Istorie și istorici în România comunistă (1948–1989)
History and historians in communist Romania (1948-1989)

Author(s): Felician Velimirovici
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, History, History of Communism, Politics of History/Memory
Published by: Editura Mega Print SRL
Keywords: Communist historiography; Romania; Mihail Roller; Nicolae Ceaușescu; Ideological manipulation; Stalinism; Ethnocentrism; National communism; History of the Romanian Communist Party;
Summary/Abstract: This work examines the dynamics and functions of communist historiography in Romania, highlighting the ideological manipulation of history as a central obsession of the regime. The author, Felician Velimirovici, analyzes the transition from the dogmas of late Stalinism to a populist-ethnocentric perspective under Nicolae Ceaușescu, rejecting the simplistic dichotomy between a "national" and a "Cominternist" faction. Instead, the study emphasizes the tension between local Marxist historians and those educated in Moscow. Key figures such as Mihail Roller, Leonte Răutu, and Solomon Știrbu are profiled as instruments of ideological control, while the later rehabilitation of historians like C.C. Giurescu and the role of Vlad Georgescu in exposing political mystifications are also discussed. The book argues that historical writing was continuously rewritten to serve the shifting political objectives of the Romanian Communist Party.

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