Dear Adam,
Have a smooth and enjoyable flight to the magic country of Spain! For our family, it is a very special place, what historians call a site of memory, even if we (me, your mother, my two sisters) did not experience directly the bloodily tragic Civil War. But our close relatives, your grandfather and grandmother, did. At 24, your grandfather lost his right arm in the battle on the river Ebro, the most ferocious during that ferocious war.
Your grandmother was only 21 when she left Romania to go to Spain to work as a nurse in the International Brigades hospital in Madrid, then in Catalonia.
Galea Burca, Sanda (Sara) Sauvard, Hermina Tismaneanu
Try to imagine their feelings, hopes, illusions, the sense of fraternity that linked people of many nations. Spain was betrayed, it is true. But those who fought there against Fascism deserve our respect. Not the Stalinist commissars or the NKVD agents, of course, but the romantics who went there to die in order to prevent the triumph of Fascism.
Try to imagine the battles in which one of your favorite writers, George Orwell, was involved. Read “Hotel Florida” to learn about another writer you admire, Ernest Hemingway, and his times as a reporter in Madrid and Barcelona…
Poze facute de marele fotojurnalist Robert Capa in timpul Razboiului Civil din Spania
As you know, I and Marius are working on a book about “Two Sisters in Dark Times”. We will be in Spain trying to reconstruct my mother’s itinerary (but this time from Spain to France). I have never been to Barcelona, but I have dreamed a lot about that city. I know you did too…
Love,
Your father
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/22/books/review/hotel-florida-by-amanda-vaill.html?_r=0” target=”_blank”>http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/22/books/review/hotel-florida-by-amanda-vaill.html?_r=0
http://www.polirom.ro/catalog/carte/omagiu-cataloniei-3425/
http://www.contributors.ro/global-europa/corabia-amagirilor-brigazile-internationale-din-spania/
http://www.lapunkt.ro/2013/01/27/mituri-fondatoare-sub-lupa/
Vladimir Tismăneanu
Este profesor de stiinte politice la Universitatea Maryland. Este autorul a numeroase carti intre care "The Devil in History: Communism, Fascism, and Some Lessons of the Twentieth Century" (University of California Press, 2012), "Despre comunism. Destinul unei religii politice", "Arheologia terorii", "Irepetabilul trecut", "Naufragiul Utopiei", "Stalinism pentru eternitate. O istorie politica a comunismului romanesc", "Fantasmele salvarii", "Fantoma lui Gheorghiu-Dej", "Democratie si memorie" si "Reinventarea politicului. Europa de Est de la Stalin la Havel". Este editor a numeroase volume intre care "Stalinism Revisited", "The Promises of 1968", "Revolutiile din 1989" si "Anatomia resentimentului". Coordonator al colectiilor "Zeitgeist" (Humanitas) si "Constelatii" (Curtea Veche). Co-editor, impreuna cu Dorin Dobrincu si Cristian Vasile, al "Raportului Final al Comisiei Prezidentiale pentru analiza dictaturiii comuniste din Romania" (Humanitas, 2007). Co-editor, impreuna cu Bogdan Cristian Iacob, al volumului "The End and the Beginning: The Revolutions of 1989 and the Resurgence of History" (Central European University Press, 2012).
Co-autor, impreuna cu Mircea Mihaies, al volumelor "Vecinii lui Franz Kafka", "Balul mascat", "Incet, spre Europa", "Schelete in dulap", "Cortina de ceata" si "O tranzitie mai lunga decat veacul. Romania dupa Ceausescu". Editor, intre 1998 si 2004, al trimestrialului "East European Politics and Societies" (in prezent membru al Comitetului Editorial). Articolele si studiile sale au aparut in "International Affairs" (Chatham House), "Wall Street Journal", "Society", "Orbis", "Telos", "Partisan Review", "Agora", "East European Reporter", "Kontinent", "The New Republic", "New York Times", "Times Literary Supplement", "Philadelphia Inquirer", "Gazeta Wyborcza", "Rzeczpospolita", "Contemporary European History", "Dilema Veche", "Orizont", "Apostrof", "Idei in Dialog" , "22", "Washington Post", "Verso", "Journal of Democracy", "Human Rights Review", "Kritika", "Village Literary Supplement" si in numeroase alte locuri. Din 2006, detine o rubrica saptamanala in cadrul Senatului "Evenimentului Zilei". Colaborator permanent, incepand din 1983, al postului de radio "Europa Libera" si al altor radiouri occidentale.
Director al Centrului pentru Studierea Societatilor Post-comuniste la Universitatea Maryland. In 2006 a fost presedintele Comisiei Prezidentiale pentru Analiza Dictaturii Comuniste din Romania.
