0 copies, with a high percentage representing
original works of Romanian authors. After the communist takeover in 1948
all publishing facilities were nationalized, and the entire industry was
converted to serve as a major propaganda and indoctrination instrument
in support of the new regime. Between 1949 and 1953 the revamped
publishing concerns turned out more than 13,500 separate titles, with a
total of almost 250 million copies. This record amount of officially
approved and censored material represented a whole new series of
communist-oriented material needed to operate the highly centralized
government, to reeducate the people, and to regulate their activities.

By 1955 the number of titles issued annually had decreased to a little
more than 5,000, but total circulation remained relatively high at more
than 48 million copies. From 1955 to 1966 the number of titles gradually
increased and reached a plateau of about 9,000, where it remained
through 1969. Annual circulation figures over the same periods of time
fluctuated in a fairly regular pattern showing a controlled average
number of copies issued per title each year also to be about 9,000.
Thus, the planned publishing requirements as set by the government
apparently were achieved in 1966 and have varied very little since then.

Publication

Government and party control of all printing and publishing activities
is centered in the Council on Socialist Culture and Education. This
party-state organization formulates policy guidelines for the publishing
industry and utilizes other government-controlled or government-owned
agencies, such as the General Directorate for the Press and Printing,
the various publishing houses, and book distribution centers to
supervise and coordinate day-to-day operations. Within this control
machinery all short- and long-range publication plans are approved, and
the distribution of all printed material is specified. This central
authority also allocates paper quotas, determines the number of books to
be printed, and sets the prices at which all publications are to be
sold.

In 1972 about twenty-five publishing houses were in operation; of these,
twenty-three were located in Bucharest, and one each was in Cluj and
Iasi. Each of these enterprises produced books, pamphlets, periodicals,
and other printed material within its own specialized field and was
responsible, through its director, for the political acceptability and
quality of its