ABSTRACT
The overthrow of the Ceausescu regime in December 1989 marked the end of one of the most bizarrely deformed variants of post-war Stalinism. Under this system Romania was reduced to a state of impoverishment unparalleled in the East European socialist states, with the exception of little Albania. The crucial point, certainly in comparison with Albania, is that this abject situation was not always the case, for Romania was and remains a country of great natural resources. Under Ceausescu Romania entered a second phase of Stalinist development in the late 1970s which was pursued ruthlessly until his overthrow and execution. The evaluation of the development of housing policies in the last two decades is intimately connected to this accelerating programme of ‘systematization, modernization and civilization’. It is important to understand the radical nature of these plans because they lead to the intrusion of state activity into every aspect of social and domestic life, and had, as one of its key long-term policy instruments, control over housing policy and the building programme.
