The Digitization of the Archives of the Romanian Exile (January – October 2011)
The Exile and Minorities Department is announcing the digitization of several IICCMRE archival collections containing publications of the Romanian exile, as well as documents or manuscripts from various personal archives (e.g. ˝the Romanian exile archive˝ created by Monica Lovinescu and Virgil Ierunca). As a result of several projects developed in January-October 2011, approximately 29 000 pages from various publications and archival collections of the Romanian exile and 23 video recordings are available in electronic format for researchers.
Out of the Monica Lovinescu-Virgil Ierunca collection, donated by the Humanitas Aqua Forte to IICCMRE in September 2011, 2327 pages have been scanned. The collection consists of video documents (integrally digitized), excerpts from the French press, manuscripts and dactylographed texts of authors from the Diaspora, but also from the country. Among these, we mention texts belonging to Dan M. Brătianu (Souvenirs marquants de 1908 à 1984), Petre Baicu (Memorii din închisori – Memories from prisons), dactylographed texts belonging to Dan Petrașincu (known by the pseudonym Angelo Moretta), manuscripts of the poet Alexandru Busuioceanu or of Ion Pârvulescu, the dactylographed version of the novel Biserica Neagră (The Black Church) of A.E. Baconsky, accompanied by the author’s annotations, the dactylographed version of Mircea Vulcănescu’s Final word, delivered on 15 January 1948 in front of the Bucharest Court of Appeal, various manuscripts of texts published in Ethos, the review edited by Virgil Ierunca (e.g. the dactylographed texts of Mircea Eliade for Caiete de dor (Notebooks of Longing) with the author’s annotations).
The collection “Romanian Exile in Great Britain” was integrally scanned (6208 pages). It provides information about the activities of the Romanian exile in Great Britain starting from 1941 and it includes the following sub-collections:
The George Emil Iliescu and Ecaterina Iliescu sub-collection consists of acts and personal documents belonging to Ecaterina and G.E. Iliescu, military reports, sheets and photos of exiled Romanians in England.
The ACARDA (British-Romanian Cultural Association) sub-collection gathers correspondence, articles, press excerpts referring to ACARDA’s activity. Among these, we mention reports concerning ACARDA’s actions for supporting the ˝Opération Villages Roumains˝, its solidarity with the workers’ revolts in Brasov (15 November 1987) and the revolution of December 1989.
The Iolanda Costide (Strănescu) sub-collection contains Iolanda Costide’s correspondence with Iurie Roșca and Nicolae Lupan, appeals, telegrams, statements, speeches and press excerpts referring to the activity of the ˝Pro Basarabia and Bucovina˝ Association and its relations with ACARDA, etc.
The ARRC sub-collection (Anglo-Romanian Refugee Committee) gathers correspondence, notes, addresses, interventions, brochures, speeches, press excerpts concerning the handling by ACARDA of the issue of Romanian Refugees in England, especially the Gheorghe Viscerean, Ghiţă Milea and Stancu Păpuşoiu cases.
Out of the Victor Frunză collection 4374 pages have been scanned, namely the publications Dialog and Lupta (3294 pages of Dialog and 1080 pages of Lupta).
The Dialog review was published in Köln, Frankfurt am Main and Dietzenbach, Germany, in 1977. The review represented the Democratic Society of Romanians in Germany and, since April 1982, Ion Solacolu was its editor. From 1988 up to 1992, the Dialog review edited the supplement Literature notebook, whose editor was Ion Negoițescu.
The journal Lupta (Le combat) appeared in Paris, from September 1983 to December 1997. The publication was edited during its first years by Mihai Korne (at the same time the director of the journal) and since September 1985 by Antonia Constantinescu.
The P.H. Stahl collection was integrally scanned (422 pages). The collection contains the publication Gânduri Libere (Free Thoughts) that appeared in Paris from January 1951 up to 1952. The review aimed, as it is pointed out in the (unsigned) Foreword of No.1/1951, to be ˝an organ for the defense of the national culture˝. Its main collaborators were Monica Lovinescu, Virgil Ierunca, Şerban Voinea and Constantin Amăriuţei.
The Constantin Micu-Stavilă (previously Ştefan Delureanu, the name was modified upon the donor’s request) collection was scanned integrally, amounting to 9238 pages. The collection gathers personal documents, articles and manuscripts belonging to Constantin and Viorica Stavilă.
The Romanian Institute and the Romanian Library of Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany) collection, integrally digitized (1557 pages), consists of a few editions of the Romanian Library’s Bulletin as well as reports concerning the library’s activity. The collection was donated to IICCMRE in October 2011.
The Romanian Library of Freiburg (inventories) contains a list of the Romanian Library’s inventory divided according to author files and documentary topics. 4750 files have been digitized and processed.
Apart from these documents, IICCMRE also puts at researchers’ disposal 23 video recordings from the archive collections of the IICCMRE Diaspora and Minorities Department.
The digitization was coordinated by Damiana Oţoiu (Director of the Exile and Minorities Department, IICCMRE), Alina Iancu (IICCMRE, Library and Archive Section) and Mihaela Toader (Exile and Minorities Department, IICCMRE). The project team also included other three researchers of the IICCMRE Exile and Minorities Department: Eliza Cocea, Delia Cornea and Dan Drăghia (the digitization of the video recordings). The following collaborators contributed to the digitization: Adina Bălan, Deniz Berişa, Diana Carla Benea, Ovidiu Cazamir, Francisca Cătuţă, Raluca Ghiorghe, Iuliana Moisă (students of the Political Science Department, University of Bucharest) and Matei Constantin (History Department, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iaşi).
