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Piteşti: a project in reeducation and its post-1989 interpretation in Romania

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Monica Ciobanu
Monica Ciobanu*
Affiliation:
Department of Criminal Justice, Plattsburgh State University of New York, 144 Redcay Hall, 101 Broad Street, Plattsburgh, NY 12901–2681, USA
*
*Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The purpose of this article is twofold: to provide a critical account of the Piteşti experiment and its significance within the history of Romanian Communism and to examine current public disputes relative to memorializing the Piteşi experiment that concern issues of legitimacy, collective memory, and identity construction. The main argument pursued here is that within the recent postcommunist politics of memory, one major prevailing trend is to reincorporate a nationalist ideology within a postcommunist rhetoric. This leads to the conclusion that such mnemonic practices indicate a strong relationship between collective memory and political culture.

Keywords

postcommunismmemoryreeducationPiteştiStalinism
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 43 , Issue 4 , July 2015 , pp. 615 - 633
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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