It is human nature to think that the past was better than the present. For that some reason, in some Communist countries there is a certain nostalgia now for the old days. Some people think they were better off under that system. Traian Nicola is here to set the record straight.
Goodbye, Dracula was written to illustrate one principle: "Communism strikes at the very heart of the human soul." Dracula does not actually appear in the book except for in the title, but is not only a way to catch the reader's attention. He is the perfect metaphor for the way the system sucks at the life of its people.
Nicola tells his tale in a very matter-of-fact, down-to-earth way. Growing up in Transylvania as a child in the 1950s, this was the only life he knew: living in one room of a large house that his parents once owned, discreetly attending church services, knowing it was dangerous, knowing that no once could travel unless they left at least one family member behind as a hostage to insure they would not "run away."
Still, as a child Nicola did not feel particularly oppressed. He had fun with his friends and went to school, Afterward, he attended college. There, he became more aware that things were bad;y wrong with the system, but a great desire to see the rest of the world led him to join the Romanian Foreign Intelligence Service anyway,under Nicolae Ceausescu, the leader of the Romanian Communist Party.
Beginning in college but really flowering once he began work in Intelligence, Nicola gradually becomes more and more aware of the way the Communist regime controls and abuses its people as the Romanian society became more closed and the openness toward the West of the 50's and 60's faded.
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