Historia Universitatis Iassiensis 7, 85–101
Abstract. In the present study we aim at explaining how could an educational institution. The “Maxim Gorky” Pedagogical Institute, which was created to compensate the small number of Russian language teachers, come to the attention of the Romanian communists in the early sixties. The problems of foreign language education in Romania was solved only after reaching alarming levels: there were only 80 English teachers, 800 teachers of French and about 4,000 teachers of Russian. These figures have made Central Committee members of Romanian Workers' Party to close The “Maxim Gorky” Peda¬gogical Institute of Bucharest and to initiate new policies for Western languages learning in the Romanian education system. These actions were not unique and cannot be analyzed separately, as they are placed in a broader context of the posting of the Soviet model and the first steps in support of a national communism.
The liquidation of The “Maxim Gorky” Institute coincided with the reconversion or elimination of other institutions in Romania that were the main actors in implementing the Soviet model and Soviet cultural propaganda in the Romanian People's Republic: Romanian Association for Cultural Ties with the Soviet Union (ARLUS) was readjusted and has never received the same political and financial support, and The Institute of Romanian-Soviet Studies, The Romanian-Russian Museum, The Russian Book Publishing House were dissolved completely.
The international tensions inside The Comecon, the relaxation of the Khrushchev regime and the domestic situation where the attempt to completely enrolling ideological met a route hampered by indifference, social and economic problems that have made the Romanian communist leader, Gheorghiu-Dej, to object to the excessive Sovietization policies.
