Premium
Academician Razvan Theodorescu made Romania more cultural in a society insensitive to the values of culture, which is perhaps one of the most difficult missions he took on, Romania's former president Ion Iliescu, honorary chairman of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), said on Monday upon Theodorescu's death, told Agerpres.
"I have learned with immense pain about the disappearance of academician Razvan Theodorescu. I knew him since he was a student, so I am not wrong to say that we knew each other for a lifetime. His life was tested: he nurtured his vocation as a teacher and researcher when the doors of the academia were closed to him, and later he became not only one of the best historians of Romanian arts and civilisation of the last century, but also an extraordinary teacher, a formidable rector, a visionary president of the Romanian Radio and Television, a minister of culture who provided excellence to this function, an academician whose work will be impossible to equal and a vice-president of the Romanian Academy who knew how to modernise the institution. However, among all these public roles, Razvan Theodorescu remained a free man. And precisely that freedom made our friendship true," the former president wrote in a blog post.
According to him, "there are few true friendships today, just as there are few authentic people, as was the 'teacher of the nation', Razvan."
"I want to thank him that in a country where being 'Iliescu's man' was, especially in recent years, the label of stigma, Razvan Theodorescu never renounced this connection; on the contrary, he affirmed it with honour and transformed it into what he called, generously, a title of nobility. He made Romania more cultural in a society insensitive to the values of culture and perhaps that was among the most difficult missions he took up lucidly, not just altruistically. I would like to convey my condolences to the family, and to Ilinca, his daughter, I wish her strength and comfort; her loss is also Romania's loss, one that we hoped will be delayed as long as possible." Iliescu also wrote.
