Mânia și greața

Chiar dacă aș avea nervi de oțel și tot n-aș putea citi fără un sentiment de abisal, nevrozant dezgust despre “patriotismul” securistului en titre care a fost Iulian Vlad. Marx a scris cândva că omenirea se desparte de trecutul ei râzând. In cazul de față, ne despărțim cu o infinită, irepresibilă și pe deplin justificată mânie in raport cu un criminal și cu apologeții săi. Dublată de o apăsătoare și cât se poate de legitimă greață…

In memoriam Virgil Ierunca

Why does Virgil Ierunca matter? Because in times of dishonesty and cowardice, he was honest and courageous. Because in times of capitulation, he refused to tremble, to waver, and to bow. Because he had a hierarchy of values which has turned out to have been the right one. He passed away on September 28, 2006. He was a member of the Presidential Commission for the Analysis of the Cmmunist Dictatorship in Romania. Together with his wife and closest friend, Monica Lovinescu, he was the voice of hour hope. Whenever people tell me that we did not have a Milosz, a Camus, or a Havel, I respond that they are wrong. We had Monica and Virgil. Blessed be their memory and may we live up to their legacies!

Totalitarian brotherhood in action…

September 17, 1939: Every word in Vyacheslav Molotov’s infamous speech on that day was a shameless, blatant, egregious lie: “Events arising out of the Polish-German War have revealed the internal insolvency and obvious impotence of the Polish state. Polish ruling circles have suffered bankruptcy… Warsaw as the capital of the Polish state no longer exists. No one knows the whereabouts of the Polish Government. The population of Poland have… been abandoned by their ill-starred leaders to their fate. The Polish State and its Government have virtually ceased to exist. In view of this state of affairs, treaties concluded between the Soviet Union and Poland have ceased to operate. A situation has arisen in Poland which demands of the Soviet Government special concern for the security of its State. Poland has become a fertile field for any accidental and unexpected contingency that may create a menace for the Soviet Union…Nor can it be demanded of the Soviet Government that it remain indifferent to the fate of its Blood Brothers, the Ukrainians and White Russians inhabiting Poland, who even formerly were nations without rights and who now have been utterly abandoned to their fate. The Soviet Government deems it its sacred duty to extend the hand of assistance to its brother Ukrainians and White Russians inhabiting Poland.” Extracts from Molotov’s broadcast speech on the Soviet invasion of Poland (17 September 1939) Mirovoe Khoziaistvo, 1939, 9, p. 13. In Soviet Documents on Foreign Policy. Volume I: 1917-1941. Jane Tabrisky Degras (ed.) 1953, Oxford University Press. Pages 374-5

In Memoriam Vicky Leorda (1941-1917)

She was born on November 26, 1941 in Kuybyshev, USSR and passed away on September 13, 2017 in Jerusalem, Israel. She was my older sister and a very close friend. Blessed be her luminous memory…

Faith, Hope, Love: Roses by Vincent Van Gogh (1890) at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, September 2017

 

Miami, mon amour…

We got married in Miami, Mary and I, in November 1991. It was a beautiful, sunny day. At the dinner, in the Intercontinental Hotel, our friend William McPherson, blessed be his memory, offered us a gorgeous champagne. We were there to attend the ASEEES (then AAASS) convention. We were happy in Miami. And we’ve been happy ever since. May God protect Miami and the whole state of Florida…

Image: The Palmetto Expressway in Miami on Saturday as Hurricane Irma approached. Credit Scott McIntyre for The New York Times

 

Meanings of the twentieth century…

Understanding the twentieth century is mandatory for grasping the meanings of the twenty-first: Special thanks to Krisztina Kós and Central European University Press. It’s been a wonderful collaboration and I look very much forward into the next projects. These volumes owe a lot to the conferences organized in Washington, DC by the Romanian Cultural Institute and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars with support from the University of Maryland, Georgetown University and the Embassy of Romania (2007-2012).

 

 

 

 

Secolul lui Lenin…

The twentieth century was dominated by Lenin’s institutionalized inventions: vanguard party, agitation and propaganda (Agitprop), secret police (Cheka), censorship (Glavlit), central state planning (Gosplan), state controlled unions (Profsoyuz), Communist Youth Union (Komsomol), Communist International (Comintern), Political Bureau (Politburo), collective farms (kolkhoz), concentration camps (Gulag) etc The precondition for all these to operate was the moral blindness and the absolute commitment of the party cadres to the sacralized cause. Lenin’s officers were professional revolutionaries, they dedicated their lives to the Party 24 hours a day, 365 days a year…

Zoe Petre RIP…

Cred că pot spune că am cunoscut-o bine. Am fost oaspetele ei in repetate rânduri, m-a invitat să mă intâlnesc cu studentii de la Istorie pe vremea când, imediat dupa revolutie, devenise decan. Dincolo de divergente legate de perceperea unei personalităti ori a alteia, vedeam lumea post-comunistă in chip similar (nu identic). N-am făcut parte din cercul amicilor lui Emil Constantinescu, dar am rămas apropiat de Zoe, eram prieteni de familie. Zoe a fost devotat…ă celui căruia ii fusese consilieră. Cred că il privea ca pe un ucenic, a preferat să inchidă ochii in raport cu stupefianta-i mediocritate. In răspăr cu multi dintre colegii ei politici, Zoe Petre a scris elogios despre Raportul Final al Comisiei Prezidentiale pentru Analiza Dictaturii Comuniste din România: “Raportul este cea mai consistentă contributie de până acum la istoria celor aproape 50 de ani de dictatură comunistă din trecutul apropiat al României”. (“Ziua”, 5 ianuarie 2007, text preluat, cu acordul ei, pe coperta a patra a editiei Humanitas). A venit anul 2012, Zoe a sustinut puciul parlamentar, s-a situat, cu arme si bagaje, in tabara uselistă. Nu ne-am mai revăzut. Mi-a fost dat să privesc uluit câteva emisiuni anteniste in care apărea alături de personaje abominabile. Aflu acum, cu tristete, că s-a stins din viată. A fost o adevarată profesoara, o persoană de o rară eruditie si un om generos. Să se odihnească in pace…