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A photograph came across my desk depicting an arch of
triumph of sorts which declared 1965-1985 “The Ceausescu Epoch – The Golden
Epoch of Romania.”
If you ask any Romanian, this twenty-year period was one of
the most tyrannical and oppressive regimes in its known history. It was a
painful period of dark and repressive communist dictatorship maintained and characterized
by brute force, fear, mental control, and constant food rationing.
The young pioneers, communists in training, “soimii patriei”
(The Country’s Eagles), euphemistically “named” by Ceausescu himself, adopted
the motto “Tot inainte,” (Ever Forward). A pioneer’s guide indoctrinated
them how to behave as young communists. It seems that both communists and
Socialist Democrat lefties are very fond of pathetic euphemisms which
misrepresent reality.
On any given day the self-described Democrat Socialist left is
trampling on the opposition’s rights, turning us into a collective guy facing a
communist rolling tank in Tiananmen Square.
The two communist run television channels broadcast from 1
p.m. to 10:30 p.m. daily with a heavy dose of political indoctrination via carefully
crafted and chosen entertainment and documentaries such as “The works of Comrade
Ceausescu – Huge horizons opened for the revolutionary theory and practice,”
the unfailing and tireless activity devoted to increasing the communist party
role in society, “Science and Scientific Socialism as remarkable forces of
production,” “We live decades of grandiose fulfillments,” choreographed literary-musical
production aimed at bamboozling the proletariat into blind submission, and “From
the big book of communism, the patriotic revolutionary responsibility of youth
in Romania’s future in the Ceausescu Epoch,” more indoctrination for the generation
of Nicolae Ceausescu’s Epoch, euphemistically and deceptively named “the generation
of the revolutionary spirit and actions.”
In the painful daily reality, the proletariat and their children
were forced to sing, march, and praise the dear leader, and the population in
general was starved on a meager diet and bombarded with a false sense of wellbeing
and daily doses of deviously crafted lies.
The communist subjects of all ages were forced to “recognize,
apply, and respect the principles and norms of the labor and life of
communists, of the ethic and equity of socialism – order, discipline,
responsibility, and liability in all activities.”
Western visitors commented on how beautiful Romanian women
were, thin as twigs but foreign guests did not understand the real reason for
this forced thinness – the lack of food, the rationing of food via stamped
cards, the endless daily lines, and the Communist Party prescribed caloric
rations.
“The Program of Scientific Nutrition” decreed in July 1982 that
men should have 37 g of protein and women 29 g of protein per day. The
recommended caloric intake based on the type of activity - light, medium, forte,
and exceptional - ranged from 2,000 to 2,700 calories for women and 2,700
to 4,000 for men. It seemed like a reasonable schedule except for the fact that
most people would have been hard-pressed to find much food to deliver enough
protein and nutrition. The obvious thinness of the population bore testimony to
the lack of food. https://adevarul.ro/locale/ploiesti/programul-alimentatie-stiintifica-populatiei-comunism-trebuia-manance-cantareasca-persoana-1_57ac8f245ab6550cb8ab50f6/index.html
The “recommended” food intake was even lower for the rural population
and their rationing cards entitled them to less food. If a villager wanted to
raise a pig for his family’s use, he had to raise another one and donate it to
the state.
People were not allowed to buy food anywhere else except in
the area in which they lived. In other words, the rationing cards were valid
only in one’s neighborhood stores.
The light activity category was comprised of office
workers and housewives who owned stoves and other electric appliances.
The medium activity referred to workers in the light
industry, men in construction industry, agriculture, students, and the military.
The forte activity category included miners, workers
in the heavy industry, women in agriculture, soldiers in the field, dancers,
and athletes.
The exceptional activity category encompassed metal
workers, workers in abattoirs and butcher shops, dock workers in ports, and
women in construction. https://cultural.bzi.ro/programul-de-alimentatie-stiintifica-a-populatiei-elena-ceausescu-daca-vor-sa-manance-mai-mult-riscul-este-al-lor-7053
Monthly rations of food for the average adult included:
-
300 g of daily bread
-
Chicken (1 kg)
-
Beef or pork (500 g); in case of severe food shortages,
the party guidelines suggested buying canned meat from the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia.
-
Cheese (500 g every three months)
-
Butter (100 g)
-
Sugar (1 kg)
-
Corn meal (1 kg)
-
Flour (1 kg every three months)
-
Eggs (8-12)
Workers involved in harder labor were entitled to extra 300
g of basic foods listed every month. Their families had to stand in line for
the extra food, if available, and present extra rationing coupons issued to them
by the state.
Depending on the year and the type of shortages, usually
caused by irrational exportation of food to foreign countries in exchange for
hard currency and bad centralized planning by communist ideologues who had no
idea how to run any economy, rationing cards were issued for shoes, clothing,
food like flour, beans, cooking oil, sugar, rice, and other necessities.
Ceausescu’s Golden epoch of failed socialist rule by the
Communist Party was nothing but a tarnished and empty goblet of promises and lies
for the hapless proletariat who barely survived on an equal pay survival level
that would have shocked even other Stalinist satellite countries.
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