Scholarly activities
The Department of Research, Exhibitions & Publications was established with the purpose of developing academic research on the communist dictatorship in Romania and the pivotal role played by the Securitate in ensuring its survival over the period March 1945 to December 1989.
- The department disseminates its findings through monographs, edited volumes of studies, collections of documents, publication of relevant memoirs, diaries and witness accounts, and organizes conferences, seminars and lectures, as well as exhibitions and documentaries on the communist dictatorship in Romania and the role of the Securitate in supporting it. The results of the scientific primarily with the CNSAS Publishing House (Editura CNSAS), but also with other relevant publishing houses in Romania. CNSAS publishes a biannual academic journal entitled Caietele CNSAS (22 volumes), once an issue is published, the previous one is uploaded on the CNSAS website and can be accessed free of charge.
- The main scope of these scholarly activities is the in-depth analysis of the repressive policy of the communist regime in Romania and the major manifestations of dissent and overt opposition to the regime. Furthermore, the Department places a strong emphasis on the commemoration of the victims of the communist regime and their remembrance.
- The Collegium of CNSAS actively supports the research carried out by its own researchers, as well as by external researchers, both from Romania and abroad. Up to the present, the Collegium has accredited over 2750 external researchers who prepare scientific articles, studies, monographs, collections of documents, as well as BA, MA or PhD dissertations.
- A significant corpus of scholarly works published by the CNSAS researchers and employees already exists: monographs, dictionaries, edited volumes of studies, collections of documents, witness accounts and diaries. Some of these works are posted on the CNSAS website and can be downloaded free of charge.
At the same time, the CNSAS Collegium decided to initiate a complex process of posting on the official website of the institution a great number of original documents in electronic format, which can be downloaded free of charge. These documents can be divided into the following six categories:
(1) secret orders, resolutions, action plans, etc. issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs during the period 1948-1989;
(2) documents related to the internment of individuals in labour camps (unităţi şi colonii de muncă) during the period 1950-1960;
(3) relevant official documents of the Romanian Communist Party, such as: Reports to the Party Congresses (1945-1989), the “Declaration of April” (1964), the “Theses of July” (1971), the Program of the Romanian Communist Party (1974) etc., as well as various speeches by prominent Party leaders;
(4) the collection of the journal Securitatea, classified as “secret” and dedicated solely to the Securitate apparatus (1968-1989);
(5) the collection of the Securitate publication Studii şi documente (Studies and documents), 1969-1971;
(6) propaganda brochures and educational materials for the indoctrination and training of the Securitate apparatus.
Starting with 2016, CNSAS launched the online project "Romania under surveillance" in order to inform, debate and especially understand the ways in which the repressive structures in communist Romania acted and influenced the lives of individuals, groups and communities. Thus, relevant documents were selected from the funds of the CNSAS archive from each county, being organized according to the importance of the problem pursued in the Securitate records. Therefore, for each county of Romania has been allotted a special section dedicated to local history, which will be completed whenever other relevant documents are identified.
More generally, our institution develops projects and programs with institutional partners from Romania and abroad aimed at researching the communist past – with a special emphasis on the repressive actions of former Securitate, and consolidating a democratic political culture in Romania. Thus, beginning from 2010, CNSAS and the “Nicolae Iorga” Institute of History in Bucharest have developed – with the generous support of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (Germany) – a major collaborative project concerning the institutionalization of a yearly conference focusing on the Romanian communist dictatorship in a broader regional and European context. The conference is organized every year in the month of March and gathers reputed scholars from Romania and abroad.
In terms of foreign institutional partners, CNSAS has developed special partnerships with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in Washington DC and the Institut für deutsche Kultur und Geschichte Südosteuropas (IKGS) in Munich. Alongside with correspondent institutions from abroad, public institutions, cultural and non-governmental organizations, museums, universities, and research institutes from Romania and abroad, CNSAS has organized various events ranging from signing partnerships and protocols of collaboration to symposiums, conferences, lectures and exhibitions.