Gheorghe Vasilichi (7 September 1902 – 30 October 1974) was a Romanian Communist politician and statesman.
175-400: Mihail Roller ( Romanian pronunciation: [mihaˈil ˈrolər] , first name also Mihai , also known as Rolea or Rollea ; 6 May 1908 – 21 June 1958) was a Romanian communist activist, historian and propagandist, who held a rigid ideological control over Romanian historiography and culture in the early years of the communist regime . During his training in engineering, he rallied with
350-493: A high-income economy , recognized as a middle power in international affairs . It hosts several UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is a growing tourist attraction, receiving 13 million foreign visitors in 2023 . Its economy ranks among the fastest growing in the European Union, primarily driven by the service sector . Romania is a net exporter of cars and electric energy worldwide, and its citizens benefit from some of
525-507: A 1521 letter known as the " Letter of Neacșu from Câmpulung ", is notable for including the first documented occurrence of Romanian in a country name: Wallachia is mentioned as Țara Rumânească . Human remains found in Peștera cu Oase ("Cave with Bones"), radiocarbon date from circa 40,000 years ago, and represent the oldest known Homo sapiens in Europe. Neolithic agriculture spread after
700-666: A card-carrying member at that stage, since that would have formed material proof of conspiratorial activity. More likely, Roller was inducted through a verbal statement. A student at the Technische Hochschule in Charlottenburg (now Technische Universität Berlin ) and ParisTech between 1925 and 1931, Roller became a member of the Roter Frontkämpferbund . He also joined the Communist Party of Germany in 1926 and
875-634: A chronic disease later diagnosed as diabetes insipidus , would drain one of the buckets himself and fill the other. Roller himself claimed to have spent 1938–1940 mostly in specialized hospitals, "completely inactive". His only works in agitprop were occasional articles in Scînteia and a feuilleton on labor history, taken up by Deșteptarea , the Romanian American newspaper. He finally checked himself out of hospital and resumed clandestine work against his colleagues' advice. He returned to campaigning among
1050-474: A conference where party activity would be discussed. The underlying motive for the purge was their criticism of the party's stifling atmosphere and of the personality cult surrounding Gheorghiu-Dej. The plenary session also criticized Roller, and afterwards, Paul Niculescu-Mizil presented the party leadership a report recommending that the entire leadership of the PMR Institute save the director be removed. At
1225-419: A failure from a literary point of view. It is written in " wooden tongue " and its phrases have "the taste of sud". The textbook's political ideas became historiographic theses and quickly turned into requirements for all the official history writing of the period. Class struggle was presented as the driving force of history, with social conflicts taken out of context and exaggerated in importance. A special case
1400-546: A health resort: after diving into a pool, she suffered a fatal head trauma. An urn containing Roller's ashes is housed at the Cenușa Crematorium in Bucharest. Although sidelined by the time of his death, he received the usual PMR honor, an obituary piece in Scînteia . Anticommunist intellectual G. T. Kirileanu recorded in his diary on 22 June that Roller had "done much harm to Romanian culture." Kirileanu accentuated
1575-421: A highly advanced form of utopian socialism and proto-Marxism. The 1859 union of the principalities only benefited the bourgeoisie by expanding the market for their products, and favored their class only, rather than the masses and the nation as a whole. Alexandru Ioan Cuza , who ruled over the unified state, was criticized as a hesitant reformer. The creation of Greater Romania in 1918 was viewed, as regards
1750-667: A leader of the opposition to Antonescu, entered into secret negotiations with British diplomats who made it clear that Romania had to seek reconciliation with the Soviet Union. To facilitate the coordination of their activities against Antonescu's regime, the National Liberal and National Peasants' parties established the National Democratic Bloc, which also included the Social Democratic and Communist parties. After
1925-588: A left-wing student movement (the Democratic University Front) and instigating a purge of the " reactionary " professors. Reputedly, Roller is also responsible for the refusal to accept a gift of Constantin Brâncuși 's modernist sculptures, thus depriving the Romanian state of a major art collection. He also made a controversial contribution to the field of communist censorship , joining up with Chișinevschi in
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#17328761238952100-675: A member of the Chamber of Deputies and represented the constituency of Prahova in this until 1948. Between December 30, 1947, and April 14, 1948, he served as Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of National Education. In 1948 he became a member of the Great National Assembly and was a member of this until his death. He was a delegate to the Sixth Congress of the PMR from 21 to 23 February 1948,
2275-500: A member of the Politburo of the PMR, and was a member of these bodies until 27 May 1952. On April 14, 1948, Vasilichi took over the position of Minister for Public Education and held it until he was replaced by Nicolae Popescu-Doreanu on April 23, 1949. He then replaced Miron Constantinescu in a cabinet reshuffle on April 23, 1949, as Minister of Mines and Oil and remained in this post until August 5, 1950. In 1951 he became President of
2450-879: A member of the then Communist Party Of Romania (PCdR) and took part in 1929 as a delegate at the International Trade Union Congress in Moscow. In 1930 he took over the position of secretary of the city party committee of the PCdR in Bucharest. He was secretary of the PCdR regional party committee in Prahova County during the oil workers' strike in 1933 and arrested during the Căile Ferate Române (CFR) railway works strike in Grivița in February 1933, in which Vasile Roaită
2625-441: A more ordered field, in contrast to the individual and sporadic efforts that came before. A team of specialists would excavate a site thoroughly, and the regime lavished funds on such studies. Emphasis was laid on finding traces of Slavic settlement, so that this people could be shown to have had an important role in the development of Romanian society. In the mid-1950s, Roller's position started losing ground. The death of Stalin and
2800-565: A nation of "Very High Human Development". Gheorghe Vasilichi Vasilichi was born in Cetate, Dolj , in to a peasant family. He worked after school as a tinsmith and belonged to the iron and metal workers union (sindicatul fermetal) and from 1926 member of the workers and farmers block. In 1926 he became secretary of the city committee of the Union of Communist Youth (UTCdR) in Bucharest and in 1927
2975-495: A new state under Ottoman suzerainty, the Principality of Transylvania . Reformation spread and four denominations— Calvinism , Lutheranism , Unitarianism , and Roman Catholicism—were officially acknowledged in 1568. The Romanians' Orthodox faith remained only tolerated, although they made up more than one-third of the population, according to 17th-century estimations. The princes of Transylvania, Wallachia, and Moldavia joined
3150-504: A number of elements in Roller's text. At Roller's initiative, a vast number of historic documents were published. However, these were carefully selected to conform to the party's vision, particularly in volumes on the War of Independence and on the 1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt . For the first, documents casting Russia in an unfavorable light were removed, while for the second, documents not advancing
3325-594: A party science and culture section was established, headed by Pavel Țugui and meant to counteract the grip on culture held by the Răutu–Roller Agitprop section. Gheorghiu-Dej spoke out against the "monopoly and dictate of Roller", especially on history but also on culture in general, and blamed the two for the crisis in the field and the party's poor relationship with intellectuals. Țugui, by explaining Roller's errors, managed to attract Gheorghe Apostol and Nicolae Ceaușescu as supporters. He also drew to his side
3500-452: A plenary session of the central committee for 9–13 June, where a group of deviationists was "unmasked". The group was entirely composed of members who had belonged to the party when it was banned and included prominent figures such as Constantin Doncea and Grigore Răceanu . Officially, they were sanctioned for criticizing the leadership and its work methods as well as for attempting to organize
3675-510: A policy of total reimbursement of the foreign debt by imposing austerity steps that impoverished the population and exhausted the economy. The process succeeded in repaying all of Romania's foreign government debt in 1989. At the same time, Ceaușescu greatly extended the authority of the Securitate secret police and imposed a severe cult of personality , which led to a dramatic decrease in the dictator's popularity and culminated in his overthrow in
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#17328761238953850-546: A political crisis in 2012. Near the end of 2013, The Economist reported Romania again enjoying "booming" economic growth at 4.1% that year, with wages rising fast and a lower unemployment than in Britain. Economic growth accelerated in the midst of government liberalisation in opening up new sectors to competition and investment—most notably, energy and telecoms. In 2016, the Human Development Index ranked Romania as
4025-608: A population of 19 million people. Romania is the twelfth-largest country in Europe and the sixth-most populous member state of the European Union . Europe's second-longest river, the Danube , empties into the Danube Delta in the southeast of the country. The Carpathian Mountains cross Romania from the north to the southwest and include Moldoveanu Peak , at an altitude of 2,544 m (8,346 ft). Romania's capital and largest city
4200-556: A principle was enacted, but women could not vote or be candidates. Calypso Botez established the National Council of Romanian Women to promote feminist ideas. Romania was a multiethnic country, with ethnic minorities making up about 30% of the population, but the new constitution declared it a unitary national state in 1923. Although minorities could establish their own schools, Romanian language, history and geography could only be taught in Romanian. Agriculture remained
4375-719: A regular tribute to the Ottoman sultans from 1417 and 1456, respectively. A military commander of Romanian origin, John Hunyadi , organised the defence of the Kingdom of Hungary until his death in 1456. Increasing taxes outraged the Transylvanian peasants, and they rose up in an open rebellion in 1437, but the Hungarian nobles and the heads of the Saxon and Székely communities jointly suppressed their revolt. The formal alliance of
4550-594: A result of Hungarian oppression in the region. In April 1990, a sit-in protest contesting the results of that year's legislative elections and accusing the FSN, including Iliescu, of being made up of former Communists and members of the Securitate grew rapidly to become what was called the Golaniad . Peaceful demonstrations degenerated into violence, prompting the intervention of coal miners summoned by Iliescu. This episode has been documented widely by both local and foreign media, and
4725-522: A significant improvement in living standards as the country successfully reduced domestic poverty and established a functional democratic state. However, Romania's development suffered a major setback during the late 2000s' recession leading to a large gross domestic product contraction and a budget deficit in 2009. This led to Romania borrowing from the International Monetary Fund. Worsening economic conditions led to unrest and triggered
4900-530: A staunch anti-intellectual . Known as "engineer Roller" or "Rolea" in files kept by the Kingdom of Romania 's Siguranța secret police, he first attracted the authorities' attention following the discovery of a secret printing press in Bucharest . In the early months of 1933, Roller was an ideological instructor in the Green Sector , and worked there until October, when he was arrested. Released by November, he
5075-466: A successful Soviet offensive, the young King Michael I ordered Antonescu's arrest and appointed politicians from the National Democratic Bloc to form a new government on 23 August 1944. Romania switched sides during the war, and nearly 250,000 Romanian troops joined the Red Army's military campaign against Hungary and Germany, but Joseph Stalin regarded the country as an occupied territory within
5250-818: A volunteer in the International Brigades . He later took part in the French Resistance and was interned in the Dachau concentration camp after being arrested again. After being liberated, Vasilichi returned to Romania, where he became a member of the Central Committee of the Romanian Workers Party (PMR) at the National Conference and was a member from October 16 to 22, 1945 and was a member of this first until December 28, 1955. In 1946 he became
5425-580: Is Bucharest . Other major urban centers include Cluj-Napoca , Timișoara , Iași , Constanța and Brașov . Settlement in the territory of modern Romania began in the Lower Paleolithic , later becoming the kingdom of Dacia before Roman conquest and Romanisation . The modern Romanian state emerged in 1859 through the union of Moldavia and Wallachia and gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877. During World War I , Romania joined
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5600-687: Is entirely absent. Roller's contribution was reevaluated again after the Romanian Revolution of 1989 toppled communism. Some of the first monographs dealing with Roller's career and its impact on Romania were published by Romulus Rusan , the Civic Alliance Foundation , and the Sighet Memorial of the Victims of Communism . Writing in 1999, Mihai Stoian described it as anomalous that, in the process of restoring membership to those deposed by
5775-564: Is known about Roller's activity in early 1944, when the change of fortunes on the Eastern Front signaled a Soviet victory over the Axis Powers . Reputedly, he stopped paying his PCdR membership fee, which may indicate that he was busy with party work, and prepared for a career in communized Romania. After spending some time at Institute No. 205 (formerly a Comintern school), in December 1944 he
5950-698: Is remembered as the June 1990 Mineriad . The subsequent disintegration of the Front produced several political parties, including most notably the Social Democratic Party (PDSR then PSD) and the Democratic Party (PD and subsequently PDL). The former governed Romania from 1990 until 1996 through several coalitions and governments, with Ion Iliescu as head of state. Since then, there have been several other democratic changes of government: in 1996 Emil Constantinescu
6125-455: Is the ancient history chapter, on Roman Dacia . There, commentators note, Roller veers into pseudohistory , creating a narrative about social revolts among the Dacians , none of which actually occurred. Historic figures were relegated to the exploitative classes, the suppression of these classes by the dictatorship of the proletariat being justified by their centuries of misdeeds. The Soviet Union
6300-602: Is well documented from the end of the 11th century. Scholars who reject the Daco-Roman continuity theory say that the first Vlach groups left their Balkan homeland for the mountain pastures of the eastern and southern Carpathians in the 11th century, establishing the Romanians' presence in the lands to the north of the Lower Danube. Exposed to nomadic incursions, Transylvania developed into an important border province of
6475-546: The 2008 summit in Bucharest. The country applied in June 1993 for membership in the European Union and became an Associated State of the EU in 1995, an Acceding Country in 2004, and a full member on 1 January 2007. During the 2000s, Romania had one of the highest economic growth rates in Europe and has been referred at times as "the Tiger of Eastern Europe". This has been accompanied by
6650-781: The Arab countries and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) allowed Romania to play a key role in the Israel– Egypt and Israel–PLO peace talks. As Romania's foreign debt increased sharply between 1977 and 1981 (from US$ 3 billion to $ 10 billion), the influence of international financial organisations—such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank —grew, gradually conflicting with Ceaușescu's autocratic rule. He eventually initiated
6825-517: The Cold War deepened. The iconography of national awakening was consciously modified. Michael the Brave , previously depicted as a national unifier, was presented as a tool of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II . The Transylvanian School was renamed the "Latinist School", its leaders accused of hiding Slavic and Russian influence on Romanians and of promoting chauvinism . The 1848 rebellions, and in particular
7000-501: The Congress of Advocates of Peace under Mihail Sadoveanu (who reputedly eclipsed them both). That year, Roller rose to head the Agitprop section's education committee. This body was charged with writing school textbooks for use throughout the educational system , most of them translated from Russian . Under his direct tutelage, primary school pupils began learning about the "new teachers of
7175-753: The Danubian Principalities ) in 1774. Taking advantage of the Greek War of Independence , a Wallachian lesser nobleman, Tudor Vladimirescu, stirred up a revolt against the Ottomans in January ;1821, but he was murdered in June by Phanariot Greeks. After a new Russo-Turkish War , the Treaty of Adrianople strengthened the autonomy of the Danubian Principalities in 1829, although it also acknowledged
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7350-464: The European Union (green) Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central , Eastern and Southeast Europe . It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to the east, and the Black Sea to the southeast. It has a mainly continental climate , and an area of 238,397 km (92,046 sq mi) with
7525-439: The French Communist Party in 1928, working on their publications. According to his autobiographical notes, he also served as leader of the Romanian Communist Group in France. Professionally, he qualified as a road and highway superintendent . After returning to the country in 1931, Roller was made editor of the PCdR's main gazette, Scînteia . Roller described his beginnings with the party's Agitprop section (1931–1933) as
7700-406: The Holy League against the Ottoman Empire in 1594. The Wallachian prince, Michael the Brave , united the three principalities under his rule in May 1600. The neighboring powers forced him to abdicate in September, but he became a symbol of the unification of the Romanian lands in the 19th century. Although the rulers of the three principalities continued to pay tribute to the Ottomans,
7875-419: The Hurmuzachi collection that had become virtually unusable. Although professional historians worked on these projects, he also notes that Roller did not consent to have the documents published in their original form, especially due to the exigencies of working at a Stakhanovite pace, and that the finished products did not reach a very high standard. He helped plan the Romanian-Russian Museum in Bucharest and
8050-466: The Khrushchev Thaw had echoes within Romania: the country's leader, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej , with an eye to United Nations membership, relaxed repressive measures. Collectivization and industrialization were slowed down, certain political prisoners were freed, and the new climate had its effect on the cultural realm as well. Among the prisoners released were intellectuals who were gradually brought back into universities and research institutes. In 1955,
8225-402: The Kingdom of Hungary . The Székelys—a community of free warriors—settled in central Transylvania around 1100 and moved to the easternmost regions around 1200. Colonists from the Holy Roman Empire —the Transylvanian Saxons ' ancestors—came to the province in the 1150s. A high-ranking royal official, styled voivode , ruled the Transylvanian counties from the 1170s, but
8400-423: The Republic of Genoa started establishing colonies on the Black Sea, including Calafat , and Constanța . The Mongols destroyed large territories during their invasion of Eastern and Central Europe in 1241 and 1242. The Mongols' Golden Horde emerged as the dominant power of Eastern Europe, but Béla IV of Hungary's land grant to the Knights Hospitallers in Oltenia and Muntenia shows that
8575-440: The Tripartite Pact of Germany, Italy and Japan on 23 November. The Iron Guard staged a coup against Antonescu, but he crushed the riot with German support and introduced a military dictatorship in early 1941. Romania entered World War II soon after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. The country regained Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, and the Germans placed Transnistria (the territory between
8750-561: The fastest internet speeds globally . Romania is a member of several international organizations , including the European Union , NATO , and the BSEC . "Romania" derives from the local name for Romanian ( Romanian : român ), which in turn derives from Latin romanus , meaning " Roman " or "of Rome ". This ethnonym for Romanians is first attested in the 16th century by Italian humanists travelling in Transylvania , Moldavia , and Wallachia . The oldest known surviving document written in Romanian that can be precisely dated,
8925-478: The first constitution of Romania in the same year. The Great Powers acknowledged Romania's full independence at the Congress of Berlin and Carol I was crowned king in 1881. The Congress also granted the Danube Delta and Dobruja to Romania. Although Romanian scholars strove for the unification of all Romanians into a Greater Romania , the government did not openly support their irredentist projects. The Transylvanian Romanians and Saxons wanted to maintain
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#17328761238959100-406: The interwar period were detailed and blown out of proportion, so that the 1917–1948 period was viewed mainly through the lens of PCdR history. Official history was laicized by greatly de-emphasizing the role of the Romanian Orthodox Church . Recent history presented in a negative light the political parties, the monarchy (according to Roller, "the most reactionary exemplar of its political class and
9275-413: The national flag . In Transylvania, most Romanians supported the imperial government against the Hungarian revolutionaries after the Diet passed a law concerning the union of Transylvania and Hungary. Bishop Andrei Șaguna proposed the unification of the Romanians of the Habsburg Monarchy in a separate duchy, but the central government refused to change the internal borders. The Treaty of Paris put
9450-420: The "bourgeois-reactionary" and "anti-Romanian" old historiography with dialectical materialism; the latter warned that failure to write a new history "would have left in the hands of the class enemy an ideological weapon against the working class". His history textbook, the first Marxist synthesis of Romanian history, appeared in 1947, in one edition for advanced pupils and another for younger ones. It portrayed
9625-450: The "evil genie" of the Romanian Academy, and makes him responsible for the more "fanatical" decisions—such as granting posthumous Academy membership to the Marxist poet Dumitru Theodor Neculuță . A bizarre exception to this rule was an official reference work, the 1978 Enciclopedia istoriografiei românești ("The Encyclopedia of Romanian Historiography"). It has an entry on Roller, which does not feature any negative commentary, while Răutu
9800-469: The "greatness" of the Soviet Union and on criticizing the West, and greater attention paid to previously neglected historical figures, this was due not so much to Roller's disappearance from the scene as to Romania's changed international position and gradual alienation from the Soviets. The role of guiding communist historiography fell on Marxists from the professional field, primarily Oțetea. Tismăneanu and historian Cristian Vasile note that Roller's downfall
9975-526: The "unscientific position of old bourgeois historians" whose study of Russia reportedly began with Kievan Rus' and ignored what came before. In a Romanian context, this meant reversing the "denial of the development of human society prior to Dacia's conquest " by previous historians. He also emphasized Gheorghiu-Dej's position that Romanian territory had for over a millennium been robbed by Romans and barbarians, just as it had been by French, British or German imperialists. In 1950, in an article on excavations made
10150-401: The 1930s. The democratic parties were squeezed between conflicts with the fascist and anti-Semitic Iron Guard and the authoritarian tendencies of King Carol II . The King promulgated a new constitution and dissolved the political parties in 1938, replacing the parliamentary system with a royal dictatorship. The 1938 Munich Agreement convinced King Carol II that France and
10325-445: The 1945 essay Pagini ignorate din istoria României moderne ("Pages Ignored from the History of Modern Romania"). It announced that the communist effort to reinterpret history had gained momentum: "The outlook of dialectical and historical materialism also arms us with the basic principles of scientific historical research." Roller went on to state that the capitalist historians had turned history into an occult science, since "it
10500-536: The Academy's Vice President (seconding Traian Săvulescu ), he also headed the Section for History, Philosophy, Economics and Law from 1949 to 1955. Roller believed the academy should shift from its former position of "a feudal caste, a closed circle, isolated from the masses and the people's needs" into "a living and active factor in the development of our science and culture". Moreover, he exhorted members, regardless of their specialty, to apply Marxist-Leninist teaching on society and its development, proletarian revolutions,
10675-422: The Allies , and after the war, territories including Transylvania and Bukovina were integrated into Romania. In World War II , Romania initially aligned with the Axis but switched to the Allies in 1944. After the war, Romania became a socialist republic and a member of the Warsaw Pact , transitioning to democracy and a market economy after the 1989 Revolution . Romania is a developing country with
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#173287612389510850-415: The Bulgar elite had already begun in the 9th century. Following the conquest of southern Transylvania around 830, people from the Bulgar Empire mined salt at the local salt mines. The Council of Preslav declared Old Church Slavonic the language of liturgy in the country in 893. The Vlachs also adopted Old Church Slavonic as their liturgical language. The Magyars (or Hungarians) took control of
11025-452: The Cucuteni–Trypillia culture built the largest settlements in Neolithic Europe , some of which contained as many as three thousand structures and were possibly inhabited by 20,000 to 46,000 people. The first fortified settlements appeared around 1800 BC, showing the militant character of Bronze Age societies. Greek colonies established on the Black Sea coast in the 7th century BC became important centres of commerce with
11200-399: The Danubian Principalities under the collective guardianship of the Great Powers in 1856. After special assemblies convoked in Moldavia and Wallachia urged the unification of the two principalities , the Great Powers did not prevent the election of Alexandru Ioan Cuza as their collective domnitor (or ruling prince) in January 1859. The united principalities officially adopted
11375-401: The European Pontic steppe , occupied the Lower Danube region in 680. After the Avar Khaganate collapsed in the 790s, the First Bulgarian Empire became the dominant power of the region, occupying lands as far as the river Tisa . The First Bulgarian Empire had a mixed population consisting of the Bulgar conquerors, Slavs , and Vlachs (or Romanians) but the Slavicisation of
11550-414: The Hungarian, Saxon, and Székely leaders, known as the Union of the Three Nations , became an important element of the self-government of Transylvania. The Orthodox Romanian knezes ("chiefs") were excluded from the Union. The Kingdom of Hungary collapsed, and the Ottomans occupied parts of Banat and Crișana in 1541. Transylvania and Maramureș , along with the rest of Banat and Crișana developed into
11725-441: The Jewish component of Roller's identity, referring to him as a "rabbi's son", and arguing that, through him, "Jews impose[d] their point on view on the evolution of Romanian spirituality." Roller's death did not result in a thorough change to the historiographical ideas he had put forth. Class struggle and dialectical materialism continued to be taught in schools. While history writing did alter after 1960, with less emphasis placed on
11900-687: The Maxim Gorky Institute of Higher Education, devoted to training teachers of Russian language and literature. The magazine of which he was editor-in-chief, Studii ("Studies"), first appeared in 1948. This was quarterly until 1955, then bimonthly until 1974, when it became monthly and its name was changed to Revista de Istorie . At the same time, magazines on a similar theme were shuttered: Revista Istorică , founded by Nicolae Iorga , Constantin C. Giurescu 's Revista Istorică Română , Victor Papacostea 's Balcanica and Revue des Études Sud-Est Européennes . A frequent target of Roller's many articles in Scînteia , Lupta de Clasă and Studii
12075-476: The National Union of Craft Cooperatives (UCECOM) and remained in this post until 1969. At the Seventh Party Congress of the PMR (23 to 28 December 1955) he became a candidate of the Central Committee of the PMR and held this position until 25 June 1960. At the Eighth Party Congress of the PMR from June 20 to 26, 1960, he was again a member of the Central Committee of the PMR and was a member of this body until his death in Piatra Neamț on October 31, 1974. Vasilichi
12250-404: The Orthodox Romanian prelates to accept the union with the Roman Catholic Church in 1699. The Church Union strengthened the Romanian intellectuals' devotion to their Roman heritage. The Orthodox Church was restored in Transylvania only after Orthodox monks stirred up revolts in 1744 and 1759. The organisation of the Transylvanian Military Frontier caused further disturbances, especially among
12425-425: The Romanian Academy members Constantin Daicoviciu , David Prodan and Andrei Oțetea , as well as education minister Ilie Murgulescu , and later some of Roller's former collaborators, including Vasile Maciu, Victor Cheresteșiu and Barbu Câmpina. In early 1956, Oțetea, Daicoviciu and Câmpina sent Gheorghiu-Dej a document accusing Roller and close collaborators of plagiarism and unscientific scholarship. One effect of
12600-605: The Romanian army on behalf of the Entente Powers a day before Germany capitulated on 11 November 1918. Austria-Hungary quickly disintegrated after the war. The General Congress of Bukovina proclaimed the union of the province with Romania on 28 November 1918, and the Grand National Assembly proclaimed the union of Transylvania, Banat, Crișana and Maramureș with the kingdom on 1 December. Peace treaties with Austria, Bulgaria and Hungary delineated
12775-570: The Romanians as the fourth privileged nation was forced into exile. Uniate and Orthodox clerics and laymen jointly signed a plea for the Transylvanian Romanians' emancipation in 1791, but the monarch and the local authorities refused to grant their requests. The Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca authorised the Russian ambassador in Istanbul to defend the autonomy of Moldavia and Wallachia (known as
12950-553: The Romanians: Anul revoluționar 1848 ("1848, the Revolutionary Year"). That historical period was to be the main focus of his articles and exposes, well into the 1950s. Roller was also a "historical reviewer" for a propaganda film retelling the 1848 events, with Geo Bogza as the screenwriter. Following the 1948 election , Roller became a member of the Great National Assembly . In April 1949, he and Răutu were delegates to
13125-652: The September 1943 Allied armistice with Italy , Romania became the second Axis power in Europe in 1943–1944. After the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944, about 132,000 Jews – mainly Hungarian-speaking – were deported to extermination camps from Northern Transylvania with the Hungarian authorities' support. After the Soviet victory in the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943, Iuliu Maniu ,
13300-598: The Social History of Romania"). Having attended MOPR summits in Paris and Prague during 1937 and 1938, Roller served for just three days as head of the Romanian branch. In 1938, he spent a brief term at Jilava Prison . In his autobiography, Sorin Toma notes that conditions there were not as bad as at Doftana , but that 26 prisoners were given two buckets per day of drinking water and two to use as chamber pots . Roller, suffering from
13475-446: The Soviet Union on 26 June 1940, Northern Transylvania to Hungary on 30 August, and Southern Dobruja to Bulgaria in September. After the territorial losses, the King was forced to abdicate in favour of his minor son, Michael I , on 6 September, and Romania was transformed into a national-legionary state under the leadership of General Ion Antonescu . Antonescu signed
13650-588: The Soviet sphere of influence. Stalin's deputy instructed the King to make the Communists' candidate, Petru Groza , the prime minister in March 1945. The Romanian administration in Northern Transylvania was soon restored, and Groza's government carried out an agrarian reform. In February 1947, the Paris Peace Treaties confirmed the return of Northern Transylvania to Romania, but they also legalised
13825-468: The Soviet-led 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia . Ceaușescu even publicly condemned the action as "a big mistake, [and] a serious danger to peace in Europe and to the fate of Communism in the world". It was the only Communist state to maintain diplomatic relations with Israel after 1967's Six-Day War and established diplomatic relations with West Germany the same year. At the same time, close ties with
14000-506: The Székely and Saxon seats (or districts) were not subject to the voivodes' authority. Royal charters wrote of the " Vlachs ' land" in southern Transylvania in the early 13th century, indicating the existence of autonomous Romanian communities . Papal correspondence mentions the activities of Orthodox prelates among the Romanians in Muntenia in the 1230s. Also in the 13th century,
14175-685: The Székelys in 1764 . Princes Dimitrie Cantemir of Moldavia and Constantin Brâncoveanu of Wallachia concluded alliances with the Habsburg Monarchy and Russia against the Ottomans, but they were dethroned in 1711 and 1714, respectively. The sultans lost confidence in the native princes and appointed Orthodox merchants from the Phanar district of Istanbul to rule Moldova and Wallachia. The Phanariot princes pursued oppressive fiscal policies and dissolved
14350-466: The United Kingdom could not defend Romanian interests. German preparations for a new war required the regular supply of Romanian oil and agricultural products. The two countries concluded a treaty concerning the coordination of their economic policies in 1939, but the King could not persuade Adolf Hitler to guarantee Romania's frontiers. Romania was forced to cede Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to
14525-619: The absorption of Bessarabia, as an "imperialist intervention against the socialist revolution in Russia". Likewise, the union of Transylvania , was an "intervention against the revolution in Hungary ". The modern era was considered to have begun not with the union of 1918 but with the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917; the paleolithic became "wild man" and the neolithic, "barbarism". Communist strikes and demonstrations during
14700-659: The army. The neighboring powers took advantage of the situation: the Habsburg Monarchy annexed the northwestern part of Moldavia, or Bukovina , in 1775, and the Russian Empire seized the eastern half of Moldavia, or Bessarabia , in 1812. A census revealed that the Romanians were more numerous than any other ethnic group in Transylvania in 1733, but legislation continued to use contemptuous adjectives (such as "tolerated" and "admitted") when referring to them. The Uniate bishop , Inocențiu Micu-Klein who demanded recognition of
14875-695: The arrival of a mixed group of people from Thessaly in the 6th millennium BC. Excavations near a salt spring at Lunca yielded the earliest evidence for salt exploitation in Europe; here salt production began between the 5th and 4th millennium BC. The first permanent settlements developed into "proto-cities", which were larger than 320 hectares (800 acres). The Cucuteni–Trypillia culture —the best known archaeological culture of Old Europe —flourished in Muntenia , southeastern Transylvania and northeastern Moldavia between c. 5500 to 2750 BC. During its middle phase (c. 4000 to 3500 BC), populations belonging to
15050-473: The building of socialism and the victory of communism. By March 1952, Roller was directly involved in vetting new members of the Academy, personally handling the reception of Matei Socor and the promotion of Ștefan Vencov . As he reported to Soviet diplomat Golichenkov, the reshuffling could ensure that Roller was "no longer alone among old reactionaries" such as Săvulescu (although he still approved induction for
15225-625: The central committee's Agitprop directorate, led by Leonte Răutu, remaining in that post until 1955. The team comprising Roller, Răutu, Chișinevschi, Toma, Nicolae Moraru and Ofelia Manole was effectively in control of the entire directorate until 1953, and helped reconfigure Romanian culture in conformity with the Zhdanov Doctrine . According to Tismăneanu, Roller had become a "scribe" of Romanian communism, one of several "fanatics" and "dilettantes" pushed up through PCdR promotions. Mihail Roller signaled his return to Romanian historiography with
15400-468: The city's Baptist community , to whom a chapter was dedicated. As Roller himself explained, the brochure was meant to test the limits of Romanian censorship, and was part of his work for the MOPR. Din istoria was still found by the police to contain "extremist" passages, and only being purchased by persons "suspected of communism". Once they found that it had not been approved by the state censorship apparatus, it
15575-468: The city's Tobacco Plant. In June 1941, just days before the start of Operation Barbarossa , he sent his résumé to Boris Stefanov , asking to be considered for membership in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union . Drawn into the PCdR group in Moscow, Roller continued working under Pauker, who had also joined the Romanian exile community. He also attended the History faculty of Moscow State University . Little
15750-648: The clauses favorable to Romania in the Paris Peace Treaties were due to the Soviets, while punitive ones originated with the imperialists. According to Stoian, the political history sections was largely reliant on fabricated and backdated documents, and justified the PCdR/PMR repression of its enemies, including the " right-wing social democrats " and the Zionists . Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu , who had endorsed national communism against his pro-Soviet colleagues and had been executed for it,
15925-725: The communist cells in Romania and abroad, joining the Romanian Communist Party while it was still an underground group. He collaborated with the Agitprop leaders Leonte Răutu and Iosif Chișinevschi , spent time in prison for his communist activity, and ultimately exiled himself to the Soviet Union , where he trained in Marxist historiography . Returning to Romania upon the close of World War II , Roller carried out communist assignments in
16100-654: The communist party. He was them moved to another position, serving as the party secretary for the Lower Danube committee ( Galați ), following which he served on the Committee of Defense for Antifascist Prisoners, part of the International Red Aid (MOPR) network. In this capacity, Roller mobilized support for Pauker, at a time when she was facing trial for sedition. His works of the time included political articles such as Fascismul și baza sa socială ("Fascism and Its Social Basis"). A Siguranța note of May 1937 mentions
16275-464: The communist press made successive returns into the realm of Marxist-Leninist historiography. At Contemporanul , he outlined his suggestions about changing the chronology of Romanian history, and reinterpreted seminal events, such as the 1859 union of Romania , through a Marxist lens. Other such texts helped enshrine the myth of "illegalists" (clandestine communists of the 1930s and '40s) as freedom fighters. Also then, Frunză notes, Roller took part in
16450-576: The condemnation of other foreigners, particularly Westerners, starting with Ancient Rome—the French, Italian and American libraries were shut down, their patrons arrested; condemnation of the formerly dominant boyars ("traitors" to the Ottomans ) and bourgeoisie ("cosmopolitan" and "serving imperialist capitalists"); and minimization of the role played by historic Romanian figures. Described by traditionalist historians as Romania's war of national unity, World War I
16625-489: The country and proclaimed Romania a people's republic . Romania remained under the direct military occupation and economic control of the USSR until the late 1950s. During this period, Romania's vast natural resources were drained continuously by mixed Soviet-Romanian companies ( SovRoms ) set up for unilateral exploitative purposes. In 1948, the state began to nationalise private firms and to collectivise agriculture. Until
16800-542: The country's history through the lens of Marxist stages of history : primitive communism, slavery, feudalism, capitalism and socialism, advancing all the while through class struggle . Initially called Istoria României ("The History of Romania") but later Istoria R.P.R. ("The History of the R[omanian] P[eople's] R[epublic]"), it appeared between 1947 and 1956 and was used until the 1961–1962 school year. Appearing very quickly ("in record time", according to Stoian), it
16975-593: The early 1960s, the government severely curtailed political liberties and vigorously suppressed any dissent with the help of the Securitate —the Romanian secret police. During this period the regime launched several campaigns of purges during which numerous " enemies of the state " and "parasite elements" were targeted for different forms of punishment including: deportation, internal exile, internment in forced labour camps and prisons—sometimes for life—as well as extrajudicial killing . Nevertheless, anti-communist resistance
17150-557: The early 7th century. The Goths were expanding towards the Lower Danube from the 230s, forcing the native peoples to flee to the Roman Empire or to accept their suzerainty . The Goths' rule ended abruptly when the Huns invaded their territory in 376, causing new waves of migrations. The Huns forced the remnants of the local population into submission, but their empire collapsed in 454. The Gepids took possession of
17325-447: The effort to adapt the Romanian past to the imperatives of the Soviet occupation and the ' internationalist ' regime" imposed on the country. Boia also notes that, especially after adopting an acronym in its title, Istoria... overturned the logic of previous historiographic discourse, from the "national idea" to "the internationalist spirit". Stoian additionally suggests that Istoria... is
17500-414: The evacuation of the province Dacia Trajana in the 270s. Scholars supporting the continuity theory are convinced that most Latin-speaking commoners stayed behind when the army and civil administration were withdrawn. The Romans did not abandon their fortresses along the northern banks of the Lower Danube for decades, and Dobruja (known as Scythia Minor ) remained an integral part of the Roman Empire until
17675-463: The fact that most of the former industrial and economic enterprises which were built and operated during the communist period were closed, mainly as a result of the policies of privatisation of the post–1989 regimes. Corruption has been a major issue in contemporary Romanian politics. In November 2015, massive anti-corruption protests which developed in the wake of the Colectiv nightclub fire led to
17850-595: The federalisation of Austria-Hungary and the Romanian intellectuals established a cultural association to promote the use of Romanian. Fearing Russian expansionism, Romania secretly joined the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy in 1883, but public opinion remained hostile to Austria-Hungary. Romania seized Southern Dobruja from Bulgaria in the Second Balkan War in 1913. German and Austrian-Hungarian diplomacy supported Bulgaria during
18025-469: The field of culture. Under Răutu, he helped draft the official history textbook, monopolizing the historical narrative for over a decade. Turning the focus away from nationality and on class struggle , Roller's work sought to reeducate the traditionalist public, and depicted Romania as strongly linked to Slavic Europe . In advancing such theses, Roller censored out historical events, and, in one instance, recounted events that never took place in real life. In
18200-516: The former Dacia province. Place names that are of Slavic origin abound in Romania, indicating that a significant Slavic-speaking population lived in the territory. The first Slavic groups settled in Moldavia and Wallachia in the 6th century, in Transylvania around 600. The nomadic Avars defeated the Gepids and established a powerful empire around 570. The Bulgars , who also came from
18375-450: The greatest owner of latifundia "), the democratic regime and its institutions. The interwar chapter was headlined "The Increase in Romania's Enslavement to American, English and French Imperialism", with "only words of scorn" reserved for the Brătianu family . In this way, the class struggle and especially repression against the upper classes were legitimized: if the latter had stood against
18550-579: The impact of such directives, Lucian Boia calls Roller "the little dictator" of Romanian historiography, unchallenged after the "earthquake" of 1948 had invented a Romanian Marxist tradition. From 1948 to 1955, Roller was professor as well as chairman of the Romanian History department at the Political Military Academy . In 1948, he published his own synthesis on the Revolutions of 1848 among
18725-552: The later 1950s, Roller found himself shut out by his communist peers. He was branded a deviationist by the party leadership members, probably because he had unwittingly exposed their secondary roles in early communist history. Roller died in mysterious circumstances, which do not exclude the possibility of suicide. Roller was born in Buhuși , then a commune in Neamț County , to a Jewish family; as reported by Roller himself, his father
18900-441: The latter's wife, Alice Aronescu-Săvulescu ). When Săvulescu suggested that Academy publications should go uncensored, Roller intervened and reimposed "control", noting: "I am here to supervise and cut out those bits that catch my eye." Even the more traditionalist members of the communist academic establishment were irritated by Roller's interventions. Scholar Mihai Ralea allegedly called him "an incompetent, evil rube". Reviewing
19075-504: The limits within which historians could practice their craft. In the view of historian Liviu Pleșa, Roller's activities sought to "uproot traditional values from the Romanian mindset" and replace them with the new regime's propagandistic themes. The Roller directives are infamous for emphasizing the supposed grandeur of the Soviet Union under Stalin, but also for praising Tsarist Russia and the Slavic peoples . The other ideas emphasized included
19250-409: The local Vlach rulers were subject to the king's authority in 1247. Basarab I of Wallachia united the Romanian polities between the southern Carpathians and the Lower Danube in the 1310s. He defeated the Hungarian royal army in the Battle of Posada and secured the independence of Wallachia in 1330. The second Romanian principality, Moldavia , achieved full autonomy during
19425-625: The local chieftains and established Roman Catholic bishoprics (office of a bishop) in Transylvania and Banat in the early 11th century. Significant Pecheneg groups fled to the Byzantine Empire in the 1040s; the Oghuz Turks followed them, and the nomadic Cumans became the dominant power of the steppes in the 1060s. Cooperation between the Cumans and the Vlachs against the Byzantine Empire
19600-620: The local tribes. Among the native peoples, Herodotus listed the Getae of the Lower Danube region, the Agathyrsi of Transylvania and the Syginnae of the plains along the river Tisza at the beginning of the 5th century BC. Centuries later, Strabo associated the Getae with the Dacians who dominated the lands along the southern Carpathian Mountains in the 1st century BC. Burebista
19775-567: The masses for centuries, then taking away their properties through nationalization and incarcerating them seemed just. The events near the end of World War II were depicted as follows: the King Michael Coup was a "liberation by the Soviet Army" defending the country from imperialists; Northern Transylvania was restored thanks to the Soviets; the SovRoms aided in the country's economic recovery;
19950-612: The most talented princes— Gabriel Bethlen of Transylvania, Matei Basarab of Wallachia, and Vasile Lupu of Moldavia—strengthened their autonomy. The united armies of the Holy League expelled the Ottoman troops from Central Europe between 1684 and 1699, and the Principality of Transylvania was integrated into the Habsburg monarchy . The Habsburgs supported the Catholic clergy and persuaded
20125-565: The moves against Roller was the 1955 firing of Aurel Roman as editor of Studii and his replacement with Oțetea (who the following year also replaced Cheresteșiu as head of the Bucharest History Institute ), so that articles started to appear without Roller's approval. In 1955, he also lost his position at the Agitprop section and was transferred to become deputy director of the PMR History Institute, wielding more power than
20300-516: The name Romania on 21 February 1862. Cuza's government carried out a series of reforms, including the secularisation of the property of monasteries and agrarian reform, but a coalition of conservative and radical politicians forced him to abdicate in February ;1866. Cuza's successor, a German prince, Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (or Carol I), was elected in May. The parliament adopted
20475-465: The new borders in 1919 and 1920, but the Soviet Union did not acknowledge the loss of Bessarabia. Romania achieved its greatest territorial extent, expanding from the pre-war 137,000 to 295,000 km (53,000 to 114,000 sq mi). A new electoral system granted voting rights to all adult male citizens, and a series of radical agrarian reforms transformed the country into a "nation of small landowners" between 1918 and 1921. Gender equality as
20650-438: The new regime to wipe away traces of previous writers, so that works by historians including Giurescu, Victor Papacostea and Nicolae Benescu were eliminated from the curriculum, while some historians, such as Gheorghe Brătianu and Ion Nistor died in prison, their works hidden from public view. Roller also saw enemies among the ranks of older teachers he believed blocked the "cultural revolution", and promoted "re-education of
20825-533: The old teaching staff could include a "war criminal" such as Ion Petrovici , his own colleagues, Răutu and Chișinevschi, were fit to lecture in Marxism-Leninism at the University of Bucharest . He continued to have a plenary take on education, and insisted that music should form part of schooling. Unintentionally, his position on the subject allowed educators and students to evade politicization for at least part of
21000-455: The opinion polls. This surprise victory was attributed by many analysts to the implication of the Romanian diaspora in the voting process, with almost 50% casting their votes for Klaus Iohannis in the first round, compared to only 16% for Ponta. In 2019, Iohannis was re-elected president in a landslide victory over former Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă . The post–1989 period is characterised by
21175-544: The presence of units of the Red Army in the country. During the Soviet occupation of Romania , the communist-dominated government called for new elections in 1946, which they fraudulently won , with a fabricated 70% majority of the vote. Thus, they rapidly established themselves as the dominant political force. Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej , a communist party leader imprisoned in 1933, escaped in 1944 to become Romania's first communist leader. In February 1947, he and others forced King Michael I to abdicate and leave
21350-488: The previous year, he criticized Emil Condurachi , who had explored Histria , for not studying the native population before the "exploitative" Romans, urging a focus on the battles between Dacians and unconquered peoples against the Romans. He took issue with Ion Nestor for refusing to claim the presence of slaves at Monteoru : "some are afraid to place themselves on the proletariat's class position". Along with Radu Vulpe , he
21525-648: The principal sector of economy, but several branches of industry—especially the production of coal, oil, metals, synthetic rubber, explosives and cosmetics—developed during the interwar period . With oil production of 5.8 million tons in 1930, Romania ranked sixth in the world. Two parties, the National Liberal Party and the National Peasants' Party , dominated political life, but the Great Depression in Romania brought about significant changes in
21700-618: The provincials enjoyed a long period of peace and prosperity in the 2nd century. Scholars accepting the Daco-Roman continuity theory—one of the main theories about the origin of the Romanians —say that the cohabitation of the native Dacians and the Roman colonists in Roman Dacia was the first phase of the Romanians' ethnogenesis . The Carpians , Goths , and other neighbouring tribes made regular raids against Dacia from the 210s. The Romans could not resist, and Emperor Aurelian ordered
21875-569: The publication of his first standalone brochure, titled Din istoria drepturilor omului ("From the History of the Rights of Man") and prefaced by philosopher Constantin Rădulescu-Motru . It was largely a posthumous homage to activist Constantin Costa-Foru . Police mentioned that it was already being sold in bookstores and by distributors of PCdR publications, and believed it was partly financed by
22050-516: The regime's desire to show the "savage repression of the bourgeois-landowning governments" were not published. Other collections were similarly doctored. For his work on the volume dealing with the peasants' revolt, Roller was again awarded the State Prize, first class, in 1951. Pleșa does give credit to Roller for ordering publication of documents from the country's medieval period, previously missing from print nearly in their entirety, and of an index to
22225-735: The regime, the Academy had not also posthumously stripped Roller of his title. He calls Roller "a red specter", haunting "the bookcases dusted by lies and servitude." Senior historian Florin Constantiniu reflected back on the communist period, coining the popular (but, according to Cristian Vasile, melodramatic) image of Roller as "the gravedigger of authentic Romanian culture". At that stage, some authors described Roller's influence as criminal, and declared him an anti-Romanian by conviction. The books of antisemitic conspiracy theorist Iosif Constantin Drăgan cited Roller's case as evidence that Jewish communism
22400-416: The reign of Bogdan I around 1360. A local dynasty ruled the Despotate of Dobruja in the second half of the 14th century, but the Ottoman Empire took possession of the territory after 1388. Princes Mircea I and Vlad III of Wallachia , and Stephen III of Moldavia defended their countries' independence against the Ottomans. Most Wallachian and Moldavian princes paid
22575-403: The resignation of Romania's Prime Minister Victor Ponta. During 2017–2018, in response to measures which were perceived to weaken the fight against corruption, some of the biggest protests since 1989 took place in Romania, with over 500,000 people protesting across the country. Nevertheless, there have been significant reforms aimed at tackling corruption. A National Anticorruption Directorate
22750-410: The rivers Dniester and Dnieper) under Romanian administration. Romanian and German troops massacred at least 160,000 local Jews in these territories; more than 105,000 Jews and about 11,000 Gypsies died during their deportation from Bessarabia to Transnistria. Most of the Jewish population of Moldavia, Wallachia, Banat and Southern Transylvania survived, but their fundamental rights were limited. After
22925-533: The same regions. The reliability of the Gesta is debated. Some scholars regard it as a basically accurate account, others describe it as a literary work filled with invented details. The Pechenegs seized the lowlands abandoned by the Hungarians to the east of the Carpathians. Byzantine missionaries proselytised in the lands east of the Tisa from the 940s and Byzantine troops occupied Dobruja in the 970s. The first king of Hungary , Stephen I , who supported Western European missionaries, defeated
23100-526: The same time as the plenary, a joint meeting of Romanian and Soviet historians took place at which Oțetea sharply criticized Roller for the unprofessionalism with which he published documents and announced they would be republished. The Soviets did not defend Roller, which the latter interpreted as a loss of support from his former allies. Roller died on 21 June 1958, and Pleșa believes he most likely committed suicide. Tismăneanu initially credited that rumor in his Radio Free Europe addresses, but later noted that
23275-465: The school week. At times, Roller intervened on behalf of certain historians the regime considered undesirable, including the medievalist P. P. Panaitescu . When the Securitate secret police, charging past membership in the Iron Guard , arrested archaeologist Vladimir Dumitrescu while he was excavating at Hăbășești , Roller intervened several times with the police leadership, in particular Alexandru Drăghici and Gheorghe Pintilie , until his release
23450-440: The semi-compulsory Russification campaign, launching the agitprop slogan Să învățăm limba lui Lenin și Stalin! ("Let's learn the language of Lenin and Stalin !"). The pro-Soviet enterprise Editura Cartea Rusă published his tract Pedagogia în URSS ("Pedagogy in the USSR"), recommending the imitation of Soviet schooling . By the summer of 1947, Roller's other party work involved exercising direct communist control over
23625-412: The separate status of Transylvania in the Habsburg Monarchy, but the Austro-Hungarian Compromise brought about the union of the province with Hungary in 1867. Ethnic Romanian politicians sharply opposed the Hungarian government's attempts to transform Hungary into a national state, especially the laws prescribing the obligatory teaching of Hungarian. Leaders of the Romanian National Party proposed
23800-433: The spring of 1958, as the party celebrated 25 years since the Grivița Strike of 1933 , the PMR Institute collection of recordings was in focus. A number of the "illegalists", especially those who did not receive the posts they expected after 1944, began to question whether Gheorghiu-Dej had played the leading role he claimed for himself during the strike, as well as criticizing the country's direction. The latter hastily called
23975-539: The start of his life as a " professional revolutionary ". As later noted by researcher Victor Frunză, the PCdR's clandestine nature and inner struggles make it impossible to know for sure who was in charge of Scînteia by that moment in time. Frunză believes that Roller was one of the young men working under senior activist Ana Pauker ; the others were Răutu, Chișinevschi, Vasile Luca , Gheorghe Stoica , Sorin Toma , Gheorghe Vasilichi and Ștefan Voicu . Another fellow communist, Belu Zilber , later noted that Roller
24150-478: The steppes north of the Lower Danube in the 830s, but the Bulgarians and the Pechenegs jointly forced them to abandon this region for the lowlands along the Middle Danube around 894. Centuries later, the Gesta Hungarorum wrote of the invading Magyars' wars against three dukes— Glad , Menumorut and the Vlach Gelou —for Banat, Crișana and Transylvania. The Gesta also listed many peoples—Slavs, Bulgarians, Vlachs, Khazars , and Székelys —inhabiting
24325-466: The successful Wallachian Revolution , were described as precursors of Marxism-Leninism. Of the leaders, only Nicolae Bălcescu was appreciated for combating feudalism and siding with Tsarist Russia; at the other end, Avram Iancu was chided for collaborating with the Austrian Empire . Roller's views of Bălcescu were almost entirely positive, and developed into a communist personality cult : counterfactually, Roller described Bălcescu's left-liberalism as
24500-459: The suicide story was "unconfirmed". According to at least two accounts, Roller had also suffered a stroke or a heart attack some time during the "unmasking" sessions. He died without heirs. He had married Sara Zighelboim, whose brothers Avram and Ștrul were communist activists during the 1930s. She was originally from Bessarabia, and had returned there in 1940, shortly before Roller himself. Their daughter Sonela died in 1956 while with her father at
24675-407: The sultan's right to confirm the election of the princes. Mihail Kogălniceanu , Nicolae Bălcescu and other leaders of the 1848 revolutions in Moldavia and Wallachia demanded the emancipation of the peasants and the union of the two principalities, but Russian and Ottoman troops crushed their revolt. The Wallachian revolutionists were the first to adopt the blue, yellow and red tricolour as
24850-438: The task of supervising Romanian cinema . In November 1948, following the establishment of a Communist regime , he was elected to the Romanian Academy subsequent to the purge of a large number of members. Roller was part of a wave of new academicians; as noted by various authors, most of these were of peripheral importance in their fields, but were staunch adherents of communism and ready to act as ideological enforcers. Elected
25025-434: The teaching staff". He sought to imbue the educational system with a class character and make it serve the interests of workers, peasants and "progressive intellectuals", including those who had rushed to the new regime's side. Already in 1947, students were encouraged to form Marxist "cells", verifying the dogmatic purity of history lessons, and holding the teachers accountable. In one instance, Roller explained that, as long as
25200-468: The textbook. Istoria R.P.R. earned its author the Romanian State Prize for 1949, while Agitprop presented it as a huge success. Its claims (instantly sold-out editions, millions of copies in circulation) were in fact irrelevant, as there was no actual competition in the field. The only history textbook allowed in schools, it has been described by Șerban Papacostea as "the vastest work of political mystification of Romania's past", making Roller "a symbol of
25375-455: The titular head, Constantin Pîrvulescu . By then, Roller was directing the effort to preserve samples of oral history , interviewing the former "illegalists" and building up a large collection of magnetic tape recordings. Reputedly, Roller's experiment in oral history had unwittingly managed to embarrass the communist leader: it presented Gheorghiu-Dej as more the secondary figure than the "illegalist" leader fashioned in official documents. In
25550-592: The violent Romanian Revolution of December 1989 in which thousands were killed or injured. After a trial, Ceaușescu and his wife were executed by firing squad at a military base outside Bucharest on 25 December 1989. The charges for which they were executed were, among others, genocide by starvation. After the 1989 revolution, the National Salvation Front (FSN), led by Ion Iliescu , took partial and superficial multi-party democratic and free market measures after seizing power as an ad interim governing body. In March 1990, violent outbreaks went on in Târgu Mureș as
25725-459: The war against the Central Powers in 1916. The German and Austrian-Hungarian troops defeated the Romanian army and occupied three-quarters of the country by early 1917. After the October Revolution turned Russia from an ally into an enemy, Romania was forced to sign a harsh peace treaty with the Central Powers in May 1918, but the collapse of Russia also enabled the union of Bessarabia with Romania . King Ferdinand again mobilised
25900-441: The war, bringing about a rapprochement between Romania and the Triple Entente of France, Russia and the United Kingdom. The country remained neutral when World War I broke out in 1914, but Prime Minister Ion I. C. Brătianu started negotiations with the Entente Powers. After they promised Austrian-Hungarian territories with a majority of ethnic Romanian population to Romania in the Treaty of Bucharest , Romania entered
26075-415: The workers of the Green Sector, and was also appointed co-editor of an illegal newspaper, Viața Muncitoare . In July 1940, Roller, having narrowly escaped re-arrest by the Romanian authorities, left for Bessarabia, which had been recently occupied by the Soviets . He was for a while at Reni , in the Ukrainian SSR . Roller subsequently moved to the Moldavian SSR , at Chișinău , where he began working for
26250-403: The working class" ( Marx , Engels , Lenin and Stalin), while Russian-language education began in 4th grade and continued through the third year of university. As a means of solidifying his control over Romanian historiography, Roller promoted his supporters at the academy's history institutes, especially the Bucharest branch , headed from 1953 by Victor Cheresteșiu and his deputy Aurel Roman. He
26425-409: The writings of Stalin, the "Short Course" History of the Soviet Communist Party , the decisions of the PMR's central committee and the writings and speeches of Gheorghiu-Dej. In the early years of the regime, scholars often imbued their work with an ideological tint by quoting Stalin or, to a lesser degree, Lenin. Taking their cue from a 1946 speech by Andrei Zhdanov , Răutu and Roller sought to replace
26600-460: Was "a sellout to Anglo-American imperialism". Roller's ideas on class struggle in Roman Dacia imposed the term " free Dacians " into the archaeological nomenclature. The name implicitly distinguished between Dacians in Roman territory, who were "unfree", and those roaming further east. Roller instructed that "we must mercilessly unmask the enemies of science and the lackeys of the former bourgeois-landowning regime". Nevertheless, archaeology did become
26775-565: Was a rabbi , though some sources identify him as a functionary. The boy completed his secondary education in Bacău , and soon became a sympathizer of far left causes. The date of his affiliation with the banned Romanian Communist Party (PCdR), later Workers' Party (PMR), remains disputed. The formerly communist writer Mihai Stoian gives 1926, noting that it coincided with a strike action in Buhuși. Other sources suggest that he only joined in 1931. Historian Lucian Boia writes that Roller, like other communist men of his generation, could not have been
26950-418: Was a sacrificial offering by Leonte Răutu, who survived the "unmasking" period and was still a culture boss under the national communism of the 1960s . Gheorghiu-Dej's successor Ceaușescu allowed young authors— Ileana Vrancea , Ion Cristoiu —or senior figures— Iorgu Iordan —, to publish works critical of the Zhdanov Doctrine. Although these mentioned Roller by name, Răutu was entirely exempt. Iordan calls Roller
27125-432: Was again united under Decebalus around 85 AD. He resisted the Romans for decades, but the Roman army defeated his troops in 106 AD. Emperor Trajan transformed Banat , Oltenia , and the greater part of Transylvania into a new province called Roman Dacia , but Dacian and Sarmatian tribes continued to dominate the lands along the Roman frontiers. The Romans pursued an organised colonisation policy, and
27300-418: Was already designated the PCdR historian, and promised an official post in the event of a communist takeover. Such historiographic ambitions prompt historian Adrian Cioroianu to call Roller a "fantasizer" in the field. According to political scientist Vladimir Tismăneanu , Roller was also one of the Jewish and Bessarabian "déclassés" who gained top PCdR positions in the Chișinevschi–Răutu faction, and in fact
27475-421: Was banned and all copies on sale ordered confiscated. A note from that October indicates that Roller was planning a new work about the 1920 general strike , to be financed by the party. As Roller reports, the work was published, albeit "massacred by censorship", then taken out of circulation entirely. The same year, he issued another concise tract, Contribuție la istoria socială a României ("A Contribution to
27650-400: Was berating for issuing field reports that were purely technical rather than ideologically shaded, concluding that "they do not seek to shed light, using scientific concepts, on the problems of the ancient history of the Romanian People's Republic". Condurachi was singled out for not using his report to attack Scarlat Lambrino , the previous head excavator at Histria, who as an exile in the West
27825-405: Was dispatched to his native region of Western Moldavia . Roller himself recalled having then served as regional secretary for Oltenia in March–April 1934 and July 1934–May 1935. He was again arrested in 1934 and 1938, although never sentenced due to lack of evidence. According to PCdR documents, between his arrests Roller negotiated popular front alliances with other socialist groups: in 1934, he
28000-450: Was elected president, in 2000 Iliescu returned to power, while Traian Băsescu was elected in 2004 and narrowly re-elected in 2009. In 2009, the country was bailed out by the International Monetary Fund as an aftershock of the Great Recession in Europe . In November 2014, Sibiu former FDGR/DFDR mayor Klaus Iohannis was elected president, unexpectedly defeating former Prime Minister Victor Ponta , who had been previously leading in
28175-463: Was formed in the country in 2002, inspired by similar institutions in Belgium , Norway and Spain . Since 2014, Romania launched an anti-corruption effort that led to the prosecution of medium- and high-level political, judicial and administrative offenses by the National Anticorruption Directorate . After the end of the Cold War , Romania developed closer ties with Western Europe and the United States, eventually joining NATO in 2004, and hosting
28350-462: Was himself supported by a number of young researchers whom he had promoted and sent to study in the Soviet Union. He focused keenly on introducing ideology into higher education and party control over universities, and his general duties included supervision over science as a whole, not only history. His functions and execution of party orders meant that Roller essentially controlled all the historiography produced between 1948 and 1955. His words indicated
28525-435: Was in the interest of imperialism abroad, and of the exploiting classes within, that the history of the people and its struggles become public." This process, he proposed, was reversible. However, political propaganda was still Roller's main task at that early a stage; for instance, he authored a series of articles in Scînteia meant to combat the National Peasants' Party prior to the 1946 election . His editorials in
28700-399: Was killed. On June 4, 1934, he was sentenced by the First Corps court-martial under the law to combat crimes against public order to twelve years' imprisonment, which he served in prisons in Jilava , Văcărești , and Craiova . After Vasilichi managed to escape in January 1935 alongside a group of fellow communists, he emigrated to the Soviet Union and took part in the Spanish Civil War as
28875-503: Was lavished with praise, the contributions of Slavs in Romanian history being highlighted, from the migratory period to the medieval period , to the War of Independence and the present. The very origin of the Romanians was narrated differently than before: Roller himself concluded that the influence of Slavic polities— Danube Bulgaria , Kievan Rus' , Halych —was fundamental in shaping the lives of early Romanians. Classical Western values were attacked, more violently in later editions as
29050-442: Was not written from scratch by Roller and his collaborators, but rather used documents from the PCR's period of illegality, especially the theses adopted by the fifth party congress held near Moscow in 1931. These criticized the 1859 union, the 1918 union , the constitutional government, democratic reforms, the monarchy, parliamentarism, the activity of the historic parties' leaders and foreign policy, with all these criticisms entering
29225-491: Was one of several " antifascist committee" members who carried out fusion talks with the Unitary Socialist Party (PSU) of Constantin Popovici . Roller, who also supervised the creation of workers' antifascist sections in Bucharest in September 1934, is mentioned as one of the PCdR and PSU activists who signed a formal protest against "the numerous abusive and illegal acts perpetrated by the organs of repression". In May–October 1935, he served as chief ideological instructor for
29400-409: Was one of the most long-lasting and strongest in the Eastern Bloc. A 2006 commission estimated the number of direct victims of the Communist repression at two million people. In 1965, Nicolae Ceaușescu came to power and started to conduct the country's foreign policy more independently from the Soviet Union. Thus, communist Romania was the only Warsaw Pact country which refused to participate in
29575-525: Was retrospectively defined as a "traitor" and "carrier of the bourgeois ideology". Criticism from Romanian and especially Soviet historians, acting on instructions from the Kremlin, found the text insufficiently Marxist-Leninist. In 1950, one Soviet took issue with the way the Transylvanian School was presented, considering that its Latinist orientation made it a "vassal of the Papacy" and charging it with chauvinism against Slavs and Hungarians . A Soviet delegation that visited Romania in 1949 ended by criticizing
29750-398: Was the first Dacian ruler to unite the local tribes. He also conquered the Greek colonies in Dobruja and the neighbouring peoples as far as the Middle Danube and the Balkan Mountains between around 55 and 44 BC. After Burebista was murdered in 44 BC, his kingdom collapsed. The Romans reached Dacia during Burebista's reign and conquered Dobruja in 46 AD. Dacia
29925-426: Was the only Romanian native teaching prisoners of war at Krasnogorsk 's Central Antifascist School. While here, he suggested employing Alexandru Bârlădeanu and Haia Grinberg to assist him with specialized classes. Following the coup of summer 1944 , Roller, using his Soviet ideological training to his advantage, could join the party's propaganda structures. In 1945 he became deputy head of science and education at
30100-416: Was the pre-communist historiography, which he accused of falsifying the role of the working class and of the masses more broadly. He reiterated that pre-communist historians served the "bourgeois-landowning" regimes dominated by "foreign imperialists", who wished the Romanian people to remain ignorant of their history so they could more easily be exploited. The rise of Roller coincided with a concerted effort by
30275-454: Was treated by Roller and other Marxist-Leninists as an "imperialist war". Romania's participation was therefore an "imperialist action", as were the occupation of Bessarabia and the intervention in Hungary . The official view of Romanian history that these ideas represented was developed by Agitprop activists and the PMR's own History Institute, later becoming dogma when approved by party plenaries and congresses. Authoritative texts included
30450-412: Was ultimately obtained. Other historians, after their release from prison, also asked Roller for help to start working again. One particular area into which Roller injected communist ideology was Romanian archaeology . He shifted the emphasis from Roman Dacia to pre- and post-Roman periods, reflecting Marx' and Engels' view of the Roman Empire as supremely exploitative. He also adapted Stalin's remarks on
30625-431: Was working against the Romanians. Despite such widespread condemnation of his theories, Roller's terminology was not entirely expunged from later Romanian research works. As noted in 1998 by archaeologist Petre Diaconu, the "meaningless and pernicious" concept of " free Dacians " has been taken for granted by numerous scientists in the field. Romania – in Europe (green & dark grey) – in
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