Paul Păltănea

Paul Păltănea (born June 25, 1924, Bucharest – died January 25, 2008, Galați) was a Romanian historian. He was known as an outstanding researcher, author of scientific works, doctor in history, laureate of the Romanian Academy and member of the International Academy of Genealogy in Paris, the author of the monograph History of the city of Galați from its origins to 1918, a monumental work appreciated as one of the best monographs written in Romania.

Biography

Born in Bucharest, on June 25, 1924, Paul Păltănea spent his childhood in Galați, where his family, lacking too many material possibilities, had moved. He attended primary school here (1931–1935) and then the Vasile Alecsandri High School (1935–1943), where he learned, among so many other values and knowledge, respect for the past and love for his adopted city. In 1943, in the tumult of the Second World War in which Romania was also involved, he was admitted to the history specialization, Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of the University of Bucharest. He thus had the opportunity to listen to the courses of the great Romanian historians such as Gheorghe Brătianu, Constantin C. Giurescu or Ion Nestor. The hot period, preceding the Second World War, in which he attended university, influenced him whose education was in the spirit of "confidence in the Romanian nation, in its valences", causing him to take an active attitude, by participating in large-scale student demonstrations, such as the one in March 1944, in support of the efforts to regain Transylvania, in the anti-communist actions organized in the History Faculty by the National Peasants' Party, or in the tribute demonstrations of King Michael I in the Palace Square, on November 8, 1945, and May 10, 1946. These activities during the student period, together with the collaboration in the elaboration of some protest memos addressed to the Ministry of National Education, as well as a denunciation, in which he was catalogued as an Iron Guard sympathizer and a member of the Iuliu Maniu's National Peasants' Party, led to his inclusion in the false political membership of an Iron Guard member and consequently, at his first arrest, on May 17, 1948, being incarcerated in the Galați Penitentiary. He was released, after a 12-month extension of the "administrative sentence", on New Year's Eve 1953, after four years of ordeal. The friendships cultivated during the first period of detention became the reason for the second arrest, on April 17, 1959, followed on August 27, 1959, by the sentence to 18 years of hard labour and incarceration in the Galați Penitentiary. In September of the same year, he arrived at the prison in Aiud, where he remained for almost five years, until he was pardoned on July 27, 1964. Upon his release from Aiud, in 1964, he was assigned to the Galați History Museum. Spending about a decade in communist prisons (1948-1952 and 1958–1964) he met Valeriu Gafencu, Mircea Vulcănescu, Ernest Bernea, Radu Gyr, Petre Țuțea, Nichifor Crainic and many other important intellectuals, also victims of Stalinist policy.

Paul Păltănea was a teacher, worker, clerk, museographer, and a librarian at the V.A. Urechia County Library. He had knowledge of history of buildings, streets, monuments, and he was often the one who got a young researcher out of an impasse, to whom he addressed, as a sign of respect, the appellation "colleague".

He was one of the founding members of the Sever Zotta Romanian Institute of Genealogy and Heraldry in Iasi, established in 1999. In recent years, Paul Păltănea was the president of the Galați branch of the Association of Former Political Detainees from Romania. He was conferred the title of honorary citizen of Galați municipality. Through a government decision from December 2014, the name of the Galați History Museum was changed to the Paul Păltănea History Museum.

Studies The former Boys' School no. 1, actually Secondary School no. 24 Saints Archangels Michael and Gabriel in Galați Boys' School no. 1, the current Secondary School no. 24 Saints Archangels Michael and Gabriel from Galați (1931–1935); Vasile Alecsandri High School in Galați (1935–1943); The Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of the University of Bucharest, History section, where he had as professors: Nicolae Bănescu (Byzantinology), Gheorghe I. Brătianu (Universal History), Constantin C. Giurescu (Romanian History), Ion Hudiță (ro) (History of Diplomacy), Ion Nestor (Prehistoric Archaeology), Victor Papacostea (History of the Balkan Peoples with special regard to Romanians from the South of the Danube), Theofil Sauciuc-Săveanu (ro) (Ancient History), Ion D. Ștefănescu (ro) (History of the Arts) (1943–1947); took the State Exam in the 1957 session.

"Paul Păltănea's work is a remarkable achievement. His style is clear and fluent; reading is done with pleasure." — academician Constantin C. Giurescu

"The long effort, the research talent, the very rich information and the unquenchable passion of Paul Păltănea found their materialization in a monumental monograph on one of the most important cities and ports of the country." — Constantin N. Velichi