Vladimir Tismăneanu (; born July 4, 1951) is a Romanian American political scientist, political analyst, sociologist, and professor at the University of Maryland, College Park. A specialist in political systems and comparative politics, he is director of the University of Maryland's Center for the Study of Post-Communist Societies, having served as chairman of the editorial committee (2004–2008) and editor (1998–2004) of the East European Politics and Societies academic review. Over the years, Tismăneanu has been a contributor to several periodicals, including Studia Politica, Journal of Democracy, Sfera Politicii, Revista 22, Evenimentul Zilei, Idei în Dialog and Cotidianul. He has also worked with the international radio stations Radio Free Europe and Deutsche Welle, and authored programs for the Romanian Television Company. As of 2009, he is Academic Council Chairman of the Institute for People's Studies, a think tank of the Romanian Democratic Liberal Party. Between February 2010 and May 2012, he was also President of the Scientific Council of the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania.
Acclaimed for his scholarly works on Stalinism in general and the Romanian communist regime in particular, as well as for exploring the impact of nationalism, national communism and neo-Stalinism in the Soviet Union and countries of the Eastern Bloc, Tismăneanu writes from the critical perspective of a civil society supporter. His other influential texts deal with diverse topics such as Cold War history, Kremlinology and the Holocaust. Having moved from a loose Marxist vision, shaped under the influence of neo-Marxist and Western Marxist scholarship, he became a noted proponent of classical liberalism and liberal democracy. This perspective is outlined in both his scientific contributions and volumes dealing with Romania's post-1989 history, the latter of which include collections of essays and several published interviews with literary critic . Tismăneanu completed his award-winning synthesis on Romanian communism, titled Stalinism for All Seasons, in 2003.
Tismăneanu's background and work came under scrutiny after his 2006 appointment by Romanian president Traian Băsescu as head of the Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania, which presented its report to the Romanian Parliament on December 18, 2006. There has been much controversy about the choice of Tismăneanu as commission president, about Tismăneanu's choices for commission members, and about the conclusions of the report.
Biography Born in Brașov, Vladimir Tismăneanu is the son of Leonte Tismăneanu, an activist of the Romanian Communist Party since the early 1930s, and Hermina Marcusohn, a physician and one-time Communist Party activist, both of whom were Jewish and Spanish Civil War veterans. His father, born in Bessarabia and settled in the Soviet Union at the end of the 1930s, worked in agitprop structures, returning to Romania at the end of World War II, and becoming, under the communist regime, chair of the Marxism-Leninism department of the University of Bucharest. Progressively after Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej acted against Ana Pauker, the Tismăneanus were sidelined inside the Romanian nomenklatura; in 1960, Leonte Tismăneanu was stripped of his position as deputy head of Editura Politică. Tismăneanu interviewed by Emilia Chiscop, 2005 , at the Polirom site; retrieved October 3, 2007 Ovidiu Șimonca, "Vladimir Tismăneanu, amenințat cu moartea", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 375, June 2007 Cristian Vasile, "Cronici de atelier. Trepte către o istorie a comunismului românesc", in Atelier LiterNet, July 23, 2008; retrieved February 6, 2009
Vladimir Tismăneanu grew up in the exclusive Primăverii quarter of Bucharest. During his years of study at the , which was then largely attended by students belonging to the nomenklatura, he was in the same year as Nicu Ceaușescu, son of communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu, as well as the children of Leonte Răutu, , and Silviu Brucan. Vladimir Tismăneanu, "Amintiri din copilărie: Liceul 24 și destinul nomenclaturii", in Almanahul Cațavencu 2002
In his preface to the Romanian-language edition of his 2003 book Stalinism for All Seasons, Tismăneanu indicated that, starting in 1970, he became interested in critiques of Marxism-Leninism and the Romanian communist regime in particular, after reading banned works made available to him by various of his acquaintances (among others, writer Dumitru Țepeneag and his wife, translator Mona Țepeneag, as well as Ileana, the daughter of Communist Party dignitary Gheorghe Gaston Marin). Vladimir Tismăneanu, "Bizantinism și revoluție", in România Liberă, June 17, 2005. Reprint of his preface to Stalinism pentru eternitate. O istorie politică a comunismului românesc, Polirom, Iași, 2005 He stated that, at the time, he was influenced by Communism in Romania, an analytic and critical work by Romanian-born British political scientist Ghiță Ionescu, as well as by Marxist, Western Marxist, Democratic and Libertarian Socialist scholarship (among others, the ideas of Georg Lukács, Leszek Kołakowski, Leon Trotsky, Antonio Gramsci, and the Frankfurt School). According to Tismăneanu, his family background allowed him insight into the hidden aspects of Communist Party history, which was comparing with the ideological demands of the Ceaușescu regime, and especially with the latter's emphasis on nationalism.
He graduated as a valedictorian Profile at the Romanian Presidency site; retrieved October 3, 2007 from the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Sociology in 1974, and received his Ph.D. from the same institution in 1980, presenting the thesis Teoria Critică a Școlii de la Frankfurt și radicalismul de stînga contemporan ("The Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School and Contemporary Left-Wing Radicalism").The Hour of Romania, International Conference. Dr. Vladimir Tismaneanu , at the Indiana University Bloomington's Russian and East European Institute; retrieved February 6, 2009 During the period, he was received into the ranks of the Union of Communist Youth (UTC), authored several articles which displayed support for the regime, and, as vice-president of the UTC's Communist Student Association, allegedly took part in authoring and compiling propaganda aimed at students. Gabriela Antoniu, "Tinerețe revoluționară - Tismăneanu, întâiul comunist al țării" , in Jurnalul Național, December 20, 2006 He was also contributing to the UTC magazines Amfiteatru and Viața Studențească, where his essentially neo-Marxist essays were often mixed for publication with endorsements of the official ideology.
Between 1974 and 1981, Tismăneanu worked as a sociologist, employed by the Urban Sociology Department of the Institute Typified Buildings Design in Bucharest. Radu Ioanid, "Anatomia delațiunii. Istoria unui caz de poliție politică în anii '80", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 139, October 2002 Among his colleagues there were Alexandru Florian, Cătălin Mamali, Dumitru Sandu, Dorel Abraham, , Alin Teodorescu, and Mihai Milca. Tismăneanu was not given approval to hold an academic position. Dan Tapalagă, "Turnat de prieteni, demonizat de Securitate: Vladimir Tismăneanu", in Cotidianul, July 24, 2006 Around 1977, he was involved in a debate about the nature of Romanian culture, expressing a pro-European perspective in reaction to officially endorsed nationalism in general and, in particular, to the form of protochronism advocated by Edgar Papu and Luceafărul magazine. His thoughts on the matter, published by Amfiteatru alongside similar writings by Milca, Gheorghe Achiței, , and Solomon Marcus.Florin Mihăilescu, De la proletcultism la postmodernism, Editura Pontica, Constanța, 2002, p.192.
In September 1981, a short while after the death of his father, he accompanied his mother on a voyage to Spain, after she had been granted a request to visit the sites where she and her husband had fought as young people.Tismăneanu, in Armand Gosu, "N-am avut de-a face cu Securitatea" , in Revista 22, Nr. 849, June 2006 Unlike Hermina Tismăneanu, he opted not to return, and soon after left for Venezuela, before ultimately settling in the United States in 1982. During his time in Caracas, he was the recipient of a scholarship at the Contemporary Art Museum.
He lived first in Philadelphia, where he was employed by the Foreign Policy Research Institute (1983–1990), while teaching at the University of Pennsylvania (1985–1990). At the time, he began contributing comments on local politics to Radio Free Europe and Voice of America, Bogdan Cristian Iacob, "Persistența liberalismului", in Atelier LiterNet, August 20, 2008; retrieved February 9, 2009 beginning with an analysis of the "dynastic socialism" in Romania, centered on the political career of Nicu Ceaușescu. His essays on the lives and careers of communist potentates, requested by Radio Free Europe's Vlad Georgescu and aired by the station as a series, were later grouped under the title Archeology of Terror.
In 1990, Tismăneanu received a professorship at the University of Maryland, College Park and moved to Washington, D.C. He became editor of East European Politics and Societies in 1998, holding the position until 2004, when he became chair of its editorial committee. Between 1996 and 1999, he held a position on the Fulbright Program's Selection Committee for South-East Europe, and, from 1997 to 2003, was member of the Eastern Europe Committee at the American Council of Learned Societies. A fellow at the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen in Vienna, Austria and the New York University Erich Maria Remarque Institute (both in 2002), he was Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in 2001, returning as Fellow in 2005 and 2008–2009.Vladimir Tismăneanu profile at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; retrieved February 6, 2009 Tismăneanu was also granted fellowship by Indiana University (Bloomington) (2003) and National Endowment for Democracy (2003–2004). The University of Maryland presented him with the award for excellence in teaching and mentorship (2001), the Distinguished Scholar Teacher Award (2003–2004), and the GRB Semester Research Award (2006). He received the Romanian-American Academy of Arts and Sciences's Prize for his 1998 volume Fantasies of Salvation: Democracy, Nationalism, and Myth in Post-Communist Europe and the 2003 Barbara Jelavich Award, presented by the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies for his Stalinism for All Seasons. During the late 1990s, he collaborated with the German-based radio station Deutsche Welle, with a series of broadcasts, most of which he published in Romania as Scrisori din Washington ("Letters from Washington", 2002). Mircea Iorgulescu, "Românul transatlantic", in Revista 22, Nr. 651, August–September 2002 He also worked as editor of Dorin Tudoran's Agora, a political journal of the Romanian diaspora.