YOUTH AND POLITICS IN COMMUNIST ROMANIA (1980-1989) by Veronica Szabo Bachelor of Arts, University of Bucharest, 1999 Masters’ of Arts, University of Pittsburgh, 2003 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2012 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences This dissertation was presented by Veronica Szabo It was defended on April 30, 2012 and approved by Kathleen Blee, PhD, Distinguished Professor, Department of Sociology Mohammed Bamyeh, PhD, Professor, Department of Sociology Irina Livezeanu, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of History Dissertation Advisor: John Markoff PhD, Distinguished University Professor, Department of Sociology ii Copyright © by Veronica Szabo 2012 iii YOUTH AND POLITICS IN COMMUNIST ROMANIA (1980-1989) Veronica Szabo, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2012 My research in Romania examines the presence of politics in the everyday lives of youth in the 1980s. While most research on youth’s political opinions focuses on First World democracies, my work examines how political education took place in the tightly controlled, non-democratic context of communist Romania. I tried to understand how Romanian youth experienced politics in their everyday lives in the 1980s, under a “totalitarian-sultanistic” system. I try to answer this question by looking at three levels: the lived and remembered experience of students and their teachers, the “indoctrination” materials such textbooks and policy documents they were exposed to, and the social research from the 1980s aimed at assessing the effectiveness of their “indoctrination”. My findings show that ideological indoctrination of youth in 1980s Romania existed more as intent (Party policies) than as outcome, thus rendering the “totalitarian” frame as outdated for the analysis of everyday life. The education system and youth organizations that were supposed to do the “indoctrination work” did it an inept and ambivalent fashion, and whatever they accomplished in schools was further deconstructed in autonomous spaces of expression within family and friendship circles. Furthermore, research commissioned by youth organizations and collected in the 1980s clearly shows evidence of their failing and awareness of it among members of the regime. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEGEMENTS .......................................................................................................VIII 1.0 POLITICS OF A GENERATION.............................................................................. 1 1.1 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS........................................................ 13 1.2 RESEARCHER IDENTITY............................................................................. 18 1.3 THE STRUCTURE OF THE DISSERTATION............................................ 19 2.0 POLITICS, SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS............................................................. 22 2.1 THE ROMANIAN POLITICAL CONTEXT AND EDUCATION UNDER COMMUNISM ................................................................................................................... 22 2.2 TEACHER INTERVIEWS............................................................................... 28 2.3 SOCIAL SCIENCE TEXTBOOKS ................................................................. 42 3.0 THE EVERYDAY LIFE EXPERIENCE OF ROMANIAN YOUTH: PARENTS, FAMILY, FRIENDS................................................................................................................... 54 3.1 LENS TRANSITION: A SLOW SHIFT FROM MACRO TO MICRO ANALYSIS ON SOCIALIST EASTERN EUROPE....................................................... 54 3.2 EVERYDAY COMMUNISM IN ROMANIA ................................................ 57 3.3 THE ROMANIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM AS SEEN FROM THE STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVE........................................................................................... 66 3.3.1 Preschool...................................................................................................... 67 v 3.3.2 Grade school................................................................................................ 67 3.3.3 High school .................................................................................................. 69 3.4 REMBERING POLITICAL EDUCATION IN THE 1980S ......................... 72 3.4.1 The influence of parents ............................................................................. 74 3.4.2 The influence of teachers and youth political organizations (the Pioneers and the Union of Communist Youth) ....................................................................... 78 3.4.2.1 The Pioneer experience ...................................................................... 84 3.4.2.2 The Union of Communist Youth experience.................................... 85 4.0 YOUTH AS RESEARCH SUBJECT IN 1980 ROMANIA ................................... 88 4.1 ROMANIAN SOCIOLOGY UNDER COMMUNISM.................................. 88 4.2 THE YOUTH RESEARCH CENTER (CENTRUL DE CERCETARI PENTRU PROBLEMELE TINERETULUI) AND ITS RESEARCH ABOUT THE UNION OF COMMUNIST YOUTH................................................................................ 92 4.3 RESEARCH DATA FROM THE COMMUNIST ERA – ISSUES OF RELIABILITY ................................................................................................................... 96 4.4 THE CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON YOUTH RESEARCH DATA ...... 101 5.0 CONCLUSIONS ...................................................................................................... 117 APPENDIX A . RESEARCH TOPICS IN THE CENTER FOR YOUTH PROBLEMS REPORTS.................................................................................................................................. 126 BIBLIOGRAPHY..................................................................................................................... 133 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Dimensions of socialist patriotism................................................................................ 104 Table 2. The importance of loving ones’ country I .................................................................... 105 Table 3. The importance of loving ones’ country II ................................................................... 106 Table 4. The importance of loving ones’ country III.................................................................. 107 Table 5. The importance of protecting socialist property........................................................... 108 Table 6. The importance of being devoted to the socialist system ............................................. 108 Table 7. Evaluation of the efficacy of the Union of Communist Youth activity........................ 110 Table 8. Factors contributing to one’s cultural education........................................................... 111 Table 9. The effectiveness of propaganda among youth ............................................................ 112 Table 10. Deficiencies in the Union of Communist Youth leadership....................................... 114 Table 11. Research topics in the Center for Youth Problems Reports ....................................... 126 vii ACKNOWLEGEMENTS This dissertation is based on research supported by a National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant (0326700), two University of Pittsburgh International Studies Fund grants, a University of Pittsburgh European Union Center Summer Pre-dissertation Fellowship and a Barbara Tomczyk research grant for research in Eastern Europe. Many people have helped me along the way. First of all, I need to thank my advisor John Markoff whose incredibly broad interdisciplinary expertise inspired me to make so many interesting connections. His contagious enthusiasm and constant support kept me going. Kathleen Blee’s scholarship and her well-pointed critical comments and insights improved my work and helped me become a better scholar and researcher. Irina Livezeanu was my wonderful “Romanian oasis” in Pittsburgh, a place where I always could take comfort and find an expert guide for navigating Romanian history. Mohammed Bamyeh, Shannon Woodcock, Arpad von Klimo and the members of Modern European History Workshop at Pitt (Ana Kladnik, Narcis Tulbure, Madalina Veres, Andrew Behrendt and Adelina Stefan) provided valuable comments on my drafts. Interesting suggestions and encouragement from Maria Bucur, Padraic Kenney, Daniel Chirot and Vladimir Tismaneanu helped me in various stages of research and writing. viii Mitchell Seligson, Robert Hayden, Ilya Prizel, Jonathan Harris, Irene Frieze, Lisa Brush, and Debbie Gould read my early proposal drafts and helped me improve my research design. My fieldwork in Romania benefitted from the friendship and support of my undergraduate university advisor, Vintila Mihailescu. I also owe thanks to Marian Zulean, Doina-Olga Stefanescu, Cristian Vasile, Radu Malureanu, Sandra Bardan, and the researchers and staff at the former Center for Research on Youth (Sorin Mitulescu, Gina Anghelescu and Adrian Neacsu). I would also like to thank all former teachers, researcher and students and everyone else who was kept here anonymous for taking the time to kindly share their stories with me. Many friends and colleagues have been by my side over the years, too many for this small section, but I am particularly grateful to Veronica Lifrieri, Bianca Botea-Coulaud, Ashley