site.btaMuseum of Communism Opens in Bucharest

The “Somewhere in Communism” Museum opened its doors on July 26. It is the only one of its kind in Bucharest, according to its creators Catalina Andries and Gabriel Boga. Here, the exhibits are not behind glass cases, everything can be touched and photographed.

"The museum has four rooms that are thematically divided. In the first room you will find information about the 1950s and 1960s, a time of political arrests, repression, confiscation of land and landed property, when the Securitate strictly maintained order. The second room presents the period from 1965-1989, which Nicolae Ceausescu called the "golden age". This was a time of industrial investment, and international loans were drawn. The other two rooms recreate a typical living room and kitchen of the communist time," Andries told BTA.

Work on the museum began in January, and a whole team of people helped with the project.

"Each object tells a story. Don't think that we took everything at once from one house. Each object has a different origin, but we wanted to recreate the atmosphere, the environment in which people lived during communism, under Ceausescu," explains Julia Ursulescu, one of the younger faces of the project.

The walls of the rooms are covered with many archival photos, personal stories and selected information that tells us about the way of life of Romanians.

In the 1970s, the Romanian way of life was not much different than in other countries. Because of the loans taken out by Ceausescu, industry developed and this improved the quality of life. There was no shortage of foodstuffs. Everything changed abruptly in the early 1980s. The state came up with a rule that each person needed a maximum of 2,700 calories. Based on this maximum, the allowed amounts of food were calculated. In 1984 they were as follows: 39 kg of meat, 78 litres of milk and 166 kg of vegetables per year. One could buy 1 litre of oil and 1 kg of sugar per month, only in certain shops, against coupons. Attempting to stock up on food was punishable. 

"This era has left its mark on our DNA and defines the way many of us behave today. But most young people have no real idea of that time because their parents were young and often idealised that time. Many of them have forgotten the bad things - that we had nothing to eat for example. And the young absorb this distorted image. There is a whole generation that believes it was better then. This provoked us to make the museum so that people would realise the truth. It's also aimed at foreign tourists, those who don't know that part of history. Many Western countries didn't have communism and don't realize what it means for us," Andries adds.