Nearly 50 percent of Romanians believe that life was better in Romania before 1989, and 66 percent believe that communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was a good leader. These are just some of the results of a sociological survey conducted by the INSCOP sociological agency in partnership with the Institute for the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism, which the country's current president, Nikusor Dan, described as "deeply disturbing", writes BTA.
"Today, two-thirds of Romanians believe that Nicolae Ceausescu (...) was a good leader for Romania and only 24 percent believe that he was a bad leader of the country," wrote on Facebook yesterday, INSCOP director Remus Stefuriac, announcing the initial results of the survey on Romanians' attitudes towards the communist regime. This perception is a "direct consequence of the information war" waged by "a hostile force", as well as of "waves of disinformation, lies and grotesque manipulations, spread mostly on social networks", he further commented.
The full results of the survey, titled "The population's perception of communism. Benchmarks of nostalgia", were presented today. The data were collected in July 2025 with the participation of 1,500 people, and the statistical error is +/-2.5 percent. The results were described as "shocking" by some media outlets in the country.
The main conclusions of the survey are that "there is a huge gap between the historical reality of the communist regime and the current public perception". A large part of the population idealizes this period in contrast to documented historical facts, notes the Romanian edition of Radio Free Europe.
Nostalgia for communism is fueled not only by a natural phenomenon (regret for lost youth or apparent economic stability), but above all by systematic disinformation and internal and external manipulation campaigns, the authors of the study point out, emphasizing that "this collective nostalgia has the potential to seriously affect the stability of the democratic regime in Romania by nurturing distorted value concepts and promoting dangerous myths".
Commenting on the results of the survey, INSCOP director Remus Ștefuriac told Digi 24 television that the apparent nostalgia of Romanians for the communist regime can be explained by the accumulated dissatisfaction over the years, the need for the state to offer economic security, but also poor education regarding the recent past. As more and more Romanians believe that the pre-1989 regime was a good thing for Romania, while acknowledging abuses and restrictions on freedoms, "perhaps we do not understand well enough what the lack of freedom means," a sociologist emphasizes.
"These discrepancies represent one of the important keys to how the data of this survey should be interpreted. On the one hand, we have 56 percent of Romanians who say that the communist regime was a good thing for Romania, and 80 percent say that freedoms were restricted during communism. It seems like a dissonance - how, if we did not have freedom, this regime was good? This also sends an alarm signal about our attachment to freedom. Perhaps we do not understand well enough what the lack of freedom means. And here it is our duty as a society to educate better," commented Ștefuriak.
The myth of Ceaușescu is also supported by the perception of the supposed order, discipline and efficiency of the state administration, with nearly 59 percent of respondents believing that "state institutions were more efficient before 1989", and 75 percent believing that there was "more public security", indicates Free Europe.
For his part, the executive chairman of the Institute for the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism, Daniel Săndru, notes that an effort is needed on the part of the authorities and society to combat the tendency to idealize the communist period, caused by the lack of correct information. "We are, unfortunately, at a time when nostalgia for the communist regime is not just a matter of opinion or cultural vulnerability. "This is a national security issue," he stressed.
Only 38 percent of Romanians believe they have enough information to form a correct opinion about the communist period, and the main sources are direct memory or memories passed down from family, the survey data also shows. Also, 14 percent of respondents say that the communist period of Romania's history interests them a lot, and nearly 40 percent say that they are very little or not at all interested in this period.
"As for the perception of the crimes of communism, we are also talking about a gross ignorance. Too little has been done in the last 35 years. We do not teach clear aspects in schools that reflect the horrors of the communist regime. Only now has there been talk of teaching the history of the communist regime in the 12th grade (...) Against this background comes an aggressive Russian propaganda that spreads some shameless lies. It praises the communist regime without having any connection to reality, but it conquers minds on Facebook and TikTok," says sociologist Remus Ștefuriac.
In December 2024, the Romanian Ministry of Education announced that the subject "History of Romanian Communism" will become mandatory in Romanian schools from the 2025-2026 school year and will be taught in the 12th grade. "Nostalgia for times that bring sad memories has complex causes, but one of the most important is ignorance of historical facts. This phenomenon is disturbing, especially since it seems to be observed in different age groups, including among young people who did not live a single day under the communist regime," said the then Minister of Education Ligia Deca.
Nearly 60 percent of respondents believe that the pre-1989 regime was responsible for abuses and crimes, and only 14 percent of the survey participants believe that those responsible for the regime's crimes and abuses were punished by justice, the results also show.
Remus Ștefuriac notes that Romanians' lack of trust in the system comes against the backdrop of dissatisfaction with their current lives, with many families broken up due to mass emigration in recent years. "All this creates a false contrast in favor of the communist regime, but with extremely dangerous consequences for democracy", the director of INSCOP points out, noting that this phenomenon is not new.
"Ten years ago, we had 45 percent of the population who thought that the communist regime was a good thing for Romania. We are talking about accumulations over time. The political class is to blame for the accumulation of a lot of dissatisfaction on these topics. It is true that there were also objective reasons - in the villages, in small towns, the welfare is not like in big cities. The economic differences are too great in our country, a balance is needed", he also notes.
The results of the survey were defined as "deeply disturbing" by the country's pro-European President, Nicosor Dan, who stressed that "we cannot build a solid future by looking back with illusions", the news website Ziare reported.
"I am deeply concerned by the results of the survey presented today by INSCOP and the Institute for the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism. In my opinion, the main reason why more and more Romanians idealize communism is the deep disappointment with the political class in recent decades. Corruption, lack of transparency, broken promises and a sense of injustice have weakened people's trust in the present and the future," said Dan, a former mayor of Bucharest who won the presidential election in May as an independent candidate, facing far-right leader Gheorghe Simion.
"When hopes have been dashed for years, nostalgia becomes a natural reaction, even if it is based on a distorted view of the past. "This false perception is certainly supported by disinformation campaigns that try to undermine democratic values," the president added. He added that "the fact that two-thirds of Romanians consider Nicolae Ceausescu a good leader shows how fragile our collective memory is and how easy it is to manipulate perceptions when the state does not invest enough in education."
"Romania cannot build a solid future by looking back with illusions. We have a duty to learn from the past, not to resurrect it," the head of state concluded.