entrepreneurial tourism in romania - a system-stabilizing factor?

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am polnischen Beispiel den engen Zusammenhang von Tourismus und Schleichhandel und unterlauft auf karikaturistische Weise

die Propaganda des staatlichen Reiseburos. Karikatur von Ryszard Winiarski, 1962.

Der Abdmck erfolgt mit freundlicher Genehmigung des Karikaturenmuseums in Warschau.

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6 lnhaltsverzeichnis

Mateusz J. Hartwich Tourismus, Traditionen und Transfers. Rahmenbedingungen und Wahrnehmung der Reisen von DDR-Burgem ins Riesengebirge in

..................................................................................... den 1960er Jahren 153

Andras Lenart ,,Druschba Travels". Reisen mit dem ungarischen Jugend- und Studentenreisebiiro Express in den 1970er Jahren .................................... 179

Wtodzimierz Borodziej Pauschalreisen als staatliche Veranstaltung - das polnische

...................................................................................... Reiseburo OKBlS 207

Politische Dimensionen

Edit Kiraly Portable Projects? Die Aktion Suhnezeichen und ihre ungarischen Verbindungen (I 969-1 989) .................................................................... 23 1

Lars Fredrik Stocker Eine transnationale Geschichte des geteilten Europa? Die Briickenfunktion des polnischen politischen Exils in Schweden 1968-1 980 ........................................................................ 253

Dominik Pick Zwischen offiziellem Protokoll und subversiver Tatigkeit: Polnisch-westdeutsche gesellschaftliche Kontakte 1972-1 98 1 ................ 275

Kulturelle Transfers

Patryk Wasiak ,,Schleichwege" in der Galerie. Ausstellungen verbotener Kunstler aus Ungarn, der Tschechoslowakei und der DDR in polnischen Autorengalerien ......................................................................................... 293

Graiyna Szelqgowska Cooking Another Way. Polish Gastronomic Tourism and Exchange in the Communist Period ....................................................................... 3 13

Crlstlna Petrescu

long run this practice developed entrepreneurial skills and knowledge specific to market economy: most of those traveling outside the borders were engaged in rudimentary forms of free trade, otherwise inexistent in a state-controlled centrally planned economy. In this respect, it might have represented a potentially de-stabilizing factor in many former communist countries. In the case of Romania, transnational tourism took nevertheless specific patterns during the 1980s, when it became part of the survival strategy in the extreme conditions of general shortages of basic food and most common goods. It was in this peculiar Romanian context that its long term effect of gradually undermining the communist system in this country should be discussed. A window still open to an otherwise inaccessible outside world, tourism to the other former communist states in the late 1980s represented an extremely embittering experience for any Romanian who still managed to get a passport: where ever one traveled, everyday life was clearly better than at home. Thus, transnational tourism contributed - obviously among other factors - to the collapse of the already rapidly shrinking legitimacy of the Romanian communist regime. It could hardly be argued that it turned into a system-destabilizing factor, as transnational tourism was never a large scale phenomenon in Romania. It can be nevertheless considered as a system-undermining factor because it clearly contributed to the crystallization of the idea that "Ceau~escu must go", which pushed many people into the streets in December 1989.

A. The S~nuous Path of Transnat~onal Tourism In Commun~st Romania

It is common knowledge that Romania at various moments and in diverse matters represented a special case among the former communist countries, one that departed most from the pattern followed closer by the others. After successful negotiations on the withdrawal of the Red Army in 1958 and fierce opposition to the Moscow-imposed framework of economic cooperation in the early 1960s, Romania was the first Soviet satellite to open itself towards western countries beginning with 1967. The trend was initiated by the first communist dictator, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (1 948-1965), but the applause for this turn was mostly received by his successor, Nicolae Ceau~escu (1965- 1989). The reorientation to the West coincided with the dissenting position in the Warsaw Pact occasioned by the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. At that moment, the repeated criticism towards the Soviet Union, which had not gone unnoticed by the outside world, reached a peak. It remained unknown however that Romania was never invited to join the fraternal countries on their road to Prague. Instead, the entire world, beginning with the Romani-

Entrepreneurial Tourism in Romania

ans themselves, applauded Ceau~escu's balcony speech that condemned the intervention into the "internal affairs" of another communist country. Due to this rather hazardous moment, Comrade Ceau~escu and implicitly Romania would enjoy high international prestige for years to come. Implicitly, many foreigners, westerners and easterner alike, became curious about this country: communist, but yet different, thus "worth a journey or at least a detour", to use the Michelin guide ranking system.

It was around this period, more precisely in 1967, that the Bucharest regime decided to open its previously closely guarded borders: Romanians were allowed after many years to travel outside for holidays, and in exchange foreign tourists were finally welcome inside. This decision marked a first and short- lived period in the history of transnational tourism under communism in Ro- mania. This unprecedented aperture made the communist authorities quickly realize that they had unsealed a Pandora box: "We have opened widely the gates of our country for foreign tourists.. .. In this way, all sorts of individuals, enemies that do not hesitate to criticize our country while praising the capitalist countries enter in contact with our citizens. At the same time, we have to educate all those who go on trips in capitalist countries." This phrase, which belonged to an old timer of the Romanian Communist Party', captured in a nutshell the new problems that the Bucharest regime was facing. Anxious to get some space of maneuver in its relations with Moscow and some hard currency from tourism, Romanian communist leaders permitted in fact something that in the long run would prove to be lethal for the regime: direct contacts between Romanian citizens and foreigners.

The party debates in 1969 illustrate that the R.C.P. leadership realized the real danger of the situation: under the dangerous external influences, Roma- nians were lured to leave their socialist homeland to venture into the perilous capitalist world. Statistical data revealed that in the first three years after the opening of the border for tourism, the rate of those who used this new op-

1 The quotation is from Constantin Pirvulescu, founding member of the Romanian Communist

theTwelfth Party Congress of 1979, to publicly criticize Ceauqescu. Also, in March 1989, he was among the signatories of the so-called "letter of the six" communist apparatchiks, who criticized Ceau~escu's aberrant policies. The quoted phrase was formulated during the meeting of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the R.C.P. on 8 April 1969, at a time when the support for Ceau~escu was unanimous. See the transcript of this meeting in lnstitutul National pentru Memoria Exilului RomPnesc [National lnstitutefor the Memory of the Ro-

P.C.R. [Romanians in exile, emigration and Diaspora. Documents from the former Archive of the C.C. ofR.C.P], Bucharest 2006, S. 172.


the trips in the communist countries were put under tighter surveillance: in- dividually-organized vacations, although still permitted, were in fact increasingly discouraged by bureaucratic methods. As for the criteria applied in the verification of the potential tourists, these were of course never officially rec- ognized as such. One could only infer a pattern from the experience of those in one's milieu and from the numerous words of mouth. First of all, the ap- plications of those who had former political prisoners among family members or other problems with in their "files" were systematically refused. Passports were denied with no explanation above all to those who had relatives abroad. The motives of rejection gradually surpassed the purely political verifications, and extended to various potentially problematic categories, such as those who were single - not married or divorced - then to those without children to finally become random. The only issue that became clear throughout the 1970s was that fewer and fewer were allowed to travel in western countries, while tourism in the communist countries became strictly controlled.

Thus, the main form of traveling outside the country remained the group organized through a state institution and led by a tourist guide. Such trips were more easily available to the otherwise increasing number of Romanians will- ing to visit other countries. In this case, the filters of selecting the individuals allowed to travel were multiplied: the since responsibility for each individual's return belonged not only to the regional party organization and the secret service branch, which issued the passport, but also to the institution through which the group was organized and in particular to the local party-controlled organization^.^ In addition, in such excursions, tourists could have been not only better checked before permitted to leave the country, but also put under surveillance during their travel: the group guides were customarily spying for the Securitate. The files produced by this institution illustrate that the individuals allowed to guide tourists abroad had in exchange the duty to inform on

trips was restricted to the fraternal communist countries in Europe. These destinations would be later diversified to include Asian communist destinations: The People's Republic of China and The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, as it can be seen in the issues of 1976 and 1977. From 1978, any advertisement for trips outside Romania disappeared.

5 In Romania, all individuals had to be members of a party-controlled organization. If they were not in the party, the communist youth, the pioneers, etc., then they were affiliated to an organization entitled F.U.S. (The Front of the Socialist Unity), established in 1974, and renamed F.D.U.S. (The Front of the Socialist Democracy and Unity) in 1980. The national leader of this umbrella organization was constantly Nicolae Ceau~escu. The compulsory membership in such organizations represents a perfect illustration of the threefold character- istic of totalitarianism as defined by Juan Linz: a regime with a monistic center of power, an exclusive ideology, and active mobilization of citizens channeled through party-controlled organizations. Juan J. Linz: Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes, Boulder 2000, S. 70.


very well that institutionalized practice. It is said that the reception desks of hotels on the Black Sea coast displayed the following multilingual message for the incoming guests: Welcome / Herzlich willkommen / Soyez les bienvenus / Nu avem locuri, which in Romanian means: No vacancies. During the 1970% the number of foreign tourists in Romania was indeed significant, especially on the Black Sea coast. At that time, a western tourist could make a holiday in the new seaside resorts without lacking the standards to which he was used to, but spending less money than in a western country. The recently built hotels were matching at that time those of the Italian or French Riviera, the entertainment business was allowed to inspire itself from western models, while the economic crisis did not yet affect the country. In addition, the Romanian seaside triggered many Eastern tourists who either lacked a sea littoral or had only a cold one: East Germans, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, and Hungarians. This flourishing tourism on the Black Sea coast was also boosted by the i~nmense and partially undeserved wave of sympathy that Ceau~escu received for its criticism of the invasion in Czechoslovakia. In short, in the 1970s, westerners and easterners alike preferred Romania not only because the services received there were good value for money, but also because the maverick position in the Soviet bloc made it potentially more interesting than similar destinations. These foreign tourists provided the huge grey market that developed on the beaches with goods that no Romanian had ever seen in local shops. To con- clude, while during the 1970s the opportunities to travel outside the country were severely limited, the Black Sea coast became the "West inside the coun- v," the small enclave where Romania seemed different at least during the short summer holidays.

The glamour of tourism on the Black Sea coast would fade away by the end of the 1970s, and after a period of agony it vanished by the beginning of the 1980s, marking the inception of the third and final stage of transnational tourism under communism in Romania. Two unrelated factors triggered this rather gradual transition. Chronologically, the first blow to the flourishing industry of tourism to Romania came from Comrade Ceau~escu and his wife. Following the trend of concentrating all decisions at the highest level in order to achieve control over activities at all levels, the party meetings arrived by the end of the 1970s to discuss such issues as the smallest details related to the

10 Arecently published article on tourism on the Black Sea coast gives voice to nostalgic memories related to the holidays on the seaside under communism. Former chiefs of disco-bars, hotels and restaurants, former artists and entertainers, as well as simple tourists, remember the golden days of tourism in the 1970s. Anca Nicoleanu, ,,Litoralul in epoca de aur" [The

: Black Sea coast during the 'golden epoch '1, in: Cotidianul, 31 July 2008; Internet www. cotidianul.ro, accessed on 3 1 July 2008.

Cristina Petrescu

organization of entertainment for foreign tourists in Romania.ll The Secretary General of the R.C.P. decided in July 1977 that all restaurants, bars and disco- bars, which used to function all night, should be closed by 1 a.m. Backed by his wife, he would not listen to any counter-arguments, maintaining that the working people must rest during holidays and loud music did not allow them to.I2 According to the persons involved in organizing tourism at the Black Sea, it seemed that representatives of western traveling agencies, such as TUI or Neckermann, managed to speak to Ceau~escu later on, attempting to persuade him to reverse this decision. Nevertheless, the Romanian leader did not change his mind. On the contrary, in the 1980s, the program of the entertaining places will be further restricted: all would close at 9 p.m.I3 The above-described epi- sodes give a hint of Ceau~escu's dogmatic thinking: economic profit was only of secondary importance as compared to ideology. Ironically enough, while agricultural and, to the extent possible, the industrial production were destined primarily to be exported for the sake of repaying the external debts, tourism industry - which could have brought its contribution of hard currency to this national effort - fell victim to the ideology.

It was however the Romanian economic crisis of the 1980s, the most vis- ible and devastating in the Soviet bloc, that represented the second and more

I1 To better understand the context in which the attention of the supreme leader was directed upon such a detail issue, it must be added that the transcripts of the meetings of the Execu- tive Political Committee - the new name of the Politburo under Ceau~escu -illustrate that by the end of the 1970s the decision-making process had reached an unbelievable degree of centralization. The author had researched the years 1977-78, which are the latest available under the existing legal provision of 30 years of closure. The reader of such documents is given the impression that everything that was going on in Romania must have been approved by Ceau~escu, beginning with the position of Drag07 VodB's (a medieval ruler of Moldova) new statue and ending to the price of the Romanian-made computer Felix. It is this trend that would lead to the bureaucratic paralysis of the economy in the late 1980s. Romanian Histori- cal National Archives (A.N.I.C.), Fond C.C. of the R.C.P.. Section Chancellery, 1977-1978.

12 Transcript of the meeting of the Executive Political Committee of the C.C. of the R.C.P. on 14 July 1977, A.N.I.C., Fond C.C. of the R.C.P., Section Chancellery, file 8411977. It is also interesting to note that during this meeting Ceau~escu specifically asked for the increase of the tariffs for Russian tourists, without caring whether these would cease to come to Roma- nia in response.

13 Viorel PBunescu, former manager of entertaining facilities and current mogul of tourism industry, argues that the two Ceau~escus must be blamed for the stagnation of transnational tourism in Romania in the 1980s. The restrictions they introduced in the program of the bars, disco-bars and even restaurants discouraged the foreigners to come to Romania. Nicoleanu, ,,Litoralul in epoca de aur." I t should also be observed that even the entertainment shows staged for western tourists must have observed the socialist ethics, which was regulated by party decisions. Striptease, for instance, was explicitly forbidden under communism. Note of the Agitprop Section of the R.C.P. from 8 July 1968, A.N.I.C., Fond C.C. al P.C.R.. Section Agitprop, file 511 968.


however mostly applicable to trips outside the Soviet bloc: the Berlin Wall was after all the material expression of this general limitation. All communist elites were aware that in order to preserve the system, the Iron Curtain had to remain as impenetrable as possible. That the severe limitation of circulation was instrumental in assuring the survival of these regimes one could see in 1989, when the entire communist bloc was destabilized only by the opening of the border between Hungary and Austria. Thus, it can be said that, the passport was a commodity in very short supply under communism. The per- mit to leave the country could have been obtained in many cases only after bribing, as a returned favor or in exchange for collaboration with the secret police." In Romania of the 1980s, the communist regime nearly banned not only the trips to western countries, but also the individual trips to the other socialist states. During the last decade prior to the Revolution of 1989, transnational tourism was reduced to the state-organized forms of traveling in groups, within which an individual could be better controlled by the others beginning with the guide, always a secret-police informer. What is more, after the middle of the 1980s, one could no longer go on a journey to Poland or Hungary even in a group. The only countries to which the Bucharest regime

Czechoslovakia, the G.D.R., and Bulgaria, since their regimes were as ideo- logically strict as the Romanian one. However, Romanians were still allowed to the Soviet Union even in the late 1980s, in spite of the obvious antipathy between Ceau~escu and Gorbachev.

These increasingly restrictive conditions were a direct consequence of the widening gap between Romania and the rest of the communist bloc. While all ffatemal countries were struggling to introduce more or less radical reforms destined to save their regimes from collapse, the Romanian authorities never tried to change anything in the ossified party-state organization of society.'' The sacrifices asked from the Romanian citizens for the sake of preserving the alleged independence of the country by paying all external debts had resulted in a generalized shortage of all basic goods that had no correspondent in any

17 About the deals made in order to get a passport, see Traian Ungureanu: Despre Securitate. Rominia, tara "ca ~i cum" [On Securitate. Romania, the countly of "as zf 'j, Bucharest 2006; and Neculai Constantin Munteanu: Ultimii Sapte ani de-acasi. Un ziarist in dosarele Securititii [The last seven years at home. A Journalist in thejiles oj'the Securitate], Bucha-

18 The central thesis of Vladimir Tismineanu: Stalinism for All Seasons. A Political History of Romanian Communism, Berkeley 2003, is that the Romanian leaders never attempted to re- form the system out of the fear to loose control over the party and the country as a whole, and trigger in this way an intervention from the Soviet Union similar to that in Czechoslovakia

Cristina Petrescu

other, the human decay in Romania in the late 1980s. Remembering that as a child he used to go every evening near the railroad to wait for the international train in the hope that people would throw candies or chewing gum out of the window, the respective person expressed his gratitude for the Milka Chocolate that he had received one evening. The memory of the "the violet packing filled with happiness," as he put it, also triggered a bitter reflection: "I remember with embarrassment in what kind of misery communism put us through if we, kids, used to beg near the train (obviously, without our parents knowing) ... Every time when I hear a nostalgic, I remember those moments and have in- stantly the impulse to swear at him." To sum up, while shortages of various basic goods occurred in every communist countries at various times, Romania came to be known by the late 1980s as the country where nothing was to be found in shops, the country where people must have been starving as during

A second form of redistributing goods internationally was the package received,from abroad. If the trade in international trains was mostly meant to fill personal needs, as the amount of goods circulated in this way could not have been great, these packages constituted also an important supplier of the grey market. Obviously, only the few fortunate people with relatives or close friends abroad had such an opportunity to procure goods in short supply. Most of such packages were received from the West, and the most common goods sent by post were electronics. Recollections from that period speak about the

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22 The person who bears witness also asked himseIf how come the people in the train knew that children were begging there and wonders how news about the misery in Romania had spread in the West. To the knowledge of this author, Romania came to be internationally known as the country that underwent the deepest misery in the Soviet bloc through the documentary of a Belgian journalist, Josy Dubie, entitled The Red Disaster, which shocked a large audience worldwide. This documentary was first broadcast by the Belgian television on 7 December 1988, few days before the fortieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The great audience registered during its first broadcasting made other tele- visions, the Swiss, the Swedish. the Norwegian, the Portuguese, the French, the Italian, and even the Hungarian to include it in their programs. The film showed a situation so appalling for individuals used to live in a normal civilized world. that only those old enough could assimilate it with something from their personal experience: the war memories. Things such as completely empty shops seemed all the more intriguing that this was happening not in the impoverished Third World, but in a European country that could have been reached by plane in only two hours. In addition, the destruction of Bucharest reminded to some only of the disaster following bombardments. For the impact of this film, see Emil Hurezeanu: "Cazul Doinei Cornea in actualitate 11'' [Doina Cornea's case in attention, part II], 22 December 1988, OSAIRFE Archives, Romanian Fond, 30016013lBox 7, File Dissidents: Doina Cornea ( 1987-1988).

Cristina Petrescu

of such goods gradually changed to include canned food, powder milk, medi- cines, torches, petrol lamps. In short, basic products in everyday life destined to counterbalance the food shortages and alleviate the daily cuts of heating and electric power.28 It is interesting to note that such goods were also brought from the neighboring communist countries, where the economic crisis never reached the same level as in Romania. What is more, to the redistribution of goods contributed even those who were in the party apparatus, whose special shops were also affected by the deep crisis of the 1980s. It is worth mention- ing the story of a diplomat who tried in 1988 to leave the U.S.S.R. with his diplomatic case full of sausages and salami. Normally such suitcases were ex- empted from the customs control, but as the food smelled too powerfully, the Soviet officers forced him to open it, making the Romanian diplomat to look foolish. This represents another telling example that illustrates the dimensions of scarcity in Romania as compared to the rest of the communist bloc.

Finally, border trafic was another form of redistributing goods. It was a significant, but a restrictive practice, from which only those who lived in the small strip of 20 km from the border could benefit. Only these persons were legally allowed to travel up to 30 km across the border once a month and to spend an amount of money of 250 Romanian lei, which represented approxi- mately one eighth of an average salary before 1989. This arrangement was reciprocal, so that those from the neighboring countries could also come to Romania to sell various items. Inhabitants from a village near the border with Hungary remember how this border traffic changed patterns over time. In the 1960s, it was the Hungarians who used to come to Romania to buy things that were in short supply at home, while the Romanians did not really make use of this opportunity. The Hungarians continued to come until the 1970s, and their products were bought by Romanians not because these would have been in short supply on the local market, but because those made in the neighboring country were of higher quality. Finally, in the 1980s, Hungarians ceased to come, while the Romanians, pushed by the shortages at home, made a habit from the allowed cross-border monthly trip. As basically nothing was to be

him to pay a large fee. As this was too large to be worth paying, the respective person had to hand over the bottle to the greedy custom officers, who were just expecting this result. Instead of offering them the bottle, he pretended to have dropped it on the floor by accident just to deprive them of a luxurious capture. Morar: "Pove~ti cu banane sub communism."

28 The current president of Romania. Traian Biisescu, who used to be a commercial marine officer under communism, remembers that he had to bring home from his trips abroad such items as powder milk for his small children or gas lamps to fight the everyday cold in the apartments. interview given by Traian BBsescu to Rodica Palade, in: Revista 22, No. 801, 12-18 July 2005, Internet www.revista22.ro; accessed on 31 July 2008.


found in Romanian shops, such one-day trips needed a long preparation: the things that could have been sold had to be obtained either from the grey market or by stealing from the producing factories. The selling price sometimes did not even match that of the acquisition, as many of the goods in short supply in Romania were easily accessible in the shops across the borders. Only if one sold really cheap one could convince the Hungarians to buy. In this way, Romanians were able to buy the basic goods and in particular the food stuff, which were harder and harder to get even on the grey market.29 In short, during the 1980s border traffic turned into a survival strategy in the severe conditions of economic crisis, and emerged as an important path of supplying the secondary economy, in spite of the fact that it could have been practiced only by those living near the border. It was in particular the border traffic with Yugoslavia and Hungary that transformed the city of Timi~oara into the place of the greatest grey market in the country, which in turn supplied the smaller markets flourishing in all the major urban centers.I0

Turning back to transnational tourism, it must be underlined that such activity indeed contributed to the redistribution of scarce goods aside from the other four above mentioned forms. The scope of the small commerce related to transnational tourism however evolved through time. If in the very beginning the buy-and-sell activity was driven only by the need to get more pocket money in order to procure the desired things, such an activity developed later into a lucrative business. In this respect, some people engaged in this semi-legal commerce only for the sake of covering their travel expenses. However, others really transformed transnational tourism into a real "business"", in direct connection with the expanding secondary economy, along the lines described

29 An interesting analysis of border traffic between Romania and Hungary in the 1980s in the village of Sbntana, county of Arad, is Liviu Chelcea and Puiu Lgtea: "Cultura penuriei. Bunuri, strategii $i practici de consum in Romdnia anilor '80" [The culture of shortage. Goods, strategies and practices of conslrmption in Romtrt~ia of the 1980~1, in: Adrian Ne- culau (ed.): Viata cotidiang sub communism [Eve~dtry Ilfe under communism], Iaqi 2004,

30 The grey market in Timiqoara was organized every Sunday. It was supplied with very diverse foreign products from the border traffic with Hungary and Yugoslavia, or from the packages received mostly by the German minority members from their relatives in the F.R.G. This market, as well as those in all the major cities of Romania of the 1980s, could not have functioned without the tacit approval of the police and the local authorities. Such weekend grey markets functioned usually on an empty terrain in the urban outskirts. but in same places even in the framework of the food and vegetable market, which was anyway empty.

31 It is worth noting that the individuals that used to buy and sell things on the grey market were called in Romania bi~tiifari, which is a Romanian word originating in the English word

Entrepreneurial Tourism in Romania 133

to market criteria, very few alien tourists ventured in this country. At the same time, the transnational tourism as practiced by Romanians was gradually reduced to a strategy of muddling through the hardships of the economic crisis. Emerging from the very beginning as a form of redistributing scarce goods, transnational tourism represented a system-stabilizing factor in the 1970s as it allowed those who practiced it to procure goods that were unavailable on the local market. Some such tourists even became suppliers of the secondary economy, at least partially supplementing the faulty official economy. How- ever, in the Romania ofthe 1980s, transnational tourism turned into a system- subversive factor. While shortages were too great to be covered by the grey market, tourists traveling anywhere outside Romania could see with their own eyes to what extent everyday life in their own country decayed. If transnational tourism did not directly contribute to the upheaval against communism, it certainly instilled the idea that the regime of Ceau~escu was the worst in the Soviet bloc. Those Romanians who went to protest against the communist regime in December 1989 did not have a clear idea about the type of the regime they wanted to live in. They only knew one thing: the regime in which they lived had to be brought to an end at all costs.

1 Mit der offnunu der Grenzen innerhalb des Ostbl~ks, mil dem Austausch VM Vertramarbeitern und Studenten und der Grundung von Kulturinstituten suchten die staatssozialistischen Regime einen lebendigsn Kontakt zwischen den Brudenrolkrn zu etablieren. Diess wtfansnationalen Zwischanr8umea schufen ~ g l e i c h Freifaume altw- nativw Glturen und Lebensstile, firderten einen urnfaasanden, ge- radezu sprichwirtlichen Sckleichhandel und stabilisierten schlfe6lich die wed\seIseitOge Ablehnung In der Zwanggemeinschaft des Staats- sozlalismus. Die hier versammelten BeiMLge ost- und westeuropil- ischer Zeitkistodker errniglichen tiefe Einblicke in zentrak Fragen etnw AlEtagsgeschichta .dm Staatssozialismus und zeichnen ein farbigm Blfd voOer Qannungen zwischen ataatlicher Krmtrolle und alMglicham Eigenln.