Şantierele tineretului: de la iluzia voluntarismului patriotic la munca forţată
The youth national building sites: from the illusion patriotic voluntarism to forced labor

Summary/Abstract: Using open historical sources and archival documents, this article attempts to clarify the role which the young generation played in the long-term economic plans of the communist regime. From this perspective, the education of the young generation in the cult of labor became a priority for the regime’s ideologues. This was achieved through amending the labor laws, imposing the obligation of patriotic labor, ideological pressures, and administrative constraints. Work-to-work education has become the central theme of official narratives relating to the youth. Reopening the youth national building sites and the revival of the mythology of the brigadier movement responded to the economic needs of the regime which was used for free the youth workforce.At the beginning of the 70s, the youth building sites were the constitutive part of the systematization program which involved the participation of youth in the construction of irrigations system, railways, schools, sports fields, and last but not least the Danube-Black Sea Canal. In the regime’s rhetoric, voluntary labor has become synonymous with patriotic duty. Behind the voluntary labor was actually hidden a whole system of constraints and punishments. The refusal to fulfill the patriotic duties, which multiplied alongside the economic crises of the regime, was sanctioned as a disciplinary violation and disrespect for socialist norms. The entire country, from the youngest to the oldest, was forced to participate in various works for the benefit of the communist state. The propagandistic revival of the spirit of the brigadier movement from the 50s aimed to cultivate the socialist austerity and the uniforming norms, both contained in the empty formula of patriotic duty.

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