Irina Livezeanu

Abstract

With the end of communism, the discipline of history in Romania is now free from strict ideological control and censorship. By itself, this state of negative freedom has not transformed the ruins of the old communist-nationalist historiography of the Ceauşescu era. Many former "official" historians have continued to produce nationalist works under the new conditions of the market economy. But the burdensome communist legacy on the history profession in present-day Romania is apparent even in certain attempts to break with it. This is particularly true when it comes to contemporary history, the most highly ideologized field under the communist regime. This paper analyzes the problematic emergence of the contemporary history field in post-communist Romania.