Socialist realism in Romania
Encyclopedia
After World War II
, socialist realism
on the Soviet
model was imposed on the USSR's new satellites, including Romania
. This was accompanied by a series of organisational and repressive moves, for instance the incarceration of numerous poets (some of whom had had links to the Iron Guard
). Cultural Stalinism
, between 1948 and 1956, broke down Romania's pre-existing system of values and corresponding cultural institutions in an attempt to create a "new man
". As in the political and economic spheres, cultural Stalinism was forcibly imposed, intellectuals' links with the West
were completely severed, and the Romanian Academy
and long-standing professional organisations such as the Society of Romanian Writers or the Society of Romanian Composers were dissolved and replaced with new ones, from which members inconvenient to the new regime were purged. In 1948 a catalogue 522 pages long was printed, encompassing some 8,000 banned books and magazines, which were removed from public libraries and school textbooks. Certain authors' works were banned entirely, including those of Octavian Goga
, Nichifor Crainic
and Mircea Vulcănescu
. Western authors on the banned list included Plato
, Spinoza
, Nietzsche
, Bergson
, Poe
and Gide
.
. Titled "The Poetry of Putrefaction or the Putrefaction of Poetry", they dealt with the poetic works of Tudor Arghezi
. The language used was extremely harsh and marked a complete break with interwar values: "With a foul-smelling vocabulary [...], Arghezi does in poetry only what Picasso did in painting, introducing excrement as artistic material... One finds bits of real beauty here and there in Arghezi's poetry." In 1950, the Mihai Eminescu School of Literature was founded, with the aim of forming a new generation of writers in the Romanian People's Republic
. In an article published in Viaţa Românească (nr. 3 of 1951), Mihai Beniuc
, a member of the Writers' Union of Romania
, offered a definition of the socialist-realist poet: "He must be a philosopher familiar with the most profound ideas of the age [...], toward which Marx
, Engels
, Lenin
and Stalin
opened the way [...], and an activist in service of those ideas."
Newly-appeared literary critics, guided by Leonte Răutu, published studies in the spirit of the socialist-realist doctrine. These included Ovid S. Crohmălniceanu—Un roman al industrializării socialiste ("A Novel of Socialist Industrialization"), Silvian Iosifescu—Pe drumul înfloririi gospodăriei agricole colective ("On the Road to the Flowering of the Administration of Collective Agriculture"), Mihai Gafiţa—Romanul luptei tractoriştilor ("The Novel of the Tractor-Drivers' Struggle"), Nestor Ignat
—O carte despre frumuseţea vieţii noi ("A Book about the Beauty of the New Life"), Mihai Novicov—Pe marginea poeziei lui Dan Deşliu ("On the Margin of the Poetry of Dan Deşliu"), Traian Şelmaru—Mitrea Cocor de Mihail Sadoveanu ("Mitrea Cocor by Mihail Sadoveanu") and Ion Vitner—Poezia lui A. Toma ("The Poetry of A. Toma").
, later judged a mediocre poet, was proclaimed the greatest Romanian poet alive. With verses like "imperialist american/cădea-ţi-ar bomba în ocean" ("American
imperialist
/Would that your bomb fell into the ocean"), A. Toma was an official model for Romanian poets until his death in 1954.
Other important representatives of socialist-realist poetry, who transformed slogans of the Romanian Communist Party
into their own verses, included:
Other poets who practiced the style include: Eugen Frunză, Miron Radu Paraschivescu, Nina Cassian
(An viu, nouă sute şi şaptesprezece — "Living Year, Nine Hundred and Seventeen), Ion Brad (Cincisutistul — "The Five Hundredist"), Veronica Porumbacu (Tovarăşul Matei a primit Ordinul Muncii — "Comrade Matei Has Received the Order of Labour"), Maria Banuş (Ţie-ţi vorbesc, Americă! — "I Am Speaking to You, America!"), Ştefan Iureş (Ucenicul Partidului — "The Disciple of the Party"), Virgil Teodorescu and Mihu Dragomir.
Another characteristic of socialist realism was the necessity of a positive hero. Apparently, Ion Luca Caragiale
's O scrisoare pierdută could not be staged due to the absence of such a hero.
Bucharest's Casa Scînteii
is a signature example of a socialist-realist building in Romania.
. There, promising young artists such as Ion Biţan, Traian Trestioreanu
, Paul Gherasim, Virgil Almăşan and Ştefan Sevastre were obliged to execute works of "visual agitation" and decoration, painting onto huge posters the portraits of the "four teachers" of Marxism-Leninism
and of the heads of party and state in the Romanian People's Republic. As the state was artists' sole patron, through the Plastic Fund, even established artists could not avoid adopting the conventional themes imposed by socialist realism. In spite of the works' banal content, these talented individuals nevertheless managed to produce important works of art. Among them were Camil Ressu
(Semnarea apelului pentru pace — "The Signing of the Peace Appeal"), Alexandru Ciucurencu
(1 Mai — "May 1
", Ana Ipătescu) and Corneliu Baba
(Oţelari — "Steel-workers").
Other socialist-realist painters, with representative works, included:
Theodor Harşia (Şantierul de la Bicaz — "The Bicaz
Construction Site"), Gavril Miklossy (Griviţa, 1933
; Lupeni, 1929
), Spiru Chintilă (Femei înarmate în gărzile patriotice — Women Armed in the Patriotic Guards"), Brăduţ Covaliu (Greva de la Lupeni — "The Lupeni Strike"), Insurecţia armată din 23 August 1944 — "The Armed Insurrection of 23 August 1944"), Constantin Piliuţă (Revoluţonari încarceraţi — "Incarcerated Revolutionaries"), Gheorghe Iacob (Propagandist de partid la sat — "Party Propagandist in the Village"), Coriolan Hora (Sudorii — "The Welders", Recoltarea porumbului — "The Corn Harvest"), Ion Biţan (Recolta — "The Harvest", Victoria — "The Victory"), Gheorghe Şaru (Sudoriţă — "The Female Welder"), Ştefan Szöny (Tipografie clandestină — "Clandestine Typography", Moartea partizanului — "The Death of the Partisan"), Iulia Hălăucescu (Centrala hidroelectrică V.I. Lenin — "The V.I. Lenin Hydroelectric Plant").
Emil Mereanu executed two notable sculptures in the style: a bust of Andrei Zhdanov
for the Ştefan Gheorghiu Academy
and a work called Bucurie ("Joy") in Floreasca Park, Bucharest.
, Ionel Perlea, Stan Golestan, Dinu Lipatti
(dubbed "a fascist who vegetates far from his country"), Tiberiu Brediceanu
and Dimitrie Cuclin
(soon to be arrested). Of George Enescu
's works, only his two Romanian Rhapsodies
were performed; certain composers like Richard Wagner
were no longer played in concert or on the air; religious-themed music was no longer played; while jazz
was labelled an expression of American imperialism, on the same level as chewing gum and Coca-Cola. The head of the Union was Matei Socor (later Director of Radio Transmission and permanent Director of the Symphony Radio Orchestra), who wrote the music for Communist Romania's first two national anthems. These were "Zdrobite cătuşe
" (1948; words by Aurel Baranga) and "Te slăvim, Românie" (1953; words by Eugen Frunză and Dan Deşliu). Composers were called on to write engaged, Party-oriented and revolutionary works. In the report of the constituent session, Socor underlined that "the tasks of the Composers' Union are clear as regards the re-education of certain artists accustomed to bourgeois aestheticizing criteria" and asked for "the imposition of the Party spirit in music". Vocal-symphonic pieces were preferred, for instance the oratorio Tudor Vladimirescu
by Gheorghe Dumitrescu or the cantata for choir and orchestra Se construieşte lumea nouă ("The New World Is Being Built") by George Draga
, as well as revolutionary hymns such as "Îi mulţumim din inimă partidului" ("We Thank Him from the Heart of the Party"), "Hei rup" or "Întreceri. întreceri, ciocane şi seceri" ("Contests, contests, hammers and sickles").
In the light or easy listening categories, hits included "Drag îmi e bădiţa cu tractorul" ("Sweet Little Fellow on a Tractor"), "Macarale, râd în soare argintii" ("Silver Cranes
Laughing in the Sun") and "Hai Leano la vot!" ("Come and Vote, Leana!").
and the consequent beginning of de-Stalinization, socialist realism began to lose its importance, no longer being stringently imposed on the creators of literature and art. Many Romanian and Western authors, their works previously banned, were "reconsidered" and published in critical editions. A new generation of writers, heralded by Nicolae Labiş
but reaching fruition with Nichita Stănescu
and Marin Sorescu
, protested vehemently against ideological dogmatism and called for full artistic liberty. Strictures on literature, plastic arts and music began to loosen in the early 1960s, so long as the core principles of Communism and those in the high ranks of the Party and state were not criticised. However, the trend came to an abrupt halt with the July Theses
of 1971, after which the Ceauşescu
regime began not only to repress dissidents such as Paul Goma
and Mircea Dinescu
, but also to promote its own personality cult reminiscent of socialist-realist days. Manifestations of this reborn trend could be found in painting, architecture (the Palace of the Parliament
), writing (the poems of Corneliu Vadim Tudor
) music (Adrian Păunescu
's Cenaclul Flacăra events) and other areas.
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, socialist realism
Socialist realism
Socialist realism is a style of realistic art which was developed in the Soviet Union and became a dominant style in other communist countries. Socialist realism is a teleologically-oriented style having its purpose the furtherance of the goals of socialism and communism...
on the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
model was imposed on the USSR's new satellites, including Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
. This was accompanied by a series of organisational and repressive moves, for instance the incarceration of numerous poets (some of whom had had links to the Iron Guard
Iron Guard
The Iron Guard is the name most commonly given to a far-right movement and political party in Romania in the period from 1927 into the early part of World War II. The Iron Guard was ultra-nationalist, fascist, anti-communist, and promoted the Orthodox Christian faith...
). Cultural Stalinism
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
, between 1948 and 1956, broke down Romania's pre-existing system of values and corresponding cultural institutions in an attempt to create a "new man
New Soviet man
The New Soviet man or New Soviet person , as postulated by the ideologists of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, was an archetype of a person with certain qualities that were said to be emerging as dominant among all citizens of the Soviet Union, irrespective of the country's cultural,...
". As in the political and economic spheres, cultural Stalinism was forcibly imposed, intellectuals' links with the West
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
were completely severed, and the Romanian Academy
Romanian Academy
The Romanian Academy is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 acting members who are elected for life....
and long-standing professional organisations such as the Society of Romanian Writers or the Society of Romanian Composers were dissolved and replaced with new ones, from which members inconvenient to the new regime were purged. In 1948 a catalogue 522 pages long was printed, encompassing some 8,000 banned books and magazines, which were removed from public libraries and school textbooks. Certain authors' works were banned entirely, including those of Octavian Goga
Octavian Goga
Octavian Goga was a Romanian politician, poet, playwright, journalist, and translator.-Life:Born in Răşinari, nearby Sibiu, he was an active member in the Romanian nationalistic movement in Transylvania and of its leading group, the Romanian National Party in Austria-Hungary. Before World War I,...
, Nichifor Crainic
Nichifor Crainic
Nichifor Crainic was a Romanian writer, editor, philosopher, poet and theologian famed for his traditionalist and antisemitic activities...
and Mircea Vulcănescu
Mircea Vulcanescu
Mircea Vulcănescu was a prominent Romanian philosopher, economist, ethics teacher and sociologist.-Biography:He studied philosophy and law at the University of Bucharest, graduating in 1925...
. Western authors on the banned list included Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
, Spinoza
Baruch Spinoza
Baruch de Spinoza and later Benedict de Spinoza was a Dutch Jewish philosopher. Revealing considerable scientific aptitude, the breadth and importance of Spinoza's work was not fully realized until years after his death...
, Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
, Bergson
Henri Bergson
Henri-Louis Bergson was a major French philosopher, influential especially in the first half of the 20th century. Bergson convinced many thinkers that immediate experience and intuition are more significant than rationalism and science for understanding reality.He was awarded the 1927 Nobel Prize...
, Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
and Gide
André Gide
André Paul Guillaume Gide was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1947. Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the symbolist movement, to the advent of anticolonialism between the two World Wars.Known for his fiction as well as his autobiographical works, Gide...
.
In literature
The symbolic debut of socialist realism in literature, as an official ideology, took place in January 1948, when three articles signed by Sorin Toma were published in ScînteiaScînteia
Scînteia was the name of two newspapers edited by Communist groups at different intervals in Romanian history...
. Titled "The Poetry of Putrefaction or the Putrefaction of Poetry", they dealt with the poetic works of Tudor Arghezi
Tudor Arghezi
Tudor Arghezi was a Romanian writer, best known for his contribution to poetry and children's literature. Born Ion N. Theodorescu in Bucharest , he explained that his pen name was related to Argesis, the Latin name for the Argeş River.-Early life:Along with Mihai Eminescu, Mateiu Caragiale, and...
. The language used was extremely harsh and marked a complete break with interwar values: "With a foul-smelling vocabulary [...], Arghezi does in poetry only what Picasso did in painting, introducing excrement as artistic material... One finds bits of real beauty here and there in Arghezi's poetry." In 1950, the Mihai Eminescu School of Literature was founded, with the aim of forming a new generation of writers in the Romanian People's Republic
Communist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
. In an article published in Viaţa Românească (nr. 3 of 1951), Mihai Beniuc
Mihai Beniuc
Mihai Beniuc was a Romanian proletcultist poet, dramatist and novelist. He graduated from the University of Cluj in 1931 majoring in psychology, philosophy and sociology. This was reflected in his writing, particularly the novels...
, a member of the Writers' Union of Romania
Writers' Union of Romania
The Writers' Union of Romania , founded in March 1949, is a professional association of writers in Romania. It also has a subsidiary in Chişinău, Republic of Moldova...
, offered a definition of the socialist-realist poet: "He must be a philosopher familiar with the most profound ideas of the age [...], toward which Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
, Engels
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels was a German industrialist, social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, alongside Karl Marx. In 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research...
, Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
and Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
opened the way [...], and an activist in service of those ideas."
Newly-appeared literary critics, guided by Leonte Răutu, published studies in the spirit of the socialist-realist doctrine. These included Ovid S. Crohmălniceanu—Un roman al industrializării socialiste ("A Novel of Socialist Industrialization"), Silvian Iosifescu—Pe drumul înfloririi gospodăriei agricole colective ("On the Road to the Flowering of the Administration of Collective Agriculture"), Mihai Gafiţa—Romanul luptei tractoriştilor ("The Novel of the Tractor-Drivers' Struggle"), Nestor Ignat
Nestor Ignat
Nestor Ignat is a Romanian journalist, writer and graphic artist.Born in Iași in 1918, Ignat graduated from the Spiru Haret High School of Bucharest in 1936 and continued his studies at the University of Bucharest....
—O carte despre frumuseţea vieţii noi ("A Book about the Beauty of the New Life"), Mihai Novicov—Pe marginea poeziei lui Dan Deşliu ("On the Margin of the Poetry of Dan Deşliu"), Traian Şelmaru—Mitrea Cocor de Mihail Sadoveanu ("Mitrea Cocor by Mihail Sadoveanu") and Ion Vitner—Poezia lui A. Toma ("The Poetry of A. Toma").
Prose works
A few representative examples:- Mihail SadoveanuMihail SadoveanuMihail Sadoveanu was a Romanian novelist, short story writer, journalist and political figure, who twice served as acting republican head of state under the communist regime . One of the most prolific Romanian-language writers, he is remembered mostly for his historical and adventure novels, as...
: Fantezii răsăritene ("Eastern Fantasies"; 1946), Păuna Mică ("The Little Peahen", 1948), Mitrea Cocor ("Mitrea the CraneCrane (bird)Cranes are a family, Gruidae, of large, long-legged and long-necked birds in the order Gruiformes. There are fifteen species of crane in four genera. Unlike the similar-looking but unrelated herons, cranes fly with necks outstretched, not pulled back...
", 1950), a novel that became a symbol of socialist-realist prose, with its depiction of class struggleClass struggleClass struggle is the active expression of a class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote "The [written] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle"....
, of positive heroes, of the Communist ironworker Florea Costea and the boiler-maker Voicu Cernea, of the moral and ideological transformation of Mitrea during his imprisonment in the Soviet Union. - Zaharia StancuZaharia StancuZaharia Stancu was a Romanian prose writer, novelist, poet, and philosopher.Stancu was born in 1902 in Salcia, a village in Teleorman County, Romania. After leaving school at the age of thirteen he worked at various jobs. In 1921, with the help of Gala Galaction, he became a journalist...
, first de facto president of the newly-founded Writers' Union of Romania (1949): the novel Desculţ ("Barefoot; first edition, 1948). - Alexandru Jar: Sfârşitul jalbelor ("The End of Complaints"; 1950), Marea pregătire ("The Great Preparation"; 1952), novels about the Griviţa Strike of 1933Grivita Strike of 1933The Grivița Strike of 1933 was a railway strike which was started at the Grivița Workshops, Bucharest, Romania, on 16 February 1933 by workers of Căile Ferate Române . The strike was brought about by the increasingly poor working conditions of railway employees in the context of the worldwide Great...
that followed the class-struggle pattern and distorted historical truth. - Petru Dumitriu: Drum fără pulbere ("Road without Dust") and Pasărea furtunii ("The Bird of the Storm"), novels that hailed the "achievements" realised while digging the Danube-Black Sea CanalDanube-Black Sea CanalThe Danube – Black Sea Canal is a canal in Romania which runs from Cernavodă on the Danube to Agigea and Năvodari on the Black Sea...
, known even at the time as a harsh political prison. - Eusebiu Camilar: the novel Negura ("The Fog"; 1949), a book filled with barbarism, stupidity and cruelty, all ascribed to the Romanian Army during its war "of conquering the Soviet UnionRomania during World War IIFollowing the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939, the Kingdom of Romania officially adopted a position of neutrality. However, the rapidly changing situation in Europe during 1940, as well as domestic political upheaval, undermined this stance. Fascist political forces such as the Iron...
". - Eugen BarbuEugen BarbuEugen Barbu was a Romanian modern novelist, short story writer, journalist, and correspondent member of the Romanian Academy. The latter position was vehemently criticized by those who contended that he plagiarized in his novel Incognito and for the anti-Semitic campaigns he initiated in the...
: author of the novels Groapa ("The Pit"; 1957) and Şoseaua Nordului ("The Highway of the North").
Poetry
Alexandru TomaAlexandru Toma
Alexandru Toma was a Romanian poet, journalist and translator, known for his communist views and his role in introducing Socialist Realism and Stalinism to Romanian literature...
, later judged a mediocre poet, was proclaimed the greatest Romanian poet alive. With verses like "imperialist american/cădea-ţi-ar bomba în ocean" ("American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
imperialist
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
/Would that your bomb fell into the ocean"), A. Toma was an official model for Romanian poets until his death in 1954.
Other important representatives of socialist-realist poetry, who transformed slogans of the Romanian Communist Party
Romanian Communist Party
The Romanian Communist Party was a communist political party in Romania. Successor to the Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to communist revolution and the disestablishment of Greater Romania. The PCR was a minor and illegal grouping for much of the...
into their own verses, included:
- Dan Deşliu: Cântec pentru tovarăşul plan (Song for Comrade Plan"), Lazăr de la Rusca ("Lazăr of Rusca"), massive poems that appeared on two pages of Scînteia.
- Victor Tulbure: Balada tovarăşului căzut împărţind Scînteia în ilegalitate ("Ballad of the Comrade Who Fell while Illegally Distributing Scînteia").
- Marcel Breslaşu: Cîntec de leagăn al Doncăi ("Donca's Lullaby").
- Mihai BeniucMihai BeniucMihai Beniuc was a Romanian proletcultist poet, dramatist and novelist. He graduated from the University of Cluj in 1931 majoring in psychology, philosophy and sociology. This was reflected in his writing, particularly the novels...
: În frunte comuniştii ("Communists at the Top"), Cântec pentru tovarăşul Gheorghiu-Dej ("Song for Comrade Gheorghiu-DejGheorghe Gheorghiu-DejGheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej was the Communist leader of Romania from 1948 until his death in 1965.-Early life:Gheorghe was the son of a poor worker, Tănase Gheorghiu, and his wife Ana. Gheorghiu-Dej joined the Communist Party of Romania in 1930...
, Partidul m-a învăţat ("The Party Taught Me").
Other poets who practiced the style include: Eugen Frunză, Miron Radu Paraschivescu, Nina Cassian
Nina Cassian
Nina Cassian is a Romanian poet, composer, journalist and film critic.. , The Independent She is noted for her translating abilities, and has rendered into Romanian the works of William Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht, Christian Morgenstern, Yiannis Ritsos, and Paul Celan...
(An viu, nouă sute şi şaptesprezece — "Living Year, Nine Hundred and Seventeen), Ion Brad (Cincisutistul — "The Five Hundredist"), Veronica Porumbacu (Tovarăşul Matei a primit Ordinul Muncii — "Comrade Matei Has Received the Order of Labour"), Maria Banuş (Ţie-ţi vorbesc, Americă! — "I Am Speaking to You, America!"), Ştefan Iureş (Ucenicul Partidului — "The Disciple of the Party"), Virgil Teodorescu and Mihu Dragomir.
Drama
A "militant" theatre was conceived, with an active presence in the ongoing class struggle and solidarity with the entire people around the ideals of the Communist Party. Notable examples include:- Mihail Davidoglu: Omul din Ceatal ("The Man from Ceatal"), Minerii ("The Miners"), Cetatea de foc ("The Citadel of Fire").
- Aurel Baranga: Bal la Făgădău ("Ball at the Inn"; 1946) and, together with Nicolae Moraru, Anii negri ("The Black Years").
- Maria Banuş: Ziua cea Mare ("The Big Day"), the first play about the newly-collectivised Romanian village.
- Lucia Demetrius: Cumpăna ("The Shadoof", 1949), Vadul nou ("The New Crossing", 1951), Oameni de azi ("People of Today", 1952).
- Alexandru Mirodan: Ziariştii ("The Newspapermen", 1956), Şeful sectorului suflete ("The Chief of the Souls' Sector", 1963).
Another characteristic of socialist realism was the necessity of a positive hero. Apparently, Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale was a Wallachian-born Romanian playwright, short story writer, poet, theater manager, political commentator and journalist...
's O scrisoare pierdută could not be staged due to the absence of such a hero.
Architecture
Casa Presei Libere
Casa Presei Libere is a building in northern Bucharest, Romania, the tallest in the city between 1956 and 2007.A horse race track was built in 1905 on the future site of Casa Presei Libere...
is a signature example of a socialist-realist building in Romania.
Plastic arts
Beginning in 1948, avant-garde currents of the first half of the 20th century, considered decadent and detached from reality, were totally rejected for their "bourgeois formalism". In 1949, the Plastic Artists' Cooperative was founded in BucharestBucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
. There, promising young artists such as Ion Biţan, Traian Trestioreanu
Traian Trestioreanu
Traian Trestioreanu was a Romanian painter, sketcher, and muralist.He studied painting at the Academia de Belle Arte, having among his teachers Camil Ressu....
, Paul Gherasim, Virgil Almăşan and Ştefan Sevastre were obliged to execute works of "visual agitation" and decoration, painting onto huge posters the portraits of the "four teachers" of Marxism-Leninism
Marxism-Leninism
Marxism–Leninism is a communist ideology, officially based upon the theories of Marxism and Vladimir Lenin, that promotes the development and creation of a international communist society through the leadership of a vanguard party over a revolutionary socialist state that represents a dictatorship...
and of the heads of party and state in the Romanian People's Republic. As the state was artists' sole patron, through the Plastic Fund, even established artists could not avoid adopting the conventional themes imposed by socialist realism. In spite of the works' banal content, these talented individuals nevertheless managed to produce important works of art. Among them were Camil Ressu
Camil Ressu
Camil Ressu was a Romanian painter and academic, one of the most significant art figures of Romania.-Early life and career:Born in Galaţi, Ressu originated from an Aromanian family that migrated to Romania from Macedonia at the start of the 19th century. His father, Constantin Ressu, who was a...
(Semnarea apelului pentru pace — "The Signing of the Peace Appeal"), Alexandru Ciucurencu
Alexandru Ciucurencu
Alexandru Ciucurencu was a Romanian Post-Impressionist painter.A collection of Ciucurencu's paintings can be seen in Dr. Frasier Crane's apartment in the sitom Frasier, in the episode "The Guilt Trippers" .-External links:**...
(1 Mai — "May 1
May Day
May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....
", Ana Ipătescu) and Corneliu Baba
Corneliu Baba
Corneliu Baba was a Romanian painter, primarily a portraitist, but also known as a genre painter and an illustrator of books.-Early life:Having first studied under his father, the academic painter Gheorghe Baba, Baba studied briefly at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Bucharest, but did not receive a...
(Oţelari — "Steel-workers").
Other socialist-realist painters, with representative works, included:
Theodor Harşia (Şantierul de la Bicaz — "The Bicaz
Bicaz
Bicaz is a town in Neamţ County, Romania situated in the eastern Carpathian Mountains near the confluence of the Bicaz and Bistriţa Rivers and near Lake Bicaz, an artificial lake formed by the Bicaz Dam on the Bistriţa. Bicaz used to be a border town until 1918...
Construction Site"), Gavril Miklossy (Griviţa, 1933
Grivita Strike of 1933
The Grivița Strike of 1933 was a railway strike which was started at the Grivița Workshops, Bucharest, Romania, on 16 February 1933 by workers of Căile Ferate Române . The strike was brought about by the increasingly poor working conditions of railway employees in the context of the worldwide Great...
; Lupeni, 1929
Lupeni Strike of 1929
The Lupeni Strike of 1929 took place on August 5 and 6 1929 in the mining town of Lupeni, in the Jiu Valley of Transylvania, Romania.-Chronology:...
), Spiru Chintilă (Femei înarmate în gărzile patriotice — Women Armed in the Patriotic Guards"), Brăduţ Covaliu (Greva de la Lupeni — "The Lupeni Strike"), Insurecţia armată din 23 August 1944 — "The Armed Insurrection of 23 August 1944"), Constantin Piliuţă (Revoluţonari încarceraţi — "Incarcerated Revolutionaries"), Gheorghe Iacob (Propagandist de partid la sat — "Party Propagandist in the Village"), Coriolan Hora (Sudorii — "The Welders", Recoltarea porumbului — "The Corn Harvest"), Ion Biţan (Recolta — "The Harvest", Victoria — "The Victory"), Gheorghe Şaru (Sudoriţă — "The Female Welder"), Ştefan Szöny (Tipografie clandestină — "Clandestine Typography", Moartea partizanului — "The Death of the Partisan"), Iulia Hălăucescu (Centrala hidroelectrică V.I. Lenin — "The V.I. Lenin Hydroelectric Plant").
Emil Mereanu executed two notable sculptures in the style: a bust of Andrei Zhdanov
Andrei Zhdanov
Andrei Alexandrovich Zhdanov was a Soviet politician.-Life:Zhdanov enlisted with the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1915 and was promoted through the party ranks, becoming the All-Union Communist Party manager in Leningrad after the assassination of Sergei Kirov in 1934...
for the Ştefan Gheorghiu Academy
Stefan Gheorghiu Academy
The Ştefan Gheorghiu Academy The Ştefan Gheorghiu Academy The Ştefan Gheorghiu Academy (Romanian: Academia Ştefan Gheorghiu, in full: Academia de învăţămînt social-politic Ştefan Gheorghiu de pe lîngă CC al PCR - approx...
and a work called Bucurie ("Joy") in Floreasca Park, Bucharest.
In music
In 1949, the Society of Romanian Composers was dissolved and replaced with the Romanian Composers' Union. On this occasion, undoubtedly valuable composers, considered reactionaries, formalists or decadent, were excluded from the new organisation: Mihail JoraMihail Jora
Mihail Jora was a Romanian composer, pianist, and conductor.Jora studied in Leipzig with Robert Teichmüller. From 1929 to 1962 he was a professor at the conservatoire of Bucharest. He worked 1928 to 1933 as a director/conductor of the Broadcasting Orchestra in Bucharest...
, Ionel Perlea, Stan Golestan, Dinu Lipatti
Dinu Lipatti
Dinu Lipatti was a Romanian classical pianist and composer whose career was cut short by his death from Hodgkin's disease at age 33. He was elected posthumously to the Romanian Academy.-Biography:...
(dubbed "a fascist who vegetates far from his country"), Tiberiu Brediceanu
Tiberiu Brediceanu
Tiberiu Brediceanu was a Romanian composer. He is the father of the composer and conductor Mihai Brediceanu....
and Dimitrie Cuclin
Dimitrie Cuclin
Dimitrie Cuclin was a Romanian classical music composer, musicologist, philosopher, translator, and writer.-Early life:Dimitrie Cuclin was born in the city of Galaţi, a port on the left shore of the Danube. His father was an immigrant from czarist Bessarabia, from the village of Cucleni, near the...
(soon to be arrested). Of George Enescu
George Enescu
George Enescu was a Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor and teacher.-Biography:Enescu was born in the village of Liveni , Dorohoi County at the time, today Botoşani County. He showed musical talent from early in his childhood. A child prodigy, Enescu created his first musical...
's works, only his two Romanian Rhapsodies
Romanian Rhapsodies (Enescu)
The two Romanian Rhapsodies, Op. 11, for orchestra, are George Enescu's best-known compositions. They were both written in 1901, and first performed together in 1903. The two rhapsodies, and particularly the first, have long held a permanent place in the repertory of every major orchestra. They...
were performed; certain composers like Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
were no longer played in concert or on the air; religious-themed music was no longer played; while jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
was labelled an expression of American imperialism, on the same level as chewing gum and Coca-Cola. The head of the Union was Matei Socor (later Director of Radio Transmission and permanent Director of the Symphony Radio Orchestra), who wrote the music for Communist Romania's first two national anthems. These were "Zdrobite cătuşe
Zdrobite catuse
Zdrobite cătuşe was the national anthem of the People's Republic of Romania between 1948 and 1953. The lyrics were written by Aurel Baranga and the music by Matei Socor.-Lyrics:...
" (1948; words by Aurel Baranga) and "Te slăvim, Românie" (1953; words by Eugen Frunză and Dan Deşliu). Composers were called on to write engaged, Party-oriented and revolutionary works. In the report of the constituent session, Socor underlined that "the tasks of the Composers' Union are clear as regards the re-education of certain artists accustomed to bourgeois aestheticizing criteria" and asked for "the imposition of the Party spirit in music". Vocal-symphonic pieces were preferred, for instance the oratorio Tudor Vladimirescu
Tudor Vladimirescu
Tudor Vladimirescu was a Wallachian Romanian revolutionary hero, the leader of the Wallachian uprising of 1821 and of the Pandur militia. He is also known as Tudor din Vladimiri or — occasionally — as Domnul Tudor .-Background:Tudor was born in Vladimiri, Gorj County in a family of landed peasants...
by Gheorghe Dumitrescu or the cantata for choir and orchestra Se construieşte lumea nouă ("The New World Is Being Built") by George Draga
George Draga
George Draga was a Romanian composer of classical music. He was born in Aldeşti, Romania.-Education:Draga attended the Musical Military High School under Hans Hoerath and Dumitru Văsescu , Alexandru Teodorescu and George Manoliu , Constantin A...
, as well as revolutionary hymns such as "Îi mulţumim din inimă partidului" ("We Thank Him from the Heart of the Party"), "Hei rup" or "Întreceri. întreceri, ciocane şi seceri" ("Contests, contests, hammers and sickles").
In the light or easy listening categories, hits included "Drag îmi e bădiţa cu tractorul" ("Sweet Little Fellow on a Tractor"), "Macarale, râd în soare argintii" ("Silver Cranes
Crane (machine)
A crane is a type of machine, generally equipped with a hoist, wire ropes or chains, and sheaves, that can be used both to lift and lower materials and to move them horizontally. It uses one or more simple machines to create mechanical advantage and thus move loads beyond the normal capability of...
Laughing in the Sun") and "Hai Leano la vot!" ("Come and Vote, Leana!").
1960s-1989
After the death of Joseph StalinJoseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
and the consequent beginning of de-Stalinization, socialist realism began to lose its importance, no longer being stringently imposed on the creators of literature and art. Many Romanian and Western authors, their works previously banned, were "reconsidered" and published in critical editions. A new generation of writers, heralded by Nicolae Labiş
Nicolae Labis
Nicolae Labiș was a Romanian poet.-Early life:His father, Eugen, was the son of a forest brigade soldier and himself fought in World War II; he became a schoolteacher in 1931. His mother Ana-Profira, the daughter of a peasant killed in the Battle of Mărășești, was also a schoolteacher...
but reaching fruition with Nichita Stănescu
Nichita Stanescu
Nichita Stănescu was a Romanian poet and essayist. He is the most acclaimed contemporary Romanian language poet, loved by the public and generally held in esteem by literary critics.-Biography:...
and Marin Sorescu
Marin Sorescu
- Biography :Born to a family of farmworkers in Bulzeşti, Dolj County, Sorescu graduated from the primary school in his home village. After that he went to the Buzesti Brothers High School in Craiova, after which he was transferred to the Predeal Military School. His final education was at the...
, protested vehemently against ideological dogmatism and called for full artistic liberty. Strictures on literature, plastic arts and music began to loosen in the early 1960s, so long as the core principles of Communism and those in the high ranks of the Party and state were not criticised. However, the trend came to an abrupt halt with the July Theses
July Theses
The July Theses is a name commonly given to a speech delivered by Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu on July 6, 1971, before the Executive Committee of the Romanian Communist Party...
of 1971, after which the Ceauşescu
Nicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...
regime began not only to repress dissidents such as Paul Goma
Paul Goma
Paul Goma is a Romanian writer, also known for his activities as a dissident and leading opponent of the communist regime before 1989. Forced into exile by the communist authorities, he became a political refugee and currently resides in France as a stateless person...
and Mircea Dinescu
Mircea Dinescu
Mircea Dinescu is a Romanian poet, journalist and editor.He was born in Slobozia, the son of Ştefan Dinescu, a metalworker and Aurelia . Dinescu studied at the Faculty of Journalism of the Ştefan Gheorghiu Academy, and was considered a gifted young poet during his youth, with several poetry...
, but also to promote its own personality cult reminiscent of socialist-realist days. Manifestations of this reborn trend could be found in painting, architecture (the Palace of the Parliament
Palace of the Parliament
The Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, Romania is a multi-purpose building containing both chambers of the Romanian Parliament. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the Palace is the world's largest civilian administrative building, most expensive administrative building, and...
), writing (the poems of Corneliu Vadim Tudor
Corneliu Vadim Tudor
Corneliu Vadim Tudor is leader of the Greater Romania Party , writer, journalist and a Member of the European Parliament...
) music (Adrian Păunescu
Adrian Paunescu
Adrian Păunescu was a Romanian poet, journalist, and politician. Though criticised for praising dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu, Păunescu was called "Romania's most famous poet" in a Associated Press story, quoted by the New York Times.-Life:Born in Copăceni, Bălţi County, in what is now the Republic...
's Cenaclul Flacăra events) and other areas.