TOTALITARIANISM IN ROMANIA

VIII. THE CULT OF PERSONALITY AND DYNASTIC SOCIALISM.

• Romanian neo-Stalinism in the period 1970-1980 differs from the initial pattern from many points of view:
  
  
  • It is less violent and generalized terrorism is replaced by a selective repression and, many times - like in the other communist countries, with sending refractory elements away beyond its borders.
    
    
  • There is a cult of personality driven to the ultimate extreme
    
    
  • The setting up of a dynastic family socialism in which a very limited political elite exercises its dictatorship, first upon the party and then upon the whole country.
    
    
  • The only part of the leading caste which was not continuously purged and, on the contrary, continuously accumulated positions and responsibilities - was the presidential family. The head of the state more and more gave the impression that he trusted only his close relatives: The President's wife, three of the brothers, one of the children, a brother-in-law - were appointed to key posts, leading the state-machinery, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Council for Science and Technology, the committee for Planning, and the Youth Communist Organization.
    
    
  • Usually, dictators do not pretend to be considered intellectuals, being content with a tight control of power. The group of the Romanian dictators are an exception: The President "writes" books of philosophy, political economy, history and is called "a great thinker" of modern times; his wife became a member of the Academy of the Socialist Republic of Romania and of many other academies, Doctor of Chemical Sciences, "a scholar of world renown" an author of books published in all the languages of the world; two of President's brothers and his children followed his example, acquiring titles and books.
    
    
  • Like Stalin, Kim-il-sung or Enver Hoxha, the personality of the leader abandoned reality and assumed mythical qualities. Deification reaches delirious dimensions on 26th January when the whole country celebrated the birthday of "the beloved leader"
    
    
  • The personalization of power to the utmost must have had the most serious consequences upon the economy; "the valuable directions" generously given by "the most beloved son of the people" in all the fields, from industry and agriculture to science and arts, became the main element after 1974.
    
    
  • The difficulties of the economy, the experiments, the failures had an immediate effect upon the standing of living. Prices, once stable, had been constantly raised since 1978: first on food, then on services, public transport, clothing items, petrol, natural gas, electricity, which led to a drastic decrease in the standard of living. According to the data of the Monetary Fund, the standard of living decreased in 1983 between 19-40 per cent.
    
    
  • The party introduced "the ration cards" again in the autumn of 1981 as a result of the decrease in the standard of living. These ration cards had been cancelled in 1954. The consumption of bread, milk, cooking oil, sugar and meat was rationalized by them. Alongside this the Ceausescu's "programme of healthy eating" was published in which, on pretext that too many calories were consumed by the population, there were fixed annual quantities for citizens in the period 1982-1085. The figures in this programme make obvious one of the most tenacious obsessions of the Romanian neo-Stalinism: centralization and detailed planning of all aspects of existence.
    
    
  • The accumulation of internal crisis phenomena led in Romania, much later than in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, to the dissidence phenomenon.
    
    
  • In the realm of theory Romanian dissidence produced few texts which are worth mentioning. They consist of some letters by Paul Goma and his group (January-March 1977) and some studies regarding the Romanian communism. Here we can add some open letters as well as the texts of the religious dissidents, first of all the priest Gheorghe calciu Dumitreasa's preaching.
    
    
  • Workers' unrest must have been much more dangerous and, first of all, the surprising establishment of a free trade union in March 1979 amounting to 2,000 members. The setting up the Free Trade Union of the workers in Romania came only two years after the strike of 35,000 miners in the Jiu Valley (August 1977).
    
    
  • Like in most European states, Romanian dissidence was considerably encouraged by the more tolerant atmosphere in the post-Helsinki period (1975-1980)
    
    
  • The Security (political police department) was not confronted with difficulties in the successive repression of these isolated attempts to weaken the forces of order. However, individual dissidents succeeded in making their appearance regularly, in spite of the extremely repressive atmosphere of the 80's. Mihai Botez, mathematician and university professor, expressed sharp, technocratic criticism with regard to the economic strategies of the party leadership, pointing out their lack of realism.
    
    
  • The poet Dorin Tudoran concentrated his critical opinions upon the status of the intellectuals and their excessive passiveness.
    
    
  • Radicalization of society on the whole was the most striking phenomenon. During the last years of Ceausescu's rule there appeared even local uprisings when the peasants attacked the corn silos of the state, strikes (Brasov 1987), manifests, students "unrest and demonstrations - all of them reaching the climax in the Revolution of 1989, which irrevocably removed not only Ceausescu's communist dynasty but the whole communist order.