Carol Lambrino

1920–2006

Born: 8 Jan 1920, Bucharest
Country of birth: Kingdom of Romania, today Romania
Died: 27 Jan 2006, London

facts: 7
sources: 1
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Facts and their sources

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Birth8 Jan 1920, BucharestProbable1 source
Death27 Jan 2006, LondonProbable1 source
ParentCarol II of RomaniaConfirmed1 source
ParentZizi LambrinoConfirmed1 source

A life in time

8 Jan 1920
Born · Bucharest
Birth, Bucharest
27 Jan 2006
Died · London
Death, London

What was it like?

The world around Bucharest, 1920: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

Carol was born the same year as Federico Fellini, Toshirō Mifune, and Charles Bukowski.

Born the same year

Federico Fellini
Italian filmmaker (1920–1993)
Toshirō Mifune
Japanese actor (1920–1997)
Charles Bukowski
German-American writer (1920–1994)
Danilo Alvim
Brazilian footballer and manager (1920-1996)
John Paul II
pope, cardinal, bishop, priest, author
Isaac Asimov
American writer and biochemist (1920–1992)

Fashion

Flashy accessories for stylish men

Extravagant men, such as young writers, wore red or yellow shoes and carried silver or bone combs for their beards, which they displayed ostentatiously.

Massive 10 kg wedding shirt

A wedding shirt made for the Junii Brașovului was so elaborate that four women spent four months embroidering it with 40,000 sequins, weighing nearly 10 kg.

Music

Four-day wedding musical traditions

In rural Romania, weddings were significant musical events lasting four days, featuring professional musicians such as Roma fiddlers who played for dances and accompanied ritual moments like the crowning of the bride.

The buhai ox-bellow instrument

A unique instrument called the buhai was used during New Year celebrations, created from a wooden tub covered with a perforated hide that a performer pulled with wet hands to mimic an ox's bellow.

Getting around

Bucharest–Constanța: 4h 34m express

For an express train, the Bucharest–Constanța route (228 km) was done in 4 hours and 34 minutes.

Bucharest–Vârciorova: eight hours by rail

In the 1900s, a train covered about 382 km from Bucharest to Vârciorova (at the Austro-Hungarian border) in roughly eight hours.

Daily life

Rural resistance to education

Rural children were often kept from primary school to help with labor, as peasant families saw little immediate benefit to formal education. Many parents harbored a deep fear of the school, influenced by the traditional belief that the rod is torn from paradise.

Street gatherings in Bucharest

In Bucharest, families would move their chairs outside at 6 p.m. to drink coffee and socialize in the street for about two hours. This daily gathering fostered strong neighborhood bonds among the city's residents.

Food

Harvests often converted into alcohol

To produce high volumes of alcohol, peasants frequently converted significant portions of their fruit and corn harvests into brandy.

Mămăligă was the essential daily food

Corn-based mămăligă was the foundation of the peasant diet, often consumed daily and sometimes multiple times a day.

Prices and wages

Food prices in 1920

In 1920, the price of 1 kilogram of bread ranged between 1.25 and 6 lei, while beef cost between 6 and 11 lei per kilogram.

Around 1925–1949

Low wages and poverty

By 1938, many workers lived in poverty, as average monthly wages for a significant portion of the workforce were often under 1,125 lei, while basic expenses like rent for a three-bedroom apartment reached 1,600 lei.

Work

Fast-paced work in tobacco factories

In the 1920s, female tobacco workers hand-packed 140 kilograms of tobacco into 7,000 packages during an eight-hour shift. This work required high speed, strength, and coordination.

Around 1923–1929

Factory wages and purchasing power

In 1929, a factory worker in Cluj earned 600 lei a week as a starting salary, while experienced shoemakers could earn up to 1,800 lei weekly. However, a low weekly wage of 300 lei in 1923 was often insufficient to cover even a family's basic bread expenses for a week.

News and letters

Mail delivery times and local transport methods

During this period, postal shipments in Romania generally took 2 to 3 days to reach their recipients by train. In rural areas, mail was still frequently transported between post offices and train stations using hand mail carts or bicycles.

Around 1928–1937

Development of Internal Airmail Services

By 1932, airmail services operated within Romania through the state-owned airline LARES, connecting major cities including Bucharest, Cluj, Iași, Galați, Constanța, Chișinău, Cernăuți, and Balcic. Sending correspondence by plane required the payment of a specific airmail surcharge.

During their lifetime

1921
Radical agrarian reform redistributes land
The 1921 agrarian reform was one of the most radical in Eastern Europe, removing inequitable land distribution where 5,835 landowners held 47.7% of arable land.
1925
Air travel becomes accessible to people
Starting in 1925, air travel became a common and relatively inexpensive means of transportation for citizens.
1947
Currency reform replaces old lei
Following severe inflation after World War II, a monetary reform on August 16, 1947, replaced old currency at a rate of 20,000 old lei for 1 new leu.
1948
Creation of the NHS in 1948
In 1948, the National Health Service (NHS) was created to provide healthcare, following the 1942 Beveridge Report.
1950
Massive property confiscation in 1950
On April 19, 1950, Decree 92 resulted in the mass confiscation of private houses and lands by the state.
1950
Massive rural-to-urban migration
Between 1950 and 1970, about 30 percent of the population migrated from rural areas to cities to work in new factories.

Family

Parents

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.