SANDU TUDOR (PĂRINTELE DANIIL), IDEOLOGIILE EXTREMISTE ȘI POLIȚIA POLITICĂ

AUTHOR: George ENACHE

SANDU TUDOR (FATHER DANIEL), EXTREMIST IDEOLOGIES AND THE POLITICAL POLICE

Danubius, XXXV, Galaţi, 2017, pp.173-260.

Abstract

The poet and journalist, later to become father Daniil, is one of the founders of the well-known spiritual movement “Rugul Aprins”.  A number of studies have been written lately about his life and work, some of them being extremely valuable.  Others, however, launch a number of dubious and problematic aspects without performing a critical analysis of the documentary sources.

The most debatable aspect refers to the alleged “legionarism” of Daniil Sandu Tudor  or his capacity of “confessor of legionnaires” in the ‘50s of the last century, ideas which are circulated insistently enough in certain circles. This struck many as strange as during the inter-bellum period Sandu Tudor was a left wing thinker, displaying anti-legionary convictions.  Could he have known a different type of “conversion” after communism had been established?!

We will try to clarify this problem by analysing the documents of that era, especially those produced by the Securitate, which applied this label to father Daniel and send him to Aiud.  We will try to see how this suspicion arose, how it was verified and how the construction of this stigma was eventually “perfected”. The text analysis method will highlight the manner in which the meanings and significance of words and gestures “slide” according to the interests of the investigators, paying special interest to the Securitate officer – Informant relationship as well as to the reciprocal (mis)understandings between these characters.

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