"For sale: full apartment furniture, in good condition, hall-way furniture, piano, Russian samovar, silver candle holders, Akai stereo, Sanda sawing machine, Albalux washing machine, electric heater, mink coat size 48, lamb hat, books, various items." This type of ads filled the classifieds of Scînteia or România libera dailies, during the communist regime, and they advertised more than giving for sale an entire household, as all people reading them understood the sellers were leaving Romania for good.
This was one way of leaving Romania at the time, the legit way, when a relative abroad asked for first degree relatives - meaning offspring and parents - to join him or her, abroad.
It was not the easiest way to get out of the country in the '70s or '80s, because of the bureaucratic hurdles one had to overcome, but at the end of the day it was the safest.
At the same time, while having a relative abroad might have been the ticket out of Romania, it was for sure the reason for communist authorities to keep an watchful eye over all those still in the country, and resort even to subtle punishment, in the form of giving them a hard time with promotion on their jobs or traveling abroad.
It seems that people from all lines of work had a close relative living abroad, including those in the Communist Party leadership, national assembly or ministries. Even one of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's adviser brother and sister-in-law living in West Germany since 1972.
Why such people with less than spotless files, in terms of Communist Party criteria, were still held in leadership positions one might only guess: it might have been for the weakened position all these people found themselves in, hence for being able to control them.
But the way out of Romania was never simple and safe, during communist years. More often than not, people tried their way
