Communist Terror in Romania: Gheorgiu-Dej and the Police State, 1948-1965 by Dennis s> Deletant (review)

Abstract

i i6 SEER, 82, I, 2004 wonder whether there are not more points of potential contact and dialogue between these two main approachesto Stalinism. In conclusion, thiswell-researchedbook deservesa wide readershipamong both scholarsand studentsof Soviet historyand culture. School ofSlavonic andEast EuropeanStudies SUSANMORRISSEY University College London Deletant, Dennis. Communist Terror inRomania.Gheorgiu-Dej andthePoliceState, I948-I965. Hurst & Company,London, 1999. xii+ 351 pp. Notes. Appendices. Bibliography.Index. [39.50. WHEN Dennis Deletant's book was published in i999, it was a pioneering effort in making available to an English-speaking audience a study of the workingsof the CommunistPartyunderGheorgheGheorgiu-Dejthatisbased on archivaland recentlypublishedmaterialsavailableup to thatpoint only in Romanian. This study is a welcome addition to the growing body of scholarship on the Stalinist period in the Soviet bloc at large. The sheer amount of detailedinformationaboutvariouspersonageswho were important in the Romanian Communist regime of thisperiod and the number of sources consulted and cited by the author attest to the seriousnessand usefulnessof this study. Yet there are many questions raisedby both the claims and the arguments presentedin thisbook, which renderit at best a good startingpoint fora great deal more research and analysis on the topic, rather than a magisterial, comprehensive and solid analysis of the developments followed throughout the book. One of the importantquestionsof this studyis the significanceof the Soviet Union in the shaping of the Romanian Communist Partyand, in particular, of its strategiesand policies in the firstyears after the take-over. The author spends a good part of the firstfour chapters on this issue. There are many pieces of the puzzle presented here, which strongly suggest the essential significanceof the Soviet Union in the process. But the evidence presentedby Deletant comes almost entirely from materials he was shown by three Romanian scholars who have done research on this subject and also from published materials. Regardless of the quality of the individual documents seen by the author,thistype of researchseems sketchyat best. How could one even attempt to answer the question of the relationship between Dej and Stalin, for instance, without spendingsome time in the Moscow archives?Yet somehow this is not a question the author even attemptsto engage, seemingly satisfiedwith the pre-selectionof documents made by the Romanian scholars. One of the new insightspresentedby thisbook concerns the persecution of the Church in the earlyyears of the Communist regime in chapterfive. Quite a bit has been written on the matter, but there are, indeed, important new documents which help bring to life the extent and specific forms of the Communist terror in this area of public life. The most important source for Deletant seems to be Cartea albad a Securitdpii, a collection of documents from the Secret Police archivespublished in 1994-95. Unfortunately, although he REVIEWS 117 did make use of one oral history source, an interview with FatherTertullian Langa, the Vicar General of the ClujDiocese of the Uniate Church, Deletant did not tap into other importantsimilarsources.The Theological Instituteof the Uniate Church in Clujhas a rich archiveof autobiographicalwritingsand oralhistoryinterviews,partof a massiveprojectto document the underground life of this Church. In I996, when I firstvisited this Institute, the collection alreadycontained over fiftysuch narratives. There are other questions raised by Deletant's definition of 'the church' and its role in society. At one point, possibly with an eye of the role of the Catholic Church in Communist Poland, the author hints that the Orthodox Church might have helped the creation of civil society. Yet there are no examples of Orthodox Churchesanywherein EasternEurope contributingto the creation of civil society before or since the Communist period. Only in Transylvania before I9I8 can one speak of some educational and cultural activities by the Orthodox Church linked to the cultivation of a civic space, yet even those activities were rather small in scale and do not suggest a strong likelihood of similar endeavours under the Communist regime. M\ore troubling is the almost exclusive focus on ethnic Romanian Churches. The author discusses briefly the persecution of the Roman Catholic Church, pointing out that its better treatment was linked to ethnicity. In this case, the majority of the followers were ethnic Hungarians, and Deletant offers as an explanation for relatively better treatment of Catholics the need 'to avoid actions which...