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Serge Moscovici
Serge Moscovici (French: [mɔskɔvisi]; June 14, 1925 – November 15, 2014) born Srul Herș Moscovici, was a Romanian-born French social psychologist, director of the Laboratoire Européen de Psychologie Sociale ("European Laboratory of Social Psychology"), which he co-founded in 1974 at the Maison des sciences de l'homme in Paris. He was a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts and Commander of the Legion of Honour, as well as a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Moscovici's son, Pierre Moscovici is the current First President of the Court of Audit and was European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs and Minister of Finance.
Moscovici was born in Brăila, Romania, to a Jewish family who were grain merchants. His uncle was Ilie Moscovici, a leading Romanian socialist. Moscovici frequently relocated, together with his father, spending time in Cahul, Galați, and Bucharest. (Later he would indicate that his stay in Basarabia had contributed to his image of a homeland.) From an early age Moscovici suffered the effects of antisemitic discrimination: in 1938, he was expelled from a Bucharest high school on the basis of newly-issued antisemitic legislation. In later years he commented on the impact of the Iron Guard, and expressed criticism for intellectuals associated with it (Emil Cioran and Mircea Eliade).
Moscovici trained as a mechanic at the Bucharest vocational school Ciocanul. Faced with an ideological choice between Zionism and Communism, he opted for the latter, and, in 1939, joined the then-illegal Romanian Communist Party, being introduced by a clandestine activist whom he knew by the pseudonym Kappa.
During World War II, Moscovici witnessed the Iron Guard-instigated Bucharest Pogrom in January 1941. Later the Ion Antonescu régime interned him in a forced-labor camp, where, together with other persons of his age, he worked on construction teams until freed by the Soviet Red Army in 1944. During those years he taught himself French and educated himself by reading philosophical works (including those of Baruch Spinoza and René Descartes).
Subsequently, Moscovici travelled extensively, notably visiting Mandatory Palestine, Germany and Austria. During the late stages of World War II he met Isidore Isou, the founder of lettrism, with whom he founded the artistic and literary review Da towards the end of 1944 (Da was quickly suppressed by the authorities). Refusing promotion on the basis of political affiliation at a time when the Communist Party participated in Romania's governments, he became instead a welder in the large Bucharest factory owned by Nicolae Malaxa.
Initially welcoming Soviet occupation, Moscovici grew increasingly disillusioned with communist politics, and noted the incidence of antisemitism among Red Army soldiers. As the communist regime was taking over and the Cold War started, he helped Zionist dissidents cross the border illegally. For this, he was involved in a 1947 trial held in Timișoara, and decided to leave Romania definitively. Choosing clandestine immigration, he arrived in France a year later, having passed through Hungary and Austria, and having spent time in a refugee camp in Italy.
In Paris, helped by a refugee fund, he studied psychology at the Sorbonne while employed by an industrial enterprise. At the time, Moscovici became close to Paris-based writers, including the Romanian-born Jewish Paul Celan and Isac Chiva. In reference to himself, Celan, and Moscovici, Chiva later recalled:
"For us, people on the Left, but who had fled communism, the first period in Paris, in a capital where the intellectual environments were developing under full-scale Stalinist enthusiasm, was very harsh. We were caught between a rock and a hard place: on one side, the French university environment who saw us as «fascists». [...] On the other, the Romanian exiles, most of all the nationalist students, when not outright on the far right, who did not shy away from denouncing us as communist «moles» in the pay of Bucharest or Moscow."
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Serge Moscovici
Serge Moscovici (French: [mɔskɔvisi]; June 14, 1925 – November 15, 2014) born Srul Herș Moscovici, was a Romanian-born French social psychologist, director of the Laboratoire Européen de Psychologie Sociale ("European Laboratory of Social Psychology"), which he co-founded in 1974 at the Maison des sciences de l'homme in Paris. He was a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts and Commander of the Legion of Honour, as well as a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Moscovici's son, Pierre Moscovici is the current First President of the Court of Audit and was European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs and Minister of Finance.
Moscovici was born in Brăila, Romania, to a Jewish family who were grain merchants. His uncle was Ilie Moscovici, a leading Romanian socialist. Moscovici frequently relocated, together with his father, spending time in Cahul, Galați, and Bucharest. (Later he would indicate that his stay in Basarabia had contributed to his image of a homeland.) From an early age Moscovici suffered the effects of antisemitic discrimination: in 1938, he was expelled from a Bucharest high school on the basis of newly-issued antisemitic legislation. In later years he commented on the impact of the Iron Guard, and expressed criticism for intellectuals associated with it (Emil Cioran and Mircea Eliade).
Moscovici trained as a mechanic at the Bucharest vocational school Ciocanul. Faced with an ideological choice between Zionism and Communism, he opted for the latter, and, in 1939, joined the then-illegal Romanian Communist Party, being introduced by a clandestine activist whom he knew by the pseudonym Kappa.
During World War II, Moscovici witnessed the Iron Guard-instigated Bucharest Pogrom in January 1941. Later the Ion Antonescu régime interned him in a forced-labor camp, where, together with other persons of his age, he worked on construction teams until freed by the Soviet Red Army in 1944. During those years he taught himself French and educated himself by reading philosophical works (including those of Baruch Spinoza and René Descartes).
Subsequently, Moscovici travelled extensively, notably visiting Mandatory Palestine, Germany and Austria. During the late stages of World War II he met Isidore Isou, the founder of lettrism, with whom he founded the artistic and literary review Da towards the end of 1944 (Da was quickly suppressed by the authorities). Refusing promotion on the basis of political affiliation at a time when the Communist Party participated in Romania's governments, he became instead a welder in the large Bucharest factory owned by Nicolae Malaxa.
Initially welcoming Soviet occupation, Moscovici grew increasingly disillusioned with communist politics, and noted the incidence of antisemitism among Red Army soldiers. As the communist regime was taking over and the Cold War started, he helped Zionist dissidents cross the border illegally. For this, he was involved in a 1947 trial held in Timișoara, and decided to leave Romania definitively. Choosing clandestine immigration, he arrived in France a year later, having passed through Hungary and Austria, and having spent time in a refugee camp in Italy.
In Paris, helped by a refugee fund, he studied psychology at the Sorbonne while employed by an industrial enterprise. At the time, Moscovici became close to Paris-based writers, including the Romanian-born Jewish Paul Celan and Isac Chiva. In reference to himself, Celan, and Moscovici, Chiva later recalled:
"For us, people on the Left, but who had fled communism, the first period in Paris, in a capital where the intellectual environments were developing under full-scale Stalinist enthusiasm, was very harsh. We were caught between a rock and a hard place: on one side, the French university environment who saw us as «fascists». [...] On the other, the Romanian exiles, most of all the nationalist students, when not outright on the far right, who did not shy away from denouncing us as communist «moles» in the pay of Bucharest or Moscow."