Between 6 and 9 of November 2017 the members of the Stalin teams from the 5 participating countries travelled to Brasov for the opening of the final exhibition of the project I Was Citizen of Stalin Town. Together with the Romanian Stalin team, each participating country (Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland) sent one representative to Brasov.
Besides the participation to the opening of the project exhibition, the foreign guests also participated at a theme visit to Bucharest. On 7 November 2017 they visited the People’s House, the most representative monument of Romanian communism (presently, the Palace of Parliament), the Jilava Prison – Fort 13, one of the representative prisons of the communist regime, especially during the Stalinist era and the Cotroceni National Museum, former royal residence turned into a pioneers’ palace during the Stalinist period.
8 November 2017 marked the official opening of the exhibition I Was Citizen of Stalin Town with the participation of over 70 people (representatives of Stalin teams, students, media representatives, citizens of the former Stalin Town – Brasov, people who contributed with their items to the exhibition). At the vernissage each Stalin team representative spoke about the importance of this European project for their communities, their own results and the desire to ensure the continuity of the project. Moreover, our foreign colleagues had the chance to interact with the vernissage participants and provide additional information about their town from the Stalinist period or to comment on the contents of the exhibition.
The exhibition of the project I Was Citizen of Stalin Town opened at the upper floor of Casa Sfatului covers three rooms.
The first room, Stalin Towns, is an interactive presentation of the former Stalin Towns in the order in which they had been given the name of the communist dictator: Varna, Kucova, Dunaujvaros, Katowice. It exhibits historical photos, explanatory texts, historical chronologies, archive films presented both on panels and through modern means such as multimedia equipment.
The 2nd room is dedicated to the presentation of the concentration regime from Stalinist Romania. It displays items which belonged to locals from Brasov who were arrested and imprisoned in the days of the Stalin Town, historical items borrowed from the Bucharest – Jilava Penitentiary and the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of the Romanian Exile.
The 3rd room, Brasov – Stalin Town mainly consists of memories and items of citizens of Stalin Town. The exhibition registry also includes images from the archives of AGERPRES, the national press agency, the National History Museum of Romania, the National Military Museum, movies from the historical archive of the Romanian Television, ANF recordings, radio recordings from the archives of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company, artworks from the collection of the Brasov Art Museum and private collections.
On 9 November 2017 a wrap-up meeting of the project was held with the participation of the implementing teams to analyze the project implementation results and the possibilities to continue it.
Till the end of the project (30 November 2017), the exhibition had a number of 2009 visitors.
300 catalogs were published to promote the exhibition and the project.
