Dennis Deletant
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Dennis Deletant (born 5 March 1946) is a British-Romanian historian of the
history of Romania The Romanian state was formed in 1859 through a personal union of the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. The new state, officially named Romania since 1866, gained independence ...
. As of 2019, he is Visiting Ion Rațiu Professor of Romanian Studies at
Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...
and Emeritus Professor of Romanian Studies at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES). He is the author of numerous works on the history of Romania including ''Ceaușescu and the Securitate: Coercion and Dissent in Romania, 1965-89'' (London; New York, 1996); ''Romania under Communist Rule'' (Bucharest, 1998); ''Communist Terror in Romania: Gheorghiu-Dej and the Police State, 1948-1965'' (London; New York, 1999); and ''Ion Antonescu: Hitler's Forgotten Ally'' (London: New York, 2006). Deletant had been ''
persona non grata In diplomacy, a ' (PNG) is a foreign diplomat that is asked by the host country to be recalled to their home country. If the person is not recalled as requested, the host state may refuse to recognize the person concerned as a member of the diplo ...
'' in Ceaușescu's Romania, but on 31 December 1989, in the immediate aftermath of the
Romanian Revolution The Romanian revolution () was a period of violent Civil disorder, civil unrest in Socialist Republic of Romania, Romania during December 1989 as a part of the revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several countries around the world, primarily ...
—there was still some sniper fire, etc.—Deletant entered Romania at
Giurgiu Giurgiu (; ; ) is a city in southern Romania. The seat of Giurgiu County, it lies in the historical region of Muntenia. It is situated amongst mud-flats and marshes on the left bank of the Danube facing the Bulgarian city of Ruse on the op ...
as the only Romanian-language speaker in a
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
crew coming in from
Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...
, joining another BBC team already in
Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...
and, in what he was later to describe as his Warholian "fifteen minutes of fame," reported on the subsequent events.


Academic career

In 1964, he enrolled at the
University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...
as a student of
Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...
. At SSEES, Deletant successively held the positions of Assistant Lecturer in Romanian Language and Literature (from 1969), Lecturer in Romanian Language and Literature (from 1972), Senior Lecturer in Romanian Studies (from 1988), Reader in Romanian Studies (from 1993), and Professor (from 1996). Besides his longtime affiliation with SSEES, Deletant served from 1990 to 1999 on the board of the British Government's ‘Know-How Fund for Central and Eastern Europe’. He was actively involved in that organization's work in Romania and in the
Republic of Moldova Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, with an area of and population of 2.42 million. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The unrecognised ...
, was Rosenzweig Family Fellow at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust, dedicated to the documentation, study, and interpretation of the Holocaust. Opened in 1993, the museum explores the Holocaust through p ...
in 2000 and 2001, and was Professor of Romanian Studies at the
University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, ) is a public university, public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Established in 1632 by municipal authorities, it is the fourth-oldest academic institution in the Netherlan ...
(on secondment from UCL) from 2003 to 2010.


Awards

He was made an officer of the
Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
in 1995 and was awarded the
Order of Merit The Order of Merit () is an order of merit for the Commonwealth realms, recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or the promotion of culture. Established in 1902 by Edward VII, admission into the order r ...
with the rank of commander for services to Romanian democracy in 2000 by President
Emil Constantinescu Emil Constantinescu (; born 19 November 1939) is a Romanian professor and politician, who served as the President of Romania, from 1996 to 2000. After the Romanian Revolution, Romanian Revolution of 1989, Constantinescu became a founding member ...
of Romania. In 2016 he was awarded by President
Klaus Iohannis Klaus Werner Iohannis (; ; born 13 June 1959) is a Romanian politician, physicist, and former teacher who served as the fifth president of Romania from 2014 until his resignation in 2025. Prior to entering Politics of Romania, national politics, ...
the
Order of the Star of Romania The Order of the Star of Romania (Romanian: ''Ordinul Steaua României'') is Romania's highest civil Order and second highest State decoration after the Order of Michael the Brave. It is the oldest Order of Romania. It is awarded by the Preside ...
, Officer rank. He has also been awarded a number of Honorary Degrees from different Academic Institutions.


Partial bibliography

* ''Romanian'' by Dennis Deletant and Yvonne Alexandrescu. (New ed.) London: Teach Yourself, 2003. * ''Romania under Communist Rule.'' Center for Romanian Studies together with Civic Academy Foundation, 1999, . * ''Ceaușescu and the Securitate: Coercion and Dissent in Romania, 1965-1989.'' M.E. Sharpe, 1995, . * ''Communist Terror in Romania: Gheorghiu-Dej and the Police State, 1948-65.'' C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 1999, . * ''New Evidence on Romania and the Warsaw Pact, 1955-1989''. CWIHP e-dossier #6, published on CD-ROM for the conference ''Romania and the Warsaw Pact'', Cold War International History Project of the Wilson Center, Bucharest, October 2002. * ''Security Intelligence Services in New Democracies: The Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania.'' With Kieran Williams, Studies in Russian and East European History and Society, Palgrove, 2001, . * ''Hitler's Forgotten Ally: Ion Antonescu and His Regime, Romania 1940–1944.'' Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke 2006, . *''British Clandestine Activities in Romania during World War II'', Palgrave, London and New York, 2016, *''Romania under Communism. Paradox and Degeneration Routledge'', Abingdon and New York, 2019


References


External links


Interview with Dennis Deletant--April 4, 2013
(audio file), eCommons, Cornell University {{DEFAULTSORT:Deletant, Dennis 1946 births Living people Historians of Romania 20th-century British historians 21st-century British historians People associated with the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies Georgetown University faculty Officers of the Order of the British Empire Officers of the Order of the Star of Romania Recipients of the National Order of Merit (Romania) Academic staff of the University of Amsterdam Naturalised citizens of Romania