Collectibles

Romanians collected many things that American teenagers wouldn’t have thought worth collecting or were collected more by previous generations here. One thing I haven’t come across is soccer or other sports cards. Instead people collected the tickets. Not much LEGO, very few Walkmans (tapes weren’t sold in stores) no Gameboys or Nintendo (no batteries inContinue reading “Collectibles”

Book Censorship

Here is my collection of books of dissident authors, poets, playwrights and journalists. Some are banned writers publishing outside of Romania or emigres living in such places as Hungary, Germany, France, Spain and the U.S. In Romania from the late forty’s until 1989, intellectuals and writers were imprisoned, sentenced to hard labor, had their worksContinue reading “Book Censorship”

Phone (and TV) Tapping

This is a continuation of yesterday’s blog entry showing the “new” phone models. The excerpt here from Pacepa’s 1987 book shows the connivance behind the introduction of the colorful phones. The extent of the control over Romanian’s daily lives is mind blowing. From Ion Mihai Pacepa’s “Red Horizons” Pages I35-137 “ “Approved [Ceausescu speaks] StartingContinue reading “Phone (and TV) Tapping”

Three Models in Five Colors

These are a few examples of telephones developed by the intelligence service to listen in on room conversations even when the handset was in its cradle. The innocuous looking phone had three wires, as opposed to our two in the U.S. I can only guess that the third wire was a microphone wire? To listenContinue reading “Three Models in Five Colors”

CIA: Prospects for 1985

This entry is shortened from a CIA report dated 3/85 and was declassified in 2010. It goes into good detail about the cause and effect of the exporting of products that were desperately needed by the Romanian people. These severe shortages were the result of the “vigorous pursuit of debt reduction” and the energy crises.Continue reading “CIA: Prospects for 1985”