Place and the spatial politics of intergenerational remembrance of the Iron Gates displacements in Romania, 1966–1972

Abstract

Post-socialist memories recalling the communist past in Central and Eastern Europe have risen to importance in recent decades, but there is still a scarcity of literature dealing with the post-socialist "post-memory." By adapting a social-spatial narrative methodology to memory studies and by promoting the current theories on the spatial politics of (intergenerational) memory in general and more specifically on the post-socialist memory formation, this paper aims to highlight the nature of memory, how intergenerational shaping of memory happens and the implications of these memories for understanding post-socialist memory creation through an understanding of how people's personal connections (attachment) to place serve as the basis of intergenerational memory transmission. To set the scene, between 1966 and 1972, in alignment with the Stalinist principles of Soviet electrification, Romania and Yugoslavia completed the construction of one of the largest hydroelectric plants in Europethe Iron Gateson the Danube. Although the flooding of the settlements that were in the way of this project involved the destruction of property representing local cultural heritage, the dominant placebased memories are those related to trauma and personal attachment to (materially gone) places. The shaping of memories for the post-socialist generation is the foundation of people's difficulty in adapting to a market economy and the capitalist state. However, while the home becomes a locus for memory transmission between generations, post-memories are "summarised" through certain key traumatic events. The implications of the creation of these memories are significant for understanding post-socialist memory formation because post-socialist remembrance of communism is bottom-up, rooted in local events and grounded in place. Finally, in the context of claiming retroactive justice in contemporary Romanian politics, tensions between those manifesting counter-memories (i.e., memories that challenge state-led actions) and those with memories that reveal people's pride for the engineering achievements bring out the complex nature of these memories. K E Y W O R D SIron Gates, place and intergenerational memory, post-socialist "post-memory," Romania, sense of place, social-spatial narrative (SSN) method --

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