Quality of Family Life during the Communist Regime in Romania

Quality of Family Life during the Communist Regime in Romania S. Ahmet SALGUR, PhD University of South East Europe - Lumina Bucharest, Romania Abstract: Social life and social structure of Romania were changed forcefully by the communist system which aimed an egalitarian society having no class among the parts of society. Family was one of the first social institutions affected as a result of these changes. Policy, structure, importance and quality of life of the family changed during all these years. To understand how the quality of life of a Romanian family was during the Communist Regime, it is important to know other social conditions and welfare of the society such as housing, health care, education and social life. In this paper, I wanted to underline some important points about the quality of family life during the communist regime in Romania. Keywords: Romania, family, quality of life, housing, health care, education, social life, communist regime 1. An Overview of Romania Before 1989 The communist regime affected the history of Romania and this influence can still be observed today`s Romania from social life to education to politics and economy. In this part, I will underline some important points that give some important clues to understand the communist regime in Romania. There was a complete control of the government on all the parts of social during communism. In the first years of communist system, Romania performed incredible social and economic development. The people were satisfied economic and social aspects. As a result of these developments, Romania began to reach out to the more developed the Western European countries. However, country started to be isolated from the rest of the world during the 1970s and the situation continued until the revolution in 1989. During this isolation process, the economic and social policies made worse the quality of life conditions of the people (Denslow, n.d.) Moreover, economic crises during this period caused a sharp decrease in the social conditions and services. Especially in 1980s, expenditures for housing, health-care, education, culture and science reduced sharply and social welfare of the people decreased to the level of 1 20 1940s. Now I will give more details to understand welfare problems that affected the quality of life of people during the communist period: Housing, Health Care, Education and Social Life 1.1. Housing Problem Housing problem is an important issue for the societies. If there is a shortage of housing in a society, some serious social problems that affect the quality of life could appear. For this reason, housing was very important in the early years of the communist state. The communism as a new political and economical system established its own housing structure. Moreover, industrialization policy of the state caused a high increase in the population of urban areas in a very short time. For example, approximately 14.000 flats were built per year to accommodate more than 150.000 new comers to the cities for working in factories between 1951 and 1955. The number flats that were built by the state reached about 26.000 per year between 1956 and 1960. This number was around 45.000 new urban flats per year in 1960s. In these years, the state had to build new blocks to solve housing problem for around 200.000 new people from rural areas to urban areas (Chirot, 1978: 474). As a result of these new policies, the percentage of the population living in urban areas increased from 23.4 to 53 percent between 1948 and 1989. However, this rapid increasing the population caused some housing problems starting from the end of 1970s, and also forced the housing sector to construct new blocks of flats. New blocks were built in the free lands between old blocks. These new blocks were the second or third quality of the blocks (Pasztor & Peter, 2009). This quick increase the number of blocks made housing unequal and insufficient in terms of quality and supply. Although new blocks of flats were being constructed by the state, housing problem could not be solved never. Many workers were living in hostels with their families. As a result of this situation, living space per person decreased about ten square meters. Blocks of flats built by the government were constructed by prefabricated elements which provided very poor living conditions with less comfortableness. 1.2. Health Care The communist state provided the health services free of charge to all citizens. For this reason during, the state increased substantially public health investments and expenditures. As result of this policy, the number of physicians increased parallel with the number of bed 2 21 capacities of hospitals. These changes could be observed if the conditions of 1950s were compared to the conditions of 1970s. In this time interval, there were also very impressive changes in terms of the health conditions and quality. For example, percentage of infant mortality decreased sharply in this period. Moreover, life expectancies of men and women were increased considerably. However, this situation changed during 1970s. Economical crises that I already mentioned previously, affected the expenditures to the public health sector. Infant mortality increased sharply especially 1980s. There could be some reasons for this increase such as incompetence of medical staff, hard working conditions of mothers, shortage of food for both mother and infant. According to the official records, percentage of death of new-born babies was 2.5% in 1989. (Bachman, 1989) One of the main reasons of this increase was the demographic policy of the communist government which abortion was prohibited by. Anaemia, malnutrition and poverty were other main reasons for this result as I mentioned previously (Vladescu, Scintee & Olsavszky, 2008: 40) 1.3. Education Education had a vital importance and it was the main component to create the new socialist generation having the communist concepts and the values for the communist regime. Education system and other institutions of the society designed for this purpose, because state was aware of importance of education to change how people think. It was thought that school has an important role through its social function and purpose. Moreover, through its cultural and social function, the school is an important factor in establishing the civilization and the history of a society. (Popeanga, 1974: 129) For this reason, public education system extended considerably throughout the country during the early years of communist regime. The state controlled the education and the information taught in the classrooms. This situation was the same all the parts of the education system from kindergartens to high schools to universities. To do this, all the school directors, principals and other administrators were changed. The communist rectors, directors, administrators and teachers were placed in all the educational institutions (Markman, 1996: 470). Moreover, the state also controlled all the student activities, institutions and societies. All the students were participating in the school activities to keep them in the schools during the national days. The system was deciding who could or could not go to school and also the type of the school. The school curriculums were also formed by the communist state. All the teaching methods were determined by the state. So the system was controlling what kind of information and how was being taught. There was no possibility for the students to think and create 3 22 themselves. This policy had possibility to enter and control the minds of the young students in the schools. The students who finished the high schools were accepted according to their political performances but not their intelligence or their high school scores (Phillips, 2010: 8) Egalitarian concept of communism was also applied in schools. Curriculum and instructions were formed to express the equality between the groups and the sexes in school and working atmosphere. Education was compulsory up to the tenth grade and it was free for all citizens. For this reason there were enough number general schools throughout the country. These general schools were mentioned by numbers instead of a given name. The buildings of the schools were the same architecturally and they were identical in terms of furniture and equipment (Falls, 2011: 35) However, this equality for general schools for all students was not the same for higher the education. This was because the number of colleges and universities was seriously limited. Only 8% of the students who graduated from high schools had a chance to continue their higher education at the universities (Bachman, 1989). These students were being selected according to their political performances and activities not their capacities as I mentioned previously. The communist state had the main power to decide the career development of the students at the universities. The state was planning the requirement and availability of job opportunities according to the economical and social needs of the government. In this case, most of the students had almost no chance to continue their education according to their needs or wishes (Whitmarsh & Ritter, 2007: 88) 1.4. Social Life Social life and social structure of Romania were changed forcefully by the communist system which aimed an egalitarian society having no class among the parts of society. Romania was basically an agrarian country having its own social composition until the beginning of 1940s. As a result of the communist state development programmes, the country became more urbanized and industrialized in 1970s. During this period, important investments were done by the communist state for economic development and improving the social living conditions in urban areas. According to the policy of the government, all resources were being used for creating an egalitarian society having satisfying living conditions for each member of the society (Zamfir, 2001: 5) According to the system, the workers should have the means of production and also they have the responsibility of distribution of the products. Politics are responsible for 4 23 continuity and development of the system. For this reason, the first problem was to eliminate the groups who were against the system in the early years of the communism. Moreover, the state aimed to increase the working class to support the power of the regime. The quality of life in rural area was much worse than the urban area. Soviet occupation destroyed all the goods and stocks of the people. So they were ready to take factory jobs to fulfil the industrialisation policy of the state. The policy of equalisation of the social standards of the state was very successful during the first twenty-five years of communist system. They minimized the income differences among people. Related with this development, the quality of life of the people improved in terms of health, housing, education, nutrition, job guaranty etc. Moreover, the quality of life of nonworking people such as retired people, old people, handicapped, children for special needs was very satisfying also. These improvements in the quality of life were also extended to the all minorities and ethnics living in Romania. This development was succeeded because of the investments in industrialisation of the country. The state did not invest so much for agricultural improvement. In fact, land was very fertile and suitable for cultivating different products. However, these improvements continued until the early 1970s. The economic crisis began and continued 1980s. These crises caused a very sharp and rapid decrease in the living conditions of the people especially in urban areas. High investments in industrialisation caused extremely high debt to other countries. As a result of this debt, the state wanted to improve exporting to cover the problem and increase the pressure on people to work more and to spend less. The social protection and support supplied by the state also started to decrease. In this period, poverty for some social started to be observed. It was the time of suffering instead of euphoria for the people. (Hania, Romania under Communism, n.d.) 2. Family Policies During The Communist Period During the Communist System, there were some targets for the country to reach some certain levels. According to these targets; “Country should endeavour to reach as a multilaterally develop socialist society that will provide affirmation of socialist principles in all sectors of economic and social life, expressing more fully the human personality, a harmonious combination of personal interests with the general aspirations of the whole society. It will mark a higher stage of socialism; will open a phase of transition to the high-communist society.” (Falls, 2011: 33) 5 24 The Romanian family had a high stability structure with, based on the main principles of gender roles. The religion was at the centre of the society and the family structure. The church had important functions in the daily of the people. It was involving the significant events of the society such as marriage, divorcement, recording of births, funerals etc. But the socialist system made the space of family very constrained. Regulation of family structure and functions for the new communist state was taken from Soviet family concept. According to this concept, the effect of religion on the family structure and function should have been decreased. This system affected greatly the structure and life of the Romanian family. The important events that I mentioned such as marriage, divorcement, recording of births became the affairs of the government. A civil ceremony was needed to legalize a marriage by the communist state (Bachman, 1989). In this period, the function of family was assumed that family had responsibility for providing assistance and transmitting the values of the system to the next generations. According to the communist system, everybody was equal without any difference between sexes. It meant that woman had equal rights with man and women involved all forms of social, economic and political life. But all these involvements were outside the home activities. This situation created a conflict with the traditional function of women who were homemakers and child caretakers. Both members of the family had to work full-time that was normal acceptable family model at that time. Family was considered as the basic and fundamental unit of the socialist society and it was main part of the system to influence the younger generation for the continuity of the system. Moreover, the main function of the family was the reproduction of the population. For this reason, family planning was strictly restricted and couples were encouraged to have as many children as possible (Chirot, 1978: 481). Moreover, the state wanted to create more liberal atmosphere in the family by minimizing the responsibilities or predominance of the men. The woman had equal power with the man in the family to control over children and family belongings. If woman wanted to keep her maiden name, she could do this. The state made the formalities for divorcement very simple especially if there was no child. When both parts were agreed on divorce, it was enough to send just a letter to the local office. Abortion was also allowed during this period. The new function and status of the Romanian women conflicted completely with the traditional function and status of the women. The political family rules were completely against the traditional family rues. Romanian women insisted on playing her essential function which was traditional mother role. So, the communist state charged the second role to the women: The social masculine role. The Romanian women had equal rights with the men but women had to 6 25 work twice as much. For this reason, we can say that women had more responsibilities than men because they were working outside the home like men but also they had to do many household duties needed (Vese, 2001: 269). However, all these regulation made by the communist state caused some very important structural changes of the society. The percent of the divorcement increased suddenly and also the rate of abortions became very high at the same time. As a result of these changes, the communist state had to concern about population of the next generations which would be the workers of the future. Finally, the communist state decided to change the family law in 1966. According to this new law, abortion and divorce were outlawed. It was difficult to obtain any contraceptive and also mechanical contraception was not common. All these situations caused to continue many unhappy marriages and unwanted babies throughout the country because of the rapid implementation of laws (Chirot, 1978: 486). Moreover, marriage age for women decreased to fifteen years in 1984 to increase the rate of the births by the state in 1984. All these law changes did not help too much to decrease the divorce rate and also did not cause an increase in the rate of the birth. According to the search published in 1988, the divorce rate was getting higher and higher since 1974 slowly. But this rate was still below the divorce rate before 1966. Violence in the family and alcoholism were two main factors for divorce on that time (Bachman, 1989) 3. Structure Of The Family As I mentioned previously, Romania suffered a kind of very destructive time during the communist regime. The state changed all the important social institutions, structures and their functions and introduced insufficient social and economical politics. The most destructive and worst one was that the people living in rural were forced to migrate from rural areas to urban areas to succeed the policy of industrialization of the country. These people were basically agrarian society and they had to learn to live in a city by working in a factory. It means the state forced them for an artificial urbanization and the rural areas were reorganized after this massive movement of the people living in these areas (Nadolu B, Nadolu ID & Asay, 2007: 422) All these structural changes in rural and urban areas affected the structure of the family during the communist regime. Romanian society was basically formed by the extended family model before the communist regime especially in rural areas. There was also the nuclear family model in urban areas, but it was not common. These two types of family models had some common values: 7 26 strong feelings of family relationship, high respect to the authority in patriarchal structure of the family, strong appropriateness of cultural values. As a result of industrialization and urbanization policies of the communist state that I mentioned previous paragraph extended family model lost its character and the nuclear family model became more common. This model was much more suitable model for the communist regime. In this model there were just two adults and their children. Social control was much easier in the nuclear family model. Moreover, it minimized the danger of different structures in the society. In this period, the traditional extended family model was replaced by the nuclear family model especially in the urban areas. In the extended family model, three generations were living together in a single household. But in the nuclear family model, there were only two adults and the children. The percentage of families living together with grandparents decreased 21.5 percent in the 1960s (Bachman, 1989). In fact, this situation was true basically in urban areas. In rural areas, most of the families were still living with their grandparents. There were still strong kinship between the families. 4. Family Life In Urban Area Communist system tried to move some domestic duties and facilities such as dining facilities, laundry needs, house cleaning, home repairs, dry cleaning, painting from home to the public sector. But, some of the facilities were considered by people as tertiary sector of the economy and they were not common or sufficient in the social life. As a result of this consideration, these duties and facilities did not develop at public sector level as predicted. Moreover, at the end of 1980s, main indicators that show the quality of life of a family life such as using electric refrigerators, gas stoves, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, electric irons etc. were not very different than the levels of 1960s. (Romania – Family Life, n.d)Families had to shop almost every day for food because there was no or limited number of refrigerators in the houses. There was also another important problem for the daily life of a family: Shortage of the many products especially food. For example, in order to get milk, people had to queue for several hours in every morning. It was very difficult for the families with babies or small children. It was the same to get for other types of food. The people had to stand in one queue to get the food and then to stand another queue to pay for it. This shortage of the products was also problem for very important facilities such as electricity. Electricity was cut off almost every day for saving energy reasons. 8 27 5. Family Life Quality In Rural Area As I mentioned previously, the industrialisation was much more important than agriculture for the state and there were important investments for this purpose. For this reason, there was a huge difference between agricultural and non-agricultural sectors in terms of the income of the people. This policy destroyed the expectations of many rural families in their lives. Moreover, the state was controlling around 95% of the cultivable land that it was impossible for rural families to cultivate their own lands in a form of small-scale agriculture. They were forced to involve in the state-controlled agriculture. This situation did not support their way of lives and decreased the rural population. For this reason, population working rural areas for agriculture was always less than the population working in industry. We can say that peasant class disappeared during communist regime, and the knowledge for agriculture which passed through the centuries from the generation to generation was forgotten as a result of this situation. Most of the peasants living rural areas migrated to the urban areas to be industrial workers and they never went back to rural area to continue their real occupations. ( Knight, 2010: 3) Family life quality in rural area was very different than family life quality in urban areas. They had very low living conditions and these conditions were related with their peasant tradition. There was also electricity problem. For this reason, it was impossible for many families to use refrigerators and washing machines. In fact, most women in rural area preferred to wash the clothes at the stream. They believed that it was a kind of traditional way of social interaction with the other members of the community. Moreover, most of the families did not need to use refrigerators. They preferred to keep their food by traditional ways, and also they were consuming their own farm produces. In spite of all these preferences of the rural families about eschewing of using washing machine and refrigerators, there were mainly two reasons:   The electricity was not available all the time when they needed. This made it difficult for the families to use refrigerators and washing machines in daily life. The prices of washing machines and refrigerators were extremely expensive compared to their income. Another difference in the life style between rural families and urban families is the religious life. Families in rural areas were more religious compared to the families in urban areas. Religion was an important part of the daily life. Attendance to the church was more than 9 28 that in urban areas. Married couples could live together after the religious wedding, because people living in rural areas thought that the official marriage ceremony needed by the state as a formality. In contrary to the urban families, divorcing in rural areas was not common. 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