Doina Cornea
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Doina Cornea (born 30 May 1929, Braşov) is a Romanian human rights activist and professor of the French language. She was notable as a dissident during the communist regime of Nicolae Ceauşescu.
Cornea worked as a teacher at Babeş-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca. In 1980 she published her first samizdat book, Încercarea Labirintului ("The Test of the Labyrinth"), followed by four other samizdat translations (from French).
Between 1982 and 1989 Cornea released 31 texts and protests against the Ceauşescu regime, sending them illegally to Radio Free Europe. In 1983 she was fired from the university because of her political activity. She was interrogated, beaten, and threatened with death by the Securitate (the Romanian communist secret police).
Together with her son, Leontin Iuhaş, she spread 160 manifestos of solidarity with the workers who rebelled against the Ceauşescu regime in the Braşov 1987 uprising. Both were arrested and held in custody for five weeks during November-December 1987. Subsequently, she was put on house arrest by the Romanian Secret Services. She was released 21 December 1989 (during the Romanian Revolution, on the day before the Ceauşescu regime fell); immediately after her release, she began taking part in the street demonstrations in Cluj-Napoca.
After 22 December 1989 Cornea was asked to become a member of the first post-communist government organization, the National Council of the National Salvation Front. She quit this body 23 January 1990 after it decided to run as a party in the 1990 elections.[1] She considered it to be dependent upon Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and still dominated by people with communist pasts.
Together with intellectuals like Ana Blandiana, Mihai Şora and Mircea Dinescu, Cornea continued her outspokenness against the new regime of Ion Iliescu, president of Romania until his defeat by Emil Constantinescu in the 1996 election. She was co-founder of the Democratic Anti-totalitarian Forum of Romania (Forumul Democrat Antitotalitar din România), as the first attempt to unify the democratic opposition to the post-communist government. This organization later transformed into the Romanian Democratic Convention (Convenţia Democrată Română, CDR), which brought Emil Constantinescu to power.
Cornea was co-founder of The Group for Social Dialogue (Grupul pentru Dialog Social) in Romania, of the Civic Alliance Foundation and of the Cultural Memory Foundation (Fundaţia Culturală Memoria).
She has received a great number of distinctions and prizes, the most important being:
- Professor Thorolf Rafto Memorial Prize (Norway, 1989)
- Doctor Honoris Causa of Free University of Brussels (Belgium, 1989)
- Officier of the Legion of Honor (France, 2000)
- The High Cross of Steaua României (Romania, 2000)
[edit] References
- ^ "Doina Cornea s-a retras din Consiliul Naţional al F.S.N." ("Doina Cornea has resigned from the National Council of the F.S.N."), România Liberă, 24 January 1990
