Război, pace și propagandă în filatelia românească, 1930-1960. Încercare de analiză a mărcilor poștale ca surse istorice, I
War, Peace, and Propaganda in Romanian Philately, 1930-1960. An Analysis of Postage Stamps as Historical Sources, I

Summary/Abstract: Visual history remained neglected by scholars until the late 20th century. As technological developments enabled a much faster circulation of visual sources, specialists began to abandon the primacy of written sources. Philatelic sources are still, even today, a largely unexplored field, with postage stamps viewed primarily through their functional role: the payment of postal fees. The postage stamp was, by definition, a symbol and product of the state, alongside currency, the flag, and the national anthem, so political interference in their iconography was bound to manifest itself fully. Romanian postage stamps offer a distinctive lens through which to examine the concepts of war, peace, and propaganda, particularly in light of the country’s turbulent historical trajectory between 1930 and 1960, the period selected for this study. The choice of this three-decade interval is deliberate. The year 1930 marks the accession of King Carol II, a moment when Romanian philately began to foreground visual motifs intended to legitimize the Carlist regime that consolidated toward the end of the 1930s. The 1940s constituted a phase of profound political and social upheaval in Romania, encompassing both the Antonescu dictatorship and, after 1945, the establishment and consolidation of communist totalitarianism. The terminal point of the analysis, 1960, was selected because it encompasses the first twelve years of the communist regime, during which the themes central to this study gradually diminish in philatelic representation.

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