Lies about the economy under Communism
Widespread lying was a defining feature of the communist regime. In this case, we cannot even speak of the ordinary level of public deception that exists in any society or political system.
Steliu Lambru, 07.09.2026, 14:00
Through all its forms of expression, communist lying reached its highest possible limits. What made these lies so powerful was the fear they generated: they could not be openly contradicted without exposing the individual to major risks for their freedom, their life, and the safety of those close to them. Communist lies were crude and aggressive, blatantly contradicting reality. And the lies about economic performance and the standard of living were no exception. In fact, deception about the economy and living conditions was a natural consequence of the general lack of freedom. One of the obsessions of communist ideology was the centrally planned economy, and one of its enemies was economic freedom. From grossly manipulated statistics and triumphant declarations about the country’s accelerated development to the denial of the desperate economic situation and the shortages in which Romanians struggled, lies about the economy and living standards covered the entire spectrum. Ultimately, the generalized economic crisis of communist regimes was what led to their collapse in 1989.
Paradoxically, social memory has preserved the lies of the communist regime even in democracy, once society became free again. In today’s Romania, the same pre 1989 falsehoods continue to circulate, a practice found in all former communist societies. Historian Cosmin Popa of the “Nicolae Iorga” Institute of the Romanian Academy, author of studies and volumes on the economy of the Romanian communist regime, explains the paradox of the survival of communist lies, embraced even by new generations born after its fall.
Cosmin Popa: “It would be very easy to say how lying worked under communism: everyone lied. But I don’t think that would help us understand why communist lies persist today, why they are stronger than ever, and why they continue to shape society and public morality. So I focused my efforts on understanding rationalization, because I noticed that we are dealing with a cumulative mechanism of lying. It is a radicalization of the lie. There is a historian, Hans Mommsen, who wrote extensively about the Holocaust and who speaks of a cumulative radicalization of the decision that led to the Holocaust. It began with an idea and, through radicalization and interaction with external events, reached the final decision as it was fixed in the second half of 1942. The same thing happens in communism.”
Cosmin Popa also identified what made the Ceaușescu regime even more repellent in terms of public deception: “Communism is an ideology condemned to success, condemned to progress. But what makes Romanian communism particularly distinctive is that it always managed to avoid the dilemma of self reflection. One scenario would have been to stop and examine what had happened. The second scenario, which Romanian communists chose, was to adopt the strategy of infallibility: we did everything right. Everything that went wrong had to be blamed on external forces, on outdated, dead, or dismissed figures. But generally, failure was attributed to outside influence. This strategy of infallibility allowed something fundamental: it greatly slowed down the emergence of anti communist sentiment in society. The regime moved from lie to lie, each more radical than the last, within this cumulative mechanism, until society itself came to accept the regime, to live in a kind of organic complicity with it. This explains, in many ways, the sudden success that followed after 1989.”
Cosmin Popa identified seven types of pre 1989 lies that continue to thrive today, both among older nostalgic generations and among younger, more intellectual ones: the lie of Romanian economic independence, the lie of Westernization and liberalization of the regime, the lie of economic modernization, the lie of egalitarianism, the lie of intellectuals’ collaboration with the regime, the lie of recovering bourgeois cultural values, and the lie of the “good Ceaușescu” surrounded by a harmful entourage. To these we can add others, such as the lie of the patriotic Securitate, the repressive apparatus. Of the seven types of lies, at least four are related to the economy. Popa emphasized that these lies generated a fundamental element of individual and societal behavior in communist Romania, one that post communist Romania inherited.
Cosmin Popa: “Thus, an industry of lying was created, to which corruption was added. Why? Because propaganda alone is not enough; propaganda together with repression is not sufficient to make such a society function. Something else is needed, one more ingredient that makes this society acceptable and makes the lie acceptable to those who live within it. And that ingredient is corruption. This corruption gives the society the strength to function, creates value systems, shapes public morality, and ultimately creates a kind of natural symbiosis between the regime and society.”
But the lies of communist Romania can no longer deceive, even if they are fashionable today; they remain what they always were. Because truth is always stronger and eventually comes to the surface. (EE)
