Polish Ceauşescu biography level-heaed

Polish historian Adam Burakowski has written a biography of the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu. Cristian Ghinea applauds the author for his level-headed stance in the weekly paper Dilema Vecha: "Burakowski describes in detail the many modulations that kept the system running. ... When factories over-fulfilled the plan, the workers were paid more. A nice idea, but at the same time a dumb communist one. Because the plans were based on factories' maximum capacities. If you wanted to surpass them you had to work longer hours. But in fact you had to work longer hours because that decision was left to the factory heads, who were in turn terrorised from on high to over-fulfil the plan. ... I have a photo at home showing me as a Pioneer. ... I look at it sometimes and think: incredible that in another world I was a sort of Hitler Youth. Perhaps that's why we can't write a single level-headed book about Ceauşescu. Because we were his slaves."

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