Post-Communist Anti-Communism in RomaniaSecret Police Files, Transitional Justice and Production of Knowledge

This study examines the phenomenon of post-communist anti-communism in Romania and explores its multifaceted relationship with two key processes that unfolded after the bloody regime change of December 1989: the historical reconstruction of the communist past and the implementation of transitional justice. In Romania, the legal framework for transitional justice was adopted only in the late 1990s, and thus post-communist anti-communism also manifested as a battle for the opening of the archives of communism, including secret police archives. However, these archives remained closed throughout the 1990s, and as a result, memory emerged as the key term associated with justice, along with the complex processes of fact-finding and truth-seeking concerning the abuses committed under the communist regime. In this context, post-1989 research on communist and early post-communist Romania focused primarily on memory studies, as witness accounts abounded while archival sources were scarce, with emphasis on the recollections of those who suffered under communism. When transitional justice legislation was finally adopted, it did not enable lustration but allowed for the systematic public exposure of the wrongdoings committed under the communist regime. Paradoxically, the actual implementation of transitional justice, under the existing legislation, combined with the post-communist anti-communist ethos, led to the creation of a large, open-access online repository. This repository has allowed for a more sophisticated, and definitely more nuanced, approach to the complicated history of communist Romania.