Politică şi istorie în comunism: arta oficială, tezele din iulie 1971 şi “mica revoluţie culturală” românească
Politics and History under communism: Official art, the July 1971 Theses and the Romanian “Little Cultural Revolution”

Summary/Abstract: After the Second World War, with the establishment of the communist regime in Romania, culture in general and fine arts, in particular, evolved differently from the West, under the auspices of socialist realism. Thus, in the first decade and a half after the Great World War, during Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej’s regime, Soviet cultural landmarks became the only source of inspiration. The communist ideology, indoctrination, and manipulation will leave its mark on the Romanian society’s way of thinking. This Stalinist-style Soviet influence proved to be harmful for the Romanian cultural space, distancing us from our own national landmarks. The resynchronization with the cultural values of Western Europe, the integration of Romanian culture and fine arts in the universal cultural heritage comes with the process of destalinization promoted by Nicolae Ceausescu’s regime between 1965–1971. So the process of gradual emancipation of communist Romania from the Soviet Union continued after Nicolae Ceauşescu came to power in 1965 and had an important moment in 1968 when the Romanian Army troops did not participate in the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the forces of some Warsaw Treaty member states, and Ceauşescu created a strong platform of sympathy both domestically and internationally, following his speech at the rally organized in Bucharest in August 1968. Relations with foreign countries would be based on and develop principles in line with those set out in the 1964 Declaration. In this first phase of the “golden age” (around 1965–1971), the ideological discourse relaxed but hardened again in 1971. In July 1971, Nicolae Ceauşescu announced new measures for the “Improvement of political-ideological activity”, which have remained in the history of Romanian communism as the July Theses, a name reminiscent of the Leninist Theses of April. Ceauşescu’s Theses were a new guide for all cultural productions in Romania. Ideologically, the Theses were dogmatic rather than innovative: concepts long abandoned in the rest of the communist camp, such as socialist realism, were brought back to the fore by Ceauşescu, who put an end to all illusions of liberalization of cultural life that had been entertained at the beginning of his leadership. In other words, Romanian intellectuals were to draw their inspiration exclusively from domestic sources, namely the realities of socialist Romania. The consequence: after a brief period in which normal relations with the West were resumed, Romanian culture was condemned by the communist regime for the second time, after the forced Russification of Stalin’s era, to years of development in total isolation from any influence.

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