Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of the Romanian Exile

The Institute
The Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of the Romanian Exile (IICCMER) is a governmental body which analyzes, investigates and supports public awareness on the history of communism in Romania through research, educational, publishing and museum projects. The activity of IICCMER analyses the nature, purpose and effects of totalitarianism in Romania during 1945-1989 and also the memory of this regime in the Romanian exile and in the post-communist period.

Objectives:
a) to administer and analyze, in a rigorous and scientific manner, the memory of the communist regime in Romania, as well as its consequences in cooperation with other public institutes, guided by the constitutional values of democracy, the rule of law and pluralism;
b) to support the setting-up of educational tools destined to publically analyze, on a national and international level, the memory of the communist period in the history of Romania, and to encourage the development of a culture based on liberty, democracy and the rule of law, through the honoring of the victims of the communist regime in Romania and the analysis of the totalitarian state mechanisms;
c) to cultivate and promote scientific research and advanced studies in the field of the history of communism by means of critical and comparative methods at international standards;
d) to collect, archive and publish documents referring to the Romanian exile in the interval 1940-1989;
e) the scientific investigation and identification of the crimes, abuses and human rights infringement throughout the communist regime in Romania, as well as alerting the competent authorities whenever a law infringement is identified.

Attributions:
a) to analyze the nature, the purpose, and the effects of the totalitarian regime in Romania during 1945-1989, as well as its memory within the Romanian diaspora before and after the communist period;
b) to collect data, documents, and testimonies regarding all actions which led to the infringement of human rights and liberties during the communist regime, based on which to alert the criminal investigation bodies, regardless of the time and circumstances in which the deeds occurred;
c) to highlight the intellectual sources of the communist doctrine, the genealogy of totalitarian thought and practices, the structures of the Communist Party before and after 1945, the institutional definition of the former Securitate, as well as the repressive mechanisms in socialist Romania;
d) to examine the organization and functioning of all the institutions responsible for the installation and perpetuation of the communist regime;
e) to identify the rhetoric and propaganda of the communist ideology in fields with a public impact such as cinematography, television, plastic arts, music and other fields;
f) to analyze the institutional significance and the main political events of 1990 in the context of democratization and especially with respect to the breach of individual rights and liberties;
g) to study the influence and effects of the communist ideology on urbanism policies during 1945-1989, in the fields of education, architecture, heritage and visual arts;
h) to analyze the short and long term impact of the economic, ecological and social policies initiated by the communist regime;
i) to identify the ideological networks and the international partnerships promoted by the Communist Party and the persons responsible for the ideology and the propaganda of the totalitarian state;
j) to analyze comparatively, in the light of international communism, the data referring the ideological censorship used during 1945-1989 in the fields of military, culture and religion;
k) to raise public awareness on the acts of violence, abuses and crimes carried out from the direct order of the Communist Party;
l) to organize memorial exhibitions, book launchings and public debates regarding the place of the memory of communism within the symbolic geography of Romanian culture;
m) arranges, in collaboration with other public and private institutes from Romania and abroad, temporary or permanent memorial spaces, aiming to raise awareness on the map of the communist prison system in Romania;  
n) to undertake studies and research in Romania and abroad in order to have a strong grasp of the communist regime and the phenomenon of the Romanian exile;
o) purchases – or receives donations – any testimony, publication or document related to the former exile;
p) to identify, bring back to Romania and preserve the documents referring to the former exile, either originals or copies, on any storage means, spread across the world;
q) to finance the editing, reediting and publishing of memoirs, books, studies, articles, correspondence, photographic and video testimonies, collections of documents and photographic albums;
r) to organize reunions and seminars dedicated to the exile and to represent Romanian research in this field at the national and international scientific gatherings;
s) to store all the publications, books, magazine collections, newspapers, manifestos and other documents of the former exile from 1940-1989;
ş) to stand as a reference and communication point for the persons from the former exile who continued to live abroad;
t) to offer material support, within budget limits, to those institutions of the former exile that must function abroad as active representatives of Romania;
ţ) to reveal the party members, militaries, civilians and magistrates who activated within the repressive party and state system;
u) to identify the abuses and crimes ordered or inspired by the persons who occupied the positions stipulated in letter ţ).

The Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and Memory of the Romanian Exile (IICCMER) coordinates several unique project in recent history, such as archaeological campaigns for discovering the remains of the victims executed without trial by the Securitate, Râmnicu Sărat Memorial – a former prison for political prisoners, the International Summer University on the study of Romanian communism, the first textbook on the history of Romanian communism, photo collections - the largest free online database with photos from communism, the MA program in the study Romanian communism, the Romanian exile archives, media projects of documentary films etc.