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Daily Life Under Communism

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Daily Life Under Communism SEA - Practical Application of Science Volume II, Issue 1 (3) / 2014 Rada Cristina IRIMIE, The Doctoral School The European Paradigm, Faculty of European Studies, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania DAILY LIFE UNDER Theoretical COMMUNISM. Article. THE CASE OF ROMANIA Case Study Keywords Communism Eastern Europe Repression Daily life Legacies Romania JEL classification N44 Abstract After the Second World War, Central and Eastern Europe was discovering the communist influence. The communist ideology changed the political regimes of the countries from the region, but most important it changed the society and the mentality of the people living in Central and Eastern Europe. The countries experienced censorship, lack of private property, repression, secret police abuse, religious bans, poverty, food rationalization, lack of privacy, massive industrialization and many other abuses which are typical for a totalitarian regime. This article focuses on daily life aspects during communist Romania, because it is one of the most revealing cases of the post-communist countries. Romania had one of the most abusive and obsolete communist regime. The methodological approach is based on the case study method, which will be validated with empirical data. This article will also emphasize the legacies of the totalitarian recent past over the contemporary evolution of the Central and Eastern European societies, with an accent on the Romanian case. 266 SEA - Practical Application of Science Volume II, Issue 1 (3) / 2014 Introduction methods. Special attention will be given to During the second half of the 20th the relationship between state and society, century, the political events in the and between everyday life and political countries of Europe took a dramatic pace. theory. Our scope is to provide an In the summer of 1944, the Red Army empirical inquiry that studies the historical entered Eastern Europe in its westward phenomenon of communism within its push towards Berlin. The Soviets freed real-life context, using individual citizen these territories from the Nazis, but did not experiences. leave them behind. On the contrary, taking In our study, we will first examine the help of local communists, they some propositions of classical theories as implemented the communist system they apply to the history of communism. patterned on the Soviet model. In the For this purpose, we are going to revisit countries that the Red Army liberated, the theoritical approaches of nationalism, communist-dominated governments took marxism and rational choice, which over the power. They made sure that they provide us with the conceptual perspective established control over the army, set up a of the historical events to follow. secret police force and hunt their Nationalism, on one hand, emerged as a opponents. By 1949, all the governments modern phenomenon in the aftermath of of Eastern Europe, except Yugoslavia, the French Revolution and was regarded were strict Stalinist regimes. as "the existence of symbols and beliefs Romania, initially part of the which are either propagated by elite former Soviet Bloc, in the 1950s asserted groups, or held by many of the members of progressive independence from the Soviet regional, ethnic, or linguistic categories of Union and established a “national” path to a population and which imply a Communism. The communist government community between them" (Giddens, went through different phases before its 1981). Marxism, on the other hand, early collapse in the late 1980s. What is it so suggested the inescapability of a special about the Romania’s case? For communist society, which would emerge most of the countries, communism when economic forces caused the class represented no more than a political war; marxist ideas soon came to rule left- movement. Romanian people saw wing thought and went forward under the communism as a way of life, for some it name of socialism. Lastly, the was their archenemy, for others it is still development of the rational choice that enormous force that have passed theoryadvocated the actions taken by through Romania and affected their rational individual decision-makers can relatives, their models, their principles. All interact in different ways to generate stable in all, communism is a page of history that collective outcomes. To the extent that our has drastically influenced the lives of effort is successful, this study will give us many Romaniancitizens. the opportunity to make comparisons, to How was communism perceived find a better fit between theory and facts by the average Romanian citizen? What and to reach to a conclusion that was the daily life of Romanians during this anticipates future political systems. time in history? By focusing on the Recent studies showed that nearly country of Romania, this article will 25 percent of the young Romanian people address the key aspects of the daily life as surveyed say they have never discussed experienced by its citizens. A case study as the communist period in Romania in a method of research will facilitate our school (Bran, 2012). All post-communist understanding on communism through real societies faced major problems in life situations and it can provide the basis confronting their traumatic past. An for the application of ideas and further efficient democracy, though, cannot be 267 SEA - Practical Application of Science Volume II, Issue 1 (3) / 2014 based on lies, denial, and amnesia. Revolutionary communism Romania’s exit from communism has Since 1917 and the Bolshevik resulted in a hybrid quasi-democratic Revolution that emerged in the start of the regime, with former communists previous century, a new socioeconomic maintaining influential positions and system featured the world development opposing a genuine break with the past driven by radical political forces. “The (Tismăneanu, 2008). This article aims to lines dividing Mensheviks from define experiences and characteristics of Bolsheviks, Leninists from social communism in Romania, from the daily democrats, Stalinists from Trotskyists, reality to people’s obsessions, aided by anarchists from statists, theorists of ‘state historical narratives. The content of this capitalism’ from theorists of ‘bureaucratic article also aims to offer examples of the collectivism’, Maoists or anti-Maoists, past that will help make conslusions for Eurocommunists from traditional the future. Ultimately, reinventing the past communists, have in large measure been is an easy way to handle the future. drawn according to whether the Soviet Union, and the later system of East Bloc Theoretical Approaches to Social states, were seen as model or as an anti- Development model, and if the latter, of what kind” Trying to chart the philosophical (Callinicos, 1990). Accordingly, the trends developed in Eastern Europe from political transformations that went after the the beginning of the 20th century will help following decades, derived from, but also us understand the framework within which challenged the left theory. It is vital here to major political changes have occurred. We mention that, regardless any intellectual have chosen to provide an analysis of these differences - and there were many - all socioeconomic developments through the philosophical diversities found common theories of Social Marxism, the ground and mutual heritage in Marxism. It Nationalism and Rational Choice theories. is not an overstatement to say that one’s This will help us recognize, on a historical analysis of the Eastern Bloc, and the sequence, the dynamics that enabled the corresponding political events, lay on the embracement of the Romanian communist analysis of Marxist socialism. The revolution, the inherent nationalist trends bases of social Marxism lay in Karl among people that lead to its downfall, as Marx’s most widely read work, the well as the necessity for modernisation and Communist Manifesto, despite the fact that social diversity of the society. Social following works of the philosopher Marxism offers a system of analysis based provide a better and more detailed on social classes, which is a consistent understanding to his social thought. way to analyse the Romanian society. Published in 1848, it offers the theoretical Nationalism provides us with theoretical framework of a society with i.e. tools to approach issues such as market explanations of how society works, how freedom and consumer needs. At last, the the form of the productive system is Rational Choice theory puts the individual determinant to all aspects of the society, he in the spotlight. All of the above need to draws the relations between the productive be addressed in our case study. From the forces of the capitalist system and East European Marxist philosophy, introduces the discussion about social through Nationalism to Rational Choice, struggle of the classes (Wolff, 2011). an important number of European states Finally, it envisages the end of world as experienced a great range of social and became known, when the working classes economic changes that influenced their unite in a communist revolution that will lives and marked their national identity. eradicate the ruling classes and eliminate the class system of the society: "Let the 268 SEA - Practical Application of Science Volume II, Issue 1 (3) / 2014 ruling classes tremble at a Communistic The wave of national restorations revolution. The proletarians have nothing followed the gradual collapse of to lose but their chains. WORKING MEN communist regimes in the late 1980s and OF ALL COUNTRIES,
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