Dr. Dorin Dobrincu

Professional Background

Dr. Dorin Dobrincu is Researcher, A.D. Xenopol Institute of History (Romania). He received his PhD in History from the University Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Iasi in 2006. He speaks Romanian natively and possesses skills in both English and French. Dr. Dobrincu was the General Director of the Romanian National Archives, located in Bucharest, from 2007 to 2012. He also has taught history at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iaşi, Romania, focusing on Jewish Studies and the Study of Communism. While in residence at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, Dr. Dobrincu conducted research on his project entitled “‘The Scapgoat’: Attribution of Guilt to Jews in Romania after the Cessation of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, and Herta County after June 1940.”

Dr. Dobrincu has a plethora of published works to his name including several books. These books include: Transforming Peasants, Property, and Power: The collectivization of agriculture in Romania, 1949-1962 (Budapest and New York: Central European University Press, 2009), coauthored with Constantin Iordachi; The Lists of Death: Political Prisoners Deeds in the Romanian Prison System according to Securitate Records, 1945-1958 (Iaşi: Editura Polirom, 2008), editor; The History of Communism in Romania. Documents Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej Period, 1945-1965 (Bucharest: Comisia Prezidenţială pentru Analiza Dictaturii Comuniste din România,Editura Humanitas, 2009), co-edited with Mihnea Berindei and Armand Goşu; The History of Communism in Romania. Documents Nicolae Ceauşescu, 1965-1971 (Iaşi: Editura Polirom, 2012), co-edited with Mihnea Berindei and Armand Goşu; and A Guide to the National Archives of Romania (Bucharest: Arhivele Naţionale ale României, 2009), co-edited with Şerban Marin and Andrei Muraru. Dr. Dobrincu has also written sixty-two articles for academic journals and twenty-three chapters for books.

Fellowship Research

For his Yetta and Jacob Gelman Fellowship Dr. Dobrincu examined how the ceding of Romanian territory in the form of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, and Herta County to the Soviet Union following the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact of 1939 affected the lives of Romanian Jews both in the aforementioned regions as well as those that remained within Romanian borders. To accomplish this Dr. Dobrincu examined the vast amount of microfilms from the Romanian National Archives and from Former Osobyi Archives, Moscow, that are housed in the Museum’s collections.

Dr. Dorin Dobrincu was in residence in the Center from October 1, 2013 to May 31, 2014.