Constrângere și experiență: cadrul legislativ și viața cotidiană a brigadierilor pe Șantierele Naționale ale Tineretului
Between Legislative Norms and Lived Experience: The Construction Sites of National Youth. Case Studies

Summary/Abstract: This article examines the everyday life of brigadiers involved in the Constructing Sites of National Youth organized between 1968 and 1989. It focuses on three case studies: the Danube-Black Sea Canal, the Poarta Albă-Midia-Năvodari Canal, and the Siret-Bărăgan Main Canal. Drawing on Katherine Verdery’s concept of the „etatization of time,” the study demonstrates that these development projects constituted a mechanism through which the state sought to occupy and regulate young people’s leisure time by involving them in projects deemed of national interest. The contribution explores directions previously unaddressed by historians. It analyzes the effects that the economic and social policies adopted by the community party had on the daily lives of young people. Without neglecting the existing secondary literature, the reconstruction of the legislative framework, the organizational structure of these projects, and their implementation relies primarily on documents from the National Archives of Romania, especially the Chancellery Fond and the Union of Communist Youth Fond. The author contrasts the ways in which the state regulated youth activity on the constructing sites with on-site everyday dynamics. This approach also relies on files from the National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives, interviews and newspaper articles about brigadiers prominent in the three cases. I also use the testimony of Aurelian Dănescu, a brigadier at the Siret-Bărăgan Main Canal, which has been published. The construction sites of national youth represented an attempt by the communist party to use cheap labor for the achievement of local and national objectives. Youth followed a strict daily schedule and acquired elements of military-style training. This approach reflected Nicolae Ceauşescu’s ideas about combating youth „hooliganism” by channeling leisure time into work for the homeland.

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