„CĂRȚILE REEDUCĂRII DE LA AIUD”. O ANTI-MEMORIE A GULAGULUI ROMÂNESC

Abstract:

The late re-education from the Aiud penitentiary (1959-1964) was a distinct phenomenon of the Romanian Gulag, a complex process through which the communist regime pursued the political restructuring of the prisoners (mostly convicted of belonging to the legionary organization), resulting in the abjuration of their political identity and the active acceptance of the new order; beyond this, the prison management also aimed to create an “anti-memory”, respectively an alternative memory of the Gulag written from the perspective of the regime, describing how the detainees assumed criminal activity in prisons (Pitești, Gherla, Târgu Ocna, Canal, Ocnele Mari), as well as in the forced labour lead mines from Maramureș, all culminating with the re-education process from Aiud. The paper proposes to analyse this narrative approach made famous by the books of re- education, volumes with significant implications and memorial controversies among the detention literature of the Romanian Gulag. The study will appeal to various documentary sources - CNSAS archives from the Criminal, Informative and Network funds), memorialistic literature and oral history interviews.

Keywords:

Gulag, political prisoners, memory of communism, the re-education phenomenon