Homo sovieticus vs. homo religiosus in Late 1950s Communist Romania. Case study: Șerban Mironescu

The topic of this paper established the research approach’s focus on comprehending the conflict between the Christian man, true to patristic tradition, hesychastic doctrine and practice - the path to deification that the followers of the spiritual movement ”The Burning Altar” also pursued -, and the new man proposed by Communist Party ideologies. As the Security perceived him in 1958, Şerban Mironescu was one of the five young people that was part of the ”Burning Altar” group. Our case study provides an in-depth examination of the ways in which a young student with an assumed Christian identity was perceived at the time based on his social origin, cult membership, and religious beliefs, as well as his political, philosophical, and cultural-intellectual pursuits. In this way, the opportunity to compare the two realms was created, allowing us to identify the pertinent elements, typologies, and operational laws of each of them. In terms of data collection, we verified the information from the primary sources - files from the CNSAS Archive’s Criminal and Informative Fund - with data from published documentation sources, memorial literature, and, correspondingly, studies, interviews, and specialised articles that furthered the topic.