Press, Propaganda and Politics

Press, Propaganda and Politics: Cultural Periodicals in Francoist Spain

and Communist Romania

Edited by

Andrada Fătu-Tutoveanu and Rubén Jarazo Álvarez

Press, Propaganda and Politics: Cultural Periodicals in Francoist Spain and Communist Romania,

Edited by Andrada Fătu-Tutoveanu and Rubén Jarazo Álvarez

This book first published 2013

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Copyright © 2013 by Andrada Fătu-Tutoveanu and Rubén Jarazo Álvarez and contributors

All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or

otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

ISBN (10): 1-4438-4323-7, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-4323-2

TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables............................................................................................ viii List of Illustrations ..................................................................................... ix Foreword ..................................................................................................... x Acknowledgments ..................................................................................... xv Part I: Comparing Francoism and Communism Chapter One................................................................................................. 2 Francoism and Communism: A Historical Approach Àlex Amaya Quer and Manuela Marin Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 14 Comparing Francoism and Communism: Methodological Issues and Implications Florin Abraham Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 32 War of Words: Similarities and Differences between Francoist Spain and Communist Romania in the Development of Totalitarian Propagandistic Systems Àlex Amaya Quer Part II: Francoist Cultural Press Chapter Four.............................................................................................. 56 Surviving Literature: Literary Subgenres Published in the Spanish Periodical Press (1936-1975) Rubén Jarazo Álvarez

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vi

Chapter Five .............................................................................................. 80 Anglophilia and Popular Culture in the Francoist Spanish Press: The Case of Shakespearean Representations Elena Domínguez Romero Chapter Six ................................................................................................ 96 Pro-German Press and Literature in North-Western Spanish Cultures during the World War I (1914-1918) Joám Evans Pim Chapter Seven.......................................................................................... 106 Cultural Revival and Internationalization of Galician Press (1900-1945) Adrian Healy Chapter Eight........................................................................................... 117 The Rise of Syndicalism in the United States (1933-1945) as Reflected in the Spanish Press María Luz Arroyo Vázquez Part III: Communism and 1950s Romanian Cultural Press Chapter Nine............................................................................................ 130 Periodicals, Propaganda and Politics in Romanian Culture: Media Discourse Strategies in the 1950s Romanian Cultural Periodicals. Case Study: Flacăra and Contemporanul Andrada Fătu-Tutoveanu Chapter Ten ............................................................................................. 156 Ascribing a New Political Identity: Women during the 1950’s. A Case Study on Săteanca Magazine Manuela Marin Chapter Eleven ........................................................................................ 173 Between East and West: Rival Discourses of Identity in Romanian Historiography (1954-1964) Andi Mihalache

Press, Propaganda and Politics vii

Chapter Twelve ....................................................................................... 189 Media Censorship and the Local Periodical Gazeta Transilvaniei (1943-1945) Ruxandra Nazare Chapter Thirteen...................................................................................... 213 Press, Libraries and Secret Funds in Romania (1945-1989): Case Study Daniel Nazare Contributors............................................................................................. 227 Index........................................................................................................ 230

CHAPTER TEN

ASCRIBING A NEW POLITICAL IDENTITY: WOMEN DURING THE 1950’S.

A CASE STUDY ON SĂTEANCA MAGAZINE1

MANUELA MARIN

The establishment of Communist rule in Romania in 1948 marked the final step in bringing the country into the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union. Two major processes characterized the performance of the new Romanian regime after this moment. The first aimed at strengthening the political alliance with the Soviet Union. This transformed Romania, along with other countries of the Eastern bloc, into a political satellite whose decisions were made in accordance with the Soviet strategic interests in the region. The second process pointed to a fundamental reorganization of the economic structure in order to fit into a Soviet-inspired model. This involved the nationalization of all means of production in order to support the functioning of the centralized model. The latter meant extracting and allocating economic resources according to the highly prioritized targets of the regime. Also, the necessary economic resources were to be extracted as a result of collective effort, which entailed the common use of all material goods under the direct leadership of the Party. The declared purpose of the Romanian Party’s economic strategy was to employ the Soviet socialist solution for solving the country’s problem of underdevelopment.

Industry and especially heavy industry played a key role in the new developmental strategy of the Romanian Workers’ Party (hereafter abbreviated as RWP). This endorsement of the industrial model was explained through a Soviet translation of an essentially Marxist rationale. Therefore, high rates of investment for the industrial sector of the Romanian economy were supposed to assist the successful socialist transformation of the country and ensure that economic advancement confirmed the viability of the socialist alternative of development.

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Consequently, the industry was to provide the other economic sectors with the necessary technological support in order to increase their contribution to the national economic growth.

The socialist transformation of the economic structure of the country also targeted the countryside. The collectivization of agriculture was meant to replace the old structure of the rural world (private property, traditional social hierarchy) with a new one, which was supposed to mirror the collective ethos and the centralized organization and distribution of common goods typical for the Communist rule. Moreover, the socialist modernization supposedly brought about by the collectivization of agriculture would have influenced positively the organization of rural labour, the lives of those living in the countryside and above all would have increased the agricultural output in order to cover both the consumption needs of agricultural producers and those of the working class in the newly created city centres.

The importance attached to the economic factor in preparing the transition to the socialist development of the country can be explained from two distinct perspectives. One is that of the Marxist-Leninist ideology, which explained the evolution of things in world history as mainly motivated by economics. Related to this, the second perspective identified in the economic factor the main trigger of changes in the material conditions of life. Thus, these material changes were pointed out as responsible for the creation of a new human type. In other words, the socialist transformation was supposed to not only change the economic structure (mainly through industrialization, collectivization) but also to influence the birth of the new socialist man. But this rationale presupposed a double-sided process. The material conditions generated by the socialist revolution would have been responsible for the creation of the new man. However, the same new man was supposed to make his conscious contribution to the socialist development of the country and, therefore, to the change in his living conditions. Because the construction of socialism was an ongoing process and the Party’s leadership considered that human consciousness fell behind the country’s economic transformations, considerable attention was given to educating people according to the ideological priorities of the Romanian regime. Here the term education does not refer to the organized process that took place within the national educational system. On the contrary, it means political socialization. Although the term is usually used in relation to learning processes targeting the youth, in the present chapter I have chosen to extend its target group to include the entire population. The motivation supporting this option is related to the meaning attached to political socialization, on the

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one hand, and on the other hand to the general political context in Romania during the 1950s. Political socialization was defined as a “learning process by which political norms and behaviour that are acceptable to an ongoing political system are transmitted from generation to generation” (Renshon 1977, 5). The main purpose of this practice is both to familiarize the subjects with the characteristics of the political system (for example, allegiances and alliances, rules and rituals, symbols and type of behaviour, personalities) and to create, based on them, a complex of beliefs, feelings and information meant to help individuals comprehend, evaluate and relate to the political world around them (Dawson and Prewitt 1969, 16-17). Within the Romanian context of the 1950s, the need to politically socialize the entire population was even more vital given the novelty of the regime itself and its professed socialist values.

Based on the Soviet experience, RWP’s main instrument used in the political socialization of the Romanian population was propaganda. The understanding of propaganda in the current chapter is that of an organized and deliberate process of communicating ideas and values. It is meant to persuade the people to think and behave in a certain manner in order to achieve specific goals from which those organizing the process would benefit (Taylor 2003, 6). In the case of the Romanian regime, its ideological message reached its target audience through various means that included party education, radio, newspapers and magazines. Additionally, different mass and communal organizations adjusted these official mass media products to the specific educational needs of their members.

Săteanca [The Countrywoman] was the official periodical of the women’s mass organization in the People’s Republic of Romania (in Romanian Republica Populară Română). During the 1950s, the name of this organization changed from the “Union of Democratic Women from the People’s Republic of Romania” (in Romanian Uniunea Femeilor Democrate din Republica Populară Română) to the ‘Committee of Democratic Women from the People’s Republic of Romania’ (in Romanian Comitetul Femeilor Democrate din Republica Populară Română). (Morar-Vulcu and Virgiliu Ţârău 2002, 179) The magazine was published monthly between 1948 and 1974 and it was a publication designed for ordinary women living in the countryside.

The interest in this periodical is related to its contribution to ascribing a new identity for countrywomen during the 1950s. I chose the term “ascribe” because the intended purpose of the articles published by this magazine was to identify and popularize specific qualities or characteristics

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that were to distinguish the performance of the new woman living in the countryside. In other words, the published materials aimed at establishing certain traits of character and behaviour of the new female model, which should both reflect the ideological imperatives of the regime and become a necessary point of reference for countrywomen. Moreover, as the title of indicates, the chapter focuses on those qualities or characteristics ascribed to women that formed their new political identity. As the chapter will detail in the following, almost every aspect in the countrywomen’s behaviour and actions was assigned a political meaning. Departing from the concept of narrative identity (Ricoeur 1992, 113-168), I argue that women were both agents and subjects of the actions described by official discourse. As such, their political identity was defined through what they did instead of what they were, and this identification was an on-going process that constantly defined and redefined women’s identity (Morar-Vulcu 2007, 37).

Another element involved in structuring the political identity of the countrywomen is gender. Despite the Romanian regime’s ideological commitment to the full emancipation of women and eradicating gender differences, its discourse about women’s role in the new socialist society reinforced the gendering perspective on the private and public realm this time within the socialist emancipating rhetoric (Morar-Vulcu and Virgiliu Ţârău 2002, 173-174). Even the fact that during the 1950s there were three specialized periodicals for women (Femeia, Muncitoarea and Săteanca [The Woman, The Woman Worker and The Countrywoman]) and no similar publication for men suggest the same gender differentiation and emphasis. Related to this, the special attention given to associating women to political values revealed the regime’s concern that the political backwardness of its female population might delegitimize their participation to the socialist transformation of the country.

Consequently, the current chapter will explore the ways in which the articles published in Săteanca aimed at creating a new political identity taking into consideration women’s performance both at work and at home and also the gender factor. One of the most important topics intensely covered by this periodical was women’s participation in the economic and political life of their country. Their involvement targeted two main domains of public life: the political and the productive sector.

The participation of women to political life was unanimously presented in the articles published by Săteanca as the best example of the sharp contrast between the “prerevolutionary” society and the new socialist one. Women gained not only the right to vote and elect their female deputies but also that of gaining a certain degree of political knowledge. The need

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to politically socialize women and familiarize them with the socialist principles was an important theme of the published materials. This was because a “correct” political consciousness helped women to make the right decisions regarding their voting options and, most importantly, it helped their participation and support for the socialist transformation of the countryside (the collectivization of agriculture). Moreover, the examples popularized by this periodical consisted of successful stories of women whose ambition and determination helped them to rise above their “prerevolutionary” condition and become inspirational models for their peers.

An example of such an inspirational model was the advisor.2 The advisor was a type of political activist belonging to the women’s communist mass organization. One of her main roles was to persuade women of the advantages of the new socialist organization of agriculture. This involved arranging small gatherings for women, during which their advisor read and explained to them the latest official decisions and also tried to convince them to join the collective farms.3 One of these advisors recalled her experience during such a meeting:

Then I read to them from a brochure about what it meant to work on a collective farm and I explained to them what I had just read. At the beginning they did not believe me and told me they would better die than join a collective farm. I worked hard with them, patiently showing them the benefits of collective work. I showed them that what chiaburii4 said were all lies and only through collective work would we be able to lead a happy life. (Săteanca 1950 1, 14)5

This explanatory work attained its goal as the women participating in the gathering agreed to join the collective farm (14). The other activities organized by the advisors aimed at the same objective, that of convincing women to accept the reorganization of agriculture according to the collective principle. What is interesting to note is that this purpose was usually disguised under the generous principle of educating the female masses. Accordingly, the political activists used some of the traditional forms of communal gatherings of the rural world, such as evening get-togethers of village women (in Romanian şezători) and choirs; they also organized classes for eliminating illiteracy (in Romanian ore pentru eliminarea analfabetismului) and reading circles (Săteanca 1950 1, 11; Godeanu 1950, 11). For example, one article mentioned that 10 reading circles functioned in Cernatu, a village in Braşov county. During these activities, the advisors read the official newspapers and magazines or brochures regarding the Soviet successful experience of collectivizing the agriculture. For instance, such a circle usually gathered at the weekly

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meetings 15-18 women who “read and discussed the magazines Săteanca and Dolgozo Nö6 and other brochures about the life of the members of Soviet kolkhoz” (Cere 1950, 4).7

In order to highlight the impact these reading circles had on women’s performance at work Săteanca published some of their testimonies. One of them mentioned that her participation was motivated by the fact that she could always learn something new and useful for her work:

I have a lot of work and I would not have come but I want to listen to something new, for only this way we can enlighten our mind. (Dacă 1950, 17)8

Another participant to the same reading circle acknowledged that:

we learn many useful things by reading together. Here for example, we wouldn’t have known that, if we planted forests, we could have more rain, had we not read it in the brochure in which it was written how Soviet people fought against the drought. (17)

The article ended with the women’s voluntary commitment to follow the Soviet experience and plant acacias on the surrounding hills and in the vicinity of the communal pasture in order to protect their village from the drought (17).

At the beginning of the 1950s, a preliminary step in the creation of collective farms was the imposition of strict surveillance of agricultural work. Consequently, the peasants were forced to adjust their farming work according to the economic objectives of the national plan and also to fulfil the plan quotas assigned to them (Borşa and Mihai Croitor 2009, 47-48).

Some of the articles published by Săteanca highlighted the ways in which the same advisors accomplished these tasks. Their mission was to mobilize women to take part in the agricultural works and also to persuade them to follow the official regulations regarding the organization of the farming production. Above all, the advisors also sought to convince women that all these measures that RWP took for the socialist transformation of the countryside were beneficial for them and also for the general development of the country (Cere 1950, 4; Tălăngescu 1950, 5; Vlădulescu 1950, 12).

The mentions of these advisors in the articles published by Săteanca and their importance for the ascription of a new political identity to peasant women can be discussed from two main perspectives. One of them considers the advisor as a necessary model to be emulated by countrywomen. This is because the former was suppose to have that political consciousness that allowed her to fully comprehend the

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importance of the Party’s program and share her knowledge with other women. The other perspective uses the advisor for creating certain situations that would allow the female readership/audience to assimilate, by reading between the lines, those political traits highly praised by the regime such as political literacy, incessant struggle for fulfilling the Party’s directives and full commitment to ensuring the collective good.

The magazine also featured articles allegedly signed by women-correspondents which pictured an idyllic image of life on the collective farms. The stress was laid on presenting the material benefits brought by the collective work to the life of the community and especially on how the local plan targets decisively contributed to its welfare (Săteanca 1951 12-13, 15; Săteanca 1952 3, 2; Gorun 1953, 14-15). It is important to mention that the signs of this collective welfare identified by these female-correspondents were restricted to their maternal concerns and also to their life at home. For example, one of these women describes the collective farm as “a family who enjoys alike all our accomplishments” (Muja 1950, 13) and exemplifies what she considers to be the defining elements of this collective family life: the functioning of a crèche where mothers could leave their offspring while they were working in the field and the existence of qualified personnel that could offer the necessary medical care for the children:

Our collective farm has now a nurse who takes care of the sick. When Pătruţ, Maria Motronea’s child got sick, the nurse stood at his bedside for three nights, (and) the doctor came all the time to see him. Now the child is fine and healthy again. He is at the crèche playing. (Muja 1950, 13)9

Also at home, women identified the signs of material prosperity brought by collective work: radios and loudspeakers to which they could

listen … to conferences, plays, our beautiful folk and Soviet music without having to go to the club in bad weather. (13)10

Life on the collective farm also stirred women’s interest in self-improvement. This usually concerned fulfilling some sort of social mission that aimed at improving the life conditions of the members of their community. Although official propaganda insisted that the collective farm offered women new opportunities for materializing their initiatives, in fact this seemingly emancipated discourse revived the old gendering of the private and the public and integrated it within the socialist rhetoric. For example, on the eve of the national holiday on August 23rd, a group of women from an unnamed commune decided to do some voluntary work and repair, paint and clean the school’s building and its surroundings. The

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same selfless mission for the common good triggered the career decision of a young woman. She made a commitment to herself to raise her “political and cultural level” of knowledge because she wanted to “attend the Normal School, become a teacher, (and) educate children” as she understood it (Godeanu 1950, 11).

The magazine also informed its readers about the successful stories of women who succeeded in emerging as full members of the new rural society. This usually involved a comparison that favoured the socialist period at the expense of the “prerevolutionary” one. One of the main examples of women’s socialist emancipation concerned their access to education. An article published by Săteanca told the story of an illiterate woman whose destiny was presented as symptomatic for the life of women during the old regime. The chiabur, whom she worked for, destroyed one day her spelling book telling her that she did not need any kind of education for performing her job as a servant. With the advent of the new communist rule, this young woman attended literacy classes and even managed to become the leader of the village club’s drama team. Her supreme revenge on the former regime was the use of her newly acquired literacy against the chiabur. Therefore, she organized with her drama team shows in which she poked fun at the chiaburi as a way to counter the hostile rumours spread by them against the socialist organization of agriculture (Amărescu 1950, 23).

The lack of any kind of education was also blamed for women’s reluctance to join the collective farm. In some of the articles found in Săteanca, women who were recently “enlightened” by the socialist educational values recognized that their political backwardness influenced them and led them to give credence to the rumours spread by the chiabur about collective farming. Thus, one correspondent recalled her own experience:

We fought hard with chiaburii who concocted all kinds of false rumours. Guided by the Party, we engaged in explanatory work showing that chiaburii wanted to pit us against one another, because if we unite to work together, they won’t get the chance to fleece us ever again. (Stoica 1951, 5)

Another one also remembers that:

I sometimes regret that only with difficulty did I agree to join the farm. […] When comrades from our organization came, I left and did not want to listen to them. This was because I did not know anything about the collective and it did not cross my mind what the farm was like. I did not really read. I just learnt from the book and I listened to the neighbours’, relatives’ tales and even to the chiaburi’s rumours. Only after I started to

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listen carefully to the UFDR’s meetings, after I took a look at the brochures which wrote about the Soviet kolkhozes, the veil fell from my eyes. (Bolocan 1951, 7)

Moreover, the identification of actions on the part of chiaburi who meant to undermine the local economy was also present in the pages of the magazine as an obvious sign of political consciousness on the part of women. In fact, a characteristic trait of the new political identity designed for countrywomen by Săteanca was the constant awareness of subversive and dangerous potential represented by these so-called remnants of the old regime. For example, an article that described how the peasants of Zorleni commune delivered their quotas for the state fund also featured a secondary story about how a vigilant woman exposed a female chiabur who had diluted with water the milk that she was supposed to give tothe same state fund (Ştefan 1951, 14). Another countrywoman mentioned that after she had read in Săteanca and Scânteia [The Sparkle]11 about the organization of work on collective farms, she decided not only to join the one created in her village, but also to show to other peasants the beneficial consequences this could have on their life. This was done with the purpose of countering the hostile rumours spread by the chiaburi against the collective farm:

I went every day into the field to explain to people and ask them to keep an eye on the chiaburi, to hasten the sowings and work the land with love and power, because we work for our welfare, of the working peasantry and workers in the city. Now the landlord and chiabur could no longer exploit us as they wished. (Săteanca 1950 4, 7)

Săteanca also featured several stories about women whose biographies were supposed to reflect the latest changes in the country’s evolution. Therefore, these were narratives about females who left the countryside and managed not only to get a job in the city working in a factory but also to significantly change their lives as a result of it. They became leaders at their work places, usually in the textile industry, they discovered new methods of organizing their work that helped them to become Stakhanovists and they also trained other women at work. Moreover, these women used their leisure time not only for taking care of their own house and family but also for raising their political and technological level of knowledge. The articles mentioned that, among their readings, these women included newspapers, the magazines for women and socialist realist novels, both Romanian and Soviet, such as Petru Dumitriu’s Road without Dust, Vilis Laţis’s The Storm, Nikolai Ostrovsky’s novel How the Steel was Tempered or M. Socolov’s Sparks

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(Săteanca 1953 11, 4; Cinca 1952, 6; Săteanca 1953 5, 5; Săteanca 1952 2, 5). The magazine underlined that women also conquered several professions that during the old regime were performed exclusively by men, such as that of welder, driller, machine servicer, tractor driver or other qualified jobs in heavy industry. This was obviously presented in the published materials as evidence of the communist regime’s concern for ensuring equal conditions for women and men (Săteanca 1952 7, 4; Vâlceanu 1950, 16-17, Epureanu 1955, 8-9; Manda 1955, 3). This egalitarian rhetoric that aimed at masculinising the image of women did not extend beyond their working place. After fulfilling their masculine tasks, women regained their femininity. For example, the group of female machine servicers and tractor drivers spent the evenings together singing, making plans for setting up their own artistic brigade or thinking about what they wanted to buy with the money they had earned. Also, some of the articles published by Săteanca mentioned that women’s work continued at home, their primary concern being to take care of their houses and families (Epureanu 1955, 9; Săteanca 1953 5, 5).

The female worker’s character played the same part as the above-mentioned advisor. Her role model as an exemplary performer both at work and at home highlighted even more vividly the importance of political consciousness as an identity label of the new woman. As such, every woman that formed the subject of an article considered that their work was part of the general effort at constructing the socialist future of the country. For example, a woman working at a foundry imagined that:

the pieces her team help to make will be part of the machines that will work in the country’s fields […].Through the workshop’s window, she could seemingly see the harvesters, the harrows and the threshing machines from the factory’s yard scattered along the country, she could see the cornfields and endless golden grain crops in all the country. (Manda 1955, 3)

Besides this awareness of their contribution to the economic development of the country, women justified their wholehearted involvement in fulfilling and exceeding the plan targets in terms of political choice. Asked by a reporter from Săteanca what fuelled her determination to become a leader at her work place, one woman answered:

I have strength…because we got rid of exploitation. Today, from what my husband and I earn […] we have all we need in the house. We are free in our work, and our endeavour is highly appreciated. (Săteanca 1953 5, 5)

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Another characteristic of the new political identity proposed by Săteanca was women’s involvement in supporting the peace campaign of the communist regime. This pro-peace policy was another Soviet policy imported to Romania and it represented an ideological layer that justified the division of the world into two different camps during the Cold War. According to the Soviet-sponsored perspective, at the end of the World War II, the world was divided between the peace loving forces lead by USSR and the Western capitalist countries’ bloc guided by the other superpower, USA. The same perspective argued that the capitalist world was about to be torn apart by a series of acute economic crises that would eventually lead to wars between these countries. This conflicting world contributed to the antagonistic “capitalist encirclement” and, therefore, threatened the very existence of the Soviet state and of its ideological allies. Moreover, the Soviet propaganda also emphasized that the advancement of the socialist project was the only practical way of resisting the alleged war unleashed by the capitalist world against its inimical ideological counterpart (Winkler 2000, 20-23).

Săteanca subscribed to this Soviet ideological interpretation of the Cold War world. Its articles interpreted every major initiative or political decision-making of the Romanian regime as a necessary step in strengthening the national state and, thus, in bringing its own contribution to defending the socialist cause of world peace. In addition, this opposition between the socialist and capitalist forces was also mirrored in the internal ascription of identities according to communist ideological rigors. Consequently, the chiaburi became not only an ominous remainder of the old regime but also the main internal ally of capitalist warmongering forces. This was because they were supposedly trying to sabotage the new socialist regime and, therefore, came to indirectly further the cause of hostile capitalist forces.

From this perspective, every aspect of a woman’s activity as described by Săteanca was given a political significance. Firstly, her involvement in the production process was given a new meaning in addition to that of emancipation. Her work was equated with a brick placed at the socialist foundation of the state. For example, one of the articles makes reference to a female worker who knows “that working for fulfilling the plan helps the building of socialism and bringing about that happy life” she always has wanted:

She knows that building socialism means strengthening peace. She knows all this; she tells those around her, she tells everyone she meets. (Vâlceanu 1950, 17)

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Similarly, a slogan from the pages of the magazine reads as follows:

Long live the leaders of production, who, struggling to fulfil and exceed the state plan, strengthen the fight for peace! (17)

For another woman, a war widow, the thought of a potential war that could take away her only son triggered her motivation to work “zealously to raise the village, knowing that through this she strengthens our Republic, which fights resolutely for peace” (Săteanca 1950 1, 14). Secondly, even raising offspring ceased to be a private matter and became a way of supporting a political action such as the fight for peace. One woman wrote to Săteanca about her election to the local Fight-for-Peace Committee (in Romanian Comitetul de luptă pentru pace), also citing from her speech which she delivered on the same occasion:

The fight for peace will guide me till my last breath, because I have to defend five young lives and with this the lives of all our children. I’ll be tireless at work, in the field, just as I was among the firsts who joined our collective farm. I’ll fight against the chiaburi and all those who try to stop us from our journey. I know what war and exploitation is… (Pătraşcu 1950, 5)

Another element of women’s newly acquired political identity was their involvement in the political life of the country, both as candidates and electors. Consequently, Săteanca paid great attention to preparing women for national and local elections. Several articles presented in an accessible manner the content of the new electoral law and the changes it brought to women’s political status, such as, political rights equal to those of men or the right to vote. An additional point of interest for the authors of these articles was the presentation of the significance of elections for both the country’s future evolution in general and women’s role in public life in particular. With the help of sundry characters familiar to countrywomen, such as the advisor or the simple woman willing to understand as much as she could about political decisions directly affecting her life, the materials published in Săteanca explained to women that their election of deputies carried an important responsibility. Due to their voting, those elected would organize the entire economic and social life on the collective farm or influence political decisions concerning them at higher decision-making levels. In addition, these local representatives were also to get involved in solving people’s current problems. Related to this, women’s opinions as expressed in the pages of magazines underlined their awareness of the fact that through their voting they finally succeeded in making themselves heard in the political realm and in influencing

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decisions concerning their lives (Arghirescu and Ţucudeanu 1950, 6-7; Săteanca 1950 5, 15; Săteanca 1950 7, 4; Badea 1950, 5; Săteanca 1950 7, 4-5; Săteanca 1952 8, 5). As one woman put it:

I will vote for deputies to the Popular Council12 and I will come to work to help them to do a good job because all things are done for our welfare. (Săteanca 1950 5, 15)13

Women’s involvement in political life also placed them in the position of candidate not only that of a conscious elector. On the occasion of deputy elections to the Popular Council or to the Great National Assembly,14 Săteanca published different materials concerning the women elected by their community to represent its interest at the local or central level. These were usually short biographies accompanied by pictures of those female candidates or, in some cases, pieces of opinion written by magazine correspondents about their representatives in the local elections. The portrait that these contributions depicted of the candidates was made up of a number of personal details that established certain patterns of traits and deeds that should commonly characterize their public performance. First of all, given their ambition, all these women succeeded in becoming leaders at their work place and they were very often awarded special distinctions or decorations that acknowledged these merits. Secondly, the communist regime took credit for the professional and the personal evolution from an unfortunate and uneducated person to the successful worker and political activist that they eventually became. Thirdly, the implications of their role model extended beyond their workplace to include activities performed for the common good of the local community (Săteanca 1953 11, 5; Săteanca 1954 6, 6; Săteanca 1956 2, 3; Săteanca 1952 11, 2-3). A letter sent by the electors from Orlat commune, in Sibiu county, to Săteanca offers a detailed account of the full range of activities their deputy was involved in. She was “a diligent woman” who was active in the UFDR organization and also in the local branch of state administration. Despite the fact that she had a large family who needed her permanent attention, she was fully dedicated to her social mission:

Comrade Găină is no longer a young woman; she has 5 children and enough difficulties. But you’ll never see her complaining about them. Communal interests come first and only then she takes care of her own. She is present at the Popular Council every day. […] And she takes care of everything; all our problems are her concern. (Bărbuţ 1951, 12-13)

Among the achievements of her mandate was the reconstruction of the communal road, the cleaning of the communal pasture, the reparation of

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the communal club where she got involved in organizing cultural events and finally the setting up of a seasonal kindergarten for children whose mothers worked in the field. The personal example of this deputy increased people’s trust in their representatives and their willingness to get involved and change things around them:

We trust our Popular Council, our deputies, because they work side by side with us for a better life and for peace. (12-13)

Several conclusions can be drawn from previously exposed remarks about countrywomen’s involvement in political activity, conclusions that could be considered important for revealing the meaning of official concern for ascribing women a new political identity. There is no doubt that all the articles published by Săteanca on this subject indicate to its female readers the main guidelines according to which they should organize their understanding of political life and their role in it. Consequently, the new regime asked women to become politically conscious actors that would make full use of their recently acquired roles by involving themselves in all sort of officially sanctioned activities, such as elections or fulfilling the specific duties required by an official position. What is more important is the very fact that the great majority of these articles had an obvious educational purpose. They were intended to show the readers what politics was, what the purpose of an election and of their voting was, and how their vote could influence their lives. Moreover, the way in which the magazines chose to make known to their female audience the required political information betrayed the same pedagogical function. The articles that were meant to familiarize women with their new political role described staged ordinary situations, for example the discussion between women and their advisor, a situation in which they might have easily found themselves. In conclusion, despite the official rhetoric that emphasised women’s political equality with men or the new opportunities created for them to take part in the political life, the fact that most of the materials published on this subject had an obvious educational content and purpose highlights that at some level the regime continued to consider its female population as needing guidance in order to fully comprehend political matters.

The current chapter analysed the contribution of the periodical Săteanca to ascribing a new identity to countrywomen during the 1950s. Consequently, the analysis aimed to identify those specific qualities or traits that reflected the official ideological imperatives and that from the point of view of the Romanian regime should have characterized women’s performance within the political realm. In order to do this, the chapter

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focused on women’s roles and activities both at work and at home and also on the gender issue as reflected in the magazine. It also aimed at approaching the women’s involvement in those activities identified by the magazine as having political significance. The analysis concluded that, despite the communist regime’s discursive commitment to ensuring women’s equality to men, the former only succeeded in adapting older gender distinctions to the new socialist discourse.

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Notes

1 Research for this paper was supported by CNCS-UEFISCSU, project number PN II-RU code 410/2010. 2 In Romanian îndrumătoarea. 3 In Romanian gospodării agricole. This was the Romanian equivalent of the Soviet kolkhoz. 4 Chiabur is the Romanian version of the Soviet kulac. According to the party documents, chiabur was a rich peasant who supposedly personified the source of all the economic evils in the life of the countryside before 1948. For a detailed account of the official significance attached to this term see Borşa and Mihai Croitor, 2009, 42-47. 5 In Romanian “Apoi le-am citit dintr-o broşură ce înseamnă munca în colectiv şi am prelucrat cele citite. La început nu mi-au dat dreptate, spunând că mai bine vor să moară decât să facă o gospodărie colectivă. Am muncit mult cu ele, arătându-le cu răbdare foloasele muncii în colectiv. Le-am arătat că ce spun chiaburii sunt minciuni şi că numai prin muncă colectivă vom ajunge să ducem o viaţă fericită”, Săteanca 1950 1, 14. 6 Dolgozo Nö (in English, The Woman Worker) was a periodical published for Hungarian women who were members of the women’s communist mass organization in Romania. 7 In Romanian: “care citesc şi discută revista Săteanca şi Dolgozo Nö şi alte broşuri despre viaţa colhoznicilor sovietici”. Cere 1950, 4. 8 In Romanian: “Am o mulţime de treabă şi n-aş fi venit dar vreau să ascult si eu ceva nou, că de, numai aşa ne luminăm mintea”, Dacă 1950, 17. 9 In Romanian: “Gospodăria noastră are acum infirmieră care acum se îngrijeşte de bolnavi. Când s-a îmbolnăvit Pătruţ, copilul Mariei Motronea, infirmiera a stat trei nopţi la căpătâiul lui, doctorul venea mereu să-l vadă. Acum copilul e bine, sănătos. Se joacă la creşă”, Muja 1950, 13. See also Săteanca 1950 12, 16. 10 In Romanian: “asculta… conferinţe, piese de teatru, frumoasa noastră muzică populară şi muzică sovietică, fără a mai fi nevoiţi să mergem pe orice vreme tocmai la căminul cultural”. Muja 1950, 13. 11 The RWP’s official newspaper. 12 In Romanian Sfatul Popular. It was the main administrative institution active at the local level. 13 In Romanian: “oi vota şi eu deputaţii în Sfatul Popular şi-oi veni şi eu la muncă să-i ajut să facă treabă bună, că doar pentru noi se fac toate.” Săteanca 1950 5, 15. 14 In Romanian Marea Adunarea Naţională: this assembly played the role of parliament during the communist period in Romania.