21 Facts About Doina Cornea

Doina Cornea was a dissident during the communist rule of Nicolae Ceausescu.

Doina Cornea was co-founder of the Democratic Anti-totalitarian Forum of Romania, as the first attempt to unify the democratic opposition to the post-communist government.

Doina Cornea returned to Cluj in 1958, where she worked as an assistant professor at the Babes-Bolyai University.

Doina Cornea illegally sent the first letter to Radio Free Europe in 1982, the first in a series of texts and protests against Ceausescu.

Doina Cornea continued to send a constant stream of texts and protests to Radio Free Europe.

Doina Cornea's message was then repeated in the articles she wrote after the 1989 Revolution: even if the political and economic situation would change, this would not change the perversity of the morals of the individuals.

Doina Cornea requested a passport only to be refused, responding with a letter in which she argued that a successful totalitarian society can only be created by robbing people of intellectual fulfilment.

Doina Cornea wrote a further letter, which was smuggled outside the country by Josy Dubie, broadcast by RFE on August 23,1988.

Doina Cornea found Ceausescu personally responsible for the spiritual and economic disaster in Romania.

Doina Cornea gave him two choices: he either gives up running the country, or he introduces reforms to allow pluralism and separate the administration and judiciary from the Party.

Doina Cornea argued for freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and freedom of travel; on the economic side, her letter argued for closing down loss-making factories, re-tooling factories for being able to compete with foreign companies, hiring foreign managers and recreation of private land ownership, as well as the stopping of the Systematization programme.

In 1989, Doina Cornea received an invitation from Danielle Mitterrand to attend the bicentennial celebration of the French Revolution, but again, she was denied the exit visa.

Doina Cornea was released 21 December 1989 during the Romanian Revolution, on the day before the government was ousted.

Doina Cornea quit this body on 23 January 1990 after it decided to run as a party in the 1990 elections.

Doina Cornea considered it to be dependent upon Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and still dominated by people with communist pasts.

Together with intellectuals like Ana Blandiana, Mihai Sora and Mircea Dinescu, Doina Cornea continued her outspokenness against the new administration of Ion Iliescu, president of Romania until his defeat by Emil Constantinescu in the 1996 election.

Doina Cornea was co-founder of the Democratic Anti-totalitarian Forum of Romania, as the first attempt to unify the democratic opposition to the post-communist government.

Doina Cornea was co-founder of The Group for Social Dialogue in Romania, of the Civic Alliance Foundation and of the Cultural Memory Foundation.

Doina Cornea died on 4 May 2018 at her home in Cluj, with her son by her side, at the age of 88.

Doina Cornea was buried with military honors at the city's Hajongard Cemetery.

Doina Cornea had two children, Ariadna Combes and Leontin Iuhas.