The Revolution, as Seen Through the Eyes of Students

If we look at the revolution from December 1989 from the perspective of nowadays students, things tend to look rather blurry. Most of them were toddlers at the time and some were not even born yet. The shift from communism to democracy is often presented briefly in the media, but the young people from today can barely grasp what it felt like to be part of those events that kept Romania with bated breath twenty years ago. This edition of DocumFest, entitled “1989 – the Eastern European Revolutions”, speaks precisely for the young people who didn’t get the chance to write history in 1989, but are willing to hear the story. Here’s what some students know about the event:

“First of all, people need to know what communism meant in order to understand what triggered the revolution. They should understand the type of system that ruled before 1989, compared to today’s democracy and notice the difference between the two. Only then can we speak about how the revolution began, who initiated it and how it spread.”
(Ştefan, Informatics Faculty, 2nd year)

“I wasn’t in Timisoara at that time, I only saw the event on TV. I know that the revolution started on 16th of December, it ended on the 22nd and that during that time, Ion Iliescu set up the National Salvation Front. A documentary film festival about this event would be very interesting. There are still many things we need to know.”
(Andrei, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Science, Master, 2nd year).

“I was just two. I couldn’t understand what was going on. I know that people died and the situation got violent. Fortunately, my parents don’t live here, so we were not exposed to the danger. I think a documentary film festival about the revolution in 1989 is highly recommended because there are so many Romanians who don’t have a clue about what went on then. The revolution started in Timisoara because some students threw a picture of Nicolae Ceausescu in the Bega river. And from Timisoara, it was disseminated in other cities too. This is how the riots began.”
(Roxana, Faculty of Letters, 3rd year)

“I don’t know too much about what happened then, but from what I have been seeing on TV and what my parents told me, the fall of communism was a very good idea. Many things were forbidden then, we didn’t have too many liberties, and there were constraints. It is very important to host a documentary film festival on this matter, because young people don’t know too much about the events in December.”
(Ana, Faculty of Communication and Public Relations).

“People rebelled against the communist system, and everything began with a students’ movement. After the events in Timisoara, the movement that opposed the communist regime was adopted by other big cities and then by the entire country.”
(Mihai, Faculty of Mathematics, Master, 2nd year)

“The revolution from 1989 is one of the greatest events in Romanian history, after the Great Union and the two world wars. It was an event which made us pay with blood for our freedom. Many young people sacrificed their lives so that we can now enjoy our freedom of thought, be able to travel without constraints, to perform financial and economical transactions globally and to open our minds. I was only three when the revolution took place, so later I became very interested in what happened then. As I grew older, I tried to find more about what happened and for this reason I believe that a documentary film festival is a great way of getting accustomed with what the communist regime truly meant for Romania. It is extremely useful for those who don’t know, to find out how people lived back then, what happened in 1989 and what is the difference between then and now. Young people need to acknowledge the privilege of living in a capitalist society.”
(Alin Ionesc, Faculty of Economy and Business Administration, Master 2nd year)

Andrei Forte