The Paltinis Diary

The intellectual resistance to totalitarian regimes can take many forms such as Lech Walesa's Solidarity. This volume portrays one such story of resistance in Romania during the reign of Ceausescu: that of Constantin Noica, one of the country's foremost intellectuals. Noica was an original thinker belonging to the intellectual generation which included figures such as Mircea Eliade, E.M. Ciorin and Eugene Ionescu, but he chose to stay in Romania after the communist takeover when many others fled. Harassed and jailed for six years, Noica retreated to the mountains and gathered around him some brilliant young minds and future talent to challenge and nurture them in a time when communism denied them the materials of true intellectual importance. This group of students withdrew to Noica's retreat for intensive philosophical sessions to debate the works of Kant, Plato and Heidegger and discuss humanistic values. The author of this volume Liiceanu, was Noica's closest disciple and during every meeting he noted every conversation in a diary which came to be known as "The Paltinis Diary". These conversations were secretly published and devoured by intellectuals. Secret Police censorship meant the book was banned and not published again until 1991 by which time Noica had died and the group had disbanded to help with the reconstruction of post-Ceausescu Romania.