„Munca cu scrisorile“. Ficţiuni propagandistice şi realităţi cotidiene, 1965-1980
„Working with letters“. Propagandistic fictions and everyday realities, 1965-1980

Summary/Abstract: In the first years of his rule, Ceausescu managed to build a social solidarity around the party through political rehabilitations, public condemnation of the invasion of Czechoslovakia and direct involvement of the party in solving the problems of the common people (welfare, houses, and stable jobs). Encouraged to write by press campaigns as well as official declarations, the ordinary citizen of the seventies and eighties felt safe under the protection of the state/leader/party. Some of them use the elogious terms spread by the propaganda apparatus and voluntarily associate themselves with support for the activities of the party and the general secretary. People identify unconditionally with the leader’s actions, supported and approved of them, and are full of gratitude for living in, or preparing to live in, a golden age. The psychology of adherence can be explained by the social changes and the effects of modernisation (urbanisation, industrialisation, electrification) which Romanian society benefited from. The deliberate hiding of daily realties and of generalised shortages are part of respecting the existing social contract between society and regime. These letters are the result of personal initiatives, they express voluntary servitude and illustrate the accommodation of the ordinary citizen with the rules imposed by the party.

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