Leonte Tismăneanu

Leonte Tismăneanu (born Leonid Tisminitski; 1913–1981) was a Romanian communist activist and propagandist.

Born into a Jewish family in Soroca, Bessarabia, Russian Empire (now in Moldova), [Badin] he joined the Romanian Communist Party (PCR) in the early 1930s ["Stalinism pentru eternitate", p.38] . He engaged in illegal communist activities in Bucharest, Galaţi, Brăila and Soroca. Later, and fought as a volunteer in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War, losing his right arm at the age of 24. [Gosu; "Stalinism pentru eternitate", p.38] In 1939, Tisminetski left for the Soviet Union, where he became a student of the Moscow State Linguistic University. After the start of Operation Barbarossa, in which Romania took part ("see Romania during World War II"), he worked with Ana Pauker, Leonte Răutu, and Vasile Luca for the Romanian language branch of Radio Moscow, first as a newsreader, then as a writer. ["Timbre roşii…"]

In 1948, Tisminetski and his family were sent to Soviet-occupied Romania, where he changed his name in 1949 to "Leonte Tismăneanu", at the request of the PCR. ["Stalinism pentru eternitate", p.320] He was named deputy director of Editura PMR, later Editura Politică, the publishing house of the Communist Party ["Stalinism pentru eternitate" p.333] and also held the Chair of Marxism-Leninism at the University of Bucharest. [Badin] In 1954, the Agitprop Section of the Central Party Committee requested the permission for a group of leading propagandists including Tismăneanu, Paul Niculescu-Mizil and Grigore Cotovschi to defend their PhD dissertation without the customary examinations. This request was turned down, and there is no indication that Tismăneanu later obtained his PhD. [Petre Opriş, in "Dosarele Istoriei", nr. 12(100)/2004, p.11-15]

In 1956, Tismăneanu, alongside Dean Iorgu Iordan and the academics Mihai Novicov, Alexandru Graur, Ion Coteanu, and Radu Florian, took part in a University inquiry into the anti-communist statements of Paul Goma, a University employee who later became a noted dissident and writer; led by Iordan and supervised by the Securitate, the investigation culminated in Goma's expulsion from the Faculty and subsequent arrest (Tismăneanu and Florian voted in favor of the former, but against the latter). [Rădulescu]

Between 1958 and 1960, Tismăneanu was investigated for "revisionist-type deviationism" ("deviaţionism de tip revizionist"), the inquiry ending with him being expelled from the Party in 1960. ["Stalinism pentru eternitate" p.333] Allowed to rejoin in 1964, after the death of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, he subsequently worked as a writer for Editura Meridiane. [Badin]

He was married to Hermina Marcusohn, herself a Spanish Civil War veteran who had trained as a physician, held a Professorship at Bucharest's Medical School, and briefly worked as a party activist. [Gosu; "Stalinism pentru eternitate" p.320] Their son, Vladimir Tismăneanu, is a political scientist who headed the "Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania", which presented a report on the crimes of the communist regime in Romania. In an extended polemic with Vladimir Tismăneanu, Goma has indicated his mistrust in the latter's ability to exercise impartial judgment, calling him "a Bolshevik offspring" [Goma] growing up inside the "nomenklatura," [Goma] and indicating his belief that Leonte Tismăneanu was "one of the most important and ferocious agents of Communism and Sovietism in martyring our country". [Goma]

The Final Report of the Presidential Commission lists Leonte Tismăneanu among the group of prominent party activists responsible with indoctrination. [Final Report, p.631]

Notes

References

*ro icon [http://www.presidency.ro/static/ordine/RAPORT%20FINAL_%20CADCR.pdf "The final report of the Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania"]
*ro icon Andrei Badin, [http://www.adevarulonline.ro/2006-04-10/Prima%20Pagina/nu-cred-in-legenda-celor-doua-securitati-una-buna-si-alta-rea_180930.html "Nu cred în legenda celor două Securităţi, una bună şi alta rea"] , interview with Vladimir Tismăneanu in "Adevărul", April 10 2006
*ro icon Paul Goma, [http://paulgoma.free.fr/includes/Despre_Tismaneanu_11_puncte_HTML.php "Despre Vladimir Tismăneanu - şi nu numai - în 11 puncte"]
*ro icon Armand Gosu, [http://www.revista22.ro/html/index.php?art=2802&nr=2006-06-16 "N-am avut de-a face cu Securitatea"] , interview with Vladimir Tismăneanu in "22", nr. 849, June 2006
*ro icon Mihai Rădulescu, [http://www.literaturasidetentie.ro/detentia/carte_1_5_2.php "Patimile după Paul Goma"]
*Vladimir Tismăneanu,
**ro icon [http://www.jurnalul.ro/articol_36722/timbre_rosii_cu_portretul_lui_lenin.html "Timbre roşii cu portretul lui Lenin"] in "Jurnalul Naţional", September 17, 2005
**"Stalinism pentru eternitate", Polirom, Iaşi, 2005 ISBN 973-681-899-3