Description
Object description
Romanian civilian in Romanian People's Republic, 1947-1963; escaped from Romanian People's Republic to GB, 1963
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Bucharest, Romania, 1935-1947: family; education. Aspects of period as schoolchild in Bucharest, Romania, 1944-1945: bomb damage in city; behaviour of Soviet Army troops on entry into city. Recollections of period as civilian in Romanian People's Republic, 1947-1963: loss of rooms in family's flat to workers families; regime's informer system; confiscation of family's flat by government; how continuing to hold share certificates indicated lack of faith in regime; question of why family did not escape from Romania in 1944-1945; nature of education under regime; influence of his family on his ideological outlook; influence of 20th Congress of Communist Party of the Soviet Union on political opinions of family members, 1956; political opinions as student.
REEL 2 Continues: choice of theoretical physics rather than philosophy as career subject; question of luck in being eighteen years old when Soviet premier Josef Stalin died, 5/3/1953; shock at sight public expressions of grief with news of Josef Stalin's death, 5/3/1953; Erich Fromm's idea of 'fear of freedom/autonomy'; starting maths and physics course in University of Bucharest, 1953; calibre of university teachers, 1953-1958; penalisation for lack of conformity by refusing job which meant internal exile; becoming factory worker; interview with Romanian Communist Party official who refused permission to practise profession, 1959; applying to leave Romanian People's Republic; fate of Romanians who demonstrated in favour of Hungarian insurgents, 10/1956-11/1956; continuous pressure to be allowed to leave Romanian People's Republic, 1959-1963; intellectuals he worked with in factory, 1959-1963.
REEL 3 Continues: writing Marxist lectures for factory director in return for concessions; declining standard of living under Gheorghe Gheorghui-Dej regime; influence of planning; non-market system; question of sincere Communists in Romania in 1947-1959; limited knowledge of West; joke in Romanian People's Republic about Nikita Khrushchev's ambition to overtake the West; friends who were arrested for political offences and their fate; lack of contact with West under Communism.
REEL 4 Continues: fate of Uniate church in Romanian People's Republic; restrictions of what could be taken out of Romanian People's Republic, 1963; methods emigres resorted to get valuables out of Romanian People's Republic; buying air tickets to 'anywhere in the West'; arrival without passport in Rome, Italy. Recollections of period as civilian in GB, 1963-1999: settling in GB, 1964-1965; work with Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), then academic life.
REEL 5 Continues: becoming lecturer in University of London during 1970s; question of discrimination against foreigners in GB especially in academic world; ways in which the West surprised him; impatience with conformism he came across in West; fear of police intervention on hearing seditious speeches at Hyde Park Corner, London. question of 'electronic bugging' in Romanian People's Republic and how this effected his behaviour in GB; expectations for future of GB and Romania.