ROMANIA: THE VILLAGERS OF DOBROGEA
For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. Deuteronomy 7:6
Nicolai Ceaucescu had a brainstorm called “collectivization.” As the vicious dictator of Romania, he probably thought it was a good idea to get the people to voluntarily surrender all of their possessions to the state for the common good of all.
Farmers, landowners, and peasants everywhere lost everything: fields, sheep, cattle, houses, and furniture. The once-thriving agricultural sector of Romania was destroyed. Every farmer now became a slave of the state, working for pathetic wages on the state’s field. Families stood in line just to obtain bread.
To keep the people from becoming resistant to his strategy, the dictator himself helped in the initial launch. In the Romanian province of Dobrogea, all of the villagers were gathered together in the town center and asked to willingly give up their possessions. When no one volunteered, Ceaucescu shot ten people with his own gun. The vote was taken again: “Who is willing to give up all of their possessions?”
They played military music and chanted the praises of Communism. As the people were forced to dance, a video was made propagating their enthusiastic adherence to socialism. One farmer who had lost everything reported later, “They thought they took everything. But they left something very important-our hymnals. So we sat down and sang praises to the Lord.”
People often play games to get new people talking and learning about each other. One of the more revealing questions is to ask people what one thing they would bring if they were stranded on a deserted island. Most people have a hard time deciding and have to be reminded that this is only a game. However, the people of Romania did not have the luxury of playing a game; they were experiencing real life. Their government didn’t even allow them one possession. However, the villagers realized the presence of those overlooked hymnals brought joy to their village, which now resembled their own deserted island. The people treasured the hymnals, and God treasured the people.
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