In these days Romania is going through a period of remebrance: 25 years have passed since the Romanian Revolution against communism. We could say that we celebrate 25 years of freedom, but also that we commemorate 25 years since thousands of innocent lives were lost during the fight for a democratic Romania.
Many of my foreign friends have asked me a lot of questions about what was life during communism really like, or how did I experience the Revolution. I will not explain you what happened from the historical point of view, as that information is available everywhere. What I will do instead is tell you how I used to see things at that time, as a kid who still does not understand every "heavyweight" detail, but at the same time, is old enough to have some quirky and sometimes-too-direct opinions about things. And then, I will add my current opinions as an adult.
In the first two parts, we will talk about the communist Romania that I witnessed, the Romania of the 1980s - the good, the bad, and the just plain ridiculous. Then, part three will be about those couple of weeks of Revolution in December 1989, which I remember with a mix of fear, rage, sorrow, but also happiness.
My generation colleagues and myself grew up being taught to worship Nicolae Ceausescu. His picture on the walls of every institution, his picture on the first page of every school book, of course culminating with kindergarten and school festivities full of poems and songs dedicated to our beloved "tovaras". Back then, I admit I did not understand why all this adoration... because I didn't feel all that love in my little heart. Really! I mean, I hadn't even met the guy once - it's not that he came over to our place to play with me, or have dinner with us, or take me to the park, did he? He was not my grandad, or my uncle, or my friend. Why, oh, why was I supposed to love him so much? Plus, any uncomfortable questions I may have asked my parents used to be met with "reconciliatory" remarks. For example, once I asked what is going to happen after he dies, and the answer was something along the lines of: "Come on, he's about the same age as your grandparents! You don't want him to die soon, do you?" Whatever... Or that time when I dared to say that his wife, Elena, was ugly. And she was, let's not kid ourselves! But I was categorically contradicted. Later I actually found out that you had to be extra-careful what you were gossiping about them, because you never knew who could hear you, and the fact that microphones were installed in the walls of buildings is something we all believe.
However, it seemed that grown-ups secretly hated him too. After all, he was a shoe-maker turned president, who wanted to be the center of the universe, but whose general knowledge and grammar skills left a lot to be desired. The result? Numerous jokes about his low intelligence and embarrassing manners, especially in relation to other political leaders. Needless to say that these jokes were being told in a very subtle way, in order not to be easily understood from "outside".
Were Romanians poor? No, but we were very limited from the material point of view. Everyone had a job. The hardest part was to be accepted at university, as places within faculties were centralized and limited according to the country's needs for certain types of professionals at that particular point in time. But once you graduated, you could be sure that you had a job assured. Job promotions and salary growth were happening automatically, after a certain number of years. Some salaries were bigger than others, but everything was far from the drammatic discrepancies between the rich and the poor which we have in today's society. Each family was allowed to have only one house and one car. And everyone could afford pretty much the same things.
However, we might have had enough money, but there was not much choice of things to buy. If you entered, let's say, a food shop, you'd be surprised to see only a couple of types of meat, or cheese, or three packs of butter placed far away from one another, in order to make the window seem full. And once in a blue moon, when something different from the usual supply was arriving, people were queuing. And they were numerous. And everything had to be enough for everyone, so products were rationalized. Therefore, the queue had also become a place where people socialized. :) Clothes stores were selling the same style of clothes everywhere - not "uniforms", but neither the wide variety of things that nowadays divide us into fashion icons and fashion disasters. And the price for a specific product was the same accross the country.
However, as far as food is concerned, the fridge of the average Romanian family was hardly ever empty. Why? Because, as the creative nation that we are, in times of difficulty we make recourse to alternative solutions. Such as, for example, becoming friends with the shop assistant, who would always save some stuff for you whenever the shop was supplied. Or, if someone worked at a factory which produced consumer goods, it was impossible for them not to get hold of some of these goods for themselves, but also for their family and friends. Or, if you were lucky enough to have a family member travelling abroad (rare and interesting cases, but we'll talk about it later), they would also come home full of goodies for the entire family - even better than Santa Claus!
However, as far as food is concerned, the fridge of the average Romanian family was hardly ever empty. Why? Because, as the creative nation that we are, in times of difficulty we make recourse to alternative solutions. Such as, for example, becoming friends with the shop assistant, who would always save some stuff for you whenever the shop was supplied. Or, if someone worked at a factory which produced consumer goods, it was impossible for them not to get hold of some of these goods for themselves, but also for their family and friends. Or, if you were lucky enough to have a family member travelling abroad (rare and interesting cases, but we'll talk about it later), they would also come home full of goodies for the entire family - even better than Santa Claus!
Why? I mean, even after all these years, I don't find too much logic in that. Ok, you wanted to pay the country's public debt, and you wanted a modern infrastructure for this country. Fair enough! But was all this "circus" of forced limitation necessary? Romania was exporting a lot of consumer goods and industrial products, but, at the same time, its citizens were struggling, by using the most "twisted" techniques in order to ensure themselves a decent lifestyle. Yes, they were succeeding, but it was not normal. Especially given the fact that in other communist countries such as Czechoslovakia, Hungary or Bulgaria things used to be far better than for us. So, no wonder Romanians had become increasingly angry with Ceausescu and his regime!
In Part 2 we will be talking about leisure time activities, attitude towards school and work, and travelling abroad. Stay tuned! :)
(photo: www.cutezatorii.ro; caricature: www.elenaciric.ro)
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