During the communist era, Radio Free Europe (RFE) was Romania's favorite radio station. This paper analyzes the role of RFE in everyday life in the strictly controlled Romanian communist state by looking at the broadcasts of RFE's Romanian Department, their audience, and their impact. Drawing largely on the RFE archives at the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives (OSA) and the former secret police files at the National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives (CNSAS), it investigates how radio waves mediated and channeled information while preparing people to embrace political and cultural change. The paper focuses on the circulation of knowledge, media confluences, and human agency. The rituals that developed around the secrecy which governed the listening process, the personal requests, attitudes, and opinions expressed in letters to RFE, and oral and written testimonies, coupled with the disproportionate and, at times, extreme reactions of the communist state, together reveal the carving out of individual spaces that allowed for the preservation of the "self" during Nicolae Ceausescu's dictatorship. At such critical historical moments, the connection became visible. Through an analysis of recent media representations in which RFE figures, such as Cold Waves, this study also looks at how RFE shaped personal memories of communist times. K E Y

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Memoirs offer unique human testaments to historical events. This article analyses a sample of seven Gulag memoirs that recount experiences of imprisonment at the height of the Stalinist repression in Romania, between 1947 and 1964. The paper looks at the literary conventions employed by the authors in the recounting of their stories. The memoirs were chosen for the broad range of perspectives they represent, with particular attention being paid to the gendered experiences of imprisonment. The texts will be approached through the lenses of literary criticism, as this article analyses common tropes, motifs, characters, and techniques of narration-elements that make Gulag memoirs a 'genre' in its own right. A close reading of the text will uncover not only the gruesome realities of Communist persecution, imprisonment, and torture, but also the prevailing mentalities of that era. The literary components of the texts provide clues that help in decoding the authors' self and their understanding of history. MEMOIRS IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT The fall of Communism gave way to a frantic search for the 'truth', wherein competing narratives aimed at expunging collective memory and reconstruct national identity. The horrors of the totalitarian Communist system in Romania, as illustrated by its prison system and detention camps, have found a faithful mirror in many published memoirs. The first Romanian Gulag accounts emerged following the de-Stalinization campaign under Gheorghe Gheorghiu Dej's rule and the gradual amnesty of political prisoners between 1962 and 1964. These personal acts of remembrance served a highly politicised goal, namely to reclaim the country's history and reshape its national identity. Moreover, survivor accounts are instrumental in interpreting official data, reconstructing history, and in filling the gap that archival material and history books are unable to do.

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The Visual Cartographies of the Spaces 2 Mai and Vama Veche exhibit brings together works of visual art in multiple forms, from different artists, spaces, and historical periods. Artefacts from established artists and villagers are displayed together to explore the connection between two seemingly different communities and the enduring charm of Romania’s poshest summer destination.