Hegemonic or Marginal Perspective!? The Many Shades of Nostalgia in Post-communist Romania
Hegemonic or Marginal Perspective!? The Many Shades of Nostalgia in Post-communist Romania

Summary/Abstract: In Romania, communism was declared, on December 18, 2006, an ‘illegitimate and criminal regime’. From this moment on, the main paradigm of remembering com-munism in the public space was anticommunism. However, ordinary people seem to remember communism in a more positive tune as shown by the various polls which measure a constantly increasing appreciation for the fallen regime. The explanations for this nostalgia are various: from ‘longing for a lost past’ to a form of counter-memory, as a critique of the present, and a fear for the future. Another explanation is the commodification of communism which became another marchandise to be consummed. A more subtle form of nostalgia was fuelled by the Romanian intelligentia in the 2000s, which can be explained by a change of generation, which did not feel represented either by the anticommunist discourse or the regret for a fallen regime measured by the polls. My article deals with the various forms of nostalgia recorded in Romania in the last 36 years since the fall of communism aiming at describing them, offering some explanations while trying to understand the trends and mechanisms of both ‘reflective’ and ‘restorative’ forms of nostalgia.

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