Silviu Brucan

Silviu Brucan (born January 18, 1916 in Bucharest , † September 14, 2006 ibid) was a Romanian communist politician , diplomat and important critic of the regime of Nicolae Ceauşescu .

The son of Jewish parents, born as Saul Bruckner, changed his name to “Silviu Brucan” because of the anti-Semitism of the time. In 1944 he became editor-in-chief and publisher of the communist daily "Scânteia". Brucan was first ambassador to the USA in 1955 and ambassador to the United Nations from 1959 to 1962 . He later became director of State Radio and Television and speechwriter for PCR Secretary General Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej .

He gave up these offices in 1965 after Nicolae Ceaușescu took office and became one of the few critics of Ceaușescu. In the following years this repeatedly led to persecution by the " Securitate " secret police .

In the final years of Nicolae Ceaușescu's rule, he was placed under house arrest in 1987 after publicly criticizing the dictator's regime. In the spring of 1989 Brucan was one of six dissidents who signed a letter of criticism of the dictator and then one of the leaders in the " Council of the Front for National Salvation ", which had overthrown Ceaușescu and had him executed on December 25, 1989.

The respected analyst shocked his compatriots by saying that they were "crazy and it took 20 years to learn democracy". In post-communist Romania, Brucan temporarily hosted a television show and advised former President Ion Iliescu .

Web links

• Article about the death of Silviu Brucan in the Washington Post
• Article about the death of Silviu Brucan in TimesOnline
• Literature by and about Silviu Brucan in the catalog of the German National Library