ROMANIAN COMMUNISM – A FAILED MODERNIZATION ATTEMPT
ROMANIAN COMMUNISM – A FAILED MODERNIZATION ATTEMPT

Summary/Abstract: The fundamental contraction of contemporary Romanian society is the contradiction between goals and means; the objectives of the current historical phase are modern, while the means through which we would like to reach them are pre-modern. Even if a century and a half already passed from the beginning of the modernization process, Romanian society has not managed to complete this project. Feudalism is still governing our way of perceiving ourselves and the others, the way we think and live, the way we make decision and act. Unfortunately, the analysis of the contemporary Romanian society put our historical delay on account of the ‘communist fracture’. In our vision, Romanian communism has not been a cause but rather an expression of our historical retardation (through the way in which it began,functioned and legitimated) and Ceausism has been less a manifestation of communism and rather a manifestation of Romanianness – as type of civilization, as type of culture and as type of identity discourse. Romanian communism was a failed modernization attempt simply because it has been conceived in the pre-modern paradigm, in terms of a simple, peasant society, opaque to the occidental modernity values and with a tacit aversion toward change, communication, rationalization. Ceausism was the most backward expression of Stalinism at European level: the peasant communism. It was the empirical-observable expression of thesynthesis between Stalinism and the national tradition. The authors of Tismaneanu Report neglected this aspect, overwhelmed by their intention to de-legitimize communism and to display it as an item for import. With this non-critical and politicized report, we have missed yet another chance to honestly answer the question: ‘Who are we?’. This paper aims at answering this question, by studying Romanian communism from the perspective of the modernity values.

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