cultural Foundation

Romanian Cultural Foundation

's award for the whole activity (2001), and was awarded Doctor honoris causa degrees by the West University

West University of Timisoara

The West University of Timişoara is a university located in Timişoara, Romania. Established in 1962, it is organized in 11 Faculties.-Organization:...

of Timişoara

Timisoara

(2002) and the SNSPA university in Bucharest. In its Romanian edition of 2005, Stalinism for All Seasons was a bestseller

Bestseller

at Bookarest, the Romanian literary festival

Literary festival

A literary festival, also known as a book festival or writers' festival, is a regular gathering of writers and readers, typically on an annual basis in a particular city...

.

In 2006, Romanian President Traian Băsescu appointed him head of the Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania

Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania

Democratic Liberal Party (Romania)

, which in turn is the main political group supportive of Băsescu's policies. Despre noi, at the Institute of People's Studies official site; retrieved June 21, 2009 The institution is presided upon by political scientist Andrei Ţăranu. The following year, Tismăneanu was chosen by Democratic Liberal Premier

Prime Minister of Romania

Emil Boc

to lead, with Ioan Stanomir, the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania

Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania

, substituting the National Liberal Party

National Liberal Party (Romania)

's choice Marius Oprea

Marius Oprea

. "Marius Oprea şi Dinu Zamfirescu, înlocuiţi cu Ioan Stanomir şi Vladimir Tismăneanu", in România Liberă
România Libera
România Liberă is one of the leading newspapers in Romania. Based in Bucharest, the Romanian-language daily has a paid daily circulation of 40,000....

online edition, February 27, 2010; retrieved June 15, 2010 "Război pe condamnarea comunismului", in Ziarul de Iaşi, March 1, 2010

Vladimir Tismăneanu is married to Mary Frances Sladek, and has fathered a son, Adam.

Overview

Vladimir Tismăneanu is one of the best-recognized contributors to modern-day political science in both the United States and Romania. Historian Cas Mudde

Cas Mudde

referred to him as "one of the foremost American scholars on Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe

","Book Reviews and Book Notes", in Tuft University's e-Extreme. Electronic Newsletter of the ECPR-SG on Extremism & Democracy, Vol. I, Nr. 4, Winter 2000 while Romanian literary critic and civil society

Civil society

Polirom

, Iaşi, 1996, p.162-163. ISBN 973-9248-09-8 According to historian Adrian Cioroianu

Adrian Cioroianu

, the insight provided to Tismăneanu by his family's oral history

Oral history

is "unique", amounting to "actual lessons in history, at a time when [it] was being Orwellian

Orwellian

"Orwellian" describes the situation, idea, or societal condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free society...

ly processed by the [communist] system".

Sociologist Mihai Dinu Gheorghiu sees Tismăneanu and George Voicu as the two main contemporary Romanian sociologists to have "reconverted [to political science] while preserving a rather symbolic link with sociology".Mihai Dinu Gheorghiu, The Romanian Sociology and its Boundaries, at the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Scientific Community's Knowledge Base Social Sciences in Eastern Europe; retrieved February 6, 2009 At the end of this process, he argues, Tismăneanu "has enjoyed the greatest authority in his field in Romania", while, according to critic Livius Ciocârlie: "Not so long ago, to the question of who is the greatest Romanian politologist, any other politologist would reply that there is only one possible answer: Vladimir Tismăneanu."

Also according to Vasile, Vladimir Tismăneanu's contribution, like those of historians Katherine Verdery and Catherine Durandin, is being purposefully ignored by some Romanian academics, who object to their exposure of national communism

National communism

The term National Communism describes the ethnic minority communist currents that arose in the former Russian Empire after Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik Party seized power in October 1917....

. Vasile nominates such figures as "the pernicious and not altogether innocent continuity" of Communist Romania

Communist Romania

. In contrast, Tismăneanu was a direct influence on the first post-Revolution

Romanian Revolution of 1989

The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...

Stelian Tanase

, Mircea Mihăieş, Marius Oprea

Marius Oprea

, Stejărel Olaru, Dan Pavel

Dan Pavel

Dan Pavel is a Romanian political scientist, academic, politician, journalist and 1989 revolutionary. He was a consultant to Gigi Becali in 2003.-References:...

Romanian language

editions, and books of his were translated into Polish

Polish language

Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

, Lithuanian

Lithuanian language

, and Ukrainian

Ukrainian language

Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....

.

In addition to his analytic contribution, Vladimir Tismăneanu earned praise for his literary style. Romanian critics, including Tismăneanu's friend, philosopher Horia-Roman Patapievici

Horia-Roman Patapievici

Epithet

s" defining persons or phenomena discussed in his works. Literary critic Mircea Iorgulescu notes in particular the many nocturnal and ghostly metaphor

Metaphor

s used by Tismăneanu in reference to totalitarianism

Totalitarianism

Totalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...

, proposing that these reflect "perfectly natural psychoanalytical

Psychoanalysis

suggestions, for wherever there are ghosts, there are also neuroses

Neurosis

, or, at the very least, obsessions."

Early works

Tismăneanu began his writing career as a dissenting Marxist

Marxism

, sympathizing with the intellectual currents known collectively as neo-Marxism

Neo-Marxism

. His doctoral thesis was cited as evidence that Tismăneanu was "a liberal student of Euro-Marxism

Western Marxism

Western Marxism is a term used to describe a wide variety of Marxist theoreticians based in Western and Central Europe, in contrast with philosophy in the Soviet Union...

" by University of Bucharest professor Daniel Barbu

Daniel Barbu

(who contrasted Tismăneanu with the official ideological background of Communist Romania, as one in a group of "outstanding authors", alongside Pavel Câmpeanu, Henri H. Stahl

Henri H. Stahl

Henri H. Stahl was a Romanian Marxist cultural anthropologist, ethnographer, sociologist, and social historian.-Biography:...

, Zigu Ornea

Zigu Ornea

, and Vlad Georgescu

Vlad Georgescu

Vlad Georgescu , Romanian historian, was the director of the Romanian-language department of Radio Free Europe between 1983 and 1988.-Biography:...

). Tismăneanu also states having been influenced by psychoanalysis, the Frankfurt School

Frankfurt School

The Frankfurt School refers to a school of neo-Marxist interdisciplinary social theory, particularly associated with the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt am Main...

and Existentialism

Existentialism

, and, from among the Marxist authors he had read at that stage, he cites as his early mentors Antonio Gramsci

Antonio Gramsci

, Georg Lukács

Georg Lukács

, Herbert Marcuse

Herbert Marcuse

Herbert Marcuse was a German Jewish philosopher, sociologist and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory...

and Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre

.

According to Marino: "Some label [Tismăneanu] as 'Marxist anti-communist

Anti-communism

Radio Free Europe

years, while political scientist and critic Ioan Stanomir defines him as a "liberal-conservative

Liberal conservatism

spirit". Ioan Stanomir, "Cercul de cretă caucazian", in Revista 22
Revista 22
Revista 22 is a Romanian weekly magazine, issued by the Group for Social Dialogue and focused mainly on politics and culture....

, Nr. 980, December 2008 American scholar Steven Fish writes: "[Tismăneanu] is animated by a passionate liberal spirit, albeit one of a particular type. [His] liberalism is less intimately akin to that of John Locke

John Locke

or Robert Nozick

Robert Nozick

, or L. T. Hobhouse

Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse

or John Rawls

John Rawls

John Bordley Rawls was an American philosopher and a leading figure in moral and political philosophy. He held the James Bryant Conant University Professorship at Harvard University....

, than it is to that of Isaiah Berlin

Isaiah Berlin

and, less proximately, John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill

Majoritarianism

authoritarianism

Authoritarianism

Authoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is usually opposed to individualism and democracy...

."Steven Fish, "Constitutional Review. Fantasies of Salvation: Democracy, Nationalism, and Myth in Post-Communist Europe", in the New York University School of Law

New York University School of Law

The New York University School of Law is the law school of New York University. Established in 1835, the school offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. degrees in law, and is located in Greenwich Village, in the New York City borough of Manhattan....

's East European Constitutional Review, Vol. 7, Nr. 4, Fall 1998 Tismăneanu himself discusses the personal transition: "Originating as I was from the milieu of illegalists [that is, communists active in the pre-1944 underground], [...] I discovered early on the contrast between the official legends and the various fragments of subjective truths as they revealed themselves in private conversations, syncopated confessions and biting ironies. I was also discovering a theme which was to puzzle me throughout my professional career: the relation between communism, fascism

Fascism

, anti-communism and anti-fascism

Anti-fascism

; in short, I was growing aware that, as has been demonstrated by François Furet

François Furet

, the relationship between the two totalitarian movements, viscerally hostile to the values and institutions of liberal democracy

Liberal democracy

Juliana Geran Pilon

calls Tismăneanu's book "the best analysis of Marxist philosophy since Leszek Kołakowski's monumental trilogy Main Currents of Marxism."Juliana Geran Pilon

Juliana Geran Pilon

, "The Crisis of Marxist Ideology in Eastern Europe - book reviews", in National Review
National Review
National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...

, April 7, 1989 The work is Tismăneanu's study into the avatars of Marxism within the Eastern Bloc

Eastern bloc

The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...

, and a contribution to both Kremlinology

Kremlinology

and Cold War

Cold War

studies. It proposes that the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

Mikhail Gorbachev

was, in effect, a "neo-Stalinist

Neo-Stalinism

".

The 1990 collection In Search of Civil Society: Independent Peace Movements in the Soviet Bloc is structured around the transformation of the peace movement

Peace movement

s into anti-communist and dissident

Dissident

A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When dissidents unite for a common cause they often effect a dissident movement....

forces in the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of Hungary

People's Republic of Hungary

, the People's Republic of Poland

People's Republic of Poland

, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic

Czechoslovak Socialist Republic

The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was the official name of Czechoslovakia from 1960 until end of 1989 , a Soviet satellite state of the Eastern Bloc....

and East Germany. It notably includes articles by two participants in such movements, Hungary's Miklós Haraszti

Miklós Haraszti

and Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

's Eduard Kuznetsov

Eduard Kuznetsov

. American University

American University

Warsaw Pact

countries.

Arheologia terorii and Reinventing Politics

Prosopography

nuances." Among this group of essays, historian Bogdan Cristian Iacob singles out one dedicated to chief ideologist Leonte Răutu, the so-called "Romanian Zhdanov

Andrei Zhdanov

", as purportedly the first ever analytical writing dedicated to his career. Bogdan Cristian Iacob, "Jdanovul României", in Revista 22
Revista 22
Revista 22 is a Romanian weekly magazine, issued by the Group for Social Dialogue and focused mainly on politics and culture....

, Nr. 986, January-February 2009

Much of the text focuses on Romania's dissidents after the start of De-Stalinization

De-Stalinization

, and the peculiarities of this process in Romania. Tismăneanu notes how communist leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej

Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej

, whose dictatorial rule of the 1950s and early 1960s preceded and survived the start of De-Stalinization, was able to exert control over the local intelligentsia

Intelligentsia

even as civil society and nonviolent resistance

Nonviolent resistance

movements were being created in other parts of the Bloc. It is also noted for its treatment of Gheorghiu-Dej's successor, Nicolae Ceauşescu

Nicolae Ceausescu

Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...

, who associated himself with a message of liberalization

Liberalization

and nationalist revival, and who made a point of opposing the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia

Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia

Subtext

, the premises for an extended debate on themes related to the philosophy of history

Philosophy of history

The term philosophy of history refers to the theoretical aspect of history, in two senses. It is customary to distinguish critical philosophy of history from speculative philosophy of history...

Utopia

Revolutions of 1989

of the previous decade, exploring the shades of repression, the differences in political culture

Political culture

Political culture is the traditional orientation of the citizens of a nation toward politics, affecting their perceptions of political legitimacy.Conceptions...

, and how they related to the fall of communism in various countries. Calling it "a significant contribution", New School

The New School

sociologist Jeffrey C. Goldfarb argues: "Tismăneanu is very good at ordering the often confusing details of what he calls 'the birth pangs of democracy.' "Jeffrey C. Goldfarb, "Reviews. Free to Falter", in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is a nontechnical online magazine that covers global security and public policy issues, especially related to the dangers posed by nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction...

, Vol. 49, Nr. 2, March 1993, p.44 Goldfarb objects to the text being "long on historical detail and short on social theory", arguing that: "As a result, [his] attempts at generalization often miss the mark." According to Goldfarb, although Reinventing Politics cautions that the former communist societies risked folding into nationalism, xenophobia

Xenophobia

and antisemitism, its author "does not provide a clear sense of how [this] can be avoided." Goldfarb contends that, while the book expresses support for embarking on the road to an "open society

Open society

Václav Havel

. Cristian Cercel, "A fost reinventat politicul?", in Observator Cultural
Observator Cultural
Observator Cultural is a literary magazine based in Bucharest, Romania. It covers Romania's cultural and arts scene.-External links:*...

, Nr. 406, January 2008 Cercel, who sees this as proof of "well-balanced idealism

Idealism

", writes: "Instead of an absolute critical distance, Tismăneanu presents us with a critical engagement at the core of the problem."

From Irepetabilul trecut to Balul mascat

The volume of essays Irepetabilul trecut ("The Unrepeatable Past") also saw print in 1994, and largely dealt with post-communist Romanian history

History of Romania since 1989

. Bogdan Cristian Iacob describes it as "an expression of the priorities of those years, from the perspective of democratization

Democratization

and civil society consolidation" coupled with "a working site of ideas" for later works. The volume, Iacob notes, is structured as a typical work on the history of ideas

History of ideas

, and, with "beneficent obstinacy", builds on Tismăneanu's "principal themes". In Iacob's view, "the most important" are: "the basic criminality of Bolshevism

Bolshevik

in any of its incarnations; the attachment to civic liberalism modeled on the experience of Central

Central Europe

Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...

Anglosphere

." Under the influence of Jürgen Habermas

Jürgen Habermas

and Karl Jaspers

Karl Jaspers

, the text proposes that social cohesion

Social cohesion

Social Democratic Party (Romania)

(PSD), arguing that their policies were a political hybrid designed to block the path of genuinely anti-communist liberalism. Irepetabilul trecut was the first such work to be noted for its biographical sketches of communist leaders. Ion Bogdan Lefter, "Povestea comunismului românesc", in Observator Cultural
Observator Cultural
Observator Cultural is a literary magazine based in Bucharest, Romania. It covers Romania's cultural and arts scene.-External links:*...

, Nr. 214, March 2004

In 1995, Tismăneanu was again focusing on Gheorghiu-Dej, analyzing the part he played in both the violent communization of the 1950s and the adoption of nationalism in the 1960s. This investigation produced the Romanian-language volume Fantoma lui Gheorghiu-Dej ("Gheorghiu-Dej's Ghost"), expanding on a similarly titled chapter in Irepetabilul trecut. It notably theorizes a difference between national communism and the "national Stalinism" suiting both Gheorghiu-Dej and his successor Ceauşescu. The question "What is left of [Gheorghiu-]Dej's experiment?", is answered by Tismăneanu as follows: "An inept and frightened elite, whose social mobility

Social mobility

was linked to the nationalist-chauvinist line promoted by Ceauşescu. A sectarian and exclusive vision of socialism

Socialism

Jesuitism

and lack of principles, opportunism and cruelty, fanaticism and duplicity."

Historian Lucian Boia

Lucian Boia

Lucian Boia is a Romanian historian, known especially for his works debunking Romanian nationalism and Communism.-Bibliography:* Eugen Brote: Litera, 1974...

highlights the clash between such a vision and that of a patriotic

Patriotism

Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...

, liberal and congenial Gheorghiu-Dej, retrospectively advanced in the 1990s by some of the leader's collaborators, among them Alexandru Bârlădeanu, Silviu Brucan

Silviu Brucan

Silviu Brucan was a Romanian communist politician. Though he disagreed with Nicolae Ceauşescu's policies, he never gave up his communist beliefs and did not oppose communist ideology...

and Ion Gheorghe Maurer

Ion Gheorghe Maurer

Byzantinism

", discourse in Romanian communism, Ioan Stanomir notes, were also being applied by Tismăneanu to the post-Revolution President of Romania

President of Romania

The President of Romania is the head of state of Romania. The President is directly elected by a two-round system for a five-year term . An individual may serve two terms...

, former Communist Party activist and PSD leader Ion Iliescu

Ion Iliescu

, who, both argued, did not represent an anti-communist social democracy

Social democracy

Political philosophy

and great 'societal' models, from biographic narrative to the evolution of systems

Political system

A political system is a system of politics and government. It is usually compared to the legal system, economic system, cultural system, and other social systems...

Politics of Romania

in Romania's post-1989 evolution and on its relation to the European Union

European Union

integration process. Tudorel Urian describes the volume and its successors in the series, all of them published at the end of electoral cycles

Elections in Romania

Romania elects on a national level a head of state – the president – and a legislature. The president is elected for a five year term by the people . The Romanian Parliament has two chambers...

, as "a most reliable indicator of tendencies", and to the authors as "important intellectuals of our age." Tudorel Urian, "Anii vrajbei noastre", in România Literară
România Literară
România literară is a cultural and literary magazine from România founded in 1855 by Vasile Alecsandri and published in Iași between January 1, 1855 until December 3, 1855, when it was suppressed. The new series appeared in October 10, 1855 as a continuation of Gazeta literară...

, Nr. 2/2008 Urian writes: "Although, at the time when these volumes were published, not everyone was pleased by the precise X-rays to which Vladimir Tismăneanu and Mircea Mihăieş subjected [Romania's politics], excessively vocal counterarguments were never produced. The distance (not just in kilometers) between Washington and Bucharest, the superior analytic accuracy, Professor Tismăneanu's international scientific prestige, the almost exclusive use of readily available sources [...], the democratic values at the core of the interpretations (ones which no honorable political actor could afford to contest publicly) have given these books a considerable dose of credibility [...]."

Fantasies of Salvation

With Fantasies of Salvation, published in 1998, Vladimir Tismăneanu focuses on the resurgence of authoritarian, ethnocratic

Ethnocracy

, demagogic

Demagogy

and anti-capitalist

Anti-capitalism

tendencies in the political cultures of Post-Communism

Post-Communism

. The text, which is both a historical survey and a political essay,Steven Saxonberg, "Book Review: Fantasies of Salvation: Democracy, Nationalism and Myth in Post-Communist Societies", in Central Europe Review, Vol. 1, Nr. 18, October 1999 argues: "As the Leninist

Leninism

authoritarian order collapsed, societies have tended to be atomized and deprived of a political center able to articulate coherent visions of a common good

Common good

." This process, he argues, favors the recourse to "mythology

Mythology

", and paradoxical situations such as a post-Holocaust antisemitism in the absence of sizable Jewish communities. He also focuses on the revived antisemitic conspiracy theory

Conspiracy theory

Wiesel Commission

The Wiesel Commission is the common name given to the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania, which was established by former President Ion Iliescu in October 2003 to research and create a report on the actual history of the Holocaust in Romania and make specific recommendations for...

report, at Yad Vashem

Yad Vashem

Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament....

; retrieved February 6, 2009

Tismăneanu thus sees the political elites and the authoritarian side of the intelligentsia as responsible for manipulating public opinion and "rewriting (or cleansing) of history in terms of self-serving, present-oriented interests". He writes in support of the critical intelligentsia and former dissidents, whom he sees as responsible for resistance to both communism and the far right

Far right

. Part of the volume deals with "the myth of decommunization

Decommunization

", signifying the manner in which local elites may take hold of political discourse and proclaim lustration

Lustration

Humanism

" and "lyrical style", all of which, he argues, parallel works by Isaiah Berlin

Isaiah Berlin

and Fouad Ajami

Fouad Ajami

Lech Wałęsa

and Boris Yeltsin

Boris Yeltsin

, and the Bulgaria

Bulgaria

n "pragmatic liberal centrist

Centrism

" Ivan Kostov

Ivan Kostov

Ivan Yordanov Kostov was Prime Minister of Bulgaria from May 1997 to July 2001 and leader of the Union of Democratic Forces between December 1994 and July 2001....

, are just as important actors. A similar point is made by Cas Mudde

Cas Mudde

, who contends that Tismăneanu's words display "passionate and uncritical support for the dissidents", adding: "For someone so worried about populism

Populism

, it is remarkable that he does not see the clearly populist elements of the dissidents' 'anti-politics', which he so often praises." Political scientist Steven Saxonberg reserves praise for the manner in which Fantasies of Salvation is written, but objects to Tismăneanu's preference for market liberalism

Market liberalism

The term market liberalism is used in two distinct meanings.Especially in the United States, the term is often used as a synonym to classical liberalism...

at the expense of any form of collectivism

Collectivism

, and claims that his focus on new antisemitic trends overlooks the revival of antiziganism

Antiziganism

. Researchers comment favorably Tismăneanu's rejection of cultural determinism

Cultural determinism

in discussing the Eastern Bloc countries' relation to the Western world

Western world

and to each other.

As editor of the 1999 collection of essays The Revolutions of 1989 (Re-Writing Histories) (with contributions by Kołakowski and Daniel Chirot), Vladimir Tismăneanu was deemed by British historian Geoffrey Swain an "obvious choice to assemble the contributors."Geoffrey Swain, Reviews in History: The Revolutions of 1989, at the Institute of Historical Research

Institute of Historical Research

The Institute of Historical Research is a British educational organisation providing resources and training for historical researchers. It is part of the School of Advanced Study in the University of London and is located at Senate House. The Institute was founded in 1921 by A. F...

; retrieved February 6, 2008 Swain, who called his preface "excellent", states: "It is difficult to argue with [Tismăneanu's] notion that 'these revolutions represented the triumph of civic dignity and political morality over ideological monism

Monism

Monism is any philosophical view which holds that there is unity in a given field of inquiry. Accordingly, some philosophers may hold that the universe is one rather than dualistic or pluralistic...

, bureaucratic cynicism and police dictatorship'." However, he disapproves of the author's decision to treat all bloc countries as if they were still a single entity: "What made historians address the diverse countries of Eastern Europe as a common unit was communism; with its collapse the logic for such an approach disappeared. [...] The book works when a common approach works, and fails when a common approach fails." Between Past and Future. The Revolutions of 1989 and Their Aftermath, a 2000 collection published in collaboration with Sorin Antohi
Sorin Antohi
-Biography:Antohi was born in Târgu Ocna. He received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from the University of Iaşi and a DEA from École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. He taught history at the University of Michigan, at the University of Bucharest and at the Central-European...

, Timothy Garton Ash
Timothy Garton Ash
Timothy Garton Ash is a British historian, author and commentator. He is currently serving as Professor of European Studies at Oxford University. Much of his work has been concerned with the late modern and contemporary history of Central and Eastern Europe...

, Adam Michnik
Adam Michnik
Adam Michnik is the editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wyborcza, where he sometimes writes under the pen-names of Andrzej Zagozda or Andrzej Jagodziński. In 1966–1989 he was one of the leading organizers of the illegal, democratic opposition in Poland...

, Radim Palouš and Haraszti, is another overview of the dissidents' contribution to the end of communism.

Încet spre Europa and Scrisori din Washington

His second book of conversations with Mihăieş, titled Încet spre Europa ("Slowly toward Europe", 2000), touches on various subjects in Romanian society and world politics. Much of it deals with the events of 2000, in particular the country's management by the right-wing Romanian Democratic Convention

Romanian Democratic Convention

The Romanian Democratic Convention was an electoral alliance of several political parties of Romania, active from early 1992 until 2000....

. According to historian Victor Neumann

Victor Neumann

Invertebrate

—political class, but also on the cultural milieus and the media, which favor sterile discussions, world play, obsolete ideologies." Victor Neumann

Victor Neumann

, "Aspiraţia integrării în civilizaţia continentală", in Observator Cultural

Observator Cultural

Observator Cultural is a literary magazine based in Bucharest, Romania. It covers Romania's cultural and arts scene.-External links:*...

, Nr. 42, December 2000 He also notes: "The dialogue between Vladimir Tismăneanu and Mircea Mihăieş demonstrates the role of analysis and confrontation of ideas over hasty judgment or temperamental criticism, providing in the end an image as unembellished as possible. [It] places a magnifier over high-ranking institutions such as the Presidency

President of Romania

The President of Romania is the head of state of Romania. The President is directly elected by a two-round system for a five-year term . An individual may serve two terms...

, the Orthodox Church

Romanian Orthodox Church

, the school

Education in Romania

. The observations are always based on knowledge of the facts."

Part of the volume focuses on the Holocaust, Holocaust denial

Holocaust denial

, and Romania's responsibility, discussing them in relation with Stéphane Courtois

Stéphane Courtois

Stéphane Courtois is a French historian, an internationally known expert on communist studies, particularly the history of communism and communist genocides, and author of several books...

' Black Book of Communism

The Black Book of Communism

The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression is a book authored by several European academics and edited by Stéphane Courtois, which describes a history of repressions, both political and civilian, by Communist states, including genocides, extrajudicial executions, deportations, and...

. Like Alan S. Rosembaum's Is the Holocaust Unique?

Is the Holocaust Unique? (book)

Is the Holocaust Unique?: Perspectives on Comparative Genocide is a 2000 book edited by Alan S Rosenbaum. In the book, scholars compare the Holocaust to other well-known instances of genocide and mass death...

, Încet spre Europa uses the polemical term "comparative martyrology

Martyrology

" on comparisons made between the Holocaust and the Gulag

Gulag

(or other forms of communist repression). Although he agrees that communism is innately genocidal

Genocide

, Tismăneanu views the latter claims as attempts to trivialize the Holocaust. He also criticizes some versions of historical revisionism

Historical revisionism

In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of orthodox views on evidence, motivations, and decision-making processes surrounding a historical event...

which, he argues, make it seem like the victims of communism were all "friends of democracy" and "adherents to classical liberalism

Classical liberalism

Fascism

, preserved in both national communism and the political discourse of post-communist Romania, also argues: "Romania will not un-fascify until it decommunizes, and will decommunize until it un-fascifies." Such conclusions were also present in the Spectrele Europei Centrale ("The Specters of Central Europe", 2001), where he notably argues that the popularity of fascist ideology within the defunct Kingdom of Romania
Kingdom of Romania
The Kingdom of Romania was the Romanian state based on a form of parliamentary monarchy between 13 March 1881 and 30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania...

was exploited by the communist regime, leading to what he calls a "baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

synthesis" of extremes (an idea later expanded upon by essayist Caius Dobrescu).

With 2002's Scrisori din Washington, Tismăneanu constructs a retrospective overview of the 20th century, which he sees as dominated by the supremacy of communism and fascism. Structured around reviewed Deutsche Welle

Deutsche Welle

broadcasts, it also includes short texts on diverse subjects, such as essays about Marxist resistance to established communism, an analysis of the Western far right, conclusions about the Kosovo War

Kosovo War

, a debate around the political ideas of interwar

Interwar period

novelist Panait Istrati

Panait Istrati

, and praises of the Romanian intellectuals Virgil Ierunca

Virgil Ierunca

Virgil Ierunca was a Romanian literary critic, journalist and poet...

and Dan Pavel

Dan Pavel

Dan Pavel is a Romanian political scientist, academic, politician, journalist and 1989 revolutionary. He was a consultant to Gigi Becali in 2003.-References:...

. Mircea Iorgulescu criticizes the work for not discussing other relevant phenomena (such as the successes of feminism

Feminism

, decolonization

Decolonization

Decolonization refers to the undoing of colonialism, the unequal relation of polities whereby one people or nation establishes and maintains dependent Territory over another...

and the environmental movement

Environmental movement

The environmental movement, a term that includes the conservation and green politics, is a diverse scientific, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues....

Stalinism for All Seasons

With Stalinism for All Seasons, Tismăneanu provides a synthesis of his views on Communist Romanian history leading back to Arheologia terorii, documenting the Romanian Communist Party

Romanian Communist Party

's evolution from the Bolshevik

Bolshevik

wing of the Socialist Party

Socialist Party of Romania

to the establishment of a single-party state

Single-party state

. Tismăneanu himself, reflecting on the purpose of the book, stated his vision of communism as an "eschatological

Eschatology

" movement, adding: "Romanian communism was a subspecies of Bolshevik radicalism, itself born out of an engagement between Russian revolutionary tradition and the voluntarist

Voluntarism (action)

version of Marxism." Adrian Cioroianu

Adrian Cioroianu

notes that "Tismăneanu was the first who could ever explain the mirage and the motivation [felt by] Romania's first communists of the '20-'30 decade." The focus on communist conspiracies

Conspiracy (political)

and inner-Party struggles for power is constant throughout the book. In a 2004 review published by Foreign Affairs

Foreign Affairs

Foreign Affairs is an American magazine and website on international relations and U.S. foreign policy published since 1922 by the Council on Foreign Relations six times annually...

magazine, political scientist Robert Legvold sees it as "less a political history of communism than it is a thorough account of leadership battles in the Romanian Communist Party from its origins at the turn of the nineteenth century to its demise in 1989."Robert Legvold, "Reviews & Responses. Stalinism for All Seasons: A Political History of Romanian Communism, in Foreign Affairs

Foreign Affairs

Foreign Affairs is an American magazine and website on international relations and U.S. foreign policy published since 1922 by the Council on Foreign Relations six times annually...

, Vol. 83, Nr. 2, March/April 2004 Also according to Legvold, the author "shed[s] light on the paradoxes of Romanian communism: how a pariah party that was Stalinist to the core eventually turned on its Soviet master and embraced nationalism—how 'national Stalinism' was acceptable to the West as long as it meant autonomy from [the Soviet Union]. That is, until it became grotesque in Nicolae Ceauşescu's last decade, leading to the regime's violent death."

The book title is a direct allusion to Robert Bolt

Robert Bolt

's play A Man for All Seasons

A Man for All Seasons

A Man for All Seasons is a play by Robert Bolt. An early form of the play had been written for BBC Radio in 1954, and a one-hour live television version starring Bernard Hepton was produced in 1957 by the BBC, but after Bolt's success with The Flowering Cherry, he reworked it for the stage.It was...

. It refers to an idea discussed in previous works, that of Romania's special case: Stalinism preserved after the death of Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin

, and returning in full swing during the Ceauşescu years. Noting the role played by party purges in this process, Cioroianu stresses: "Tismăneanu was the first to ever suggest that between the communists of the '30s and those of the '60s one could hardly determine a correspondence, even if the names of some—the lucky ones!—crop up from one period and into the other." Ion Bogdan Lefter notes that it is "paradoxical—in that it is the first American book that Vladimir Tismăneanu dedicated to the subject he was most familiar with." Lefter writes that the idea of "perpetual Romanian Stalinism" is backed by "a weighty demonstration", but is reserved toward the statements according to which Ceauşescu's early "small liberalization" of the 1960s was inconsequential, arguing that, even though "Re-Stalinization" occurred with the April Theses of 1971, "[the regime] could never overturn [the phenomenon] altogether, some of its effects being preserved—at least in part—until 1989." Lefter proposes a more in-depth analysis of this situation, based on the methodology

Methodology

Methodology is generally a guideline for solving a problem, with specificcomponents such as phases, tasks, methods, techniques and tools . It can be defined also as follows:...

of historiography

Historiography

Historiography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...

introduced by the Annales School

Annales School

Politics of Romania

Robert C. Tucker

calls it "the definitive work on Romanian communism", and Stanomir "a monument of erudition and laconicism

Laconic phrase

Democraţie şi memorie and Cortina de ceaţă

The 2004 volume of essays, Scopul şi mijloacele ("The Purpose and the Means") is largely an expansion of Noaptea totalitară. It was followed in 2006 by a collection of his press articles, carrying the title Democraţie şi memorie ("Democracy and Memory"), which centers on admiring portraits: those of thinkers, politicians or activists whom he credits with having provided him with an understanding of political phnomenons—Raymond Aron

Raymond Aron

, Robert Conquest

Robert Conquest

, Arthur Koestler

Arthur Koestler

Arthur Koestler CBE was a Hungarian author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest and, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria...

, Jacek Kuroń

Jacek Kuron

, Czesław Miłosz, Susan Sontag

Susan Sontag

Susan Sontag was an American author, literary theorist, feminist and political activist whose works include On Photography and Against Interpretation.-Life:...

, Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev

Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev

—and those of Cold War

Cold War

figures such as US President

President of the United States

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

and Pope

Pope

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...

John Paul II

Pope John Paul II

. The book also included his earlier calls to have the Securitate

Securitate

archives, then managed by the Romanian Intelligence Service, opened for the public, in the belief that liberal democracy

Liberal democracy

has transparency as its prerequisite. Other segments of the book voiced calls for a public debate on the moral legacy of communism, and for the assumption of the "democratic ethos

Ethos

" by regular Romanians.

A third volume of Mihăieş-Tismăneanu dialogues was published in 2007, as Cortina de ceaţă ("The Fog Curtain"). According to Tudorel Urian, it is directly linked to its author's involvement in political disputes, and in particular those created around the Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania

Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania

Media manipulation

in Romania, and the book includes commentary on such events as the arrival to power and eventual breakup of the Justice and Truth

Justice and Truth

alliance; the National Anticorruption Directorate

National Anticorruption Directorate

's inquiry into the activities of former Premier

Prime Minister of Romania

Adrian Năstase

Adrian Nastase

and other PSD leaders; the revelations that Chamber

Chamber of Deputies of Romania

representative Mona Muscă

Mona Muscă

and Tismăneanu's own colleague Sorin Antohi

Sorin Antohi

had been informants of Communist Romania's secret police

Secret police

Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....

, the Securitate

Securitate

; and criticism of the Commission itself. The book expresses its author's support for the political agenda of Romanian President

President of Romania

The President of Romania is the head of state of Romania. The President is directly elected by a two-round system for a five-year term . An individual may serve two terms...

Traian Băsescu

Traian Basescu

, impeached

Impeachment

by Parliament

Parliament of Romania

and reinstated by an April 2007 referendum

Romanian presidential impeachment referendum, 2007

Refuzul de a uita and Perfectul acrobat

Points similar to those made by Cortina de ceaţă were present in another 2007 book, Refuzul de a uita ("Refusing to Forget"). A collection of scattered articles, it also partly responds to criticism of the Commission. Alongside such pieces stand essays which expand on earlier subjects: portraits of various intellectuals admired by the author (Michnik, Kołakowski, Jeane Kirkpatrick

Jeane Kirkpatrick

, Vasile Paraschiv

Vasile Paraschiv

Vasile Paraschiv was a Romanian social and political activist.- Biography :Paraschiv was born in Ordoreanu village, Clinceni commune, Ilfov County...

, Jean-François Revel

Jean-François Revel

Jean-François Revel was a French politician, journalist, author, prolific philosopher and member of the Académie française from June 1998...

, Andrei Sakharov

Andrei Sakharov

, Aleksandr Zinovyev

Aleksandr Zinovyev

Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Zinovyev was a prominent Russian logician and dissident writer of social critique....

); reflections on populism

Populism

, with case studies of Hugo Chávez

Hugo Chávez

's Venezuela

Venezuela

and Slobodan Milošević

Slobodan Milošević

's Yugoslavia; and a posthumous critique of political analyst and former communist activist Silviu Brucan

Silviu Brucan

Silviu Brucan was a Romanian communist politician. Though he disagreed with Nicolae Ceauşescu's policies, he never gave up his communist beliefs and did not oppose communist ideology...

. A section of the volume refers to the controversy surrounding journalist Carol Sebastian, exposed as a Securitate

Securitate

informant after a career in the anti-communist press. Tismăneanu contrasts Sebastian with open supporters of the Ceauşescu regime, grouped around Săptămîna magazine during the 1970s and never exposed in such a manner, and concludes that Sebastian's case stands as "a warning that we must as soon as possible progress to the condemnation of the institutions who have made possible such tragic moral collapses."

With the 2008 volume Perfectul acrobat ("The Perfect Acrobat"), co-authored with Cristian Vasile, Tismăneanu returned to his study of Leonte Răutu, and, in general, to the study of links between Communist Romania's ideological, censorship
Censorship in Communist Romania
Censorship in Communist Romania was widespread and virtually every published document, be it a newspaper article or a book, had to pass the censor's approval...

and propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....

apparatuses. The book, subtitled Leonte Răutu, măştile răului ("Leonte Răutu, the Masks of Evil"), also comments on the motivations of writers in varying degrees of collaboration with the communist structures: Tudor Arghezi

Tudor Arghezi

, George Călinescu

George Calinescu

George Călinescu was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies...

, Ovid Crohmălniceanu, Petru Dumitriu, Paul Georgescu

Paul Georgescu

, Eugen Jebeleanu

Eugen Jebeleanu

Agitprop

Agitprop is derived from agitation and propaganda, and describes stage plays, pamphlets, motion pictures and other art forms with an explicitly political message....

had in creating the "New Man". Tismăneanu, who deems Răutu "the demiurge

Demiurge

Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus

The Latin phrase Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus means: "Outside the Church there is no salvation". The most recent Catholic Catechism interpreted this to mean that "all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body."...

). In its introductory section, Perfectul acrobat includes a dialogue of the two authors with a first-hand witness to Răutu's actions, philosopher Mihai Şora. This piece, coupled with a final documentary section, are rated by Stanomir as "outstandingly innovative [...] at the intersection of intellectual discourse, testimonial and the document itself."

Other contributions

Outside the realms of history, political science and political analysis, Vladimir Tismăneanu is a noted author of memoir

Memoir

s. This part of his work is centered on the volume Ghilotina de scrum ("The Ashen Guillotine

Guillotine

"), also written on the basis of interviews with Mihăieş. The book offers an account of his complicating relationship with Leonte Tismăneanu

Leonte Tismaneanu

Romanian diaspora

, critics Monica Lovinescu

Monica Lovinescu

and Virgil Ierunca

Virgil Ierunca

Virgil Ierunca was a Romanian literary critic, journalist and poet...

Petre Roman

, Romania-s first post-1989 Premier

Prime Minister of Romania

, whose attempts at discussing the public image of his father, the communist politico Valter Roman

Valter Roman

, are argued by Cioroianu to have "failed".

Tismăneanu has contributed the screenplay for Dinu Tănase's documentary film Condamnaţi la fericire ("Sentenced to Happiness"), released in 1992. With Octavian Şerban, he has also authored a series about Communist Romania, which was showcased by the Romanian Television Company.

Early objections

Marxism-Leninism

in content, and his activities inside the Union of Communist Youth

Union of Communist Youth

. Among the critics of Tismăneanu's early activities was philosopher Gabriel Liiceanu

Gabriel Liiceanu

, who stated that they were incompatible with the moral status required from a leader of the Commission. Sorin Lavric, "Cum se investighează crimele comunismului la români", in Adevărul Literar şi Artistic, October 4, 2006 However, Liiceanu endorsed the incrimination of communist regime and eventually the report itself. Şerban Orescu, "De ce este nevoie de un apel la memorie?", in Ziua

Ziua

Ziua was a major Romanian daily newspaper published in Bucharest. It was published in Romanian with a fairly sizeable and often informative English section. Ziua was founded in 1994 by Sorin Roşca Stănescu, eventually becoming foreign-owned...

, March 11, 2006 Sabina Fati, "Politicienii, intelectualii şi condamnarea comunismului", in Observator Cultural

Observator Cultural

Observator Cultural is a literary magazine based in Bucharest, Romania. It covers Romania's cultural and arts scene.-External links:*...

, Nr. 352-353, December 2006

After the presentation of the Final Report and the official condemnation of the communist regime by President

President of Romania

The President of Romania is the head of state of Romania. The President is directly elected by a two-round system for a five-year term . An individual may serve two terms...

Traian Băsescu

Traian Basescu

Humanitas publishing house

Humanitas is an independent Romanian publishing house, founded on February 1, 1990 in Bucharest by the philosopher Gabriel Liiceanu...

, published in volume format the Final Report. Furthermore, Liiceanu, in the homage to Tismăneanu, when the latter was granted the award of the Group for Social Dialogue

Group for Social Dialogue

The Group for Social Dialogue is a Romanian non-governmental organization whose stated mission is to protect and promote democracy, human rights and civil liberties...

Revista 22

Revista 22 is a Romanian weekly magazine, issued by the Group for Social Dialogue and focused mainly on politics and culture....

, Nr. 934, January-February 2008 Liiceanu concluded: "He is the most qualified intellectual in the world for analyzing Romanian communism. His book Stalinism for All Seasons is the classical study in the field."

Early criticism of Tismăneanu based on allegations of communism was also voiced by writer Sorin Lavric. The author revised his stance soon afterward and, in four separate articles, gave his endorsement to both the Final Report and Vladimir Tismăneanu's later publications.

Political party-level reactions
Several commentators have argued that the negative reception of the Final Report in sections of the press and the political establishment was partly due to the investigation's implications, as the latter's overall condemnation of the communist regime

Communist Romania

The Epoch Times

The Epoch Times is a multi-language, international media organisation. As a newspaper, the Times has been publishing in Chinese since May 2000. It was founded in 1999 by supporters of the Falun Gong spiritual discipline....

Romanian edition, December 18, 2006 Teodora Georgescu, "Felix, prezentat Americii", in Curentul, July 31, 2006Lica Manolache, "Efectul Comisiei Tismăneanu", in Evenimentul Zilei

Evenimentul Zilei

Evenimentul Zilei is one of the leading newspapers in Romania. Based in Bucharest, the Romanian-language daily has a paid daily circulation of 110,000...

, December 17, 2006Craig S. Smith
Craig S. Smith
Craig S. Smith is an American journalist. Until January, 2000, he wrote for The Wall Street Journal, most notably covering the rise of the religious movement Falun Gong in China. He joined The New York Times as Shanghai bureau chief in 2000 and wrote extensively about the practice of harvesting...

, "Romanian Leader Condemns Communist Rule", in The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, December 19, 2006 The examples cited include four Senate

Senate of Romania

members: Ion Iliescu

Ion Iliescu

and Adrian Păunescu

Adrian Paunescu

from the PSD, as well as Greater Romania Party

Greater Romania Party

leader Corneliu Vadim Tudor

Corneliu Vadim Tudor

Corneliu Vadim Tudor is leader of the Greater Romania Party , writer, journalist and a Member of the European Parliament...

and Conservative Party

Conservative Party (Romania)

leader Dan Voiculescu

Dan Voiculescu

Dan Voiculescu is a Romanian politician and former business man. He is the Vicepresident of the Romanian Senate and founding president of the Conservative Party in Romania. ....

. The reading of the Final Report by President Băsescu was punctuated with heckling from among the Greater Romania Party Senate and Chamber

Chamber of Deputies of Romania

representatives. Lia Bejan, Luminiţa Castali, "Şedinţa festivă de condamnare a comunismului s-a transformat într-un circ ieftin care aminteşte de o exorcizare în grup", in Gardianul

Gardianul

Gardianul was a Romanian daily newspaper published in Bucharest. It claimed to have had an anti-corruption stance, investigating organized crime and high-level corruption....

, December 19, 2006

Vladimir Tismăneanu (vladiˈmir tisməˈne̯anu; born July 4, 1951) is a Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

n and American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

political scientist, political analyst, sociologist, and professor at the University of Maryland, College Park

University of Maryland, College Park

The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...

. A specialist in political system

Political system

A political system is a system of politics and government. It is usually compared to the legal system, economic system, cultural system, and other social systems...

s and comparative politics

Comparative politics

Journal of Democracy

The Journal of Democracy is a quarterly academic journal established in 1990 and an official publication of the National Endowment for Democracy...

, Sfera Politicii

Sfera Politicii

Sfera Politicii is a monthly political science magazine, published in Romania since 1992. Its articles, written in both English and Romanian, deal with diverse issues in local and international politics....

, Revista 22

Revista 22

Revista 22 is a Romanian weekly magazine, issued by the Group for Social Dialogue and focused mainly on politics and culture....

, Evenimentul Zilei

Evenimentul Zilei

Evenimentul Zilei is one of the leading newspapers in Romania. Based in Bucharest, the Romanian-language daily has a paid daily circulation of 110,000...

, Idei în Dialog and Cotidianul

Cotidianul

thumb|right|Old logo of Cotidianul newspaper, used in the [[inter-war period]], and in the early 1990sthumb|right|The logo used between 2003 and 2007...

. He has also worked with the international radio stations Radio Free Europe

Radio Free Europe

and Deutsche Welle

Deutsche Welle

, and authored programs for the Romanian Television Company. As of 2009, he is Academic Council Chairman of the Institute for People's Studies, a think tank

Think tank

of the Romanian Democratic Liberal Party

Democratic Liberal Party (Romania)

. Since February 2010, he is also President of the Scientific Council of the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania

Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania

.

Acclaimed for his scholarly works on Stalinism

Stalinism

in general and the Romanian communist regime

Communist Romania

in particular, as well as for exploring the impact of nationalism

Nationalism

, national communism

National communism

The term National Communism describes the ethnic minority communist currents that arose in the former Russian Empire after Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik Party seized power in October 1917....

and neo-Stalinism

Neo-Stalinism

in the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

and countries of the Eastern Bloc

Eastern bloc

The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...

, Tismăneanu writes from the critical perspective of a civil society

Civil society

supporter. His other influential texts deal with diverse topics such as Cold War

Cold War

history, Kremlinology

Kremlinology

and the Holocaust. Having moved from a loose Marxist

Marxism

vision, shaped under the influence of neo-Marxist

Neo-Marxism

and Western Marxist

Western Marxism

Western Marxism is a term used to describe a wide variety of Marxist theoreticians based in Western and Central Europe, in contrast with philosophy in the Soviet Union...

scholarship, he became a noted proponent of classical liberalism

Classical liberalism

and liberal democracy

Liberal democracy

. This perspective is outlined in both his scientific contributions and volumes dealing with Romania's post-1989 history

History of Romania since 1989

, the latter of which include collections of essays and several published interviews with literary critic Mircea Mihăieş. Vladimir Tismăneanu completed his award-winning synthesis on Romanian communism, titled Stalinism for All Seasons, in 2003.

Tismăneanu's background and work came under intense scrutiny after his 2006 appointment by Romanian President

President of Romania

The President of Romania is the head of state of Romania. The President is directly elected by a two-round system for a five-year term . An individual may serve two terms...

Traian Băsescu

Traian Basescu

as head of the Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania

Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania

, which presented its report to the Romanian Parliament

Parliament of Romania

Biography

Born in Braşov

Brasov

, Vladimir Tismăneanu is the son of Leonte Tismăneanu

Leonte Tismaneanu

, an activist of the Romanian Communist Party

Romanian Communist Party

since the early 1930s, and Hermina Marcusohn, a physician and one-time Communist Party activist, both of whom were Jewish

History of the Jews in Romania

The history of Jews in Romania concerns the Jews of Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is nowadays Romanian territory....

and Spanish Civil War

Spanish Civil War

veterans. His father, born in Bessarabia

Bessarabia

Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....

and settled in the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

at the end of the 1930s, worked in agitprop

Agitprop

Agitprop is derived from agitation and propaganda, and describes stage plays, pamphlets, motion pictures and other art forms with an explicitly political message....

structures, returning to Romania at the end of World War II

World War II

, and becoming, under the communist regime

Communist Romania

, chair of the Marxism-Leninism

Marxism-Leninism

department of the University of Bucharest

University of Bucharest

. Progressively after Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej

Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej

acted against Ana Pauker

Ana Pauker

Ana Pauker was a Romanian communist leader and served as the country's foreign minister in the late 1940s and early 1950s...

, the Tismăneanus were sidelined inside the Romanian nomenklatura

Nomenklatura

; in 1960, Leonte Tismăneanu was stripped of his position as deputy head of Editura Politică. Ovidiu Şimonca, "Vladimir Tismăneanu, ameninţat cu moartea", in Observator Cultural

Observator Cultural

Observator Cultural is a literary magazine based in Bucharest, Romania. It covers Romania's cultural and arts scene.-External links:*...

, Nr. 375, June 2007 Cristian Vasile, "Cronici de atelier. Trepte către o istorie a comunismului românesc", in Atelier LiterNet, July 23, 2008; retrieved February 6, 2009

Vladimir Tismăneanu grew up in the exclusive Primăverii quarter of Bucharest

Bucharest

. During his years of study at the Lyceum No. 28, which was then largely attended by students belonging to the nomenklatura, he was in the same year as Nicu Ceauşescu

Nicu Ceausescu

, son of communist leader Nicolae Ceauşescu

Nicolae Ceausescu

Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...

, as well as the children of Leonte Răutu, Nicolae Doicaru and Silviu Brucan

Silviu Brucan

Silviu Brucan was a Romanian communist politician. Though he disagreed with Nicolae Ceauşescu's policies, he never gave up his communist beliefs and did not oppose communist ideology...

.

In his preface to the Romanian-language edition of his 2003 book Stalinism for All Seasons, Tismăneanu indicated that, starting in 1970, he became interested in critiques of Marxism-Leninism and the Romanian communist regime in particular, after reading banned works made available to him by various of his acquaintances (among others, writer Dumitru Ţepeneag

Dumitru Tepeneag

Dumitru Ţepeneag is a contemporary Romanian novelist, essayist, short story writer and translator, who currently resides in France...

and his wife, translator Mona Ţepeneag, as well as Ileana, the daughter of Communist Party dignitary Gheorghe Gaston Marin

Gheorghe Gaston Marin

Gheorghe Gaston Marin was a Romanian former communist politician who had many roles under Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej and Nicolae Ceauşescu. He was born Gheorghe Grossmann in Pădureni Vaslui County...

). Vladimir Tismăneanu, "Bizantinism şi revoluţie", in România Liberă

România Libera

România Liberă is one of the leading newspapers in Romania. Based in Bucharest, the Romanian-language daily has a paid daily circulation of 40,000....

, June 17, 2005. Reprint of his preface to Stalinism pentru eternitate. O istorie politică a comunismului românesc, Polirom
Polirom
Polirom or Editura Polirom is a Romanian publishing house with a tradition of publishing classics of international literature and also various titles in the fields of social sciences, such as psychology, sociology and anthropology. The company was founded in February 1995. The first title...

, Iaşi, 2005 He stated that, at the time, he was influenced by Communism in Romania, an analytic and critical work by Romanian-born British

United Kingdom

political scientist Ghiţă Ionescu, as well as by Marxist

Marxism

, Western Marxist

Western Marxism

Western Marxism is a term used to describe a wide variety of Marxist theoreticians based in Western and Central Europe, in contrast with philosophy in the Soviet Union...

, Democratic

Democratic socialism

Democratic socialism is a description used by various socialist movements and organizations to emphasize the democratic character of their political orientation...

and Libertarian Socialist

Libertarian socialism

Libertarian socialism is a group of political philosophies that promote a non-hierarchical, non-bureaucratic, stateless society without private property in the means of production...

scholarship (among others, the ideas of Georg Lukács

Georg Lukács

, Leszek Kołakowski, Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....

, Antonio Gramsci

Antonio Gramsci

, and the Frankfurt School

Frankfurt School

The Frankfurt School refers to a school of neo-Marxist interdisciplinary social theory, particularly associated with the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt am Main...

Nationalism

.

He graduated as a valedictorian

Valedictorian

Profile at the Romanian Presidency site; retrieved October 3, 2007 from the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Sociology in 1974, and received his Ph.D.

Ph.D.

from the same institution in 1980, presenting the thesis Teoria Critică a Şcolii de la Frankfurt şi radicalismul de stînga contemporan ("The Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School and Contemporary Left-Wing Radicalism
New Left
The New Left was a term used mainly in the United Kingdom and United States in reference to activists, educators, agitators and others in the 1960s and 1970s who sought to implement a broad range of reforms, in contrast to earlier leftist or Marxist movements that had taken a more vanguardist...

").The Hour of Romania, International Conference. Dr. Vladimir Tismaneanu, at the Indiana University (Bloomington)'s Russian and East European Institute; retrieved February 6, 2009 During the period, he was received into the ranks of the Union of Communist Youth
Union of Communist Youth
The Union of Communist Youth was the Romanian Communist Party's youth organisation, modelled after the Soviet Komsomol. It aimed to cultivate young cadres into the party, as well as to help create the "new man" envisioned by communist ideologues.-History:Founded in 1922, the UTC went underground...

(UTC), authored several articles which displayed support for the regime, and, as vice-president of the UTC's Communist Student Association, allegedly took part in authoring and compiling propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....

aimed at students. He was also contributing to the UTC magazines Amfiteatru and Viaţa Studenţească, where his essentially neo-Marxist

Neo-Marxism

Observator Cultural

Observator Cultural is a literary magazine based in Bucharest, Romania. It covers Romania's cultural and arts scene.-External links:*...

, Nr. 139, October 2002 Among his colleagues there were Alexandru Florian, Cătălin Mamali, Dumitru Sandu, Dorel Abraham, Radu Ioanid, Alin Teodorescu and Mihai Milca. Tismăneanu was not given approval to hold an academic position. Dan Tapalagă, "Turnat de prieteni, demonizat de Securitate: Vladimir Tismăneanu", in Cotidianul

Cotidianul

thumb|right|Old logo of Cotidianul newspaper, used in the [[inter-war period]], and in the early 1990sthumb|right|The logo used between 2003 and 2007...

, July 24, 2006 Around 1977, he was involved in a debate about the nature of Romanian culture
Culture of Romania
Romania has a unique culture, which is the product of its geography and of its distinct historical evolution. Like Romanians themselves, it is defined as the meeting point of three regions: Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and the Balkans, but cannot be truly included in any of them...

, expressing a pro-European perspective in reaction to officially endorsed nationalism in general and, in particular, to the form of Protochronism
Protochronism
Protochronism is a Romanian term describing the tendency to ascribe, largely relying on questionable data and subjective interpretations, an idealised past to the country as a whole...

advocated by Edgar Papu and Luceafărul magazine. His thoughts on the matter, published by Amfiteatru alongside similar writings by Milca, Gheorghe Achiţei, Alexandru Duţu and Solomon Marcus

Solomon Marcus

Solomon Marcus is a Romanian mathematician, member of the Mathematical Section of the Romanian Academy and Emeritus Professor of the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Mathematics...

.

In September 1981, a short while after the death of his father, he accompanied his mother on a voyage to Spain

Spain

, after she had been granted a request to visit the sites where she and her husband had fought as young people.Tismăneanu, in Armand Gosu, "N-am avut de-a face cu Securitatea", in Revista 22

Revista 22

Revista 22 is a Romanian weekly magazine, issued by the Group for Social Dialogue and focused mainly on politics and culture....

, Nr. 849, June 2006 Unlike Hermina Tismăneanu, he opted not to return, and soon after left for Venezuela

Venezuela

, before ultimately settling in the United States in 1982. During his time in Caracas

Caracas

, he was the recipient of a scholarship at the Contemporary Art Museum.

He lived first in Philadelphia, where he was employed by the Foreign Policy Research Institute

Foreign Policy Research Institute

(1983–1990), while teaching at the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

(1985–1990). At the time, he began contributing comments on local politics to Radio Free Europe

Radio Free Europe

and Voice of America

Voice of America

, Bogdan Cristian Iacob, "Persistenţa liberalismului", in Atelier LiterNet, August 20, 2008; retrieved February 9, 2009 beginning with an analysis of the "dynastic socialism

Socialism

" in Romania, centered on the political career of Nicu Ceauşescu

Nicu Ceausescu

. His essays on the lives and careers of communist potentates, requested by Radio Free Europe's Vlad Georgescu

Vlad Georgescu

Vlad Georgescu , Romanian historian, was the director of the Romanian-language department of Radio Free Europe between 1983 and 1988.-Biography:...

and aired by the station as a series, were later grouped under the title Archeology of Terror.

In 1990, Tismăneanu received a professorship at the University of Maryland, College Park
University of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...

and moved to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

He became editor of East European Politics and Societies in 1998, holding the position until 2004, when he became chair of its editorial committee. Between 1996 and 1999, he held a position on the Fulbright Program

Fulbright Program

's Selection Committee for South-East Europe

Balkans

The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...

, and, from 1997 to 2003, was member of the Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe

Committee at the American Council of Learned Societies

American Council of Learned Societies

. A fellow at the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen

Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (IWM)

The Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen is an independent institute for advanced study in the humanities and social sciences based in Vienna, Austria...

in Vienna

Vienna

, Austria

Austria

and the New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

Erich Maria Remarque Institute (both in 2002), he was Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

in 2001, returning as Fellow in 2005 and 2008-2009. Tismăneanu was also granted fellowship by Indiana University (Bloomington) (2003) and National Endowment for Democracy

National Endowment for Democracy

(2003–2004). The University of Maryland presented him with the award for excellence in teaching and mentorship (2001), the Distinguished Scholar Teacher Award (2003–2004), and the GRB Semester Research Award (2006). He received the Romanian-American Academy of Arts and Sciences's Prize for his 1998 volume Fantasies of Salvation: Democracy, Nationalism, and Myth in Post-Communist Europe and the 2003 Barbara Jelavich
Barbara Jelavich
Barbara Jelavich was an American professor of history at Indiana University.She was born as Barbara Brightfield and earned multiple degrees in history from the University of California at Berkeley. She received here A.B. honors degree in 1943, her M.A. in 1944, and her Ph.D in 1948...

Award, presented by the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies
American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies
The Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies is a scholarly society dedicated to the advancement of knowledge about the former Soviet Union and Eastern and Central Europe...

for his Stalinism for All Seasons. During the late 1990s, he collaborated with the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

-based radio station Deutsche Welle
Deutsche Welle
Deutsche Welle or DW, is Germany's international broadcaster. The service is aimed at the overseas market. It broadcasts news and information on shortwave, Internet and satellite radio on 98.7 DZFE in 30 languages . It has a satellite television service , that is available in four languages, and...

, with a series of broadcasts, most of which he published in Romania as Scrisori din Washington ("Letters from Washington", 2002). Mircea Iorgulescu, "Românul transatlantic", in Revista 22

Revista 22

Revista 22 is a Romanian weekly magazine, issued by the Group for Social Dialogue and focused mainly on politics and culture....

, Nr. 651, August-September 2002 He also worked as editor of Dorin Tudoran
Dorin Tudoran
Dorin Tudoran is a Romanian poet, essayist, journalist, and dissident. A resident of the United States since 1985, he has authored more than fifteen books of poetry, essays, and interviews.-Early life:...

's Agora, a political journal of the Romanian diaspora

Romanian diaspora

.

Since the Romanian Revolution of 1989

Romanian Revolution of 1989

The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...

, he has been visiting his native country on a regular basis. Tismăneanu was in Bucharest during June 1990, witnessing the Mineriad

Mineriad

, when miners from the Jiu Valley

Jiu Valley

The Jiu Valley is a region in southwestern Romania, in Hunedoara county, situated in a valley of the Jiu River between the Retezat Mountains and the Parâng Mountains...

supporting the National Salvation Front put a violent stop to the Golani

Golaniad

The Golaniad was a protest in Romania in the University Square, Bucharest. It was initiated by students and professors at the University of Bucharest....

protest, an experience he claims gave him insight into "barbarity in its crassest, most revolting, form." "Supliment 22 plus, nr. 264 - Campania împotriva intelectualilor", in Revista 22

Revista 22

Revista 22 is a Romanian weekly magazine, issued by the Group for Social Dialogue and focused mainly on politics and culture....

Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej

, which was published by the Writers' Union

Writers' Union of Romania

The Writers' Union of Romania , founded in March 1949, is a professional association of writers in Romania. It also has a subsidiary in Chişinău, Republic of Moldova...

magazine România Literară

România Literară

România literară is a cultural and literary magazine from România founded in 1855 by Vasile Alecsandri and published in Iași between January 1, 1855 until December 3, 1855, when it was suppressed. The new series appeared in October 10, 1855 as a continuation of Gazeta literară...

during the early 1990s. Adrian Cioroianu
Adrian Cioroianu
Adrian Mihai Cioroianu is a Romanian historian, politician, journalist, and essayist. A lecturer for the History Department at the University of Bucharest, he is the author of several books dealing with Romanian history...

, "Larga manta a lui Vladimir Tismăneanu", in Dilema Veche

Dilema Veche

Dilema veche , formerly Dilema, is a Romanian weekly journal of culture, criticism and opinion.- History :It was founded as Dilema in 1993 by art critic Andrei Pleşu and up until the end of 2003 it was edited by an independent cultural body, Fundaţia Culturală Română...

, Vol. II, Nr. 101, December 2005 He contributed a weekly column in Jurnalul Naţional

Jurnalul National

Jurnalul Naţional is a Romanian newspaper, part of the Intact media group led by Dan Voiculescu, which also includes the popular TV station Antena 1....

, before moving to Cotidianul

Cotidianul

thumb|right|Old logo of Cotidianul newspaper, used in the [[inter-war period]], and in the early 1990sthumb|right|The logo used between 2003 and 2007...

, and was regularly published by other press venues: Revista 22

Revista 22

Revista 22 is a Romanian weekly magazine, issued by the Group for Social Dialogue and focused mainly on politics and culture....

, Idei în Dialog, and Orizont. Tudorel Urian, "Lecţii de democraţie", in România Literară

România Literară

, Nr. 35/2006 He later began contributing to Observator Cultural

Observator Cultural

Observator Cultural is a literary magazine based in Bucharest, Romania. It covers Romania's cultural and arts scene.-External links:*...

and Evenimentul Zilei

Evenimentul Zilei

Evenimentul Zilei is one of the leading newspapers in Romania. Based in Bucharest, the Romanian-language daily has a paid daily circulation of 110,000...

. Tudorel Urian, "Avatarurile anticomunismului", in România Literară

România Literară

, Nr. 26/2007

Tismăneanu received the Romanian Cultural Foundation
Romanian Cultural Foundation
The Romanian Cultural Foundation is a Romanian non-governmental organization created by writer Augustin Buzura, with the objective of stimulating cultural, artistic and scientific creations, promoting Romanian spiritual values in Romania and abroad, and fostering inter-cultural dialogue...

's award for the whole activity (2001), and was awarded Doctor honoris causa degrees by the West University
West University of Timisoara
The West University of Timişoara is a university located in Timişoara, Romania. Established in 1962, it is organized in 11 Faculties.-Organization:...

of Timişoara
Timisoara
Timișoara is the capital city of Timiș County, in western Romania. One of the largest Romanian cities, with an estimated population of 311,586 inhabitants , and considered the informal capital city of the historical region of Banat, Timișoara is the main social, economic and cultural center in the...

(2002) and the SNSPA university in Bucharest. In its Romanian edition of 2005, Stalinism for All Seasons was a bestseller

Bestseller

at Bookarest, the Romanian literary festival

Literary festival

A literary festival, also known as a book festival or writers' festival, is a regular gathering of writers and readers, typically on an annual basis in a particular city...

.

In 2006, Romanian President Traian Băsescu appointed him head of the Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania

Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania

Democratic Liberal Party (Romania)

, which in turn is the main political group supportive of Băsescu's policies. Despre noi, at the Institute of People's Studies official site; retrieved June 21, 2009 The institution is presided upon by political scientist Andrei Ţăranu. The following year, Tismăneanu was chosen by Democratic Liberal Premier

Prime Minister of Romania

Emil Boc

to lead, with Ioan Stanomir, the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania

Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania

, substituting the National Liberal Party

National Liberal Party (Romania)

's choice Marius Oprea

Marius Oprea

. "Marius Oprea şi Dinu Zamfirescu, înlocuiţi cu Ioan Stanomir şi Vladimir Tismăneanu", in România Liberă

România Libera

România Liberă is one of the leading newspapers in Romania. Based in Bucharest, the Romanian-language daily has a paid daily circulation of 40,000....

online edition, February 27, 2010; retrieved June 15, 2010 "Război pe condamnarea comunismului", in Ziarul de Iaşi, March 1, 2010

Vladimir Tismăneanu is married to Mary Frances Sladek, and has fathered a son, Adam.

Overview

Vladimir Tismăneanu is one of the best-recognized contributors to modern-day political science in both the United States and Romania. Historian Cas Mudde

Cas Mudde

referred to him as "one of the foremost American scholars on Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe

","Book Reviews and Book Notes", in Tuft University's e-Extreme. Electronic Newsletter of the ECPR-SG on Extremism & Democracy, Vol. I, Nr. 4, Winter 2000 while Romanian literary critic and civil society

Civil society

Polirom

, Iaşi, 1996, p.162-163. ISBN 973-9248-09-8 According to historian Adrian Cioroianu

Adrian Cioroianu

, the insight provided to Tismăneanu by his family's oral history

Oral history

is "unique", amounting to "actual lessons in history, at a time when [it] was being Orwellian

Orwellian

"Orwellian" describes the situation, idea, or societal condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free society...

ly processed by the [communist] system".

Sociologist Mihai Dinu Gheorghiu sees Tismăneanu and George Voicu as the two main contemporary Romanian sociologists to have "reconverted [to political science] while preserving a rather symbolic link with sociology".Mihai Dinu Gheorghiu, The Romanian Sociology and its Boundaries, at the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Scientific Community's Knowledge Base Social Sciences in Eastern Europe; retrieved February 6, 2009 At the end of this process, he argues, Tismăneanu "has enjoyed the greatest authority in his field in Romania", while, according to critic Livius Ciocârlie: "Not so long ago, to the question of who is the greatest Romanian politologist, any other politologist would reply that there is only one possible answer: Vladimir Tismăneanu."

Also according to Vasile, Vladimir Tismăneanu's contribution, like those of historians Katherine Verdery and Catherine Durandin, is being purposefully ignored by some Romanian academics, who object to their exposure of national communism

National communism

The term National Communism describes the ethnic minority communist currents that arose in the former Russian Empire after Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik Party seized power in October 1917....

. Vasile nominates such figures as "the pernicious and not altogether innocent continuity" of Communist Romania

Communist Romania

. In contrast, Tismăneanu was a direct influence on the first post-Revolution

Romanian Revolution of 1989

The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...

Stelian Tanase

, Mircea Mihăieş, Marius Oprea

Marius Oprea

, Stejărel Olaru, Dan Pavel

Dan Pavel

Dan Pavel is a Romanian political scientist, academic, politician, journalist and 1989 revolutionary. He was a consultant to Gigi Becali in 2003.-References:...

Romanian language

editions, and books of his were translated into Polish

Polish language

Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

, Lithuanian

Lithuanian language

, and Ukrainian

Ukrainian language

Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....

.

In addition to his analytic contribution, Vladimir Tismăneanu earned praise for his literary style. Romanian critics, including Tismăneanu's friend, philosopher Horia-Roman Patapievici

Horia-Roman Patapievici

, admire his "passionate" writing. Essayist and România Literară

România Literară

reviewer Tudorel Urian, who contrasts Tismăneanu with what he sees as the regular "self-styled 'analysts' [who] abdicate logic and common sense", opines: "The American professor's articles impress by their very solid theoretical structure, by their always effective argumentation, by their author's correct positioning in relation to the facts invoked [...] and, not least of all, by the elegance of their style. In the world of contemporary politology, Vladimir Tismăneanu is an erudite, doubled by an artist, and his texts are a delight for the reader." According to Tismăneanu's fellow Commission member, historian and political scientist Cristian Vasile, such perspectives are especially true for the choice of "piercing epithet

Epithet

s" defining persons or phenomena discussed in his works. Literary critic Mircea Iorgulescu notes in particular the many nocturnal and ghostly metaphor

Metaphor

s used by Tismăneanu in reference to totalitarianism

Totalitarianism

Totalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...

, proposing that these reflect "perfectly natural psychoanalytical

Psychoanalysis

suggestions, for wherever there are ghosts, there are also neuroses

Neurosis

, or, at the very least, obsessions."

Early works

Tismăneanu began his writing career as a dissenting Marxist

Marxism

, sympathizing with the intellectual currents known collectively as neo-Marxism

Neo-Marxism

. His doctoral thesis was cited as evidence that Tismăneanu was "a liberal student of Euro-Marxism

Western Marxism

Western Marxism is a term used to describe a wide variety of Marxist theoreticians based in Western and Central Europe, in contrast with philosophy in the Soviet Union...

" by University of Bucharest professor Daniel Barbu

Daniel Barbu

(who contrasted Tismăneanu with the official ideological background of Communist Romania, as one in a group of "outstanding authors", alongside Pavel Câmpeanu, Henri H. Stahl

Henri H. Stahl

Henri H. Stahl was a Romanian Marxist cultural anthropologist, ethnographer, sociologist, and social historian.-Biography:...

, Zigu Ornea

Zigu Ornea

, and Vlad Georgescu

Vlad Georgescu

Vlad Georgescu , Romanian historian, was the director of the Romanian-language department of Radio Free Europe between 1983 and 1988.-Biography:...

). Tismăneanu also states having been influenced by psychoanalysis, the Frankfurt School

Frankfurt School

The Frankfurt School refers to a school of neo-Marxist interdisciplinary social theory, particularly associated with the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt am Main...

and Existentialism

Existentialism

, and, from among the Marxist authors he had read at that stage, he cites as his early mentors Antonio Gramsci

Antonio Gramsci

, Georg Lukács

Georg Lukács

, Herbert Marcuse

Herbert Marcuse

Herbert Marcuse was a German Jewish philosopher, sociologist and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory...

and Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre

.

According to Marino: "Some label [Tismăneanu] as 'Marxist anti-communist

Anti-communism

Radio Free Europe

years, while political scientist and critic Ioan Stanomir defines him as a "liberal-conservative

Liberal conservatism

spirit". Ioan Stanomir, "Cercul de cretă caucazian", in Revista 22

Revista 22

Revista 22 is a Romanian weekly magazine, issued by the Group for Social Dialogue and focused mainly on politics and culture....

, Nr. 980, December 2008 American scholar Steven Fish writes: "[Tismăneanu] is animated by a passionate liberal spirit, albeit one of a particular type. [His] liberalism is less intimately akin to that of John Locke

John Locke

or Robert Nozick

Robert Nozick

, or L. T. Hobhouse

Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse

or John Rawls

John Rawls

John Bordley Rawls was an American philosopher and a leading figure in moral and political philosophy. He held the James Bryant Conant University Professorship at Harvard University....

, than it is to that of Isaiah Berlin

Isaiah Berlin

and, less proximately, John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill

Majoritarianism

authoritarianism

Authoritarianism

Authoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is usually opposed to individualism and democracy...

."Steven Fish, "Constitutional Review. Fantasies of Salvation: Democracy, Nationalism, and Myth in Post-Communist Europe", in the New York University School of Law
New York University School of Law
The New York University School of Law is the law school of New York University. Established in 1835, the school offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. degrees in law, and is located in Greenwich Village, in the New York City borough of Manhattan....

's East European Constitutional Review, Vol. 7, Nr. 4, Fall 1998 Tismăneanu himself discusses the personal transition: "Originating as I was from the milieu of illegalists [that is, communists active in the pre-1944 underground], [...] I discovered early on the contrast between the official legends and the various fragments of subjective truths as they revealed themselves in private conversations, syncopated confessions and biting ironies. I was also discovering a theme which was to puzzle me throughout my professional career: the relation between communism, fascism

Fascism

, anti-communism and anti-fascism

Anti-fascism

; in short, I was growing aware that, as has been demonstrated by François Furet

François Furet

, the relationship between the two totalitarian movements, viscerally hostile to the values and institutions of liberal democracy

Liberal democracy

, was the fundamental historical issue of the 20th century." He credits Ghiţă Ionescu, noted historian of Romanian communism, as his "mentor and model."

In her review of The Crisis of Marxist Ideology in Eastern Europe, political analyst Juliana Geran Pilon
Juliana Geran Pilon
Juliana Geran Pilon is a Romanian-born American political scientist and writer. She is a Professor of Politics and Culture and Director of the Center for Culture and Security at the Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C.-Biography:...

calls Tismăneanu's book "the best analysis of Marxist philosophy since Leszek Kołakowski's monumental trilogy Main Currents of Marxism."Juliana Geran Pilon
Juliana Geran Pilon
Juliana Geran Pilon is a Romanian-born American political scientist and writer. She is a Professor of Politics and Culture and Director of the Center for Culture and Security at the Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C.-Biography:...

, "The Crisis of Marxist Ideology in Eastern Europe - book reviews", in National Review

National Review

National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...

, April 7, 1989 The work is Tismăneanu's study into the avatars of Marxism within the Eastern Bloc
Eastern bloc
The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...

, and a contribution to both Kremlinology
Kremlinology
Kremlinology is the study and analysis of Soviet politics and policies based on efforts to understand the inner workings of an opaque central government. The term is named after the Kremlin, the seat of the Russian/Soviet government. Kremlinologist refers to academic, media, and commentary experts...

and Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

studies. It proposes that the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

's policies of Perestroika

Perestroika

Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...

and Glasnost

Glasnost

Glasnost was the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s...

masked an ideological crisis, and that the Bloc's regimes had reached a "post-totalitarian" stage, where repression was "more refined, less obvious, but by no means less effective". He criticizes Marxist opponents of Soviet-style communism for giving in to the ideological allure, and proposes that, although appearing reform-minded, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev

was, in effect, a "neo-Stalinist

Neo-Stalinism

".

The 1990 collection In Search of Civil Society: Independent Peace Movements in the Soviet Bloc is structured around the transformation of the peace movement

Peace movement

s into anti-communist and dissident

Dissident

A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When dissidents unite for a common cause they often effect a dissident movement....

forces in the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of Hungary

People's Republic of Hungary

, the People's Republic of Poland

People's Republic of Poland

, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic

Czechoslovak Socialist Republic

The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was the official name of Czechoslovakia from 1960 until end of 1989 , a Soviet satellite state of the Eastern Bloc....

and East Germany. It notably includes articles by two participants in such movements, Hungary's Miklós Haraszti

Miklós Haraszti

and Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

's Eduard Kuznetsov

Eduard Kuznetsov

. American University

American University

reviewer Laszlo Kürti called the volume "a milestone that will remain on reading lists for many years to come", but criticized Tismăneanu for not explaining neither the end of such movements nor their absence from other countries. Writing in 1999, scholar Gillian Wylie noted that, with In Search of Civil Society, Tismăneanu was one of the "few academics beyond those involved in the peace activist community" to have dealt with the topic of peace movements in Warsaw Pact
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance , or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe...

countries.

Arheologia terorii and Reinventing Politics

With 1992's Romanian-published Arheologia terorii ("The Archeology of Terror"), which reunited the Radio Free Europe essays of the 1980s, Tismăneanu was focusing Romania's communism, in an attempt to identify what set apart from the experience of other Eastern Bloc countries. Cristian Vasile believes it to have been, at the time of its publishing, "one of the few researches on the Romanian communist elite to include prosopographic

Prosopography

nuances." Among this group of essays, historian Bogdan Cristian Iacob singles out one dedicated to chief ideologist Leonte Răutu, the so-called "Romanian Zhdanov

Andrei Zhdanov

", as purportedly the first ever analytical writing dedicated to his career. Bogdan Cristian Iacob, "Jdanovul României", in Revista 22

Revista 22

Revista 22 is a Romanian weekly magazine, issued by the Group for Social Dialogue and focused mainly on politics and culture....

, Nr. 986, January-February 2009

Much of the text focuses on Romania's dissidents after the start of De-Stalinization

De-Stalinization

, and the peculiarities of this process in Romania. Tismăneanu notes how communist leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej

Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej

, whose dictatorial rule of the 1950s and early 1960s preceded and survived the start of De-Stalinization, was able to exert control over the local intelligentsia

Intelligentsia

even as civil society and nonviolent resistance

Nonviolent resistance

movements were being created in other parts of the Bloc. It is also noted for its treatment of Gheorghiu-Dej's successor, Nicolae Ceauşescu

Nicolae Ceausescu

Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...

, who associated himself with a message of liberalization

Liberalization

and nationalist revival, and who made a point of opposing the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia

Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia

. This gesture, Arheologia terorii argues, was in actuality Ceauşescu's attempt to ideologically legitimize his grip on Romanian society. In his review of the book, literary critic Ion Bogdan Lefter concludes: "One finds here, in the subtext

Subtext

, the premises for an extended debate on themes related to the philosophy of history

Philosophy of history

The term philosophy of history refers to the theoretical aspect of history, in two senses. It is customary to distinguish critical philosophy of history from speculative philosophy of history...

Utopia

, but the morass of disgusting spiritual filth—and one cannot but be horrified by seeing who has been entrusted with the destiny of an entire people".

With the 1994 book Reinventing Politics, the Romanian author looked into the European revolutions

Revolutions of 1989

of the previous decade, exploring the shades of repression, the differences in political culture

Political culture

Political culture is the traditional orientation of the citizens of a nation toward politics, affecting their perceptions of political legitimacy.Conceptions...

, and how they related to the fall of communism in various countries. Calling it "a significant contribution", New School

The New School

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is a nontechnical online magazine that covers global security and public policy issues, especially related to the dangers posed by nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction...

, Vol. 49, Nr. 2, March 1993, p.44 Goldfarb objects to the text being "long on historical detail and short on social theory", arguing that: "As a result, [his] attempts at generalization often miss the mark." According to Goldfarb, although Reinventing Politics cautions that the former communist societies risked folding into nationalism, xenophobia

Xenophobia

and antisemitism, its author "does not provide a clear sense of how [this] can be avoided." Goldfarb contends that, while the book expresses support for embarking on the road to an "open society

Open society

Václav Havel

. Cristian Cercel, "A fost reinventat politicul?", in Observator Cultural

Observator Cultural

Observator Cultural is a literary magazine based in Bucharest, Romania. It covers Romania's cultural and arts scene.-External links:*...

, Nr. 406, January 2008 Cercel, who sees this as proof of "well-balanced idealism
Idealism
In philosophy, idealism is the family of views which assert that reality, or reality as we can know it, is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. Epistemologically, idealism manifests as a skepticism about the possibility of knowing any mind-independent thing...

", writes: "Instead of an absolute critical distance, Tismăneanu presents us with a critical engagement at the core of the problem."

From Irepetabilul trecut to Balul mascat

The volume of essays Irepetabilul trecut ("The Unrepeatable Past") also saw print in 1994, and largely dealt with post-communist Romanian history

History of Romania since 1989

. Bogdan Cristian Iacob describes it as "an expression of the priorities of those years, from the perspective of democratization

Democratization

and civil society consolidation" coupled with "a working site of ideas" for later works. The volume, Iacob notes, is structured as a typical work on the history of ideas

History of ideas

, and, with "beneficent obstinacy", builds on Tismăneanu's "principal themes". In Iacob's view, "the most important" are: "the basic criminality of Bolshevism

Bolshevik

in any of its incarnations; the attachment to civic liberalism modeled on the experience of Central

Central Europe

Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...

Anglosphere

." Under the influence of Jürgen Habermas

Jürgen Habermas

and Karl Jaspers

Karl Jaspers

, the text proposes that social cohesion

Social cohesion

is only made possible by the common recognition of past evils around the idea of justice (see Historikerstreit

Historikerstreit

The Historikerstreit was an intellectual and political controversy in late 20th-century West Germany about the historical interpretation of the Holocaust. The German word Streit translates variously as "quarrel", "dispute", or "conflict"...

). In particular, the essays reject the policies of Romania's major post-communist left-wing group, the National Salvation Front and those of its successor, the Social Democratic Party

Social Democratic Party (Romania)

(PSD), arguing that their policies were a political hybrid designed to block the path of genuinely anti-communist liberalism. Irepetabilul trecut was the first such work to be noted for its biographical sketches of communist leaders. Ion Bogdan Lefter, "Povestea comunismului românesc", in Observator Cultural

Observator Cultural

Observator Cultural is a literary magazine based in Bucharest, Romania. It covers Romania's cultural and arts scene.-External links:*...

, Nr. 214, March 2004

In 1995, Tismăneanu was again focusing on Gheorghiu-Dej, analyzing the part he played in both the violent communization of the 1950s and the adoption of nationalism in the 1960s. This investigation produced the Romanian-language volume Fantoma lui Gheorghiu-Dej ("Gheorghiu-Dej's Ghost"), expanding on a similarly titled chapter in Irepetabilul trecut. It notably theorizes a difference between national communism and the "national Stalinism" suiting both Gheorghiu-Dej and his successor Ceauşescu. The question "What is left of [Gheorghiu-]Dej's experiment?", is answered by Tismăneanu as follows: "An inept and frightened elite, whose social mobility

Social mobility

was linked to the nationalist-chauvinist line promoted by Ceauşescu. A sectarian and exclusive vision of socialism

Socialism

Jesuitism

and lack of principles, opportunism and cruelty, fanaticism and duplicity."

Historian Lucian Boia

Lucian Boia

Lucian Boia is a Romanian historian, known especially for his works debunking Romanian nationalism and Communism.-Bibliography:* Eugen Brote: Litera, 1974...

highlights the clash between such a vision and that of a patriotic

Patriotism

Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...

, liberal and congenial Gheorghiu-Dej, retrospectively advanced in the 1990s by some of the leader's collaborators, among them Alexandru Bârlădeanu, Silviu Brucan

Silviu Brucan

Silviu Brucan was a Romanian communist politician. Though he disagreed with Nicolae Ceauşescu's policies, he never gave up his communist beliefs and did not oppose communist ideology...

and Ion Gheorghe Maurer

Ion Gheorghe Maurer

Byzantinism

", discourse in Romanian communism, Ioan Stanomir notes, were also being applied by Tismăneanu to the post-Revolution President of Romania

President of Romania

The President of Romania is the head of state of Romania. The President is directly elected by a two-round system for a five-year term . An individual may serve two terms...

, former Communist Party activist and PSD leader Ion Iliescu

Ion Iliescu

, who, both argued, did not represent an anti-communist social democracy

Social democracy

, but a partial return to Gheorghiu-Dej's legacy.

Also in 1995, Tismăneanu published a collection of essays, Noaptea totalitară ("The Totalitarian Night"). It includes his reflections on the emergence of totalitarian regimes throughout the world, as well as more thoughts on Romania's post-1989 history. Writing in 2004, Ion Bogdan Lefter described it as the embryo of later works: "The author moves with essay-like dexterity from the concrete level, of history 'in movement', to the general, that of political philosophies

Political philosophy

and great 'societal' models, from biographic narrative to the evolution of systems

Political system

A political system is a system of politics and government. It is usually compared to the legal system, economic system, cultural system, and other social systems...

, from anecdote to mentalities. [...] From [such] reflections [...] emerged Tismăneanu's studies on 20th century ideological and political history, and his articles on Romanian subjects have prepared and accompanied the completion of his recent synthesis [Stalinism for All Seasons]."

Balul mascat ("The Masquerade Ball", 1996), was Vladimir Tismăneanu's first book of conversations with Mircea Mihăieş, specifically dealing with political life

Politics of Romania

in Romania's post-1989 evolution and on its relation to the European Union

European Union

integration process. Tudorel Urian describes the volume and its successors in the series, all of them published at the end of electoral cycles

Elections in Romania

Romania elects on a national level a head of state – the president – and a legislature. The president is elected for a five year term by the people . The Romanian Parliament has two chambers...

, as "a most reliable indicator of tendencies", and to the authors as "important intellectuals of our age." Tudorel Urian, "Anii vrajbei noastre", in România Literară

România Literară

, Nr. 2/2008 Urian writes: "Although, at the time when these volumes were published, not everyone was pleased by the precise X-rays to which Vladimir Tismăneanu and Mircea Mihăieş subjected [Romania's politics], excessively vocal counterarguments were never produced. The distance (not just in kilometers) between Washington and Bucharest, the superior analytic accuracy, Professor Tismăneanu's international scientific prestige, the almost exclusive use of readily available sources [...], the democratic values at the core of the interpretations (ones which no honorable political actor could afford to contest publicly) have given these books a considerable dose of credibility [...]."

Fantasies of Salvation

With Fantasies of Salvation, published in 1998, Vladimir Tismăneanu focuses on the resurgence of authoritarian, ethnocratic

Ethnocracy

, demagogic

Demagogy

and anti-capitalist

Anti-capitalism

tendencies in the political cultures of Post-Communism

Post-Communism

. The text, which is both a historical survey and a political essay,Steven Saxonberg, "Book Review: Fantasies of Salvation: Democracy, Nationalism and Myth in Post-Communist Societies", in Central Europe Review, Vol. 1, Nr. 18, October 1999 argues: "As the Leninist

Leninism

authoritarian order collapsed, societies have tended to be atomized and deprived of a political center able to articulate coherent visions of a common good

Common good

." This process, he argues, favors the recourse to "mythology

Mythology

", and paradoxical situations such as a post-Holocaust antisemitism in the absence of sizable Jewish communities. He also focuses on the revived antisemitic conspiracy theory

Conspiracy theory

according to which Jews had played a leading role in setting up communist regimes (see Jewish Bolshevism

Jewish Bolshevism

Jewish Bolshevism, Judeo-Bolshevism, and known as Żydokomuna in Poland, is an antisemitic stereotype based on the claim that Jews have been the driving force behind or are disproportionately involved in the modern Communist movement, or sometimes more specifically Russian Bolshevism.The expression...

).Distortion, Negationism, and Minimalization of the Holocaust in Postwar Romania", Wiesel Commission

Wiesel Commission

report, at Yad Vashem

Yad Vashem

Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament....

Far right

. Part of the volume deals with "the myth of decommunization

Decommunization

", signifying the manner in which local elites may take hold of political discourse and proclaim lustration

Lustration

Humanism

" and "lyrical style", all of which, he argues, parallel works by Isaiah Berlin

Isaiah Berlin

and Fouad Ajami

Fouad Ajami

Lech Wałęsa

and Boris Yeltsin

Boris Yeltsin

, and the Bulgaria

Bulgaria

n "pragmatic liberal centrist

Centrism

" Ivan Kostov

Ivan Kostov

Ivan Yordanov Kostov was Prime Minister of Bulgaria from May 1997 to July 2001 and leader of the Union of Democratic Forces between December 1994 and July 2001....

, are just as important actors. A similar point is made by Cas Mudde

Cas Mudde

, who contends that Tismăneanu's words display "passionate and uncritical support for the dissidents", adding: "For someone so worried about populism

Populism

Market liberalism

The term market liberalism is used in two distinct meanings.Especially in the United States, the term is often used as a synonym to classical liberalism...

at the expense of any form of collectivism

Collectivism

, and claims that his focus on new antisemitic trends overlooks the revival of antiziganism

Antiziganism

. Researchers comment favorably Tismăneanu's rejection of cultural determinism

Cultural determinism

in discussing the Eastern Bloc countries' relation to the Western world

Western world

and to each other.

As editor of the 1999 collection of essays The Revolutions of 1989 (Re-Writing Histories) (with contributions by Kołakowski and Daniel Chirot), Vladimir Tismăneanu was deemed by British historian Geoffrey Swain an "obvious choice to assemble the contributors."Geoffrey Swain, Reviews in History: The Revolutions of 1989, at the Institute of Historical Research

Institute of Historical Research

Monism

Monism is any philosophical view which holds that there is unity in a given field of inquiry. Accordingly, some philosophers may hold that the universe is one rather than dualistic or pluralistic...

Sorin Antohi

, Timothy Garton Ash

Timothy Garton Ash

, Adam Michnik

Adam Michnik

, Radim Palouš and Haraszti, is another overview of the dissidents' contribution to the end of communism.

Încet spre Europa and Scrisori din Washington

Romanian Democratic Convention

The Romanian Democratic Convention was an electoral alliance of several political parties of Romania, active from early 1992 until 2000....

. According to historian Victor Neumann

Victor Neumann

Invertebrate

—political class, but also on the cultural milieus and the media, which favor sterile discussions, world play, obsolete ideologies." Victor Neumann

Victor Neumann

, "Aspiraţia integrării în civilizaţia continentală", in Observator Cultural
Observator Cultural
Observator Cultural is a literary magazine based in Bucharest, Romania. It covers Romania's cultural and arts scene.-External links:*...

, Nr. 42, December 2000 He also notes: "The dialogue between Vladimir Tismăneanu and Mircea Mihăieş demonstrates the role of analysis and confrontation of ideas over hasty judgment or temperamental criticism, providing in the end an image as unembellished as possible. [It] places a magnifier over high-ranking institutions such as the Presidency

President of Romania

The President of Romania is the head of state of Romania. The President is directly elected by a two-round system for a five-year term . An individual may serve two terms...

, the Orthodox Church

Romanian Orthodox Church

, the school

Education in Romania

. The observations are always based on knowledge of the facts."

Part of the volume focuses on the Holocaust, Holocaust denial

Holocaust denial

, and Romania's responsibility, discussing them in relation with Stéphane Courtois

Stéphane Courtois

Stéphane Courtois is a French historian, an internationally known expert on communist studies, particularly the history of communism and communist genocides, and author of several books...

Martyrology

" on comparisons made between the Holocaust and the Gulag

Gulag

(or other forms of communist repression). Although he agrees that communism is innately genocidal

Genocide

, Tismăneanu views the latter claims as attempts to trivialize the Holocaust. He also criticizes some versions of historical revisionism

Historical revisionism

In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of orthodox views on evidence, motivations, and decision-making processes surrounding a historical event...

which, he argues, make it seem like the victims of communism were all "friends of democracy" and "adherents to classical liberalism

Classical liberalism

Fascism

Kingdom of Romania

The Kingdom of Romania was the Romanian state based on a form of parliamentary monarchy between 13 March 1881 and 30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania...

was exploited by the communist regime, leading to what he calls a "baroque

Baroque

Deutsche Welle

broadcasts, it also includes short texts on diverse subjects, such as essays about Marxist resistance to established communism, an analysis of the Western far right, conclusions about the Kosovo War

Kosovo War

, a debate around the political ideas of interwar

Interwar period

novelist Panait Istrati

Panait Istrati

, and praises of the Romanian intellectuals Virgil Ierunca

Virgil Ierunca

Virgil Ierunca was a Romanian literary critic, journalist and poet...

and Dan Pavel

Dan Pavel

Dan Pavel is a Romanian political scientist, academic, politician, journalist and 1989 revolutionary. He was a consultant to Gigi Becali in 2003.-References:...

. Mircea Iorgulescu criticizes the work for not discussing other relevant phenomena (such as the successes of feminism

Feminism

, decolonization

Decolonization

Decolonization refers to the undoing of colonialism, the unequal relation of polities whereby one people or nation establishes and maintains dependent Territory over another...

and the environmental movement

Environmental movement

The environmental movement, a term that includes the conservation and green politics, is a diverse scientific, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues....

Stalinism for All Seasons

With Stalinism for All Seasons, Tismăneanu provides a synthesis of his views on Communist Romanian history leading back to Arheologia terorii, documenting the Romanian Communist Party

Romanian Communist Party

's evolution from the Bolshevik

Bolshevik

wing of the Socialist Party

Socialist Party of Romania

to the establishment of a single-party state

Single-party state

. Tismăneanu himself, reflecting on the purpose of the book, stated his vision of communism as an "eschatological

Eschatology

" movement, adding: "Romanian communism was a subspecies of Bolshevik radicalism, itself born out of an engagement between Russian revolutionary tradition and the voluntarist

Voluntarism (action)

version of Marxism." Adrian Cioroianu

Adrian Cioroianu

notes that "Tismăneanu was the first who could ever explain the mirage and the motivation [felt by] Romania's first communists of the '20-'30 decade." The focus on communist conspiracies

Conspiracy (political)

and inner-Party struggles for power is constant throughout the book. In a 2004 review published by Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs is an American magazine and website on international relations and U.S. foreign policy published since 1922 by the Council on Foreign Relations six times annually...

magazine, political scientist Robert Legvold sees it as "less a political history of communism than it is a thorough account of leadership battles in the Romanian Communist Party from its origins at the turn of the nineteenth century to its demise in 1989."Robert Legvold, "Reviews & Responses. Stalinism for All Seasons: A Political History of Romanian Communism, in Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs is an American magazine and website on international relations and U.S. foreign policy published since 1922 by the Council on Foreign Relations six times annually...

, Vol. 83, Nr. 2, March/April 2004 Also according to Legvold, the author "shed[s] light on the paradoxes of Romanian communism: how a pariah party that was Stalinist to the core eventually turned on its Soviet master and embraced nationalism—how 'national Stalinism' was acceptable to the West as long as it meant autonomy from [the Soviet Union]. That is, until it became grotesque in Nicolae Ceauşescu's last decade, leading to the regime's violent death."

The book title is a direct allusion to Robert Bolt

Robert Bolt

Joseph Stalin

Methodology

Methodology is generally a guideline for solving a problem, with specificcomponents such as phases, tasks, methods, techniques and tools . It can be defined also as follows:...

of historiography

Historiography

Historiography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...

introduced by the Annales School

Annales School

Politics of Romania

Robert C. Tucker

calls it "the definitive work on Romanian communism", and Stanomir "a monument of erudition and laconicism

Laconic phrase

Democraţie şi memorie and Cortina de ceaţă

Raymond Aron

, Robert Conquest

Robert Conquest

, Arthur Koestler

Arthur Koestler

Arthur Koestler CBE was a Hungarian author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest and, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria...

, Jacek Kuroń

Jacek Kuron

, Czesław Miłosz, Susan Sontag

Susan Sontag

Susan Sontag was an American author, literary theorist, feminist and political activist whose works include On Photography and Against Interpretation.-Life:...

, Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev

Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev

—and those of Cold War

Cold War

figures such as US President

President of the United States

Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

and Pope

Pope

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...

John Paul II

Pope John Paul II

. The book also included his earlier calls to have the Securitate

Securitate

archives, then managed by the Romanian Intelligence Service, opened for the public, in the belief that liberal democracy

Liberal democracy

has transparency as its prerequisite. Other segments of the book voiced calls for a public debate on the moral legacy of communism, and for the assumption of the "democratic ethos

Ethos

Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania

Media manipulation

in Romania, and the book includes commentary on such events as the arrival to power and eventual breakup of the Justice and Truth

Justice and Truth

alliance; the National Anticorruption Directorate

National Anticorruption Directorate

's inquiry into the activities of former Premier

Prime Minister of Romania

Adrian Năstase

Adrian Nastase

and other PSD leaders; the revelations that Chamber

Chamber of Deputies of Romania

representative Mona Muscă

Mona Muscă

and Tismăneanu's own colleague Sorin Antohi

Sorin Antohi

had been informants of Communist Romania's secret police

Secret police

Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....

, the Securitate

Securitate

; and criticism of the Commission itself. The book expresses its author's support for the political agenda of Romanian President

President of Romania

The President of Romania is the head of state of Romania. The President is directly elected by a two-round system for a five-year term . An individual may serve two terms...

Traian Băsescu

Traian Basescu

, impeached

Impeachment

by Parliament

Parliament of Romania

and reinstated by an April 2007 referendum

Romanian presidential impeachment referendum, 2007

Refuzul de a uita and Perfectul acrobat

Jeane Kirkpatrick

, Vasile Paraschiv

Vasile Paraschiv

Vasile Paraschiv was a Romanian social and political activist.- Biography :Paraschiv was born in Ordoreanu village, Clinceni commune, Ilfov County...

, Jean-François Revel

Jean-François Revel

Jean-François Revel was a French politician, journalist, author, prolific philosopher and member of the Académie française from June 1998...

, Andrei Sakharov

Andrei Sakharov

, Aleksandr Zinovyev

Aleksandr Zinovyev

Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Zinovyev was a prominent Russian logician and dissident writer of social critique....

); reflections on populism

Populism

, with case studies of Hugo Chávez

Hugo Chávez

's Venezuela

Venezuela

and Slobodan Milošević

Slobodan Milošević

's Yugoslavia; and a posthumous critique of political analyst and former communist activist Silviu Brucan

Silviu Brucan

Silviu Brucan was a Romanian communist politician. Though he disagreed with Nicolae Ceauşescu's policies, he never gave up his communist beliefs and did not oppose communist ideology...

. A section of the volume refers to the controversy surrounding journalist Carol Sebastian, exposed as a Securitate

Securitate

Censorship in Communist Romania

Censorship in Communist Romania was widespread and virtually every published document, be it a newspaper article or a book, had to pass the censor's approval...

and propaganda

Propaganda

Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....

Tudor Arghezi

, George Călinescu

George Calinescu

George Călinescu was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies...

, Ovid Crohmălniceanu, Petru Dumitriu, Paul Georgescu

Paul Georgescu

, Eugen Jebeleanu

Eugen Jebeleanu

Agitprop

Agitprop is derived from agitation and propaganda, and describes stage plays, pamphlets, motion pictures and other art forms with an explicitly political message....

had in creating the "New Man". Tismăneanu, who deems Răutu "the demiurge

Demiurge

Other contributions

Outside the realms of history, political science and political analysis, Vladimir Tismăneanu is a noted author of memoir

Memoir

s. This part of his work is centered on the volume Ghilotina de scrum ("The Ashen Guillotine

Guillotine

"), also written on the basis of interviews with Mihăieş. The book offers an account of his complicating relationship with Leonte Tismăneanu

Leonte Tismaneanu

Romanian diaspora

, critics Monica Lovinescu

Monica Lovinescu

and Virgil Ierunca

Virgil Ierunca

Virgil Ierunca was a Romanian literary critic, journalist and poet...

Petre Roman

, Romania-s first post-1989 Premier

Prime Minister of Romania

, whose attempts at discussing the public image of his father, the communist politico Valter Roman

Valter Roman

Early objections

Marxism-Leninism

in content, and his activities inside the Union of Communist Youth

Union of Communist Youth

. Among the critics of Tismăneanu's early activities was philosopher Gabriel Liiceanu

Gabriel Liiceanu

, who stated that they were incompatible with the moral status required from a leader of the Commission. Sorin Lavric, "Cum se investighează crimele comunismului la români", in Adevărul Literar şi Artistic, October 4, 2006 However, Liiceanu endorsed the incrimination of communist regime and eventually the report itself. Şerban Orescu, "De ce este nevoie de un apel la memorie?", in Ziua
Ziua
Ziua was a major Romanian daily newspaper published in Bucharest. It was published in Romanian with a fairly sizeable and often informative English section. Ziua was founded in 1994 by Sorin Roşca Stănescu, eventually becoming foreign-owned...

, March 11, 2006 Sabina Fati, "Politicienii, intelectualii şi condamnarea comunismului", in Observator Cultural
Observator Cultural
Observator Cultural is a literary magazine based in Bucharest, Romania. It covers Romania's cultural and arts scene.-External links:*...

, Nr. 352-353, December 2006

After the presentation of the Final Report and the official condemnation of the communist regime by President

President of Romania

The President of Romania is the head of state of Romania. The President is directly elected by a two-round system for a five-year term . An individual may serve two terms...

Traian Băsescu

Traian Basescu

Humanitas publishing house

Humanitas is an independent Romanian publishing house, founded on February 1, 1990 in Bucharest by the philosopher Gabriel Liiceanu...

, published in volume format the Final Report. Furthermore, Liiceanu, in the homage to Tismăneanu, when the latter was granted the award of the Group for Social Dialogue

Group for Social Dialogue

The Group for Social Dialogue is a Romanian non-governmental organization whose stated mission is to protect and promote democracy, human rights and civil liberties...

(January 2008), openly retracted his initial statements about Tismăneanu's academic and moral stature: "Vladimir Tismăneanu was the perfect person for completing the task of coordinating the Commission, considering that those who spoke after being exposed to this ideology explained it best. Vladimir Tismăneanu, besides owning such insider knowledge on what is communism at multiple levels, he then had an ideal competence, acquired and validated within the American academic environment, in order to be able to study this subject with both familiarity and distance." Gabriel Liiceanu's intervention, "Premiul GDS pe anul 2007. Vladimir Tismăneanu", in Revista 22
Revista 22
Revista 22 is a Romanian weekly magazine, issued by the Group for Social Dialogue and focused mainly on politics and culture....

, Nr. 934, January-February 2008 Liiceanu concluded: "He is the most qualified intellectual in the world for analyzing Romanian communism. His book Stalinism for All Seasons is the classical study in the field."

Early criticism of Tismăneanu based on allegations of communism was also voiced by writer Sorin Lavric. The author revised his stance soon afterward and, in four separate articles, gave his endorsement to both the Final Report and Vladimir Tismăneanu's later publications.

Political party-level reactions

Communist Romania

has opened the road for further debates regarding the links between various contemporary politicians and the former communist structures. Dana Betlevy, "România condamnă în mod oficial comunismul", in The Epoch Times
The Epoch Times
The Epoch Times is a multi-language, international media organisation. As a newspaper, the Times has been publishing in Chinese since May 2000. It was founded in 1999 by supporters of the Falun Gong spiritual discipline....

Romanian edition, December 18, 2006 Teodora Georgescu, "Felix, prezentat Americii", in Curentul, July 31, 2006Lica Manolache, "Efectul Comisiei Tismăneanu", in Evenimentul Zilei
Evenimentul Zilei
Evenimentul Zilei is one of the leading newspapers in Romania. Based in Bucharest, the Romanian-language daily has a paid daily circulation of 110,000...

, December 17, 2006Craig S. Smith

Craig S. Smith

Craig S. Smith is an American journalist. Until January, 2000, he wrote for The Wall Street Journal, most notably covering the rise of the religious movement Falun Gong in China. He joined The New York Times as Shanghai bureau chief in 2000 and wrote extensively about the practice of harvesting...

, "Romanian Leader Condemns Communist Rule", in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, December 19, 2006 The examples cited include four Senate

Senate of Romania

members: Ion Iliescu

Ion Iliescu

and Adrian Păunescu

Adrian Paunescu

from the PSD, as well as Greater Romania Party

Greater Romania Party

leader Corneliu Vadim Tudor

Corneliu Vadim Tudor

Corneliu Vadim Tudor is leader of the Greater Romania Party , writer, journalist and a Member of the European Parliament...

and Conservative Party

Conservative Party (Romania)

leader Dan Voiculescu

Dan Voiculescu

Dan Voiculescu is a Romanian politician and former business man. He is the Vicepresident of the Romanian Senate and founding president of the Conservative Party in Romania. ....

. The reading of the Final Report by President Băsescu was punctuated with heckling from among the Greater Romania Party Senate and Chamber

Chamber of Deputies of Romania

representatives. Lia Bejan, Luminiţa Castali, "Şedinţa festivă de condamnare a comunismului s-a transformat într-un circ ieftin care aminteşte de o exorcizare în grup", in Gardianul
Gardianul
Gardianul was a Romanian daily newspaper published in Bucharest. It claimed to have had an anti-corruption stance, investigating organized crime and high-level corruption....

, December 19, 2006 "Huliganii PRM au transformat Parlamentul în bîlci", in Observator Cultural
Observator Cultural
Observator Cultural is a literary magazine based in Bucharest, Romania. It covers Romania's cultural and arts scene.-External links:*...

, Nr. 352-353, December 2006 (originally published by HotNews.ro

Hotnews.ro

Hotnews.ro is a Romanian news site. It was founded in October 1999 by a group of financial journalists under the name revistapresei.ro and contained articles from outside sources put together as a press review. It was rebranded HotNews.ro in 2005...

) One televised incident saw the group making attempts to force several audience members, including intellectuals Liiceanu, Horia-Roman Patapievici

Horia-Roman Patapievici

and Andrei Pleşu

Andrei Plesu

Andrei Gabriel Pleşu is a Romanian philosopher, essayist, journalist, literary and art critic, and politician.- Biography :Born in Bucharest, the son of Radu Pleşu, a surgeon and Zoe Pleşu , he spent much of his early youth in the country side...

, out of the balcony overlooking the Parliament Hall

Palace of the Parliament

The Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, Romania is a multi-purpose building containing both chambers of the Romanian Parliament. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the Palace is the world's largest civilian administrative building, most expensive administrative building, and...

. Several commentators have described the behavior of anti-Băsesecu parliamentarians during the public reading as "a circus act" (an expression also used by Patapievici).

Although Iliescu and PSD leader Mircea Geoană

Mircea Geoana

Dan Mircea Geoană is a Romanian politician, who served as president of the upper chamber of the Romanian Parliament, the Senate from December 20, 2008 until he was revoked by the senators on November 23, 2011. From 21 April 2005 until 21 February 2010 he was the head of the Partidul Social...

abstained from participating in the session, the Final Report was soon after approved with certain reserves by Geoană. Armand Goşu, " 'Comunismul a fost condamnat în decembrie 1989' (interview with Vasile Puşcaş), in Revista 22
Revista 22
Revista 22 is a Romanian weekly magazine, issued by the Group for Social Dialogue and focused mainly on politics and culture....

, Nr. 880, January 2007 Support for the document was also voiced by academic and Social Democratic parliamentarian Vasile Puşcaş

Vasile Puscas

Vasile Puşcaş is a Romanian politician, diplomat and International Relations professor.- Biography :During 2000-2004 he was the Romanian Chief Negotiator with the European Union,...

, who noted that his group's objections addressed "working methods" and the perceived notion that the Commission claimed access to an "absolute truth". Puşcaş also took his distance from Iliescu's successive negative comments on the document. Similar assessments were made by Puşcaş' party colleague, sociologist Alin Teodorescu, who called the document "the work of a lifetime, [written] for sure in a perfectible manner, but [...] an exceptional study", while stating that he objected to "Băsescu [having] climbed on Tismăneanu's shoulders." According to journalist Cristian Pătrăşconiu, the conflict between Iliescu and Tismăneanu explained why, in the second edition of Tismăneanu's book of interviews with Iliescu, Marele şoc din finalul unui secol scurt (tr. The Great Shock of the Twentieth Century, first edition 2004), the latter's name was removed from the cover (a decision he attributed to Iliescu himself). Cristian Pătrăşconiu, "Criza politică îi împacă pe Tismăneanu şi pe Gallagher", in Cotidianul
Cotidianul
thumb|right|Old logo of Cotidianul newspaper, used in the [[inter-war period]], and in the early 1990sthumb|right|The logo used between 2003 and 2007...

, May 11, 2007

Among the consequences of the scandal, Urian states, is Vladimir Tismăneanu's "descent into the arena", leading some to perceive him as "a component of the never-ending political scandal and a predilect target for the president's adversaries." Urian also notes that, before the crisis, Romanian politicians from all camps, with the exception of Corneliu Vadim Tudor's supporters, viewed Tismăneanu with an equal "distant respect", before some grew worried that the Commission was first step toward lustration

Lustration

. The conflict was further highlighted during early 2007 by Băsescu's preliminary impeachment

Impeachment

by Parliament, a measure supported by the National Liberal Party

National Liberal Party (Romania)

of Premier

Prime Minister of Romania

Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu

Calin Popescu-Tariceanu

Călin Constantin Anton Popescu-Tăriceanu is a Romanian politician. He was the Prime Minister of Romania between 29 December 2004 and 22 December 2008...

, the PSD, the Conservative Party, the Greater Romania Party, and the Democratic Union of Hungarians

Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania

The Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania, is the main political organisation representing the ethnic Hungarians of Romania....

, and ultimately resolved in Băsescu's benefit by an impeachment referendum

Romanian presidential impeachment referendum, 2007

. During this crisis, Tismăneanu joined 49 other intellectuals in condemning the anti-Băsescu parliamentary opposition, signing an open letter

Open letter

An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally....

which accused it of representing political corruption

Political corruption

Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...

and the legacy of communism, and referred to its attitude toward the Commission.

On the anti-Tismăneanu side, the controversy involved political forces most often described as extremist, in particular the Greater Romania Party. Such groups have an ideological objection to Tismăneanu's condemnation of both fascism

Fascism

and national communism

National communism

The term National Communism describes the ethnic minority communist currents that arose in the former Russian Empire after Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik Party seized power in October 1917....

. Cristian Vasile, who argues that this meeting of extremes had already been predicted and verified by Tismăneanu's notion of "baroque synthesis", specifically refers to a "fowl-smelling rhetorical cocktail" of neo-fascism

Neo-Fascism

Neo-fascism is a post–World War II ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. The term neo-fascist may apply to groups that express a specific admiration for Benito Mussolini and Italian Fascism or any other fascist leader/state...

or "(Neo-)Legionary characteristics" (in reference to the historical Iron Guard

Iron Guard

The Iron Guard is the name most commonly given to a far-right movement and political party in Romania in the period from 1927 into the early part of World War II. The Iron Guard was ultra-nationalist, fascist, anti-communist, and promoted the Orthodox Christian faith...

), neo-Stalinism

Neo-Stalinism

and Protochronism

Protochronism

Protochronism is a Romanian term describing the tendency to ascribe, largely relying on questionable data and subjective interpretations, an idealised past to the country as a whole...

, to be found at the source of "media and historiographic

Historiography

Historiography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...

ambuscades". In this context, claims of an antisemitic nature were issued, targeting Tismăneanu and his family. As Tismăneanu recalls in an interview with Jim Compton

Jim Compton

Jim Compton was a member of the Seattle City Council, first elected in 1999. At his resignation in December 2005, he was chair of the Utilities & Technology Committee, vice chair of the Energy & Environmental Policy Committee, and a member of the Government Affairs & Labor Committee.Compton got his...

from the Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...

, "A Greater Romania Party senator made a speech in Parliament, about 'five reasons why Tismăneanu should not head the commission,' and reason number three was that I was a Jew."Jim Compton

Jim Compton

, "U-Md. Teacher Heads Inquiry in Romania Probe of Communist Past Stirs Backlash", The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...

, July 28, 2006, page A16

In July 2007, Tismăneanu sued the Greater Romania Party journals Tricolorul and România Mare, on grounds of calumny, in reference to the series of articles they published in the wake of the Commission report. "Liiceanu, Tismăneanu şi Tapalagă dau în judecată publicaţiile Ziua, România Mare şi Tricolorul", in Adevărul
Adevarul
Adevărul is a Romanian daily newspaper, based in Bucharest. Founded in 1871 and reestablished in 1888, it was the main left-wing press venue to be published during the Romanian Kingdom's existence, adopting an independent pro-democratic position, advocating land reform and universal suffrage...

, July 8, 2007 "Liiceanu, Tismăneanu şi Dan Tapalagă dau în judecată Ziua şi România Mare", in România Liberă
România Libera
România Liberă is one of the leading newspapers in Romania. Based in Bucharest, the Romanian-language daily has a paid daily circulation of 40,000....

, July 8, 2007 Tismăneanu, who demanded 100,000 Euro

Euro

The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...

in compensation, indicated that he also contemplated suing the two papers in front of a United States court, were his case denied in Romania. He specified that the publications he cited were responsible for issuing "defamatory, xenophobic

Xenophobia

and antisemitic" articles targeting him personally. In addition, he referred to accusations that he had stolen archived documents from his native country and that had been enlisted by the Securitate

Securitate

. He had earlier recounted having received, at his College Park

College Park, Maryland

College Park is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, USA. The population was 30,413 at the 2010 census. It is best known as the home of the University of Maryland, College Park, and since 1994 the city has also been home to the "Archives II" facility of the U.S...

home, hate mail

Hate mail

Hate mail is a form of harassment, usually consisting of invective and potentially intimidating or threatening comments towards the recipient...

with explicit death threats and copies of Tricolorul and România Mare articles, and having informed campus police

Campus police

Campus Police or University police in the United States and Canada are often sworn police officers employed by a public school district, college or university to protect the campus and surrounding areas and the people who live on, work on and visit it....

. According to Tismăneanu, such letters, using "almost identical terms", had been sent to him before 1989 by unknown antisemites. At the time of this incident, he again accused Greater Romania Party of endorsing the conspiracy theory

Conspiracy theory

of Jewish Bolshevism

Jewish Bolshevism

as incitement to racial hatred and violence, citing its leader's statements on Oglinda Television, which called Tismăneanu, among other things, "one of the most idiotic persons [...] in Romania" and "an offspring of the Stalinist Jews who brought communism to Romania on top of Red Army

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

tanks." Such attacks, Tismăneanu contended, "cannot but lead to polluting the public discourse and rendering hysterical those persons who belong the category of what [Romanian writer] Marin Preda

Marin Preda

Marin Preda was a Romanian novelist, one of the best-known post-WWII Romanian writers.Preda was born in Teleorman county, in a village called Siliştea-Gumeşti, into a family of peasants. He first studied at school in his home village, then schools in Abrud and Cristur-Odorhei...

called 'the basic aggressive spirit'."

Tismăneanu and Gallagher

Beginning in 2004, Tom Gallagher

Thomas Gerard Gallagher

-Education and career:Tom Gallagher is holder of the chair of ethnic peace and conflict at the department of peace studies, University of Bradford. Ironically it has been alleged that he has been known to vocally support the INLA, who carried out a twenty-four year campaign of terror including the...

, a Professor of Ethnic Conflict and Peace at the University of Bradford

University of Bradford

The University of Bradford is a British university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The University received its Royal Charter in 1966, making it the 40th University to be created in Britain, but its origins date back to the early 1800s...

and author of influential works on Romanian politics, expressed criticism of Vladimir Tismăneanu on various grounds. He authored a series of articles critical of Tismăneanu's involvement in local Romanian issues in the post-1989 era, and especially of his relations with Ion Iliescu. According to Gallagher, Tismăneanu "was useful to Iliescu in 2004 because the then President recognised the type of figure he was beneath the western reformist image he has cultivated".Tom Gallagher

Thomas Gerard Gallagher

, "A Historian Indispensable for two Romanian Presidents (II)", in Ziua
Ziua
Ziua was a major Romanian daily newspaper published in Bucharest. It was published in Romanian with a fairly sizeable and often informative English section. Ziua was founded in 1994 by Sorin Roşca Stănescu, eventually becoming foreign-owned...

, April 15, 2006

Gallagher writes that Marele şoc "was ready to depict Ion Iliescu as an enlightened leader who, despite some flaws, had been instrumental in consolidating Romanian democracy", and that the volume, which he called "one of the strangest books to emerge from the Romanian transition", did not include, to Iliescu's advantage, any mentions of the controversial aspects of his presidency ("any serious enquiries about the mineriad

Mineriad

e, the manipulation of nationalism

Nationalism

, the denigration of the historic parties [the National Peasants' Party

National Peasants' Party

The National Peasants' Party was a Romanian political party, formed in 1926 through the fusion of the Romanian National Party from Transylvania and the Peasants' Party . It was in power between 1928 and 1933, with brief interruptions...

and the National Liberal Party], civic movements and the monarchy

King of Romania

King of the Romanians , rather than King of Romania , was the official title of the ruler of the Kingdom of Romania from 1881 until 1947, when Romania was proclaimed a republic....

, the explosion of corruption, or indeed the continuing political influence and fabulous wealth of the heirs of the pre-1989 intelligence service").Tom Gallagher

Thomas Gerard Gallagher

, "A Historian Indispensable for Two Romanian Presidents (I)", in Ziua
Ziua
Ziua was a major Romanian daily newspaper published in Bucharest. It was published in Romanian with a fairly sizeable and often informative English section. Ziua was founded in 1994 by Sorin Roşca Stănescu, eventually becoming foreign-owned...

, April 14, 2006 In addition, he wrote that, in agreeing to interview Iliescu, Vladimir Tismăneanu had come to contradict his own assessment of the post-Revolution regime, which he had earlier defined as "of a populist

Populism

, corporatist

Corporatism

Corporatism, also known as corporativism, is a system of economic, political, or social organization that involves association of the people of society into corporate groups, such as agricultural, business, ethnic, labor, military, patronage, or scientific affiliations, on the basis of common...

and semi-fascist

Fascism

type". In contrast to this assessment, Ion Bogdan Lefter challenged that Tismăneanu had taken "unnecessary precautions" in stating his bias during the dialogue with Iliescu, given that the latter was "at the end of his political career", and stresses that the interviewer had preserved "a researcher's perspective" throughout the conversation. Also according to Lefter, the interest of the book does not reside with Iliescu's views on politics, which express "the already familiar 'official' version, formulated in his hardly bearable 'wooden tongue' ", but in his recollections of childhood and youth.

Gallagher expressed further criticism on Tismăneanu, writing that "he wishes to build up a vast patron-client network in contemporary history and political science not dissimilar to what the PSD did in those areas where it desired control". Referring to Tismăneanu's books, he also wrote: "But what about the role of the Securitate

Securitate

? In his books, [Tismăneanu] has never been especially interested in their role. Much of the time, he has seemed far more concerned with creating a psycho-biography of the life and times of his illegalist family in order to overcome the long lasting shock of having been cast into the wilderness for over twenty years when his family fell from grace under Gheorghiu-Dej

Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej

." In other pieces he authored, Gallagher questioned Tismăneanu's expertise, comparing him to the Romanian-French businessman Adrian Costea, a person close to Iliescu who stood accused of encouraging political corruption

Political corruption

, and claiming that he was using the academic environment as a venue for lobbying

Lobbying

Lobbying is the act of attempting to influence decisions made by officials in the government, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying is done by various people or groups, from private-sector individuals or corporations, fellow legislators or government officials, or...

. He also took a negative view of his colleague's earlier collaboration with Jurnalul Naţional
Jurnalul National
Jurnalul Naţional is a Romanian newspaper, part of the Intact media group led by Dan Voiculescu, which also includes the popular TV station Antena 1....

, a newspaper owned by Conservative Party

Conservative Party (Romania)

leader Dan Voiculescu

Dan Voiculescu

Dan Voiculescu is a Romanian politician and former business man. He is the Vicepresident of the Romanian Senate and founding president of the Conservative Party in Romania. ....

(who has been officially linked with the Securitate). Additionally, Gallagher complained about the publicized visit Tismăneanu paid to Gigi Becali

Gigi Becali

George Becali is a controversial Romanian politician and businessman, mostly known for his involvement in the Steaua Bucureşti football club.He has been a Member of the European Parliament since June 2009.-Biography:...

, leader of the nationalist New Generation Party – Christian Democratic, at his residence in Pipera

Pipera

Pipera is a district of Voluntari city, situated in the north part of Bucharest, Romania.Until 1995, it was an ordinary village. After that, an "el dorado" of land transactions began. Plots of land that were 1 USD/m² reached in 2005 the amount of 250 USD/m²...

.

Tismăneanu replied to some of Gallagher's accusations in a manner described by Cotidianul
Cotidianul
thumb|right|Old logo of Cotidianul newspaper, used in the [[inter-war period]], and in the early 1990sthumb|right|The logo used between 2003 and 2007...

s Cristian Pătrăşconiu as "discreet". In an interview with Jurnalul Naţional, arguing that Marele şoc largely reflected Iliescu's own beliefs, which he had wanted to render accurately, and stating that "all I could do was to obtain the maximum of what can be obtained through dialog with [Iliescu]". Monica Iordache, "Nu cred că găsim în această carte adevărul", in Jurnalul Naţional

Jurnalul National

Jurnalul Naţional is a Romanian newspaper, part of the Intact media group led by Dan Voiculescu, which also includes the popular TV station Antena 1....

, April 16, 2004 He depicted Gallagher's attitude as "an outbreak of resentments", and indicated that "the only praise I could offer [Iliescu]" was in regard to the latter's respect for pluralism in front of authoritarianism

Authoritarianism

Authoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is usually opposed to individualism and democracy...

. In later statements on the issue, he argued that Gallagher concerns about a supposed change in political views had been unfounded, while expressing regret over the fact that "I had not highlighted [...] in those sections I authored, certain elements that would have made it clear for the reader where I stand". Ovidiu Şimonca, " 'Există un mare interes să înţelegem din ce lume venim'. Interviu cu Vladimir Tismăneanu", in Observator Cultural

Observator Cultural

Observator Cultural is a literary magazine based in Bucharest, Romania. It covers Romania's cultural and arts scene.-External links:*...

, Nr. 273, June 2005 Elsewhere, he responded to claims made about his contacts with Becali by admitting that the visit was inappropriate. Cristian Vasile, who notes that concerns similar to those of Gallagher were expressed by historian Şerban Papacostea and by himself, argues that Tismăneanu effectively dissuaded fears of a "moral resignation" by not accepting any form of "privilege or public post" from the political sides he was alleged to favor.

By spring 2007, Gallagher and Tismăneanu reconciled, explaining that this was largely owed to their common support for Băsescu, who was then faced with impeachment. In that context, Gallagher explained his earlier position: "Marele şoc [...] was published [at] a time when the Social Democratic Party were going through a lot of trouble to quiet international voices in order to cover the lack of significant reform of key state institutions. Tismăneanu argued at the time that because of agreeing to the NATO and EU

European Union

accession, Iliescu was signaling his wishes of reconciliation with the democratic quarters in the country. Both the author and others gradually became convinced that Iliescu's intentions were far from targeting pluralism. He only aimed at legitimizing the elite whose leader he was and which he propelled out of communism to a new era essentially defined by violence, abuse and repression, as it was obvious already by 1990-'91. For purposes of revealing such interest groups, the political scientist risked both his name and life. Both his results in the academic field and his unwavering determination must be appreciated and treasured, more so considering the insults and calumny showered upon him by the post-communist clique and their followers in the mass-media. I wish to express to Vladimir Tismăneanu my gratitude and utmost appreciation for his and the Commission’s efforts, hoping that our initial disagreements are from now on belonging only to the past." Commenting on the developments following the impeachment referendum, Vladimir Tismăneanu indicated that he and Gallagher, together with British historian Dennis Deletant, had decided to campaign against the Parliament's decision and in favor of Traian Băsescu, a measure which he equated with support for "pluralism and transparency". Gallagher himself noted that the initiative was motivated by "the need to display solidarity in order to prevent the replacement of democracy with the collective autocracy

Autocracy

An autocracy is a form of government in which one person is the supreme power within the state. It is derived from the Greek : and , and may be translated as "one who rules by himself". It is distinct from oligarchy and democracy...

of economic barons and their political allies. That would destabilize the Balkans

Balkans

The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...

, would discredit the EU and would place the country on the Eastern trajectory."

Ziua allegations

In 2006 and early 2007, Ziua

Ziua

newspaper repeatedly published accusatory claims that Tismăneanu had left with support from the Securitate, that he had settled abroad with assistance from the Communist Party of Venezuela

Communist Party of Venezuela

The Communist Party of Venezuela is a Marxist-Leninist political party, and the oldest continuously existing party in Venezuela...

, and that, after escaping Romania's communist censorship

Censorship in Communist Romania

Censorship in Communist Romania was widespread and virtually every published document, be it a newspaper article or a book, had to pass the censor's approval...

, he continued to publish materials supporting official communist tenets. Vladimir Alexe, "Agentul Volodea", in Ziua

Ziua

, May 13, 2006 Ovidiu Şimonca, "Dincolo de înjurătură", in Observator Cultural

Observator Cultural

Observator Cultural is a literary magazine based in Bucharest, Romania. It covers Romania's cultural and arts scene.-External links:*...

, Nr. 321, May 2006 Tismăneanu has rejected all allegations, indicating that they contradicted data present in, among others, files kept on him by the Securitate and the official conclusion reached by the National Council for the Study of Securitate Archives (CNSAS).

The article was also criticized by intellectuals such as Ovidiu Şimonca, Ioan T. Morar

Ioan T. Morar

Ioan T. Morar is a Romanian journalist, poet, dramatist, novelist, literary and art critic, and civil society activist. He is a founding member of the satirical magazine Academia Caţavencu and, since 2004, a senior editor for Cotidianul...

and Mircea Mihăieş. Ioan T. Morar

Ioan T. Morar

, "Prietenul meu, Vladimir Tismăneanu", in Monitorul de Suceava, May 15, 2006 Writing for Observator Cultural

Observator Cultural

Observator Cultural is a literary magazine based in Bucharest, Romania. It covers Romania's cultural and arts scene.-External links:*...

, Şimonca argued that it was evidence of "defamation", that the information, which he deemed "horrific" and "hard to believe", was not substantiated by evidence, and that Ziua had vested interest in spreading rumors about Vladimir Tismăneanu. He also asked if Ziua 's campaign was not itself motivated by "Securitate structures". In an editorial for the local newspaper Monitorul de Suceava, titled Prietenul meu, Vladimir Tismăneanu ("My Friend, Vladimir Tismăneanu"), Morar dismissed the article as "hogwash, egregious lies and let-ins", commenting that the claims made in regard to Tismăneanu's stay in Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

were "an aberration stemming from a rather obvious psychiatric diagnosis". He also made references to the fact that Ziuas editor in chief, Sorin Roşca-Stănescu, was himself a proven Securitate informant, arguing that the tactics employed by the newspaper in question were the equivalent of "blackmail

Blackmail

In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...

". Soon afterward, Roşca-Stănescu issued a formal apology for those particular claims (while expressing further criticism of various aspects of Tismăneanu's biography). Sorin Roşca-Stănescu, "Vladimir Tismăneanu, punct şi de la căpat", in Ziua
Ziua
Ziua was a major Romanian daily newspaper published in Bucharest. It was published in Romanian with a fairly sizeable and often informative English section. Ziua was founded in 1994 by Sorin Roşca Stănescu, eventually becoming foreign-owned...

, June 22, 2006 (English-language version: "Vladimir Tismăneanu: End and Beginning" [sic])

Based on data which he indicated formed part of his CNSAS file, Tismăneanu also specified that he was the object of constant Securitate surveillance after his departure, that his mother was subject to pressures, and that derogatory comments on him, including a coded reference to his Jewish background (tunărean), were gathered from various informants and agents. He made mention of the fact that, according to the documents (the last of which were allegedly compiled in April 1990), the post-Revolution Foreign Intelligence Directorate

Serviciul de Informatii Externe

The Foreign Intelligence Service, or Serviciul de Informaţii Externe in Romanian, is, under Law no. 1/1998, "the state body specialized in foreign intelligence concerning the national security and the safeguarding of Romania and its interests"....

had continued to monitor him. Tismăneanu also indicated his belief that the author of a denunciation note, who used the name Costin and recommended himself as a Faculty of Sociology professor, was the same person who, after 1989, had sent a letter to his University of Maryland employer, in which he had called attention to the communist activities of Leonte Tismăneanu

Leonte Tismaneanu

(according to Vladimir Tismăneanu, the letter was dismissed as "abject" and irrelevant by its recipient). Tismăneanu also cited Costin's report to the Securitate, which expressed concern that his doctoral thesis was a covert popularization of the Frankfurt School

Frankfurt School

The Frankfurt School refers to a school of neo-Marxist interdisciplinary social theory, particularly associated with the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt am Main...

and its reinterpretations of Marxist thought. According to his former colleague Radu Ioanid, the Urban Sociology Department group had been under constant Securitate surveillance, especially after Tismăneanu defected. Ioanid quoted his own Securitate file, which, in a post-1981 comment, referred to his "close contacts" with Tismăneanu, defining the latter as "a sociologist of Jewish nationality, a former office colleague [of Ioanid's], presently an outstandingly hostile collaborator of Radio Free Europe

Radio Free Europe

[who has] settled in the USA." Ioanid also referred to Tismăneanu's family in Romania having been "heckled" by the Securitate, especially after he himself had been made suspect by his historical research into Romanian antisemitism.

In January 2007, Ziua contributor Vladimir Alexe published in facsimile a text which he considered part of a separate file kept on Tismăneanu by the Counter-Espionage unit of the Securitate, dated 1987. Vladimir Alexe, Dan Mureşan, "Documentul 'fugii' lui Tismăneanu"; "Unde a fost Tismăneanu patru ani, până a ajuns în SUA?", in Ziua
Ziua
Ziua was a major Romanian daily newspaper published in Bucharest. It was published in Romanian with a fairly sizeable and often informative English section. Ziua was founded in 1994 by Sorin Roşca Stănescu, eventually becoming foreign-owned...

, January 23, 2007 According to this, Tismăneanu was well appreciated for his professional and Romanian Communist Party

Romanian Communist Party

work prior to 1981, and had held the position of lecturer on the Propaganda Commission of the Communist Party Municipal Committee for Bucharest. The same text also contradicts Tismăneanu's indication that he had not been allowed to travel to the West prior to 1981, by stating that he had been approved tourist visas for both the Eastern Bloc

Eastern bloc

The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...

and "capitalist

Capitalism

Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...

states". The facsimile was accompanied by an open letter containing similar accusatory claims made by Dan Mureşan, who recommended himself as the political consultant of a company working for the United States Republican Party, and relying on the assertion that Tismăneanu had settled in the United States only after 1985. Several months before, Alexe had himself been accused by Cotidianul
Cotidianul
thumb|right|Old logo of Cotidianul newspaper, used in the [[inter-war period]], and in the early 1990sthumb|right|The logo used between 2003 and 2007...

newspaper of having been a Securitate informant and confronted with a CNSAS file which appeared to confirm this, but had rejected the claim as manipulative.

As leaders of anti-communist

Anti-communism

opinion inside the former Eastern Bloc

Eastern bloc

The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...

, invited by President Băsescu the Final Report reading, Lech Wałęsa

Lech Wałęsa

and Vladimir Bukovsky

Vladimir Bukovsky

Vladimir Konstantinovich Bukovsky is a leading member of the dissident movement of the 1960s and 1970s, writer, neurophysiologist, and political activist....

had been requested by Ziua to comment on the Commission's activities. When asked if he knew Tismăneanu, Wałęsa replied "No, I don't know, I don't have such a good memory", George Damian, Victor Roncea, " 'Scăpaţi de structurile Kominternului!' " (interview with Lech Lech Wałęsa), in Ziua
Ziua
Ziua was a major Romanian daily newspaper published in Bucharest. It was published in Romanian with a fairly sizeable and often informative English section. Ziua was founded in 1994 by Sorin Roşca Stănescu, eventually becoming foreign-owned...

, December 20, 2006 while Bukovsky stated "I don't know Tismăneanu, I know nothing about him. I would like people to understand what they did in the past. He too should understand the part he played".George Damian, Victor Roncea, "The Bukovski Proof" (interview with Vladimir Bukovsky), in Ziua
Ziua
Ziua was a major Romanian daily newspaper published in Bucharest. It was published in Romanian with a fairly sizeable and often informative English section. Ziua was founded in 1994 by Sorin Roşca Stănescu, eventually becoming foreign-owned...

, May 15, 2006

Writing for Evenimentul Zilei
Evenimentul Zilei
Evenimentul Zilei is one of the leading newspapers in Romania. Based in Bucharest, the Romanian-language daily has a paid daily circulation of 110,000...

in May 2007, Tismăneanu accused Ziua of "intoxication", and argued that the journal's stated anti-communism was meant to avert attention from its association with Băsescu's critics, at a time when the president was impeached and reinstated by popular suffrage. Vladimir Tismăneanu, "Revoluţia forumurilor", in Evenimentul Zilei
Evenimentul Zilei
Evenimentul Zilei is one of the leading newspapers in Romania. Based in Bucharest, the Romanian-language daily has a paid daily circulation of 110,000...

, May 1, 2007 Commenting that the anti-Băsescu group was setting itself against "popular sovereignty

Popular sovereignty

Popular sovereignty or the sovereignty of the people is the political principle that the legitimacy of the state is created and sustained by the will or consent of its people, who are the source of all political power. It is closely associated with Republicanism and the social contract...

" and ruling through a "continuous parliamentary putsch", he also accused Ziua and other press venues, including Dan Voiculescu

Dan Voiculescu

Dan Voiculescu is a Romanian politician and former business man. He is the Vicepresident of the Romanian Senate and founding president of the Conservative Party in Romania. ....

's Jurnalul Naţional and Antena 1, were engaged in a campaign to discredit Băsescu. In his view, the coalition of political forces itself represented a "black quadrilateral" reuniting diverse left-wing forces and "camouflaged-green" groups inspired by the Iron Guard, whose goal he alleged was in "establishing an oligarchic

Oligarchy

Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with an elite class distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, commercial, and/or military legitimacy...

-neo-Securist dictatorship". Tismăneanu stated that this was connected with earlier criticism of the Commission, arguing that, despite its editors professing anti-communism, "Ziua has been doing nothing other than throw mud at the [Commission] members and at the very purpose of the Commission." Similar accusations against such press organs, as well as against Voiculescu's newer station Antena 3

Antena 3 (Romania)

Antena 3 is a Romanian TV channel, which focuses on news and current events. It was launched in May 2005 and is part of the Intact group. Antena 3 is also distributed in Serbia in the Romanian language-extra package of the DTH platform Digi TV...

, were repeated during subsequent interviews.

In July 2007, Gabriel Liiceanu

Gabriel Liiceanu

and former Ziua contributor Dan Tapalagă sued the latter newspaper for calumny, referring to various allegations made against them—Liiceanu considered that, in his case, Ziua had organized a campaign of libel after he had decided to rally with supporters of the Report. According to Adevărul
Adevarul
Adevărul is a Romanian daily newspaper, based in Bucharest. Founded in 1871 and reestablished in 1888, it was the main left-wing press venue to be published during the Romanian Kingdom's existence, adopting an independent pro-democratic position, advocating land reform and universal suffrage...

journal, the three argued that their initiative was an attempt "to purge the language of the Romanian press, and to put a stop to the publishing of articles that 'poison' public opinion." Patapievici also expressed his concern that the anti-Băsescu section of the Romanian public made little effort to condemn Ziua for its "mudslinging".

In December 2007, Ziua also published comments made by the American researcher and political commentator Richard Hall, who wrote that Tismăneanu's defense tactic in the wake of the Report having been made public was to answer to "the most stupid calumnies" brought against him, but to ignore reasonable criticism. Victor Roncea, "Raportul Tismăneanu pus la zid de un analist CIA" (comprises Rich Hall's "Eschivele lui Tismăneanu in faţa criticilor"), in Ziua
Ziua
Ziua was a major Romanian daily newspaper published in Bucharest. It was published in Romanian with a fairly sizeable and often informative English section. Ziua was founded in 1994 by Sorin Roşca Stănescu, eventually becoming foreign-owned...

, October 27, 2007 Hall considers his approach to the Romanian Revolution of 1989

Romanian Revolution of 1989

The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...

"amateuristic", arguing that Tismăneanu "must not have read too much on this subject." In 2008, referring to such claims, Tismăneanu asked: "With whom can one enter a polemic? What could and couldn't one answer to? What is the meaning of dialogue?" He likened the critics of intellectuals in general with "fiddlers" and "cimbalists" challenging "an accomplished violinist", and added: "How could one, as an expert in his field, accept dialogue with someone who says one is an idiot who knows nothing about the issues [up for debate]?"

Michael Shafir and Iluzia anticomunismului

Repeated criticism of the Final Report was voiced by Romanian-born Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

i historian and former Radio Free Europe contributor Michael Shafir. In a January 2007 interview with Tapalagă, Shafir had expressed objections to the document's referencing a "genocide

Genocide

" in Communist Romania, arguing that this verdict was exaggerated and unscientific, and objected to Iron Guard activists allegedly being included among the regime's victims, in the same category as members of democratic forces. Dan Tapalagă, "Raportul Tismăneanu, notat cu şapte ", in Ziua de Cluj, January 12, 2007 (hosted by HotNews.ro

Hotnews.ro

) Shafir, who nevertheless also stated the existence of "chapters in the report where I wouldn't change one comma", rated the text "a seven, no more than an eight." Accusing Vladimir Tismăneanu's adversaries at Ziua of having a dissimulated far right agenda, he added: "Every time Mr. Tismăneanu was attacked unjustly, I took a stand provided I thought my word counted." In late May 2006, Shafir had joined a group of intellectuals (comprising Liviu Antonesei, Andrei Cornea, Marta Petreu

Marta Petreu

Marta Petreu is the pen name of Rodica Marta Vartic, née Rodica Crisan , a Romanian philosopher, literary critic, essayist and poet. A professor of Philosophy at the Babeş-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, she has published eight books of essays and seven of poetry, and is the editor of the...

, Andrei Oişteanu

Andrei Oisteanu

Andrei Oişteanu is a Romanian historian of religions and mentalities, ethnologist, cultural anthropologist, literary critic and novelist. Specialized in the history of religions and mentalities, he is also noted for his investigation of rituals and magic and his work in Jewish studies and the...

, Leon Volovici and others) who together issued a formal protest against Ziua journalists, in particular Dan Ciachir, Victor Roncea and Vladimir Alexe, over their treatment of figures such as Tismăneanu and Foreign Minister Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu

Mihai Razvan Ungureanu

Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu is a Romanian historian, diplomat and politician. He was the foreign minister of Romania from December 28, 2004 to March 12, 2007...

, and over their allegedly Iron Guard-inspired and antisemitic rhetoric. Shafir's perspective on the matter of genocide was supported early on by exiled writer Dumitru Ţepeneag

Dumitru Tepeneag

Dumitru Ţepeneag is a contemporary Romanian novelist, essayist, short story writer and translator, who currently resides in France...

, who described the "far from perfect" Final Report as having the "not at all dismissible quality of being in existence", while calling its main author "an opportunist".

In 2008 Shafir joined Gabriel Andreescu

Gabriel Andreescu

Gabriel Andreescu is a Romanian human rights activist and political scientist born on 8 April 1952 in Buzǎu. He is one of the few Romanian dissidents who openly opposed Ceauşescu and the Communist regime in Romania....

, Daniel Barbu

Daniel Barbu

, Alex Cistelecan, Vasile Ernu, Adrian-Paul Iliescu, Costi Rogozanu, Ciprian Şiulea, Ovidiu Ţichindeleanu and other intellectuals from various fields in writing a critique of the Final Report, named Iluzia anticomunismului ("The Illusion of Anti-communism"). The volume was written from both mainstream liberal and left-wing positions, and objected to parts of the report on various grounds—including its definitions of genocide, the absence of detail on Communist Romania's contribution to positive causes such as literacy

Literacy In Romania

Before World War II the literacy rate in Romania ranked among the lowest in Europe. In 1930, at the time of the first official census, more than 38 percent of the population over seven years of age were considered illiterate: 50 percent of the women and over 25 percent of the men in the entire...

campaigns, an alleged overemphasis on the intellectuals' role in the events described, and in particular the tone, which the authors perceived as indicative of bias. Adrian Şchiop, "Atac la Raport", in România Liberă
România Libera
România Liberă is one of the leading newspapers in Romania. Based in Bucharest, the Romanian-language daily has a paid daily circulation of 40,000....

, November 11, 2008 In addition to the critique of the text, Iluzia anticomunismului made reproaches on Tismăneanu himself. It stated that, although well-selected overall, the Commission had included Patapievici and Nicolae Manolescu

Nicolae Manolescu

Nicolae Manolescu is a Romanian literary critic. As an editor of România Literară literary magazine, he has reached a record in reviewing books for almost 30 years...

for "clientelistic" reasons (Andreescu); that Tismăneanu was favorably reviewing the works of his friend Dan Pavel

Dan Pavel

Dan Pavel is a Romanian political scientist, academic, politician, journalist and 1989 revolutionary. He was a consultant to Gigi Becali in 2003.-References:...

, who, it concluded, had lost credibility by campaigning with the New Generation Party (Rogozanu); and that he only answered to marginal and violent criticism from venues such as the Greater Romania Party, being indifferent to his peers' objections, and constructing an image of "good" vs. "bad intellectuals" (Şiulea). Lorin Ghiman, "Intelectualii invizibili şi cărţile lor minunate", in Observator Cultural
Observator Cultural
Observator Cultural is a literary magazine based in Bucharest, Romania. It covers Romania's cultural and arts scene.-External links:*...

, Nr. 454-455, December 2008 The group also complained that Romanian publishing houses were unwilling to endorse their critique, on account of which the work was published by Editura Cartier in neighboring Moldova

Moldova

Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...

.

The new book itself sparked debates in the media. Patapievici sees it as evidence of "extermination criticism, hypocritically presented as impersonal". He also reproached Şiulea his conclusions that the report was not neutrally voiced and that Tismăneanu's background made his moral standing questionable. Essayist and Idei în Dialog contributor Horaţiu Pepine proposed that "beyond the visible and unrestrained resentment, it contains an emotional state and a tension that seems to speak of a certain social suffering."Horaţiu Pepine, "Despre anti-anticomunişti", in Idei în Dialog, Nr. 12(51), December2008 Pepine concluded that, among the authors, the "young revisionists

Historical revisionism

In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of orthodox views on evidence, motivations, and decision-making processes surrounding a historical event...

" were the voice of a newer social class

Social class

Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...

, which had emerged as a result of Ceauşescu's policies and was faced with becoming "déclassé". According to Pepine, at least some of the authors had already publicly objected to the idea of condemning communism before the Final Report had been issued. Iluzia anticomunismului earned the endorsement of historian Lorin Ghiman, who saw in it a correct evaluation of the Commission's actual goals, described by Ghiman as "the rhetorical and symbolical legitimation for the hegemony

Hegemony

Hegemony is an indirect form of imperial dominance in which the hegemon rules sub-ordinate states by the implied means of power rather than direct military force. In Ancient Greece , hegemony denoted the politico–military dominance of a city-state over other city-states...

of an intelligentsia

Intelligentsia

preoccupied with maintaining a monopoly

Monopoly

A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...

on opinion." Ghiman also objected to Vladimir Tismăneanu's alleged refusal to engage Iluzia anticomunismului writers in a public debate, but added that he did not perceive a personal conflict, and that "all editors of the volume have publicly expressed their respect for Mr. Tismăneanu, for all the reserves they voice in respect to various of his decisions." Historian Sorin Adam Matei

Sorin Adam Matei

Dr. Sorin Adam Matei is an Associate Professor of Communication at Purdue University, where he specializes in studying the creation, use, and application of new media technologies...

has also criticized the report, on editorial, legal and pragmatic grounds. He pointed to the fact that the conclusions were published before the report was even written and argued that the text incorporates verbatim sections from pre-existing works, suggesting a superficial and non-systematic approach to its writing. Matei concludes that the report generally fails to make a legal, factually grounded case for specific indictments of specific facts or individuals, under legal provisions valid at the time of commission of the acts described in the report. He called for a remake of the project, in a more legalistic and practically oriented manner.

In a December 2008 article, Tismăneanu stated that the allegation according to which he had not engaged his critics in a public debate was "completely false", and indicated several instances which he believed count as such. Vladimir Tismăneanu, "Iluzia normalităţii comuniste", in Evenimentul Zilei
Evenimentul Zilei
Evenimentul Zilei is one of the leading newspapers in Romania. Based in Bucharest, the Romanian-language daily has a paid daily circulation of 110,000...

, December 3, 2008 Tismăneanu also responded to critiques that the Commission was preparing "a sort of 'single textbook' " on Romanian communism, defining the Final Report as "a synthesis which would lead to further explorations." He summarized the topics of criticism against him and the document, arguing that they were for most connected to his person, and that they echoed accusations made against investigators of criminal regimes in Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

, Germany

Germany

, Guatemala

Guatemala

Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...

or South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

. He also stated that, with the exception of Daniel Barbu, none of the Iluzia anticomunismului authors had cited "[scientific] literature in connection with the memory of totalitarianism [...]. No historical document that would contradict or disprove the conclusions of the Report was made available." Tismăneanu contended the writers' motivations were "frustrations, phobias and a desire [...] for fame", and asserted that their arguments were equivalent to an "irresponsible Marxism-Leninism

Marxism-Leninism

" he associates with Slovenia

Slovenia

Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...

n sociologist Slavoj Žižek

Slavoj Žižek

Slavoj Žižek is a Slovenian philosopher, critical theorist working in the traditions of Hegelianism, Marxism and Lacanian psychoanalysis. He has made contributions to political theory, film theory, and theoretical psychoanalysis....

. He later objected on principle to the implication that he was "expected to answer" to issues raised by Iluzia anticomunismului.

Ramifications of the dispute

Some criticism of Tismăneanu's leadership of the Commission was also voiced by other sections of the Romanian academic environment. One such voice was historian Florin Constantiniu, who, although viewing Tismăneanu's contributions as relevant, saw the Final Report as Tismăneanu's betrayal of his father's memory, likening him to the famed Soviet delator Pavlik Morozov

Pavlik Morozov

Pavel Trofimovich Morozov , better known by the diminutive Pavlik, was a Soviet youth praised by the Soviet press as a martyr. His story, dated to 1932, is that of a 13-year old boy who denounced his father to the authorities and was in turn killed by his family. His story was a subject of reading,...

. Cristian Vasile calls Constantiniu's statement "unwarranted and offensive", contrasts it with the incriminated document, where Leonte Tismăneanu

Leonte Tismaneanu

is only mentioned in passing, concluding that the accuser had not read the text he was discussing. Rumors also surfaced of a clash between Tismăneanu and Marius Oprea

Marius Oprea

, Commission member and head of the older Romanian Institute of Recent History, which, according to Vasile, was a method for Tismăneanu's detractors to encourage "a destructive competition". This controversy was rekindled in early 2010, when Tismăneanu replaced Oprea at the helm of the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania

Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania

. Oprea, who received open support from various Romanian and foreign intellectuals and political figures, claimed that Tismăneanu's term at the head of a reformed institute (which also comprised Romanian diaspora

Romanian diaspora

archives) was a political deal aimed at shifting focus away from criminology

Criminology

Criminology is the scientific study of the nature, extent, causes, and control of criminal behavior in both the individual and in society...

. Speaking at the time, Oprea mentioned that he felt "shame" for having sat on the 2006 Commission.

Tismăneanu himself referred to criticism of the Final Report from the part of several members of the Institute of the Romanian Revolution, noting that their reply, published in a special issue of the body's official journal, was prefaced by Ion Iliescu, and inferring a common political agenda. In July 2007, Cotidianul
Cotidianul
thumb|right|Old logo of Cotidianul newspaper, used in the [[inter-war period]], and in the early 1990sthumb|right|The logo used between 2003 and 2007...

reporter Mirela Corlăţan reviewed and supported accusations of censorship and pro-Iliescu bias inside the Institute, quoting Tismăneanu and other scholars critical of the body's policies. Mirela Corlăţan, "Cenzura a reînviat la institutul lui Ion Iliescu", in Cotidianul
Cotidianul
thumb|right|Old logo of Cotidianul newspaper, used in the [[inter-war period]], and in the early 1990sthumb|right|The logo used between 2003 and 2007...

, July 19, 2007 Corlăţan's article cited historian Miodrag Millin, a resigned member of the Institute, who deemed the reply: "a state-sponsored 'clog' forced on the condemnation of communism, without any [of the Institute members] taking responsibility for those opinions." Millin added: "It is an institution born into old age, with no synchronization to reality, led by Ion Iliescu and his cronies." Other local academic reactions, Cristian Vasile claims, were mostly motivated by covert sympathies for communist historiography

Historiography

Historiography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...

among the "spiritually aged professors"; Vasile cites one academic's comment that Tismăneanu was an unprofessional and "one of the communist regime's profiteers", calling the statement "venomous" and presuming it to display "repulsion and envy". He also identifies such historians as persons whose careers were shaped in the final decades of communism, under the influence of Protochronism

Protochronism

Protochronism is a Romanian term describing the tendency to ascribe, largely relying on questionable data and subjective interpretations, an idealised past to the country as a whole...

and other nationalist historiographic interpretations favored by Ilie Ceauşescu

Ilie Ceausescu

Ilie Ceauşescu was a Romanian army general and communist politician who served as Deputy Defence Minister of Communist Romania during the rule of his older brother, Nicolae Ceauşescu....

, a Romanian Army general and brother of Nicolae.

An extended polemic was sparked between the Tismăneanu Commission and the dissident

Dissident

A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When dissidents unite for a common cause they often effect a dissident movement....

writer Paul Goma

Paul Goma

Paul Goma is a Romanian writer, also known for his activities as a dissident and leading opponent of the communist regime before 1989. Forced into exile by the communist authorities, he became a political refugee and currently resides in France as a stateless person...

. Goma, who initially accepted an invitation to become a Commission member, as issued by Tismăneanu himself, claims to have been excluded after a short while by "the self-styled 'eminent members of civil society

Civil society

'". According to Tismăneanu, this happened only after Goma engaged in and publicized personal attacks aimed at other Commission members, allegedly calling Tismăneanu "a Bolshevik

Bolshevik

offspring", based on his family history. Tismăneanu also indicated that Goma's statements had been prompted by rumors that the he had sided with other intellectuals in condemning as "antisemitic" the views he had expressed on issues pertaining to the 1940 Soviet occupation of Bessarabia. He denied ever having made public his views on this particular matter, and Goma consequently apologized for not having sufficiently verified the information.

Biography

Overview

Early works

Arheologia terorii and Reinventing Politics

From Irepetabilul trecut to Balul mascat

Fantasies of Salvation

Încet spre Europa and Scrisori din Washington

Stalinism for All Seasons

Democraţie şi memorie and Cortina de ceaţă

Refuzul de a uita and Perfectul acrobat

Other contributions

Early objections

Political party-level reactions

Biography

Overview

Early works

Arheologia terorii and Reinventing Politics

From Irepetabilul trecut to Balul mascat

Fantasies of Salvation

Încet spre Europa and Scrisori din Washington

Stalinism for All Seasons

Democraţie şi memorie and Cortina de ceaţă

Refuzul de a uita and Perfectul acrobat

Other contributions

Early objections

Political party-level reactions

Biography

Overview

Early works

Arheologia terorii and Reinventing Politics

From Irepetabilul trecut to Balul mascat

Fantasies of Salvation

Încet spre Europa and Scrisori din Washington

Stalinism for All Seasons

Democraţie şi memorie and Cortina de ceaţă

Refuzul de a uita and Perfectul acrobat

Other contributions

Early objections

Political party-level reactions

Tismăneanu and Gallagher

Ziua allegations

Michael Shafir and Iluzia anticomunismului

Ramifications of the dispute

Originally published in Romanian

Originally published in English

Bilingual

External links