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home : culture : continental drift : english : slavonic and east european review : .................................................................................................................................. |
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"Continental Drift - Colliding Continents, Converging Cultures" .................................................................................................. |
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Preface by
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Review:
Prof. Dennis Deletant - Slavonic and East European Review .................... DESPITE its title and the name of its publisher this is not a book on plate tectonics. It is rather an autobiography and a singular account of the experience of a Romanian who came to Britain at the end of the 1960s and managed to stay on and make a successful career. In this latter respect alone it warrants attention, but its value is enhanced by the elegance of the writing which is sprinkled generously with humorous observations on the ambiguities and vicissitudes of the author’s fortune. His story is one that young East Europeans, who are considering a career in the West, might draw comfort from. Constantin Roman was born in 1941 in Bucharest and was part of a generation of Romanians who were made to pay by the Communist regime for their parents’ ideological ‘deviance’. His father worked as a chemist in the oil industry, a profession into which the author himself would follow although initially Constantin wished to train as an architect. His father’s refusal to join the Communist party put paid to that aspiration since children of ‘unhealthy’ i.e. middle-class background who showed a ‘hostile’ attitude towards the regime were effectively barred from a university education in the arts — through a subjective interpretation of the entrance exam results — until 1963. In the sciences, exam results were unequivocal and so Constantin gained entry in 1960 to the Faculty of Geology in Bucharest. His father was relieved to see him through, as education had become a symbol of survival in a family where all savings had been confiscated and property nationalized. Roman’s description of the teaching structure in Bucharest University at that time shows that little has changed in teaching methods in higher education in many Romanian universities today. As this reviewer found from his own experience in teaching in the country, the relationship between student and teacher is one of servant and master. Students tend to learn by rote; they are not encouraged to put questions during lectures or seminars — tutorials are extremely rare — and most of the examinations in the arts — though not the sciences — are oral, not written. During the summer months of his university life Roman worked as a tour guide for the Romanian National Tourist Office and thus found a loophole in the authorities’ official discouragement of contacts by Romanians with visitors from the West. It was through this activity that he made friends who subsequently sent him dictionaries and foreign literature. He also received off-prints of scientific publications which enabled him to keep abreast of the latest developments in his field and provided him with an academic platform from which to embark on his professional career once he managed to get to the West. Persistence and ingenuity allowed him to overcome Romanian bureaucracy and to obtain a passport at the age of twenty-seven in order to take up an invitation from Newcastle University to attend a palaeomagnetic conference. Roman succeeded through various stratagems in extending his visit. Adaptation to life in Western Europe posed a challenge in itself to East Europeans, but coping with the singular ways of the British added an extra dimension. It is in this part of the book that Roman is at his best. What struck him most on the professional level was the willingness of scientists, first at Newcastle, and later at Cambridge — where he completed a PhD — to involve him in their research and to suggest funding opportunities. This was in stark contrast to his Romanian experience. Eventually, with the help of Lord Goodman, the eminent lawyer, Roman was able to obtain permanent residency in this country at the age of thirty-two and, after leaving Cambridge, he set up his own oil consultancy business. Roman’s story is one of success, unlike that of thousands of his contemporaries in Romania whose lives were sadly constrained by the severe restrictions placed on personal freedom by the Communist regime. His account is inspirational, and at a time when many young Romanians still tend to expect the state to map out their lives for them, it is an example of what individual initiative can achieve in a free-market economy. |
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