Daily life in Communist years saw a winding evolution, depending on the economic and political conditions.

The nationalization of industry, the collectivization of agriculture, the Soviet-type 5-year plans, led to a decrease of the economic efficiency and to an equalized poverty of the population.

In the first stage of Communism, daily wretchedness was masked by a suffocating Stalinist propaganda.

Overall view of Room 76: Daily life

Following a relative economic redress and a political liberalization, in the first years following 1964, the Communist regime fell back into an economic and cultural degringolade, caused by hyper-industrialization, by the autarchic investment system, by Romania’s fall into a cultural isolation which was marked, this time, by the Sino-Korean-inspired cult of personality.

Detail from Room 76: Daily life

Starting with the Goma Movement and the SLOMR, with the brave actions of Doina Cornea, of Vasile Paraschiv, of Ionel Cană and of other opponents is various cities and environments, to the “propaganda against Social order” undertaken by dozens of young people, including Radu Filipescu, and to the sacrifice of engineer Gheorghe Ursu and with the editing of the “România” clandestine newspaper by a group pf brave journalists (Petre Mihai Băcanu, Mihai Creangă, Anton Uncu, Alexandru Chivoiu, Ștefan Niculescu Maier), the exhibition showcases exceptional cases in a country that had been reduced to silence and submission.

Overall view of Room 77: Opponents and dissidents in the 8th and 9th decade

“This multiplier was specifically made by us, of course, you would turn the crank and the manifesto would come out. The multiplier was a device which was a combination of cylinders, that is the ink absorption cylinder, the paper guiding cylinder, the printing cylinder, the one with the text…”

Mariana Gherghina-Besciu

Photo: Cylinder used in the ’70s to copy anti-Communist manifestos, donated to the Memorial by spouses Gherghina Besciu. Detail from Room 77: Opponents and dissidents in the 8th and 9th decade

Manifestos imprinted with the multiplier

Detail from Room 77: Opponents and dissidents in the 8th and 9th decade

“My father was left there, in prison, after he was tortured, for 3 days, as I was told, so there would nothing left to be done. He was taken to hospital just for the sake of it, because the Securitate guys did not want him to die in their arrest. But there was nothing the doctors could do when he reached the hospital, he was half dead.”

Andrei Ursu

Photo: Personal objects of Gheorghe Ursu, donated to the Memorial by his son, Andrei. Detail from Room 77: Opponents and dissidents in the 8th and 9th decade

Photo: Letters to Free Europe written by Vasile Paraschiv

Detail from Room 77: Opponents and dissidents in the 8th and 9th decade

The workers’ protests in Valea Jiului (1977) and in Brașov (1987) were, in their time, not only a protest against the order-based economy and the cult of personality performed by the nomenklatura, but also a proof that the Communist Party was even challenged by the working class, on whose behalf it pretended to govern.

Overall view of Room 79: Workers’ protests in Valea Jiului and Brașov

Once the resistance of intellectual and peasant elites was crushed in the ’50s and ’60s, over the following years the resistance of the working class itself was also repressed. Failure to take these signals into account led to the bankruptcy of state Communism, as it would soon be evident in in December 1989.

Detail from Room 79: Workers’ protests in Valea Jiului and Brașov

The miners’ strike in Valea Jiului in August 1977 was the first protest of workers, immediately repressed by Communist authorities.  The delegates who attended the meeting with Nicolae Ceaușescu were arrested. Over 4,000 miners were fired and approximately 3,000 were “transferred” to other mines, outside Valea Jiului.  The Lupeni region was declared a “forbidden area”.

Detail from Room 79: Workers’ protests in Valea Jiului and Brașov

On 15 November 1987, the first protest took place on the streets of Brașov, where, after over four decades of smouldering discontent, Communism was openly challenged by thousands of workers.

Detail from Room 79: Workers’ protests in Valea Jiului and Brașov

The demolitions in Bucharest in the 1980s, under Ceaușescu’s orders, were the worst operations of destroying the historic and cultural heritage.

The key piece of this project was a presidential palace surrounded by ministries and other public institutions, including the dignitaries’ homes.

Overall view of Room 75: The demolitions of the ‘80s

The most notorious and least justifiable demolition was that of the Văcărești Monastery ensemble (18th century), located on the outskirts of the capital city.

Detail from Room 75: The demolitions of the ‘80s

Monasteries and churches were destroyed, some over 300 years old, together with family homes, blocks of flats and public buildings. Other churches were moved or completely hidden from sight by the new buildings.

Detail from Room 75: The demolitions of the ‘80s

Detail from Room 75: The demolitions of the ‘80s

The exhibition shows a few case studies of the demolition of other urban centres with a visible traditional specificity, showing the depth of the wounds following demolitions, also experienced in the rest of the country.

Detail from Room 75: The demolitions of the ‘80s

Detail from Room 75: The demolitions of the ‘80s

Overall view of Room 80: Freedom via radio waves

Western radio stations broadcasting Romanian language programs would make up for the premeditated lack of information, whereby the Party and Securitate systems wished to isolate the population from the world, and even from domestic realities.

Detail from Room 80: Freedom via radio waves

The editors of Free Europe, of the BBC, of the Voice of America or of the Voice of Germany had become, their faces anonymous, members of millions of families. Strictly prohibited, these voices of democracy were listened to in secret, and then broadcast from one person to the next, stimulating solidarity and complicity in the spirit of western democracy.

Detail from Room 80: Freedom via radio waves

Strictly prohibited, these voices of democracy were listened to in secret, and then broadcast from one person to the next, stimulating solidarity and complicity in the spirit of western democracy.

Detail from Room 80: Freedom via radio waves