Virgil Gheorghiu on Communism, Capitalism and National Socialism 3631868790, 9783631868799

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Virgil Gheorghiu, an important but controversial figure in Romanian exile literature, remains one of his country’s best-known writers today. Based on his works and their reception, but also on the existing secondary literature, this study examines his reflection on three important ideologies, namely communism, national socialism and capitalism, in order to highlight the specificities of Virgil Gheorghiu’s thought and to see what aspects of topicality and contemporary relevance can be found in it.

The Author Iuliu-Marius Morariu holds a PhD in Theology from the Faculty of Orthodox Theology “Babes,-Bolyai” University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania and a PhD. in Social Sciences from Angelicum Pontifical University, Rome, Italy. He published, edited, coordinated or translated a couple of books, realizes several radio magazines and is part of the editorial or scientific board of 12 journals. He is a researcher at the “Ioan Lupas,” Centre of “Babes,-Bolyai” University in Cluj-Napoca and associate researcher at the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.

9783631868799_cvr_eu.indd All Pages

Iuliu-Marius Morariu

Virgil Gheorghiu on Communism, Capitalism and National Socialism

Virgil Gheorghiu on Communism, Capitalism and National Socialism

Iuliu-Marius Morariu

Iuliu-Marius Morariu

Virgil Gheorghiu on Communism, Capitalism and National Socialism

07-Apr-22 17:34:52

Virgil Gheorghiu, an important but controversial figure in Romanian exile literature, remains one of his country’s best-known writers today. Based on his works and their reception, but also on the existing secondary literature, this study examines his reflection on three important ideologies, namely communism, national socialism and capitalism, in order to highlight the specificities of Virgil Gheorghiu’s thought and to see what aspects of topicality and contemporary relevance can be found in it.

The Author Iuliu-Marius Morariu holds a PhD in Theology from the Faculty of Orthodox Theology “Babes,-Bolyai” University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania and a PhD. in Social Sciences from Angelicum Pontifical University, Rome, Italy. He published, edited, coordinated or translated a couple of books, realizes several radio magazines and is part of the editorial or scientific board of 12 journals. He is a researcher at the “Ioan Lupas,” Centre of “Babes,-Bolyai” University in Cluj-Napoca and associate researcher at the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.

9783631868799_cvr_eu.indd All Pages

Iuliu-Marius Morariu

Virgil Gheorghiu on Communism, Capitalism and National Socialism

Virgil Gheorghiu on Communism, Capitalism and National Socialism

Iuliu-Marius Morariu

Iuliu-Marius Morariu

Virgil Gheorghiu on Communism, Capitalism and National Socialism

07-Apr-22 17:34:52

Virgil Gheorghiu on Communism, Capitalism and National Socialism

Iuliu-Marius Morariu

Virgil Gheorghiu on Communism, Capitalism and National Socialism

Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available online at http://dnb.d-nb.de. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. This publication was financially supported by the Transylvanian Association for the Romanian Literature and Culture of Romanian People ASTRA, “Vasile Moga” Department from Sebeş

ISBN 978-3-631-86879-9 (Print) E-ISBN 978-3-631-87186-7 (E-PDF) E-ISBN 978-3-631-87187-4 (EPUB) 10.3726/b19357

© Peter Lang GmbH Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften Berlin 2022 All rights reserved. Peter Lang – Berlin ∙ Bern ∙ Bruxelles ∙ New York ∙ Oxford ∙ Warszawa ∙ Wien All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems. This publication has been peer reviewed. www.peterlang.com

Table of Contents

Introduction .................................................................................................... 7

1. Analysis of the Context ....................................................... 7



2. Definition of the Problem ................................................... 8



3. Aims ....................................................................................... 9



4. The State of the Research .................................................... 9



5. Methodological Questions ................................................ 10



6. Methodology and Procedures .......................................... 11



7. Achievements and Limitations ......................................... 11

Chapter 1 Virgil Gheorghiu .................................................................. 15

1.1 Introduction ........................................................................ 15



1.2 Virgil Gheorghiu’s Biographic Profile ............................. 16



1.3 Virgil Gheorghiu’s Works .................................................. 44



1.4 The Historical Context and Its Relevance for Virgil Gheorghiu’s Work .............................................................. 78



1.5 Conclusion .......................................................................... 83

Chapter 2 The Reflections of Virgil Gheorghiu on Communism .......................................................................... 85

2.1 Introduction ........................................................................ 85



2.2 Before 23rd of August 1944 .............................................. 86



2.3 After 23rd of August 1944 ............................................... 100



2.4 Conclusion ........................................................................ 138

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Table of Contents

Chapter 3 Virgil Gheorghiu’s Conception of National-​ Socialism ................................................................................ 141

3.1 Introduction ...................................................................... 141



3.2 Virgil Gheorghiu’s Conception of National-​Socialism before 23rd of August 1944 ............................................. 142



3.3 Virgil Gheorghiu’s Conception of National-​Socialism after 23rd of August 1944 ................................................ 149



3.4 Conclusion ........................................................................ 168

Chapter 4 Virgil Gheorghiu’s Reflections on Capitalism ...... 171

4.1 Introduction ...................................................................... 171



4.2 Virgil Gheorghiu’s Reflections on Capitalism before 1955    172 4.3 Virgil Gheorghiu’s Reflections on Capitalism from 1955 to 1992 ..................................................  184 4.4 Conclusion ........................................................................ 211



Chapter 5 The Feasibility of Virgil Gheorghiu’s Political Reflections ............................................................................. 215

5.1 Introduction ...................................................................... 215 5.2 The Actuality of Virgil Gheorghiu’s Political Reflections ........................................................................ . 16 5.3 Conclusion ........................................................................ 229

General Conclusion ................................................................................. 231 Bibliography ................................................................................................ 239

A. Primary Sources ............................................................... 239



B. Secondary Sources ........................................................... 242



C. Articles .............................................................................. 254

Internet ...................................................................................... 257

Introduction 1. Analysis of the Context An important, but at the same time controversial personality of Romanian literature who was in exile (Morariu 2017:  578–​585; Morariu 2017a:  183–​188), Virgil Gheorghiu remains, until today, one of the most notorious writers of his country. Translated into thirty-​four languages (Gillyboeuf 2019:  8), screened with Anthony Quinn as the main character in 1968 (https://​www.youtube.com/​ watch?v=Q_​cH0zvDGJ4, accessed on 12 March 2020), his masterpiece, The 25th Hour (Gheorghiu 1948; Gheorghiu 1991), denounces the horrors of both Nazism and Communism. It is a book with a very interesting story focused mostly on the dramatic history of the Romanian people during the Second World War. Later, he continued to write books dedicated to his birth land (Gheorghiu 1954, 1960, 1965, 1990, 1993, 2010), valorising important aspects from its folklore or from history, but denouncing dictatorships and also the consumerism promoted by capitalist societies (Gheorghiu 1965), trying to attract attention to the potential dangers of each of them and suggesting solutions to the problems that they may create. At the same time, somewhere in the second half of his life, in a moment of silence, when the “great storms” had passed and his value was again recognised, he offered beautiful autobiographic works (Gheorghiu 1999, 1999a, 2002, 2017, 2019b; cf. Cuzmici 2015: 285), biographies dedicated to personalities like Mohammed (Gheorghiu 2016), the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras (Gheorghiu 2009), Saint Ambrosius of Milan (Gheorghiu 2013) and Saint John Chrysostom (Gheorghiu 2008), and also theological works (Gheorghiu 2011) and an unpublished novel (Gheorghiu 2019). His works arouse the interest not only of the readers and literary critics, but also of his enemies and of the people who wanted to discredit him. Memories of people like Monica Lovinescu (Lovinescu 1999), Mircea Eliade (Eliade 1999), Virgil Ierunca (Ierunca 2000), Neagu Djuvara (Djuvara 2012) or Sanda Stolojan (Stolojan 1996), all of them important Romanian exiles living in France –​where he too lived –​offer interesting information about his life, the way he was seen or about how many people hated him. At the same time, the positive or negative evocations and mentions from the pages of the diverse books and articles where he is mentioned (for example, Crohmălniceanu 1974; Cubleşan 2016; D’Esneval 2003; Drăgoi 2009; Hadam 1996; Preda 1993; Dorobanţu, Kretz 2011:  111–​117; Morariu 2016:  263–​271;

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Introduction

Gillyboeuf 2019; Morariu, Josan 2016: 83–​88; Ţurcanu 2009: 515–​530) come to prove his value and the actuality of his work.

2. Definition of the Problem Noticing all the aforementioned aspects and their relevance for the understanding of both, the author’s life and work, and also the context where he lived, we will try here, based on his works, their reception, but also based on the secondary literature existent (like, articles published in different journals, monographs, anthologies and histories of literature, theological books, historical or philosophical investigations and so on), to present his reflections on the three important ideologies, namely, Communism, National-​Socialism and Capitalism, to underline the particularities of the thinking of Virgil Gheorghiu, and to see which are the aspects of actuality that can be found there. In order to offer to the reader a holistic approach and to avoid rendering a truncated vision, which omits certain essential aspects and shows lack of objectivity, we will also correlate them with the context in which he wrote and with the biographical aspects that have influenced his way of thinking and acting. The context will be therefore well emphasised, together with his biography and in relationship with it, and his ideas will be compared (Dell’Asta, Foa 2019: 36–​45; Sheth 2019:  589–​597; Patnaik 1997:  459–​461; Levy 2017:  483–​510; McKenzie, Withley, Weich 2002: 280–​283; Zeidman, Kondziella 2012: 729–​746; Bernhard 2017: 206–​227), when necessary, with other important thinkers of the time, who wrote in a similar way (like, for example, Solženicyn 2008; Camus 2008). We will also try to see if he was influenced by their ideas or if he managed to influence others too, and will compare it with the ones who had totally opposed conceptions in comparison with him, in order to place his life and ideas in the larger context of the literature of the time and to see how he came in contact with other thinkers of the time and their ideas. Also stylistic aspects, used by the writer in the construction of his discourse and influences from American or German space, will be emphasised when necessary, because sometimes in his works we find elements of construction similar to the ones of contemporary writers like the young American Nathan Hill (Hill 2019) or the already famous Heinrich Böll (Böll 2009), a fact that shows that they at least had the same sources of inspiration.

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3. Aims Intended as an analysis of documents and of conceptions that reveal Virgil Gheorghiu’s understanding of the aforementioned three important ideologies that have changed people’s life in the twentieth century, some of them still in use today, our research will be a qualitative one. Similar to a case study referring to the conception of a notorious author who was not, at least in this area, investigated by the contemporary research, will show how, using literature and stories from daily life, the Romanian writer in exile in France succeeded in denouncing the crimes of two important dictatorship forms that were important in the second half of the twentieth century in European space and also in developing an original critique, with elements that are still existing, regarding Capitalism. The three ideologies will be presented in one chapter each. We will also insert small thematic unities that will contain the landmarks of his life, work, ideas and their posthumous reception. We will try to present the main aspects that can be found in each of his important works containing information from the political and social space and to identify, where possible, the prophetic elements that can be found in his books. At the same time, we will also try to see how his personal experiences have determined the Romanian writer who, starting from 1963, also became the Orthodox parish priest of the community of his compatriots from “Jean de Beauvais” street in Paris (Gillyboeuf 2009: 12), and changed some of his ideas or his conceptions regarding the aforementioned topics. When possible, we will emphasise the way his relationships with Bucharest political or religious authorities shifted his thought and how, using his family and through other methods, the Securitate of Romanian state tried to influence him to change his mind regarding the way the country was governed from 1945 until 1989.

4. The State of the Research In order to understand his way of thinking and the way his ideas were received, we will not only investigate his ideas, but also his correspondence with important personalities like Mircea Eliade (Eliade 1999, 1999a, 1999b), the biographies dedicated to him (Cubleşan 2011, 2016; D’Esneval 2003; Gillyboeuf 2019; Drăgoi 2009; Hadam 1996) or the references that can be found in some of the notorious exile voices in France (Djuvara 2012; Ierunca 2000; Lovinescu 1999; Stolojan 1996, but not exclusively). The critiques of his works as also the reviews dedicated to them will constitute important bibliographical sources of this research too, together with author’s testimonies (Gheorghiu 1999, 1999a, 2002, 2010).

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For a deeper understanding of the life and ideas of Father Virgil Gheorghiu, the author of these books has also researched on his life and activity. From the archives of the former Romanian Securitate, he extracted information about how Gheorghiu was perceived by the Romanian authorities and about the way they even intercepted his correspondence with his family who remained in Romanian space, synthesised the notes found in his exile works, biographies and all the other printed sources (see, Morariu 2016:  263–​271, 2016a:  63–​73, 2016b: 712–​721, 2017: 578–​585, 2017a: 183–​188, 2017b: 373–​381, 2017c: 11–​14, 2018: 252–​257; Morariu, Josan 2016: 83–​88; Morariu 2018: 72–​76), and reviewed the Romanian translation of his books (Morariu 2016c: 4, 2016d: 12, 2018a: 15–​ 16). At the same time, he distinguished between the different voices, the reasons that determined a certain attitude, and even between Gheorghiu’s writings, their content and the period when they were written. Therefore, there is a certain difference between the memories of war written by the Romanian scientist when he took part in the campaign for the release of Bessarabia, the fights in Crimea or the one with the submarine to Sevastopol (Gheorghiu 1992, 2008a), and the unfinished novel published posthumously that also contains well-​documented critiques of Communism (Gheorghiu 2019). Differences can be found also among the works where he speaks directly about different situations, illustrating the abuse of the ideologies by using practical examples, and ones that contain allusions or metaphorical formulations, like Chiralesa (Gheorghiu 2018). All these aspects will be taken into account in this research, where we will try to realise a critical analysis of the documents and bring attention to an important perspective coming from the Romanian side and emphasise its aspects of actuality, but also to present, if found, the errors of perception or of understanding of the investigated author, underlining at the same time the way the context influenced him or his writings.

5. Methodological Questions After seeing all these aspects regarding the state of research and the relevance of the author and his work, we consider it appropriate to enounce our research questions. The main one will surely be: What are Virgil Gheorghiu’s reflections regarding the three important ideologies, namely, Communism, National-​ Socialism and Capitalism? Of course, secondary questions will certainly rise like, for example, how relevant are his reflections today, or how did the context where he lived or the context of his birth country influence his way of thinking

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or his writings? We will try to answer all these questions using the methodological tools requested by such a research and the aforementioned literature in a critical way.

6. Methodology and Procedures The present research, whose aim is to see how Virgil Gheorghiu saw and understood Communism, National-​Socialism and Capitalism, and which are the common points of each of them and the differences between them according to his conception, will be a case study, a qualitative investigation of an author, marked by the critics of his thinking and by the presentation of the aspects of actuality that can be found there. As a technique of research, we will primarily analyse the documents, in this case his writings (from more than forty books that he wrote, about thirty will constitute our primary sources), but we will also use, when needed, elements of analytic-​deductive, narrative or even inductive method. Due to the fact that the research aims to investigate some literary works from the point of view of political doctrines, the study will be, from its beginning, an interdisciplinary one. We will use the tools necessary to understand their literary value, to define the study and place it in the bigger context of the writings of this category published in the same period. At the same time, the philological analysis will not represent the main purpose of this demarche. Therefore, we will use elements of politics, history, political philosophy or theology in the process of investigation, not only in an attempt to present the writings of Gheorghiu, their message, and his reflections on Communism, National-​Socialism and Capitalism in situ, but also their impact on the context and on the Occidental and Oriental society and the way they contributed to the change of perception of public opinion regarding the Romanian situation and the abuse of the three ideologies in political life and through their actions.

7. Achievements and Limitations Like any other scientific demarche, ours too will have achievements and limitations of the investigation. We hope that the main achievement will be the analysis of his thinking and the understanding of his defining arguments and the emphasis of the aspects of actuality. The research will follow the diachronic evolution of Father Gheorghiu’s publications and will also try to see if there is an evolution or a metamorphosis of his thought during the time or if they changed under influences like the Romanian

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Introduction

Securitate’s pressures (due to the fact that his parents and brothers remained in the country after 23rd of August 1944). Therefore, each one of the three main chapters dedicated to one ideology and his reflections on its content will be, in its turn, segmented into smaller thematic unities, dedicated to the works where information regarding it can be found. For example, the one dedicated to Communism will investigate works like his masterpiece, The 25th Hour (Gheorghiu 1948), and also The Second Chance (Gheorghiu 1954, 1993), The Cravache (1960), From the 25th Hour to the Hour of Eternity (Gheorghiu 1965), The House from Petrodava (Gheorghiu 2010a), The Sacrifice of the Danube (Gheorghiu 1957), The Spy (1967), God Receives Only on Sunday (Gheorghiu 1990), The Unknowns from Heidelberg (Gheorghiu 2015), The Immortals from Agapia (Gheorghiu 1998), the unfinished novel Dracula in Carpathian Mountains (Gheorghiu 2019) or his memoirs (Gheorghiu 1999a, 2002). The one dedicated to National-​Socialism will use the aforementioned most important work, his memoirs, but also works like The Leather Cloth (Gheorghiu 1967), his notes from the war (Gheorghiu 1993a, 2008a), the notes regarding his childhood (Gheorghiu 1999), his novel with religious content titled Condotiera (2011) or Chiralesa (Gheorghiu 2018), or The Sacrifice of the Danube (Gheorghiu 1957, 2020), while the analysis dedicated to Capitalism and its outcomes or his forms in spaces like the American one, will start from The 25th Hour (Gheorghiu 1991), pass through his memoirs, the novel in which the central aspect of the action takes place in Latin America (Gheorghiu 1967), the one about Heidelberg (Gheorghiu 2015), the ones dedicated to the Second World War and its end (Gheorghiu 1954, 1960, 1965) or the one especially dedicated to the Americans and their understanding of the world (Gheorghiu 2013a), written in the eight decade of the twentieth century –​The Spy (Gheorghiu 1971), The Suspect (Gheorghiu 2020a) or The Great Exterminator (Gheorghiu 2008b). Where we consider it necessary, we will insert different thematic small unities in order to offer a clear structure and help a rushing reader to get easy access to the information regarding the topic that he or she may be interested in. The reception of his ideas in different ages by the philologists and literary critics in different ages, historical contexts and under different influences (like, Crohmălniceanu 1974; Preda 1993), or by people sharing different political or ideological opinions will be also part of the present investigation. The dimension of novelty of this investigation will therefore consist on one side of the fact that the research brings into attention an author who, despite his fame in the beginning of the second half of the twentieth century when he denounced communist abuses and the horrors of Nazi regime, is not highlighted enough by the contemporary research, being unfairly condemned to be neglected

Introduction

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by posterity due to the conflict he had with Monica Lovinescu and to the actions of her husband, Virgil Ierunca, but also the fact that it offers an evaluation of his work through the lengths of the political doctrine and historical research of his ideas and work, underlining the aspects of actuality that can be found there. At the same time, by correlating his ideas with those of the other contemporary writers or with those of the theoreticians of the three aforementioned ideologies, the research will place it in the context of the age when it was written and bring it into the debate in a holistic context. At the same time, there will also be limits, in this case mostly related to the lack of bibliography, the fact that the investigations dedicated to the author are written in different languages (Romanian, English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Swedish, Dutch and so on) and therefore some of them are difficult to find and others are almost impossible to see and be understood by a researcher like the one of the present text who speaks and understands only Romanian, English, French and Italian. Still, we hope that the sources that we find and investigate will help us to offer to the reader a landscape of Virgil Gheorghiu’s reflections on the investigated topic and on the elements that led him to develop a certain way of understanding them in a specific way and at the same time to create bridges between cultures and domains of investigation. Another limitation will also be linked with the space conditions imposed by such a research. The author of more than forty titles, covering areas like literature, theology, history, journalism, philosophy or memoirs, and who benefited by several monographs and many mentions in the histories of contemporary literature all around the world, the Romanian writer develops a complex system of thinking that could be surely analysed in at least a few books, from different points of view, all of them having an interdisciplinary approach. Still, due to the space limitations of this research, we will try to offer only an overview of his life and activity and focus on his reflections regarding the three approached topics, based on his novels that also contain a deep philosophical content and information that could be surely valorised by the researchers in the political field too. Despite all these limitations and the fact that they could constitute an important challenge for a research like the present one, we hope that this text will contribute to the critical investigation and analysis of the ideas of a complex Romanian contemporary writer exiled in France and, at the same time, help to start rediscovering his ideas and their multiple values in an international context and understand the main elements that led him to adopt a certain type of attitude in one or another moment of his life!

Chapter 1 Virgil Gheorghiu 1.1 Introduction After presenting the landmarks of our research, the methodological questions, its aims and limits, and also the actual status of the research, we consider it important to start our investigation by offering a brief overview of the life and activity of the Romanian writer in exile in France. This thematic unity will be useful to a reader who already has knowledge about his life and publications and about the controversies that some of his relationships and attitudes have generated during the time, because this will help him to actualise his information and provide a systematic overview on them. It will also help a reader who has just vague information regarding this author and his contribution to understand it in a better way. It will be useful in order to clarify some unclear information regarding Father Gheorghiu’s life and activity (Păcurariu 2010: 298) and to bring into debate the aspects that make him a controversial personality and, where possible, see whether what has been said about him is, in fact, true or not. In order to realise this chapter, we will use his autobiographies (Gheorghiu 1999a, 2002), but also the monographic researches dedicated to him (like, Gillyboeuf 2019; D’Esneval 2003; Orian 2008; Cubleşan 2011, 2016; Hadam 1996; Drăgoi 2009) or the articles and studies dedicated to him (Iliuţă 2013: 541–​555; Morariu 2016:  263–​271, 2016a:  63–​73, 2016b:  712–​721; Ţurcanu 2019:  515–​ 530; Cicoare 2006: 366–​370). At the same time, we will not neglect the correspondence of the exiled writers with him or about him (for example, Djuvara 2012:  164–​167; Stolojan 1996:  22–​23; Eliade 1999:  385, 441, 459, 468, 481, 1999a:  469–​523, 1999b:  255–​259, 425–​427, 481–​490_​510, 520–​521, 545–​546; Lovinescu 1999: 66, 2005: 296; Ierunca 2000: 338–​339), the notes of important Romanian writers who mention him (Preda 1993: 301–​303), and other sources that speak about his life and activity (like the book reviews, chronicles and other articles dedicated to him during his life or after his death, like, Roşu 1942: 273–​ 275; Negru 2011: 32–​36). Segmented at its turn into two thematic subunits, the chapter will start with the presentation of his biography and will continue, in the second subunit, with one of his writings, and their landmarks, which will be mentioned previously. Their presentation will be diachronic, in the order of their apparition and also emphasising their story when needed.

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1.2 Virgil Gheorghiu’s Biographic Profile The author of one of the most sold and read books of the twentieth century (Ciobotea 2017: 114), Virgil Gheorghiu himself had a life that could surely constitute the subject of a novel. In fact, some relevant aspects of his life and sufferings were included in his books, which contain many autobiographical aspects. In order to have a deeper understanding of his life and activity and to see the genesis of some of his ideas or to offer more information about the genesis of some of his ideas, we will try to emphasise its landmarks and see how it influenced his writing and the evolution of his ideas. Born on 9th of November 1916 (Gheorghiu 2008d: 95, 2019b: 12; Ică 2008: 5) in Războieni village (Drăgoi 2015:  95–​96) from Neamț county (Dorobanțu, Erwin 2011: 115), the writer remained during his entire life linked with the realities of his native Moldavian lands. As one of his biographers says: Virgil Gheorghiu was born on September 9, 1916, on the day of Saints Joachim and Ana, in the parish house from Valea Albă, from Războieni, in Neamţ county, on the eastern slope of the Carpathians, but he was declared born on September 15, for “administrative reasons”. He is the eldest of six brothers (including four sisters: Elena, Lucia, Florica and Rodica, who died at an early age, and a brother Nicolae, who will also become a priest). (Gillyboeuf 2019: 6–​7)1

He was the eldest of the six children in the family (Gheorghiu 1999a: 32) and grew up in the neighbourhood of the church. His father, the priest Constantin, graduated from “Veniamin Costachi” Seminary in Iassy and was married, as Gheorghiu confessed in his memoirs, by his grandmother to Maria Scobai, also the daughter of a priest, shortly after the beginning of the Great War (Gheorghiu 1999a: 33). His mother’s intention was to avoid him being sent to the battlefield.2 1 Origin. 2019. „Virgil Gheorghiu s-​a născut la 9 septembrie 1916, în ziua Sfinţilor Ioachim şi Ana, în casa parohială din Valea Albă, de la Războieni, în judeţul Neamţ, pe versantul oriental al Carpaţilor, dar a fost declarat născut la 15 septembrie din „motive administrative”. Este cel mai mare dintre cei şase fraţi (între care patru surori: Elena, Lucia, Florica şi Rodica, decedate la o vârstă fragedă, şi un frate Nicolae, care va deveni de asemenea preot)”. 2 About this aspect, Thierry Gillyboeuf says that “He is the eldest of six brothers (including four sisters: Elena, Lucia, Florica and Rodica, who died at an early age, and a brother Nicolae, who became a priest). His father, Constantin Gheorghiu, born in 1895, studied for eight years at the “Veniamin Costachi” Seminary in Iasi, finishing school in the year in which the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinated in Sarajevo Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sofia Chotek. To avoid his son leaving for the front, the young Constantine’s mother arranged his marriage. This is how he

Virgil Gheorghiu’s Biographic Profile

17

Two years after the marriage, Virgil was born. After studying in the native village and in their neighbourhood (the school from his village functioned only for a few months), the family decided to send him to the military college in Chișinău (Gheorghiu 1999a: 35). Their first intention was to send him to study theology, but the financial state of the family did not allow that (Gheorghiu 2017:  15). For this reason, he was sent to Chișinău (Dorobanțu, Erwin 2011: 115; Drăgoi 2015: 98–​100; Ică 2008: 6), where the Romanian state paid for the scholar’s fees and lodging. He started his studies in 1928 and graduated in 1936 (Gheorghiu 1999a: 37). Although it was a difficult life due to the military regime of the school, and at times he wanted to give it up, the future writer managed to graduate with good marks. Moreover, his vocation as a poet and a writer was discovered there. The military college offered him the opportunity to write, to publish, to get in contact with the important personalities of the Romanian literature of the time and to found and coordinate cultural and literary journals. Therefore, as one of his biographers (Gillyboeuf 2019: 17)3 notes, in this period: He founded and ran the school magazine The New Moon, with the approval of his commander, who will coordinate it, then he founded Vulturii (The Hawks), which was funded by the Ministry of War and distributed in all military high schools in Romania. Thanks to his teacher, Constantin N. Tomescu, he will publish poems in the Luminătorul, the official magazine of the Romanian Orthodox Church of Bessarabia, in the Universe and in the Truth, in Bilete de papagal (Parrot Tickets), the magazine of

got married on October 10, 1914 to Maria Scobai, born in 1897, the daughter of a priest from Blebea, and was ordained as a priest in Valea Albă, a few months later.” (Gillyboeuf 2019: 7). Origin. 2019: „Este cel mai mare dintre cei şase fraţi (între care patru surori: Elena, Lucia, Florica şi Rodica, decedate la o vârstă fragedă, şi un frate Nicolae, care va deveni de asemenea preot). Tatăl său, Constantin Gheorghiu, născut în 1895, a studiat opt ani la Seminarul „Veniamin Costachi” din Iaşi, fina lizându-​şi şcoala chiar în anul în care naţionalistul sârb Gavrilo Princip i-​a asasinat la Sarajevo pe arhiducele Franz-​Ferdinand şi pe soţia sa Sofia Chotek. Pentru a evita plecarea fiului său pe front, mama tânărului Constantin i-​a aranjat căsătoria. Aşa a ajuns el să se însoare la 10 octombrie 1914 cu Maria Scobai, născută în 1897, fiica unui preot din Blebea, şi să fie hirotonit ca preot la Valea Albă, câteva luni mai târziu”. 3 Origin. 2019: “A fondat şi condus revista liceului Luna nouă, cu aprobarea comandantului său, care o va şi coordona, apoi Vulturii, care a fost finanţată de către Ministerul de Război şi distribuită în toate liceele militare din România. Datorită profesorului său, Constantin N. Tomescu, va publica poeme în Luminătorul, revista oficială a Bisericii din Basarabia, în Universul şi în Adevărul, în Bilete de papagal, revista lui Tudor Arghezi (1880–​1967), cel mai mare poet român, şi în Viaţa literară a romancierului şi jurnalistului I. Valerian (1895–​1980)” (Gillyboeuf 2019: 17).

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Tudor Arghezi (1880–​1967)4, the greatest Romanian poet, and in The literary life of the novelist and journalist I. Valerian (1895–​1980)5 (Gillyboeuf 2019: 17)

After graduating, he went to Bucharest, where he studied in the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters (Ică 2008: 6). Due to the fact that he was a poor student, he needed to work in order to sustain himself. On the 1st of March, in his first year of studies in Bucharest, he also published his first book, Poet’s Daily Life (Gheorghiu 1937; Dorobanțu, Erwin 2011: 115). This book made him feel important and proud. Published in one of the notorious publishing houses of the time and well received by the critics, it constituted only the beginning of a long list of books signed by him. A few decades later, he reminded of its release in his memoirs: The Everyday Life of the Poet, my first book, reigns in the bookstores. It’s March 1, 1937. From the first page, on luxury paper, there is my portrait, thanks to the talented illustrator Marcel Iancu, who managed so well those of all contemporary poets, gathered in the Anthology of Romanian Poets. Since the book came out, I’ve been so happy that I can’t sleep anymore. I float in total happiness. The publication of the book is the fulfillment of my activity as a poet. As a creator. (Gheorghiu 2017: 318)6

As a student, he worked for a time for the poet Nicolae Crevedia7 (1902–​ 1978) and later for journals like Cuvântul (The World), ruled by Nae Ionescu 4 His real name being Ion Nae Theodorescu, Tudor Arghezi (1880–​1967), was one of the most important Romanian poets of the twentieth century. For more information about his life and activity, see Anghel 2012. 5 I. Valerian, his real name being Valerian Ionescu (1895–​1980), was a poet, a writer and a journalist who was active during the interwar period. For more information regarding his life and activity, see Valerian (1923), Valerian (1927, 1935, 1967, 1970). 6 Origin. 2017: „Viața de toate zilele a poetului, prima mea carte, tronează în vitrinele librăriilor. E 1 martie 1937. Încă de la prima pagină, pe hârtie de lux, figurează portretul meu, datorat talentatului desenator Marcel Iancu, care a reușit atât de bine pe cele ale tuturor poeților contemporani, reuniți în Antologia poeților români. De când a apărut cartea sunt atât de fericit, că seara nu mai pot să mai adorm. Plutesc într-​o fericire totală. Publicarea cărții este împlinirea activității mele de poet. De creator.” 7 His real name being Ion Cârstea, Nicolae Crevedia was a Romanian poet and writer and the director of the journals Curentul (The Current), Porunca Vremii (Time’s Commandment), Calendarul (The Calendary) and Sfarmă Piatră (Crush Stone), which were important in the cultural landscape of the interwar period. For more information about his life and activity, see Sasu (2006: 419–​420).

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(1890–​1940),8 an important personality of those times. He was sent to him by Tudor Arghezi, who had helped him since the high school days, and he worked here until the beginning of the government of Miron Cristea (1868–​1939), the first Romanian Orthodox Patriarch. In 1938, when his activity as a prime minister started, the director of the journal was interned at Tismana and the journal closed down. Gheorghiu speaks about this aspect in his memoirs, emphasising the fact that: shortly after that (the beginning of Miron Cristea’s government), Cuvântul disappeared; his director, the philosopher Nae Ionescu, was forced to reside, his collaborators were arrested, others were interned at Tismana, Dragomirna and Miercurea Ciuc Monasteries. On February 20, 1938, the Parliament was dissolved. The parliamentary regime and political parties were eliminated, the constitution abolished. It was a dictatorship, a royal dictatorship. (Gheorghiu 2017: 411)9

After this moment, thanks to one of his friends who became an important part of one of the ministries of Cristea government, he started to work for Cuvântul journal,10 coordinated by Cezar Petrescu (1892–​1961)11 (Gheorghiu 2017: 411–​ 412). Gillyboeuf says that he was employed for Romania journal, but that was an error (Gillyboeuf 2019: 26). Here he was assigned to write the chronicles of military events. In this context he met important personalities of the time, and also his future wife. He was sent to take part in an important event where King Charles

8 Nae Ionescu was a philosopher, logician and a writer, important in the Romanian space of the interwar period, which, according to some of the specialists, had far-​right orientation. It was representative for the Romanian nationalism of this period. For more information regarding his life and activity, see Petreu (2019). 9 Origin. 2017: „... la puțin timp după aceea (începutul guvernării lui Miron Cristea), Cuvântul dispărea; directorului său, filosofului Nae Ionescu, i se impunea domiciliu forțat, colaboratorii lui erau arestați, alții au fost internați la Mănăstirile Tismana, Dragomirna și la Miercurea Ciuc. Pe 20 februarie 1938, Parlamentul a fost dizolvat. Regimul parlamentar și partidele politice au fost eliminate, constituția abolită. Era dictatură, o dictatură regală”. 10 It is an interesting coincidence that both journals, although they have different founders and different political orientations, have the same title. During the interwar period, this practice was often used by different writers and founders of journals in the Romanian space (our note). 11 Cezar Petrescu (1892–​1961) was Romanian writer and a member of the Romanian Academy. He wrote novels, was also a journalist, a translator, author of literature for children and author of short prose. For more information regarding his life and activity, see Dărăbuș (2011).

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the Second was invited too (Morariu 2016: 367) and to write a chronicle of it. He saw Nicolae Iorga and other personalities of the time there. But, when it was the moment to have a meeting with the ruler of the country and to write about what happened there, all the representatives of the journals were sent home. He found that the reason for such a behaviour was the fact that there was a tentative report of a plan to kill the king, made by a member of the Legionary Movement. The only one who knew about it and transmitted information regarding this aspect, was Radio London. Gheorghiu notes with sadness about this: We are always doomed to find out what is happening to us by listening to Radio London. It is not the mistake of our journalists if the western countries, being stronger than Romania, led the whole world. (Gheorghiu 2017: 433)12

As a correspondent of Cuvântul, Gheorghiu also took part in Codreanu’s13 process, which was for sure the most important moment of the time, and wrote in the journal about it. Also, a few months later, he was delegated to take part in Eliza Dorneanu’s process. Eliza had been accused of killing her lover in self-​ defence. It was there that he saw for the first time Ecaterina Burbea, the lawyer who defended that woman and managed to save her from prison. Shortly after, she also helped one of his friends from the redaction in a problem, and accepted to defend pro-​bono his cause. Meanwhile, he realised that he had fallen in love with the young lawyer (Cubleșan 2011: 17). After confessing his feelings to her and getting a positive and encouraging feedback, the two decided to get married. Therefore, as he writes in his memoirs: On July 29, 1939, the Black Tulip and I got married. We knew we couldn’t live without each other. On the morning of our wedding, I went to my newspaper. I asked two of my colleagues, whom I found there, Dumitru Banu and Stan, to accompany me to the city. I didn’t tell them why, it just didn’t last long. They accompanied me to the town hall in blue. Each city hall in Bucharest is named after a color. They witnessed our marriage. The mayor was very surprised and happy to receive and to marry us. His name was

12 Origin. 2017: „Suntem mereu condamnați să aflăm ce se petrece la noi ascultând Radio Londra. Nu e greșeala ziariștilor noștri dacă țările occidentale, fiind mai puternice decât România, condus lumea întreagă”. 13 Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (1899–​1938) was the founder and the leader of the Legionary Movement, the most important far-​right movement from Romania during the interwar period. Imprisoned for political reasons, after the assassination of Prime Minister Armand Călinescu, he was executed in the night between 29th and 30th of November 1938, accused of trying to escape.

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Ispir, he was a boyar from Buciumeni. The village of vineyards and Natalia Negru, wife, in turn of the two unfortunate poets, Iosif and Anghel. We were in a great hurry to get married, because it was July 29, 1939. Exactly thirty days after World War II broke out. It was our wedding present. (Gheorghiu 2017: 479)14

The beginning of the Second World War was not the only complicated aspect that accompanied the marriage. There was the fact that Ecaterina had Jewish origins.15 In a complicated context like the one lived by the two young people, this aspect could become problematic. The young family found that out a little later. For the moment, Virgil was sent to the battlefield, in Antonescu’s16 famous campaign that aimed to release Bessarabian lands from the Russian occupation. Like many other Romanians, he was conscious of the danger brought on by the fact that Stalin was getting closer to his country’s borders (Gheorghiu 2017: 480). Here, he was not an active soldier, but a journalist sent to take part, as an observer to the events. On his return, Gheorghiu was invited to write a book 14 Origin. 2017: „Pe 29 iulie 1939, Laleaua neagră și cu mine ne-​am căsătorit. Știam că nu mai putem trăi unul fără celălalt. În dimineața căsătoriei noastre, m-​am dus la redacția ziarului meu. I-​am rugat pe doi dintre colegii mei, pe care i-​am aflat acolo, Dumitru Banu și Stan, să mă însoțească în oraș. Nu le-​am spus pentru ce, ci doar că nu va dura mult. M-​au însoțit la primăria de albastru. Fiecare primărie din București poartă numele unei culori. Ei au fost martori la căsătoria noastră. Primarul a fost foarte surprins și fericit să ne primească și să ne căsătorească. Se numea Ispir, era un boier originar din Buciumeni. Satul viilor și al Nataliei Negru, soție, pe rând a celor doi nefericiți poeți, Iosif și Anghel. Eram foarte grăbiți să ne căsătorim, căci era 29 iulie 1939. Peste exact treizeci de zile a izbucnit cel de-​al Doilea Război Mondial. Era cadoul nostru de nuntă”. (Gheorghiu 2017: 479). 15 Thierry Gillyboeuf summarises her life and origins as follows: „Of Jewish origin, Ecaterina Burbea was born on September 7, 1916 (two days before the birth of Virgil), in Galaţi, on the right bank of the Danube; she is the daughter of Eleonora Schenk, director and owner of Galaţi noi, the biggest magazine in Lower Moldova, and Ion Burbea, an independent parliamentarian who was chairman of the Danube Commission.” (Gillyboeuf 2019: 27). Origin. 2019: „De origine evreiască, Ecaterina Burbea este născută la 7 septembrie 1916 (cu două zile înainte de naşterea lui Virgil), la Galaţi, pe malul drept al Dunării; este fiica Eleonorei Schenk, directoarea şi proprietara Galaţilor noi, cea mai mare revistă a Moldovei de Jos, şi a lui Ion Burbea, parlamentar independent, care a fost preşedintele Comisiei Dunării”. 16 Ion Antonescu (1882–​1946) was a Romanian officer, general and marshal, the leader of Romania between 1940 and 1944, during which he established a military regime. After entering the Red Army, he was arrested, tried and executed in 1946. For more information about his life, activity, his end and the effects of his ideas on the Romanian recent history, see also Buzatu (2006) and Buzatu (2013).

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about what he saw in Bessarabia and about the Romanian army and its activity (Gheorghiu 1941, 1993a). This book was printed and sent to the battlefield, and used for propaganda. At the same time, it was also offered to the ones who had left home, in order to make them proud of the army. The book made Gheorghiu an author known in the Romanian space and even had a few positive chronicles. These aspects led his superiors to send him again to the battlefield. This time on a submarine that was almost destroyed in a conflict. Then, there was a third mission in Crimea. Every time after returning, the young poet wrote a small booklet (see Gheorghiu 1942, 1942a, 1993a, because they were reprinted by Father Gheorghe Neculoiu after 1993), that were well received by the Romanian public. These books later caused him trouble, but we will talk later about this. Reading them today, it is difficult to say whether they are literature or journalism. For sure, there are literary aspects to the writing, but the idea of the author was to offer to the reader examples and pictures from what had happened on the battlefield. After his return from war, Gheorghiu started to work at the Romanian Radio Society. Here, he made the first magazine of news during the day. At the same time, he worked at Timpul (The Time) journal and was a collaborator of Evenimentul (The Event), Seara (The Evening), Capitala (The Capital) and Informația (The Information) journals (Gillyboeuf 2019: 33). His rich activity unfortunately did not last very much, due to the fact that he was married to a Jewish woman. In less than one year, his press legitimation was withdrawn and Gheorghiu found himself unemployed. Most probably, the book dedicated by him to Armand Călinescu (Gheorghiu 1940a), prime minister of Romania killed by the Legionary Movement, contributed to this aspect. In this context, young Virgil needed to find another job. Using his friends and his relationships, he was eventually sent to Zagreb (Ică 2008: 7). As one of his biographers says: Gheorghiu uses some of the relationships he has to get a job in a ministry or embassy. After a few months, he managed to get the appointment as cultural and press attaché at the Romanian Embassy in Turkey, but when he presented himself at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he found out that his position was offered to another candidate, who had a stronger support. He ended up being appointed to the same position in Zagreb, Croatia. (Gillyboeuf 2019: 34)17

17 Origin. 2019: „Gheorghiu apelează la câteva dintre relaţiile pe care le are pentru a face rost de un post într-​un minister sau într-​o ambasadă. După câteva luni, reuşeşte să obţină numirea ca ataşat cultural şi de presă pe lângă Ambasada română din Turcia, însă, când se prezintă la Ministerul Afacerilor Externe, află că postul său a fost oferit

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Here he stayed until the end of the war (Gheorghiu 2017: 537). As he testified, here he was assigned to listen to the Occidental news about Romania and make a summary for the embassy. Of course, there were also other aspects that would define his activity. Young, in love and accompanied by his wife, he was enthusiastic about his job, as he testifies in his memoirs: I am twenty-​seven years old. I’m a poet. (I even hold the Royal Prize for Poetry for my book, Calligraphy on Snow). I am a cultural attaché at the Royal Romanian Embassy in Zagreb. (George 2019b: 9)18

Unfortunately, as it was his entire life, the peaceful life in Zagreb did not last too long. On 23rd of August 1944 (Ardeleanuet al. 1984), he was, for a short time, prisoner in the Croatian capital. Afterwards, together with all the other employees of the institution, he became part of a complex diplomatic process, the aim of which was to send them back home. Like Vintilă Horea (Horea 2011, 2015; Crăciunescu 2011; Bădiliță, Nicolescu 2016; Latiș 2003; Predoiu 2011), he refused this proposal. It was at this moment that Gheorghiu became conscious of the fact that it may be advisable not to live anymore in his native country. As a researcher who investigated his memoirs shows, it was then that he broke links with his country (Drăgoi 2015: 94–​95). As he notes in his memoirs, the authorities disagreed with his decision due to the international pressures by the Great Powers: It’s a sine qua non request from their side. After the occupation of Romania, on August 23, 1944, the Soviets and the Germans agreed on the exchanges of their diplomats. The Swiss and the International Red Cross have agreed to take over. They were allowed to search for Germans and Croats in USSR prisons and camps and gather them together. Today, they are all regrouped in Bucharest and in three days they will leave for the West, to be exchanged, halfway, with Romanian diplomats in Germany and Croatia. Everything is arranged. But, at the last minute, the Soviets demanded that all Romanian diplomats in Germany and Croatia be handed over to them, without exception. (Gheorghiu 2019b: 50)19

unui alt candidat, care beneficiase de un suport mai puternic. Ajunge astfel să fie numit în aceeaşi funcţie la Zagreb, în Croaţia”. 18 Origin. 2019b. „Am douăzeci și șapte de ani. Sunt poet. (Dețin chiar premiul Regal pentru Poezie pentru culegerea mea, Caligrafie pe zăpadă). Sunt atașat cultural la Ambasada Regală a României de la Zagreb”. 1 9 Origin. 2019b: „E o cerință sine qua non din partea lor. După ocuparea României, pe 23 august 1944, sovieticii și germanii s-​au înțeles în privința schimburilor diplomaților lor. Elvețienii și Crucea Roșie Internațională au acceptat să se ocupe de schimb. Au fost autorizați să-​i caute pe germani și croați în închisorile și lagărele din URSS și să-​i adune la un loc. Ei sunt astăzi cu toții regrupați la București și în trei zile vor pleca către

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After 23rd of August and until the moment of departure for Romania, Virgil Gheorghiu and his wife were under domiciliary arrest. Due to the fact that officially it was not possible to refuse the repatriation, the two tricked the vigilance authorities in Wien and escaped (Gylliboeuf 2019: 38; Drăgoi 2014: 41). From there, they travelled to different locations, as he later writes in his memoirs (Gheorghiu 2019: 89–​ 124) and arrived in the German space. Arrested by the Americans, he was separated from his wife20 and travelled through different camps (Morariu 2017: 578). For more than twenty months, they were there. Other Romanians from exile, like Neagu Djuvara (Djuvara 2012:  164–​167) met him there. It was here that The 25th Hour trauma germinated (Gillyboeuf 2019: 29), because an important part of the book was inspired by the events that he experienced there. Like in other moments of his life, he tried not to waste any time and learnt English and German languages, which were later very useful. (Before his arrival in France, Gheorghiu had studied theology in Heidelberg.) Therefore, as one of his biographers notes about the life spent by him in the German camps: He regularly changes the camp (he will go through forty camps in total) and must regularly pass among the sticks received from American soldiers as a sign of welcome. But take advantage of the experience here to learn German and English. At the end of a year without any news, he can finally, monitored, correspond with his wife, who also went through ten camps and was finally released in the spring of 1947 (Gillyboeuf 2019b: 39–​40)21

Apus, pentru a fi schimbați, la jumătatea drumului, cu diplomați români în Germania și Croația. Totul este aranjat. Dar, în ultimul moment, sovieticii au cerut să le fie predați toți diplomații români care se află în Germania și Croația, fără excepție”. 20 This separation is described by Gheorghiu in his notes, as follows: “We went out from Weimar and Saxony. The truck stops. I am ordered to go down. My wife wants to follow me, but the soldiers took her by the arm and held her in the truck. We don’t even have time to say goodbye. We are in front of a huge gate of barbed wire, and with viewpoints. My wife tries to break away and shouts at me: ‘Virgil, don’t leave me! Virgil, help me!’ But the truck starts.” (Gheorghiu 2019b: 308). Origin. 2019: „Am ieșit din Weimar și din Saxonia. Camionul se oprește. Mi se ordonă să cobor. Soția mea vrea să mă urmeze, dar soldații au luat-​o de braț și o rețin în camion. Nici măcar nu avem timp să ne luăm rămas bun. Suntem în fața unei porți imense de sârmă ghimpată, și cu miradoare. Soția mea încearcă să se desprindă și strigă după mine: -​Virgil, nu mă părăsi! Virgil, ajută-​mă! Dar camionul demarează”. 21 Origin. 2019: „Schimbă cu regularitate lagărul (va trece prin patruzeci de lagăre în total) şi trebuie să treacă regulat printre bastoanele primite de la soldaţii americani ca

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After the release, Gheorghiu met his wife in Ludwigsburg. They travelled together to Frankfurt and then to Heidelberg (Dorobanțu, Erwin 2011: 115). The two lived for a while in an apartment on the 3rd floor of the block, with number 60, from Rohrbacherstrasse. It was an interesting period for the young family. Ecaterina taught the German students in order to earn the necessary money for daily life. Virgil started his studies in theology. He learnt dogmatics, history of Israel, of Islam and of Buddhism. Encouraged by Eugen Dörr, who had a small publishing house, he wrote there Rumänische Märchen (Romanian stories) (Gheorghiu 1948a). The book was translated into German by a young Romanian lady, but due to the fact that it was bad translation, it did not enjoy success. Heidelberg was also the space where the Romanian writer started to work at his masterpiece, The 25th Hour. Monica Lovinescu, who translated the book in French language, testified this in her memoirs (Lovinescu 1994: 65). Gheorghiu himself writes with enthusiasm about the end of the writing process and the health problems that came with it: I managed to write the book. I finished 25 o’clock. I feel like I’ve finished a big book. But, even before the last pages, I can no longer read, I see through the fog. My eyes start to go out like a falling flame. I’m losing my sight.22 (Gheorghiu 2019b: 333)

Despite the positive aspects, life in Heidelberg was difficult for Virgil and Ecaterina. Poverty defined it and the fact that the two were not allowed to leave Germany amplified their sufferings. At a certain time, they even contemplated suicide due to the situation (Cubleșan 2016: 54).23 All these aspects were later evocated, both in memoirs and in the future writings of the Romanian diplomat

semn de bun venit. Dar profită de experienţa de aici pentru a învăţa limbile germană şi engleză. La sfârşitul unui an fără nici o veste, poate în sfârşit, monitorizat, să aibă corespondenţă cu soţia lui, trecută şi ea prin zece lagăre şi eliberată în cele din urmă în primăvara lui 1947”. 22 Origini. 2019b: „Am reușit să scriu cartea. Am încheiat Ora 25. Am sentimental că am terminat o carte mare. Dar, chiar înainte de ultimele pagini, nu mai pot să citesc, văd ca prin ceață. Ochii mei încep să se stingă ca o flacără ce scade. Îmi pierd vederea”. 2 3 “But the situation of Virgil and Catherine seems inextricable. The two cannot leave Germany. In December 1947, shortly before Christmas, desperate, malnourished –​at the risk of losing their sight due to lack of food –​they thought of committing suicide by throwing themselves out of their apartment window. (Gillyboeuf 2019: 41). Origin. 2019: „Însă situaţia lui Virgil şi a Ecaterinei pare a fi inextricabilă. Cei doi nu pot părăsi Germania. În decembrie 1947, cu puţin timp înainte de Crăciun, disperaţi, subnutriţi –​ riscând să-​şi piardă vederea din cauze alimentare, se gândesc să se sinucidă şi să se arunce de la fereastra apartamentului lor”.

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and poet. Like other Romanians, the two were also interested to go to America or Canada (Gillyboeuf 2019: 42; Gheorghiu 2019b: 340–​342). They even appeared for an interview, where Virgil was a candidate for becoming a forester. Unfortunately, his profile as an intellectual did not qualify him for this assignment. Disappointed, the young couple decided to leave Germany and find a place in one of the Nordic countries. Due to the fact that they had to pass through some German countries which were, at the time, occupied by the English and where those who had escaped from Eastern European countries were returned to the Soviets, the two went to Switzerland (Cubleșan 2016: 72). Here, as Thierry Gillyboeuf notes, there were other problems with bureaucrats. Eventually, they arrived in France, crossing the border fraudulently, with the complicity of a French human gendarme: So they go to Switzerland, but they are sent back because they don’t have a bank account here! And they lost their home in Heidelberg and decided to go to France. After several attempts to cross into the Friborg region, undertaken during the spring and summer of 1948, they managed to reach Bitche in August, due to the complicity of a French gendarme who closed his eyes to their passage. (Gillyboeuf 2019b: 43)24

The moment has been described in detail by Gheorghiu at the end of the second part of his memoirs. Here, he has explained how they tried to pass with fake permits, and how they were sent back to prison in Germany (Gheorghiu 2019b: 344–​ 345), how the French gendarme, who spoke a strange language marked by local influences, laughed at them and then explained to them where they could pass and when would be the proper moment to do it:



To succeed, you have to do it at noon. The Germans who spy on us on the other side always eat lunch. I don’t want them to see that the French gendarmerie tolerates the passage of illegal immigrants. It’s clear? I didn’t understand anything. The gendarme explained to us again: ‒ Go to lunch. I’ll close my eyes. The main thing is that the Germans don’t see you.

24 Origin. 2019b: „Trec aşadar în Elveţia, dar sunt trimişi înapoi pentru că nu au cont în bancă aici! Şi-​au pierdut domiciliul din Heidelberg şi decid să plece în Franţa. După mai multe tentative de trecere în regiunea Fribourg, întreprinse în decursul primăverii şi verii anului 1948, reuşesc să ajungă în august la Bitche, datorită complicităţii unui jandarm francez care a închis ochii la trecerea lor”.

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At noon, we took the same road again. The gendarme was still there. He watched us pass. It seemed clear. I made the sign of the cross, thanking heaven. So there is a heart, even in the chest of a gendarme. (Gheorghiu 2019b: 346)25

The dialogue with the representative of the French law who made an exception in order to help two poor Romanians to become part of their country’s exile, together with the fears and the mistrust that define their relationship, ends the second volume of memoirs written by Virgil Gheorghiu. He intended to write a third one, as those who have researched on his life and activity show (Gillyboeuf 2010: 5). According to some of them, the most autobiographic work written by him, which contains the presentation of some delicate aspects like the conflict with Monica Lovinescu or the problems with Virgil Ierunca, namely, The Man Who Was Travelling Alone (Gheorghiu 2010; Morariu 2016c: 4) was, in fact, this volume. The appendix of La Cravache (Gheorghiu 1960) is also a text that brings into attention a delicate aspect of his biography and it can be also considered as a part of a planned volume of memoirs (Gheorghiu 1960a: 219–​237). What is important is that, despite the absence of a volume of memoirs dedicated to the second part of his life, when he was in exile in France, Virgil Gheorghiu’s biography does not have a lack of information. It can be reconstructed partially from the books that he wrote in this period, due to the fact that almost each one of his books contains autobiographic references. Also, important sources in the understanding of his life and activity are the writings of the important personalities of exiled Romanians that he comes in contact with (see, for example, Lovinescu 1994, 1999; Eliade 1999; Ierunca 2000; Djuvara 2012; Stolojan 1996), or from the documents kept in the Romanian Securitate Archives (Morariu 2017b: 373–​381). From these sources we know that he and Ecaterina arrived clandestinely in Paris, walking (Cubleșan 2016:  76). The Romanian Orthodox Church there helped them to get a provisory space to live in the city. There, they encountered other Romanians who were also similarly exiled in France. People like Eliade

25 Origin. 2019b: „-​Ca să reușiți, trebuie să faceți aceasta la prânz. Germanii care ne spionează de cealaltă parte mânâncă mereu la prânz. Nu vreau să vadă că jandarmeria franceză tolerează trecerea clandestinilor. E clar? Nu înțelesesem nimic. Jandarmul ne-​a explicat din nou: -​Treceți la prânz. Am să închid ochii. Principalul e ca nemții să nu vă vadă. La prânz, am apucat din nou pe același drum. Jandarmul era tot acolo. Ne-​a privit trecând. Părea chiar senin. Am făcut semnul crucii, mulțumind cerului. Exista deci o inimă, chiar și în pieptul unui jandarm”.

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tried to help them in the beginning. He was the one who first read the manuscript of The 25th Hour, which later became his masterpiece, and recommended it to Monica Lovinescu for translation, and to Gabriel Marcel for forwarding and publication, as his biographers later show: They arrive in Paris clandestinely, on foot, in August 1948. Thanks to the help offered by the Romanian church, they get a shelter in Huchette Street, in the heart of the Latin Quarter, and meet again with some of my old friends from Bucharest, in exile in the French capital. Among them, Mircea Eliade. After seeing Gheorghiu’s manuscript, he tries to find an editor. He writes to Gabriel Marcel, who coordinates the “Feux croisés” (Crossfires) collection of Plon Publishing House, and to Brice Parain, from Gallimard Publishing House, to talk about this “young Romanian writer”, younger with thirty years and his “admirable novel,” which he considers “one of the best of our times.” (Gillyboeuf 2019: 43–​44)26

Later, when the two, namely Gheorghiu and Eliade, became enemies, Eliade accused himself of having taken “first” (Gheorghiu) to Gabriel Marcel.27 In Paris,

26 Origin. 2019: „Ajung la Paris clandestin, pe jos, în august 1948. Datorită ajutorului oferit de biserica românească, obţin un adăpost în strada Huchette, în inima Cartierului Latin, şi se reîntâlnesc cu câţiva dintre vechii amici de la Bucureşti, aflaţi în exil în capitala franceză. Între ei, Mircea Eliade. Acesta, după ce vede manuscrisul lui Gheorghiu, încearcă să îi găsească un editor. Îi scrie lui Gabriel Marcel, care coordonează colecţia „Feux croisés” (Focuri încrucişate) a Editurii Plon, şi lui Brice Parain, de la Editura Gallimard, pentru a le vorbi despre acest „tânăr scriitor român”, mai tânăr de treizeci de ani, şi de „admirabilul său roman”, pe care-​l consideră ca fiind „unul dintre cele mai bune ale timpurilor noastre”. 27 “About the Jurnal = C. V. G. is Constantin Virgil Gheorghiu, whom, unfortunately, I met at the time (I took fir trees to Gabriel Marcel).” (Eliade 1999: 385). Origin. 1999: „,A propos de Jurnal = C. V. G. este Constantin Virgil Gheorghiu, pe care, din păcate, l-​am cunoscut pe atunci (eu i-​am dus brazi lui Gabriel Marcel)”. Later, when Gheorghiu’s book titled The Second Chance (Gheorghiu 1993) was published, Eliade wrote about this problem to his friends: “Here, the only ‘Romanian’ novelty was provoked by C[onstantin] V[irgil] G[heorghiu]. La Seconde chance evokes the ‘massacres of Romanian Jews’ in such a way that you would think that the Buchenwald is nothing. But newspapers discovered and published violent anti-​Semitic pages from the Banks of the Dniester. In order to redeem itself, this channel pushed philosophy to the point of denigrating its own homeland. When I think that this novel was also be translated into fifteen languages and read by hundreds of thousands of people, I despair. We are truly an unlucky nation. Our only global success returns to our sister-​in-​law. Romanians deserved their fate, think people of good faith after reading the ‘fascist horrors’ described by Gheorghiu. I have many sins, but the hardest part is to have ‘discovered’ Gheorghiu and helped him. But how could I suspect that he is a demented scoundrel who, in order to sell another 10,000 copies, is willing to swear at

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Gheorghiu published this book, where the book sold well and he denounced the Nazi abuses and the ones of Communism. As he later shows in his correspondence with his parents (Morariu 2018: 72), shortly after, he became a successful author (his books being translated in thirty-​three languages) and a person with important notoriety. The journals of the time note the interest in his actions in order to prove him to be a real apostle of the Word of God, showing that, at a certain moment, when Thomas Mann had a conference in Paris at the same time with him, the Aula where the reputed writer had his speech was three-​quarters empty, while the one where Gheorghiu had the release of his book was so full that it was necessary to add some benches outside the room and to mount megaphones (Cubleșan 2011: 15). Due to the fact that the book was written in Romanian, he needed a translator. That translator was the famous Romanian intellectual Monica Lovinescu. At the moment when the work was initiated, Gheorghiu did not have money. For this reason, the translator accepted to do the work, asking for 15 percent of the sales. The fact that she never gave too much credit to his work is also proved by the way she signed the translation. In Plon’s Feux croisés collection, the translation was signed with the name Monique Saint-​Come (Dorobanțu, Erwin 2011: 116). After the release of the first edition, the Romanian writer sent her more than a quart of the money that he received, as can be seen from a document published in 2017, which contains the correspondence of the two writers. From the first

his mother? I haven’t seen him in three years. I broke off all relations with him. But in France, where any success is ephemeral, this specialist in the Drama of Humanity in the Age of Machinism is taken seriously.” (Eliade 1999: 459). Origin 1999: „Pe aici, singura noutate,,românească” a provocat-​o C[onstantin] V[irgil] G[heorghiu]. La Seconde chance evocă,, masacrele evreilor români” în aşa fel, încât ai crede că Buchenwald-​ul nu e nimic. Dar gazetele au descoperit şi publicat pagini violent antisemite din Ard malurile Nistrului. Ca să se răscumpere, această canalie a împins filosemitismul până la denigrarea propriei lui patrii. Când mă gândesc că şi acest roman va fi tradus în cincisprezece limbi şi citit de sute de mii de oameni, mă apucă deznădejdea. Suntem cu adevărat un neam fără noroc. Singurul nostru succes mondial se întoarce asupra noastră. Românii şi-​au meritat soarta, gândesc oamenii de bună credinţă după ce citesc,, ororile fasciste” descrise de Gheorghiu. Am multe păcate, dar cel mai greu este acela de a fi,,descoperit” pe Gheorghiu şi de a-​l fi ajutat să se,,lanseze”. Dar cum puteam bănui că e o canalie dementă care, pentru a vinde încă 10000 de exemplare, e dispus să-​şi înjure mama? Nu l-​am văzut de trei ani. Am rupt orice raporturi cu el. Dar, în Franţa, unde orice succes e efemer, acest specialist al Dramei Umanităţii în Era Maşinismului e luat în serios...”

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edition, he received approximatively one million French francs and sent to Lovinescu 310,000. She was the one who counted the money received, as is evident in one letter sent to him at the end of 1948: I received the check for 50,000 francs, for which I thank you. I would be grateful, however, if you would be kind enough to write me what this amount corresponds to. Our verbal agreement was, before the publication of the “25th Hour”, the following-​: I will receive 25% of the copyright on the French edition. You have been kind enough to pay me to date the sum of 310,000 francs, an amount corresponding to about a quarter of what they were able to report to you –​30,000 copies sold. I assume that Plon has not yet paid your share of all the copies sold –​or more than 100,000 -​. So I would ask you to tell me exactly what the total amount I received so far corresponds to. This, to facilitate my budget provisions. (Morariu 2017a: 185)28

After this, Lovinescu also wanted money from the other editions and translations, but Gheorghiu refused to offer her anything more. It was this that generated the beginning of an important conflict related with the Romanian exile in France. She continued to ask him for money while he refused to give it to her. This constituted a problem that sent them both, Gheorghiu and Monica Lovinescu, in front of the judge, in order for the problem to be solved. One of the persons brought by the Romanian writer to witness for him in front of the judge was the famous Romanian writer and radio speaker (from Free Europe Radio), Mircea Eliade (Lovinescu 1994: 67; Cubleșan 2011: 31). She denied that she had received any money for her work and asked for justice. But despite all the efforts, due to the fact that there was no contract signed between the two writers, the justice considered that Gheorghiu was right and asked Monica Lovinescu to withdraw her complaint. It was this moment that marked the start of the bad relationship between Gheorghiu, Monica Lovinescu and Eliade.

28 Origin. 2017a: „Am primit cecul de 50.000 de franci, pentru care îţi mulţumesc. Ţi-​aş fi totuşi recunoscătoare dacă ai avea amabilitate[a] de a-​mi scrie la ce corespunde această sumă. Înţelegerea noastră verbală era, înainte de apariţia,,Orei 25”, următoarea -​: voi primi 25 % din drepturile de autor asupra ediţiei franceze. Ai avut amabilitatea de a-​mi vărsa până azi suma de 310.000 de franci, sumă corespunzând aproximativ la o pătrime, din ce-​au putut să-​ţi raporteze –​30.000 de exemplare vândute. Presupun că Plon nu ţi-​a vărsat încă partea d[umi]tale asupra totalităţii exemplarelor vândute –​fie mai mult de 100.000 –​. Te-​aş ruga deci de a-​mi comunica la ce corespunde exact suma totală pe care am primit-​o până azi. Aceasta, pentru a-​mi facilita prevederile mele bugetare”.

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With the last one, Eliade, the story is a little more complicated. He was jealous of his library success29 and this motivated him to help and sustain Virgil Ierunca, Lovinescu’s husband, in the discrediting action that he initiated. At the same time, his pride was deeply hit by Gheorghiu’s refusal to help him with Luceafărul journal that he edited. It was this that led the Romanian writer to end any form of correspondence with the future Romanian priest, as he confessed on 8th of November 1950 to Vasile Posteucă, one of his friends from the Romanian exile:

29 As Emil Cioran, another important personality of the Romanian exile testifies in one of his dialogues with the interpreter Sanda Stolojan, “I paid a visit to Cioran.” He was waiting for me with a tray of cheese and fruit. He was in the mood to talk, he likes to bring back the old Romanian stories, although he claims that he has completely detached himself from them. I told him I had listened to Constantin Virgil Gheorghiu’s interview the night before. Virgil Gheorghiu was a novelist in vogue and he had played the role of a saint, more hypocritical than ever. Cioran grimaced terribly, imitating Virgil Gheorghiu, with his infected smile and his awful accent. “It’s really Smerdiakov,” he says. Cioran knows CV Gheorghiu well and is up to date with the success story of Ora 25. Cioran never forgot Virgil Gheorghiu’s triumph, but adds that the character betrayed everyone, he is infamous. He was lost to literature after the scandal that followed Orei 25, a scandal started by Ierunca, teleguided by Mircea Eliade, jealous of the novel’s success, said Cioran, but CV Gheorghiu currently has an audience for his novels. “The explanation of the Gheorghiu case? He has a real barbarian talent that entertains tired and weary civilizations of any vitality. Cioran believes him and is a bit crazy. He is especially odious, I added, “because he uses religion to advertise.” (Stolojan 1996: 22–​23). Origin. 1996:,, I-​am făcut o vizită lui Cioran. Mă aştepta cu o tavă de brânzeturi şi fructe. Avea chef de vorbă, îi place să readucă pe tapt vechile poveşti româneşti, deşi pretinde că s-​a detaşat complet de ele. I-​am spus că ascultasem în ajun interviul lui Const. Virgil Gheorghiu cu o romancieră în vogă şi că jucase rolul sfântului, mai ipocrit ca niciodată. Cioran s-​a strâmbat îngrozitor, imitându-​l pe Virgil Gheorghiu, cu surâsul lui infect şi accentul lui său îngrozitor.,,E leit Smerdiakov”, zice el. Cioran îl cunoaşte bine pe C. V. Gheorghiu şi este la curent cu povestea succesului Orei 25. Cioran n-​a uitat niciodată triumful lui Virgil Gheorghiu, dar adaugă că personajul a trădat pe toată lumea, este infam. Linguşelile sale sunt neruşinate. A fost pierdut pentru literatură în urma scandalului care a urmat Orei 25, scandal declanşat de Ierunca, teleghidat de Mircea Eliade, gelos pe succesul romanului, dixit Cioran. Dar C. V. Gh. are la ora actuală un public pe pentru romanele sale. Explicaţia cazului Gheorghiu? Are un real talent de barbar care îi distrează pe civilizaţii obosiţi şi vlăguiţi de orice vitalitate. Cioran îl crede şi cam smintit. Este mai ales odios, am adăugat eu, fiindcă se serveşte de religie pentru a-​şi face publicitate”.

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Luceafăru’s story is sad. In January, I wrote to Constantin V[irgil] Gh[eorghiu] to subsidize the number dedicated to Eminescu and he replied that he had no money. Since then, I have severed all ties with this gentleman. (Eliade 1999: 523–​524)30

Of course, the trial indented with Monica Lovinescu represented only the beginning of the story. She lost it and, for a while, Gheorghiu acted as if nothing had happened, excepting the deterioration of his relationship with her, her husband Virgil Ierunca, Eliade and a few other important Romanians exiled to Paris. She was the one who led Virgil Ierunca to do something in order to show what she considered “the true face” of the Romanian writer, after denying at the trial that she had received any money for the translation of The 25th Hour. In her memoirs, Gheorghiu later confessed this, showing that she managed to read his masterpiece only after the scandal that finally brought, at least for a while, a decrease in his credibility in front of the French readers: But I can only read this disgusting book after my marriage to Virgil Ierunca, who was the one who initiated the deflation of the myth of the Supreme Witness. This myth is all the more dangerous as the Witness will appear in later books as the only resistant and anti-​fascist Romanian, the rest of the country oscillating –​not only during the war, but also in the interwar period –​between camps and pogroms. (Lovinescu 1994: 66; cf. Stolojan 1996: 23; Morariu 2017a: 186)31

But what, in fact, did Ierunca’s work consist of? From one of his earlier books, The Benches of Dniester Are Burning (Gheorghiu 1941, 1993a), he selected a few passages that were translated into French and sent them to Gabriel Marcel. In this book, the Romanian writer describes the life on the battlefield, because he was sent there by the Romanian army in order to take part in its campaign in Bessarabia. At that time, this nation’s army partnered with the German one. He described what they found there and spoke about the realities encountered in these lands. His book was well received and used by the army (most probably by the Ministry of Propaganda) not only in order to make the ones who were left at home (women, children or old people) feel proud of the ones fighting, but also

30 Origin. 1999:,, Povestea Luceafărului e tristă. În ianuarie, i-​am scris lui C[onstantin] V[irgil] Gh[eorghiu] să subvenţioneze numărul închinat lui Eminescu şi mi-​a răspuns că nu are bani. De atunci, am rupt orice relaţie cu acest domn“. 31 Origin. 1994:,, Nu pot citi însă această carte dezgustătoare decât după căsătoria mea cu Virgil Ierunca, el fiind cel care a iniţiat dezumflarea mitului Martorului suprem. Cu atât mai primejdios acest mit, cu cât Martorul se va prezenta în cărţile ulterioare ca singurul român rezistent şi antifascist, tot restul ţării oscilând –​nu numai în timpul războiului, ci şi în perioada interbelică –​între lagăre şi pogromuri“.

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on the battlefield, in order to increase their enthusiasm. In this context, one of the few ten thousands of copies was received by Ierunca, who took it with him to France in his exile. Excited by Monica Lovinescu, with whom he fell in love, he did this, to present Gheorghiu to Gabriel Marcel through his earlier writings. Constantin Cubleșan, who researched this in one monograph, summarises the entire problem, as follows: Knowing very well the sensitivity of humanity after the war to the Nazi phenomenon, due to the massacres organized by them, whose victim was the Jewish population, Virgil Ierunca selected from the book The Benches of Dniester Are Burning several pages that, taken out of context, proved an anti-​Semitic and pro-​fascist attitude of Constantin Virgil Gheorghiu, which he offered to Gabriel Marcel, offering them at the same time, for publication in the press. (Cubleșan 2011:  29–​30; cf. Preda 1993:  301–​303, where the entire story is detailed also by the Romanian writer, but in favor of Ierunca and of his approach)32

It is easy to imagine what followed. Nobody took the responsibility of a deep investigation of the problem. Nobody asked himself why he was married to a Jewish lady, whether he was an anti-​Semite, and nobody was curious to read the entire book in order to understand his words in the proper context. The process started and everybody just accused him. The Romanian writer was, as he later confessed in an appendix to his book La Cravache (Gheorghiu 1960), close to be expulsed from France (Gheorghiu 1960a: 219–​237). His friends became his enemies and Gabriel Marcel withdrew the foreword offered with so much generosity to his masterpiece. Le Figaro was the first journal that started accusing (Gillyboeuf 2010: 8). Thierry Gillyboeuf, one of the recent authors who investigated his biography and was also the testamentary inheritor of Gheorghiu speaks about this episode, describing the content of the entire issue from the aforementioned publication: “Francis Crémieux –​in an issue containing an article by Sartre, a drawing by Matisse, a novel by Pierre Boulle, an article about Ilya Ehrenbo urg and another about Yves Farges –​launches a column entitled “Les Lettres Françaises accusent” (Lettres Françaises accuses), inaugurated by an indictment entitled: How and why a murderer was sanctified

32 Origin. 2011: „Cunoscând foarte bine sensibilitatea umanităţii de după război faţă de fenomenul nazist, datorită şi masacrelor organizate de aceştia, a căror victimă a fost populaţia evreiască, Virgil Ierunca a selectat din cartea de reportaje Ard malurile Nistrului mai multe pagini care, scoase din context, probau o atitudine antisemită şi profascistă a lui Constantin Virgil Gheorghiu, e care i le-​a oferit lui Gabriel Marcel, oferindu-​le tototată, spre publicare în presă“.

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as a great humanist, in which Crémieux accuses Gheorghiu of being a “war criminal, Hitlerite militant, apologist of the crime of genocide, informant of the Romanian police,” in order to conclude that “the imposter is exposed, the false testimony is proved.” (Gillyboeuf 2019: 54–​55)33

Such letters and denounces were later easy to find not only in Le Figaro, but in almost all French journals. The political or ideological colour of the publication was unimportant when he was the one meant to be accused or denigrated. For this reason, his life in France became more and more difficult and the Romanian writer was always exposed and risking getting either killed or expelled from the country. For a while, it was difficult for him not only to live, but also to publish, due to the ideological accuses. The fact that he refused to react in any way, that would make even writers like Emil Cioran admire him for that (Stolojan 1996: 22–​23), increased the fury of the journals and the accusers. In a dialogue with Plon, his editor from Paris, the publishing house confesses to Gheorghiu: “I have never seen such a campaign against a writer,” the editor continues. For the first time, the left-​wing press writes exactly the same articles as the bourgeois press, as the clerical press, as the right-​wing press. Usually, when communists cling to someone in their diaries, the center-​right press, the right-​wing press, or the clerical press systematically defend it. But they all insult you. Absolutely everyone. For four months, no day off. It seems out of the ordinary. I am afraid that you will not be able to resist here anymore. (Gheorghiu 2010: 248)34

But, in time, little by little, people forgot this scandal and Virgil was again published. His fame increased again and he was invited to different places all around

33 Origin, 2019: „Francis Crémieux –​în cadrul unui număr ce conţine un articol de Sartre, un desen de Matisse, un roman de Pierre Boulle, un articol despre Ilya Ehrenbo-​urg şi altul despre Yves Farges –​lansează o rubrică „Les Lettres Françaises accusent” (Les Lettres Françaises acuză), inaugurată printr-​un rechizitoriu intitulat: Cum şi de ce un criminal a fost sanctificat ca un mare umanist, în cadrul căruia Crémieux îl acuză pe Gheorghiu de faptul de a fi „criminal de război, militant hitlerist, apologet al crimei genocidului, informator al poliţiei române”, pentru a conchide că „impostorul este demascat, falsa mărturie este demonstrată”. 34 Origin. 2010:,, Nu am mai văzut o asemenea campanie declanşată împotriva unui scriitor niciodată, continuă editorul. Pentru prima oară, presa de stânga scrie exact aceleaşi articole ca şi presa burgheză, ca şi presa clericală, ca şi presa de dreapta. De obicei, când comuniştii se agaţă de cineva în jurnalele lor, presa de centru, presa de dreapta ori presa clericală îi iau în mod sistematic apărarea. Însă pe dumneavoastră vă insultă toţi. Absolut toţi. De patru luni, nici o zi de răgaz. Mi se pare ceva ieşit din comun. Mi-​e teamă că n-​o să mai puteţi să rezistaţi aici.“

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the world to speak about his books and about the drama of his country that was under the Communist regime. His defending text came later, in 1960 (Gheorghiu 1960a), when spirits were already calmed for a few years and even people like Monica Lovinescu or Eliade had better things to do. One small aspect even gave them a feeling of triumph, in the middle of the sixth decade of the twentieth century, namely the fact that in his second book, the author, as a form of revenge, used the name of Lovinescu’s friend, the lieutenant Gheorghe Rosetti, for the negative personage. This time, Monica insisted on having another trial and won. The publishing house was forced by the French authorities to withdraw the book from the market and to change the name from there. The entire episode is described, not with a total care for the historical truth, by Neagu Djuvara, who was also an important name among those exiled from Romania and was very close to the family of Lovinescu-​Ierunca: When he saw himself to be the author of a bestseller, he retracted and it took a rather unpleasant process to force him to compromise; and since, during the trial, Monica had been helped by her friend Gheorghe Rosetti, our now famous author published a second novel a few years later, in which the negative hero, the arrogant, brutal and lichen Romanian officer, was a lieutenant Rosetti! Another lawsuit, filed this time by a Gheorghe Rosetti Solescu (whose aunt was the wife of Marshal Paulus, sacrificed at Stalingrad) and his distant cousin Pierre Rosetti-​Balanescu (nephew of the linguist Alexandru Rosetti). The publisher was forced to withdraw all copies from circulation and replace them with a new version, in which the “ugly” had another name. (Djuvara 2012: 38)35

After this, Gheorghiu also received an invitation from Juan Peron (Stolojan 1996: 106; Cubleșan 2011: 32) to write his biography. Hosted there, he met him every day for a certain period of time in order to write the book. During these meetings, the dictator spoke to the Romanian writer about his biography. The conditions of this excursion were very luxurious as ensured by the leader. During these months, Peron was overthrown by a popular revolt. The next day, Gheorghiu wrote in Le Figaro an article about the dictator and about his love escapades.

35 Origin. 2012: „Când s-​a văzut cu un bestseller, a retractat şi a trebuit un proces, destul de neplăcut, pentru a-​l sili la un compromis; şi, întrucât, în cursul procesului Monica fusese ajutată de prietenul Gheorghe Rosetti, autorul nostru, acum celebru, scotea câţiva ani mai târziu un al doilea roman, în care eroul negativ, ofiţerul român, trufaş, brutal şi lichea, era un locotenent Rosetti! Alt proces, intentat de astă dată de un Gheorghe Rosetti Solescu (a cărui mătuşă era soţia mareşalului Paulus, sacrificatul de la Stalingrad) şi de vărul său îndepărtat Pierre Rosetti-​Bălănescu (nepotul lingvistului Alexandru Rosetti). Editorul a fost silit să retragă toate exemplarele din circulaţie şi să le înlocuiască cu o nouă versiune, în care,,urâtul“ purta alt nume...”

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This made the representatives of the exile from Romania angry again, this time including Cioran. This aspect of his biography is also presented by researchers like Gillyboeuf, but not always in an accurate way. For example, he says that: After living in Cannes for a while, he decided to emigrate to Argentina, at the invitation of President Juan Perón and a Catholic association, which asked him to hold a tour of twenty conferences. The sentimental choice for Gheorghiu, who keeps the memory of the packages he received when he was in the American camp, at the initiative of Eva Perón, was to give water to his detractors. (Gillyboeuf 2019: 63)36

Indeed, Gheorghiu wanted during a certain period of his life to emigrate to America and also to a place like Argentina, and during his life in the camp, he received humanitarian help from Eva Perón. In the official call, it may probably have been mentioned that he had been invited to give some speeches. But the clear intention of the Argentinian leader was to have a biography written by a notorious writer like Gheorghiu (D’Esneval 2003: 45). And his texts about the personal life of the dictator are also a reality. This raises, of course, a question mark on his way of acting and understanding the world and life. But, despite all this, Gheorghiu arrived in France to get closer to the Romanian Orthodox Church. Due to the fact that he had studied theology in Heidelberg in the years he lived there, it was not difficult to become a priest. He was ordained by the bishop for the Romanians exiled to France, Teofil Ionescu.37 As the researchers who investigated this aspect note:

36 Origin. 2019: „După ce a locuit o vreme la Cannes, se decide să emigreze în Argentina, la invitaţia preşedintelui Juan Perón şi a unei asociații catolice, care-​i solicita să realizeze un turneu con ţinând douăzeci de conferinţe. Alegerea sentimentală pentru Gheorghiu, care păstrează amintirea coletelor pe care le primea pe când era în lagărul americanilor, din iniţiativa Evei Perón, urma să dea apă la moară detractorilor săi.” 37 Teofil Ionescu of Sevres (1896–​1975), obtained his PhD in Theology in Paris. Then he served for a while in the Romanian Patriarchal Cathedral (1928–​1939), was superior of the Romanian Orthodox Church from Paris (1939–​1945), priest in Canada and USA (1946–​1954), bishop of Sevres from 1954 (having in his suborder the Romanian Orthodox Communities from the French exile). In 1972, he joined again the Romanian Orthodox Patriarchate, after a few years when he did not belong to it and two years later, he was made archbishop by the Patriarch Justinian Marina. For more information about his life and activity and about his work in the American and French Romanian communities, and also about the controversies that he was part of, see also ht​t​p​s​:​/​​​/​​​e​p​i​s​c​o​p​i​a​-​​​i​t​a​l​i​e​i​.​i​t​/​​​i​n​d​e​x​.​p​h​p​/​​​r​o​/​​​a​n​u​l​-​​​o​m​a​g​i​a​l​-​​​2015/​5881-​arhiepiscopul-​teofil-​ ionescu-​1896–​1975, accessed 11. 11. 2020, and: htt​p​s​:​/​​​/​​​o​r​t​o​d​o​x​i​a​.​d​e​/​​​m​e​m​o​r​a​b​i​l​i​s​/​​​ a​r​h​i​e​p​i​s​c​o​p​u​l​-​​​r​o​m​a​n​-​​​t​eofil-​ionescu/​, accessed 11. 11. 2020.

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Le 23 mai 1963 il est ordonné prêtre à l’Église orthodoxe Roumaine des Saints Archanges à Paris, et élevé, en 1966, au rang d’iconom stavrofor par le Patriarche roumain lui-​même, Justinian Marina38, ainsi qu’au rang de protopresbytre du Patriarcat de Constantinople au Centre Orthodoxe du Patriarcat œcuménique de Chambésy (Suisse), en 1970. (Dorobanțu, Erwin 2011: 116)

The ordination moment was interrupted by some of the Romanians in exile, most of them friends of the Lovinescu-​Ierunca family or part of the ancient nobility (Cubleșan 2011: 89), who shouted that he was unworthy (the rite of ordination has, in the Eastern Orthodox Church, also a moment when the bishop asks the faithful if the candidate is worthy and they must answer that he is worthy). Still, this did not stop the process and he became the priest for the Romanian community in Paris. This helped him to develop relations with important representatives of other Christian backgrounds, like Charles Westphal, a fact that made not only his enemies angry with him, but also the Romanian Securitate, who had taken him under surveillance. Due to the fact that Teofil Ionescu was not, at that time, in communion with the official hierarchy of the Romanian Orthodox Church, ruled at that time by the Patriarch Justinian Marina, shortly after his ordination, Gheorghiu got in contact with him and, in 1967, the year when his masterpiece, The 25th Hour, was screened with Anthony Quinn as the main character (https://​www.youtube. com/​watch?v=Q_​cH0zvDGJ4, accessed 12 March 2020), he became part of it (Morariu 2018: 75). This also brought him a promotion, because when the Romanian bishop made a visit to London, he also made a call to Geneva, where the two met and Father Gheorghiu was distinguished with the right of wearing the pectoral cross (in Orthodox tradition, this means to be a protopresbyter). Later, when he got closer to the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras, to whom he dedicated a biography (Gheorghiu 2019), he also received a distinction from him. 1967 was therefore an important and fruitful year for Virgil Gheorghiu. His masterpiece was again brought into attention and was screened by Henri Verneuil, with Anthony Quinn playing the role of Johann Moritz and with the

38 Important, but also a controversial personality of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Justinian Marina (1901–​1977), his real name being Ioan Marina, was the third patriarch of the aforementioned institute and ruled it from 1948 until his death. He was famous both for his attitude regarding the Communist regime and for the fact that he hid the Communist leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu Dej, when he ran away from Târgu Jiu Penitentiary, during the interwar period. For more information about his life, activity and also about his ideas, see also Anania (2017), Marina (2018), Petcu (2017).

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music made by Maurice Jarre and Georges Delerue (https://​www.youtube.com/​ watch?v=Q_​cH0zvDGJ4, accessed 12. 03. 2020). After a long negotiation with the Romanian authorities, it was not accepted to be filmed in Moldavia, the place of the beautiful historical monasteries, due to the critiques of the Communist regime from this space, made by the author in the book. The producer finally decided for Slovakian lands, which are, in certain respects, similar to the Romanian ones. It was also the year when he joined the Romanian Patriarchate coming under the omophorion of the Patriarch Justinian Marina. The Romanian leader of the church also distinguished him with the Patriarchal cross.39 The fact of being priest for the Romanian community in Paris did not stop Gheorghiu from travelling like he did before, to meet people, give lectures and hold conferences and present his books all around the world. The ordination moment rather brought, as he confesses, changes in the Romanian in exile. From now onwards, he wrote his books directly in French language (Livia Lamoure was only the corrector, not the translator like before) and also tried to write biographies dedicated to important personalities of the Orthodox Church, like Saint John Chrysostom (Gheorghiu 2008), or Saint Ambrosius from Milan (Gheorghiu 2013). In the beginning of the eighth decade of the twentieth century, he was also invited to Lebanon, where he saw the life of the Christians from this area.40 In

39 In the biography dedicated to him, Thierry Gillyboeuf says that “In 1966, when he received the title of stavrophore from the Patriarch of Romania, His Beatitude Justinian, and the Patriarchal Cross, Chiralesa appeared to him, which is a wonderful epic that glorifies the people of his native country.” (Gillyboeuf 2019: 82). Origin. 2019: „În 1966, când primeşte titlul de iconom stavrofor din partea Patriarhului României, Preafericitul Justinian, şi Crucea Patriarhală, îi apare Chiralesa, care este o minunată epopee ce glorifică oamenii din ţara sa natală.” In fact, the French writer is making a mistake, because only in the next year, the priest will become part of the Romanian Patriarchate. Until then, he belonged to a church ruled in French space by Teofil Ionescu, who refused to accept the official hierarchy from Bucharest, considering it too communist. Later, in the 70s, Ionescu also joined the Romanian Patriarchate, making peace with the Patriarch. 40 About this moment, Gillyboeuf says, “At the end of 1978, Virgil Gheorghiu and his wife left for Lebanon, in Beirut on fire, at the invitation of a friend. One of them, Father Mansour Labaki, invites him to attend services and to accompany the war orphans in the ‘Foyer of Joy,’ tells him about his parish in Damour, and convinces him to write a book about Lebanon.” (Gillyboeuf 2019: 9). Origin. 2019: „La finalul anului 1978, Virgil Gheorghiu şi soţia lui pleacă în Liban, în Beirutul în flăcări, la invitaţia unui prieten. Unul dintre ei, părintele Mansour Labaki, îl invită să participe la slujbe şi să-​i însoțească pe orfanii de război în „Foaierul bucuriei”, îi vorbeşte despre parohia lui din Damour şi îl convinge să scrie o carte despre Liban”.

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this context, he also documented for a new book dedicated to them and to their life in this area (Gheorghiu 1989), that was a kind of document-​investigation (Abrudan 2019: 499), due to the fact that the author presented their history in a literary manner in this book. Somewhere in the neighbourhood of these years, he made two visits to the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras in Constantinople41 (Gillyboeuf 2019:  86). The two had several discussions, speaking about the history and the future of the Orthodox Churches and of ecumenism. The Romanian writer was impressed by this man and decided to dedicate to him a biography (Gheorghiu 2009), which was warmly received, especially in the ecclesiastic area. From the Greek Patriarch, with whom he also had the opportunity to celebrate in Paris during one of his visits (Gillyboeuf 2019: 87), he also received a distinction, a Patriarchal pectoral cross, that made him feel appreciated for all his work. But although there were different positive periods in the eighth decade, Gheorghiu’s life was not a totally happy one. He still had many enemies caused by Lovinescu and Ierunca’s work. In a manifestation, in Nancy, a young man snatched the Cross from his neck. The Romanian Securitate also tried to keep an eye on him and to intimidate the writer, in order to discourage him from writing any more negative things about the Bucharest regime. In one of those attempts, a Romanian spy was sent to visit him presenting herself as a refugee and to ask him for help: He and his family had received Elena, a young compatriot, in their apartment on Siam Street, number 16, in the 16th arrondissement, but she was a Romanian spy, a fact that will be later confirmed by the Directorate of the French Security.42 (Gillyboeuf 2019: 88)

But this did not stop him from criticising Communism. As can be seen from his last books, he remained an enemy of this political regime and its ideological way of thinking. The difference was that, starting from the second half of his life,

41 Athenagoras Spirou (1886–​1972), was the 168th Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. He had this chair as the honorary chair of the Orthodox space, from 1948 until 1978. It is important for his openness to the dialogue with the Catholics. He met Pope Paul VI in Jerusalem and the two heads of two important Christian Churches had fruitful debates that culminated with the elevation of the Anathemes from 1054, on 7th of December 1967. 42 Origin, 2019: „El şi familia lui o primiseră pe Elena, o tânără compatrioată, în apartamentul lor de pe strada Siam, numărul 16, din cel de-​al XVI-​lea arondisment, dar ea era o spioană română, fapt ce le va fi ulterior confirmat de către Direcţia de Securitate Franceză.”

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Gheorghiu also became an enemy of American Capitalism, which he strongly criticised in his books. Novels published in the eighth decade of the twentieth century, like The American Eye (Gheorghiu 2013a), contained an important and well-​documented critique of the society of the human machine and the consumer as the basis of economic activity. The American society and its way of life was taken as an example of this behaviour (D’Esneval 2003: 67). The book was a kind of a case study. In other books published around the same period, like The Sacrifice of the Danube (Gheorghiu 2020), the critics were focused on the compromise existing between the Communist and Capitalist Great Powers that had split the world in spheres of influence and abandoned the countries from Eastern Europe, which became a space of penitentiary republics (Gheorghiu 2008b: 95). In books like The Suspect, published under the original title Why Should Kill Mr. Limitrof (Gheorghiu 2020a), he also insisted in showing that the American system of social justice also had its imperfections and aspects like the mafia’s work were part of their history and this made them to be not better than others. The beginnings of his conception regarding the Americans can be seen even in The 25th Hour, although not in such a developed way, and without having such a rich justification or sociological analysis, like in his later books. Therefore, as Loredana Cuzmici shows in her article: In 25th Hour there are no good and bad, Americans are only seemingly more civilized than their allies, the “liberating” Red Army. To win a war, both resort to all possible strategies. The myth of international justice, of all kinds of pacts, is deconstructed with each new bolge that an innocent man goes through. (Cuzmici 2015: 292)43

Most probably, Gheorghiu was also one of the Romanians who believed, until he found out about the Yalta treaty, in the fact that his people would soon be rescued by the Americans and was waiting for that, putting his hopes of returning home on this. In Romania, resistance groups fought in the mountains and resisted for years the army that intended to capture them, for the same reason. During their exile, their activity was known and the international space was informed about these expectations through the works of the writers like him or the activity of Radio Free Europe. Unfortunately, it was an unsuccessful action. Gheorghiu

43 Origin. 2015: „În Ora 25 nu există cei buni şi cei răi, americanii sunt doar în aparenţă mai civilizaţi decât aliaţii lor, Armata Roşie „eliberatoare”. Pentru a câştiga un război, şi unii şi alţii recurg la toate strategiile posibile. Mitul justiţiei internaţionale, al pacturilor de tot felul este deconstruit cu fiecare nouă bolgie pe care o traversează un om nevinovat.”

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knew that and this made him get angry with the Americans. And when he tried to investigate their way of life, he found many defects in it. The last decades of life brought him also other moments of joy. In 1973, for example, Gheorghiu was invited to a sermon in Champs-​Élysées during Lent. He also celebrated a decade from his ordination in Olympia, a fact that was criticised by his enemies, who considered him a “megalomaniac”: In 1973, he preached on Lent at the Champs Élysées and celebrated ten years of priesthood at Olympia, which would bring him the status of megalomaniac from his enemies. He was made a French citizen by Roland Nungesser, the mayor of Nogent-​sur-​Marne. (Gillyboeuf 2019: 88)44

These years were also marked by prolificacy in terms of writing and publishing activity. The Romanian priest wrote and published constantly until his death in 1992. Moreover, he left a few manuscripts finished, but unpublished, which were released posthumously. After 1970, the voices of his enemies did not anymore manage to discredit him as before, and their virulence also decreased. In this context, the publishing houses were able to publish all his books without fear and some of them were also soon translated into other languages. Among the books written at the end of his life, there were not only the ones written in the way that he used to before. Indeed, even the last novel that he published, titled God in Paris (Gheorghiu 2016a), contains references to the Romanian space, the way the Communist regime from Bucharest managed to discredit the exile from this space and to divide its representatives, and also speaks about ideologies, divergences of opinions having also a deep social relevance, but together with this category of books, he also tried to exercise himself in writing biographies of important personalities in history. He did this earlier too with The Youth of Doctor Luther (Gheorghiu 1965a), the life of Saint John Chrysostom (Gheorghiu 2008), Athenagora’s life (Gheorghiu 2009), or Saint Ambrosius from Milan (Gheorghiu 2013), but now, near the end of the eighth decade of the twentieth century, he did it with Mohammed, Islam’s founder (Gheorghiu 2016). The last book that he published during his life was dedicated to South Korea and was published five years before his death (Gheorghiu 1987). This book opened for Gheorghiu the road to some beautiful relationships with this space and with some of its officials. With its publication, he became an author whose 44 Origin. 2019: „În 1973, predică în Postul Mare la Champs-​Élysées şi sărbătoreşte zece ani de preoţie la Olympia, fapt ce îi va aduce din partea inamicilor săi calificativul de megaloman. Este făcut cetă ţean francez de către Roland Nungesser, primarul din Nogent-​sur-​Marne.”

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work was translated also in the Korean language. It is interesting why and how he became interested in this topic and what led him to become so sensitive to the history and the sufferings of this country. A person who knew him and who also had the opportunity to discuss with him about this topic and his concerns, says about it: In 1987, he published his latest book, La Corée, la belle inconnue de l’Extrême Orient –​À l’heure des Jeux Olympiques. In the early 1970s, he became passionate about Korea, after meeting a Korean student, Byun Kyu Yong, who explained to him that his life was the one told in The 25th Hour. Several Koreans would later confront him the same challenge. Touched by the suffering and delicacy of this people, he is increasingly interested in this country, which he calls the beautiful unknown of the Far East, when he states that: “the Berlin Wall and South Korea represent the borders of the free world.” He makes many stays in this space: here is a famous and admired author, whose complete work is translated into Korean. (Gillyboeuf 2019: 99)45

After this, Father Virgil did not publish any other book, but he wrote. He finished writing Dracula in Carpathian Mountains (Gheorghiu 2019) before his departure from this world, but it remained in manuscript form. It was later, as has been already mentioned, published posthumously in a Romanian translation in 2020. During his last years, he also focused more in the parish activities, becoming a more and more visited priest (Cubleșan 2011: 65). From Paris, he was also informed about the situation in Romania and about the way the end of the Communist regime was approaching. Previously, in some of his books he had denounced different practices of it and until 1989, he was always informed about its activity there. For example, in 1987, he spoke about Brașov and the strike that took place there (Arsene 1997) from the pulpit of his church, expressing his solidarity with the protesters. Starting with November 1989, although there was no sign that Ceaușescu would fall, he started a strong campaign against Communism and used his church as an important tool for his campaign:

45 Origin. 2019: „În 1987, publică ultima sa carte, intitulată: La Corée, la belle inconnue de l’Extrême-​Orient –​À l’heure des Jeux Olympiques. La începutul anilor ’70, începe să fie pasionat de Coreea, după ce se întâlneşte cu un student coreean, Byun Kyu Yong, care îi va explica cum că viaţa lui era cea povestită în Ora 25. Mai mulţi coreeni îl vor pune ulterior în fața aceleiași provocări. Atins de suferinţa şi de delicateţea acestui popor, se interesează din ce în ce mai mult de această ţară, pe care o numeşte frumoasa necunoscută a Extremului Orient, atunci când afirmă că: „zidul Berlinului şi Coreea de Sud reprezintă frontierele lumii libere”. Face numeroase sejururi: este aici un autor celebru şi admirat, a cărui operă integrală este tradusă în coreeană”.

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He rings the bells of the Romanian church in Paris on November 12, the day of the patron saint of this church, to call for revolt: “Wake up, Romania! God is with you. The bells will ring to signal the liberation of the homeland.” She becomes the spokeswoman for her nation so long ignored by Western powers, who seem to discover only its slow and terrible martyrdom. He pledges to preach in several French cities and launches a real “crusade for the liberation of the Romanian people, abandoned today by all,” which begins in Nantes and ends in Notre Dame de Paris. (Gillyboeuf 2019: 103)46

During the events from 1989, he was interested and informed. He was also disappointed about the fact that the dictator and his wife were killed and was also not very happy with the Romanian situation after this. Whenever he had the opportunity, he said that he was not convinced that the rulers of the country were taking it on a democratic road. The attitude towards Ceaușescu and his wife led him to cancel the planned travel to Romania (Gillyboeuf 2019:  104). It was a form of protest from his side. The year 1989 also came with some editorial problems. Towards the end of his life, Gheorghiu decided to break up his contract with Plon Publishing House, which had earlier published all his books from France, and to make an agreement with Rocher, which also decided to publish his books in Romanian language. This publishing house was the one that published for the first time, in 1991, The 25th Hour in Romanian language and posthumously also published the second volume of his memoirs. Old and suffering from a serious ailment, Father Gheorghiu ended his life on 22th of June, in Paris. And he was buried in Passy, as Thierry Gillyboeuf, his testamentary inheritor, shows: Dies on June 22, 1992, in Paris. On June 26, his funeral service is held in the Romanian Orthodox Church in Paris. During her time, a priest recalls that Virgil Gheorghiu “confessed for all those who suffered from injustice.” He is buried in the cemetery of Passy, near Trocadero. (Gillyboeuf 2019: 106)47

46 Origin. 2019: „Pune să se tragă clopotele bisericii române din Paris la 12 noiembrie, ziua hramului acestei biserici, pentru a chema la revoltă: „Deşteaptă-​te, Românie! Dumnezeu este cu tine. Clopotele vor suna semnalul de eliberare a patriei.” Devine portavocea naţiunii sale atât de mult timp ignorată de către puterile occidentale, care par să descopere doar martiriul ei lent şi teribil. Se angajează să predice în mai multe oraşe franceze şi lansează o adevărată „cruciadă pentru eliberarea poporului român, abandonat astăzi de către toţi”, care începe la Nantes şi se termină la Notre-​Dame de Paris.” 47 Origin. 2019: „Se stinge în zorii zilei de 22 iunie 1992, la Paris. La 26 iunie îi este oficiată slujba înmormântării în biserica ortodoxă română din Paris. În timpul ei, un

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After his death, there were many writers who discovered his work and in Romanian space, his homeland, the process of translating his work had begun. Still, due to the efforts of some of the disciples of Monica Lovinescu and Virgil Ierunca, and also thanks to other aspects, although he has been translated, there are many other aspects of his life, activity and work that deserve to be known. Even today, in different cultural areas, there are people who consider him as being the man of only one book (Cubleșan 2011: 7) and ignoring the fact that he was married to a Jew, consider him anti-​Semite or diminish the value of his works, despite the fact that it has been translated in different languages all around the world.

1.3 Virgil Gheorghiu’s Works When one wants to speak about Virgil Gheorghiu’s works, he must take into account the diversity and prolificacy of the author. Thierry Gillyboeuf, his testamentary inheritor, in one attempt to catalogue his books, presents 41 titles (Gillyboeuf 2019: 114). Indeed, these were the published ones. But he neglects the fact that the investigated author also left a few unpublished books, like Dracula in Carpathian Mountains (Gheorghiu 2019), the manuscript of which was discovered by himself and entrusted to the Romanian Sophia Publishing House and to Gheorghiță Ciocioi, who translated into this language almost the entire work of the investigated author. Moreover, the writer was a notorious name and his novels were translated into different languages all around the world. In 1970, when he wrote to his parents in Neamț County, he was happy that his work had been translated into 33 languages and there was also an edition for persons with visual deficiencies (Morariu 2018: 75). Later, his work was translated into 40 languages, some of them being quite exotic like Korean (Gillyboeuf 2019: 99). There is also a metamorphosis that defines the writer’s life in exile. For two decades after he arrived in France, he wrote novels in Romanian languages and these were translated. His first translation into French was done by Monica Lovinescu, for The 25th Hour, and the others by Livia Lamoure. Later, after 1968, he wrote directly in French, and the translator was only the person invited to read and make the necessary corrections to his work. Therefore, as two contemporary researchers mention in one research dedicated to his work:

preot aminteşte că Virgil Gheorghiu a „mărturisit pentru toţi cei care au suferit de nedreptăţi”. Este înhumat în cimitirul din Passy, lângă Trocadero.”

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Comme d’autres écrivains roumains exilés, Constantin Virgil Gheorghiu a écrit son œuvre en roumain jusqu’en 1964 avec le roman Les Immortels d’Agapia (Gheorghiu 1998, puis directement en langue française. Il a publié huit livres en Roumanie, plus de quarante volumes en France (romans et pages autobiographiques) constituant en fait l’essence de son œuvre, parmi lesquels: Calligraphie sur neige, Vie de tous les jours du Poète, L’Heure de la Prière, Les rives du Dnister brûlant, La seconde chance etc. Le roman La vingt-​cinquième heure (premier à avoir été écrit en français), a été traduit en pus de 40 langues et porté à l’écran, avec Anthony Queen dans le rôle principal. (Dorobanțu, Erwin 2011: 116)

Regarding the composition of his work, it must surely be mentioned that they are defined by a huge diversity. Gheorghiu started as a poet (Gheorghiu 1937, 1940, 1940a). Then he wrote war reports (Gheorghiu 1941, 1942, 1942a), interviews, stories (Gheorghiu 1948a) with folkloric inspiration, novels, biographies (Gheorghiu 1965a), journals of travel (Gheorghiu 1989; Abrudan 2019: 499) and memoirs (Gheorghiu 1999a, 2002). At the same time, during the interwar period and also during the Second World War, he published news and chronicles of different types of events in the important Romanian journals of the time. The fact that his works are important resides not only in their translation but also in the influence that they had on other authors. Therefore, for example, one of his earlier books, The Benches of Dniester Are Burning (Gheorghiu 1941), influences even important writers from the Communist period. Marin Preda uses passages from it in The Delirium novel (Preda 2009) and feels influenced by the content and the style of the author –​he knows, although he disagrees with his ideas, as he writes in a book with memoiristic dimension (Preda 1993). The fact that almost all of his books (excepting the medallions and biographies) contain autobiographic references, contributes for sure to their reception from the readers. This fact is also emphasised by the literary critics. For example, Eugen Simion, former president of the Romanian Academy and known for his activity as a historian of literature and critic, says that: When he reconstructs his biography, the author seems to restore the character’s destiny from his successful fiction (Simion 2008: 25)48

Indeed, a reader familiar with Gheorghiu’s biography can easily find in the most important publications signed by him references to his own experiences, made either directly or masked under the behaviour of some of the characters. Still, this does not make his publications to be unimportant, in the message or from 48 Origin. 2008: „Când îşi reconstituie biografia, autorul pare a reface destinul personajului din ficţiunea sa de succes”.

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the point of view of structure. For this reason, an important literary critic from the Romanian space underlines, for example, about his masterpiece, the fact that: 25th Hour is the most important post-​war Romanian novel, a corollary of Ion’s problematization, internationally attested as one of the most representative images of the tragic man. (Popa 2009: 644)49

But in order to arrive at such a complexity of messages and ideas, the writer followed a long road, marked, as we have tried to show in the previous pages, by events that were not totally happy for him or for his wife. As a writer, there was a metamorphosis of style and theme and of the perception of literature and its purpose. His debut as a poet last, as has been previously mentioned from the high school time, when he published in different journals and was remarked on by poets like Tudor Arghezi, who later helped him by finding him a job or by writing forewords for his books. But he became a writer with a book released only after his arrival in Bucharest. His first volume, titled Poet’s Daily Life (1937) was released when he was in the first year as a student in Bucharest. On 1st of March 1937, as he later noted in his memoirs (Gheorghiu 2017: 318), Gheorghe Mecu’s National Publishing House put it in the libraries. Marcel Iancu,50 a Jewish famous painter of the interwar period, who also painted portraits of the writers from the Anthology of Romanian Poets (Gheorghiu 2017: 318), also granted him with a medallion for this. The book is in fact an anthology of his previous texts. Although he was not considered a revelation for the poetical genre of the time thanks to this book, for him this was important. Moreover, thanks to this book, he met Nicolae Crevedia, with whom he co-​operated for a while. The second book that he published was the one which brought him an important prize from the Royal Foundations –​Calligraphy on the Snow (Gheorghiu 1940; Gillyboeuf 2019: 30). It was the same month, March, that brought him the release of the book and the important prize, that came during a complicated period of his time, when the writer was concentrated in a military base in Brașov (Gheorghiu 2019b: 9). In order to be able to keep his job as a journalist, he was forced to go every day from Bucharest to Brașov and back (more than 200 km) and to be both officer and writer. In this context, as he wrote in the memoirs, the

49 Origin. 2009: „Ora 25 este în ansamblu cel mai important roman românesc postbelic, corolar al problematizării lui Ion, atestat internaţional ca una din cele mai reprezentative imagini ale omului tragic.” 50 Marcel Iancu (1895–​1984) was a painter, an architect and a Romanian essayist with Jewish origins. As a formation he studied architecture in Zurich, and graduated in 1917. For more information about his life and activity, see Editor (1997).

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fact that he received this wanted prize also brought some advantages and made his superiors see him with different eyes. His third book was dedicated to a personality and to an event. It contained poems dedicated to the prime minister, Armand Călinescu,51 killed in an attentat by the Legionaries ruled by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu.52 Gheorghiu’s aim was, at that time, to show the relevance of that politician and to manifest against any form of violence. The widow of Călinescu was very impressed by his work and was grateful to him for that. But not the Legionary Movement. The fact that he was married to a Jew, that he had a lot of friends who were Jews, made Legionnaires feel angry. Now, this book had inflamed spirits. Many years later, when he thought about this period and correlated the memories with the ones about what happened in France with Lovinescu and Ierunca, Gheorghiu concluded with sadness: Half of my books were burned by fascists, and the other half by anti-​fascists. It is a fate worthy of a poet’s books. (Gheorghiu 1960a: 234)53

The book, together with the fact that he was married to a Jewish lady, also later contributed to the fact that Virgil lost the right to work in the press after a few years when he had good results there. The beginning of the Second World War pushed him, due to the fact that he had graduated from a military college, to go to the battlefield. The fact that he had worked for different journals and for the radio and was remarked for his work there led his superiors to give him an interesting task, the one of being a war reporter. In this context, accompanying the Romanian war in the famous campaign released by the Marshal Ion Antonescu in Bessarabia under the title Soldiers, I order you to cross the Prut!, meant to recover the Romanian lands occupied by force by Stalin, he saw the real face of the war and its consequences. He decided to write about these experiences, presenting different aspects in a

51 Armand Călinescu (1893–​1939), was a jurist and an important politician of Romania during the interwar period. Between 7th of March and 21st of September 1939, he was also the prime minister of Romania. 52 Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (1899–​1938) was the founder and the leader of the Legionary Movement, the most important far-​right movement from the interwar Romania. After the assassination of Prime Minister Armand Călinescu, he was imprisoned and in the night between 29th and 30th of November 1930, under the pretext that he had tried to escape, he was executed. 53 Origin. 1960a:,, Jumătate dintre cărţile mele au fost arse de fascişti, şi cealaltă jumătate de către antifascişti. E o soartă demnă de cărţile unui poet“.

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book titled The Benches of Dniester Are Burning (Gheorghiu 1941), with a foreword by Tudor Arghezi, an important poet and writer of the time, that was very well received by the readers. The publisher, Gheorghe Mecu National Publishing House, printed at the time a few thousands of copies that were distributed both to the libraries and on the battlefield. Gheorghiu therefore became an author used for propagandistic purposes. Later, as we have mentioned, passages from this book were used by Virgil Ierunca in order to open the scandal that transformed Gheorghiu to an anti-​Semite in the eyes of many French people and of some of his readers from all around the world (Cubleșan 2011: 31). He cut out from the context a few passages where the writer presented a few abuses made by some Jews in those lands and other passages where he described the German Nazi soldiers, with whom the Romanian army was, at the time, partnering, doing some good deeds. Unfortunately, until today, this book has not been translated integrally into French or English language and therefore the only passages that are accessible to the readers from the Occidental space are the ones translated by the aforementioned writer and then used by the journals that accused Gheorghiu. An integral lecture may contribute to a better understanding of the author, of the context of the facts presented and of his intention. But for the readers from France this is not possible, even after more than 60 years of the conflict. But until the scandal, it must be said that the editor was very content with Virgil’s reports. For this reason, he decided to send him again to that area, this time on the Dolphin submarine of Romanian army, at the siege of Sevastopol. More than two weeks he travelled by submarine and was in danger of dying, because the machine was attacked. On his return, he again published a book, with a foreword by another important writer of the time, as Thierry Gillyboeuf shows: He is then sent on the submarine Delfinul (The Dolphin), from the harbour of Constanta on the Black Sea, remaining on board the submarine for two weeks. On his return, he published With the Submarine at the Siege of Sevastopol (Gheorghiu 1942), at the National Publishing House, with a preface by Ionel Teodoreanu54 (1897–​1954). (Gillyboeuf 2019: 32)55

54 Ionel Teodoreanu (1897–​1954) was a notorious Romanian writer from the interwar period, who become known especially for the writings dedicated to his childhood and the memories that this period brought him. 55 Origin, 2019: „Este trimis apoi pe submarinul Delfinul, în portul Constanţa de la Marea Neagră, rămânând la bordul submarinului două săptămâni. La întoarcere, publică Cu submarinul la asediul Sevastopopului la Editura Na ţională, cu o prefa ţă de Ionel Teodoreanu (1897–​1954)”.

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Like the previous book of interviews and reports, this was also well received. The exotism of the topic, the precise descriptions of the submarine and of its way of function, the way he presents the story of life of each member in it and the attack, made the readers buy it and read its content. Compared to the previous book (Gheorghiu 1941), the narration was much more calm and the base consisted of the narrative more than the action and dialogue. Still, action was not missing there. And curiosity was generated by the fact that the readers from the Romanian space were interested to find more about such a special machine. His next book was also dedicated to a mission on the battlefield. As his biographers show: His next mission is to accompany the mountain hunters who continue the fight against the Soviet invader in Crimea. He published, at the same editor, I Fought in the Crimea (Gheorghiu 1942a), with a portrait made by the famous painter Lucia Demetriade Bălăcescu (1895–​1979).56 He is already a well-​known author. The book is printed in twenty thousand copies, but a former ambassador to Moscow warns him: “You are missing your career. For the Russians, at this moment you are a man of the finished right. Know that when the time comes, they will make you pay” (Gillyboeuf 2019: 32–​33)57

Gheorghiu was conscious of the fact that the Russians would not lose any opportunity to punish him, but this did not stop him, as a writer, from criticising this ideology. As a man, the fear influenced him and led him to refuse to return to Romania after 23rd of August 1944, a fact that brought him into exile and made it impossible for him to see his country before 1989 (after this moment, he refused to do it). The year 1942 brought changes in the discourse and the way of writing of the young Virgil. He now published also a book of poetry, titled The Hour of Prayer (Gheorghiu 1942b), with a portrait made by the painter Rudolf Rybiczka.58 After this he did not publish any book of poetry, preferring other literary genres. Also,

56 Lucia Demetriade Bălăcescu (1895–​1979), was a Romanian writer and painter, notorious in the interwar period. 57 Origin. 2019: „Misiunea sa următoare este să-​i însoţească pe vânătorii de munte care continuă luptele împotriva invadatorului sovietic în Crimeea. Publică, la acelaşi editor, Am luptat în Crimeea (Gheorghiu 1942a), cu un portret realizat de celebra pictoriţă Lucia Demetriade Bălăcescu (1895–​1979). E deja un autor cunoscut. Cartea este imprimată în douăzeci de mii de exemplare, însă un fost ambasador la Moscova îl previne: „Vă ratați cariera. Pentru ruşi, în acest moment sunteţi un om de-​a dreptul terminat. Să ştiţi că, atunci când va veni momentul, vă vor face să plătiţi...” 58 Rudolf Rybiczka (1911–​1998), was a Romanian painter. For more information about his life and activity, see http://​miscarea.net/​libertatea-​rybiczka.htm, accessed 12.10.2020.

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after the book dedicated to Crimea campaign, he did not publish any book of reports, from a war or outside it. Aspects from this area were possible to find in some of his later books and for sure, the method was used when he invited for discussions people like the Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople, to whom he dedicated a biography (Gheorghiu 2009), but no book entirely dedicated to this aspect was now signed by him. One year later, before his departure for Zagreb, he also published his first novel, titled The Last Hour (Gheorghiu 1943). The release of this work marked the transition from poetry, interview and report to this genre. Describing a situation that was quite often encountered in those times, the book was unfortunately not very warmly received like the previous ones dedicated to the war, a fact that did not mean that it was not well-​written with a complex action and message. Due to the complex events that took place and changed his life, making him become a diplomat and later a prisoner in the German camps and an exile in France, from 1943 and until 1948, Gheorghiu did not publish any book in this period. The moment he began to live in Heidelberg represented for the Romanian writer an opportunity to work at his masterpiece, The 25th Hour (Gheorghiu 1948), released shortly after his arrival in France. At the same time, he also studied theology there and took notices that were later developed in other books. Before his departure for France, Virgil also used his talent to promote his homeland and answer the request of one of his neighbours, Eugen Dörr (Gillyboeuf 2019: 40–​41). This man opened a publishing house in the town and asked him to write a book with stories dedicated to his country. The Romanian writer therefore used his skills in order to bring to the life some beautiful stories about his country. Once finished, the Romanian Stories (Gheorghiu 1948a), as they were called, he sent the book to an Austrian friend in order to do a German translation (Gillyboeuf 2019: 41) Unfortunately, the translation was not a very good one and the book did not have the impact wished by his author. But after the book was published in Germany, another work really made the author famous. It was most probably already written at the time of the publication of Romanian Stories and was offered to Mircea Eliade for an opinion. He read it and considered it a well-​written work.59 The two had a correspondence

59 In 1948, he wrote to Gheorghiu: “Dear Mr. Virgil Gheorghiu, I’m finishing reading your novel and I don’t dare go to bed before I say at least a few words about how excited I am. I congratulate you with all my heart and I assure you that I will do my best for this novel to see the light of day as soon as possible. I have not read anything, no literature, that comes as close as possible to the terror of history that your characters endure. I

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about it (Eliade 1999b: 545–​546). Eliade was the one who recommended Monica Lovinescu as a translator and also sent the manuscript to Gabriel Marcel,60 who enthusiastically wrote the foreword and coordinated its publication in Plon’s Feux croisés collection in 1948 (Gheorghiu 1948). The title The 25th Hour, well selected, ensured success of the publication and shortly after its release the first number of printed copies were sold. About this book and its publication and about the role played by Eliade in the entire demarche, Gillyboeuf says as under: He writes to Gabriel Marcel, who coordinates the “Feux croisés” (Crossfire) collection of Plon Publishing House, and to Brice Parain, from Gallimard Publishing House, to talk about this “young Romanian writer,” younger than thirty years, and his “admirable novel,” which he considers “one of the best of our times.” The translation is entrusted to a young Romanian emigrant, Monica Lovinescu (1923–​2008), who left Romania in 1947 and obtained political asylum with her husband, Virgil Ierunca, the following year. (Gillyboeuf 2019: 46)61

consider Hour 25 one of the greatest books of our generation in all countries. Obviously, as always, the flaws are commensurate with the talent, and that is disturbing. But I am sure that a new revision of the manuscript will be easy to remove. Congratulations once again! With much friendship, Mircea Eliade (Eliade 1999b: 545). Origin. 1999:,, Dragă Domnule Virgil Gheorghiu, Sfârşesc de citit romanul D-​tale şi nu mă încumet să mă culc înainte de a-​ţi spune măcar câteva cuvinte cât sunt de entuziasmat. Te felicit din toată inima şi te asigur că voi face ce-​mi stă în putinţă ca acest roman să vadă cât de curând lumina tiparului. N-​am citit nimic, nici o literatură, care să se apropie, cât de departe, de teroarea istoriei pe care o îndură personajele D-​tale. Consider Ora 25 una dintre cele mai mari cărţi ale generaţiei noastre din toate ţările. Evident, aşa cum se întâmplă întotdeauna, defectele sunt pe măsura talentului, şi adică tulburătoare. Dar sunt sigur că o nouă revizie a manuscrisului le va putea lesne înlătura. Încă o dată felicitări! Cu multă prietenie, Mircea Eliade”. 60 Gabriel Honoré Marcel (1889–​1973) was a French writer, philosopher, literary critic, theatre critic, theatrologist and musicologist. Among the important publishing houses from France with which he was co-​operating, Plon must also be mentioned. 6 1 Origin. 2019: „Îi scrie lui Gabriel Marcel, care coordonează colecţia „Feux croisés” (Focuri încrucişate) a Editurii Plon, şi lui Brice Parain, de la Editura Gallimard, pentru a le vorbi despre acest „tânăr scriitor român”, mai tânăr de treizeci de ani, şi de „admirabilul său roman”, pe care-​l consideră ca fiind „unul dintre cele mai bune ale timpurilor noastre”. Traducerea este încredin ţată unei tinere emigrante române, Monica Lovinescu (1923–​2008), care a fugit din România în 1947 şi a ob ţinut azil politic împreună cu soţul ei, Virgil Ierunca, în anul următor”.

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Shortly after the release, the book was translated into different languages and reprinted, and was very well received by the public (Cubleșan 2011:  54). The fact that he used in it his experiences from the war and offered case studies surely contributed to its success in the library.62 This also created jealousy and animosity from the side of the other writers, Romanian or French. Eliade himself was sad that La Nuit Bengali (that was the title of the first edition of the book known today as Maitreyi), a novel with Oriental content that he published around the same time, did not enjoy the success of the The 25th Hour. When the context came, he therefore joined the ones who tried to compromise Gheorghiu and accused him of being a legionary and an anti-​Semite, as we have already tried to show. This book generated a scandal that brought a lot of accusations to the Romanian writer (like the aforementioned one, and also the one of being a spy of Romanian Securitate working undercover in France in order to destroy the Romanian exile). But until the moment of the conflict, Virgil still had enough time to write and publish other books. Like in the masterpiece, he used in the future books information taken from the war, a fact that shows that he was influenced by this period and by what he saw on the battlefield. About these books it can be said, as has been already emphasised, that: Beyond of the fact of triggering the drama of his life as a writer in exile, through their use truncated by Monica Lovinescu, they were often his source of inspiration, which served him in making some of the most interesting and dynamic novels written during the French exile. Even in The 25th Hour, his best-​seller, most appreciated and translated novel, passages from the front experience can be found, similar in content and structure to those described in works such as Burning the Banks of the Dniester, I Fought in the Crimea or With the Submarine at Siege Sevastopol. Far from being an author who repeatedly repeats certain themes, Gheorghiu is still an author who is not afraid to return to

62 Because, as has been previously mentioned: “Aware that the abstract theorizing of a phenomenon does not reach the reader’s heart and therefore, in many situations, does not raise awareness, but only generates scholarly analyses, Gheorghiu starts to present his ideas in a truly Semitic way. He illustrates them through concrete events, which usually focus on ordinary people, drawing attention to the drama of the simple man and his drama.” (Gheorghiu 2020a: 34–​35). Origin. 2020a: „Conștient că teoretizarea abstractă a unui fenomen nu ajunge la inima cititorului și de aceea, în multe situații, nu sensibilizează, ci doar generează analize savante, Gheorghiu pornește în prezentarea ideilor sale într-​un mod de-​a dreptul semitit. Le ilustrează prin intermediul unor evenimente concrete, care au în centru îndeobște oameni de rând, atrăgând atenția asupra dramei omului simplu și a dramei sale”.

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previously exposed topics, which he often presents in a new light, develops, or reinterprets. (Morariu 2016b: 718)63

The next work, titled The Second Chance (Gheorghiu 1993), published by Plon in 1952, was a kind of a continuation of the The 25th Hour and used plenty of information about the aforementioned conflagration and the violence that it brought about. Due to the fact that it was published shortly after the process initiated and lost by Monica Lovinescu and the negative character had the name of one of her uncles, the book also brought him some troubles. The uncle made a complaint and the publishing house had to retire the first copies and to replace the name of the negative character (Cubleșan 2011: 31; Djuvara 2012: 166). But this aspect did not have any negative consequences on the way the book was received by the readers. It was only an element that increased Monica Lovinescu’s anger and led her to ask Ierunca to do something with this Gheorghiu. In this context, he opened the scandal that we have already spoken about, as the writer mentioned in the novel with autobiographic content (Gheorghiu 2010: 238). Eliade was also angry with him for this book and considered the author like a man without personality, due to the fact that he spoke about two important anti-​Semite episodes from the Romanian space, considering them as being singular situations and not representative of the Romanian history. As Florin Țurcanu later shows in one of his books about this episode: ,In December 1952, Eliade wrote to his friend Brutus Coste, who lived in the United States, about the novel La Seconde Chance (Second Chance) (Gheorghiu 1993) by the Romanian writer Constantin Virgil Gheorghiu, recently published in Paris. Author of Hour 25 (Gheorghiu 1948), a book that had already made people talk about him, published in 1949, with a preface by Gabriel Marcel, Gheorghiu had publicly manifested his virulent anti-​Semitism in Romania during the war. In The Second Chance, however, he described the atrocities committed by the Iron Guard against the Jews during the January 1941 rebellion against Leader Antonescu. Eliade is outraged. Yes, he writes to Brutus Coste, the

63 Origin. 2016b: „Dincolo de faptul de a fi declanşat drama vieţii sale de scriitor în exil, prin folosirea lor trunchiată de către Monica Lovinescu, acestea au constituit adesea şi sursa lui de inspiraţie, care i-​a servit în realizarea unora dintre cele mai interesante şi mai dinamice romane scrise în perioada exilului francez. Inclusiv în Ora 25, cel mai bine vândut, mai apreciat şi tradus roman al său, pot fi întâlnite pasaje din experienţa de front, similare în conţinut şi structură celor descrise în lucrări precum Ard malurile Nistrului, Am luptat în Crimeea sau Cu submarinul la asediul Sevastopolului. Departe de a fi un autor care-​şi repetă cu recurenţă anumite teme, Gheorghiu este totuşi un autor căruia nu-​i e frică să revină asupra unor subiecte expuse anterior, pe care le prezintă adesea într-​o lumină nouă, le dezvoltă, sau le reinterpretează”.

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anti-​Semitic crimes committed in Bucharest in January 1941, and the Iasi pogrom, committed five months later, represent “black pages” in the history of the Romanian people. But they are still the “only” episodes of this type. They do not deserve to be popularized through novels such as Caput by Curzio Malaparte and La Seconde Chance of a former anti-​Semite like C. V. Gheorghiu. (Țurcanu 2007: 487)64

Reading Eliade’s correspondence one may be tempted to think that the Romanian historian of religions and writer had also an important contribution to the event of compromising Gheorghiu, accomplished by Virgil Ierunca and sustained by Monica Lovinescu. Due to the fact that the only evidences in this sense are his disagreement with the ideas expressed in this book and his jealousy on The 25th Hour’s success, it is difficult to say if he really contributed to this episode, or if he was at least informed about what his friends were doing. Two years later he published the book titled The Man Who Was Travelling Alone (Gheorghiu 2010). It was a kind of an answer to the charges against him and later was considered by his biographer as “The 3rd volume of his memoirs” (Gillyboeuf 2010: 5). This, and an appendix from La Cravache (Gheorghiu 1960), titled “Le sceau de l’infamie (Journal Intime)” (Gheorghiu 1960a: 219–​237), were the only answers that he offered to all the charges. If there he clearly spoke about all the aspects and showed why he could not be considered a Nazi and an anti-​ Semite, in the novel he spoke about his experiences presenting the most important aspects of his life through the eyes of Traian Matisi, the main character of the book. His discussion with Gabriel Marcel about the books from the war time and the motivations that he had for his attitudes were emphasised there. For example, he shows there that:

64 Origin. 2007:,, În decembrie 1952, Eliade îi scria prietenului său Brutus Coste, care trăia în Statele Unite, despre romanul La Seconde Chance (A Doua Şansă) al scriitorului român Constantin Virgil Gheorghiu, publicat recent la Paris. Autor al Orei 25, o carte care făcuse deja să se vorbească despre el, apărută în 1949, cu o prefaţă de Gabriel Marcel, Gheorghiu îşi manifestase public antisemitismul virulent în România în timpul războiului. În La Seconde Chance, descria totuşi atrocităţile săvârşite de Garda de Fier împotriva evreilor, din timpul rebeliunii din ianuarie 1941, îndreptată contra Conducătorului Antonescu. Eliade este revoltat. Da, îi scrie el lui Brutus Coste, crimele antisemite comise la Bucureşti în ianuarie 1941, şi pogromul de la Iaşi, săvârşit cinci luni mai târziu, reprezintă,,pagini negre“ în istoria poporului român. Dar sunt totuşi,,singurele” episoade de acest tip. Nu merită să fie popularizate prin intermediul unor romane precum Caput de Curzio Malaparte şi La Seconde Chance a unui fost antisemit ca C. V. Gheorghiu”.

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The master took a few sheets from a file. They were the French translation of several Reporters’ phrases on the banks of the Dniester (Gheorghiu 1941). Read them aloud. Traian remembered the passage in which he spoke sympathetically about the liberating German soldiers of his homeland, whom he had met at Bălți and whom he had asked for an ausweiss, so that he could go with the military trucks he met. It was Trajan’s first and last contact with the Germans. The Germans he had known and talked about in his book were the Germans from the Balti Traffic Service … Traian had kept these people very grateful. That night, in Bălți, they had been extremely kind … ‒ How is it possible that a man of your sensibility, a poet, a writer, could speak favorably of the Nazi soldiers? It’s amazing, incredible! ‒ German soldiers liberated the land of my country from Soviet occupation. The same German soldier who was an occupier in France, in Bessarabia was a liberator … (Gheorghiu 2010: 240–​241)65

Already in this book there can be found important elements about American Capitalism (Gheorghiu 2010:  292), seen by Virgil Gheorghiu in contrast with the European one and as an alternative to it. Since 1954, he seemed to be already disappointed by it, although he previously had a very optimistic opinion about it and saw it as superior to all the others ways of understanding the social life and the way the citizen is called to development and evolution. In the translation of the same, Livia Lamoure, who worked on all his books except The 25th Hour, Gheorghiu published one year later a book titled The People of Immortals (Gheorghiu 2014). Even more like in the previous books, Gheorghiu spoke there about the ancestors of his people, the Dacians. The book was not a novel, like what he had previously published, but rather an essay with historiographical relevance, where he spoke in a Romantic way about the ancient history of his birth land. As Gillyboeuf shows in the biography dedicated to him:

65 Origin. 2010: „Maestrul luă câteva foi dintr-​un dosar. Erau traducerea în franceză a câtorva fraze di Reporter pe malurile Nistrului (Gheorghiu 1941). Le citi cu voce tare. Traian își aminti pasajul în care vorbea cu sompatie despre soldații germani eliberatori ai patriei sale, pe care îi întâlnise la Bălți și cărora le ceruse un ausweiss, ca să poată merge cu camioanele militare pe care le întâlnea. Era primul și ultimul contact al lui Traian cu germanii. Germanii pe care îi cunoscuse și despre care vorbise în cartea sa erau germanii de la Serviciul de Circulație din Bălți… Traian păstrase acestor oameni o foarte vie recunoștință. În acea noapte, la Bălți, ei se arătaseră extrem de amabili… -​Cum este posibil ca un om de sensibilitatea dumneavoastră, un poet, un scriitor, să poată vorbi favorabil despre soldații naziști? Este ceva uluitori, incredibil! -​Soldații germani au eliberat pământul țării mele de ocupația sovietică. Același soldat german care a fost în Franța un ocupant, în Basarabia a fost un eliberator… ”

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In 1955, Le peuple des Immortels (The People of the Immortals) appeared, in which Gheorghiu tries to revive the past of his country, in particular that of the Dacians, the ancestors of the Romanians, whom Homer claimed to be the most righteous people in the world.66 This valuable people, who for a long time resisted all attempts at conquest and annexation, believed in the immortality of the soul many centuries before Christianity, which is why it was called the “people of the immortals,” and worshiped the partly historical figure, partly its evil legend. Zalmoxis, a former shaman slave who initiated his people into a Pythagorean-​inspired cult, is well known in some respects. (Gillyboeuf 2019: 66)67

Although it was poorly received by the critics due to the fact that the French readers of those times were rather interested in novels of action than in books that tried to revive the history of some ancient people, the book was important for Virgil. It constituted the start of a special way of writing that can be encountered later in his work. Previously, he also wrote about his country, but he never insisted so much on the descriptions and even if all of his books were filled with autobiographic elements (Simion 2008: 285) he never insisted so much on the native lands and their description. Aspects of history (from the ancient times or the medieval ones), but also of geography or sociology and religion were from now on found with generosity in almost all his books (except the biographies dedicated to the saints or to the important personalities that he wrote about). Therefore, as the aforementioned biographer underlines: This book is, among other things, the premise for a series of novels, a Romanian theatrology consisting of the works: La Maison de Petrodava (The House of Petrodava) (1961), Les Immortels d’Agapia (The Immortals of Agapia) (1964), Le Meurtre de Kyralessa (Chiralesa) (1966), and La Condottiera (Condotiera) (1967). Each of them has as topoi the Romanian village and, although it is called Petrodava, Agapia, Chiralesa or Vrâncean, it is always a representation of the author’s native village. (Gillyboeuf 2019: 66–​67)68

66 Quotation is not quite precise, because Herodot affirmed that they were the most correct among the Tracians, not from all around the world. 67 Origin. 2019: „În 1955, apare Le peuple des Immortels (Poporul nemuritorilor), în cadrul căruia Gheorghiu încearcă să reînvie trecutul ţării sale, în particular pe cel al dacilor, strămoşii românilor, despre care Homer afirma că erau oamenii cei mai drepţi din lume. Acest popor valoros, care a rezistat vreme îndelungată tuturor tentativelor de cucerire şi anexare, credea în nemurirea sufletului cu multe secole înainte de cre ştinism, motiv pentru care a fost numit „poporul nemuritorilor”, şi venera figura parţial istorică, parţial legendară a lui Zalmoxis, un fost sclav şaman care şi-​a iniţiat poporul într-​un cult de inspiraţie pitagoriciană, protocreştin sub anumite aspecte”. (Gillyboeuf 2019: 66). 68 Origin. 2019: „Această carte constituie între altele premisa pentru o serie de romane, o teatrologie română constituită din lucrările: La Maison de Petrodava (Casa de la

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With this category of writing, he therefore promoted the beauty and the heritage of the Romanian lands and also tried to tempt his readers to wish to visit them. But there was also another motivation of this attitude manifested towards the publications. Departed in 1943, Virgil Gheorghiu was already far from home for more than a decade. And he had no hope of returning, at least as a visitor, because he was afraid that he would be either imprisoned by the Communist regime that he had criticised for so long, or poisoned during his travel there. And he was not totally wrong, because in the 50s, the Romanian Securitate was very interested in his person (Morariu 2017b: 375). Some agents were almost sure that he lived in the Romanian space under a fake identity and from there he took information for his books, others insisted at the time on being invited to Romania, while other agents of the same organism, but belonging to a different direction, were monitoring him using agents infiltrated in his entourage. Moreover, he had no news about his family and he did not know anything about the situation of his parents. For sure, he was afraid that they could be imprisoned or persecuted by the state organs in an attempt to find more about him and his work, and it is very probable that he also felt guilty about them and this aspect also made him think often about his country and his native land. His fame as a writer known above the French borders also brought Gheorghiu some advantages. His book We Borrow Heroes (Gheorghiu 1957a) was published two years after the People of the Immortals (Gheorghiu 2014), in Spain, in Barcelona, and not in France. This was a sign that the Romanian writer was gaining popularity again and his novels, full of action, were well received by the readers from all around the world. At the same time, in French, in a translation signed by the same Livia Lamoure, was published The Sacrifices of the Danube (Gheorghiu 1957, 2010). The novel speaks about the life story of an American researcher named Joseph Martin, who arrives in Bulgaria in order to make an anthropological study and remains there because he falls in love. The book presents not only the hard life of the ones living under Communism, whose only happiness consists in being allowed to leave their country (Gheorghiu 2020: 12), but also the mechanisms of persecution used by the “penitentiary republics” (Gillyboeuf 2008b: 95, 2019: 84). It was also for the first time that the writer speaks freely and in detail about the compromise between the Communist and Capitalist

Petrodava), (1961), Les Immortels d’Agapia (Nemuritorii de la Agapia) (1964), Le Meurtre de Kyralessa (Chiralesa) (1966), şi La Condottiera (Condotiera) (1967). Fiecare dintre ele are ca topoi satul românesc şi, deși acesta se numeşte Petrodava, Agapia, Chiralesa sau Vrâncean, constituie mereu o reprezentare a satului natal al autorului”.

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countries and suggests the fact that the American society has not only abandoned the people from the East European countries, refusing to save them from the way of life imposed by Stalin and the Russians at the end of the Second World War, but also that there is a complicity between them and the oppressors. The disappointment of Professor Martin when he found the fact that his hometown produced lamps for the labour camps was for sure the same that Gheorghiu had when he changed his mind about the Americans and the way they could save his country: Martin read the label again. His hometown, one of the most civilized metropolises in the world, the city that over the centuries has spread so much light on earth, his city, now makes this new light: projectors to illuminate the emaciated bodies of prisoners, to illuminate the concentration camps of the Russians. The light made by the homeland of Joseph Martin, in 1956, the last form of light that his great civilized homeland from the West was still sending on earth. (Gheorghiu 2020: 42)69

His perception regarding Capitalism and the way it changes people’s life, together with the information about the Americans and how they were perceived, can be seen in the later Gheorghiu’s works. Somewhere in the 70s he insisted more on this aspect, trying to realise also critiques, on an ideological basis, of the capitalist way of life. Until then, he collected information from his friends, from his life and by travelling to different places all around the world. During the sixth decade of the twentieth century, it was very interesting to see the alternance between genres and categories of writings in Virgil’s public work. Before 1955, he published novels of action, using, as has been mentioned, either autobiographic information (Simion 2008: 285), or notes from the war period. In this year, he started to write more and more about his homeland, painting it in words in many of his books, or speaking about the ancestors of his people and their brave attitude in different situations of history. At the same time, he did not neglect the classical style of novel, full of action, that he previously published and that was liked by the readers. But due to the fact that he was the son of a priest and remained very attached to spirituality and religion (and also studied theology in Heidelberg, while he was preparing The 25th Hour), the religious

69 Origin. 2020: „Martin a citit din nou eticheta. Orașul său natal, una dintre metropolele cele mai civilizate din lume, orașul care în decursul secolelor răspândite atâta lumină pe pământ, orașul său, fabrica acum această nouă lumină: proiectoare ca să lumineze trupurile descărnate ale pușcăriașilor, pentru a lumina lagărele de concentrare ale rușilor. Lumina fabricate de patria lui Joseph Martin, în 1956, ultima formă de lumină pe care o trimitea încă pe pământ marea sa patrie civilizată din Occident…”

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aspect is not missed in his books. Moreover, there were moments in his life when he dedicated time and effort to some important spiritual personalities that were immortalised in the pages of some books. This process started in 1957, when he dedicated a rich biography to Saint John Chrysostom (Gheorghiu 2008), one of the most important saints in the history of Christianity, who lived in the fourth century. The same publishing house, Plon, where he previously published his books, hosted it, and the same person, Livia Lamoure, signed the translation from Romanian into French language. Only the collection was different. The content of the book, that was not, at this time, a political one, was not allowed to be included in Feux Croisés, but in the one titled Hommes de Dieu (People of God), that brought together the faces and messages of important personalities of the history of Christianity. The same year and the same collection also hosted another important biography, dedicated this time to Saint Ambrosius of Milan (Gheorghiu 2013). By presenting a representative father from the Eastern space and one from the Western one before the Great Schism, he most probably intended to show the numerous similitudes existing between the two Christian geographical areas and wanted to give an ecumenical dimension to his demarche. Fruit of a consistent documentation effort, his writings are until today useful and offer a very accessible perspective on the way sanctity can be achieved and about the troubles that saints had to overcome during their lives. The sixth decade of the twentieth century was also one marked by prolificacy for Virgil Gheorghiu. More than ten books were released during these years. If 1957 was characterised by two titles with religious relevance, the next one was marked by the publication of The Beggars of Miracles (Gheorghiu 1958). Using a topic that was extremely debated at those times, namely the apartheid, he spoke about Max, a young American black man, and his story. The novel was defined by the dynamics of the action and metamorphosis of the situation and life of the main character. In his biography, Thierry Gillyboeuf offers a summary of it: In 1958 appears Les Mendiants de Mircales (The Beggars of Miracles), with the original title Skin’s Gold, book dedicated to Ecaterina, his wife. Max, a young beauty American, intelligent and rich, thinks that he is loved by Blanche. But in the previous day of their departure for Europe, where the two ones were supposed to get married, Max is kidnaped by Blanche’s brothers, being found in the second day on the road’s border, castrated and half dead… because Max is black. At the process, all the white people is gratiated. Max, mutilated, betraied, negated and persecuted, accepts to go to Russia, where he is invited by an abil propagandist of the Soviet authorities. Asked to become

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an agent of the emancipation of black race, he gets in a terrible angrenage. (Gillyboeuf 2019: 70)70

Most probably, Gheorghiu’s intention was to create a novel full of action, to criticise Communism and at the same time to speak about the African lands that he always admired. But he also managed to bring into discussion the Americans and the way the society is organised there and to touch sensitive aspects like the situation of the people of colour in this decade. About the Americans he speaks also in another book. First released in 1957 by Plon Publishing House in the translation of Livia Lamoure, the book knew in this year a Swedish version through the translation of Louis Thijssen, by a publishing house of A. Manteau N. V., ‘s, having two places of release –​Gravenhage and Brussels. The title, in original De Vedenking, was later changed from the one found in the French edition, where, it was Pourquoi tuer Limitrof? In Romanian, his native language, the book was translated later, after more than four decades, in 2020, by Gheorghiță Ciocioi (Gheorghiu 2020a). This edition comes back to the original title offered by Gheorghiu, The Suspect. Limitrof, the main character, is presented in the American context of the American society where the gangsters had a world to say. The Romanian author does not limit his activity here in describing this space or the interaction between characters, but he also uses the context of the action for criticising the way the Americans base everything on consumers and machines. Already, ideas that were later developed in books like The American Eye (Gheorghiu 2013a), can be found in nuce in this novel, filled with a very dynamic action. 1960 was the year when Gheorghiu published La Cravache (Gheorghiu 1960), accompanied by an appendix where the writer speaks about the scandal generated by Ierunca (Cubleșan 2011: 65) and the consequences that this event had on his later life in France.

70 Origin. 2019: „În 1958 apare Les mendiants de miracle (Cerşetorii de miracole), cu titlul original Aurul pielii, carte ce îi este dedicată Ecaterinei, soţia sa. Max, un tânăr american frumos, inteligent şi bogat, crede că este iubit de Blanche. Dar în ajunul plecării lor spre Europa, unde trebuiau să se căsătorească, Max este răpit de către fraţii lui Blanche, fiind găsit a doua zi pe marginea drumului, castrat şi pe jumătate mort... căci Max este negru. La proces, toţi albii sunt graţiaţi. Max, mutilat, trădat, negat şi nedreptăţit, acceptă să plece în Rusia, unde este invitat de către un abil propagandist al autorităţilor sovietice. Solicitat să devină agent al emancipării rasei negre, el intră întrun teribil angrenaj.”

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In 1960, will appear Cravaşa, dedicated to Dr. Cornel Meţianu. This short novel, built around the sinister date of August 23, 1944, in which Romania fell under the Soviet yoke, highlights at the epic level a little known episode of contemporary history, namely the sudden reversal of alliances that, in the midst of war, offered Romania to the Soviet invader. The Machiavellianism of some of the leaders, the unhappiness and despair of the people, the unleashing of personal appetites and revenge, are bathed here in an atmosphere of pathetic religiosity and humanity, supported by a lyricism always attentive to everyday realities, close to life and earth. To this philosophical interpretation, which remains secondary, unexpressed, is added an exciting documentary, the testimony of an eyewitness to one of the thousands of tragedies that accompanied the collapse of the Balkan world at the end of the last war. (Gillyboeuf 2019: 74–​75)71

This book again made him an author received by the readers and was a real success, like he had only few decades ago. At the same time, it also contained for the first time, a perspective of the accused on the affair that cost him a lot at the level of popularity. In 1961, Gheorghiu published Perahim (Gheorghiu 1961), a book compared by his critics to one of Jean Paul Sartre, Huis Clos (Sartre 1947), due to its message and content. This work has a rather philosophical message. Throughout the story of the main character, Virgil Gheorghiu tries to face the question: Can anyone escape from his destiny? (Gillyboeuf 2019: 73). As Orthodox, he was against the idea of predestination. For him, destiny could be summarised as the way God’s intervention in human life can help man without destroying his or her freedom, offered as a gift at the moment of their creation. Of course, the book has also a deep social message and speaks about the integration of an ambitious man whose aim is to resist and to find his place in a society dominated by stereotypes and social stratification. Coming out from a salt mine, after ten years of forced work (from a place where, before him, nobody survived the hard regimen of the punishments), Perahim just wants to restart his life (D’Esneval 2003: 71).

71 Origin. 2019: „În 1960, va apărea Cravaşa, dedicată doctorului Cornel Meţianu. Acest scurt roman, construit în jurul sinistrei date de 23 august 1944, în care România a căzut sub jugul sovietic, reliefează la nivel de epopee un episod puţin cunoscut al istoriei contemporane, şi anume inversarea bruscă a alianţelor care, în plin război, au oferit România invadatorului sovietic. Machiavelismul unora dintre conducători, nefericirea şi disperarea poporului, dezlănţuirea apetitelor şi răzbunărilor personale, sunt scăldate aici într-​o atmosferă de patetică religiozitate şi umanitate, sus ţinută de un lirism mereu atent la realităţile cotidiene, aproape de viaţă şi de pământ. Acestei interpretări filosofice, care rămâne în plan secundar, neexprimată, i se adaugă un documentar pasionant, mărturia unui martor ocular cu privire la una dintre miile de tragedii care au însoţit prăbuşirea lumii balcanice, la finalul ultimului război”.

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He tries to forget the past and to obtain again his place in society, without being always under police surveillance or under the lengths of the society which waits for his first error in order to condemn him. The novel is dominated by pessimism and tension and although it does not speak so much about ideologies, it is related with the social construction and perception (Cubleșan 2011: 67). As his biographers show, it came a few years after the time when he made peace with Gabriel Marcel, who became conscious that most of the charges against him were not sustainable, which was much appreciated by the French philosopher, who dreamed for this book a screening with Jean Gabin as the main character (Gillyboeuf 2019: 74). In the same year, the Romanian writer also published another book, titled The House from Petrodava (Gheorghiu 2010a). Part of a special category of writings that started with The People of Immortals (Gheorghiu 2014), the book is also dedicated to his homeland, which he missed after so many years of exile. Using the ancient Roman name of the town, Piatra Neamț, the capital of the department where he was born and lived during his childhood, Virgil presents an interesting story of some brave women (real amazons), using it as a pretext for the description of these beautiful lands, blessed by God with a gorgeous environment and with people who are proud of them and are guided by very strong moral principles. Using an idyllic context and elements of Romanticism, he creates a story where, despite all the challenges, the good triumphs and the values are strictly kept, no matter the price, because they ensure the link with the ancestors and are the testimony of a right life. For sure, the sixth decade of the twentieth century was one when Gheorghiu was very prolific. Each year, at least one book saw the light of the press and there were also years when two of them were offered to the public. Moreover, he was still a searched writer, with titles translated in Spanish or Swedish language. Still, he had reason to be sad. Although before 1963 his works were written in Romanian and translated by Livia Lamoure into French, they were not published in Romanian space and there was no intention in this sense. As compensation, they were prepared even for people with visual deficiencies and also in exotic languages like Korean. One year before his ordination as a priest, he also published an interesting biography, dedicated to the founder of Islam, the prophet Mohammed (Gheorghiu 2016). Fruit of a consistent effort of documentation, the book presented the life and activity of the important man in the form of literaturised history. The evocated one is brought in front of the readers in a way that makes him seem close and his life is described with attention to both the details and the historical realities.

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After this book, there was a break of two years until Gheorghiu released a new book. The fact was related with an important change in his life, because, as has been already mentioned: In 1963, the writer will also receive the Sacrament of the Priesthood, from the hands of Teofil Ionescu, and will be asked to serv the community of Paris. After several correspondences with Patriarch Justinian, he will pass in 1968 under the homophore of the Romanian Patriarchate. During all this time, he will double his pastoral activity with his journalistic one. Thus, when he leaves this world, he will leave a work consisting of almost 40 volumes and a few other unpublished works, translated and published posthumously in Romanian as well. (Morariu 2020: 40)72

From that moment, the Romanian priest felt “invested to write directly in French language” (Gillyboeuf 2019: 78). Therefore, Livia Lamoure remained his collaborator, but she did not translate any more of his books. From now on, she was only the corrector. The first book published after this moment of interior and exterior transformation was titled The Immortals form Agapia (Gheorghiu 1968). The fact that it was an important story is proved by the quotations and references about it that can be found even today in the texts of the contemporary writers. For example, Boualem Sansal speaks, in a book published for the first time at Gallimard in 2018, about the strong impression that this book made on him, making him read it more than once.73 He also proves to understand the deep message and content of the book and speaks about the main question to which Gheorghiu tries to give an answer:

72 Origin. 2020: „În 1963, scriitorul va primi și Taina Preoției, din mâinile lui Teofil Ionescu, deservind comunitatea de la Paris. După mai multe corespondențe cu Patriarhul Justinian, va trece în anul 1968 sub omoforul Patriarhiei Române. În tot acest timp, își va dubla activitatea pastorală de cea publicistică. Astfel, la plecarea sa din această lume va lăsa o operă constând din aproape 40 de volume și încă câteva lucrări inedite, traduse și publicate postum și în limba română.” 73 “I reread The Immortals from Agapia, the book of the Romanian Constantin Virgil Gheorghiu. I had read it when I lived in Geneva and studied romance at UNIGE. I really liked the story, this bizarre murder committed in a snow-​covered city, where the memory of the inhabitants had not registered any crime until then, but I confess that I did not see the bottom of the problem.” (Sansal 2020: 121). Origin. 2020: „Am recitit Nemuritorii de la Agapia, cartea românului Constantin Virgil Gheorghiu. O citisem oe când locuiam la Geneva și studiam romanistica la UNIGE. Îmi plăcuse mult povestea, acest asasinat bizar comis într-​un oraș acoperit de zăpadă, unde memoria locuitorilor nu înregistrase până atunci nici o crimă, dar mărturisesc că nu am văzut fondul problemei”.

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Gheorghiu seems troubled by a strange question:  Does crime have a history? In other words, can a murder occur where it has never happened before? Could a tree suddenly grow on a planet without trees? If that happened, would it be a spontaneous generation? Which court would have jurisdiction over the matter, the court of the people, or the court of biology? (Sansal 2020: 121–​122)74

There is an aspect that the Romanian writer would surely have liked to know, that he was understood and appreciated. The fact that he speaks about his homeland and describes it as a young man in love describes his girlfriend. He uses there all his skills in order to offer an idyllic description of the beautiful lands that are today called Bucovina, in the northern part of Moldavia, where he often travelled and that he liked very much (Gillyboeuf 2019: 78–​79). He also tries to show that the beauty of the nature comes in a strong relationship with the morals. Agapia is a small city where a crime never took place before the arrival of the judge. After this moment, there is a crime, but due to the fact that such troubles had never existed there before, the people of the community are suspicious about the reality of this event. The same French speaker writer shows about this element, using as a tool the notes of his main character: There is something even more confusing. In this decent city, Agapia, where the crime never set foot, it occurred only a few days after the installation of a justice of the peace, Cosma Damian, assigned to Agapia, where they never had a judge, the post did not even exist and he had no reason to exist. No crimes, no judge, it makes sense. An informed observer will immediately make the connection: a crime has been committed when a judge, for the first time in the city’s history, arrives in these places and prepares to lead a life of huzur, until the central administration decides to move it to other lands, where crimes could be, possibly in abundance, and thus truly exhausting mobilizations would be needed. Residents of Agapia wondered what a young judge who had just left the school, who had never faced a crime, was looking for in their hometown, where no crime had ever taken place. The murder came immediately after him, and the judge, who had never faced a crime, began his career with a crime in the city that had not known the crime. This is the story, it will cause a lot of problems for Mr. Gheorghiu. (Sansal 2020: 123)75

74 Origin 2020: „Gheorghiu pare frământat de o întrebare stranie: Crima are o istorie? Altfel spus, o crimă se poate produce acolo unde niciodată nu a mai avut loc una? Un arbore ar putea crește subit pe o planetă lipsită de arbori? Dacă s-​ar întâmpla asta, ar fi generație spontanee? De competența cărui tribunal ar ține problema, de cel al oamenilor, sau de cel al biologiei?” (Sansal 2020: 121–​122). 75 Origin. 2020: „Există ceva și mai derutant. În acest oraș cumsecade, Agapia, unde niciodată crima nu a pus piciorul, aceasta s-​a produs doar la câteva zile după instalarea unui judecător de pace, Cosma Damian, repartizat la Agapia, unde niciodată nu au avut

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Impressed by the strong tension created by the writer, that has a very good effect on the narrative construction and presents the action in a very attractive way (Cubleșan 2001:  53), the same author underlines the fact that the book has a very deep social message. Similar things were previously said about other works of Virgil Gheorghiu. Even before being a priest, he used the literature in order to present different types of society and to emphasise their defects in order to prevent the people or to give them the opportunity to correct the social sins. Reading these books and meditating about what the author intended to suggest throughout the book, Boualem’s character asks herself: Did Gheorghiu realize what he was implying with his story? Was he, in another life, the victim of an absurd crime, a murderer without will, an evil judge, a witness in a dirty business? (Sansal 2020: 124)76

Despite the pessimistic vision of the author, the book is well written and had, even at the time of publication, an important impact on the public. It is also necessary to note that it has prophetical accents. Gheorghiu understood already in the 60s which are the social mechanisms used in the governance of the society, how they can affect its evolution or the relationships between people. The typology of the “satrap” used by him could be found in the history from ancient times and it is still present even today at the highest levels of the society. It was his invention. He just saw it and understood some important aspects that are described in a very detailed way there. For this reason, the aforementioned writer says, underlining the prophetic aspect of the book with the fact that violence seems to be a constant of the contemporary space:

judecător, postul nici măcar nu exista și nu avea nici motiv să existe. Fără crime, fără judecător, este logic. Un observator avizat nu poate să nu facă legătura: a fost comisă o crimă în momentul în care un judecător, pentru prima oară în istoria orașului, sosește în aceste locuri și se pregătește să ducă o viață de huzur, până când administrația centrală va decide să-​l mute pe alte meleaguri, unde crime ar putea fi, eventual din abundență și astfel ar fi nevoie de mobilizări de-​a dreptul istovitoare. Locuitorii din Agapia s-​au întrbat ce caută un tânăr judecător proaspăt ieșit de pe băncile școlii, care nu s-​a confruntat niciodată cu o crimă, în orașul lor unde n-​a avut loc niciodată vreo crimă. Crima a sosit imediat după el, iar judecătorul, care nu s-​a confruntat niciodată cu o crimă, și-​a început cariera cu o crimă, în orașul care nu cunoscuse crima. Asta e povestea, ea îi va pune multe probleme domnului Gheorghiu”. 76 Origin 2020: „Își dădea oare seama Gheorghiu ce insinua cu povestea lui? A fost el oare, în altă viață, victima unei crime absurde, criminal fără voie, judecător malefic, martor într-​o afacere murdară?”

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Gheorghiu wrote the book in the 60’s. He was ahead of his time, and we are behind ours. Nowhere in the world is there more talk of freedom, equality, brotherhood, respect, love, distinctions, happiness and elegance in thought and deed than in this old, drunken Western Europe that has waged all the wars in the world and committed all possible crimes, to the greatest, the deportation of entire peoples and their enslavement, and to close the loop of infernal horror, the mass crime inconceivable and incomprehensible, the Holocaust. Crime was in the egg, and the egg in the most odious hen. (Sansal 2020: 126–​127)77

In 1965, Virgil Gheorghiu published a book titled From the 25th Hour to the Hour of Eternity. As the title suggests, the author wished to have a continuation to his masterpiece, The 25th Hour (Gheorghiu 1948). From the point of view of the action and of the context, there are many aspects that remind the reader about this book. He speaks there again about the drama of his country at the time of the arrival of the Red Army and presents the story of a priest from Neamț County, inspired for sure by the image of his father. The care for his parents who remained in Romania and about whom he got information only in 1968, according to the documents kept in the Securitate Archives (Morariu 2018:  82–​76), influenced him to use their image for the characters of his books, as he previously also did. Compared to other books signed by the Romanian priest, although they were well received by some of the critics and the readers, the book did not have any more the success of the ones from the fifth decade of the twentieth century. In the same year, he released, at the same publishing house where he had till then printed all his books in France, a biography of Martin Luther (Gheorghiu 1965a). The corrections were again made by Livia Lamoure and the way he presented the biography and the fact that the book was dedicated to one of the most important Protestant personalities from those times, made the book known and warmly received by some circles. Speaking about it, its content and the one who was dedicated, and also realising an attempt of summary, one of his biographers shows about it the fact that:

77 Origin. 2020: „Gheorghiu a scris cartea în anii `60. El a fost în avans față de timpul său, iar noi suntem în întârziere față de al nostru. Nicăieri în lume nu se vorbește mai mult despre libertate, egalitate, fraternitate, respect, dragoste, distincții, fericire și eleganță în gândire și în fapte decât în această bătrână Europă occidentală îmbuibată care a dus toate războaiele din lume și a comis toate crimele posibile, până la cele mai mari, deportarea a popoare întregi și aruncarea lor în sclavie și, pentru a închide bucla ororii infernale, crima în masă de neconceput și de neînțeles, Shoah. Crima era în ou, și oul în cea mai odioasă găină”.

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With The youth of the Doctor Luther, dedicated to Pastor Charles Westphal, president of the French Protestant Federation, Gheorghiu continues to explore various monotheistic religions. Because he himself is a priest, he knows that no one else will make us enter the tormented soul of a man of God who emerges from the holy shadow of the Middle Ages and reaches the turmoil of the Renaissance, and manages to evoke in a way the sumptuous century of Faust, in which gold, blood and ideas boil like in a witch’s cauldron. (Gillyboeuf 2019: 81–​82)78

The next year, he published The Death of Kyralesa (Gheorghiu 2018), a book where the description of the Romanian lands is again in the centre of the demarche. At the same time, using elements of folklore, that he inserts into the action, Gheorghiu manages to offer both an interesting story and a presentation of his country in a very interactive way. In 1967, only one book bore his signature: The Leather Jacket, or, in French La Tunique de Peau (Gheorghiu 1967). With an amazing story, the book speaks about the social discrepancies, adaptation, the way a regime and the ideology found behind it can destroy a life or change it. Roland Panselin, the main character, well chosen, represents typically the minoritarian capable of adapting to different situations of life and this element makes him survive some very challenging moments that were supposed to kill him. About this book we speak also in the chapter dedicated to Capitalism and the critics of Gheorghiu for this way of life. The same year Gheorghiu released another book too, titled in a very suggestive way Condotier (Gheorghiu 2011). The title was inspired by a famous Eastern Orthodox icon of the Virgin Mary, who is also seen as a leitmotiv of the book. At the same time, the book offers a picture of the beginnings of Communism in the Romanian space and speaks about collectivisation and the abusive confiscation of people’s goods, about the persecution of the ones who think different from the official discourse. Among the main characters, there is also one inspired by Nichifor Crainic,79 an important personality of the Romanian interwar period, 78 Origin. 2019: „Cu Tinereţea doctorului Luther, dedicată pastorului Charles Westphal, preşedintele Federaţiei Protestante Franceze, Gheorghiu continuă explorarea diferitelor religii monoteiste. Pentru că el însuşi este preot, ştie ca nimeni altul să ne facă să pătrundem în sufletul chinuit al unui om al lui Dumnezeu care ie-​se din umbra sfântă a Evului Mediu şi ajunge în tulburarea Renaşterii, şi reuşeşte să evoce într-​o manieră de-​a dreptul somptuoasă secolul lui Faust, în care aurul, sângele şi ideile fierb ca într-​ un cazan de vrăjitoare”. 79 Nichifor Crainic (1889–​1972), real name Ion Dobre, is an important writer, theologian and philosopher from the interwar period, with far-​right orientation, member of the Romanian Academy. He studied in Bucharest and Wien and was a professor in

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to whom the Romanian writer was very attached, despite his far-​right orientation, because he was impressed by his deeply Christian attachment and the way he could express his religious feelings in his poetry, theological and philosophical works. From the point of view of the narrative construction, but also from the one of the information offered (because the author speaks about interesting procedures used by the Romanian Communism in order to sell foreigner political prisoners like Richard Wurmbrand,80 and offering a bill of 10,000 dollars for fruits and vegetables), the book is a veritable and valuable literary construction, and a testimony that denounces the abuses of Bucharest dictatorship. Most probably, thanks to the efforts of the aforementioned regime and of the conflict that had him as the protagonist, it does not have, unfortunately, the expected echo in the libraries. The next year Plon published another book of Father Gheorghiu. Titled Pourquoi m’a-​t-​on appelé Virgil? (in Romanian translation, the preferred title was How I Wanted to Become a Saint; Gheorghiu 2008c), the book speaks about his childhood and brings into attention an aspect that was later developed by him in the memoirs (Gheorghiu 2017: 39–​41). The entire action starts with the idea of the name. In Virgil’s homeland, everybody had the name of a saint. Therefore, each person had a patron to whom he or she could address prayers. But his name was different. For this reason, when, as child, he found that, he was very sad and

Bucharest Central Seminary, and in the faculties of Orthodox Theology from Chișinău and Bucharest. He was also the founder of the first chair of mystics in these faculties and in the Romanian space. During the Second World War, he was also for a few months the minister of propaganda. From 1924 and until 1944, he coordinated the journal Gândirea (The Taught), important in the cultural space. During the Communist prison, he was imprisoned for six years. After the release, he co-​operated with the Communist journals from exile, fact that brought him charges from the other political prisoners of the time. He is also considered one of the most important writers who created poetry during the prison period (his works were memorised and transmitted from one imprisoned to another through memory). For more information about his life, activity, orientation and ideas, see also our book dedicated to his publicist work from the fourth decade of the twentieth century (Morariu 2020c). 80 Richard Wurmbrand (1909–​2001) was an important Lutheran pastor, Romanian with German origins, imprisoned for political reasons by the Communists and then released because the Occident paid for his release. After the release, he travelled all around the world and offered a precious testimony about the sufferings caused to him by the Communist regime. He died in Torrance, California state and lived the last years of his life in United States. Initially, he was attracted by communism and even studied in Moscow for a few years, but later he converted to Christianity.

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it took his parents some time to convince him that this may be an interesting challenge for him. At the end of the discussions, he decided to become a saint, in order to compensate the fact that he had such a name. Using this as a pretext of the narration, he presents the homelands, and at the same time speaks about their historical heritage, in an interesting description. Although the narration does not have the action of his other books, the idea was good and there were many readers who were interested to know more about him, his life and the place where the Romanian writer was born and where he was raised up as a child, and about the elements that influenced his childhood. This period was also an important one when the writer travelled and visited places or people. Sometimes, he also had lectures, but in many situations, the visits were caused by his curiosity to explore some new places or to meet people. There were also situations when he was forced to travel in order to answer to an invitation of someone who wanted to meet him. This happened in those years when the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople was interested in meeting the Romanian priest and writer and sent him a few invitations to visit the city and him. Father Virgil did that and, during their encounters, he also had interesting dialogues with the head of the Eastern Orthodox Church and took notes. At the end of those meetings, he not only received gifts, like the pectoral cross that he wore with pride (Gillyboeuf 2019: 87) and not only got an invitation for a celebration in Paris, in his parish, but he also published a biography dedicated to the leader of the church who brought Orthodoxy and Catholicism very close after so many centuries of schism and distance (Gheorghiu 2009). The book was warmly received not only in the French area, but also in the Italian one, due to the relevance of the topic, but also thanks to the documentation effort that the author made, which transformed his work both into an interesting biography and a documentary volume, that speaks about the situation of the Orthodox Church under Turkish domination. After this, there was a short break in Gheorghiu’s editorial and public activity. In 1970, there no book was published by him. Only in 1971, he published The Spy (Gheorghiu 1971), a book with an interesting drama and story, with deep autobiographical accents, like many of his books (Simion 2008:  25). Speaking about its content, a Romanian contemporary researcher underlines the fact that: L’histoire complexe mise en œuvre dans ce texte romanesque ne représente qu’un prétexte dont Virgil Gheorghiu se sert pour développer, encore une fois, toute sa philosophie sur le rôle du prêtre dans la société et sur la condition de l’exilé après la Seconde Guerre Mondiale. (Drăgoi 2016: 306)

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The book was also, as Thierry Gillyboeuf underlines, inspired by a personal experience. The Romanian writer had received Elena, a young compatriot and hosted her for a few days. Later, as the French Direction of Security declared, they found that she was a Romanian spy sent most probably by Bucharest to get information about him and his life (Gillyboeuf 2019: 88). Luckily, she did not hurt the writer or his wife and she seemed to not have violent intentions. But, she inspired him in this book, where the action gravitated around the idea of a spy who claimed to be a relative of the main character and asked to be helped, pretending that she was running from the Romanian Securitate, which intended to kill her. Hosted for a few days in his house, the spy ended up being Securitate’s tool in the process of his extermination. But despite the above sad end and the complex story presented there, the book also contains a critique of the capitalist society and speaks about the mechanisms used by the repression regimes in order to exterminate dissidence. At the same time, Gheorghiu realises there the descriptions of different human types. The other and the idea of alterity constitutes an interesting aspect of the social and narrative construction. Mirela Drăgoi, who investigated this aspect, remarks on the fact that Gheorghiu uses the idealist image of the priest, in antithesis with the one of the Americans and through that he presents different ways of understanding the way and the social reality: Image du prêtre pour l’opposer à l’Américain –​« l’hommepoubelle » sceptique et dangereux, créateur du « mal américain ». Grosso modo, c’est ce type d’opposition binaire, à forte valeur axiologique, qui domine les choix de cet écrivain roumain d’expression française. Mais ce qui nous intéresse le plus dans la démarche analytique que nous entamons ici, c’est la manière dont cet écrivain appréhende et définit l’Autre. (Drăgoi 2016: 307)

Next year, Virgil Gheorghiu published a book where, in the same manner like in the previous one, he criticised the Americans and their way of understanding life. Written and published 32 years after the masterpiece The 25th Hour (Gheorghiu 1948), this book came to show the metamorphosis of the writer. Under stylistic and literary aspect, and also in the way of understanding the ideologies and the role that they played in the history of his contemporary world. Like many other Romanians, although he was disappointed by the American behaviour while he was in the camp, at the end of the Second World War he was still enthusiastic thinking that the Americans would come and save his country. For this reason, his references to this space, their way of life and the ideological aspects that were defining it, was rather calm and mild, both in the fifth decade of the twentieth century and in the first half of the next one. After travelling in Latin America and seeing the influence of the United States in the local politics in

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the neighbouring countries, he gradually became disappointed. After seeing that they did not come to save Romania, because in 1946, in Yalta, they had offered it as a gift to the Soviet Union, together with other countries from the Eastern Europe, he changed his attitude from a positive one to one that criticised the way of understanding the others and the environment. Before 1967, when his main book was screened, with Anthony Quinn as a main character, his remarks regarding them were rather calm. Comparing the movie with the book, it can be also seen an important aspect. The critiques in the printed version of the Americans and their behaviour are missing, because the producer wanted the movie to be accepted and well received in this space. It is very probable that this also made him feel angry and led him to become a more and more voracious critic of the American way of life. At the same time, it must be said that his criticism was not oriented towards them as people, but towards the social mechanisms that ruled at that time the entire society. The social cleavage, the difference of mentalities compared with the societies with whom they came in contact, all these aspects are part of the narrative construction. What he wanted to underline was the fact that the social moral was expelled at the periphery of the society by the way of life that he presented and this brought the destruction of the societies where it was exported. And this was problematic, because, although those societies may be inferior at the level of life, they were superior from other points of view and making them uniform meant the loss of diversity. Therefore, as the foreword writer of the Romanian edition of this book underlines: In The American Eye, also published in Paris in 1972, the author, now twenty-​three years older (than when he wrote 25th Hour), denounces with even greater acuity and force the mechanisms and dangers of our artificial universe in full development and confronts two different and opposing worlds. (Redaction 2019: 10)81

Aspects like globalisation, which were later developed in the international discourse, can be found in this book and are part of its prophetic character, as the foreword writer of the Romanian edition of the book underlines.82 Characterising 81 Origin, 2019: „În Ochiul American, apărut tot la Paris în anul 1972, autorul, acum cu douăzeci și trei de ani mai în vârstă (decât atunci când scrisese Ora 25), denunță cu și mai multă acuitate și forță mecanismele și primejdiile universului nostrum artificial în plină dezvoltare și pune față în față două lumi diferite și opuse una celeilalte.” 82 “Going through this book, we are once again confirmed the prophetic dimension of the literary creation of this author, from which the public in the country (Romania, our note), was unjustly widowed.” (Redaction 2019: 13). Origin. „Parcurgând această carte, ni se confirmă o dată în plus dimensiunea profetică a creației literare a acestui autor,de care publicul din țară (România, nota noastră), a fost pe nedrept văduvit.”

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this book and speaking about Gheorghiu’s mistake at the level of appurtenance, his French biographer underlines the fact that: Published in 1972, The American Eye is both an espionage and a political fiction novel, set in an avant-​garde setting. Gheorghiu’s “mistake” is probably the one here: to refuse to join one of the two groups that divide the world in the middle of the Cold War. If his struggle against communism is present in many of his earlier novels, here is American hegemony with “its mechanical paradise,” the one he attacks with prophetic accents. (Gillyboeuf 2019: 89)83

Once started in this direction, Virgil Gheorghiu maintained his attitude towards the American space and his critics related with the “divinisation of the machine” (Gheorghiu 2015: 23) and the creation of a society based on technology and consumerism. For this reason, in his next book, published three years later (Gheorghiu 1975), although the action was focused on the description of Communism and of the life of the Romanian exile from France (in the second part), there were also some critics of Capitalism with accent on the one from the aforementioned space. Titled God Receives Only on Sunday, the book speaks about the complex society of those who are exiled from Romania, the way the instauration of the Communist regime of Russian influence here led them to leave their country, and about how difficult was to leave this space with closed borders, that was acting as a “penitentiary republic” (Gillyboeuf 2019: 84) during those years. Like all the other books dedicated to the Bucharers’ regime and to the Romanian drama during Communism, this novel aims to sensitise the Occident about the situation of the native country of the author. Unfortunately, the readers, whatever their stature or their concerns, preferred to admire the action and its structure, rather than be interested in the political problem that he intended to bring into attention. His next book, published two years later, also speaks about the exiled Romanians, the Communist infiltrations among its main representatives and about the way those who managed to run from their home country found their place in Germany. As a man who spent a few years here, in the camps, but also in

83 Origin. 2019: „Publicat în 1972, L’œil américain (Ochiul american), este atât un roman de spionaj, cât şi unul de fic ţiune politică, acţiunea petrecându-​se într-​un decor demn de un film avangardist. „Greşeala” lui Gheorghiu e probabil cea de aici: de a refuza să se înscrie într-​una dintre cele două grupări care împart lumea în plin război rece. Dacă lupta sa împotriva comunismului este prezentă în multe dintre romanele sale anterioare, aici este hegemonia americană cu „paradisul ei mecanic”, cea pe care o atacă cu accente profetice.”

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Heidelberg, where he worked, wrote and studied, Gheorghiu uses his knowledge about this country in order to present not only some aspects related with its geography, but also with some human typologies from this space. He also develops his ideas about globalisation, seen not under its positive aspects, but rather under the negative ones. He is conscious of the fact that a few rich and powerful countries were ruling the planet at that time and intended to impose their way of life on the smaller ones. Through the voice of the main narrator, he therefore underlines in the beginning of his book, which, like many others, speaks about crimes, power, corruption and politics, putting them together, that: But the new majority that now leads the planet does not limit itself to making decisions, making laws at will and imposing them on minority nations. It also imposes its way of life. The fashion of clothing, music, dances, social, religious or sexual behaviours were also imposed by the new majority. For most always impose their tastes and preferences on others. Europeans are obliged to follow them. They have become an insignificant minority and have lost the right to make decisions. (Gheorghiu 2015: 14)84

Speaking about Europe, which had a long tradition of colonisation and exported values like democracy all around the world, surely did not make him more popular and was not very pleasant for his readers. Moreover, it created the context for his enemies to write against him and to consider him a menace to democracy. But he was already old, had passed through many problems and scandals and had faced so many charges during the time, he was not interested anymore in those topics. He was just interested in writing about what he was thinking, without any concern that somebody could feel offended. Of course, he was not conscious of the fact that sometimes generalisation may offend also innocent people and sometimes it can be the cause for violence. For this reason, there are aspects of his work that can and should be criticised. But we will speak about these aspects in the next chapter. If one takes a look at the frequency of the works published by him in these years, one may be tempted to think that the fact that he was old made the writer to not be capable anymore of the prolificacy that he had a few years before. If the

84 Origin. 2015. „Însă noua majoritate care conduce acum planeta nu se mărginește la a lua decizii, a face legi după bunul plac și de a le impune națiunilor minoritare. Ea impune, de asemenea, modul ei de viață –​way of life. Moda vestimentației, muzica, dansurile, comportamentele sociale, religioase ori sexuale au fost impuse și ele prin noua majoritate. Căci majoritatea întotdeauna impune altora gusturile și preferințele sale. Europenii sunt obligați să le urmeze. Ei au devenit o minoritate nesemnificativă și au pierdut dreptul de a mai lua decizii.”

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same person looked at his publications in the next years, he would surely see that that was a wrong impression. Probably during these years he did not publish so much because he travelled, or because he was concerned to write his memoirs, planned in three volumes. The next year, 1978, he published two important titles, both of them related with the Romanian space. The first one, titled The Great Exterminator (Gheorghiu 2008), speaks about the interventions of the Communists in the church and presents not only a novel with an interesting action, but also the story of some odious crimes accomplished by regime’s agents and the way they managed also to infiltrate inside the diaspora structures. Zioniev’s85 “homo sovieticus” (Gillyboeuf 2019: 92) is one of the important characters of the book and proves that the regime was capable of reducing to silence the ones who disagreed with the official opinion in a way that excluded any suspicion. Reading this book, one of the contemporary biographers of the author shows that: Reading this quick, breathtaking story, violent but sometimes delicate, sometimes cruel, if not atrocious, we discover the truth about imposture, the horror of the procedures used to reduce the disappointments of those who refuse to live in the collective paradise, considered as such by those who have never been there and where the author escaped. (Gillyboeuf 2019: 93)86

After the release of such a book a reaction and the start of an action against the Romanian writer was expected from the church authorities in Bucharest, but nothing happened. Most probably, his religious superiors were not conscious of this work, while the Communists were interested in hiding its content in Romanian space, rather than contributing to its dissemination in an attempt to criticise it. Shortly after, The Amazones of the Danube was published too (Gheorghiu 1978). Like before, Plon Publishing House hosted it and Livia Lamoure ensured the correction of the text in French. With a historical content, the book also speaks about the social mechanisms that define the world and its evolution and

85 Grigori Evseevici Zinoviev (1883–​1936) was an important Russian communist, known for his violence and his crimes. Close to Lenin and Stalin, he eventually ended up being executed by the last one, for political reasons. 86 Origin. 2019: „Citind această povestire rapidă ce ta ie răsuflarea, violentă, însă pe alocuri delicată, uneori crudă, dacă nu atroce, descoperim adevărul cu privire la impostură, oroarea procedurilor utilizate pentru a-​i reduce pe dezamăgi ţii care refuză să trăiască în paradisul colectiv, considerat astfel de către cei care nu au fost niciodată acolo şi de unde autorul a scăpat”.

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at the same time offers an idyllic image of his native lands, which the author sees as being places dominated by morals and honour. The next title, published in 1979 (Gheorghiu 1989) was rather a documentary one, with historical value, than a novel, after a visit to the Maronite reverend Mansour Labaki there, where Father Virgil saw Beirut burning (Gillyboeuf 2019: 9; Cubleșan 2011: 43), and was impressed both by the sufferings and the history of this country. In this context, he decided to write not only to describe Mansour’s parish from Damour, but also in order to present the beauty of the history of the Christianity on those lands and to show how, through martyrdom when it was necessary, the people from these lands managed to defend their faith. The book was warmly received, especially in the church space and it knew not only future translations, but also a reprint, in 1989, in Monaco. The last year of the eighth decade of the twentieth century also brought a book dedicated to the exile and to the complicated life of the Romanian exiled to Paris (Gheorghiu 2016a). Under the image of the monk Teodot, the bishop, he tried to present Teofil Ionescu, the one who ordained him as a priest and to speak about the way, using different forms of disinformation and discrediting, the agents infiltrated by the Securitate among the Romanians from this area, managed to divide the community from there. Among the methods of punishment of the ones who disagreed with the official version of the fact, poison was often used by them, both in Romania and abroad. The main character was also a victim of it (Cubleșan 2001: 65). Through this story, he therefore tried, once again, to denounce Communism and its way of acting. It was the last novel published by the author during his life (Gillyboeuf 2019: 96) and one of his most personal writings after the memoirs. Two years later, in 1982 (Gillyboeuf 2019: 97), he also finished another interesting novel, titled Dracula in Carpathian Mountains (Gheorghiu 2019). Like the previous ones, it is also meant to speak about his country, the way his country, being a small one, is condemned to be the slave of the big nations and about the realities from the Second World War. Here, more than in other books, he seems to detach from the Romanian monarchy and its representatives and criticises both their behaviour and their way of acting. The book is also interesting due to the fact that here, more than in other works, the author valorises the folklore, seen as a precious aspect of the national culture. Not only does the action contain passages inspired from the popular culture, but also the descriptions are attempts at depicting the rich heritage of the area existing in the Carphatian Mountains. Therefore, as has been previously underlined:

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The fact that the narrative is based on popular sources, explains, as in other works of Father Gheorghiu, the structure of romantic influence of the narrative and the truly predictable ending. Onomastics and toponymy (outlaws Gologan and Cozoroc, the place of action: Petrodava), come to complete a beautiful picture of idealistic-​traditional influence, which retains its flavor and beauty, making a picture pleasant to read (Morariu 2020b: 39)87

A late romantic, as it can be defined, due to the message of the novel that remained unpublished during his life, Gheorghiu can also be considered modern thanks to the message of the book and of some aspects of the contents. All the later books had literary value, but this was his last novel. And perhaps, due to the fact that it has some political references that can be sanctioned by the readers (he speaks in a very positive way about the prosecution of the Legionaries and against King Charles the Second and the monarchy), he felt afraid to publish it. For this reason, he preferred to write another category of books. Two of them were dedicated to a beautiful Asian country that he fell in love with  –​South Korea. After so many years of writing and publishing books, in the last two decades of life, he travelled a lot to different spaces. Here he met people like Juan Perón (Stolojan 1996: 22–​23), the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras, professors and researchers and important religious personalities. With some of them he maintained correspondence, to the others he dedicated books (Gheorghiu 2009), while different places and their history impressed him a lot. The aforementioned country also belongs to the last category. Here he travelled and gave lectures (Gillyboeuf 2019: 98). His books were translated there and he decided to write about South Korea and its painful history as a sign of gratitude for the love and respect of people from there. Therefore, in 1984, he published an interesting eulogy dedicated to Korea (Gillyboeuf 2019: 98), and in 1987, when the country hosted the Olympic Games, also wrote about it and about the event in a book (Gheorghiu 1987). The last years of his life were also dedicated by the Romanian writer to a project that he had planned for a long time, but which, due to other tasks and responsibilities, was postponed a few times, namely the Memoirs. Initially, he

87 Origin. 2020b: „Faptul că narațiunea are la bază surse populare, explică, ca și în alte lucrări ale părintelui Gheorghiu, structura de influență romantistă a narațiunii și finelul de-​a dreptul predictibil. Onomastica și toponimica (haiducii Gologan și Cozoroc, locul acțiunii: Petrodava), vin să completeze un frimos tablou de influență idealist-​ tradiționlă, ce-​și păstrează însă savoarea și frumusețea, alcătuind un tablou plăcut lecturii”.

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wanted three volumes wherein to speak about his life, the main experiences that influenced and changed it (Gillyboeuf 2010: 5), and probably to speak also about the charges that he needed to face and the scandals that defined his biography (Cicoare 2007: 366). But in the end, he realised, as the later literary critics emphasised, that many of his books had already revealed his biography (Simion 2008: 25), and he died before finishing the third volume. The first edition in 1985 of the first volume (Gheorghiu 2017) speaks about the difficulties of the war, his childhood, the studies in Chișinău, his Bucharest experience and his relationships with important poets and writers like Tudor Arghezi or Nicolae Crevedia. The second one (Gheorghiu 2019b) was published posthumously in Monaco, by Rocher Publishing House in 1995, three years after his death. During the last years of his life, Virgil Gheorghiu preferred to reprint some of his works and to publish small articles in journals like Le Figaro, rather than write new books. His age, illness and interest in the events that were taking place in Romania probably influenced this decision. During the last years of his life, he also ended the co-​operation with Plon and decided to cease the copyrights to Rocher Publishing House in Monaco.88 Also, shortly after 1989, he was happy to see that his masterpiece The 25th Hour (Gheorghiu 1989) was finally translated and published in his mother tongue. Unfortunately, due to the fact that his

88 Almost at the same time, the problems became more and more distressing, with his editor forcing him to stop co-​operating with Plon Publishing House, where he published all his books after The 25th Hour. He therefore joined Rocher Publishing House, which promised to reprint his entire work and where his second volume of memories was also posthumously published. In parallel, Rocher Publishing House decided to publish his books in Romanian language. Although his books were distributed in a clandestine way in Romania, Virgil Gheorghiu was always a “forbidden writer.” In August 1991, with a foreword by Paul Miclău, will be released, published both by Rocher Publishing House and Omegapress from Bucharest –​The 25th Hour –​the first edition in Romanian language of the novel from 1948.” (Gillyboeuf 2019: 105). „Aproape în acelaşi timp, problemele din ce în ce mai penibile cu editorul său îl constrâng să întrerupă colaborarea cu Editura Plon, unde a publicat toate cărţile sale de după Ora 25. Se alătură aşadar Editurii Rocher, care se angajează să îi reediteze întreaga operă şi unde îi va fi publicat postum cel de-​al doilea volum de memorii. În paralel, Editura Rocher decide să publice cărţile lui în limba română. Deşi scrierile sale circulau în clandestinitate în România, Virgil Gheorghiu a fost mereu un „scriitor interzis”. În august 1991, prefaţată de către Paul Miclău, va apărea, publicată atât de către Editura Rocher, cât şi de către Editura Omegapres din Bucureşti, Ora 25, prima ediţie în limba română a romanului din 1948.”

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enemies were very voracious and had a huge credibility there, his books did not have the wished impact there. Author of a rich work consisting of more than forty titles, translated into more than forty languages, he remained also a controversial personality, whose attitude at different moments of his life generated controversies and led even people who knew and admired him to consider the Romanian clergyman a weird personality and to avoid reading or reviewing some of his books for this reason. At the same time, it must be also said that he was a man who travelled a lot, approached different genres like the diary and the memoirs, the interview, the chronicles, poetry, novel, biography and monographs, not without success and was admired by important religious and social personalities like the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras from Constantinople, the pastor Charles Westphal, the professors from Bossey Institute, near Geneva, where he also provided lectures in different contexts, the Romanian Orthodox Patriarch Justinian Marina, or President Peron and the president of South Korea.

1.4 The Historical Context and Its Relevance for Virgil Gheorghiu’s Work As has been already mentioned, almost all of Gheorghiu’s books contain rich references to his personal experience (Simion 2008: 25). This also means that the context where he lived and was educated influenced him and has relevance for his literary activity. As we have tried also to show in the texts above, he approached poetry, interview and reportage, novels, biographies, monographs and books with a historical content literaturised. For each of the genres approached, the context where he lived was important and in many situations had an important influence. For example, in poetry, he started by describing the geographical, social and cultural realities in which he lived. In his first book released in 1937, titled Poet’s Daily Life (Gheorghiu 1937), he speaks about the native lands, and also about his activity as a student in the military college and presents aspects from this area. He does the same also in Calligraphy on the Snow, that was awarded by the Royal Foundations (Gheorghiu 1940). The difference is that in the second one, the accent is more on the spiritual state of the author than on the description of places, and the pastels are rather focused on feelings, than on spaces. The second book published in 1940, dedicated to the prime minister, Armand Călinescu (Gheorghiu 1940a), killed by the Legionary Movement, is different. He speaks about an important political personality who was, at the same time, an intellectual and about something that should not have happened, namely, a crime. Here it can be

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seen for the first time, in a very clear and direct manner, how the historical context influenced the author and led him to write and to protest against a fact that took place in his country at the top of the political stage (Gheorghiu 1960a: 234). Later he mentioned the fact that the Legionary Movement would be very angry with him for this book and when the context allows, they would withdraw from him the press legitimacy. The reportage of war came to show with more clarity how the social realities lived by Virgil Gheorghiu influenced his way of writing. As an officer working in the press of the time, he was sent to the battlefield to discover the war and understand its horrors. As can be imagined, in the campaigns from Bessarabia and Bukovina (Gheorghiu 1941, 1942a) and at the board of the submarine (Gheorghiu 1942), he discovered things that made him conscious of the realities that his country was living in at the time and felt interested in speaking about some of them in his books. Despite the fact that they brought him troubles, the author still loved these books that said a lot about the deep relationships existing between the Romanian historical context of the Second World War and the young writer who was, at the time, in a moment of formation. In the last book of poetry that he published, namely The Hour of Prayer (Gheorghiu 1942b), the context was not so clearly emphasised, but it can be deducted from the content of the work. The same thing can be also said about The Last Hour (Gheorghiu 1943), the last book that he published in Romania. After his departure, initially in Zagreb and later in the German camp, Heidelberg and France, the historical context influenced him in a different way. On one side, Gheorghiu was interested in the evolution of Romania, hoping that the evolution of the situation may allow him to return to his country. On the other, he was interested in the realities of the countries where he was and in the evolution of the international context. As an exile from Romania, he speaks in 1948, in the booklet published in Heidelberg about the history and traditions of the Romanian space, offering too, like in other situations (Morariu 2020b: 37–​39), an overview of the rich ethnographical heritage in this space. The historical context of the Romanian area, together with the one of the Eastern Europe started to concern him more seriously in the first years after his arrival in France. In his masterpiece, The 25th Hour (Gheorghiu 1948), it can be seen how the drama of his country and the different changes that arrived both in Romania as in Hungary and Germany had an important influence on his writing, which has, under certain aspects, a militant content, not only a descriptive one. The same thing can be said also about later books like The Second Chance (Gheorghiu 1993), La Cravache (Gheorghiu 1960), and also The Sacrifices of the Danube (Gheorghiu 1957), We Borrow Heroes (Gheorghiu 1957a), or

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The Beggars of Miracles (Gheorghiu 1958). Different books, with actions having different contents and the action taking place in different contexts, all of them speak about the historical context and show how this aspect influenced Gheorghiu as a writer. While in The 25th Hour (Gheorghiu 1948), The Second Chance (Gheorghiu 1993) and La Cravache (Gheorghiu 1960), the context is from Romania, because the writer speaks here about the way the war, the regimes from its times and before it and Communism came to change the life of the people and made it very difficult to live in this area for many of them, in the book published in Barcelona (Gheorghiu 1957a) or in the one where he faced the problem of apartheid, the international historical context came to be investigated. There, he underlines the deep concern of a writer who had written already a few books with international relevance and who was interested in aspects like the common good or the life of the people in different areas of the world and the way this life can be changed by governance and the evolution of the socio-​political realities. With Perahim (Gheorghiu 1961), the situation is different. In a complex novel, with an action built in different spatial and geographical areas, he speaks about the life of a man, a traveller through his origins, and describes through his eyes the historical context in both Latin America and in Romania during the first two decades of the communist period. Similar things can also be found in the biography of Roland Panselin, the main character from a later volume published in 1967, titled La Tunique de Peau (Gheorghiu 1967). In a book published in 1965, he returns to the interest for his native country and speaks in From the 25th Hour to the Hour of Eternity (Gheorghiu 1965), a book he wished to be a continuation of his masterpieces, about the instauration of Communism imposed by the Soviets in Romania and the way this changed in many situations the life of the people from this space. In the next one, dedicated to Martin Luther (Gheorghiu 1965a), he was not anymore interested in the contemporary historical context like earlier, but in the context of the times when the described personality worked. Later, in the eighth decade of the twentieth century, when the realities became a little bit different, the historical, social and political realities seemed to be also interested in the life and activity of Virgil Gheorghiu, who became an Orthodox clergyman in Paris in 1963. For this reason, a spy was sent to him and claimed for help. Later, the French Secret Services proved that she was an agent of Romanian Securitate working under cover. She could have taken the life of the writer and his wife, but she preferred only to find information about their life and their relationships with the other Romanians from French space. For the Romanian, she was an important source of inspiration and served as a model for the main character from his book titled The Spy (Gheorghiu 1971). The same concern for the Securitate and its methods of work can be also seen in the novel titled God

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Receives Only on Sunday (Gheorghiu 1975), where he presents the situation of the Romanian diaspora, showing that he was also well informed about the realities from there and the way they influence the image of the Romanians in the Occident. In books like The Amazons of the Danube (Gheorghiu 1978), Virgil returns to a topic that has been previously approached, namely history with its rich heritage, and speaks about the role played by heroic and mythical personalities in the history of his country. Later, in books like the one dedicated to the Korean lands (Gheorghiu 1987) or Lebanon and its history (Gheorghiu 1989), he proved that he was also conscious of the historical realities from other spaces and able to emphasise them in his book, asking his readers to be more sensitive and to not underestimate spaces that they do not know. As we have already mentioned, the exile influenced not only the author, but also his style of writing. Getting older, he became more and more convinced that the possibility of seeing his country again did not exist anymore and that he would die in France. For this reason, most of the books published starting with the eighth decade of the twentieth century contained references to his native lands and descriptions, depicted with romantic accents, of their environment and history. In The Immortals from Agapia (Gheorghiu 1998), beyond the complex action that inspired also contemporary writers (Sansal 2020: 121–​122), he presents some extraordinary places, the ones where he lived while he was a child. The same thing can be said about the book titled How I Wanted to Become a Saint. Other Memoirs from a Theological Childhood (Gheorghiu 1999), a book with a rich autobiographical content (from there he also used many passages in the first volume of his memoirs). The Great Exterminator (Gheorghiu 2008) comes also to speak about the fact that he was concerned about his country and the dictatorship that was ruling it. At the same time, it proves that he was not only interested and committed to criticise Communism, but also well informed. Here, like in Condotiera (Gheorghiu 2011), the author uses important and secret information about the practices of the regime dedicated to the ones who were uncomfortable with it (Cubleșan 2001: 64). But it was not only the political context that influenced him, his way of thinking and writing. The religious one also constituted an important topic for Gheorghiu and his novels. Invited in the second half of the sixth decade of the twentieth century and in the next one by the Ecumenical Eastern Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras from Constantinople, a pioneer of ecumenism and a man who did a lot for the re-​establishment of the dialogue with the Catholic Church, to visit him, he used these trips to conduct some interviews and to take notes for

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a new book. Therefore, a few years later, he published a monograph dedicated to him (Gheorghiu 2009) that was warmly received both in France and in the Orthodox space, and also in the Catholic one (a proof of this can be considered its translation into the Italian language). The religious context also changed his life. In 1963, as we have already mentioned, he became a priest of the Romanian Orthodox community from Paris. Part of an exile jurisdiction, he had a rich correspondence with the Romanian Orthodox Patriarch Justinian Marina and was received, in 1968, under his omophorion. He therefore joined the Romanian Patriarchate. But as a clergyman, he was also interested in deepening the history of his church and of Christianity, and of the other important religions, and also to find more about their important personalities. In this context, he published two biographies dedicated to two important saints of the Christian space before the Great Schism, namely Saint Ambrosius of Milan (Gheorghiu 2013) and Saint John Chrysostom (Gheorghiu 2008). Of course, he dedicated a monograph also to Martin Luther (Gheorghiu 1965a), trying through that book to please his friend, the pastor Charles Westphal. At the same time, in an attempt to understand better Islam, its roots, its values and the way of life that it suggests, he also published a book titled Mohammed’s Life (Gheorghiu 2016), where he presents the life of the Prophet in a literaturised way, not without historical value, speaking about the elements that influenced his later life, his activity and about the revelations that he had. The book’s aim was to create bridges among spiritualties, but most probably with the exception of the few Muslim friends that the writer had, there were just a few readers from this category. The autobiographic ideas can be also easily found in a book planned to be the third volume of his memoirs (Gillyboeuf 2010a: 7), namely The Man Who Was Travelling Alone (Gheorghiu 2010). Here, he speaks about his biography, ignoring some sensitive aspects of it and shows how he came to be a notorious writer of his time, known all around the world. At the same time, he describes the social, political and cultural realities of his country before, during and after the Second World War, and speaks about the evolution of his country in these complicated times. In The House from Petrodava (Gheorghiu 2010a), The People of Immortals (Gheorghiu 2014) or Chiralesa (Gheorghiu 2018), he also describes his country, its environment and the rich heritage that the ancestors left, heritage that was systematically destroyed by the communists. The last three decades of his life were also marked by the fact that, like other Romanians, Virgil Gheorghiu saw, on one side, the imperfections of Capitalism, which he had always considered a reliable alternative to life, and on the other, the fact that the Americans, whom he wished to be the saviours of his country,

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had abandoned Romania, together with the rest of Eastern Europe, giving to the USSR the power to transform them as its colonies. For this reason, books like The American Eye (Gheorghiu 2013), The Heidelberg Unknowns (Gheorghiu 2015), God in Paris (Gheorghiu 2016a), The Suspect (Gheorghiu 2020a), and also the novel that remained unpublished during his life and was released posthumously, namely, Dracula in Carpathian Mountains (Gheorghiu 2020), often contained references to the incompetence of Capitalism or critiques of the Americans and their way of understanding the world. In conclusion, it can be said that, as we have also tried to show in the texts above, Virgil Gheorghiu was influenced by the historical context where he lived and used writing as a tool to speak about it, to criticise some behaviours or to militate for the change of the world.

1.5 Conclusion As we have tried to show, Virgil Gheorghiu had an interesting life, marked both by controversies and by important historical events. As a writer, he was deeply connected to his native land and tried to emphasise them both in poetry, autobiographical books or novels. Moreover, in time, the fact that he was an exile and, year after year, became more and more convinced that there was no possibility of seeing his country again, or his parents or their tombs after their death, he tried to fulfil this lack from his soul by writing about the space where he was born, about its history and values, or about its neighbourhood. For this reason, in his books can be found interesting aspects with historical and ethnographic value. The fact that some important events in the recent history of his country were the ones which made him take the road to exile led him to write about them in his books. For this reason, an important number of his works contain references to Communism. The autobiographical dimension of his work, mentioned by the critics of his novels (Simion 2008:  25), can be found also in the books speaking about this ideology. Gheorghiu did not experience it in the Romanian space, because he refused to return to Romania from Zagreb, after 23rd of August 1944, preferring the life in the camp. But previously, when he was a war reporter, he had the opportunity to see what Communism meant and what were some of its consequences and of its actions in spaces like Bessarabia and Bukovina. Churches destroyed by the communists or transformed into stalls, together with the testimonies of those who lived for a time under this regime, came to sustain his suspicions. For this reason, starting with the books from his youth (Gheorghiu 1941, 1942, 1942a), he used writing as a useful tool for denouncing its way of understanding the society and its limitations.

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As a man who knew the experience of a camp and later lived in the capitalist space, he was initially very enthusiastic in seeing this way of life as an alternative, both to Nazism, which he understood to be criminal for its hate directed at the Jews, but also to Communism. Little by little, he saw its imperfections and also wrote books containing critiques to this way of life. American Capitalism was, according to him, the worst (but this conception developed in time, from a few ideas enounced in books like The 25th Hour (Gheorghiu 1948), until when he was old), and in The American Eye (Gheorghiu 2019a) he had an entire list of critiques, starting from elementary aspects of daily life and going on to topics like the relationship with the divinity. All his ideas were influenced by the experiences that he lived, but at the same time, also by what he had read. His life had, therefore, an important relevance for his work. Noticing all these aspects and seeing both the landmarks of his biography and the composition of his work, we will try in the following chapters to see which are his reflections regarding the three important contemporary ideologies, namely Communism, Nazism and Capitalism, and to see how his personal experiences brought the Romanian writer and priest to them.

Chapter 2 The Reflections of Virgil Gheorghiu on Communism 2.1 Introduction After the presentation of Virgil Gheorghiu’s landmarks of life and activity, we consider it important to speak now about the way he understood Communism. Among all his reflections about the ideologies that defined the twentieth century, that he knew both through their theoretical background as well as from his own experience (because he saw how Communism, Nazism, and Capitalism had changed the world), the one dedicated to the first one, that arrived, imposed by Moscow, at the end of the Second World War in Romania too and lasted from 1945 until 1989, was the most developed. From the more than forty books that he wrote and published during his life, about thirty contain references to different Communist regimes and critics of the ideology and of the way they changed the history of the contemporary world. As was expected, Gheorghiu was primarily focused on the Romanian context. Well informed about the way the leaders from Bucharest reduced their opponents to silence, changed villages and accomplished many other similar actions in this sense, he never avoided presenting these aspects in his novels and books. In fact, the success of his masterpiece, The 25th Hour (Gheorghiu 1948) is at least partially related with the denouncing of the crimes of Communism. The examples that he used in order to illustrate his assumptions were credible and confirmed not only by other authors, but also by the documents discovered after the fall of the regime in Romania, a fact that gives to his writings a testimonial dimension. Noticing all these aspects, we will try to present the reflections of the investigated author on Communism, its role and meaning. Using the chronological criteria, we will divide the thematic unity in two parts. The first one will bring into attention his approach to Communism, as reflected in his youth writings. We will focus on the way he saw it before 23rd of August 1944. As has been mentioned, the Romanian writer was a war reporter during the Second World War and wrote three books, where he presented testimonies, events and facts (one of those books also brought him troubles, due to the passages dedicated to Nazism). They will be our main sources. When it is possible and necessary, we will try to correlate them with other contemporary documents or to see how his ideas were received in time. The second part of the chapter has more extended dimensions, due to the fact that after his refusal to return in Romania at the end

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of the war, the writer went to France, where he wrote a consistent number of books, criticising Communism. The entire demarche will follow the methodological criteria mentioned in the introductive part.

2.2 Before 23rd of August 1944 For sure, Gheorghiu hated Communism more than Nazism or Capitalism and although his conception regarding all of them changed and developed in time, his feelings about the aforementioned one remained deeply impregnated in his soul. In the formation of his reflections dedicated to it, the period that preceded 23rd of August 1944, had an important role. As a reporter on the front, he had the opportunity to get in contact with Communism and its consequences. Of course, as a young man influenced by the realities that he lived in, he saw some aspects with enthusiasm, while other negative parts were exaggerated. The fact that, during a certain period, the far-​right movement known as the Legionary Movement was ruling the country and the respect that he had for personalities like Nae Ionescu (Petreu 2009) or Nichifor Crainic (Morariu 2020), who, in their turn, had far right orientation or sympathy, led him to see in an anti-​Semite key the ideology and to put into relationship some of its actions with the fact that Jews were part of it. The connections, as expected, were rather forced. And these forced connections together with the hot topic approached contributed to the fact that, even after 1990, in Romanian space, like abroad too, he has been rather a forgotten author. Making a connection between this book and the aforementioned aspect, one of the editors of his earlier writings notes: Who deepened Constantin Virgil Gheorghiu in oblivion? The cruel tragedy of the Romanians across the Prut, accentuated since 1812 and continued after 1940 and 1944 –​ a tragedy that was not overshadowed by his steadfast anti-​communism. (Călugăru 1993: 4)89

In the understanding of his reflections dedicated to the topic in the period before the Second World War, the main sources are the books that he wrote during the conflagration, as a war reporter. The campaigns in Bessarabia, Bukovina or with the submarine at the siege of Sevastopol became subjects of interesting journalistic books published by Gheorghiu in 1941 and 1942 (Gheorghiu 1941, 1942, 1942a). Anthologised after 1989 in one book (Gheorghiu 1993a), they allow us

89 Origin. 1993: „Cine l-​a adâncit în uitare pe Constantin Virgil Gheorghiu? Crunta tragedie a românilor de dincolo de Prut, accentuată din 1812 și continuată după 1940 și 1944 –​tragedie pe care n-​a lăsat-​o în umbră și statornicul său anticomunism”.

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to realise a complex investigation on the way the author understood Communism. From the beginning it must be mentioned that the investigated author was rarely a theoretician, preferring to present his impressions or thoughts based on examples. As an author of novels and works with literary value, he started to use aspects that gave to his works an interdisciplinary value and had philosophical relevance too, in the second part of his life more than in the first one. He rather preferred to emphasise aspects with emotional value and to realise descriptions of the way the state of soul is related with the political and ideological belief. An example of this is his description of an encounter with some prisoners from Russia. He presents here a complex point, underlining the fact that Communism led people to lose aspects that define a human being in its high and deep meaning: Oh, the appearance of these prisoners, when you start talking to them, is heartbreakingly tragic. Their lives are stripped of the most beautiful things. In the camp where they live, no one sings, hums, prays and dreams of anything. I didn’t see anyone crying, or with their eyelashes steaming with melancholy. Everything that happens around them is indifferent. They don’t miss home, they don’t want to win, they don’t want anything. I spend my time sleeping, or talking, for hours, the greatest platitudes. They talk unimportant, stupid things, and I haven’t seen a single one, in the twelve hours I’ve been with them, glancing, tearful or Welsh, over the barbed wire fence. Nowhere, in their ranks, is there any human manifestation. (Gheorghiu 1993a: 18)90

At first glance, Gheorghiu’s concern about Communism is not related with political actions, the way the life of the people changed due to some actions of the rulers from this area, or with the co-​operation between Communism and Capitalism. The author arrives at the investigation of those aspects later (Gheorghiu 2020), in the books from the sixth, seventh and eighth decade of the twentieth century. He, as a sensitive young man, is interested in the way the regime impacted their souls. He has the opportunity to encounter people coming from the country which later imposed the aforementioned regime in his country too.

90 Origin. 1993a: „O, aspectul acestor prizonieri, când începi să vorbești cu ei, este sfâșietor de tragic. Viața lor este despuiată de cele mai frumoase lucruri. În lagărul în care stau, niciunul nu cântă, nu fredonează, nu se roagă și nu visează la nimic. Nu am văzut niciunul plângând, sau cu geana aburită de melancolie. Tot ce se întâmplă împrejurul lor este indiferent. Nu le e dor de acasă, nu vor să învingă, nu vor nimic. Timpul și-​l petrec dormind, sau vorbind, ceasuri întregi, cele mai grozave platitudini. Vorbesc lucruri fără nici o importanță, stupide și nu am văzut nici măcar unul, în cele douăsprezece ceasuri cât am stat cu ei, aruncând privirile, înlăcrimate sau galeșe, peste gardul de sârmă ghimpată. Nicăieri, în rândurile lor, nicio manifestare omenească”.

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They are war prisoners. He is called to have a discussion with them and to describe them in his books. The conclusion which he arrives at is the fact that the ideology that transformed the life of his country, has destroyed people’s souls: These people know neither love nor jealousy. Their soul is widowed by any feeling. How could the souls of these people be killed? But I did not even find in them the natural selfishness of any man. (Gheorghiu 1993a: 20)91

This conclusion, that the soul of the people was touched by the regime in Russia, led him to use for the first time in his literary career, as one of his biographers shows (Gillyboeuf 2019: 23), the notion of robot for the man living in a certain society (Călugăr 1993: 5),92 that was later developed in The 25th Hour (Gheorghiu 1948) and other books, defined by stereotype behaviours. Without a soul, man is nothing more than a machine, a robotised being whose aim is only to live in order to produce and consume (Gheorghiu 2013a). In words that seem poetic and look like a haiku poem, he says:

91 Origin. 1993a: „Nici dragostea, nici gelozia nu o cunosc acești oameni. Sufletul lor este văduv de orice sentiment. Cum s-​a putut omorî sufletul acestor oameni? Dar nu am întâlnit la ei nici măcar egoismul firesc oricărui om.” A few rows earlier, he underlined: “But the soul is an unknown item among young Bolsheviks. I am not exaggerating in saying that these young Bolsheviks, with whom I spoke, have no soul. They were killed. They were completely dehumanized and reduced to the constitution of the robot.” (Gheorghiu 1993a: 19). Origin. 1993a: „Dar sufletul este un articol necunoscut în rândurile tinerilor bolșevici. Nu exagerez de fel spunând ca bolșevicii aceștia tineri, cu care am stat de vorbă, nu au nici un dram de suflet. Le-​a fost ucis. Au fost dezumanizați complet și reduși la constituția robotului.” 92 The author underlines about this aspect: “Visiting a camp of Soviet prisoners, he wanted to know the ‘saviors’ of mankind and was amazed by their placidity, not the placidity of the captive, but of the human being interested only in his physical existence. He realizes from the discussions that they are not interested in anything, but they were simply robots in the hands of their superiors. Here he sees, as he will write over the years in “Twenty-​Five Hours,” the dehumanisation, the interest oriented exclusively to the material part of life. (Călugăr 1993: 5). Origin. 1993: „Vizitând un lagăr de prizonieri sovietici, a vrut să-​i cunoască pe „salvatorii” omenirii și a rămas stupefiat de placiditatea acestora, nu placiditatea celui aflat în captivitate, ci a ființei umane interesate doar de existența sa fizică. Își dă seama din discuțiile purtate, că nu sunt interesați de nimic, ci erau pur și simplu, niște roboți în mâna superiorilor. Aici vede, după cum va scrie peste ani în „Ora douăzeci și cinci”, dezumanizarea, interesul orientat exclusiv către partea materială a vieții”.

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It simply came to our notice then. These people are not interested in anything. These people have no longing. How unhappy their mothers must be, who did not give birth to humans, but to robots. (Gheorghiu 1993a: 21)93

But is the Soviet robot the same as the American one? Although the mechanisms are similar, the consequences are different. It is interesting to see how the social mechanisms act. Although he may not be totally conscious of this aspect, Gheorghiu speaks about them. Showing how fear makes people act in the most dangerous way, he presents the way social pressure, the desire for survival or pride can affect one man’s actions. Of course, most probably this was due to the fact that he desired to be in the line of the rulers of the time, so he gave to the passages dedicated to this aspect, like to the ones previously presented too, an anti-​Semite accent, when he speaks about how, during the retreat of a gang of Jews, they came with guns to kill the people who were living in those villages (Gheorghiu 1993a: 29–​30). The lack of education, or the replacement of a good education with something that can be considered indoctrination (Preutu 2017:  53) represents, according to the author, one of the causes of some of the abuses. Gheorghiu decides to illustrate this aspect by presenting the office of a former leader of the Soviet army. After showing how he destroyed a beautiful place with historical meaning, where he established his office, he insists on the presentation of the content of his suitcase: But what’s more interesting is the contents of his suitcase. Here is what this leader of the communist army had, in packages and in suitcases: two big boxes of twenty kilograms of … lard, melted, ten kilograms of smoked mackerel, a box of sugar, some of the dishes and the pans the doctor, the mistress of the apartment, had left in the kitchen when she took refuge. In addition to these, there were countless things from the robbery in the Bolshevik general’s suitcases. Among other things, there were about ten pairs of women’s panties, perfume bottles and cologne. The glasses of brandy and wine were wrapped in the general’s dirty socks and put in the dirty lard pans. (Gheorghiu 1993a: 35)94

9 3 94

Origin. 1993a: „Oamenii aceștia nu se bucură de nimic. Oamenii aceștia nu se interesează de nimic. Oamenii aceștia nu au niciun dor. Ce nefericite trebuie să fie mamele lor, care n-​au născut oameni, ci roboți”. Origin. 1993a: „Dar ce e mai interesant, e conținutul geamantanului lui. Iată ce avea acest conducător al armatei comuniste, în pachete și în geamantane: două cutii mari, a câte douăzeci de kilograme de… untură de porc, topită, zece kilograme de scrumbii afumate, lada cu zahar, o parte din vesela și din cratitele pe care doamna doctor, stăpâna

90

The Reflections of Virgil Gheorghiu on Communism

Of course, the propagandistic purpose of his writings should not be forgotten. Like other authors of war memories of the time, Virgil was sent in the back line of the front in order to present in the worst way possible the situation of the Soviet army. This explains the presence of so many metaphors and figures of style in his notes. But at the same time, the description seems to be a realistic one that tries to emphasise the level of civilisation and culture of the occupiers of those territories and will be, again, after the departure of the Romanian army. The communist crimes are known and have been already mentioned in the memoirs writings or in the synthesis dedicated to this period by different authors (see, for example, Solženicyn 2008). But most of the authors focus on what the Communists did after the war or doing the interwar period, with the ones who were inconvenient to the regime. When speaking about the war, people prefer to insist on the atrocity of some of the deeds of German army. Gheorghiu also speaks about the communist crimes from Romania and other spaces after the Second World War. The books published after this, starting with The 25th Hour (Gheorghiu 1948), contain recurrent references to this topic. But at the same time, he does not neglect the crimes of the war. He speaks in his war notes about the deportation of different categories, but also about the unjustified crimes made by the communists: Under the rubble of the city, in the prisons where they had taken refuge, in private houses or in courtyards and cellars, so many people died in Balti. Their bodies, of these Christians burned at the stake by the Bolshevik Jews, have not yet been removed and counted. But we can smell the smell of burnt meat. (Gheorghiu 1993a: 49)95

Excluding the anti-​Semite reference, which most probably is not only inappropriate but also incorrect, the fact that he brings into discussion the non-​guilty people killed by the Bolsheviks, who therefore became collateral victims of the war is important. It speaks both about the cruelty of the war as a matter of fact, and also about the practice of the Russian Communists during the conflagration.

apartamentului, le lăsase în bucătărie pe când se refugiase. În afară de acestea se mai aflau în geamantanele generalului bolșevic nenumărate lucruri provenite din jaf. Între altele erau și vreo zece perechi de chiloți de damă, sticle cu parfum și apă de colonie. Paharele de țuică și de vin erau învelite în ciorapii murdari ai domnului general și băgatei în cratițele murdare de untură”. 95 Origin. 1993:  „Sub dărâmăturile orașului, în închisorile în care se refugiaseră, în casele particulare sau în curți și în pivnițe, și-​au găsit moartea la Bălți atâția oameni. Cadavrele lor, ale acestor creștini arși pe rugurile criminale ale evreilor bolșevici, nu au fost încă scoase și numărate. Dar simțim din plin mirosul de carne arsă”.

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Violence, lack of education, disrespect for the religious faith and persiflation of it96 (Gheorghiu 1993a: 48) and the desire to destroy or to hurt the other seem to be the keywords of Gheorghiu’s description. But they are at the same time, the keywords of understanding Communism, as can be seen not only from his works, but also from others written by people who lived during communist regimes in different parts of the world (Preda 1993; Solženicyn 2008; Tănase 2011; Tofan 2012). The history of the lands that Romanians call until today Bessarabia (Nistor 1939:  12) and Bukovina (Nistor 1915, 1940, 1991) was, during the century, a stumbling rock in the relationship between Russia and Romania. The former have always claimed to be the owners of those lands, while the latter, based on the ethnical appurtenance of an important percentage of the population, sustained the same thought. Therefore, after 1918, when Bessarabia and Bukovina have become part of the Romanian lands, Russians have never recognised this and have always tried to take them back. For this reason, the campaign started by the general Ion Antonescu in 1940, helped by the Germans and Italians too (see Pelin 2003 for more information), have determined a wave of anger from their side. The Romanian victories have also led the Communists to punish every one that looks suspect and to consider a Romanian person as a voracious enemy. Gheorghiu touches this aspect too in one of his passages, when he describes a multiple crime that took place on the field, where people were working: On the edge of the village attacked that morning by the Bolshevik destruction gangs, they met a peasant family composed of an old man, two of his sons, a woman and a child, who were harvesting wheat. Do you harvest wheat for Romanians? Gather the bread to give to the Romanian armies, traitors you are!

96 About this topic, he shows that: “They thrust the bayonet into the blue and yellow painted body of the Savior. The cross, on which this simple and naive Christ is crucified, was stabbed and broken. The trinity on the outskirts of the village, to which so many hundreds of thousands of plowmen bowed with tears, methane and endless devotion when they left or returned from their fields, now sits humiliated and devastated. She sits defiled at the crossroads.” (Gheorghiu 1993a: 61). Origin. 1993a: „Ei au înfipt baioneta în trupul vopsit stângaci cu albastru și galben al Mântuitorului. Crucea, pe care e răstignit acest emoționant de simplu și de naiv Hristos, a fost împunsă cu baioneta și ruptă. Troița de la marginea satului, la care s-​au închinat cu lacrimi, cu metanii și cu cucernicie nesfâșită atâtea sute de mii de plugari, când plecau sau când se întorceau de pe ogoarele lor, șade acum umilită și devastată. Șade pângărită la crucea drumului”.

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The Reflections of Virgil Gheorghiu on Communism

These words were followed by a few curses, and the peasants, beginning with the old man and ending with the child, were killed by the bullets of the Bolsheviks. (Gheorghiu 1993a: 62)97

Similar aspects can be found in other testimonies or monographs dedicated to the beginning of the war (Rotaru 1994: 12), where the authors speak about the fact that being Romanian or having good feelings about the Romanians was a strong enough reason to be killed by the Soviet armies. This aspect is, as can be easily seen, in contradiction with the Communist doctrine, which is one of internationalism. Like other writers, Gheorghiu is conscious of this fact and presents it in books like the ones that we try to investigate. Due to the fact that the “working class” (Călugăr 1993:  4) constituted the leitmotiv of the Communist discourse and of the doctrine behind it (cf. Badea 1987:  15; Banu 1955:  37–​68), although from Marx lumpers proletariat (Marx 1947) until Russian Communism there were many changes in its understanding and definition, Gheorghiu was also interested in this topic. When he had the opportunity, he criticised the disrespect for the workers and demasked the “communist heaven’s” fake image, in a tough presentation.98 As a delegate of the Romanian army, he was sent not only to Bukovina, but also to Bessarabia. Chișinău was the place where he studied at the Royal Military College. He lived there for eight years and had, as has been mentioned, a rich literary activity (Gheorghiu 2017: 15; Gillyboeuf 2019: 17). Therefore, he was deeply related with this place, its history and its buildings. When he arrived there, called to write about the

97 Origin. 1993a: „La marginea satului atacat în dimineața aceea de bandele de distrugere ale bolșevicilor au întâlnit o familie de țărani compusă dintr-​un bătrân, doi feciori ai lui, o femeie și un copil, care secerau grâul. Secerați grâul pentru români? Culegeți pâinea ca să o dați armatelor românești, trădători ce sunteți! Au urmat după aceste cuvinte câteva înjurători, iar țăranii, începând cu bătrânul și sfârșind cu copilul, au fost uciși de gloanțele bolșevicilor”. 98 “Strongly marked by the realities seen in Bessarabia, which had only been in communist heaven for a year, he made a harsh presentation, without sweetening it, a presentation made by the soldier reporter. We have before us a shocking film of Bessarabian realities made by a remnant who had traveled hundreds and hundreds of kilometers among his Romanian brothers accustomed to foreigners.” (Călugăr 1993: 4). Origin. 1993: „Puternic marcat de realitățile văzute în Basarabia ce stătuse doar un an în „raiul” comunist, face o prezentare dură, fără a o îndulci, o prezentare făcută de reporterul ostaș. Avem în față un zguduitor film al realităților basarabene făcut de un rămân ce străbătuse sute și sute de kilometrii printre frații săi români obijduiți de străini”.

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war and its consequences, Virgil found a bombed town, where all the buildings were in ruins. Moreover, in the most important factory of the city, the tobacco one, with more than 1,000 workers, when the Russians found that the Romanian army was close by and they had to retreat, they tried to kill the workers. Annoyed by this, he writes about this aspect in his book: I find out that on the day Chisinau was set on fire, the Bolsheviks summoned the nearly 1,000 Moldovan workers to the Tobacco Factory. They were going to lock them all up in the factory, then set them on dynamite and set them on fire. The tobacco factory in Chisinau had to bury a thousand workers under its rubble who were not to blame. This sentence had been given by the political commissioners, by order of the leaders. This was the regime that applied to workers in the country of workers’ paradise. Due to an operation, the workers, who were called to the factory at 7 am, found out what was being prepared for them. Some of them did not want to believe, but that the Bolsheviks called them to the factory to assassinate them. And although they were warned, a few entered the factory. The other workers stayed out. Immediately after the several teams entered the factory, the Bolsheviks locked the doors. A few minutes later, a series of loud detonations were heard, the tobacco factory blew up and was engulfed in flames. (Gheorghiu 1993a: 68)99

Those are crimes and are directed towards unguilty people. For this reason, it was not possible for one like Gheorghiu, who lived in Chișinău, and considered this town as a part of the Romanian land and fought for its release from Communist occupation, to remain insensitive. Like many other Romanians, the author was also conscious of the fact that in his country, the regime was also, in many situations, unfair to the workers and for sure something needed to be done in this area. But at the same time, he was also disappointed to see that a political ideology that, from the theoretical point of view, was dedicated to the workers and had as a purpose the increase of the level of life of people from this segment 99 Origin. 1993a: „Aflu că în ziua în care a fost incediat Chișinăul, bolșevicii au convocat la Fabrica de tutun pe cei aproape 1000 de lucrători moldoveni. Aveau de gând să-​i încuie în fabrică pe toți, apoi să pună dinamită și să dea foc. Fabrica de tutun din Chișinău trebuia să îngroape sub dărâmăturile ei o mie de muncitori care nu aveau nicio vină. Sentința aceasta fusese dată de comisarii politici, din ordinul conducătorilor. Acesta era regimul care se aplica lucrătorilor în țara în care se intitulează raiul muncitorilor. Datorită unei foncționare, muncitorii, care erau chemați la ora 7 dimineața la fabrică, au aflat ce li se pregătește. O parte din ei nu au voit să creadă, însă că bolșevicii îi chemau în uzină pentru a-​i asasina. Și cu toate că au fost avertizați, câțiva au intrat în interiorul fabricii. Ceilalți lucrători au rămas afară. Imediat după intrarea celor câteva echipe în uzină, bolșevicii au încuiat ușile. Peste câteva minute s-​au auzit o serie de detunături puternice, fabrica de tutun a sărit în aer și a fost cuprinsă de flăcări”.

94

The Reflections of Virgil Gheorghiu on Communism

of population, decided not only to encourage social inequalities, but also to kill the so-​called protected class. The destruction of the churches and attitude towards religion and religious feelings of the people were the two important points that increased the author’s anger towards Communism in Chișinău. In fact, the regime was notorious for the way it persecuted different churches and people who were classified among the believers. Gheorghiu speaks about this aspect, underlining the deep relationship existing in Bessarabia between the people and the church: All over Bessarabia, I met people crying in front of burned and devastated churches. They were crying because their whole being was shaking and you were terrified of their grief. For these people, who kneel before an icon for two or three hours, immersed in a prayer like I have never seen anywhere, love their churches more than their very nature. (Gheorghiu 1993a: 72)100

Without being aware of this fact, in his books Gheorghiu was doing very interesting sociological work, using case studies in order to understand the realities, establishing relationships with people, like the researchers from the American space who were entering for a period in the gangs in order to understand their behaviour and the motivations behind them (Corbetta 2014: 55). His works can be classified as part of qualitative research (Cardano 2003: 14, 2011: 18). Getting in dialogue with people, he found interesting things about daily life in Russia and in Bessarabia too. He could therefore understand how aspects like fear, hunger or the regime from the native country determined certain actions. Then, he describes different types of behaviour in his book. Written in a literary way and with propagandistic purpose, his notes also contain ironical accents. But at the same time, they come to emphasise different social problems that came into Russia with Communism or had been amplified thanks to the works of the representatives of the regime. Among them was hunger. He shows the way this keyword influenced the life and the attitude of the Russian Bolshevik soldiers as follows: When they first came to Chisinau, the Bolshevik soldiers stormed the confectionery. They each asked for five or six cakes, tea, candy, coffee with milk, all at once. Because they couldn’t wait to eat with the spoons, he began to take the cakes to his mouth with

100 Origin. 1993a: „În toată Basarabia, am întâlnit oameni care plângeau în fața bisericilor arse și devastate. Plângeau de li se zguduia toată făptura și te înfiora jalea lor. Căci oamenii aceștia, care stau în genunchi în fața unei icoane câte două, trei ore, cufundați într-​o rugăciune cum nu am mai văzut nicăieri, își iubesc bisericile mai mult decât însăși făptura lor”.

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his hand. A cake was swallowed in two bites. All the while they ate, they watched to see if the cakes in the confectionery were finished and ordered a dozen each. After eating the cakes, they drank the tea, ate the candy, then asked for tea with croissants once more. Leaving the confectionery, they entered the sausage shops. Most of them bought five or ten kilograms of sausages and ham. They would take her home and return after other shopping, in a hurry, because they were afraid they would not find her the next day. But at the restaurant … Another girl was telling me: do you know how they ate? First they asked for cabbage with meat, then tea, then they ate compotes, then they asked for a stew, then a coffee with milk or a cake, and once again they ate cabbage with meat. “I think you’re exaggerating,” I say, “girls.” But they swore it was absolutely true: and we wondered why they didn’t fall down dead from so much food, and especially because of the way they ate. “Everything the girls told you is true,” says an old agronomist who had served in the garden during the Bolsheviks. I don’t think I, who am an old man, have any reason to lie to you. But I tell you, even though I’ve traveled all over the world, I couldn’t believe what I saw in them either. I was opening my eyes wide and I couldn’t believe it was true. They were hungry for the last time. And for a few weeks they ate exactly as the girls tell you. (Gheorghiu 1993a: 79)101

101 Gheorghiu 1993a: „-​Când au venit prima oară în Chișinău, soldații bolșevici au dat buzna în cofetărie. Au cerut fiecare câte cinci-​șase prăjituri, ceai, bomboane, cafea cu lapte, toate deodată. Fiindcă nu aveau răbdare să mănânce cu lingurile, a început a duce prăjiturile la gură, cu mâna. Din două mușcături era înghițită o prăjitură. În tot timpul în care mâncau, se uitau să vadă dacă nu se termină prăjiturile din cofetărie și comandau câte o duzină, fiecare. După ce mâncau prăjiturile, beau ceaiul, mâncau bomboanele, apoi mai cereau o dată ceai cu cornuri. Ieșind din cofetărie, intrau în magazinele cu mezeluri. Majoritatea dintre ei cumpărau câte cinci sau zece kilograme de cârnați și șuncă. O duceau acasă și se întorceau înapoi după alte cumpărături, cu grabă, fiindcă le era teamă că a doua zi nu vor mai găsi. Dar la restaurant... Îmi spunea altă fată, știți cum mâncau? Cereau mai întâi varză cu carne, apoi ceai, pe urmă mâncau compoturi, mai cereau o tocană, pe urmă o cafea cu lapte sau o prăjitură și mai mâncau o dată varză cu carne. -​Cred că exagerați, spun eu, fetelor. Dar ele se jurau că este absolut adevărat: și noi ne miram cum de nu cad jos morți de atâta mâncare și mai ales din cauza felului în care mâncau. -​Tot ce ți-​au povestit fetele este adevărat, îmi spune un bătrân agronom, care avusese serviciul pe timpul bolșevicilor la această grădină. Cred că eu, care sunt om bătrân, nu am niciun motiv să te mint. Dar îți spun că, desi am umblat prin întreaga lume, nici mie nu îmi venea să cred cele pe care le vedeam la ei. Deschideam ochii mari și nu puteam să mă conving că este adevărat. Erau flămânzi în ultimul hal. Și timp de câteva săptămâni au mâncat exact așa cum îți spun fetele”.

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The Reflections of Virgil Gheorghiu on Communism

But it was not only hunger that defined Communism and its actions. Indeed, in many situations, it guided some of its representatives in the activities developed, but there were some principles that defined, in most of the cases, the actions of the ones who can be called by this name. And the tools were, in many situations, rather similar. Virgil Gheorghiu is conscious of this fact and when he has the opportunity, emphasises some of the tools on the basis of the examples offered by the ones he encountered on his way through Bessarabia and Bukovina. One of these important tools can be considered deportation. During the communist period there were many deportations. In Russian space, “Siberia” was a known and frightening term (Bufnea 2008; Corboca, Covalciuc, 2009; Dimitraki 2005; Iacobescu 2005; Nandriș-​Cudla 2010; Nimigeanu 1958). But the amount of works dedicated to it appeared later, in the sixth and the seventh decade of the twentieth century, when it was written mostly by the ones who escaped from USSR and received political asylum in democratic countries, or after the fall of Communism by the survivors. In some situations, the ones who had such experience wrote them and they were distributed as part of the samizdat literature, but with great risks, or were published after 1989 or 1991. In 1942, when he wrote about the deportation, the Romanian writer was among the pioneers of the topic. There were at the time just a few works mentioning the Russian deportation of those who disagreed with the regime. Gheorghiu found about it visiting the houses of the people from Chișinău and its neighbourhoods. Testimonies like the ones of Anița Nandriș-​Cudla (Nandriș-​Cudla 2010) or other people who passed from the deportation experience were presented on the basis of what the others had told him. But also aspects related with the moments that preceded the departure were emphasised. Therefore, he noted about the topic as under:



Every week, whole trains with Romanians leaving for Siberia left Chisinau and the Bessarabian cities. Some were raised with their families and children. Others were raised alone. There was a missing family member in almost every house. If you asked him where he was, he would answer: in Siberia. Then I found, in almost every house of Moldovans in Bessarabia, boxes of dry bread. At first I didn’t know what was with this bread. Later, when I began to find a crate full of crusts and dried bread crumbs in all the houses, I asked what was the point of it. “We are ready for Siberia,” I was told. I didn’t understand. ‒ How are you prepared for Siberia? Why are you drying the bread? I am told that the Bolshevik police went down to several houses every night, in every village and town in Bessarabia. The black car of the communist police, of the N. K. V. D., stopped at the gate, always after midnight. The police entered the house and read the names of those arrested. They had to get dressed, take all their luggage and get in the car in a quarter of an hour. No second delay was allowed. The unfortunate unfortunates

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knew they would never return. The road they were to take was long. That’s why they prepared in advance. In all the Bessarabian houses, the suitcases were made and the crate of dry bread, which can be kept as long as it was, waited by the door. Every night, Moldovans shuddered. It was their turn to be deported at any time. That’s why they were always ready. It was not known when he would stop at the gate. The packages and the crate of dry bread, which were to be the only snack, had to be at hand. Otherwise they risked leaving without food and without any luggage. (Gheorghiu 1993a: 83)102

Later, when he was invited by the Communists to come back from Zagreb, where he was working in 1944, to the Romanian embassy, the writer surely remembered all this, together with many other things. When he wrote this text, he was impressed and touched by the cruel realities that he found there. The deportation, the destruction of the churches, together with the way the Russians had managed to change the level of life and the customs in Bessarabia, almost scared him. In a passage with ethno-​anthropological relevance, he writes about the last aspect: As it is known, Bessarabian households are famous. Bessarabian cuisine as well. The Soviets, however, brought other customs here. Their bedroom consisted of an iron bed, like a hospital bed. The kitchen consisted at best of a primus, a saucepan and a pot.

102 Origin. 1993a: „În fiecare săptămână plecau din Chișinău și din orașele basarabene, trenuri întregi cu români care luau drumul Siberiei. Unii erau ridicați împreună cu familiile și cu copiii lor. Alții erau ridicați singuri. Aproape în fiecare casă era câte un membru al familiei lipsă. Dacă întrebai unde e, ți se răspundea: în Siberia. Am găsit apoi, aproape în toate casele moldovenilor din Basarabia, lăzi cu pâine uscată. La început nu știam ce e cu această pâine. Mai târziu, când am început a găsi în toate locuințele câte o ladă plină cu coaje și miez de pâine uscată, am întrebat care e rostul ei. -​Suntem pregătiți pentru Siberia, mi s-​a răspuns. Nu înțelegeam. -​Cum sunteți pregătiți pentru Siberia? De ce uscați pâinea? Mi se răspunde că poliția bolșevică descindea în fiecare noapte la câteva case, în fiecare sat și oraș din Basarabia. Mașina neagră a poliției comuniste, a N. K. V. D.-​ului se oprea la poartă, totdeauna după miezul nopții. Polițiștii intrau în casă și citeau numele celor arestați. Aceștia trebuiau să se îmbrace, să-​și ia tot bagajul și să se urce în mașină, într-​n sfert de oră. Nici o secundă de întârziere nu era permisă. Nefericiții arstați știau că nu se vor mai întoarce niciodată. Drumul pe care aveau să-​l facă era lung. De aceea, se pregăteau dinainte. În toate casele basarabene, geamantanele erau fcute și lada cu pâine uscată, care se poare păstra oricât, aștepta lângă ușă. În toate nopțile, moldovenii tresăreau. Se putea să le vină rândul pentru deportare oricând. De aceea erau în permanență pregătiți. Nu se putea ști când va opri la poartă mașina. Pachetele și lada cu pâine uscată, care aveau să constituie singura merinde, trebuiau să fie la îndemână. Altfel riscau să plece fără mâncare și fără niciun bagaj”.

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The appearance of the communists’ living rooms was desolate. Instead of the duvet, they were covered with a blanket, the pillows were small and strong, as are the pillowcases, the short sheets and with some black, sad stripes on the edge: the standard sheets. (Gheorghiu 1993a: 86)103

All the observations that Gheorghiu made in the weeks when he travelled in Bessarabia and Bukovina brought to his notice the lack of an extremely important aspect of human life: freedom. Sad, but conscious of what he was saying, he somehow concluded his travel in those lands by understanding the fact that “Freedom is a non-​existent article for communists.” (Gheorghiu 1993a: 86).104 From this, he reflected on the fact that the interdictions imposed by the regime and by the ideology behind it were meant to transform human life in a sad event with chronological relevance, steeling its dignity and making it a poor manifestation of existence: Nothing that forms the ornaments of a human life is left to you: religion, dreams, things of art, all are considered bourgeois habits and are taken away from you. I saw the bowls and plates in which the Soviets ate:  they are the same as the ones we used when we were in the army. Even beauty is considered a luxury and has been eliminated. You do not have the freedom to worship, you do not have the freedom to arrange an artistic interior, to dress nicely, to speak beautifully and to create a higher lifestyle. (Gheorghiu 1993a: 87)105

The tendency to make everything uniform and to create a series of citizens rather than to help the individual to develop and put all his forces in the service of the

103 Origin. 1993a: „După cum se știe, gospodăriile basarabene sunt renumite. Bucătăia basarabeană, de asemenea. Sovieticii au adus însă alte obiceiuri aici. Dormitorul lor se compunea dintr-​un pat de fier, ca acela de la spitale. Bucătăria era alcătuită în cele mai bune cazuri, dintr-​un primus, o cratiță și o oală. Aspectul camerelor de locuit ale comuniștilor era dezolant. În loc de plapumă se înveleau cu o pătură, pernele erau mici și tari, așa cum sunt pernele cazone, cearceafurile scurte și cu niște dungi negre, triste, pe margine: cearceafurile standard”. 104 Origin. 1993a: „Libertatea este un articol inexistent la comuniști”. 105 „Nimic din ce formează podoabele unei vieți omenești nu-​ți mai este lăsat: religia, visul, lucrurile de artă, toate sunt considerate ca deprinderi burgheze și ți se răpesc. Am văzut castroanele și farfuriile în care mâncau sovieticii: sunt la fel ca acelea pe care le întrebuințam noi în timpul când făceam armata. Pănă și frumusețea este considerată un lux și a fost eliminată. Nu ai libertatea să te închini, nu ai libertatea să-​ți amenajezi un interior artistic, să te îmbraci frumos, să vorbești frumos și să-​ți creezi un stil de viață mai înalt”.

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society was criticised by him, not only in the reflections dedicated to Communism. Later, somewhere in the eighth decade of the twentieth century, he criticised the capitalist society (Gheorghiu 2013a) for the fact of transforming people into machines, into robots (Gillyboeuf 2019: 23). But the origins of the ideas that were later developed in his writings can be found here, in the second part of the works containing war notes. Speaking about the superiority of the Bolshevik regime, he asks, with both irony and sadness: What is the superiority of the Bolshevik regime, of which its leaders speak so much? Why did so many thousands, so many thousands of people die to establish this regime? I sought to find the secret, the drop of beauty and happiness, at least in the future, of this regime. I found nowhere but poverty, tears, terror and endless grief. People are reduced to the functions of robots. (Gheorghiu 1993a: 87)106

Reading the war notes written by the investigated author before the end of the conflagration, one can find there, as we have also tried to emphasise in the previous pages, interesting reflections about Communism, its way of changing people’s lives and its defects. By travelling in places that had been for a while occupied by the Soviet Bolshevik armies (and would later also be occupied, from 1944 to 1991), he came in contact with the realities of the place and had the opportunity to get convinced through direct experience, about what they did and what they believed. After this he wrote, presenting his experiences and underlining the fact that the main aspect that defines Communism is the absence of freedom. Coordinated by the state, daily life would be stripped of the faith in God (and the communists would destroy or profane the churches). Hunger and deportation were, as can be seen, important tools, used for both persuasion and the extermination of the opposition. The ones who disagreed with the regime would come to know the latter. The Romanians from Bessarabia, considered enemies, would also pass, in many situations, through this experience. All the people would have to experience the first one and the examples offered came to show that, despite all the imperfections of Capitalism of those years, it was, at least from this point of view, superior to Communism. The anti-​Semite accents that can be recurrently found in his notes, which decreases their value as testimonial works, must be understood in the context

106 Gheorghiu 1993a: „În ce constă superioritatea regimului bolșevic, despre care vorbesc atâta conducătorii lui? Pentru ce au murit atâtea mii, atâtea mii de oameni ca să instaureze acest regim? Am căutat să găsesc taina, picătura de frumusețe și fericire, măcar viitoare, a acestui regim. Nu am găsit nicăieri decât sărăcie, lacrimi, teroare și jale nesfârșită.Oamenii sunt reduși la funcțiunile de roboți”.

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of the time. Under the Legionary Government, the young officer Virgil, who had just married a Jewish girl, Ecaterina Burbea-​Sneck (“the Black tulip,” as he named her in his memoir books), tried to hide this aspect (and also managed to do that for a few years), in order to not make the rulers angry with him. Those references, often forced on the Jews as the source of the total evil, must be therefore understood from this viewpoint. As a conclusion of the aspects presented here, we can surely say that, despite some aspects that are ideologically amendable, the notes of war written by Virgil Gheorghiu offer interesting reflections on Communism, its mechanism and its meaning and about the inadvertencies existing between some aspects of its doctrine and its practical accomplishment.

2.3 After 23rd of August 1944 After presenting the way Virgil Gheorghiu saw and understood Communism before the 23rd of August 1944, when the Romanian army changed position and become allied with the Soviet one, we consider it important to see how his ideas changed in the following years. Therefore, this thematic unity will be dedicated to this topic and we will try to emphasise the landmarks of his reflections on the topic, from the years 1945–​1992. His conception about the Soviets and their attitude was born and deepened while he was a war correspondent. This led him to refuse, like a few other Romanian intellectuals like Vintilă Horea (Bădiliță 2016:  14), to return to his home country after this. This also made him run to a democratic country, to be always informed about what the communists were doing, in his country or abroad, about their methods of extermination and about the way his relatives who remained there could be persecuted, because of him or because of their own conceptions. This also made him critical of this ideology in his books. For sure, the most complex syntheses containing his reflections regarding both the aforementioned regime and Nazism were published in his masterpiece, The 25th Hour. But interesting aspects that can be used in the process of understanding his reflections can be found in his other books too. Moreover, starting from the eighth decade of the twentieth century, probably based also on the information that he had (already Yalta decisions were known in Occident; see, for example, Conte 1964), Gheorghiu was also convinced that the instauration of the socialist regimes in the Eastern Europe was part of a compromise between the Western powers and the Russians. For this reason, he notes in a book dedicated to his father, the Romanian Orthodox Priest Constantin, whom he never saw after his departure to Zagreb, that:

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My father was not surprised to see our country occupied by invaders coming from the east, armed by the Americans. (Gheorghiu 2008d: 163)107

But despite this aspect, his conception regarding Communism was far more complex and based on the experiences he had, on the information received and on his lectures. For this reason, there were many aspects that defined his conception about this form of political organisation and its consequences. A contemporary French Christian philosopher, who was previously a convinced communist, spoke in his memoirs about the fact that this ideology transforms the man in a sandwich. Evocating moments from that period in his notes, he underlines the fact that: I especially liked being a sandwich man. It is the most anonymous profession that exists. Your face is not looked at, but the advertisement you are wearing. Fallen, marginalized beings often have a surprising tenderness, but which suddenly turns into cruelty. What matters is all that! (Clement 2020: 117)108

Gheorghiu subscribes to his opinion, going even deeper. As we have already emphasised, he uses the syntagma “robot” for the people created by the communists, and those created by American Capitalism. In order to understand his reflections on Communism after 1948 and to see its complexity and the metamorphosis of some of the ideas, we will therefore use in our analysis The 25th Hour and the notes found there (Gheorhghiu1948), and also its continuations, namely La Cravache (Gheorghiu 1960), The Second Chance (Gheorghiu 1993), The Sacrifices of the Danube (Gheorghiu 1957), The Spy (Gheorghiu 1971), God Receives Only on Sunday (Gheorghiu 1990), author’s memoirs (Gheorghiu 1999a; Gheorghiu 2002:  Gheorghiu 2010), Condotiera (Gheorghiu 2011), The Unknowns from Heidelberg (Gheorghiu 2015), God in Paris (Gheorghiu 2016a), or The Great Exterminator and the Great Orthodox Council (Gheorghiu 2008b). Due to the fact that his works have already known several editions, it may be possible that the quotations use a different year, due to the fact that that edition was available to us. The analysis is, as already mentioned, dedicated to a complex topic. For this reason, we will try to present it in a systematic way and to correlate his opinions 107 Origin. 2008d: „Tatăl meu nu a fost surprins să vadă țara noastră ocupată de invadatorii care veneau dinspre răsărit, înarmați de americani”. 108 Origin. 2020: „Îmi plăcea mai ales să fiu om-​sandwich. Este cea mai anonimă profesiune care există. Nu-​ți este privit chipul, ci reclama pe care o porți. Ființele decăzute, marginalizate, au adesea o tandrețe surprinzătoare, dar care s preface brusc în cruzime. Ce contează, tot aia e”!

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with the ones of the critics, historians or contemporaries who wrote about his books, or approached topics similar to his. At the same time, we will try to see the way he understood Communism in the Romanian space. The focus will be there on the way the regime changed Romanian people’s daily life, exterminated the ones who disagreed with its ideas or led certain people to leave the country (some of them forced). The mechanisms used by the communists (correlated where possible with the ideological background of the regime), will constitute important topics of our analysis. We will also try to see the way the Romanian writer saw the work of Bucharest regime in diaspora and regarding the exiles from different spaces. Of course, we will not neglect another important aspect of his reflections, which is related with the compromise existing between Russians and Americans in the situation of Eastern Europe. Especially in his late books, the Romanian writer insisted on this topic, in a few books containing critiques to Capitalism. Due to the fact that the masterpiece of Gheorghiu’s entire work was The 25th Hour, we consider it important to start with it, although Communism is emphasised there just in the final part and does not constitute a topic as developed as Nazism. With a foreword by Gabriel Marcel (Marcel 1949: 5–​14), it was praised by Romanian writers like Mircea Eliade (Eliade 1992: 37–​39), translated in about forty languages and screened in 1967, with Anthony Quinn as the main character and considered the most important Romanian post-​belic novel (Popa 2009: 644; Simion 2008: 285; Anghelescu 2018: 91). In the Romanian space, it also attempted to be a mirror, which insisted only on Nazi abuses, written by Antonie Plămădeală, who later became a bishop and a metropolitan of the Orthodox Church from there (Plămădeală 1993). It was also the book that created trouble for him with Monica Lovinescu and later with her husband, Virgil Ierunca and the exiled Romanians in Paris, as we have already mentioned in the previous chapter. At the same time, although it was written in Romanian language, during the years where the author was in the Heidelberg camp and after, before his arrival in France, the book was published in this language only after 1989. It was forbidden by the communist regime there, due to the attitude of its author towards the Bucharest rulers. In the foreword of the first Romanian edition (currently there are four editions), Paul Amclau spoke about it, the sales generated by the story presented there, and also about the aforementioned aspect, showing that: After the war, 25 Hour was one of the greatest bookstore successes, a success that has not diminished over the years, on the contrary, the book has conquered the entire planet, being translated in virtually all areas, in most languages. Only Romanians did not have the right to read in original one of the top works of their own spirituality. And in this

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case, our totalitarianism set a … record. Of course, many people read the volume in the French version, which became a point of reference, and Westerners, and others after them, did not even question the fact that in fact this version is based on the Romanian original, yellowed today. (Amclau 1991: 3)109

It is difficult to say whether The 25th Hour was part of a trilogy, and whether it was fashionable in those times, or not. In the end, the author managed to write more than thirty books with similar topics. But it is sure that it was part of a bigger project where he wanted to denounce totalitarianisms and their abuses. The aforementioned author, in the foreword of the first Romanian edition of his masterpiece, goes deep with the analysis and shows that this desire to write about totalitarianism in all its forms led Gheorghiu to be so committed in the denunciation of the communist crimes: But the strongest dimension of the book is to denounce totalitarianism in all its forms, with aberrant Nazi and Stalinist developments. The first are the subject of 25th Hour, where, only at the end, the Soviet terror manifests itself. This will be the subject of the book that continues 25th Hour, published in French with the title La seconde chance and based on the installation of communist ordinances in Romania. Hence Virgil Gheorghiu’s constant preoccupation with revealing the black face of communism against his country, an act shrouded in the aura of Christian, Orthodox militancy. (Gheorghiu 1991: 11)110

When speaking about The 25th Hour, it must be mentioned that the idea of the Romanian in exile is not present in this book. Being written in the initial years after the Second World War, it did not focus on this aspect, that came later

109 Origin. 1991: „După război, el (Ora 25, n. n.) a constituit unul din cele mai mari succese de librărie, succes care n-​a scăzut cu anii, dimpotrivă, cartea a cucerit întreaga planetă, fiind tradusă practic în toate zonele, în mai toate limbile. Numai românii n-​aveau dreptul să citească în original una din operele de vârf ale propriei lor spiritualităţi. Şi în acest caz totalitarismul de la noi a înregistrat un... record. De bună seamă, mulţi au fost cei care au citit volumul în versiunea franceză, devenită punct de referință, iar occidentalii, şi alţii după ei, nici nu-​şi puneau dar problema că de fapt această versiune are la bază originalul românesc, îngălbenit astăzi”. 110 Gheorghiu 1991: „Dar dimensiunea cea mai puternică a cărții constă în denunţarea totalitarismului sub toate formele, cu aberantele evoluţii naziste şi staliniste. Primele fac obiectul OREI 25, unde, abia la sfîrşit, se, manifestă şi teroarea sovietică. Aceasta va face obiectul cărţii care continuă ORA 25, apărută în franceză cu titlul La seconde chance şi având ca temei instalarea rânduielilor comuniste în România. De aici preocuparea constantă a lui Virgil Gheorghiu de a dezvălui faţa neagră a comunismului abătut asupra ţării sale, act învăluit de aura militantismului creştin, ortodox”.

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among the concerns of the author. He was rather concerned there with the arrival of the Red Army in the Romanian space and the consequences of this event. Some aspects regarding the American plot with the Russian army are also found there, though not in such a developed way like in his later books. We will later emphasise them. The arrival of the Russian army was not looked forward to with joy. The soldiers of the Soviets were already famous for their attitude towards the occupied people. For this reason, the scene presenting the peasants with the villagers who gathered in the courtyard of their priest Korugă is illustrative for many villages of the time: In the evening, the peasants gathered in the courtyard of the priest Alexandru Korugă. They had come to ask for stories. The Russians had entered the neighboring town. The townspeople were fleeing to the villages. Scary things were being said. The women had been raped and hanged. People were shot in the streets. (Gheorghiu 1991: 188)111

Later historians wrote about the fact that their fears were justified (see, for example, Hlihor 2012; Marinescu 2001). The atrocities committed by them became notorious, not only in the Romanian space, but also in other countries that knew “the Russian support” in the period after the Second World War. In the diplomatic area also they were known. For this reason, among others, Gheorghiu refused to return to Romania when he had the opportunity to do it. In The 25th Hour, he also shows, using a dialogue between two diplomats, the fear that existed also at the high level: “You are not a fascist either, Mr. Governor, but I do not think you would agree to stay with your wife for even 24 hours in the Bolshevik occupation zone,” Trajan said. Not for political reasons, but for fear of cruelty and terror. I personally do not think you have the courage to enter their area without a uniform and without a strong guard. Is it fair to ask us, two defenseless people, why are we running away from the barbarian hordes, armed with the latest model of American automatic rifles? (Gheorghiu 1991: 214)112

111 Origin. 1991:  „Seara, ţăranii s-​au adunat în curtea preotului Alexandru Korugă. Veniseră să ceară poveţe. Ruşii intraseră în oraşul vecin. Târgoveţii fugeau spre sate. Se povesteau lucruri înspăimântătoare. Femei fuseseră violate şi spânzurate. Oamenii erau împuşcaţi pe străzi”. 112 Origin. 1991. „-​De ce vă este frică de partizani şi de ruşi? a întrebat guvernatorul. Numai fasciştilor le e frică de ei. Ruşii şi partizanii sunt aliaţii noştri şi au luptat pentru victoria naţiunilor aliate. -​Nici dumneavoastră nu sunteţi fascist, domnule guvernator, dar cred că n-​aţi accepta să vă rămînă soţia nici 24 de ore în zona de ocupaţie a bolşevicilor, a zis Traian. Nu din motive politice, ci din teama de cruzime şi de teroare. Nici dumneavoastră, personal, nu cred să aveţi curajul de a intra în zona lor fără uniformă şi fără o gardă puternică.

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The reference to the Americans is interesting, which can be also found in other books (Gheorghiu 2012:  183). The author claims that the Soviet armies were armed by their capitalist friends, a fact that is historically right. As Loredana Cuzmici shows in a research dedicated to this novel, the intention of the author is not to split the world into good and bad people. He never considered that there can be such a separation in the classical way. He shows that the Americans are only apparently more civilised than their allies from Russia (Cuzmici 2015: 292). But they have in reality many similarities, a fact that later led the Romanian writer to deepen this aspect in his books. Underlining this aspect, he used a dialogue between two characters of The 25th Hour in order to describe it from the point of view of the social behaviour of the Russians. At the same time, he underlined the cultural differences, showing that there are in many situations the same attitudes hidden under different cultural clothes: Russians have been raping 80-​year-​old women. Countless! They raped them one after another: ten, the same woman. And they were not sick; they drank vodka! You don’t do as they do, I know! You do not violate, God forbid! You give women chocolate and use condoms when you make love to them! Don’t do what the Germans did either! Every people has other customs. And don’t be afraid that you’ll get nauseous, whatever you do: I’m sure you’re safe! Nausea, you know, is terrible! I see what I suffer! (Gheorghiu 1991: 295)113

Johann Moritz, the main character of the book is forced to move from one camp to another and come in contact with different categories of people and their conceptions. Among them are Nazi, Capitalist, and also communist people. About the last category he had been already informed when they would arrive in the space where he was. From the socialist Jews that he had in the camp organised by the Romanian authorities, he knew how some Jewish people saw the party and its doctrine. Later, in the German camp, he also got in touch with people who spoke to him about them. Therefore, when he was arrested, he was not surprised. The reason, the lack of bruising: E drept să ne întrebaţi pe noi, doi oameni fără apărare, de ce fugim din faţa hoardelor barbare, înarmate cu ultimul model de puşti automate americane?” 113 Origin. 1991: „Ruşii au violat femei de 80 de ani. Nenumărate! Le-​au violat unul după altul: câte zece, aceeaşi femeie. Şi nu le-​a fost greaţă; au băut vodcă! Dumneavoastră nu faceţi ca ei, ştiu! Dumneavoastră nu violaţi, Doamne fereşte! Dumneavoastră daţi femeilor ciocolată şi utilizaţi prezervative, când faceţi dragoste cu ele! Nici ce-​au făcut nemţii nu faceţi! Fiecare popor are alte obiceiuri. Şi să nu vă fie teamă că are să vă apuce greaţa, orice-​aţi face: sunt sigur că sunteţi în afara pericolului! Greaţa, să ştiţi, este cumplită! Văd ce sufăr eu!”

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Russians, I was expecting them to arrest me! He continued to think. “In the case of the Russians, the lack of bruising is a reason for their arrest. And even if they had arrested me without controlling my palms, I still wouldn’t have been surprised:  I would have expected anything from the Russians! I ran two hundred kilometers on foot to get rid of a society in which lack of motive is a reason for arrest, deportation or shooting! »” (Gheorghiu 1991: 218)114

The reference to such a small and irrelevant reason is chosen as an irony. The aim of the author was to emphasise the fact that fear was a dominant element in the Soviet society (Marinescu 2001: 15) and was exported and imposed as a fundamental principle in all the countries occupied by the Red Army. Gheorghiu also emphasised that in books like The Second Chance. Here, he showed how the instauration of Communism, exported from Russia, was made by fear. And there was also another interesting aspect used by them –​hate. In order to help them to arrive at such a feeling, they had cultivated hate in their lives. Peasants and people from the city suspected each other. In a society where everything was suspect, the only certitude was to feel frightened by the other and to hate him. In the beginning of Communism, the implementation of this feeling was also part of the propagandistic discourse. The writer approaches this topic when he presents the situation of the people from Fântâna village, thorough the eyes and voice of Boris Bodnariuk, one of the main negative characters: Take the young people and be a popular guard. Arm yourself! Teach him hate. For them to sow hatred in the villages. Without hatred, it is impossible to move the masses. As long as the peasants have not learned to hate, they cannot be counted on as constructive elements of the communist state. We need as much violence as possible. If we do not move the villages, the Soviets will never enter here. The villages will remain in the same condition as they were three thousand years ago, and the victory of the Red Army will be of no use. Sow hatred. (Gheorghiu 2012: 182)115

114 Origin. 1991: „« Ruşii, mă aşteptam să mă aresteze! » —​şi-​a zis el în continuare. « La ruşi, lipsa de bătături în palme este un motiv de arestare. Şi, chiar dacă ei m-​ar fi arestat fără să-​mi controleze palmele, tot n-​aş fi fost surprins: de la ruşi m-​aş fi aşteptat la orice! Am alergat pe jos două sute de kilometri, ca să scap de o societate în care lipsa de motiv constituie un motiv de arestare, de deportare sau de împuşcare! »” 115 Gheorghiu 2012: „Luați tinerii și constituiți gărzi populare. Înarmați-​vă! Învățați-​i ura. Ca ei să semene ura în sate. Fără ură, este cu neputință să punem în mișcare masele. Câtă vreme țăranii nu au învățat să urască, nu se poate conta pe ei ca elemente constructive ale statului comunist. E nevoie de cât mai multă violență. Dacă noi nu punem în mișcare satele, niciodată Sovietele nu vor pătrunde aici. Satele vor rămâne în aceeași stare, ca și în urmă cu trei mii de ani, iar Victoria Armatei Roșii nu va folosi la nimic. Semănați ura”.

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In order to arrive at a general state of fear, the armies and their leaders used different methods. Morals were often attacked. In a country like Romania, where especially people from the countryside were deeply attached to religiosity, morals were very important. Violation of women from all categories of age was used as a tool in order to impose it and also as a form of showing their hate for religion and its constrictions. In order to illustrate this aspect, Gheorghiu used, in the investigated work, a strong image, where the main character is the wife of the priest. Pushing the moral beyond its borders, at least in the eyes of the ones who understand it in a formal way, he speaks about the drama of that woman: Priestess Corina Koruga was summoned to the mayor’s office. It was midnight when two peasants with tricolor armbands knocked on their windows and told them to come with them. It was the moon outside. The priestess locked the gate carefully and held the key in her hand. At the town hall, about ten Russian soldiers were having fun with the peasants. The priestess was brought before them. They gave her a glass of wine and looked at her in every way. The priestess lowered her eyes to the ground and said in her mind the akathist of St. Nicholas. The soldiers forced her to drink; but she continued the akathist, without looking at them and touching her lips to the glass. A soldier poured wine into her breast. Another lifted her legs and sprinkled wine on her underneath. She could not hear what they were saying, nor could she see them. She sat with her eyes closed and said the akathist, thinking of Saint Nicholas, who resembles Father Alexandru Koruga, her husband. The Russians and peasants poured her other glasses of wine in her chest, on her head and under her skirts. Her dress and shirt were red. Then they slammed her to the floor. The priestess felt her dress and body wet, as if she had fallen into the water. Then she had the feeling that she was going to the bottom and drowning. St. Nicholas had remained on the shore and was praying for her. The next day after the incident at the town hall, the priestess Corina Korugă hanged herself in the chicken coop. (Gheorghiu 1991: 232)116

116 Origin. 1991: „Preoteasa Corina Korugă a fost chemată la primărie. Era miezul nopţii când i-​au bătut la fereastră doi ţărani cu banderole tricolore le braţ, care i-​au spus să vină cu ei. Afară era lună. Preoteasa a încuiat poarta cu grijă şi a ţinut cheia în mână. La primărie, vreo zece soldaţi ruşi chefuiau cu ţăranii. Preoteasa a fost adusă în faţa lor. Ei i-​au dat să bea un pahar de vin şi s-​au uitat la ea în toate felurile. Preoteasa şi-​a plecat privirile în pământ şi a spus în gând acatistul sfântului Nicolae. Soldaţii au forţat-​o să bea; dar ea a spus acatistul mai departe, fără să se uite la ei şi fără să-​şi atingă buzele de pahar. Un soldat i-​a turnat vin în sân. Altul i-​a ridicat poalele şi a stropit-​o cu vin pe dedesubt. Ea nu auzea ce spun ei, nici nu-​i vedea. Stătea cu ochii închişi şi spunea acatistul, gândindu-​se la sfîntul Nicolae, care seamănă cu părintele Alexandru Korugă, soţul ei. Ruşii şi ţăranii i-​au turnat şi alte pahare de vin în sân, pe cap şi sub fuste. Rochia şi cămaşa îi erau leoarcă. Pe urmă, au trântit-​o pe podele. Preoteasa îşi simţea rochia şi trupul ude, ca şi cum ar fi căzut în apă. Apoi a avut senzaţia că se duce

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Many other women from those times were in the same situation as her. The way they accepted or did not accept was different. Moritz’s wife, for example, was also violated, and gave birth to a boy as a result of this unhappy event (Gheorghiu 1991:  322–​323). But she decided to resist to the suicidal temptation, probably due to the fact that she had some children to raise. And her husband was also wise and forgave her. But beyond all these aspects, the book speaks about the way Communism changed the world and the society in a bad way and shows that, sometimes in correlation with the doctrine of founders like Marks or Engels, finding forced connections with that, this political regime would be a criminal one. Another important aspect used by the communists in their efforts to impose fear was related to the border. In a country ruled by such a regime, usually borders were closed. For multiple reasons. Being penitentiary republics (Gheorghiu 2008b: 95, 2020: 15), all of them wanted to keep discretion. When a person persecuted by the regime succeeded in running away, she or he said things that affected the image of the country in the eyes of the Occident. On the other side, closing the borders meant also not allowing access to intruders. Curious people from abroad could come and see the realities from the interior of the country and then go out and present them. The effect would be related with the aforementioned problem. For this reason, during the communist period, in countries like Romania, a man was very carefully checked before being allowed to travel out and the regime always took the necessary measures in order to avoid situations when one went and did not come back anymore. The same check system was also used for the ones coming. At the same time, it was also a “so-​called measure of protection.” People from this closed space were protected. In fact, this was only the official version. The reality was that without travelling, people were not informed about the realities that existed in other spaces. And they thought that what they had there was heaven. The only external source of information was “Radio Free Europe” (Bernard 1990: 12; Flers 2004: 19). And to listen to this radio was difficult, first because the communist authorities did their best to make its signal as poor as possible and second due to the fact that when one was identified as listening, one was called by Securitate and punished. The same mechanism was used in the other communist countries too. For this reason, in many situations, especially starting from the seventh decade of the twentieth century,

la fund şi se îneacă. Sfântul Nicolae rămăsese pe mal şi se ruga pentru ea. A doua zi după întâmplarea de la primărie, preoteasa Corina Korugă s-​a spânzurat în poiata găinilor.”

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running away had become a solution. And the regime did its best to discourage any initiative in this sense. In the introductory part of a novel first published in 1979 in Paris (Neculoiu 208: 5), Virgil Gheorghiu also approaches this problem, referring to the German situation. Not without being ironical, he underlines the fact that: The German Democratic Republic, which also had its borders tightly closed, left a few kilometers of unfortified border in Berlin. Due to this neglect, the country lost several million inhabitants who escaped to the West through this area of Berlin. This was remedied by erecting the famous wall of Shame. If it had not been built, the German Democratic Republic would one day wake up without citizens, populated only by Aparatskis. It is a danger that lurks in any people’s republic, if it does not monitor its borders well. (Gheorghiu 2008b: 12)117

Later in his books, he again comes to this topic, presenting stories like the one of the German girl who wanted to bury her boyfriend in the other Germany and sent the body by post. But because a package could not be more than 20 kilograms, she was forced to split his dead body and to separate it into more packages (Gheorghiu 2015: 181). The extermination of those who have a different perspective from the official one was a current practice in Communist Romania, and also in the other countries. Stalin’s crimes are known and have been already topic of books (Ciachir 1997). Like imprisonment for political reasons, crimes for political reasons were also notorious. During exile, agents specially trained were sent to kill the dissidents. Monica Lovinescu, one of the most important voices of the Romanians in France, who used her activity as a redactor to Radio Free Europe in order to denounce the communist crimes, was almost killed by some of them (Lovinescu 1994: 78), while on the steps of Virgil, Tănase, who criticised Elena Ceaușescu for her attitude, was sent a Securitate captain to exterminate him and Paul Goma (see Tănase 2011 for a detailed presentation of the situation). And if these happened during Ceaușescu’s era, when many of the measures were not as radical as before, it is difficult for one to imagine what used to happen earlier, in

117 Origin. 2008b: „Republica Democrată Germană, care avea și ea granițele închise etanș, a lăsat câțiva kilometri de frontieră nefortificată la Berlin. Din cauza acestei neglijențe, țara a pierdut mai multe milioane de locuitori care au evadat în Vest prin această zonă din Berlin. Acest lucru a fost remediat prin ridicarea celebrului zid al Rușinii. Dacă nu l-​ar fi construit, Republica Democrată Germană s-​ar fi trezit într-​o bună zi fără cetățeni, populată doar de Aparatskis. E un pericol ce pândește orice republică populară, dacă nu își supraveghează bine frontierele”.

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the times of Ana Pauker, Petru Groza or Gheorghe Gheorghiu Dej. Moreover, if those events took place outside, it is easy to suppose what happened inside Romania. After the Russian army left Romania,118 the tasks were transferred to the people serving the party. Gheorghiu called them aparatskis. His opinion about them was not a very flattering one and it would not be wrong to correlate it with the later historical documents and testimonies. He characterises them as follows: Aparatskis, the people of the communist system, claim that catching harmful animals, such as rats, is allowed in all countries, throughout the year, without interruption. The individuals that Aparatskis hunts on the territory of the Republic are also harmful creatures that must be exterminated. They are even more harmful than rats. The harmful man is hunted for reasons of public sanitation. Communist society is clean. It differs from Western society, where any individual moves freely, uncontrolled, spreading unhealthy political ideas, ideological microbes, aesthetic, economic bacteria and much more. (Gheorghiu 2008b: 13)119

Those aparatskis later formed the subject of many of his novels. Haralamb Baxan, the head of the Romanian Securitate, who we suppose was also a real correspondent, can be therefore found both in God in Paris (Gheorghiu 2016a), The Unknowns from Heidelberg (Gheorghiu 2015) and other novels. In The Great Exterminator and the Great Orthodox Council (Gheorghiu 2008b), he also presents him and the actions of the system against the ones who can constitute a danger for the regime due to their attitude and knowledge. Here, the interesting aspect is that, more than in other novels, the exiled Romanian writer in France moves the accent from the social mechanisms and the way the political space or the social

118 About this aspect, Virgil Gheorghiu notes: “The Red Army left the city when the penitentiary system was perfectly established. The surveillance order of the Republic was sent to Aparatskis, members of the Romanian Communist Party. Aparatskis are even more cruel than their Soviet masters.” (George 2008b: 11–​12). Origin. 2008b: „Armata Roșie a părăsit orașul atunci când regimul penitenciar a fost perfect instaurat. Ordinul de supraveghere a Republicii a fost transmis către Aparatskis, membrii Partitului Comunist Român. Aparatskis sunt și mai cruzi decât stăpânii lor sovietici”. 119 Origin. 2018b: „Aparatskis, oamenii sistemului comunist susțin că prinderea animalelor dăunătoare, precum șobolanii, este permisă în toate țările, pe parcursul întregului an, fără întrerupere. Indivizii pe care Aparatskis îi vânează pe teritoriul Republicii sunt și ei creaturi dăunătoare care trebuie exterminate. Sunt chiar mai dăunătoare decât șobolanii. Omul dăunător este vânat din motive de salubritate pubilică. Societatea comunistă este curată. Ea diferă de societatea occidentală, unde orice individ circulă în libertate, necontrolat, propagând idei politice nesănătoase, microbi ideologici, bacterii estetice, economice și multe altele”.

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realities can lead a certain crow to act in one way or another, to the individual. He underlines the fact that Communism, which changed the paradigm, is interested in the individual –​not in his or her welfare, but for reasons of security or for political ones. Constantin Neculoiu, who wrote the foreword for the Romanian edition of the aforementioned book, says about this aspect: The alarm signal in this novel is about the possibility of using, this time, not the masses, but even the human person, the insignificant, the individual, who according to the novelist has an energy equal to the atomic and can form the basis of a new sociology. The ideological manipulation of this energy of the social atom, which is the individual, can dramatically change the compass head of the eschatological direction, orienting it not biblically towards heaven, but humanistic, towards a land that has assassinated its angels. (Neculoiu 2008: 8)120

In the book where he tries to show how the communist regime intended to discredit and compromise the Orthodox Church from the occupied states by forcing it to become one of its co-​operators, Gheorghiu presents the relevance of the individual, using a comparison with the atom. As the smallest particle from an organism that is needed for the development of the society, the individual is very important. An individual can change the world in one way or other. Among all the people who compose a society, there are charismatic people who can lead the others to accept easily what they say, but also people who follow others. Even his conception about the robot is part of the complex understanding of the person in the social machine. In The Second Chance (Gheorghiu 2012), he presents the individual inside the Soviet system, using a comparison with the biblical history. There, due to the fact that the transmutation of the individual is not possible, the desert is used as a space of punishment and also one where a man can be hidden until he dies, because only the next generation will be, according to the conception presented there, the one ontologically communised: Social science has not yet discovered the secret of “ transmuting” the individual. We have to wait another generation. Individuals –​I repeat –​are like atoms. Their lives are not isolated. Their nature cannot be changed. They are the product of the society in

120 Origin. 2008: „Semnalul de alarmă tras în acest roman este asupra posibilității folosirii, de data aceasta, nu a maselor, ci chiar a persoanei umane, a nesemnificativului, a neînsemnatului, a individului, care după părerea romancierului are o energie egală cu cea atomică și care poate constitui baza unei noi sociologii. Manipularea ideologică a acestei energii a atomului social care este individul, poate schimba dramatic capul compas al direcției eshatologice, orientându-​l pe acesta nu biblic spre cer, ci umanist, spre un pământ care și-​a asasinat îngerii”.

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which they lived. All individuals who come from a bourgeois country are bourgeois –​ even if they are Jews and anti-​fascists. (Gheorghiu 2012: 120)121

Due to all the mentioned reasons, the individual must be convinced in order to be part of the mass. And where is not possible, he must be killed, reduced to silence. Using as a pretext a dialogue between two aparatskis from the Romanian space, he speaks about this aspect and the way Communism understood it and tried to use it in social life: Stalin knew that there was something as tiny as the atom, ignored by communist society until then: the individual. In a communist state, the individual is null. It has no value. It’s equivalent to zero. Marxism-​Leninism recognizes only the strength of the masses. The communist social order never considered man as a person. Stalin thus discovered that man is as important as the atom. These two discoveries were almost simultaneous. The individual, the human being is a plant that has its roots in the sky. In the invisible. Communism considered only the visible part of man. It’s a mistake. It’s as if a logger only uses the trunk of the tree, denying that it also has hidden roots. Or, a tree without roots is not a tree. A man is not complete without the invisible part of his being. The five-​year plans that have been running for 60 years for the formation of communist society have denied the existence of a structural element of prime importance: the human person. The energy it can trigger has been ignored, just as the physicists of old ignored the atom and its force. (Gheorghiu 2008b: 33)122

121 Origin. 2012: „Știința socială n-​a descoperit încă secretul „transmutării” individului. Trebuie să așteptăm încă o generație. Indivizii –​repet –​sunt precum atomii. Viața lor nu este izolată. Nu poate fi schimbată firea lor. Ei sunt produsul societății în care au trăit. Toți indivizii care vin dintr-​o țară burgheză sunt burghezi –​chiar dacă ei sunt evrei și antifasciști”. 122 Origin. 2008b: „Stalin știa că există ceva la fel de minuscul ca și atomul, ignorat de societatea comunistă până la acea dată: individul. Într-​un stat comunist, individul este nul. Nu are nicio valoare. E echivalent cu zero. Marxism-​leninismul nu recunoaște decât forța maselor. Ordinea socială comunistă nu a luat niciodată în considerare omul ca persoană. Stalin a descoperit astfel că omul este la fel de important ca și atomul. Aceste două descoperiri au fost aproape simutane. Individul, ființa umană este o plantă care își are dădăcinile în cer. În nevăzut. Comunismul nu a luat în considerare decât partea văzută a omului. E o greșeală. E ca și cum un tăietor de lemne ar folosi doar trunchiul copacului negând că acesta are și rădăcini ascunse. Ori, un copac fără rădăcini nu este un copac. Un om nu este îtnreg fără partea invizibilă a ființei sale. Planurile cincinale care se succed de 60 de ani pentru făurirea societății comuniste au negat existența unui element structural de primă importanță: persoana umană. S-​a ignorat energia pe care aceasta o poate declanșa, la fel cum fizicienii de altădată au ignorat atomul și forța sa”.

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For this reason, the communist politics tried to focus, starting from the sixth decade of the twentieth century, more on the individual than before. And this fact can be seen in the interest offered by leaders like Stalin to the ones who opposed him publicly and in his efforts to exterminate them. In works like The Sacrifices of the Danube (Gheorghiu 2020), the forms of repression are also brought into attention and the author speaks about the way the opposition was annihilated by Communism. This time, the action took place in Bulgaria, a country that was, at the time, a satellite of the Russian power and speaks also about the compromise made by the Americans with them. The main character is an American professor, sent there to study and who later married in this country. Little by little he discovers Communism and is not pleased about what he sees. Among the aspects that he discovers is the attitude towards the opponents of the regime. Harsh crimes are revealed to him during different circumstances of his life and activity. The crime described to him by Varna’s American consul is an example. Invited to a reception by him, he finds that the man considers his job very unpleasant: The area is beautiful, said the consul. But the one who stays there is forced to assist to all the woes. The one who lives in Varna is forced to see with his own eyes the most terrible horrors. Is terribly disagreeable, terribly unpleasant. This morning, for example, I went to look for caviar for the reception. On the way, five kilometres from Varna, in the heart of a village, I was forced to drive under a corpse hanging between two trees, like a lantern above a road. I had to drive under my car. I would have liked to make my way back, but I had ordered the caviar the night before and could only take it by car from the consulate. So I had to drive under my car. He definitely wiped the roof of the car with his feet. (Gheorghiu 2020: 20–​22)123

The misfortune of the man killed in such a bloody way by the communists consisted in the fact that he was a minister before the occupation of his country by

123 Origin. 2020: „-​Zona e frumoasă, continua consulul. Dar cel care stă aici este obligat să asiste la toate nenorocirile. Cel ce locuiește la Varna este obligat să vadă cu proprii săi ochi cele mai cumplite orori. E nespus de dezagreabil, cumplit de neplăcut. În această dimineață, de pildă, am fost să caut caviar pentru recepție. Pe drum, la cinci kilometri de Varna, în plin centrul unui sat, am fost obligat să trec cu mașina pe sub un cadavru spânzurat între doi copaci, ca un lampion deasupra unui drum. A trebuit să trec cu mașina mea pe dedesubt. Aș fi vrut să fac cale întoarsă, dar comandasem caviarul în ajun și nu puteam să-​l iau decât cu mașina de la consulat. A trebuit, deci, să trec cu mașina mea pe dedesupt. A șters în mod sigur plafonul mașinii cu picioarele lui.”

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the Soviets.124 This event, together with others, allows Gheorghiu to use a complex but hard comparison in order to describe the effects of Communism on the people. He speaks about a larva found in America and about the method used by the American Indians to protect against its bite (Gheorghiu 2020: 33–​34). The effect brought by the penetration of this worm into the brain was the washing of the brain. Like this, Communism inserted in the heads of the people the “rationalist larva” (Gheorghiu 2020: 35), which made them lose their happiness or sanity. Joseph Martin’s fear was of being infected with it, like the rest of the Bulgarian people: Ever since he lived in Bulgaria, Joseph has been obsessed with this brainworm. When the Soviets appear somewhere, they begin, like a fly, to introduce a worm into the human brain: fear, anxiety and insecurity, combined in a very clever way. In tropical forests, people protect their heads with a tree bark. In a Soviet-​occupied country, it is impossible for people to save their heads. The worm enters their brains. The fear instilled by the Soviets in the brains of the citizens has exactly the same effects as that produced in the Tropics. The man suddenly loses his joy. Where the Soviets appear, people no longer smile, as if they had the “rationalist worm” in their brains. Then, people lose their dreams and will: death or life becomes indifferent to them. Professor Joseph Martin was terribly afraid that this Soviet worm would enter his brain. Most students, most Bulgarians, had it in their brains. What is remarkable about the man who has the worm in his brain is his gaze: he is neutral and gray. If you put your hand on his shoulder behind him, the man turns and raises his arms ready to say, “I surrender!” It’s the only expression the man who has a worm in his brain knows. “I surrender.” From birth to death, he expects only one thing: to raise his hands and shout, “I surrender!” (George 2020: 35–​36)125

124 “His misfortune was to be a minister before the occupation of his country by the Soviets. Here, all those who were ministers before the arrival of the Russians were hanged. Such are the laws of today. What can we do? Dura lex, sed lex …” (Gheorghiu 2020: 23–​24). Origin. 2020: „Ghinionul lui a fost acela de a fi ministru înaint de ocuparea țării sale de sovietici. Aici, toți cei care au fost miniștri înainte de sosirea rușilor au fost spânzurați. Așa sunt legile de astăzi. Ce putem să facem? Dura lex, sed lex...” 125 Origin. 2020: „De când trăia în Bulgaria, Joseph era obsedat de acest vierme al creierului. Când sovieticii apar undeva, încep, precum musca, să introducă un vierme în creierul omului: teama, neliniștea și insecuritatea, combinate într-​un mod foarte savant. În pădurile tropicale, oamenii își protejează capetele cu o cască de scoarță de copac. Într-​o țară ocupată de sovietici, e cu neputință ca oamenii să-​și salveze capetele. Viermele pătrunde în creierul lor. Teama vârâtă de sovietici în creierul cetățenilor are exact aceleași efecte ca cea produsă la Tropice. Omul își pierde bucuria pe neașteptate. Acolo unde apar sovieticii, oamenii nu mai surâd, ca și când ar avea „viermele

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The fact that he testified about these realities existing in the communist area made the communists hate Gheorghiu (Morariu 2020: 38). The others hated him for other reasons. But this did not stop him from describing the cruel realities that the people from the communist world had to bear. And in different situations, phrases like “Soviet judges killed ten times more people than the criminals they tried” (Gheorghiu 2015: 33)126 come to show his disagreement with the practices of the regime. But it was not only the extermination of those who disagreed with the official position of the regime that raised author’s interest. Their way of “taking care” of the dissidents in exile even after they were dead constituted a topic approached in his works. God in Paris (Gheorghiu 2016a) or The Unknowns from Heidelberg (Gheorghiu 2015) speak about this aspect in detail. At the end of the first mentioned one, dedicated to the Romanian Orthodox Metropolite Visarion Puiu (Neculoiu 2008: 6), the situation of the bishop Teodot is described and the author speaks about the complex mechanisms used by the aparatskis for his repatriation. In the other one, there is a story of a naist, who runs away from Romania. The Germans who held the situation were forced to notice the fact that: Your Naist comes from the East, from a satellite republic of the Soviet Union. No one ever leaves these countries if they do not have a precise mission to fulfill. (Gheorghiu 2015: 90)127

Inside or outside the Communist countries, the aparatski were therefore extremely efficient. Their role in the extermination of the opposition was crucial. And it was related with the export and consolidation of Communism in different countries. Gheorghiu was conscious of this fact. For this reason, he insisted on rationalist” în creierul lor. Apoi, oamenii își pierd visele și voința: moartea ori viața le devin indiferente. Profesorului Joseph Martin îi era cumplit de teamă ca acest vierme sovietic să nu intre în creierul său. Majoritatea studenților, majoritatea bulgarilor, îl aveau în creierul lor. Cee ace este marcant la omul care are viermele în creier este privirea acestuia: e neutră și cenușie. Dacă îi așezi mâna pe umăr în spatele lui, omul se întoarce și ridică brațele gata să spună: „Mă predau!” E singura expresie pe care o cunoaște omul care are viermele în creier. „Mă predau.” De la naștere și până la moartea sa, nu așteaptă decât un singur lucru: să-​și ridice mâinile și să strige: „Mă predau!”. 126 Origin. 2015: „Judecătorii sovietici au omorât de zece ori mai mulți oameni decât criminalii pe care-​i judecau.” 127 Origin. 2015: „Naistul dumneavoastră vine din Răsărit, dintr-​o republică-​satelit a Uniunii Sovietice. Nu iese nimeni vreodată din aceste țări dacă nu are o misiune precisă de îndeplinit”.

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some of these aspects in his books. Violence was therefore one of the defining characteristics of all the political forms embodied by this ideology. It brought fear. And the fear led most of the people to be obedient to the rulers and not to protest against the oppressive laws. The mechanism is a simple and classical one and has been used from the older times to the Middle Age (Delumeau 1986: 14), even until today. For the ones who refused to let themselves impressed by this fear, extermination was an important mechanism. But fear as a consequence of violence, which brought intimidation, was a keyword in the communist structures. Of course, it was not limited to the country. The members of Securitate were sent to spread fear among the exiles. Gheorghiu himself was close to being a victim of this system, while Monica Lovinescu, one of his opponents, had been almost killed by them. With the writer, the situation was complex, because a Romanian spy was sent to Paris to visit him (Gillyboeuf 2019: 19). She pretended to be a victim of the communist regime and was in fact a person sent to collect information about him and his activities in order to help the Securitate to annihilate him or probably to reduce him to silence by threats. Being a priest and at the same time a person who wanted to help a Romanian in a difficult situation, he received the stranger in his house and offered free accommodation for a few weeks, until he found out the truth. The situation was later valorised in the novel The Spy, published at the beginning of the eighth decade of the twentieth century by Plon’s Publishing House in Paris (Gheorghiu 1971). Like him, there were many other writers or simple exiled Romanians abroad. In some cases, the techniques used by the regime were so complex that the fact that it was a murder was discovered only decades after, in many situations after the fall of Communism, from the testimonies of their authors, who praised themselves for the act. Fortunately, this was not his case. In his situation, the methods used were of Soviet influence, like they were in many other situations. Most probably this led him to say, in the work God in Paris, that: The USSR does not conceive that there could be a communism that is not the exact copy of Russian communism. Any life system that is not Russian is bad. The French, Italian, German or South American communists, if they want to be true communists, must imitate the Soviets. (Gheorghiu 2016a: 20)128

128 Origin. 2016a: „URSS-​ul nu concepe că ar putea exista un comunism care să nu fie copia exactă a comunismului rus. Orice sistem de viață care nu este rusesc este rău. Comuniștii francezi, italieni, germani ori sud-​americani, dacă doresc să fie adevărați comuniști, trebuie să îi imite pe sovietici”.

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The exile constituted therefore an important aspect in the concerns of the regime. In the aforementioned novel, dedicated to the metropolite Visarion Puiu, who was also exiled in France (Gillyboeuf 2010: 5; Neculoiu 2008: 6), he speaks about the way the talented aparatski managed to discredit and to divide at certain times, the most enlightened minds of the exiled in Paris. One the most important aspects was to find the biggest secret of somebody and then to use it against him or her. The head of the killers from the Romanian communist system, called “Baxan” by Gheorghiu, said about this topic: Anatomy claims that the human heart is on the left side of the chest. If you hit a man in the heart, he dies. Baxan knows that. But for him it is untrue to say that the heart is in the chest. The hearts of some people are where their money is. If these people are hit in their fortune, they die. Others have the heart, that is, the most vulnerable part, in their offspring. Others in their wife. Others in their honor. If touched here, the man dies. It is important to know where the heart of the person you were tasked to kill is. (Gheorghiu 2016a: 21)129

The sensitive point of every one was therefore discovered and used against him by the communists. Monica Lovinescu knew that her mother remained at home and, for many years, she was frightened to write against the Bucharest regime, Gheorghiu knew that his family was at home and wished to know that they were fine and not persecuted due to his ideas (during a certain period he even had a short correspondence with them; about it, see Morariu 2018: 72–​76), the theologians sent abroad to study knew also that their family remained at home and, when people like Father Chesarie Gheorghescu, sent on a scholarship in Moscow, refused to return, they were brought home and sent to the prison for communist reasons (for more information about him and his life, see Cărămidaru 2002). This meant that the representatives of the repression machine managed to find their heart and show that they were conscious of the relevance of it. Another aspect that defined the communists, emphasised by the Romanian writer, was the appetence of the rulers from communist countries for money. For this reason, almost everything was negotiable, especially when speaking

129 Origin 2016a: „Anatomia pretinde că inima omului se află în partea stângă a pieptului. Dacă lovești în inimă un om, acesta moare. Baxan știe asta. Dar pentru el e un neadevăr să spui că inima se află în piept. Inima anumitor oameni se află acolo unde sunt banii lor. Dacă acești oameni sunt loviți în averea lor, mor. Alții au inima, adică partea cea mai vulnerabilă, în progenitura lor. Alții în soția lor. Alții în onoarea lor. Dacă e atins aici, omul moare. Important este să știi unde se află inima omului pe care ai fost însărcinat să-​l ucizi”.

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about dollars. Even people who were unacceptable from the political point of view, could be bought by the Occident. Richard Wurmbrand is a famous case in this space (Hulber 2018; Sabău 2011). Imprisoned by the communist regime, he was bought, together with his family, by the Occident. On arriving in the United States of America, he spoke about this and about the attitude of the regime towards the ones who were hostiles. Even before the moment that had as its main character the aforementioned Jew converted to Lutheranism, Gheorghiu knew about this practice. He was also informed of the fact that on the bills it was mentioned that the communists had sold fruits and vegetables, not human persons. In Condotiera (Gheorghiu 2011), a novel with a complex action that spoke about the beginning of Communism in the Romanian lands, under the mask of the main character he presents the idealised version of the important but controversial philosopher and theologian, Nichifor Crainic (cf. Morariu 2020). Later, he returned to it in God in Paris. Here from Baxan’s plan, who will have an important place the discrediting of the Romanian bishop in Paris, Teodot. And among all the aspects, a man, sent without knowing this, by the Securitate in France to be used as a tool in the entire process, goes and asks the bishop for help in order to save his mother, who had remained in Romania. He not only offers advice, but also describes how the people could be helped: We can buy your mother. It’s just a matter of money. Every Sunday at the church, half of the people attending the service are purchased people. A fee is paid to the government in Bucharest. Because there is a rate that fluctuates like all stock market values. I don’t know what the price of people on the market is. A few months ago, ten thousand dollars were paid. Germans who buy wholesale from their citizens in Poland are paying a little cheaper. We were told that he paid the Poles eight thousand dollars a person. (Gheorghiu 2016a: 128–​129)130

The value of a man was, as can be seen, not uncountable, for the communists. It had been calculated according to different aspects, and become a number of

130 Origin. 2016a: „O putem cumpăra pe mama dumneavoastră. E doar o chestiune de bani. În fiecare duminică, la biserică, jumătate dintre persoanele care participă la slujbă sunt persoane cumpărate. Se plătește guvernului de la București un tarif. Căci există un tarif care oscilează precum toate valorile de la bursă. Nu știu care este prețul persoanelor pe piață. Acum câteva luni, se plăteau zece mii de dolari. Germanii care îi cumpără en-​gross pe cetățenii lor din Polonia plăresc ceva mai ieftin. Ni s-​a spus că varsă polonezilor opt mii de dolari pe cap de om”.

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dollars. And this strikes not only the Romanian writer, but also other people, both from Romania and abroad. Another important aspect in the process of understanding Communism is related with the persons who were part of the system. Speaking about the Romanian leader of the time, Nicolae Ceaușescu,131 he says that he was very obeisant and due to this he was gradually appointed for different functions until he became the president (Gheorghiu 2008b: 70). Gheorghiu suggested throughout the fact that it was not intelligence, the capacity to solve problems or other similar aspects that made somebody become an important personality in the communist system from Romania. And history proves that in other communist countries it was quite the same. Moreover, he spoke about the fact that being the relative of a person who, at the time, was ruling Romania or was among the ones who were close to the presidential couple, was an important attribute for any promotion. The aforementioned book speaks the same of the president and the way, for this simple reason, he was moved from position to position, and had different official important tasks because he was the son of the Romanian leader. There were many other people in the same situation. In an interesting work, the writer speaks about these mechanisms, using the example of “Horodinca,” most probably a code name for somebody who was a relative of Ceaușesu family. He says about him the following: Horodincă did not receive any education for his profession. He is a relative of the president. In kinship lies his only merit. In the Romanian People’s Republic, all management positions are entrusted to the president’s family. The president’s wife is a member of the Academy of Sciences, director of the Institute of Nuclear Physics, president of the Institute of Chemistry. Participates in international meetings as a scientist in atomic physics. He receives the same honors as Einstein, Oppenheimer and von Braun. His scientific training is reduced to a few months of study at the school of midwives. Horodinca is no more qualified than the president. That’s why Baxan wants to get rid of him. (Gheorghiu 2016a: 27–​28)132

131 Nicolae Ceaușescu (1918–​1989) was the Communist president of Romania from 1968 to 1989. From 1965, he was the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party and before that he had different appointments in the Romanian Communist party and the administration of the country during the communist regime. Together with his wife, Elena Ceaușescu, he was executed in 1989. For more information about his life and activity, see Dobrescu (2004) and Betea, Diac, Mihai, Țiu (2009). 132 Origin. 2016a: „Horodincă n-​a primit niciun fel de educație pentru meseria sa. El este ruda președintelui. În rudenie constă unicul lui merit. În Republica Populară Română toste posturile de conducere sunt încredințate familiei președintelui. Soția președintelui este membră a Academiei de Științe, director al Institutului de Fizică

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But Romania was not ruled only by people who had no competence in politics or social life. Among them there were also intellectuals. In some cases, they were determined to give up all their principles, in others only to do some compromises. The lie (Mureșan 2020:  53), a defining element of the regime, had sometimes also a kind of official protection. Some intellectuals who were close to the regime were therefore allowed to have religious feelings too (Gheorghiu 2016: 44–​ 45), although the regime was against these kind of practices, while others were allowed to have properties, to have an unhealthy origin and so on. The condition was to keep their personal faith hidden and to try to do their best in order not to get in conflict with the Securitate or with the other representatives of the social order. For others it was, especially in the beginning of the communist period, a crime against the social order to have any religious feeling. Moreover, the priests were considered guilty of all the crimes and troubles encountered in the process of implementation of Communism: “Every priest is a profiteer of the working class due to the fact that he does not have a productive activity. It leads to a parasitic existence” (Gheorghiu 2012:  179),133 concludes Boris Bodnariuk in The Second Chance, speaking about this category of people. The social order was ensured in the communist areas by different categories of people: Miliția, Securitate, the army and also others. At a certain period of history, in a country like Romania, 25 per cent of the population were enrolled in the Securitate. Sons were asked to write informative notes about their parents and the way they had discredited the regime (Albu 2008: 15; Banu, Onișoru 2015: 38–​44), fathers to write about their sons, neighbours about each other and so on. The ones who took care of all these documents were called by Gheorghiu, as previously mentioned, aparatski. Some of them had tasks in Romania, others in the external space, dealing with the political exile from different areas. The Romanian writer compares the genuine ones with the Turkish janissaries. He therefore says about Taky Tsep, one of the important characters from a book with a tremendous action, the following:

nucleară, președinte al Institutului de Chimie. Participă la reuniuni internaționale în calitate de savant în fizică atomică. Primește aceleași onoruri precum Einstein, Oppenheimer și von Braun. Formația sa științifică se reduce la câteva luni de studii la școala de moașe. Horodincă nu este mai calificat decât președinta. Din această cauză, Baxan vrea să se debaraseze de el”. 133 Origin. 2012: „Orice preot este un profitor al clasei muncitoare datorită faptului că el nu are o activitate productivă. Duce o existență parazită.”

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Taky Tsep blushes with emotion. It’s the prototype of the young Aparatski. It resembles the Janissaries, the elite troops of the Ottoman Empire. The janissaries were soldiers who knew neither their parents nor their place of birth. They had nothing to lose on the battlefield except their own lives. The Turks were close to conquering the West with their janissaries. (Gheorghiu 2008b: 76)134

If some of the young agents of this category of the secret policy had already become legends, being considered an important part of the former Ottoman army, it was expected that their leaders also be wrapped in something similar. One of them was the head of the Securitate from Romania, for whom the writer used the nickname “Baxan,” inspired by an Indian tree that has a special propriety –​that of killing everything that comes in contact with it. After presenting his life, and showing how, as a man from Bessarabia, he was made prisoner by Russians and he joined the communists in order to avoid dying of hunger, he also characterises the man: Baxan causes the instant death of the person he is watching. An exterminator and a criminal was born. It has the power to kill, to destroy. He kills by his mere presence. Everyone is afraid of Baxan, even his friends avoid him. Baxan applied for a lone position and was appointed director of the Romanian Institute of Beekeeping. (Gheorghiu 2008b: 106)135

The exaggeration of some of his qualities comes to say that the man was intelligent and knew how to use his skills in order commit odious crimes without leaving any possible evidence, a fact that made people think that he had supernatural powers. Books like The Spy (Gheorghiu 1971), The Heidelberg Unknowns (Gheorghiu 2015), God in Paris (Gheorghiu 2016a) or The Great Exterminator and the Great Orthodox Council (Gheorghiu 2008b), brought into attention the way he managed to transform the embassies of Romania from different cities into prisons (Gheorghiu 2016a: 63), or about different actions where important people were killed. Avoided even by his friends, this man decided to withdraw

134 Origin. 2008b: „Taky Tsep roșește de emoție. E prototipul tânărului Aparatski. Seamănă cu ienicerii, trupele de elită ale Imperiului otoman. Ienicerii erau soldați care nu-​și cunoșteau nici părinții, nici locul de naștere. Nu aveau nimic de pierdut pe câmpul de luptă, afară de propria lor viață. Turcii erau aproape să cucerească Occidentul cu ienicerii lor”. 135 Origin. 2008b: „Baxan provoacă moartea instantanee a celui pe care îl privește. S-​a născut exterminator șicriminal. Are puterea de a omorî, de a desființa. Ucide prin simpla sa prezență. Toată lumea se teme de Baxan, chiar și prietenii îl ocolesc. Baxan a cerut un post singuratic și a fost numit director al Institutului român de apicultură”.

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when he had nothing to do for the party, to work with bees, where nobody disturbed him with questions. Like him, they were many others. The machine of Securitate was well organised, in Romania and abroad. And if, in situations like the attempt to assassinate Paul Goma or Virgil Tănase (Tănase 2011) they were wrong, or in certain situations people like general Pacepa deserted (Cosma 2011; Lăzăroniu 2009), these were special situations, but daily events. For this reason, based on the resources that they had in Paris, and also on the fact that there were many communists in the town, the head of the Romanian External Affairs from Ceaușescu’s era confesses to the agent sent to Paris with an important mission: I have many eyes in Paris. Remember that Paris is the largest communist city in the world. There are more communists there than in Bucharest, Warsaw or Prague. They will keep me informed of your actions. They’ll even tell me what you’re dreaming about at night. (Gheorghiu 2008b: 77)136

If this was the situation outside the communist countries, where the special agents sent were working hard for the extermination of the people exiled from Communist regions and of the opponents of the regime, trying at the same time to keep up appearances and develop diplomatic relations with the other countries, pretending that they are democratic regimes, inside, they were developing different forms of repression of the people. As we have already emphasised, fear was the dominant feeling. For its instauration, the penitentiary system was a well developed one. Virgil Gheorghiu was conscious of the fact that his country was a penitentiary republic. And this fact did not refer only to the political prisoners and to the activity in the dungeons, but also to the general life of the people in this space. The culture, art or daily life suffered. Culture had become a tool in the hands of the representatives of the party. The wooden language, used to pray for the realisations of the regime, was the only one accepted in the literature and cinematography. Rare exceptions managed to avoid the vigilance of the censorship’s eyes, together with the samizdat literature. But the general situation was defined by texts written in this way and dedicated to the leaders and the accomplishments of the Communist Party. This situation was the same in Romania, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Bulgaria and the other communist republics. Art was also used as an instrument for propaganda. 136 Origin. 2008b: „Am numeroși ochi la Paris. Nu uitați că Parisul este cel mai mare oraș comunist din lume. Sunt acolo mai mulți comuniști decât în București, Varșovia sau Praga. Ei mă vor ține la curent cu acțiunile dumneavoastră. Îmi vor spune chiar ce visați noaptea”.

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Sometimes, important representatives of this segment managed to use their influence in high circles in order to help others. The investigated Romanian writer presents such a case, showing a special example when, using the love that the son of President Ceaușescu had for her, a dancer managed to steal from him some passports and decrees of mission and helped somebody to escape from the republic: Romania is a closed country, a penitentiary republic. There, in order to survive, people have to do things that the people of another country do not do. To survive, dancers in Romania must do things that dancers in other countries do not. In Romania, a dancer had to sell illegally. In other countries, this is only done in time of war. Dragomirna’s mother did not want any of her friends to die, to be killed by the militia. He had to get blank passports and pass permits. He had to do what only gangsters, smugglers and criminals do in other countries. (Gheorghiu 2008b: 95)137

But even in this “labirint of theror” (Badea Constantinescu 2006: 7) as Romania was in those times, there were betrayers or infiltrated people who knew how to hide under the mask of Communism and they arrived for important functions, but they were in fact sharing conceptions that were different from the official ones. Sometimes, moments of crises would reveal their faces. In many situations, it was difficult to punish them. In others, the discovery coincided with their death. Speaking about the earthquake in March 1977 (Bălan, Căpățînă, Cornea 1982: 41), the investigated author uses an interesting dialogue between the head of the Romanian communist state and one of his close collaborators. Here, the latter communicates to the dictator the fact that: ‘The March 4 earthquake caused more damage in Bucharest than we imagined,’ says the head of security, the old Bolshevik Bodaraz. The earthquake did not only destroie buildings, the Romanian Communist Party was also shaken. I discover cracks every day.” (Gheorghiu 2008b: 98)138

137 Origin. 2008b: „România este o țară închisă, o republică penitenciară. Acolo, pentru a supraviețui, oamenii sunt nevoiți să facă lucruri pe care locuitorii altei țări nu le fac. Pentru a supraviețui, dansatoarele din România trebuie să facă lucruri pe care dansatoarele din alte țări nu le fac. În România o dansatoare trebuis să vândă la negru. În celelalte țări nu se face asta decât în timp de război. Mama Dragomirnei nu voia ca vreunul din prietenii ei să moară, să fie omorât de miliție. A trebuit să facă rost de pașapoarte în alb și de permise de trecer. A trebuit să facă ceea ce în celelalte țări nu fac decât gangsterii, contrabandiștii și criminalii”. 138 Origin. 2008b: „Cutremurul din 4 martie a produs în București mai multe pagube decât ne-​am imaginat, spune șeful securității, bătrânul bolșevic Bodaraz. Cutremurul nu a distrus doar clădiri, a fost zguduit și Partidul Comunist Român. Zilnic descopăr fisuri”.

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The same earthquake also constituted, for Gheorghiu, the pretext to show the attempts of the Romanian communists to imitate the others. In fact, his purpose was to show that the aim of the regime was to instaurate a society multiplied in every region where the regime was exported. One in which originality or initiative were discouraged and appearance was the only thing that mattered. For this reason, in the case of this event, the Romanians tried to use the Chinese model, as he shows: Taky Tsep was also shaken by the earthquake. Telephone connections with Bucharest were cut off and earthquake news was sporadic. The Romanian Communist Party has decided not to provide news of the earthquake. He considered it an internal problem that did not concern foreigners. This point of view was not a Romanian innovation. It was the Chinese who for the first time refused to publish the number of victims and the extent of the damage caused by natural disasters. By refusing foreign aid, the Romanians wanted to imitate the Chinese. (Gheorghiu 2008b: 90)139

Unfortunately, the chosen model was not a very efficient one. As he later showed, Romania was not China. The small Eastern European country did not have the huge amount of human and material resources of the big communist brother. For this reason, in a few days, Nicolae Ceaușescu felt overwhelmed and asked the Occident to help him to solve this problem. In this context, everybody from outside the country found about what happened in Romania in those times and the incapacity of the regime to take care of a complex and unpredicted situation was therefore revealed to the Occident. The greatest fear of the ruler was therefore partially accomplished. The queues to the aliments, in which every communist citizen was forced, during the time, to take part in order to buy the necessary goods for daily life, were defining elements in communist societies (Neculau, Platon, Cosmovici 2004: 47; Mărcău, Purec, Morariu et al. 2020: 31). Gheorghiu was conscious of this fact and put it in relationship with the occupation by the Red Army in the Romanian space. In fact, he saw it as a consequence of the work done by it in the process of transforming his native country into a communist one. Therefore, in

139 Origin. 2008b: „Și Taky Tsep a fost bulversat de cutremur. Au fost întrerupte legăturile telefonice cu București și știrile legate de seism erau sporadice. Partidul Comunist Român a hotărât să nu furnizeze știri despre cutremur. Considera că este o problemă internă, care nu îi privește pe străini. Acest punct de vedere nu era o inovație românească. Chinezii au fost cei care au refuzat pentru prima dată să publice numărul victimelor și amploarea pagubelor produse de catastrofe naturale. Refuzând ajutorul extern, românii voiau să-​i imite pe chinezi”.

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a book where he speaks about the exile from Romania in France, presenting also the reasons why some of the important faces that embodied this category arrived there, he says: On August 23, 1944, Bucharest was occupied by the Red Army. Since then, the city has become very sad, gloomy and slutty. (All the cities occupied by the enemy army are desolate). Today, after thirty-​three years of foreign occupation, Bucharest is one of the saddest cities in the world. The inhabitants of the city wake up at night to wait in line at the grocery store and consider themselves happy if, after two, four or five hours, they manage to buy a kilo of sugar, a few potatoes, a bottle of milk and a few eggs. People live crammed into their modern buildings like rabbits in cages. Everyone has the right to a very limited number of square meters of housing. There are always two or three people in a room. (Gheorghiu 2008b: 11)140

In fact, the alimentary penury was in Romanian space, for example, a very important problem during the communist period. In its beginning, but also before this period (Guzun 2019), people from Moldavia had to survive to a complex calamity that brought a big famine and led many of them to emigrate temporarily to spaces like Transylvania. Later, during the communist period, it became a general feeling, spread all around the country. For this reason, in most situations, when a man who lived during the communist period was asked which was the aspect most difficult to bear during the communist period, he responded that it was the hunger (Mărcău, Purec, Morariu et al. 2020:  44–​45). The situation was similar in USSR, where also there existed hunger caused by natural calamities during the interwar period (Antipova 2011) and, later, one caused by the rulers. About its extreme form, encountered in actions like the Ukrainian pogrom, much has been already written during the decades both by the survivors who offered testimony, and also by historians and sociologists. All these aspects made these people live a second-​hand life. Therefore, the first title of one of Virgil

140 Origin. 2008b: „La 23 august 1944, București a fost ocupat de către Armata Roșie. De atunci, orașul a devenit foarte trist, posomorât și slut. (Toate orașele ocupate de armata inamică sunt dezolante). Astăzi, după treizeci și trei de ani de ocupație străină, București este unul dintre cele mai triste orașe din lume. Locuitorii orașului se trezesc cu noaptea-​n cap pentru a sta la coadă la alimentară și se consideră fericiți dacă, după două, patru sau cinci ore reușesc să cumpere un kilogram de zahăr, câteva de cartofi, o sticlă de lapte și câteva ouă. Oamenii locuiesc înghesuiți în imobilele lor moderne ca iepurii în cușcă. Fiecare om are dreptul la un număr foarte limitat de metri pătrați de locuință. Într-​o cameră sunt întotdeaune două sau trei persoane”.

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Gheorghiu’s books from France, unfortunately not accepted by the editor, who instead of Second Hand Life preferred The Second Chance,141 was relevant also for them. And the words written by the author in the foreword of his editorial demarche were addressed not only to the exiled people, whom he considered as representing a definition of them,142 as he primarily intended, but also to the people living as prisoners in their own country, which had become a penitentiary republic: When you have a second-​hand life –​it’s not a matter of comfort, it’s a drama. And I, like all exiles on earth, must live a Second Life. (Gheorghiu 2012: 5)143

The interesting aspect is, as the investigated author also underlines, the fact that although they live a second-​hand life, filled with privations and in crisis, the committed agents, sent to accomplish missions like collectivisation or to imposing a certain communist reform, were not conscious of this fact. Imposing this way of life on the others, they considered themselves as apostles of the ideology and therefore as authors of good deeds. Those people who idealised their vocation were also emphasised by the Romanian writer in his works. Although he was disappointed by Communism and criticised all its forms of manifestation, he understood them and even presented their enthusiasm, showing that they were victims of the system. An example of this was Boris Bondar, one of the main characters of the work The Second Chance. Sent into the desert, he was asked by

141 In the foreword of the book, the author speaks about the chosen title and its motivation, showing that: “The original title of the book Second Chance was Second Hand Life. Why an English title? Simply because all the words –​such as: suffering, imprisonment, torture, dispute, war, captivity –​are in my normal language, common English and German words. We have experienced such suffering in Germans and Americans, and it was logical that the words that designate them should also be taken from their vocabulary. “ (Gheorghiu 2012: 5). Gheorghiu 2012: „Titlul initial al cărții A doua șansă a fost Second Hand Life. De ce un titlu în engleză? Pur și simplu pentru faptul că toate cuvintele –​precum: suferință, închisoare, tortură, dispută, război, captivitate –​ sunt în limbajul meu normal, obișnuit cuvinte englezești și germane. La nemți și la americani am trăit astfel de suferințe și era logic ca și cuvintele care le desemnează să fie, de asemenea, luate din vocabularul lor”. 142 “Second Hand Life is my first book written in exile. Its title is the very definition of the exile.” (Gheorghiu 2012: 6). Origin. 2012: „Second Hand Life este prima mea carte scrisă în exil. Titlul acesteia este chiar definiția exilatului”. 143 Gheorghiu 2012: „Când ai un Second Hand life –​o viață second hand –​nu se pune problema confortului, ci a unei drame. Iar eu, ca toți exilații de pe pământ, trebuie să trăiesc O viață Second Hand”.

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the rulers from Moscow to transform it into a space where human beings could live and in good conditions. His motivational speech from the beginning of the campaign was presented by him. Due to the fact that it was important for understanding the background and motivation of the behaviour of the communists in certain situations, we quote it here: These nomads suffer from thirst, hunger and lead in this sandy hell an existence that not even the animal wants. And yet they are human. Soviet people. They are so terrified, frightened and so diminished as people that they don’t even have the courage to look to the future. We will bring them water, shelter, a better climate, a more humane condition. (Gheorghiu 2012: 118)144

The same character, Boris Bodnariuk, author of phrases like “We will help them even without their will” (Gheorghiu 2012: 118),145 an affirmation that comes to suggest the fact that Communism is a dictatorship, has also a global vision regarding the exportation of the ideology. He goes so far with the imagination and releases it in such a dangerous way that he could surely be considered a maniac. His dream is to see the Occident burning and all the humanists and Christian values destroyed and replaced with new ones, namely communist ones: When I complete my climate change plan, I still have a dream to achieve. To participate in the transformation of the West into an ash desert. To see falling in flames, one after another, the metropolises with their walls and their medieval cathedrals. To participate in the campaign of Soviet tractors that will work the scorched earth of Europe. We will plant forests there. We will build new cities, factories, but first we will let this land move for a long time. Completely. To see from Odessa the flames of London, Berlin, Paris. The flames that devour the entire West and that must destroy the microbes and any trace of this Western society that has kept humanity in the dark for two thousand years, under the sign of the Cross. In oppression, terror and fear, under the sign of the Cross. (Gheorghiu 2012: 121)146

144 Origin. 2012: „Acești nomazi suferă de sete, de foame și duc în acest infern de nisip o existență pe care nu și-​o dorește nici măcar animalul. Și totuși ei sunt oameni. Oameni sovietici. Ei sunt atât de terorizați, de înfricoșați și atât de împuținați ca oameni, încât chiar nu mai au curajul să privească spre viitor. Noi le vom aduce apă, adăposturi, un climat mai bun, o condiție mai omenească”. 145 Origin. 2012: „Îi vom ajuta chiar fără voia lor”. 146 Origin. 2012: „Când îmi voi duce la bun sfârșit planul de transformare a climatului, mai am încă un vis de realizat. Să particip la transformarea Occidentului într-​un deșert de cenușă. Să văd căzând în flăcări, una după alta, metropolele cu zidurile lor și catedralele lor medievale. Să particip la campania tractoarelor sovietice care vor lucra pământul pârjolit al Europei. Noi vom planta acolo păduri. Vom construi orașe noi, uzine, dar mai întâi vom lăsa acest pământ să ardă multă vreme. Complet. Ca

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The situation was not favourable to him, but the man can be considered representative for a certain segment of the propagandistic machine active during the communist period. Such attitudes were often used, as writers like Solženicyn testify in their works (Solženicyn 2008), often encountered especially in the segment of the propagandistic space. The fact that they were utopistic was notorious and in time contributed to the fall of the entire system. Propaganda, with or without the utopistic background, was an extremely important tool in the communist way of thinking and understanding the world (for more information about it and its relevance in Romanian space, see, for example, Bazac 1985: 319–​324; Denize 2009). There, people like the presidential couple were transformed into important personalities of the cultural, social and economic space and praised in almost all the works published in this space during their reign (see Brudaşcu, Irimie, Sălăjan 1982; Bodea, Săraru Șerb 1978). Moreover, in a certain period, after the “July thesis” (Deaconu 2016: 17–​29), it was almost impossible to write or publish something without quoting them. They became, therefore, fake heroes. The “cult of personality” was a defining element of the Romanian cultural space. The situation was similar in spaces like the Russian, the Serbian Czech one. In all the communist countries, there was an obligativity for it. The leaders were considered personalities who had changed the history of the world and deserved to be praised in all the books published in their country. Their pictures were, in most of the countries, on the opening pages of the handbooks offered to the students at school. Like Virgil Tănase, whose life was put in danger (Tănase 2011) after the publication of an article where he criticised the leaders of the regime, Gheorghiu also emphasised with this as an important problem of the Communist regime. In The Second Chance, he used an interesting example to approach the topic ironically, when he spoke about the fabrication of a hero by the propagandistic machine. Arriving in Bucharest, where he was sent to work undercover with the few illegal communists existing in the Eastern European countries, he faced there many obstacles from the beginning. The possibility of doing something useful was reduced due to some small aspects.147 But here, in the bar where he să se vadă de la Odessa flăcările Londrei, ale Berlinului, ale Parisului. Flăcările care devorează Occidentul întreg și care trebuie să distrugă microbii și orice urmă a acestei societăți occidentale care a menținut umanitatea în întuneric vreme de două mii de ani, sub semnul Crucii. În opresiune, teroare și teamă, sub semnul Crucii”. 147 He says about Bodnariuk’s mission there: “From the beginning, he only encountered obstacles. His mission seemed impossible. He traveled through neighboring countries. He joined all the groups. His mission seemed doomed to failure. Of Romania’s

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went regularly, he met one evening the drunk servant of another important character of the book, the Jewish Eddy Thall, Tinca Neva. Deeply attached to her mistress, who was persecuted by the Nazi regime and sent to Russia in the end, she started to drink, spending therefore all her money. One night, during a bombardment, drunk, she climbed on the roof of the house with a flashlight in her hand, signalling to enemy planes. She was thus killed. Although she never had a political affiliation, the context led the German soldiers to transform her into a Russian communist spy. This idea was developed by Bodnariuk, who transformed her into a communist hero. His idea was that “The masses of Europe need heroes to be set in motion, to be trained, just as floating ships need sails.” (Gheorghiu 2012: 152).148 Later, he described, not without irony, the complex process to which her dead body was subjected, in order to show how the Soviets understood the hero and its social value. In Communism, everything was related to the party. Virgil Gheorghiu insisted on the relevance of this aspect in some of his books (Gheorghiu 1990, 1993, 2008b, 2011). Marx himself did it too when he spoke about his utopian ideal (Marx 1947). The party was the one that offered everything, from identity to food. Somehow, the representatives of this ideology managed to replace the belief in God that many people of those places had with belief in the party. The characters chosen by the author to illustrate the profiles of the aparatski and of the idealists, illustrate in a proper way this aspect. Among them, the aforementioned Boris Bodnariuk, has an interesting story. He was arrested and accused of being among the ones who helped the Jews to run away from the camp in

twenty million inhabitants, only eight hundred were members of the Communist Party. These eight hundred were strictly supervised. You couldn’t work with them. In Hungary, in Bulgaria, in Czechoslovakia, the same situation. The only homogeneous communist group was in the mountains of Serbia. They were the communists of the Marshal of the Southern Slavs. She couldn’t work with him either. A proud man.” (Gheorghiu 2012: 147). Origin. 2012: „Încă de la început, nu a întâlnit decât obstacole. Misiunea sa părea imposibil de realizat. A străbătut țările vecine. A intrat în toate grupările. Misiunea sa părea sortită eșecului. Din cei douăzeci de milioane de locuitori ai României, doar opt sute erau membri ai partidului comunist. Acești opt sute erau strict supravegheați. Nu se putea lucra cu ei. În Ungaria, în Bulgaria, în Cehoslovacia, aceeași situație. Singurul grup comunist omogen se afla în Munții Serbiei. Erau comuniștii mareșalului slavilor de sud. Nici cu el nu se putea colabora. Un om orgolios”. 148 Origin. 2012: „Masele Europei au nevoie de eroi pentru a fi puse în mișcare, pentru a fi antrenate, după cum vasele plutitoare au nevoie de pânze”.

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Israel, and after a few weeks, everybody realised that this was a fake charge. In all this time, he waited for the end of the event and never lost his trust in the party. Moreover, in an attempt to describe his inner feelings, the writer underlines the fact that: An individual who separates from the party is heading for imbalance or death. Life outside the party is not possible for a communist. Outside the party, a communist is suspended in a vacuum. (Gheorghiu 2012: 145)149

For his unceasing faith, the man was in a short time rewarded by his superiors. The unfavourable evolution of the battlefield led the Russians to use him again and to send him to Bucharest, where he worked undercover until the end of the Second World War. All this happened when being a Russian was not very comfortable, due to the conquests made by the German armies: A month later, Boris Bodnariuk got off at the North Railway Station in Bucharest. He was a general, but a general without a uniform. He was the supreme commander of the Soviet Army behind the German front. An army that did not exist. He had to create it. Posters at the station announced the presence of German troops at the gates of Moscow. Boris smiled. (Gheorghiu 2012: 147)150

The writer emphasises through this passage both the complex way of working of communists, based on different mechanisms and the infiltration of agents in the enemy territories, and, at the same time, shows that there existed too, at different times in history, loyalty and respect for the ones who served the regime and were accused. He also shows there the fact that there existed also the possibility of rehabilitation, a fact that, as can be seen from the “Gulag writings,” was not something very often encountered in the system. The deportation was also an important aspect that defined both the communists and their way of acting. But it was not the German deportation, investigated, especially after 1989, in the former communist countries (Nestor-​Șoimu 2017; http://​www.altera.adatbank.transindex.ro/​pdf/​8/​003.pdf, accessed 23.02.2021), that was emphasised in his works. For reasons that were most probably intuited 149 Origin. 2012: „Un individ care se desparte de partid se îndreaptă către dezechilibru, ori către moarte. Pentru un comunist nu e posibilă viața în afara partidului. În afara partidului, un comunist se află suspendat în vid”. 150 Origin. 2012:  „O lună mai târziu, Boris Bodnariuk cobora în Gara de Nord din București. Era general, însă un general fără uniformă. Era comandantul suprem al Armatei Sovietice din spatele frontului german. O armată care nu exista. El trebuia să o creeze. Afișele din gară anunțau prezența trupelor germane la porțile Moscovei. Boris surâse”.

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by some of his opponents like Monica Lovinescu (Lovinescu 1994: 78), namely the desire to show that he was not an anti-​Semite, Virgil Gheorghiu spoke about the displacement of Jewish population to different desert areas, that took place after the Second World War. At the same time, he spoke about how, in certain situations, the Jewish people arrived in the “communist heaven” without their wish. Eddy Thall, the main character of The Second Chance, possessor of a “second hand life,” as he intended to show, arrived in Russia after the time when the boat meant to transport him to Palestine was not allowed by the international space authorities to leave the Constanța harbour. In this context, he had the opportunity to either go back at home, or to emigrate to a country like Russia. Due to the fact that in Romania the Legionary Movement had, at that time, a discriminative behaviour regarding the Jewish people, he decided to depart:



“I’m going to Russia,” said Eddy Thall. A recent convention allows Bessarabian citizens to move to Russia if they wish. The officer had smiled wryly. ‒ Are you a communist? Eddy Thall pursed his lips and did not answer. ‒ The convoy for Russia leaves tomorrow. You can leave. It’s easy enough in Russia.” (Gheorghiu 2012: 106–​107)151

The later experience there convinced the Jewish actress that it was not the best choice possible. But she also had some fortunate moments in her life, like the formal marriage that allowed her to depart from the mine where she was sent for forced labour (Gheorghiu 2012: 162). Her character also constituted a useful tool for the others in describing Capitalism and Nazism too. But about these aspects we will talk later. The deportation had another important aspect, also emphasised by the contemporary historical research, namely the deportation of the peasants to Bărăgan flat (Vultur 2011; Acioctârlănoaei 2011; Marineasa 1996). The Withsuntide of

151 Origin. 2012: „-​Personal, spuse ofițerul, eu văd două soluții. Ori cereți o viză de intrare într-​o altă țară, ori vă prezentați cu o nouă cerere de naturalizare. Din două una. La care vă decideți? -​Plec în Rusia, spuse Eddy Thall. O convenție recentă permite cetățenilor din Basarabia să treacă în Rusia dacă o doresc. Ofițerul surâse ironic. -​Sunteți comunistă? Eddy Thall își strânse buzele și nu răspunse. -​Convoiul pentru Rusia pleacă mâine. Puteți pleca. E simplu de ajuns în Rusia.”

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1951 year will remain forever in the memory of some people, but mostly in a good sense. The process started then totally and irreversibly changed their lives (Marineasa 2017). As expected, it was not a roundabout by the investigated writer, who spoke about the atrocities that had accompanied the peasants’ departure, but also about how, in some situations, people had been artificially transformed to rich paysans (chiaburs) and became a target for the representatives of the regime, whose intention was to collectivise in a forced way the entire agriculture. The consequences brought by that, together with the later industrialisation, in spaces like Romania, were important due to the fact that these policies together contributed to the destruction of the Romanian villages, their local customs, traditions and their way of life. Gheorghiu was aware of all of that and in some of his works emphasised different episodes that, most probably, had been emphasised to him by eyewitnesses. Such an example can be considered the following passage from The Second Chance: The arrest of the people registered on the deportation list will take place between two and four in the morning. The operation must be carried out quickly. Agents will enter houses without making noise, so as not to attract the attention of neighbors. Prisoners will be driven very carefully outside the locality. The use of firearms is not recommended. Use cunning to get the deportees out of their homes without telling them they are under arrest. (Gheorghiu 2012: 200)152

Accomplished during the night, this event remains one of the darkest moments of the Communist period, both in Romanian and in the Soviet space and can be surely considered, together with the imprisonment of people for political reasons, and with other aspects, as an element that speaks about the violence that characterised Communism. Famous for the way he understood, at least from the ideological and theoretical point of view, the worker and his role in the social machine, Communism was presented by Gheorghiu as a space where the work was not only something appreciated and recommended, but also mandatory. The labour camps that could be found all around Russia, Romania or Bulgaria, and also in other communist countries came to confirm his assumptions. In one of his books, he shows

152 Origin. 2012: „Arestarea oamenilor înscriși pe lista de deportare va avea loc între orele două și patru dimineața. Operațiunea trebuie să se deruleze rapid. Agenții vor intra în case fără să facă zgomot, pentru a nu atrage atenția vecinilor. Prizonierii vor fi conduși cu multă precauție în afara localității. Nu se recomandă utilizarea armelor de foc. Folosiți viclenia ca să-​i faceți pe deportați să iasă din casele lor, fără să le spuneți că sunt arestați.”

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how the Soviet army transformed the work in a matter governed by the state, which makes it forced: “Thanks to the Soviet army,” said the official, “Romania has become a socialist state, in which every citizen is obliged to work … Any law enforcement officer, seeing this red diagonal on his ID card, will protect you from unemployment and send you in one of the great socialist work centers, assuming that you did not find anything of your own.” (Gheorghiu 2012: 173)153

By denying the fact of having a family and even persecuting in some cases their relatives, the communist idealists masked in many situations their childhood trauma or the fear created by the fact of being the relatives of some people with unhealthy social origin. In case they were discovered as being in relationship with somebody who was not “kosher” from the point of view of the leaders, they would be fired and in many cases, also imprisoned or executed. The writer touches also this point in his writings. He uses the example of Boris Bodnariuk. Under the mask of impartiality, he tries to hide the fact that because of some action that put the health of his little brother in a perilous situation, he was almost rejected by his family. Arriving in Romania after many years in Russia, his brother writes to him, sending greetings. As a form of repression, his reaction is a kind of a motivational discourse: We, the communists, have no blood brothers! Boris shouted. Our brothers are workers all over the world. He didn’t even look at the picture of his brother, whom he had looked out at the age of three. Angelo informed him that he was a monk, that he prayed for him and thanked the Lord that he had kept Boris alive. (Gheorghiu 2012: 175)154

Pretending to offer protection, the communists in fact instaurated a dictatorial society. The people were not anymore allowed to decide for themselves and fear was, as we have already mentioned, implemented as a social tool. The collectivisation of agriculture was among the policies planned by the communists (Cătănuș 2004: 14; Borșa 2011: 32, 2013: 17). But in some situations, the peasants

153 Origin. 2012: „Mulțumită armatei sovietice, spuse funcționarul, România a devenit un stat socialist, în care fiecare cetățean este obligat să muncească... Orice agent de ordine publică, văzând această diagonală roșie pe cartea de identitate, vă va proteja împotriva șomajului și vă va trimite într-​unul dintre marile centre socialiste de muncă, presupunând că nu ați găsit nimic dumneavoastră”. 154 Origin. 2012: „Noi, comuniștii, n-​avem frați de sânge! Țipă Boris. Frații noștri sunt muncitorii din lumea întreagă. Nici măcar nu se uită la fotografia fratelui său, căruia îi scosese ochiul la vârsta de trei ani. Angelo îi aducea la cunoștință ce este monah, că se ruga pentru el și-​I mulțumea Domnului că-​L păzise pe Boris în viață”.

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were refractory to it. People who had worked for generations on the family land or worked in order to be able to buy it did not smilingly yield all that they had to the state. Some of them systematically refused, others hid in the mountains waiting for the Americans, while still others found different reasons to say no. All of them were persecuted by the state and classified as enemies of the people. Some were killed, others were forced to work like slaves. The fees increased enormously for any chiabur and the representatives of the party made it a purpose of their life to find the ones sabotaging the complex process. The peasants were not allowed to think. At a general level, the party machine considered them uneducated and therefore, incapable of understanding what was good for them. Therefore, starting from the deportation and ending with the collectivisation, they thought about all the aspects and did their best. Through the words of Boris Bodnariuk, this aspect is also emphasised by the Romanian writer: Comrade peasants, the task of the Party leaders is to do you justice and to defend you. We know much better than you do. You are only poor peasants, barely free from the chains of slavery. You don’t know how to defend yourself at all. The first task of the people’s government is to protect you. All the reactionaries, speculators, spies and traitors pursued by justice hide in the villages, like wolves dressed in sheepskins. Comrade peasants, the government will not allow anyone to deceive you. He will protect you. These reactionaries are wolves and not sheep, as you might think. We will unmask them all, we will skin them. Every bourgeois is a wolf that feeds on the blood of the peasants. (Gheorghiu 2012: 182)155

In the communist vision, the peasants were important only when they were able to form a class (Bazac 1985: 18). The theoreticians of the ideology, starting with its founders, put great emphasis on this aspect (Marx 1964: 87). The individual156 155 Origin. 2012: „Tovarăși țărani, sarcina șefilor Partidului este de a vă face dreptate și de a vă apăra. Noi știm mult mai bine decât dumneavoastră. Dumneavoastră nu sunteți decât țărani săraci, abia scăpați din lanțurile robiei. Nu mai știți deloc să vă apărați. Prima sarcină a guvernului popular este de a vă proteja. Toți reacționarii, speculanții, spionii și trădătorii urmăriți de justiție se ascund prin sate, precum lupii îmbrăcați în piei de oaie. Tovarăși țărani, guvernul nu va îngădui ca cineva să vă înșele. El vă va ocroti. Acești reacționari sunt lupi și nu oi, cum ați putea crede. Noi îi vom demasca pe toți, noi îi vom jupui. Orice burghez este un lup care se hrănește cu sângele țăranilor”. 156 Therefore Boris Bodnariuk says, “In the communist revolution, we do not take the individual into account. Society is not made up of individuals, but of classes. As an individual, you have nothing on your conscience. But the bourgeois class is criminal, and we punish your class. You were part of it. You took advantage with her. You will be punished with it. It’s very simple.” (Gheorghiu 2012: 190). Origin. 2012: „În revoluția comunistă, noi nu ținem seama de individ, spuse Bodnariuk. Societatea nu

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was important only in the process of repression, when he was punished. But even in this context he was, in many situations, also guilty of the crimes committed by the class that he was part of. In the process of the collectivisation of agriculture, this aspect was very important. Romanian researchers like Dorin Dobrincu and Constantin Iordachi from Iassy (Dobrincu, Iordachi 2017) speak about this topic, showing how they were fabricated chiaburs and people who sabotaged the collectivisation process with propagandistic purpose. In one of his books that also approaches this topic, Virgil Gheorghiu emphasises information related to this topic. In Condotiera (Gheorghiu 2011) and The Second Chance (Gheorghiu 20120), he even offers painful landscapes that present the violence that accompanied the complex process. The accent is put on the fact that the entire process is seen as a revenge to the other classes that have previously exploited the ones which are now in the first row. He also speaks about how, in a very arbitrary way, in situations where there was nothing going bad, criminals were invented. The intention of the representatives of the party is clearly enounced in the words of one of the main characters of the book, when he dialogues with one of his former school colleagues who becomes, after the change of the social order, part of the oppressed class and asks for clemency: My mission is to exclude members of the upper classes from every town or village, as the dentist must remove decayed teeth. Any bourgeois is an outbreak of infection for the party. Society has political laws and in the name of these laws you must be eliminated. (Gheorghiu 2012: 190)157

If this was the situation in the problem of the collectivisation, it is predictable that any form of betrayal, real or imagined by the rulers from Moscow, Bucharest, Sofia or the other capitals of the communist countries, was punished in the most harsh way. There was no clemency for the betrayers, whether it was economic, military or political betrayal. Even the prisoners of war had the statute of betrayers, as can be seen from the words of Virgil Gheorghiu, who describes the situation of a general of the Russian army and some of his officers, who become

este compusă din indivizi, ci din clase. Ca individ, tu nu ai nimic pe conștiință. Dar clasa burgheză este criminală, iar noi pedepsim clasa ta. Tu ai făcut parte din ea. Ai profitat împreună cu ea. Vei fi pedepsit împreună cu ea. E foarte simplu”. 157 Origin. 2012: „Eu am ca misiune să exclud membrii claselor superioare din fiecare oraș ori sat, așa cum dentistul trebuie să scoată dinții cariați. Orice burghez este un focar de infecție pentru partid. Societatea are legi de igienă politică și în numele acestor legi tu trebuie să fii eliminat”.

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prisoners. When they had to be given back to the Russians by the Americans, they prefer suicide: When the Germans captured us, we were wounded, unconscious. You know that a Soviet soldier must not be taken prisoner. The Soviet soldier must die, but he must not be taken prisoner. But at that moment we had lost consciousness and could not commit suicide. Paragraph 193 of the Soviet Penal Code and Decree 270 of 1942, attached to this paragraph, stipulate that any soldier who falls alive into the hands of enemies is a traitor. The traitors are hanged. This is written in Article 14 of the Military Mistakes Regulation, mentioned in the Soviet Encyclopedia under number 289. According to Soviet customs, we must be hanged. But we fought for four years to cleanse the country of Germans and not to be hanged after they left on Victory Day. We did not liberate our homeland and then be hanged. (Gheorghiu 2012: 213)158

Together with this aspect, there are many other emphasised in Virgil Gheorghiu’s books. While in some of them he follows the destiny of the main characters, in others, he tries to present the change that interfered in the destiny of some communities and places. In still others, both of them are presented. Such an example can be seen in The Second Chance. Here, among other aspects, he sees the way the small village Piatra from the Moldavian part of Romania is changed under the communist work. The author emphasises both the positive aspects that can be found, and the negative ones. The contrasts are used in order to show the social discrepancies and the way the society is divided and how fear is maintained. Therefore, in the neighbourhood of the factory there was the prison, while in the houses there were no more fires, although the level of life was, under certain aspects, elevated: The streets in Piatra were now wide and paved. A factory had been built in the village. A new red building had been erected between the town of Molda and the village of Piatra: the prison.

158 Origin. 2012: „Când germanii ne-​au prins, eram răniți, fără cunoștință. Tu știi că un soldat sovietic nu trebuie să cadă prizonier. Soldatul sovietic trebuie să moară, însă nu trebuie să fie făcut prizonier. Dar în acel moment noi ne pierdusem cunoștința și nu puteam să ne sinucidem. Paragraful 193 din Codul Penal sovietic și Decretul 270 din 1942, atașat la acest paragraf, stipulează că orice soldat care cade viu în mâinile dușmanilor este un trădător. Trădătorii sunt spânzurați. Așa se scrie în articolul 14, din Regulamentul privitor la greșelile militarilor, menționat în Enciclopedia Sovietică sub numărul 289. După uzanțele sovietice noi trebuie să fim spânzurați. Însă noi am luptat vreme de patru ani de zile pentru a curăța țara de nemți și nu pentru a fi spânzurați după plecarea lor, în Ziua Victoriei. Noi nu ne-​am eliberat patria pentru a fi apoi spânzurați”.

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The lands had been collectivized. Most of the peasants worked in the factory and ate in the canteen. They only returned home for sleep. The houses in Piatra looked empty. There was no more fire. The peasants returned from the factory late in the evening, went to bed tired, and left at dawn. No smoke came out of the chimney of any house. There were no more fences. There were no cats, no dogs, no flowers at the windows. In fact, there were not even people in the village, except on Sunday, the day they had to go to the town hall for a meeting. The houses were deserted. (Gheorghiu 2012: 263)159

The sadness of life under Communism was therefore emphasised by the writer in his notes. But it must be said that he was not only concerned about the local realities, but also with the aspects of geopolitics. In his books, we find references to the main aspects of geopolitics. Yalta is referred to several times in his books (Gheorghiu 2020: 89–​90) and its consequences are approached too in different texts. The plot existing between the Americans and the Russians that accepted to split Europe in influence spheres is also presented and the attitude of Broz Tito is also mentioned in some of his books. Therefore, he says about this aspect: In a few days, the conference of the Danube states occupied by the Russians will take place. We have informed the Americans that this conference is the most important political event of our time. The heads of communist states in Eastern Europe want to separate Russia and create a federation of Danube communist states. The marshal of the southern Slavs will be elected head of these federations. Moscow has become aware of this plan. (Gheorghiu 2012: 256)160

159 Origin. 2012: „Ulițele din Piatra erau acum largi și pavate. În sat fusese construită o uzină. Între orașul Molda și satul Piatra se ridicase o clădire nouă de culoare roșie: închisoarea. Pământurile fuseseră colectivizate. Majoritatea țăranilor lucrau la uzină și luau masa la cantină. Nu se întorceau acasă decât pentru somn. Casele din Piatra păreau goale. Nu se mai făcea focul. Țăranii se întorceau de la uzină seara târziu, se culcau obosiți și plecau în zori. Nu mai ieșea fum pe coșul niciunei case. Garduri nu mai erau. În sat nu mai erau pisici, nici câini, nici flori la ferestre. Nu mai erau de fapt nici măcar oameni în sat, afară de duminică, zi în care ei trebuiau să meargă la primărie pentru ședință. Casele erau pustii”. 160 Origin. 2012: „În câteva zile va avea loc conferința statelor dunărene ocupate de ruși. Am adus la cunoștință americanilor că la această conferință se pune la cale cel mai important eveniment politic al timpurilor noastre. Șefii statelor comuniste din Europa de Est vor să separe Rusia și să creeze o federație a statelor comuniste dunărene. În fruntea acestor federații va fi ales mareșalul slavilor de sud. Moscova a luat cunoștință de acest plan”.

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The consequences of this attitude are briefly mentioned in other books written by the same author, who proves by that the fact that he was very well informed and interested in the faith of his country and of the other countries that were at the time under the domination of the communist regimes. This would therefore be the main aspects that define the reflections of Virgil Gheorghiu on Communism. Without being a theoretician of the ideology, he offers, masked under the dialogue between the characters, the narration or in some of the descriptions, some elements with philosophical and sociological value, describing the way the world had changed at a social, cultural and spiritual level by these regimes that arrived in the Eastern part of Europe. The fact that he was not very interested in the situation of the Chinese Communism, which is only sporadically mentioned, can be understood also due to the lack of sources that he had from this space. The way he denounces the communist abuses and the crimes committed by the aforementioned regimes is by using examples. Tough in most of the situations, the illustrations that he offers, all of them inspired from real examples (one of them from a famous situation that, at the time, was intensely debated), his method is efficient and comes to speak about the discrepancy that existed between theory and practice and between the pretexted image offered to the Occident, that was often considered as the real one, and the reality that existed in situ.

2.4 Conclusion As we see in the presentation, Virgil Gheorghiu’s reflections on Communism are complex and dynamic. The keywords of his conception can be considered: the extermination of the opposition on the part of the communists; the exile and the way the communist regimes have tried to reduce it to silence; the relationship between Communism and Capitalism; the deportation, both of the rich peasants, considered a problem for the complex process of collectivisation, and also of German population and other populations like the Jewish one; the way the Americans had sustained the Russians in the process of imposing Communism; or the destruction of the villages through industrialisation. Well informed, the Romanian writer speaks for the first time about the way the communists had arrived to sell human beings to the Occident (Gheorghiu 2011; especially the ones imprisoned for political reasons, that were bought by different Occidental institutions for amounts between 10,000 and 12,000 dollars and were reported as sales of fruits and vegetables in the official documents), and also about some of the atrocities committed by the Soviet army and aparatski. As has been already mentioned, he was not a theoretician of the ideology, although

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some aspects from this area can be found too in his writings (either inserted in some of the dialogues, or present in the narrative part, as descriptive passages), but rather a writer who tried to emphasise that, compared to theory, facts cannot be contested so easily. He also did that in order to make evident the discrepancy existing between the theory written by authors like the fathers of the dogmatic Marxism (Maxr 1947, 1964) and the implementation of their ideas in practice. The experiences that he lived through as a part of the exiled inspired him. Therefore, the presence of a spy sent by the secret services who had almost killed him (Gillyboeuf 2019: 88), was referred to in The Spy (Gheorghiu 1968) or in The Great Orthodox Council and the Great Exterminator (Gheorghiu 2018b), his experience from the camp and the information received there were also used in his later works, while the way the Romanian Securitate and the Secret Services managed to divide the exiles from Romania in spaces like Paris was also part of some of his works, together with the fight of the regime against the church and religion. As expected, although he speaks about the way Communism changed the life of the people in the entire Eastern Europe, the emphasis was put on his native country, Romania. The reasons were multiple: on one side, the writer was concerned with the situation of his country and of his family who remained there and whom he missed, on the other, from there he had more information, due to the fact that he was in touch with many people who arrived as political persons exiled in Paris, where he became, from1963, also a priest. Aspects like fear, disinformation, accusations and suspicion defined the communist regimes and they were emphasised there. The author even insists on the fact of how simple aspects like helping someone who was suffering could be considered by the regime as a crime (Gheorghiu 2020: 56). As can be seen, we have chosen to segment the chapter into two important parts that follow the chronological evolution of the situation. It was therefore interesting to observe during the presentation that the critics of the ideology and regime arrived since he was a war correspondent in Crimea and Bessarabia and on the Dolphin submarine, in 1942 and 1943. Here he realised how the life of the people can be radically changed because of the work of the regime, and developed a critical perspective on it. At the same time, it must be said that during the Second World War he considered the Jews as being guilty of all the communist abuses, after, especially starting from the sixth decade of the twentieth century, he started to present them as victims. Of course, the attitude is weird, considering also the fact that he was married to a Jewish lady. His silence in the context of all the charges brought against him by Virgil Ierunca and the French Press was also weird and unexpected. His anti-​Semitism must be seen in the context of the

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time and was probably also related with the attempt to draw the attention of the Legionary Movement and Antonescu Government, allied at the time with the Nazi Germany. In what measure this transforms him into a Nazi is still debatable. The insistence on the first period of Communism rather than on Ceaușescu’s era in his writings can be also correlated with his experience on the battlefield. Here he saw the cruelty of the Red Army and was deeply touched by its crimes. Most probably for this reason he emphasised in many of his books about the way the same institution exported Communism to the other countries, implementing the collectivisation model, for example, through odious crimes. Of course, the international situation and the way Communism was affected by the changes from the entire world in a society that started to become little by little a globalised one, was also investigated by the Romanian writer in his books. As per the custom in such a demarche, we must mention also the limits of this research. Unfortunately, besides the books published, out of which some were even best-​sellers, Gheorghiu also gave numerous lectures in different places all around the world and published several articles in journals from France, like Le Figaro. Unfortunately, we did not have access to them and this constitutes both a limit and a lack of the present research. A leading personality of the city, the writer was often invited to televised talk shows or to write and for sure, among the approached topics, there was also Communism. Here, more than in the books, he probably approached the topic in a more theoretical way and insisted less on examples and practical situations. Still, most probably, the ideas expressed in the sources that we investigated were the same and the differences were only of nuances. As a general conclusion of the present thematic unity, we can surely say that although his ideas are under certain aspects questionable, Virgil Gheorghiu offered interesting and complex reflections on Communism, underlining the main aspects that defined it and linking the ideology with practical life.

Chapter 3 Virgil Gheorghiu’s Conception of National-​Socialism 3.1 Introduction In the ninth paragraph of the most recent document of the Eastern Orthodox Church, titled For the Life of the World and released by the Greek Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in 2020, it is stipulated that: The Orthodox Church cannot judge all forms of human government as equivalent with one another, even though all fall far short of the Kingdom. It unequivocally condemns every kind of institutional corruption and totalitarianism, for instance, knowing that it can bring nothing but mass suffering and oppression. Neither does the Church insist that Christian citizens of established states are required in every conceivable situation to submit to the powers that be or to consent to the social and political orders in which they find themselves. Of course, Christ himself acknowledged the right of the civil authority to collect taxes when he said, “render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” (Matthew 22: 21). (https://​www.goarch.org/​social-​ethos, accessed 05. 12. 2020)

The same aspect is considered as being correct in most of the Christian traditions. But before Gheorghiu wrote his masterpiece, The 25th Hour (Gheorghiu 1948), and a few decades after, from 1963, when he became a priest and served the Romanian Orthodox Church in Paris, he was most probably not conscious of that. Even after, there were many priests who had no idea about this aspect. Moreover, it must be said on one side that his judgement of the regimes that we present here were made by him as a writer and philologist, while as a priest he never intended to judge them, but rather to emphasise the bad and good parts that can be found there. The reflections on Nazism are like those dedicated to Communism, based on his life experiences. The Romanian writer lived under all the regimes he presents in his books. As an employee of the army, of the Romanian embassy placed in a state created by the Nazis and ruled by a marionette president, but also as an exiled people, he saw both the way the political ideologies were transposed into action, and also their consequences. Particularly in the investigation of Nazism, interesting is the way his conception evolves in time, from the ideas expressed in the books dedicated to the Bessarabian and Bukovinian Campaigns (Gheorghiu 2008a), where philo-​Nazi accents can be found and they must be, in most of the situations, understood in a contextual way (Germans were at the time partners of the Romanian army and helped it to release the lands occupied by the Soviet Army), and the later notes

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dedicated to the topic, where although the author keeps a positive view of some aspects regarding the Germans and their ideas (and especially on some examples having in the centre the soldiers and their attitude), he defines in a clear way his position regarding the current and what it meant. We will investigate this aspect, but also other ones convergent to it, in our research. Like earlier, the methodology will remain the same and the basis of the demarche will be constituted by the investigation of the sources. Also we will segment the chapter in two parts, following the chronological separation. First part will be dedicated to his conception on National-​Socialism before the Romanian army had changed partners, while the second will be dedicated to the way he saw it and wrote about it in the exile books. We hope that the demarche will be both interesting and useful for the reader and will offer too the opportunity to discover in another way the Romanian culture and the history of this country during the Second World War.

3.2 Virgil Gheorghiu’s Conception of National-​Socialism before 23rd of August 1944 For sure this chapter will be shorter than the previous ones. If one expected here an evaluation or an interpretation of National-​Socialism like other authors did (see, for example, De Felice 1989), he will surely be disappointed. Virgil Gheorghiu was not interested in becoming a theoretician of political theology like Carl Schmitt (Schmitt 1996) or a critic of certain points of the ideologies like Hannah Arendt (Arendt 2006). Before the 23rd of August 1944, he tried to describe the facts and later he spoke about the consequences of the regime that resulted from the ideology. In order to have an evaluation of his conception regarding National-​Socialism before Romania changed sides and became the partner of Germany, its enemy, we must refer the books that created troubles for him and transformed him later, when exiled in France, into a writer criticised by the press from all side orientations (Gheorghiu 2010: 82), namely, his notes from the battlefield. Those books, reprinted and anthologised in 1993 by Father Gheorghe Neculoiu, are the ones that constituted the evidence for his incrimination as an anti-​Semite. Indeed, as we have already mentioned, in the previous thematic unities of this work there can be found such ideas. But as has been already said, we consider that they must be seen in the context and if one realises what it meant for a young Romanian, son of an Orthodox priest, to be married to a Jew, he might have understood why he tried to look like an anti-​Semite and avoid the racial laws imposed by governments like the Legionary one. At the same time, if we take a look at the

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fact that in the end his press legitimation was withdrawn for this reason after all his efforts to show that he was a good reporter and, from the ideological point of view, understood the context and the trends of the regime, we consider that the sacrifice was from far too big. Therefore, in order to understand the way he perceived National-​Socialism and how his conception changed during the time, we will go back to his earlier writings. It must be mentioned that although in those times they were printed and reprinted due to their propagandistic content and the foreword of the Romanian writer Tudor Arghezi (Gheorghiu 2017: 529), afterwards they were among the less referred and read. Even his contesters read only some of the incriminating passages and commented on them, and did not read the entire work, a fact that can be easily seen from the way the books were perceived and from their attitude (cf. Eliade 1999: 385). It must be also repeated that when he wrote those books, the Romanian army was a partner of the German one. The two were at the time fighting for the release of the lands of Bessarabia and Buckovina from the Communists who had occupied them. In this context, the motivation was a very strong one, a fact that explains the enthusiasm of the young writer before the departure. He notes in what later became a book of war reportages: The formalities for leaving the front took several days. I was counting the hours waiting for the moment when I had to start to write the biggest report of my life, the report of the war that our armies and the German armies were going beyond the prut. One day, when the newspapers were announcing the first victories on the front, in which I thought I would leave, I was given the mission to visit a camp with Bolshevik prisoners. (Gheorghiu 1993a: 11)161

Later, he was happy when the German armies bombed a hangar full with Russian planes162 and described the German soldiers who helped him as being 161 Origin. 1993a: „Formalitățile de plecare pe front au durat câteva zile. Număram ceasurile în așteptarea clipei în care trebuia să pornesc pentru a scrie cel mai mare reportaj din viața mea, reportajul războiului pe care armatele noastre și armatele germane îl duceau dincolo de Prut. Într-​una din zile, în care ziarele anunțau cu titluri mari primele victorii de pe front, în care credeam că voi pleca, am primit misiunea de a vizita un lagăr cu prizonieri bolșevici”. 162 “There were about thirty-​four Russian planes in this hangar. During a bombing raid, the German air force destroyed the hangar and all the equipment inside.” (Gheorghiu 1993a: 127). Origin. 1993a: „În acest hangar se aflau vreo treizeci și patru de avioane rusești. În timpul unui bombardament, aviația germană a distrus hangarul și toate aparatele care se aflau înăuntru”.

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professionals and gentlemen. Of course, if one seeks carefully, one will surely be able to find negative aspects also of National-​Socialism in his writings. Later, in his memoirs, the time when Hitler took in his hands the German destinies (Gheorghiu 2017: 480) was described as part of a huge event understood as the birth of a realm of evil163 and the fact that a common element with the Soviets was the desire to establish a new global order was underlined. At the moment, he saw them according to the mechanisms of propaganda used by the German army, as heroes and releasers of Romanian lands occupied by the Soviets. Moreover, he was inspired by their methods and even tried to imitate them at one time, a fact that was not accepted by his superiors. The passage was presented in the book, in the description of an episode where the author asks his officer permission for interviewing some of the heroes of the battlefield among the pilots, following the German model and he refuses:



“Give me permission to take a series of interviews with aviators who have committed heroic deeds,” I added. ‒ “Not. This is advertising. But the Germans, I say, practice this kind of propaganda. Photos and biographies of the heroes appear in all newspapers.” “Well, the Germans… It’s quite different there,” Colonel Forest replies with his polite politeness. I left the proposal.” (Gheorghiu 1993a: 25)164

The reason why it was refused is not clear and it may let the reader offer different interpretations. It will most probably remain a secret forever. At the same

163 “But in the West, another realm of evil was born, that of Hitler and Nazism. A kingdom of evil as frightening as that of the Soviets. In the blow to be blood red like that of the Soviets, Hitler’s is as brown as the bricks of the prison walls and the kilns of the crematoria. But apart from the color, the rest is exactly the same scourge. Hitler, like the Soviets, wants to conquer all the peoples of the planet and establish a new world order.” (Gheorghiu 2017: 480). Origin. 2017: „Dar, la Apus, tocmai s-​a născut o altă împărăție a răului, cea a lui Hitler și a nazismului. O împărăție a răului la fel de înfricoșătoare ca cea a sovietelor. În loc să fie roșie de sânge ca cea a sovietelor, cea a lui Hitler este brună cum sunt cărămizile zidurilor de închisoare și cuptoarele crematoriilor. Dar, în afara culorii, restul este exact același flagel. Hitleriștii vor la fel ca sovietele, să cucerească toate popoarele planetei și să stabilească o nouă ordine mondială.” 164 Origin. 1993a: „-​Dați-​mi autorizația să iau o serie de interviuri aviatorilor care au săvârșit fapte eroice, adaug eu. -​Nu. Asta e reclamă. Dar, nemții, spun eu, practică acest gen de propagandă. Fotografiile și biografiile eroilor apar în toate ziarele. -​Ei, nemțiii... Acolo e cu totul altceva, îmi răspunde cu politețea sa de gentlement, colonelul Pădure. Am părăsit propunerea”.

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time, the attitude of the officer too may be seen as a form of disagreement with German methods on the part of the officer, but also on the part of the writer. An aspect that he emphasises indirectly and through a comparison, is the degree of education and civilisation of the soldiers. Not only are the Russian ones presented, but also the German and the Romanian soldiers. The author is often put into the situation to remark that the Romanians and Russians are inferior in technique and attitude in front of the other army, which was, in one case the enemy and in the other the partner of the front (after 23rd of August 1944, they become the enemy of both of them). For example, when he is sent on the steps of the Bolshevik army which is forced to retreat in Bukkovina and Bessarabia, he not only sees what they left behind in the communities and is not only collecting the testimonies of the people who suffered in the context of the war, but he also testifies about what he saw. This is the reason why not just the two volumes of memoirs (Gheorghiu 1999a, 2002) or The Man Who Was Travelling Alone (Gheorghiu 2010), thought of as memoirs writings, have autobiographical passages in their contents, but also some of his books of poetry, the novels or the other books and articles. Among them, the reportages of war contain descriptions and impressions impregned with subjectivism. Such an example can help us to understand the degree of civilisation of the Russian army and of his heads (due to the fact that the author tries to emphasise the situation that he encounters as something with general relevance): The rooms are full of discarded papers, broken furniture, food scraps, dirty linen and empty, broken bottles. The Bolsheviks passed by here! … All the taps were left open for the airport to be flooded. The mattresses were cut with bayonets. One of the Bolshevik aviators tried to set the building on fire and poured gasoline over it, then set it on fire. The lightning smoked the walls and destroyed the furniture in the room, but the fire went out on its own. The flowerpots that adorned the airport are all burnt with fire and with blackened leaves. (Gheorghiu 1993a: 27)165

Although he does not say anything about the German soldiers, their manners or their attitude towards the society or about the way they understood fundamental

165 Origin. 1993a: „Camerele sunt pline de hârtii aruncate, de mobilier stricat, de resturi de mâncare, lenjerie murdară și sticle goale Și sparte. Pe aici au trecut bolșevicii!... Toate robinetele au fost lăsate deschise pentru ca aerogara să fie inundată. Saltelele au fost tăiate cu baionetele. Cineva dintre aviatorii bolșevici a căutat să incendieze clădirea și a turnat peste o dormeză benzină, dându-​i apoi foc. Flărările au afumat pereții și au distrus mobilierul din cameră, dar focul s-​a stins singur. Glastrele cu flori care împodobeau aerogara, sunt toate pârlite de foc și cu frunzele înegrite”.

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aspects like the hygiene, from the context it can be seen that using this comparison that is not at all flattering for the Russians, he wants to induce the idea of superiority in manners and attitude of the German army. Later, in a passage dedicated totally to the German soldiers, he comes back to the topic and offers a description that, this time, speaks without allusions to the German officers, their manners and their attitude. The episode takes place in the context when the Romanian writer needs to travel to Chișinău in order to accomplish his documentary work for the book containing notes of war. Then, his work was almost compromised due to the fact that in the context of the battles that took place there, nobody was travelling in this direction. Helped by an officer with good intentions, he eventually managed to depart for this destination. The moment when he met this man is described as follows:





A German non-​commissioned officer, who happened to be in the office, came after me immediately, after I greeted him leaving. I was not a little surprised when I heard the young German address me in the most correct Romanian language: ‒ You, Mr. Reporter, want to go to Chisinau and you have nothing to do with it? ‒ Yes, I said. I can help you with this. ‒ How, do you have a car going to Chisinau? ‒ We do not have. But that doesn’t matter … We’ll find a car. The kindness the German non-​commissioned officer showed me moved me. ‒ If you don’t happen to know about a car leaving for Chisinau tonight, I would ask you not to bother at all, I tell him. ‒ It’s not a nuisance, it’s just a simple act of camaraderie, he says, laughing. I felt very embarrassed, but I had to follow German NCO Bening, who sincerely insisted on serving me. ‒ But you’re not busy, NCO? ‒ Don’t do anything if I’m a few minutes late for you. And that’s how I do my duty, he says with a disarming confidence. We went up together to the German command in Bălți. How nice and friendly the German officers answer you! On the second floor of the building where the German command was located, Petty Officer Bening invited me to an office where he offered me a chair and asked me to wait a bit. ‒ I’ll be right back, he told me in his beautiful Romanian language. Less than five minutes passed and Petty Officer Bening returned with a beaten note to the car he read to me. It was written in this note bearing the stamps of the command and the signature of the respective commanders, that I am a reporter from the General Headquarters, that I have to go to Chisinau, and the first German car that has this destination and that I will stop, is obliged to transport me in Chisinau. Could more be done? (Gheorghiu 1993a: 49–​50)166

166 Origin. 1993a: „Un subofițer german, care se afla întâmplător în birou, a venit după

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From all his war notes, it must be mentioned that this is the biggest one where the author emphasises his perception about the Germans and their activity. It was used by his enemies as an argument against him and transformed into an incriminating writing (Lovinescu 1994:  66; cf. Stolojan 1996:  23; Țurcanu 2007: 487; Morariu 2017a: 186). But as can be seen, it has no ideological reference and the author limits his work to the description of a particular situation, with emphasis on human behaviour and not on the ideological aspects. Still, cut out from the context, it was a useful tool in the hands of the ones who did not know Romanian language. They generated a gigantic press campaign of denigration, where the left-​sided, the right-​sided and the central-​sided press from France united in accusing the writer of being a fascist for this writing (Gheorghiu 2010: 249).





mine imediat, după ce am salutat plecând. Nu mică mi-​a fost surprinderea când l-​am auzit pe tânărul german adresându-​mi-​se în cea mai corectă limbă românească: -​Dumneavoastră, domnule reporter, vreți să plecați la Chișinău și nu aveți cu ce? -​Da, i-​am răspuns eu. -​Pot să vă servesc eu în această chestiune. -​Cum, aveți dumneavoastră vreo mașină care pleacă spre Chișinău? -​Nu avem. Dar asta n-​are nici o importanță... Vom găsi o mașină. Amabilitatea pe care mi-​o arăta subofițerul german, mă emoționa. -​Dacă nu aveți întâmplător cunoștință despre vreo mașină care pleacă la Chișinău în seara aceasta, v-​aș rug să nu vă deranjați deloc, îi spun eu. -​Nu e vorba de nici un deranj, ci numai de un simplu fapt de camaraderie, răspunde dânsul, râzând. Mă simțeam foarte stingherit, totuși a trebuit să-​l urmez pe subofițerul german Bening, care insista sincer ca să mă servească. -​Dar dumneavoastra nu sunteți ocupat, domnule subofițer? -​Nu face nimic dacă voi întârzia câteva minute pentru dumneavoastră. Și în felul acesta îmi fac tot datoria, spune el cu o siguranță care dezarma. Am urcat împreună la comandamentul german din orașul Bălți. Cât de frumos și de prietenește îți răspund ofițerii germani! La etajul al doilea al clădirii în care se afla comandamentul german, subofițerul Bening m-​a invitat într-​un birou unde mi-​a oferit un scaun și m-​a rugat să aștept puțin. -​Eu mă-​întorc imediat, mi-​a spus dânsul în frumoasa lui limbă românească. Nu au trecut nici cinci minute și subofițerul Bening s-​a întors cu un bilet bătut la mașina pe care mi l-​a citit. Scria în acest bilet care purta ștampilele comandamentului și semnatura comandanților respectivi, că sunt reporter din Marele Cartier General, că trebuie să plec la Chișinău, iar prima mașina germană care are această destinație și pe care o voi opri, este obligată să mă transporte la Chișinău. Se putea oare face mai mult?”

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Like this passage, another one dedicated to Nazism also exists in his war notes. It has at its centre a German officer who, amazed by the Romanian landscapes, praises these lands and takes photos of it: The German officer next to the driver is amazed at the beauty of this road. He can’t control his exclamations of admiration. Then, he stops the car, takes out the camera and takes some photos. (Gheorghiu 1993a: 65)167

As can be seen, the ideological references are missing. Written with a propagandistic purpose, Gheorghiu’s war reportages insist on examples and on the presentation of certain situations that he considered worthy to be emphasised to the readers. The book certainly contains anti-​Semite references. But they are rather correlated with the Bolsheviks, who, at the time, probably influenced by the propagandistic discourse from Romanian and German space, he sees as related with the Jews. Exaggerations like the fact that all the Bolsheviks are Jews and they are responsible for all the crimes in Bessarabia and Bukovina can be found there. Of course, they must be also seen in relationship with his personal life and, as mentioned, with the fact that he was married to a Jew. Most probably, his anti-​Semite attitude was related with the attempt to move attention from his life to other secondary ones, in order to escape from the vigilance of the racial laws instituted by the Legionaries, to avoid the withdrawal of press legitimation and to not be fired. At the same time, the propagandistic mission that he was part of, somehow influenced the context and the content of the writings, forcing him to criticise the Bolsheviks and to have anti-​Semite passages (Germany was among the allies of Romania at that time) in order to be published. It must be also mentioned that at the time, many important intellectuals had far-​right orientation in the Romanian context and in the sense of “a gregaire esprit,” and the young writer who was in the process of formation, could be also influenced by some of them. The aspect must be taken into account that he knew people like Nichifor Crainic or Nae Ionescu and was even, during certain periods, in relationships with them, as can be seen from his memoir works. As a general conclusion of this thematic unity, we can say that Virgil Gheorghiu’s reflections on the National-​Socialism before 23rd of August 1944 can be seen in the books containing reportages of war that he published in this period. All the other books from the years of the war  –​excepting the one dedicated

167 Origin. 1993a: „Ofițerul german care se afla lângă șofer privește uimit frumusețea acestui drum. Nu-​și poate stăpâni exclamațiile de admirație. Pe urmă, oprește mașina, scoate aparatul și face câteva fotografii”.

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to Armand Călinescu (Gheorghiu 1940a), the Romanian prime minister killed by the Legionary Movement, that it is in fact a direct critique of the Legionary Movement and unfortunately was neglected both at the time of its publication and afterwards too, in the context of the conflict that brought him among the people accused of being Nazis or Legionaries –​are literary ones and do not contain references to the political life of Romania in that period (see Gheorghiu 1942b, 1943). Here, his conception is related mostly with two aspects, namely anti-​Semitism and the behaviour of the officers and soldiers of the German army that he interacted with. As has been already mentioned, although the first aspect can be in certain conditions correlated with his sympathy for National-​ Socialism, it is rather related with the propagandistic purpose of the book or with other aspects. The description of the attitude of the German army is rather related with their attitude in certain situations, rather than with the ideology behind the war that they were fighting. Moreover, it can be supposed that like many others, he was not aware of what happened in the extermination camps and of other aspects that could surely, as in fact can be partially seen from his writings, lead the writer to change his attitude towards the Jewish people and their recent history.

3.3 Virgil Gheorghiu’s Conception of National-​Socialism after 23rd of August 1944 Compared with the reflections written before the 23rd of August 1944, when Romania changed its partner and declared Germany as its enemy and became the partner of Russia, the ones published after this date contain more detailed evaluations of National-​Socialism from German space and even some analyses of the ideological aspects that defined a certain attitude. Aspects like the racial laws and the attitude towards the Jews, the way the Germans understood the others or the general context of the war are presented in a detailed manner by the Romanian writer. Perceived as a book whose purpose was to denounce totalitarianism, The 25th Hour (Gheorghiu 1991:  11), his masterpiece, classified by some of the Romanian critics of literature as the most important post-​war Romanian novel (Popa 2009:  644), contains the richest references to the topic from all his books. As has been already mentioned, he avoids classifying people into good or bad in his novels and even speaks in a laudatory way about a certain political way of organisation of the society. For him, Germans are not better than Russian or Americans. Both of them use different strategies in order to convince the others about their superiority. International justice is, according to his conception,

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myth and therefore he insists in each of his books on its deconstruction (Cuzmici 2015: 292). But together with his masterpiece (Gheorghiu 1948), complex reflections on the topic can be found also in books like La Cravache (Gheorghiu 1960), God Receives Only on Sunday (Gheorghiu 1975, 1990), The Second Chance (Gheorghiu 1993), in the first volume of his memoirs (Gheorghiu 1999a), or in The Man that Was Travelling Alone (Gheorghiu 2010). We will try to look at all of them and underline the particular aspects that define his reflections on the topic and to see, where necessary, how they influenced his life or how he was influenced by the experiences that he had to face as an employee of the Zagreb embassy (Ică 2008: 7; Gillyboeuf 2019: 34; George 2019b: 9), which was in fact a satellite republic created by Hitler and he was posted there in order to have access to the Eastern part of Europe. The conception about the German army changed during the conflagration, both for the author as also for the people. The Germans ethnically from Romania also had different perceptions regarding the army of their native land and its activity. In the beginning of The 25th Hour, he emphasises one of the main characters discovering that he is a German and has been accepted into his country’s army:





‒ That’s just to know who you’re dealing with! In a few days I’m wearing the uniform of SS non-​commissioned officer. I am a German citizen and I am going to do my duty to my country. Now you know why they released me from prison. It wasn’t what you imagined! The gendarme read Iorgu Iordan’s mobilization order. He knew that German citizens were being released from prisons, provided they returned to their country and enlisted in the army. He folded the paper and handed it back to the giant, smiling. ‒ Read here too! said Iorgu Iordan, pulling out another piece of paper. It was a letter of thanks. The giant had donated all his fortune to the German army to buy a Panzer with it. The ambassador of the Great German Reich had sent him a letter of thanks to prison. The gendarme opened it without being able to read it, because it was in German. But he looked at the swastikas and eagles in the header. Then he looked at the stamps. ‒ Are you selling the house, or are you keeping it? the gendarme asked. ‒ The panzer I bought with my money went on fire! said Iorgu Iordan, without answering the question. I’ll follow him soon. I’m not young anymore, but the Great German Reich needs me the way I am! (Gheorghiu 1991: 63–​64)168

168 Origin. 1991: „-​Asta numai ca să ştii cu cine ai de-​a face! în câteva zile îmbrac uniforma de subofiţer SS. Eu sunt cetăţean german şi mă duc să-​mi fac datoria faţă de patrie. Acum ştii de ce mi-​au dat drumul din închisoare. Nu era ce ţi-​ai închipuit!

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Like him, they were many Germans ethnically from the Romanian lands, that agreed with the activity and the attitude of their nation’s army. After 1948, some of them were deported to Siberia (Bufnea 2008; Corboca, Covalciuc, 2009; Dimitraki 2005; Iacobescu 2005; Nimigeanu 1958), while others just created the pretext that others of their compatriots had passed through such an experience. Gheorghiu insists on the fact that they were honest when they decided to enrol in the army of their country and some of the abuses are not related to their honesty, but rather to the way, on the basis of the ideology, they were forced to adopt a certain attitude. Another important aspect related with National-​Socialism that the Romanian writer took into investigation was the attitude of the Germans towards the Jewish people and the racial laws (seen as a direct consequence of such an attitude). There are many books where he insists on this aspect, and some of them contain also autobiographic references. Because, as has been previously mentioned, the writer and later the Romanian Orthodox priest was married to a Jewish woman, Ecaterina Burbea (Schneck) (Cubleșan 2011: 17; Gheorghiu 2017: 479). For this reason, the author tried for several years to keep the secret and even to look like an anti-​Semite in the eyes of the authorities. But in the end, his press legitimation was withdrawn and he was forced to find a new job outside his country. His drama was at certain places presented in his notes. In The 25th Hour, like in his life, a rich Jewish woman marries a Christian. Like his wife, she has a newspaper and tries to protect it from confiscation by the German army:





‒ I will remain the director and owner of the newspaper, Nora told her in the future. ‒ Leopold Stein knew that the woman in front of him had an impeccable logic. But the answer she had given him now was fanatical, and the fanatics have no logic. He

Jandarmul a citit ordinul de mobilizare a lui Iorgu Iordan. Ştia că cetăţenii germani erau eliberaţi din închisori, cu condiţia să se întoarcă în ţara lor şi să se înroleze în armată. A împăturit hârtia şi a întins-​o înapoi uriaşului, zâmbind. -​Citeşte şi aici! a zis Iorgu Iordan, scoţând altă hârtie. Era o scrisoare de mulţumire. Uriaşul donase armatei germane toata averea lui, ca să se cumpere cu ea un Panzer. Ambasadorul Marelui Reich German îi trimisese la închisoare o scrisoare de mulţumire. Jandarmul a desfăcut-​o fără s-​o poată citi, fiindcă era pe nemţeşte. Dar a privit zvasticile şi vulturii din antet. Apoi s-​a uitat la ştampile. -​Vindeţi casa, sau o mai păstraţi? a întrebat jandarmul. -​Panzer-​ul cumpărat cu banii mei a şi intrat în foc! a zis Iorgu Iordan, fără să răspundă la întrebare. Curând îl voi urma şi eu. Nu mai sunt tânăr, dar Marele Reich German are nevoie de mine aşa cum sunt!”

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never contradicted her again. He who renounces cold calculation must not be contradicted: any attempt to show him the truth becomes futile. ‒ Today, at noon, I married a Christian! said Eleonora West. The newspaper will be named after my husband. That way, no one will take my “West” even if Romania would become more racist than Germany! ‒ Are you really married? Leopold Stein was amazed. (Gheorghiu 1991: 110)169

In the end all her efforts prove to be in vain and the journal is confiscated. But beyond the sad end, the passage speaks about a social injustice based on the racial laws. About this aspect, he also wrote in books like The Second Chance, where he insisted on the absurdity of some of the legal prescriptions. Tinca Neva, the servant of Eddy Thall, a notorious Jewish actress from Romania, receives during the war the interdiction to work for somebody who is not a Christian. The police inform her mistress about the situation and about the legal prescriptions related to it in a raid that is made specifically with this purpose: The laws in force prohibit people of Semitic origin from having Christian staff. You have the obligation to pay her salary for three months and dismiss her. That’s all we ask of you. (Gheorghiu 2012: 33)170

What follows is something with Kafkaesque notes and a sad ending. The legal requests are successively rejected and the Jewish lady is forced to leave Romania and to give all her fortune to the servant. The sadness of Tinca Neva is huge and their protests transform her to an enemy of the people,171 making the police

169 Origin. 1991: „-​Eu voi rămâne directoare şi proprietară a ziarului şi în viitor, i-​a zis Nora. Leopold Stein ştia că femeia din faţa lui are o logică ireproşabilă. Răspunsul pe care ea i-​1 dăduse acum era însă de fanatică, şi fanaticii nu au logică. El n-​a mai contrazis-​o. Cine renunţă la calculul rece nu trebuie contrazis: orice tentativă de a-​i arăta adevărul devine inutilă. -​Astăzi, la amiază, m-​am căsătorit cu un creştin! a zis Eleonora West. Ziarul va fi trecut pe numele soţului meu. In felul acesta, nimeni nu-​mi va lua «Occidentul». chiar dacă România s-​ar face mai rasistă decât Germania! -​V-​aţi căsătorit cu adevărat? Leopold Stein era uimit”. 170 Gheorghiu 2012: „Legile în vigoare interzic persoanelor de origine semitică să aibă un personal creștin. Aveți obligația să îi vărsați în cont salariul pe trei luni și să o concediați. Este tot ceea ce vă cerem”. 171 Very interesting in this sense is the dialogue between her and Eddy Thall, that we reproduce hereunder for understanding both the context and the complexity of the

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imprison and persecute her. In the end, the only possibility left for Eddy Thall is to leave Romania and to give all her fortune to her servant in order to grant her the opportunity to leave and to remain close to the places where she grew up and to which she was deeply attached. Another interesting aspect regarding the reflections of the Romanian writer on National-​Socialism is the way he sees the inadvertences existing between pretended things and reality. The case of the character Milan Paternik from The Second Chance is illustrative in this sense. He came from a family that educated him in the spirit of the politics and was part of the Za Dom, a Croatian Military Warcry defined by the dictionaries of politics as:





situation, At the same time that during the First World War, there were some similar situations emphasised in the time by the press, both in Romania and in other countries: -​You’re not allowed to work for me anymore, Eddy Thall told her. The law forbids it. -​I’ll work for free, Tinca replied. The law cannot forbid me to wash my underwear on Thursday, as I have done all my life. -​The law forbids it, Tinca. If you wash tomorrow, we’ll both go to jail as two criminals. -​Do you think the police will inspect all the houses to see if anyone has washed them? -​A Christian woman no longer has the right to wash the clothes of a Jew. You are a Christian, I am a Jew. It’s a murder. -​The police should gather all the thieves and criminals in the country, miss, and when they have nothing left to do, go to the houses and check to see if the old women are washing their clothes,” said Tinca. -​It’s more important than criminals and thieves, Tinca. “If you wash my underwear, it’s a political crime. A greater crime than all crimes committed under the sun.” (Gheorghiu 2012: 69). Origin. 2012: „-​Nu mai ai permisiunea să muncești la mine, îi spuse Edy Thall. Legea interzice. -​Voi munci gratis, răspunse Tinca. Legea nu poate să-​mi interzică să spăl lenjeria joia, așa cum am făcut toată viața. -​Legea interzice, Tinca. Dacă tu speli mâine, noi vom merge amândouă la închisoare ca două criminale. -​Credeți că Poliția o să inspecteze toate casele ca să vadă dacă a spălat cineva? -​O creștină nu mai are dreptul să spele lenjeria unei evreice. Tu ești creștină, eu sunt evreică. E o crimă. -​Polițiștii ar trebui să strângă toți hoții și toți criminalii din țară, domnișoară, și când ei n-​or mai avea nimic de făcut, să meargă în case și să controleze dacă bătrânele spală lenjerie, spuse Tinca. -​E mai important decât criminalii și hoții, Tinca. Dacă-​mi speli lenjeria e o crimă politică. O crimă mai mare decât toate crimele săvârșite sub soare”.

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“Za Dom Spremni! (ENG. For Homeland Ready) –​Is a Croatian Military Warcry –​Salute which was used during the Second World War and the Yugoslav Wars, it marked the Croatian ethnicity and their ferocious spirit to defend their country and its boundaries. Today the Taunt or Warcry is considered a symbol of Croatian Nationalism and its usage in Far-​Right Politics has led it to be considered a “crime.” Groups like the Croatian Defence Forces (Hrvatske Obrambene Snage) have notably seen the usage of this during the Croatian War of Independence (1991–​1995)” (https://​www.urbandictionary.com/​ define.php?term=Za%20Dom%20Spremni, accessed 12. 02. 2021).

Helped by the German army, he managed to create a satellite republic of the Nazi one in Serbia (Gheorghiu 2012: 53) and exterminate all the Jews, applying ad-​litem the racial laws there. When he thought there were no more left in his country, he found that his mother was a Jew. Therefore, he was also half a Jew. This was a big problem both for his political attitude and for his career. Gheorghiu describes in detail his conversation with his mother, when she confesses to him that she is the only Jewish woman left in the country and she acted under cover.172 The indoctrination was so deep that when he found this, the leader

172 “I grew up in Za Dom. I never met another. I didn’t know there were points that needed to be applied in other countries or elsewhere. We cleaned the state of all inferior elements: gypsies, Orthodox, Jews. And the day came when Himmler shook my hand, congratulating me on organizing the new state. He told me: -​Germany has failed to liquidate all Jews as you did, General Milan Paternik. Your state is the only nationalist state in which there is only one Jew... -​There is none left, I say. There is not even a single Jew in our independent state. But Himmler smiled and said: -​You only have one Jew left, but you can leave him alive. Do you know who he was alluding to? -​To me, said Deborah Paternik. I am the only Jew in our independent state.” (Gheorghiu 2012: 54). Origin. 2012: „ –​Am crescut în Za Dom. N-​am cunoscut un altul. Nu știam să fi fost puncte care trebuie să fie aplicate în alte țări, ori în altă parte. Am curățat statul de toate elementele inferioare: țigani, ortodocși, evrei. Și a sosit ziua în care Himmler mi-​a strâns mâna, felicitându-​mă pentru organizarea noului stat. Mi-​a  spus: -​Germania n-​a reușit să-​i lichideze pe toți evreii așa cum ați făcut-​o dumneavoastră, generale Milan Paternik. Statul dumneavoastră este singurul stat naționalist în care nu mai există decât un singur evreu... -​Nu mai există nici unul, spun. În statul nostru independent nu mai există nici măcar un evreu. Himmler a surâs însă și mi-​a spus: -​Mai aveți un evreu, unul singur, dar pe acela puteți să-​l lăsați în viață. Știi la cine făcea aluzie? -​La mine, spuse Debora Paternik. Sunt singura evreică din statul nostru independent”.

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decided to end his life (at least pretended that he was intending to do it  –​in fact, it was just a subliminal message to his mother to commit suicide herself in order to end the story and to bring to the end the troubles that could arrive for her son). The dialogue between the two, mother and son, is given in detail in the book:



‒ My career, which for me is synonymous with life and the ideal –​is over. That’s why I came here tonight, Mom. He stood motionless for a moment. ‒ Because of me? ‒ Because of you, Mom. The old lady stood up and stroked his head. ‒ It’s all over, Milan said, pointing to a vial he’d taken out of his pocket. If you think there is another solution for me, please show it to me. As for me, I think all I have left is suicide. I can’t have a life other than Za Dom’s. Za Dom eliminated me because I am your son, the son of a Jew. (Gheorghiu 2012: 54)173

Beyond the text and its emotional value, the passage speaks about the way certain people could be educated that they were able to think of suicide or even killing their families in order to accomplish a task that was entrusted to them. Both in Communism and National-​Socialism this was a behaviour often encountered among those who were really committed to the ideology that they had embraced. Milan’s mother ended committing suicide in order to avoid her son’s problems (Gheorghiu 2012: 57), like many other women did during the war. The ideological aspect, expressed towards the doctrine of National-​Socialism, was an important aspect and generated, as we have tried to present, many strange situations. The author himself tried to present the absurdity of some situations, offering examples or even insisting on what was hiding beyond the words. Moreover, he was aware of the fact that even after the conflagration ended, certain behaviours and predispositions would still be active. An anthology of studies 173 Gheorghiu 2012: „Cariera mea, care pentru mine este sinonimă cu viața și idealul –​a luat sfârșit. Pentruasta am venit în această seară aici, mamă. Rămase pentru o clipă nemișcat. -​Din cauza mea? -​Din cauza ta, mamă. Bătrâna doamnă se ridică și îl mângâie pe cap. -​Totul a luat sfârșit, spuse Milan și îi arătă o fiolă pe care o scosese din buzunar. Dacă crezi că există pentru mine o altă soluție, te rog să mi-​o arăți. În ceea ce mă privește, cred că mi-​a rămas doar sinuciderea. Nu pot să am o altă viață în afară de cea a Za Dom-​ului. Za Dom-​ul m-​a eliminat pentru că sunt fiul tău, fiul unei evreice”.

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published in 2018 by Mikeal Shainkman, whose aim was to see historical developments and the potential future trends of anti-​Semitism (Shainkman 2018) came to show that even today there are places on earth where this behaviour is increasing (Della Pergola 2020: 15). Shortly after, when countries like Poland were in a process of turning Communist, there were for sure many people who still shared the perception according to which the Jewish people were the embodiment of evil. It must not be forgotten that at a certain period of history (Gheorghiu 1942) Virgil Gheorghiu himself was, at least at a theoretical level, almost convinced about the fact that the anti-​Semitism was something normal and that Jewish people were the ones thanks to whom Communism was born. Later, in books like The Second Chance, under the influence of what he had to leave in Heidelberg camp and among the foreigners and the enemies coming among his compatriots, he seemed to change his perception. His writings after 1948 contain rich passages where the author speaks about the sufferings endured especially by Jewish people, but not exclusively from the German side (he was conscious that there were persecuted people from this nation also under the Communism in Russia and in other countries). He also insisted on the fact that once impregned into the mentality, a belief was difficult to withdraw and that there were, after the war, many maniacs who were deeply convinced that killing a Jew has a very important social meaning.174 Such an example is presented by him in the aforementioned book. Here, after a long odyssey, Eddy Thall, departed from Romania where the racial laws force her to leave the country while she was trying to emigrate to Israel, arrives in Russia, where together with other people, she is sent into the desert, forced to work like the imprisoned people and almost killed. In a moment of relaxation, she manages to escape from there and goes to Poland, marries a man that she loves and with whom she has a child. When the child is ill, during a tenebrous night, she seeks for a doctor in her neighbourhood and asks for help. In fact, it was one of the Nazis hiding who pretends to be a doctor and murders her small child, after realising that they were Jewish people: 174 About the existence of disgusted Nazis and their hate for Jews, more will be written more during the time. Even in the United States, Thomas Merton, one of the most famous Trappist in the world, who left a very interesting spiritual autobiography, noted their presence and the existence of the anti-​Semitism that was not even hidden by them, in the years after the war. Reminded of a trip that he had to the Manhattan in the 50s, he writes: “But when September came I sailed for England once more. This time I made the crossing of the Manhattan, a garish and turbulent cabin class steamer full of Nazi spies working as stewards and detesting the Jewish passengers.” (Merton 1948: 118).

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‒ The doctor’s hand did not tremble. Safe, she stroked the baby’s skin. His forehead was dripping with sweat. Eddy Thall’s Russian accent, Isaac Solomon’s physiognomy, Orly’s name were enough. It had to do with Jews. He was convinced now. He injected, emptying the syringe with one secure hand. ‒ Everything will be fine by tomorrow, he said. Come back tomorrow. However, I think there will be no need.

Eddy Thall had smiled at the thought that Orly would be healthy the next day and that she would no longer need a doctor. The doctor accepts the cigarette offered by Isaac Solomon and continues to look at him intently. He was safe now. He was not deceived. The ones he was dealing with were Jews. ‒We’ll discuss the fee tomorrow, he said, because you’ll come to me again tomorrow. He left the door ajar until the footsteps of Eddy Thall and Isaac Solomon could no longer be heard. (Gheorghiu 2012: 167–​168)175

Such experiences were surely not singularities in the times after the war. In many cases, they led to tremendous damage and forced people to leave their homes and to emigrate. The increase of the wave of emigration of Jewish people to Israel from the communist countries in the sixth and seventh decade of the twentieth century, but also in the previous one, must be also sought in the anti-​Semite attitude, sometimes masked, but existing in Eastern Europe. And this attitude was, in its turn, linked also with National-​Socialism. Moreover, there were many people who, years later, refused to believe that the Germans had lost the war.176

175 Origin. 2012: „Mâna doctorului nu mai tremura. Plină de siguranță, ea mângâia pielea copilului. Fruntea lui era leoarcă de sudoare. Accentul rusesc al lui Eddy Thall, fizionomia lui Isaac Solomon, numele de Orly îi erau de ajuns. Avea de-​a face cu evrei. Se convinsese acum. Făcu injecția, golind seringa cu o mână sigură. -​Până mâine totul va fi în ordine, spuse el. Reveniți mâine. Totuși cred că nu va mai fi nevoie. Eddy Thall surâse la gândul că Orly va fi sănătoasă în ziua următoare și că nu va mai avea nevoie de medic. Doctorul acceptă țigareta oferită de Isaac Solomon și continuă să-​l privească atent. Era sigur acum. Nu se înșela. Cei cu care avea de-​a face erau evrei. -​Vom discuta mâine despre onorariu, spuse el, căci mâine veți veni din nou la mine. Lăsă ușa întredeschisă până ce pașii lui Edy Thall și ai lui Isaac Solomon nu se mai auziră”. 176 “I do not think the war is lost! said Hilda. The people of the city fled to the forests or to the country. All the neighbours are gone. I say the Russians are 10 kilometres away. But I don’t think so. This is enemy propaganda to cause panic! I’m staying here. I know Germany will win the war!” (Gheorghiu 1991: 206). Origin. 1991: „Eu nu cred că războiul e pierdut! a zis Hilda. Lumea din oraş a fugit în păduri sau la ţară. Toţi

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Without saying like Gaston Fessard, for example, that Communism and Nazism are the same (Petrache 2017:  48), Virgil Gheorghiu insisted on the fact that compromise existed and was used to the detriment of the people. His reflections on National-​S ocialism also contain passages dedicated to this aspect. In The 25th Hour, there are plenty of passages speaking about the discrepancies existing between the official discourse and the realities. It will not be possible, due to the dimensions of this research, to emphasise or analyse all of them. An interesting example of a multiple compromise, based in fact on a lie, can be found in one episode where the author presents both the reports of Hungary in the relationships with the Reich, and also the Hungarian attitude towards themselves. Here, a political debate is presented, where the Hungarian government is asked to send to Germany 50,000 people for work. They were supposed to be used in factories, to produce weapons for the war. The politicians of the country were in a complicated situation and could not refuse the request, as they were otherwise risking a military occupation of their country, but at the same time they were not delighted to send their compatriots to be kind of slaves of their allies, so they decided to send foreigners who were prisoners or imprisoned for different reasons. All of them were declared Hungarian citizens and used to please the one who requested. The first part of the debate is interesting, where the accent falls on the idea that no compromise is possible. In fact, as a writer, Gheorghiu tries to emphasise the fact that, compared to the Communist governments, the ones before them had, despite all the moral troubles of some of the members, also politicians with attitude, verticality and moreover, with a sense of history:



‒ Of course, we have to give something. The balance of relations between us and Germany must be maintained as it is. There are no equal relations, we recognize it with pain. Hungary’s situation vis-​à-​vis the Great Reich is in fact a subordinate position, not an ally. But we can only change it with that of a militarily occupied country, and it would be worse! Initially, we were asked for 300,000 workers. The figure has been reduced, after desperate negotiations, to 50,000. But we have to give them! ‒ My government does not send any Hungarian citizens to the Germans as slaves! said the head of government, congested with anger. The matter is closed!

vecinii au plecat. Spun că ruşii sunt la 10 kilometri. Dar eu nu cred. Asta e propaganda duşmanului, ca să provoace panică! Eu rămân aici. Eu ştiu că Germania va câştiga războiul!”

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‒ Germany cares a lot about this request! insisted the foreign minister. The request was sent to us as an ultimatum. Their industry has an acute need for labor. If we don’t give at least 50,000 people, our refusal can be fatal. I am informed that, in case of rejection of the application, the military occupation of Hungary by the German army is imminent. I am obliged to inform you as well. Assume the responsibility, gentlemen! ‒ We can find a compromise! suggested a minister. ‒ If we send a single Hungarian as a slave to the Germans, the situation remains serious, and history will not forgive us! said the head of government, therefore, our answer is a resounding no. There are no compromises here! (Gheorghiu 1991: 135)177

The sense of history, or rather of responsibility in front of it can be seen in the second part of the episode, where the officials decide to send foreigners who will be declared as Hungarians in order to avoid diplomatic misunderstanding and a potential military occupation of their country: After half an hour of talks, a compromise was finally found. It was decided to send 50,000 non-​Hungarian workers to Germany, but who, as far as possible, would not have proven nationality. The interior minister said:

177 Origin. 1991: „-​De dat, trebuie să dăm ceva. Echilibrul relaţiilor dintre noi şi Germania trebuie menţinut aşa cum este. Nu sunt raporturi de egalitate, o recunoaştem cu durere. Situaţia Ungariei faţă de Marele Reich este de fapt o poziţie de subaltern, nu de aliat. Dar n-​o putem schimba decât cu aceea de ţară ocupată militariceşte, şi ar fi mai rău! Iniţial, ni s-​au cerut 300 000 de lucrători. Cifra a fost redusă, după tratative disperate, la 50 000. Pe aceştia trebuie să-​i dăm însă! -​Guvernul meu nu trimite nemţilor nici un cetăţean maghiar ca sclav! a zis şeful guvernului, congestionat la faţă de mânie. Chestiunea este închisă! -​Germania ţine foarte mult la această cerere! a insistat ministrul de externe. Cererea ne-​a fost trimisă ca un ultimatum. Industria lor are o nevoie acută de braţe de muncă. Dacă nu dăm măcar 50000 de oameni, refuzul ne poate fi fatal. Sunt informat că, în caz de respingere a cererii, ocuparea militară a Ungariei de către armata germană este iminentă. Sunt dator să vă informez şi pe dumneavoastră. Răspunderea v-​o asumaţi domniile-​voastre! -​Putem găsi un compromis! a sugerat un ministru. -​Dacă trimitem un singur maghiar ca sclav la nemţi, situaţia rămâne tot gravă, şi istoria nu ne va ierta! a zis şeful guvernului, în consecinţă, răspunsul nostru este un refuz categoric. Aici nu există compromisuri!”

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‒ That’s how we save Hungarian blood. “History will not be able to accuse us of sending Hungarians into slavery. Our goal is so noble that the means used will be excused from history!” (Gheorghiu 1991: 136)178

The later official statement179 comes to certify a state of facts. At the same time, he not only speaks about the forced labour that has been also approached by other authors (Allen 2004), but also about some subtleties of history and of the approach of political discourse under its pressures. In fact, the responsibility in front of history was a pretext to commit a double injustice on the part of the representatives of the allies of the Nazi Reich. On one side, they were dishonest with the ones they claimed to be their allies, whom they were not allowed to refuse due to the state of forces, because in case of a clear refusal, they risked becoming a colony occupied by the military forces and losing an apparent status quo that granted them their status as allies, and therefore cheating them, and on the other, sacrificing innocent people who were sent to work in order to allow to the native German to do other tasks considered superior (Blackburn 1985: 21). Moreover, despite all the official papers, those sent to work for the others (prisoners, Jewish people, exiled running from countries like Romania or Communist Russia, beggars and so on), were not even informed about this fact. They were surprised to discover it in a random way, thorough a coincidence: One morning, Moritz got off the train to defecate. There were no toilets on the train, and they waited for the train to stop. Then they scattered around the wagons, guarded by sentries. Now the train stopped in the middle of the field. It was a rainy day. Moritz

178 Origin. 1991: „După o jumătate de oră de discuţii, s-​a găsit, în fine, un compromis. S-​a hotărât să se trimită în Germania 50 000 de lucrători neunguri, dar care, pe cât posibil, să nu aibă naţionalitate dovedită. Ministrul de interne a zis: -​Astfel salvăm sângele maghiar. Istoria nu ne va putea acuza că am trimis unguri în sclavie. Scopul nostru este atât de nobil, încât mijloacele utilizate ne vor fi scuzate de istorie!” 179 The statement was formulated as follows: “Official statement. At yesterday’s small meeting, the Council of Ministers decided to facilitate visa and travel conditions for Hungarian workers who want to go to Germany to specialize in the various branches of the technical industry. The number of workers offered this opportunity by the government is currently a maximum of 50,000.” (Gheorghiu 1991: 136–​137). Origin. 1991: „Comunicat oficial. În şedinţa restrânsă de ieri, Consiliul de miniştri a luat hotărârea de a înlesni condiţiile de viză si de călătorie pentru muncitorii maghiari care vor să plece în Germania, spre a se specializa în diferitele ramuri ale industriei tehnice. Numărul lucrătorilor cărora li se oferă acesta posibilitate de către guvern este deocamdată de maximum 50 000.”

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stayed outside for a long time by the train. When he returned, he saw that on each car he wrote in chalk something in German. He approached and read: Hungarian workers greet their comrades from the Great German Reich! On the second car was: Hungarian workers working for the Axis victory! Moritz began to fear that it was true that they were taking them to Germany. On the next car he wrote: Hungarian workers working for the New Order in Europe! Johann Moritz called Antim and showed him. ‒ Now do you want the Hungarians to sell us to the Germans?” the student asked. ‒ I still don’t think so! said Moritz. That’s unbelievable! ‒ Wait and you’ll be convinced!” (Gheorghiu 1991: 141)180

An aspect that has not been enough highlighted by the historiographical research, at least at the level of comparison between the German space and the Russian one (due to the fact that the Soviet conditions of work have been again and again emphasised in different works and the emphasis was put on forced labour and how, thorough it, many lives were destroyed in spaces like Siberia), is the forced labour that existed also in Germany. Starting from this passage that has as a central point the fact that the Hungarian government was forced to send to Germany people who provide a kind of forced labour and decide to avoid this, but in a very diplomatic way, by sending people who were not from their nation and who had been imprisoned for different reasons, Virgil Gheorghiu insists also on this aspect in his masterpiece. The hostility of the Germans in relationship with the strangers, their attitude of superiority is depicted in a complex narrative construction that brings together both the description and the dialogue. Moreover, the ideological aspect is also presented, due to the fact that one important element that motivates a discriminative attitude coming from the German side is related with the racial aspect. In order to avoid the thinning or the alteration of the Aryan race, it was forbidden for a stranger to get in contact with any German woman. 180 Origin. 1991: „Într-​o dimineaţă, Moritz a coborât din tren, ca să-​şi facă nevoile. În tren nu erau closete, şi ei aşteptau până oprea trenul. Atunci se împrăştiau prin jurui vagoanelor, păziţi de santinele. Acum trenul oprise în plin câmp. Era o zi ploioasă. Moritz a rămas mai îndelung afară, lângă tren. Când s-​a întors, a văzut că pe fiecare vagon scrie cu creta ceva pe nemţeşte. S-​a apropiat şi a citit: Muncitorii unguri salută pe camarazii lor din Marele Reich German! Pe al doilea vagon era: Muncitorii unguri lucrează pentru victoria Axei! Moritz a început să se teamă că e adevărat că-​i duc în Germania. Pe vagonul următor scria: Muncitorii unguri lucrează pentru Noua Ordine în Europa! Johann Moritz 1-​a chemat pe Antim şi i-​a arătat. -​Acum vrezi că ungurii ne-​au vândut nemţilor? a întrebat studentul. -​Tot nu cred! a zis Moritz. Asta nu-​i de crezut! -​Aşteaptă şi-​ai să te convingi!”

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The way Germans have epurated from their people the people with disabilities has been already presented in many researches (Griffin 2007: 38–​42; Rose 2005: 195 et passim) and the way the ethical and philosophical foundations of National-​ Socialism have impacted the daily life of the people has constituted also the topic of different books (see, for example, Flandorfer 2016). Therefore, from the historical point of view, the behaviours criticised by the Romanian writer can be proved on the basis of the sources. In an important chapter of the bildungsroman that has as a main character Josep Moritz, Gheorghiu emphasises one of his dialogues with the German soldier who had the task to monitor his work. This one insists on the aforementioned aspect, namely the fact that a foreigner is not allowed to have any contact with a German lady. Otherwise, punishments are to be expected. Prison or even death could be counted among them. He even offers him some examples of bad behaviours, in order to make clear the fact that Reich does not tolerate any form of disobedience of this rule: Our motto for foreign workers is: “Discipline, obedience, work, order!” We also have German workers here. I warn you that any contact with a German woman is punishable by at least five years in prison. The director does not tolerate anything. Every German woman has a decision to sentence her to five years in prison; if you put your hand in her breast, you have the decision! Don’t think you’re taking anything else from her! The Hungarian I had here is now in prison. I told him the same thing when he came, but he ignored it. He thought that if it was dark and he hid with the woman under the blanket, no one would see him. But in the Great German Reich every movement can be seen. Right under the blanket! There’s nothing you can do without us finding out. And what thoughts go through your head we know! We photograph all your thoughts ten times a day! Now, point two: our factory is working for war. Everything you see and hear is a military secret. The foreign worker does not have to know what works, how he works and how long the factory works. If you try to find out, your head is cut off. An Italian was executed in January. Now it is the process of a Czech. They both tried to find out the secrets of the Knopf und Sohn factory! (Gheorghiu 1991: 148)181

181 Origin. 1991: „Deviza noastră pentru muncitorii străini este: „Disciplină, supunere, muncă, ordine!”. Aici avem şi lucrătoare germane. Te fac atent că orice contact cu o femeie germană se pedepseşte cu cel puţin cinci ani de închisoare. Domnul director nu tolerează nimic. Fiecare femeie germană are în sân o decizie de condamnare la cinci ani de închisoare pentru tine; dacă îi bagi mâna în sân, ai decizia! Să nu crezi că iei altceva de la ea! Ungurul pe care l-​am avut aici e acum la închisoare. Şi lui i-​am spus tot aşa când a venit, dar n-​a ţinut seamă. Credea că, dacă e întuneric şi dacă s-​a ascuns cu femeia sub pătură, nu-​1 vede nimeni. Dar în Marele Reich German se vede orice mişcare. Chiar sub pătură! Nu poţi face nimic fără să aflăm noi. Şi ce gânduri îţi trec prin cap ştim! îţi fotografiem de zece ori pe zi toate gândurile! Acum, punctul

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German sexual ethics were therefore related with the political aspects. In fact what the soldier suggests is also the fact that, beyond the alteration of the race, getting in contact with a German woman could be also motivated, in case of the strangers, by the desire to find military secrets, for espionage. Later, the aspect related with the topic is also enounced by him, in the final part of the monologue that was supposed to contain instructions for the new arrival. Another important element of Virgil Gheorghiu’s reflections on National-​ Socialism and its practical forms is the way he sees the material aspect. One who reads superficially his writings or does not focus on the ideological aspects that define his reflections on this topic may be tempted to believe that the author considers only the Americans as being part of a consumerist society, as is emphasised in works like The American Eye (Gheorghiu 2013a; Gheorghiu 2019a) or other works that critique American Capitalism (Gheorghiu 2019). Others may extend this exception to all the capitalist societies, due to the fact that The Heidelberg Unknowns (Gheorghiu 2015) or God in Paris (Gheorghiu 2016) seem to suggest this aspect too. The reality is that he also extends this conception to German Nazism. When speaking about Communism, the emphasis is put on aspects like the material and food penury and on the fact that the people feel hunger under those categories of regimes, together with fear. Here, he insists on both negative and positive aspects of the society and on the way the perception of the public sphere is constructed, and also on their acceptance of aspects like production and overproduction and on the discrepancies existing in the society, where poverty was increased by the war and the huge investments made by the German army not only in the creation of weapons and military techniques, but also in the peripheral aspects like clothes. When he arrived in Germany, Moritz was sent to work in a factory that produced buttons. But their destination was exclusively the army, and production was not directed, even in a small portion, to the people. Therefore, in his mind, complex, but at the same time normal questions arise, due to what he sees: After a while, however, he found himself wondering what Germany would do with so many military buttons. All the German soldiers and officers he saw had buttons on their tunics and coats! So the ones that are being made now are for the new uniforms. Johann Moritz looked at the crates that flowed one after the other, like a river, and said to

doi: fabrica noastră lucrează pentru război. Tot ce vezi şi tot ce auzi este secret militar. Lucrătorul străin nu trebuie să afle ce lucrează, cum lucrează şi cât lucrează fabrica. Dacă încerci să afli, ţi se taie capul. În ianuarie a fost executat un italian. Acum еstе procesul unui ceh. Amândoi au căutat să afle secretele uzinei Knopf und Sohn!”

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himself: “There must be millions of buttons here! Enough for the whole German army! Maybe it’s an order to make new uniforms for all the soldiers: that’s why so many buttons are made!” (Gheorghiu 1991: 151)182

Besides the simple thoughts of a man who is forced by his faith to become a traveller in order to survive and has a strange destiny,183 being initially confused with a Jew and later with a German, but proving in the end to be a lucky man, there is a deep hermeneutics. Gheorghiu’s aim was, as we have tried to show previously, to emphasise the fact that while the country was suffering from different

182 Origin. 1991: „După o vreme, s-​a pomenit însă întrebându-​se ce-​o fi făcând Germania cu atâţia nasturi militari. Toţi soldaţii şi toţi ofiţerii germani pe care i-​a văzut el aveau nasturi la tunici şi la mantale! Cei care se fabrică acum sunt deci pentru uniformele noi. Johann Moritz s-​a uitat la lăzile care veneau curgând una după alta, ca un fluviu, şi şi-​a zis: «Aici trebuie să fie milioane de nasturi! Ajung pentru toată armata Germaniei! Poate e ordin să se facă la toţi soldaţii uniforme noi: de aceea se fabrică atâţia nasturi!” 183 As Paul Miclău shows in the first translation in Romanian language of the book, which was in 1991. Speaking about Johann Moritz and his destiny, he says: “As a camp guard, Johann facilitates the escape of a group of Frenchmen and ends up in... American camps, where he is suspected of being a Nazi war criminal. In other words, the absurdities accumulate one after the other in a kind of delusional sarabande. But Johann does not revolt, he does not try to save himself on his own initiative. Is he a resigned fatalist, a Romanian who knows he can’t change the face of the world? To some extent, yes. But above all, it is Johann, the living presence, who seeks his place in the new universe where he is thrown. Moreover, Johann is an innocent whose purpose comes from the nature of things and people. Innocent, he curls candor, purity. Naive, however, he is not poor in spirit; on the contrary, he is convinced that there is a misunderstanding in the middle, and every time he is called to the chiefs, he firmly believes that they will announce his release; if this does not happen, he still explains that he is the victim of a misunderstanding, he insists on being released.” (Miclău 1991: 2). Origin. 1991: „Ca paznic de lagăr, Johann facilitează evadarea unui grup de francezi şi ajunge el însuşi în... lagărele americane, unde este suspectat de a fi criminal de război nazist. Altfel spus, absurdurile se acumulează unul după altul într-​un fel de sarabandă delirantă. Dar Johann nu se revoltă, nu încearcă să se salveze din proprie iniţiativă. Este el un fatalist resemnat, un român care ştie că nu poate schimba faţa lumii? într-​o anumită măsură, da. Înainte de toate însă Ion este, prezenţă vie, care îşi caută locul în noul univers unde este aruncat. Mai mult însă, Ion este un inocent al cărui rost vine din firea lucrurilor şi a oamenilor. Nevinovat, el frizează candoarea, puritatea. Naiv, el nu este însă sărac cu duhul; dimpotrivă, este convins că la mijloc este o neînţelegere şi de fiecare dată cînd e chemat la şefi, crede ferm că aceştia îi vor vesti eliberarea; dacă lucrul nu se înfâmplă, el explică totuşi că e victima unei neînţelegeri, insistă să fie eliberat.”

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privations, in the factories extra clothes and accessories were manufactured in order to be used either in case of the deterioration of the old ones, or in case of the arrival of new recruits. At the same time, if it is read in the context, the passages that clearly emphasise the fact that at that time the country was rather close to the end of the war than to its beginning and the front had already started being unfavourable to them, the reader could understand the accents of irony inserted there, where the aim was to show that Hitler and the leaders of the state were not capable at the time of evaluating with precision their situation and using in a proper way the resources that they had at the time. The high level of indoctrination of the people made by the Nazis constitutes also an approached topic in the work of Virgil Gheorghiu. He uses some landscapes from the end of the war in order to illustrate it. The same Johann Moritz, the main character, eventually arrives, in a context of circumstances falls in love with the German Hilda. The narration is structured in such a way that it not only allows this relationship between the two, but even stimulates it. (Moritz is found by a German doctor as being part of one of the highest German races and therefore is allowed to fall in love and have relationships with German ladies.) At the end of the war, he, as a stranger, realises that there is a possibility that Nazis will lose it. When he confesses this fear to Hilda, she seems not only disappointed by his approach, but also disagrees with him. Among the two ways that she sees the victory of the death, his version is not included:



Hilda greeted Johann Moritz on the doorstep. She was dressed for going to the movies. Moritz doesn’t know what movie he saw: his thoughts were elsewhere. He only remembers Wochenschau. It showed the fighting on the front. Broken tanks, burned houses, dead people. The front was now close to the German borders. When they left the cinema, Johann Moritz was silent. She noticed that he was gloomy and asked him if he was ill. Moritz didn’t feel like talking. Before going to bed, he looked at the child in the cradle. Then he went to bed, but could not sleep. ‒ Hilda, if Germany loses the war, what do we do? he asked. ‒ Germany does not lose the war! Hilda replied. Moritz thought of the battles on the front he had seen in the cinema, on the map, on Joseph, on the child in the cradle. And he said: ‒ Hilda, I know Germany is not losing the war. But if he happens to lose it, what do we do? He will take me prisoner. What will you and Franz live with? ‒ Either we win, or we die to the last! said Hilda. No true German will agree to live in an occupied Germany! (Gheorghiu 1991: 184)184

184 Gheorghiu 1991: „Hilda l-​a întâmpinat pe Johann Moritz în prag. Era îmbrăcată de mers la cinematograf. Moritz nu ştie ce film a văzut: gândurile lui erau în altă parte.

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The later evolution of the facts seems to confirm Moritz’s fears. Frightened, the people start to run from the town in order to avoid the risk of being taken prisoners. Still, among them, there are some who refuse to believe in this evolution of the facts. The same Hilda illustrates their category. In a dialogue with an officer running from the battlefield where the Russians have occupied everything, she shows a fact proved by the historians, namely the efficiency of the propagandistic work made by Hitler’s team (Welch 1993: 45): ‒ I don’t think the war is lost! said Hilda. The people of the city fled to the forests or to the country. All the neighbors are gone. I say the Russians are 10 kilometers away. But I don’t think so. This is enemy propaganda to cause panic! I’m staying here. I know Germany will win the war! (Gheorghiu 1991: 206)185

The answer of the officer comes to shake her convictions and to bring her back to a cruel reality. The war was lost, the Fuhrer had committed suicide and the predictable close future was one that spoke about an occupied Germany. Still, the decision of the man is interesting and speaks about many aspects. Because he decides to do something similar to his leader –​commit suicide: ‒ Now the Fuhrer is dead too! continued he. Germany no longer exists! I lived only for it. When I was young, I also liked horses; but that was a love of youth! All my ideals have died before my eyes, one after another: my wife, my daughter, the Fuhrer and my homeland! Now it’s my turn. In half an hour, the Russians will be here. Until they arrive, I would like to fulfill the last duty of my life!

Îşi aminteşte doar de Wochenschau’. Arăta luptele de pe front. Tancuri sfărâmate, case arse, oameni morţi. Frontul era acum aproape de graniţele Germaniei. Când au ieşit de la cinematograf, Johann Moritz tăcea. Ea a observat că el este mohorât şi 1-​a întrebat dacă e bolnav. Moritz n-​avea chef de vorbă. înainte de a se culca, el 1-​a privit pe copil, în leagăn. Pe urmă a intrat în pat, dar nu putea să adoarmă. -​Hilda, dacă Germania pierde războiul, ce facem noi? a întrebat el. -​Germania nu pierde războiul! a răspuns Hilda. Moritz s-​a gândit la luptele de pe front pe care le văzuse la cinematograf, la hartă, la Joseph, la copilul din leagăn. Şi a zis: -​Hilda, eu ştiu că Germania nu pierde războiul. Dar, dacă se-​ntâmplă să-​1 piardă, ce facem noi? Pe mine o să mă ia prizonier. Cu ce-​o să trăiţi tu şi Franz? -​Sau învingem, sau murim pînă la ultimul! a zis Hilda. Nici un german adevărat nu va accepta să trăiască într-​o Germanie ocupată!” 185 Origin. 1991: „-​Eu nu cred că războiul e pierdut! a zis Hilda. Lumea din oraş a fugit în păduri sau la ţară. Toţi vecinii au plecat. Spun că ruşii sunt la 10 kilometri. Dar eu nu cred. Asta e propaganda duşmanului, ca să provoace panică! Eu rămân aici. Eu ştiu că Germania va câştiga războiul!”

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Hilda was in tears. She had thought the giant would sleep with her in her bedroom. She thought he would tell her he was hungry, and she would feed him. And then he saw him dressed in a parade uniform! ‒ I’ll do whatever you ask me to do! Do you want to go somewhere first -​? she said, looking at his uniform. ‒ I’m not going anywhere! he replied. This is the last path of my earthly life! (Gheorghiu 1991: 209)186

The motivations of his decision would surely deserve a psychological and sociological analysis like the investigations that have been made in certain circumstances since the beginning of the twentieth century (Zaharia 1911, 1914), but also after (Black 2014; Cochinescu 2001:  155–​162; Cosman 1999; Durkheim 2005; Mihăieș 2005) or like the one of Victor Suvorov that defines the decision of Hitler to attack the Soviet Union as a suicidal act (Suvorov 2012: 7). For the officer, the act of suicide is written in the military code of honour. Instead of being taken prisoner, it is preferable for an officer who hosts military and strategical secrets to commit suicide. The first motivation is therefore related with the attitude that a fighter should have in such a context, when the evolution of the conflagration allows him the opportunity to withdraw, but then there is no place to run and prepare a new attack. In order to avoid being captured and get into a situation when an officer is persecuted and forced to divulge military secrets, they are advised to commit suicide after destroying any compromising material that they have. At the same time, looking at the personal motivation of the officer, there is something even deeper. It could be said that for him the suicide is an escape or a mechanism of coping. After losing his family, Germany had replaced the void his family had in his heart. And the Fuhrer was, like for many other victims of the Nazis, the one for whom they lived. The model that he suggested offered them a purpose for life and a reason to fight. When all these were

186 Origin. 1991: „-​Acum şi Fuhrer-​ul e mort! a continuat el. Germania nu mai există! Eu n-​am trăit decât pentru ea. Când eram tânăr, îmi plăceau şi caii; dar asta era o dragoste de tinereţe! Toate idealurile mele au murit sub ochii mei, unul după altul: soţia, fiica, Fuhrer-​ul şi patria! Acum a venit rândul meu. Într-​o jumătate de oră, ruşii vor fi aici. Până la sosirea lor, aş vrea să îndeplinesc ultima îndatorire a vieţii mele! Hildei i-​au dat lacrimile. Ea crezuse că uriaşul va dormi la ea, în dormitorul ei. Crezuse că el îi va spune că îi e foame, şi ea îi va da si mănânce. Şi pe urmă 1-​a văzut îmbrăcat în uniforma de paradă! -​Am să fac tot ce-​mi veţi cere! Vreţi să plecaţi întâi undeva? a zis ea, privindu-​i uniforma. -​Nu plec nicăieri! a răspuns el. Acesta este ultimul drum al vieţii mele pământeşti!”

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lost, this motivation disappeared too. Moreover, what they could see coming was not a pleasant thing and therefore, the only solution was suicide, seen as an act of honour. If this was the situation of the officer, the one of Hilda who takes the same decision after listening to him, has also a motivation of honour, due to the fact that she was also part of the indoctrination machine, and lost everything before becoming committed to National-​Socialism. These would be the main aspects that define the reflections of the writer Virgil Gheorghiu about National-​Socialism. Using examples from different cultural and social contexts and bringing into attention, on the basis of the literature, situations that could be for sure certified from the historical point of view, he tries after the Second World War to speak about the disasters that it caused and to show that such an experience should not be repeated, no matter what the realities.

3.4 Conclusion As could be seen from our presentation, Virgil Gheorghiu’s reflections on National-​Socialism were complex and know changes or metamorphoses of certain ideas or attitudes. While during the war, when Romania was partner of Germany and the Romanian soldiers had been sent to the battlefield to fight with the Russians in order to recover the lands of Bessarabia and Bukovina, considered as being Romanian lands, he looked rather favourably at them, after the war he condemned certain attitudes, maintaining also a kind of respect for the elegance and the education of the German soldiers, compared with the Russian ones. For sure, an aspect that had a huge influence on his later conception was his experience as a reporter of war. In Crimea and later in Chișinău and Bessarabia, he had the opportunity to interact with German soldiers, to travel with them and even to see their behaviour and the way they had understood the situation. Even there, he seems to criticise the excessive use of the propaganda machine (Gheorghiu 1993a: 25) by exaggerating the presentation of the soldiers, the camps and other aspects and still disagreeing with the decision of the Romanian officers to refuse such a way of action. At the same time, in the years of the war, his positive attitude towards the German officers and soldiers is on one side marked by the way they helped him and by their attitude when he requested their help and on the other side by the attitude of the Russians, that he knows what they had left behind. His anti-​Semitism from this period is debatable. It can be said, as in the history his enemies managed to prove (Lovinescu 1994: 66; cf. Stolojan 1996: 23; Morariu

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2017a: 186) that in The Benches of Dniester are Burning (Gheorghiu 1942, 1993a) and also in the other books that contain his reportages from the battlefield, there can be found anti-​Semite passages. Some of them contain even forced associations between the Jewish people and aspects like Communism, and perhaps also justify his silence at the time when the accused were released, and his late reaction (Gheorghiu 1960a: 219–​237). At the same time, as we have mentioned, when we investigate the problem, it is important to know also some contextual aspects before arriving at a conclusion. At the time, the young and in love Virgil, who had just married a Jewish lady, tried to hide this aspect and to look like a man of system, in order to not lose his place of work or the prizes and distinctions that he received for the poetry book Calligraphy on the Snow (Gheorghiu 1940). Unfortunately, after his return from the battlefield, he was discovered and the departure in an embassy abroad was the only solution to avoid a divorce or the tough racial laws. His later attitude regarding anti-​Semitism seems to prove that he was not ideologically committed to this attitude and the passages were rather something exceptional in his work. In fact, his detachment from the far-​ right attitude could be also previously be seen in books like the one dedicated to Armand Călinescu (Gheorghiu 1940a), who had been murdered by the Legionary Movement. His attitude about National-​Socialism is also reflected in the books that he published while in exile in France. The masterpiece is, in this area too, The 25th Hour (Gheorghiu 1948), where aspects like anti-​Semitism, diplomatic aspects, the indoctrination of the people and other elements are clearly emphasised, on the basis of documents. But there are also other books like The Second Chance (Gheorghiu 1993); his memoirs (Gheorghiu 2017) and others, where the author also speaks about Nazism and its ideological and practical sins. Like in the case of Communism, he is rarely a theoretician. Gheorghiu was a philosopher only in the measure in which any Romanian or any writer can use philosophy in order to express his conceptions. He was a writer of literature and a theologian. But he was also a man with a deep capacity for solving problems, a fine observer and a psychologist and under certain aspects, a man who realised sociological investigation. In fact, if one tries to investigate his works from the sociological point of view, he ends by affirming that the richness of examples bring him close to qualitative research (Cardano 2011). The rich case studies that he offers (many of them that could be also historically proven), and the types of behaviour that he brings into attention (because in many situations his examples are not used to illustrate a particular situation, but rather a behaviour with recurrence that could be often encountered in the way of life of the National-​Socialist countries

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and behind which, in case of practical attitudes, there was always an ideological background). The case of Milan Paternik, that to some people could speak about the marionette president imposed by Hitler in the Serbo-​Croat republic having its capital in Zagreb, that he created, speaks about how being Jewish or having such roots could contribute to the destruction of a destiny in areas like the political field or diplomacy. At the same time, the decision of his mother to commit suicide speaks also about the honour code, the sacrifice that the people were disposed to do for political correctness (and perhaps they also come as an irony to Communism, where, according to him, in most of the cases, it was not honour, but appearance, which was the principal element). The keywords of his reflections can be considered anti-​Semitism, anti-​Communism, racism and the superiority of the German race, domination and in the end suicide seen as a matter of honour. Complex and under certain aspects debatable, the reflections of Virgil Gheorghiu on National-​Socialism are interesting and useful even today. Unfortunately, the lack of access to certain articles that he published (where we still suspect that there were not important information regarding his conception on this topic), like Le Figaro, do not allow us to offer a holistic vision of the topic. Still, due to the fact that he concentrated on and even repeated often in his books the ideas expressed in the articles, we think that on general lines, these are the main aspects that define his attitude towards the complex problem of the ideology and the regimes based on it because he lived both when his native country was allied with Germany, but also later in Zagreb and Germany, and these consequences had a strong impact on his later life.

Chapter 4 Virgil Gheorghiu’s Reflections on Capitalism 4.1 Introduction When one reads the Virgil Gheorghiu’s reflections and sees the way he understands Communism and National-​Socialism, one may be tempted to believe that he was in favour of Capitalism, which he saw as an alternative. In the second part of his life, he lived indeed in such a society, but as can be seen from the foreword of his book, The Second Chance (Gheorghiu 2012: 5), he always considered his life in exile as a second-​hand one. For this reason, reading his books, one finds interesting and complex reflections on Capitalism. The critical accents are rich and in many situations justified. Compared with Pope Pius the 11th, who in certain historical conditions saw corporatism as an alternative between Communism and Capitalism, as can be read in Quadragesimo Anno encyclical letter (Carlen Ihm 1981:  415–​443), the Romanian writer does not try to find an alternative route. The reason is simple: he did not believe in an ideal regime or way of life, but rather in the possibility of improving the ones in which people live. For this reason, in works like The American Eye (Gheorghiu 2013, 2019), The Great Exterminator and the Great Orthodox Council (Gheorghiu 2008b), The Sacrifices of the Danube (Gheorghiu 2020), The Second Chance (Gheorghiu 2012), The Suspect (Gheorghiu 2020a), Dracula in Carpathian Mountains (Gheorghiu 2019), and also in the memoirs (Gheorghiu 2010, 2019b) or in novels like The Spy (Gheorghiu 1971), aspects regarding it are presented. The masterpiece, namely The 25th Hour (Gheorghiu 1948, 1992), also contains references to this aspect. Reading all of them, it seems that the Romanian writer had a predilection for American Capitalism, which he often criticises, underlining not only superficial aspects, but also elements of depth like the approach to human beings, the way he understands daily life or man as a tool for consumption and so on. Without being a constant critic of the American society and of its way of seeing and ruling the world like Noam Chomsky (Chomsky 2020), he insists on some aspects that could be corrected. Moreover, in certain situations and in books like The Sacrifices of the Danube (Gheorghiu 2020), he offers a comparative vision, speaking about the similitudes existing between two different ways of life, while in books like The Benches of Dniester Are Burning (Gheorghiu 1992) or the masterpieces (Gheorghiu 1948), he seems rather to compare them.

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Conscious of this fact, we have decided to investigate in this thematic unity his reflections on Capitalism. We will segment our research in two parts. The first one will be dedicated to the writings published by the author before 1955 (the central place will be occupied, as expected, by the masterpiece), while the second will come to see the ideas found in the books published after this period. While in the other chapter we have chosen 23rd of August 1944 as a chronological landmark, here we consider the year 1955 as the one when “Gheorghiu affair” started (Lovinescu 1994: 66; cf. Stolojan 1996: 23; Morariu 2017a: 186). If one wants to keep the symmetry of the investigation and stops on that date, he will be more than disappointed. During the war, the Romanian writer had a low interest in Capitalism and its troubles, being rather interested in the real situation of his country. In this context, he gets in contact with Communism and National-​Socialism and writes about them, not about Capitalism. The references to the Americans in this period is therefore sporadic and inconsistent. Therefore, in the following pages we will focus on his conception regarding Capitalism, the way he understood it and the relevance of his reflections regarding this topic.

4.2 Virgil Gheorghiu’s Reflections on Capitalism before 1955 In the year when Virgil Gheorghiu published his masterpiece (Gheorghiu 1948), where he not only criticises Communism and National-​Socialism, but also Capitalism, an American monk, who previously, in 1938 while he was a student in Columbia University, had Communist sympathies, but then realised the fact that the Communism is a lie and there is no convergence between its theoretical background and the practical way of life that it determines, wrote about Capitalism and the materialism that defined this category of society the following: It is true that the materialistic society, the so-​called culture that has evolved under the tender mercies of capitalism, has produced what seems to be the ultimate limit of this worldliness. And nowhere, except perhaps in the analogus society of pagan Rome, has there even been such a flowering of cheap and petty and disgusting lusts and vanities as in the world of capitalism, where there is no evil that is not fostered and encouraged for the sake of making money. We live in a society whose whole policy is to excite every nerve in the human body and keep it at the highest pitch to create as many new desires and synthetic passions as possible, in order to cater to them with the products of our factories and printing presses and movie studios and all the rest. (Merton 1948: 133)

Although the Romanian writer that we investigate formulates such a conception a little bit later, somewhere in 1972 when he publishes The American Eye

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(Gheorghiu 2019), a book that contains a rich and detailed critique directed towards the way of life of this society and Capitalism that is promoted there, he, at this time, also shared similar conceptions. The first meeting of the family of the author with the American democracy and with the economy that this way of life defined took place in 1929 and was not a very happy one. His aunt used then an American bank in order to transfer her money to Romania when she decided to return home, after a period when she followed her husband’s family to Austria. Unfortunately, the time chosen was not a happy one, because it coincided with the Great Bankruptcy that had affected the entire world, starting from there. The moment is described in the memoirs of the author: My father’s sister returned to Romania on Christmas Day 1929. She transferred her fortune from Vienna to Romania through the largest American bank in Austria. A bank that had branches all over the world, including in Bucharest. In the early 1930s, my aunt asked the American bank in Bucharest to send her a sum of money. She was told that the bank had gone bankrupt as a result of the crash on Wall Street. All her money had been lost. My father’s sister was now poorer than she was, for she had done some of the debts she had to pay. My father’s sister was not the only victim of the Wall Street crash. The Romanian government had also run out of money. (Gheorghiu 2017: 269)187

Whether this represents or not the time when the author started to develop an anti-​capitalist vision, it is hard to say. But one aspect is sure –​at the time when he wrote the The 25th Hour (Gheorghiu 1948), shortly at the end of the Second World War, the author was convinced that the American way of life does not represent an alternative. For this reason, in the aforementioned work he insists on the fact that there are not bad or good people and that the Americans are only apparently more civilised than their allies, the Red Army (Cuzmici 2015: 292), because both of them use, when necessary, all kinds of moral and immoral weapons in order to win the war. Moreover, behind each ideology, there is hidden a wooden language (Cuzmici 2015: 292), a fact emphasised by him. Most probably, in the years after the war, before finding what was decided in Yalta conference, like many other Romanians in exile, Gheorghiu also nurtured the hope that 187 Origin. 2017: „Sora tatălui meu a revenit în România de Crăciunul anului 1929. Și-​a trransferat averea de la Viena în România prin cea mai mare bancă americană din Austria. O bancă ce avea sucursale în întreg pământul, inclusiv la București. La începutul anului 1930, mătușa mea a cerut de la banca americană de la București să-​i trimită o sumă de bani. I s-​a răspuns că banca dăduse faliment, urmare a crahului ce se produse pe Wall Street. Toți banii săi fuseseră pierduți. Sora tatălui meu era acum mai săracă decât el, căci făcuse câteva datorii pe care trebuia să le plătească. Sora tatei nu era singura victimă a crahului de pe Wall Street. Guvernul român rămăsese și el fără bani.”

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the Americans would come to save his country and probably there was a time in his life, for a few years, when there existed at least a form of reconsideration about them and their way of life. But for sure, after the middle of 50s, this attitude changed, and he was not any longer their sustainer or appreciative of their actions and of their way of life. Aspects like racism or the exploitation of certain categories of people, together with the perception of human being as a tool that can be used both in production of goods and as an acquisitor of them once produced, are emphasised in the book that made him famous. Later, in the movie (https://​wwwyoutube.com/​ watch?v=Q_​cH0zvDGJ4, accessed 12. 03. 2020), for reasons that can be easily understood, all the passages containing critiques of American Capitalism and its society are deleted, and only the ones useful for the aforementioned side in the Cold war, namely the critiques of the Russian ways of life, are emphasised. Still in the book there can be found references to uncomfortable topics. One of them can be extracted from one of the dialogues and speaks about the fact that National-​Socialism inspired some of its actions looking at the practical aspects put into action by them: There are parks in Europe for the cultivation, selection or conservation of animal and bird breeds. However, prejudices have prevented us from creating anthropological parks, which is a great loss for science. Too bad! In this area, the Americans have taken the lead. They have parks where interesting specimens of the Indian breed are closed. But we will also set them up in Europe. Let’s win the victory first! (Gheorghiu 1991: 165)188

Of course, this kind of affirmation can look rather tough and speaks about something that should not be generalised, but rather seen as a specific and extraordinary situation. But at the same time, it symbolically refers also to topics like racism and other tools of oppression, because the critics are aware of the deep use of symbols that can be seen in Gheorghiu’s work. It should not be considered that Virgil Gheorghiu emphasises only the bad parts of their way of seeing the people and the society. As in the case of National-​ Socialism, there are in his writings passages speaking about the good elements or the advantages that this way of life brings. Such an example can be considered

188 Origin. 1991: „Există în Europa parcuri pentru cultivarea, selecţionarea sau conservarea raselor de animale şi de păsări. Prejudecăţile ne-​au împiedicat însă să creăm parcuri antropologice, ceea ce este o mare pierdere pentru ştiinţă. Păcat! în acest domeniu, americanii ne-​au luat-​o înainte. Ei au parcuri în care sunt închise exemplarele interesante ale rasei de indieni. Dar le vom înfiinţa şi noi în Europa. Întâi să câştigăm victoria!”

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the time when Johann Moritz, the main character of The 25th Hour, the man with a very interesting destiny, helps a few French prisoners to escape from the German camp and is welcomed and rewarded by the Americans: Johann Moritz looks at the packages piled on top of each other on the carpet by the wall. He feels honored like he never was in life. The Americans gave him shirts, new clothes, a shaver, shoes, soap, cigarettes. All this from the very first hours. Johann Moritz is proud: now, for the first time, he also thinks he has done a great deed for the Allied victory. “Otherwise the Americans wouldn’t have given me that much!” He remembered that they had not even asked him his name: he imagined that they had learned of the escape even before their arrival. All the Americans smiled at him, as if to let them know that he knew how much he had been through and how brave he had been. Johann Moritz is tired but does not want to go to bed. He looks around and can’t believe he’s the one this room was set up for. Everything on the chairs, on the table, and on the floor was his. All had been given to him by the Americans for the bravery with which he had saved the five French prisoners. (Gheorghiu 1991: 201–​202)189

189 Origin. 1991: „Johann Moritz se uită la pachetele îngrămădite unul peste altul pe covor, lângă perete. Se simte onorat cum n-​a fost niciodată în viaţă. Americanii i-​au dat cămăşi, haine noi, maşină de bărbierit, pantofi, săpun, ţigări. Toate astea chiar din primele ceasuri. Johann Moritz se mândreşte: acum, pentru prima oară, crede şi el că a făcut o faptă mare pentru victoria aliaţilor. «Altfel nu mi-​ar fi dat americanii atâtea!» —​şi-​a spus e şi-​a adus aminte că nici nu l-​au întrebat cum îl cheamă: el şi-​a închipuit că ei aflaseră de evadare încă dinainte de sosirea lor. Toţi americanii îi zâmbeau, dându-​i parcă să înţeleagă că ei ştiu prin câte a trecut el şi cât de brav s-​a purtat. Johann Moritz este obosit, dar nu vrea să se culce. Priveşte împrejur şi nu-​i vine să creadă că el e acela pentru care s-​a pregătit această cameră. Toate lucrurile întinse pe scaune, pe masă, şi pe jos erau ale lui. Toate îi fuseseră date de americani pentru bravura cu care-​i salvase el pe cei cinci prizonieri francezi.” Later, this aspect is deepened in the book: “After that, they went for a week only through the forest. One day, when they came down from the forest, they saw American cars on the road. The French began to sing. They were tired, but the forest resounded. They put tricolor ribbons on their buttonholes. And they put Moritz. Then they got in the way of the cars. The Americans gave them cigarettes and chocolate, and brought them to the U.N.R.R.A. Here they waited for them with the table and the house ready, as if they knew they were coming. From the moment they arrived until the evening, the Americans did nothing but give them packages and food. It seems to Moritz that it was all a story. But when he looks at the packages and Joseph, he realizes it’s true. This happened to him. And only because he did a great deed for the victory of the allies!” (Gheorghiu 1991: 202). Origin. 1991: „După aceea, au mers o săptămână încheiată numai prin pădure. într-​o zi, când au coborât din pădure, au văzut pe şosea maşini americane. Francezii au început să cânte. Erau obosiţi, dar cântau de răsuna pădurea. Ei şi-​au pus la butoniere panglici tricolore. Şi lui Moritz i-​au pus. Pe urmă, au ieşit în calea maşinilor. Americanii le-​au

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Of course, the lecture of the entire passage shows that the Romanian character was wrong and the Americans did not care about him, but at the same time, the passage emphasises the differences existing between the way of life of the Americans and of the other civilisations. The author especially insists on the differences that existed between the Russians and their allies, but at the same time he mentions the ones between them and Germans when necessary. Under the quantitative aspect, the American society was for sure superior to the other parts of the world, a fact that is not neglected by the Romanian writer. At the same time, technology was their advantage, and this is also emphasised. Later, in The American Eye (Gheorghiu 2019), the author brings again into debate these aspects and speaks about the effects that they had on people all around the world, who were inferior to them at the level of life. At the same time, as he does in The 25th Hour (Gheorghiu 1948) too, he insists on the fact that technology is not everything and there are also other aspects under which societies and civilisations that are, at this level, inferior to them, are visibly superior and have a life defined by the attention to other aspects that really matter. Another important aspect related with author’s reflections on Capitalism is contained in the passages where he offers information regarding his autobiography. As has been mentioned by different authors who focused during the time on his life and activity (Simion 2008: 25; Morariu, Josan 2016: 84), the autobiographical element is often present in the Romanian writer’s work. The 25th Hour does not make an exception. It contains passages from the life and activity of the writer. Their accuracy can be later checked by comparison with his memoirs (Gheorghiu 1999a, 2002). One such passage is the one that describes their arrival in Heidelberg, after the refusal of the author and his wife to be repatriated (Gylliboeuf 2019: 38: Drăgoi 2014: 41; Gheorghiu 2019: 89–​124). The character Traian Korugă is therefore inspired by his experience, while Elena West is the name of his wife in the novel, Ecaterina Burbea Schneck. The passage is relevant not only for the description, but also because it speaks about the fear of the author of Russian Communism. At the same time, although not in a very clear and declarative

dat ţigări şi ciocolată, şi i-​au adus la U.N.R.R.A. Aici îi aşteptau cu masa şi cu locuinţa pregătite, ca şi cum ar fi ştiut că vin ei. De când au sosit şi pînă seara, americanii n-​au făcut altceva decît să le dea pachete şi mâncare. Lui Moritz i se pare că totul a fost o poveste. Dar, când se uită la pachete şi la Joseph, îşi dă seama că este adevărat. Astea i s-​au întâmplat lui. Şi numai fiindcă a făcut o faptă mare pentru victoria aliaţilor!” (Gheorghiu 1991: 202).

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way, it lets the fact be seen that he saw the Americans as their potential saviours and had trust in their way of life, namely Capitalism: ‒ Traian Korugă and Eleonora West sat side by side in front of Major Brown, the American governor of the city of Weimar. ‒ That’s all, Governor! said Trajan Koruga. On August 23, when Romania was occupied by the Russians, my wife and I were interned by Croats, along with members of the Romanian legation. It was a diplomatic internment in a hotel, as is done, according to international law, with the diplomatic representatives of the enemy. Croatia was then occupied by Tito’s supporters. We were interned in Austria, then in Germany, and finally in Czechoslovakia. When Germany capitulated and there was no one to keep us hospitalized, we headed west. I left everything and started walking. Images of the two hundred kilometers made on foot came to Eleonora’s mind. Her legs were swollen, and her feet were full of wefts. ‒ We left everything and ran through the woods and across the fields to reach the American, British, or French-​occupied areas, Eleonora West continued. I did not want to fall alive into the hands of the Russians or the partisans. We were determined to commit suicide if they caught us. (Gheorghiu 1991: 213–​214)190

Shortly after their arrival in Heidelberg, the two young married diplomats are, as they confess and others write about them (Djuvara 2012: 164–​167; Morariu 2017: 587–​585), sent to the camp and invited to live in a prison regime. The episode is described in detail by the writer in the aforementioned masterpiece: ‒ What is here? Nora asked. The Americans looked to see if she had come down. And they didn’t answer.

190 Origin. 1991: „Traian Korugă şi Eleonora West şedeau unul lângă altul în faţa maiorului Brown, guvernatorul american al oraşului Weimar. -​Asta e tot, domnule guvernator! a zis Traian Korugă. La 23 august, când România a fost ocupată de ruşi, eu şi soţia mea am fost internaţi de croaţi, împreună cu membrii legaţiei române. A fost o internare diplomatică, într-​un hotel, aşa cum se procedează, după legile internaţionale, cu reprezentanţii diplomatici ai inamicului. Pe urmă, Croaţia a fost ocupată de partizanii lui Tito. Noi am fost internaţi în Austria, apoi în Germania şi, în sfârşit, în Cehoslovacia. Când Germania a capitulat şi nu a mai avut cine să ne ţină internaţi, noi am pornit spre apus. Am lăsat totul şi am pornit pe jos. Eleonorei i-​au venit în minte imagini din cele două sute de kilometri făcuţi pe jos. I se umflaseră picioarele, şi tălpile îi erau pline de bătături. -​Am lăsat totul şi am fugit prin păduri şi peste câmpuri, ca să ajungem în zonele ocupate de americani, de englezi sau de francezi, a continuat Eleonora West. Nu voiam să cădem vii în mâinile ruşilor ori ale partizanilor. Eram hotărăţi să ne sinucidem dacă ne prind.”

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‒ What is here? Nora repeated the question, in German, to the porter. “Prison,” he replied, grabbing Nora by the arm. She wanted to say something to the soldiers. But it was too late: the car had disappeared as fast as it had come. Nora turned to Trajan. He was pale. The heavy iron gates closed. They were now in the prison yard. (Gheorghiu 1991: 217)191

This is, as can be easily seen, one of the experiences that influence the later reflections of the Romanian author on Capitalism and Americans. For sure, he is not delighted to be sent to the camp after travelling so much to arrive at a place that they considered safe from the Russians and then to be sent to a prison, separated from each other (Gheorghiu 2019b: 308) and kept there for several months. Moreover, the attitude of the allies towards them is not what was expected.192

1 91 Origin. 1991: „-​Ce este aici? a întrebat Nora. Americanii s-​au uitat să vadă dacă ea coborâse. Şi n-​au răspuns. -​Ce este aici? a repetat Nora întrebarea, în germană, către portar. –​Închisoarea, a răspuns el, apucând-​o pe Nora de braţ. Ea a vrut să spună ceva soldaţilor. Dar era prea târziu: automobilul dispăruse cu aceeaşi viteză cu care venise. Nora s-​a întors spre Traian. El era palid. Porţile grele de fier s-​au închis. Ei erau acum în curtea închisorii.” 192 He even offers an example in this sense: “I want to talk to the director of the prison immediately!” said Traian. My wife and I were accidentally arrested! -​I know! When you get here, you have all been arrested by mistake! replied the guard, ironically. -​I won’t let you be ironic! I let you know that I want to talk to the director immediately! -​There’s no director here! You are under American arrest. We only do administration. We are not even allowed to talk to detainees: we are also a kind of detainee! -​I want to talk to the Americans! -​Sergeant only comes once a week! said the guard. Monday only! Trajan remembered that it was Monday. -​You mean I have to wait until next Monday? he asked. Do you think my wife will be in jail for a week?” (Gheorghiu 1991: 218). Origin. 1991: „-​Vreau să vorbesc imediat cu directorul închisorii! a spus Traian. Eu şi soţia mea am fost arestaţi din greşeală! -​Ştiu! Când ajungeţi aici, toţi aţi fost arestaţi din greşeală! a răspuns gardianul, ironic. -​Nu-​ţi permit să fii ironic! Te anunţ că vreau să vorbesc imediat cu directorul! -​Nu există aici nici un director! Dumneata eşti arestat de americani. Noi nu facem decât administraţie. Nici nu avem voie să vorbim cu arestaţii: suntem şi noi tot un fel de arestaţi! -​Vreau să vorbesc cu americanii! -​Domnul sergent nu vine decât o dată pe săptămână! a zis gardianul. Numai lunea! Traian şi-​a adus aminte că era luni. -​Vrei să spui că trebuie să aştept până lunea viitoare? a întrebat el. Crezi că soţia mea are să stea o săptămînă în închisoare?”

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Treated as enemies, they receive from time to time humanitarian help from different philanthropists all around the world, but they do not feel free and they always have the fear that they could be sent back in their native country, as others had been sent. Also the fears that had been already created by the Germans accompany Gheorghiu and his wife in the new space. As a Jew, Ecaterina had falsified her documents in order to be allowed to travel out of the country, where she was not known and the risk of being discovered by the Nazis was smaller. Arrived in the American area after the end of the Second World War and sent to the camp, for the reason that she was part of the team that co-​operated with the enemy as a diplomat in Zagreb embassy, she starts to think that now finally the Americans had discovered the fact that she had falsified her documents and now would come the punishment: Traveling through Germany, she trembled at the sight of any policeman: her documents were false. The last years of her life were nothing more than a torturous wait for the hour when she would be arrested. “This hour has come,” she thought. “Now they have discovered that I am Jewish. Now I can’t save myself!” Her body was shaking with fear. “It is absurd to believe that the Americans arrested me because I hid my Semitic origins and forged documents in Romania. But I feel that’s why they arrested me. Just because of that! It doesn’t make sense, but it can’t be otherwise. It’s my fault! And now I will be severely punished, rightly so!” (Gheorghiu 1991: 219–​220)193

The passage is important not as much for its content as for the message offered. Like in the National-​Socialist area, people were scared also in the American one. This is what the author suggests. Moreover, he seems to show that although the two ideologies do not share the same principles, there is a mutual agreement between them and the trespasses made by breaking others’ rules, are punished also by the others. From this aspect, the author passes to a reflection that has both philosophical and sociological relevance. He criticises American Capitalism for the fact of being a system for which the person does not mean anything. The system

193 Origin. 1991: „Călătorind prin Germania, tremura la vederea oricărui poliţist: actele ei erau false. Ultimii ani ai vieţii nu i-​au fost decît o aşteptare chinuitoare a ceasului cînd avea să fie arestată. «Acest ceas a venit» —​şi-​a zis. « Acum m-​au descoperit că sunt evreică. Acum nu mă mai pot salva! «Trupul îi tremura de spaimă. « E absurd să cred că americanii m-​au arestat fiindcă am ascuns originea mea semită şi am falsificat acte în România. Simt însă că de asta m-​au arestat. Numai din cauza asta! Nu e logic, dar nu poate fi altfel. Vina e a mea! Şi acum voi fi pedepsită crunt, pe drept!»”

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is above all. In fact, he speaks about the mechanisms that were during that period in nuce and later define the Cold War (Gillyboeuf 2019: 89). The fault of belonging to a certain category of people could lead to his or her imprisonment without any other investigations. Gheorghiu underlines this aspect in the presentation of a dialogue between Traian Korugă and his wife:



‒ What do the Americans have to do with us? Nora asked desperately. Why have we been detained for six weeks? ‒ The Americans have nothing against us! Traian replied. They are not even aware of our existence! ‒ And how long does it take them to find out they arrested us and keep us in jail? I can’t take it anymore! ‒ They will never know of your existence and mine! said Traian. Western civilization, in its last phase of progress, no longer records the existence of the individual. And there’s no hope she’ll find out about him in the future. This society knows only certain dimensions of man. But the integral man, as an individual, does not exist for her. You, Eleonora West, who are innocent in prison, I and others like us simply do not exist. We are just extremely small fractions in a category. For example, you are a citizen of an enemy state, arrested on German soil. This is the maximum amount of data that the Western technical society can assimilate about you. It recognizes you only by these characteristics of yours and treats you as such, with the whole group you belong to, according to the rules of multiplication, division or subtraction: as the problem arises. The guilt or murder that led to his arrest belongs to the category. (Gheorghiu 1991: 224–​225)194

194 Origin. 1991: „-​Ce-​au americanii cu noi? a întrebat Nora disperată. De ce ne ţin arestaţi de şase săptămâni? -​Americanii n-​au nimic contra noastră! a răspuns Traian. Ei nici măcar n-​au cunoştinţă de existenţa noastră! -​Şi cât timp le mai trebuie ca să afle că ne-​au arestat şi că ne ţin închişi? Eu nu mai pot suporta! -​De existenţa ta şi a mea nu vor lua cunoştinţă niciodată! a zis Traian. Civilizaţia occidentală, în ultima ei fază de progres, nu mai înregistrează existenţa individului. Şi nu e nici o speranţă ca ea să ia cunoştinţă de el în viitor. Această societate cunoaşte numai anumite dimensiuni ale omului. Dar omul integral, ca individ, nu există pentru ea. Tu —​Eleonora West—​, care stai nevinovată la închisoare, eu şi alţii ca noi nu existăm, pur şi simplu. Suntem doar nişte fracţiuni extrem de mici dintr-​o categorie. De exemplu, tu eşti o cetăţeană a unui stat inamic, arestată pe pămîntul Germaniei. Acesta este maximum de date pe care le poate asimila societatea tehnică occidentală despre tine. Ea te recunoaşte numai după aceste caracteristici ale tale şi te tratează ca atare, cu toată grupa din care faci parte, după regulile înmulţirii, ale împărţirii sau ale scăderii: după cum cere problema ivită. Vina sau crima care au dus la arestare sunt ale categoriei.”

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The American Eye (Gheorghiu 2019a) brings this topic into attention again and develops the idea according to it, from the fact that belonging to a certain category transforms one to an individual who should be accepted or persecuted, as it was known that the man was considered a robot during the Cold War. The presence of the satellites allow control all around the world and also improve communication and transform the society to one where bashfulness is not anymore part of the ethics of the life (Gheorghiu 2019a: 59). Before that book, the idea was enounced in The American Eye and in The Second Chance (Gheorghiu 2012). But before speaking about the robotised people, in The 25th Hour, he enounces in a very detailed way another interesting idea, which is linked with that one. He speaks about the technical slave. The character of Traian Korugă, who represents in fact the writer himself and whose story of life is, until a certain point, his own story, is used in order to develop this concept related with Capitalism, which will become in fact a keyword of his reflections related to this topic, and define it. Therefore, as a contemporary critic of Gheorghiu’s work shows: After 8 published novels, Traian Korugă thinks about the following in other conditions: with real characters, who will be all people from the face of the earth, but represented by 10 heroes taken at random, because the events will cover the whole world. The danger, however, is what he calls a technical slave. Which means anything produces something outside the being and not just the car. Along with the technical slave, however, there are also human slaves, only the technical ones are the “perfect servants”; they can be replaced and form a still unintegrated proletariat, for the people still hold power. (Miheț 2021: 13)195

All these elements are part of his reflections on Capitalism, that could surely be considered, at first glance, as being pessimistic. The imprisonment of Korugă (Gheorghiu 1991: 224) is seen as a solution for the technical insubordination, as the scholars show,196 and his vision can be considered as an interpretation of

195 Origin. 2021: „După 8 romane publicate, Traian Korugă gândește pe următorul în alte condiții: cu personaje reale, care vor fi toți oameni de pe fața pământului, însă reprezentați de 10 eroi luați la întâmplare, pentru că evenimentele vor acoperi întreaga lume. Pericolul, însă, este ceea ce numește el sclav tehnic. Ceea ce înseamnă orice produce ceva în afara ființei și nu numai în cea a mașinii. Alături de sclavul tehnic sunt însă și sclavii umani, numai că cei tehnici sunt „servitorii perfecți”; ei pot fi înlocuiți și formează un proletariat încă neintegrat, căci oamenii dețin încă puterea”. 196 Therefore, in his analysis dedicated to The 25th Hour, Marius Miheț shows the fact that “the episode of Traian’s forced internment excludes the problematization of the strike and the failure to resolve a case of technical insubordination” (Micah 2021: 13). Origin. 2021: „Episodul internării forțate a lui traian exclude problematizarea grevei și rată cum se soluționează un caz de insubordonare tehnică”.

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Kafka in an Eastern lecture (Miheț 2021: 12). The vision of the author was later recognised by the authors who studied his work and was claimed by himself in the later books (Redaction 2019:  10). What is interesting about it is what the aforementioned Miheț shows: C. V. Gheorghiu does not make from something which is visionary a projection, but a synthesis of the immediate. For the impossibility of existence is already a reality. And she describes “the darkest age in human history.” (Micah 2021: 13)197

Classified as the most important Romanian post-​war novel by the literary critics from this space (Popa 2009: 644), The 25th Hour has therefore both a prophetical dimension and contains not only rich reflections on Communism and National-​ Socialism, as expected, but also on Capitalism, represented in this situation by its American form. A few years before Solženicyn, the Romanian writer had already denounced communist crimes and spoke about what he saw as a war reporter and from the testimonies of the others. At the same time, he offered a comparative perspective of these ways of life. Conscious of the fact that Communism was not a way of life that he would like to live from what he saw in Bessarabia and Bukovina left by the Russian Army, he was also called to know National-​Socialism through direct experience. Both of them looked wrong to him, at the level of the ideology, as also in the way of understanding the social life and organising society. But the Romanian writer was also aware of the minuses of the Capitalist way of life, so he could not see that as an alternative, although he understood the fact that, under certain aspects, it was superior to the other two. What had especially annoyed him was the fact that among the capitalists (namely the Americans, in this situation) and the Communists, there were compromises at the practical level. And the two powers that represented the two levels of life decided to split Eastern and Central Europe into spheres of influences. These aspects are also emphasised in The 25th Hour. They can be seen both in the life and the biographical road of Iohann Moritz, the main character, but also in the story of other important characters of the narrative construction, like Traian Korugă. About him and the way he and his wife found out the fact that certain German cities, among them also the city where their camp was, were given to the Russians, he notes:

197 Origin. 2021: „C. V. Gheorghiu nu face din vizionarism o proiecție, ci o sinteză a imediatului. Căci imposibilitatea existenței este deja o realitate. Iar ea descrie „cea mai neagră epocă din istoria umanității”.

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“‒It’s over now!” said the chief guard, entering the Korugă couple’s cell. Read the press release! Tburingia and the city of Weimar were given to the Russians! Soviet troops are already in the city. Trucks loaded with soldiers arrived all night. The Americans withdrew; they keep only the government building, the prison and a few houses. No one is allowed to leave. The military police surrounded the city. (Gheorghiu 1991: 226)198

The fear of the American abandon is a topic also present in the masterpiece, like in the autobiographical books (Gheorghiu 2017). Here, the writer confesses the fact that, like many others, he and his wife too nurtured the hope that the Americans could save them from the Russians and that their presence was a warranty of the fact that they would not be sent to a country that, on the 23rd of August 1944, was, according to the author, conquered by the Red Army (Cuzmici 2015: 292; Gheorghiu 2008b: 11). For this reason, Traian and his wife were watching from their cell with interest what the American soldiers were doing:



‒ See if the Americans have left the towers! said Traian. Nora went out into the corridor and looked at the guard towers at the prison gate to see if the Russian guards had appeared to them. ‒ We have to look every five minutes, Traian said. The best time is when the American guard changes with the Russian one. After that, it’s too late!

They worked on the rope all morning. They checked it to see if it was strong enough and long enough. And every five minutes one of them went out to look at the towers on the wall surrounding the prison and turned around and said: ‒ The Americans! They were both enjoying themselves. They had the illusion that if the Americans were still in the prison towers, all would not be lost. (Gheorghiu 1991: 229)199

198 Origin. 1991: „-​Acum s-​a terminat! a spus gardianul-​şef, intrând în celula soţilor Korugă. Citiţi comunicatul! Tburingia şi oraşul Weimar au fost date ruşilor! Trupele sovietelor sunt deja în oraş. Toată noaptea au sosit camioane încărcate cu soldaţi. Americanii s-​au retras; nu mai păstrează decât clădirea guvernămîntului, închisoarea şi câteva case. Nimeni nu are voie să plece. Poliţia militară a înconjurat oraşul”. 199 Origin. 1991: „-​Vezi dacă au plecat americanii din turnuri! a zis Traian. Nora a ieşit pe culoar şi a privit turnurile de pază de la poarta închisorii, ca să vadă dacă nu apăruseră în ele gărzile ruseşti. -​Trebuie să ne uităm la fiecare cinci minute, a spus Traian. Momentul cel mai bun este cînd se schimbă garda americană cu cea rusească. După aia, e prea târziu! Toată dimineaţa au lucrat la frânghie. Au încercat-​o dacă era destul de tare şi destul de lungă. Şi, la fiecare cinci minute, unul dintre ei ieşea să privească turnurile de pe zidul care înconjura închisoarea şi se întorcea spunând: -​Americanii! Amândoi se bucurau. Aveau iluzia că, dacă americanii se mai aflau încă în turnurile închisorii, nu era totul pierdut.”

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The disappointment caused by the fact that the Americans had abandoned them and countries like theirs, comes later and probably increases his critical attitude against them. As a conclusion of this presentation, we can surely say that Virgil Gheorghiu’s reflections on Capitalism before 1955 are complex, but at the same time, they bring to attention especially its American version, due to the fact that the author has encountered it more than others during his experience in Germany after the war. As will be later seen in our investigation, this segment remains a predominant one also in his later writing, but at the same time, after this year, he also develops a richer critique on Capitalism, based both on personal experience and on others’ experiences. As can be seen, his reflections are not very theoretical. They take into account this category of aspects and the ideological sides only sporadically and when it is linked also with practical life. The analysis that he dedicates to Capitalism is rather based on his own assessment. In Germany, when he arrived from Zagreb at the end of the war (after refusing to return to his country that had become allied to the Russians), he encountered both the high level of life of the Capitalists, but also their hostility in relationship with foreigners. Both of them are emphasised in a book that became one of the most important worldwide literary successes of the twentieth century, namely The 25th Hour (Gheorghiu 1948). Moreover, as a fine analyst, the Romanian writer emphasises the fact that in capitalist society, like in a National-​Socialist one, the accent is on commercials and consumption. As a peculiarity of Capitalism, he also sees the idea of the slave man and that of the slave robots. Topics that are later developed into books that contain complex critiques to American Capitalism have therefore been expressed there in nuce (Redaction 2019: 7). For this reason, we can say that Virgil Gheorghiu’s reflections on Capitalism, which could be also criticised under certain points, is complex, interesting, has a testimonial aspect and at the same time offers an interesting perspective coming from an East European writer.

4.3 Virgil Gheorghiu’s Reflections on Capitalism from 1955 to 1992 After seeing the way Virgil Gheorghiu’s reflections on Capitalism develop before 1955, we will try now to emphasise his understanding of it after this year. Books like The Second Chance (Gheorghiu 1993, 2012), The Sacrifices of the Danube (Gheorghiu 1957, 2020), The Spy (Gheorghiu 1971), God Receives Only on Sunday (Gheorghiu 1971, 1990), his memoirs (Gheorghiu 1999a, 2002, 2017, 2019b), The Great Exterminator and the Great Orthodox Council (Gheorghiu 2008b), the

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autobiographical work The Man Who Was Travelling Alone (Gheorghiu 2010), The American Eye (Gheorghiu 2013a, 2019a), The Heidelberg Unknowns (Gheorghiu 2015), God in Paris (Gheorghiu 2016a), The Suspect (Gheorghiu 2020), and also the posthumous Dracula in Carpathian Mountains (Gheorghiu 2019), will be our sources. Of course, together with them, we will also use the other literature existent, dedicated to the author and his work. We will try to see which are the main points that he sees as defining Capitalism, what are its good and bad points and what makes it different from the other two investigated ideologies and the ways of life and social organisation that they suggest. Moreover, where it is possible, we will underline the way the Romanian writer sees the intercultural interactions and the representation of the other existing in different spaces. Such an example is offered by Gheorghiu in the manuscript novel, published posthumously, titled Dracula in Carpathian Mountains. Here he uses an apparent cultural misunderstanding in order to criticise both a perception  –​as can be deducted from the context, it is considered by the author to be a general one –​and at the same time, criticise the American perception of others and the fact that this society tries to impose their beliefs on all the other smaller states. Arrived in the Moldavian lands with an American scholarship, the Irish Baldwin Brendan is sent to write a PhD thesis about Bram Stoker’s Dracula vampire character (Stoker 2011) and his presence in the collective mentality, and is disappointed to find that the character of his thesis was not known there and it was not part of the cultural mentality and of the representations of the people, as he had expected. Moreover, when he spoke about this with the young thieves who kidnapped him for a day, he realised that they were angry with him for this idea. Their conclusion, as educated Romanian people (their category is a metaphor for the young people forced to run and hide for a while in front of the authorities persecuting them, and their category can be identified in both Romanian history, with the Legionaries, and the anti-​communist resistance, the so-​called partisans), is that it is not his fault for considering them part of a primitive people who believe in such fairy tales, but is the fault of the Americans. The head of the team says to Baldwin Brendan: “ ‒ No, it’s not your fault, Mr. Brendan.” It’s the fault of these unhappy Americans. It is a pity that such a great people, who have immense wealth and who achieve extraordinary things in the field of technology, have remained at an inferior intellectual level to that of the Papuans and Pygmies. It is not their fault. But they are underdeveloped. They have always been like that. The great poet Lenau wrote to his friend Anton Schurz: “Brother, the soul of Americans smells bad. It smells like a shop stink that runs through the sky.” Americans are dead from any spiritual preoccupation, soulless, like stones. No wonder,

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then, that Americans send scholarship students to meet and study vampires. It’s their business. See if they believe in witches and ghosts, like the wildest tribes on the planet. A famous European said: “America has no soul at all and does not deserve to have one.” What offends us and what hurts us is slander. For it is an unforgivable offense to come to our mountains not for us, nor for the mountains, nor for their riches, even if to rob them, but to come to us because we are taken as vampires, not human beings. We vampires! (Gheorghiu 2019: 29–​30)200

Without speaking about the robotised man like he does later (Gheorghiu 1972, 2019a), or about the perfect slave like in The 25th Hour (Gheorghiu 1948), Gheorghiu brings into debate, using different authors from the universal culture, which he cuts out from the context, like his enemies did also with some of his texts, the lack of appetence for spiritualties and spiritual aspects that can be encountered in their culture, as in almost all the capitalist ones. The problem consists, according to him, on one side in the fact that this society is not interested in spiritual things, and on the other, that when it becomes interested, it is not capable of perceiving the subtleties of other cultures and in interaction with them becomes either offensive or destructive. The attempt to understand others seems to be, according to the Romanian author, not deep enough and remains at a very artificial level, while the desire to help them brings them, at certain times, to the destruction of their cultural patrimony, in a similar way that the missionaries did with the African cultures in the past (Braudel 1994: 9). Of course, his vision is to be criticised and some of his ideas are rather influenced by what the author has seen and experienced, but these aspects are also part of his reflections on American Capitalism and we consider it important to emphasise this.

200 Origin. 2019: „-​Nu, nu e vina dumneavoastră, mister Brendan. E vina acestor nefericiți americani. Păcat că un popor atât de mare, care deține bogății imense și care realizează lucruri ieșite din comun în domeniul tehnicii, a rămas la un nivel intelectual inferior celui al papuașilor și pigmeilor Nu e vina lor. Dar sunt subevoluați. Întotdeauna au fost așa. Marele poet Lenau îi scria prietenului său Anton Schurz: „Frate, sufletul americanilor miroase urât. Degajă o putoare de prăvălie care răbate până la cer”. Americanii sunt morți de orice preocupare spirituală, Fără suflet, asemenea pietrelor. Nu mă mir, așadar, că americanii trimit studenți cu burse pentru a-​i întâlni și studia pe vampiri. E treaba lor. Îi privește dacă cred în vrăjitoare și în fantome, asemenea triburilor celor mai sălbatice de pe planetă. Un european celebru spunea că: „America n-​are deloc suflet și nu merită să aibă unul”. Ceea ce ne ofensează și ceea ce ne îndurerează e calomnia. Căci e o ofensă de neiertat să vii în munții noștri nu pentru noi, nici pentru munți, nici pentru bogățiile lor, chiar dacă pentru a-​i jefui, ci să vii la noi pentru că suntem luați drept vampiri, nu ființe omenești. Noi, vampiri!”

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Part of his vision about Capitalism is also the way he presents the Occident as an alternative to Communism. Books like The Second Chance show the sad story of people for whom Capitalism is the only alternative. Eddy Thall and Isaac Solomon, Jewish people who managed to escape from the fury of racial laws and the Urals, arrived finally in Polland where they encountered a pretend doctor who claimed that he would cure their small daughter. In fact, he proved to be a hidden Nazi who killed her. This fact led them to leave this country too and to seek another space where to live: After three days, Isaac Solomon and Eddy Thall set out again for the West. With empty hands, more broken than ever. They left Poland. But the West could not restore them to Orly, nor the blood lost by Eddy Thall. The West could not heal their old wounds, but it could let them live with their wounds, their sufferings, their traces of blows. In Poland, this was no longer possible, although they did not demand the impossible. (Gheorghiu 2012: 170)201

Capitalism was therefore seen by the Romanian writer as an alternative, a new chance of life or an opportunity to find a space where, without having the wounds healed, a man could live without being questioned, persecuted or put in danger all the time. At the same time, the author does not forget to emphasise another aspect too. Namely, the fact that the so-​called democratic capitalist countries could not accept or understand the decision of anyone to leave them and to return to a space like the communist one. Another character of the Second Chance, this time an old man who was incapable of adapting to a space like Canada, is the target of some weird investigations that transform him from an honest man into a suspect for this reason: “Ion Costache has left Canada,” Burian said. Canada is a democratic country. Why couldn’t your father-​in-​law fit into a democracy? A question that Americans ask themselves. I read Costache’s report … Working in Canada was inhuman: he worked on the construction of railways, in a frozen area, salaries were high, but life was very expensive, he had nothing left. If the workers wanted to eat every day, they had to go to the canteen … Let’s admit that the workers were exploited. However, Americans cannot understand

201 Origin. 2012: „După trei zile, Isaac Solomon și Eddy Thall porniră din nou către Apus. Cu mâinile goale, mai frânte ca niciodată. Au Părăsit Polonia. Occidentul nu putea să le-​o redea însă pe Orly, nici sângele pierdut de Eddy Thall. Occidentul nu putea să le vindece rănile vechi, dar putea să-​i lase să trăiască cu plăgile lor, cu suferințele lor, cu urmele lor de lovituri. În Polonia, nu mai era posibil acest lucru, deși ei nu cereau imposibilul”.

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that a man left a democracy because he came across an employee who exploited him. I make another hypothesis. For Americans, anyone who abandons a democratic country is a suspect, an individual who cannot stand democracy. (Gheorghiu 2012: 340)202

The incapacity to adapt to a consumerist way of life of the capitalist space is also emphasised in one of the books that the Romanian author dedicates to the memory of Visarion Puiu (Neculoiu 2008: 6), the first Romanian metropolite from Paris. Although in the centre of the story there is the situation of the bishop who comes to be discredited by the Romanian communist authorities, the author uses the story also to present aspects with sociological and psychological relevance. For example, he presents the attitude of the American doctor and tries to show that everything is limited in this space to the fact of winning.203 By offering a small amount of money that represented the cost of the medical services provided in the last moments of life to the bishop Teodot, Baxan also arrives in the posture of understanding the principles of life of the American society: ‒ He made all this fuss for 630 francs. The price of a pair of shoes in a luxury store. These Americans! “‒ You can’t change them,” Baxan says. This is America. (Gheorghiu 2016a: 194)204

Of course, it must also not be forgotten that he uses these exaggerations in order to present the stereotypes that the capitalists had about the communists and vice-​versa. For example, even when he is content with what he realised, the

202 Origin. 2012. „Ion Costache a părăsit Canada, spuse Burian. Canada este o țară democratică. Pentru ce anume socrul dumneavoastră nu a putut să se încadreze într-​o democrație? O întrebare pe care și-​o pun americanii. Am citit raportul lui Costache... Munca în Canada era inumană: lucra la construcția de căi ferate, într-​o zonă înghețată, salariile erau mari, dar viața era foarte scumpă, nu-​i rămânea nimic. Dacă muncitorii voiau să mănânce în fiecare zi, trebuiau să se îndatoreze la cantină... Să admitem că muncitorii erau exploatați. Totuși americanii nu pot să înțeleagă că un om a părăsit o dermocrație pentru că a dat de un patron care îl exploatează. Emit o altă ipoteză. Pentru americani, oricine abandonează o țară democratică este un suspect, un individ care nu poate să suporte democrația”. 203 “The doctor gets up. He closes the file. He won. For them, in America, the purpose of life is to win.” (Gheorghiu 2016a: 183). Origin. 2016a: „Doctorul se ridică. Închide dosarul. A câștigat. La ei, în America, scopul vieții este de a câștiga”. 204 Origin, 2016a: „-​A făcut tot acest tam-​tam pentru 630 de franci. Prețul unei perechi de pantofi într-​un magazin de lux. Americanii ăștia! -​Nu poți să-​i schimbi, spune Baxan. Asta-​i America”.

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aparatski Baxan compares himself with an American in order to show his superiority.205 Another stereotype that is brought into attention when speaking about Capitalism is the fact that the enclosures are, from the Communist point of view, a creation of the feudalist society. The same character insists on this fact in one of his debates with his co-​operators, speaking about an aspect that would surely change the history of the private life (Ariès, Duby, Prost, Gérard 1997: 47) and make it reconsider, at least in this category of societies, its principles. The Communist shows that: The enclosures are a creation of feudal society. They are a creation of the individualistic world and the architectural image of a feudal society. The magnates, the great owners, created high walls, wrought iron gates, so that they could insulate themselves. Communism created a life together. Communism unites people, not separates them. The fences that separate comrades have no place among the individuals of a community. This is why the world reaction ordered its agents in Romania to repair the fences and enclosures. (Gheorghiu 2012: 192–​193)206

205 “Baxan is satisfied. He is not American to make success a religion and a purpose in life, but like any human being, he is satisfied when he succeeds in what he has done. It has been less than three months since Iuri Morcovescu and General Horodincă came to him, to Albina, near Bucharest. They asked him to kill the Romanian bishop in Paris before the winter solstice. Before December 21st. Without anyone realising he was at work, Baxan accomplished his mission in half the time, in three months. That morning, September 21, the autumn equinox, the bishop was dead. Nobody knew how Baxan worked. He killed the bishop while lying on his hospital bed.” (Gheorghiu 2016a: 185). Origin. 2016a: „Baxan e mulțumit. Nu este american ca să facă din succes o religie și un scop în viață, ci ca orice ființă omenească, e mulțumit când reușește în ceea ce a întrprins. Sunt mai puțin de trei luni de când Iuri Morcovescu și generalul Horodincă au venit la el, la Albina, în apropiere de București. I-​au cerut să-​l ucidă pe episcopul român din Paris înainte de solstițiul de iarnă. Înainte de 21 decembrie. Fără ca nimeni să-​și dea seama că era la lucru, Baxan și-​a îndeplinit misiunea sa în jumătate de timp, în trei luni. În acea dimineață, 21 septembrie, echinocțiul de toamnă, episcopul era mort. Nimeni nu știa cum a lucrat Baxan. L-​a ucis pe episcop rămânând tot timpul întins pe patul lui de spital”. 206 Gheorghiu 2012: „Incintele sunt o creație a societății feudale. Ele sunt o creație a lumii individualiste și imaginea arhitecturală a unei societăți feudale. Magnații, marii proprietari au creat ziduri înalte, porți forjate de fier, ca să se poată izola. Comunismul a creat o viață în comun. Comunismul îi unește pe oameni, nu-​i separă. Gardurile care îi separă pe tovarăși nu-​și au locul între indivizii unei comunități. Iată pentru ce reacțiunea mondială a ordonat agenților ei din România reparare a gardurilor și incintelor...”

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Here, of course, it must be mentioned that the author seems to insist more on the fact that the Communists have only apparently destroyed those aspects, but in fact, they created things that are even worse, like the Gulag or the prisons and from this point of view, he sees Capitalism as being superior to Communism. Following the same logic, one of the Communist characters of his book defines Capitalism as an invention realised in the fifteenth century. He speaks about the way the uniforms have defined at a certain time the belonging to a certain social category, and also about the way money has changed the world and its organisation. Interesting is the fact that the definition is upgraded and is still in use today. In those times, as the author underlines, the signs of social belonging are aspects like cars, villas or other luxurious accessories: Capitalism was invented in the 15th century. You knew that. At that time, each branch had its own uniform. Priests, officers, bakers, carpenters had their uniforms on. The Middle Ages were not over yet. The Middle Ages were the age of uniforms. Even prostitutes had their clothes on. They could not do their job if they did not wear a hood or a red hat. He was born out of a theological dispute. Until then, the Church claimed that money could not make chickens. At the end of the Middle Ages, the Church accepted the moneylender theory, knowing that money can make chickens. This theological change gave rise to capitalism. The first capitalists in the world were members of the Fugger family in Ausburg, Germany. It was a new job. He needed a uniform like any other. One was invented. The first garment of the capitalist uniform was the cover. A cover like a gold knitted cap. It was the uniform of the capitalists. The Fugger family was the first to wear it. Today, the outward signs of wealth are: the Cadillac, the Rolls Royce, the yachts, the sumptuous villas. (Gheorghiu 2016a: 60–​61)207

Despite some amendments that can be brought to this definition and the fact that it tries to generalise and to see the society as and to represent it as a homogenous

207 Origin. 2016a: „Capitalismul a fost inventat în secolul al XV-​lea. Știați asta. În acel timp, fiecare branșă își avea uniforma ei. Preoții, ofițerii, brutarii, tâmplarii își aveau uniformele lor. Evul Mediu nu se terminase încă. Evul Mediu a fost epoca uniformelor. Chiar și prostituatele își aveau hainele lor. Nu puteau să-​și exercite meseria dacă nu purtau un capișon, ori o scufiță roșie. El s-​a născut dintr-​o dispută teologică. Până atunci, Biserica pretindea că banii nu puteau să facă pui. La sfârșitul Evului Mediu, Biserica a acceptat teoria cămătarilor, știind că banii pot să facă pui. Această schimbare teologică a dat naștere capitalismului. Primii capitaliști din lume au fost membrii familiei Fugger din Ausburg, Germania. Era o meserie nouă. Avea nevoie de o uniformă ca toate celelalte. Se va inventa una. Prima piesă vestimentară a uniformei capitaliste a fost acoperământul. Un acoperământ ca o bonetă tricotată cu fir de aur. Era uniforma capitaliștilor. Familia Fugger a fost prima care a purtat-​o. Astăzi, semnele din afară ale bogăției sunt: Cadillac-​ul, Rols Royce-​ul, iahturile, vilele somptuoase”.

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form of life, his definition is interesting and speaks about some social categories that can be surely found even today in some sectors of the social life, if deeply analysed. The loss of spiritual meaning is emphasised there too, by an author coming from a society where traditions have always been connected to religion (Morariu 2020b: 37–​39), and which considers that the human value is increased by his spiritual concerns. Moreover, Virgil Gheorghiu seems to be extremely revolted by the fact that in a capitalist society, spiritual value means nothing and even the human being’s meaning is reduced to a certain amount of money. This allows him at certain times to criticise the co-​operation existing between the capitalist society and the communist one in the matter of money. When this co-​ operation had as a central element the human being, his critiques were tough. History will retain forever the fact that a notorious person like the Lutheran pastor Richard Wurmbrand (Huber 2018; Sabău 2011) was sold by the Romanian Communist government together with his entire family for an amount of money not more than 10,000 dollars. On the bills, it was mentioned that the officials sold fruits and vegetables. Released from prison, he and his family were sent to the Occident and from there to the United States, where the Jew converted to Christianity and became a pastor, and spent his last years of his life. As can be seen from his writings, Virgil Gheorghiu was informed about this practice of the Communists and also on the attitude of the capitalists regarding this aspect. He knew that at certain times they selected notorious people who were imprisoned and bought them in order to use them later as testimonies of the superiority of their way of life. For the first time, the Romanian writer refers to this aspect in Condotiera (Gheorghiu 2011). Here, presenting the story of a character that historically used, until a certain point, the image of the philosopher and professor, Nichifor Crainic (Morariu 2020), the author describes the entire process of selling people and pretending to do business with vegetables and fruits, realised by the Bucharest government. Mashing most probably Crainic with Wurmbrand stories, he describes how a former important political personality of the interwar space was, at a certain moment, brought out from prison, dressed in good clothes, trim and then sent outside the country, as an answer to a commercial request from the Occidental side. The complex epopee therefore has a happy end. At the same time, he uses the story to speak about a practice that has often been encountered in the commercial relationships between the two political regimes. Later, in a book that speaks about the Romanian community in Paris, he presents this procedure as being something normal in economic relationships. Coming to Bishop Teodot, one of the main characters tells him about the fact that his mother is used by the communists as a tool of blackmail and that he fears for her life. The bishop helps to calm him, saying:

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We can buy your mother. It’s just a matter of money. Every Sunday at the church, half of the people attending the service are purchased people. A fee is paid to the government in Bucharest. Because there is a rate that fluctuates like all stock market values. I don’t know what the price of people on the market is. A few months ago, ten thousand dollars were paid. Germans who buy wholesale from their citizens in Poland are paying a little cheaper. We were told that he paid the Poles eight thousand dollars a person. (Gheorghiu 2016a: 128–​129)208

The passage therefore shows that, in the perception of the society of the time, it was a normal practice to buy somebody from a communist country. This, as the writer let it be understood, was a custom that should not be encouraged and was not bringing honour either to the Communists or to the Capitalists. The first ones were, according to him, guilty of persecuting people for political reasons and creating penitentiary republics, while the others were devalorising the human being and his unicity, by allowing his evaluation according to principles that should be applied only to material aspects and not to human beings. For this reason, his reflections gravitate around the critical approach of both of them. The despiritualisation of the society also brought according to him the neglect of aspects like literature and poetry. In books like The Suspect (Gheorghiu 2020), after speaking about the way technology has become the divinity that replaced classical religiosity, the Romanian writer also emphasises the fact that this process brought with it this element. Moreover, while for divinity the substitute is represented by technology, for culture, social sectors like policies came to take its place: In today’s society, there are no more poets. The police must also do this office. Let the citizens talk about chlorophyll and roses. Because if the police and toothpaste manufacturers don’t talk about chlorophyll, American citizens forget that it exists. And if society does not care about the existence of chlorophyll, it sinks into barbarism. (Gheorghiu 2020a: 53)209

208 Origin 2016a: „O putem cumpăra pe mama dumneavoastră. E doar o chestiune de bani. În fiecare duminică, la biserică, jumătate dintre persoanele care participă la slujbă sunt persoane cumpărate. Se plătește guvernului de la București un tarif. Căci există un tarif care oscilează precum toate valorile de la bursă. Nu știu care este prețul persoanelor pe piață. Acum câteva luni, se plăteau zece mii de dolari. Germanii care îi cumpără en-​gross pe cetățenii lor din Polonia plăresc ceva mai ieftin. Ni s-​a spus că varsă polonezilor opt mii de dolari pe cap de om”. 209 Origin. 2020a: „În societatea de astăzi nu mai există poeți. Polițiștii trebuie să facă, de asemenea, acest oficiul. Să vorbească cetățenilor de clorofică și trandafiri. Căci, dacă poliția și fabricanții de pasta de dinți nu vorbesc de clorofilă, cetățenii americani uită

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The decrease of the cultural level of the society brings with it other consequences too. The complex system of thinking of Gheorghiu emphasises them too. For example, one of the keywords of his discourse that contains references to Capitalism and especially to the American one, is regarding total transparency brought by technology. Steps, for example, could be used in order to understand human life, its inner desires and the potential social dangers that could be created by a human being,210 and shame does not exist anymore. This generates a new social ethics and in the interaction with other cultures, conflicts too. In the book that contains the largest critique to American Capitalism, namely The American Eye (Gheorghiu 2019), the writer insists on this aspect and, using some aspects that are clearly exaggerated, presents his way of understanding these aspects and his conception that can be classified as being a conservative rather than a progressive one: Everything that happens on earth is a kind of open book, before their eyes. Everything is photographed and filmed. In the United States, girls walk almost naked. They know it’s stupid to hide from neighbors what millions of eyes see from afar. Youth understand quickly. He understood that shame and modesty no longer made sense. Everything happens in public. Even the United Nations house is made of glass. Everything is public. Generalized brothel. There is no need for secret places, for certain needs or for dating. Love is made in public. I read in the newspapers:  all the big cities are provided with model sexodromes, very hygienic, where men and women buy a monthly or quarterly ticket, enter and mate, like animals. As a captain, I cannot raise my children without modesty, like dogs. (Gheorghiu 2019: 59)211

că aceasta există. Și dacă societății nu-​I pasă de existența clorofilei, ea se afundă în barbarie”. 210 “Because people will know that all their secrets are written in the footsteps of the steps they take on the road, they will be afraid. And because of this, they will have no more secrets. Man’s ethics will be completely changed. Intimate life will have to conform to his public life. The age of conspiracy and secrecy will be defeated. The man will become public. Thanks to his steps in which his whole being will be seen as in a shop window.” (Gheorghiu 2020a: 64). Origin. 2020a: „Pentru că oamenii vor ști că toate secretele lor sunt înscrise în urmele pașilor pe care le lasă pe drum, le va fi teamă. Și, din această cauză, nu vor mai avea secrete. Etica omului va fi complet schimbată Viața intima va trebui să fie conformă cu viața sa publică. Epoca conspirației și a secretului va fi înfrântă. Omul va deveni public. Mulțumită pașilor săi în care se va vedea întreaga sa ființă ca într-​o vitrină”. 211 Origin. 2019: „Tot ce se petrece pe pământ, este un fel de carte deschisă, sub ochii lor. Totul este fotografiat și filmat. În Statele-​Unite, fetele se plimbă aproape dezbrăcate. Ele știu că este stupid să ascunzi față de vecini ceea ce milioane de ochi văd de departe. Tineretul înțelege repede. El a înțeles că rușinea și pudoarea nu mai au niciun sens.

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Of course, among other aspects, this passage must be also understood in the context of the conflict between the Communist and Capitalist societies. The first one tries to look rather conservative and therefore accuses the last ones for not sharing their principles, which they consider as being superior. But at the same time, the paragraph is also important for its reference to morals and their need in contemporary society. In fact, an aspect of the actuality of his reflections is given by this appeal to rediscover the real and healthy Christian ethics that the author militates for in all the books that he wrote during his life. According to him, all the ethical problems are related with the devalorisation of the human being. If in previous books he has already spoken about the technological slave (Gheorghiu 1948), in the aforementioned one that contains a critique of American Capitalism, the reader encounters keywords like “citizen screw” and “citizen nut.” For this category of people, ethics is not necessary. As he underlines, man is not necessary here anymore when he does not accomplish his duties as a producer. And then, as a consumer of what he produces. At the same time, man is reduced from a person who could have metaphysical concerns and expectations to a tool that does not count anymore when his activity as a producer ends. If this is the vision of man, the one of society is as a factory. A space that does not accept nonuniformities and therefore personality and initiative.212 “Cybernetized mound” is another interesting defining word, with deep

Totul se petrece în public. Până și casa Națiunilor Unite este de sticlă. Totul este public. Bordel generalizat. Nu mai este nevoie de locuri secrete, pentru anumite nevoi sau pentru întâlnirile amoroase. Se face dragoste în public. Am citit în ziare: toate marile orașe sunt prevăzute cu sexodromuri model, foarte igienice, unde bărbații și femeile cumpără un tichet lunar sau trimestrial, intră și se împerechează, precum animalele. Eu căpitane, nu-​mi pot crește copiii fără pudoare, precum câinii...” 212 “The Factory Society does not accept individuals, personalities. The paradise of technology, the paradise of computer science can only survive as long as the people of the earth become uniform, standardized, absolutely identical to each other, like the teeth of gears and the parallelism of the railways, like the parts of any car. People need to have uniform desires, uniform tastes, uniform needs, uniform breathing, uniform speed, uniform faith and so on. To standardize humanity, satellites spit messages day and night.” (Gheorghiu 2019a: 31–​32). Origin. 2019: „Societatea-​Uzină nu acceptă indivizi, personalități. Raiul tehnicii, paradisul informaticii nu poate supraviețui decât cu condiția ca oamenii pământului să devină uniformi, să fie standardizați, absolut identici unii cu alții, precum dinții roților dințate și paralelismul căilor ferate, precum piesele oricărei mașini. Oamenii trebuie să aibă dorințe uniforme, gusturi uniforme, nevoi uniforme, respirație uniformă, viteză uniformă, credință uniformă și așa mai departe. Pentru a standardiza omenirea, sateliți scuipă zi și noapte mesaje”.

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meanings and reverberations. Gheorghiu uses it and presents the entire concept of society as having a consumer design, a fact that according to him is unacceptable. His ironical approach can be easily seen in passages like the following one, which contains, this time, direct references to the topic: America created the civilization of the twentieth century on the model of Ford and General Motors. All civilized people, all citizens of this civilization are social parts, social screws, washers, nuts, which can be replaced. With such citizens-​screws and citizens-​nuts, the social machine spins at full speed. But here, in its planetary expansion, America encounters people who are not civilized, meets human beings who have remained personal, has not been part of an aggregate or another whole. Each of these persons is itself a whole. These uncivilized airs remained as they were when you came out of God’s hands. Each person is unique and irreplaceable, endangering the social machinery, washers and gears, which only accept standardized, standardized screws, according to international technical standards. To please America, human beings must become standardized units, human-​looking STAS screws, nuts and washers, parts that can be changed at any time, that can be replaced and discarded after use, so that the Machine-​Society works following the model of the cyberneticized mound. Without any risk of interruption. (Gheorghiu 2019a: 30)213

The main tool used to ensure the good functionality of such a social machine (Gheorghiu 2015: 23) is the satellite. Part of Gheorghiu’s prophetic vision (Redaction 2019a:  13)  –​the conception about satellites, which were at that time something new, almost unknown and innovative –​is interesting and constitutes an important aspect on his reflections about American Capitalism. The Romanian writer presents a description of the capitalist society, which certainly

213 Origin. 2019: „America a creat civilizația secolului al XX-​lea pe modelul uzinelor Ford și General Motors. Toți oamenii civilizați, toți cetățenii acestei civilizații sunt piese sociale, șuruburi sociale, șaibe, piulițe, ce pot fi înlocuite între ele. Cu astfel de cetățeni-​ șuruburi și cetățeni-​piulițe, mașina social se învârte la turație maximă. Iată însă că, în expansiunea ei planetară, America dă peste oameni care nu sunt civilizați, întâlnește ființe umane care au rămas personae, are nu fac parte dintr-​un agregat sau alt întreg. Fiecare din aceste personae este ea însăși un întreg. Aceste ăerspame necivilizate au rămas așa cum erau când ai ieșit din mâinile lui Dumnezeu. Fiecare persoană este unică și de neînlocuit, punând în pericol mașinăria socială, șaibele și roțile dințate, ce nu acceptă decât șuruburi uniformizate, standardizate, conform normelor tehnice internaționale. Pentru a fi pe placul Americii, ființele umane trebuie să devină unități standardizate, adică șuruburi, piulițe și șaibe STAS, cu aparență omenească, piese ce pot fi schimbate oricând, ce pot fi înlocuite și aruncate după folosință, astfel încât Mașina-​Societate să funcționeze după modelul mușuroiului cibernetizat. Fără niciun risc de întrerupere.”

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contains aspects of exaggeration, seeing at its centre man, as a social robot. In order to ensure good functionality of the social machine and to avoid unpredicted interruptions that would surely damage the consumeristic rhythm of social life, the satellite is used as an extremely useful instrument. Seeing everything will help to avoid breakdowns, revolts or the development of all kind of elements that could contribute to the destruction of the order that already exists. At the same time, it is an important surveillance instrument for the other parts of the world that may not share the same principles of life and economy: To avoid any risk of social breakdown, as good technicians, the Americans filled the sky with satellites. These satellites revolve around the sky like hunting dogs around game. Their hunt or prey is the entire planet, humanity. The mission of these celestial deer and hunters is to awaken individuals, nations, peoples, tribes. Awakening of the whole world. Get up, you sleepers of life, get up, underdeveloped, illiterate, get up, get out of the tropics, from the equator to the poles, get up, blacks, get up, blue-​eyed, get up, locked up, get up, prisoners and clumsy and so on. Raising everyone. Planetary social erection. Satellites awake people as God will awake the dead and the living –​when the heavenly token sounds. Through their satellites, Americans spit messages from the sky. He spits them separately, for each continent, each race, giving everyone the chance to be swallowed by the Factory Society, by the multi-​ethnic, multi-​cultural and fantastically racial Heaven. (Gheorghiu 2019a: 31)214

The fact that the satellites are used by them also as a propaganda tool and the references to elements like the spread of messages all around the world, which are an allusion to Radio Free Europe (Flers 2004) are also important. Moreover, Gheorghiu refers also to the melting pot realised by the American civilisation and at the same time to the way human privacy and human dignity is violated thorough these elements. At the same time, the discourse has also an eschatological

214 Origin. 2019: „Pentru a evita orice risc de pană social, ca buni tehnicieni ce se află, Americanii au umplut cerul de sateliți. Sateliții ăștia se învârt pe bolta cerului precum câinii de vânătoare în jurul vânatului. Vânatul sau prada lor este întreaga planetă, omenirea. Misiunea acestor cerberi și vânători cerești este deșteptarea indivizilor, a națiunilor, a popoarelor, triburilor. Deșteptarea întregii lumi. Sculați voi, adormiți ai vieții, sculați sub-​dezvoltaților, analfabeților, sculați voi, oropsiți de la tropice, de la Ecuator la Poli, sculați, negrilor, sculați, cei cu ochi albaștri, sculați, blocaților în grad, sculați, prizonieri și netrebnici etc. Scularea tuturor. Erecție socială planetară. Sateliții trezesc oamenii așa cum Dumnezeu va trezii morții și viii –​când va suna toaca cerească. Prin sateliții lor, Americanii scuipă mesaje din cer. Le scuipă separat, pentru fiecare continent, fiecare rasă, dând fiecăruia șansa de a fi înghițit de Societatea-​Uzină, de Raiul multi-​etnic, pluri-​cultural și fantastico rasial”.

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note and the author uses this element in order to change the discourse to this direction. He therefore insists on the fact that American Capitalism tries to present the society as a form of paradise,215 offering therefore the illusion of perfection, which, like in the communist situation, tries to hide its imperfections. Then he shows the fact that: The reality is known only by the defeated, by the humiliated, by those “blocked in rank.” They have no right to proclaim, to tell the truth. They have no right to speak. In the twentieth century, as an American poet Ezra Pound says, “Free speech without free radio is as zero.” The losers, the only ones who know the truth, do not have the right to speak on the radio. Only those who make the laws, the rich, the powerful, the victors, the owners of wars and peace speak on radio or television. But they never want to see the reality. Absolutely never. (Gheorghiu 2019a: 43)216

Of course, this idea is accompanied by another accent, which has been often vehiculated by other authors and thinkers of the twentieth century who were not deep fans of the American way of life. The satellites, together with the self-​ conviction that the United States represents the space where perfection has found its home, together with the access to information also in others’ gardens, that increase to the Americans the opinion according to which they develop a better way of life that other people from the world are the ones who really understand the democracy, lead them to become exporters of a way of life. Gheorghiu defines this aspect as being part of the colonisation. If before the First World War, the colonisers were the empires that had colonies in different parts of the world, after this, due to the historical context that favoured them, the Americans have become the colonisers of the world. Moreover, after the Second World War, the Cold war and the split of the Europe into spheres of influence allowed them to impose their way of life and even to try to create indigo societies, from

215 “Ethnic paradise, electronic paradise, American paradise is gorgeous, irresistible, as beautiful as the Muslim paradise, with rivers of milk and honey, everyone is in a hurry to get there.” (Gheorghiu 2019a: 34). Origin. 2019a: „Paradis ul etnic, paradisul electronic, paradisul American este superb, irezistibil, la fel de frumos ca raiul musulmanilor, cu râuri de lapte și miere, toată lumea se grăbește să ajungă acolo”. 216 Origin. 2019a: „Realitatea nu este cunoscută decât de cei învinși, de cei umiliți, de cei „blocați în grad”. Aceștia nu au dreptul să proclame, să spună adevărul. Ei nu au dreptul la cuvânt. În secolul XX, cum spune un poet american Ezra Pound: „Free speech without reee radio is as zero”. Învinșii, singurii ce cunosc adevărul, nu au dreptul să se exprime la radio. La radio sau la televiziune nu vorbesc decât cei care fac legile, bogații, cei puternici, învingătorii, proprietarii războaielor și ai păcii. Ăștia însă nu vor niciodată să vadă realitatea. Absolut niciodată.”

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cultural, social as well as religious points of view. In a book that speaks about the differences, both at the level of life and at the one of action and mentality, namely The Heidelberg Unknowns, the author brings into attention this aspect. When speaking about one of the important characters of the story, the police officer Kripo Wolf characterises him, but at the same time uses that in order to characterise also the society that educated him, namely the American one and to speak about the colonisation by it: Kripo Wolf belongs to the generation of Germans born after the Second World War. These people studied in the United States. They returned to Germany with diplomas, customs and American morals. They hold the most important positions in government, state administration and large enterprises. They introduced the American way of life everywhere. Because of them, you no longer recognize the country. Germany is no longer Germany. It has become a periphery of the United States. (Gheorghiu 2015: 8)217

Moreover, the author insists on the fact that the aforementioned character is just a prototype of the society created after the war, which contains many others like him and is based on the capacity to create this kind of people. Seeing one of them, one has the feeling that he has seen all of them, due to the similitude existing between all of them. At the same time, the author insists on the fact that the old people have also started to imitate them in order to not be socially excluded and therefore, there is a social levelling that has been created thorough American colonialism: All Germans in the new generation are like Kripo Wolf. Like spare parts from the Volkswagen plant. They do not even distinguish themselves from the young Papuans in London or India. If you’ve seen or heard them, it doesn’t matter at what latitude –​you know them all. Both inside and out. The elders also began to imitate them, to follow this fashion so as not to fall behind the current. (Gheorghiu 2015: 9)218

217 Origin. 2015: „Kripo Wolf aparține generației germanilor născuți după cel de-​al Doilea Război Mondial. Acești oameni au făcut studii în Statele Unite. Au revenit în Germania cu diplome, cu obiceiuri și cu moravuri americane. ei ocupă posturile cele mai importante în govern., în administrația de stat și în marile întreprinderi. Ei au introdus peste tot American way of life. Din cauza lor nu mai recunoști țara. Germania nu mai este Germania. A devenit o periferie a Statelor Unite”. 218 Origin. 2015: „Toți germanii din noua generație sunt asemenea lui Kripo Wolf. Asemenea pieselor de schimb de la uzina Volkswagen. Nu se disting nici măcar de tinerii papuași de la Londra ori din Indii. Dacă i-​ai fi văzut ori auzit, nu contează la ce latitudine –​îi cunoști pe toți. Atât lăuntric, cât și afară. Bătrânii au început și ei să-​i imite, să urmeze această modă pentru a nu rămâne în urma curentului”.

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Another interesting aspect that defines the Romanian writer’s reflections on Capitalism and has been both contemporary to him and also later brought into debate also by other thinkers from the twentieth century, is the fact that if in the previous centuries, Europe was the one which gave the start in every section of life and through colonialism imposed its way of life and its cultural values to the authors, now in a society dominated by the Americans at a global level, the old continent has become too colonised a territory. Without having anymore the possibility of imposing on the others its way of life and acting, now it is also counted among the spaces that have also lost their autonomy. Therefore, the Americans have imposed on the Europeans now (in fact in the eighth decade of the twentieth century, when The American Eye and The Heidelberg Unknowns were written and published by the author), the fashion, sexual customs and all other tastes, as on a real colony. Gheorghiu was aware of this fact. He emphasised it and also tried to protest against this, underlining, among other aspects, the cultural superiority that the Europeans had in front of the other culture: But the new majority that now leads the planet does not limit itself to making decisions, making laws at will and imposing them on minority nations. It also imposes its way of life. The fashion of clothing, music, dances, social, religious or sexual behaviours were also imposed by the new majority. For most always impose their tastes and preferences on others. Europeans are obliged to follow them. They have become an insignificant minority and have lost the right to make decisions. (Gheorghiu 2015: 14)219

As has been already mentioned, the experience that the author lived in Heidelberg, a space that was used by the Americans after the war, influenced very strongly his way of seeing things and understanding them. Although even earlier he appeared to not to be a big fan of their way of life, after the years when he was sent to an American camp and lived for a few years with the fear that the ones who were keeping him and his wife as prisoners could always sell him to the Russians, he would surely not share anymore their values. The subjective reason was doubled by what he saw and understood from his experiences. The Heidelberg Unknowns contains such passages that are for sure influenced by his

219 Origin. 2015: „Însă noua majoritate care conduce acum planeta nu se mărginește la a lua decizii, a face legi după bunul plac și de a le impune națiunilor minoritare. Ea impune, de asemenea, modul ei de viață –​way of life. Moda vestimentației, muzica, dansurile, comportamentele sociale, religioase ori sexuale au fost impuse și ele prin noua majoritate. Căci majoritatea întotdeauna impune altora gusturile și preferințele sale. Europenii sunt obligați să le urmeze. Ei au devenit o minoritate nesemnificativă și au pierdut dreptul de a mai lua decizii”.

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experiences. He therefore emphasises in some places the similarities that existed between the Russian behaviour and the American one. Both expelled from their houses people in the places occupied by the armies. At the same time, he did not lose the chance to criticise some of the customs of this society. The following passage can be considered as such an example: Hans Heibron had been treated like a dog by the Americans and their comrades. The first thing they did at the entrance in the city was to evict the occupants of all the beautiful houses here. They enjoyed going out to the gate of their house with a kick in the back. Without even allowing them to take an overcoat. American soldiers settled in beautiful houses as in their own homes. They first tore the curtains and drapes from the windows. Because the Americans can’t stand the curtains. American society is a society without curtains. Like Soviet society, it is a society with an iron curtain and barbed wire. After tearing down the curtains, the Americans tore off the interior doors. He wanted to move from one room of the apartments to another without any interruption. The third operation was that of the signs. Signs in English and German were displayed in front of all American-​occupied homes, with the following notice: “Off limits… Eintrit Verbotten… No dogs and Germans… No dogs and civilians.” It was at the time of the Morghenthau plan. An American plan. (Gheorghiu 2015: 31–​32)220

The fact that the author avoids saying that the social mechanisms used by the Americans and the Russians are similar says a lot about his opinion. It speaks about his feelings and about his capacity to understand nuances. Although Gheorghiu is a man disappointed by Capitalism but is forced to live in this system, he is totally conscious of the fact that this system is different at the principal level from the one of the Soviets. A proof is the fact that he decides to assume, despite its status of second-​hand life (Gheorghiu 2012: 5), the status of exiled people and to not return to his country. At the same time, it speaks about the

220 Origin. 2015: „Hans Heibron fusese tratat asemenea unui câine de către Americani și tovarășii lor. Primul lucru pe care l-​au făcut la intrarea în oraș a fost de a expulza pe locatarii tuturor caselor frumoase de aici. Au gost scoși la poarta casei lor cu un șut în dos. Fără a li se îngădui nici măcar să își ia un pardesiu. Soldații americani s-​ au instalat în casele frumoase ca în propriile lor case. Au smuls mai întâi perdelele și draperiile de la ferestre. Căci americanii nu suportă perdelele. Societatea americană e o societate fără perdea. La fel ca și societatea sovietică, este o societate cu cortină de fier și sârmă ghimpată. După ce au smuls perdelele, americanii au smuls ușile interioare. Voiau să circule fără nici un fel de opreliște dintr-​o cameră în alta a apartamentelor. A treia operație a fost cea a pancartelor. În fața tuturor caselor ocupate de americani au fost afișate pancarte în engleză și germane, cu următorul anunț: „Off limits… Eintrit Verbotten… Intrarea interzisă câinilor și germanilor… Interzis câinilor și civililor.” Era pe vremea planului Morghenthau. Un plan American…”

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fact that the author is capable of understanding the ideological nuances and of distinguishing between Communism and Capitalism in their deepest form. Of course, he does not avoid speaking about a similar practice existing in different situations in both areas.221 But he is conscious that despite its Kafkaesque elements that are also emphasised in his novels,222 Capitalism is superior from the ideological point of view. And although it underestimates the people when it evaluates them only as production tools, it still offers the warranty of respect of certain fundamental elements. Freedom of thinking and aspects like freedom of expression and of travel are presented by the author as being elements of daily life in capitalist society. Still, an aspect that he never managed to cross over was the co-​operation existing between Russians and Americans. In The 25th Hour he insists on the fact that the Russians won the war due to the American weapons that they received (Gheorghiu 1991: 214), while in later books, he accuses the latter of being too weak in front of the former as they abandoned Eastern Europe to them. Later, in books like The Sacrifices of the Danube, the Romanian writer goes further and also emphasises, like in Condotiera (Gheorghiu 2011) or God in Paris

221 Thus, for example, he presents the testimony of a German man who speaks about the situation of the German side that remained under American government and showed the fact that the occupiers have almost destroyed the country: “It was the first year of American occupation. The laws of the Morghentau plan applied. We were all looking at dismantling the industry and transforming Germany into a pastoral state. We were forbidden to do anything but raise sheep and goats. Germany was to become a huge pasture for sheep and goats.” (Gheorghiu 2015: 129). Origin. 2015: „Era primul an de ocupație americană. Se aplicau legile planului Morghentau. Priveam cu toții la demantelarea industriei și transformarea Germaniei într-​un stat pastoral. Ne era interzis să facem altceva în afară de a crește oi și capre. Germania urma să devină o imensă pășune pentru oi și capre”. 222 The following passage illustrates this aspect: “The law does not deal with the real man, but with the legal man. It’s always been that way… I repeat, ma’am, it’s always been that way. The administrative being born of papers, is the only one taken into account by law. The law has the horror of flesh, blood and breath. Ignore it. The whole civilization is built on this rule. On this conception related to man and society. It must be respected. All civilized countries respect it. (Gheorghiu 2015: 166). Origin. 2015: „Legea nu se ocupă de omul real, ci de omul legal. Așa a fost întotdeauna… Vă repet, doamnă, așa a fost întotdeauna. Ființa administrative, născută din hârtii, este singura luată în calcul de lege. Legea are oroare de carne, de sânge și de suflu. Le ignoră. Întreaga civilizație este edificată pe această regulă. Pe această concepție legată de om și societate. Trebuie respectată. Toate țările civilizate o respectă”.

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(Gheorghiu 2016a), the fact that among them there was an even deeper relationship of co-​operation. If there he speaks about the commercial relationships existing, consisting of the fact that the Capitalist states were allowed to buy people imprisoned for political reasons and receive them and a bill that testified the fact that they bought vegetables and fruits, here, in the Communist ones, in The Sacrifices of the Danube, through the eyes of the main character, the American professor Joseph Martin who arrived in Bulgaria and remained here, where he married,223 he speaks about the disappointment created by such a co-​operation, consisting of the fact that the Americans were selling to the Russians elements important for work in spaces like the gulags: Martin read the label again. His hometown, one of the most civilized metropolises in the world, the city that over the centuries has spread so much light on earth, his city, now makes this new light: projectors to illuminate the emaciated bodies of prisoners, to illuminate the concentration camps of the Russians. The light made by the homeland of Joseph Martin, in 1956, the last form of light that his great civilized homeland from the West was still sending on earth. (Gheorghiu 2020: 42)224

223 About him and his activity in the Bulgarian lands, Virgil Gheorghiu shows: “Lipova is a village on the shore of the Black Sea, placed at three km far away, to the north, from Varna harbour. In 1945, the professor Joseph Martin arrived in this village with a team of Bulgarian soldiers for doing researches. Professor Martin was then 28 years old. He was not like now, professor in the university, nor director at the Bulgarian Institute of Anthropology. He was only the leader of a students’ team. Now, he received his salary from the Bulgarian Ministry of National Education, but in 1945, Professor Marin was receiving his money from the Institute of Natural History from the United States. With this money from USA, he arrived to count, make interviews, make photos and study the peasants and fisherman’s from Lipova.” (Gheorghiu 2020: 14). Origin. 2020. „Lipova e un sat de pe țărmul Mării Negre, situate la trei kilometri depărtare, spre miazănoapte, de portul Varna. În cursul anului 1945, profesorul Joseph Martin sosise în acel sat cu o echipă de studenți Bulgari ca să facă cercetări. Profesorul Martin avea pe atunci 28 de ani. Nu era ca acum, professor la universitate, nici director la Institutul bulgar de Antropologie. Nu era decât conducătorul unei echipe de studenți. Acum, își primea salariul de la Ministerul Educației Naționale din Bulgaria, dar în 1945, profesorul Martin își primea banii de la Institutul de Istorie Naturală din Statele Unite. Cu acești bani din Statele Unite venise el să măsoare, să ia interviuri, să fotografieze și să-​I studieze pe țăranii și pe pescarii din Lipova”. 224 Origin. 2020: „Martin a citit din nou eticheta. Orașul său natal, una dintre metropolele cele mai civilizate din lume, orașul care în decursul secolelor răspândite atâta lumină pe pământ, orașul său, fabrica acum această nouă lumină: proiectoare ca să lumineze trupurile descărnate ale pușcăriașilor, pentru a lumina lagărele de concentrare ale

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This is not the only book where the author refers to this aspect. Once the start is given by The 25th Hour, there are such references in almost all of Gheorghiu publications. Different nuances are emphasised in order to say clearly, or just to let to be understood, the fact that there were certain relationships about the two categories of states that allowed them to co-​operate and even to help each other. Little by little, all of them were discovered and the historical research published, especially starting with the last decade of the twentieth century, came to show that the author was right. But at the moment, they were part of his prophetic vision. The fact that people were sold, the co-​operation that existed among Americans and Russians, having only commercial purposes and neglecting aspects like human rights are the keywords. At the same time, the Romanian did not neglect the peripheral aspects, which, without being often referred, were related with the relationships existing between both Occident and Orient, and also with the work of the Secret Services of the last one. The fact that the Communists did not allow their opponents to rest even after their death, was a reality. One of the characters in the book God in Paris finds it on his own, not without being scared about the task that he received from the party. Using the co-​operation with those states or paying for their lack of action in certain areas, the communists also manage to bring back to their countries the bodies of those who preferred exile to living in their homeland: You, Comrade Moldav, will work, starting today, at the Testaments office. It’s an easy job. This office has the task of recovering the skin of stray animals that come out of the herd. The Office of Wills recovers the property and all the property of the exiles. Sometimes, they also recover their bodies to send them home. The skin of dead animals outside the state belongs to the owner of the herd. The skin and the wealth of the exiles belong to us. (Gheorghiu 2016a: 64)225

In The Heidelberg Unknowns, this aspect is developed by the writer and the story is about the repatriation of the dead body of a man who left Romania when he found that the communists were about to arrive there. Here, among other

rușilor. Lumina fabricate de patria lui Joseph Martin, în 1956, ultima formă de lumină pe care o trimitea încă pe pământ marea sa patrie civilizată din Occident…” 225 Origin 2016a: „Dumneavoastră, tovarășe Moldav, veți lucra, începând de astăzi, la biroul Testamentelor. E o treabă ușoară. Acest birou are sarcina de a recupera pielea animalelor rătăcite, care ies din turmă. Biroul Testamentelor recuperează averea și toate bunurile exilaților. Uneori, recuperează și cadavrele lor pentru a le trimite în patrie. Pielea animalelor moarte în afara statului aparține stăpânului turmei. Pielea și averea exilaților ne aparțin”.

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aspects, he presents a bureaucratic discussion and speaks both about the realities of the Cold war and about the conventions, the attitude of the Communists that are presented as acting like hyenas,226 and also about topics like dead bodies and the bureaucratic traps that existed even in those times and were used by them to their advantage in different situations: We are not cruel, but we have agreements with the Soviets. The most recent and most important convention for us is the one we just signed in Helsinki. Convention on Freedom of Movement and of Goods, Persons and Ideas. The Iron Curtain cuts Europe in two. Thanks to this convention, the wall will be demolished. This convention is a success for us. A victory for the Russians, not for us. They don’t let anyone out of their prison universe. They just made promises. Just simple promises. (Gheorghiu 2015: 176)227

This aspect, together with other ones, is part of the autobiographical dimension of the reflections shared by the writer with his readers (Simion 2008:  285). It speaks about the fear of posthumous desacralisation of the image of an exiled man. In fact, together with his memoirs, his reflections regarding the relationships between communists and American Capitalism come to speak both about the real identity and the way it can be determined by certain realities. For this reason, a Romanian writer who investigated his works and tried to deepen both his social reflections and the relationship existing between them and the autobiography of the author underlines the following: Les Mémoires de Virgil Gheorghiu représentent une réflexion sur «la véritable identité » du Roumain opprimé. L’espace textuel que cet écrivain d’expression française configure se situe à mi-​chemin entre son imagination et le référentiel propre à la première moitié du XXe siècle, entre la fiction littéraire et l’image photographique de la réalité européenne de 1916–​1948. (Drăgoi 2015: 93)228

226 “The Soviets failed to have Mircea Macedon alive. They want him dead. They will have his dead body. For they are content with corpses. Like hyenas. ” (Gheorghiu 2015: 178). Origin. 2015: „Sovietele n-​au reușit să-​l aibă pe Mircea Macedon viu. Îl vor mort. Vor avea cadavrul lui. Căci ele se mulțumesc și cu cadavrele. Precum hienele”. 227 Origin. 2015: „Nu suntem cruzi, dar avem convenții cu sovieticii. Cea mai recentă și cea mai însemnată convenție pentru noi e cea pe care tocmai am semnat-​o la Helsinki. Convenția asupra libertății circulației și a bunurilor, a persoanelor și ideilor. Cortina de Fier taie Europa în două. Grație acestei convenții, zidul va fi demolat. Această convenție este o izbândă pentru noi. O izbândă pentru ruși, nu pentru noi. Ei nu lasă pe nimeni să iasă din universul lor carceral. Au făcut doar promisiuni. Doar simple promisiuni”. 228 In another place, the same author says, „Une analyse approfondie des textes fictionnels de Virgil Gheorghiu démontre que les centres d’intérêt de cet écrivain puisent

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In the same sphere of the autobiographical can be seen also the paragraphs where the author refers to the interaction between cultures. The fact that, like many other exiled people, he praises the Romanian traditions and the history of his country in his writing is something quite normal (Morariu 2020b: 40). It is related with the fact that he misses his home, his parents, the birth land and other similar aspects. At the same time, the author uses this aspect to show that the customs and the traditions of the old lands are superior, from many points of view, to the culture of consumerism brought by American Capitalism. Books like The American Eye contain many passages where the American technology is presented in comparison with the fatalism of the people coming from the underdeveloped countries (Gheorghiu 2019: 45). The accent is put on the values brought by the traditions and cultures, instead of secular aspects like the lack of shame, transparency, surveillance, bodily desire or the superiority of the material in front of the one of the spiritual. Gheorghiu clearly insists on the fact that, despite its importance, material aspects will never have primordiality in front of spiritual ones. Through the thoughts of Amina, one of the main characters of the aforementioned book, he underlines that: God is my Father and my Creator. He can look at me, I am not ashamed of Him, who looks at me as a parent. But Americans are not my father. Not even my creator. Neither does my God. They have no right to look at me. Looking at me, their eye soils me, stains me, violates my nudity … I feel as if I are locked naked in a cell and constantly observed by the guards. The American eye is the eye of Judah. (Gheorghiu 2019a: 56)229

The technological revolution, that seems not to be to the author’s taste, is seen in a rather religious key. Conscious of the fact that although at a theoretical level Capitalism recognises religion and freedom of its manifestation, at a practical level there is at least an attempt from this kind of society to replace religious à la même source existentielle, dont l’hypocrisie, la violence et la misère humaine enregistrées dans la période 1916–​1950 sont les mots d’ordre. De même, ses œuvres autobiographiques représentent de manière objective des images de la réalité qu’il a vécue. C’est pourquoi les mêmes faits et événements deviennent l’objet et le sujet de ses textes après avoir été immortalisés dans un message universel.” (Drăgoi 2014: 40). 229 Origin. 2019a: „Dumnezeu este părintele și creatorul meu. El mă poate privi, nu îmi este rușine de El, care mă privește ca un părinte. Americanii însă nu sunt tatăl meu. Nici creatorul meu. Nici Dumnezeul meu. Ei nu au dreptul să mă privească. Privindu-​ mă, ochiul lor mă murdărește, mă pătează, îmi violează nuditatea... Mă simt ca și când aș fi închisă goală într-​o celulă și observată permanent de către gardieni. Ochiul American este ochiul lui Iuda.”

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values with other ones like the need for material aspects; he does not avoid this aspect. Moreover, the writer goes deeper in the topic and presents aspects like the arrogance of the technological representatives who claim themselves to be more important and better architects than God himself. Phrases like “We will teach God the technological discipline” (Gheorghiu 2019a: 133),230 or “I am part of the Improvers team. The team of God’s correctors” (Gheorghiu 2019a: 140),231come to prove this aspect and at the same time explain why the people from spaces like Eastern Europe, Africa or Asia have fear of the American way of life (Gheorghiu 2019a: 145). Interesting is also the fact that the author tries to speak about some characters coming from this society who realise what happens and are both scared and revolted. The diplomacy is seen by the author as something unsuccessful, on one side due to the fact that the Communists are capable of promising all that the Occidentals want and at the same time doing nothing, but pretending to be transparent, and on the other, due to the weakness of the Occident that was never strong enough to sanction them for the disrespect that they had for their own promises. Joseph Martin, the main character in The Sacrifices of the Danube, first released in the sixth decade of the twentieth century, is among them and comes to speak about these aspects and to protest against what the Americans

2 30 Origin. 2019a: „Îl vom învăța pe Dumnezeu disciplina tehnologică”. 231 Origin. 2019a: „Fac parte din echipa Improvers. Echipa corectorilor lui Dumnezeu”. Later, the same aspect was again approached, but this time thorough the eyes of a man coming from another culture, forced to get in contact with the American capitalism and its forms: “But I have an explanation, Captain. The Americans have taken the place of God. The stars twinkled, tinkered with, twisted and spun by them are so beautiful that we cannot distinguish them from the divine ones. They fly through the sky, on the moon, like angels... Here they are able to stay on Mythos for twenty-​five years, without feeding, without aging. They abrogated old age. Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow they will discover the elixir against death and they will be immortal.” (Gheorghiu 2019a: 77). Origin. 2019a: „Eu am însă o explicație, căpitane. Americanii au luat locul lui Dumnezeu. Stelele fușerite, bricolate, sucite și învârtite de ei sunt atât de frumoase, încât nu le putem distinge de cele dumnezeiești. Ei zboară prin cer, pe Lună, precum îngerii... Iată-​i capabili să stea douăzeci și cinci de ani pe Mythos, fără să se hrănească, fără să îmbătrânească. Ei au abrogat bătrânețea. Mâine sau poimâine vor descoperi elixirul contra morții și vor fi nemuritori”. Very interesting is the social construction dedicated to the Americans that existed in those times and was partially a conclusion of what people saw about them and partially related with the image that they themselves tried to create and to impose on the other nations, in order to export later their way of life.

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have done for the people who live under oppressive communist regimes. The dialogue between him and the ambassador of his state from Bulgaria is representative. After hosting an ill man who was running from the authorities of his state who intended to kill him for political reasons, he asks for help from his official. What he receives is almost nothing: For twelve years the worms have been devouring the living flesh of the people you sold at the bargaining table. You gave the worms this still-​living meat at your conferences in Tehran, Yalta, Geneva, Potsdam, London, in all the cities you met, where conferences were held, to feed crows, to feed dogs. Here is what the green table means, the table of your negotiations! You, diplomats, indulge in such traffic around the negotiating table. You are suppliers of worms for the human body. And now that I ask for your help to heal at least one man, you give me cologne! (Gheorghiu 2020: 89–​90)232

Interesting and at the same time saying many things both about diplomacy and about social constructions, the metaphor of cologne is not something chosen as a consequence of a lack of inspiration from the author’s side. In a symbolic way, it speaks about the desire to keep up appearances and at the same time about the fact that the capitalists, when they tried to show that they cared about the people from communist lands, offered exterior and superior help, that could only cover for a little time the pestilential smell emanated by this way of life, instead of seeking for the real cause of the bad odour and healing it. Without being Camus’s revolted man (Camus 1994), Gheorghiu still offers a reflection that brings more into attention the negative aspects of Capitalism than the positive ones. The fact is related most probably, as can be seen from his memoirs (Gheorghiu 1999a, 2002), with the experiences that he had with the capitalist situation, where he lived after 1944 (in Heidelberg or Paris). At the same time, he considered most probably the positive aspects already known by the people, due to the marketing strategies that existed, and had always to emphasise the capitalist way of life as being the best alternative to all the ones found at the time when he lived.

232 Origin. 2020: „De doisprezece ani devorează viermii carnea vie a oamenilor pe care i-​ați vândut la masa tratativelor. Ați dat viermilor această carne încă vie la conferințele dumneavoastră de la Teheran, Yalta, de la Geneva, Postdam, de la Londra, din toate orașele unde v-​ați întâlnit, unde au avut loc conferințe, pentru a hrăni corbie, pentru a hrăni câinii. Iată ce înseamnă masa verde, masa tratativelor voastre! La un astfel de trafic vă dedați acolo, în jurul mesei tratativelor, dumneavoastră, diplomații. Sunteți furnizori de viermi pentru trupul omenesc. Iar acum, că vă cer ajutorul pentru a vindeca măcar un singur om, îmi dați apă de colonie!”

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Interesting is also the fact that, although he lived in Europe, his ideas that criticise Capitalism are rather focused on the American society rather than on the realities that he encountered in places like Paris, where he spent a few decades of his life. Therefore, Gheorghiu speaks about the colonisation of other European states and about that of the continent itself, about the satellites and surveillance, imposition of certain values and of a way of life, the monopoly on certain aspects of production, the creation of robotised man and of the society that works as an assembly of machines where there is no place for aspects like the person or initiative, and underlines the similitudes existing in certain situations between Communism and Capitalism regarding the way of perceiving the human being, or criticises the co-​ operation that existed between the two regimes and the way this had a bad influence on the people and so on. Why did he insist on this aspect? What were the reasons to reduce the entire vision on Capitalism to only one example of social organisation? It is difficult to say. Still, among the important elements that determined his opinion, there can be mentioned at least two. One is related with the fact that at that time America was ruling the world. The Americans were the most important power and imposed on the other societies both their products and their principles. Technology was their weapon as has been mentioned and the social structure suggested by them was often seen as an alternative. At the same time, some of the European states were under its influence. Political structures like the Marshall Plan, and diplomatic and economic aspects came to export the American way of life to Europe. And this aspect could surely make him angry, if he thought about the cultural heritage and the superiority that the old continent had until a few decades before the middle of the twentieth century. Another aspect is related surely with the fact that the Americans have offered hope to all the countries that were in an inferior position or to the citizens who were persecuted. In a paragraph from The American Eye, the author offers an interesting perspective, speaking about the way the people from the left city, Rodon, saw the arrival of the American Mythos Navy: But one day we all opened our eyes. We were woken up. By the Americans. By their ship, which is seen at sea. The ship “U. S. A. –​Navy Mythos,” the spy ship. I didn’t know he was the American eye, nor that he had come here to keep an eye on us and watch over us. Seeing him, we began to hope. I saw him arriving one morning and dropping the anchor where he is now. That was twenty-​five years ago. I remember perfectly, I was four years old. Seeing him, I hoped that the sea would return, that Rodon would become a port again, the new Rodopolis. This hope was born with Mythos’ wife. For

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countless generations, for centuries, no ship has stopped in front of the Rhodon. (Gheorghiu 2019a: 65)233

In fact, the hope about which the author speaks is a metaphor for the hopes of all the countries occupied after 23rd August 1944 by the Soviet Army and transformed into satellites used for the spreading of the Communist ideas. The author himself was from one of them, namely Romania. As has been already mentioned, he and probably his family had nurtured the hope that the Americans would come and save them, but this never happened. This aspect surely contributed to the increase of his attitude of disagreement with the Americans and their way of life. For this reason there are often found in his books passages speaking about the fact they were always informed about Moscow’s attitudes and initiatives, but they never had a real attitude.234 A positive aspect that Gheorghiu insists on emphasising about Capitalism and the way it is related with people’s life is the fact of it being a form of manifestation of democracy. In this form of government, the total surveillance of the people and the interest in any daily act, with punitive purposes does not exist. This attitude, found in The Second Chance (2012), can seem somehow contradictory, because in The American Eye the writer spoke about satellite surveillance and

233 Origin. 2019a: „Iată însă că într-​o zi am deschis ochii cu toții. Am fost treziți. De către Americani. De către vaporul lor, ce se vede în larg. De nava „U. S. A. –​Navy Mythos”, vaporul-​spion. Nu știam că el este ochiul american, nici că venise aici spre a-​și aținti ochii pe noi și a ne supraveghea. Văzându-​l, am început să sperăm. L-​am văzut sosind într-​o dimineață și aruncând ancora acolo unde se găsește și acum. Asta a fost acum douăzeci și cinci de ani. Îmi aduc aminte perfect, aveam patru ani. Văzându-​l, am sperat că marea se va întoarce, că Rodon va redeveni un port, noul Rodopolis. Speranța asta s-​a născut odată cu soțirea lui Mythos. De generații fără număr, de secole peste secole, nici o navă nu se mai oprise în fața Rodonului”. 234 For example, in a passage from The Second Chance it is said: “In a few days, the conference of the Danube states occupied by the Russians will take place. We have informed the Americans that this conference is the most important political event of our time. The heads of communist states in Eastern Europe want to separate Russia and create a federation of Danube communist states. The marshal of the southern Slavs will be elected head of these federations. Moscow has become aware of this plan.” (Gheorghiu 2012: 256). Origin. 2021: „În câteva zile va avea loc conferința statelor dunărene ocupate de ruși. Am adus la cunoștință americanilor că la această conferință se pune la cale cel mai important eveniment politic al timpurilor noastre. Șefii statelor comuniste din Europa de Est vor să separe Rusia și să creeze o federație a statelor comuniste dunărene. În fruntea acestor federații va fi ales mareșalul slavilor de sud. Moscova a luat cunoștință de acest plan”.

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the superiority of technology of the entire world and there the accent falls on the freedom of doing everything. Of course, the proportions must be taken into account. Here he intends to refer to the aspects with relevance for the global geopolitics and the formulation contains metaphors, symbols and also an ironical note, while there the comparison is based on some proper attitudes. Coming from a country that was now under communist control, the writer knew the fact that every small attitude could constitute an important aspect for the Securitate and therefore could be punished. Therefore, he is more than amazed to see the fact that compared with this area, the capitalists are not interested in the way the people use their freedom. The fact is underlined in passages like the following one from the aforementioned book: Democracy gives everyone freedom. What man does with freedom with his freedom, that interests everyone. With this freedom, some become presidents of the republic, others criminals. With this freedom your friend Poltarew writes articles and books. You, even with this freedom, return to Russia, to be sent to Siberia or to the mine, for life. Everyone does with his freedom what he sees fit. There is no social justice on earth; the freedom for the individual is to choose what he likes, what he thinks suits him best. And that is so, we respect even your point of view. (Gheorghiu 2012: 366)235

Dedicated to a complex area of topics from the mystical to the political one,236 the books that contain Virgil Gheorghiu’s reflections on Capitalism offer an interesting understanding of this ideology and of its political forms of implementation. 235 Origin. 2012: „Democrația oferă fiecăruia libertate. Ce face omul cu libertatea cu libertatea lui, asta il interesează pe fiecare în parte. Cu această libertate unii devin președinți de republică, alții criminali. Cu această libertate prietenul dumneavoastră Poltarew scrie articole și cărți. Dumneavoastră, chiar cu această libertate, vă întoarceți în Rusia, pentru a fi trimis în Siberia ori la ocnă, pentru toată viața. Fiecare face cu libertatea sa ceea ce crede de cuviință. Nu există justiție socială pe pământ; libertatea pentru individ este de a alege ceea ce-​i place, ceea ce crede că i se potrivește mai bine. Și că este așa, noi vă respectăm chiar și punctul dumneavoastră de vedere”. 236 For this reason, an analyst of The American Eye underlines about its content: “The American Eye is a novel when subtle, when it takes the form of a theological idyll, when steep, when it intends to sound the alarm and denounce the consequences of ignorance and unbelief. The author aims to guide the reader to the meditations and mysteries that technical and technological discoveries increasingly overshadow.” (Redaction 2019: 12). Origin. 2019: „Ochiul American este un roman când subtil, atunci când ia forma unei idile teologice, când abrupt, atunci când intenționează să tragă un semnal de alarmă și să denunțe consecințele ignoranței și necredinței. Autorul își propune să-​l ghideze pe cititor spre meditațiile și misterele pe care descoperirile tehnice și tehnologice le umbresc tot mai mult”.

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Although under certain aspects his opinion is more critical and even amendable, we consider his opinion as being interesting and the reasons that brought him to it, important to emphasise in order to explain the mechanisms that helped him to arrive at these conceptions.

4.4 Conclusion As we have tried to show in our investigation, Virgil Gheorghiu’s conception about Capitalism is a complex one. Compared with the one on the National-​ Socialism, it does not know changes in time, but rather moments when the interest for the topic increases. Starting from his masterpiece, namely The 25th Hour (Gheorghiu 1948) and until his unpublished novel Dracula în Carpați (Gheorghiu 2019), there can be found references to it. Still, there are certain books that summarise more than others his opinion on the topic. These are, as we have mentioned before, the aforementioned masterpiece (Gheorghiu 1948, 1991), The Sacrifices of the Danube (Gheorghiu 1957, 2020), The Spy (Gheorghiu 1971), God Receives Only on Sunday (Gheorghiu 1975, 1990), The Second Chance (Gheorghiu 1993), the memoirs books (Gheorghiu 1999a, 2002, 2010, 2017, 2019b), The Great Exterminator and the Great Orthodox Council (Gheorghiu 2008b), Condotiera (Gheorghiu 2011), The American Eye (Gheorghiu 2013, 2019a), The Heidelberg Unknowns (Gheorghiu 2015), God in Paris (Gheorghiu 2016a), The Suspect (Gheorghiu 2020a) and Dracula in Carpathian Mountains (Gheorghiu 2019). With the exception of The 25th Hour (Gheorghiu 1948), all of them were written in exile and somehow are related with the experience of the author or with someone he knew. In fact, the autobiographical aspect is important and needs to be related with his conception about Capitalism. Arrived in Heidelberg after 23rd of August 1944 when, together with his wife, the author, like a few other diplomats like Vintilă Horea (Bădiliță, Basarab 2016; Crăciunescu 2011), refused to return to his country, conscious of the fact that now Romania was under Soviet occupation, he was sent to an American camp. Here started his personal experience with American Capitalism (the family one started with his aunt and with the great financial crisis in the 30s). Kept there in a regime that was quite similar to the one of prison for a few months, separated from his wife, the Romanian writer lived, as he confesses in the memoirs books, a constant fear that the Americans would sell him to the Russians, due to the fact that he came from a country that was now under their occupation. This constituted the start of his disagreement with Capitalism and the forms of life and social organisation that it was represented by in states like the American one. Later, when he found that the hope

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that he had in the American salvation of the Eastern European countries from Communism, was in fact fake, due to the fact that in the Yalta agreement (Conte 1964: 18) they had entrusted these countries to the big Eastern neighbour, his attitude towards the aforementioned form of social life did not become more positive. Aspects like the human trafficking of the people imprisoned for political reasons, the co-​operation existing between the Americans and Russians or the fact that the first one tried to dominate the world using technology and disregarded the human being, seeing people only through the lens of production and as one of its instruments, also contributed to his reflections and to the crystallisation of his vision regarding Capitalism, with emphasis on its American branch. In fact, America was seen by him as the one who exported its way of life also to spaces like the European one, a fact seen by the Romanian writer as a form of colonisation and a disregard of the cultural heritage of the old continent. The keywords of his reflections were, as we have previously presented them, the attitude towards people, the one towards technology, the way Capitalism tried to replace spirituality and mystics with surrogates having consumeristic purposes, the attempts to dominate the world towards technological elements like satellites, the way the Americans interacted with other cultures or the co-​ operation between Capitalism or Communism. All of them constituted, if not the main topic, at least important topics of his books from exile. Life in the capitalist society was considered by the author himself, in his case, due to the fact that he was in exile, as a second-​hand one and the prophetic vision was also present in his works. As a general consideration, it must be underlined that although the vision contains also the emphasis of certain positive aspects of Capitalism (the level of life was, under its quantitative aspects, superior to the one found in communist countries, although they were interested in finding everything and keeping everything under control using technology, the capitalists still refused to use the information that they had to penetrate private life or to change it and so on), the author mostly insists on the negative ones. Not because he wants to be an anarchist or for the reason that he considers that everything is bad or just because he considers himself important as soon as he is against something. The reason was that passing through all these forms, the writer was disappointed by all of them and, in cases like Capitalism, understood that it would be a possible change, due to the multiple qualities that this form of life had. His vision was therefore not an idealistic one, but rather a pessimistic one, and the author considered that any form of social organisation, whether based on an ideology or not, was possible to improve.

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As a formal consideration, we must say that unfortunately our investigation limits itself to the author’s books, but he also published during his life a considerable number of articles in French journals like Le Figaro. Unfortunately, we did not have access to their content and this is a limitation of the present investigation. As can be seen, Virgil Gheorghiu’s reflections are complex and deserve to be discovered, criticised and investigated. Their relevance is not only literary, but also historical, sociological, philosophical or philological and brings the author sometimes in the neighbourhood of relevant voices like George Orwell, Kafka or other contemporary writers from all around the world.

Chapter 5 The Feasibility of Virgil Gheorghiu’s Political Reflections 5.1 Introduction After the presentation of Virgil Gheorghiu’s reflections on relevant topics like Communism, National-​Socialism and Capitalism, we consider it important to speak also about the current relevance of his ideas. While in the previous chapters we have seen the way he understands things, based on his own experience, on his lectures or on what others have told him about these topics and how the author of one of the most relevant literary works from the Romanian space of the twentieth century (Popa 2009: 644), translated into forty languages and screened, but also considered a controversial person, used the autobiographical aspect in his writings (Simion 2008: 285) in order to present a complex vision about the world in which he lived. We will now try to see if there are aspects of his conception (criticizable under certain aspects, as has been already mentioned) that are still actual. Using the aforementioned works already presented (exceptions will constitute his publications that contain encomiastic portraits or biographies), like the ones of Martin Luther (Gheorghiu 1965a), Saint John Chrysostom (Gheorghiu 2008), Saint Ambrosius of Milan (Gheorghiu 2013), the Patriarch Athenagoras (Gheorghiu 2009), the prophet Mohammed (Gheorghiu 2016), the memories of travel, like the one dedicated to the Korean lands (Gheorghiu 1987) or to Lebanon (Gheorghiu 1989), the ones speaking about epochs or times that are not related with the ones that we investigate, like Chiralesa (Gheorghiu 2018) or The Last Hour (Gheorghiu 2019) or the autobiographical books that rather speak about his childhood than about the social situation of the world where he lived (like Gheorghiu 1999, 2008c), we will try to see the prophetic aspects of the author’s thinking, and also speak about the polyvalent contemporary relevance of his ideas. Therefore, the literary, prophetic, historical or sociological aspects will be emphasised, together with a critique of his reflections. We will also try, like previously, to relate his main ideas with the personal experience of the author and to emphasise the way they influenced his way of thinking and understanding the three important ideologies and the regimes that they arrived to define, or shifted his conception in certain situations.

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The analysis will therefore underline the literary and social value of Gheorghiu’s work and will try to emphasise which aspects encountered in his publications are still actual or contain elements of actuality.

5.2 The Actuality of Virgil Gheorghiu’s Political Reflections Considered one of the most important Romanian post-​ war novels (Popa 2009: 644) and compared by the critics (Anghelescu 2018: 91) with other relevant works of the Romanian literature from the interwar period, like Ion of Liviu Rebreanu (Rebreanu 2016), due to the profundity of its message, The 25th Hour (Gheorghiu 1948, 1991) was and remains one of the most important works of the author. The fact that it is still subject to different analyses in important journals from the Romanian cultural space (Miheț 2021: 21–​13) speaks about the quality of the writer and his work. Its literary value is something that cannot be contested. From the stylistic point of view, the chronicles and the fact that it was also screened with Anthony Quinn in the lead role (https://​www.youtube.com/​ watch?v=Q_​cH0zvDGJ4, accessed 12.03.2020), prove its value. Nowadays, the fact that there are doctoral theses and monographs dedicated to the writer (like Hadam, 1996; Gillyboeuf 2019; D’Esneval 2003; Cubleşan 2011, 2016; Drăgoi 2009), is related with many other aspects concerning the aforementioned books. Of course, this does not put into the darkness the other works signed by him, but it must be said that the most relevant work written by Gheorghiu is this one. There, the reader can find the prophetic vision of the writer (Redaction 2019: 13), which is mostly emphasised by books like The American Eye (Gheorghiu 2019a) or The Heidelberg Unknowns (Gheorghiu 2015). The deep analysis of the Communism, National-​Socialism and Capitalism also speaks about its sociological value. The Romanian is capable therefore of going beyond appearances and understanding the social mechanisms that define these ideologies that he has encountered and seeing which are the main elements that characterise the social order that each of them suggests. His reflection is a critical one and emphasises both aspects like the racial laws that were the defining aspects of National-​Socialism, the cruelty of the Communists who have exterminated both their opponents and the officers that were captured, and also the weakness of the Americans that put them both, the prisoners and Europe, in a weird situation, by sending back some of the prisoners or offering, in the Yalta treaty, an important part of the Europe to the Soviet Union, in order to allow them to establish there satellite republics (a fact that will affect both the countries and their inhabitants). At the same time, he shows that at least at the end of the Second World War, the Americans were only apparently more civilised than their allies (Cuzmici

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2015: 292) and deconstructed the myth of international justice, an aspect that is for sure related with his prophetic vision. At that time, there was a general trust and a wave of enthusiasm for international justice in the European space. Little by little, the duplicitous politics of the Russians, and also of other countries, demonstrated that in fact, international justice was nothing more than a myth. An appearance of a non-​existent element. Another aspect that defines his reflections and contains also rich elements of actuality is the fact that the author sees in hidden formulas of all the ideologies a wooden language that can be tricky, but in fact comes to mask the lack of real content and also, in certain aspects, the constraints and social injustice. Therefore, as a researcher who investigated his work underlines: The wooden language of each ideology (for example, the piety with which officials during the Antonescu regime relate to authority), the limits of Western democracy are aspects that, at the end of the fifth decade of the last century, prove a mentality free from any constraints, fed from past experiences and even own adhesions, realized as wrong. (Cuzmici 2015: 292)237

Interesting and actual remarks and reflections can be also found in The American Eye. Most of them are related with American Capitalism, due to the fact that the book represents a critique to this topic. Satellites, which were at the time something new and not very trusted, even in the scientific world, are presented now as being the “weapons” that help the Americans to understand, know (apparently) and rule the world. Everything that happens is seen by them and the proper functioning of the social order (Gheorghiu 2019: 15–​19) is related with them. Without being a philosopher who releases a complex opinion about the world, the future and the way different social machines have changed perception about the human being, but rather a writer of literature and a priest with philosophical sympathies, Virgil Gheorghiu still offers interesting perceptions that can be placed between philosophy and sociology. While in The 25th Hour (Gheorghiu 1948: 21, 1991) he already speaks about the human being as a tool of consumption for the capitalist society and about categories of people or classes that defined both Capitalism and Communism, in The American Eye aspects like the robot citizen and the society of machines (Gillyboeuf 2019: 23; Călugăr 1993: 5;

237 Origin. 2015: „Limbajul de lemn al fiecărei ideologii (de pildă, evlavia cu care se raportează la autoritate funcţionarii din timpul regimului antonescian), limitele democraţiei occidentale sunt aspecte care, la finele deceniului al cincilea din secolul trecut, probează o mentalitate liberă de orice constrângeri, hrănită de experienţele şi chiar de adeziunile proprii din trecut, conştientizate ca greşite.”

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Gheorghiu 2019: 30) are detailed. His approach, which generalises and for this reason is criticisable, still underlines the fact that in the contemporary space, too often, man has been perceived as a machine that puts into function the bigger social mechanism. The idea of “cyberneticized mound” (Gheorghiu 2019:  30) that was for sure part of many social utopias, is cute, but at the same time, as the author underlines in an ironical way, may imply danger. Factory society (Gheorghiu 2019: 31) is, in an idealistic vision, the one where racial, social or cultural barriers can be overcome, but it should come after a long preparation, not directly in a few days as a result of a law or as a form of implementation of one’s ideas. Moreover, it should come as a desire of the entire community, and not as something imposed by the political authority. Technology is also important and comes to improve human life. But at the same time, it can bring some dangers if it is misused. Conscious of this fact, the author touches this topic too, a fact that gives to his reflections a note of actuality, because, as can be seen, we live today in a society deeply impregned by technology and its outcomes more than it was in his time, and we can testify to the accomplishment of many of the aspects presented in an ironical way by him in the sixth decade of the twentieth century, when technology was almost something between reality and myth, and not a such important part of the daily life as it is today. The most important technological tool that he emphasises is the satellite (Gheorghiu 2019: 31). Without being something that is called to change the social life of the people by improving some daily aspects, satellites are important for their surveillance and coordination work. In an attempt to explain their role to his readers who were not upgraded with a technological definition of the element, he compares them with the hunting dogs that revolve around the sky in order to watch everything and to announce when something does not go well. Another aspect that defines them is that of sending messages. To be messengers from the sky that come to bring to the attention of the people from all around the world the relevant aspects. Interesting is also the messianic accent that is related with the fact that together with the evolution of technology, the knowledge of people increases. In many situations, this brings with it the arrogance of the man. For this reason, the author presents dialogues when people speak about the fact that they will teach God technological discipline (Gheorghiu 2019: 133), or the fact that Americans are part of “the team of God’s correctors.” (Gheorghiu 2019: 140). Moreover, he insists on the fact that sometimes the evolution of science brings with it also ethical dilemmas and at certain points is even forced to overlook aspects like human dignity. Rabolan, one of the main characters of the book that we present testifies, “For many years, my body was the living manual of

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doctors in Paris.” (Gheorghiu 2019: 158).238 But later, he also shows that despite all the efforts of the doctors and of all the successes recorded, they could not offer him happiness. The author pleads, therefore, together with his character, for the fact that only God is the one who can offer happiness to the people. Related with his reflections about the machine-​society is also the one related to the understanding of the human being. In such a space, where everything functions based on a clear standard, the personality and private initiative are not encouraged (Gheorghiu 2019: 31–​32). They can bring the unpredictable that is frightening its artisans. In order to keep the “ethnic paradise, electronic paradise” (Gheorghiu 2019: 34), the Americans have to keep a vigilant eye in order that such persons do not interfere with the social life. In order to keep it, they rely on aspects like cleaning and sterilisation of the objects and places.239 Moreover, technology becomes the depositary of science and of secrets and in situations of difficulty, offers solutions. The civilisation of machines brings with it the computer choice (Gheorghiu 2015: 23), a fact of which Gheorghiu is aware and with which he disagrees. In the Heidelberg Unknowns (Gheorghiu 2015: 25), the writer draws attention to the fact that the computer is little by little becoming a new God of the society and this is a threat. At the same time, he insists on the fact that bringing man into the technological space may bring another risk. The Suspect contains a passage where one of the characters speaks about the fact that the contemporary society knows a crisis of poets and poetry (Gheorghiu 2020a:  53). Despite the author being a critic of the capitalist society and attempting to show in an ironic way, that this type of society is tributary to a wooden language (Cuzmici 2015: 292) similar to other types of it, like the Communist or the National-​Socialist one, it comes to speak also about the fact that the misuse of technology can contribute to the loss of certain human qualities:  the dehumanisation of the people. When the office of an area like the literary one is taken over by robots and policemen, the

238 Origin. 2019: „Vreme de mai mulți ani, corpul meu a fost manualul viu al medicilor din Paris”. 239 An interesting paragraph is offered in this sense in The Suspect: “A park must be sterilized like all the objects offered to the citizens of the metropolis. Like milk and butter. The park must be pasteurized, rid of thieves, murderers, artists, gangsters and prostitutes. A park must be hygienic, comfortable and safe.” (Gheorghiu 2020a: 47). Origin. 2020a: „Un parc trebuie să fie sterilizat ca toate obiectele oferite cetățenilor metropolei. Precum laptele și untul. Parcul trebuie să fie pasteurizat, debarasat de hoți, de asasini, de artiști, de gangsteri și de prostituate. Un parc trebuie să fie igienic, confortabil și sigur”.

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consequences are not quite the best ones. At the same time, the passage containing this reference (Gheorghiu 2020:  53) comes to prove also the fact that the author considers the American society as being a superficial one, inferior to the European one from the cultural point of view, which makes him sad when he thinks about the fact that countries like Germany have become colonies of it (Gheorghiu 2015: 8). Prophetic aspects can be found in all these reflections, together with aspects of actuality. If ones takes a look at the passages where the author speaks about the way the entire life of the people could be read in their steps (Gheorghiu 2020a: 64), he or she could think, in the 60s, when the book was released, that the author’s intention was to speak about a form of palmistry. Watching the evolution of the world and seeing the way, using aspects like fingerprints, DNA or other biological elements, one can see now how actual his reflections were at those times. Without being a kind of Jules Verne, one can still find similar elements with the French author in his writings, as well as Kafkaesque ones. The author has some intuitions that are later confirmed by the evolution of the planetary situation. At the same time, reading his books, one may be tempted to think that being a pessimistic man who received mostly deceptions from life, Virgil Gheorghiu uses writing as a tool to take revenge on the social order and likes to be a man who contests everything, an anarchist. A deep study and reading of his rich work, in fact, provides almost the opposite. In fact, without being a writer who believes in an idealistic society, the Romanian writer sees both the bad and the good points of each form of social organisation. At the same time, there are situations when he emphasises the elements that make a form of state superior to the other, based on examples. The Second Chance, a novel written by Gheorghiu after his arrival in France, which speaks about the disadvantages of an exiled life, presents, for example, the difference existing between people as regards socialisation and interaction between individuals. Escaped, due to an error, from Soviet Russia, the pilot Barsov wants to return at home. Questioned by the American authorities about the reasons of his social nonadaptation, he speaks about the individualism of the people from the capitalist society and the difference existing between that and his birth land at the level of the relationships in the community: “In our country, man is not alone,” says Barsov. I’m alone here. Like in the middle of a pack of wolves. In Russia, everyone finds work. Nobody helps me here, nobody. In Russia there is order, there is fellowship. I will give you an example about my father. My father is a fisherman. Once, during a storm on the Black Sea, my father’s boat sank with equipment. In three days, my father received other utensils from the state. That way he

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could still earn his living. In America, if his boat had sunk, he would have starved to death. (Gheorghiu 2012: 365)240

Of course, those aspects should not be generalised, but rather seen as case studies. At the same time, they are part of the actuality of the conception of the Romanian author. The same author insists in other books also on the fact that Communism is harmful and that its structures are related with violence, terror and death.241 Another aspect related with the actuality of his conception is regarding the most controversial writings signed by Virgil Gheorghiu: the ones containing his war notes. I Have Fought in Crimea (Gheorghiu 1942a), The Banks of Dniestre are Burning (Gheorghiu 1941, 1993a) and With the Submarine at the Siege of Sevastopol (Gheorghiu 1942) come to speak about the controversial aspects of his later biography. Due to the fact that these aspects have already been emphasised not only by the ones with whom he got in conflict, like Monica Lovinescu (Lovinescu 1994: 66, 2005: 296), Virgil Ierunca (Ierunca 2000: 338–​339), or Mircea Eliade (Eliade 1992:  37–​39, 1999:  385, 1999a:  469–​523, 1999b:  255–​259), Emil Cioran (Stolojan 1996: 23) or Neagu Djuvara (Djuvara 2012: 164–​617), but also by writers like Thierry Gillyboeuf (Gillyboeuf 2019), Florin Țurcanu (Țurcanu 2009: 515–​530, 2007: 487) or researchers like Alexandra Laignel-​Lavastine (Laignel-​Lavastine 2002), and we have also spoken about this episode and its

240 Origin. 2012: „La noi, omul nu este singur, spune Barsov. Aici sunt singur. Ca în mijlocul unei haite de lupi. În Rusia, fiecare găsește de lucru. Aici nimeni nu mă ajută, nimeni. În Rusia e ordine, e tovărășie. Vă voi da un exemplu, în legătură cu tatăl meu. Tatăl meu este pescar. Odată, în timpul unei furtuni pe Marea Neagră, barca tatălui meu s-​a scufundat cu echipament cu tot. În trei zile, tatăl meu a primit de la stat alte ustensile. Astfel a putut să-​și câștige pâinea în continuare. În America, dacă barca lui s-​ar fi scufundat, ar fi rămas muritor de foame”. 241 Such an example can be found in books like God in Paris: “Is it Yuri Morcovescu?” Clara Zilber asks. –​Of course. Morcovescu it is. He is the messenger of death. Every time the Supreme Presidium sentences someone to death, Yuri is the one who comes to announce my sentence. He asks me to execute him. He is also the one who organizes the funerals of my victims. Because almost all those who were asked to execute them have national funerals.” (Gheorghiu 2016a: 6). Origin. 2016a: „ –​E Iuri Morcovescu? Întreabă Clara Zilber. –​Bineînțeles. Morcovescu e. El e mesagerul morții. De fiecare dată când Prezidiul Suprem condamnă pe cineva la moarte, Iuri e cel care vine să-​ mi anunțe sentința. El îmi cere să-​l execut. Tot el e cel care se ocupă de organizarea funerariilor victimelor mele. Căci aproape toți cei care mi s-​a cerut să-​i execut au parte de funerarii naționale”.

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relevance for Virgil Gheorghiu’s biography both in the biographical section of this work and also in the analysis dedicated to Communism or National-​ Socialism, so we will not insist anymore on the amendability of his writings. It has been already proved that there are anti-​Semite aspects in his works, but at the same time, they must be seen both in the general context of the Romanian attitude towards the problematic, but also in the local one, taking into account the fact that the young man sent to the battlefield to write a book about the work and the victories of the Romanian army, that at a certain period of history will be put to the index, also by the Romanian Communist regime (Caravia 2000: 210), was at the time just married to a Jewish lady, and this fact could have bad consequences on his life and career (as in fact, it later had, the author being in the end forced to end his activity in the press and to depart to the Zagreb embassy). What is interesting and related with the actuality of his works and their relevance is the fact that in those writings the Romanian writer offers an interesting and useful analysis of Communism and its mechanisms, based on case studies that, in an empirical way that was unknown at the time to the author, brought him close to qualitative research and case study (Cardano 2011). His experience and his travels on the battlefield allowed him to understand the way the war was constructed and what were the mechanisms relevant for the army, and to describe them. At the same time, the meetings with people who survived to the conflagration when they encountered the Red Army helped him to understand both the way it worked and the aspects that defined their way of life. Therefore, with enthusiasm, as was expected from a young man like him who was already known both for his literary work and for his activity as a reporter (Gheorghiu 1993a: 11), he discovered, step by step, how war machines like the submarine function, but he also worked on topics like the psychological profile of the prisoners. Beyond the historical evaluation of Communism and its mechanisms, because Virgil Gheorghiu speaks about aspects like the lack of education, disrespect for the people coming from the conquered lands, the way they managed to destroy almost everything in Bessarabia and Bukovina, and the hunger that defined them and their work, the author understood also the psychological aspects that defined the soul of the people coming from Russian Bolshevism. Therefore, called to take an interview of a group of prisoners, he managed not only to question them, but also to see their daily lives and to understand the emptiness of their souls (Gheorghiu 1993a: 18). Moreover, as a fine observer who had both a good preparation and psychological competence, and also as a Christian raised up in a church as the son of a priest, the young Gheorghiu understood that losing their artistic concerns and talents, the imprisoned Russians were, little by little, losing

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their humanity. Although at a first glance his description may be seen rather as a literary technique used by him in order to make his work more attractive, in fact it contains reflections made with sadness and fear: sadness of a young man who would like to see more vivacity and come in contact with people defined by the richness of the spirit and finds empty bodies and the sadness of a Christian, who is Gheorghiu, who sees people who have lost their souls not because, like in the Middle Ages, they have sold it to the devil, but because they have been forbidden by the ruling regime to have this element or to develop it. Also, it is a sadness caused by fear. The author himself feels the prophetic fear that, due to the huge force of the Russian Bolshevik army, one day his country could become like this one too, as a satellite, where the spirit would be killed. And history proves that he was not wrong. Moreover, at the time when all these events take place, the Romanian chooses exile, conscious of the fact that for people like him this is the only feasible alternative. The impression made on him by those prisoners in the few hours that he encountered them is expressed by Gheorghiu in rather poetical texts. In a society that at this time (due to the fact that before the communist period Romanian poetry was almost entirely oriented towards traditionalist verse and the prosodic forms were very important for almost all the writers from there), did not know the haiku, his notes come closer to what later personalities like Dag Hammarsjkold wrote in their spiritual autobiographies (Hammarsjkold 1972). Therefore, he characterises them as people who have no deep interests and limit themselves only to their daily poor concerns, he underlines the fact that they have no longing and feel no joy. In fact, the memories of war are the books where for the first time in his career, the writer speaks about robot people (Gheorghiu 1993a:  21), an aspect that is later extended also to the capitalist world and becomes a defining element of his reflections on this topic. Of course, if one took a look at the general situation of the Russian world, one would encounter also educated people and writers who, despite the regime, created and managed to keep their spirit awake. But on a deeper analysis, he or she would see that the biggest part of the Russian cultural creation from the communist period was either the role of an elite who can be considered an exception and who managed to escape the vigilance of the regime and remained somewhere at the periphery of the social life, being discovered by chance, or the work of the representatives of the exiles. In a later book, namely The Spy (Gheorghiu 1971), he even advances this idea according to which in the Communist countries it is not possible anymore to create something original, due to the conditions of the social and particular life (Gheorghiu 1971: 116). The same book is in fact a rich critique of the American society, where he tries to present the American

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stereotype as he understood and saw it during his experience exiled in the capitalist country. As a contemporary researcher who investigated this work shows: Le stéréotype de l’Américain fonctionne dans L’Espionne comme une hétéro-​image dont l’étonnante complexité provient d’une mosaïque de traits contraires et contradictoires. Par exemple, les deux échantillons textuels que nous retraçons ci-​dessous réitèrent l’image d’un peuple puissant et glorieux, mais d’une médiocrité spirituelle extrème. (Drăgoi 2016: 312)

In fact, this is an element that defines his general conception, about both about Capitalism and Communism. Virgil Gheorghiu considers that both of them are the promotors of a way of life that praises and divinises mediocrity and raises virulent critiques against this aspect. Although this idea may be debatable, it is related with the actuality of his reflections and was one of the elements that transformed his works in texts that are still investigated today. The disorder of the Russian Army, that was in fact a characteristic of their society, coming, as the author underlines, from the lack of the education of the ones arrived to rule once the regime was installed there, is also a fact underlined by the Romanian writer. After the retirement of the soldiers and officers, he is allowed to arrive in both the former buildings that have belonged to the soldiers, and also in the officers’ rooms. He realises therefore the fact that their behaviour was rather barbarian (Gheorghiu 1993a: 27) and they had acted in an irresponsible way and destroyed almost everything. To all these, the barbarian acts committed during the retreat of the army were added (Gheorghiu 1993a: 30). The contents of the suitcase of the commander of the Russian army that was defeated by the Romanian army helped by the German one is also important. The young writer insists on emphasising the fact that there were “Two big boxes of twenty kilograms of … lard, melted, ten kilograms of smoked mackerel, a box of sugar, some of the dishes and the pans” (Gheorghiu 1993a: 35). The aim of this presentation is to speak not only about the cultural level of that officer and about his preferences in the matter of goods, but also to emphasise the fact that the society that this army was representing was one governed by hunger and poverty. With this example, like with the one of the soldiers coming into the confectionery shop (Gheorghiu 1993a: 79), he intended to destroy the myth of the welfare society preached by the Communists and to attract attention towards the danger represented by them. Another important aspect that is related with the historical relevance of Gheorghiu’s analysis is the story of the deportations. After the end of the war, Romania, the Moldavian lands of Bessarabia, Russia and other countries, know the increase in this phenomenon (Aciocâltroanei 2011: 12). The German populations

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from the Romanian space were sent to Ural, as a form of punishment for what their people did to the world, the rich people from all the communities knew the road to Siberia or Bărăgan plain (in the Romanian context), the imprisoned people had to experience in many situations forced domicile for a few years after their release and therefore they also lived in a kind of deportation and so on. At the time when he was writing about this phenomenon, it was only beginning. The USSR knew it from the interwar period and imported it in the occupied territories. The young Virgil wrote about it in his war notes and tried to bring the testimonies of the ones who did not have this painful experience, but saw the others being kicked out from their homelands and sent to Siberia. The fear that those people had left is emphasised there (Gheorghiu 1993a: 83). The impression produced upon them by the trains filled up with deported people that they had seen frequently scared them and even led the people to take measures of caution (like to prepare bread in order to be ready to eat it on the road in case of a call coming during the night). Somewhere in the second part of his investigation, the author had a feeling with sociological meaning. He therefore realised that relevant aspects of the human life were not anymore part of the way of thinking of the communists. He noticed with sadness that dreams, art and religion were considered “bourgeois habits” (Gheorghiu 1993a: 87) and therefore removed from the life of a real communist. But this brought with it the dehumanisation of the people and transformed them into something that at the time was considered as being extremely new from the technological point of view, namely robots (Gheorghiu 1993a: 87). Virgil Gheorghiu’s notes of war are, despite some passages that could be surely considered amendable due to their anti-​Semite content, interesting and relevant. Even the debatable passages are related with the actuality of his message, but this time in a negative way. The prophetic accents, together with the social ones and the analysis that comes closer to psychology, made them a useful tool in the understanding of the social, cultural or spiritual mechanisms of regimes like the Communists. The same thing can be also seen in other books written by him that contain references to this ideology and the political regimes generated by it. Another relevant aspect of his work is the understanding of alterity (Drăgoi 2016:  305–​321). The way of understanding the other is important both in a macro and a micro scale. It is related with daily life, like with international relationships. An important book that analyses this problem in an interesting way is The Spy. As a researcher who investigated it shows: L’histoire complexe mise en œuvre dans ce texte romanesque ne représente qu’un prétexte dont Virgil Gheorghiu se sert pour développer, encore une fois, toute sa philosophie

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sur le rôle du prêtre dans la société et sur la condition de l’exilé après la Seconde Guerre Mondiale. (Drăgoi 2016: 306)

Beyond this aspect and the attempt to speak about the priest as an alternative who can oppose the American way of life,242 the book is a critique of the American society and its way of life, and also Communism. If books like The American Eye (Gheorghiu 2019) or The Suspect (Gheorghiu 2020a) only contain references to Capitalism, in this one the author presents, in certain situations even using comparisons, two ways of life, without speaking about the superiority of one or other. Moreover, he insists on pointing out their defects. But the fact that, like in The Second Chance (Gheorghiu 1993, 2021), it makes him angry and adopt a critical approach is the American way of life. He therefore says about it: Les Américains sont les maîtres du monde.….Et, comme à l’heure actuelle aucun peuple ne peut égaler les Etats-​Unis en richesses, en pouvoir, en civilisation, tous les peuples de la terre les imitent. Tous veulent mener The American Way of Life. Surtout les jeunes. De toutes les peuplades du monde. Or l’American Way of Life, c’est l’Animal Way of Life. Sans passé, sans avenir. Avec la religion du présent, le rêve de devenir homme-​poubelle, homme-​troupeau, homme des égouts. (Gheorghiu, 1971: 121)243

The degeneration of morals, the sexual relativism brought at the time he wrote the book by young movements like the hippie one, are therefore be criticised there,244 together with aspects like the unjustified preference for

242 As the same researcher underlines, „…image du prêtre pour l’opposer à l’Américain –​ « l’hommepoubelle » sceptique et dangereux, créateur du « mal américain ». Grosso modo, c’est ce type d’opposition binaire, à forte valeur axiologique, qui domine les choix de cet écrivain roumain d’expression française. Mais ce qui nous intéresse le plus dans la démarche analytique que nous entamons ici, c’est la manière dont cet écrivain appréhende et définit l’Autre.” (Drăgoi 2016: 307). 243 Later, he goes further with the charges, offering a perspective that is for sure amendable: Ils ne produisent rien. C’est une nation de marchands. De financiers. La richesse, la gloire, le pouvoir, sont des choses qui montent à la tête, qui vous font perdre la raison plus que l’alcool. Et les Américains, à cause de leur puissance et de leur gloire, ont perdu la tête. Ils sont semblables à des hommes ivres. C’est dégoûtant, repoussant, un homme ivre!” (Gheorghiu, 1971: 114). 244 „The American way of Life et les Americains atteints du terrible fleau qui ravage leur pays, ont abli les coiffeurs. Come les betes aussi. Ils laissent leurc cheveux pousser, partout: les betes ne vont pas chez le coiffeur! Ils ont les pois longs, come les chiens, les chats, les lions et les chyenes. Ils ne se rasent plus: les animaux ignorent les rasoirs. Ils ont aboli le marriage: a quelques exceptions pres, les animaux de la foret, de la jungle, du dessert et des jardins zoologiques ignorent le marriage”. (Gheorghiu 1971: 118).

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luxury245 or the way of understanding the people. Moreover, he insists on the fact that despite all the apparent freedom, the capitalists manage to bring among the people more separations, inserted in an artificial way, than other social mechanisms that are especially projected for that. In a paragraph where he compares the different walls, he insists particularly on this aspect in his description: Il y a d’innombrables rideaux dans le monde. Il y a le Rideau de Fer, qui separe l’Europe en deux, il y a des rideaux invisibles, qui séparent les races, les classes et les hoommes les uns des autres. Mais aucun rideau n’est plus impénetrable pour Max Hubolt que le rideau de sommeil qui le sépare en ce moment de sa femme. (Gheorghiu 1971: 18)

Of course, the comparisons with other regimes like the communist ones are, as has been mentioned, present too. In a passage that resumes in fact the author’s biography, he speaks about what means it to be a China bird246 and cries for the situation of his country, which has been transformed by the Russians into a satellite and a space where their ideas regarding the communist ideology could be exported (Gheorghiu 1971: 70). Moreover, the fact that the communists had tried, in the seventh decade of the twentieth century, to blame American Capitalism for all their failures is also emphasised there. The author therefore shows, in a passage where the metaphor and irony come together, that: Les docteurs de nos Universités, comme autrefois ceux de l’Inquisition, déclarent  –​ solennelement, officiellement, doctoralement, wue les auteurs de ces crimes, qui sont en réalite des pauvres malades atteints du mal americain, sont „Les Instruments du Profres Social”, „les Réformateurs d’un monde décadent et injuste”, „les batisseurs d’une société grandiose, juste, scientifique et aseptique”. Jamais, depui que la terre existe, on n’a trouvé de faussaires de diagnostics plus aberrants et plus laches. (Gheorghiu 1971: 110)

245 For example, in an ironic way, he describes in detail, like in other works where he realises a critique of the capitalism, the hospital where the wife of the main character was received: „C’est un clinique d’accouchement de luxe. Exactement comme les halls des palaces internationaux. Avec une musique douce, difusee en sourdine. Des fauteuills immenses et confortables. Des lumieres discretes. Des fleurs partout. Les infirmieres et les hotesses passent come des tulipes blanches et comme les ballerines sur une scene. La moquette, de couleurs repousantes, est molleuse.” (Gheorghiu 1971: 16). 246 „-​Mais pourquoi affirmes-​tu que ma femme est un oiseau de Chine? Demande Max Hubolt. -​Tout exil qui a fui sa patrie penitanciare pour echapper aux massacres est appele „Oiseaux de Chine”. C’est un soubriquet. Condamnes a l’extermination chez eux, ils se sont enfuis a l’etranger”. (Gheorghiu 1971: 36).

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Moreover, he insists on the fact that maladies like this one do not know a cure.247 Through that, he wants in fact to show that, at least from this point of view, the Americans are superior to the communists, due to the fact that they do not blame others for their errors. The co-​operation between the two regimes constitutes, as we have tried to show in the previous chapters, the topic of The Sacrifices of the Danube (Gheorghiu 2020). From the sociological and psychological area, the writer who later becomes an Orthodox priest for the exile from Romania in Paris moves, when he considers necessary, the analysis to the theological area. He therefore draws the attention to the fact that excess of materialism brings with it pollution of the spirit and this also contributes to dehumanisation. According to his reflections, this is an aspect that characterises both Communism and Capitalism and, at a certain period of history, was also a landmark of National-​Socialism. Through the words of one of the main characters of The Spy, who is in fact an alter ego of the historical priest Virgil Gheorghiu, he shows that: La pollution de l’Esprit met en danger de mort imminente l’unique chef-​d’oeuvre véritable du cosmos, qui est l’homme. Il ne faut pas sous-​estimer le danger que courent les poissons de la mer, le plancton, les arbres, les lapins, les cerfs… Mais quand le roi de la Création, l’Homme, le Chef d’Oeuvre de la Nature est en danger, il est ridicule de s’occuper d’abord de la vie des lapins et des grenouilles. (Gheorghiu 1971: 112)

The choice for an anthropology with theological and religious roots can be therefore considered an aspect that defines his way of thinking and at the same time explains why he is so critical when speaking about aspects like the fact that the Americans are leaders of the world, but in order to keep their superiority they must give up their superficiality and come back to the tradition (Drăgoi 2016: 312). Complex, and offering an expertise on Communism, National-​Socialism and Capitalism that still contains accents of actuality, the work of Virgil Gheorghiu invites the reader therefore to a complex understanding of them, offering both case studies and invitations to reflections.

247 „Jamais, si ons’entete a chercher la le vaccine contre le mal amaricain. Dans ce cas, on est perdiu, car ni le celebre Institut Pasteur, qui a debarrasse l’humanite de la rage, ni d’autres laboratoires dans le monde ne trouveront jamais de remede contre le mal americain...” (Gheorghiu 1971: 108).

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5.3 Conclusion The complexity and the relevance of Virgil Gheorghiu’s work, together with the amendability of some of its aspects are, as we have also tried to show there, things that should not be contested. The way the writer emphasises each of them by bringing into attention their anthropological conceptions, the understanding of man and the society and the psychological and social effects brought by the different ways of organising life, are interesting and contain aspects of actuality, from the historical, philological, philosophical, sociological and theological points of view. Unfortunately, a lack of this chapter, as of the entire research too, consists of the fact that we did not have access to the articles published by the author in French space, in journals like Le Figaro. Here, as his biographers (Gillyboeuf 2019), and also his detractors (Lovinescu 1999; Eliade 1999) show, he published a considerable number of studies and articles and, in certain situations, did not only focus on the situation of the exiled Romanians in France, but also on topics like the Cold War, American Capitalism, different aspects related with Communism and so on. This would surely help us to understand better the position that he takes in the problems like the one of Juan Peron (Stolojan 1996: 106; Cubleșan 2011: 32; Gillyboeuf 2019: 63) and to see what were the causes that have led to the change of his opinion or the development of his reflections on a certain topic. Still, the books and articles that we had access to allowed us to have an overview of these topics and to understand which are the aspects of actuality that can be found there. As we have already mentioned, the Romanian writer is capable of seeing, both as a war reporter and also later, when he arrives in Germany or in France, the social mechanisms that defined these ways of organising social life, the ideologies that existed behind them and, at the same time, was capable of seeing the way they were changing the society and drawing attention to the potential dangers of misunderstanding the social life. The fact that the Americans were wrong in neglecting the local cultural aspects when they had imported their way of life to spaces like the European one, or the cultural heritage that the old continent had, are emphasised by the Romanian writer, together with the elements that defined the Russians’ way of thinking and the way Communism contributed to the destruction of the local cultures and of the elites. The idea of the “robotised man,” enounced in the 40s by Gheorghiu is nowadays a term used almost daily and is part of the actuality of his thinking, together with other, that has been emphasised there. As a conclusion, we can therefore say that the reflections of Virgil Gheorghiu on Communism, Capitalism and National-​Socialism contain, despite some of

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the aspects that are debatable, interesting elements that can also be considered useful for the contemporary society. Nowadays analysis and comparison with other relevant voices from the same area would surely show the feasibility of some of his conceptions and their relevance under the historical and social areas.

General Conclusion As has been mentioned from the beginning of this investigation, we have tried to present the reflections of an important but at the same time controversial person of Romanian literature in exile (Morariu 2017: 578–​585, 2017a: 183–​188). The author of more than forty books, from which some have been translated into forty languages, and a writer who had the opportunity to see his masterpiece, the book titled The 25th Hour, screened with Anthony Quinn as a main character (https://​www.youtube.com/​watch?v=Q_​cH0zvDGJ4, accessed 12. 03. 2020), he remains until today the one to whom Romanian culture owes one of its most relevant literary works from the twentieth century (Popa 2009: 644). Due to the complexity of his works, and also thanks to the fact that we have tried to select, from the huge amount of topics approached (where aspects like the popular culture of his country, Communism, the traditions and history of the Romanians, their descendence from the Dacians and so on, occupy a very important place), the ones that could guide us to the understanding of his reflections on Communism, National-​Socialism and Capitalism. We have therefore excluded from the investigation works that are monographs like the one dedicated to Saint John Chrysostom (Gheorghiu 2008) and Saint Ambrosius of Milan (Gheorghiu 2013), or to personalities like Martin Luther (Gheorghiu 1965a), Mohammed (Gheorghiu 2016) or to the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, Athenagoras Spirou (Gheorghiu 2009). Also the works that did not come in touch with our topic, like the poetic ones (Gheorghiu 1940), his first novel (Gheorghiu 2019), Chiralesa (Gheorghiu 2018), the one dedicated to his travels in the Korean lands (Gheorghiu 1987), or Lebanon (Gheorghiu 1989), have not been used in the analysis. They were mentioned only in the first chapter, dedicated to the life and activity of the Romanian writer, in order to offer to the reader an overview of his life and activity and of the context that at certain times influenced his life and activity. The research, intended to be an analysis of documents, aims to understand the way the Romanian writer sees the three important ideologies and intends to offer an overview of the landmarks of his conception. At the same time, we have focused on the actual dimension of his work and for this reason, a section of the research has been dedicated to the actuality or the contemporary relevance of Gheorghiu’s reflections. The work has been segmented, as can be seen, into five big chapters, each one of them containing, in its turn, at least two smaller sections. In the first one

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we have presented his biography and bibliography, in an attempt to offer to the reader information about the context that led him to write and, at the same time, influenced some of his ideas. We have therefore brought into attention the education received by the future writer, his debut during high school studies, the activity as a study, the first literary prize –​the royal one from 1940, received for the book Calligraphy on the Snow (Gheorghiu 1940) –​and also his co-​operation with different journals, with the Romanian National Radio Society or his work as a war reporter, in Crimea, at the siege of Sevastopol or in Bessarabia and Bukovina. Controversial aspects like the anti-​Semite elements can be found in his work, together with the fact that being sent to take part in Eliza Dorneanu’s process (Cubleșan 2011: 17), he fell in love with the young lawyer who defended her and he married Ecaterina (this was her name) (Gheorghiu 2017: 479). We have also brought into attention the fact that she was a Jew and this put him in a delicate situation and we suggested that his controversial passages from the books containing war reportages should be read from this viewpoint, or at least taking into account this aspect and the fact that the young writer tried to not catch the attention of the authorities as at that time the racial laws were tough. Later, we presented shortly his activity in Zagreb, as a part of the Romanian embassy there, his refusal to return to Romania after 23rd of August 1944, his pilgrimage to Czech lands, and also to the Austrian and German lands, and his arrival in the Heidelberg camp and the events that followed, which took place before his arrival in France. His activity in the capital of the aforementioned country was also brought into attention, mostly due to the fact that it was related with his celebrity and the scandals that followed. Arrived there, he brought with him from Germany the manuscript of his masterpiece, The 25th Hour (Gheorghiu 1948, 1991), which was translated into French by Monica Lovinescu and recommended by Mircea Eliade to Gabriel Marcel, who wrote the foreword and published it in Feux Croisés collection of Plon Publishing House. Later, the process intended by his translator, together with the following episodes (the translation made by Virgil Ierunca, Lovinescu’s husband, of some passages from The Benches of Dniester are Burning (Gheorghiu 1942, 1993a) that brought him close to be expelled, have also been brought into attention, together with his later activity in France and the history of some of his books). The fact that in 1963 he was ordained priest by the bishop Teofil Ionescu and in 1967 his masterpiece was screened (with Anthony Quinn as the main character) were also brought into attention, together with aspects like his relationship with his native country, with the Romanian Patriarch Justinian Marina or with his activity as a priest of the church from Jean de Beauvais street in Paris. We have also not neglected the way the fact that he became priest influenced his literary work. Despite the fact that

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since the moment of ordination he started writing his books directly in French language, he also switched, from time to time, the genre approached, preferring monographs dedicated either to the relevant personalities of Christianity, like the Saints John Chrysostom and Ambrosius of Milan, Martin Luther, the Eastern Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, Athenagoras Spirou, the prophet Mohammed, the founder of Islam, or places with huge relevance for Christianity, like Lebanon. We have also brought into attention the main events that have characterised the last years of his life and, in the second part of the chapter, we present his work and try to summarise at least in a few words the content of each book published by him. A minus of the chapter, like of the entire research enterprise was, as has already been mentioned, is the fact that we had access only to his books and to the research that has been dedicated to him until now (both monographs, or studies, and articles). Also, some of the documents related with his activity, that could be found both in his personal archive –​today under the custody of Mr. Thierry Gillyboeuf from Paris or in the archive of the Securitate, that followed the writer step by step between 1950 and 1989, were also previously published in different studies and articles in journals and therefore used here. We have also used the works of those who have criticised the writer or had debates with him, like Monica Lovinescu, Mircea Eliade, Sanda Stolojan (who also offers the opinion of the Romanian philosopher in Paris, Emil Cioran), Neagu Djuvara or Virgil Ierunca. But Virgil Gheorghiu was also a man invited on TV, called to offer an opinion on important aspects, and wrote frequently in journals like Le Figaro. These articles and also the TV shows are interesting and could for sure offer us relevant information regarding his life and activity. Unfortunately, we did not have access either to his articles or to his TV shows, and this makes the research to not be an exhaustive one. Probably, in the future, when it is possible, we will travel to Paris and contact someone for at least his publications from Le Figaro and write another work based on this aspect too. Still, from the presentation it can be seen which were the landmarks of Gheorghiu’s ideas and how the experiences he went through influenced him in the construction of his reflections and in the understanding of each of the ideologies presented here and of the forms of social life and construction that they have determined in the twentieth century in different areas of the world. The first chapter was followed by an analysis of the way he saw Communism. Like the following ones, this has a small introduction and conclusion. We considered that these would be useful both for a reader who has the time to see the entire work, because in this way he will become familiar with the main aspects that are supposed to be emphasised in the thematic unity, and also with the

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literature and the findings, and also to those interested only in a topic like Communism or Capitalism, for example, who are already guided by the introductive parts and see easily the conclusion we arrived at in each of the thematic unities. We have segmented this thematic unity in two big parts. In the first one, we present his reflections on Communism before the 23rd of August 1944, the time when Romania switched sides and became, from the ally of the Germans, its enemy. The reports of war constitute the main elements of the investigation. We have showed how he discovered Communism and which were the main aspects that have defined his reflections. Later, in the second part of the chapter, we try to present the way his reflections on Communism develop after this, and to focus both on The 25th Hour (Gheorghiu 1948, 1991), that contains a deep critique of the phenomenon, and also on the later books in which, from exile, he criticised the regime that arrived in his country after 1945. Aspects like fear, terror, persecution of those who disagreed with the regime, deportation of different ethnic and social categories, or collectivisation of agriculture in the villages, together with the resistance or co-​ operation between Communism and American Capitalism constitute the landmarks of his reflections regarding this regime. Not to mention the fact that there were people who were sold from the prisons and sent to the Occident for an amount of about 10,000 dollars, and on the bill it was mentioned that the Communist states were selling fruits and vegetables. An aspect that we have tried to emphasise and that applies to Communism, and to National-​Socialism and Capitalism is the fact that without being a theoretician and a philosopher of the ideologies, but rather a writer who presents in his novels examples related with the general attitude of one of them in a certain situation, a fact that brings him closer to sociological research, more precisely to quantitative research, than to philosophy, although philosophical reflections can be also found in some of his books, Virgil Gheorghiu often offers evaluations of the social mechanisms that come as a consequence of the work of a certain regime, and speaks about mentalities, stereotypes of a certain social category or society and so on. The fact that he illustrates his ideas with practical examples makes his works easy to read and at the same time transforms the author to a voice that is easily understood by the common reader, than if it was from a philosopher, for example. The investigation dedicated to Communism can be therefore found in the second chapter of the work and comes to show how Virgil Gheorghiu saw it before to 23rd of August 1944 and after this, when he was practically outside his country. Due to the fact that until that moment there was no investigation of this

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topic both in Romanian as well as in foreign literature, it brings something new to literature of speciality and the one dedicated to the Romanian author. The next thematic unity speaks about the way he understands National-​ Socialism. As a reporter of war he came in contact with the soldiers and officers of the German army and even praised them in his war notes, a fact that later brought him accuses and transformed him to a writer with Nazi sympathies. We have segmented this chapter in another two small ones in order to show what was his conception about the topic before the Romanians became allies of the Red Army and after. Interesting was the fact that a certain sympathy for them existed in his writings both before and after this time. What Gheorghiu thought important was the fact that the German Army was more educated than the Russian one and, as he emphasises also in The 25th Hour (Gheorghiu 1948, 1991), the code of honour was encountered, among the officers, more often than in the Russian one (a fact that makes even today people who lived the war to speak about the German soldiers and to present them as being more educated than the Russian ones –​Mărcău, Purec, Morariu et al. 2020: 31). At the same time, the author insists, after 1944, on the fact that the German National-​Socialism was criminal and killed people, and emphasises aspects like the hate that existed for the Jews even after 1945, or speaks about the persecution of the Jews and the racial laws, which he considers to be inhuman. The fourth chapter is dedicated to Capitalism and follows almost the same structure. The structural difference consists of the fact that the second big part of the thematic unity starts in 1955, and not in 1944. The temporal landmark is therefore moved for a practical reason. During the war, Gheorghiu did not have anything to do with Capitalism or with its representative ways of social organisation, like the Americans. For this reason, he starts getting concerned with Capitalism, especially in The 25th Hour (Gheorghiu 1948, 1991). We have showed how he got in contact with it, why he saw the American society as being the worst representative of Capitalism and which were the keywords of his reflections about the topic. Consumers, robotised people (a word first used for the Soviet society, that is transposed also to this one), satellites and technology, sexual liberty or the replacement of God with technology are the landmarks of his reflections on this aspect. It would be expected that someone who criticised the two aforementioned ideologies and the social ways of life that they offered would find the third one as an alternative. In case of the Romanian writer, this does not work. He remains also a man who presents the minuses of Capitalism. In fact, the idea that can be discovered reading his work is that he disagrees with the fact that there could exist on the earth an ideal way of life and of social organisation. For this reason, he insists on the good and bad points that can be found in each

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of them. He sees the Nazi officers as being educated more than the Russian ones, he speaks about the fact that under certain circumstances Communism had not totally destroyed the villages and the classical social relationships and in material and technological aspects Capitalism is superior to the two others. At the same time, he presents the way each of them is wrong at the level of understanding and using man, and at the level of thinking about society and its structures or the relationships among people. As a man who lived in exile, he has always seen the capitalist life that he was forced to adopt, as a second-​hand life (Gheorghiu 2012: 10). Most probably, this experience has increased his critical attitude towards Capitalism. Also, we have showed in this chapter the way the author sees the relationships existing between Communism and Capitalism and the way he saw their co-​operation. The fact has been emphasised that, like many other Romanians living inside or outside the country, he also hoped that the Americans would do something and would not allow his country to become a satellite of the Russians. After he found out about Yalta (Conte 1964) and the fact that they had abandoned the countries from Eastern Europe to the Soviets, his anger increased and his virulent critiques also touched this aspect, as can be seen in books like the The Sacrifices of the Danube (Gheorghiu 1957, 2020). The incapacity of the Capitalist society to neutralise the activity of the Communist secret services and their actions in spaces like the German or French diaspora were also brought into attention in books like The Heidelberg Unknowns (Gheorghiu 2015), God in Paris (Gheorghiu 2016a) or The Spy (Gheorghiu 1971). The critique of Capitalism will therefore be a complex one and despite its debatable aspects and the pessimistic attitude that the author has regarding the problem, a fact that brings him closer to contemporary authors like Chomsky (Chomsky 2020), they are important and should be investigated even today. The last chapter of the book draws attention to the actuality and feasibility of Virgil Gheorghiu’s ideas. We have spoken there about the literary value of his work, the historical and sociological one, and also about the prophetic dimension of his writings that can be found in books like The American Eye (Gheorghiu 2019) or The 25th Hour (Gheorghiu 1948, 1991). The autobiographical aspect found in his works, which has also been previously investigated (Morariu, Josan 2916:  83–​88), is also emphasised in an attempt to show both the testimonial value of some of author’s writings and also the way his personal experiences have changed his way of thinking. Also the social mechanisms and the way the writer understood them in the investigated domains, are presented and the dimension of actuality of his writings is brought into attention.

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The findings of the research are therefore multiple. On one side, it presents a deep investigation dedicated to the reflections of one of the most important Romanian writers of the twentieth century, on three topics that are still relevant in the present society. It also offers the opportunity of making new possibilities of dialogue in the future. Compared with other Romanian writers and also with other contemporaries or with other thinkers of different times, Gheorghiu could offer interesting ideas. Moreover, seen in the context where he lived, he offers information with historical relevance that can be used in future literary, historical or sociological ideas. Speaking about the state of research, we must say that at the time when we started the work there were already mentions and evaluations of Virgil Gheorghiu’s life and work made by some of those who contested him or considered him as an enemy (see Eliade 1999, 1999a, 1999b; Djuvara 2012; Ierunca 2000; Lovinescu 1999; Stolojan 1996), and also monographs or studies and articles (Cubleşan 2011, 2016; D’Esneval 2003; Gillyboeuf 2019; Drăgoi 2009; Hadam 1996; Morariu 2016:  263–​271, 2016a:  63–​73, 2016b:  712–​721, 2017:  578–​585, 2017a: 183–​188, 2017b: 373–​381, 2017c: 11–​14, 2018: 252–​257; Morariu, Josan 2016: 83–​88; Morariu 2018: 72–​76, 2016c: 4, 2016d: 12, 2018a: 15–​16). The author of these studies has also, as can be seen, investigated the life and activity of the author and even published certain documents about his work or reviews of his books. But it must be said that while most of the opinions found in the memorial works of writers like Mircea Eliade, Monica Lovinescu, Neagu Djuvara, Virgil Ierunca or Sanda Stolojan refer to the historical facts that are interpreted in a subjective way, the monographs are rather dedicated to his biography or to his literary work. For this reason, an approach that brings into attention the social relevance of his ideas was necessary and we found it useful. We hope that will also make him count among the writers of the twentieth century who have something to say also from the sociological point of view, due to the fact that the examples often offered in his books bring him close to qualitative research and with what in sociological research is known as the case study. The main methodological question that we tried to answer was:  What are Virgil Gheorghiu’s reflections regarding the three important ideologies, namely, Communism, National-​Socialism and Capitalism? The answer is, as can be seen, that he has complex reflections on that, and there were also secondary questions arrived at, like, how his personal experiences have influenced his way of thinking and acting. Speaking about the limitations, we must mention, as has been already said, that we did not have access to Le Figaro and other French journals where he published. At the same time, some of the Romanian journals were written during

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the Second World War and his previous writings (previous to the Second World War), are also inaccessible in many situations, a fact that makes even authors like Alexandra Laignel Lavastine (Laignel-​Lavastine 2002) speak about them from the secondary sources. Another limitation is related with the literature that exists. Virgil Gheorghiu is an author translated in forty languages and referred in many others, but the author of these studies knows only Romanian, Italian, English, French and Spanish languages and had access to sources written mostly in four of these languages. Despite these limitations, we have tried to offer a complex and well-​documented investigation of the topic and to emphasise the complexity of the reflections of the author, with both their pluses and minuses. An important personality of the Romanian cultural space, Virgil Gheorghiu remains until today, as we have also tried to show, a writer who can be investigated from many points of view. For social research, the way he presents and sees Communism, National-​Socialism and Capitalism, although it can be under certain aspects amendable, is important and should be valorised both by the literary area and also by the historical, philosophical, theological, psychological or sociological one. A philologist who also has a theological formation and will become a priest, Gheorghiu has also been a reporter, with expertise in the area of communication and under certain aspects, in psychology and sociology. He is capable of understanding the behaviour of the people and seeing beyond them the aspects that determine certain behaviours, but at the same time, he does not neglect the macro behaviours or the aspects of geopolitics, which are directly related to the life of the people and with the social organisation of the life. If one makes abstraction of the anti-​Semite accents that can be found in his earlier works, he or she could surely discover a deep analysis of the three aforementioned ideologies and at the same time points of departure for a future research.

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Index Bădiliţă, Cristian. 243, 252 Bălăcioiu-Lovinescu, Ecaterina. 243

Lovinescu, Monica. 243, 253 Lundberg, Carl Isabel. 255

Cicoare, Traian. 254 Crăciunescu, Pompiliu. 245 Crohmălniceanu, Ovid. S.. 12, 245

Marcel, Gabriel. 249 Micu, Dumitru. 249 Morariu, Iuliu-Marius. 256

D'Esneval, Amaury. 246 Djuvara, Neagu. 246 Dobre, Dumitru. 246 Dorobanţu, Marinela Doina. 254 Drăgoi, Mirela. 246

Neamţu, Mihail. 253 Nicolescu, Basarab. 252

Eliade, Mircea. 9, 247, 253 Gheorghiu, Virgil. 239–240, 245–246, 248–249, 256 Hadam, Afif. 247 Horea, Vintilă. 248 Horia, Vintilă. 245, 248, 250 Ierunca, Virgil. 248 Iliuţă, Gabriela. 248 Kretz, Erwin. 254 Lejeune, Phillipe. 248 Lemian, Gheorghina Adina. 248

Orian, Georgeta. 250 Pleşu, Andrei. 253 Predoiu, Daniel Florin. 251 Rotaru, Marilena. 252 Tănase, Virgil. 253 Tătaru-Cazaban, Bogdan. 253 Tofan, Liviu. 253 Ţurcanu, Florin. 253 Vladimirov, Iulia. 253