Ana Maria Catanus

Arhivele Totalitarismului/Totalitarianism Archives is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the National Institute for the Study of Totalitarianism of the Romanian Academy, indexed in CEEOL, EBSCO, and Index Copernicus.
Arhivele Totalitarismului/Totalitarianism Archives is classified as a B journal by CNCS.
We are currently calling for papers for volumes no. 1-2, and 3-4 to be published in 2023.

VERSIUNE ELECTRONICA https://www.ceeol.com/search/book-detail?id=470922 Disidenţa a fost un fenomen care a cunoscut o dezvoltare considerabilă începând cu anii 1960 în URSS şi apoi în Europa Centrală. Dar nu şi România, unde disidenţa a rămas la nivelul unei constelaţii de istorii personale. Lucrarea noastră încearcă să analizeze această situaţie răspunzând la o serie de întrebări: ce a fost disidenţa în România, cine au fost disidenţii, care au fost elementele care au blocat sau, din contră, au susţinut dezvoltarea disidenţei. Lucrarea noastră este organizată pe mai multe secvenţe. Prima încearcă să definească disidenţa prin plasarea fenomenului într-un spaţiu geografic, politic şi temporal. A doua, adună laolaltă cele mai reprezentative manifestări de disidenţă din U.R.S.S. şi Europa de Est, scopul fiind identificarea rădăcinilor acestui tip de opoziţie, a conţinutului şi formelor de acţiune, a dimensiunii acestui fenomen, dar şi a impactului asupra societăţilor în care s-au dezvoltat. A treia parte, cea mai consistentă, analizează disidenţa din România. Utilizand instrumentele sociologiei, am construit o tipologie din perspectiva mediului socio-profesional al disidenţilor, dar şi a specificului etnic. Drept urmare, am evidenţiat patru mari categorii: disidenţa din mediul religios, disidenţa din mediul ştiinţific, universitar şi tehnic, disidenţa din mediul literar şi disidenţa cu specific etnic. În cadrul fiecărei categorii au fost trasate direcţiile generale de evoluţie ale domeniului în ultimele două decenii de comunism şi au fost evidenţiate şi analizate principalele gesturi de disidenţă. De asemenea, am ales să prezentăm sub denumirea de „disidenţa din partid” cele câteva luări de poziţie împotriva lui Nicolae Ceauşescu venite din partea unor membri cu o activitate îndelungată în partid (Constantin Pârvulescu, „scrisoarea celor şase” ş.a.). Am precizat totodată în lucrare că aceste manifestări nu au reprezentat gesturi veritabile de disidenţă, ci mai mult răbufniri determinate de o anumită situaţie şi, în special, de cultul personalităţii lui Nicolae Ceauşescu. Lucrarea conţine studii de caz pentru unii dintre cei mai reprezentativi disidenţi : Paul Goma, istoricul Vlad Georgescu, preotul Gheorghe Calciu-Dumitreasa, matematicianul şi viitorologul Mihai Botez, profesoara Doina Cornea, scriitorul Dorin Tudoran. Nu lipsesc însă din analiza fenomenului contribuţiile unor persoane precum Mariana Celac, Pavel Nicolescu, Iosif Ţon, Gabriel Andreescu, Dan Petrescu, Radu Filipescu sau Mircea Dinescu. În final, am considerat important să abordăm cei doi factori care au influenţat dezvoltarea şi răspândirea disidenţei din România: Securitatea şi Radio Europa Liberă. Disidenţa a fost în principal o mişcare etică, morală. Critica publică, deschisă la adresa regimului comunist a fost însă doar o parte din activitatea disidenţilor, aceea de a expune tarele regimului, închistarea sa, refuzul de a accepta dialogul, fie că era vorba despre decizii politice, economice sau care vizau sfera culturală. Cea mai consistentă parte a disidenţei a constat în construirea unor modele alternative de existenţă în comunism, la baza căruia se găseau onestitatea, competenţa, respectul pentru diversitatea de opinii. Disidenţa, prin ea însăşi, nu a dus la prăbuşirea comunismului, dar a sădit seminţele unei societăţi libere şi mai sănătoase în era post 1989.

Thirty years after the 1989 return to democracy, this study revisits Eastern European dissent emphasising the internal and foreign factor that contributed to its inception, the main dissident ideas and approaches to develop an independent public sphere. Without embarking on an extensive analysis for each country in Eastern Europe2, this study will investigate dissent from its emergence in the first part of the 1970s, its ideas, action strategies, the creation of communication circuits and networks. Concluding remarks will discuss whether and to what extent dissent played a crucial role in the collapse of the communist regime, and former dissidents were able to form an alternative political elite to the old communist one.

Ana-Maria Cătănuș, Paul Goma (1935-2020)
A writer, Paul Goma was the most famous Romanian dissident. Born in 1935 in Romanian Bessarabia, Goma had to face a life of exiles. First, he and his family were forced to take refuge in Romania after the Soviet ultimatum in June 1940. However, in Romania, they had to face the Securitate's harassments after August 23, 1944. As a student at the Faculty of Philology, Goma was arrested and convicted in November 1956 for manifesting solidarity with the Hungarian revolution. After two years in prison and three more in force domicile, Goma resumed his studies in 1965. However, his endeavour of publishing novels on the Stalinist abuses could not be accomplished in Romania, as the censorship had denied the publishing of his works. In the spring of 1977, Goma founded the human rights movement in Romania. After spending two months in arrest, Goma was released and joined the Romanian exile in Paris in November 1977. Until his death in 2020, he remained a political refugee in France and never returned to Romania

Arhivele Totalitarismului/Totalitarianism Archives is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the National Institute for the Study of Totalitarianism of the Romanian Academy, indexed in CEEOL, EBSCO, and Index Copernicus databases.
Arhivele Totalitarismului/Totalitarianism Archives is classified as a B journal by CNCS.
We are currently calling for papers for volumes no. 1-2, and 3-4 to be published in 2021.

Call for papers
Arhivele Totalitarismului/Totalitarianism Archives is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the National Institute for the Study of Totalitarianism of the Romanian Academy, indexed in CEEOL, EBSCO, and Index Copernicus databases.
We are currently calling for papers for volumes no. 1-2, and 3-4 to be published in 2020.

On January 31, 1989, Mircea Răceanu deputy director a.i. of the America, Canada, Central and Latin America Section in the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was arrested by the Romanian Counterintelligence while he was heading to the American Embassy in Bucharest. In his possession, a secret document that was to be passed on to the CIA liaison officer was found.
The criminal investigation revealed that Răceanu had been recruited by the CIA in 1974 while he worked for the Romanian embassy in Washington and from that moment on to his arrest he transmitted secret information to the American espionage service.
Răceanu was accused of treason and sentenced to the death penalty, which was commuted by Nicolae Ceauşescu into a sentence of 20 years prison.
Released during the 1989 Romanian Revolution, Răceanu left for the United States in 1990. Afterwards, in the backdrop of the action of the annulment of the 1989 sentence submitted by the general prosecutor of Romania, Răceanu was acquited for treason in 2000 by the Romanian Supreme Court.
In the late 80s, Romania was struggling with a profound economic and social crisis, the people lived in constant fear and no alternative to the existing political order surfaced. In this context, each action that broke the legal order could be interpreted as political opposition. That happened also with the Răceanu case which was, in our opinion, mistakenly presented as action against Ceauşescu’s dictatorship and was artificially linked to the „letter of the six”, an open letter criticizing Ceauşescu’s regime signed by six former Communist dignitaries and was broadcasted by the BBC on March 10, 1989.
This study submits a new and complex analysis of a highly complicated case using all the available documentary resources such as documents from the Securitate Intelligence and Counterintelligence and testimonies of the main actors.  According to these documents, Mircea Răceanu’s evolution was strongly connected with the Romanian and American intelligence.
Moreover, this study questions the public and historical interpretations of the Răceanu case during and especially after the breakdown of Communism.

On January 31, 1989, Mircea Răceanu deputy director a.i. of the America, Canada, Central and Latin America Section in the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was arrested by the Romanian Counterintelligence while he was heading to the American Embassy in Bucharest. In his possession, a secret document that was to be passed on to the CIA liaison officer was found.
The criminal investigation revealed that Răceanu had been recruited by the CIA in 1974 while he worked for the Romanian embassy in Washington and from that moment on to his arrest he transmitted secret information to the American espionage service.
In this study we are publishing the handwritten confessions of Mircea Răceanu given in the first days of the criminal investigation in which the Romanian diplomat presents a a chronological and thorough description of the process of his recruitment by the CIA. Moreover, Răceanu describes how he was instructed to pass on secret information during his mission in Washington and Bucharest, after he became deputy director a.i. of America, Canada, Central and Latin America Section in the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Keywords: Mircea Răceanu, CIA, Romania, the United States of America, espionage, diplomacy.

Article available on https://www.ceeol.com/search/journal-detail?id=87

Call for papers 2019 Totalitarianism Archives
Arhivele Totalitarismului/Totalitarianism Archives is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the National Institute for the Study of Totalitarianism of the Romanian Academy, indexed in CEEOL, EBSCO, and Index Copernicus.
We are currently calling for papers for volumes no. 1-2, and 3-4 to be published in 2019.

In this article, the author publishes the last three parts of Mihai Botez’ survey that approached the analysis of the impact of the human rights issue on US foreign policy (during the Carter administration), the US-Romanian relations since 1980 to 1985, and how American foreign policy influenced the evolution of the Romanian Communist regime and
the perception of the general public toward America. Even if Botez’ study was not well received in the American circles, the text remains an original approach of American- Romanian relations during Ceauşescu’s regime.
Keywords: US-Romanian Relations, MFN trade status, Mihai Botez, Nicolae Ceauşescu,
human rights.

Concluded in 1985, Mihai Botez’ analysis proposed an insight on how American-Romanian relations were seen and interpreted from Bucharest by a Romanian dissident. The survey contains five parts. The first four parts concentrate on the opening toward Romania initiated by the Nixon administration in 1968-1972, the development of US-Romanian relations in 1972-1976, the analysis of the impact of the human rights issue on US foreign policy (during the Carter administration), and the US-Romanian relations since 1980 to 1985. The last part contains Botez’ views on how American foreign policy influenced the evolution of the Romanian Communist regime and the perception of the general public toward America.Even if Botez’ study was not well received in the American circles, the text remains an original approach of American-Romanian relations during Ceauşescu’s regime.
Keywords: US-Romanian Relations, MFN trade status, Mihai Botez, Nicolae Ceauşescu.

„The fear Totalitarianism feels in face of the words is not a legend” argued Romanian dissident Dorin Tudoran. The Communist regime used words to control and alter human consciences. But words were also responsible for challenging the regime. The first part of this study discusses the words of the political power, meaning the evolution of ideological discourse in the 1970’s and the 1980’s. The second part of our study revisits the cases of Romanian dissident writers who engaged the Communist regime in the 1980’s. By their dissidence, words regained the power to tell the truth and to contribute to the overthrowing of the Communist regime.

La jumătatea anilor 1980, regimul Ceauşescu s-a văzut în faţa
unei noi provocări: schimbarea conducerii de la Kremlin şi
iniţierea de către noul secretar-general, Mihail Sergheevid Gorbaciov,
a unui îndrăzneţ program de reformare a societăţii sovietice.
Făcând apel la documente din arhiva CNSAS, arhiva
Radio Europa Liberă, lucrări memorialistice sau articole din
presa vremii, articolul de faţă îşi propune să discute reacţiile pe
care proiectului gorbaciovist le-a generat la nivelul conducerii
superioare de partid, dar şi a societăţii româneşti.

Extras din lucrarea Vocaţia libertăţii. Forme de disidenţă în România anilor 1970-1980, Institutul Naţional pentru Studiul Totalitarismului, Bucureşti, 2014, pp. 104-111.

Lucrarea integrală, vesiune electronică
https://www.ceeol.com/search/book-detail?id=470922

The chapter focuses on the analysis of ‘official’ and ‘unofficial’ futures research in Communist Romania during the seventies and the eighties. It begins with an analysis of the historical and political context in which futurology emerged and developed in Romania, and it emphasizes the importance of the relative liberalization of regime control in the early years of Nicolae Ceauşescu’s regime. The second part of the chapter deals with ‘official’ future research in Romania, that was created under direct supervision of the Romanian Communist Party. As Ceauşescu’s rule developed into a dictatorship, he also identified the future as a mere instrument to justify the policies of his regime. The third part of the chapter focuses on the personal story of Mihai Botez, one of the leading Romanian futurologists. At the end of the 1970s Botez crossed over the border of official forecasting into the production of ‘unofficial’ futures of the communist system. He would use these unofficial futures as the basis of his dissidence

Published in "The Struggle for the Long-Term in Transnational Science and Politics
Forging the Future", edited by Jenny Andersson, Eglė Rindzevičiūtė, Routledge – 2015 – 256 pages.

The document we publish is an analysis drafted by U.M. 0544 (Foreign Intelligence of the Securitate). It reflects the objectives of Ronald Reagan administration towards the Soviet Union and its allies. Drafted in September 1981, the analysis indicates the C.I.A. as the primary intelligence service to influence the development of dissent in Romania. According to the document, C.I.A. objectives were to be implemented through the broadcastings of Radio Free Europe and undercover agents.

Language of the article: Romanian

VERSIUNE ELECTRONICA
https://www.ceeol.com/search/book-detail?id=470922

Disidenţa a fost un fenomen care a cunoscut o dezvoltare  considerabilă începând cu anii 1960 în URSS şi apoi în Europa Centrală. Dar nu şi România, unde disidenţa a rămas la nivelul unei constelaţii de istorii personale. Lucrarea noastră încearcă să analizeze această situaţie răspunzând la o serie de întrebări: ce a fost disidenţa în România, cine au fost disidenţii, care au fost elementele care au blocat sau, din contră, au susţinut dezvoltarea disidenţei.
Lucrarea noastră este organizată pe mai multe secvenţe. Prima încearcă să definească disidenţa prin plasarea fenomenului într-un spaţiu geografic, politic şi temporal. A doua, adună laolaltă cele mai reprezentative manifestări de disidenţă din U.R.S.S. şi Europa de Est, scopul fiind identificarea rădăcinilor acestui tip de opoziţie, a conţinutului şi formelor de acţiune, a dimensiunii acestui fenomen, dar şi a impactului asupra societăţilor în care s-au dezvoltat. A treia parte, cea mai consistentă, analizează disidenţa din România. Utilizand instrumentele sociologiei, am construit o tipologie din perspectiva mediului socio-profesional al disidenţilor, dar şi a specificului etnic. Drept urmare, am evidenţiat patru mari categorii: disidenţa din mediul religios, disidenţa din mediul ştiinţific, universitar şi tehnic, disidenţa din mediul literar şi disidenţa cu specific etnic. În cadrul fiecărei categorii au fost trasate direcţiile generale de evoluţie ale domeniului în ultimele două decenii de comunism şi au fost evidenţiate şi analizate principalele gesturi de disidenţă. De asemenea, am ales să prezentăm sub denumirea de „disidenţa din partid” cele câteva luări de poziţie împotriva lui Nicolae Ceauşescu venite din partea unor membri cu o activitate îndelungată în partid (Constantin Pârvulescu, „scrisoarea celor şase” ş.a.). Am precizat totodată în lucrare că aceste manifestări nu au reprezentat gesturi veritabile de disidenţă, ci mai mult răbufniri determinate de o anumită situaţie şi, în special, de cultul personalităţii lui Nicolae Ceauşescu.
Lucrarea conţine studii de caz pentru unii dintre cei mai reprezentativi disidenţi : Paul Goma, istoricul Vlad Georgescu, preotul Gheorghe Calciu-Dumitreasa, matematicianul şi viitorologul Mihai Botez, profesoara Doina Cornea, scriitorul Dorin Tudoran. Nu lipsesc însă din analiza fenomenului contribuţiile unor persoane precum Mariana Celac, Pavel Nicolescu, Iosif Ţon, Gabriel Andreescu, Dan Petrescu, Radu Filipescu sau Mircea Dinescu.
În final, am considerat important să abordăm cei doi factori care au influenţat dezvoltarea şi răspândirea disidenţei din România: Securitatea şi Radio Europa Liberă.
Disidenţa a fost în principal o mişcare etică, morală. Critica publică, deschisă la adresa regimului comunist a fost însă doar o parte din activitatea disidenţilor, aceea de a expune tarele regimului, închistarea sa, refuzul de a accepta dialogul, fie că era vorba despre decizii politice, economice sau care vizau sfera culturală. Cea mai consistentă parte a disidenţei a constat în construirea unor modele alternative de existenţă în comunism, la baza căruia se găseau onestitatea, competenţa, respectul pentru diversitatea de opinii.
Disidenţa, prin ea însăşi, nu a dus la prăbuşirea comunismului, dar a sădit seminţele unei societăţi libere şi mai sănătoase în era post 1989.

From the mid 1960s dissent developed steadily in the Soviet Union and after the signing of the 1975 Helsinki Final Act also in the countries of Eastern Europe. However, this did not happen in Romania, where dissent remained only a constellation of personal histories. Why did this happen? We tried to address this by giving answers to a series of questions: what was dissent? who were the Romanian dissidents and how did they act? Which were the elements to encourage or,  on the  contrary, to block the development of dissent in Romania?
Trying to solve this puzzle, we organized our book as a series of sequences. The first sequence conceptualizes dissent, by placing it in  a geographical, political and temporal space. The second  presents the most representative acts of dissent in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in order  to find the roots of this new form of oposition and to examine its dimension in different communist societies. The third sequence is devoted to Romanian dissent. Drawing from sociology we built a typology of dissent from a social and professional perspective. Therefore, we identified four types of dissent: religious, scientific, literary and ethnic. For each of these types we offerred an account of the main features of the domain in the 1970s and the 1980s and we analyzed dissent within the specific field. In addition, under the name of „party dissent” we analyzed some of the few stands against Nicolae Ceauşescu.
This book presents also thorough case studies for the most important Romanian dissidents: Paul Goma, Vlad Georgescu, Father Gheorghe Calciu-Dumitreasa, Mihai Botez, Doina Cornea, and Dorin Tudoran.
Finally, we thought it was important  to bring forward the two factors that influenced  the development and dissemination of dissent in Romania: the Secret Police (Securitatea) and Radio Free Europe.
Dissent was mainly ethical. The public critique of the communist regime, denouncing its evils and abuses, was only part of the dissident activity. What proved to be more important was the fact that dissidents concentrated on building alternative ways of living under the communist rule. It was truth, honesty, competence, and respect for a different opinion that stood at the basis of their endeavor.
Dissent did not overthrow the communist regime by itself. However, it planted the seeds for a free and healthier society in the post 1989 era.

Deşi au îmbrăcat deseori forme specifice de manifestare, gesturile de opoziţie/disidenţă din România s-au încadrat într-un tipar mai larg, sesizabil în spaţiul sovietic şi al Europei Central-Răsăritene. Un astfel de caz, de disidenţă autentică, a fost cel al scriitorului Paul Goma. Întâmplător sau nu, asupra destinului său evenimentele anului 1956 au avut o influenţă covârşitoare.

... mathematician Mihai Botez's thinking. A case study Ana-Maria Cătănuş1 The National Institute for the Study of Totalitarianism – Bucharest ... See also Ana Maria CĂTĂNUŞ, “Vlad Georgescu (1937-1988)”, in Arhivele Totalitarismului, No. 3-4/2008, pp. 242-247. ...

... «The Phenomenon of Disidence in Soviet Union, 19651989» by ANA MARIA CĂTĂNUŞ Source: Totalitarianism Archives (Arhivele Totalitarismului), issue: 34 / 2010, pages: 6186, on www.ceeol.com. Page 2. 61 ... Sovietică, 1965-1989 * Ana-Maria Cătănuş ...

... by ANA MARIA CĂTĂNUŞ Source: Totalitarianism Archives (Arhivele Totalitarismului), issue: 34 / 2009, pages: 223233, on www.ceeol.com. Page 2. 223 ... De asemenea, pentru o biografie a lui Mihai Botez, vezi şi Ana Maria Cătănuş, Mihai Botez, în AT, nr.3-4/2004, p. 248-252. ...

... Represiunea împotriva mişcării Goma Ana-Maria Cătănuş În primăvara anului 1977, mai multe sute de persoane s-au alăturat demersului scriitorului Paul Goma pentru respectarea drepturilor omului în România. ... 8 Ibidem, p. 151. Page 4. Ana-Maria Cătănuş 227 ...

... Calciu-Dumitreasa şi rezistenŃa religioasă în România anilor '70-'80 Ana-Maria Cătănuş În peisajul opoziŃiei anticomuniste din România anilor '70-'80, fenomenul disidenŃei religioase a ocupat un loc aparte. ... Access via CEEOL NL Germany Page 3. Ana-Maria Cătănuş 243 ...

This study discusses the case of mathematician and futurologist Mihai Botez, one of the most important Romanian dissident thinkers in the 1980s. Using unedited documents from personal archives, documents from the archives of the former Securitate, Radio Free Europe, as well as oral history sources, this study emphasizes how Mihai Botez’s dissidence emerged, the main directions of his dissident project, similarities in terms of ideas with other dissidents in Eastern Europe/Soviet Union, the relevance of his dissent in relation to Communist power and Romanian society. The study consists of two parts, each divided in several sub-themes. Th e first part of this study deals with investigating the intellectual roots of Botez’s dissident thinking, discussing also the influence that his professional education had on the rise of his political consciousness. It also discusses the main directions of Mihai Botez’s dissidence: the conceptualization of solitary dissidence as a first step towards individualizing a group of independent critical intellectuals, dissident strategies, and expected results. The second part deals with Mihai Botez’s works and research aimed at developing the cybernetics of Communist regimes.His dissident project aimed at bringing to light the parallel society that existed but which kept silent, encouraging diversity of views and creating pressure from society, one capable of influencing government strategies.
Finally, we will dedicate few pages to how Botez’s dissent was perceived in Romanian society before and after 1989, the perpetuation of theories and rumors of his being a Securitate collaborator, and how this affected the collective image of the value of his dissident activity.
Romania, human rights, dissent, critical intellectuals

Studiul de faţă propune o analiză complexă, dar nu exhaustivă, asupra acestui caz complicat, din perspectiva surselor documentare disponibile la acest moment.
Astfel, folosind documentele identificate în arhivele fostei Securităţi, elaborate de mai multe structuri şi direcţii (DIE/CIE, Contraspionaj, Cercetări penale), stenograme realizate în urma şedinţelor conducerii de partid şi de stat, literatura memorialistică a celor direct implicaţi în evenimente, precum şi lucrări speciale dedicate subiectului, studiul nostru prezintă o analiză nouă şi nuanţată asupra desfăşurării cazului Răceanu. Totodată, ridică o serie de semne de întrebare asupra interpretărilor lansate în epocă şi după prăbuşirea regimului comunist privind valenţele reale ale activităţii lui Mircea Răceanu.

Volumul „Lumea a doua” si alte scrieri din anii disidentei solitare,
1979–1987 reuneste lucrãrile elaborate de Mihai Botez în ultimul deceniu de existentã a regimului comunist. Este vorba, în primul rând, de studii în care autorul, utilizând metodologii transdisciplinare, analizeazã originile, evolutia si perspectivele de dezvoltare ale sistemului comunist. Acestora li se alãturã alte tipuri de texte – scrisori, memorii, interviuri –, menite sã ofere o imagine de ansamblu asupra disidenþei lui Mihai Botez. Volumul debuteazã cu un studiu biografic si o cronologie, ambele acoperind principalele momente din viata lui Mihai Botez.