The Center for Communism and Post-Communism Studies
One of the most important projects of the Institute refers to education, namely to the academic examination of the communist regime and its consequences. The Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania and the Faculty of History within the "Al. I. Cuza" University of Ia şi concluded a collaboration protocol in November 2006 in order to set the basis of the Center for Communist and Post-Communist Studies. The reasons that led to the necessity of the setting-up of this educational center are complex. Sixteen years after the collapse of the communist totalitarian regime, the ideology, the institutions and the ways communism acted are not properly examined within Romanian universities. Furthermore, the effects of communism on the process of transition have not been scrutinized or interpreted so far. In Romania, there are neither libraries that could offer the reader large collections of books on communism and post-communism nor any national academic curricula or master’s degree programs on this subject.
The Center for Communist and Post-Communist Studies will function under the aegis of the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania and the Faculty of History within the "Al. I. Cuza" University of Ia şi, the first university of Romania. The first project of the Center is the setting up of a master’s degree focused on the history of communism and post-communism. Well-known historians and political analysts, professors, members of the Institute’s management, European and North-American professors specialized in the study of communism will give lectures at the Center for Communist and Post-Communist Studies. The themes approached within the master’s degree program will comprise various subjects such as Communism during the Interwar Period, the Collectivization of Agriculture, Cults in Communist Romania, the Gulag, Education in Communist Romania, Mass Organizations, the Regime’s Repressive Institutions, Transitional Justice, etc.
The IICCR and the Faculty of History will equip the Center with data, testimonies, audio/video recordings and photographs referring to communist repression in Romania. The two institutions will support the Center in organizing debates / media events in order to make it known to the large public and thus to increase interest towards communist repression in Romania.
The students who will chose to study within the Center for Communist and Post-Communist Studies will write research papers on communism and post-communism. These papers will be published within the IICCR’s Yearbook. The students will also receive support in order to take up documentation stages in Romania and abroad.
The Center for Communist and Post-Communist Studies will develop research projects with similar institutions from Eastern Europe as well.
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