Calling Planet Marx: Nicolae Ceausescu's cultural revolution

Abstract

The late sixties saw a considerable liberalisation of cultural and political life in Communist Romania. However, after a trip to the Far East, Nicolae Ceausescu launched a 'cultural revolution' which aimed to shore up the regime and protect it from foreign influences. If this mass cultural mobilisation did receive support in some areas, it also hollowed out the ideological core of the Communist Party, exacerbated the cult of the personality and increasingly isolated the country, thus preparing the ground the revolution of December 1989.