Alexandru Zub

"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."

"So, I must say that, at one point, I was called in a very suspicious manner, at the beginning of March, by means of a written telecommunication, to the Academy in Bucharest (the Institute was subordinated to the Academy) I was summoned to appear at the Academy on March 7. I asked around, but couldn't find any plausible explanation for this request. The professor I felt closest to, Dimitrie Dărlescu, who was the vice-dean of the faculty, a very respectable modernist, couldn't tell me anything. He came up with a hypothesis that it could be the case of a scholarship abroad (there were also such possibilities). The idea of a scholarship in Egypt or somewhere else was also floating in the air. I had indeed refused this during my studies because I wasn't interested, but this perspective was now becoming real. A scholarship abroad had now become possible, as part of a research endeavor for a young employee. And most of the people I asked thought it was unusual because no one had experienced something similar. And so it happened that, on the night of March 6, before the end of the day, I got on a fast train in order to arrive in Bucharest the next day. We had only advanced a few hundred meters. We had just gotten outside the city when I found myself being asked to identify myself and to get out of the compartment, in a very discreet and civilized manner. On the corridor there was another man waving a pistol around. He warned me not to make any careless move because I had to follow him. I started negotiating with them, telling them it must be a mistake, that I had an important meeting the next day and so on. They told me that the misunderstanding would for sure be cleared up, and that, if so, I would soon be able to continue on my mission. But as soon as we arrived at the first station and the train stopped as usual, I was blindfolded and forced into a car. Suddenly, they stopped calling me 'mister', and any sign of politeness disappeared. They wouldn't talk to me anymore, and my protests were futile. Of course, I quickly realized we were heading back to Iaşi. They drove the car around, so I wouldn't realize where we were going, we could have been anywhere, but I obviously realized I was being taken back to Iaşi."