romania revealed

Andrei Serban's production of Hamlet.

Reading the May 2000 issue of Parabola in bed last night, I was surprised to find an interview with Romanian theatre director Andrei Serban on his production of Hamlet in New York City starring Liev Schreiber. In this production, Hamlet is not constantly on the verge of a nervous breakdown, but rather, is understood as a man on a mission. The play itself is interpreted as a mythic tale about the redemption of humanity through right action. Serban emphasizes the conflict as a discovery process of the right action:

"So Hamlet is stuck in the not knowing, in the dilemma of how to be. He feels lost. There is no sense, no direction to his life. Then he meets the Ghost. He didn't know about the crime. The Ghost tells him the truth, gives him the task of revenge, and leaves. From then on, Hamlet has to find his own way. He has to become a seeker of the truth. Unless he verifies the facts for himself, he cannot do the act."

On Serban's view, this discovery of the truth, like a visit from a ghost, is meant to haunt us, since we should grapple with how to act based on this discovery. He believes Shakespeare used theater "in order to awaken conscience", loosely defined as this deep knowledge of truth. For Serban, Shakespeare's plays offer "theater as the mirror of life", not reality, but "the reflection of reality", which, in turn, provides a "possibility of seeing in a way that one can learn".

As to what one should learn from Hamlet, Serban seems to suggest that Hamlet teaches us the what I would call the responsibility of the radical-- the requirement of action in accordance with the truth. Hamlet is not free-- he is unrealized and unsure of his role in the world-- until he acts on what he knows.

In the same vein, the Queen's suicide is not a tragic action but a noble and sensible one, given her knowledge. Serban describes the Queen's situation:

"At the beginning of the play, we start with a very satirical court scene, to make the audience feel that the whole court, including the Queen, is in a hypnotic trance, hypnotized by Claudius. This is what Communism and Fascism did in our century. When one watches Hitler today on television, he looks almost like a caricature, a parody of himself, and one wonders: how can this one man have hypnotized millions and millions of people? But is happened. Claudius is a reminder of this kind of dictator, so that his seduction of the court is almost comedie grotesque. He's a seducer. The Queen is part of the trance until the scene with Hamlet. Then she slowly escapes her hypnotism. She awakens from her hypnotic sleep."

Like many living under totalitarian dictatorships, the Queen's conscience is paralyzed by a deep sleep. A somnambulist for whom trance offers safety of sorts, the Queen resembles those of us who prefer the soft sleep of middle grounds and compromise to the rude awakening of reality. For acting in accordance with truth and reality creates its own imperative-- why should we open our eyes to see that the emporer has no clothes when this means we will have to expose him? And then, should we expose him, the costs to our families and loved ones will be great. When the Queen meets Hamlet, a man openly seeking truth and its active correlate, she cannot avoid the mirror. Her somnambulism is shattered.

Serban's Hamlet is a powerful character-- a force for change. On this view:

"....what they are all mainly afraid of, what's most dangerous about Hamlet, is the fact that Hamlet thinks-- and thought is dangerous, because nobody thinks in Denmark. Nobody thinks in a totalitarian system. They're all obeying what Claudius, the great hypnotist, tells them to do. But Hamlet thinks, so he is dangerous. That's his weapon, his thinking."

But thought alone would not pose a threat to Claudius or life under the trance if it did not lead to radical action. Ultimately, this is the true problem with thinking persons in a totalitarian system-- eventually, the ghosts will not leave them alone. Eventually, they must act. The trance is broken, and the thinker cannot return to a life lived by the hum of the trance so long as the weapon-- the thinking mind-- continues to throb. (Hence the reeducation via psychiatric hospital for the intellectual dissidents of communism.)

On the other hand, the overwhelming majority of Romanians did not protest communism. Does this mean that everyone was sleepwalking? Did they all suffer from the Queen's trance? I would argue that the trance is all the more insidious because it is accepted on the basis of utility. Let's assume the rationality of most individuals living under Ceausescu. Let's assume that almost everyone knows, by this point, that communism has increased human suffering and made a casualty of truth and meaning. Acting on the basis of this knowledge would be very common in a democratic system, where incentives for action include social change, the placement of new candidates, legislative action, etc. Under Ceausescu's system, however, the incentives for action are nonexistent. A man who stood for truth and dissented would not even reap the satisfaction of "heroic action", as he would quickly be dismissed as a crank, removed from his position, and placed in an environment (prison, house arrest, hospital) where he could exercise zero influence. The costs for truth-driven action proved extremely high, and the incentives were non-existent.

On the other hand, the incentives for playing the game, for maintaining the illusion of the trance, were very powerful-- career promotions, food, bread, vacations in the West, publication (if you were an intellectual), an extra room in the apartment, etc. Under such conditions, most pleasure-maximizing or profit-maximizing individuals select to maintain the illusion of the trance. Perhaps only the haunted man, the man confronted with the ghosts of Hamlet, finds commitment to truth and action worthwhile. If so, then we are still left slightly perplexed by the supposed potency of what he stands to gain.

• An interview with Andrei Serban on his production of The Taming of the Shrew.
• Ulrika Brand's review of Serban's Hamlet.
• John Simon's ugly and un-inventive review of Serban's Hamlet.

10 interesting movies about the Romanian Revolution.

Dracula's Shadow: The Real Story Behind the Romanian Revolution directed by Arpad Szoczi

12:08 East of Bucharest directed by Corneliu Porumboiu

The Way I Spent the End of the World directed by Catalin Mitulescu

The Paper Will Be Blue directed by Radu Muntean

Timisoara, December 1989 directed by Ovidiu Bose Pastina

Sindromul Timisoara directed by Marius Barna

Procesul lui Ceausescu

Videograms of a Revolution directed by Harun Farocki & Andrei Ujica

Piata Universitatii directed by Stelian Tanase

Checkmate: Strategy of a Revolution directed by Susanne Brandstatter

Reuven Rubin's Romanian art.

Before he emigrated to Palestine, Reuven Rubin painted some truly beautiful works in Romania.

His The Madonna of the Vagabonds reveals the hopefulness and "new life" offered by the Zionist movement, while Jesus and the Last Apostle deals with the darker past-- the dreams of reconciliation between European Jewry and Christianity, the pain of the pogroms in the flesh. According to The Israel Museum in Jerusalem, where much of Rubin's work is housed, Jesus and the Last Apostle reveals Reuben's affection for a particular man, namely, Gala Galaction:

The figure on the right is a portrait of Gala Galaction – a Romanian priest, writer, and intellectual, renowned for his benevolent disposition towards Jews and Zionism and a staunch opponent of anti- Semitism in Romania. The scene, in which Jesus is seen weeping and holding out his wounded hand to Galaction, can be interpreted as a gesture of apology to the Jewish people for the suffering caused to them in Jesus' name. Galaction fulfills the role of mediator, a new kind of apostle. He is the last apostle, bringing a message of appeasement and mutual understanding between the two religions.

Galaction was known as an Orthodox priest who wrote novels, supported socialism, and espoused a philosophy of tolerance towards Jews. If he were not a Christian, many might mistake him for a "humanist". Galaction's love for fellow human beings led him towards socialist ideals and away from the race-related nationalism espoused by many during the interwar and postwar period. In fact, Galaction welcomed the Soviet troops into Romania and played a significant role in the Communist Party for much of his life.

Towards the end of his life, Galaction became very critical of Stalinism, as evidenced by the publication of a newer edition of his Diary. The Diary was first published twenty years after his death under the Ceausescu regime in a heavily-censored format where all criticisms of the Party, Stalin, and socialism were removed.

Thanks to The Israel Museum in Jerusalem for these images and information. You can take a virtual tour of Rubin's early works.

A brief introduction to the writing of Bogdan Tiganov.

Bogdan Tiganov writes about life in Romania following the end of communism. In The Wooden Tongue Speaks, he covers the last twenty years of post-communist Romania in the form of poems and stories which reveal the illusory freedom of totalitarian socialism. One of the short stories in this book, "The Old Man's Village", is available for free to read online. You can also access four poems, including the one posted below, in addition to his "Colour Poems" (aka "colour aphorisms").

Everything, Something, and Nothing

We live in separate rooms
Each to their own, fair enough,
Equals.

We take what we need and when we need it,
Whether it's a slice of pizza or a slice of affection
And we don't give back. Democracy.

We walk down the street like morons
Not knowing what to do and where to go
Or whether to escape like Gauguin.

And secretly or openly we discuss escape
Like we discussed the meal last night,
Quick and microwavable.

What will we do
There
When the only thing we can't escape
Is us?

Who's going to love us and accept us
When we've spent our time
Denying
Us?

And all the beauty, the landscapes, the sunsets,
They won't make much sense to us,
Just like modern art,
Vision, principles or dignity.

Welcome to London, friends.
We won't ever talk as I've forgotten how to
And we won't ever feel, no, not really,
As we've paid out our feelings daily,
Whored out our emotions for survival,
Given everything in return for something.

He is currently working on a novella entitled Last Rights of Modern Man.

Jewish music in Romania, a post inspired by Ben Cohen.

Whenever the tuica was plentiful in our American home, my mother would try to convince her guests to dance the hora. The only other times I had the opportunity to dance the hora in the United States involved Eastern European Jewish friends. How is it that Eastern European Jews and Romanians share a national folk dance? Why did my strolls through the Jewish kletzmer festival in Cracow, Poland evoke an incredible, dolorous homesickness?

Kletzmer remains an enduring love for me-- it brings tears of joy to my eyes. Since there are few things in life powerful enough to elicit joy, that magnificent compost of sadness, awe, and elation, it was with great delight that I read Ben Cohen's essay on Jewish music in Romania.

Cohen's experise is personal-- he is a "bessarabisher yid". His grandparents were born in Bessarabia when it was part of Romania and lived in Chisinau until the time of the 1905 pogrom. Today, Bessarabia is the Republic of Moldova, and Cohen lives in Budapest. He notes:

"Although I live in Hungary, the majority of our music’s influences come from Romanian musicians. The reasons are simple. Romania was crucial to the development of klezmer dance repertoire. My ancestors came from Moldavia. I grew up eating mamaliga in New York City. My grandparents spoke Romanian Yiddish. And Romania is one of the few places in Europe today that can boast a rich and active traditional context for folk music."

After discussing the four categories of Jewish music repertoire as applied by Dr. Wallter Zev Feldmen, Cohen zeroes in on the city of Iasi.

When I began to record music in Romania in the late 1980s, many of the elder Gypsy musicians I approached in Transylvania enthusiastically played Jewish tunes for me, alongside the Romanian and Transylvanian Hungarian music I was asking after. I was intrigued. Where had they learned these tunes? From playing for Jewish weddings, they answered. And so I began to learn something of the styles and repertoire of Jewish music from the elder generation of Gypsy musicians such as Ferenc "Arus" and Bela Berki of Mera, Samuel "Cilika" Boross of Cluj, Bela Gaspar, Arpad Toni of Voivodeni, Vassile and Gheorghe Covaci in Maramures, and others. I made trips through Transylvania, Bukovina, Maramures, and Moldavia.

Eventually I had the great pleasure of meeting Prof. Itzik Shvartz and his wonderful wife Cili in Iasi in 1991. Prof. Shvartz, born in 1905, is a prolific writer, folklorist, linguist, and former director of the Iasi Yiddish theater who at this writing is still living in Iasi. He has known all of the 20th century’s important Romanian Jewish personalities as well as many of the Jewish musicians. His wife Cili was perhaps the best living Yiddish traditional singer in Europe until her death in 1998 (her kosher soda cookies were absolutely the best….).

From Itzik Shvartz I learned about the life of klezmer families in 20th century Iasi: the Bughici family, the Segal family, and the Weiss family. The Lemesh family were important musicians in the last century who also played in Avram Goldfaden’s original Yiddish Theater orchestra at the Pomul Verde wine cellar in Iasi, but that family no longer resides in Iasi – I have heard they moved to Philadelphia. 

Abraham Goldfaden, considered by many to be the "father of Yiddish theater", founded his theater troupe in Iasi, then moved to Bucharest, and then took it to the road. Nahma Sandrow recounts her trip to Pomul Verde and the heady influence of sweet Romanian wines in her article for The New York Times. Joel Berkowitz's article on Goldfaden is the best I've read on Goldfaden so far. I return the microphone to Mr. Cohen:

The Bughici band was primarily violin-based. Many of the Bughici family were murdered in the 1941 Iasi pogrom, but several survived, including Avram, the violinist, and Dimitru, who became a renowned piano teacher and jazz composer in Bucharest and now resides in Israel. During the 1970s, Prof. Shvartz had made some cassettes of the playing of Avram Bughici and Gheorghe Bughici, both on violin. Avram Bughici sold a book of repertoire to Itzik for use in the theater. Although the manuscript may now be lost, Itzik did make a cassette recording around 1975 with the accompaniment of accordionist Izu Gott (son of Dorohoi klezmer clarinetist Berko Gott), sight-reading the pieces on accordion. (Izu, a classically trained bassist who lives part of each year in Israel, has since served as music director of the Romanian Federation of Jews, as well as its president.) From Avram Bughici’s book we can assume the nature of the family’s repertoire – lots of khosidls, to be sure, several freylachs, with some theater songs and doinas.

The Segal family were considered more accomplished musicians, however, and played in the Iasi Yiddish theater as well. Unfortunately, a manuscript of their music may have been lost – we are still looking for it – but hopefully in the future I will get the chance to meet one Segal still big in the Romanian entertainment business – Gheorghe Segal, known as TV personality Gheorghe Sava – and ask if he knows anything about this. Sava’s father’s gravestone in the Iasi cemetery features a carved stone harp, as testament to his prowess as a musician.

Elsewhere in Moldavia we know of other Jewish musicians. In Roman, before the Holocaust, there was Hayim "Hersko" Herskovits, a trumpeter, as well as fiddlers Moishe Musikant and Iancu Malai. The popular Romanian song composer Richard Stein was also from Roman. Jewish musicians in Roman often played alongside Gypsies, and a basic band was formed of a violin or trumpet, accordion, and drum – a very typical lineup for a modern Moldavian band even today.

In modern Moldavian folk music we still find traces of Jewish repertoire in the music of the fanfara brass bands. The elder generation of Romanian and Gypsy folk fiddlers often have pieces of klezmer origin in their repertoires, although this is becoming rarer these days. Dances such as "Jidancuta", "Jidoveasca", and melodies commonly recorded by early klezmer musicians are still current among many village repertoires. 

Cohen provides a lot of detail and wonderful photographs about his experiences with Jewish music in Romania on Mark Rubin's blog. I encourage peeking. 

On Jewish music in Transylvania, Cohen writes:

In Transylvania we find fewer traces of Jewish musicians. One reason is the different social development of Transylvania’s Jews under the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. In this region, as in Hungary (after 1825), it was mostly Gypsy musicians who provided instrumental music for Jews. Transylvania was a part of Hungary previous to 1920. As "Hungarian" Jews, Transylvanian Jews were enfranchised as citizens in 1867, and even before that date were accepting social assimilation to a "Hungarian" national identity, after the German Jewish model. In 1867 Hungary’s Jewish communities split into Neolog (sort of "Reform") and Orthodox, with certain communities remaining as "Status Quo Ante". Thus, communities in Cluj (Kolozsvar in Hungarian), Arad, Sibiu, and Timisoara (Temesvar in Hungarian) were predominantly Neolog, and adopted Hungarian language in place of Yiddish.

Alongside many other Hungarian customs they adopted, Jews were great patrons of Hungarian popular music, or Magyar notak, and a Neolog wedding allowed for mixed-sex dancing. Gypsy musicians were hired for Jewish weddings, and played a few Jewish songs (usually "Belz" alongside various Yiddish theater songs and a few Sabbath zmiros) while providing csardas music for dancing. In Fizesul Gherleii (Ordongosfuzes in Hungarian) as well as Sarmas, local Gypsy village bands also played sets of "Jewish Dances". Zoltan Blum, a Jew from Fizesul Gherleii, remembers Jews dancing in a circle to this music before WWII. He also says that Jews in the village lived harmoniously with their neighbors, except for three things which they would never do with non-Jews: eat with them, bathe with them, or dance with them.

So much for the Austro-Hunagrian enlightened ideal. Clearly, Jewish music differs from Romanian folk music in some important ways. Seth Rogovoy distinguishes Romanian folk music from Jewish music in its connection to the Yiddish language and ornamentation:

Yet for all the “borrowings” of klezmer, for all the Romanian dance rhythms and the haunting melodies that some attribute to the music’s Gypsy flavorings, there is something essentially Jewish that separates klezmer from Gypsy or Romanian music. This is partly due to its close connection to the Yiddish language, spoken by Jews. It is also demonstrably a technical question of phrasing or ornamentation – those krekhts, or achy moans that are characteristic of klezmer violinists and clarinetists, along with the tshoks, or laugh-like sounds, and kneytshn, the sob-like “catch,” which are all directly borrowed from the characteristic vocal ornamentation of the khazones, the prayer melodies of the synagogue cantors. But even more than any of these specific cultural influences, there is something more intangibly Jewish that gives klezmer its distinctive flavor, that makes it different from other closely-related Balkan folk musics.

Romanian film director Radu Gabrea has produced several films on Jewish music in Romania. If you are interested in learning more about Romanian Jewish music, I suggest reading a little about the cimbalom and exploring the following links:

• Photos from the Jewish Music Research Center.
• Lost Trails' "The Lost Jewish Music of Moldavia", with violinist Constanin Lupu.
  
• "Jewish Musicians in Moldova" by Itsik Shvarts. Translated by Bob Cohen.
• View the Goldfaden Centennial Exhibit Online.
• The Yizkor Book Project's tour of Jewish heritage in Iasi.
• Explore Romanian folk music with the BBC Radio 3's guide.
• Video of John Belushi doing the classic Yiddish folk tune, "Romania, Romania" for SNL at Teruah.
• National Geographic offers a few Romanian folk tunes for sample in addition to a detailed look at gypsy folk traditions.
• For information about Belf's Romanian Orchestra, visit the Kletzmershack and scroll down.
• To find Jewish music online, use this wonderful Guide from The Jewish Theological Seminary.
• Dumneazu gets personal about Ukranian influences in Jewish folk music and also mentions Muzsikas, which produced a recording of Maramures Jewish music learned from Gheorghe Covaci. (I posted his photo of the band above.)
• Sephardic Jewish Community of Romania.
• For a list of names to google on this topic, see the line-up for The International Workshop on Yiddish Theatre, Dance, and Performance.
• Explore Jewish culture in Iasi with Haskedim.
• The hora from Moistworks.
  

"Epigrama" by Sfantul Ioan Iacob.

Daca nu se duce mintea
Sus la ceruri sau la moarte,
Prea usor se rataceste
La vorbirile desarte.

Si de nu se odihneste
Mila pacii intru noi,
Vom gasi mereu pricina
De gâlceava si razboi.

Iar cand nu ne dam silinta
Spre cunoasterea de sine,
Cântarim mai totdeauna
Numai faptele straine.

"Anti-nostalgia links".

"On the level of historical insight and political thought there prevails an ill-defined, general agreement that the essential structure of all civilizations is at a breaking point. Although it may seem better preserved in some parts of the world than in others, it can nowhere provide the guidance to the possibilities of the century, or an adequate response to its horrors…

The conviction that everything that happens of earth must be comprehensible to man can lead to interpreting history by commonplaces. Comprehension does not mean denying the outrageous, deducing the unprecedented from precedents, or explaining phenomena by such analogies and generalities that the impact of reality and the shock of experience are no longer felt. It means, rather, examining and bearing consciously the burden that our century has placed on us — neither denying its existence nor submitting meekly to its weight. Comprehension, in short, means the unpremeditated, attentive facing up to, and resisting of, reality — whatever it may be…

We can no longer afford to take that which was good in the past and simply call it our heritage, to discard the bad the bad and simply think of it as a dead load which by itself time will bury in oblivion. The subterranean stream of Western history has finally come to the surface and usurped the dignity of our tradition. This is the reality in which we live. And this is why all efforts to escape from the grimness of the present into nostalgia for a still intact past, or into the anticipated oblivion of a better future, are vain."

I thoroughly enjoyed chasing the "anti-nostalgia links" posted at O'Connor's Opinions-- enough, in fact, to start working on an anti-nostalgia links list of my own. Hat tip to the O'Connors for the inspiration. And due respect to Hannah Arendt for the above-listed quote from the preface to The Origins of Totalitarianism (a.k.a. my guidebook).                                      

• "The Gulag Archipelago in Romania: The Story No One Has Told Before" by Sandro Magister. This includes information garnered from the Vatican.
• Memo from Henry Kissinger to President Nixon on May 15, 1973 urging "high priority" relationship between US and Romania.
• "Behind the Facade of the Ceausescu Regime" by Vladimir Tismaneanu for RFE/RL
• The names, the short sentences describing their fate, the condemnations, the many who simply disappeared.
• The archives of Romanian state television in the 1970's.
• The Museum of Communism, created by one of my favorite people in Arlington, Virginia.
• Cum era? Cam asa: Memories of Romania's Communist Years edited by Calin-Andrei Mihailescu with excerpt at link.
• Bless This Prison video from Fundation ICAR.
• "Pioneers Forever" by Vasile Ernu.
• "The Legacy of Elena Ceausescu" by Catherine Lovatt for Central European Review

Donald Dunham's dissertation on Romanian art.

The Romanians are a social phenomenon. As a nation among nations, they are westerners evolved in the East. They are Latins surrounded by Slavs. They are Romans two thousand years away from Rome. They are contemporaries re-produced on Trajan’s Column.

They are peasants with the utmost in sophistication. They farm instinctively, but are suspicious of machinery. They speak a language like Italian but the majority of their words are Slavonic. They are superstitious but religious at the same time. They are astutely intelligent, but refuse to be intellectual. They submit to invasion but preserve their identity. They support great wealth and extreme poverty. They produce striking beauty yet can live in filth.

As a collective personality, the Romanians are Oriental in their souls although Latin on the surface. Their patience is almost unending but they are quick to explode in argument; they are peace-loving yet would disintegrate without controversy. They are passive but strong in their resistance; spontaneously adaptable, still difficult t influence. They are romantic but never escape from reality.

They are charming yet cruel in their ridicule, warmly emotional but calculating, generous yet concentrate on the ‘main chance.’ They are opportunistic but lose interest after they have gained the advantage; they seize the moment, still adopt the long view.

The Romanians are a people of colorful contrasts and extreme extremes, born in classic times, ravaged by barbarians, indentured to the Turks, dominated by the Byzantines, the Greeks, dictated to by the Hungarians, Poles, Austrians and others, seduced by the French and not recognized as a country until 1878. Yet they emerge with a character that defies this confusion, that is definitely, emphatically, unmistakably Romanian. This character was born of a Dacian shepherd and a Roman lass, whose progeny became dwellers with nature itself, epicureans with earthy values and a tough constitution.

It developed in composition and grew in strength under the invasions of waves of barbarians. Slavs were added to the original Dacians and the Roman colonizers. Christianization was extended in Wallachia and Moldavia by the Byzantine Church and intrigue was introduced as a science by the Greek ruling emissaries of the Sublime Porte. With the intrigue came the Greek culture of the mind – the analytical clarity of the Mediterraneans – which evaporated as Greek, as it was quickly absorbed as Romanian. Following this permeation came the magnetic seduction by Paris and the synthetic adoption of French-Western artistic values, by those classes who would afford to visit the “Rive Gauche” and return.

Today you find the cult of the mind imbedded as an element of character in all classes second only to emotional spontaneity as a national characteristic. The Greeks were more successful than the French because they came to Romania and did not make Romanians come to them, and because their main influence was middle class and thereby could infect those classes both above and below them. The French appealed to aristocracy; the upper and wealthy classes of Romania went to Paris yearning to prove themselves by Gallic standards, perhaps eventually to return to the country of their birth to demonstrate their cultural acquisitions.

It was 1947. The Soviets were stationed in Romania under the auspices of the Allied Commission.

Donald Dunham wrote his doctoral dissertation for Professor George Oprescu, who, at the time, was secretary of the International Commission for Intellectual Cooperation of the League of Nations. The subject of his dissertation, Rumanian Profile: A Study of National Character as Reflected in the Visual Arts, dove-tailed with the assumptions of the European nation-state. It was submitted to the Faculty of Arts and Letters on May 20th, 1948. Dunham introduced it as follows:

Rumanian Profile is a study of the character of the Rumanian people as reflected in their visual arts. It is based on the contention that man is better analyzed by his artistic achievements than by his behavior, that the history of art in many respects is a more exact commentary on a country than its political history.

Dunham provides a brief history of the Romanian nation and then begins to examine the relationship between a people and their national arts. He looks at the artistic traditions of the Romanian elite as they developed under Greek-Byzantine influence (particularly in architecture) and under French influence during the 19th century (particularly in painting). He explores parallels between the Romanian national painter Nicolae Grigorescu and the American expatriate James Whistler. Dunham contrasts the elite traditions with the peasant traditions, using embroidery as the medium for describing peasant art.

While Dunham deals richly with the artistic traditions of Moldavia and Wallachia, he does not touch upon the traditions of Transylvania. Dunham excuses this on the grounds that Moldavia and Wallachia, the original provinces of unified Romania, "possess the essential ingredients while the other areas are culturally on the periphery". However, in a conversation with Ernest H. Latham, Jr., Dunham suggested that the real reason for this exclusion was that his status as an American diplomat in the postwar period made it impossible for him to get permission to travel to Transylvania and other regions. He didn't want to write about architecture and art which he was unable to view in person. In this sense, his dissertation failed to adequately portray the relationship between the Romanian "national character" and its artistic traditions.

Despite its limitations, Dunham's dissertation is remarkable in the fact that it was "the first American doctorate conferred in Romania", according to the roundtable convened with that title by the Association of Friends of the United States in June 1995. It exemplifies the role of history as inculcator of national values and creator of national identity. Dunham's appreciation for Romanian people and culture might sound a little expansive to modern ears, but it is an excellent historical document.

An excerpt from his dissertation dealing with Wallachian architecture and Byzantine influence is available online courtesy of Plural magazine. The excerpt quoted at the beginning of this post is also available from Plural.

9 great articles on the Romanian revolution.

1. "Romania's Bloody Revolution" by William Horsley for BBC News
2. "The Glorious Revolution" from Radio Romania International
3. "The Role of Religion in the Romanian Revolution" by Earl A. Poe
4. "The Political Regrouping of the Romanian Nomenklatura during the 1989 Revolution" by Raluca Grosescu
5. "Romania's Revolution of 1989: An Enduring Enigma" by Donald G. McNeil Jr. for The New York Times
6. "Whose Revolution in Eastern Europe" by Michael Eliot Howard for Harper's Magazine
7. "Politicienii si revolutia din 1989"
8. "What Should Be Required Viewing for Anyone Interested in the Romanian Revolution of 1989 (or Denial Takes A Bloody Bow" posted by Richard Andrew Hall (including tons of links, video footage, and information)
9. "The Revolutions of 1989: Causes, Meanings, and Consequences" , a paper by Vladimir Tismaneanu

Norman Manea's "Compulsory Happiness".

If happiness is a choice, then what does it become when compelled? Norman Manea's collection of novellas, Compulsory Happiness, toys with "the institutional optimism" required by a systemic application of communist ideology whose results insist, contrary to physical evidence, on the best life for everyone. These four novellas were written in Romanian during the deepest murk of the Ceausescu dictatorship. One was published in Romanian in 1981, the others in German in 1988 or 1989. They were first collected in a single volume in French.

The novellas do not follow the conventional plot scheme. Instead, the reader is invited inside the head (or perhaps only inside the room) of a person/s living in fear, intellectually bound by an ideology so inconsistent that insanity is not a plea but a mentality. Manea writes with the clean-cut despair of Kafka, but, unlike Kafka, manages to address human relationships and the external world with nostalgia. There are no conclusions or plot resolutions-- only a hovering, contagious terror that poisons the thoughts, loves, relationships, and hopes of its citizens.

In "The Interrogation", a young woman prisoner is tortured and starved as the secret police attempt to get information about her intellectual associates. However, when it is decided that the Plenipotentiary will meet with her, the prison wards immediately feed her caviar and insist that she begin to behave "normally", or at least offer the pretense to "normalcy", for the Plenipotentiary, despite his big name, is very sensitive to that which lies outside the realm of the normal. During the meeting, the Plenipotentiary asks questions and then tells the young prisoner that he is appreciated because his reports come to "an optimistic conclusion, the compulsory optimism, the institutional optimism" required by a system with the pretension to absolute control.

"Composite Biography" takes Ceausescu's infatuation with control to its absurd conclusion-- an systemic attack on "chance", or luck, which does not play into official plans. The novella is lengthy, but the most interesting part occurs when a Comrade proposes that the winners of national lotteries should no longer be selected by lot but, instead, "chosen from deserving citizens" to "avoid the injustices caused by chance". Here we get a frightening view of the central-planning mindset taken to its logical extreme. At this extreme, even luck (not to mention nature) is an enemy of the state, especially if this state mandates happiness.

According to the Comrade, this is "ideologically consistent with the concepts of dialectical materialism regarding the world, life, and the active role of man, who is not subject to fate, but is the master and creator of events".

Did the end of communism usher in a rightful heir in fatalism? After all, if Romanian communism, which purported to uproot fate and empower man, was revealed as a sham, what was left to believe? Clearly the communist experiment dealt a blow to the idea of human agency and responsibility, particularly in creating and sustaining a culture which repeatedly denied both. In "Composite Biography", for example, the protagonist suffers from a "generalized syndrome" which he witnesses in others. He believes this syndrome is due to an inability to make, do, or be anything anymore, since everything is decided by others. The Party members are "Puppets" dancing on their pre-ordained strings; the non-Party members are silent shadows, not real or strong enough to assert physicality. The ultimate goal is "to control chance"-- the become the gods which have been dethroned.

Of course, there is more.... just not in my words:

• The best bio I've found on Manea so far is this one.
• "A Lasting Poison", an article by Manea in which he remarks upon Milan Kundera's claims that communism never happened.
• "Norman Manea on the lasting poison of Stalinism" via podcast.
• Unlike Herbert Mitgang, I think the word "satire" is far too flimsy and loaded with Western regalia to do Manea's work justice. Instead, i prefer to say that he draws on the tradition of using the absurd to convey the problems of meaning and life under totalitarianism.
• Don't miss Michael Shafir's "The Man They Love to Hate: Norman Manea's 'Snail House' Between the Holocaust and the Gulag" in PDF format.

An excerpt from "The Neighbors of Franz Kafka".

One of the more interesting tracts on the postcommunist experience from a stylistic standpoint was penned by Vladimir Tismaneanu and Mircea Mihaies in the form of a "novel". I've always wondered if this was meant as a play on the dissident tactic of writing the truth and then insisting upon its fictional character to communist authorities. The book, The Neighbors of Franz Kakfa: A Novel of Neuroses skims the difference between Romania and other Eastern bloc countries with a collection of observations on the cultures of European communism. In it, the alleged Romanian fatalism is continuously contrasted with the more activist spirit of its Catholic neighbors.

The authors refer to Emil Cioran, the prophet of the Romanian fatalist approach, regularly. They also bemoan the new nationalist scourge rising in the wake of communism. 

Paul Goma is right: 1956 was the occasion manquee in Romania. The Romania intellectuals continued to enjoy their isolation from their peers in the other Eastern European countries. There was no thaw in Romania, just the perpetuation of the terrorist mechanism. Could it have been different? What if some of the literary barons of the time, the Petru Dumitrius, Marin Predas, Eugen Jebeleanus, G. Calinescus, and Geo Bogzas had opened their mouths and spoken the truth? Cioran's desperation about his former motherland was rooted precisely in this sentiment of historical impotence. His frantic excitement about the Hungarian revolution was matched only by his painful regret that history had once again passed Romania by. As for Noica: his response to Cioran was meant to explain why Romanian intellectuals were silent. For this justification of failure he was later sentenced to many years in jail. In prison, instead of pondering the responsibility of Hegelian-Marxist dialectics for the Leninist nightmare, he learned how to love his tormentors. When he was liberated in 1964, he even volunteered to become a 'trainer' in Marxism for the younger generation. The regime's failure to recruit himfor such a pedagogy was just another proof that Romanian communists were poor ideologues.

A cornucopia of thoughts on Romanian fatalism.

Nae Ionescu gathered a group of despairing young men about him and began to theorize. These men would later speak about the impossibilities of speaking to everyone around them.

---

Mircea Vulcanescu died insisting that there could be no true revenge-- that no action possessed the power to create a hero, that the struggle for freedom was its own prison. The communists arrested him in 1946. Convicted as a war criminal, he was sentenced to 8 years in prison.

Fellow prisoners told the story of his death: he and a group of 12 other convicts form his cell were all punished to stay naked, without any clothes or chairs, in a very cold and wet cavern in the prison's dungeon, for reciting poetry (poetry was very popular in prisons that communists used to condemn people just for being intellectuals; it was one of the few resorts of resisting the mental torture). An young man fell to the floor, risking to die of a lung disease, and Mircea Vulcănescu practically forced him to stay on top of him, rather than on the wet stone floor, and thus saved his life. He said: "I'm an old man, how can I let a young man like you die?". Yet he was only 48, an age many do not regard as "old". Soon after this, the young man was better, but Mircea Vulcănescu developed pneumonia, and soon after he died. His last words to the world were: "Do not avenge us!"

His death, of course, remains unavenged. As he wished.

---

Constantin Noica believed Romanians fell under the spell of determinism. Some things were fated.

---

Stan Farnya sees an organic connection between Romanian fatalism and the rise of what he calls the "new fascism". From the fomer fascism of the Ionescu school to the "new fascism" stands a great gulf. But Farnya sees the seeds. And he believes the soil is well-nourished.

---

The Filter, citing the Romanian response to a pile of rotting meat, can't see the fatalism for the trees. 

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The Union for the Reconstruction of Romania, goes so far as to limit membership to applicants who do not subscribe to the tenets of "Romanian fatalism". Members argue on sidewalks about the complacency of the pensioners perched on park benches.

If people only undertook those initiatives whose success was guaranteed we would all still be living in caves and pick fruit with sticks. The only guarantee we have is our name and reputation. You can believe us and come with us to take action to solve the many problems our country faces or sit on the fence to see what happens and wait for guarantees. Skepticism is a legitimate attitude but, unfortunately, not at all constructive. This precise attitude of the people allowed the political class to degenerate to the parasitic stage it is in today. Sociologists call this a "self-fulfilling prophecy". This means that if you strongly believe that something, good or bad, will happen then the chance of that event to happen significantly increases. The explanation is very simple: what you believe will influence the way you act and your attitude influences the events around the particular event. In our particular case, skepticism and fence-riding generates inactivity and negative thinking which in turn makes one see more the mistakes than successes which in turn produces inactivity and more inactivity. But changes don't come by magic, they need activism and energy. So the initiative will fail: bingo! You were right! "Just another political party, did I not tell you?" Isn't it wonderful to be always right? Even if it serves no purpose? This is the Romanian fatalism at work and it has already turned us into a spectator nation.

---

In An Ontological Definition of the Romanian National Identity, Mihaela Alexandra Pop cites Vulcanescu's view that Romanians tend towards a "theophanic" identification rather than an individualist one-- they accept what comes as part of the universal order in which struggle is just the other side of foolishness. Rather than nourish a Protean self-understanding, Romanian folk tales and stories reward the man who sits back and thanks God for the troubles in life, as well as the freedom from responsibility for the outcomes.

---

An executive study entitled "The Evolution of Mentalities in Eastern Europe and the Future of the European Project" from a summer school session asserts:

Romanian intellectuals such as Mihail Sebastian, Emil Cioran, Panait Istrati have described Romanians sometimes as fatalistic but also slightly megalomaniac, subdued, endowed often with a low self-esteem and a tendency to blame others for their mishaps. Romanians often see themselves as having good humor, as being optimistic and hospitable people.

One of the big thinkers at this session was Mircea Malitza, who served as Ceausescu's ambassador to the USA in the 1980's. Malitza knows a lot about the Romanian national psyche, and how Romanians can be broken into a thousand tiny pieces, so tiny that the edges fray. Malitza was a good servant to the communist regime. And fate was on his side. He now maintains an illustrious career as a member of the Romanian academy and an expert on Romanian national identity.

---

Z. Ornea looks at Cioran's contribution to Romanian fatalism via his book, The Transfiguration of Romania. Ornea quotes Cioran extensively:

Truths sprung from compliance are not a matter of glory. No historic act was borne by wisdom; wisdom can only be manifest in sub or trans-history. Wisdom can be the negation of history, for it is distance taken from life, whereas history reinforces it. The daily truths of Romanians are paralyzing. They tend to strip man of any responsibility. Fatalism is an a-moralism of evolution. I can well understand the drives of individual and internal fatalism, translations of the dynamism of the inner demon, but it is a deviation and an anthropological blasphemy to cede to times… The fatalism of our people is a curse we shall have to rout in thunder. To the heart shall the lightning strike us. I want another people! The centennial plague that has befallen the Romanian is skepticism… A skeptical soul is not a creator as any structural skepticism implies exhausted sources, original sterility… Romanian skepticism – superficial in its scope and the nature thereof – is nonetheless deep-seated by its enrootment in the popular soul.

Reagan's captive nations speech.

On July 16th, 1984, in commemoration of Captive Nations Week, President Ronald Reagan declared:

Once each year, all Americans are asked to pause and to remember that their liberties and freedoms, often taken for granted, are forbidden to many nations around the world. America continues to be dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. If we are to sustain our commitment to this principle, we must recognize that the peoples of the Captive Nations are endowed by the Creator with the same rights to give their consent as to who shall govern them as those of us who are privileged to live in freedom. For those captive and oppressed peoples, the United States of America stands as a symbol of hope and inspiration. This leadership requires faithfulness towards our own democratic principles as well as a commitment to speak out in defense of mankind's natural rights.

Though twenty-five years have passed since the original designation of Captive Nations Week, its significance has not diminished. Rather, it has undeniably increased -- especially as other nations have fallen under Communist domination. During Captive Nations Week we must take time to remember both the countless victims and the lonely heroes; both the targets of carpet bombing in Afghanistan, and individuals such as imprisoned Ukrainian patriot Yuriy Shukhevych. We must draw strength from the actions of the millions of freedom fighters in Communist-occupied countries, such as the signers of petitions for religious rights in Lithuania, or the members of Solidarity, whose public protests require personal risk and sacrifice that is almost incomprehensible to the average citizen in the Free World. It is in their struggle for freedom that we can find the true path to genuine and lasting peace.

For those denied the benefits of liberty we shall continue to speak out for their freedom. On behalf of the unjustly persecuted and falsely imprisoned, we shall continue to call for their speedy release and offer our prayers during their suffering. On behalf of the brave men and women who suffer persecution because of national origin, religious beliefs, and their desire for liberty, it is the duty and the privilege of the United States of America to demand that the signatories of the United Nations Charter and the Helsinki Accords live up to their pledges and obligations and respect the principles and spirit of those international agreements and understandings.

During Captive Nations Week, we renew our efforts to encourage freedom, independence, and national self-determination for those countries struggling to free themselves from Communist ideology and totalitarian oppression, and to support those countries which today are standing face-to-face against Soviet expansionism. One cannot call for freedom and human rights for the people of Asia and Eastern Europe while ignoring the struggles of our own neighbors in this hemisphere. There is no difference between the weapons used to oppress the people of Laos and Czechoslovakia, and those sent to Nicaragua to terrorize its own people and threaten the peace and prosperity of its neighbors.

Indeed, Reagan was credited with tremendous insight and integrity for the creation of Captive Nations week. And I've always assumed that it was a White House idea. My parents, along with many other immigrants faring from totalitarian states, would fight back tears when listening to his speeches on captive nations. Except, of course, that it wasn't really Reagan's idea.

Captive Nations week was actually the brainchild of Lev Dobriansky, a professor at Georgetown University who influenced many future policy makers with his anti-Soviet approach to politics and economics. A former student, Chris Robling, describes Dobriansky's role in Reagan's anti-communist policy:

The foreign policy establishment considered the Captive Nations to be “lost causes.” With the possible exception of Cuba, there were no plans anywhere to win any of them back. We had not helped the Czechs in 1967. The Bay of Pigs was a disgrace. We did not help the Hungarians in 1957. The Berlin airlift was more than 25 years past. Congressional Democrats told President Ford he must abandon our allies in South Viet Nam. And Jimmy Carter told us our fear of communism was “inordinate.” It was all very sad, yes, but what exactly was the point?

Lev knew the point. He started Captive Nations to keep memories alive. To keep faith with the enslaved. To show that the blandishments of freedom had not blinded us to the suffering of innocents abroad. To change the world.

And Ronald Reagan understood. He attended. He spoke and sang, cried and comforted. He remembered, and he would never forget. And in time, he would do something about it.

I do not know if what we heard in class, Reagan heard at the University Club. I do not know if Lev’s “reports” came from unofficial official sources. I do not know that Reagan’s knowledge of the rot within the Soviet economy was based on – or expanded by -- his friendship with Lev Dobriansky.

But I do know that Reagan’s policy of building our arms to a point that the Soviets would collapse if they tried to equal us, and then doing it, and then watching the Soviets implode peacefully for the lack of goods, was the A+ answer to Lev Dobriansky’s ultimate final exam.

What Reagan thought was every bit as out-of-step as what Lev taught. What Reagan did amazed the experts and, frankly, upended their quaint notions of inevitable decline.

I'll finish this quick post by quoting another emigre from a formerly-communist country. Andrew Fedynsky describes the power of Captive Nations week for those living under communism, as well as their families, some of whom emigrated to the United States:

Prior to the adoption of Captive Nations legislation, the struggle against communism was waged on terms set by Lenin and Marx. Communists would point to the shortcomings of capitalism: depression, crime, unequal income distribution and racism, and offer their "utopia" as an alternative. The West found itself defending a flawed capitalist system that existed in the real world, against the vision of Communist perfection sometime off in the future. As for communism's repressive nature? This was either denied or downplayed as something that had to be done to bring about "paradise on Earth."

The Captive Nations Week Resolution (Public Law 86-90) officially introduced a new element to the debate: national self-determination. Forget economic utopia, Ukrainian Americans said. That's a phony vision anyway. The reality is more like famine and labor camps. With the annual endorsement of Congress and the president, Ukrainian Americans demanded the restoration of Ukraine's national symbols, its language, its heroes. Standing next to them at Public Square rallies were Balts, Poles, Hungarians, Romanians, Slovaks, Czechs and others - each with grievances and Captive Nations agendas of their own.

Over the years, people in Washington who are paid to look at the big picture came to accept the Soviet Union as a permanent fixture. Ultimately, for the State Department, focused on big-power diplomacy and the minutiae of arms control, wheat contracts and cultural exchange negotiations, the separate Captive Nations agendas voiced by people with funny names and strange accents were a distraction and an embarrassment. For the Soviets they were a mortal threat.

As the people at the top cut deals, millions of Americans at the grassroots were spreading the world about national self-determination. The countless channels of personal communication, the brave publishing houses like Smoloskyp, Ardis and Kultura, the Voice of America, Radio Liberty and the sacrifice of dissidents within the Soviet bloc ultimately overwhelmed the ability of the KGB and other secret police organizations to control political thought.

Each national group represented in the Captive Nations coalition had its separate agenda, yet was each linked politically to the other, because each shared the same political objective: the demise of the Soviet Union. East and West might have found a way to "peacefully co-exist" - what other choice was there? - but still, each July, the president issued a proclamation that said it was the objective of the United States to free the Captive Nations, i.e., destroy the Soviet Union. Millions of Americans worked to make it happen, despite the best efforts over time of our diplomats to downplay the significance of Captive Nations Week.

You can listen to Ronald Reagan's speeches here. And you can read about the players involved in Reagan's Cold War speeches in Paul Kengor's article, "The 'March of Freedom' From Reagan to Bush" published in Policy Review.

Ion Creangă writes about his mother.

There is nothing like the joyous revelry of Ion Creanga, and, unfortunately, much is lost in translation from Romanian to English, from Protestant rationalism to village Orthodoxy, from city to town. For those who have never spent time in a Romanian village, reading Creanga might be only moderately amusing; his writings testify to the mischiefs, superstitions, trials, and challenges of the Romanian peasant life.

Thanks to Tom and Tom's Place, the entire text of Creanga's Memories of My Boyhood is available online, complete with illustrations, for your enjoyment.

Here is an excerpt in which Creanga talks about his mother's specific charms:

I don't pretend to know what other people are like, but for myself, I seem to feel my heart throb with joy even to this day when I remember my birthplace, my home at Humuleşti, the post supporting the flue of the stove, round which mother used to tie a piece of string with tassels at the end of it, with which the cats played till they dropped exhausted, the flat ledge of the stove that I used to cling to when I was pulling myself up and learning to walk, the place on top of the stove where I used to hide when we children played at hide-and-seek, as well as other games and delights full of childlike fun and charm. Lord, what good times those were, for parents and brothers and sisters were hale and hearty, there was everything needful in the house, the sons and daughters of our neighbours were for ever romping with us, and everything was exactly as I liked best, without a shadow of ill-humour as if the whole world were mine! I myself was as happy as the day was long, whimsical and playful like the gusting wind.

Mother, who was well-known for her spells and cantrips, would say to me sometimes with a smile as the sun peeped from behind the clouds after prolonged rain: "Go outside, you fair-haired child, and laugh at the sun, maybe the weather will change." And the weather did change at my smile.

The sun no doubt knew what I was capable of, for I was my mother's son, and she in truth could work wonders: she would chase away the black clouds overhanging our village and drive the hail away into other places by sticking the axe into the ground, outside the door; she would so curdle water by means of a couple of beef bones that the people crossed themselves in amazement; she would hit the ground, the wall or any wooden thing that I bumped my head against saying: "Take that!" and forthwith the pain was gone.

When the red embers moaned in the stove, which is supposed to foretell wind and bad weather, or when the embers hissed, a sign that someone is talking about you, mother would scold the hearth and beat it with a poker to make the enemy shut up. More than that, if I didn't look as well as she thought I ought to, she would immediately lick her finger and make a muddy mixture with dust from the heel of her shoe, or, if she was in much of a hurry for that, she would take soot from the stove and say: "As heel or stove are free of the evil eye so let my baby be free of it!" and she would make a mark on my forehead lest her precious pet come to harm. These and many more things did she do.

Exploring Ceausescu's warm relationship with the USA: Part 2.

Perhaps the most revealing book on the political battle over communist Romania's MFN status is Pinstripes and Reds by David Funderburk. Funderberk was a Reagan appointee who served as ambassador to Romania from 1981-1985. Funderburk's book is an indictment of the Romanian communist government as well as the US State Department and foreign policy establishment that helps to keep Ceasescu in power. It is also a more personal indictment of foreign policy demi-gods including Lawrence Eagleburger, Alexander Haig, President George Bush, Paul Tsongas, Ronald Reagan, and especially Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger.

The policy which Funderburk deplores is the policy of differentiation, which "dates back to the late 1960's strategy developed by Nixon and Kissinger" and "has continued to be the American policy through Republican and Democrat administrations in large part because the elite of the State Department has made it a litmus test for any who would advance in the Eastern European affairs area". As a policy, differentiation was a fairly simple and sensible one-- the US government would treat European communist countries differently, not as a solid monolithic bloc, based on their records of economic liberalization, respect for human rights, and putative independence from Moscow. This meant that "good" communist regimes would be rewarded with official visits, MFN status (including trade credits and tariff reductions), and "friendship" treaties, while "bad" communist regimes would receive none of these carrots. At the time of the book's publication, Hungary and Romania were "good" MFN status states, while Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Bulgaria, and Poland were not.

Vice President Bush made a clear statement of this differentiation policy in his Vienna speech on September 21, 1983:

"In our relations with the countries of Eastern Europe, we take these differences into account, our policy is one of differentiation-- that is, we look to what degree countries pursue autonomous foreign policies, independent of Moscow's direction; and to what degree they foster domestic liberalization-- politically, economically and in their respect for human rights. The United States will engage in closer political, economic, and cultural relations with those countries such as Hungary and Romania which assert greater openness or independence."

The perceived benefits of this differentiation policy for the United States included trade, emigration, and "leverage". MFN would give the US leverage in human rights and emigration cases. In a footnote, Funderburk expresses his concern about the effectiveness of this "leverage":

"MFN was intended for countries to improve human rights and allow freer emigration, not those that decide on getsures just prior to annual MFN renewal. State (Dept.) post facto puts the cart before the horse. If Romania lost MFN, it would be hard to imagine treatment of political and religious dissidents getting worse."

Funderburk is a fascinating fellow in his own right-- a passionate Baptist Christian who refers to his "conservatism" throughout the book with pride and yet calls Ceasescu to task for outlawing abortion and contraception. It is difficult to read this book without admiring his passionate commitment to human rights. As a self-described foreign policy "realist", Funderburk wants Romania's MFN status to be revoked on the grounds of consistent human rights violations, secret transfers of American technology to the Soviets, illegal arms trade, abuse and persecution of Christians and Jews, and incessant duplicity with regards to official agreements. The State Department's longstanding commitment to differentiation policy keeps the US government from seeing the farce that is Romanian "foreign policy independence", from condemning Ceausescu's brutal treatment of his own people, and from acting in accordance with the evidence. As a result, the US government is rewarding one of the most devious, anti-American communist regimes in the world. He notes:

"Romania's leadership gained pretige, support, and credibility with the Third World and non-aligned countries by having a steady stream of US visitors in Bucharest. Ceausescu's harsh domestic policies were in effect given a stamp of approval by such visits."

Rather than advance his position in the foreign policy establishment, Funderburk chose to resign from his post in 1985 and return to teaching at a university. When Funderburk resigned, the MFN battle was continuing in Congress, with those who opposed MFN status for Romania lining up behind Senator Jesse Helms. The Jackson-Vanik Amendment to the Trade Act linked the assignment of MFN status to the establishment of free and open emigration procedures. This Amendment was at the core of the political dispute over MFN.

In spite of the information provided by Funderburk, Romania received MFN status again in 1985 and 1986. At this time, the Ceausescu regime had implemented a new policy which required hopeful emigrants to pay the Romanian state for the cost of their public education before being granted a visa. In a country without money, this meant that that a recent graduate would have to find $50,000 hard currency when owning that kind of hard currency was considered a crime.

In 1987, Romania's MFN status was suspended for six months contingent on an improvement in the human rights record. Ceausescu called this a "free emigration" policy, and the US government concurred.

• "Exploring Ceausescu's warm relationship with the US: Part 1" preceded this post. In it, I explore the origins of Romania's independent foreign policy.
• The Foreward for this book, written by Phillip M. Crane, is available online.
• Reagan's nomination of Funderburk for Amabassador.
• If you scroll down, there is a good discussion of Funderburk and US policy at "US Administration, the Hungarian lobby, and the Romanian-Hungarian conflict".
• Funderburk was right about the Romanian government selling military secrets and technology to the Soviets. A great article on Romanian-Soviet relations is "Romania and the Soviet-Union, 1965-1989".

One man's escape from communist Romania: The tale of Kalman.

As a child, I blushed profusely when my mother would speak to me in Romanian at school or in public places. The sharp sound of the Romanian language always turned heads in Alabama:

"Wow? What language was thaa-at? Where are you guys from? Ro-MA-nia? Where is thaa-at?"

My face stayed warm as my mother explained that Romania was in Europe, not Africa. If the conversation continued, somehow my mother might explain why we lived in America; she might open the door to the convoluted, almost mythical story detailing, their escape, more technically termed, their "defection".

The term defection, like the description illegal aliens, makes my skin crawl. The vocabulary of American immigration is quick to diagnose-- to sterilize and de-humanize the human beings it purports to describe. A defector bears some secret relation to defect, and who in their right mind would trust people who are secretive with their broken accents and the defect at the core of their being? They speak in a funny language that no one understands; you never really know what they mean.... They are probably communists because Romania is a communist country. And so the thoughts continue-- whether in my young head or theirs, I'll never know.

For those who have not heard my mother's story, there are many similar versions populating American cities. In fact, you can learn about the story of how they ran, how fast, how furiously, from "Kalman's Great Escape from Communism". I am grateful to Kalman, and other members of the Romanian diaspora, who, like him, have opened their past to the world, thus opening the world to the story of Romania. And Romanians.

A photo by Dan Oprea.

 

This photo by Dan Oprea reminds me of something one might see on the benches of Cismigiu in the summertime. And if you sat down to sip on a cigarette, hoping for a denouement, you might just discover that the young boy wearing the skates does not know the old man, who keeps trying to talk to him about corruption, golden days, and the color of women's hair before history became a product of the assembly-line.

Adrian Codrescu on Romanian wine customs, French professors, and what to do when your glass is empty.

Our largish party included a near-retirement age French professor of history, I think he was, who taught at the Sorbonne. We drank a lot of Romanian red wine, the luxuriant dry Byzantium Cabernet Sauvignon from the legendary Dealu Mare vineyards, and went through several courses over the course of several hours, a standard Romanian repast. We talked mostly about food. After he had drunk more than a few glasses of wine, the French professor held forth on various subjects, discoursing in an elliptical way so that no one else could talk while he spoke. He talked about Iraq, launching into a kind of History Channel lecture on the Middle East, including a few indisputable, uninspired opinions about military strategy. Something about Napoleon. For him, the past was a series of coherent, causal events that fit into a neat narrative. For my part, I tried to get in that the war was nothing less than a calamity and then attempted to offer a few barbed opinions about the idiot president, George W. Bush. But I don't believe he heard me, possibly because he was giving a lecture rather than engaging in a conversation. He also didn't think much of the irrefutably superb Byzantium Cab, comparing it, predictably, to Bordeaux and Burgundies. Nevertheless he drank glass after glass of the vintage and got very drunk.

You aren't supposed to touch the wine bottle in a Romanian restaurant—it's practically an insult to pour your own. So the bottle that has been placed on the table in front of you rests there until the designated attendant picks it up and walks around the table silently, fluidly, ceremoniously pouring wine into glasses. The problem is that you can sit before an empty glass for twenty minutes, sort of watching it wistfully—the lonely half-full bottle sitting there in front of you, as well—waiting for the person charged with refilling a glass to come. This may be a consequence of the Communist days, when everyone was assigned a job, no matter how meaningful, though I'm not sure about that. It may go back to the time of Matei Corvin and Vlad Tepes. Or to Ovid, for that matter.

The French professor did not like to have wine poured into the glass that he'd been drinking from. He wanted a new wineglass each time he had a glass of wine, which was frequently, even if the burgundy liquid poured into it was the same as the one he had been drinking. He even threatened to smash his glass on the stone floor if he wasn't supplied with a new one every time a bottle was opened—he claimed that this was common practice in France. I'd never heard of this and, though I didn't offer my opinion this time, thought it was an excessive cultural ideal to enforce. Also, his theatrical refusal caused such a commotion that the guy appointed with the job of pouring the wine, upset, ran off to get the maître d'hôtel. This being Romania, it took a while for them to come. Meanwhile, my glass sat empty in front of me. When the maître d' and several members of the wait crew appeared, the Sorbonne professor, with practically no knowledge of Romanian, got into a row with them. He even wanted to stand up to make some kind of speech, but several of our party beseeched him to remain seated. Kind of swimming in the copious red liquid myself, I did try to say that I was originally from the West Coast, and that we replaced glasses sometimes when we changed wines at tastings, but I don't think I was heard above the fracas. I then realized why this professor from the Sorbonne was such a fucking idiot. This was his fly fishing.

[Excerpted from "Fly Fishing Romania" at The Exquisite Corpse. Follow the link to get the whole picture.]

Actress Maria Dinulescu and "Hooked" (2008).

Toro features an interview with Romanian actress Maria Dinulescu at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2008 in which she discusses her lighter-than-usual film fare, "Hooked", directed by Adrian Sitaru. After discussing her work with Sitaru, Dinulescu steps back from her work for a moment to describe her impressions of the film as a member of the audience:

They’re [Miha and Mihai] lovers, (she’s cheating on her husband with him) and we’re always shown [in movies] what relationship dynamics exist in a family, especially those between husband and wife. Well now we’re shown the relationship that Miha has with the person she’s cheating her husband with. So it should be a better situation. However when we see them in certain circumstances, we sit and ask ourselves “why are they still together?” Miha is shown as ‘unbearable,’ frigid and frustrated, while Mihai slaps her, and lets himself be seduced by Ana-Violeta. That’s why it’s a clear irony when Ana-Violeta asks him “how long have you two been together?” They seem to be together for 10 years or so, but in reality they’ve been going out for only a year-and-something. That’s why I really appreciate the nuances of these two characters, as well as the relationship they have. It’s incredible how they can still be together, more so what eventually happens to them. Bottom line is that they’re an abnormal couple, and I find that to be extremely valuable in the film. Not to mention the moments when you see how easy it is for Ana-Violeta to mock them: “Well you know that I’m a prostitute…it’s prostitution right? That’s what they call it. Why are we beating around the bus?”

Interestingly enough, there is no mention of the translation leap from the film's Romanian title, "Pescuit Sportiv", to its English translation, "Hooked". For the record, the Romanian title would translate literally to "Sportive Fishing" or "Hobby Fishing". I'd love to know why Sitaru chose to resolve the discrepancy with "Hooked".

• The official website for the film. Images, photos, interviews galore.
• Film review by Ray Bennett in The Hollywood Reporter.

"The Story of the Swan Maiden and the King"

Once upon a time a king went out hunting, and after he had been hunting in the forest for a long time without finding anything, he found himself suddenly in an open plain, in which there was a huge lake, and in the midst of the lake he saw there a bird swimming about, the like of which he had never seen before. It was a swan.

Drawing his bow, he wanted to shoot it. To his surprise it spoke to him in a human voice, and said, "Do not kill me."

So he tried his best to catch it, and succeeded. Pleased with the capture of the bird, he carried it home alive, and gave it to the cook to kill it to make a meal of it for him. The cook was a Gypsy. She whetted her knife and went to the bird to cut its throat, when, to her astonishment, the bird turned three somersaults, and there stood before her a most beautiful maiden, more beautiful than she had ever seen before. So she ran to the king and told him what had happened.

The king, who first thought that the cook was trying to play some trickery with him, did not listen to her, but when she persisted in her tale, the king, driven by curiosity, went into the kitchen, and there he saw a girl more beautiful than any that he had ever yet set his eyes upon.

He asked her who she was, and she said she was the swan who was swimming on the lake, that she had willfully gone away from her mother, who lived in the land of fairies, and that she had left two sisters behind. So the king took her into the palace and married her. The Gypsy, who was a pretty wench, had thought that the king would marry her, and when she saw what had happened, she was very angry. But she managed to conceal her anger, and tried to be kind to the new queen, biding her time all the while.

The king and queen lived on for a while in complete happiness, and after a time a child was born unto her.

It so happened that the king had to go on a long journey, leaving the wife and child in the care of the Gypsy. One day the Gypsy came to the queen, and said to her, "Why do you always sit in the palace? Come, let us walk a little in the garden, to hear the birds singing, and to see the beautiful flowers."

The queen, who had no suspicion, took the advice of the Gypsy, and went with her for a walk into the garden. In the middle of the garden there was a deep well, and the Gypsy said artfully to the young queen, "Just bend over the well, and look into the water below, and see whether your face has remained so beautiful as it was on the first day when you turned into a maiden from being a swan."

The queen bent over the well to look down into the depths, and that was what the Gypsy was waiting for, for no sooner did the queen bend over the well, than, getting hold of her by her legs, she threw her down head foremost into the well and drowned her.

When the king came home and did not find the queen, he asked what had happened, and where she was. The Gypsy, who had meanwhile taken charge of the child, and looked after it very carefully, said to the king that the young queen, pining for her old home, had turned again into a swan and flown away.

The king was deeply grieved when he heard this, but believing what the Gypsy had told him, he thought that nothing could be done, and resigned himself to the loss of his wife.

They Gypsy woman looked after the child with great care, hoping thereby that she might win the king's love, and that he would marry her. A month, a year passed, and nothing was heard of the wife. And the king, seeing the apparent affection of the Gypsy for the child, decided at last to marry her, and fixed the day of the wedding.

Out of the fountain into which the queen had been thrown, there grew a willow tree with three branches, one stem in the middle and two branching out right and left. Not far from the garden there lived a man who had a large flock of sheep. One day he sent his boy to lead the sheep to the field. On his way the boy passed the king's garden with the well in the middle of it.

As the boy had left his flute at home, when he saw the willow he thought he would cut one of the branches and make a flute. Going into the garden, he cut the middle stem, and made a flute of it. When he put it to his lips, the flute by itself began to play as follows, "O boy, do not blow too hard, for my heart is aching for my little babe which I left behind in the cradle, and to suckle at the black breast of a Gypsy."

When the boy heard what the flute was playing, not understanding what it meant, he was greatly astonished, and ran home to tell his father what had happened with the flute. The father, angry that he had left the sheep alone, scolded him, and took away the flute. Then he tried to see whether the boy had told the truth. As soon as he put it to his mouth the flute started playing the same tune as when the boy had tried to play it. The father said nothing, and wondering at the meaning of the words he hid the flute away in a cupboard.

When the king's wedding day drew near, all the musicians of the kingdom were invited to come and play at the banquet. Some of them passed the old man's house, and hearing from them that they were going to play at the king's banquet, he remembered the marvelous flute, and asked whether he could not go also, as he could play the flute so wonderfully well.

His son -- the young boy -- had meanwhile gone into the garden in the hope of getting another flute, as the willow had three branches. So he cut one of the branches and made a flute of it. Now this flute did not play at all.

When the old man came to the palace, there was much rejoicing and singing. At last his turn came to play. As soon as he put the flute to his lips, the flute sang, "O man, do not blow so hard, for my heart aches for my little babe left in the cradle to be suckled by a black Gypsy."

The Gypsy, who was the king's bride and sat at the head of the table, at once understood the saying of the flute, although she did not know what the flute had to do with the queen whom she had killed.

The king, who marveled greatly at the flute and at the tune which it was singing, took a gold piece and gave it to the man for the flute, and when he started blowing it, the flute began to sing, "O my dear husband, do not blow so hard, for my heart aches for our little babe whom I left in the cradle to be sucked by the black Gypsy. Quickly, quickly, do away with this cruel Gypsy, as otherwise you will lose your wife."

The guests who were present marveled at the song, and no one understood its meaning. The Gypsy, however, who understood full well what it meant, turning to the king, said, "Illustrious king, do not blow this flute and make yourself ridiculous before your guests. Throw it into the fire."

But the king, who felt offended by the words of the Gypsy, made her take up the flute and blow. With great difficulty she submitted to the order of the king, and she was quite justified in refusing to play it, for no sooner had she put the flute to her lips when it sang, "You enemy of mine, do not blow hard, for my heart aches for my little babe left in the cradle to be suckled by you, you evil-minded Gypsy. You have thrown me into the well, and there put an end to my life, but God had pity on me, and he has preserved me to be again the true wife of this illustrious king."

Furious at these words, the Gypsy threw the flute away with so much force that she thought it would break into thousands of splinters. But it was not to be as she thought, for by this very throw the flute was changed into a beautiful woman, more beautiful, indeed, than any had ever seen before. She was the very queen whom the Gypsy had thrown into the well.

When the king saw her, he embraced her and kissed her, and asked her where she had been such a long time. She told him that she had slept at the bottom of the well, into which she had been thrown by the Gypsy, who had hoped to become the queen, and this would have come to pass had it not been for the boy cutting a flute out of the stem of the willow tree. "And now, punish the Gypsy as she deserves, otherwise your wife must leave you."

When the king heard these words, he called the boy and asked him whether he had cut himself a flute from the stem of the willow tree which had grown out of the well in the garden.

"It is so, O illustrious king," said the boy, "and may I be forgiven for the audacity of going into the king's garden. I went and cut for myself a flute from the stem of the willow tree, and when I began to blow it, it played, 'Do not blow so hard, O boy, for my heart is aching within me,' etc." Then he told him he had gone back to his father, who instead of praising him for the marvelous flute, gave him a good shaking. He had then gone a second time into the garden, and had cut off one of the branches to make a flute, but this did not play like the first one. The king gave the boy a very rich gift, and he ordered the Gypsy to be killed.

Some time afterwards, the queen came to the king and asked leave to go to her mother to tell her all that had happened to her, and to say good-bye for ever now, as she henceforth would live among human beings. The king reluctantly gave way. She then made three somersaults, and again became a swan, as she had been when the king found her for the first time on the waters of the lake.

Spreading her wings she flew far away until she reached the house of her mother, who was quite alone. Her two sisters were not there. They had left her some time ago and no one knew whither they had gone. The young queen did not go into the house. She was probably afraid lest her mother would not let her go back again, so she settled on the roof, and there she sang, "Remain in health, good mother mine, as the joy is no longer granted you to have me with you in your house, for you will only see me again when I lose my kingdom, dear mother mine, not before, and not till then."

And without waiting for the answer of her mother she returned back again to her husband. Sitting on the window sill, she sang again, "Rise up, O husband, open the doors, wake up the servants and let them be a witness of my faithfulness to you, for since I have married you I have left my mother, and my sisters have gone away from me, and from a swan I have become a true wife to live in happiness with you. Henceforth I shall no longer be a swan, but you must take care of me that I do not go hence from you. I do not know whether my fate will be a better one by being a queen in this world. O sweet water, how I long to bathe in you! And my white feathers, they will belong to my sisters. Since I am to leave them forever, and my mother with them, O Lord, what have I done? Shall I be able to live upon the earth, and shall I keep the kingdom? Thou, O Lord, O merciful, hearken unto me and grant that this kingdom may not be in vain." And turning again head over heals, she became a woman as before, and entering the palace she lived there with her husband -- the king -- and if they have not died since, they are still alive.

[This story is originally posted at Swan Maidens: Folk Tales of Type 400 by the illustrious folk-tale collector D.L. Ashliman. You can compare it to other tales of the swan maiden type from other countries, thanks to this resource.]

Richard Nixon's birthday greeting to Ceausescu.

As Romania-watchers know, Ceausescu's 65th birthday in 1983 was the occasion for unsurpassed celebration of the personality cult. Court poets, including Dumitru Radu Popescu, Corneliu Vadim Tudor, Ion Cringuleanu, Ion Brad (a poet who managed to become ambassador to Greece), Mihai Beniuc, Viorel Cozma, Ion Machidon, and Ion Gheorge, among others, issued odes and heroic poems aplenty, resulting in the publication of three volumes of Ceausescu-worshipping poetry by the Military Publishing House.

What is not so often mentioned is the telegram sent by President Richard Nixon wishing Ceausescu a happy birthday. The telegram read as follows:

Ever since we first met and talked together in 1967, I have followed your evolution as a statesman. Your vigor, your independent spirit, your acute intelligence, and particularly your skill in handling both internal and international problems place you in the first ranks of the world's leaders.

I am saying this because at the very moment you will celebrate your birthday you will attain the pinnacle peculiar to every great leader. At 65 most people are ready to be pensioned off, but for many of the greatest leaders of the world the most efficient and productive years start from then on.

I am sure that your best moments will come during your second decade as president, when you will continue the same daring and independent course you have decided upon for your people.

Mrs. Nixon joins me in sending you the warmest congratulations and best wishes to you and your wife and capable comrade Elena, as well as to the other members of your family.

Nixon proved rather prophetic in a dark way-- Ceasescu's biggest and "best" projects, including systematization, were yet to come...

• Footage from Nixon's first visit to Romania in 1969.
• "Nixon lauds Romania" includes transcripts, images, and audio files that sheds light on the confused foreign policy perceptions generated by the Nixon-Kissinger alliance.
• An article from The New York Times detailing a fascinating lawsuit which knotted together Nixon, Ceausescu, and the Iraqi government as business partners.

Exploring Ceausescu's warm relationship with the USA: Part 1.

Re-reading Riccardo Orizio's Talk of the Devil: Encounters with Seven Dictators, I discovered an interesting little passage about Ceausescu from an interview with Wojciech Jaruzelski, Poland's former Moscow-friendly communist dictator. The author inquires about Jaruzelski's feelings on Reagan. His reply:

"My feelings about Reagan have been completely different at different times. At the beginning my opinion of his was decidedly negative. The sanctions he imposed on Poland after martial law were very painful. And for me, Reagan was simply a hypocrite. He recieved the Romanian dictator Ceausescu, who had been operating martial law for twenty years, with full honours, yet it took him only a few hours to decree an embargo against us when we were in the difficult position of having to declare a state of war."

I've never heard a sound, sensible explanation for the US government's warm treatment of Romania during the early Cold War. Yes, Ceausesu refused to take orders from Moscow so that he could implement his more stringent, nationalist version of communism (including a personality cult) at home, but this policy did not begin with Ceausescu, as Matei Calinescu, Thomas G. Pavel, Vladimir Tismaneanu, and Dorin Tudoran point out in an article for The New York Review of Books [1].

In fact, Ceausescu's predecessor, Gheorghiu-Dedj, was the one who began the policy of distance from Moscow-- how else to garner even the slightest support from a population in which no native communist movement existed, a population which feared and hated  "the Russians" beyond measure, a relatively new nation complicated by strong regional identity and a powerful postwar nationalism? Ceausescu merely stepped in and stepped up the movement for nationalist communism with his own additions, including the personality-cult inspired by a visit to North Korea, a deification of Romanian folk culture, and an aggressive purge of religious and intellectual influences that might tempt Romanians away from the new gods-- Ceausescu and the Party.

In this same article, Calinescu et al. suggest the true impetus for the Romanian revolution came with Gorbachev's renunciation of the Brezhnev doctrine. So long as Romanians believed the Soviets might send troops and take over in the case of local dissent or revolt, Ceausescu was safe. For few Romanians would prefer a Soviet dicatorship to their own homegrown, horrible one. To quote:

Paradoxically, even though Ceausescu became famous in the West as an anti-Soviet maverick, his horrendous regime was in fact protected, particularly during the Brezhnev years, but also thereafter, by the possibility of a Soviet intervention. Only during the last two or three years of utter desperation was a Soviet intervention—thought to be the only way to remove Ceausescu from power—contemplated with some ambiguous, rather bitter hope by some Romanians. Fortunately, such an intervention, which would have been a catastrophe for the national psyche of the Romanian people, was neither possible (from the point of view of the Russians) nor necessary.

So why did the Reagan administration choose to reward Ceausescu with Most Favored Nation status if not even his "maverick-dom" (pace Sarah Palin and John McCain) was original? [2] Part of the answer to this can be found in Romania's pro-Western trade policy. In 1971 Romania joined the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the following year it won admission to the IMF and the World Bank. In 1975 Romania gained most-favored-nation trading status from the United States. According to this country report on Romanian trade policy, things got interesting in the 1980's:

During the 1980s, however, trade relations with the West soured. Ceausescu blamed the IMF and "unjustifiably high" interest rates charged by Western banks for his country's economic plight. For its part, the West charged Romania with unfair trade practices, resistance to needed economic reform, and human rights abuses. In 1988 the United States suspended most-favored-nation status, and the following year, the EEC declined to negotiate a new trade agreement with Romania. Meanwhile, attempts to increase trade with the less-developed countries had also met with disappointment. After peaking in 1981 at nearly 29 percent of total foreign trade, relations with these countries deteriorated, largely because the Iran-Iraq War had cut off delivery of crude oil from Iran. 

Meanwhile, members of the Romanian diaspora, like Juliana Geron Pilon, protested Romania's MFN status in various policy papers, articles, and essays. Pilon noted that even the US ambassador to Romania, David Funderbunk, considered the MFN status to be a "swindle". [3] Diaspora members tended to focus on human rights issues in light of the Helsinki agreement-- at the time, it was a highly effective way in which to capture the US government and media attention, not to mention that it was a precondition for MFN status. Ceausescu's creation of the dread Securitate in 1966 did not earn him friends among the emigre community; this Securitate gained more power over time and made phone conversations with relatives and family in Romania nearly impossible during the 1980's [4]. The lobbying to end Romania's MFN status was eventually successful in only the most paltry sense of the word. On June 5, 1988, President Reagan announced that Romania's MFN status would not be renewed [5]. 

Text notes:

1. Gheorghiu-Dej, who ruthlessly eliminated his rivals (Ana Pauker, Teohari Georgescu, Vasile Luca) or savagely murdered them (Lucretiu Patrascanu), and who rejected the de-Stalinization initiated by the 20th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party (1956), was actually the originator of "national Communism" in Romania, as a means to preserve the Stalinist structure of the party and its rule. Profiting from the Sino-Soviet split, it was Gheorghiu-Dej who started the nationalistic policies which Ceausescu continued, acquiring the reputation of an anti-Kremlin maverick. It was also Gheorghiu-Dej who, in his opposition to the Russians, and in order to acquire a measure of badly needed popularity, started the quasi-liberalization of the mid-1960s, from which Ceausescu profited to consolidate his power until 1971, the year when he felt secure enough to launch his own version of a Chinese-style mini-cultural revolution. 
2. For a detailed description of the Romanian effort to obtain and keep MFN status, see Romania versus the United Status by Roger Kirk and Mircea Raceanu.
3. See the excellent timeline of Ceausescu's activities at moreorless.com.
4. I remember the phone cutting off constantly. My mother would spend hours trying to make a call to her sister or her father-- 90% of the time, no luck. And when she did get connected, the calls were brief and circumspect. I remember watching her face contort as she tried to think of convoluted ways in which to inquire about health, food, living conditions, etc.
5. Fearing a bruise to his image as all-powerful ruler, Ceausescu apparently indiciated Romania's decision to renounce its MFN status prior to the passage of US legislation. There's something to be said for yelling, "I'm not playing" when it is clear you are going to lose. See Minton F. Goldman, Revolution and Change in Central and Eastern Europe, p. 274.

Nicu Steinhardt, the happy monk.

Paula, at Receiving Light, shared a long excerpt by Nicu Steinhardt that made my day and reminded me of Steinhardt's amazing faith. For those unfamiliar with Steinhardt, I've posted the best online bio I've found, written by Claudia Miclaus:

The celebrated Romanian writer, hermit and confession father bearing the name of Nicolae Steinhardt was born near Bucharest, in Pantelimon. He was of Jewish descent, born of Romanian mother and a Jewish father. He was a great admirer of the Romanian culture and spirituality, his conversion to Orthodoxy being in perfect harmony with his tremendous love for all things Romanian.

He graduated from the Law and Literature School of the University of Bucharest in 1934. Later on, in 1936, he started his PhD in Constitutional Law. Consequently, between 1937 and 1938, he traveled to England, Austria, France and Switzerland.

The communist persecutions started in 1948, when non-communist intellectuals were declared "enemies of the people". Yet his real troubles began in 1959, when he refused to testify against his friend and former school colleague Constantin Noica during a court trial. Because of his refusal, he was found guilty of "crimes against social order", together with the "batch of mystical-Iron Guardist intellectuals".

He was also charged with the penalty of 13 years’ forced labor in several communist prisons such as Jilava, Gherla, Aiud, and others. While being in prison, he discovered the joy of pure and true faith and decided to convert himself to the Orthodox Christianity. Therefore, he was baptized there, in jail. Although performed by an Orthodox hermit, his baptism was witnessed by people of different denominations-2 Roman-Catholic priests, two Greek-Catholic priests and a Protestant pastor, which gave an "ecumenical character" to this special, crucial event of his life.

His most famous writing is "The Happiness Diary", based on the memories of the years spent in the communist prisons. Unfortunately, the so-called "Securitate" confiscated the very 1st edition of this book, in 1972, and returned it to its author three years later, after censuring it. Since he had written another version of the same book, the Securitate also confiscated it from him in 1984. Steinhardt ended by having several variants of this writing.

"The Happiness Diary" is now included among the best writings of the Romanian literature. It has as a motto a Bible quotation: "I do believe! Help me overcome my unbelief!" (Mark, 9:24). Steinhardt explains that these simple, honest words stand for the most perfect definition of Christianity.

In 1980, sixteen years after his being released from prison, Nicolae Steinhardt got into the Rohia Monastery, working there as a librarian and writer also. Since he was an excellent counselor and father-confessor, many weekly visitors came to Rohia, to look for spiritual guidance from the brilliant "Father Nicolae". Many people still go there nowadays, to visit his famous library and enjoy the peace and serenity governing that beautiful place.

He spent the last days of his life in Baia Mare, at the city hospital. Many of his admirers and friends came to his funeral, though it was strictly supervised by the communist Securitate.

Pope John the 2nd made the following assertion regarding the personality of Nicolae Steinhardt: "Out of the numerous witnesses of Christ that bloomed in the fields of Romania, I would like to mention the hermit of Rohia, Nicolae Steinhardt, an exceptional believer and also a highly-cultivated man, who perceived in a very special way the enormous treasures common to the Christian churches."

Indeed, Steinhardt’s life has been a genuine example of pure faith and commitment to the Christian principles. While answering to the question "what do I owe Christ?", Steinhardt refers to the feeling of general peace, wrapping around his heart. Peace with God, peace with other people, with the whole world, with evil-intended people, with those who did him wrong, with those to whom he did wrong and, above all, peace with himself. "To be good is to be in harmony with one’s self", Oscar Wilde once said.

Steinhardt also repeatedly expressed the idea of an unbelievably generous God, full of grace and mercy, the God of Christianity. One of his favorite quotes seemed to be the one belonging to the celebrated Russian writer F.M. Dostoevsky: "if anyone ever proved to me, beyond any doubt, while I am on my dying bed, that Christ is not the truth, that the real truth is another one, if the arguments provided to me were impossible to contradict, I wouldn’t give it another thought: I would choose Christ over truth."

And so he did.

• You can find the story of Nicu's life in his own words (granted, they are Romanian words) here.
• The wikipedia on Nicolae Steinhardt.
  
• "Giving You Shall Receive" by Nicu Steinhardt.
• "365 uncomfortable questions", an interview with Steinhardt (Romanian). Not all the questions and answers are posted, but what can be read is truly fascinating.
• "Communism: The Refined Laboratory of Terrorism, Nicolae Steinhardt, The Diary of Happiness", a very informative paper in pdf
• Nicu's mention in The Steinhardt Family Book
  
• An interview with Virgil Ciomos, who talks about Parintele Steinhardt to Radio Romania International
• Excerpt from The Happiness Diary, 1935
• Excerpt from The Happiness Diary, 7 March 1960
• A fistful of links from a neat little blog dedicated entirely to Steinhardt,
  

       

"Season's Greetings" by Corneliu Vadim Tudor.

This poem was published by the Ceausescu court poet as "Urare de iarna", "Saptamina", 6 ianuarie 1984. It celebrated Elena Ceausescu's appointment to the highest scientific position in the country-- a great role for someone, like Elena, who lacked any training in science. Try to enjoy without feeling too nauseated...

Greatest woman seen so far
Of the whole of our nation
She’s the heavens brightest star
Clad in the Romanian fashion.

It’s Elena Ceausescu
Purest is her vibrant aim
The best mum to our rescue
Coming with a science brain.

Her accomplishments are greater
Aiming high as our guide
In supporting our Leader
Standing proudly by his side

Gerald Ford's toast to Ceausescu.

President Gerald Ford made this toast to Ceausescu and his wife on August 2, 1975 on a visit to Romania following the signature of the Helsinki Accords. It is emblematic of the US embrace of Ceausescu as a Soviet counter-point. Interestingly enough, Reagan would refuse to renew Romania's MFN status almost a decade later citing violation of human rights under the Helsinki Accords.

"Mr. President, I came to Romania for another very important reason. This complex world is marked by diversity. We recognize the importance of close ties with a country that shows such independence and such vigor. We do not always agree, but we value the courage of a nation that wants to make its contribution to a better world by its own very special efforts.

Romania has won the admiration of the American people for her positive contributions to world understanding. I am confident that Romania will contribute constructively in helping to find practical and durable solutions to the problems of today as well as for tomorrow."

Thanks to John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters for these documents and The American Presidency Project.

"Lauda" by Nichifor Crainic.

Tu, Cel ce Te ascunzi in eterna-Ti amiaza
Si lumea o spanzuri in haos de-o raza,
Metanie Tie, Parinte.
Izvod nevazut al vazutelor lumi,
Ma scalzi si pe mine in unda fierbinte.
Un mugur de carne firbinte.

Sunt duh invaluit in naluca de huma,
Sunt om odraslit dintr-un tata si-o muma.
Dar sunt neraspunsa-ntrebare.
Ce glas e destoinic sa-mi spuna-ncotro e
Oceanul de somn ce icnind fara voie
M-a-mpins si pe mine-n miscare?

Nici mama nu stie ce taina enorma
Imi dete din carnea-i vremelnica forma,
Neant inflorit in minune,
Caci toate izvoadele umbrelor noastre
Roiesc mai presus de arhangheli si astre
Din vesnica Ta-ntelepciune.

In ceruri, Parinte, un abur in aburi
Si-asemeni cu apa ce-ngheata pe jgheaburi
Prin coaja de carne in spatiu.
Tu cugeti, se naste; voiesti si dureaza;
Respiri si-nfloreste; iubesti si vibreaza
De-adancul luminii nesatiu.

De Tine mi-e foame, de Tine mi-e sete,
Fac dara de umbra acestei planete
Cu spuma de soare pe creste;
Si-n saltul credintei gustand vesnicia,
Din pulberea lumii imi strig bucuria
Ca sunt intru Cel care este!

Puzderii de stele ascunse-n amiaza,
Fapturile-n Tine de-a pururi dureaza
Si-n spatiu vremelnic colinda.
A fi - bucurie eterna si sfanta!
O vraja a toata lumina rasfranta
De-a gloriei Tale oglinda

If you read the poem, then you should also read Razvan Codrescu's blog post about Nichifor Crainic on St. John of the Cross.

A house with eyes in its roof.

This house from Maramures is featured in the book Wonderful Houses Around the World. The holes in the roof are there to let the smoke escape. You can see the meat-smoking establishment on the upper level.

A few tunes by Maria Tanase.

Maria Tanase never fails to illumine a room with her soul-filled rending of traditional Romanian songs. Since a bottle of Murfatlar plus Maria is the promise of a perfect evening, I thought I'd share a few mp3s with those who have yet to experience her (or those who miss the experience of her). Just right-click on the links and select "Save as" to download the mp3s at the sites listed below. And don't forget to thank the folk-hosts who have so kindly shared this music with us....

59 tunes by Maria Tanase at Romanian Music

58 tunes by Tanase from Chisinau Forum

Romica Puceanu + Maria Tanase at everderame

Tribute to Tanase by Nigel Kennedy from Trezirea

"95 de ani de la nasterea Mariei Tanase"

SubUrban Bucharest renders a Tanase tune

Ciulinii Baragnului (1958)

Maria Tanase's final resting place

Many videos of Tanase's tunes at my soul music

A tune from Maria T with the Balanescu Quartet

Tanase videos with neat explanations at idleopinion

Enache's tribute to Tanase

Tanase on the Romanian wikipedia

11 links about the Vlachs.

1. "Romania's Vlach roots" from adventures in home-making.
2. History of Wallachia from World History at KMLA.
3. A Steam Voyage Down the Danube with Sketches of Hungary, Wallachia, Servia, Turkey, Etc. by Michael J. Quin (book available free for download at link).
4. "The Vlach, or the Origin of Romanians" from the European History Web Collection.
5. "Vlachs of Serbia" from Negotin Cafe.
6. Vlachs at Visual Wikipedia.
7. "Vlachs Face Identity Crisis Over Link to Romania" from Romania News Watch.
8. "Vlachs in Albania demand their language to be official" from SManalysis.
9. "Macedonia Discovers 'Unknown Europeans" from Minorities in Central and Eastern Europe.
10. Vlachs and Marian Serban, a drawing by Florian Doru Crihana in the "Satire in White" series.
11. "A Roman Legacy in the Balkans: The Vlachs" by Marian Tutui in Southeast European Times

Shopping for Romanian stuff from the USA.

Whenever a friend or family member travels to Romania, I have a list of things I'd like for them to bring on their return. You see, shopping Romanian isn't so easy from the states. It's very hard to find pre-mixed spices for mititei, folk clothing, tapestries, you name it. So I've created this post to share all the Romanian shopping opportunities online. Now I can focus on my requests to traveling friends and family on the most important item-- tuica.

• GreatBlouses.com - traditional folk costumes and blouses
• Romania Traditional - everything, except bootleg tapes and Carpati.
• Balkan Cookbooks
• ATD Marketing - pine furniture from Romania.
• Flowers Romania - send flowers to anyone in Romania
• Nice Stuff - old books, furniture, art, pottery, old documents, and a Playboy collection. Gone are the days when that Playboy collection could have bought a visa to Hungary...
• Mistal Shop - handmade goods.
• Carturesti - books and the latest on the Bucharest scene
• Bucuresti Mall - crowds
• Verii Botez sells beautiful handmade, modern craftiness
• Curtea Sticlalilor - handblown glass by Romanian glassmakers
• Galeria Atelier Hanul cu Tei - art and icons
• Galeria Galateca - art, books, and the up-and-coming 
• Galeria Galateea - art
• Nemtoi Gallery
• Quasar Antiques and Art Gallery
• Libraria Noi - books, books, books
• Mobexpert - office furniture with an edge
• living store - Romania's homegrown IKEA
• V4 Vintage Shop

If you have any other shopping places to add, please leave a comment with a link.

The Skopti coachmen of Bucuresti.

Until the 1940's, the Soseaua Kiseleff in Buharest was a place where you could encounter the infamous Skopti coachmen. The coachmen were members of a dissenting religious sect founded in Russia during the 17th century (and related to the Lipovani of the Danube Delta) who interpreted literally the words of Christ found in the gospel of Matthew concerning eunuchs. As such, the Skopti ritually castrated themselves after two years of married life-- long enough to ensure heirs-- in the belief that "the generative organs are the source of all inequities". According to wikipedia:

They believed that after the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had the halves of the forbidden fruit grafted onto their bodies forming testicles and breasts. Thus, the removal of these sexual organs restored the Skoptsy to the pristine state before the Original Sin.

There were two kinds of castration: the "lesser" and "greater seal" (i.e. partial and complete castration). For men, "lesser" castration was the removal of the testicles only, while "greater" castration was the removal of the penis as well. In this the Skoptsy maintained that they were fulfilling Christ's counsel of perfection in Matthew 19:12 and 18:8,9. The earliest records of female castrations date from 1815. Usually the breasts only were amputated, according to the 1911 encyclopedia. Other accounts suggest that the labia were also removed.

The Skopti also believed that a chief evil of the world is rooted in the lepost, or sex appeal, which prevents people from keeping open lines of communication with God. To ensure perfection, the cause of sin, namely, the sexual organs which give rise to lepost, must be eliminated. Hence castration.

Although many Skopti were of Russian origin, they came to Romania to escape persecution in Russia in the late 1800's. Once in Romania, they mixed with the Lipovani, "Old Believers" who had also escaped Russia due to religious persecution, and earned a reputation for honesty and efficiency as coachmen of most horse-powered cabs in Bucharest. The Skopti drove droshkys pulled by black Orloff horses and wore caftans sprouting two cords, which passengers could tug to indicate if the coachman should turn left or right.

There are no Skopti currently known to exist.

For more about the Skopti, see "The Castrati Sect in Russia: History, Teaching, and Religious Practice" by Irina A. Tulpe and Evgeny A. Turchinov and "Skoptsy Members on Trial" from a very old edition of the New York Times. For specific information about the founding of this sect, see this great little synposis from the Online Encyclopedia. Or learn about Leon Trotsky's experience with Skopti in Constanta from his war correspondence.

"Why Cats Sit on the Doorstep in the Sun": a folk-tale.

(Thanks to Eldrbarry for finding and posting this wonderful Romanian folk tale about men, wives, and work.)

We all know cats love to sit on the doorstep, but do you know why? This story goes back to the days of Noah and the Ark (You do remember that story don't you - how God commanded Noah to build an Ark and to take aboard two of every animal and bird to repopulate the world after it was destroyed by a great flood.) Noah had worked for a hundred years to build that great boat out of gopherwood and he had put in as many years trying to warning mankind of the impending doom that would be coming because of their sin. They only laughed at Mr. Noah, building that Ark in the midst of a desert. But finally, it was done and all the animals had been loaded two-by-two, male and female. The dark wet clouds were gathering and there was a foreboding rumble of thunder in the distance. All that remained was for God to close the door and seal it.

But at this very moment there was a problem. Mrs. Noah refused to come aboard. She was standing at the bottom of the gangplank, her back turned toward Mr. Noah holding her cat. It seems the argument had started about Mrs. Noah's cat. Now Noah already had two cats on board and had simply suggested she leave her tabby behind. Now you must understand that while it was Mrs. Noah's cat, the center of its affections was Mr. Noah. It was always fubbing against his legs or jumping into his lap hoping to be petted. We all know of cats like this, who have a fondness for men who can't stand them and never return their affections. Moreover, Noah knew her cat was quite a mouser and hunting could not be tolerated on the ark! There were only two mice!

But Mrs. Noah's stubborness went far beyond the matter of that cat, as it became more and more clear..... "Come aboard Woman, its time to go."

"No! I'm sick of this Ark - it has had all your attention for the past 100 years. Every time I have needed you - you've been off sawing gopher wood or nailing it together. I hope this Ark doesn't leak like the roof you never got around to fixing."

"You know very well God told me to build it. Come aboard now, it's starting to rain!"

"No! You love this Ark more than you do me! I have cooked for you and done your laundry and raised three boys singlehanded - Shem and Jephtah and Hamm especially has been quite a handful. You've been off building Your Ark in the middle of a desert. You don't even care that I'm the laughing stock of the whole neighborhood."

"Get in here right now Woman, I need to save the world."

"If you want to save the world, you can start by saving your marriage. You don't even like my cat!"

A loud crack of thunder ("Noooo-aaah!") and a sheet of pouring rain made up Noah's mind as he grabbed her by the arm and dragged her aboard... "You Devil! Get on board and bring that lousy cat with you!" Now the Devil was hiding nearby just waiting for such an invitation and as Noah pulled his wife in, he changed into a large red rat with pointed ears and a forked tail, scampered aboard and disappeared quickly down into the hold bent on sabotage.

The Lord sealed the door shut and the rains began. You know the story - how it rained and rained and rained for 40 days and 40 nights and covered the earth with a great flood in which all life perished except that aboard Mr. Noah's Ark. What you don't know is that while the storm raged ouside, a mostly silent argument continued with similar force within. And as the argument continued a sinister red rat bent on sabotage was gnawing and gnawing away at making a hole in the bottom of the ark. What few words were spoken between Mr. Noah and Mrs. Noah were icy and hard. The cramped conditions and all the work feeding and caring for all that livestock day after day for weeks didn't help either.

Nor did the fact that Mrs. Noah's cat was constantly under Noah's feet. Its affections were harshly rebuffed again and again as it rubbed against his legs or tryed to sleep in his lap. Everything came to a climax when Noah tripped over the cat and fell into a pile of elephant dung that Mrs. Noah was shoveling out a port hole. Noah blew his stack, and the cat, realizing that she was not wanted, took off for the haven of the hold as Mr. and Mrs. Noah, finally pushed to the breaking point, cut loose on each other full force. As their angry words echoed down into the ark, Mrs. Noah's tabby came upon the red stowaway deep in the hold gnawing busily away and knew immediately what it was up to. Pouncing on the wretched rodent, the cat hurried off to to present its prey as a gift to Mr. Noah.

As the cat approached them. Mrs. Noah was screaming something about "this Ark is no romantic cruise ship" when Mr. Noah spotted the cat with its prey in his mouth, and in a burst of sudden released fury, tossed it and its prey over the side. Mrs. Noah was screaming "My Cat! My Cat!" as they hit the water. The cat released the rat as she hit the water and the Devil returned to his original form and started swimming away, even as Mr. Noah realized what had really been happening. He might be saving the world, but that overly affectionate cat had saved his ark. Cooing words of apology and remorse to Mrs. Noah, he fished the cat out of the water with a net. At that moment, the sun broke through the clouds for the first time in many days and the cat sat on the step in the sun drying itself with a smug look on its face. And to this day, cats love to sit on their doorsteps in the sun, remembering how once a cat saved the world.

St. Michael's church in Cisnidoara.

I discovered this amazing photo of St. Michael's Church thanks to the flickr Cisnadiora-Michelsberg photo group. You can see a view from the mountains here. St. Michael's is considered the oldest Romantic church in Romania, dated from 1223. You can see the water trough cut from a tree trunk in the front-- a great place to stop and feed the horses while you attend church.

• History and details about Cisnidoara at RoTravel.
• Lots of details and more photos from all side at the fortified churches website.

Artist of the floating world: Lorin Niculae.

Lorin Niculae's photos are effortless and beautiful. See for yourself.

Stanciu Stroia's prison memoirs.

Stanciu Stroia knows the unavoidable side of totalitarianism-- the extended prison sentence offered to  those who refuse to put on the uniform and start marching lock-step. His honest book, My Second University, was published in 2005. Here is an excerpt from the introduction, written by his grandson, to Stroia's book:

To better understand my grandfather’s memories, one must be familiar with Romania’s political situation before and during World War II and in the eventful period that followed. The next several pages do not represent an attempt at an exhaustive history lesson—numerous comprehensive textbooks written by competent individuals serve that purpose. Rather, they constitute a succinct and chronological presentation of the essential events and circumstances that shaped Romania’s fate. The intention is not to overwhelm the reader with superfluous information, but to provide a framework for facilitating comprehension of the book’s content. Historical facts often differ in their packaging and labeling according to the distributor’s opinions. The information selected here comprises well-known, rudimentary data and dates, accompanied by interpretations based on my own reading, observations, and conclusions. It is researched history supplemented by personal experience. For the apparent redundancy of ideas, I ask the reader for forgiveness. It is aimed at underscoring necessary points. Ultimately, this introduction’s ambitious proposition is to provide basic answers to timely questions: How was Communism in Romania possible? What happened to the people who opposed it? Why is it important for you, the reader, to know about it? What is the story’s contemporary relevance? If the following text succeeds in delivering the intended message, the significance of knowing these answers will be evident. [...]
To forgive and to forget are entirely different concepts; one does not consequentially imply the other. A crime can be forgiven, but if it is forgotten, the victim’s punishment becomes continual. The survivors must not forget, while those who have been spared must not ignore. Without subscribing to the notions of “competitive martyrdom” or “monopoly of suffering,” the Communist repression has to at least be put in its proper perspective. And although I am equally appalled by other atrocities committed throughout the world—particularly at the time of this publication—I believe that the Stalinist crimes of the past century should occupy a well-documented and deservedly infamous place in the historical literature. Their significance has not faded over the past fifty years, and they represent a history lesson that ought to be told, so that the world learns from it and avoids a repetition of a terrible past. Ignorance is at the root of all evil—according to an old maxim; a clear understanding of how Communism was possible is crucial for our own self-preservation. [...]
One can argue that it takes a multitude of socioeconomic and political elements, favorable internal circumstances, and a permissive or powerless international community for a radical government to emerge. Unfortunately, auspicious conditions develop frequently, and the results are painfully similar. This personal saga is an eye-opener regarding events with a true potential for recurrence if collective political vigilance fails. One glimpse at the current international situation is sufficient to reveal the present-day relevance of this memoir.

Who was this dangerous man, and what threat did he pose to Romanian communist society? Here is a brief bio that might fill in the details:

Dr. Stanciu Stroia was born in rural Transylvania. He was a graduate of Cluj University Medical School, with a doctoral dissertation on the “Radiotherapy in Basedow desease”, submitted in 1928. As a junior doctor he moved over to the Regional Hospital of Fagaras where, in the early 1930’s he established the first department of Internal Medicine. By the age of 41 he became the director of that establishment. This was during WWII and only one year earlier the Soviet armies occupied Romania. With them, on the back of Russian tanks came the fifth columnists, the handful of exiled Romanian communists who were going to impose a new “social order” of Stalinist brand. At this point Dr. Stroia’s high-profile medical position, caused him to be invited to join the ranks of the Communist Party, which he refused. This stance marked him as an “undesirable” by the Communist hierarchy. Once Romania turned into a one-party dictatorship, in 1948, the medical know-how became subsidiary to political allegiance: this is how, in 1949, Dr. Stroia was demoted from his position of hospital director. Two years on he was under pressure to become an informer of the Securitate, the ubiquitous Romanian Secret services. This he rejected outright, because of his personal and professional ethics and so, in 1951, he was arrested for allegedly “helping and not denouncing anti-communist partisans”. He was given a six-years prison sentence on trumped up charges of “favoring the crime of plotting against the Romanian state”. Within 48 hours of his arrest, his wife and two young children were evicted from their private property, his estate was nationalized, the medical practice confiscated and the house eventually demolished. During his long prison years, he was not allowed to receive any correspondence or food and clothes parcels, except on one occasion. On his release, in December 1957, Dr. Stroia was made to sign a declaration undertaking not to disclose his prison experiences, under threat of being re-arrested. He was also forbidden to restart his medical practice in his home town and was relocated instead in a remote province. Nine years after his release and after many failed attempts Dr. Stroia was granted, in unusual circumstances, a “political and judicial rehabilitation”, for a crime he has never committed and which was in private, but never officially acknowledged, of having been a “misguided interpretation of the law”. He retired at the age of 64, when Ceausescu just came to power and thereafter he spent all summers in his native village in Transylvania, where he offered free medical consultations.

Anyone with grandparents who lived in communist Romania has heard at least half of this biography before-- the stealing of property, the forced signatures of declarations, the closing of professional practices, the destruction of family histories.... The list goes on-- for each person, there are minor differences-- and not one speck of life as it was lived prior to communism remains untouched. Under Romanian communism, nothing was marginal.

If you read Romanian, you can learn more about Stroia and his book from this article by Lidia Vianu. If English is your preferred tongue, you can learn a little more here.

The Romanian New Wave in film: A compilation of articles.

• In film, the Romanian new wave has arrived" by A.0. Scott for IHT
• "New Wave on the Black Sea" by A.O. Scott for The New York Times
• "Romania's New Wave is riding high" by Ronald Bergen for The Guardian film blog
• Romanian New Wave according to wikipedia
• "On the Romanian New Wave" by Ion Martea for Culture Wars
• "On the road with the Romanian New Wave" by Bruce Bennett for the New York Sun
• "Returning to Romanian roots" by Sandy Mandelberger, posted at the Film and Festivals Blog
• "Surfing the New Wave of Romanian cinema" by Stefan Carpanu for Felix
• "Romanian cinema seizes the spotlight", an interview with Christian Mungiu by the LA Times
• Romanian Film Festival in Madison website
• "Oppression and Abortion in Mingiu's 3 Months" on NPR's Fresh Air
• "Cannes 2007: Romania rules at the film festival" by Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott for IHT
• "Nemescu: Life as a movie" by Cristian Lupsa for Esquire
• "Romanian film's crystalline lens" by Phillip Kennicott for Washington Post
• "The Romanian Miracle" from Film Intelligence
• "From Romania, a new force in world cinema" by Cristian Lupsu for the Christian Science Monitor
• "Lucian Pintilie and the new Romanian cinema" from Signal Fire blog
• "On the new Romanian cinema" by Marina Kaceanov

"Great Communist Bank Robbery" directed by Alexandru Solomon.

In an abstract about his film Great Communist Bank Robbery, Alexandru Solomon explains how he re-created reality and, hence, a documentary from communist archive documents:

My "Great Communist Bank Robbery" is a film about the reconstruction of a real case – a robbery – and how it became propaganda. In 1959 the Romanian State Bank was allegedly robbed by a mysterious band of gangsters, who got away with millions of lei intended for the salaries of hard-working citizens. The police, helped by secret agents, 'discovered' that the robbery had been carried out by a group of high-ranking communists, all holding important posts in government and all, as it happened, Jews. A show-trial followed, and the accused were forced to appear in a filmed 'reconstruction' of the robbery in exchange for promises of reduced sentences. The very same film was then used to provide vital 'evidence' for the prosecution. All but one of the defendants were sentenced to death, and the film was later used at closed party screenings for training purposes. Over forty years later I reconstructed the reconstruction, incorporating interviews with former prisoners, the cameraman of the infamous film, neighbors and secret police agents. Their accounts show that the propaganda film covered up more than it revealed.
In making my documentary, I started from this 1959 film, in itself a highly distorted document. Besides it, the only documents available on the case were the files of the Securitate. In between these unreliable materials I had to find my way and figure out where the truth lies. In my presentation, I will try to describe the challenges of this process. This is just one part: I will then try to analyze how – after so many years – propaganda and faked documents become reality, how they shape the perception of the past and how difficult it is to frame them so that the audience does not take them for granted. But this is not an only an intellectual debate: finally the reconstruction film – along with the Securitate files – was used as criminal evidence. Sometimes, propaganda kills. Working with communist archives involves a great deal of moral responsibility.

Searching for the truth is not always a rewarding, light-giving task. In an excellent interview with the BBC, Solomon remarks:

"...in the end, it is more important to understand there is no ultimate truth left after 45 years of propaganda. Besides, to me, there is no logical explanation. As I say in the commentary I think despair leads people to the kind of gestures that aren't logical at all. One theory that I would stick to is that these people were so desperate that their choice was to make such a spectacular event happen, as a way to express their protest against the system. That's also exactly as the system took it, as a blow against the regime."

The role of dark comedy and (even Ionesco's theatre of the absurd) in revealing the ugly little absurdities of the commu-topia also makes sense to Solomon after his research and work on this project. In a history where the protagonists are changing all the time and the scapegoats cannot stay put, the printed word and media cannot be taken too seriously, as servants to the great fiction of the Communist lie. He notes:

"I grew up at the end of the Communist regime, and the story that I'm telling is at the beginning of the Communist regime. What's amazing is that it was so easy to become a tool of manipulation and repression. I was fascinated about how this story reveals Communism as a fiction (call it utopia) imposed upon reality by all means, and mainly by force. What else is the 'Reconstruction' film? The main characters themselves were part of that system up to a point to which they started to reflect on it. They rejected it and wanted to take revenge against that system. It's an amazing period, because it shows how easy it is to get caught up in it all, and also shows a mixture of cruelty and stupidity at a certain level. If you watch the way that the investigation was led, that mixture together gives a tragi-comic dimension to it."

Here is the Seattle Weekly's review of the film. And this is the production company-- Libra Film Productions- page on the movie. Solomon won a few prizes for the film.

Viktor Bout: A Romanian connection?

I found this information about Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout at AxisGlobe, and thought it might be fun to use it as a jumping-point for a little investigation. If you've seen the movie "Lord of War", then you already know something about Bout, whom Nicolas Cage portrays. I quote in full from the newsblurb:

David Dastych, a veteran journalist, has been continuing a series of articles in the Canadian Free Press website, describing about the DEA sting operation against Viktor Bout, Russian arms dealer, who for 15 years has run guns to African warlords and Islamic militants, and also on some events from the past, involving him. Dastych says his correspondence with former member of Romanian parliament Valentin Vasilescu and an article from the Polish paper Gazeta Polska provide additional disclosures about the illegal weapons trade and Bout’s connections to the Romanian and Polish military intelligence. Vasilescu writes that in 1998, the Romanian authorities made up a fake cigarettes-smuggling case against him. In fact, there were no cigarettes on board Viktor Bout`s airplane IL-76 operating for Air Sofia which were unloaded at the Bucharest-Otopeni Airport. Overnight standing at its military apron was necessary for the Romanian secret services to load Romanian-made anti- aircraft missiles for destination to under UN embargo. Daily Ziua wrote then that weapons under the cover of cigarettes were exported apparently by a company owned by Viktor Bout and Shimon Naor because they had the monopoly on such secret transactions at that time. Connections of Bout and other gun-runners to the Romanian military intelligence seem apparent. Vasilescu testifies that only a few Romanian intelligence agencies covered the import-export firms and were involved in cigarette smuggling on the Bucharest airport and in the free trade zone of Agigea, in the Constanta Sea Port (new and old), to make money for support of the military training of Islamic organizations. In fact, the management of the network of the under-cover firms belonged to Colonel George Dumitrescu, an active duty, high-ranking officer of Anti-terrorist brigade of the SRI (the Romanian Homeland Intelligence Service), which coordinated the activities of the Arab citizens and their Muslim brothers in Romania. His cousin, the ex-personnel head of staff of the Intelligence Academy in the 1990s, was appointed colonel prosecutor of the Military Panel of the Supreme Court. In all operations with cigarettes this network was supported by a general and the head of the Economic Counter Intelligence Division of the SRI. Personnel of the SIE (Foreign Intelligence Agency of Romania) based in the Romanian embassies was responsible for preparing the fake documents necessary for commercial operations of the arms smugglers network. Bout’s planes operated not only from Romania but also from the neighboring Republic of Moldova, according to Dastych.

The comments section in this Times Online article mentions a business link for Bout with the Romanian government in the period from 1996-1999 by the name of Colonel Gigel Bratiloveanu. This Colonel currently works as an economic adviser for the Romanian Embassy in Moscow, so the Romanian government must not be distancing itself from him too much. After all, the Embassy is in Moscow, not Siberia. There is also more about Bratiloveanu in this extended essay by David Dastych.

In the DEA's charges against Bout, which accuse him of supplying weapons to the Colombian FARC group, phone conversations between Bout, Andrew Smulian, and his undercover agents posing as clients suggest that Bout did not want to travel to Romania due to his "high profile" which made it more likely that he be "caught" in Romania . The DEA must have had a plan with the Romanian government to catch him in Bucharest, since all three operatives emphasized the convenience of meeting in Romania. Them in January 2008, DEA undercover operatives met with Smulian in Bucharest "again"-- it seems Smulian, at least, had a Bucharest connection. The Romanian government provided transcripts of these cell phone conversations to US authorities upon request.

Then, in February 2008, the Romanian government intercepted a phone call between Bout and an unidentified party (CC-2) who operates an airline company in Romania. Bout asked CC-2 to help him acquire a Romanian visa; CC-2 discouraged Bout from attempting to come to Romania, saying it would be difficult to get a visa for him. In December 2007, a televised news broadcast in Romania referred to a business relationship between Bout and CC-2. The complaint does not provide information as to the character of CC-2. Could it be Colonel Bratiloveanu?

Or is there another key player/Romanian partner who assisted Bout? Reading through the UAE community blog, there is no mention of Romania until you reach the end of the comments, where you will see an anonymous comment posted this past March:

His Israeli partner-born in Romania, the admiral Shimon Naor a friend of Romanian ex-president Emil Constantinescu, connected Viktor Bout to Arsenal and Romtehnica, companies of Romanian DoDefense. Cigarettes in cargo manifest of Air Sofia aircraft, in fact rifle guns amunitions loaded on board at Bucharest-Otopeni Romanian AFB for a destination under embargo in 1998 ( Sierra Leone ).

Who is Shimon Naor? Or rather, who is Lieutenant Colonel Shimon-Hershkovitz? Ha'aretz brings him up in the context of the Israeili Defense Ministry's bribery scandals:

A case that did worse damage to Israel's image and harmed relations with the United Nations was that of Lieutenant Colonel (Res.) Shimon Naor-Hershkovitz, a former manpower officer in the navy who, after his discharge from the Israel Defense Forces, became an arms dealer for several Israeli companies. He was arrested in Rumania in August 1999 on suspicion of selling Rumanian arms, using forged documents (end-user certificates, indicating that the arms were intended for Togo) to the guerrilla forces of Dr. Jonas Savimbi, thus violating the sanctions of the United Nations Security Council against arms sales to Angola.

Naor-Hershkovitz was released following guarantees provided by Israel and returned here, in part thanks to the intervention of then deputy defense minister Ephraim Sneh.

In November 2001, a UN investigative committee that was examining the case requested information from Israel regarding Israeli-registered companies owned by Naor-Hershkovitz and his partners.

The Defense Ministry did not bother to assist the UN even though the ministry has a powerful tool at its disposal - the department of the Supervisor of Security at the Defense Ministry (known by its Hebrew acronym, Malmab), which can easily provide such information.

Naor didn't stop there. He was arrested again in 2004 in Jordan on suspicion of smuggling arms to Sudanese rebels. It seems Naor had friends in high places-- his protectors in Israel are evident, but public prosecutor Cristian Bojinca also tried to protect Naor in Romania. So much so that, in 2001, the Romanian Supreme Court of Justice heard his defense following his arrest with Judge Valentino Acatrinei of the Bucharest Court of Appeal. And what happened to Naor with all these friends in high places and guns in low places? Well, in 1999, Naor was arrested and sentenced to 7 years in prison by the Romanian courts for his role in illegal arms trade. The Israeli deputy defense minister at the time, Ephraim Sneh, tried to assist Naor, but the Romanians refused to release him. In the end, Naor managed to gain his release on bail and fled to Israel. In Romania he was sentenced to seven years imprisonment in absentia, and is considered a fugitive from justice. And guess what? Naor is still believed to be selling arms.

And who are these other folks mentioned by the Romanian Centre for Investigative Journalism, which serves up quite a detailed look at the holdings and aviation companies owned by Bout and associates in Romania? What is the Flying Dolphin ring? And are these well-connected guys still selling arms, still considered by various governments to be useful potential partners for covert operations? This blog is not the place for an exhaustive answer to this question. But there are certainly more avenues to explore..

• You can read "Vicktor Bout's Last Deal" to learn the story of how Bout was finally busted by the US DEA.
• You can also learn more about the book Merchant of Arms in this interview with author Douglas Farah.
• Explore Bout's connections with the administration of President George Bush, including his role as "useful partner".
• Read the very clear and accurate account of Bout's activities and arrest as related to the Romanian government in the Romanian press, specifically Ziua.
• John C. K. Daly gets specific about Bout's American connection in "The deadly convenience of Victor Bout".
  

The brief look at the history of the Uniate Church in Transylvania.

Since the beginning of the historical record, Transylvania has been cherished, mythologized, adored, and inhabited by several ethnic groups, including Romanians, Hungarians, Swabian Germans, Jews, Romany, Serbs, and Saxons. Indeed, after the fall of communism, many transition-watchers believed that Transylvania would go the route of Kosovo. A few, Catherine Lovatt among them, argued that Transylvanians put the goal of European integration above that of ethno-chauvinism. Suffice it to say that, in spite of all the possibilities for serious ethnic strife, Transylvania remains a healthy part of the Romanian and European landscape.

So who are these ethnic groups and why are they all located in Transylvania? The World Culture Encyclopedia offers the most succinct explanation of the different ethnic groups and their religious associations in Transylvania:

Each of Transylvania's three principal nationalities is divided across two or more religions. Most Transylvanian Romanians belong to either the Romanian (Eastern) Orthodox church or the Uniate church (a hybrid of Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism that the Habsburgs created in the late 1600s, with the aim of Catholicizing Transylvania's Romanians) . Some Transylvanian Romanians stayed with the Uniate church even after the Communists forcibly rejoined it with the Orthodox Church in 1948. In addition, as of about 1960 small but growing numbers of Romanians converted to one or another Protestant sect, of which the most significant are the Pentecostals, Seventh-Day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Baptists. Among the other ethnic groups, only Serbs share the Orthodox religion with Romanians; the faiths practiced by Romanians are otherwise unique to them. Hungarians in Transylvania have historically belonged to three faiths: Roman Catholicism, Calvinism, and Unitarianism. Swabian Germans were generally (although not universally) Roman Catholic, and Saxons were Lutheran. These historical Religious attachments diminished to some extent during the Communist period as secularization and official atheism eroded religious practice. The different faiths continue, However, to be more or less exclusive to the different ethnic groups, only Roman Catholicism being shared (by some Hungarians and some Swabians).

The Uniate Church, also known as the Catholic Church of Byzantine Rite,  came into being during the Hapsburg period. At a time when the papacy's military arm was still flexed and ready to do battle, always with an eye to a strong church-state combination, the Orthodox Romanians in the area had little in their defense. According to Ronald D. Bachman's country study:

Under Habsburg rule, Roman Catholics dominated Transylvania's more numerous Protestants, and Vienna mounted a campaign to convert the region to Catholicism. The imperial army delivered many Protestant churches to Catholic hands, and anyone who broke from the Catholic church was liable to receive a public flogging. The Habsburgs also attempted to persuade Orthodox clergymen to join the Uniate Church, which retained Orthodox rituals and customs but accepted four key points of Catholic doctrine and acknowledged papal authority. Jesuits dispatched to Transylvania promised Orthodox clergymen heightened social status, exemption from serfdom, and material benefits. In 1699 and 1701, Emperor Leopold I decreed Transylvania's Orthodox Church to be one with the Roman Catholic Church; the Habsburgs, however, never intended to make the Uniate Church a "received" religion and did not enforce portions of Leopold's decrees that gave Uniate clergymen the same rights as Catholic priests. Despite an Orthodox synod's acceptance of union, many Orthodox clergy and faithful rejected it.

In 1711, having suppressed an eight-year rebellion of Hungarian nobles and serfs, the empire consolidated its hold on Transylvania, and within several decades the Uniate Church proved a seminal force in the rise of Romanian nationalism. Uniate clergymen had influence in Vienna; and Uniate priests schooled in Rome and Vienna acquainted the Romanians with Western ideas, wrote histories tracing their Daco-Roman origins, adapted the Latin alphabet to the Romanian language, and published Romanian grammars and prayer books. The Uniate Church's seat at Blaj, in southern Transylvania, became a center of Romanian culture.

The Romanians' struggle for equality in Transylvania found its first formidable advocate in a Uniate bishop, Inocentiu Micu Klein, who, with imperial backing, became a baron and a member of the Transylvanian Diet. From 1729 to 1744 Klein submitted petitions to Vienna on the Romanians' behalf and stubbornly took the floor of Transylvania's Diet to declare that Romanians were the inferiors of no other Transylvanian people, that they contributed more taxes and soldiers to the state than any of Transylvania's "nations," and that only enmity and outdated privileges caused their political exclusion and economic exploitation. Klein fought to gain Uniate clergymen the same rights as Catholic priests, reduce feudal obligations, restore expropriated land to Romanian peasants, and bar feudal lords from depriving Romanian children of an education. The bishop's words fell on deaf ears in Vienna; and Hungarian, German, and Szekler deputies, jealously clinging to their noble privileges, openly mocked the bishop and snarled that the Romanians were to the Transylvanian body politic what "moths are to clothing." Klein eventually fled to Rome where his appeals to the pope proved fruitless. He died in a Roman monastery in 1768. Klein's struggle, however, stirred both Uniate and Orthodox Romanians to demand equal standing. In 1762 an imperial decree established an organization for Transylvania's Orthodox community, but the empire still denied Orthodoxy equality even with the Uniate Church.

Of course, this struggle was reversed in the 21st century, as Senator Samuel Brownback (R-Kansas) urged Basescu's government to return property confiscated from the Uniate Church under communism. It seems Orthodoxy did not offer much by way of revolutionary fervor, and posed little threat to communist ideology. Catholicism, on the other hand, owed allegiance to another wordly leader-- the pope-- so it could call on this loyalty to reject the leadership of communist authorities. The Uniate Church, with its ties to the papacy, was able to do the same. Ceausescu tried to make life as difficult as possible for Catholics and Uniates in Romania.

I've always thought the Uniate Church is a brilliant example of how ethnically-diverse regions can find a means of cultural co-existence. The example is closer to home than one might think. My father's side of the family comes from Sibiu, so my father is Greek-Catholic, or Uniate. My mother's side of the family is Romanian Orthodox. To be fair, my parents baptized me in the Orthodox Church and my sister in the Uniate Church. This difference never stopped us from attending an American Orthodox Church, and it certainly did not stop my father from taking part in the sacraments. We are Transylvanians, after all-- accustomed (and often stimulated) by the nominal differences between us.

More articles, essays, briefs, and books on this topic: 

• Stephen Fischer-Galati on ethnic strife and the aftermath of World War II in Transylvania
• A case study trip on Transylvania as "an example for a multicultural society" for a conference in Cluj-Napoca
• A Hungarian nationalist perspective on Transylvania from HunMagyar
• "The History of Transylvania and the Transylvanian Saxons" by Dr. Konrad Gundisch
• A positive review of Nationalist Politics and Everyday Ethnicity in a Transylvanian Town by the CEU's Institute of Historical Studies
• "Changing Ethnic Patterns in Transylvania Since 1989" by Karoly Kocsis
• "The Cradle of Unitarianism", a sermon by the Rev. Bruce Clear
• "Hungarian Poetry from Transylvania" translated by Paul Sohar, including a number of wonderful poems
• "Uniate v. Orthodox: What Lays Behind the Conflict?" by Delia Despina Dumitrica
• Brief note about persecution of Uniate Church in Romania
  

Romanian graffiti.

For the most part, graffiti tends to flourish in modern democracies as a form of critical speech. Under communism, graffiti was pointless-- getting caught might ruin your life and there was no "speech market", so to speak, for dissenting ideas. It was an exercise in futility.

Now, however, the Romanian graffiti scene is thriving, for better or worse, and has even gained an artsy edge, especially in the Bucharest metro and Ceausescu's commutopia apartment buildings on the edge of major cities. None of this goes unrewarded-- Romanians are competing in the Write4Gold, the "World's Biggest Graffiti Battle". Like all up-and-coming's, they have a flickr photostream. And Pleon Graffiti was designated the "PR Agency of the Year" in Romania in 2007. In fact, Romanian graffiti artists have even begun to export their talent to the United States, where the market for graffiti art has moved from the streets to the galleries and public works projects (see, for example, "Romanian Graffiti Artists Make Murray Hill Even More Fabulous").

See the Romanian Stencil Archive for the tasteful details, or the All Romanian Crews Graffiti Site for the prol version. Or visit Baudrillard's Bastard to view the personal favorites of a graffiti afiocionado.

"The Crow and Its Ugly Fledglings".

Of all the birds the crow is considered the ugliest, especially its young fledglings. The legend tells that sometime after God had created all the living beings, he called everyone to see them and their offspring. He wanted to see how the young birds and animals looked, and then to give them suitable gifts, and food for their little ones.

They came one by one, and God looked at them, patted some and stroked others, and was very pleased with every one of them, for each one had something of beauty in it. And so he blessed them and gave them food by which to live. The last to come was the crow, bringing her little brood with her, very proud of them.

When God cast his eyes upon the young crows, he spat in astonishment, and said, "Surely these are not my creatures. I could not have made such ugly things. Every one of my creatures has such beautiful young ones that they are a pleasure to look at, but yours are so ugly that it makes one sick to look at them. Where did you get this one?"

"Where should I get them from?" replied the crow. "It is my very own young child," she added with pride.

"You had better go back and bring me another one. This is much too ugly. I cannot look at it."

Annoyed at the words of God, the crow went away and flew all over the earth to search for another young one that would be more beautiful than the one she had brought to God. But no other young bird appeared so beautiful in her eyes as her own. So she returned back to God and said, "I have been all over the world, and I have searched high and low, but young birds more beautiful and more dainty than mine I have not been able to find."

Then God smilingly replied, "Quite right. Just so are all mothers. No other child is so beautiful in their eyes as their own."

Then he blessed the little crows and sent them away into the world with his gifts.

This Romanian folk-tale can be found online, as well as in book format at M. Gaster, Rumanian Bird and Beast Stories (London: Folk-Lore Society, 1915), no. 46, pp. 170-171.