Gavril Marcuson at home

This is me, Gavril Marcuson [the initial name, Marcussohn, was shortened to Marcuson in 1968], in the 1960's, at home, in Bucharest. I was born in Bucharest, on 28th October 1913. I graduated from the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy in Bucharest in 1935. I only held a job after 23rd August 1944. Before that, I lived from tutoring in English and French. I didn't tutor as much as I could have, because I wanted to have time to read and go for a walk. I used to think and I still think that man's greatest fortune is what the Romans called 'otium', that is spare time intelligently used. After the war, I became a regular employee. I first worked for the Communist Party - they called us instructors, but I actually did documenting for the propaganda section. I was a reference professional. I worked there for a long time, from 1945 until the 1950's, when they fired me because of a trial in my family [which made Mr. Marcuson's personnel file look bad]. Then I worked at the 'Univers' Publishing House, still in the 1950's. I also taught French at the Foreign Languages Institute, but only for a few years. The institute was dissolved, but I don't remember when - in the 1950's or 1960's. I was a researcher at the Party History Institute. I had some books and articles published. I retired while I was working for the Scientific and Encyclopedic Publishing House, in 1973. Things were fine for me when I worked there. Daily life wasn't great from a political point of view; economically speaking, we had our problems too - there was a lot of queuing to do and all sorts of shortages. Stores didn't look like they do now: they were shabby, and the shop assistants weren't trained; it wasn't easy to shop for things. We spent our spare time reading, going for a walk, going to see performances.