A man seen as one of the last great moral authorities of the Romanian nation has died in Paris.
The Romanian writer and anti-communist militant Paul Goma has died, aged 84, in a Paris hospital, where he had been admitted after becoming infected with the new coronavirus. After the death of King Michael in 2017 and that of the dissident teacher Doina Cornea in 2018, Romanians have not lost yet another symbol of anti-communist resistance.
Paul Goma was born in 1935 in Bessarabia into a family of teachers, who, five years later, took refuge in a reduced Romania following the annexation of its eastern territories by the Soviet Union. Goma was arrested in 1956 for harbouring hostile opinions towards the communist regime in Bucharest, a satellite of Moscow, and sentenced to two years in prison, followed by a period of house arrest until 1963. In 1977, the Securitate, the regime's political police, again arrested, interrogated and tortured him for his criticism of Nicolae Ceausescu's dictatorial regime.
He was, in effect, expelled to France, and was stripped of his Romanian citizenship. In Paris, he was the target of an attempted assassination by parcel bomb masterminded by the Securitate. Paul Goma is the author of more than 30 books, including fiction, memoirs and history, many of which were incendiary on account of their great courage.
A man of sharp wit, he also turned his irony on himself, as can be seen from this excerpt from a rare interview he gave to Radio Romania:
"I was merely carried by the waves of history. I was no rebel, but merely someone who endured it all, as a Bessarabian, as a refugee and as an ordinary person; someone who, when he heard something he didn't like or thought it was not true simply said 'that can't be'. More like the clown of the class who can't keep his mouth shut."
Paul Goma will always be a name who inspired hope and strengthened our resistance, said prime minister Ludovic Orban in a statement. The Romanian royal family also regret the passing of Paul Goma, describing him as "one of the most emblematic figures of the intellectual resistance against dictatorship". (Tr.: CM)
Useful Links
Copyright © . All rights reserved