RĂSCOALA ANTICOMUNISTĂ DE LA PISCURI (iulie 1950)
THE ANTICOMMUNIST UPRISING IN PISCURI (20th of July 1950)

Summary/Abstract: The collectivization process represents probably the most dramatic experience that the Romanian village has ever had to go through. The Romanian Communist Party simply copied and implemented the Stalinist model of socialist restructure of agriculture. The peasants had to endure unimaginative pressures and humiliations. Their fight against collectivization took place at different levels. Bloody confrontations between them and the oppressive communist institutions took place as well, such as the one on the 20th of July 1950, in Piscuri village, Gorj County. This revolt came as a respond to the communist officials pressure to enlist all peasants on mutual household. The above-mentioned uprising, as well as the entire collectivization process, fill in pages of recently written history. Since all these took place within a system based on dictatorship, there are almost no written sources that reflect the truth as it happened. Thus, it is absolutely necessary to appeal to collective memory and oral sources, in order to establish the true facts. Even if I use “traditional” sources, the truth is completely revealed by the mare, emotional testimonies of those who experienced the events and/or their consequences. In Piscuri, a place whose geographical structure proved to be inadequate for the “mechanized” agriculture, the communists imposed the so-called civilization as punishment, at least this is how it was perceived and is still remembered by the community there.

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