A selection of communist-era pop songs written to celebrate the Romanian capital city of Bucharest.
American singer, actor, athlete, equal rights advocate and political activist Paul Robeson visited communist Romania in 1959. He had gotten his passport back just the previous year, after being blacklisted and having his passport seized by the US government on account of his vocal support for the USSR during the McCarthy era.
Romania’s National Culture Day is closely linked to the birth date of national poet Mihai Eminescu, on 15th January. We go back today to June 1989, to another event linked to this poet, namely the centennial of his death.
American literary giant John Updike travelled to Romania in 1964 on a state-sponsored trip as US cultural ambassador.
Amita Bhose is known in Romania as the Indian scholar who produced the first translations of national poet Mihai Eminescu into Bengali, but her contribution to closer cultural and literary ties between her country and Romania extends far beyond.
Well-known American poet and Pullitzer prize winner W. D. Snodgrass produced one of the most celebrated versions of the Romanian pastoral ballad Miorita.
Some of the world’s greatest musicians talk about their connection to Romanian composer George Enescu and his lasting musical legacy.
Nationalist candidate and AUR leader George Simion wins first round of presidential elections in Romania. Bucharest’s mayor Nicușor Dan, who ran as an independent, is in second place.
Raj Kapoor, India’s iconic actor and film maker, was also immensely popular in Romania in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1958, he was invited to visit the country to attend the screening of his latest work, Shree 420.
Christiaan Barnard, the South-African surgeon who made the world’s first human-to-human heart transplant, travelled to communist Romania in 1972. He enjoyed great popularity here, having performed a much-publicised life-saving operation on a Romanian teenager a year earlier.
