Silviu Brucan

Silviu Brucan (born Saul Bruckner; January 18, 1916-September 14, 2006) was a Romanian communist politician who became a dissident of the Nicolae Ceauşescu regime in 1989, and, after the Romanian Revolution, a political analyst and author of books on Communism and Eastern Europe.

Biography

Early activism

Born in Bucharest to Jewish parents, Brucan attended the German-language "Evangelische Schule" and the Saint Sava National College.ro icon [http://www.gardianul.ro/2006/09/16/linia_fierbinte-c5/politologul_silviu_brucan_a_decedat_la_v_rsta_de_90_de_ani-s84370.html "Politologul Silviu Brucan a decedat la vârsta de 90 de ani" ("The Politologist Silviu Brucan Has Passed Away at the Age of 90")] , in "Gardianul", September 16, 2006] He subsequently worked as a journalist in media linked to the Romanian Communist Party (PCR), which he joined age 19.

In September 1944, upon Romania's exit from the Axis camp and the onset of Soviet occupation, he was named the general secretary of "Scînteia" (the deputy editor in chief to Leonte Răutu), the official newspaper of the PCR,ro icon [http://www.cotidianul.ro/index.php?id=3921&art=8954&cHash=89bad959e1 Mirona Hriţcu, "Silviu Brucan e gata să-şi îngroape profeţia" ("Silviu Brucan Is About to Outlive His Profecy")] , in "Cotidianul", February 5, 2005] [Tismăneanu, "Stalinism pentru eternitate", p.212, 304, 309] and, in this capacity, supported the prison sentences of Iuliu Maniu, Gheorghe I. Brătianu and Corneliu Coposu ("see Tămădău Affair").ro icon [http://www.evz.ro/article.php?artid=79214 Ondine Gherguţ, "Brucan, condamnat în procesul cu Vasile Lupu" ("Brucan, Sentenced in His Trial with Vasile Lupu")] in "Evenimentul Zilei", February 15, 2002] He also supported the repression of anti-Communist journalists, such as Radu Gyr and Pamfil Şeicaru, asking for the death penalty for the latter. During this period, Brucan's wife, the Stalinist Alexandra Sidorovici, became a public prosecutor of the People's Tribunals, an office which allowed her to ask for death sentences for many enemies of the Communist regime; the sister of Teofil Sidorovici,ro icon Vladimir Tismăneanu, [http://www.revista22.ro/html/index.php?art=3100&nr=2006-09-29 "Dubioasa convertire a lui Silviu Brucan" ("Silviu Brucan's Dubious Conversion")] , in "22", September-October 2006] she was a member of the nomenklatura after the Communist government's establishment.Victor Frunză, "Istoria stalinismului în România" ("The History of Stalinism in Romania"), Humanitas, Bucharest, 1990, p.227, 302, 471] For a short while (1948-1949), Brucan was Professor of Journalism at the University of Bucharest.

A close collaborator of Communist leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, Brucan, with Sorin Toma and Mihail Roller, was among the prominent Party ideologues of the group coordinated by Răutu after the late 1940s and into the 1950s. [Tismăneanu, "Stalinism pentru eternitate", p.212, 304] He was an ambassador of Romania to the United States in 1955, using his experience as the basis of a book he co-authored with Sidorovici (a virulent attack on American institutions), and to the United Nations (between 1959 and 1962), as well as the head of Romanian Television. [Tismăneanu, "Stalinism pentru eternitate", p.263, 309]

Conflict with Ceauşescu

Progressively from the 1960s, Brucan became an opponent of the new PCR leadership around Ceauşescu. Initially, upon news that Ceauşescu had been appointed general secretary, he considered renouncing his political career and focus on an office at the University, before being persuaded by Emil Bodnăraş to remain an activist. He was a professor of Scientific Socialism at the Bucharest Faculty of Medicine. [Tismăneanu, "Stalinism pentru eternitate", p.309-310] According to Brucan himself, he faced a period of financial insecurity, and began work as a translator in order to cover his expenses. He also sent several works, subject to censorship at home, to be published in the United States; they showed his move towards reformism, which he advocated to be applied inside the Eastern bloc. [Tismăneanu, "Stalinism pentru eternitate", p.310]

In 1987, after sending an anti-Ceauşescu declaration to the foreign press (to the BBC, the "International Herald Tribune", and United Press International), a relatively mild criticism for the violent repression of the Braşov Rebellion, [Cioroianu, p.487] he was sentenced to house arrest. At the time, Brucan had won the approval of Soviet authorities, which had by then already engaged in "Perestroika" policies, and had been extended informal protection by the Soviet embassy in Bucharest (allowing him a relevant degree of freedom). [Cioroianu, p.487; Neumann, p.183]

With help from Iulian Vlad, the chief of the Securitate, he was issued with a passport, and in 1988, despite being expelled from the PCR, spent six months in the United States, where he was in contact with the United States Department of State (headed by George P. Shultz). Brucan also claimed to have been invited to Moscow by Soviet politicians Mikhail Gorbachev and Anatoly Dobrynin, who endorsed criticism of Ceauşescu and a Romanian version of "Glasnost"; based on the personal testimonies of Gorbachev's advisers, the scholar Vladimir Tismăneanu has disputed Brucan's account in its entirety.

"Letter of the Six" and Revolution

In March 1989, together with five other Communist dignitaries (Gheorghe Apostol, Alexandru Bârlădeanu, Grigore Răceanu, Corneliu Mănescu, and Constantin Pîrvulescu), he signed the open letter known as "Scrisoarea celor şase" - "The Letter of the Six".ro icon [http://www.itcnet.ro/history/archive/mi1998/current1/mi40.htm D. Tănăsescu, "Dosare de cadre. Fişete desferecate" ("Personnel Files. Unfettered Lockers")] , in "Magazin Istoric"] [Cioroianu, p.487; Neumann, p.180; Tismăneanu, "Stalinism pentru eternitate", p.262-263, 310]

The document, which was immediately broadcast on Radio Free Europe and Voice of America, was a left-wing critique of Ceauşescu's policies, [Neumann, p.180; Tismăneanu, "Stalinism pentru eternitate", p.262-263] and it led to the swift arrest and interrogation of the signatories by the Securitate, and then to their internal exile and house arrest at various locations. The Securitate depicted Brucan as one of several "hostile, inveterate, elements" and "the agent of foreign imperialist secret services". Although lacking in actual popular support, [Tismăneanu, "Stalinism pentru eternitate", p.263] the letter was argued to be the among most important and influential acts of opposition during its period, and a notorious break with the tradition of strict obedience and party discipline. [Tismăneanu, "Stalinism pentru eternitate", p.263]

Brucan was sent to a location on the outskirts of Bucharest, in Dămăroaia — the reason for his subsequent colloquial moniker, "The Oracle of Dămăroaia". Despite increased pressure, most contributors to the protest refused to withdraw their statement. [Tismăneanu, "Stalinism pentru eternitate", p.263] Brucan later accused Apostol of having given in to pressures. [Tismăneanu, "Stalinism pentru eternitate", p.292]

Brucan was part of the National Salvation Front (FSN) during the 1989 Revolution, joining the Provisional Council of FSN and its Executive Committee, and supported the transformation of FSN into a political party. According to the testimony of Petre Roman, Brucan was among those who insisted that Nicolae and Elena Ceauşescu be executed.

Brucan was also involved in selecting Roman for the office of Premier. Nevertheless, he resigned only two months after, and issued a vocal criticism of President Ion Iliescu. [Tismăneanu, "Stalinism pentru eternitate", p.310] In 1990, Brucan made a forecast which became well-known in Romania: he contended that Romanians would need 20 years to become accustomed to democracy.

Final years

From the late 1990s, Brucan hosted a news commentary program on the ProTV network ("Profeţii despre trecut" - "Foretellings on the Past"), initially together with Lucian Mândruţă. During his final years, he was also a columnist for "Ziarul Financiar".

In 1998, he was brought to court by Vasile Lupu, a leader of the Christian-Democratic National Peasants' Party (PNŢCD) and a deputy for Iaşi County. Speaking on his show, Brucan had called Lupu "astute to the square" and "trained Securitate informant", indicating that "any good-faithed National Peasantist who still views himself as a party colleague with Vasile Lupu is self-excluding himself from the PNŢCD". In 2002, courts decided in Lupu's favor, and Brucan was found guilty of calumny; he was required to pay Lupu the sum of 30 million lei as compensation.

At the age of 90, Brucan underwent a seven-hour stomach operation on September 4, 2006. Despite an initial good recovery from surgery, his condition suddenly worsened on September 13 and he died the following day due to cardiac arrest.

Legacy

Writing in 2006, Vladimir Tismăneanu criticized Brucan, arguing that, despite his renunciation of Communism, Brucan had continued to support authoritarianism in public life and to display a taste for intrigue, and that he had attempted to transform the FSN into a "big party", virtually replacing the PCR. [Tismăneanu, "Stalinism pentru eternitate", p.52] Tismăneanu pointed out Brucan's post-1990 opposition to the Mircea Răceanu, who had been imprisoned on dubious charges espionage under Ceauşescu, and who was later rehabilitated by Romanian courts. He has also contended that memoirs authored by Brucan showed little remorse for his early involvement in support of political repression. [Tismăneanu, "Stalinism pentru eternitate", p.46, 52]

According to Victor Neumann, Brucan's role in the Bucharest episode of the 1989 Revolution had indirectly helped the original and virtually unrelated revolt in Timişoara, especially by preventing a more violent repression against it. [Neumann, p.180] He also argued that Brucan's group of inner-Party dissidents was, in the eyes of the public at large, the only "credible alternative" at the time, [Neumann, p.184-185, 189] and cited Brucan's own statement: "The train had arrived in the station and we were the only ones who could get on it. What were we to say, that we will not get on? We did it". [Brucan, in Neumann, p.185] Overall, Neumann contended, Silviu Brucan's political and diplomatic expertise, as well as his adaptability, had made him the "ideologist of political transformations in 1989 Romania", [Neumann, p.189] and had contributed to the supremacy of left-wing discourse in the years following the Revolution [Neumann, p.183, 189] (in regard to the latter point, he cited Brucan arguments, which challenged the existence right-wing themes in the ideological makeup of the 1989 movement). [Neumann, p.183]

Works

English

* "The dissolution of power; a sociology of international relations and politics", Knopf (1971) ISBN 0-394-46741-8
* "The Dialectic of World Politics" (1978) ISBN 0-02-904680-7
* "The post-Brezhnev era: an insider's view", Praeger (1983) ISBN 0-03-069409-4
* "World Socialism at the Crossroads: An Insider's View", Praeger (1987) ISBN 0-275-92782-2
* "Pluralism and social conflict: a social analysis of the communist world", Praeger (1990) ISBN 0-275-93475-6
* "The wasted generation : memoirs of the Romanian journey from capitalism to socialism and back", Westview Press (1993) ISBN 0-8133-1833-5
* "Social Change in Russia and Eastern Europe", Praeger/Greenwood (1998) ISBN 0-275-96322-5

Romanian

* "Originile politicii americane" Bucharest, Editura Ştiinţifică, 1968 - "(Origins of the American policy)"
* "Democratizarea relaţiilor internaţionale: premise şi realităţi", Bucharest, Editura Politică, 1975 - "(The democratization of international relations: premisses and realities)"
* "Dialectica politicii internaţionale", Cluj-Napoca, Editura Dacia, 1985 - "(The dialectic of world politics)"
* "Pluralism şi conflict social. O analiză socială a lumii comuniste", Bucharest, Editura Enciclopedică, 1990 - "(Pluralism and social conflict. A social analysis of the communist world)"
* "Piaţă şi democraţie", Bucharest, Editura Ştiinţifică, 1990 - "(Market and democracy)"
* "Îndreptar-dicţionar de politologie", Bucharest, Nemira, 1993 - "(Handbook-dictionary of politology)"
* "Stâlpii noii puteri in România", Bucharest, Nemira, 1996 - "(The bases of the new power structure in Romania)"
* "Lumea după războiul rece. Locul României şi viitorul ei", Bucharest, Editura România Liberă, 1996 - "(The World after the Cold War. Romania's place and her future)"
* "O biografie între două revoluţii: De la capitalism la socialism şi retur", Bucharest, Nemira, 1998 - "(A biography between two revolutions: from capitalism to socialism and back)"
* "România în derivă", Bucharest, Nemira, 2000 - "(Romania adrift)"
* "Profeţii despre trecut şi despre viitor", Iaşi, Polirom, 2004 ISBN 973-681-692-3 - "(Prophecies about the past and the future)"
* "Secolul XXI. Viitorul Uniunii Europene. Războaiele in secolul XXI", Iaşi, Polirom, 2005 ISBN 973-46-0119-9 - "(The XXIst century. The future of the European Union. Wars in the XXIst century)"

References

*ro icon [http://www.polirom.ro/autori.cgi?action=autori&class=details&id=1315 Biography at Polirom.ro]
*Adrian Cioroianu, "Pe umerii lui Marx. O introducere în istoria comunismului românesc" ("On the Shoulders of Marx. An Incursion into the History of Romanian Communism"), Editura Curtea Veche, Bucharest, 2005
*Victor Neumann, "Schimbările politice din România anului 1989" ("Political Changes in 1989 Romania"), in "Ideologie şi fantasmagorie. Perspective comparative asupra istoriei gîndirii politice în Europa Est-Centrală" ("Ideology and Phantasmagoria. Comparative Perspectives on the History of Political Thought in East-Central Europe"), Polirom, Iaşi, 2001
*Vladimir Tismăneanu, "Stalinism pentru eternitate", Polirom, Iaşi, 2005 ISBN 973-681-899-3 (translation of "Stalinism for All Seasons: A Political History of Romanian Communism", University of California Press, Berkeley, 2003, ISBN 0-52-023747-1)

External links

*Silviu Brucan,
**ro icon [http://www.adevarulonline.ro/2005-08-12/Istorie/pedeapsa-trebue-sa-fie-maxima_146367.html "Pedeapsa trebue să fie maximă!" ("The Penalty Must be the Maximum One!")] , article of November 10, 1947, republished by "Adevărul"
**ro icon [http://www.zf.ro/articol_95380/in_memoriam_silviu_brucan__1916_2006_.html "Una este «reţea» şi alta este «urmărit»" ("An «Informant Network» and «Under Surveillance» Are Entirely Different Things") - his last column in "Ziarul Financiar", August 28, 2006]