LESSONS OF ‘VELVET REVOLUTIONS’: FROM ROMANIAN “DECEMBER 89” TO MOLDOVAN “APRIL 09”. MOLDOVA: QUO VADIS?
LESSONS OF ‘VELVET REVOLUTIONS’: FROM ROMANIAN “DECEMBER 89” TO MOLDOVAN “APRIL 09”. MOLDOVA: QUO VADIS?

Summary/Abstract: The article of Dr. Ceslav Ciobanu, Professor of Economics at Virginia State University, USA, ex-Ambassador of Moldova to the United States of America (1999-2002) and former advisor and interpreter of Mikhail Gorbachev (1987-1991) to practically all his meetings with Romanian counterparts from January 1987 to August 1991, is based on his presentation at the International Colloquium “1989 en Europe medieane: 20 apres”, organized by the French National Institute of Eastern Languages and Civilization (INALCO). Dr. C. Ciobanu is focusing on some of the most important issues of the Central and East European ‘Velvet’ Revolutions of 1989, on lesser known and meditated aspects of the Romanian Revolution, particularly, on the last meetings of Soviet leader with N. Ceausescu, Romanian dictator. The author is addressing the questions formulated by Dr. Catherine Durandin, INALCO Professor and coordinator of the event, from his own experience and memories in Gorbachev’s team, which make his article original and insightful [1]. It should be also mentioned that Dr. C.Ciobanu is making en-premier historical parallels between the situation in Ceausescu’s Romania and evolutions in Moldova during the eight years of communist regime headed by the last President Vladimir Voronin. Is the collapse of this last communist regime in Europe the “End of History” that American political economist Francis Fukuyama foresaw twenty years ago? The author is trying to investigate the importance of lessons of Velvet Revolutions for the post-communist Moldova which is again on a cross-road facing the same question that Romania did in 1989: Quo Vadis?

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