ROMANIAN ACADEMY GEORGE BARITIU INSTITUTE OF HISTORY. Ph.D DISSERTATION

Transcription

1 ROMANIAN ACADEMY GEORGE BARITIU INSTITUTE OF HISTORY Ph.D DISSERTATION THE URBANIZATION PROCESS IN THE INDUSTRIAL CENTERS HUNEDOARA AND CALAN, SUMMARY SUPERVISOR DR. GHEORGHE IANCU CLUJ NAPOCA 2013 Ph.D CANDIDATE MARA MARGINEAN 1

2 CONTENTS CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION...1 I. Urbanization, a component of the modernization process II. Historiographical perspectives on Soviet modernization project A. Stalinist Society between traditionalism and modernity B. East-Central European city during the postwar period C. Industrialization and urbanization during the Gheorghiu- Dej regime. A case study. 26 III. Research objectives and methodology A. Negotiated Processes...36 B. Entangled histories C. Individual and collective identities...40 IV. Sources of local history...42 PART ONE URBAN MODELS IN HUNEDOARA INDUSTRIAL REGION BETWEEN MOSCOW S INFLUENCE AND LOCAL NEEDS CHAPTER II POSTWAR ROMANIA...49 I. Urbanism, a form of applied sociology? Ideas and institutions on post-war reconstruction in Romania, A. Modernist architectural models B. Romanian solutions...60 C. The Romanian National Council of Scientific Research and the institutional dynamics of reconstruction in the first years after the war II. Institutions responsible with urbanization programs between ideology and practical requirements, A. The meaning of architectural programs within the postwar Soviet political system B. Politics and economics C. Rationalization and political project in Romania

3 III. The establishment of the State Committee for Architecture and Construction, November A. Political and economic premises...96 B. Socialist realism - In Moscow C. And in Bucharest D. Institutional models in Romania, IV. Between East and West. Paradigm shift after A. The influence of Moscow and the West in synthesizing a new model of urban order B. The new urbanism of the 50s V. Conclusions CHAPTER III FROM THE POLITICIANS PROGRAMS TO THE ARCHITECTS PROJECTS. THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE CITY OF HUNEDOARA, I. Hunedoara at the end of the Second World War. A photography II. A steel mill for a country with an agrarian economy. Political, ideological and economic context of the city s development III. The first construction projects in Hunedoara - Romanian architectural continuities and Soviet architectural fragments A. The beginning B. Workers in a garden city, B.1. Solution A B.2. Solution B C. An intermediate stage, C.1. Regional systematization C.2. Town s systematization IV. The city of Hunedoara, a total art form? A. A new systematization plan in Hunedoara: between social engineering and practical needs B. Socialist realism. A Soviet model built in Hunedoara C. Hunedoara in figures V. From Bucharest to Hunedoara institutional centralism, political project in the construction of the city and local bureaucratic disruptions

4 A. The perspective of the authorities in Bucharest on the construction program B. Consequences of the November 1952 decisions C. The difficult realities on the local construction sites D. Stagnation in the construction of a socialist city VI. Conclusions CHAPTER IV ENTANGLED MODERNITIES, I. Economic policies of Gheorghe Gheorghiu- Dej regime and their implications for urban dynamics of Hunedoara II. Functionalism, rationalism and modernism A. Urbanization programs during the second half of the 1950s. Soviet influences and Romanian economic constraints B. The systematization plan of downtown area, B.1. The critique of socialist realist cvartals B.2. Something old and something new B.3. A sociological approach to housing and urban space B.4. An urban model for an entire country C. Plenary meeting of the RWP in November 1958 and re-evaluation of the housing construction activity C.1. Local politico-economic implications of the 1957 decentralization C.2. The first signs of central management s discontent C.3. Local reactions C.4. Consequences III. Architecture in the 60s - solutions for a zonal development A. Micro- district B. Recuperating the modernist regional development model C. A new city on the map of the country: Calan D. The new town-planning project of Hunedoara, E. The 1960s F. Decentralization and regional policy making in the early years of Nicolae Ceausescu 's rule, IV. The evolution of the accommodation capacity in the two industrial centers V. Conclusions

5 PART TWO WORK, LIVING CONDITIONS AND EVERYDAY LIFE IN THE INDUSTRIAL AREA CHAPTER V SOCIAL MOBILITY IN THE TWO INDUSTRIAL CITIES, I. Stages of Migration A. Hunedoara B. Călan II. Demographic behavior of the urbanized population A. Household structure B. Marriage rates C. Birth rates D. Mortality E. Natural growth III. Conclusions IV. Statistical tables CHAPTER VI HEALTH AND STANDARD OF LIVING I. Edilitary issues II. "Hygienic means aesthetic": sanitary realities in the urban communities A. Health Legislation B. Morbidity III. Urban, rural and living conditions in the new industrial cities A. Voluntary mobilization B. Living in barracks camps C. Living in the apartments IV. Distribution of labor in the urban area V. Conclusions CHAPTER VII THE WORKER: MANUFACTURER OF THE URBAN SPACE

6 I. Motivation and expectations of labor mobility A. Attracting labor force B. The workers expectations II. How to get a job in the steel industry case study Uzinele Victoria Calan A. Workers employments records B. Workers build a socialist identity III. Industrial work and efforts to increase productivity A. Productivity and industrial dynamics A.1. An uncertain period. Labor productivity between A.2. A possible solution? Technical propaganda among workers A.3. Reassessment of production norms B. Salaries IV. Conclusions CHAPTER VIII THE WORKER: CONSUMER OF URBAN SPACE I. Shopping in the city A. The supply of consumer goods B. The purchasing power II. Negotiating a better life A. The petitioner B. The entrepreneur C. The petit bourgeois VI. Conclusions CONCLUSIONS List of images List of graphics List of tables BIBLIOGRAPHY

7 Keywords: Hunedoara, Calan, urbanization, industrialization, everyday life, modernization communism, Romania. Summary This dissertation examines the process of urbanization in the industrial centers Hunedoara and Calan during in tandem with the dynamics of the population s socio-economic and professional status; it refers to the process of urbanization as a succession of social engineering programs implemented locally by the Romanian authorities. Originating in the tradition of European modernity, but reinterpreted through the lens of Marxist ideology, both in Romania and in the rest of the Eastern bloc, these models of urban construction have aimed to transforming the existing social order in the name of institutional and economic centralist rule: Garden City ( ), the socialist realist cvartal ( ), and the micro-district ( ). I departed from the assumption that the process of urbanization in the area is the result of interpenetration of Romanian realities with Soviet and Western influences. At the same time, it is an expression of the evolution of Romanian society, both in the form of continuity from the interwar years, and fractures, often violent and irreversible, produced by the new power. This was visible, in different forms, both in the public practice and in the urban solutions chosen to be put into practice. On one hand, labor practices of the Hunedoara workers revealed a combination of theoretical ideas inoculated through discursive strategies and educational traditions influenced by previous experiences in communities of origin and personal priorities. On the other hand, given the Cold War s dynamics the appearance, function and organization of urban space were subject to significant changes, from avant-garde to socialist realism and back to modernism, which profoundly affected the population s daily lives. As such, I address the process of urban construction in order to establish to what extent the urbanization in a socialist space was any different to similar processes developed in the West. I sought to answer three questions, whose meanings are intertwined: What were the institutional levers that have articulated the relationship between the central and local authorities on the one hand, and, on the other hand, between the state and the actors involved in the urban construction program, such as architects, engineers or economists? To what extent the heterogeneity of the 7

8 urban community in the Hunedoara area pressured, sanctioned or altered the state s project? To what extent the workers expectations in terms of living standards influenced aspects such as consumption, gender relations and public participation of citizens, and how did they articulate the relationship between the community and the individual? Methodologically, this analysis is based on what James C. Scott has termed as high modernism. This concept refers to a social engineering project that aims to remake the reality fully by carrying out large projects such as urban programs, dams, irrigation systems, forest projects that aim to "master" nature. High modernist ideology also aims to social transformation by imposing all sorts of "normative" regulations, classifications and standardizations, which would make all aspects of the social practices predictable for the political authority. It was strikingly visual, exclusively concerned with the future and ignored tradition entirely. Within this project, the symbolic authority was transferred to architects, planners and engineers, whose professional expertise was essential to identifying feasible solutions for future project. However, the problem with such a "total" program was that, despite the restrictive mechanisms that aimed to standardize and regulate social relations at the formal level that is visible, decision-making power has not identified effective mechanisms to regulate informal relationships. In our case, each individual becomes an actor in the process of industrialization and urbanization, whether s/he is part of a bureaucratic system that implement the political authority s program, or acting on his own that is living modernization subjectively. In other words, discourse is internalized in those areas / spaces where modernizing action is accepted, endorsed or, on the contrary, rejected. An interdisciplinary approach par excellence, which can be recovered by both sociologists and experts in the history of architecture, urbanization is analyzed here within the paradigm associated with the term "Alltagsgeschichte," namely a form of micro-history that addresses people's daily experiences both through the way in which the state affects people's lives, but also how they (re)act. Thus, the present study illustrates the modernization project of postwar Romanian state, locally, by identifying the means of transmission, articulation and contestation of central authority and the socio-cultural and economic aspects of this process. I aimed to conceptualize the fluid relationship between "domination" and "contestation of power" to identify how, locally, individual "diversity," expressed through more "spicy" details that 8

9 sometimes could induce the impression of "novelization" of the past, generated interpenetration between history and cultural patterns. Such an approach is important because it aims to shed some light upon the modernization of Romania during the postwar years by looking at the society s transformations at the "grassroots," namely the life of ordinary people, which were the main beneficiaries of the entire process. Unlike "macro-history," the present study aims to illustrate how the dynamics of economic programming and the social projects influenced the interactions between people, and further articulated the individuals relationship with the state. In light of the contemporary events, the subjective perception of the communist regimes socio-economic modernization project acquires new and often surprising meanings, given the fact that the post-socialist years are marked by a high incidence of communist nostalgia. The study of the urbanization process in the industrial area of Hunedoara have a high degree of originality in Romanian historical research, which is a result of the sources used, the interdisciplinary methods employed and the complex problem analyzed. This dissertation is structured in two parts consisting of seven chapters. The first part, consisting of three chapters, analyses the process of urban construction of the two cities. One chapter detailed Romania's relations with the Soviet Union and the West during the first two decades of the postwar period. The main thesis revolves around how these complicated dynamics were reflected by the succession of the architectural models. In this way, it opened up discussions related to institutional construction, architectural practice, designers professional identity and their relation with the political decision factors. The following two chapters describe the successive stages of construction of the two cities, and seek to shed light on both architectural and institutional functioning in relation with the development of the city of Hunedoara. The analysis is articulated by the regime s industrialization project. Until 1957, the city of Hunedoara knew a limited development as the regime s economic strategy was rather incoherent, the leadership being concerned with the possibility of facing social unrests similar to the ones in Hungary or Poland. After 1957, however, when the Romanian leadership had consolidated its status the industrialization process was resumed, and soon after, it became one of the central elements around which the autonomy policy was articulated. The steel industry in Hunedoara thus became one of the most important economic locations. In this context, the 9

10 authorities began the constuction of the city of Calan, which would accommodate some of the workers of Hunedoara steel plant as well as the employees of the Victoria Factory. Equally important, the expansion of the urban network by developing zoning systems coincided with reconsiderations of the social patterns of industrialization; the local conditions in Hunedoara, identified through statistical and sociological investigations, served as role models for urban projects that would be materialized nationwide. The second part of the thesis, consisting of four chapters, analyzes the social dimension of the urban construction process. The first chapter discusses the successive stages of labor force mobility. I paid a particular attention to the sociological portrait of the future worker: who he was, where did he come from, who was his family, what was his level of education of wealth. Then, I looked at how this complicated process of internal migration was reflected upon the newly constructed urban household structure and demographic behavior of the inhabitants. The second chapter analyzed some aspects related to public hygiene and living conditions, paying a particular attention to the lifestyle of the residents of the barracks and newly built apartments. The chapter concludes with a sociological perspective on the process of urbanization by highlighting how the successive stages of labor force mobility have been transposed in the residential neighborhoods of the two cities; accordingly, those originating in the same geographical regions or having a similar socio-professional status lived in the same neighborhoods. The penultimate chapter of the dissertation examines the issues related to the status of workers in steel plants, paying particular attention to the mechanisms employed for the construction of individual and collective identities in the process of industrialization. The thesis concludes with a discussion on consumption practices and living standards of the population and the means employed by them to improve their quality of life through various strategies of interaction with the authorities. This rounded up the perspective on socialist daily life by pointing out towards gender relations within both public and private spaces. This dissertation uses several categories of sources: archives, press, statistics, memoirs, architectural blueprints, propaganda films, TV journals, photographs. The communist regime s practice of writing everything down, signing, countersigning, planning, organizing, synthesizing, and double-checking proves beneficial for the present day researcher since the urbanization process is documented in hundreds of thousands of pages of archives, dozens of newspapers and 10

11 magazines, publications on various themes, audio and video materials, paintings and other kinds of images. Echoing the era that produced them, written in the language of Marxist-Leninist ideology, these sources reflect the construction process, the professional achievements or failures of those that were invested with responsibility for the building process, as well as bureaucratic blockages. The element of originality of this dissertation lies in the archival material consulted. Totaling nearly fifty funds held by local archives and national Romanian archives, the British National Archives and the Open Society Archives in Budapest, most of these documents are introduced for the first time in Romanian historiographical circuit. At the national level, the funds opened to the researchers by the National Archives, Archives of the Romanian Academy, the Architects Union Archive, the Archive of the former secret police (Securitate) provides access to interesting and useful information about the national dimension of the process of urbanization, population s lifestyles and the country s economic dynamics. Particularly important were the funds of the former Romanian Workers Party Central Committee or structural parts of the Council of Ministers. These reconstruct how different governmental structures managed the industrialization and urbanization processes both internally by political and economic decision as well as abroad by means of collaborative international scientific-technical agreements, cultural diplomacy actions or professional exchanges between Romanian and Western architects. The issue of postwar reconstruction program and the sociological involvement in the initial stages of urbanization was analyzed based on information contained in the National Council of Scientific Research Fund held by the Archives of the Romanian Academy. Facts about the professional status of designers were also obtained from the archive of the Architects Union. Finally, the archive of the former secret police provided information about the actions of sabotage carried out in the Hunedoara Iron Works during the 50s as well as some excellent evaluations of the mood of the population during the 40s. Documents from local archives - the National Archives Service of the Hunedoara County, archives of the Hunedoara City Hall and Calan City Hall respectively, contain very different information from the one available in the archives of Bucharest. In the Hunedoara County Service were consulted regional and municipal funds of the communist party, collections of the executive committees of the two city halls, regional and district documents of the people's 11

12 organizations, industrial enterprises in the area, such as Steel Plant in Hunedoara and Calan, steel construction companies and regional statistical data. The other two archives consulted the city hall of Hunedoara and Calan - provided data complementary to those previously identified in other funds. Notably, particularly useful were the building documentation of the two cities, as well as some materials of public hygiene and daily life. Such archival documents, consisting of transcripts, statistical analysis, work plans and reports of the various local, regional and national bureaucratic structures, illustrate the interactions behind the closed doors. They are useful for several reasons. A first direction highlights the problematic relationship between design, politics and ideology in Romania as long as the 60s have coincided with a reevaluation of the public discourse by introducing technological dimension as an illustration of modernity. A second perspective describes the somewhat conflicting relation emerged between policy makers and illustrates the bureaucratic perspective on the construction project. They were meant to delineate the interaction with the population, but from the historian s point of view, such materials are significant components for subsequent identification of personal interactions and subjective experience of socialism. Corroborating these sources one could argue that the urbanization process was not a one-way street. The population s reaction, its reading of the new political power, propaganda rhetoric, the elusive practices of the planned economy were elements of a "dialogue" between the citizens and the state. This proves beneficial for researchers: letters sent to local and central authorities, guest books of the exhibitions organized in the two industrial centers, statements and impressions of the visitors passing through the town, but also the employment records of workers in the Victoria Works in Calan. All these materials compose a vast repertoire of meanings and ways to integrate the daily life in a socialist system, which defines how people internalized the newly political project of modernization of the state. National perspective on the process of urbanization was completed by numerous documents found in British Archives, in London and Open Society Archives in Budapest. Consistent materials were obtained during the two research trips in Moscow in 2010 and 2011 respectively. Common to British diplomatic documents and OSA materials is the interest for the Romanian state s economic policies and their social impact. Consisting of industrial dynamics analysis about the country - particularly the steel and petro- chemistry - during the Cold War, the 12

13 technical development of the plant in Hunedoara, about the standard of living of the population or the availability of consumer goods, they also stress how the diplomatic priorities were marked by events on the international scene. For example, a number of documents relating to the standard of living of the population in the Eastern bloc were made between 1957 and Such interest reflects the changes in the soviet social programs. In addition to archival materials, the population censuses conducted in 1948, 1956 and 1966, the Statistical and Demographic Yearbooks and legislative regulations gave an official perspective on the process of urbanization. Furthermore, additional information was obtained by studying the periodical publications: Arhitectura ( ); Arhitectura în U.R.S.S. Extrase din revista sovietică Arhitektura SSSR (1952); Buletinul Comitetului de Stat pentru Arhitectură şi Construcţii al Consiliului de Miniştri (1953); Buletin Documentar al Institutului Central pentru Sistematizarea Oraşelor şi Regiunilor (1955); Buletinul Informativ, Ştiinţific şi Administrativ al Academiei Române Consiliul Naţional al Cercetării Ştiinţifice (1948); Buletinul Ministerului Construcţiilor ( ); Buletinul Oficial al Republicii Populare Române ( ); Buletinul Oficial al Sfatului Popular al Regiunii Hunedoara ( ); Buletinul Societăţii Arhitecţilor Români ( ); Cercetări filozofice ( ); Contemporanul, Bucureşti ( ); Constructorul, Bucureşti ( ); Drumul Socialismului, Deva ( ); Flacăra ( ); Flacăra Hunedoarei. Organ al Comitetului Orăşenesc PMR Hunedoara şi al Sfatului Popular Orăşenesc Hunedoara ( ); Munca, Bucureşti (1956); Natura (1950, 1960); Orizont, Bucureşti (1945); Probleme economice ( ); Revista de statistică ( ); Revista Fundaţiilor Regale (1945); Revistele Tehnice AGIR-Arhitectură şi Construcţii ( ); România liberă, Bucureşti ( ); Scânteia, Bucureşti ( ); Simetria, Bucureşti ( ); Timpul, Bucureşti ( ); Urzica, Bucureşti ( ); Uzina nostră. Organ al Comitetului Orăşenesc PMR Hunedoara şi al Sfatului Popular Orăşenesc Hunedoara ( ); Zori Noi, Deva ( ). On another level, the graphics, paintings and sculptures, films and the vast literary production including novels by Ion Călugăru, reports by Eugen Barbu and E. Nicorovici, and several theater plays deconstruct the visual dimension of the urbanization process in Hunedoara industrial region. 13