Usually this sort of title leads to an article about the horrors of Nazism. This page is a bit different. It deals with horrors which the mainstream of modern historians and philosophers try to evade or forget - the crimes of Communism in the 20th century. The reason for this evasion is simple to understand. Most of the intellectuals still believe that the basic ideas behind Communism are generous and that only the implementation failed. Different reasons are given: bad places, bad people, bad moments.
The purpose of this page, and the pages soon to follow, is to illustrate, using philatelic materials, how Communism was chosen (or imposed) and what consequences it had for people who were forced to live under it for long decades, sometimes their entire lives. The horrible time of Nazism had a duration of about 12 years and finished over 50 years ago, but it is still fully in the center of attention. Unfortunately we hear much less about the fate of over a billion people who today live under communism. This short historical presentation, based on philatelic material, is therefore more relevant then ever.
ROMANIA: THE DANUBE - BLACK SEA CANAL
The Souvenir Sheet presented below (year 1985, Scott 3270, Michel 216) still evokes bad memories for many Romanians. It shows the opening ceremony in Cernavoda, where the former President and the General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party, Nicolae Ceausescu (sometimes written as Ceaucescu), and his wife Elena inaugurated the new canal.
The first work on this canal started at the beginning of the 1950's. The freshly installed Communist regime decided to eliminate many people it declared as enemies and to silence the rest of the population at the same time. The Canal was an immense concentration camp, with many thousands of prisoners. The majority were not allowed to have overcoats during the very cold local winters nor to receive medical aid. A lot of prisoners died of cold, inhuman working and living conditions, and lack of medical attention.
In 1951, in a set dedicated to the 1951-1955 Five Year Plan (a plan that failed miserably, like all others that followed), the 6 Lei value was dedicated to the Danube - Black Sea Canal (Scott 799-818, Michel 1276-1285).
Work was stopped in 1953 and, after a parody of a trial, some state-employed engineers, who were not camp internees, were shot for allegedly sabotaging the project. Interestingly enough, for a long period (approximately 1955 - 1990) this stamp was banned from the Romanian catalogues and from the state philatelic commerce. It was a sore reminder of a never finished canal - a project that those in power felt was best forgotten. Possibly there were too many bad memories even for these former criminals elevated to seats of power.
Thirty years later, Romanian President Ceausescu, a loyal follower of these criminals, restarted this megalomaniacal project and, spending billions of dollars that his starving country badly needed, succeeded in finishing the works. Even though finished, the result was, and remains, totally useless. At the time the project was restarted, water transportation had already started to be replaced by road transport, a development that only accelerated later.
Romanian inflation
The results of the suicidal politics of the former Communist leaders and their later
followers can still be perceived today, even on stamps. Take as an example the stamp displayed
on the left (Sura Dacilor Lodge, Brasov, Scott 4219). True, it may look better in
the overprinted version of 1998 than the original of 1991, but
notice the inflation rate of over 5500%, and the quite
suggestive image of the archer who tries, unsuccessfully, to hide
the old value. My only objection to the design of the overprint
is that the archer should be pointing much higher than the roof!
In the Feb. 1999 edition of Scott Stamp Monthly, this stamp appeared with the very appropriate caption: "Stamps that need all the help they can get". (p. 107)
Another example is the stamp Abies Alba,
issued in 1994 and recently overprinted, where the red overprinted rabbit makes a jump from 15L to 4150L
(a 27700% increase, or over 5000% per year). Here the rabbit could eventually be replaced by a hawk.
I present on the right an interesting combination of Romanian
stamps, just received on a postcard. The Airbus A 310 stamp was
issued in 1994 and was recently overprinted with a dirigible
airship, possibly in the hope of a slow down of inflation.
Control of inflation is a precondition set by the European Community for the countries that wish to join, and, by chance, the stamp on the right shows the flags of Romania and of the EC.
Notice that the postcard took 5 days to travel from Azuga to Bucharest (about 100 Km or 60 miles) and another 5 days from Bucharest to Switzerland (over 2000 Km). The first part of the trip was apparently made on an airship...
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