An X File/ 1955. The Bourgeois Idea of “Simple Talents” Must Be Combated

Abstract

The starting point of the research we undertook as part of the project TabThePAST – Taboo History. Fill the Past to Sense the Present is an unusual, fragmentary, and poetically inflected file from 1955, produced by the Propaganda and Agitation Section of the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party. The file concerns the expulsion of 14 or 15 students from I.L. Caragiale IATC (Institute of Theatre and Film in Bucharest)—the initial document cites 14, while the final decision records 15. The analysis seeks to reflect on the broader context of the events, on how they were shaped by the prevailing social and political circumstances, and on the relationships among the individuals involved. A separate file containing materials related solely to one of the young “enemies of the fatherland”—specifically the individual who served as the primary subject of the main (princeps) case file—was in the archives of the I.L. Caragiale UNATC (National University of Theatre and Film, former IATC). The research highlighted how analysing the archives can stir difficult questions and unsettle our sense of the present. This study, drawing on the archives of both ANIC (the Romanian National Central of Historical Archives) and I.L. Caragiale UNATC, examines the repercussions of the decisions issued by the Propaganda and Agitation Section. One of the central questions addressed in this study concerns the extent to which the directives issued by the Propaganda and Agitation Section were actually implemented within the artistic academic community.