Sanda Stolojan, née Henriette Lucia Sanda Zamfirescu (19 February 1919,

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

– 2 August 2005,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

) was a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

n poet, translator and writer. She was a dissident and prominent figure of the Romanian

anticommunist Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States and the ...

exile.

Life

Born and raised in a family of intellectuals and diplomats, she received an elite education in Romania and other European countries. After finishing high school in Paris in 1937, she signed up for studies at the Faculty of Arts at the

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest ( ro, Universitatea din București), commonly known after its abbreviation UB in Romania, is a public university founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princel ...

. In 1943, she married Vlad Stolojan Filipescu and they attempted to leave communist Romania in 1949, but were arrested and sent imprisoned for the crime of preparation for illegal emigration. In following years, both were convicted of further crimes, eventually losing their home to the authorities. In 1961, Sanda and Vlad Stolojan managed to leave Romania definitively and settled in Paris. She pursued studies at the

École des Hautes Études Commerciales HEC Paris (french: École des hautes études commerciales de Paris) is a business school, and one of the most prestigious and selective grandes écoles, located in Jouy-en-Josas, France. HEC offers Master in Management, MSc International Fi ...

and worked as a translator and interpreter of Romanian language for French presidents. She also became active in the circles of Romanian anticommunist dissidents abroad, especially as a collaborator for Radio Free Europe and as President for the Romanian Human Rights League (''Ligue pour la défense des droits de l’homme en Roumanie'', LDHR). She also developed an intense literary activity as a writer and poet, and also as founder of the magazine ''Les Cahiers de l'Est''. In the 1990s, after the fall of the Romanian communist regime, she developed a number of political and cultural activities in Romania and became an honorary member of the National Institute for the Memory of the Romanian Exile (later known as the

Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of the Romanian Exile An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...

Selection of Works

* Stolojan, Sanda (1994), ''Cu De Gaulle în România. Bucharest: Albatros. * Stolojan, Sanda (1999), ''Au balcon de l'exil roumain à Paris: avec Cioran, Eugène Ionesco, Mircea Eliade, Vintila Horia'', Paris, Montréal:

l'Harmattan Éditions L'Harmattan, usually known simply as L'Harmattan (), is one of the largest French book publishers. It specialises in non-fiction books with a particular focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. It is named after the Harmattan, a trade wind in W ...

. * Stolojan, Sanda (2001), ''La Roumanie revisitée: Journal 1990-199''6, Paris, Montréal, Budapest: l'Harmattan. * Stolojan, Sanda (2006), ''Sub semnul depărtării: Corespondență Constantin Noica – Sanda Stolojan'', Bucharest:

Humanitas ''Humanitas'' is a Latin noun meaning human nature, civilization, and kindness. It has uses in the Enlightenment, which are discussed below. Classical origins of term The Latin word ''humanitas'' corresponded to the Greek concepts of '' philanthr ...

. * Stolojan, Sanda (2007), ''Amurg senin: Jurnal din exilul parizian 1997-2001'', Bucharest: Humanitas. * Stolojan, Sanda et Stolojan, Vlad (2009) ''Să nu plecăm toți odată: Amintiri din România anilor 1950'', Bucharest: Humanitas.

Bibliography

* Manolescu, Florin (2003), ''Enciclopedia exilului literar românesc 1945-1989: Scriitori, reviste, instituții, organizații'', Bucharest: Compania. * Scutaru, Beatrice (2012), “The Romanian Anti-Communist Resistance: the League for the Defence of Human Rights of Romania from Paris (1979-1989)”, Peter Jašek (ed.) ''Anti-Communist Resistance in Central and Eastern Europe'', Bratislava: Ústav Pamäti Národa. * Scutaru, Béatrice (2014), "La Roumanie à Paris : exil politique et lutte anti-communiste", ''Histoire@Politique''. ''Politique, culture, société'', n^o 23, May-August 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stolojan, Sanda 1919 births 2005 deaths 20th-century Romanian poets Romanian expatriates in France Romanian anti-communists Romanian women poets Romanian exiles University of Bucharest alumni Writers from Bucharest

Life

Selection of Works

Bibliography

Archives

References