Remembering Communism: Private and Public Recollections of Lived Experiences in Southeast Europe

542 Pages·2014·25.49 MB·English

by  Maria Todorova, Augusta Dimou, Stefan Troebst (eds.)

EDITED BY
MARIA TODOROVA, AUGUSTA DIMOU
AND STEFAN TROEBST
REMEMBER
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Private
and Public
Recollections
C E U PRESS
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REMEMBERING
COMMUNISM
Private and Public Recollections of Lived
Experience in Southeast Europe
Edited by
Maria Todorova, Augusta Dimou,
and Stefan Troebst
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CEU P R E S S
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Central European University Press
Budapest-New York
© 2014 Maria Todorova, Augusta Dimou, and Stefan T roebst
Published in 2014 by
Central European University Press
An imprint of the
Central European University Limited Liability Company
Nador utca 11, H-1051 Budapest, Hungary
Tel: [phone] or 327-3000
Fax: [phone]
E-mail:
Contents
List of figures ix
Acknowledgements xi
1. Introduction: Similar Trajectories, Different Memories
Maria To doro va 1
PART I. THE STATE OF THE ART OF EASTERN EUROPEAN
REMEMBRANCE
2. Experts with a Cause: A Future for GDR History beyond Memory
Governance and Ostalgie in Unified Germany
Thomas Lindenberger 29
3. The Canon of Remembering Romanian Communism: From
Autobiographical Recollections to Collective Representations
Cristina Petrescu and Dragoq Petrescu 43
4. How Is Communism Remembered in Bulgaria? Research, Literature,
Projects
Iskra Baeva and Petya Kabakchieva 71
5. The Memory of Communism in Poland
Izabella Main 97
6. Remembering Dictatorship: Eastern and Southern Europe Compared
Stefan Troebst 119
PART II. THINKING THROUGH THINGS: POPULAR CULTURE
AND THE EVERYDAY
7. Communism Reloaded
Milla Mineva 155
8. Daily Life and Constraints in Communist Romania in the Late 1980s:
From the Semiotics of Food to the Semiotics of Power
Smaranda Vultur 175
VI Contents
9. '‘Forbidden Images”? Visual Memories of Romanian Communism
Before and After 1989
Simina Badica 201
10. Remembering the Private Display of Decorative Things under
Communism
Audi Mihalache 217
PART III. MEMORIES OF SOCIALIST CHILDHOOD
11. "Loan Memory”: Communism and the Youngest Generation
A Ibenci Hranova 233
12. Talking Memories of the Socialist Age: School, Childhood, Regime
Catalina Mihalache 251
13. Within (and Without) the “Stem Cell” of Socialist Society
Anny Kirilova 267
PART IV. WHAT WAS SOCIALIST LABOR?
14. Remembering Communism: Field Studies in Pernik, 1960-1964
Tania Boneva 285
15. "Remembering the Old City, Building a New One”: The Plural
Memories of a Multiethnic City
Tamds Lonhart and Virgiliu Taran 307
16. Workers in the Workers' State: Industrialization. Labor, and
Everyday Life in the Industrial City' of Rovinari
Corina Cimpoieru 325
17. "We Build for Our Country !” Visual Memories about the Brigadier
Movement
Tsvetana Manova 343
PART V. THE UNFADING PROBLEM OF THE SECRET POLICE
18. How Post-1989 Bulgarian Society' Perceives the Role of the State
Security' Service
Iskra Baeva 367
19. The Afterlife of the Securitatc: On Moral Correctness in
Postcommunist Romania
Cristina Petrescu 385
20. Daily Life And Surv eillance in the 1970s and 1980s
Smaranda Vultar 417
Contents VI1
PART VI. THE “CULTURAL FRONT” THEN AND NOW
21. From Memory to Canon: How Do Bulgarian Historians Remember
Communism?
Liliana Deyanova 439
22. Theater Artists and the Bulgarian Authorities in the 1960s: Memories
of Conflicts, Conflict of Memories
Natalia Hristova 459
23. Bulgarian Intellectuals Remember Communist Culture
Vasil Markov A ll
24. “By Their Memoirs You Shall Know Them”: Ivan and Petko
Venedikov about Themselves and about Communism
Iliana Marcheva 495
25. Cum Ira et Studio: Visualizing the Recent Past
Vania Stoyanova 513
PART VII. REMEMBERING EXTRAORDINARY EVENTS AND THE
“SYSTEM”
26. The Revolution of 1989 and the Rashomon Effect: Recollections of
the Collapse of Communism in Romania
Drago§ Petrescu 533
27. Remembrance of Communism on the Former Day of Socialist
Victory: The 9th of September in Ritual Ceremonies of Post-1989
Bulgaria
Nikolai Vukov 549
28. Remembering the “Revival Process'" in Post-1989 Bulgaria
Evgeni a Kalinova 567
29. Websites of Memory-: In Search of the Forgotten Past
Cristina Petrescu 595
List of Contributors 615
Index 617
Copyrighted material
List of figures
Figure 16.1. A front-ranking group of workers from the quarry of
Rovinari 325
Figure 16.2. Geographical mobility of workers arriving in Rovinari 333
Figure 17.1. A youth brigade from Pcrnik aids local agriculture in the
village of Reianovtsi 346
Figure 17.2. Volunteer brigade lays water mains for the Pernik-Kalkas 347
conduit
Figure 17.3. The district champion labor culture brigade that received the
champion's flag personally from Georgi Dimitrov 349
Figure 17.4. A rally of the women’s association in Pcrnik. 1945 349
Figure 17.5. Members of the youth construction brigade headquarters for
the Pernik-Voluiak railroad and the leader of the priests' band. The
autumn of 1947 351
Figure 17.6. Brigadiers from Studena village at the Dimitrovi Koshari
construction site. The Pernik-Voluiak railroad, October 1947 352
Figure 17.7. Albanian and Bulgarian brigadiers heading for brigadier
celebrations at the city park in Pcrnik, 1947 354
Figure 17.8. All-town rally on Miner’s Day, 1953 355
Figure 17.9. High school students on an agricultural brigade, 1968 359
Figure 17.10. “We Build for Our Country”—the brigadier slogan and
symbol, 1975 360
Copyrighted material
Acknowledgements
The editors would like to acknowledge, with appreciation and gratitude, the
generous support of the VolkswagenStiftung, which allowed this project to be
launched and to be completed successfully. We would also like to thank the
Social Science Research Council in New York for the seed money to begin
exploring this problematic. At different stages of the project, the following insti­
tutions have kindly hosted our conferences and workshops and have helped with
the administering of the project: The University of Leipzig, the Georg-Eckert-
Institute for Textbook Research in Braunschweig, the University of Sofia, the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the New Europe College in Bucha­
rest, the Museum of the Romanian Peasant in Bucharest, the Wissenschaftskol-
leg in Berlin, and the Center for Advanced Study in Sofia. We also wish to ac­
knowledge the invaluable work of Vencta Ivanova, Peter Carrier, and Madlcn
Benthin, who helped us put together a coherent volume.