Somewhere in my attic, among my rather extensive Polly Pocket and Barbie dolls collection, there’s a poster by the Romanian caricaturist Mihai Stănescu gathering dust. Truth be told it isn’t mine, it’s my mother’s. She passed it on to me a while ago and it spent most of my early adulthood taped to my bedroom door. On one line the poster reads “Before: EU – RO – PA”, with the RO dropping out. Beneath it: “After 22 December 1989: EUROPA” with the RO restored: Romania finally a part of Europe again.
Stănescu was one of the few caricaturists who dared to make subversive work mocking the Ceaușescu regime. He was under constant surveillance but his drawings encapsulated the hope many harboured for a democratic Romania. A Romania turned westwards. This same hope sustained the 1989 revolution. One of the best known placards held up by protesters in December 1989 read: “Copiii noștri vor fi liberi”. (Our children will be free.)
