Survey: Almost 50% of Romanians believe that the communist regime was good for Romania and that life was better

Almost 50% of Romanians believe that the communist regime was a good thing for Romania, the percentage being on the rise compared to 10 years ago, according to the data of an INSCOP survey commissioned by News.ro. Also, over 46% of Romanians believe that before 1989 life was better than now.

The director of the INSCOP institute states that there are both objective and subjective explanations for understanding this phenomenon. 48.1% of Romanians believe that the communist regime meant a good thing for Romania (compared to 45.5% in November 2013), while 42.3% believe that the communist regime meant a bad thing for our country (compared to of 44.7% in November 2013). 9.7% of those surveyed do not know or do not answer this question (compared to 9.7% in November 2013), according to the INSCOP survey.

Also, 46.4% of Romanians believe that before 1989 life was better compared to the current situation (compared to 44.4% in November 2013); 34.2% believe that life was worse (compared to 33.6% in November 2013), and 13.7% that it was the same (compared to 15.6% in November 2013). 5.7% of the total sample do not know or do not answer (compared to 6.4% in November 2013).

“I think that before 1989, life was better compared to the current situation, especially: people with primary education, the inactive potentially active, the inhabitants of the countryside and from the southern or eastern regions, those with a lower income”, reveals the socio- demographic.

“Apparently it is shocking that almost half of Romanians declare that the communist regime meant a good thing for Romania and almost half declare that life was better during the communist period than today. The objective reality and absolutely all the data clearly show that today’s standard of living, national wealth, rights and freedoms are clearly superior to the situation before 1989. However, the public perception is different, but there are some explanations, some partially objective, others partially subjective, which feeds this acute feeling of nostalgia. Among them are: the strong conjunctural dissatisfaction of the population with the present marked by the successive crises of recent years, culminating in the galloping inflation that seriously affected the standard of living, the unequal distribution of the national wealth at present, which greatly increases the differences between the categories affected by poverty and the population that has medium-high incomes, the personal nostalgia of a part of the population towards the period of their own youth, the process of socialization and education of young people who learn from nostalgic sources about the illusory advantages of that period (secure job, house insured by state), the stimulation of some myths from the communist period through aggressive campaigns carried out by political vectors, especially in the online space. All of this led to a mythologizing of the benefits of communism for ever wider sections of the population, currently fueling, against the backdrop of collective memory atrophy, unfortunate political choices. Countering this trend is a broader responsibility that belongs to the intellectual elites, the political, economic elites and the mass media”, said Remus Ştefureac, director of INSCOP Research, quoted by News.ro.