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Ceausescu and the Securitate: Coercion and Dissent in Romania, 1965-1989
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Comments/Reviews
Description: The first major work in any language to benefit from access to the archives of the Romanian secret police, the Securitate. This "dual history"--both of the oppressor and of the oppressed--during Ceausescu's years in power also draws on the memoirs, published and unpublished, of the victims of Communist terror and interviews with prominent dissidents. The author is the only non-Romanian scholar to have examined Securitate files following the overthrow of Ceausescu in December 1989.
Selected Contents:
Police Terror and the Imposition of Communist Rule; The Securitate and the Removal of Opposition, 1948-1964; From Terror to Fear: Ceausescu's and the Securitate, 1965-1978; Transylvania and Ceausescu's Appeal to National Sentiment; Cultivating Support: The Role of Bessarabia; The Use and Misuse of History: Romanian Historians and National Identity; Compliance; Dissent; Central Planning as Coercion: Systematization; The Securitate and Repression, 1978-1989.
Review(s): [A] comprehensive historical overview of the Ceausescu regime. ... [and] the first extensive study of the [Securitate]. ... The unique combination of personal experience, private discussions, and information obtained from published works by other analysts makes the book a reliable as well as interesting overview of the Ceausescu period. ... By avoiding simplification, generalization, and black-and-white categorization, Deletant disperses Western prejudices and stereotypes about communist Romania and the Securitate. Transition
Deletant ... provides an extensive history and examination of the Securitate, Ceausescu's secret police. Reference & Research Book News
This is the first extensive work in any language on the Romanian secret police, the Securitate. ... The author ... although not Romanian, has been granted wide access to the Securitate archives, and has relied on memoirs and interviews with victims and dissidents. ... The work is heavily documented with an extensive bibliography of source material. ... The book sheds considerable light on a much neglected aspect of Romanian political history. Choice
Offers a detailed look at the rise of the Securitate to show how Ceausescu and the Communist party nearly paralyzed an entire society. Current History
A volume of immense and varied value. ... An enormously useful volume which by virtue of its care and scope, as well as its analytical approach and dextrous use of historical and contemporary material, will be profitably used by students of Romania and East Europe, and of communist systems, for a long time. Europe-Asia Studies
Contributes to our appreciation of the dichotomy for the Romanian populace between compliance with Ceausesu's regime and dissent against it.
    
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