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This study is based on a secret Italian diplomatic document that makes reference to the pressures on the foreign diplomatic missions in Bucharest exercised by the Romanian communist authorities and to the infringement of the diplomatic immunities and privileges by the same authorities. Not only the spying techniques through wiretaps and environmental registerings are highlited, but also the direct pressures on the American diplomats and on the service passport staff (for Austria) to cooperate with the Securitate. The pressures were so great that the head of the Italian Legation in Bucharest required the change of the entire staff and officials.
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The present paper aims at tackling a distinctive (and less considered) topic within the vast research area dedicated to the First World War, namely the issue of society’s perceptions and behavior concerning the Foreigner(s), both during the years of neutrality and equally after Romania’s intervention into the conflict, on the Entente side, in 1916. Based mainly on memoirs, press collections and archival documents, the research unveiles the metamorphosis of Romanian society in terms of attitudes towards foreigners, under the effects of the war propaganda, or due to its own perceptions and emotions. While the perception of the continous threat represented by the presence and activities of the enemy (Central Powers agents and spies) can easily be traced – and to a great extent, explained, the war years witnessed also a growing xenophobia exhibited towards vast categories, including German school students.
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Nicolae Iorga is the towering figure of historical studies in Romania. The sheer volume of scholarship he produced throughout his life combined with heavy involvement in politics before and after the First World War amount to a highly complex intellectual biography. He was a central figure in the process of the nationalization of the Romanian nation-state both as an epistemic interpreter and as a political figure. The fate of his biography, ideas, and scholarship during the communist regime is inextricably tied to the latter’s development on the path to domestication. My study analyzes some of the central aspects of the double-edged process through which N. Iorga officially attained the status of founding father of the Romanian history-production while simultaneously becoming the subject of a cult of personality from mid-1960s onward. Nicolae Iorga, as a symbolic and scientific authority, transformed into a central legitimizer of state socialism’s historiographically encoded identitarian master narrative.
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The first years of Ceausescu’s regime were a period of transition and rehabilitation both at the level of discourse and the practice of power in connection with society. From the perspective of the letters to power, the criticisms by those who were discontented were aimed more at the abuses of the party bureaucracy or state functionaries than the leader of the party. The Romanian society oscillated between consensus and dissent. On one hand, there was expressed adhesion to the projects of the regime, and, on the other hand, the same society criticized political or economic measures perceived as an intrusion into its privacy. Duplicity was equally a way of finding consensus and escape. The consensus lasted as long as the political power fulfilled its promises to society (access to goods, supply of food, rising salaries, access to information). In time, with the deterioration of living conditions and ideological pressures, the void left by the loss of popular support was filled by a repressive apparatus whose role was to maintain a state of fear and control the disappointments of the population.
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The aim of this article is to analyse the impact of the political decision making regarding urban planning, together with the development of the city of Bucharest at the beginning of the communist regime. The economical and political transformations characteristic of the post-war period have created the premises for a transition from the inter-war urban planning to a new concept of reconstruction. The aforementioned concept was under a powerful ideological influence; it was set to build the „new socialist city”, in contrast to the old, „bourgeois” socio-political theories and practices. Con- sequently, between 1948 and 1952, the Romanian communist regime set the foundation of a centralised and politicised institutional system. A new administrative apparatus subdued to the interest of the new political system was thus created. This has marked the debut of the wielding of a strong political control over decision-making, thus opening a path towards certain urban transfigurations. The state governed over the phases of the building processes, from sketch to implementation, by regulating the investments and funding projects through annual and five-year plans. This reconsideration of urban systematisation allowed the state to develop new projects and programs both in the architectural and urban areas.
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The Declaration of April 1964 is known as a document that epitomized Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej’s policy of autonomy from Kremlin. At the same time, it provided the theoretical foundation for the foreign policy initiatives pursued by Dej's successor, Nicolae Ceauşescu. Although N. Ceauşescu avoided mentioning the Declaration in his post-1965, he remained faithful to its principles. In fact, Ceauşescu’s international stances were the direct continuation the political line spelled out in the Declaration. The Declaration proclaimed that all communist parties were equal within the international communist movement, that patronizing attitudes need to be rejected, and that all communist parties were free to choose their own path toward communism. Gheorghiu-Dej did not live long enough to see the outcomes of the major shift represented by the Declaration of April. Later, N. Ceauşescu turned Gheorghiu-Dej’s embryonic ethnic nationalism into increasingly chauvinistic policies. This synthesis of Leninist dogmas (first and foremost the leading role of the communist party) and resurgent far-right themes and motifs resulted in a national Stalinist experiment. Only apparently forgotten, the Declaration was in fact Ceauşescu’s national Stalinist Charter.
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This study examines the making of the treaties which shaped the „new Eastern policy“ of the Federal Republic of Germany. This was a complicated process which involved complex negociations with the Soviet Union, the GDR, Poland and Czechoslovakia. The government in Bonn also needed to carefully observe the attitude of its Western allies, especially that of the United States, which was of crucial importance in order to achieve a succesfull outcome for its foreign policy initiatives. Domestic politics were also filled with tension because many were opposed to a policy which seemed to consolidate the division of Germany. Finally, in the long run, the „new Eastern policy“ had a profound impact on the international scene by weakening the position of the Eastern Bloc in general and that of the GDR in particular.
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This article deals with the impact of the student protests of 1968 upon the leadership of the Romanian Communist Party (RCP) and argues that these events played a central role in N. Ceauşescu’s decision to reconsider the party’s policies towards the youth. In his vision – as revealed by his conversations with other party leaders – the youth had been neglected by the Communist parties which made it vulnerable to other ideologies and predisposed to street action outside party control. N. Ceauşescu believed that Communist parties had to elaborate special policies aimed at improving the political education of students and youth so that social protests as those recorded in 1968 in Paris and elsewhere could be guided and controlled by the Communist parties. The experience of 1968 determined RCP’s leadership to increase its political pressure on students and youth, which culminated in 1971 with the abrupt interruption of the liberalization course initiated years before.
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The aim of this study is to shed more light on a period which marks the transition toward National Stalinism. Mainly after 1963, in communist Romania is visible a relaxation of cultural politics, although the party leadership maintained Socialist Realism as mandatory style of arts and literature. Such cultural liberalization occurred simultaneously with the Declaration of April 1964 of the Romanian Workers’ Party, announcing political emancipation from the USSR. The Declaration was considered recently by some historians as a true Charter of Romanian National Stalinism. However, regarding the history of Romanian Literature relationship with ideology one can notice a transitional period. The communist control over literature was subtler in comparison with the 1950s while N. Ceauşescu, the 1965 newly appointed secretary general of the communist party, renounced to invoke Socialist Realism. He changed it with Socialist Humanism, a doctrine which allowed the existence of „various artistic styles and methods“. However, the censorship was reset especially after 1968, targeting primarily literary and student magazines. Step-by-step the Humanist Socialism was re- defined in a censorial way. In 1968, according to more historical sources, intellectuals and ethnic minorities were perceived as main threats for the regime. In order to detect the revival of National Stalinism I examined the inconsistency of the breakup with 1950s Romanian Stalinism, abusive political methods against literary life, and the Romanian– Hungarian cultural relations.
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In Interwar Romania, due to the high rate of the so called social diseases which included both tuberculosis and venereal diseases, there was a strong need for public policies to address these matters. Consequently, throughout the 1920s, both the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Public Health Care have made important efforts to develop the existing infrastructure. New education and medical legislation was introduced to educate school population about the need to seek medical help when necessary. Also, students in middle schools were trained to understand the way human reproductory system worked and to recognise the diseases affecting it. In spite of that, studies conducted by Universities have shown that students were affected by the same diseases as the general population that had no access to high education. Despite all the efforts, preventive measures of the social diseases remained unknown to the general public, which proved to be reluctant to address doctors unless it was their last resort. This attitude typical of both rural and urban population was considered irresponsible by doctors and must be linked with the traditional mentality of the Romanian society.
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Between 1985 and 1989 the Soviet-Romanian relations have gained new sources of tensions due to the refusal of the leaders in Bucharest to follow Gorbachev's new reformist orientation. Ceausescu's policy faced a fundamental turning point: the transition from political independence and non-interference in internal affairs to that of monitoring and even intervention in internal developments of the Warsaw Treaty Organization countries. Ironically, Nicolae Ceausescu, who since 1965, the year of his coming to power, aimed at distancing from USSR, considered, finally, that the chance of survival of socialism in Eastern Europe might only be the Soviet Union.
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This article describes one of Romanian Communist Party’s most ambitious programs of infrastructure development along with its implementation in the context of a command economy. Being demanded both ideologically and economically, the value of the electric power as a symbol became greater with Romania’s communist leadership pursuing the industrial development of the country and trying to secure its energetic independence. Through large amounts of expensive investments, between 1965-1975 Romania’s annual electric power production had increased threefold in ten years, although the power potential had never reached plan targets. However great this achievement was, renewable sources of energy continued to play a small part and electric power management vulnerabilities were far from being removed. Archival research shows who among the political leaders were involved in the planning and carrying out of energy policies during an era of sustained macro-economic growth and how these infrastructure gains made possible the expansion of less efficient industries.
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The appearance of the Academy for Social Sciences (ASS) represents the meeting point of several processes that signal the maturation of Romanian communism. The strengthening of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s power meant not only the continuation of the desovietization policy, but also the creation of a Romanian form of communism. Initially, its complexity surpassed the simple assertion of national interests. The end of the 60’s represented, in Ceaușescu’s view, the moment in which one could consider the successes of the efforts to improve the relation with the intellectuals. A period of great reform for communist Romania followed. Among the first measures taken was the extension of the party’s direct authority over social science research. Trying to create a national idea that would combine historical tradition and Marxism-Leninism, science and creation were to be transformed into ideology and propaganda. This has contributed to the birth of a personality cult which had a Stalinist dimension.
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The aim of the study is to present the evolution of the Romanian Marxist historiography using the history textbook prepared under the direction of Mihail Roller. Its main purpose was to provide a model for the interpretation of historical events. Following the evolution of editions, we can observe the growing influence of Mihail Roller and the limits of the de-Stalinization in Romania after the XXth Congress of the CPSU in 1956.
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E tička poruka kur’anske objave izrazito je usmjerena u socijalnom pravcu. Islamska etika u najvećoj mjeri je socijalna etika. Socijalne vrijednosti utemeljene na Kur’anu i Sunnetu, imaju značenje samih religijskih vrijednosti. Socijalna etika sadržana je i u muslimanskom bogoslužju (ibadah), a ne samo u fikhskim disciplinama koje se bave međuljudskim odnosima. Osjećanje za socijalnu pravdu, briga za slabe, siromašne, bolesne, obespravljene, potlačene, produbljivanje solidarnosti među ljudima, jednom riječju dobročinstvo, čini istinski sadržaj bogobojaznosti (taqwa). O tome karakteristično i upečatljivo govori kur’anski ajet (49 :177) u kojem se kaže kako “Nije dobročinstvo u tome da Istoku ili Zapadu okrećete lica svoja, nego su dobročinitelji oni koji vjeruju u Allaha, i u Onaj Svijet, i u meleke, i u Knjigu, i u vjerovjesnika, i oni koji od imetka, premda im je srcu mio, daju rodbini, i siročadi, i ubogima, i putnicima, i prosjacima, i za oslobađanje iz ropstva, i oni koji namaz klanjaju, i zekat daju, i obaveze svoje, kad se njima obavežu, izvršavaju, i koji su strpljivi u siromaštvu, i bolesti, i za borbe junačke! Eto, takvi jamačno vjeruju i Takvi su bogobojazni.”
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The main goal of this article is analysis of the most relevant business principles of Islamic economy in the context of contemporary economic trends. The most recent economic crises that we are still witnessing, has additionally highlighted all the weak points of the conventional economy and business ethics of the contemporary capitalism and the market economy. The mentioned crises also imposed the need for finding out alternatives that would humanise the existing economic system making it more ethical and socially responsible. In this context the Islamic economy proved to be a good example of joining business and moral principles.
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