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"A penetrating and insightful ‘deconstruction’ of a highly idiosyncratic offspring of the Stalinist era."—Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor, and author of The Grand Chessboard
"This is the definitive work on Romanian communism, a thoroughly documented and highly readable history, starting with the underground Romanian Communist Party of the l920s and then through the creation of a Stalinist Soviet satellite state in the 1940s and finally to the post-Stalin regime of Gheorghiu-Dej and the militantly Stalinist anti-reform regime of Ceausescu and its violent demise in l989."—Robert C. Tucker, author of Stalin in Power: The Revolution from Above, 1928-1941
"This superb work of scholarship reads like a thriller. Professor Tismaneanu’s familiarity with the intricacies of the Stalinist mind, his knowledge of the shadowy players, and his access to never-before studied secret archives, make this book much more than a study of Romanian communism. This is a passionate exploration of the mechanisms of the totalitarian mind and a tragic epic of the corruption of idealism by ruthless power. The Cold War may be over, but the conflicts engagingly narrated here hold universal and timely truths."—Andrei Codrescu, NPR commentator and author of it was today: new poems
"Tismaneanu does more than analytically dissect the Romanian Communist Party’s political odyssey. He inspects and detects its peculiar ethos: the social, psychological, experimental dimensions and political expressions of its pariah self-conception."—Ken Jowitt, author of New World Disorder: The Leninist Extinction
Inhaltsverzeichnis
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Why a History of Romanian Communism?
1. Understanding National Stalinism: Legacies of Ceausescu’s Socialism
2. A Messianic Sect: The Underground Romanian Communist Party, 1921–1944
3. The Road to Absolute Power: From Quasi-Monarchy to People’s Democracy, 1944–1948
4. Stalinism Unbound, 1948–1956
5. Aftershocks of the the CPSU’s Twentieth Congress, 1957–1960
6. Opposing Khrushchevism: Gheorghiu-Dej and the Emergence of National Communism, 1960–1965
7. Ceausescu’s Dynastic Communism, 1965–1989
Epilogue: The RCP’s Afterlife: Where Did All The Members Go? 1989–2000
Appendix: The Romanian Communist Party’s Leadership: A Biographical Roster
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
Über den Autor / die Autorin
Vladimir Tismaneanu is Professor of Politics at the University of Maryland, College Park; Director of the university's Center for the Study of Post-Communist Societies; and editor of the journal East European Politics and Societies. He is the author of and editor of numerous books, including Reinventing Politics: Eastern Europe from Stalin to Havel and Fantasies of Salvation: Nationalism, Democracy, and Myth in Post-Communist Europe.
Zusammenfassung
Presents history of the Romanian Communist Party. This title traces the origins of the once-tiny, clandestine revolutionary organization in the 1920s through the years of national power from 1944 to 1989 to the post-1989 metamorphoses of its members.
