What is it like to have your vote disregarded, your property confiscated, and your freedom limited? The Museum of Communism for Children invites its young audience to ponder questions about these topics while introducing them to the realities of the period Romania experienced not so long ago in an engaging manner.

In 2022, the non-profit Pitești Prison Memorial Foundation opened the Museum of Communism for Children to help kids and teenagers get acquainted with the recent period in the country's history by using games and workshops.

The museum was created by the team behind the Pitești Prison Memorial, a privately run museum housed in the former Pitești Prison, known as the site of the infamous Pitești Phenomenon (Pitești Experiment). Here, political prisoners, many of them students, were "reeducated" through torture to turn them into supporters of communism. In the process, they were forced to become torturers, victim turning into perpetrator before the roles would switch again. 

The Museum of Communism for Children has developed in a six-room section of the former prison, for which the foundation also obtained historical monument status to protect it from any demolition attempts. It started by taking up two rooms used for exhibitions and workshops, but later expanded to all six, which is its current format. The team also developed a textbook and workbook on the history of communism, and various workshops on the topic. They are part of the foundation’s broader work to honor the memory of the victims of the communist regime and the survivors of communist prisons, while documenting the history of the site in Pitești but also that period, which some feel nostalgic about today.

A survey released in July by the Institute for the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism (IICCMER) showed 55.8% of respondents thought communism was a good thing for Romania, 66.2% that Nicolae Ceaușescu was a good leader, and 48.4% believed people lived better during communism, among other things.

For Maria Axinte, the president of the Pitești Prison Memorial Foundation, this is nothing new. "In the Romanian society, we could already tell that there's some kind of emotion rising in relation to Ceaușescu's era because today's times are weird, confusing, and difficult for some people. So, it's only natural that we go back to our youth. When you're young, everything is better. I think this nostalgia is more likely related to youth," she explains, when asked what she made of the survey.

"Then, we also saw that people in their 30s, born in '89 or after the 1989 Revolution, have some kind of nostalgia towards communism, which is not necessarily transmitted by parents, but it's acquired by whatever means. I'm really not sure why young people today are nostalgic. I think it's also these mythical times that we think about: in the past, everything was mythical. Whether we talk about Ceauşescu's era, the interwar period, or other eras, we always think about things as being better than today. Of course, this is dangerous because it means we didn't fully understand communism and what it meant. But this we can find in universities worldwide, where people say that communism was a good idea, but it was implemented badly. Actually, this is the idea that made us start the Museum of Communism for Children: that communism was, in essence, a good thing, but it was badly put to work. We know it's not true, and communism was bad from the beginning. It was not a good idea, and it proved that it can kill so many people, even today. I think we just have to move on and find other systems, not go back to whatever went wrong and do it again because it's not going to work."

Several museums in the country, opened as private initiatives, currently cover private life under communism. The publicly funded Museum of Communist Horrors in Romania (MOCR) presently lacks the headquarters to showcase its collection. Its administrative offices are located within the National Library of Romania in Bucharest, and various other museums and venues host the exhibitions and cultural projects it organizes. With funding from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), several museums aiming to educate about oppression under the communist regime are being refurbished or built, Europa FM reported this month.

Asked why she thinks there are few museums dealing with the repression, she points to what happened in the country after 1989.

"I think it relates a lot to what happened after the fall of communism in Romania, when most of the people who worked inside the communist party, inside the secret police, continued functioning in the new society. And they are still functioning now: their relatives, their friends, and so on. This is nothing new in Romania. If we make museums about repression, we talk about violence, and there's a perpetrator. If there's a perpetrator, we have to talk about them, say their name, and clarify the situation. So, we have perpetrators and victims; we don't have only victims. If we talk about the people who inflicted the harm and who led the repression, then we talk about people who are somehow connected to people in power today. Of course, there's not a political will or, let's say, society will, because these people are part of the society and the political world. This is something that we need to work on. We've tried since 1989, with the Timişoara Proclamation and all the rules we tried to set at the time, not to let people who belonged to the former Communist Party function in our political world after 89. We still haven't managed to do that. […]" Additionally, museums dealing with repression can be heavier emotionally, while few researchers deal with the topic, and funding is sparse, she explains.

Making things relatable

The Piteşti Prison Memorial only works with children older than 12, an age threshold the initiators of the project set believing the topic is not suitable for younger audiences.

"Having so many kids wanting to visit the prison and not being able to actually tell them about communism really made us want to do something more for the younger generation. This is how we started doing workshops, exhibitions for children," Maria Axinte explains.

At the museum, children discover real cases of children affected by communist repression in Romania, including minors who were politically imprisoned, some as young as eight or nine, and children born in prison. "The youngest political prisoner was 13 when he was arrested. We also had children that were arrested by the communist authorities at eight or nine to pressure their parents or for different reasons. Again, politically driven arrests, but they were released. We also had children who were born in prisons. We had a lot of cases that we could talk about with children. So, we started from this."

The workshops revealed a lot about the children's knowledge of communism, including an awareness of the repression and political prisons. "We had no idea what kids today, seven or ten years old, knew about communist, political prisons. It was a surprise to learn that they actually knew, and they had grandparents who were imprisoned by the communist regime, maybe parents or grandparents who were active during the events in the 1989 Revolution - state coup. It was interesting to know that they had more knowledge than we expected. Of course, everybody could name Ceaușescu, but some could actually name Gheorghe Gheorghiu Dej, the first communist leader of Romania. He's really not well known. He deserves to be better known for his actions against all these people who were imprisoned."

In the workshops, the approach depends on how informed the group is. When participants already have some knowledge of communism, it becomes easier to have a discussion focused on people's experiences at the time, such as having their votes disregarded or losing their property. "When we have kids that don't know much about communism, we try to adjust the discussion and talk more about rights. How do you feel when your right is taken from you or when your freedom is limited? What happens then? What are the actions that you can do to recover your freedom?"

The museum's team uses simple examples, such as asking what happens if someone at school trips you and how you might respond. Often, children say they don't know what to do or feel that they can't do anything, highlighting the need for more civic education than they currently receive, the museum's founder says.

They also explain step by step what children can do in such a situation. From there on, the discussion connects to the past and to explaining that under communism, people often had no right to say something was wrong, no one to turn to, and expressing an opinion could even lead to imprisonment.

Choosing what to say

The guided tour inside the Piteşti Prison Memorial covers the Piteşti Phenomenon, so when children older than 12 visit the museum, the team presents this historical chapter.

"Of course, we censor a lot of the information, specifically regarding the black liturgies or the black masses – the moment when students were forced to blaspheme their faith and to recreate religious moments by blaspheming them. We don't talk about this specifically to kids. At the Museum of Communism for Children, we don't touch on the subject of Piteşti Phenomenon because they're too young to know about communism."

It may be possible to discuss aspects of the Piteşti Phenomenon in a relatable way, she explains, but for children as young as seven to ten, this is challenging because they lack the basic understanding of communism needed to understand the topic fully. Explaining the basics of communism in Romania, including such issues as collectivization, nationalization, and the impact they had, the experiences of children in or born in prison would need to be covered first. "We would need for kids to keep coming back for a few sessions for them to actually get to the subject of Piteşti Phenomenon. At this moment, it's impossible because we don't have nationwide programs on history."

She points to the example of Germany, where children attend hours-long workshops or return for a few sessions to cover more information. For both the Piteşti Prison Memorial and the Museum of Communism for Children, the team drew on the German experience. Before establishing the Museum of Communism for Children, she was in contact with museums in Germany, among them the education teams at the Berlin Wall Memorial and the Berlin Hohenschönhausen Memorial, found in the main political prison of the former East German Communist Ministry of State Security, the Stasi. "We had been working already with children when we went to discuss what methods they were using, and I actually discovered that we were using similar ones. [..] When you have experience with the kids, you tend to get to certain conclusions and certain methods to use. That's what they were doing, that's what we were doing, and it was good to confirm that we were on the right track."

Children of all ages can find an activity to their liking at the museum, which has had visitors even only one year old. In one part of the museum, children can draw or color images such as uniforms or handcuffs, which allows them to learn more about what was happening inside a prison, while very young children can simply draw what they wish.

The young visitors can also watch short cartoons from Ceauşescu's era, reflecting the limited options children had at the time. Additionally, they can create artwork inspired by their visit, which can be included in a small exhibition at the museum.

"We have something for everybody. We have these kind of escape rooms, so kids can go and uncover all kinds of details about the prison by rummaging through the objects inside the museum, touching them and just interacting with elements of the museum."

An introductory activity is a voting exercise in which children are asked to choose the type of museum tour they want: classical or playful. The playful option is usually the choice of the majority, but the guides deliberately rig the vote, forcing a classical tour instead to demonstrate how people's votes were ignored under communism and to spark discussion about that experience. "It works very well because children understand what it's like for your vote to be stolen, even for such a small thing. That's when they start being more attentive."

The discussion then evolves from children's understanding of communism and of daily life under the regime to topics like nationalization. Children explore through game how families lost their homes and were forced to share small apartments with strangers.

In another activity, children can choose pictures of children who were born in prison or were imprisoned when they were in school and learn their stories, while exploring the topic of repression. They also learn about resistance and the messages of children who hoped for freedom. "There are a lot of such messages and manifestos in the archives of the secret police. We use those ones, and we tell children that, of course, these kids or young people were arrested as a consequence of writing the manifestos. Then we ask them to write a message and what they would say to the world about their life today, and what they would want to improve."

Video testimonies from people who were in prison as children help build the picture of the era, along with other materials and a small library.

Kids are particularly drawn to photographs and personal stories of other children in prison, but also enjoy the cartoons from the communist era. Drawing activities are popular across all ages, even with teenagers. "It says a lot about the fact that everybody wants to have fun in a museum," she explains.

Both the Piteşti Prison Memorial and the Museum of Communism for Children were established with a local audience in mind. "We didn't plan on creating these museums for the foreign public. That's because I felt that we, as Romanians, need to know more about our past. We focused on Romania."

As more foreign tourists reach the country and communism is a topic of interest, the museums in Piteşti have welcomed many international visitors. To accommodate them, an audio-guide app is available for use inside Piteşti Prison Memorial, and the exhibition at the Museum of Communism for Children has been translated into English.

No definite answers

What does she hope children will take away after visiting the Museum of Communism for Children? "Questions, that's what we hope. We don't try to answer everything; we don't try to give them all the answers in one visit. We just hope that once they get out of this place, they will start asking questions. Why was this happening? What does this mean? What should I do for this country or for me, for myself, not to get into this kind of situation ever? We're hoping they will keep asking questions and not think that this world is the way it is, and we should just live it as it is. We should always fight for our freedom. We can see today it's not a given."

What comes next

Funding from Romania's National Cultural Fund (AFCN) allowed the museum to develop part of the venue and related materials. Besides the sums received through funding calls, the members of the small, non-profit foundation that initiated both the Pitești Prison Memorial and the Museum of Communism for Children constantly contribute funding.

The organization hoped to access European funding for building conservation works, but this depends heavily on the state. In the region of Muntenia, the authorities decided that European funds should be allocated only to state institutions, excluding NGOs and private entities, she explains. As a result, despite the need for heating and cooling systems to protect the exhibits, the foundation has been unable to secure funding, and restoration work has had to be put on hold for the time being.

Still, the team plans to renew all its exhibitions to better respond to changing audiences. "I don't believe in permanent exhibitions, even though we have to name exhibitions permanent and temporary. We would like to always bring something new, especially since people start coming back, and even schools are coming back every year sometimes. We feel we need something new. We also need it for our team, we don't want to get bored. We want to keep the pace with what's happening in society."

More details on visiting the Museum of Communism for Children are available here. 

(Photos: Muzeul Comunismului pentru Copii)

simona@romania-insider.com