- Name: Viorel (Vio) Munteanu
- Born: 1948
- Birthplace: Socialist Republic of Romania, Brașov
- Overcome Story: Forced to switch jobs or be sent to the Danube Canal by security service
- Interview: August 2022
- Links:
Full story (6m).
In July 2022, Viorel (Vio) Munteanu is an electrician and a tour guide. He showed us the amazing city of Brasov, Romania. Born in 1948, he tells his all too common experience with the Communist/Socialist (C/S) regime in Romania. A subtle, and persistent threat, with coercion and fear for one’s livelihood, was familiar to many in C/S Romania. Here is a short paraphrased summary:
To be further promoted in my job, I was “recruited” to join the Communist Party. In a union meeting, I finally got called out in front of forty-eight of my peers. Instead of declining outright, I asked if electricity cared about party affiliation; and therefore why it matters for my job if I do or do not join the party. For my insolence, I was threatened with hard labor at the Danube Canal unless I could find another job. Thankfully, I found somewhere else to work and so the incident was forgotten.
Many years later after the revolution, I brought a bottle of wine to the security officer to thank him for giving me the opportunity to seek another job and for not immediately sending me to hard labor at the canal or some mine. I learned that eight people from the union meeting had come forward to snitch on me that infamous day.
Discussion Questions:
- How would you feel if your promotion or livelihood depended on joining an organization you disagreed with or did not care about?
- Would you go along with joining the party or would you refuse? What if you had a family and dependents, could you afford to refuse?
- Why would friends snitch on each other to authorities?
- How does a society get to the point where friends snitch on friends to authorities?