In many ways it was a far more progressive society despite the shortages of consumer goods and services, and partly thanks to the totalitarian control from the state. What was once a largely agrarian and rural country like Bulgaria was transformed into a modern industrial society for a few decades. The newly-born social class of "scientific-technical intelligentsia" was, although not rich in terms of wealth and property, hugely respected in society. You had electrical and computer engineers whose fathers were farmers. Cultural life was also raised to a new level, as ordinary working-class people started attending operas and theaters. Small children were encouraged to play classical instruments.
The whole system collapsed under its feet because politically, it was unable to represent the interests of these newly-born classes and that led to its erosion.
What happened in Romania is that we ended up pretty isolated from the other Warsaw Pact countries due to Ceausescu’s flirting with the US. We never liked the Soviets for various reasons, most notably for their occupation of Basarabia and for the harsh war reparations that followed WWII, we didn’t like them during Gheorghiu Dej, or during Ceausescu and we suffered for it.
Also Ceausescu decided to repay all the foreign debt we had so extreme austerity measures were implemented.
So in the 80s we didn’t suffer from a mere shortage of products or services, oh no, the population was actually freezing in the winter and starving.
Interestingly it turned out the US’s CIA saw the uprising coming a few years before it happened. We found out about it from some declassified documents (can’t find the link). That our leaders could not see it coming, but the CIA did, shows how broken our leadership was (a phenomenon of communism is that nobody wants to report bad news so everyone in the chain of command ends up lying).
Also implied but not explicitly mentioned above is that we had a secret police agency that was among the most brutal in the world.
Communism as implemented in Eastern Europe was progressive only on paper.
In Romania we had churches and monasteries demolished and priests accused of being legionaries (former fascist / fat-right movement) and taken to political camps. After beaten into submission, the Orthodox Church was then used for controlling the population.
And minorities were treated pretty badly. Being a homosexual under Ceausescu was a crime for example and handicapped children were locked away in special homes under inhuman conditions, out of the public’s eye.
Truth is freedom of speech is a basic human right that should be absolute. Without it communists have been progressive only on paper, but not in fact. You cannot have a progressive society without freedom of speech. And there’s no communist state that can claim otherwise, not China, not any other communist state that’s still standing.
N.B. these days I am left-leaning on social issues, however freedom of speech is where I always draw the line, as all censorship is evil and a slippery slope, even when done for righteous reasons; although I do tolerate censorship on private property, but that’s another discussion.
I was born in Romania in ‘82 and was 7 when communism fell. Yet I can remember vividly that ...
We were suffering of cold in winter, as the centralized heat was on and off, we had regular electricity blackouts and my parents, both with university degrees, had jobs and working their asses off on lower salaries than factory workers and couldn’t find or afford a babysitter so at 4 years old I was left alone at home, during blackouts so in the dark at around 19:00 o’clock too.
In those days people relied on families in such situations of course, grandparents making the best babysitters, however the communists forcibly moved a lot of people to the cities and distributed people where they were supposedly needed, so a lot of families were uprooted and split.
I also remember my parents listening to Radio Free Europe, with the volume barely audible, in order for the neighbors to not hear us. Paranoia of “informants” was at an all time high and any resistance and conflicting opinions were long since crushed.
You know, “1948” the book is actually boring me, compared to what actually happened in real life. Turns out that in order to do massive surveillance of the population you don’t need technology at all, as you can recruit a massive army of informants that can listen and send regular reports on their neighbors for free. And it doesn’t need to be efficient either, all that matters is for paranoia to set in, which will ensure compliance of the population.
My father was a party member of course, you had to be insane to not be one. But in private he hated communists with all his heart, just like his father before him; my grandfather who fought in WWII and then had his land confiscated.
The communists were responsible for raising the standards of living somewhat, compared with the period between the two world wars, plus there’s this myth around that everyone had a roof over his head back then; which is why some old people feel nostalgic. It was all in a global context of economic growth of course, progress being inevitable.
But people remembering miniskirts were in a position of privilege. Yes, we had happy moments and life went on, but at least during the eighties there was this constant tension and hunger that you could feel, so thick that you could almost cut it with a knife.
Then the revolution came and we killed our dictators. Unfortunately people are dumb sheep and power was grabbed by former communists. We are far better off today, we have a better quality of life, we are part of the EU, but unfortunately this wave of populism has hit us as well and the ruling administration seems determined to destroy all progress we’ve made in the last 28 years. And people being stupid, still vote for them, just like they were cheering during our former communist congresses. Sometimes my cynicism takes over and I’m thinking that we deserve whatever is coming.