Vlad Georgescu (October 20, 1937 – November 13, 1988) was a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n historian, academic, political dissident, and director of the Romanian-language department of

Radio Free Europe Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a media organization broadcasting news and analyses in 27 languages to 23 countries across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. Headquartered in Prague since 1995, RFE/RL ...

between 1983 and 1988.

Biography

Born 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 ...

, Georgescu studied history at the

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest (UB) () is a public university, public research university in Bucharest, Romania. It was founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princely Academy of Bucharest, P ...

, and worked at the Romanian-Russian Museum until it was closed down in 1963, when he was transferred to the ''Institute of Southeastern European Studies'' in Bucharest. He earned a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in history from the University of Bucharest in 1970 and published works on 18th and 19th century Romanian history. Georgescu taught in 1967 and 1968 at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

and in 1973 at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

."Vlad Georgescu of Rumania Is Dead at 51"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', November 15, 1988 In 1977, Georgescu was jailed for two months for disputing the role of the Communist Party in history in the manuscript of a book which he had sent abroad. Two years later he left the country, becoming a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., and teaching at the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

and at

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

. Georgescu then returned to Europe and worked for the ''

''. In 1987, a week after Georgescu announced that he would broadcast fragments from Ion Mihai Pacepa's '' Red Horizons'', he received a warning from a Securitate general that he would not live more than a year if he went on to broadcast it. Georgescu ignored the warning and went ahead and broadcast it. A year later, he died of a malignant

brain tumor A brain tumor (sometimes referred to as brain cancer) occurs when a group of cells within the Human brain, brain turn cancerous and grow out of control, creating a mass. There are two main types of tumors: malignant (cancerous) tumors and benign ...

at the age of 51 in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. In 2007, '' Cotidianul'' published informative notes sent by Constantin Bălăceanu-Stolnici to the Securitate, which included a sketch of Georgescu's

apartment, drawn after a visit to see Georgescu, which might have enabled the possible assassination of Georgescu. Georgescu and his wife, Mary, had a son, Tudor.

Bibliography

*''Din corespondența diplomatică a Țării Romînești'', Muzeul Romîno-Rus, București, 1962, 268 p. *''Political Ideas and the Enlightenment in the Romanian Principalities (1750–1831)'', Boulder (East European Quarterly), New York (Columbia University Press), 1971 *''Ideile politice și iluminismul în principatele române (1750–1831)'', Editura Academiei RSR, București, 1972 *''Politică și istorie: cazul comuniștilor români 1944–1977'', editura Jon Dumitru (colecția ''Clio fără mască''), München, 1981 (reprinted in Romania after 1990 by Editura Humanitas), 158 p. *''Istoria românilor de la origini pînă în zilele noastre'', München, 1984, 394 p. (ed. a III-a, Editura Humanitas, București, 1992) *''Istoria ideilor politice românești'', editura Jon Dumitru (colecția ''Clio fără mască''), München, 1987 *''Romania anilor '80'', editura Jon Dumitru (colecția ''Clio fără mască''), München, 1994, 254 p.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Georgescu, Vlad 1937 births 1988 deaths Writers from Bucharest Romanian dissidents 20th-century Romanian historians Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty people University of Bucharest alumni Romanian anti-communists 20th-century Romanian journalists Deaths from brain cancer in Germany