Stanciu Stroia's prison memoirs.

Stanciu Stroia knows the unavoidable side of totalitarianism-- the extended prison sentence offered to  those who refuse to put on the uniform and start marching lock-step. His honest book, My Second University, was published in 2005. Here is an excerpt from the introduction, written by his grandson, to Stroia's book:

To better understand my grandfather’s memories, one must be familiar with Romania’s political situation before and during World War II and in the eventful period that followed. The next several pages do not represent an attempt at an exhaustive history lesson—numerous comprehensive textbooks written by competent individuals serve that purpose. Rather, they constitute a succinct and chronological presentation of the essential events and circumstances that shaped Romania’s fate. The intention is not to overwhelm the reader with superfluous information, but to provide a framework for facilitating comprehension of the book’s content. Historical facts often differ in their packaging and labeling according to the distributor’s opinions. The information selected here comprises well-known, rudimentary data and dates, accompanied by interpretations based on my own reading, observations, and conclusions. It is researched history supplemented by personal experience. For the apparent redundancy of ideas, I ask the reader for forgiveness. It is aimed at underscoring necessary points. Ultimately, this introduction’s ambitious proposition is to provide basic answers to timely questions: How was Communism in Romania possible? What happened to the people who opposed it? Why is it important for you, the reader, to know about it? What is the story’s contemporary relevance? If the following text succeeds in delivering the intended message, the significance of knowing these answers will be evident. [...]
To forgive and to forget are entirely different concepts; one does not consequentially imply the other. A crime can be forgiven, but if it is forgotten, the victim’s punishment becomes continual. The survivors must not forget, while those who have been spared must not ignore. Without subscribing to the notions of “competitive martyrdom” or “monopoly of suffering,” the Communist repression has to at least be put in its proper perspective. And although I am equally appalled by other atrocities committed throughout the world—particularly at the time of this publication—I believe that the Stalinist crimes of the past century should occupy a well-documented and deservedly infamous place in the historical literature. Their significance has not faded over the past fifty years, and they represent a history lesson that ought to be told, so that the world learns from it and avoids a repetition of a terrible past. Ignorance is at the root of all evil—according to an old maxim; a clear understanding of how Communism was possible is crucial for our own self-preservation. [...]
One can argue that it takes a multitude of socioeconomic and political elements, favorable internal circumstances, and a permissive or powerless international community for a radical government to emerge. Unfortunately, auspicious conditions develop frequently, and the results are painfully similar. This personal saga is an eye-opener regarding events with a true potential for recurrence if collective political vigilance fails. One glimpse at the current international situation is sufficient to reveal the present-day relevance of this memoir.

Who was this dangerous man, and what threat did he pose to Romanian communist society? Here is a brief bio that might fill in the details:

Dr. Stanciu Stroia was born in rural Transylvania. He was a graduate of Cluj University Medical School, with a doctoral dissertation on the “Radiotherapy in Basedow desease”, submitted in 1928. As a junior doctor he moved over to the Regional Hospital of Fagaras where, in the early 1930’s he established the first department of Internal Medicine. By the age of 41 he became the director of that establishment. This was during WWII and only one year earlier the Soviet armies occupied Romania. With them, on the back of Russian tanks came the fifth columnists, the handful of exiled Romanian communists who were going to impose a new “social order” of Stalinist brand. At this point Dr. Stroia’s high-profile medical position, caused him to be invited to join the ranks of the Communist Party, which he refused. This stance marked him as an “undesirable” by the Communist hierarchy. Once Romania turned into a one-party dictatorship, in 1948, the medical know-how became subsidiary to political allegiance: this is how, in 1949, Dr. Stroia was demoted from his position of hospital director. Two years on he was under pressure to become an informer of the Securitate, the ubiquitous Romanian Secret services. This he rejected outright, because of his personal and professional ethics and so, in 1951, he was arrested for allegedly “helping and not denouncing anti-communist partisans”. He was given a six-years prison sentence on trumped up charges of “favoring the crime of plotting against the Romanian state”. Within 48 hours of his arrest, his wife and two young children were evicted from their private property, his estate was nationalized, the medical practice confiscated and the house eventually demolished. During his long prison years, he was not allowed to receive any correspondence or food and clothes parcels, except on one occasion. On his release, in December 1957, Dr. Stroia was made to sign a declaration undertaking not to disclose his prison experiences, under threat of being re-arrested. He was also forbidden to restart his medical practice in his home town and was relocated instead in a remote province. Nine years after his release and after many failed attempts Dr. Stroia was granted, in unusual circumstances, a “political and judicial rehabilitation”, for a crime he has never committed and which was in private, but never officially acknowledged, of having been a “misguided interpretation of the law”. He retired at the age of 64, when Ceausescu just came to power and thereafter he spent all summers in his native village in Transylvania, where he offered free medical consultations.

Anyone with grandparents who lived in communist Romania has heard at least half of this biography before-- the stealing of property, the forced signatures of declarations, the closing of professional practices, the destruction of family histories.... The list goes on-- for each person, there are minor differences-- and not one speck of life as it was lived prior to communism remains untouched. Under Romanian communism, nothing was marginal.

If you read Romanian, you can learn more about Stroia and his book from this article by Lidia Vianu. If English is your preferred tongue, you can learn a little more here.