Romanian RFE Editors Fighting 'Totalitarianism' after Stalinism: Outdatedness or Insightfulness?

• In Event: From Liberation to Liberty: Politics and Values on the Airwaves at RFE/ RL

Abstract

This paper investigates the RFE broadcasts from Paris of two Romanian editors, recently eulogized as distinguished anti-communist fighters and set in bronze (as statues) by relevant civil society groups in Romania. Sacralized by the liberal conservative intelligentsia or dismissed by leftist activists, they remain still unknown in what they concretely argued within their RFE broadcasts, from the 60s till the early 90s. My paper will give a brief overview of the conditions of their knowledge production, will delve into their values and theoretical references, and will reflect on the subsequent content of their discourses, by interlinking their idea of "truth-seeking" with the situation in a country that had a chaotic and unfinished de-Stalinization.

Author

• Ioana Macrea-Toma, Open Society Archives / Central European U (Hungary)