Horia-Roman Patapievici (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈhori.a ˈroman pataˈpjevit͡ʃʲ]; born March 18, 1957) is a Romanian conservative and classical liberal writer, physicist, and essayist who served as the head of the Romanian Cultural Institute from 2005 until August 2012. Between 2000 and 2005, he was a member of the National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives, supporting more openness regarding the files of the Securitate.
Biography Denis Patapievici, his father, moved from Cernăuți (now in Ukraine) to Occupied Poland in 1940, after the Soviet Union occupied and took away northern Bukovina from Romania. Horia Roman Patapievici was born in Bucharest and graduated from the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Physics in 1981, where he specialized in the study of lasers. Between 1986 and 1994, he worked as a scientific researcher at the Academy Institute, during which time he also worked as a university assistant at the Polytechnic University of Bucharest between 1990 and 1994. Patapievici then served as the director of Center for German studies at the University of Bucharest from 1994 until 1996, after which he served until 2000 as the program director of the Group for Social Dialogue (GDS). He is also a member of the Writers' Union of Romania, one of the founders of the Research Group for Essentials in European Modernity, and an honorary member of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. His debut as an essayist was in 1992, in the Contrapunct journal, and since then he had various contributions in the Revista 22, LA&I, Dilema (now Dilema Veche), Orizont, Vatra, Secolul 20, ID. He wrote editorials in 22 (1993–2003), LA&I (2003–2004), Dilema Veche (2004–2005), ID (since 2005), and Evenimentul Zilei (since 2006). Patapievici was also a TV producer for two shows for TVR Cultural: "Idei în libertate" (2002) and "Înapoi la argument" (2005). In 2004, Patapievici started working as the director of a cultural journal, Idei în dialog (Ideas in dialogue), published by the Academia Caţavencu Trust. Patapievici married in 1981 and has one son, born in 1989.
Career in public office
National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives In December 1999, Patapievici was nominated by the National Peasants' Party to be a member of the National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives, an institution which has the purpose to study the files of the Securitate, the secret service of the communist-era Romania. Patapievici was initially rejected by the Parliamentary committee by a vote of eight to six. While Patapievici met the legal criteria for the position, his candidacy was opposed by representative members of the other political parties. Democratic Party Senator Casimir Ionesco, whose post-Revolution actions had been criticized earlier in one of Patapievici's books, took a leading role in opposing Patapievici's candidacy, claiming that his application would bring a defiant and revanchist attitude to the committee. Following the demand of the National Peasants' Party, the issue of Patapievici's candidacy was reopened in late January 2000, the Parliamentary committee approving his candidacy, despite a dissent of the Greater Romania Party representative, Dumitru Bălăeț, who accused Patapievici of lack of patriotism based on some of his previous writings in his book "Politics". The council met some difficulties in obtaining some documents from the Romanian Intelligence Service's archive, and because of this, Patapievici, together with Mircea Dinescu and Andrei Pleșu began boycotting the council in October 2001, while demanding full access in the SRI's archives. The activity of the council, which investigated the former collaborators of the Securitate, drew criticism from the far-right Greater Romania Party. Daniela Buruiană claimed that Patapievici, Dinescu, and Pleșu help foreign secret services which want to discredit the Romanian state institutions, prompting them to announce that they'll sue her. In September 2002, the council decided to publish a list of the former Securitate officers who were involved in the political police. The Romanian intelligence agency, SRI, initially opposed this, but, following a meeting between the council and SRI, they reached an agreement. Nevertheless, Patapievici argued that the council is blocked because of political reasons. The following month, Patapievici, together with Pleșu and Dinescu attempted to change the head of the council, Gheorghe Onișoru, who, they argued, sided with the SRI in attempting to open up more of Securitate's files, but they failed in gathering the six needed votes among the eleven council members. The activity of the council continued slowly, publishing the first list of 33 officers of Securitate in October 2003. There were a few attempts of ousting the Patapievici, Pleșu, and Dinescu trio, especially from the Social-Democrats and the Greater Romania Party, but eventually they gave in to public pressure and canceled them. Before the 2004 Romanian presidential election, the council decided that Corneliu Vadim Tudor was not a Securitate informer, with a minority dissenting view (Patapievici, Pleșu, Dinescu, and Secasiu). Pleșu and Dinescu resigned in protest and Patapievici announced he'd do the same thing after the elections.
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