We met in person at a conference organized by Professor Ivan Volges at the University of Nebraska (Lincoln and Omaha) in 1985. Michael S. Radu, Volodymyr Sokor, Mary Ellen Fisher, George Schoepflin were there. In the following years, we often saw each other. Last year I welcomed on my Facebook page the most delightful post of his book on Romania (see PS). Written and published in the 80s, the book remains an important work for understanding the mechanisms and institutions of the Marxist-Leninist experiment in Romania.

He had an uncanny sense of what he thought was right simulated change. I will not insist. Somehow ironically, he once called me an “obituary political scientist.” He knew what he knew. In 2000, he wrote an article for which I was grateful to him: “The Open Political Scientist and His Enemies.” We parted ways, but both retained respect for each other’s scientific work. He praised my book “Fantasies of Salvation” and my posts on such topics as populism, anti-Semitism, nationalism, ethno-religious exclusivism. For my part, I believe that his analysis of these themes, including those concerning fascist populism, negationism, and what he diagnosed as comparative trivializationcomplex are as relevant as possible. Rest in peace.

PS This is what I wrote on my FB page on December 15, 2020:

In the human sciences, as in the exact sciences, it is normal to recognize priorities, original, truly pioneering contributions. I am glad that the Meteor publishing house has published a Romanian translation of an important book for understanding the dynamics of the communist dictatorship in Romania. I thoroughly enjoyed Michael Shafir’s book on Politics, Economy and Society in Romania at the time of its publication in 1985 in the Lyn Rinner Series on Marxist Regimes. The concept of imitative changes, created and introduced by a political scientist, then head of the research department of Radio Free Europe in Romania, had and still has an undoubted heuristic value. The initiative to publish this work is welcomed. If we want to understand Gorbachev’s reforms, Michael Shafir’s research will help us penetrate the surface. Likewise for reforming Maoism, real and/or feigned. The bio-bibliography of Professor Emeritus from Babes Bolyai University apparently includes numerous other contributions (books and research).

I now emphasize a revealing, dense, ground-breaking article published in 1984 in the journal Studies in Comparative Communism, if not the main one, on fascist formations in the ranks of the Romanian communist intelligentsia. Plus texts about extremism, radicalism, denial of the Holocaust. Especially now, when fundamentalist party-movements like the AUR are reviving, a genealogy of concepts, with Michael Shafir’s research as indispensable guides, helps us decipher the origins and meaning of the return of the “People of the Archangel.” Aside from some disagreements that are mostly normal for a viable epistemic community, I learned a lot from Professor Shafir. Read this book, its veracity has grown over the years since its publication in English. It ranks among the best studies on communism in Romania, along with books by Pavel Campeanu, Daniel Cirot, Dennis Deletant, Mary Ellen Fisher, Gita Ionescu, Ken Jowitt, Gail Kligman, Robert Levy, Catherine Verdery. Comment on Contributors.ro