The Wasted Generation: Memories of the Romanian Journey from Capitalism to Socialism and Back

240 Pages·1993·5.777 MB·English

by  Silviu Brucan

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Silviu Brucan
ISBN 978-0-367-29715-2
www.routledge.com aninformabusiness
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THE WASTED
GENERATION
"'Have you ever had a fishbone in your throat? You cannot spit it out,
you cannot swallow it in. Well I was a fishbone in Ceau~escu's
throat'-Brucan answered when I asked him why Romania let him
leave after he broke the rules and publicly criticized it."
The Boston Globe, 25 June 1988
"Silviu Brucan, a 74 ans, est la principale tete pensante du Conseil du
Front de Salut Nationale."
Liberation, 30 Dec. 1989
"Silviu Brucan ist der geistige Fuhrer der Revolution in Rumanien"
Bild am Sonntag, 7 Jan. 1990
"Each time Brucan appears on Romanian television, the whole nation
holds its breath: millions of people watch and listen to the old man,
bewitched by his masterful discourse."
Die Welt, 8Jan. 1990
"The guiding force of the Council appears to be Mr. Brucan."
The New York Times, 26Jan. 1990
"Mr. Brucan is regarded as the Front's leading strategist." .
The Guardian, 5 Feb. 1990
"He is the Cardinal Richelieu of the Front. At his 74 years, he is still vig-
orous, very lively, formulating his ideas with amazing clarity."
Literatumaya Gazeta, Moscow, 11 March 1990
"Brucan was a key figure in the movement that toppled Ceau~escu
from power."
Dagens Nyheter, 18 Feb. 1991
"Silviu Brucan was the mastermind of the Romanian Revolution."
Yomiuri Shinbun, 20June 1991
THE WASTED
GENERATION
Memoirs of the Romanian Journey
from Capitalism to Socialism and Back
Silviu Brucan
I~ ~~o~I!~n~~~up
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 1993 by Westview Press
Published 2019 by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © 1993 by Taylor & Francis
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or
by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brucan, Silviu, 1916-
[Generatia irosita. English]
The wasted generation : memoirs of the Romanian journey from capitalism to
socialism and back I Silviu Brucan.
p. cm.
Revised and expanded version of the Romanian ed.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-8133-1833-5 (he)
1. Brucan, Silviu. 1916- . 2. Communists-Romania-Biography.
3. Politicians-Romania-Biography. 4. Communism-Romania.
5. Romania-History-Revolution, 1989. I. Title.
HX373.8.B78A3 1993
338.9498-dc20 93-20192
CIP
ISBN 13: 978-0-367-29715-2 (hbk)
Contents
Introduction ix
1 What Made Him Flee 1
2 The Origins of Social Revolt 7
Father Bankrupt, 8
Fuel for Fascism, 10
My First Steps in the "Movement," 12
My Journalist Apprenticeship, 13
3 A Unique Historical Event:
Conspiracy Between King and Communists 17
Patra~canu and Bodnara~, 19
In the Royal Palace Through the Back Door, 21
The Arrest of Antonescu, 22
Baron Killinger Protests, 25
10 P.M.: The King's Call to Arms, 27
4 The Stalinist Faith 31
A Newspaper as a Party Task, 34
The Soviet Fifth Column in the Party, 38
Stalin: Maker of Party Leaders, 41
Vyshinsky and the Petru Groza Cabinet, 44
People's Democracies and Cold War, 46
Purge of the Soviet Agents, 49
Sentimentalnli Chelovek, SO
s
The National Backlash 53
It All Started in Budapest, 54
When the Bear Let Its Prey Go, 55
v
vi Contents
The Seesaw of Class Ideology and National Strategy, 57
Stalinist Desatellitization, 60
Down with Economic and Military Integration! 61
Nikita Khrushchev: Smart but Boorish, 64
Big Brother in a Fix, 67
Reminiscences About Gheorghiu-Dej, 67
My Turning Point, 72
6 The Two Faces of Communist Society 77
The Nice and Kind Face, 78
Political Segregation, 81
The Style of Party Activists, 84
The Other Face, 86
7 Red Diplomat in Washington 89
Appointed by an American Farmer, 89
Second Discovery of America, 90
My Brief Encounter with Senator McCarthy, 94
Smuggling the Platinum Catalyst Through
Diplomatic Pouch, 97
8 The Illiterate Couple 101
I Knew Him Well, 101
I Knew Her Too, 105
Training Their Children with the Securitate, 106
Le Coup de Parti, 109
The Four Phases of Ceau~escu, 112
The Mini-Cultural Revolution, 114
Foreign Debt First, 115
"I Decide What Is Scientific!" 118
My Relations with Ceau~escu, 119
The Orchestrated Cult, 123
Why Did He Last That Long? 124
Why Did Communism Fail? 127
9 The Prelude of the Romanian Revolution 131
The Abortive Military Coup, 131
The Bra~ov Riots, 134
Dissidence in the Party, 140
In Washington and London, 143
Promised Land Revisited, 144
Contents vii
The Meeting with Gorbachev, 149
The Letter of Six, 153
Securitate: Ceau~escu's Praetorian Guard, 157
The Real American Spy, 163
10 The Inside Story of the Revolution 167
Timi~oara: The Spark That Lit the Blaze, 167
Revolution on Television, 169
The National Salvation Front, 171
The Urban Guerrilla Warfare, 176
The Night of the Generals, 178
The Christmas Day Trial, 181
Whodunit of Terrorists: Who Were They? 183
The Unfinished Business of the Revolution, 184
11 The Day After ... 189
Twenty Years Until Democracy, 191
The May 1990 Election and the NSF, 192
If Not, a Head Shall Fall! 193
The Terrorists Are Still Missing, 193
Shock Therapy Does Not Work in Romania, 195
Why Center-Right? 197
Epilogue 201
Notes 205
Chronology ofE vents 207
International Perspectives: A Collection of
Media and Policy Discussion 209
Index and List ofP rominent Romanians 217
About the Book and Author 227

Introduction
My generation in Eastern Europe was caught in the middle of two revo-
lutions (1944 and 1989), which instead of moving history ahead
pushed it backward. We thus at first made a U-turn-a tortuous one, to
be sure-from underdeveloped capitalism to underdeveloped social-
ism, but because socialism and underdevelopment are strange bedfel-
lows, we have since discovered we were on the wrong path and are try-
ing now to return to where we started. The drama of that generation is
what this book is about.
For the first revolution at the end of World War II, which produced
all the trouble, we Romanians cannot be blamed: Its scenario was writ-
ten by Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin in the Kremlin on the eve-
ning of 9 October 1944. With his unmatched cynicism, Churchill re-
counted in his memoirs how the crux of the discussion on "our affairs
in the Balkans" was percentages of influence-as if the two were deal-
ing with company dividends or bank assets-with the Soviet Union
getting eventually 90 percent of Romania, and Great Britain 90 percent
of Greece. Stalin's hard bargain must have gone like this: If you yield
this much of Romania, I will grant you a little more of Greece. But one
must admit that once the deal was concluded, both leaders kept their
end of the bargain, although for public consumption they lodged pro-
tests filled with indignation at each act of the drama. Great Britain
went so far as to accept the elimination of opposition parties in Ro-
mania and even the sacrifice of King Michael, while Moscow left its
comrade General Marcos crying for ammunition and starving in the
mountains of Greece. Shocking-but not for those familiar with the
diplomatic history of the great powers.
We in Romania, gullible dupes and faithful believers in the new So-
viet Man, proclaimed with pride: We brought about the revolution and
with but little help from the Red Army. In truth, we merely played to
the best of our ability the roles cast for us in the Moscow scenario.
With the second revolution, things were different. The Big Two--
George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev-were so absorbed with their his-
toric nuclear deal in Malta that they left us alone, and we had to handle
ix