Bucharest, Nov 7 /Agerpres/ – A photo exhibition called “Bucharest in the last decades of the communist regime. Diplomacy, Censorship and Control” that brings to the public attention an essential chapter in Romania’s recent history, will open on November 11, at the Central Headquarters of the Bucharest Metropolitan Library.

Organised by the Bucharest City Hall, through the Bucharest Metropolitan Library (BMB), in partnership with the National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives (CNSAS) and AGERPRES, the project aims to deepen the understanding of the social, political and cultural context in Romania during the communist regime, with a special focus on the country’s diplomatic interactions, censorship mechanisms and methods of social control that marked that era.

On display during the event will be unpublished photos from the archives of the National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives, valuable historical documents and testimonies of contemporary witnesses that will offer a deep perspective on the political and social realities in communist Romania. The images are part of the archives of CNSAS, AGERPRES and BMB.

“By presenting unpublished images and documents, the exhibition will offer a detailed look at the evolution of Bucharest, starting with the end of the ’70s and continuing to the last decades of the Ceausescu regime. Visitors will be able to better understand how the communist regime manipulated information, controlled institutions and managed foreign relations in a period marked by Romania’s international isolation and the constraint of citizens’ freedoms,” says BMB.

Тhe exhibition will take place both outside, on the fence of the Mihail Sadoveanu Headquarters, and inside the building, in the form of a touring exhibition, offering an interactive experience to visitors.

The outdoor exhibition, located on the fence of the Central Headquarters, will include a selection of rare images from the CNSAS archives, documents that reflect the atmosphere of the most intense decades of the communist regime, with a special emphasis on the way in which censorship affected public communication and the daily life of Bucharest residents, and also the dynamics of international diplomatic affairs back then.

Presented in the touring exhibition, located inside the building, bringing together audio recordings, archive films and a series of images depicting public and private life in Bucharest under a regime in which censorship and social control were the order of the day, is an extensive selection of documentary materials that will deepen the understanding of the regime’s impact on citizens.

The project addresses topics such as the social control strategy implemented by the communist regime, censorship in the media and the official culture of that period, and also the Romanian diplomacy in international relations, with all these aspects being explored through the prism of a unique documentary heritage in the custody of the CNSAS.

The exhibition is open throughout December 11.