Contribuţia agitaţiei vizuale la amplificarea cultului personalităţii lui Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
The contribution of visual agitation to the increase of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej’ personality cult

Summary/Abstract: Leader's iconography has been awarded a great attention in all totalitarian regimes. Moreover, the cult of personality is often characterized, by scholars, as a visual propagandistic project, above all. Placards, paintings and photographs with the leaders' portraits were carried by ordinary citizens during the demonstrations organized in order to celebrate an important official holiday. Starting from this premise, the present study aims to analyze the importance provided, in communist Romania, to visual agitation and its role in amplifying Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej' personality cult. Our purpose is to analyze two main forms of visual agitation: the manufacturing of the pictures with the portrait of the Romanian general secretary and the photographs published in “Scânteia” [The Spark]. Therefore, the main tenor of interpretation with regards to this means of propaganda consists in both a quantitative and a qualitative research. In other words, the present paper highlights the importance provided by the Romanian communist propaganda to manufacturing these items of visual agitation. Furthermore, we will focus on the number of pictures produced in the epoch and the hypostases in which Gheorghiu-Dej has been portrayed. This type of analysis will provide answers on the role of visual agitation in amplifying the Romanian leader's cult.

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