On May 3, 1962, the second exhibition of Czechoslovak industrial products and consumer goods opened in Bucharest. The event was organized and held in Pavilion H in Herăstrău Park (although the exhibition pavilion in Piaţa Scânteii was recently completed for the ceremony organized to mark the end of the collectivization process of agriculture in Romania). On the afternoon of May 22, 1962, the new exhibition was visited by Gheorghe Georgiou-Dej, Ion G. Maurer, Alexandra Barledianu, Chiva Stoica, Gheorghe Gaston Marin, Constanza Kracun, Ilie Verdec, ministers and several high-ranking Romanian officials. The event was attended by Jaroslav Sykora (Ambassador of the Czechoslovak Republic in Bucharest), Vaclav Bok (Director of the Exhibition), employees of the Czechoslovak Embassy, ​​members of the Central Committee of the PMR, journalists and a group of Czechoslovak pioneers (Gheorghe Georgiou-Dezh received bouquets of flowers for them).

Among the Czechoslovak products represented in Bucharest were automatic and semi-automatic lathes, calculating machines, measuring and control instruments, machinery for light industry (necessary for the production of shoes, textiles and nylon stockings), printing presses, instruments and machines, medical equipment, kitchen refrigerators , washing machines, household vacuum cleaners, hair dryers, musical instruments, glass and crystal products, bicycles, etc.

During a visit on May 22, 1962, Gheorghe Georgiou-Dej showed interest in the car model presented in the showroom: the Škoda Felicia Super, with a classic roof and serially produced since 1961. At the same time, several Škoda and Tatra heavy-duty vehicles were found on the platforms around the pavilion. Gheorghe Georgiou-Dej witnessed the test operation of the dump truck and discussed it with Gheorghe Gaston Marin. Unfortunately, we do not know the opinion of the Romanian communist politician about the entire range of “Jawa” motorcycles displayed outside the pavilion, as well as about the two aircraft that were presented at Băneasa airport: the twin-engine Let L-200. “Morava” (can carry 4 passengers to a distance of 1,700 km) and aerobatic vehicle ZLIN 326 “Master Trainer”.

On the occasion of the closing of the exhibition, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania offered a cocktail on the evening of May 28, 1962 at the Pescăruş restaurant in Herăstrău Park. The event was attended by Gheorghe Radulescu (Minister of Foreign Trade), Buyor Almashan (Minister of Mines and Electric Power), Aurel Melneshan (Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs), Ambassador Jaroslav Sikora, Vaclav Bok, high-ranking officials of various Romanian ministries, directors of some Romanian foreign trade companies, and as well as Czechoslovak specialists who participated in the creation of the exhibition and the presentation of exhibits.

On the same day, a delegation of Austrian journalists headed by the editor-in-chief of “Wiener Zeitung” Dr. Franz Stamprech left Bucharest for Vienna. The guests were accompanied by representatives of the Press Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania and Dr. Franz Irbinger, Chargé d’Affaires of the Austrian Mission in Bucharest. This visit was important for the Romanian authorities in the context that the new Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Austria to the Romanian Republic, Dr. Paul Wetzler, was to arrive in Bucharest on June 29, 1962, and in July the Bucharest authorities were to host an Austrian industrial exhibition (12-22 July) and French scientific and technical (July 16-26). The cooperative attitude of the Romanian authorities towards the Austrian journalists who visited Romania in May 1962 could have been useful in presenting those events in the Austrian press in a favorable or, at worst, neutral note for the political regime in Bucharest.

Unfortunately, the research I did in the Romanian press of the time – to find information similar to the above, but about the Austrian and French exhibitions held in Bucharest – ended in failure. Czechoslovakia, with its arms and baggage, was in the Soviet camp and was favored by the authorities in Bucharest, while Austria and France were clearly in the anti-Soviet camp and were not an ideological role model for Romania. . However, we cannot understand and explain why the first two exhibitions of Italian industrial products, held in 1961 and 1963 in Bucharest, were publicized in the Romanian press in the same way as the Czechoslovak industrial exhibitions of 1957 and 1962, although Italy was a capitalist country and, moreover, a member of NATO (unlike Austria – neutral to both military and political blocs that existed in Europe at that time: NATO and the Warsaw Pact Organization).

The cases concerning the two Italian exhibitions were not isolated. Two years ago, a French technical exhibition, organized in Bucharest by the French Committee of Fairs for Abroad, was publicized in the same way, without the presence of any French brand or product. In addition, the Bucharest press announced the opening of the exhibition on May 16, two days late, and nothing was published about its closing, although G. Georgiou-Dezh, Chiva Stoica, Alexandra Mogiorosh, Leonte Reuta, Alexandra Bjarladiana and Gheorghe Gaston Marin visited. it happened on May 19, 1960. Therefore, for now, we can only assume that the exhibition ended on May 23, 1960, when the Chamber of Commerce of the Romanian Republic offered a cocktail at the Pescăruş restaurant in Herăstrău Park, attended by Jacques Emile Paris (Minister Plenipotentiary accredited to Bucharest), “members of the French missions, representatives and specialists of French companies participating in the exhibition” on behalf of France. Such an event was organized in the same restaurant by the management of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Romanian Republic at the end of the exhibitions of foreign products coming to Bucharest.

In such conditions, the search for new sources of information was mandatory in order to find similar industrial products that were presented at the Czechoslovak, Austrian and French exhibitions in 1962. Fortunately, new sources exist, and thus we were able to learn about the presence in Bucharest of two Austrian ÖAF F745G tractors (equipped with a Tranberg refrigerated semi-trailer, respectively a semi-trailer of the platform type with an awning) and two French cars: Renault Frégate (Manoir version, luxury) and Simca 1000. In turn, the Czechoslovaks brought to Bucharest the Škoda Felicia Super, the entire model range of “Jawa” motorcycles and Škoda and Tatra heavy trucks.

The lack of information regarding the Austrian ÖAF F745G tractors has not been a news item in the Romanian press since July 1962. Two years before, Nikita Khrushchev made a state visit to Austria (June 30 – July 8) and on this occasion also arrived at the automobile factory in the Vienna district of Floridsdorf, known as “Österreichische Automobil-Fabrik”, where, among other things, tractors were manufactured ÖAF F745G. Video footage from the Soviet Prime Minister’s visit to this factory on the morning of July 1, 1960 was stored in the historical collection of the Reuters press agency (British Pathé), written information also exists in Bucharest. press.

In a speech on this occasion before the crowd gathered in the yard of the plant, Nikita Khrushchev, among other things, stated: “We have already heard about your enterprise, we know its products. Refrigerated trucks of your production can be seen in many cities of the Soviet Union. In our conditions, they declared themselves with their qualities and brought glory to your company (italics ours). Given the fact that a batch of ÖAF F745G tractors (equipped with both Tranberg refrigerated semi-trailers and canvas semi-trailers) was sent in 1959 to the Soviet Union, it can be assumed that the Soviet prime minister had in mind exactly them, and Journalists Reuters and Agerpress agencies did not delve into this topic. Various oral sources state that deliveries of “Österreichische Automobil-Fabrik” cars to the Soviet Union (including some limited series trucks with various body types) ceased in the early 1960s.

Although two ÖAF F745G tractors on display in the immediate vicinity of Pavilion H in Herăstrău Park were carefully inspected on 17 July 1962 by Aleksandr Mogiorosh, Stefan Vojtek and Aleksandr Dragic, accompanied by several high-ranking Romanian officials, the Romanian authorities did not purchase any, giving preference for models Mercedes LP 334, Škoda LIAZ 706 RTTN, etc.

On the other hand, at the opening ceremony of the French Science and Technology Exhibition (July 16, 1962), Minister Plenipotentiary Pierre Paul Buffanet stated that in 1961, Romania was the second trading partner of France among the communist states after the Soviet Union. Union, and trade between Romania and France doubled in the period 1959-1961.

In our opinion, an important role in obtaining these results was played by the unofficial visit to France in the second half of June 1959 of an economic delegation consisting of Alexandru Byarladianu, Mihai Florescu (minister of oil and chemical industry), Gheorghe Gaston Marin (president of the State Planning), Mihai Petri ( Deputy Minister of Trade) and several Romanian experts.

The speech of the Minister of Industry of France on July 21, 1962 in the exhibition pavilion on Piaţa Scânteii can be interpreted in the same sense. At that time, Michel Maurice-Bokanovski stated that “the supply of Romanian oil to France reaches about 300,000 tons per year.”

In exchange for exported crude oil and some mechanical products, the Romanian authorities were interested in acquiring from France installations, machines, equipment, semi-finished products, raw materials and other types of products. However, in the proposal he made as Minister of Foreign Trade at the celebrations on 21 July 1962, Gheorghe Redulescu did not mention the import of cars from France or French licenses for the production of such goods. The Renault Frégate and Simca 1000 models presented at the Bucharest exhibition from 16 to 26 July 1962 did not go down well with the Romanian authorities, who were probably satisfied with further purchases of car models produced in various communist states in Europe. (2317 copies in 1962 and 3934 copies the following year). Among these models was the Škoda Felicia Super, which piqued the interest of Gheorghe Georgiou-Dei on 22 May 1962 during his visit to the Czechoslovak Industrial Goods and Consumer Goods Exhibition.

A year later, representatives of the FIAT company presented in Bucharest, in turn, their own line of car models during the second exhibition of Italian industrial products, organized in Pavilion H in Herastrau Park (July 6-15, 1963): city bus FIAT 410 Cansa, truck and passenger cars FIAT 500 D “Wagon”, FIAT 600 D, FIAT 1100 D, FIAT 1500 (one in the form of a mobile model, divided into two parts to allow visitors to see the interior of the car and, separately, the engine mounted on the chassis) and FIAT 1800.

The presence of Italian cars in Bucharest was not news to the Romanian public. The first exhibition of Italian industrial products, organized in Pavilion H in Herastrau Park (July 18-28, 1961), featured cars, road construction machinery and tractors for various purposes, and the relevant information was even disseminated through the Bucharest mass media. I have not yet found any explanation as to why the first and second exhibition of Italian industrial products were made public, including by specifying the products on display, but in July 1960 and July 1962 absolutely nothing was published in the Bucharest press about the products that Romanians could see them at French and Austrian exhibitions. _

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