Party studies in Communist Romania. The Superior School of Social Sciences “Andrei Aleksandrovici Zhdanov” (1948-1958)
Party studies in Communist Romania. The Superior School of Social Sciences “Andrei Aleksandrovici Zhdanov” (1948-1958)

Summary/Abstract: The Romanian Communist Party’s accession to the power structures of the state revealed the obvious lack of formal education of the party cadres present in these structures. In order to remedy this flaw, the leadership of the party, taking as a model the experience of the Soviet Union Communist Party, decided to establish the foundations of a system of “party studies”. Its purpose was to prepare the cadres for the ideological and organizational activities of the Party. To this aim, a hierarchy within the system of party studies was created, headed by the “Ştefan Gheorghiu” Academy and the Superior School of Social Sciences “Andrei Aleksandrovici Zhdanov”. The purpose of the latter was to prepare cadres of the higher echelon for ideological work – people involved in party studies and propaganda, editors with the various party newspapers, as well as professors and lecturers to teach social sciences in higher education institutions. The Superior School of Social Sciences “Andrei Aleksandrovici Zhdanov”, which was an elite institution of the Communist Party was taken over by the “Ştefan Gheorghiu” Academy in 1958. The reasons for this decision can be most likely found in the intention to concentrate within one institution the process of preparing the cadres of the higher echelon of the party and also in the desire to eliminate any form of competition among party schools. Thus, the Superior School of Social Sciences “Andrei Aleksandrovici Zhdanov” was a stronghold for the preparation of the ideological activists of the party; it was an institution which contributed to the creation of a host of activists which played an important role in the strengthening of the Communist Party.

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