Every year, on the occasion of Christmas or Easter, at least one commercial television, especially Romanian television and reality plus organizes a talk show, the purpose of which is sensational revelations about how Elena and Nicolae Ceausescu spent the holidays.

In this sense, pseudo-historians, in fact simple memorialists, are called to the studio, or all kinds of more or less reliable witnesses are found who, as we are told, served or were in close relations with those who served at the court of former dictators. Year after year, they put the same hot soup on the table, that is, on the TV screens, because they do nothing, but they assure, even swear, that Elena and Nicolae Ceausescu did not forget the two great religious holidays that they celebrated. , who ate traditional dishes, etc. Security and the Army have been whitewashed over time, why not humanize dictators? In context, I should note the release of the show on Thursday, December 21st Romanian file broadcast on TVR 1, in which General Catalin Ranko Pitsu, directed by Tudor Giurgiu, author of an exceptional film Freedomdirector Kornel Mihalake and TV producer Rezvan Butaru boldly spoke about not only one, as you know, Executioner from Sibiu¸ but also about the participation of the army.

The so-called exposés, when they are not named in television programs for lack of anything better, have the perverse purpose of proceeding to “humanize” the rulers of the past.

In fact, they only manage to demonstrate how great the distance was between word and deed, between the ruling class and the ruled, how lying and schizoid communism itself was. In a country where a kind of conspiracy of silence was created around the biggest Christian holidays, where the words Easter and Christmas were almost forbidden, where they could never be heard on the radio or television, but not even read in the controlled media. party and the heavy censorship by it and its people, it was surprising to say the least that the Communist leaders saw fit to celebrate them with a traditional meal. And not in any way, but with piety and moderation, as the above-mentioned mourners hasten to assure. At the same time, ordinary people were asked to come to work on those days, when there were no stores for the holiday, where basic food products were purchased mainly thanks to the shadow economy, which in the 80s became stronger than the official one. savings, where the houses were as cold and dark as on other days.

Would it be similar in all the other countries of Eastern Europe that became communist at the will of Moscow, approved, approved and confirmed by international treaties, starting with Yalta? Not at all, despite the fact that everywhere atheism has become state policy.

The most liberal attitude was recorded in countries whose citizens were mainly Catholics, that is, where the Church, despite all the vicissitudes of fate, preserved its independence. In which the higher hierarchs not only bowed their heads and did not approve, but even applauded and congratulated with telegrams the reckless actions of the leaders, including the planned demolition of religious buildings. In which attacks on national memory and faith became programmatic elements.

Even in those somewhat freer countries, things were not like that. In Poland and Hungary, for example, December 25 and 26 were free, they could release their people if they wanted to on December 24, but this day had to be, as they say, “restored.” Main state publications, Tribune Ludu and Army newspaper in Poland, Népszabadság in Hungary, they not only did not forbid mentioning Christmas or Easter, but also congratulated their readers on these holidays and wished them a pleasant rest. Editorial articles were published on the pages of these newspapers, which spoke, perhaps, not so much about the religious significance, but about the symbolism and moral significance of the holidays in question, articles were inserted in which specific traditions and customs were mentioned, etc.

Radio and television broadcast relevant programs, films and plays on religious themes, official mass media broadcast services live. In Czechoslovakia, the authorities were somewhat more restrained, the censorship stricter, but the first two days of Easter or Christmas were definitely days off. In the frozen Germany, the so-called democratic, Erich Honecker and omnipotence stay Christmas was always free.

In Yugoslavia, given the heterogeneous composition of the country’s population and peoples, there were no uniform regulations, but regional authorities had the right to take measures and make decisions in accordance with the ethnic composition, religion and belief of citizens. Easter and Christmas bazaars or fairs were held everywhere.

There were great exceptions – how else?-Romania and Bulgaria. Countries where from 1945 to 1989 real de-Stalinization was never carried out. Countries whose leaders, whether named Gheorghe Georgiou-Dezh, Nicolae Ceausescu or Todor Zhivkov, were at least as Stalinist as Stalin, even more willing to proclaim their atheism than Nikita Khrushchev or Leonid Brezhnev, are even more attached to the special services than Yuriy. Andropov, former head of the KGB. This association between the biggest Romanian and Bulgarian communists was to some extent strange, to some extent relevant to the deeply Bolshevisted nature of the regimes in the two countries.

Their current actions only proved that independence without freedom means nothing.

Until the last moment of his political career, Todor Zhivkov proclaimed his loyalty to Moscow. During the long decades that he led Bulgaria, he never drew any signs of independence, of rebellion against the oppressive political, ideological and military tutelage of Moscow. Instead, starting in April 1964, Romanian communist leaders Dezh or Ceaușescu repeatedly declared their independence from Moscow, but this independence was not followed by real liberalization that the population felt. Their current actions only proved that independence without freedom means absolutely nothing. That the aggressive nationalism practiced by both Sofia, which carried out the Bulgarianization of the Turkish minority, and Bucharest, have nothing to do with national and traditional values, nor with true spirituality. _Read the entire article and comment on it on Contributors.ro