A RUMANIAN-ARMENIAN'S COMMENTS ON CURRENT CONDITIONS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83-00423R001401140003-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: November 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 18, 1999
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: March 1, 1954
• Content Type: REPORT

COUNTRY
aUBaCT
0
Rumania
A Rumanian-Armenian's Commenta on
Current Conditions
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UNITVAWATLD rOFORMATION is supplied for
It does not warrant dissemination by
Source:
1.
sa
-ere on
try at the end of their
the
Ian
of
interest of your ana
who: with
Very luckily
enabled them
troubles and
25X1X6
oily,
in and
eve
dships.
at told that his aged father had bccn a Storekeeper in the good old
dam when the to to over Rumania he was virtually forced out of
business. The Rent Contrel Commission increased his iipop rent severalfold;
the income tax went sky-aiga and finally his source* of supply became non-
existent. Things did not end there: however.
3.One fine morning a-meow knocked at the door. It was an officialof the
Row Allocation Committee: who ruled that they should vacate the resi-
dence the following day as it was allocated to another family. When asked
where they would move to, the official shrugged and said that they would be
given an adeleate residence in exchange. The next +ley it rained very heav-
ily, and no one called to ask them to vacate the prelims, but the following
day & team of porters accomeanied the stern-looking Committee official: and
despite every noisy form of protest: their household effects vere nurriedly
hauled to a waiting lorry. They eure told that they had been given the op
tion of choosing one but of three houses offered to them; on the way the
lorry driver who knew the locations informed them in confidence that none
of the three places were suitable for habitation; the first one was a two-
room place with no doers and water closet; the second one was composed of
one ler roOm and a water closet in an Old isolated area very far allay from
the teen; the third was an attic where rat holes were in great evidence.
Iventually they sought and found temporary shelter in a relative's; house.
4. "Two months later ehealbeir protest-petition was brought to the attention or
the Chairman of the 0Use Allocations CommIttoo it waa olaimad that 10CQ
mistake had been made and. therefore the matter would be reviewed. /t was
still under review when fur young man and his family left the satellite
paradise of Rumania for Beirut: Lebanon.
finly IS
milkalligimailwa"..""or your afiairas.
nation by
interest of
50't warrant dissent, ?
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of Co issemiaatioa, CIA.
Sanitized - Approved For Releatio.4440,83-00423R0044814,40tift7
Sanitized -,Approved For
DP83-00423R001401140003-7
- 2 -
cultural institutes were alloved to operate in the country.
btle and cuaniag move on the part of the new rulers and the
It simply meant that they would be entitled to get reciprocalfa-
--facilities, Which vould in the course of time be used as centers
doings such as spying, sabotage and subversive propaganda.
ot possible1 1owever, to stop the people from frequenting the for-
tural institutes once they were established with the Apparent ap-
of the authorities. Ocee method bed to be devised in the aim=
d one of tbe first victims was a young Armenian girl. The person
identity must hot be disclosed for obvious reasons, was a
tote where 'approved' foreign langpaaft books were in the
wae thought thnt since the institutes were allowed to op-
'blessings' of the rulers, and many joined as webers.
wa returning base after Laving borrowed two books froa
a plainclothes man accosted her and Asked for her
ioned that the identity card was at her home and
companying her to the house if he !gated to have
tion was going on, the icomradOnaTned by one
hauled the young lady into a taxi to take her
cc which eventually turned out to be a police station of sorts.
"Ihus the young lady vanished. Sir bewildered parents searched all the pos-
sible and impossible places including the morgue; the police and allied au-
thorities professed complete ignorance but suggested that she might have run
alley with 4 lover. One rainy morning, three maths later, she turned up; she
was aehedew of her former self, the one time vivacious girl had become sul-
len and uncommunicative. All that her parents get out of her was that she
bad been given the third degree over and over, and accused of spying for
foram powers.
She had been kept
of foreign cultural
within the starvation tr
pri
. The pr
41 as a direct result
If you had savings in gold? you
money at the beak; the rate of e
10. 0n the black market geld was kin
things far beyond ordinary *spec
it. If your luck ran out, it was
years in prison.
It Was often possible to betray
h for it was in progres
gold coin* tucked avey
at hardship and persecution
metal.
al girl
la, the food veil
many died.
re directed to exchange them with pa
hangs was of course very adverse one.
you could buy thing*, go placas. and do
ions. .provided you vets not caaght with
net too bad for it meant a spell of five
some d co
in
effect
etssion
$ and their henchmen were out hunting, it was time f
to takeoever; in such circwtances, gold coins vere often
sins idlers ?worship dhims and counterclaims could not
were the unfortunate cases where lea of timely earn
vhourgeisielbeeopeautd, you were a marked man.
the contrary you had. always to go backward. You had. to re
, of your father, fie might be a modest and. hard.-working merchan
r; he might own a small building in Which to house his family and
or two; be might even own SONO laud for fertilises or poultry raising,
he was an ememy of the new order, and all his family was likevtee_
11. I, 1,1 MAIET
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP83-00423R001401140003-7
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A-RDP88w49423R001401140003-7
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the* to
if 7ou tried to dodge
eaugnt in no time, for
Sanitized -Approved IA-RDP83-00423R001401140003-7