Law and the Collective Memory of Communism in Romania: The Ursu Case

• In Event: Contesting the Memory of Romanian Communism: Gender, Ethnicity, and Law in Post-Communist Mnemonic Struggles

Abstract

In July 2023, Romania’s High Court of Cassation and Justice exonerated two former Securitate officers from charges of inhumane treatment against Gheorghe Ursu, a critic of the communist regime, who died in prison in 1985. In its reasoning, the Court distinguished between the regime’s totalitarian period (1948–1964) and its normalizing period (1964–1989), with the latter no longer characterized by systematic repression. This paper analyzes the decision in the context of landmark post-1989 trial outcomes regarding the abuses of the communist regime in Romania, some of which have held perpetrators accountable. Trials fulfill multiple roles from a transitional justice perspective, from providing justice to revealing historical truth and constructing collective memory. I argue that court decisions judging communism in Romania contribute to the construction of a hegemonic memory regime that downplays the repressiveness of late communism, redefines totalitarianism, and ultimately normalizes late communism and its most feared component, the secret police (Securitate). Romania’s attempts to put communism on trial illustrate law’s function as mnemonic infrastructure, specifically the way it shapes collective memory through processes, institutions, and procedures, separately from legislating substantive memory content. The memory work done in and through law, the legal mobilization of memory, and the deliberative and structured collective memory construction through legal processes contribute to the democratization of collective memory in the long term. Even in the short term, the state and its official self-exculpatory memory regime are now on the defensive, with the counter-counter-memory of communism having the upper moral hand.

Author

• Mihaela Serban, Ramapo College of New Jersey