Authors

Discussion

As in other socialist countries of the former Soviet bloc, state-owned media during Romania’s communist era were censored and monopolised, essentially used as mouthpieces for the Romanian Communist Party (RCP) and to serve an authoritarian ruler. Following the establishment of the Romanian People’s Republic in 1947, all opposition media were banned, and the RCP had full editorial control of the media and cultural institutions, such as printing and publishing houses. Media outlets were used to impose the Party’s ideological content, educate the masses and influence public opinion, with the aim of creating a homogenous society isolated from the rest of the world, both east and west of Romania’s borders. Dissent through media outlets from within the country was out of the question and circulating underground magazines, such as samizdat literature, was widely impossible and only emerged as a practice in the mid 1980s. However, Western radio stations reached Romania, and they were critical of the regime. Longstanding opposition came from the Vatican, through Radio Vatican, and from the US, through Voice of America and Radio Free Europe(RFE). Although it was risky to listen to these Western radio stations, they were instrumental in providing alternative channels of information and created an imagined political community for Romanian listeners during the Cold War. Many dissidents, political refugees and exiles became reliable messengers for cross-Iron Curtain communication flows, despite the criminalisation of contact with foreigners; those who were caught communicating with foreigners risked harassment or imprisonment. Considered Cold War instruments of anti-communist propaganda, Western radio stations used narrative tools to create ‘imagined communities’ at transnational level and offer listeners glimpses of political freedom and a sense of belonging. This, in turn, helped people to mentally endure divisions and tensions during the Cold War. Against this backdrop, the aim of my paper is to explore the notions of ‘imagined communities’ and ‘resistance through culture’ by focusing on Radio Free Europe’s (RFE) broadcasts in Romania. The paper draws on extensive archival research at the Blinken Open Society Archive in Budapest to investigate the extent to which RFE was used to ‘speak out’ and counter the ideologies of the regime in different ways, whilst simultaneously creating a sense of belonging for Romanian RFE listeners.