Romanian History-Writing and The Third Envelope

by Wim Van Meurs,

Due to the subservience to the previous regime, many professional historians were considered untrustworthy and discredited as interpreters of past and present in the former eastern communist countries. Their evolution after glasnost and perestroika contained some important steps. First, they challenged the communist political taboos under glasnost’ and deconstructed the communist political myths and historical synthesis. Second, they restituted the national pre-communist history as well as the popularization of national traditions and heroes. Third, in most countries, the mid-1990s witnessed first attempts to counter the dominant trend of national history by re-integrating the communist past as an integral part rather than a historical aberration. In Romania some scholars turned politicians and the others focused on national democratic development in place, before communism took over. The recommendation is for “professionalism and openness”.

published in Vol 3 - No 1 - 2003 // Reinventing Social Sciences
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Advisory Board

  • Alina Mungiu-Pippidi (chair) Hertie School of Governance
  • Larry Diamond Stanford University
  • Tom Gallagher University of Bradford
  • Alena Ledeneva University College London
  • Michael McFaul Stanford University
  • Dennis Deletant Georgetown University
  • Helen Wallace London School of Economics and Political Science

Editorial Board

  • Claudiu Tufiș
  • Bogdan Iancu
  • George Jiglau
  • Ingi Iusmen
  • Gabriel Bădescu
  • Andrei Macsut
  • Laura Voinea

Published by:

Societatea Academica Romana