Monica Lovinescu died in April 2008. Then we all experienced the outflow of Lovenessianism. They talked about it, wrote about it, praised it. Only one voice dared to speak the truth

In a comment written for Radio Free Europe. Namely, the death of someone who was the first to speak to Romanians for several decades Radio Paristhen from the microphone of the Romanian department of Free Europe (and getting her there was the result of the genius of the station’s most popular director, Noel Bernard) happened in Romanian style. It was like a way out –hThis iscoward!- only temporarily from amnesia. Since April 1992, when according to the decision of the American management of the station, a decision recognized as such by the director of the Romanian section Nicolae Stroescu Stanisoare, the transmission heifers will stop (repeats were broadcast until the end of August), which Gabriel Liicana called for value in use Monika Lovinescu was getting smaller and smaller.

Her books, transcriptions of texts broadcast on short waves, caused, according to the general director of the publishing house humanity,mediocre interest. Two works by Doyna Yela –This love that binds us and One hundred days with Monica Lovinescu they were received with natural emotions, but also with criticism. Not everything is straight. Neither did volume two Letters to Monica Lovinescuappeared on Humanitas thanks to the efforts of Astrid Kamboze, nor the book of Julia Vladimirova, Monica Lovinescu in security documents. Few people called Monica Lovinescu in those years when she lived her suffering with dignity. They forgot too illegal immigrants old people, and those who lined up in the house in the first half of the 90s Rue Pinton. I saw her in 2007 in Alexander Solomon’s film War on the waves talking about her only weapon in the decades of struggle against communism – the microphone.

November 2023 marks the centenary of Monica Lovinescu’s birthday. Actually, they have already been republished, no, not all, but still a significant part of the books with his signature. And the publishing house CORINTH and sent the third edition to the bookstore, commented and supplementedbooks by Doin Yel This love that binds us. It came out for the first time in 1998 at the cost of great efforts. Usefully detailed in the book. Not necessarily in order to approve the author, but because they are primarily evidence of the (interested) bureaucracy of the first years of post-communism. Evidence of everything that Romania experienced at that time. That is, it is almost impossible to break away from the forces of communism. Residual security.

Was it just a convenience or a hassle then? Not almost. In many, many government institutions, from the Ministry of Justice to the General Prosecutor’s Office, from the State Archives to posterity Housing he survived a long, long time of communist secrecy. A request to explore the archives, to meet the elders of that time (many of them also in the communist period, a fact confirmed by the uncertainty and difficulties faced by researchers during the operation to identify the one or those who lived after April 1958). , i.e. after the arrest of Ecaterinei Bălăcioiu – ex Lovinescu in the house of a literary critic from Streamer, they seemed strange to many. The procedure by which the annulment appeal was achieved and the rehabilitation of Ekaterina Beletsa was also strange. Which was mentioned at the trial, although her death, which occurred as a result of an attempt (the book has a subtitle, justified otherwise, Reconstruction of the murder), which took place in June 1960. Let us wonder then that Adrian Hamzea, convicted on the same day as Ekaterina Belasiu, is the protagonist of a moving, even pathetic chapter Another plaque, refused rehabilitation?

What did the milkmaid Yela do? I started looking for witnesses. Of the women who were in prison at the same time and in the same place as Ekaterina Beletsou-ex Lovinescu. The other prisoner, Varvara Flora, provided Doina Yela with invaluable information not only about how Ekaterina Beletsou lived the last two years of her life, but also about her lifestyle. About the fact that, although she was sick, she refused to give up. That is, to betray his daughter. About the victims of the former French teacher and ex general inspector for the country to respect the dignity pact made between her and her daughter, who left the country in 1947.

Shortly after this departure, an information file was opened on Ekaterina Beletsanu. From 1948 until her arrest, most likely in prison, she was monitored daily, her every step was monitored, a microphone was installed in her telephone receiver. Doina Yela came into possession of the relevant file, as well as translations of letters and postcards that the ex-wife of the critic Evgeni Lovinescu sent to her daughter every day. Most, if not all, of the correspondence between Monica Lovinescu and her mother was written in French. Which required extra effort on the part of those who paid to monitor it. The vast majority of them have low education. At the end of the book there is a list, I don’t know how complete, of Ekaterina Beletsa’s tormentors.

The two correspondents established a whole system of codes and pseudonyms pseudonymwere used to protect the identity of some who were spoken of in what worked as a space of freedom. “It would seem that he lives to write”notes somewhere Doina Jela with reference to Ecaterina Bălăcioiu. Elsewhere, Doina Jela notes that there are clear differences between Ekaterina Beletsa’s style in her letters and her daily behavior. Such a sensible postwoman no longer censors herself in discussions with various visitors. Students, former students or actress Maria Botta. At that time, the wife of Alexander Balachi. Speaking about this codification, Monica Lovinescu says that during her conversation with Doina Yela, a conversation recorded in the seventh chapter of the book, she represented a sign of the absurdity of the system, another. The code name Vivian is reserved for Virgil Yerunka John was assigned to Ion Karaion. Which has a whole section. When the first edition was published, several dozen pages devoted to Stelian Diaconescu (Ion Karaion) and his moral debauchery caused a wave of criticism. Doina Jhela was then criticized for writing a black-and-white book. That the pathetic story of the poet would be posted only to create an antithesis with Ekaterina Beletsa. Doina Yela preserved the chapter in the second edition of 2005, and in the current one, published, as I already said, in 2022 in the publishing house Corinth. series history. Modern authors. I think he did well.

In the preface to this third edition, Doina Yela explains why she preferred the publication formula in 2022 commented and supplemented. The annotations summarize the information that appeared after 1998. Naturally, they complement both the portrait of the Mother and the portrait of the Daughter. Additional evidence of the ubiquity of security is presented. Their integration into the main text would require, claims Doina Yela, the writing of another book. maybe. But even so, the book remains, as Monica Lovinescu wrote in a diary entry dated November 27, 1997, Mother’s hymn. But there is also a living testimony of the tragedy experienced by Romania and Romanians during the communist period. Read the whole article and comment on Contributors.ro