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Among the strategies followed by far right groups for normalising their messages of intolerance in contemporary Europe, sites of memory play a pivotal role. Adopting an actor-centred and instrumentalist perspective of memory work and memory politics, the article considers sites of memory as products of the framing and staging of the past by the memory entrepreneurs, leading figures within the community of remembrance who, mastering the art of memorialisation, strive to establish their revisionist history within the state-endorsed memory politics. The far right memory entrepreneurs spatialise their memory work in sites of memory that downplay the history of violence of their group and present its heroic and patriotic side. The degree of success in contesting such sites shows whether the memory entrepreneurs have succeeded in normalising their messages. The article analyses the making and the contestation of a site of memory established by the far right in post-communist in Romania.

Este artículo tiene como objetivo el análisis de la relación entre la historia y el poder político en la Rumania comunista durante el gobierno de Nicolae Ceauşescu. La sección de apertura del artículo tiene como objetivo explicar cómo la historiografía rumana fue sustituida por una versión pro-soviética y pro-estalinista, con el objetivo de proclamar la superioridad de la Unión Soviética y del comunismo. En segundo lugar, la primera sección muestra el delicado paso entre el estalinismo y el comunismo nacional. Como explica la primera sección, el liderazgo rumano entendió que eliminar la dependencia de Moscú era esencial para garantizar la estabilidad interna. Por esta razón, tuvo que crearse una legitimidad genuina al reeditar la ideología nacional rechazada en 1948. La historia nacional recuperó su importancia primordial dentro de la cultura rumana, esta vez al servicio de la élite estalinista y al lado de los símbolos marxista-leninistas. La segunda sección tiene como objetivo mostrar el desarrollo del nuevo canon comunista nacional después de 1965, una vez que Nicolae Ceauşescu asumió el poder. La segunda sección presenta las principales tendencias desarrolladas por la historiografía rumana para inspirar lealtad al Partido Comunista Rumano. Como muestra el artículo, a principios de los años ochenta, el nacionalismo y el culto del líder se convirtieron en las principales tendencias de esta metanarrativa histórica. El epílogo señala brevemente las continuidades y los cambios producidos para la historiografía rumana por el cambio de régimen de 1989. This article aims to analyse the relationship between history and political power in communist Romania during the rule of Nicolae Ceauşescu. The article’s opening section explains how Romanian historiography was substituted by a pro-Soviet and pro-Stalinist version which proclaimed the superiority of the Soviet Union and of communism; secondly, the section illustrates the delicate passage between Stalinism and national communism. As the section shows, Party Secretary Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej understood that autonomy from Moscow was essential in order to guarantee the internal stability of the Romanian communist élite. For this reason, genuine legitimacy had to be created by reissuing the national ideology dismissed since 1948. National history was given back its primary importance within Romanian culture, this time in service of the Stalinist élite, sided with more traditional Marxist-Leninist tenets, symbols and narratives. The second section illustrates the development of the new national-communist canon after 1965, once Nicolae Ceauşescu took power. The section presents the main trends developed by Romanian historiography in order to inspire loyalty to the Romanian Communist Party. As the article shows, by the early eighties, nationalism and the cult of the leader had become the main trends of this metanarrative. The epilogue briefly points out the continuities and changes produced by the regime change in 1989 for Romanian historiography.Keywords: Historiography; Stalinism; Romania; national communism; politics and history. From the Dossier "New Perspectives on Contemporary Romania: From Dictatorial Pasts to a European Future", edited by Dragoș Petrescu (Cuadernos De Historia Contemporánea, Vol. 42/2020).

The article sheds light on the significant fundraising and relief activities for Ireland during the Great Famine (1845–50) initiated in 1847 by the Italian philosopher and cleric Antonio Rosmini and his network in Savoy-Piedmont, Lombardy-Venetia and England. By analysing Rosmini's philosophical and political writings, the article demonstrates that Rosmini considered aid in times of crisis as an act of social justice for which individuals have to take responsibility. By analysing documents from the Italian and Irish archives, the article gives an account of the fundraising effort's practices of networking, appealing, almsgiving and delivery.

This article analyses the participation of individuals, networks and international organizations in transnational fundraising aimed at providing humanitarian relief aid. Focusing on fundraising cam...

This article analyses the memorialization of Ion Moţa and Vasile Marin, two Romanian Legionary movement volunteers who died while fighting for Franco in the Spanish Civil War, as an entangled history of Romanian and Spanish fascisms. The commemoration practices and narratives recounted in the Spanish and Romanian newspapers and archival sources from the period 1937–41 show that commemorating foreign ideological peers and appropriating symbolic elements of foreign fascisms in order to memorialize fallen comrades served as resources for legitimizing the struggle against domestic competitors. Although the totalitarian ambitions of Spanish and Romanian fascists remained unfulfilled, the Spanish-Romanian entanglement contributed to consolidating Moţa and Marin as martyrs of transnational fascism.

Riassunto Nel marzo 1847, Papa Pio IX emanò l’Enciclica „Praedecessores Nostros“, un appello rivolto ai prelati di tutto il mondo affinché organizzassero tre giorni di preghiere e di raccolta di offerte a favore dell’Irlanda colpita dalla carestia. Negli stati italiani, le parole del Papa furono comunicate ai fedeli dai vescovi, che emanarono appelli locali. L’invito era di seguire l’esempio del Papa, il cui contributo personale, risalente ai mesi precedenti, aveva avuto vasta eco sui quotidiani della penisola. Con l’ausilio di un corpus di venticinque appelli scritti dai vescovi sull’impulso dell’Enciclica, l’articolo analizza la riproduzione di un appello umanitario globale negli stati italiani. L’articolo contestualizza la distribuzione della „Praedecessores Nostros“ e degli appelli dei vescovi nella storia politica e culturale nei territori italiani e mappa l’impatto della censura su questa iniziativa caritatevole. In secondo luogo, un’analisi testuale mostra gli elementi narrativi, le risorse metadiscorsive, le parole chiave e i riferimenti biblici e patristici che costituivano la specifica economia morale attraverso la quale i vescovi invitavano a donare a livello locale.

Ceausescu si poporul: scrisori catre ‘iubitul conducator’ (1965–1989) [Ceausescu and the People: Letters for the ‘Beloved Leader’ (1965–1989)] : by Mioara Anton, Târgoviste, Cetatea de Scaun, 2016,396 pp., RON 36.00 (paperback), ISBN 9786065373501

Per oltre quarant’anni, la scrittura della storia nei paesi dell’Europa orientaleè stata fortemente condizionata dagli imperativi ideologici e propagandisticidei regimi comunisti. La storia, più di ogni altra disciplina umanistica, offrivagiustifi cazioni, e quindi legittimità, al potere. Indagare il rapporto tra storia epotere in questo ambito signifi ca tanto addentrarsi nella storia dei socialismireali e dei loro obiettivi – strategie, tattiche, tra rotture con il passato e continuità– quanto approfondire il rapporto che storici ed istituzioni di ricercaintrattenevano con la politica.I saggi presentati in questo volume si concentrano su alcuni aspetti cruciali delrapporto tra Clio e dittature comuniste, dal signifi cato del mestiere di storicoall’interno di realtà che spingevano a cercare accomodamenti e compromessicon il regime – pena la marginalizzazione o la persecuzione –, all’analisidell’interazione delle storiografi e e della loro evoluzione in relazione ai rispettivicontesti istituzionali, all’uso pubblico della storia e dei miti storici da partedei regimi comunisti.

Cadra Peterson McDaniel's monograph presents the 1959 Bolshoi Ballet's American Tour as one of the propaganda tools designed by the Soviet Union in order to showcase Soviet superiority to the Ameri...

Have the Mountains Fallen? is a breath-taking biography of two prominent Kyrgyz intellectuals, Azamat Altay (1920-2006) and Chinghiz Aitmatov (1928-2008). During the blocs’ confrontation, the two i...

This article examines a case study of international Communist propaganda during the Cold War. The Institute of Historical and Socio-Political Research (ISISP), a historical propaganda organization ...

Secret police files from the Eastern bloc. Between surveillance and life writing, edited by Valentina Glajar, Alison Lewis and Corina L. Petrescu