"Anything that looks messy becomes forbidden, because it might be used, misread, exploited. This is how a left becomes politically colorblind. It loses the ability to distinguish solidarity with people from alignment with states, to oppose the Imperium without granting dictatorships a free pass..."
Cazul Vulcănescu a arătat ceva important. Reprezentanți ai unor organizații care cel puțin pe hârtie ar trebui să țină de un anticomunism onorabil au semnat petiția de mai jos cot la cot cu neolegionarii. Este foarte grav.
www.petitieonline.com/alturi_de_mi...
Despite recent controversies and repeated attempts by scholars to educate the public, post-1989 Romanian anticommunism produced the enduring narrative of a martyr who sacrificed himself in communist prison, for the good of his fellow inmates. 3/3
... pro-Nazi government and played a part in drafting some antisemitic laws.
In fact, as Holocaust scholars showed time and time again, Vulcănescu was instrumental in drafting the policies which led to the genocide of over 200 000 Romanian Jews during ww2. 2/
Romanian periodical "Adevărul" (i.e. The Truth) titles " March 3rd the day when Mircea Vulcănescu, martyr of the Romanian nation was born".
To be fair the article does mention that "some people" find Vulcănescu controversial because he was part of Antonescu's... 1/
adevarul.ro/istoria-zile...
Trump - yes. Putin - no. The Romanian political mind is infinitely complex.
Romanian senator Sorin Lavric (AUR - far-right) remembers Valeriu Gafencu, "the Prison Saint". Gafencu was fanatical fascist who armed schoolchildren during the 1941 Iron Guard insurrection.
... various periodicals in Romanian language. He closely collaborated with Virgil Ierunca (Radio Free Europe) on various literary projects.
Boldeanu was for many years the superior of the main Romanian Church in Paris (the one in Rue Jean de Beauvais). 2/2
Minutes of a summit meeting of the Iron Guard in exile in 1958. Poet Ioan Cușa reads a message written by priest Vasile Boldeanu, who could not attend in person.
Both Cușa and Boldeanu were influential figures of the Romanian exile in Paris.
Cușa owned a printing shop and published... 1/
AUR MP in full regalia.
Moldovan humour. Steven the Great is our national icon, who holds the cross in his hand in the middle of Chisinau, for he founded many monasteries as he fought the occupying Turks in the Middle Ages. And the wine, well, you know we make great wines. Always happy to explain jokes
Hope to see you more often. For the sake of all those who left the other place for good.
... be seen as the work of Antonescu admirers. Its editor was Ion Pantazi, son of general Constantin Pantazi. Gen. Pantazi was Romania's minister of war under the National Legionary State and during WW2. It stands out as yet another "ideological reservoir" of the Romanian exile. 5/5
... in Bucharest with an anti-communist group led by his cousin Nina Dombrovschi. Captured, he had expressed regret and, given his young age, had been granted extenuating circumstances.
"Stindardul românilor", while clearly far-right, was not affiliated to an Iron Guard group but can rather... 4/
The periodical was printed in West Germany but the regular articles covering French politics and matters related to the Romanian diaspora in France were written by French resident Vladimir Boutmy de Katzman. Years earlier Boutmy had been involved in a bomb attack at the Textila store... 3/
The 1987 article is an interview with FN politicial Olivier d'Ormesson.
"Stindardul românilor" (literally: the Romanians' banner) is, if one includes the history of its predecessor "Stindardul", one of the longest lived periodicals of the Romanian community in exile during the Cold War. 2/
Screenshots of articles presenting the rise of the French National Front and Jean-Marie Le Pen in a favorable light. Both were published by the Romanian diaspora periodical "Stindardul românilor" in 1986↙️ and 1987 ↘️ respectively. 1/
M. Vassal, mayoral candidate in Marseilles, France, backed by a coalition of the mainstream right endorses the motto of the Vichy government: "work, family, fatherland". With a topping of hastily added "humanity".
www.lemonde.fr/politique/ar...
Later edit: the discussion began when you mentioned the need for Romanians to be educated on fascism and communism. I agree, but who'll do the educating and how? Because the way in which people were educated on communism included problematic views of the interwar and WW2.
... along with far-right groups to prevent the renaming of the Mircea Vulcănescu high-school. 2/2
I didn't say you were, also it's not a numbers game. I was merely stating that Romanian anticommunism in the organized forms it took after 1989 is, very often, problematic.
The recent Vulcănescu case is highly relevant. Basically every anticommunist memorial NGO co-signed a petition... 1/
... as did Humanitas. The leadership of IICCMER included people who are very problematic imo (Oprea, Preda, at some Mihail Neamțu). And I could go on and on... 3/3
2. Post-factum anticommunism in the 1990s and 2000s and the memorial construction was, either intentionally or accidentally, built in a way which whitewashes interwar fascists and minimizes the crimes of the Iron Guard and the Antonescu regime. The Sighet Memorial published very pernicious... 2/
Of course I agree. However there are 2 critical issues.
1. Correctly framing the regime and its crimes matters. For example, the women who died under Ceaușescu undergoing clandestine abortions died because the regime denied their reproductive rights, not as victims of "Marxist ideology". 1/
... funded by the Unification Church (aka the "Moonies").
And before I end the thread here are some photos of Pordea and FN founder Jean-Marie Le Pen. 3/3
www.gettyimages.fr/photos/gusta...
Pordea won a seat in the European Parliament in 1984. He was 4th on Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front list.
The French press speculated that Pordea might have been working for Romanian intelligence. Pordea sued for libel and won.
In any case, it seems well established that his campaign was... 2/
Who was the first Romanian-born member of the European parliament?
Well, I'm not 100% certain but there is good chance it was this gentleman⬇️. Gustave A. Pordea (born Gustav Pordea in Dej Romania), a naturalized citizen of France. 1/
www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/1560...
... to have read it. 3/3
... and white-wash fascism, at least in part. It's what scholars call "competitive memory". There is a chapter in the Final report of the "Wiesel" committee a section on "comparative trivialization" which warned against a problematic, uncritical form of anticommunism. Very few people seem... 2/
Also: one more thing. The whenever someone mentions the history of "fascism and communism" in the same sentence I usually see red flags (pun not intended). The problem is that in some Eastern European countries (Romania being one of them) the anticommunist discourse was used to normalize... 1/
