PAUL GOMA AND THE LIMITS OF DISSIDENCE IN COMMUNIST ROMANIAN

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Publication Details

Journal
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Published
2026-09-14
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22741752
Primary Topic
Eastern European Communism and Reforms
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

PAUL GOMA AND THE LIMITS OF DISSIDENCE IN COMMUNIST ROMANIAN

Ioana Hermina PĂIUȘ
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Eastern European Communism and Reforms
article

PAUL GOMA AND THE LIMITS OF DISSIDENCE IN COMMUNIST ROMANIAN

Ioana Hermina PĂIUȘ
article en

Abstract

Background: The history of dissent in communist Romania presents a significant paradox. Although individual acts of intellectual and civic opposition occurred throughout the communist period, Romania did not develop a durable opposition network comparable to Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia or Solidarity in Poland. Paul Goma's 1977 human rights initiative represents the most relevant case through which this discrepancy can be examined. Aims: This article investigates the relationship between moral resistance, intellectual solidarity, state repression, and political effectiveness in communist Romania. It asks why an authentic act of public dissent, formulated through the international language of human rights, failed to develop into a sustainable form of organized civic opposition. Methodology: The study employs an interdisciplinary qualitative approach combining contemporary history, security studies, intellectual history, and discourse analysis. The source base includes documents from the archives of the National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives (CNSAS), Paul Goma's published writings and correspondence, contemporary accounts, international human rights documentation, and relevant Romanian and international historiography. Results/Findings: The analysis demonstrates that the limited organizational development of Romanian dissent cannot be adequately explained through individual passivity or a lack of moral opposition. The decisive factors included preventive surveillance, institutional repression, the fragmentation of intellectual communities, dependence upon state-controlled professional structures, and the weakness of autonomous civic spaces. At the same time, the Goma Movement introduced an important innovation by transferring political contestation from explicitly ideological opposition to the language of legal rights and international commitments established by the Helsinki Final Act. Although the authorities succeeded in containing the movement domestically, repression increased the international visibility of the Goma case. Conclusion: The article proposes the concept of the "illusion of dissidence" as a distinction between the moral authenticity and symbolic legacy of dissent and its limited capacity to generate immediate institutional transformation. Paul Goma's historical importance therefore lies not in having created a durable political organization, but in exposing the structural limits of collective action under Romanian communism and challenging the regime through its own internationally declared commitments.

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Peace, Justice and strong institutions
Openalex Percentile: Top 4%
Eastern European Communism and Reforms
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