Ethnicism in 20th century: on Romanian Fascism and National-Communism
Ethnicism in 20th century: on Romanian Fascism and National-Communism

Summary/Abstract: The communist regime rewrote history in order to hide or falsify the tragedies of Romania's past. This was inspired by the same discriminatory ideologies as the previous totalitarian regime. That is why for many decades the Communists denied the Holocaust. How can this be explained? What were the premises of an interpretation of history that so distorted the reality of the past? A glance at the intellectual history of Romania over the past 100 years, the memories of my meetings with Romanian intellectuals and the practices of family tradition shed light on this. The itinerary of modern and contemporary Romania has been "torn" between a philosophy of being and a philosophy of the nation. The intellectual biography of the interwar generation largely sums up the difficult evolution towards modernity. It was not only the writings of Mircea Eliade and Constantin Noica that influenced the culture of identity and, by implication, the political culture. The examples are similar in the case of many intellectuals, those of interwar Romania being notable for their exaggeration of the relationship between politics and history, ethnicity and nation, cultural community and work of art. The cultural organicism refers to the racist theories dear to some Romanian scholars of previous generations. The totalitarian politics of 20th Century was the way to realise ethnic being, which meant not only ignoring or excluding minorities, but also the civic nation.

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