Studii și Materiale de Istorie Contemporană, vol. XXIII, 2024

Mioara ANTON, Cazul Silviu Brucan: de la contestare la revoluţie (1987-1989) [Silviu Brucan from Opposition to Revolution]

The full text is available on CEEOL/ Textul integral al studiului poate fi accesat prin CEEOL: https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=1327798 

This article analyzes the role played by Silviu Brucan in the overthrow of Nicolae Ceauşescu’s regime. Even though he did not manifest any prior opposition and he enjoyed a preferential regime, S. Brucan’s attitude changed after the workers’ revolt in Braşov in November 1987. He called for the reevaluation of economic policies, statements taken up by the international press. The remarks irritated the leadership in Bucharest, which reacted by placing him under house arrest. Nevertheless, the regime tried to use Brucan’s links with personalities in the United States of America to preserve its trade status of most-favoured-nation. As British documents show, Brucan was a valuable source of information about what was happening in Romania during the late 1980s. Brucan considered the „Letter of the Six” as a test to show whether or not there was a critical mass in the party to reform the system. The alleged meeting with Gorbachev in 1988 does not clarify whether there was a plan to overthrow Nicolae Ceauşescu. Despite the incomplete and distorted information, Brucan remains a key figure for the last years of communism in Romania.

Keywords: Silviu Brucan, Nicolae Ceauşescu, Letter of Six, United States, Mikhail Gorbachev.