Confesiunile elitei comuniste. România 1944-1965: Rivalităţi, represiuni, crime…
Confessions of the Communist elite. Romania 1944-1965: rivalries, repressions, murders…

Author(s): Andrei Șiperco
Subject(s): Politics, Education, Oral history, Social history, Recent History (1900 till today)
Published by: Institutul National pentru Studiul Totalitarismului
Keywords: Communism; Elite; Confession; Interview; Oral History
Summary/Abstract: Starting with the ’70s until the revolution of December 1989, Alexandru Siperco conducted several hundred unofficial interviews, totaling thousands of pages, with 350 members and sympathizers from illegality of the Romanian Communist Party (RCP) – among them many former members of the Communist nomenklatura or of the repression apparatus during the Gheorghiu-Dej regime – but also with representatives of former historical parties, including Corneliu Coposu, Ioan Hudita and Camil Demetrescu. No one, neither in Romania nor in the rest of the states of the former communist bloc, has initiated and even less has managed to achieve such an approach that concerns the uncosmitized history of communism. For Alexandru Siperco, the determinant was his desire to know as much as possible of the period between April 4, 1944, and the moment of March 19, 1965, the death of Gheorghiu-Dej. From the interviews given to Alexandru Siperco are not missing events such as: the act of august 23; actions for the conquest of power; liquidation of the political opposition; the struggle for power in the RCP and its consequences; collectivization and monetary reform; the role of Soviet advisers; the activity of repressive bodies; the regime in communist prisons; relations with Moscow leaders; the Rajk, Slansk and Kostov trials; foreign policy; blackmail, betrayals, assassinations; friends and rivals. There are also memories of illegals regarding the period of political detention, the Civil War in Spain, the French Resistance and the political emigration to the U.S.S.R. The testimonies present in this volume: Leonte Tismăneanu, Ana Toma, Vasile Topală, Lenuța Tudorache, Manole Tudorache, Gheorghe Turcu, Gheorghe Țuțui, Traian Udrea, Maria Ursu, Valentin Urum, Vasile Vaida, Isac Vasilescu-Albu, Ghizela Vass, Vasile Vâlcu, Gheorghe Vidrașcu, Raia Vidrașcu, Aurel Vijoli, Ion Vințe, Mihai Viziru, Vlaicu, Petre Vulpescu, Barbu Zaharescu, Gheorghe Zaharia, Hristache Zambeti, Costache Zmeu.

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