Suchergebnisse

Unlike in most Western contexts, women's emancipation in communist Romania was a
top down processes, part of the social change platform imposed by the Communist Party. And
unlike the Romanian political regimes that preceded communism, it was justified by the latter as "natural", with women presented as integrated in all everyday life activities. Permeating throughout all layers of society, this emancipation was performed through propaganda in the written press and cinematography, as the Party used varied means to promote a positive imaginary
of women in communism. However, the difference between the Party's propaganda on women and the reality of women during communism was not only striking but had a significant impact on women's status and role in Romania even after the fall of the communist regime.

This article aims to present the situation of the foreign students in general – and of Romanian students in particular – studying at German institutions of higher education during the
Third Reich. Beyond its quantitative considerations, which prove how intense was the migration of Romanian students to Nazi Germany the article highlights the political role assigned to the Romanian students by the Nazi authorities, as well as the political and ideological impact that the study in the Nazi universities had on the Romanian youth.

The unification process for the workers' movements was the final step for the communists in their effort to gain total control of the political power. The tactics of the Romanian Communist Party (PCR) were labeled "the salami tactics" because the party progressively eliminated all their enemies and used conjectural allies -such as the social democrats (PSD)- in order to reach their aim. This article describes the process whereby the organization of the PCR in alliance with the PSD obtained political power in the period 1945-1948 in the Ialomiţa county. The author focuses his analysis on two types of actions: the violent overtake of the local power (including mayors, police officers, governmental representatives, etc.) and the unification of the PCR and PSD in order to achieve a Single Workers' Party, in which the communists prevailed. As a result of the unification process, according to the official records, almost 7% of the population in this county was a member of the Single Workers' Party in February 1948. The Ialomiţa County is a very interesting, yet paradigmatic case, because in that period the region was a predominantly agricultural, with a small working class (2%), and the communists could not seize power by legal means. The study mainly relies upon local archival documents and upon the contemporary local media reports, which are carefully examined to discern between actual relevant data and their propagandistic content.

The author examines the creation and functioning of the Romanian propaganda office at the General Commission of Romania for the New York World's Fair (1939-1940). He analyses two previously unpublished documents from the Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, relevant to the topic under scrutiny. The activity of the office was coordinated by the diplomat Andrei Popovici. His subordinates were the press attach. from the Romanian Legation in the USA, Horia Babeş, Paul Sterian, economic councillor, and Petre Neagoe, writer. The monthly budget was 750 $ (the rate of those years) for the daily expenses and salaries. The propaganda office started its activity in January 1939. It used to publish a bulletin, to help issuing stamps, to prepare propaganda posters, to publish and translate brochures. It also used to send presentations of Romania to journals, such as Cleveland News , Chicago Tribune, Detroit Free Press, New York World Telegram etc., and articles on Romania to newspapers (Annalist, Journal of Commerce etc.), or to occasional publications (Going to the Fair, a Preview, International Guide etc.). The images the propaganda office used to handle were reproducing usual elements of the domestic and foreign official discourse of Charles II: Romania was a totally new country, based on a new social contract ("the royal revolution"), that was looking persistently towards "tomorrow's world" (the slogan of the American fair); this future was build with Romanian resources and strengths, mobilized by "the king of young people and of the peasants".

During the communist regime, photography was a popular activity due to the existence of the Association of Photographic Artists. Its members weren't professional artists, but mostly people with technical backgrounds, and who transformed their hobby into a job. The lack of interest of Romanian artists in photography (except for a few particular cases such as Ion Grigorescu or Ștefan Bertalan) can be explained by the fact that there were no photo-video departments within the art universities and the Romanian Artists' Union (UAP), the only form of institutional organization of the Romanian artists, had no special photography department. Therefore, the photographic practice in communist Romania was linked to the Association of Photographic Artists and not to the Romanian Artists' Union. The evolution of its activity in the period between 1968 and 1978, and the impact that politics had on it transpire very well from the evolution of the Fotografia magazine, the only photo periodical of that era. This article shows that even in a creative field, which was overlooked by the Communist Party, the echoes of the official political discourse were felt, mainly after 1975. We have outlined two aesthetic trends in the mid-1970s. One was the photograph obtained by laboratory procedures, supported by a depoliticized discourse and the second was a pseudo reportage photography, namely the communist propaganda photography.

The last years of World War II have brought, per ensemble, complex problems for the "Regele Ferdinand I" University, which, after the Vienna Treaty of 1940, has been functioning in exile from Sibiu and Timişoara. From 1944 the model of the modern University of Cluj was brutally converted to an instrument of propaganda for a communist ideology, far fetched from its original nationalistic vocation. The period of transition from democracy to totalitarianism, 1944-1947, was marked by a series of events such as: the beginning of the process of politicization within the University of Cluj, the problems related to the foundation of "Bolyai" University, the return in 1945 of the University to its original sight from Cluj, the students strikes in January-June 1946, the university repression generally speaking, and particularly the repressions of students, and, last but not least, the debates of the University Senate concerning the politicization of the academic environment and the dismissal of some "compromised" members of the teaching staff. After 1944, the communists were interested in eliminating all political rivals, therefore the dismissal threats, followed by the contractions within the Departments of the University of Cluj, became a cruel reality between 1944-1948. Like all the other Romanian universities, the Cluj University began compiling "expurgation" dossiers for the so called "fascist" university professors, and substituting the old rectors and deans with new ones from amongst those who had adapted to the "new age". The public stand of the academics has gradually declined after 1944, when their life and activity has been brought to challenge, the changing values after March 1945 favouring the devotion towards the new regime, and praising less and less the academic fulfilment. On the background of "democratic" reforms, the new regime authorities have intensified the brutal isolation, especially of scholars among which a great number of university professors, by means of massive arrests. The most invoked reasons were: denigration of the power of the state, opposition to the construction of socialism, or the need to re-educate the "hostile" elements from within the Popular Republic of Romania.