This might come as a surprise to many – but Romania is a magical country. For half a century the magic of communism has surrounded us and we became immortal, invisible and insurmontably insignificant. It is not easy to explain unless you lived then and there – but I will try.
If you are born in Romania right after 1990, this might be new to you as well. Between august 1944 and december 1989, Romania was de facto ruled by the communists. Not some romantic Che Guevarra that would find his way on a rebelous teenager’s T-shirt; but the maniacal, killer kind, that would torture, destroy and impoverish his own fellow citizen in the blind belief of equality. This is what I want to talk about.
Today’s civilized Europe cannot begin to understand what communism meant for countries like Romania (or Bulgaria… or Czechoslovakia… or Yugoslavia… or… or even East Germany). But I will try to shed some light – at least on the one country I know about.
Communism meant you were not allowed to have your own ideas. It did not matter how poor the country was or how desperate were the living conditions. You were innoculated the idea that the Party leaders are right under no circumstances. And if you had a different opinion you faced jail. The brave keyboard knights of today, fearlesy swearing at the president, parliament and government altogether – would be sent to jail. For expressing their thoughts.
Communism meant that you could not buy as much food as you needed. Food was rationalised – every family could buy a fix ammount of bread, butter, milk and sugar. In the shops you could not find meat. Fancy a barbecue? You had the coal, the matches and the knife – but no meat. Chocolate? I remember as a kid there were only two types of chocolate on sale. And they both tasted the same – but to us the taste was divine. There were no fruit with the exception of apples. Today you can buy a banana in every shop – 30 years ago there were no bananas, no oranges, no kiwi… just apples. And sometimes cherries and peaches.
Communism meant you could not have access to (correct) information. History itself was re-written to fit the communist ideal. You had no conections with the outer world. No possibility to learn something if not accepted by the propaganda. The most important thing everyone knew was that the imperialistic world is evil, and will eventually collapse; and communism will prevail. Everything that was even vaguely anti-communist was banned.
Communism meant there was scarcity and poverty in the whole country. You owned a car – but there was no petrol at the stations. You owned an appartment – but it looked just like the other thousands of apartments built by the new era: sad, gray, poorly lit, same furniture, same carpets, same oven… You owned a refrigerator, but it was empty. You owned a TV* – but you could only watch the communist triumphal news . Your house had lights and chandeliers, but two hours/evening, every evening, population had no electricity. You earned money but it was virtually impossible to spend them all, not because the salaries were high, but because there was nothing to shop for, except rubber gloves and prune jam.
Communism meant you were not allowed to leave the country. Members of the party could go outside Romanian borders and even spend their vacations in other countries – but this was not valid for the majority of the population.
And maybe worst of it, communism meant that the state police (the infamous securitate) had the right to put you to jail for almost any reason. Religion was a crime, not beliving the righteousness of the Great Leader was a crime, expressing your thoughts about the regime was a crime, reading a book of the forbidden list was a crime, expressing the desire to visit countries abroad was a crime, listening to a foreign radio programme was a crime, protesting was a crime, strikes were seen as crimes… all these things that nowadays seem normal, logical and common sense, sent real people to jail.
And real people were even executed for this kind of disreputable behaviour at the peak of the regime monstruosity. In Romania more than 800 000 (eight hundred thousand!) people were killed by the state authorities – not because they were commiting actual crimes, but because they had different beliefs and ideals.
Communism was in itself bleak, inhumane, atheistic, horrid and destructive; it crippeled a whole generation; it burried integrity and ethics, it killed, devoured and ravaged; a plague for the society, a distorted magic that turned everything it touched into dust.
*Black and white TV, obviously!
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