Contextul înfiinţării Muzeului de Istorie al Republicii Socialiste România
Some Reflections Concerning the Inauguration of the Socialist Romania’s History Museum

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this paper is to shed more light on the representation of the past, bearing in mind the idea that especially national history museums and historical monuments are illustrative indicators of the (de)radicalization of the communist regime in Romania. Especially, in the mid 1960’s, one could foresee a negotiation process on the rewriting and representation of the past (the political power seemed available for listening experts, i.e. various historians and museum’ specialists). In 1965 – after Nicolae Ceauşescu took over the leadership of the Romanian Communist Party – the ideological sections of the RCP’s Central Committee gathered archaeologists, architects, art historians, and other experts in order to seek a better functioning both for Museums and the Department on the Historical Monuments. However, in 1969-70 N. Ceauşescu decided to urge the inauguration of the National Museum of History ignoring some specialists’ reservations concerning the location of the building. For still obscure reasons also the Museum’s title was changed in Socialist Romania’s History Museum. At the end of the eighth decade N. Ceauşescu has adopted extreme political initiatives. Ceauşescu’s plans for urban and territorial systematization brought the annihilation of the Department on the Historical Monuments in 1977. On the other hand, the Socialist Romania’s History Museum has increasingly served Ceauşescu’s personality cult.

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