First: sincere congrats to Tihamer for the subjects he tackles on his blog (I also used a previous post of his as inspiration - and material- for writing my recent post on 'Magyarorszag'). An excellent idea of Dan to invite him to the ClujBlogRoll !
I had a previous post on the excellent documentary potential of YouTube, inter alia, on issues related to Ceausescu and his regime. This one here could be seen as a sequel to that entry. Moreover, I also wrote about the very informative material on Romania hosted by the US Library of Congress. The event captured in this YouTube material (appearing first in Tihi's post mentioned above) is shortly described in that US Library of Congress material, here. I take out the corresponding excerpt:
"The Twelfth Congress witnessed an unprecedented attack on Ceausescu's personal leadership by a former high-ranking party official, Constantin Pirvulescu, who openly opposed Ceausescu's reelection as general secretary, accusing him of putting personal and family interests above those of the party and the country. He accused the congress of neglecting the country's real problems in its preoccupation with Ceausescu's glorification. Observers noted that this unprecedented attack came from a man who could not be accused of pro-Soviet sentiments, because he had been a staunch defender of PCR autonomy. Nor could he, at the age of eighty-four, be accused of personal ambition. Pirvulescu's remarks were, according to press reports, evidence of discontent in the party ranks. Pirvulescu was stripped of his delegate credentials, expelled from the congress, and placed under strict surveillance and house arrest. "
The same Pirvulescu was later one of the 'retired senior communist officials" who signed the March 1989 letter against Ceausescu's regime. The precise excerpt:
"In March 1989, a letter addressed to Ceausescu criticizing his dictatorial policy reached the West. Written by a group of retired senior communist officials, it accused Ceausescu of violating international human rights agreements, including the 1975 Helsinki Final Act (Helsinki Accords); ignoring the constitutional rights of citizens; mismanaging the economy; and alienating Romania's allies. The signatories called for a halt to the systematization program of destroying rural villages and forcibly relocating peasant families (see Land , ch.3). The letter was signed by former General Secretary Gheorghe Apostol; former Politburo member and Deputy Prime Minister Alexandru Birladeanu; Constantin Pirvulescu, a co-founder of the PCR; Corneliu Manescu, a former Romanian foreign minister and onetime president of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly; and Grigore Raceanu, a veteran party member. Many analysts considered the letter the most serious challenge to Ceausescu's rule to date. The regime relocated and isolated all signatories and reportedly subjected them to other repressive measures. The United States expressed official concern for their safety, and several other Western governments subsequently limited their relations with Romania. "
I had a previous post on the excellent documentary potential of YouTube, inter alia, on issues related to Ceausescu and his regime. This one here could be seen as a sequel to that entry. Moreover, I also wrote about the very informative material on Romania hosted by the US Library of Congress. The event captured in this YouTube material (appearing first in Tihi's post mentioned above) is shortly described in that US Library of Congress material, here. I take out the corresponding excerpt:
"The Twelfth Congress witnessed an unprecedented attack on Ceausescu's personal leadership by a former high-ranking party official, Constantin Pirvulescu, who openly opposed Ceausescu's reelection as general secretary, accusing him of putting personal and family interests above those of the party and the country. He accused the congress of neglecting the country's real problems in its preoccupation with Ceausescu's glorification. Observers noted that this unprecedented attack came from a man who could not be accused of pro-Soviet sentiments, because he had been a staunch defender of PCR autonomy. Nor could he, at the age of eighty-four, be accused of personal ambition. Pirvulescu's remarks were, according to press reports, evidence of discontent in the party ranks. Pirvulescu was stripped of his delegate credentials, expelled from the congress, and placed under strict surveillance and house arrest. "
The same Pirvulescu was later one of the 'retired senior communist officials" who signed the March 1989 letter against Ceausescu's regime. The precise excerpt:
"In March 1989, a letter addressed to Ceausescu criticizing his dictatorial policy reached the West. Written by a group of retired senior communist officials, it accused Ceausescu of violating international human rights agreements, including the 1975 Helsinki Final Act (Helsinki Accords); ignoring the constitutional rights of citizens; mismanaging the economy; and alienating Romania's allies. The signatories called for a halt to the systematization program of destroying rural villages and forcibly relocating peasant families (see Land , ch.3). The letter was signed by former General Secretary Gheorghe Apostol; former Politburo member and Deputy Prime Minister Alexandru Birladeanu; Constantin Pirvulescu, a co-founder of the PCR; Corneliu Manescu, a former Romanian foreign minister and onetime president of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly; and Grigore Raceanu, a veteran party member. Many analysts considered the letter the most serious challenge to Ceausescu's rule to date. The regime relocated and isolated all signatories and reportedly subjected them to other repressive measures. The United States expressed official concern for their safety, and several other Western governments subsequently limited their relations with Romania. "
By the way, you need to be very attentive (so I have to congratulate myself: I was!) to notice one of the very few (I say) mistakes of this material on Romania available at the US Library of Congress, since one name is missing from the list of the persons who signed. This letter is indeed known in Romania as "Scrisoarea celor 6" (English: "The letter of the 6") and there are only 5 people mentioned. The forgotten one (maybe voluntarily?- then it would be interesting to see why) is the late Silviu Brucan.
But once again, here's the YouTube video (for me this is amazing: it is the very first time I see this and so it will be most likely for most of you- truly fantastic documentary evidence!) depicting the intervention of Pirvulescu at the 12th Romanian Communist Party Congress (unfortunately the clip is missing the end of the 'debate', maybe somebody who has that could put it up on YouTube?- somebody in the comments section on YouTube says that the sequel of has another 17 minutes). Of course, if somebody had the time to write down everything that was said there in English, our foreign guests would profit more. I might come back to this post with specific comments on the speeches.
No comments:
Post a Comment