Mugur C\u0103linescu’s name will forever remain in
\nthe history of heroism as a man’s struggle with a cruel, much stronger enemy
\nbut which did not frighten him. He is not only a Romanian hero, but also a
\nuniversal example for all the people who fight for the right cause of freedom
\nand dignity. Eventually, MugurC\u0103linescu paid with his life for the
\ncourage to think and act for justice and truth.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Mugur C\u0103linescu was born on May 28, 1965 in
\nBoto\u0219ani, northeastern Romania. In 1981, at 16 years old, when he was an 11th grader
\nat the August Treboniu Laurian high school in his hometown, he
\ndecided that his existence and that of those around him, in a country ruled by
\na vicious communist regime, could not go on like that. So he decided to
\nprotest. C\u0103linescu’s moving story was told publicly in the early 1990s, in the
\nearly years of freedom regained in December 1989, by the journalist, writer and
\nhistorian Constantin Iftime. Here he is at the microphone with details:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Constantin Iftime: He was a high school junior, going to Laurian
\nhigh school, but previously he had studied at Eminescu high school. He took the
\nmath and physics exam, he was in a good class. His parents were separated, his
\nfather was wealthy, he worked in a clothing manufacturing factory, he was the
\nchief tailor who made the patterns. He had a lot of money, he was a top tailor.
\nHe bought his boy a Japanese radio recorder with which he tuned in to radio
\nFree Europe, and his mother did not know anything about that. He
\nwas a clever boy, he listened to music, he read books, he had a curious nature.
\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
On the night of September 12, 1981, Mugur left
\nthe house determined to voice his discontent. He walked towards a metal fence
\nsurrounding a building yard and wrote a slogan calling on people to oppose the
\nincreasingly harsh living conditions. Today we find it unbelievable that
\nwriting words on a wall is seen as an act of great courage. But it was an act
\nof courage during communism, when most people were terrorized and preferred to
\nkeep silent. Constantin Iftime is back at the microphone with more:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Constantin Iftime: You may wonder where he got the idea from? It
\nwas his own idea. He had some chalk at home, the type of chalk used by
\nforesters, which did not come off easily. And he started writing slogans, he
\nwrote the first slogans on some metal boards surrounding building yards. These
\nslogans referred to the people’s precarious material situation. His mother was
\na saleswoman at the central store and had a small salary. It seems that there
\nwas a lot of talk about money in his family. His mother was constantly under
\npressure, they had cut about 30% of her salary, it was the period when the
\nauthorities started cutting people’s salaries. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Another 31 nights followed, in which
\nMugur C\u0103linescu continued to write his discontent on the walls of the town’s
\nbuildings. One of them was the headquarters of the county branch of the Romanian
\nCommunist Party. He wrote on walls, on billboards, on road kerbs. The local branch
\nof the Securitate, the communist political police, went on maximum alert. Messages
\nwould keep appearing, in places where the members of the political repression
\nstructures least expected them, and they would be promptly erased. Where they
\ncouldn’t be removed, the place would be painted over. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
All the informants in all the
\nfactories in the town were mobilised. In their desperate effort to capture the
\nauthor, the Securitate checked the records of all the apartment buildings, and
\nall the letters people would send to the party. More than 47,000 handwriting
\nsamples were analysed, with the experts claiming that the author was a scholar or
\na misfit. Night patrols and watches were organised. Until finally, on the night
\nof 18th October 1981, a patrol noticed a young man with a piece of
\nchalk in his hand, writing something on a wall. Constantin Iftime told us what
\nhappened next. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Constantin Iftime: He had no
\nreaction. He was arrested, and he admitted to everything from the very
\nbeginning. His mother knew nothing about him, she panicked and started calling
\neverywhere. She was only announced about the arrest the next day. He spent that
\nnight being interrogated. He was taken straight to the Securitate offices,
\nbecause they were interested in who was behind this. They didn’t beat him up,
\nironically it was his own father who threatened him, not the Securitate. The ones
\nwho interrogated him were people who knew what was going on among students, and
\nthey wanted to make him talk without resorting to violence. But they did put a
\nblinding light in his face and the Securitate guy was sitting behind that light.
\nThose hours spent with a light in his face must have made him hot, he already
\nhad a fever, he had early-stage leukaemia. I think it was a period of hormonal imbalance
\ncaused by severe stress. But my opinion is that he was killed by the
\nSecuritate. He was a sensitive person, thrown into this extremely vicious
\ncircle. He was a hardworking boy, a nice teenager, but everyone treated him
\nlike an object.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
His teachers reprimanded him, his father
\nattacked him for jeopardising his career, his mother suffered a trauma. Abandoned
\nby his family, isolated from his friends and colleagues, marginalised together
\nwith his mother, Mugur C\u0103linescu died of leukaemia on 14th February 1985,
\nat the age of 19. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
He was awarded the title of fighter
\nagainst the totalitarian regime, post-mortem. A theatre play and a film, both
\ntitled Uppercase Print, as well as a novel, are now keeping his memory alive. (tr. L. Simion, A.M. Popescu)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A universal example for all the people who fight for the right cause of freedom and dignity<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":131423,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41141],"tags":[42915,34299,34110,42914,35578,34756,29131,42913,34791,42916],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-131422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-history-show","tag-calinescu","tag-communist","tag-criticism","tag-graffiti","tag-high-school","tag-mugur","tag-police","tag-regime","tag-social","tag-student"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n