Letter-writing became general within the frames of popular culture in the 20th century. The process was influenced on the one hand by the spreading of literacy and on the other by those social and political phenomena that resulted in the loosening of accustomed social and family ties. Letter-writers could formulate their thoughts along well defined lines: on the one hand there were given clichés that ensured the right form of the letter, on the other hand, the letters’ content was greatly influenced by the communist regime that controlled the text and punished unaccepted formulation. The letters from the Lăzarea legacy analyzed in this study bear witness to the way a person learned to use formal tradition and tried to formulate everyday happenings within the frames of a political regime. At the same time they offer a spontaneous view from below on the individual viewpoints of historical events. In different contexts, these letters become subordinates of different functions with the passing of time and can therefore be interpreted as historical and genealogical forms of remembrance.