Writer Paul Goma will receive compensation of merit

The Steering Committee of the Writers Union of Romania voted Friday, unanimously, the merit allowance to writer Paul Goma, says in a post on the personal blog of Liberal Vosganian, the senior vice president of USR.

The merit allowances are granted, limited and according to the law, to some culture people who, through their work value, domestically and internationally recognized, bring meritorious contribution to Romanian culture enrichment.

The merit allowances consist of a monthly amount, equivalent to the average wage.

Liberal Vosganian was the one who made the proposal on merit allowance to writer Paul Goma, in recognition of his entire work.

The proposal was supported by the president of the Writers Union of Romania, Nicolae Manolescu.

The merit allowances were also granted within the same meeting to writers Mihai Zamfir, Al. Calinescu, Nikita Danilov.

Last year, writer Paul Goma received from the Interior Ministry the proof that the Romanian citizenship was not revoked from him and USR Council reaffirmed its membership of the Union.

Paul Goma gave a mandate to Vosganian Writers in order to represent him in relations with the Union and with the Romanian authorities, under which the request was made for the allowance of merit.

Who is Paul Goma?

Paul Goma was born in October the 2nd, 1935, in Bessarabia, as the second son of a family of Romanian teachers.

With the cession of Bessarabia to former USSR, following the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Goma family fled to in Romania.

In 1971, he was proposed to be excluded from the PCR, in which he signed up in august 1968 due to the full publication of the novel "Ostinato" in Germany, published by Suhrkamp, a novel that the censorship chopped in the country.

A year earlier, at the Radio Free Europe had been read excerpts from his novel “The Door” (our most every day).

In 1977, Paul Goma managed to send to RFE an open letter urging the Romanian government to respect the human rights in Romania.
The letter was broadcast on the station.

Consequently, he was always prosecuted, then arrested and beaten by security.

However, being well known in the West and supported by NGO against the human rights violations, International Amnesty, Paul Goma could not be tried and convicted without raising protests abroad.

On November the 20th, 1977, to Paul Goma, his wife and child, was withdrawn the Romanian citizenship and were deported to France. When they arrived in Paris, they requested political asylum.

Here, writer Paul Goma continued his struggle against the communist regime in Bucharest and its leader, Nicolae Ceausescu.

He supported the establishment in 1979 of the Free Trade Union of Workers in Romania (SLOMR), comparable with the Polish free trade union Solidarność.

Translated by Alexandra-Diana Mircea
MTTLC, Bucharest University