On the trail of lost cultural relations: the Romanian historians and the centenary of the Italian Risorgimento
On the trail of lost cultural relations: the Romanian historians and the centenary of the Italian Risorgimento

Summary/Abstract: The celebration of the centenary of the Italian Unification was a first opportunity for the Communist leadership of the Romanian People’s Republic to re-establish contacts with cultural and academic media in Italy. 1959 was the year that marked the starting point. Being familiar with the events that took place a century ago enabled reputed Romanian historians build a dialogue which would lead to joint projects in the historiographical domain.The academician Andrei Oțetea, director of the Institute of History of the RPR Academy, was given the mission to travel to the main academic centers in Italy with the purpose of identifying historical sources about the Romanian people’s past and specialists willing to contribute to the improvement of the dialogue between the two countries. The Italian Risorgimento was a favorable pretext to take advantage of the political detente in Moscow. The Romanian authorities’ reaction came amid the more active presence of Hungarian intellectuals in the academic centers of the capitalist states. The reluctant manner in which the Romanian delegates were welcomed indicated the extent of the rupture from a cultural space to which the cultivated environments in Romania had been strongly attached until the establishment of the communist regime.

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