High spirits as a resistance form in Soviet Bucharest

Abstract

What were the chances for a young intellectual with their studies completed in the post-war period when the world had become a Soviet prison overnight? Many emerging intellectuals have shunned everything related to political influence. But the beginning of the 1950s left writers with no chance to express themselves without making concessions. Nonetheless, young writers with different visions in Soviet Bucharest were confident that they might rise to fame despite the new political conditions. They therefore socialized and helped each other. Constantin Țoiu, Ion Negoițescu, Ștefan Augustin Doinaș, and Nicolae Balotă formed a high spirits team made of nonconformist young people who promoted culture in an era when it had been prohibited. They founded a publication where they could freely express themselves until all this led to a prison sentence not long afterwards. This is a story about illusions in times when they were being eradicated. This is a story about life in a decade when it was being aggressively suppressed.