Perceptii Comuniste Vizavi de Moarte-libre

Mihaela Grancea

Reprezent

Coperta: Patricia Puca Copyright Mihaela Grancea, 2008 Descrierea CIP Director: Mircea Trifu Fondator: dr. T.A. Codreanu Redactor ef: Irina Petra Tehnoredactare computerizat

Mihaela Grancea

Reprezent

CUPRINS

SISTEMUL I MOARTEA. PERCEPXII ALE MORXII N PERIOADA STALINIST;*. 6

Ideologizarea Comunist< a MorYii ......................................................................................... 6 Moartea Liderului. Funeralii i Propagand< Politic< ............................................................. 7 Moartea Eroic< n Propaganda Comunist< a Perioadei ....................................................... 32 Funeraliile Comuniste ca Eveniment Fondator ................................................................... 47 Moartea Dumanului de Clas

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SISTEMUL I MOARTEA. PERCEPXII ALE MORXII N PERIOADA STALINIST;*

IDEOLOGIZAREA COMUNIST A MORII

Pentru marxiti, moartea avea o semnificaYie colectiv< i o finalitate escatolo-gic

Reprezentri ale morii n Romnia epocii comuniste

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sibil< rennoirea societ

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ealonul al doilea i animatorii nomenclaturii locale erau nhumaYi. Evident, nu lipseau de la nmormnt


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ExcepYii notabile de la modelul bolevic de funeralii publice au fost acele, hibride i ele, ale demnitarilor procomuniti din Romnia primului deceniu de democraYie popular

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Petru Groza a fost un episod unic pentru ceea ce au nsemnat funeraliile liderilor comuniti (dei nu a fost membru de partid, ntre 1945-1952, Petru Groza a fost preedinte al Consiliului de Minitri, iar din 1952 a deYinut o funcYie cu mai puYin< influenY< politic


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nchinat (...). S-au respectat chiar i datinile; s-au aruncat b

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nmormnt


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gata s< ia n piept gloanYele infamului regim burghezo-moieresc, la 13 decembrie 1918, n PiaYa Teatrului NaYional. Oficialii p

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Gheorghe Cristescu, v


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individualul este organic i ierarhic subordonat socialului ntrupat de stat, iar desti-nul individual se topete, programatic i practic, n grandoarea proiectului global al societ

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zat/validat n funcYie de sistemul de norme cu finalitate comunitar

20 ...nu doar stabil, ci i prestabilit Daniel Barbu, Republica absent. Politic i societa-te n Romnia postcomunist, Bucureti, Ed. Nemira, 1999, p. 61- 65. 21 Despre ilegaliti, definiYii ale ilegalit


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tivaYiile militanYilor vizavi de reconsiderarea unor evenimente i personaje din trecutul recent (ndeosebi ilegalist), din perspectiva concretiz

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sacrificiul militanYilor comuniti se aplica elogiul necondiYionat care la rndul s


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tei finalit

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turile fericirii sale, ale credinYei sale n stalinism n perioada n care a fost comu-nist ilegalist, adic


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munist este un act incomplet i relativ; de altfel, politologul nu a manifestat nicio-dat< vreun sentiment de compasiune pentru victimele terorii, cu toate c< a fost unul dintre artizanii ideologiei luptei de clas

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pierdute n vara lui 1940, c< romnii, spre deosebire de comunitii care agreau doar o identitate internaYionalist-comunist


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religiozitate a practicanYilor misticii staliniste explic< anacronismul comportamen-tal al acestora, acceptarea morYii comandate de Stalin sau de sistemul inspirat de acesta; f

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special, Belu Zilber35 prezint< n memoriile sale masa de revoluYionari de profe-sie ca pe un bestiar conjunctural alc


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medii mai ales, dar i la baz

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revoluYionari ns< nu reuesc s< se adapteze la viaYa licit< i caut< noi surse de acYiune devenind noile victime ale democraYiei populare42.

RevoluYionarii de profesie p


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Conform propriilor m

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au intrat ns< n cursa elimin


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Literatura i presa comunist< impuneau strategiile genezei revoluYionarului de profesie. Cosmologia literar< a eroului comunist n general, a revoluYionarului de profesie n particular, a fost n primul rnd un exerciYiu de inspiraYie sovietic

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poziYia tematic< i limbajul literaturii realismului socialist erau condiYionate, dictate de istoricul luptelor revoluYionare ale poporului romn, precum i de realitatea fierbinte a reconstrucYiei socialiste, de nevoia de a descrie frumuseYile i bog


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abordare estetic< a trecutului i a prezentului51 (n aceast< etap< era devalorizat

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simbolice proletcultiste. Mitul ntoarcerii la real va reprezenta contraoferta prolet-cultist< care presupunea falsificarea memoriei culturale n numele exigenYelor realu-lui. Trecutul astfel selectiv reevaluat a devenit unul lacunar i negativ; alternativa escatologic< o reprezenta doar ideologia culturii proletare care exersa sublimarea prezentului sau proiectarea viitorului prin abolirea istoriei (republica comunist


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min

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Fidel Casto. ns


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Dan Deliu cu balada Lazr de la Rusca, Victor Tulbure cu Balada tovarului czut mprind n ilegalitate i Mihai Beniuc, cel mai prolific poet al momentului, autor de poezii cu statut de texte referenYiale n opera de catehizare comunist

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Moartea a fost introdus< n temele propagandistice pentru a inventa i ne-muri eroul, sublimnd forYa moral< a noii axiologii71 sau era dat< dumanului ca pedeaps< pentru rezistenYa la Schimbare. O astfel de moarte era doar o anex< a vieYii sociale, era demonstraYia final< a escatologiei comuniste; acesteia i lipsea, totui, dimensiunea spiritual< autentic


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al celor mulYi: c< el cu arcuul lui/s lumina satului/zmbetul norodului/i jun-ghiul chiaburului./Struna lui ml

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munist: ...alt gnd acum te doare/dintre toate


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vedeau, ca-n vis/cum peste paragini/mpliniri de vremi/stau nscrise-n pagini83. Expresiv, din perspectiva eroiz

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la putere presupunea amplificarea, reevaluarea, chiar schimbarea biografiei perso-najului sau a evenimentului care l-a propulsat pe acesta n atenYia contemporanilor (uneori, constat


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Pentru a transforma i controla lumea pe care o construiau, liderii comu-niti au folosit represiunea, ideologia/ideologizarea i manipularea memoriei colec-tive, chiar reconstruirea acesteia (n primul rnd ca memorie istoric

Comunitii au realizat c< ndeosebi fenomenul comemorativ, de tradiYie n Romnia, trebuia instrumentalizat pentru a satisface foamea de legitimare. Vor conta n mecanismele s

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exploat


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Parcul Carol95) cu rol esenYial n construcYia memoriei ilegalit

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Bancic102, Constantin Godeanu103, Filimon Srbu104, Haia Lifschitz105, Tereza Ocsko106, Bela Breiner107, Elena Pavel108, Donca Simo109, Mauriciu Encel110, tefan

101 Alexandru Sahia (19081937) ca prozator proletar a fost considerat unul dintre pionie-rii realismului socialist n Romnia, unul dintre lupt


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Gheorghiu111, Gheorghe Vasilescu - Vasia112, B.H. Berea113, Balasz Pal114, Alecu Constantinescu115, Mihai Gheorghiu Bujor116 etc. (n 1949, cu prilejul comemor

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liderul comemorat a fost calificat, n nc< noul limbaj de lemn al propagandei erou sacrificial i revoluYionar emblematic.117

Printre personalit


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arsenalul cultural al epocii, au manipulat atept

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de altfel orice personaj care reprezenta motivul eroului eponim!). Cele mai semnifi-cative momente vizavi de fenomenul idealiz


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turi de Marx, Engels i de Stalin), gigant al gndirii i voinYei, Lenin intelectua-lul care tia s< gndeasc< ca un muncitor fiind prototipul omului viitorului aceste mostre de liturghie politic< vor fi obsesiv utilizate, pn< la saturaYie, de cte ori dece-da cte un conduc

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aa-zisa ; unora le p


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care, devenit lider comunist, a omort mii de preoYi i ierarhi ai Bisericii Ortodoxe din spaYiul Uniunii Sovietice, a demolat biserici sau le-a transformat n depozite, silozuri, spaYii de relaxare pentru oamenii muncii (s

Cnd trupul lui Stalin a fost depus pe 9 mai 1953, la 11 dimineaYa (ora Mos-covei), n mausoleul de lng< Kremlin, la Bucureti, n PiaYa I.V. Stalin (ast

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unde, la aceea vreme exista o statuie a lui Stalin. n acest timp a ncetat orice activi-tate (n fabrici i uzine, n coli, chiar i mijloacele de transport s-au oprit). Mi-tingul a implicat mii de oameni care p


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venerat sau detestat, au oferit nu doar un scenariu politic, preponderent ritualic, copiat ca orice eveniment fondator, ci i un eveniment epocal care marca ncheie-rea unei epoci, adic< o l

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prins< de un delirant discurs prostalinist135, beYia de cuvinte fiind cea mai eficient< parte din acYiunea concertat< de comemorare a Conduc


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despre exemplul luminos ncarnat de acesta (se considera c< exemplaritatea cele-brului Lider ndemna popoarele supravieYuitoare la unitate, la celebrarea prin munc< stahanovist

Aceste ritualuri i retorici politico-funerare s-au repetat i cu prilejul funera-liilor lui Dej. MulYimile au fost i aici i acum, actorul principal; pe prima pagin< a cotidienelor centrale era prezentat< o fotografie a catafalcului astfel nct profilul defunctului s< inspire forY< i demnitate chiar i n moarte. n Romnia Liber, editorialistul afirma c

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puYin generatoare de cutremur emoYional real sau/i nscenat144. Un participant la nmormntarea liderului comunist a redat cu o uimitoare exactitate, dar i cu o anumit< usc


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litere de-o chioap< despre moartea

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Presa ritualisticii constituite n jurul funeraliilor lui Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, a orchestrat i ea, ca i n cazul celei prilejuite de nhumarea lui Stalin, un proces de celebrare care sublima viaYa i activitatea Liderului. Drept urmare, timpul istoric p


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tru a se p

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consacra personalitate individualit


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tologice, specifice imaginarului politic ConspiraYia, Salvatorul, Vrsta de aur, Unitatea i Solidaritatea, RevoluYia, Progresul i DecadenYa155 se ntlnesc i n imaginarul epocii comuniste fiind valorificate de ideologia regimului. ndeosebi dimensiunea milenarist< a acestor mituri era valorificat

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din viaY


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ar

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pedagogic< a morYii i de a demonstra c< dreptatea social< poate fi realizat< n plan mundan i prin moartea celui care se opune construirii paradisului social, egalitar). Moartea dat< Celuilalt era partea cea mai tragic< a procesului de deconstrucYie vio-lent< a vechii ornduiri. Ea era o execuYie sau efectul caznelor i a vieYii din sis-temul concentraYionar. Dei public, cu referire la dumanii poporului, se foloseau frecvent retorici agresive, criminale, teroarea fizic< i psihologic


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val de represiune parYial datorat revoluYiei anticomuniste din Ungaria (1956), dar i luptelor intestine din cadrul nomenclaturii romneti, episoade conflictuale care continu< i dup< retragerea trupelor sovietice din Romnia. Al doilea val de teroa-re, cel dintre anii 1958-1964, va afecta categorii mai largi ale populaYiei i va fi mai eficient n condiYiile n care acum exista o legislaYie compatibil

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ghezo-moiereti este presa primului deceniu de democraYie proletar


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Yara cu diverse otr

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n cimitirul p


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caYi. Cea mai mare parte a deYinuYilor politici nchii n acea perioad< aveau peste 60 de ani, de aceea rata mortalit

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pentru prnzul nostru s


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MORMINTE CU SAU FR CRUCI

Astfel de percepYii sunt evidenYiate i de caracterul cazon i impersonal al celor mai multe dintre monumentele funerare ale perioadei comuniste. Cimitirul comu-nist reflecta succesul omogeniz

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sunt nvierea i viaYa. Cel ce crede n mine chiar dac< ar muri, va tr


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ceniilor anterioare s-a scris relativ substanYial n ultimii ani181. Aa cum am mai afirmat, strategiile construirii omului nou ca i chip moral

au impus folosirea unui limbaj comun, epurat de particularit

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zare i modernizare a mediului urban i rural a nsemnat, concret, distrugerea valorilor patrimoniale tradiYionale: biserici, cimitire, centrele vechi istorice ale ora-elor (care, astfel, i pierd identitatea istoric< i cultural


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consumate, de multe ori, n anonimat; o astfel de reconsiderare a biografiei r

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metamorfozeaz< n splendoare groaza n faYa timpului, angoasa n faYa morYii188. Pentru a p


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spaYiul din jurul s

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textul bilingv de pe obeliscul lui Jzsa Bla: Aici odihnete/lupt


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plastica de inspiraYie stalinist

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ABSTRACT

If traditional religious discourse about death and mortality brought a certain perception regarding time/temporality, space/spatiality, the cemetery as a space of commemoration and social space, opposing the earth and the sky, human time and eternity, the body and the soul, atheistic discourse imposed a certain linearity of the representations about death. For Marxists, death had a collective signification, an eschatological finality determined by the cosmology of the social universe. This atheistic alternative to the salvation advanced by universal religions was realized in and through the mundane world and involved the victory of social space over the individual, everyones participation to the building of the golden age of global communism and the minimization of individual and ordinary (common) death.

The social fulfillment of the individual was the secular equivalent to the salvation promised by religion. Such eschatology completed, in a fortunate manner as it was believed, the system of continuity through biological reproduction, a reproduction accomplished in the idyllic environment of the socialist family, seen as the nucleus of society.

The fear of death, seen as physical decomposition and definitive dissolution was compensated by the belief in the immortality of the human race, in nature and in history, in the perpetuation (in the collective memory) of the images of individuals who applied (exemplarily) the social communist norm and who were involved in the accomplishment of the communist project, sometimes with great personal sacrifices, including their life. Moreover, death as a natural and objective phenomenon was considered a necessity, because only death made possible the renewal of generations, the emergence of individuals with new socio-creative abilities; the assumption of this representation was claimed by the process of indi-vidual and collective maturing, by the accomplishment of the communist vision about the world, history, and society.

Communist death, as a variant of democratic death, was a product of discourse, a segment of ideology, an application of the fraternalist and egalitarian conceptions, a means/occasion to cultivate solidarities specific to the internationalist and/or national-communist project (the old axiology that exalted heroism and honor were transformed according to the new intentions of legitimization of a political project or a representative personality for the egalitarian ideology). Any commemorative initiative took place (emblematically)


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under the ideological and discursive patronage of state ethics, determining the individual to take refuge (at best!) in ritualism, mimicking the acceptance of communist mythologies, which, in fact, meant only conformism and alienation.

This study encompasses several directions of investigation and analysis: the scenography of communist death, obsequies as founding elements and manifestations of communist identity, commemoration, communist death as heroic death, the death of the Enemy, the communist epitaph. Various sources are used: official documents, the press.

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EPITAFUL S;PNXEAN I CELEBRAREA VIEXII

CIMITIRUL DE LA SPNA, O DILEM CULTURAL?

OBS. SE MAI POT ADUGA FOTOGRAFI EXITENTE IN FOLDER n comunism, ndeosebi n perioada ceauist


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Doar V. Savonea204 va aborda, ce-i drept superficial, fenomenul, ncadrndu-l pe Ion Stan P

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ul funerar s


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Pictarea se realizeaz< cu culori obYinute din pigmenYi naturali i se efectuea-z< pe ambele p

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S


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episoadele de moarte violent

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ind de o anume form< de sancYionare prin epitaful (uneori satiric) cu funcYie normativ


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lungate, sunt conservatoare i definesc identitatea unei comunit

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Astfel, n albumul Spna leagn al artei i spiritualitii tradiionale221 se afirm< c


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reprezentarea iconografic

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IMAGINEA MORII

Studiile de antropologie au acreditat ideea existenYei unui sens al vieYii, respectiv al morYii, care pote fi surprins n structura i semantica obiceiurilor legate de ciclul vieYii. n mentalitatea arhaic


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supravieYuiasc

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Nici viaYa nu pare, ns


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familiaritate, chiar complicitate cu moartea. Dac< nu o ignor

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tarea morYii este construit< doar prin cteva formule, imagini, tot attea ncerc


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manifestare ubicu

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survenit< prea devreme i care l


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moarte este, de regul

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n Lumea de Dincolo. Lucrurile, oamenii, locurile aduc


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m

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reprezint< o perturbare a ordinii sociale. Textul funerar care individualizeaz< dece-datul/decedata prin redarea circumstanYelor morYii sale tragice i prin sugerarea durerii (jelii) supravieYuitorilor262, mai mult dect prin exprimarea p


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1949. R

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nea spaYiului romnesc, ntr-o lume de altfel multicultural


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Obiceiul de a picta colorat i nflorit crucile, de a introduce, n structura cru-cii, epitaful de dimensiune medie, face parte din sistemul de atitudini estetice de-fensive care valorizeaz< viaYa uman

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trud


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scos/i multe glume am f

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destinat, pe cruce, textului funerar mai ales cnd dup< anii 50, epitaful devine mai amplu; inscripYia funerar< este realizat< cu majuscule albe pe fond albastru).278 n text funcYioneaz


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Iconografia ndeplinete i rolul de spaYiu scenic (scenografic chiar, datorit< prezenYei decorului, elementelor de mobilier, costumaYiei, atitudinii personajelor pictate i preg

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sunt subliniate limitele condiYiei umane (fizice, morale, spirituale) pe care emiten-tul le recunoate i le trateaz


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Iconografia creeaz

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gr


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ABSTRACT

The Cemetery of Spna, a Cultural Dilemma?

From tourists jotting down travel logs (some eventually published) to others who simply took part to discussions on thematic forums, folklorists and theoreticians, everyone came out with different theories regarding the cultural identity of the Merry Cemetery. Thus, in our opinion, a new false dilemma arises. The analysis of the S

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many cases unreadable. However, some crosses are even more interesting than those in the consecrated cemetery, the inscriptions being often longer and more detailed with respect to the biography of the deceased; I primarily refer to the family funerary tombs like that of Maria Savuleasa (1897-1959) and her children Irina, AnuYa, and M


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through its nature, it conditions both humanity and civilization. The tragedy of the individuals death is amplified in case the deceased has not went through the second stage of earthly life, adulthood which is opened by the wedding ; it is generally considered that the discontented have not completed their life cycle from various reasons, which may be both mysterious as well as circumstantial, and were aggressively and unjustly interrupted by an unexpected end. Thus, if natural death seems a sleep, rest (hodin

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monologues about finitude and their language becomes similar to the iconographic representation, a channel inviting to intercultural communication. Anyone interested in the folkloric inspiration of Ioan Stan P


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confusion at the level of funerary symbolism etc.). The funerary inscriptions from S

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Even the dimensions and the form of the cross seem to be functionally determined by the epitaph and the iconographic representation! Each element of the funerary monument is given a particular function: crosses reproduce through form and height the human being; by proportion and versification the epitaph is meant to exploit the qualities of the monologue, the hieratic iconography hints towards everyday life, social status as well as the gender of the deceased (the emitter of the epitaph). Moreover, by the attention paid to the dcor, to the furnishings, costumes, attitudes of the represented characters, seemingly ready to join a conversation or even to perform some stage requirement, iconography fulfills the role of transcending conventional time.

The tragism of the extinction, even in circumstances of violent death, is not apocalyptic; on the contrary, sometimes it seems dissolved, because death in all the epitaphs remains just a leaving of the world in favor of another (superior) order, which is not accessible and much less open to the fantasies of mortals. As long as individual failure comes to be pedagogically valued, death ends being somehow tamed. Death, as absolute limit, is not tragic in itself, at least as long as it offers the opportunity to surpass ones condition. Such lucidity may also determine a certain type of hilarity, tragi-comic effects being conveyed by the recent epitaph: Burn to hell thou luck/Cause I had not encountered you/As youth I remained orphan/And lived with the bad luck by my side/When I got older though/Other misfortune crossed my way/A hard disease bothered me/And it sent me in the hole/I drank with my friends/Cause I knew I wont survive/Pop Gheorghe nicknamed The Old Man/1945-1994.

Sources of Merriment in the Spna Cemetery

The normative function of the epitaph is the effect of irony and self-irony, by which the texts penalizes human weaknesses, the failure to fulfill the certain purposes, such as the care for the family and the cultivation of the land, of biblical qualities which transformed the human kind in the master of nature. Those texts indulgently recollecting the prodigal behavior are particularly funny. Through familiar expressions and an apparently good nature, common people become typified characters, showing some characterological features, which are sometimes caricaturized. Hence, the limits of human condition (physical, moral, spiritual), which the emitter assumes, are treated with humor. As a matter of fact, in older epitaphs, the humoristic comic291 is prevailing; though secondarily, one 291 See: Here I rest myself/And Pop Toader is my name/I used to enjoy the music/As well as the alcohol (tuica) /from the glasses/As long as I lived on earth/I kept thinking at one thing/To have what to eat and drink/To sing to clarinet/But I also had some sorrows/As I


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may discover even the satiric comic, which sometimes points towards an acid approach to the digression from the norm292. An irony which seems self-irony, because it is part of the pseudo-monologue of the deceased is traceable in the epitaphs of the local leaders, obsessed with power: While I lived in this world/I went by the name of Turda Ion/Many jobs I used to have/Woodsman and peasant I was/I spliced many trees/The consume cooperative/Elected me as president/I was also village mayor/All called me mean/But I also did good/To those who were on my side/I also had three children/The little one died/And I also tell thou, /That I had two women/Both of them were called AnuYa/And were both very nice/I loved both/But I beat them both too/Now I beg my pardon/From youngsters and old men/Lived 66 years. Died in 1979.

The iconography sometimes creates the circumstantial comic (obviously involuntarily, by representing through the naive painting explicit scenes from the deceaseds life) through funny images as those representing butchers caught in the act while performing their job, sacrificing the animals, flaying sheep, assiduously slicing meat while smoking unceasingly.293 The normative tolerance, the clichd biographical reference, naturalness in the way death is talked about as the remained widower/And I joyfully sang to you all/Not as I sing to myself. 1949, or Here I rest myself/Stan Ion is my name/Since childhood/I liked home/As well as the alcohol from the bottles/Tudosie my dear wife/Take care of yourself/As I would leave this world/At age of 62/Death 1963, or Here lies down Pop Axente the wife of George Titru/She lived 40 years/As long as I lived in the world/I took good care of the hen (poultries) /more than that I used to rest myself/1934, or Here I rest myself/Ion Griguta is my name/As long as I lived in the world/I used to smoke a lot/I was work-shy/Despite I used to take good care of me/A Hard illness found me/And without growing old/I left life 57 years old. 1942 292 See: As long as I/was called Toaderu Ioanii/from my childhood/I very much liked horses/And we also liked to drink at pub (buffet) /With the wife of somebody else/I really miss the world because I had to leave much too early/At the age of 52/1973 or Here I rest/Pop Toader of Taoma is my name/As long as I lived in this world/I designed many houses/And taught lots from the village/how to become artisans/I build stables and sheds/We also loved the beloveds lips/And the life we left at the age of 86. Dead in 1971. 293 See the zestful epitaphs which accentuate the above mentioned impressions by inserting the anecdotic: I lived 49 years/that is what I want to tell thou all/I was George Basului/As long as I lived in the world/Many sheep I belit/I prepared delicious meat/Delicious meat I am not kidding/And each had eaten noble-like/I give thou fat meat/To incite your appetite/I fell asleep in 1939 or Toader Basu is my name/As I lived in the world/Goats and sheep I used to belit/Calves and little lambs/and I processed meat out of them/Which I sold to the women/Because I had to leave this life behind/At the age of 61/Dead 1958 or Here I rest/Stan Gheorghe the son of Ion Petrenjel is my name/As I lived in life/many sheep I used to butch-slay/I used to do exclusively fat meat/So as people to enjoy it/And I also measured them generously/So they would buy from me futher/He lived 60 years/Born in 1900/Death 1960.

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entrance in clay, the lack of lamentations and of the classic warning to the passerby, the iconography reflecting the project, sometimes at natural dimensions, the omnipresence of the meal, convey a sensation of familiarity, of a fugitive interactive space, settled on an greenery background painted on the S


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RETORICA DESPRE MOARTEA EROIC; N INSCRIPXIILE FUNERARE ALE LUI DECEMBRIE 89

Vou

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Astfel, statul-naYiune se manifest< ca o entitate mitologic< construit< pe un fundament specific i complex cu valoare ontologic


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Simbolurile, prin natura lor cultural< (adesea arhetipal

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perficial


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Din nefericire, s-a ignorat experienYa artistic< i afectiv< oferit< de plastica reprezentnd primul memorial din lume al victimelor comunismului, reprezentare plastic< aflat< la Sighetul MarmaYiei, n Romnia! Nu exist< continuit

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ra310 a realizat i a coordonat ridicarea amintitului complex din Cimitirul Eroilor i a celor 12 monumente statuare situate n zonele de represiune ale lui Decembrie 1989. Memorialul RevoluYiei (muzeul) presupune i o capel< ecumenic


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simetric, de o parte i alta a acesteia, au fost ridicate, din iniYiativa instituYiilor afe-rente (Academia Trupelor de Uscat

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militarilor sibieni morYi n 22 Decembrie 1989 i respectiv cel ridicat n memo-ria cadrelor din cadrul MI, subofiYeri i ofiYeri ucii n confrunt


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de erou-martir (!?) care face i din morYile accidentale un act de eroism (m< refer la cei care nu au participat la manifest

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n

Mitul eroului depinde, este determinat, prin form< i conYinut, de circumstan-Yele istorice n care a fost imaginat. Orice proces de eroizare presupune existenYa unei relaYii de concordanY


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individul devine altceva dect existenY< expirat

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Sakatas!), statuie de bronz situat< n PiaYa-700, lng< biserica greco-catolic< i Biserica plngtoare a lui Marian Zidaru, bronz travertin, aflat n nia turnului bisericii ortodoxe din PiaYa Ktti. Ceea ce a interesat nu a fost, neap


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revoluYionare (de fiecare Cr

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romneti n primele luni de dup< evenimente. Presa, n special cea local


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tolii morYii s-au refugiat printre morminte i n cavourile cimitirului municipal, r

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Multe dintre epitafuri, dei sunt scrise la comanda rudelor i a apropiaYilor celor decedaYi, evalueaz< esenYa jertfei celui adormit i exprim< recunotinYa i mndria supravieYuitorilor care, astfel, i dep


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rostind Tatl Nostru pentru morYii Timioarei i mp

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ca>. Nu putea s< tr


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Interesant mbin

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Cele mai frecvente epitafuri sunt, ns


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dest i standardizat, dar nf

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teni s-au ntlnit./i aa din vorb< n vorb


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RevoluYia romn< a oferit, cel puYin pentru o parte din presa occidental< (n-deosebi francez

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Dac< cei mulYi dintre analitii specializaYi n antropologia eroiz


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despre cosmologia fenomenului revoluYionar, despre funcYionalitatea demiurgic< a revoluYiilor, despre euforia popular

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actele oamenilor simpli (conform statisticilor, cei mai mulYi dintre morYii lui De-cembrie 1989 erau muncitori) au contribuit la pr


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(a fost i primul ef al unit

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n circulaYie344, prea multe eminenYe (politice, evident!) demoniace au manipulat i manipuleaz< evenimentele345, prea mult< lume minimalizeaz< i/sau ignor


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sacrificiul celor care, n Decembrie 1989, i-au manifestat dorinYa de libertate.

N LOC DE CONCLUZIE

La aproape 20 de ani de la r

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Cocan; chiar i Ion Iliescu, n limitele limbajului de lemn, n comemorativul nr. 3730, din 2003, al oficiosul Dimineaa, vorbete despre: Obiectivele RevoluYiei din 1989 care trebuie s< anime spiritul de solidaritate al celor care au participat la aceste evenimente etc., n.m.).348 Aceast< istorie recent


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ABSTRACT

Heroes and martyrs, in fact the victims on whose blood sacrifice the identity of a national community was constructed and affirmed, become part of its arsenal of motives and identitary representations. The historical past, as common destiny, is memorized and handed down from generation to generation through the multiple channels of folk and official culture. These channels songs (especially patriotic songs), folk and cultivated poetry, fictional literature (especially the historical novel), historical/historiographic literature, and the cinema are characteristic of (Romanian) modernity and act like identitary cultural channels and products which, through their functionality and formative (educational-didactical and emotional) aim, subjectively administer the collective past and determine the perception of the historical time as national past in a patrimonial and emotional manner. Thus, the nation-state operates as a mythological entity built on a complex and specific foundation of ontological value, composed of the motherland cult (an original identitary cult) and the cult of heroes and martyrs (an ancient cult shaped and reshaped according to the identitary context of a given epoch), as well as of the numerous ceremonies and celebrations that celebrate and/or commemorate significant events and personalities of the community, organized according to an established scenario and benefiting from elements with certain sacred historicity (national holidays, banners, sanctuary-like places, gestures and attitudes with a unifying finality, small plates and memorial houses, pantheon-like cemeteries, museums etc.).

Identitary construction involves the orchestrating of the collective memory by the nation-state around some places of memory (lieux de mmoire). This form of collective memory, that we can call national, is achieved through a long selection process which is imposed for the purpose of the individuals integration into the respective national community. The registers of collective memory political, religious, juridical, literary and artistic memory are on the same level with myths, legends, even (historiographic) errors because memory does not administer evidence, but makes up its own evidence.

Collective memory, through a process of accumulation of feelings, stimuli, and representations, becomes ideologized history and an instrument of identitary legitimation through which certain data are preserved, the updating of impressions and past images is realized, and the manifestation of inconsistencies, divisions and

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repressions which touch the core of historic existence is revealed. The nation is the result of a postulate and of an invention, but it exists only through the adherence to this fiction; there are numerous attempts and the successes are the result of a sustained proselytism that teaches individuals about their identity, instills the duty to conform to it and transforms them into a sort of evangelists who spread, in time and space, the collective reference. Thus, the national sentiment is, in fact, constituted in the cultural and emotional acceptance of a referential system of the community (foremost by way of learning and commemoration which make a per-fect binomial, especially through the places of memory). Symbols play an impor-tant role within the combustion of the active identity assuming process. They become genuine collective codes by means of which the hopes, expectations and anxieties of social agents are expressed. Symbols, through their cultural (often-archetypal) nature, stimulate the assuming of identity and of the feeling of active responsibility for a common social-cultural and historical patrimony, for the patri-monial values that they are identified with.

In a context where the redefinition and the consolidation of national and cul-tural identity are searched for, the most frequently invoked arguments are the places of memory, especially the pantheon and the commemorative celebration. The places of memory acquire a special place within the system of social representations because, through their concreteness, they are the most suggestive expressions of nationalism, a material (patrimonial) foundation of the cult of historical monuments (by the way of their cultivation, memory is preserved, thus becoming patrimonial itself). The appeal to the places of memory is integrated into the system of constructing the national identity i.e. the memorial-nation. In this context, monumental art, the heroes cemetery and not least the epitaph inevitably acquire the status of places of memory, of spaces which, from the perspective of national mythology and of Romanian societys attitudes and sensibilities, reconstruct the heroic death of certain participants in the revolutionary events of December 1989 as a beautiful, sacrificial and thus sacralizing death. This death strips the heroized characters biography of any trace of individuality.

The funerary monument and the funerary inscription that accompanies it express certain sensibilities of identitary nature and reflect a funerary heroic imagery that is not only primary but also trivialized by way of clichs, reducing the field of representation. In Romanian culture, there is a modern tradition (since we exclude the imagery characteristic of the folk epic ballad from our analysis) to represent the hero and heroism by means of artistic (plastic) expressions and epitaph texts, mainly dedicated to the heroes of the War of Independence as well as those of the First World War. In fact, the mythologizing fervor that they reveal results from moments of crisis, of societal metamorphosis and/or rupture. The appeal to the heroic sacrifice and to its role in the continuity and affirmation of national identity is made through the representation of the hero.


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Although the forms and symbols of statuary art, along with its accompanying funerary inscriptions complexly and suggestively reflect (the implicitly commemorative) funerary imagery, we will not make an organic interpretation of the December 1989 victims heroizing images because, unlike in the case of artistic representations from the 1878-1918 period (small commemorative plates, busts, individual and collective statuary monuments the last ones focusing on the spectacular and victoriously reassuring group heroism or symbolizing in a traditional manner the suffering from a loss through those indigenized pieta, obelisks or street names), there is not always an organic link between the heroizing and commemorating artistic expressions of the December 1989 victims. When both the individual and the collective epitaphs exist, there is no explicit relationship between the artistic image of the heroized ones and the funerary inscription, and the symbolic capital is relatively poor. What we have here is rather a lack of balance in representation.

In modernity, funerary monuments were erected a certain period of time - even twenty five years after the event had taken place either by the local authorities or through the subsidizing of the members of the local community, who rendered in this way their homage to the local sons (there were also situations in which monuments were erected as a result of subsidies from comrades-in-arms, who wanted to pay a last respect to their fallen peers). This period of time allowed a more thorough evaluation of the events and of the sacrificial victims degree of involvement in their development and outcome. Such an endeavor, based on historical research, would have been necessary before the erection of certain monuments dedicated to the Heroes of the December 1989 Revolution. The lack of such analyses concerning recent history and the functionality of certain hitherto occult interests and solidarities, make it possible for the cohabitation of both victims and perpetrators killed during the events on the same commemorative mo-nument, within the collective text of certain funerary inscriptions and in the equalizing disposition of their graves in the post-communist cemeteries. That is why, in confusing situations such as the one concerning the martyrological legacy, we sometimes prefer the use of the terms victim/victims to describe those fallen during that period. Besides, some of the existing formulas, such as shot during the Revolution or fallen during the Revolution, which are used on the monuments dedicated to this event, are more illustrative than the generalizing hero-martyr (!?) formula, which makes accidental deaths also look heroic (we refer here to those who did not take any active part in the protests and were hit by stray bullets while they were going to work or watching the protestors commotion from their house windows; these, as well as those who survived, were awarded revolutionary certificates and all the subsequent rights).

Because the creation of a new pantheon seems a necessary process after

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1989, particularly in the context of the strenuous and never-ending transition that Romania is experiencing, no community should dispose of its heroes, its saviors, both in the everyday life and in the remembrance of historical tradition, all this under the circumstances in which the character (now providential in this context) converts into a mediator between people and collective destiny or between people and history. Such perceptions from time immemorial impose themselves even today upon the most developed, apparently skeptical societies, uopn the most technologically advanced and democratic ones (see the consistence and the continuity of the heroes cult in the postmodern society, especially the American one!). One can even talk about a certain hunger for heroism, a craving for role models, which is suggested and even fueled through all cultural channels, mainly the cinematic ones. It is essential to mention the war heros privileged status in the configuration of the Romanian national Pantheon. This preference is explainable if one refers to the canons of nationalist historiography and to the perception of Romanian history as an unrelenting and fierce struggle for the affirmation and defense of the nation-state.

While massmedia had and still has greater public impact due to its substantial contribution to the heroes representation as the founders of Romanias newfound modernity, the commemorative epitaph offers fewer possibilities for the imagological investigation, because it rather expresses the way in which both the survivors and some of those heroized through their presentation in the funerary inscriptions perceive the significance of heroic sacrifice. The texts of the monuments and commemorative plates located in the heroes cemeteries from the two martyr-cities, Timioara and Bucharest, contain a great number of strongly personalized epitaphs, i.e. document-like epitaphs, because they refer to the context of heroic death, to the heros personality and to the nature of the sacrificial act as a civic and national duty.

Many epitaphs, although written at the suggestion of the families and friends of the deceased, evaluate the essence of the sacrifice of the ones who sleep and express the gratitude and pride of the survivors who, this way, overcome their grief. Besides, the data published in the press a few years after the events, namely information taken from interviews conducted with the relatives of the deceased, reveal that many of the killed heroes were practicing Christians and were aware of the value of their sacrifice, some of them even having premonitions concerning their physical demise. One could argue that youngsters such as George Cristian Stanciu (Dec. 28, 1960/Dec. 20, 1989), Petre Poptean (Jan. 27, 1965/Dec. 21st, 1989), Roberto Sandu (Nov. 4, 1967/Dec. 21st, 1989), and Drago Mladovici (Apr. 2nd, 1969/Dec. 23rd, 1989) most of the aforementioned victims being from among the thirteen youngsters killed at the Dalles Hall seem to have died in a Christian way, with joy, unarmed, saying The Lords Prayer for the Timioara victims and


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offering flowers to those who would assassinate them (the Security troops aligned in battle formation as if ready for an armed conflict). In the words of St. Paul, the youngsters who sacrificed themselves in this way died for what was unseen, but foreseeable... It was only their faith in redemption that made the aforementioned ones and others left unmentioned scream, We will live and we will be free! on that tragic and redemptive night of December 21st, 1989. From this perspective, to many of us who witnessed the events, their death was a Victory that bore resemblance to the Triumph against the Beast.

We will illustrate this with a few epitaphs that are significant concerning those who willingly made the supreme sacrifice for the Others, because greater love has no one than this, to lay down ones life for his friends (John, 15:13).349 Out of a multitude of possibilities, we have selected a few funerary inscriptions such as those of George Daniel Datin/Nov. 16, 1970-Dec. 23rd, 1989/To our motherland, you tell the truth that I was there where I ought to have been! (The Bucharest Heroes Cemetery), and Claudiu State/May 2nd, 1971-Dec. 23rd, 1989/We have the belief that your life, taken away at the dawn of a new existence, will be a thread of light./You sacrificed yourself for a sacred and enlightening goal: FREEDOM/May your fine example of heroism forever remain in our hearts full of gratitude (The Bucharest Heroes Cemetery). The images that remind of the reason for the slaughter of the innocent are present in the epitaph of a young rocker, an innocent victim of the repression at the Dalles Hall: LucreYiu Mihai Gtlan/Apr. 9, 1970-Dec. 24, 1989/A member of Conexiuni and Interval rock bands/He shouted Down with communism! and offered flowers to the troops in front of the Dalles Hall, he knelt/and prayed for the dead of Timioara./It was 17:30 on December 21st 89 when he was hit by three fatal bullets. He was 19 years old and the first victim of the Revolution in Bucharest. They used to call him Miki the Rocker.

Some of the funerary inscriptions interestingly combine the Christian per-spective of eschatological death with heroic sacrifice. Such a combination is rather rare, and perhaps that is the reason for its greater efficiency concerning the perception of the heroic act as a rationally assumed endeavor: Poor mother, dont you weep/My sacrifice of fire and blood/At the dawn of a new century/Helped my people again find God/Mihail R

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buried in the Heroes Cemetery section of the old Orthodox cemetery in Lugoj, illustrates the same intertwining between the national-civic dimension and the transcendental one. The funerary inscription uses the neutral tone to convey the context of death Here lies the hero of the Revolution, Daniel Brocea (June 18, 1969 killed in Bucharest on Dec. 21st, 1989) /He did what he could and the prophetic enouncement to ascertain the belief in the inheritance of eternal life and in the eschatological effect of the heros death As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance (Daniel, 12:13). From this perspective, perhaps the most significant inscription is the one found on the large monument in Sibiu, Memorial 89, (the oeuvre of the controversial architect eptilici), which is placed in front of the Trade Unions Culture House, and emulates to some extent the model of American memorials: Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life (John, 5:25). Such a collective epitaph ascertains the idea that heroic sacrifice guarantees not only redemption, but also the approach of the end of all evil!

The most frequent epitaphs are those which describe the survivors mourning for the heros death in the vein of the traditional lament and remind of the hero-status of the deceased only in passing. Other inscriptions, the least numerous, are explanations and reflections of secular origin and do not hint to the sacrificial context of the loss. They perpetuate the tradition of the epitaph, which used to meditate on the vague and indefinite character of death as well as on the value of human life. The texts from this category quote fragments from the poems of the classics of Romanian literature, i.e. Mihai Eminescu, George Cobuc and so forth, thus continuing the appeal to the texts established by the Romanian funerary monument.

A less popular, but special category of epitaphs is the chronicle-epitaph. This is a text with documentary value, which suggests new possibilities for the analysis of the sensibilities and solidarities manifested during the revolutionary events. In the No. 2 Municipal Cemetery (the so-called cemetery of the poor), situated on Lipovei Avenue in Timioara, there is a rather modest and ordinary monument with a tricolor cockade, which states the viciousness of the repression and the magnitude of this genuine fratricidal war: Eternal glory/to the unknown heroes/Fallen during the Revolution/of December 1989 (the construction of this monument was subsidized by a group of good-hearted people). Similar inscriptions written on small commemorative plates (mainly from Timioara) and particularly on the heroes graves, narrate the death of the hero, the brutality of the repression, the end-of-the-world feeling and, not last, the survivors grief.

While most of the analysts, specialized in the anthropology of heroization, talk about the cosmology of the revolutionary phenomenon, the demiurgic


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functionality of revolutions, the popular euphoria and heroes as the ontological foundation of a new order, the survivors ever more frequently consider heroes as losses because their sons and daughters sacrificial death is publicly manipulated for legitimizing or rejecting political ends, and the agents of repression still seem protected as well as being visibly prosperous and unpunished. Thus, the father of Gabriel Cioran, a young man who died during the Revolution at the age of thirty-one, considers that his son is a futile loss and that most of those who fell are only those sacrificed; according to him, it was a massacre meant to legitimize the new regime through blood and to intimidate any possible political rivalry. Attitudes and gestures that reveal the inability of the living to se-parate the departed from their mundane universe and their lack of comfort take place even today, many years after the events happened. One such gesture is made by the Barbu family who decorate a Christmas tree every year at the grave of their nineteen-year-old son buried in the Heroes Cemetery.

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