Writing History in a Propaganda Institute

396 Pages·2016·2.11 MB·English

W Writing History in a
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IT Propaganda Institute
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Romania’s Party History Institute has been portrayed as a loyal ex- G Political Power and Network Dynamics in Communist Romania

ecutioner of the Communist Party’s will. Yet, recent investigations of H

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the institute’s archive tell a diff erent story. S
T Francesco Zavatti
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In 1990, the Institute for Historical and Socio-Political Studies of the R
Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party (previously Y

the Party History Institute) was closed. Since its foundation in 1951 IN
it had produced thousands of books and journals for the Communist A
Party on the history of both the Party and Romania. P
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Th is book is dedicated to the study of the Party History Institute, the O
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history-writers employed there and the narratives they produced. A
By studying the history-writers and their host institution, the his- G
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toriography produced under Communist rule has been re-contextu- N
alized. For the fi rst time, this highly controversial institute and its D
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vacillating role are scrutinized by a scholarly eye.

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Francesco Zavatti is a historian at Södertörn University, Sweden, T
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and is affi liated with the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies T
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(CBEES) and the School of Historical and Contemporary Studies.

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Distribution: Södertörn University, Library, SE-141 89 Huddinge. [email protected] SÖDERTÖRN DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS
Writing History
in a Propaganda Institute

Writing History
in a Propaganda Institute
Political Power and Network Dynamics
in Communist Romania

Francesco Zavatti
Södertörn University
The Library
SE-141 89 Huddinge

www.sh.se/publications

© Francesco Zavatti

Cover image: Fotografia #LA079, Fototeca online a comunismului românesc
(Online communism photo collection, National Archives of Romania
01.03.2016), (ANIC, fondul ISISP, 79/1976: Solemnitatea decorării lui Ion
Popescu-Puţuri la împlinirea vârstei de 70 de ani cu „Steaua Republicii
Socialiste România” cls. I. Sediul C.C. al P.C.R. (26 May 1976)

Cover layout: Jonathan Robson
Graphic Form: Per Lindblom & Jonathan Robson

Printed by Elanders, Stockholm 2016

Södertörn Doctoral Dissertations 119
ISSN 1652-7399

ISBN 978-91-87843-45-7 (print)
ISBN 978-91-87843-46-4 (digital)
Abstract
In 1990, the Institute for Historical and Socio-Political Studies of the
Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party was closed, since
the Party was dissolved by the Romanian Revolution. Similar institutions
had existed in all countries belonging to the Soviet bloc. This Institute was
founded in 1951 under the name of the Party History Institute, and model-
led on the Marx-Lenin-Engels Institute in Moscow. Since then, it served the
Communist Party in producing thousands of books and journals on the
history of the Party and of Romania, following Party orders. Previous
research has portrayed the Institute as a loyal executioner of the Party’s will,
negating the agency of its history-writers in influencing the duties of the
Institute. However, the recent opening of the Institute’s archive has shown
that a number of internal and previously obscured dynamics impacted on
its activities.
This book is dedicated to the study of the Party History Institute, of the
history-writers employed there, and of the narratives they produced. By
studying the history-writers and their host institution, this study re-con-
textualizes the historiography produced under Communist rule by analys-
ing the actual conditions under which it was written: the interrelation
between dynamics of control and the struggle for resources, power and
positions play a fundamental role in this history. This is the first scholarly
inquiry about a highly controversial institute that struggled in order to
follow the constantly shifting Party narrative canon, while competing for
material resources with rival Party and academic institutions. The main
actors in this study are the history-writers: Party veterans, young prop-
agandists and educated historians, in conflicting networks and groups,
struggled in order to gain access to the limited resources and positions
provided by the Party, and in order to survive the political changes imposed
by the leadership. By doing so they succeed, on many occasions, to influ-
ence the activities of the Institute.
Keywords: historiography, history-writing, Romania, history and power,
sovereignty, communism, national-communism, resources, narrative canon,
networking.

Acknowledgments
The pages that follow aim at historicizing this dissertation and its author,
after many books and authors have been historicized unmercifully in this
work. The list of persons and institutions that I have to thank is very long,
since they have all contributed to the making of this manuscript.
My first thanks are addressed to the Foundation for Baltic and East
European Studies, which in the last five years provided me with the finan-
cial resources needed for writing a dissertation. I acknowledge also the
precious help of the Helge Ax:son Johnson Foundation, which awarded me
during these years with three distinct scholarships: two in order to inves-
tigate the Romanian archives in 2013 and 2014, and a dissertation com-
pletion scholarship in 2015. I thank also the History Board of the School of
Historical and Contemporary Studies for that granting me an additional
fellowship at the beginning of 2016.
I wish to thank here all the responsible persons of my third-cycle
education at the Baltic and East European Graduate Studies (BEEGS),
Södertörn University: Ann Runfors, Lars Ekdahl, Magnus Rodell, Johan
Rönnby, Joakim Ekman, Mark Bassin, Maria Zackariasson, and Maria Wol-
rath-Söderberg. In addition, I wish to thank Sabine Höhler, Susanna
Lidström, Libby Robin and Sverker Sörlin for welcoming me at KTH En-
vironmental Humanities Laboratory at the Division of History of Science,
Technology and Environment for the Geographies of Heritage graduate
course in 2012 and Lars Kaijser and Tom Dubois for the exciting course
Strategies of Representation, held at the Department of Ethnology at Stock-
holm University in 2013. I extend my thanks to my supervisors, Per Bolin
and Heiko Droste, who have guided me during these years, scrutinizing my
ideas and checking their feasibility. Their advice contributed to highlight
my primary idea and to remove what was peripheral. Receiving a so
thorough feedback in each and every text presented to them during the
years was sometimes discouraging; sometimes, it was also frustrating; but I
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think this high-quality scholarly procedure paid off. Per and Heiko, thank
you for all your feedbacks, comments, revisions, corrections, improve-
ments, and for the many days of your lives spent on this text.
I acknowledge the help received by all the academic staff of BEEGS,
CBEES, and the School of Historical and Contemporary Studies. In parti-
cular, Anu-Mai Kõll, Kekke Stadin, Helene Carlbäck, Lars Ekdahl, Made-
leine Hurd, Norbert Götz, Jenny Gunnarsson Payne, Jenni Rinne, Thomas
Lundén, Péter Balogh, Marco Nase, Mark Bassin, Karin Jonsson, Julia
Malitska, Michał Salamonik, Martin Andersson, Andrej Kotljarchuk,
Nadezda Petrusenko, Ann-Judith Rabenschlag, and Steffen Werther have
been giving me many useful ideas on how to improve this text. You are a
crew well worth working with. Thank you for the past four years. A special
mention is reserved for my official opponents at the History Higher Seminars
in these four years for having contributed to point out strengths and weak-
nesses of former versions of this manuscript. David Gaunt, Ragnar Björk,
Anders Blomqvist, and Stefano Bottoni: thank you for accepting this task.
Another special mention goes to my proof-reader Christopher Kennard.
A special mention is due to the Södertörn Library and Södertörn
Publishing: thank you Michal Bron Jr, Dace Lagerborg, Greta Linder, Djuna
Franzén, Frida Frimodt, Mats Alexandersson, Per Lindblom, Irene Moya,
and Jonathan Robson. I acknowledge also the help of all the administrative
personnel of CBEES/BEEGS and of the School of Historical and Contem-
porary Studies: Lena Arvidson, Nina Cajhamre, Karin Lindebrant, Ewa
Rogström, Calle Aaro, Lisa Stålnacke, Mona Wallén, Marianne Stuedahl,
Anna Kåhre, Eleonora Bru, Jorid Palm, Mari Gerdin, and Lena Hansson.
Born and raised in Italy, researching on a foreign country (Romania) and
being graduate student in another foreign country (Sweden) have been two
challenges for me. I have learned to live through them, and to take the
opportunities they can offer. It would have been, and still would be, very
difficult, if not impossible, to make it without a network of colleagues,
friends, and helpers of various kinds. I express my gratitude to all the per-
sons that provided me help of various kind before and during my field-trips
to Italy and Romania in 2013 and 2014: Claudio Silingardi, Giuliano
Albarani, Marika Losi, Metella Montanari, Mara Malavasi, Franco Zoboli,
Deborah Paci, Jacopo Bassi, Rolf Petri, Mark Bassin, Sorin Antohi, Cristian
Vasile, Bogdan Cristian Iacob, Mircea Borcilă, Rozalinda Borcilă, Alin
Mihai Gherman, Marius Stan, Réka Krizmanics, Şefan Andreescu, Dorli
Blaga, Ion Bulei, Paul Michelson, Şerban Papacostea, Florian Tănăsescu and
Georgeta Tudoran. I thank all the staff of the National Council for the Study
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of the Securitate Archives Dragoş Petrescu, Alina Ilinca, Silviu B. Moldovan,
George Vişan, and of the National Archive of Romania Ioan Drăgan, Alina
Pavelescu, Ioana Mihai, Valentin Fuşcan, Veronica Nicoleta Vasilov, Rodica
Victoria Canae, Roxana Vlad, Gabriela Dumitraşcu and Doina Sima. I wish
to thank Balázs Trencsényi and Constantin Iordachi for their interest in my
work back in 2011, and Vladimir Tismăneanu for his help in various stages of
my career, and for providing me, with his own work, inspiration for this dis-
sertation. I thank also Cristina Petrescu, Alina Petrescu, and Jean Michelson
for providing me with illuminating comments on a previous version of
Chapter Nine.
My first years here in Sweden have been an occasion to make profes-
sional and human experiences which were new to me – an unexpectedly
pleasant surprise in the cold terra incognita. To my colleagues Marja Saar,
Emilia Pawłusz, Iveta Jurkane Hobein, Sylwia Koziel, Łukasz Sokołowski,
Kjetil Duvold, Olena Podolian, Katharina Wesolowski, Ekaterina Kalinina,
Marcel Mangold, Liudmila Voronova, Jenni Rinne, Jenny Ingridsdotter,
Adomas Lapinskas, Laura Lapinskiene, Susan Lindholm, Loretto Villalobos,
David Birksjö, Helena Löfgren, Péter Balogh, Jaakko Turunen, Lovisa
Håkansson, Natalya Yakusheva, Ekaterina Tarasova, Adria Alcoverro, Vas-
silis Petsinis, Tanja Yukkala, and Romana Rat, and to my friends Nicole
Montén, Siri Hanna Edling Helmers, Simon Drew, and Giedre Razgute:
thank you all for the moments spent together during these years.
The same gratitude is expressed to Andrea Panaccione, who projected
me into this field of study back in 2008, when as an undergraduate student I
first approached the “Romanian collection” at the Modena History Insti-
tute, in search for the nexus between nationalism and historiography in
communist Romania.
I wish to dedicate this dissertation to my mother Franca Ferrari and to
my father, Adriano Zavatti. Your guidance, your love and your help have
been fundamental for me. Vi voglio bene, voi siete sempre con me. My
interest for history arose already as a child, consulting the rich book-shelves
of my parents and of my grandparents: Wilma Bonacini, Rino Zavatti, Iris
Franchini, Marco Ferrari, and my aunt Marta Gatti – I vòster fiò i m'an tiré
sò coi vòster lèber a descàrer dal mànd. Cun tòt al bein che lòr e vuéter a
m'avi dée, a-i-ò fât strèda. A-v’arcòrd séimper! A-v’ abraz. My family has, in
recent years, unexpectedly and happily grown in number: thank you for
having joined my life: Eleonora Bru, Kristina Thelin, Ulf Eriksson, Monica
Strandberg, Sara Bru, Hans Persson Bru, Rikard Bru, Lovisa Wanker, Jonas
Thelin and Helena Wikström. Tack för att ni accepterar mig som jag är.
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