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This article presents documents from the archive of the central committee of the Romanian Communist party, recording the January 1949 Moscow conference that established the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (C.M.E.A.). It argues that the creation of the C.M.E.A. began as a Romanian initiative and presents the process by which the document constituting the C.M.E.A. was elaborated in early 1949. There is generally very little information on the creation of the C.M.E.A., so while it was not possible to use evidence from the Moscow archives, these findings, corroborated by studies involving sources from other communist archives, will help to create a better understanding of this event.

This article discusses Romania's role in the creation of the Soviet bloc's Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) in January 1949. The article explains why Romanian leaders, with Soviet approval, proposed the creation of the CMEA and why the proposal was adopted. An analysis of Romania's support for the creation of the CMEA sheds interesting light on the stance taken by Romania in the 1960s and 1970s against the Soviet Union's attempts to use the CMEA in forging a supranational division of labor in the Soviet bloc. Romania's opposition was largely in accord with the objectives originally envisaged by Romanian leaders when the CMEA was formed.

The Finnish ‘westernizing’ narrative emphasizes Finland’s ‘westernness’, i.e. the idea that Finland and Finns have always been western and part of the ‘European family’. The recent past is not seen as an obstacle for this interpretation. Thus, according to this type of discourse, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and ‘liberated’ from the constraints of the Cold War, Finland could finally ‘return’ to the West, to Europe, to its ‘natural’ origins. This article examines in short what might be called the post-Cold War narrative of Finnish westernness as it appears in the English language sources. It argues that the westernizing narrative is very important in justifying Finland’s post-Cold War position in the international politics, especially its position in the European politics. The article is divided in two parts. The first one examines the narrative of the westernness of Finland, Finns or Finnish ‘identity’ as it appears in some scientific writings, press materials and political texts. Within this narrative an important element is the re-evaluation of Finland’s international position during the Cold War. Therefore, the Finnish security ‘solution’ – by some called ‘Nordic and neutral identity’ – is either criticized, attacked and characterized as an aberration and betrayal of the ‘Finnish western identity’, or accepted as the only possible ‘instrument for pursuing national security interests’ in those times. The second part of the article advances some explanations for this narrative and addresses questions such as: why was it developed, by whom, and how successful was it? The article shows how highly political is the (re)presentation of Finnish history and how much its ‘western character’ is related to Finland’s current political situation and goals in Europe. It also reveals how important the ideology is in backing a political choice.

A recirculating aquaponic system on DWC type floatable support was carried out during the research activities carried out at ICDIMPH-Horting Bucharest in the period 2017-2021. It works on the principle of communicating vessels and satisfies the technological needs of fish and plant breeding. The system was placed in a micro-greenhouse made of polyethylene foil, according to a plan for the location of technological equipment, by reconditioning and arranging tunnels for growing of grafted plants. The construction included tunnels with a length of 7.40 m and a width of 1.81 m (fish growth tunnel, 70 cm high, made of 20 mm thick OSB boards, mesh and durable foil, 8 rectangular basins, with holes for aeration, water supply and drainage and inside two layers of ultra-additive foil, 0.2 mm thick and and tunnels for growing plant material), reconditioned by mounting a protective foil, attached in PVC clips to the skeleton of the tunnel and the base of the pools with an inclined slope of 5-10% for draining water and residues), installations, pumps, filters. It has been tested for growing carp (Cyprinus carpio) and lettuce (Lactuca sativa). Fish waste have been food for plants, and plants have naturally filtered water for fish, phytosanitary treatments with synthetic substances have been eliminated, lettuce obtained has had from quality categories I and II, the fish has had hematological parameters in the reference ranges indicated in the speciality literature for carp.