Intellectual Life Under Dictatorship
Author(s): Andrei Plesu
Source: Representations, No. 49, Special Issue: Identifying Histories: Eastern Europe Before
and After 1989 (Winter, 1995), pp. 61-71
Published by: University of California Press
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ANDRE
I PLESU
Intellectual Life
Under Dictatorship
IN 199 2, towardthe end of the six monthswe spent togetherat the
Institutefor Advanced Studies in Berlin, Bruce Ackerman,professorof law at
asked me, witha sortof innocentperplexity,how I had survived
Yale University,
years of a totalitarian
intellectuallyin a Communistcountry,during forty-five
regime. The question was only the surfaceeffectof deeper and more nuanced
perplexities.It opened a large fieldof othersubjacentquestions,some springing
from the legitimateastonishmentof common sense, others froman inevitable
unfamiliaritywith the type of societyborn in Eastern Europe, under Russian
occupation,afterthe Second WorldWar.Bruce wanted to know how it had been
possibleto reconcilethe constitutivefreedomof the spiritwiththe aggressiveness
of an inflexibleideology,how somebodycould become a competitiveintellectual
withina contextwhichresystematizedthe whole cultureof the world according
to the criterionof class struggle,and whichproposed taboos ratherthan models;
in other words,he wanted to know how one could functionnormallyin a rigorouslyabnormalenvironmentliketheone of Communistdictatorship.To a certain
extentBruce's questionflatteredme. It meantthatI hadn'tmethis gloomyexpectations:I was not inarticulate,I had read otherwritersbesides Marx and Engels,
I was perhaps more cosmopolitanthan narrowlytribal,I could be accepted as a
plausible partnerin discussion.
I must confess that I myselfshare Bruce's perplexity.If anything,my perplexityincreaseswhen,beyondtheindividualcase, we take intoconsiderationthe
global performanceof Eastern Europe. How can one explain-against the background of Stalinistcensorship,the Gulag, incessantauthoritariansurveillanceRussian films,Russian music,Anna Akhmatova,Boris Pasternak,VasilyGrossmann, or Andrey Platonov?How can one explain the Czech filmsof the sixties,
the Hungarian filmsof the seventies,Roman Polanski,MilogForman,or Andrzej
Wajda, Polish mathematicsor, if I mayadd, Romanian poetry?And, in general,
how is it possible for a hyperideologicalteaching systemand a cultural space
whose axis is interdictionto produce, not always,but more oftenthan expected,
human types that, once outside of the system,make a more than honorable
impression?Here I will only be able to brieflysketchan answer,a collectionof
suggestionswhichcan open discussionbut not settleit.
A way of dispatchingthe problem would be to declare-as my philosophy
REPRESENTATIONS
49
*
Winter1995 (?
THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY
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OF CALIFORNIA
61
professorConstantinNoica, to whom I shall returnlater,used to do-that "for
intellectuallifebad conditionsare good and good conditionsare bad." This was
an apparentlycynicaldeclarationthatwas intended,in fact,to prepare us mentallyfor the maximum valorizationof the minimaland to prevent the mental
Zeit could have
paralysiswhich the povertyof current means and the diirftige
refers
to the potenwriter
Stefan
Heym
similarly
provoked. The East German
tiallychallengingeffectof negativeconditionswhen he says: "As a writerin the
Westyou can writepracticallyanythingyou like,it doesn't make any difference,
nobody gives a damn. Of course, your workis being read, people may be entertained by it, but it has very littlepoliticaleffect.In this part of the world it is
entirelydifferent.The writerhas more weight;thatis whyyou have censorship,
because his word counts and because politiciansmust take what he writesseriously.Therefore it is much more funto workin thisso-called socialistpart of the
world."'
From mypoint of view,Stefan Heym's tone is too casual, and his statements
have a contestablelinearity.Taking one of Jacques Rupnik'scommentariesas a
startingpoint,we could ask ourselvesif "itis because the writer'sword has more
weightthatwe have censorshipor if it is censorshipthatgives the writer'sword
more weight."2And then, battleswith censorship have not always been "fun."
Neverthelessitis clear thatmanyof the variouslimitsimposed bythe totalitarian
statewere convertedintocombustion.The existenceof censorshipled to the elaboration of ingenious subtexts,allusions, and camouflage,techniques practiced
withgreat virtuosity
bywritersand assimilatedpromptlyby the mass of readers.
The obstacles-the interdictionagainst a number of ideas and methods characteristicof the spiritof the age (such as structuralismor psychoanalysis),labelled
and "bourgeois"-intensified
"reactionary,"
by Marxistcriticismas "formalistic,"
intellectualcuriosityand gave the more or less conspiratorial"transgressions"the
prestigeof politicalrisk,the charm of unconventionaloptions. To be a structuris, to sneak in betweenthe
alistbecame exciting,to be a crypto-structuralist-that
type-became romantic.What
lines principlesand procedures of a structuralist
in a normal countryis read naturallyor withbureaucraticdiligence is read in a
as it is ineffectotalitariancountrywitha passion as intenseand as transfiguring
tual. For the East European intellectual,says Gabriel Liiceanu, one of the most
remarkablerepresentativesof thiscategory,cultureis not "the naturalrhythmof
spiritualbreathing"but "stolenoxygen,""clandestinelydeposited,""a variantof
survival."3Loaded withsuch connotations,intellectuallifeunder dictatorshiphas
a dramatic,fieryaspect,capable of mobilizingthe whole being of itsprotagonists,
theirultimateresources.The need forcultureis not nourished,in these circumstances,onlybygratuitoustastesor bythe disinterestedvertigoof knowledgeand
The need forculturespringsfroma primaryinstinctforsurvivaland,
creativity.
at the same time,fromthe exigencyof individual"salvation"in an environment
interestedonly in collectivisticsolutions.One mightsuppose that this exigency
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could onlyexistwithinthe smallcircleof an elite. In fact,it comprised,strangely
enough, large social groups: people used to standingin line as patientlyforbooks
as theydid forfood; Plato and MartinHeidegger were sold in tens of thousands
of copies, and when theyveryquicklywent out of printtheywere sold on the
black markettogetherwithbutter,flour,and meat. It is, of course, hardlyprobthousand Heideggerians in Romania (thatwas the
able thattherewere forty-two
of
printrun of Holzwege).The phenomenon indicatesrathera certainfetishization
books and culturein general,an intellectualemulationprovokedbythe allure of
clandestinity.
beis possible,
paradoxically,
lifeunderdictatorship
So, we can say thatintellectual
normal
a
of
In
other
the
reduced
it
possibility
words,
impossible.
cause is potentially
intellectuallifeenables itsirruptiveforce,itscapacityto profitfromall the cracks
of the system,to be enormous.
A second set of considerationsshould take us very far, to the nebulous
problemof evil. Those who have undergone the experience of an immanentevil
illness,differentvariantsof carceral universes) know that
(war,life-threatening
even in itsmostbarbarous embodiments,evilcannot have a homogenous texture
and be perfectlycompact. Ontologically-and theologically-evil is imperfect,
which means it always leaves a "space for play,"a chance for maneuvering,to
those under itsinfluence.Even the worstof all worldsis-I would say-cosmotic;
thatis, itillustratesan order withinwhichall the ingredientsof the normalworld
are present. Any world has the attributesof totality.Withinthis totalitythere
naturallyappear infinitevariantsof dosage, but the importantthingis that the
"recipe" is complete: onlythe proportion,the internaldistributionof quantities,
is wrong. If the Communist world had been a world of consistentevil, the
numerous mechanismsof survivalconcretizedin scientificand artisticperformances likethose mentionedabove neverwould have occurredwithinitsbounds.
When we talkof intellectuallifeunder dictatorship,we mustthereforeavoid
sentimentalfusses.
excesses of the geometricspirit,apocalypticsimplifications,
The idea-widespread in the West and even today affectingthe image of East
European countries-that under dictatorshippeople thoughtonly in terms of
dialecticalmaterialism,painted onlyportraitsof homage to those in power,composed onlypropagandisticodes and wroteonlysocialistrealistnovelsand poems
corresponds only to someepisodes in the historyof Eastern Europe and, even
then,only to the officialstratumof these episodes. Under Communism-as on
the frontor in prisons-there is also, concomitantwiththe horror,theexperience
of love, of hope, and of free reflection.There is also humor, a specifichumor
whichitselfhas become "a survivalmechanism.""The Captive Mind"-to recall
Czeslaw Milosz's formulafrom 1952-is stilla mind and not necessarilya stupid
one. The prison diary of Nicolae Steinhardt-one of the most remarkable and
fascinatingRomanian writers-is called Jurnalulfericirii(Diary of happiness).
Naturallythe happiness possible in prison is differentfrompastoral happiness,
Intellectual
LifeUnderDictatorship
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63
but it is stilla species of happiness, simultaneousand, at times,consubstantial
withthe tragedyof circumstances.When I say thisI do not want to minimizein
any way the atrocitiesof the totalitarianCommunistregime,to absolve dictatorship of its essentialinhumanity.I don't claim thatevil is good but merelythat it
is, as I already said, imperfect-and thatan earthlyinfernowithouthorizon is as
improbableas an earthlyparadise withoutblemish.
I would like to add thatthe imperfectionof evil is also the strictlynecessary
conditionforthe adaptation to evil,withitsunavoidable benefitsand risks.Intellectual life under dictatorshipwas also possible because, in one way or another,
intellectualshad adapted themselvesto the conditionsof dictatorship.The prospect of a change of regimeseemed-to thelastminute-almost nonexistent.Consequently,we were all prepared for a long race, practicallyan endless one.
Resignation,sublimationof dissatisfactions,
conjuncturalcunning, melancholy,
and humor-these were the props of our survival.Mihai Botez, who in 1988
became a politicalrefugeein the United States(todayhe is Romania's ambassador
to the United States),offereda clear summaryof the situation:
It is sometimes
said thatan intellectual
livingundera Communist
regimemustalways
choose betweenbeing a courtieror a dissident.This is an excessivesimplification.
mean becominga
Acceptingthe Communistsocial contractdoes not automatically
and evensomeculturocrats
courtier-manyEastEuropeantechnocrats
proveit.Because
thereis a sad but true"artof survival"-evena dignifiedone, I would add-under
Communist
calculatedsubmission,
self-limited
tactical
dictatorship,
combining
criticism,
Of course,formany
keepingof a low profileand intelligent
usage of opportunities.
In principleI am
such strategies
seem strangeif not disgusting.
Westernintellectuals,
readyto agreewiththem,addingmysad wishthattheywillneverbe compelledto learn
suchan art.4
An insufficiently
characteristicof dicanalyzed aspect of the imperfect-evil
tatorshipis the componentof arbitrariness.As a rule, we associate dictatorships
withan atmosphereof hystericalnecessity,of absolute rigor.In fact,Communist
dictatorships,especially,distinguishthemselvesby the surprisingintersticesin
which rules are suspended. The law can suddenly become lax for no apparent
reason. Whetherthe resultof a whimof the leadership,internalconflictsat the
top or politicalstrategieswhichare obscure to the common mortal,the infringement of the totalitariannorm plays an importantpart in the configurationof
intellectuallife under dictatorship.At firstglance, arbitrarinessseems only to
weaken the functionalnetworkof power. Actually,it consolidates it, adding a
This is the case, for instance,of such
confusingcoefficientof unpredictability.
and such a dissidentwhose phone calls withfriendsare interrupted,while at the
same timehe is allowed to give long interviews,also by phone, to "hostile"radio
stations,like Radio Free Europe or the Voice of America. Or, in a countryof
militantatheism,a certainpoet is allowed to publisha volume of religiouspoetry.
in a countrywithone of the toughestpolitical
According to the same "strategy,"
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criticalof the Securpolice forces,a novelfullof passages whichare transparently
itate can appear, to everybody'samazement. Such exceptions succeed in maintaining,on the cultural scene, an atmosphere of confusion and insecurityvery
In any case, this strange mixtureof intransigence
valuable to the nomenklatura.
and chaos, of rigidityand dissolution,was characteristicof East European and
especiallySoutheastEuropean Communism.
And yethow can one explain-although in a dictatorshipnot everythingcan
be reasonably explained-the deviationsfromthe rule of absolute authoritarianismto whichwe refer?How does the momentof arbitrarinessappear in a world
saturatedby normativeabuse? To the extentthatwe can explain this,we need a
fewhistoricalelements.
The evolution of Romanian Communism,like the evolution,with specific
nuances, of the entireEast European politicalbloc, passed througha fewstages,
in the course of which there were fractureswith radical consequences on the
cultural plane. Nicolae Ceausescu, who came into power in the mid-sixties,
decided to suspend the Soviet model and clamorouslyadopted his own. The
brutal Russificationof the firstCommunistperiod (in which the only ideological landmark was Andrei Zhdanov)5 was followed by its opposite, a form of
nationalismwhichbroughtabout totalchanges in the criteriaof censorship: the
local tradition,particularlythe one labelled "progressive,"became more important than any borrowed philosophy and, at the extreme,than Marxism itself.
Historywas again rewritten(forthe umpteenthtime) in order to create, for the
systemand for the leader, an autochthonousmillenarylegitimacy,a noble and
were rehabilitatedin the sixties,
ancientpedigree. Authorsforbiddenin thefifties
in
until
1964
reenteredpublic life,so that
had
been
prison
and intellectualswho
the contoursof intellectualand academic life underwentmassiverestructuring.
The taboos changed: the sacred cowswere no longerthe Sovietsand the MarxistLeninistclassics but the fatherlandand the president.Whereas the Soviets had
enjoined the translationof Immanuel Kant, of Sigmund Freud, and of Gottlob
Frege, the fatherlandand the presidentno longer cared about such marginal
heresies. The intellectualsnow had the rightto play theirlittlegames withglass
beads as long as theydid not endanger, by gesture or express declaration, the
developed socialism."
advance of "multilaterally
took place, but it was an "original,"
new
re-Stalinization
After 1971, a
"patriotic"re-Stalinization,organized around an autochthonous megalomania.
The ideological liberalizationat the end of the sixtiescontinued, therefore,to
have surprisingeffects.Besides the authors mentionedabove, George Berkeley,
FriedrichSchelling,Rudolf Carnap, Karl Popper (of course, not TheOpenSociety
and others were translated.What could be translated
but LogikderForschung),
could also be taughtin universitiesand quoted in scientificarticlesand even in
thecurrentpress.The essentialpatristictextsappeared, too, albeitin confidential
editionsand at prohibitiveprices,at the BiblicalInstitutein Bucharest.The funcLifeUnderDictatorship
Intellectual
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65
tion and the functioningof censorshipwere modified.And this happened not
only in Romania but in all European Communist countries. This is the way
GyorgyKonrad describesthe process: "Under Stalin,censorshipwas both positiveand aggressive.Nowadays it is negativeand defensive.Before, it used to tell
you what to say.Now it advises you what not to say.""In the same way,"Jacques
Rupnik adds, "the transitionhas been made frommass terrorinto 'civilizedviolence'; totalitarianismsnow preferinternalizedself-censorshipto institutionalized censorship."6
But this reformulationof the aims and strategiesof power does not always
explain the note of arbitrariness,at the same time confusingand redemptive,
present in the "recipe" of dictatorship.Sometimesthe pure ignorance of those
who were responsibleforideology played a part. When, at the beginningof the
du myth
came out fromone of the Bucharest
eighties,Mircea Eliade's book Aspects
publishinghouses, the ministerof cultureat thattime,informedbya well-wisher
of the text,asked thatthe author be immeabout the ideological nonconformity
diatelybroughtbefore him, togetherwiththe Partysecretaryof the institution
where he worked.A new sayingbegan to circulatethenamong writersthatit was
not the ministerof culturethathad to be feared but the cultureof the minister.
But besides ignorance,the cunningof the culturnikswas also to be feared. Let's
take the case of a novel,which,althoughit referreddisparaginglyto the political
police, was stillpublished and distributed.Such a novel thus became evidence
against the claims of foreignpublic opinion and Romanian dissidents,proving
the nonexistenceof censorship and the liberalismof the government.On the
otherhand, an atmosphereof suspicionwould startto surrounditsauthor.Other
writers,fromwhose worksfarmore innocentpages had been suppressed, could
not understandhow the harsh "sincerities"of theircolleague had been accepted.
They would suspect a dark, treacherousdeal, a secretconcession,a betrayal.A
useful nucleus of discord was thus ensured by the maneuver.And if somebody
started asking uncomfortablequestions regarding the excesses of the police
which the novel presented, the answer was ready-made: actuallythe novel reto pre-CeausesticStalinismor to itsaccidentalsurvival.
ferredto the fifties,
At other times,the appearance of a "courageous" textcould be explained by
a passingaccess of magnanimityon the partof a higher"activist."Flatteredbyhis
own well-disposed attitude toward "artists,"he anesthetized his conscience by
adding a good deed to the countless miseriesfor which he was responsible at
everymoment.There is also the case in whicha book or an author was suddenly
allowed to be published simplybecause the personal agent of the interdiction
disappeared. Heidegger could finallybe publishedonlywhen one of the strictest
guards of ideological purityunexpectedlydefected and became a professorof
Marxistaestheticsin the West.
This is how complicated the "archaeology"of arbitrarinesscould be. It was
sometimesa staged arbitrariness,an arbitrarydisguiseforoccult maneuvers,but
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at other timesit was pure arbitrariness,resultingfromthe taste of the Balkans
forapproximationand the beaugeste.
The techniqueof intellectualsurvivalunder dictatorshipwas not onlya technique of makingthe best of precariousmeans, the imperfectionsof evil,and the
meanderingsof arbitrariness.It also relied on a well-conductedexercise of marginality.We usuallyforgetthatall Communistcountries,except Russia and China,
were small countries,inevitablymarked by the obsession of isolation,distance
fromthe "center,"historicalinsignificance."The pride of a person born withina
small cultureis alwayshurt,"saysE. M. Cioran in a book published beforehe left
for France.7This pride, which often takes the formof an inferioritycomplex,
favors,on the one hand, a masochistictendencyto self-annulment,to resignation before what is feltto be an irreparablehistoricalinequity; on the other,a
compensating sense of performance,of self-assertionin spite of unfavorable
conditions.The intellectualbelongingto a small culturealwaysbehaves demonstratively:he must showthat he is the equal of his colleagues belonging to big
cultures, that he has kept abreast of the latest idea in fashion, that he is not
deformed by provincialvices. His diligence is the diligence of exasperation,his
ambitionsare as great as his incurable frustrations.Such an intellectualnever
representsonlyhimself.He has the fixedidea thathe representshis country,that
he is responsibleforthe image the cultureof his people willhave throughhim in
the eyes of the world. Convinced thathe is the spokesman of a communitywhich
the intellechas the misfortuneto be badly placed geographicallyand spiritually,
tual we have in mind willmobilizehis effortsin order to prove his abilityto compete, irrespectiveof the disadvantagesof his start.Consequently,the "normality"
of his workcan be explained byhis veryeffortto camouflagethe abnormalityof
the precariousnessof his trainingand tools fromback home.
marginality,
A passage fromMircea Eliade's diaryillustratesthe point. When asked by a
French scholar how he alwayssucceeded in givingthe impressionof exhaustive
documentationin his work,he answered: "Since I belong to a minor culture in
whichdilettantismand improvisationare almostfatal,I enteredscholarlylifefull
of complexes, permanentlyterrifiedat the thoughtthat I do not dispose of 'upto-date'information.This has alwayspreventedme fromsending a manuscript
to be printed before being sure I had read almost everythingthat had been
writtenon the subject."8The fearof "discovering"thingsthatare well known,of
repeating remarksof others,and, especially,of ignoringa fundamentaldocument, nonexistentin Romanian libraries,are decisive motivationsfor the diligence and precisionof intellectualsformed,like Eliade, at the outskirtsof great
empires.
What we should keep in mind,then,is thatthe relativelynormal functioning
of intellectuallife under the conditionsof marginalityimposed by Communist
Intellectual
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67
dictatorshipdrew on an experience of marginalitywhich,in the case of small
countries,did not depend on but existed prior to Communism. Anyway,from
a species of intellectual
thissui generis combinationof two typesof marginality,
resultedwho, in Westernsocieties,had long ago gone out of date and who, probably,is going to disappear fromEastern Europe before long. I would call him
"the nonprofitintellectual,"an intellectualwho does his work withno external
He does not delimithis vocationaccording
motivation,withno palpable finality.
to the prioritiesof the moment,he does not regulate his effortsunder the pressure of fixedappointmentschedules,and he does not formulatequestionsso that
theyguarantee generous sponsorship.Under the hallucinatoryinfluenceof pure
speculation,freedfromtheobsessionofbeingcompetitiveand fromthe mechanical rhythmof academic promotion,this kind of researcherdoes not integrate
easilyintoinstitutionallife.He is his own institution.At worst,he loses himselfin
brilliantoratorical performancesand runs the risk of becoming a picturesque
failure.But if he succeeds, his success is the success of free investigation,of the
unconventionalapproach, of the unforeseen. The intellectualI have in mind
does not have any inhibitionsabout the bordersbetweendisciplines.Since he has
learned to survive without officialsupport, he does not feel responsible to
and
externalauthorities;he feelsjustifiedby his endowmentsand his efficiency
He is an economist,but he is interdoes not have to account forhis "originality."
ested in Edmund Husserl and Ludwig Wittgenstein;he is a classical scholar but
also studies the marketeconomy in post-Communistcountries;he is a physicist
intenselyconcerned withmysticalliterature.He has one criterionand one motive
thatCicero considered to be the source of disinteronly: curiosity,the curiositas
ested knowledge, nulla utilitateobiecta.Today's scholar runs the risk of being
learned withoutbeing curious anymore.The nonprofitscholar is more faithful
to the Socratictraditionforwhichthequestionis moreconsistentthantheanswer,
the way more certainthan the end.
The invocationof Socrates in a discussionabout intellectualsurvivalunder
dictatorshipis significant.Where writtencultureis a difficultenterprise,orality
has an essential part to play: it acquires enormous importance as a privileged
medium of freedom, of uncensored communication.In the same way,where
the officialeducational systemis subjectedto dehumanizingideology,the identificationof an autonomous didact, of a master outside the system,is essential.
Meetings in small groups in caf6s, parks, or the homes of friendsbecome the
surrogate-tolerated up to a certain point-of institutionalacademic life. An
unconventionalhistoryof the spiritwould include, fromthe formerCommunist
countries,a galleryof the championsof orality,withno otherworkthan the evanescentone of conversation,of improvisation,of retort.Accordingto the current
criteriaof a universitycareer,it would be a galleryof failures.In fact,talkwas a
depositoryof the vitalityof local cultures,the foundationof theircontinuity.It
seems to me that particularlyin Romania, the euphoria of oralityexplains the
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or of samizdat. Everythingwas consumed in the
absence of "drawer-literature"
discreet"agora" of dialogue, of the unrecorded word,of volatility.
Ironically,the politicalprison,too, was a dramaticspace for inspiritingoral
exercise. In cells withmanyprisoners,wheneverthe imposed "program"allowed
it,lecturesand discussionsof all sortstook place; memorywas refreshedcollectively,throughstories,recitals,and prayers.Oralitybecame, under these conditions,an acrobaticformof spiritualsurvival,a rigorousmental disciplinewhich
in turn produced a whole generation of "professionals."A huge inventoryof
somewherebetweenthe wise paradoxes
anecdotes was born, rangingstylistically
of Zen Buddhism, Hassidic-typestories,and apothegms of the Desert Fathers
fromthe firstChristiancenturies.Historyhad created a variantof prison which
freedyou from history,from its conjectural determinations.In such a prison,
intellectuallifecould onlyunfold outside any reasonable motivation,feedingon
its own substance. Once, for instance,a prisoner,an impassioned philosopher,
was heard explaining to a stupefied ploughman, his cellmate, the difference
betweenKarlJaspersand Heidegger. "Whatnonsense,"his friendstold him later,
"to deal with these subtletiesin frontof such an inadequate audience." "This
differencehad to be drawn once and for all," answered the philosopher. The
Meisterin whicha group of
episode remindsme of a passage in Goethe's Wilhelm
strollingplayersgives a show,whichhad been announced, and nobody watches
it. It's a perfectparable of intellectuallife under dictatorship,because the only
reason to concern oneselfwithculture,to do culturewithina totalitariansystem,
is thatit mustbe done, regardlessof audience, circumstances,outcome. The risk
is, of course, a drastic decontextualization,an atrophyof the need for public
engagement.But withoutassumingsuch a risk,survivalis impossible.
Consequently,as was to be expected, the model of prisonsextended all over
the large prison which any dictatorshipis. And I would like to add that most
representativeintellectualsof my generationwere the product of "formative"
stages spent near some formerprisoners. Pardoned after 1964, they had the
of a traditionof intellectualnormality
opportunityto become the transmitters
whichthe currentenvironmenthad lost.
Educated beforethe Second WorldWar,in a democraticRomania withgood
schools and good teachers who had studied at great European universities-a
Romania whichmade the appearance of a ConstantinBrancusi, a TristanTzara,
and laterthe triadof Mircea Eliade, Eugene Ionesco, and E. M. Cioran possibletheseformerpoliticalprisonerswere,forus, a guaranteeof continuity.
The world
around us was talkingonly about fracture,about "the new" that must do away
with"the old," about "the brightfuture"of Communism.We feltall the more a
need for legitimacywhichonly contactwiththe previous generationcould give
us. We needed to feel,therapeutically,
thatalthough we were in a wasteland,we
were not feeble creatureslivingin a desert.And thisfeelingwas consolidated by
the pedagogical presence of those who had been in prison.
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69
For me-and for many others-the providentialprisoner was Constantin
Noica. A schoolfellowand friendof Eliade, Ionesco, and Cioran, he chose notto
emigrate-which for him meant nine years of house arrest and six of prison,
followinga politicaltrialat whichhe was accused, among otherpeople, of urging
young people to forgetheiridentitypapers. (The evidence presentedwas a comoftheSpirit.)When I
mentaryon "identity"beginningwithHegel's Phenomenology
met him, he was old and euphoric. He had somehow managed to harmoniously
integratethe episode of detention,claimingthathis arresthad happened at the
righttime,when his own ideas had entered a vicious circle and needed a vital
infusion-no matterhow dramatic.(For such declarationsCioran had characterized him, in one of his volumes, as "camouflagedin the face of evil,"guiltyof
havingadopted, rightin the middleof the inferno,"touristic"behavior.)In 1975,
in order to avoid the harassmentof the capital,Noica returnedto an atmosphere
of seclusionbyisolatinghimselfin a small mountainresort(Paltinis),"fourthousand feetabove mankind,"as he likedto say.There he had a room of eightsquare
metersin an old hut, heated by a wood-burningoven, and ate at the canteen of
the foresters.The isolationdid not last long, however.Gradually manydifferent
people-young people, at first-longingforwisdom and a maitrea penserbegan
to visithim. The politicalpolice could not ignore such pilgrimages.They could
toleratethem,up to a point,on the conditionthattheycould controlthem,always
confirmingtheir "innocence." The police exercised their control by regularly
interviewingthe formerprisonerand now and then a more weak-willedvisitor.
(After the revolutionof 1989, we found out that a whole room of the police
archivesin Sibiu [the nearest townto Paltinis]was fullof tape recordingsof the
conversationsbetween the old philosopher and his visitors.)Within the limits
imposed by these precautions,the meetingsin Paltiniscontinued until Noica's
death, whichoccurred in 1987 due to a broken hip. He had had a bad fallwhile
pursuinga mouse thatwas tryingto eat his yogurt.
What did Noica's pedagogy consistof? Firstof all, he demanded a certain
technicalproficiency.He offeredany young man who declared his love for philosophy ten introductorylessons in ancient Greek and advised him to learn
I participated,
German and to read the"one hundred importantinterpretations."
on the apora
Plato
seminar
in
emphasis
(with special
for instance, a thorough
etical dialogues of the firstphase), a Hegel seminar,and a few discussions on
Plotinus and Descartes. There followeda livelyexchange of ideas on our own
research projectsand on those of the professor.But beyond such technicalexerto grasp foranybodywho lacks an exact piccises (whose importanceis difficult
ture of the povertyof the context),Noica's pedagogy was a way of trainingthe
spiritfor cultural performance,undiscouraged by the poor livingand working
conditionsofferedby Communistsociety."You willfindout thatinner limitsare
far harder to overcome than outer ones" was one of his favoriteformulas.Or
"Don't pay attentionto the immediatecircumstances.Consider historyto be pure
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REPRESENTATIONS
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meteorology:you don't change your destinyand your ideas depending on the
weather. Historyneeds circus horses. I ask you to be racehorses."When asked
whyhe never thoughtto emigrate,he constructeda long discourse on thejubiwhichenrichesyou as opposed to impovon insufficiency
lationoftheassumedlimit,
in
erishingplenitude. "I preferto live a countrywhere everythingis stillto be
done, ratherthan in a countryin which the great adventuresof the spirithave
been consumed. What should I do if I wentto WesternEurope? I wouldn'tfind
any place unless I concerned myselfwithsome obscurecommentatorof Aristotle,
some apocryphal text, some uncertain fragment.Here I can quietly concern
myselfwithAristotlehimself.The timeof 'Alexandrianism'is stillfar away.Let's
rejoice in the freshnessof the 'archaic' and not miss-under the influenceof a
deficientreal-the privilegedexperienceof thepossible."
I don't know whetherConstantinNoica meant what he said. Maybe he only
wanted to distractour attentionfrom the daily drama, to give us courage. If,
however,he meant what he said, I am not at all sure he was right.But he was
extremelyefficient.Many of us, I myself,survivedthanksto the "obnubilation"
whichhis wayof thinkingconveyedto us. I don't understandverywell,even now,
whatthe real price of thissurvivalis, to whatextentit created irreversiblemental
and psychicdistortions.SometimesI am inclinedto believe thatthe rightanswer
to Bruce Ackerman'squestion "How could you possiblysurviveunder Communistdictatorship?"should be: "Did I?"
Notes
1. StefanHeym,quoted inJacques Rupnik,TheOtherEurope(London, 1988), 201.
2. Rupnik,TheOtherEurope,201-2.
3. Gabriel Liiceanu,Jurnalulde la Paltini, 2d ed. (Bucharest, 1991), 6. Unless otherwise
noted, all translationsare bythe author.
dinEuropa deEst (Bucharest, 1993), 52-3.
4. Mihai Botez, Intelectualii
5. Andrei AleksandrovichZhdanov (1896-1948), Sovietpartyleader and statesman,who
had importantfunctionsin the Stalinistnomenklatura,
contributedto the creation of
Cominform,and was a zealous defenderof orthodoxCommunistideology.
6. GyorgyKonrdd,quoted in Rupnik,TheOtherEurope,238.
7. E. M. Cioran, Schimbarea
lafatda Rominiei(Bucharest, 1936), 33.
8. Mircea Eliade, Fragments
d'unjournal,vol. 1 (Paris, 1973), 13.
9. As we know,the European destinyof "curiosity"is quite intricate.Christianity
has condemned the excess of curiosityas a vice, the cupiditasnoscendiwhich undermines the
foundationsof faithtogetherwithsuperbiaand concupiscentia.
Curiositymay indeed be
indiscretionand blasphemy.And yet,the freeexerciseof curiosity-withall itsriskswas the axis of the Greek spirit(Seneca invoked curiosityas a Graecusmorbus),and
Europe, the old and the new,would be unthinkablewithoutthe Urphdnomen
of Greece.
IntellectualLife Under Dictatorship
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