Imaginea spațiului rural montan în România comunistă văzut prin lentila vieții familiei Goia

Abstract

Social history, a field that developed especially in the 1950s and 1960s, represents even today a bridge between factual, objective history and the lives of individuals, marked by subjectivity and affectivity. The present article starts from two elements: the analysis of a place of memory – namely a village shop – and, respectively, of an interview granted to Mrs. Delia Gligor, an elderly lady living in Baia de Arieș, Alba County, Romania. Together, these two elements provide a revealing overview of the history of Vidra de Sus village during the 20th century, but also of the political regimes that marked Romania over a period of almost 100 years. Vidra de Sus is a mountain village in Alba County, now known as Avram Iancu. From this perspective, one can note the extent of the impact exerted by the political regime changes, on the one hand, on a family, and on the other hand, on the entire community of Vidra de Sus. At the beginning of the 20th century this family advanced socially and materially on the village hierarchy towards the wealthier categories, by opening a shop. With the communist regime, however, their main source of income, the shop, was confiscated and replaced by a post office, which has led the former owners to each look for other occupations to sur‑ vive. Finally, the year 1989 puts an end to the communist regime, but not to the difficulties that the Goia family was going through – from this moment they had to fight to regain their former properties so that they can lead once more, after almost 50 years, a quiet life.