Nicolae Ceaușescu's 1988 idea to raze about half of Romania's 13,000 villages and rebuild others into "agro-industrial centers" was not new. It had been written into law in 1974. At that time, about 3,000 villages were scheduled to die out gradually, while 300–400 more were to be transformed into towns. However, industrial construction assumed priority, overshadowing the rural reconstruction and resettlement program, which was not pursued with any vigor. In the spring of 1988, however, the rural systematization program reemerged as a top priority on Ceaușescu's agenda. The concept was first developed by Nikita Khrushchev, aiming to raise the standard of rural life by amalgamating villages in order to stop the migration of younger people from rural to urban. However, the project was forgotten while Ceaușescu focused on other projects, such as the Centrul Civic and the Danube–Black Sea Canal, but it was relaunched in March 1988. The 1974 law for urban and rural territorial reorganization provided for the development of the countryside by focusing on the more viable villages while the rest would be gradually starved of investment. However, momentum was lost in the late 1970s, and of the 140 new towns promised by 1985, only one – Rovinari – was completed in 1981. No explanation was ever given, but likely Ceaușescu transferred his attention to the aforementioned projects.
The villages most likely to be phased out were those with minimal prospects for growth. By the year 2000, 85% of communes were to have piped drinking water and 82% modern sewage. According to a statement by the regime, by the year 2000, Romania expected "to eradicate basic differences between villages and cities and to ensure the harmonious development of all sections of the country". Ceauşescu's declared aim - based on an original idea in the Communist Manifesto - was "to wipe out radically the major differences between towns and villages; to bring the living and working conditions of the working people in the countryside closer to those in the towns". He thought that by gathering people together into apartment buildings so that "the community fully dominates and controls the individual", systematization would produce Romania's "new socialist man". Ceaușescu was determined to revolutionize agriculture by increasing the cultivation area, while also stifling individual initiative and increasing centralization. The peasants were to receive derisory compensation for their demolished homes and then be charged rent for their new blocks, in which there was no accommodation for animals. As Romanian historian Dinu Giurescu put it: "The ultimate goal is the proletarianization of our society. The final step in this process is the loss of the individual house.". It was an all-out effort at social engineering: kitchens and bathrooms were communal space in the government-owned and controlled apartments. The number of villages was to be reduced to 5,000–6,000 (grouped in 2,000 communes), implying that 7,000–8,000 would be destroyed. Workers and intellectuals were to be settled in 3–4 storey buildings, with small blocks of 4 apartments or individual two-storey houses for the farmers. The countryside would be urbanized through 558 new agro-industrial towns. Although aspects of the program were absolutely necessary (improvement of services, diversification and stabilization of the workforce), it allowed little scope for local consultation and its implementation timespan was far too short (hence compulsory resettlement) with no realistic compensation for the required expropriation.
Ceaușescu felt fed-up by continuous United States Congressional scrutiny of Romania's human rights record, a scrutiny hindering his long-cherished "grand design". Shortly after his "cocky" gesture on MFN, Ceaușescu announced the most sweeping and ominous plan of his regime up to that point, involving the liquidation of up to 8,000 villages. On 3 March 1988, speaking at an official conference, Ceaușescu announced: by the year 2000, 7,000 - 8,000 of Romania's 13,123 villages would be "modernized", as in transformed into 558 "agro-industrial" centers. The Ilfov Agricultural Sector around Bucharest was chosen by Ceaușescu as a showpiece (to be completed by 1992-1993), as a model for emulation by the rest of the country. The first evictions and demolitions took place in August 1988. Only 2-3 days were given before shops were closed down and bus services were stopped, forcing the inhabitants into the selected villages. Whole communities were moved to blocks in Otopeni and Ghermănești, where as much as 10 families had to share one kitchen and the sewage system had not been completed. In other villages across the country, "ugly" concrete Civic Center buildings began to emerge in the centers of the planned new towns. Around 18 villages had suffered major demolitions by the end of 1989 while 5 others were completely razed. According to the Wall Street Journal: "In the countryside, smashed hamlets and villages are making way for the same prefabricated housing blocks of Orwellian Bucharest.". The systematization program encountered resistance from villagers and local authorities alike. Local revolts against systematization were reported in the villages of Petrova, Monor and Parva. Local officials were threatened, while in other places officials refused to carry out orders. The director of the Miercurea Ciuc County Savings Bank resigned in protest over pressure to designate his native village of Păuleni-Ciuc a street of the nearby town of Frumoasa. The systematization program was terminated on 26 December 1989, the day after the trial and execution of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu.
The program fell behind schedule, with only 24 new towns declared in 1989 out of the 100 expected by 1990. These 24 agro-industrial towns are listed below:
The scale of the potential destruction caused an international outcry to such an extent that it led to the creation of organizations such as the Belgian-based Opération Villages Roumains, which provided for the twinning of threatened Romanian villages with Western communities. Few of the villages were actually destroyed, systematization only really succeeding in "imprinting Romania onto the consciousness of Europe". Opération Villages Roumains was founded on 22 December 1988 in Brussels, being officially launched on 3 February 1989. By the beginning of May 1989, Romanian villages had been adopted by 231 communes in Belgium, 95 in France, and 42 in Switzerland. The Belgian effort was almost exclusively Walloon. In its March 1989 session, the Council of Europe strongly condemned the liquidation of the villages, asking the authorities to cease the campaign. Shortly afterwards, in a speech broadcast by the BBC, the Prince of Wales publicly criticized this policy.
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