Mihai Ralea și guvernarea Petru Groza (martie 1945-august 1946)
Mihai Ralea and the Petru Groza Government (March 1945 – August 1946)

Summary/Abstract: Mihai Ralea was a university professor and a prominent representative of the Romanian interwar intelligentsia, strongly influenced by remarkable cultural figures either local or foreign (especially French). In March 1945, in the pro-communist Petru Groza government, Mihai Ralea was the first Minister for the Arts in the country’s institutional history. Until then, governmental departments such as the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Public Instruction or the Ministry of Religious Denominations and Arts were also dealing with cultural and artistic affairs. The article shows the long-term impact of significant cultural policies and legislative changes initiated by the Minister of the Arts between March 1945 and August 1946, such as the law on national museums. This context functions as a backdrop for an analysis of M. Ralea’s motivation to accept some of these radical changes. One objective of this article is to clarify Ralea’s involvement in shaping the field of arts and literature by embracing the idea of planning, as it was formulated in 1945 primarily by the Romanian communists, more specifically by Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej.The analysis is based on documents preserved at the Romanian National Archives (The Ministry of the Arts Fond), memoirs, newspaper articles and secondary literature.

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