Doina Cornea
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Doina Cornea (; 30 May 1929 – 3 May 2018) was a
Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...
n human rights activist and French language professor. She was a dissident during the
communist rule A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Cominte ...
of
Nicolae Ceaușescu Nicolae Ceaușescu ( , ;  – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian communist politician and dictator. He was the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and the second and last Communist leader of Romania. He ...
. She was co-founder of the Democratic Anti-totalitarian Forum of Romania (''Forumul Democrat Antitotalitar din România''), as the first attempt to unify the democratic opposition to the post-communist government. This organization later transformed into the
Romanian Democratic Convention The Romanian Democratic Convention ( ro, Convenţia Democrată Română or Convenția Democratică Română; abbreviated CDR) was an electoral alliance of several democratic, anti-Communist, anti-totalitarian, and centre-right political parties i ...
(''Convenția Democrată Română'', CDR), which brought
Emil Constantinescu Emil Constantinescu () (born 19 November 1939) is a Romanian professor and politician, who served as the President of Romania, from 1996 to 2000. After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, Constantinescu became a founding member and vice president ...
to power.


Early life

Born in
Brașov Brașov (, , ; german: Kronstadt; hu, Brassó; la, Corona; Transylvanian Saxon: ''Kruhnen'') is a city in Transylvania, Romania and the administrative centre of Brașov County. According to the latest Romanian census (2011), Brașov has a pop ...
, Romania, Cornea began studying French and Italian at the University of Cluj in 1948. After graduation, she taught French at a secondary school in
Zalău Zalău (, unofficial and former official name: ro, Zălau (; german: Zillenmarkt or , hu, Zilah, tr, Zile) is the seat of Sălaj County, Romania. In 2011, its estimated population was 56,202. History Ancient times Zalău is situated in the ...
, where she married a local lawyer.Deletant, p.261 She returned to Cluj in 1958, where she worked as an
assistant professor Assistant Professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States and Canada. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doctoral degree A docto ...
at the Babeș-Bolyai University. Her first political engagements were made in 1965, when, she witnessed how a friend of hers was criticising Charles de Gaulle in Strasbourg, France. Whilst she was expecting the police to turn up and arrest the person, she was surprised when she saw that nobody came. Ashamed of the political constraints that were pressing against Romania at the time, she felt ashamed and this pushed her into starting political activism.


Dissidence under communism

In 1980 she published her first ''
samizdat Samizdat (russian: самиздат, lit=self-publishing, links=no) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the document ...
'' book, ''Încercarea Labirintului'' ("The Test of the Labyrinth") by
Mircea Eliade Mircea Eliade (; – April 22, 1986) was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religiou ...
translated by her from French; then four other ''samizdat'' translations followed.


Protest letters

She illegally sent the first letter to
Radio Free Europe Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...
in 1982, the first in a series of texts and protests against Ceaușescu. She saw the crisis not just a material/economic one, but also a spiritual crisis, the Romanian people "a people fed solely on slogans", who value more material values rather than spiritual values, which she defined as the ones which "generated intelligence, ethics, culture, liberty and responsibility".Deletant, p.262 At the end of her letter, she apologized for not revealing her name, but she signed the letter to show that it was authentic. Due to a misunderstanding, Radio Free Europe read the letter in full, including the name.Deletant, p.263 On September 15, 1983, she was fired from the university because of her political activity, the official reason being that she gave her students to read the diary of
Mircea Eliade Mircea Eliade (; – April 22, 1986) was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religiou ...
. In the second letter which was published by
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
and Radio Free Europe, she protested against the restrictions that were put forward to the academia and the fact that the university leadership didn't defend her and they even try to find what ideals she was supporting. She continued to send a constant stream of texts and protests to Radio Free Europe. Her message was then repeated in the articles she wrote after the 1989 Revolution: even if the political and economic situation would change, this would not change the perversity of the morals of the individuals. In August 1987, she addressed an
open letter An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally. Open letters usually take the form of a letter addressed to an indiv ...
to Ceaușescu, in which she advocated reform in the higher education: greater
academic freedom Academic freedom is a moral and legal concept expressing the conviction that the freedom of inquiry by faculty members is essential to the mission of the academy as well as the principles of academia, and that scholars should have freedom to teac ...
and university autonomy (to prevent them from being subservient to the interests of the
Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
), more exchanges with foreign universities, exemption from the mandatory participation in harvesting and teaching students how to think instead of just facts.Deletant, p.264 During the Brașov rebellion, on 18 November 1987, together with her son, Leontin Iuhaș, she spread in Cluj-Napoca 160 manifestos of solidarity with the workers who rebelled against the communist government. The following day, they were arrested by the
Securitate The Securitate (, Romanian for ''security'') was the popular term for the Departamentul Securității Statului (Department of State Security), the secret police agency of the Socialist Republic of Romania. Previously, before the communist regime ...
, which held them until December 1987, when they were released following an international outcry and a documentary about Romania under Ceaușescu broadcast on French television, which included an older interview with Cornea. In the Summer of 1988, she heard on Radio Free Europe that she had been invited at a human rights conference in Cracow; she didn't receive the invitation. She requested a passport only to be refused, responding with a letter in which she argued that a successful totalitarian society can only be created by robbing people of intellectual fulfilment.Deletant, p.265


House arrest

She wrote a further letter, which was smuggled outside the country by
Josy Dubié Josy Dubié is a Belgian reporter, politician and a member of Ecolo. He was a member of the Belgian Senate The Senate ( nl, Senaat, ; french: Sénat, ; german: Senat) is one of the two chambers of the bicameral Federal Parliament of Belgium, ...
, broadcast by RFE on August 23, 1988 (Romania's national day). She found Ceaușescu personally responsible for the spiritual and economic disaster in Romania. She gave him two choices: he either gives up (together with the nomenklatura) running the country, or he introduces reforms to allow pluralism and separate the administration and judiciary from the Party.Deletant, p.266 She argued for
freedom of expression Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recog ...
, freedom of the press,
freedom of assembly Freedom of peaceful assembly, sometimes used interchangeably with the freedom of association, is the individual right or ability of people to come together and collectively express, promote, pursue, and defend their collective or shared ide ...
and freedom of travel; on the economic side, her letter (which may have been drafted by other collaborators) argued for closing down loss-making factories, re-tooling factories for being able to compete with foreign companies, hiring foreign managers and recreation of private land ownership, as well as the stopping of the
Systematization Systematization ( ro, Sistematizarea) in Romania was a program of urban planning carried out by the Romanian Communist Party under the leadership of Nicolae Ceaușescu. Ceaușescu was impressed by the ideological mobilization and mass adulation ...
programme.Deletant, p.267 Subsequently, she was put on house arrest by the Securitate. Following a documentary shown on Belgian television, an international campaign for her release began. Resolutions arguing for her release were passed by the
European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
and the
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) was an international trade union. It came into being on 7 December 1949 following a split within the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), and was dissolved on 31 October 2006 when ...
.Deletant, p.269 Personal interventions by foreign politicians were made to the Romanian government, including the ones by
Laurent Fabius Laurent Fabius (; born 20 August 1946) is a French politician serving as President of the Constitutional Council since 8 March 2016. A member of the Socialist Party, he previously served as Prime Minister of France from 17 July 1984 to 20 Mar ...
, President of the French National Assembly,
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing Valéry René Marie Georges Giscard d'Estaing (, , ; 2 February 19262 December 2020), also known as Giscard or VGE, was a French politician who served as President of France from 1974 to 1981. After serving as Minister of Finance under prime ...
, former President of France, and
Leo Tindemans Leonard Clemence "Leo" Tindemans (; 16 April 1922 – 26 December 2014) was a Belgian politician. He served as the prime minister of Belgium serving from 25 April 1974 until he resigned as minister on 20 October 1978. He was a member of the Chr ...
, the Belgian Foreign Minister. Nevertheless, she was able to send two more letters, including one in which she discussed the
arbitrariness Arbitrariness is the quality of being "determined by chance, whim, or impulse, and not by necessity, reason, or principle". It is also used to refer to a choice made without any specific criterion or restraint. Arbitrary decisions are not necess ...
of the measures taken against her, which had no basis in Romanian law, noting the disregard of the rule of law and an arbitrary use of power.Deletant, p.270 In 1989, Cornea received an invitation from
Danielle Mitterrand Danielle Émilienne Isabelle Mitterrand (née Gouze; 29 October 1924 – 22 November 2011) was the wife of French President François Mitterrand, and president of the foundation France Libertés Fondation Danielle Mitterrand.François Mitterrand) to attend the bicentennial celebration of the French Revolution, but again, she was denied the
exit visa A visa (from the Latin ''charta visa'', meaning "paper that has been seen") is a conditional authorization granted by a polity to a foreigner that allows them to enter, remain within, or leave its territory. Visas typically include limits on ...
.Deletant, p.271 Another invitation to the Council of Europe failed to reach her as it was handed to the Romanian ambassador in Paris.


Release

She was released 21 December 1989 during the
Romanian Revolution The Romanian Revolution ( ro, Revoluția Română), also known as the Christmas Revolution ( ro, Revoluția de Crăciun), was a period of violent civil unrest in Romania during December 1989 as a part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred ...
, on the day before the government was ousted.Deletant, p.268 Immediately after release, she began taking part in the street demonstrations in Cluj-Napoca.


Activity after December 1989

After 22 December 1989 Cornea was asked to become a member of the first post-communist government organization, the National Council of the National Salvation Front. She quit this body on 23 January 1990 after it decided to run as a party in the 1990 elections."Doina Cornea s-a retras din Consiliul Naţional al F.S.N." ("Doina Cornea has resigned from the National Council of the F.S.N."), ''
România Liberă ''România liberă'' ("") is a Romanian daily newspaper founded in 1943 and currently based in Bucharest. A newspaper of the same name also existed between 1877 and 1888. History and profile The name ''România liberă'' was first used by a dai ...
'', 24 January 1990
She considered it to be dependent upon
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
leader Mikhail Gorbachev and still dominated by people with communist pasts. Together with intellectuals like
Ana Blandiana Ana Blandiana (; pen name of Otilia Valeria Coman; born 25 March 1942, in Timișoara) is a Romanian poet, essayist, and political figure. She is considered one of the famous contemporary Romanian authors. She took her name after Blandiana, nea ...
, Mihai Șora and
Mircea Dinescu Mircea Dinescu (; born November 11, 1950) is a Romanian poet, journalist, and editor. Biography Early life and poetry He was born in Slobozia, the son of Ştefan Dinescu, a metalworker, and Aurelia (born Badea). Dinescu studied at the Faculty ...
, Cornea continued her outspokenness against the new administration of
Ion Iliescu Ion Iliescu (; born 3 March 1930) is a Romanian politician and engineer who served as President of Romania from 1989 until 1996 and from 2000 until 2004. Between 1996 and 2000 and also from 2004 to 2008, the year in which he retired, Iliescu ...
, president of Romania until his defeat by
Emil Constantinescu Emil Constantinescu () (born 19 November 1939) is a Romanian professor and politician, who served as the President of Romania, from 1996 to 2000. After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, Constantinescu became a founding member and vice president ...
in the 1996 election. She was co-founder of the Democratic Anti-totalitarian Forum of Romania (''Forumul Democrat Antitotalitar din România''), as the first attempt to unify the democratic opposition to the post-communist government. This organization later transformed into the
Romanian Democratic Convention The Romanian Democratic Convention ( ro, Convenţia Democrată Română or Convenția Democratică Română; abbreviated CDR) was an electoral alliance of several democratic, anti-Communist, anti-totalitarian, and centre-right political parties i ...
(''Convenția Democrată Română'', CDR), which brought Emil Constantinescu to power. Cornea was co-founder of The Group for Social Dialogue (''Grupul pentru Dialog Social'') in Romania, of the
Civic Alliance Foundation The Civic Alliance Foundation ( ro, italic=yes, Alianţa Civică, ''AC'') was a Romanian non-governmental organization (NGO) during the 1990s. The AC had subsidiaries in 36 of the 41 counties, overseen by a 27-member National Council. Its motto w ...
and of the Cultural Memory Foundation (''Fundația Culturală Memoria'').


Death

Doina Cornea died on 4 May 2018 at her home in
Cluj ; hu, kincses város) , official_name=Cluj-Napoca , native_name= , image_skyline= , subdivision_type1 = County , subdivision_name1 = Cluj County , subdivision_type2 = Status , subdivision_name2 = County seat , settlement_type = City , le ...
, with her son by her side, at the age of 88. She was buried with military honors at the city's
Hajongard Cemetery Hajongard cemetery (officially Central Cemetery, in Hungarian language, Hungarian ''Házsongárdi temető'', from German language, German ''Hasengarten''), on Avram Iancu Street, is one of the oldest cemeteries in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, founded in ...
. She had two children, Ariadna Combes and Leontin Iuhas.


Honours and awards


Honours


National honours

*
Romanian Royal Family The Romanian royal family ( ro, Familia regală a României) was the ruling dynasty of the Kingdom of Romania, a constitutional monarchy in Central-Eastern Europe. The kingdom existed from 1881, when Carol I of Romania was proclaimed king, until ...
: 40th Knight of the Royal Decoration of the Cross of the Romanian Royal House * Romanian Republic: Former Chancellor Grand Cross of the
Order of the Star of Romania The Order of the Star of Romania (Romanian: ''Ordinul Steaua României'') is Romania's highest civil Order and second highest State decoration after the defunct Order of Michael the Brave. It is awarded by the President of Romania. It has five r ...


Foreign honours

* : Commander of the
Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...


Awards

* ** :
Honorary Degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...
of the
Free University of Brussels University of Brussels may refer to several institutions in Brussels, Belgium: Current institutions * Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), a French-speaking university established as a separate entity in 1970 *Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), a D ...
* : The Professor Thorolf Rafto Memorial Prize


Notes


References

* Dennis Deletant, ''Ceaușescu and the Securitate: Coercion and Dissent in Romania, 1965–1989'', M.E. Sharpe, London, 1995, . {{DEFAULTSORT:Cornea, Doina 1929 births 2018 deaths People from Brașov Romanian Greek-Catholics Babeș-Bolyai University alumni Romanian dissidents Romanian activists Romanian women activists Romanian anti-communists People of the Romanian Revolution Babeș-Bolyai University faculty Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur Grand Crosses of the Order of the Star of Romania