Mobility and Immobility during the Cold War: International Tourism and the Politics of Free Movement in Socialist Romania,1950s–1980s

Abstract

This article examines the tension between, on the one hand, the Romanian socialist state's wish to develop international tourism and the embrace of free movement ideology, and, on the other, its restrictive policies when it came to the mobility of goods and its own citizens. This tension was not, as much of the existing literature has suggested, the outcome of the socialist state's ineffectiveness on the international scene or of its totalitarian nature. Instead, as this article shows, it was the result of a multifaceted process, which involved global promises combined with domestic and international economic limitations, as well as the engagement of local actors, such as the Securitate (secret police) agents.