Composer of anti-communist anthem dies at 46
Cristian Paturca was heralded as one of Romania's most prominent democracy activists when he wrote Imnul Golanilor or The Hooligans' Hymn in 1990.
The anti-government protesters were branded as "hooligans" by then-president Ion Iliescu. The communist regime of Nicolae Ceausescu collapsed in 1989 in a revolution where more than 1,300 people died.
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Hide AdOne line from the song, "better dead than a communist," became part of Romania's post-1989 vocabulary. The word "golan" now means a pro-democracy activist as well as a hooligan.
Writer Dan Voina compared the Hooligans' Hymn to the French national anthem La Marseillaise saying: "It had an important role necessary in popular revolts for the solidarity of protesters, pushing them toward a common goal,"