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August 23, 1944 - August 23, 1949 ON August 23, 1944, the glorious Soviet Army liberated the Rumanian people from the Hitlerite yoke. And at the same time the Soviet Army brought with it the message of peace and brotherhood among peoples, opening before our people great perspectives of a free and happy life, unprecedented in our history. The fact that it was the Liberation Army of the Land of Socialism that entered Rumania, and not those of the imperialists looking for new invasions, created, from the very outset, particularly favourable conditions for the successful unfolding of the revolutionary struggle of the working class, led by its Marxist-Leninist Party, for the liberation from the capitalist exploitation and oppression. At the height of the ruthless struggle to wrest the dominant positions from the hands of the exploiters, to create and consolidate the people's power, and to build Socialism, the process of the revolutionary transformation of culture also began to develop and create a culture with a socialist content and at the same time consistent with the spirit of the Rumanian people. For decades the bourgeoisie and the big landlords had tried to plunge the working masses in towns and in the countryside ever deeper into the darkness of illiteracy and obscurantism. They used the most ruthless methods in their attempts to stifle the development of the progressive culture of the working people. Shamelessly cultivating an attitude of servility to the decadent bourgeoisie of the west, the exploiting classes endeavoured to undermine the people's confidence in their own strength and to add moral and ideological dependency to the country's economic and political dependency on imperialist interests. Works of great scientific value carried out by Rumanian scientists were disregarded. Literature and art was driven into the mire of decadence. The works of the great realist writers were either kept hidden from the mass of the people, or were misrepresented and distorted. Their persecuted authors lived and died in the utmost misery. The creative work of the people was ignored or minimized. Even the people's own language was considered unfit to express scientific ideas or lofty sentiments. In Rumania, the culture of the bourgeoisie and the big landlords was a culture without a country, a culture deliberately isolated from the people and deeply pervaded by the reactionary ideology of cosmopolitanism. During the five years since the liberation, promising successes have been won, on the way to liquidating the miserable inheritance of the past, on the way to the development and flowering of a new culture corresponding to the great tasks facing the working class and closely linked with the best traditions of the Rumanian people. The new culture which is developing is deeply imbued with a love for the country and people animating the working class, and its first shoots are sprouting ever more steadily and vigorously. It aims at satisfying more and more the increasing claims of the working people, at arming them with ever sharper weapons to combat the difficulties accompanying the construction of Socialism, at encouraging and utilising the creative qualities of the Rumanian people. Creative cultural activity and the work of ridding Rumania of the backward legacies of former regimes are developing under the sign of fraternity and friendship between the Rumanians and other nationalities in the country. The Rumanian Constitution guarantees everybody the right and opportunity to enjoy culture. This is ensured to all nationalities by schools and institutions, by press and publications in their mother-tongues. The Rumanian Workers' Party guides the creative activity of the working people along the line of promoting the interests of the great majority of the Rumanian people. It arms the creators of art, literature and science with the ideology of Marxism-Leninism, helping them to orientate themselves, to understand reality better, to draw their inspiration from it, and to create works of an ever loftier ideological, moral and scientific level. Present-day literature and art in the Rumanian People's Republic is marked by a powerful trend of realism and regeneration. Writers and artists try to understand and appreciate the preoccupations, struggle, joy and difficulties of the new man who, under the leadership of the Party, is building Socialism. They are striving to find the most suitable forms to express and reflect the rich upsurge of life in mines, plants, factories, laboratories and fields. With ever growing militancy they are taking their place in the battle-front against the class-enemy, contributing to its exposure, isolation and destruction. With ever growing strength they try to support all that is new and developing in the material field, in social relations, in the conscience of men, and to range themselves against all that is old, the disappearing remnants of the old life which still tries to bar the road. In the fine example of Soviet culture, the vanguard culture of mankind and in the great cultural achievements of the Soviet people and of the Socialist State, the working people of the Rumanian People's Republic—scientists, writers and artists find not only a lofty ideal at which to aim, but recognise the very materialisation of the gigantic vistas opened to the development of culture by the social order which eliminates for ever the exploitation of man by man. They find in it an inexhaustible source from which they draw confidence in their own forces. The creation of a culture with a socialist content is developing under the conditions of a sharp struggle against imperialist ideology. In the Rumanian People's Republic there still are many men of culture who continue to be the prisoners of the bourgeois life and thought. The process of uprooting all influences of decadent bourgeois art is hard and long, calling for continual ideological vigilance. The important discussions in the U.S.S.R. on ideological problems concerning art, literature and science, met with a resounding echo within the ranks of men of culture in the Rumanian People's Republic, and was an invaluable help to their ideological enlightenment. Based on the teachings resulting from these discussions, scientists, writers and artists have adopted a militant attitude towards any manifestations of cosmopolitanism and decadence which is giving new life to artistic, literary and scientific creation. Drawing this new life from the working people's desire for light and a free life, the new culture which is developing in the Rumanian People's Republic is becoming, in the hands of the working class, an active factor for building Socialism, a powerful weapon in the struggle for the defence of peace against the criminal machinations of the imperialist warmongers. In the light of the great revolutionary changes which have taken place during the five years since August 23,1944, the powerful fraternal assistance given by the Soviet people to the working people in Rumania, in their struggle to free themselves from oppression and exploitation, is revealed as of decisive importance. The working masses of the Rumanian people consider the Soviet Union as the unvanquishable support of the revolutionary proletariat and of all peoples who love peace, freedom and independence; they see it as the most advanced power of progress, as the shining beacon lighting the road for fulfilling the loftiest aspirations of all working mankind. An ardent love for the Soviet people and for the Socialist State is becoming deep-rooted in the mass of the Rumanian people. It is a love springing from the conscientiousness that if the efforts and sacrifices of the working people are successful, opening vast vistas for the future, it is only due to the fact that Rumania was liberated by the Soviet Army, only due to the permanent and many-sided support which the Soviet people and the Soviet State have given the Rumanian people and their State, in the five years since the liberation. On the fifth anniversary of this decisive event in the history of the Rumanian people, the working masses of the Rumanian People's Republic turn their loving and grateful thoughts towards the liberating Soviet people and towards their great leader, the educator and wise guide of the working people all over the world, Generalissimo Stalin. On this occasion, the working masses in the Rumanian People's Republic are asserting with still more firmness their determination to nurture and develop their friendship with the Soviet people, the guarantee of the freedom, progress and happiness of their country, and, alongside the other peoples in the people's democracies and peace-loving peoples all over the world, to rally their ranks still closer, for the strengthening of the invincible front of peace and Socialism, headed by the Soviet Union.
EDOUARD MEZINCESCO |