Alexandru Zub

"Prison was a totally different experience than being in the custody of the Securitate, at least in the first phase of the detention. We were administered a very strong shower from the very beginning, so we would realize we were entering another world, another reality. I have to confess that, after the ceremony of getting undressed and handing over any object we had in our possession, which was not allowed in the prison environment, we were all thrown together - this very large group - into a room with no light and no means of ventilation. It was practically an oven. It was a hot summer day in July. Of course, we started screaming, however in vain. We were held there for as long as they considered it to be bearable, and only then were we allowed to get outside, one by one, and we were placed in various cells. I ended up in a building with several hundred cells one next to the other, which were meant for a single person, but in fact 12-13 or even more persons were detained in a cell. It was terrible. The hallway door opened and I saw the cell. It was exactly the one where I happened to be locked up. There was a small hole with bars and several people screaming for air, they looked dreadful, in a state of complete despair. I saw naked bodies, sweating, with bumps on the head because of the infections and the lack of hygiene over a long period of time. They had been detained there for a long time, without any assistance."

"R: In the summer of 1956, several student organizations had started to appear. What did you think about them? They were indeed more liberal than the Working Youth Union, did they offer you the possibility to express yourself differently? I: Students only had access to the Working Youth Union, which was a political body. I think policy makers back then had thought of a way to create an organization for students, which wouldn't be political, or in any case not openly political. As you well know, the statute of this body was directed towards professional activities. Of course, there was a certain degree of openness in this respect, and some colleagues were enthusiastic enough to enlist in that organization. I did the same with less enthusiasm, but still, I eventually realized that there were no other tools available to concentrate students' interests on the desired path, in line with the discussions held in Putna in the autumn of 1956. 1957 was knocking at the door, and the spring of 1957 also meant an important anniversary, namely 500 years since the enthronement of Stephen the Great. We therefore thought we could use this circumstance to produce an initiative, a celebration, in line with these concerns, with our own aspirations. Of course, this idea wasn't enthusiastically welcomed by the officials, the university’s management body was extremely reserved. R: You asked for permission, didn't you? I: Of course, it was necessary. Everything had to happen within a formal framework, and of course we first proposed this through the student organization. We brought them face to face so to say because it was in the students' program and could therefore not be received with open hostility. But I quickly felt the hostility, since political leaders remembered that the same had happened in Budapest, all started with an appeal to historical values, to mobilizing symbols from this point of view, and they wanted to go about it in a very cautious manner. This is why they opposed the idea as strong as they could, and eventually sought to subvert this activity, to restrict it as much as possible. Which they managed and, at the the same time, didn't manage to do."