Răzvan Theodorescu, Vice-President of the Romanian Academy, dies at 83. A loyal supporter of Ion Iliescu, he was the head of TVR during the June 13-15 1990 mineriad, when he supported the brutal intervention of the miners.

Răzvan Theodorescu, Vice-President of the Romanian Academy, died on Monday at the age of 83, News.ro and Radio Romania Actualități reported. A historian and art critic, Theodorescu was one of the left-wing intellectuals who permanently supported former president Ion Iliescu, to whom he remained loyal until the last moment.

Theodorescu’s name is linked to the darkest period in TVR’s recent history, the June 13-15 1990 mineriad. At that time he was the head of the Romanian public television (TVR), an institution that stood out for its total propaganda for the FSN, Ion Iliescu’s party, and its uncritical coverage of the brutal intervention of the miners and the authorities, who killed and tortured dozens of participants in the anti-FSN protest.

Răzvan Theodorescu was also Minister of Culture from 2000-2004.

He was president of the Arts, Architecture and Audiovisual Section of the Romanian Academy, secretary general of the International Association for South-East European Studies, professor at the University of Arts.

Historian Vladimir Tismaneanu gave a scathing portrait of Răzvan Theodorescu, about whom he wrote the following in a Newsweek article: „After 1989, Răzvan, who had made an honourable transition through the mire of ‘multilaterally developed socialism’, became a fierce fesenist propagandist. Saddled by Ilyich himself with the post of president of the anti-fascist TV station called „Free”, Razvan excelled in servility and cynicism. During the Mindreads, he was one of the most venomous instigators. He ended up in every office he dreamed of. Here he is now, the almost octogenarian academic theorizing Legionaroid-Duginist aberrations.”

Tismaneanu also admitted that Razvan Theodorescu suffered the persecution of the communist regime because he refused to turn in a professor.

Tismaneanu’s reaction came after Theodorescu said that Romania does not belong to democratic Central Europe, but to the autocratic East: „We are a world of the East. Good or bad, that’s how God has placed us and our mentality is an Eastern mentality … The Eastern Europe, to which we belong, (…) this Eastern Europe is very little fond of democracy. It is very fond of autocracy, unlike the other, Western world.”

Răzvan Theodorescu died at the Floreasca Emergency Hospital in Bucharest, confirmed to AGERPRES the spokesman of the medical unit, Dr. Bogdan Oprița. Răzvan Theodorescu had been admitted to the medical unit about three weeks ago.

Translated article