Nicolae Ceaușescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu | |||||||||||||||||
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General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party | |||||||||||||||||
In office 22 March 1965 – 22 December 1989 | |||||||||||||||||
Preceded by | Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej | ||||||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Position abolished | ||||||||||||||||
President of Romania | |||||||||||||||||
In office 28 March 1974 – 22 December 1989 | |||||||||||||||||
Prime Minister | |||||||||||||||||
Preceded by | Position established | ||||||||||||||||
Succeeded by | National Salvation Front Council (interim) | ||||||||||||||||
President of the State Council | |||||||||||||||||
In office 9 December 1967 – 22 December 1989 | |||||||||||||||||
Prime Minister | |||||||||||||||||
Preceded by | Chivu Stoica | ||||||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Office abolished | ||||||||||||||||
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Personal details | |||||||||||||||||
Born | 26 January [O.S. 13 January] 1918 Scornicești, Kingdom of Romania | ||||||||||||||||
Died | 25 December 1989 Târgoviște, Socialist Republic of Romania | (aged 71)||||||||||||||||
Political party | Romanian Communist Party (1932–1989) | ||||||||||||||||
Spouse | |||||||||||||||||
Children | |||||||||||||||||
Signature | |||||||||||||||||
Criminal conviction | |||||||||||||||||
Cause of death | Execution by firing squad | ||||||||||||||||
Conviction(s) | Genocide | ||||||||||||||||
Trial | Trial and execution of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu | ||||||||||||||||
Criminal penalty | Death | ||||||||||||||||
Details | |||||||||||||||||
Victims | Romanian dissidents | ||||||||||||||||
Nicolae Ceaușescu (
Born in 1918 in Scornicești, Ceaușescu was a member of the Romanian Communist youth movement. He was arrested in 1939 and sentenced for "conspiracy against social order", spending the time during the war in prisons and internment camps: Jilava (1940), Caransebeș (1942), Văcărești (1943), and Târgu Jiu (1943). Ceaușescu rose up through the ranks of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej's Socialist government and, upon Gheorghiu-Dej's death in 1965, he succeeded to the leadership of the Romanian Communist Party as general secretary.[1]
Upon achieving power, he eased press censorship and condemned the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in his speech of 21 August 1968, which resulted in a surge in popularity. However, this period of stability was brief, as his government soon became totalitarian and came to be considered the most repressive in the Eastern Bloc. His secret police, the Securitate, was responsible for mass surveillance as well as severe repression and human rights abuses within the country, and controlled the media and press. Ceaușescu's attempts to implement policies that would lead to a significant growth of the population led to a growing number of illegal abortions and increased the number of orphans in state institutions. Economic mismanagement due to failed oil ventures during the 1970s led to very significant foreign debts for Romania. In 1982, Ceaușescu directed the government to export much of the country's agricultural and industrial production in an effort to repay these debts. His cult of personality experienced unprecedented elevation, followed by the deterioration of foreign relations, even with the Soviet Union.
As anti-government protesters demonstrated in
Early life and career
Ceaușescu was born in the small village of Scornicești, Olt County, being the third of nine children of a poor peasant family (see Ceaușescu family). Based on his birth certificate, he was born on 5 February [O.S. 23 January] 1918,[6][7] rather than the official 8 February [O.S. 26 January] 1918—his birth was registered with a three-day delay, which later led to confusion. According to the information recorded in his autobiography, Nicolae Ceaușescu was born on 26 January 1918.[8] His father Andruță (1886–1969) owned 3 hectares (7.4 acres) of agricultural land and a few sheep, and Nicolae supplemented his large family's income through tailoring.[9] He studied at the village school until the age of 11, when he left for Bucharest. The Olt County Service of National Archives holds excerpts from the catalogs of Scornicești Primary School, which certifies that Nicolae A. Ceaușescu passed the first grade with an average of 8.26 and the second grade with an average of 8.18, ranking third, in a class in which 25 students were enrolled.[8] Journalist Cătălin Gruia claimed in 2007 that he ran away from his supposedly extremely religious, abusive and strict father. He initially lived with his sister, Niculina Rusescu.
He became an
The profile file from the secret police,
Soon after being freed, he was arrested again and sentenced for "conspiracy against social order", spending the time during the war in prisons and internment camps: Jilava (1940), Caransebeș (1942), Văcărești (1943), and Târgu Jiu (1943).[10]
In 1943, he was transferred to Târgu Jiu internment camp, where he shared a cell with Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, becoming his protégé.
Enticed with substantial bribes, the camp authorities gave the Communist prisoners much freedom in running their cell block, provided they did not attempt to break out of prison.
After the Communists seized power in Romania in 1947, and under the patronage of Gheorghiu-Dej, Ceaușescu was elected a member of the
In May 1948, Ceaușescu was appointed Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, and in March 1949 he was promoted to the position of Deputy Minister.[14] From the Ministry of Agriculture and with no military experience, he was made Deputy Minister in charge of the armed forces, holding the rank of Major General. Later, promoted to the rank of lieutenant general, he became First Deputy to the Ministry of Defense and head of the Army's Higher Political Directorate.[15] Ceaușescu studied at the Soviet Frunze Military Academy in Moscow for two consecutive months in both 1951 and 1952.[15]
In 1952, Gheorghiu-Dej brought him onto the
Ceaușescu during the collectivization process
As a high-ranking state official in the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Defence Ceaușescu had an important role in the forced collectivisation, according to own
Leadership of Romania
in 1965When Gheorghiu-Dej died on 19 March 1965, Ceaușescu was not the obvious successor, despite his closeness to the longtime leader. But widespread infighting by older and more connected officials led the Politburo to choose Ceaușescu as a compromise candidate.[20] He was elected general secretary on 22 March 1965, three days after Gheorghiu-Dej's death.
One of Ceaușescu's first acts was to change the name of the party from the Romanian Workers' Party back to the
Initially, Ceaușescu became a popular figure, both in Romania and in the West, because of his independent foreign policy, which challenged the authority of the Soviet Union. In the 1960s, he eased press censorship and ended Romania's active participation in the Warsaw Pact, but Romania formally remained a member. He refused to take part in the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact forces and even actively and openly condemned it in his 21 August 1968 speech. He travelled to Prague a week before the invasion to offer moral support to his Czechoslovak counterpart, Alexander Dubček. Although the Soviet Union largely tolerated Ceaușescu's recalcitrance, his seeming independence from Moscow earned Romania maverick status within the Eastern Bloc.[20]
All of Ceaușescu's economic, foreign and demographic policies were meant to achieve his ultimate goal: turning Romania into one of the world's great powers.[21] In October 1966, Ceaușescu banned abortion and contraception and imposed one of the world's harshest anti-abortion laws,[22] leading to a spike in the number of Romanian infants turned over to the country's orphanages.
During the following years, Ceaușescu pursued an open policy towards the United States and Western Europe. Romania was the first Warsaw Pact country to recognize West Germany, the first to join the International Monetary Fund, and the first to receive a US president, Richard Nixon.[23] In 1971, Romania became a member of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Romania and Yugoslavia were also the only Eastern European countries that entered into trade agreements with the European Economic Community before the fall of the Eastern Bloc.[24]
A series of official visits to Western countries (including the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Spain and Australia) helped Ceaușescu to present himself as a reforming Communist, pursuing an independent foreign policy within the Soviet Bloc. He also became eager to be seen as an enlightened international statesman, able to mediate in international conflicts, and to gain international respect for Romania.[25] Ceaușescu negotiated in international affairs, such as the opening of US relations with China in 1969 and the visit of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat to Israel in 1977. In addition, Romania was the only country in the world to maintain normal diplomatic relations with both Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. In 1980, Romania participated in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow with its other Soviet bloc allies, but in 1984 was one of the few Communist countries to participate in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles (going on to win 53 medals, trailing only the United States and West Germany in the overall count)[26][27] while most of the Eastern Bloc's nations boycotted this event.[28]
Universities were also founded in small Romanian towns, which served to train qualified professionals such as engineers, economists, planners or jurists necessary for the industrialization and development project of the country. Romanian healthcare also achieved improvements and recognition by the World Health Organization (WHO). In May 1969, Marcolino Candau, Director General of this organization, visited Romania and declared that the visits of WHO staff to various Romanian hospital establishments had made an extraordinarily good impression.[29]
The social and economic transformations resulted in improved living conditions for Romanians. Economic growth allowed for higher salaries which, combined with the benefits offered by the state (free medical care, pensions, free universal education at all levels, etc.) were a leap compared to the pre-WWII situation of the Romanian population. Certain extra retributions were allowed for the peasants, who started to produce more.[29]
1966 decree
In 1966, in an attempt to boost the country's population, Ceaușescu made abortion illegal and introduced Decree 770 in order to reverse the Romanian population's low birth and fertility rates. Mothers of at least five children were entitled to receive significant benefits, while mothers of at least ten children were declared "heroine mothers" by the Romanian state.
The government targeted rising divorce rates and made divorce more difficult—it was decreed that marriages could only be dissolved in exceptional cases. By the late 1960s, the population began to swell. In turn, a new problem was created, child abandonment, which swelled the orphanage population (see Cighid). Many of the children in these orphanages suffered mental and physical deficiencies.[30]
Measures to encourage reproduction included financial motivations for families who bore children, guaranteed maternity leave, and childcare support for mothers who returned to work, work protection for women, and extensive access to medical control in all stages of pregnancy, as well as after it. Medical control was seen as one of the most productive effects of the law, since all women who became pregnant were under the care of a qualified medical practitioner, even in rural areas. In some cases, if a woman was unable to visit a medical office, a doctor would visit her home.[31]
Speech of 21 August 1968
Ceaușescu's speech of 21 August 1968 represented the apogee of Ceaușescu's rule.[32] It marked the highest point in Ceaușescu's popularity, when he openly condemned the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.
July Theses
Ceaușescu visited China, North Korea, Mongolia and North Vietnam in 1971. He took great interest in the idea of total national transformation as embodied in the programmes of North Korea's
On 6 July 1971, he delivered a speech before the executive committee of the Romanian Communist Party. This quasi-Maoist speech, which came to be known as the July Theses, contained seventeen proposals. Among these were: continuous growth in the "leading role" of the Party; improvement of Party education and of mass political action; youth participation on large construction projects as part of their "patriotic work"; an intensification of political-ideological education in schools and universities, as well as in children's, youth and student organizations; and an expansion of political propaganda, orienting radio and television shows to this end, as well as publishing houses, theatres and cinemas, opera, ballet, artists' unions, promoting a "militant, revolutionary" character in artistic productions. The liberalization of 1965 was condemned and an index of banned books and authors was re-established.
The Theses heralded the beginning of a "mini cultural revolution" in Romania, launching a
In a 1972 speech, Ceaușescu stated he wanted "a certain blending of party and state activities... in the long run we shall witness an ever closer blending of the activities of the party, state and other social bodies". In practice, a number of joint party-state organizations were founded such as the Council for Socialist Education and Culture, which had no precise counterpart in any of the other communist states of Eastern Europe, and the Romanian Communist Party was embedded into the daily life of the nation in a way that it never had been before. In 1974, the party programme of the Romanian Communist Party announced that structural changes in society were insufficient to create a full socialist consciousness in the people, and that a full socialist consciousness could only come about if the entire population was made aware of socialist values that guided society. The Communist Party was to be the agency that would so "enlighten" the population and in the words of the British historian Richard Crampton "...the party would merge state and society, the individual and the collective, and would promote 'the ever more organic participation of party members in the entire social life'".[35]
President of the Socialist Republic of Romania
In 1974, Ceaușescu converted his post of president of the State Council to a full-fledged executive presidency. He was first elected to this post in 1974 and would be reelected every five years until 1989.
Although Ceaușescu had been nominal head of state since 1967, he had merely been first among equals on the State Council, deriving his real power from his status as party leader. The new post, however, made him the nation's top decision-maker both in name and in fact. He was empowered to carry out those functions of the State Council that did not require
Effectively, Ceaușescu now held all governing power in the nation; virtually all party and state institutions were subordinated to his will. The principles of democratic centralism, combined with the legislature's infrequent sessions (it sat in full session only twice a year) meant that for all intents and purposes, his decisions had the force of law.
Oil embargo, strike and foreign relations
Starting with the 1973–74 Arab oil embargo against the West, a period of prolonged high oil prices set in that characterised the rest of the 1970s. Romania as a major oil equipment producer greatly benefited from the high oil prices of the 1970s, which led Ceaușescu to embark on an ambitious plan to invest heavily in oil-refining plants.[citation needed] Ceaușescu's plan was to make Romania into Europe's number one oil refiner not only of its own oil, but also of oil from Middle Eastern states such as Iraq and Iran, and then to sell all of the refined oil at a profit on the Rotterdam spot market.[38] As Romania lacked the money to build the necessary oil refining plants and Ceaușescu chose to spend the windfall from the high oil prices on aid to the Third World in an attempt to buy Romania international influence, Ceaușescu borrowed heavily from Western banks on the assumption that when the loans came due, the profits from the sales of the refined oil would be more than enough to pay off the loans.[38] The 1977 earthquake which destroyed much of Bucharest led to delays in the oil plan.[38] By the time the oil refining plants were finished in the early 1980s, a slump in oil prices had set in, leading to major financial problems for Romania.[38]
In August 1977 over 30,000 miners went on strike in the
He continued to follow an independent policy in foreign relations—for example, in 1984, Romania was one of few communist states (notably including the People's Republic of China and Yugoslavia) to take part in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, despite a Soviet-led boycott.
Also, the Socialist Republic of Romania was the first of the
Pacepa defection
In 1978,
Foreign debt
Ceaușescu's political independence from the Soviet Union and his protest against the
In an attempt to correct this, Ceaușescu decided to repay Romania's
Romania's record—having all of its debts to commercial banks paid off in full—has not been matched by any other heavily indebted country in the world.[44] The policy to repay—and, in multiple cases, prepay—Romania's external debt became the dominant policy in the late 1980s. The result was economic stagnation throughout the 1980s and, towards the end of the decade, an economic crisis. The country's industrial capacity was eroded as equipment grew obsolete and energy intensity increased, and the standard of living deteriorated significantly. Draconian restrictions were imposed on the household energy use to ensure adequate supplies for industry. Convertible currency exports were promoted at all costs and imports severely reduced. In 1988, real GDP contracted by 0.5%, mostly due to a decline in industrial output caused by significantly increased material costs. Despite the 1988 decline, the net foreign balance reached its decade-long peak (9.5% of GDP). In 1989, GDP slumped by a further 5.8% due to growing shortages and the increasingly obsolete capital stock. By March 1989, virtually all external debt had been repaid, including all medium- and long-term external debt. The remaining amount, totalling less than 1 million, consisted of short-term credits (mainly short-term export credits granted by Romania). A 1989 decree legally prohibited Romanian entities from contracting external debt.[45] The CIA World Factbook edition of 1990 listed Romania's external debt as "none" as of mid-1989.[46]
Yearly evolution (in billions of dollars)
- 1995 was the last year in which Romania's economy was dominated by the state. From 1996 onwards, the private sector would account for most of Romania's GDP.[47]
- Data for 1975, 1980 and 1982–1988 taken from the Statistical Abstract of the United States.[48]
- Data for 1989–1995 provided by the OECD.[49]
- Data for 1981 and 1985 provided by the World Book Year Book.[50]
- By April 1989, with its debt virtually zero, Romania was a net external creditor. Foreign borrowing was resumed after
1975 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gross external debt | 2.9 | 9.4 | 10.2 | 9.8 | 8.8 | 7.1 | 6.6 | 6.4 | 5.1 | 2.2 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 2.2 | 3.5 | 4.5 | 5.5 | 6.7 |
Net status | debtor | debtor | debtor | debtor | debtor | debtor | debtor | debtor | debtor | creditor | creditor | creditor | creditor | debtor | debtor | debtor | debtor |
1984 failed coup d'état attempt
A tentative coup d'état planned in October 1984 failed when the military unit assigned to carry out the plan was sent to harvest maize instead.[54]
1987 Brașov rebellion
Romanian workers began to mobilize against the economic policies of Ceaușescu. Spontaneous labor conflicts, limited in scale, took place in major industrial centers such as Cluj-Napoca (November 1986) and the Nicolina platform in Iași (February 1987), culminating in a massive strike in Brașov. The draconian measures taken by Ceaușescu involved reducing energy and food consumption, as well as lowering workers' incomes, leading to what political scientist Vladimir Tismăneanu called "generalized dissatisfaction".[55]
Over 20,000 workers and a number of townspeople marched against economic policies in Socialist Romania and Nicolae Ceaușescu's policies of rationing of basic foodstuffs, rationing electricity and central heating.
The first protests began practically on 14 November 1987, at the 440 "Molds" Section of the Red Flag truck company. Initially, the protests were for basic needs: "We want food and heating!", "We want our money!", "We want food for the children!", "We want light and heat!" and "We want bread without a card!". Next to the County Hospital, they sang the anthem of the revolution of 1848, "Deșteaptă-te, române!". Upon arriving in the city center, thousands of workers from the Tractorul Brașov and Hidromecanica factories, pupils, students, and others joined the demonstration. From this moment on, the protest became political. Participants later claimed to have chanted slogans such as "Down with Ceaușescu!", "Down with communism!", "Down with the dictatorship!" or "Down with the tyrant!". During the march, members of the Securitate disguised as workers infiltrated the demonstrators, or remained on the sidelines as spectators, photographing or even filming.[56]
By dusk, Securitate forces and the military surrounded the city center and disbanded the revolt by force. Some 300 protesters were arrested, and, in order to hide the political nature of the Brașov uprising, tried for disturbing the peace and "outrage against morals".
Those under investigation were beaten and tortured, 61 receiving sentences ranging from 6 months to 3 years in prison, including sentences to be carried out working at various state enterprises across in the country. Although many previous party meetings had called for the death penalty to set an example, the regime was eager to downplay the uprising as "isolated cases of hooliganism". Protesters were sentenced to deportation, with compulsory residence arranged in other cities, despite such measures having been repealed as far back as the late 1950s. The entire trial lasted only an hour and a half.[56]
A few days after the workers' revolt, Cătălin Bia, a student at the Faculty of Forestry, sat in front of the canteen with a placard that read: "The arrested workers must not die". He was joined by colleagues Lucian Silaghi and Horia Șerban. The three were arrested immediately. Subsequently, graffiti in solidarity with the workers' revolt appeared on the campus, and some students distributed manifestos. Security teams conducted a total of seven arrests. Those arrested were investigated, expelled from the faculty, returned to their home localities and placed under strict supervision, along with their families.[56]
Romani minority rights
Under Ceaușescu regime, Romani people in Romania were largely neglected. This can be seen, perhaps most blatantly, in a motion from the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Romanian Workers Party, which largely laid the foundation for the Ceaușescu regime's policies regarding the rights of ethnic minorities. The motion entirely ignored the Romani.[57]
The regime excluded the Romani from its list of "co-inhabiting nationalities", preventing them from gaining any government representation as an ethnic group. Their exclusion continued even after increased representation of minorities such as Hungarians and Germans. Ceaușescu largely wished to ignore the living conditions of the Romani, who had suffered similar institutional neglect at the hands of his predecessors as far back as Ion Antonescu.[57]
The Romani, long a highly vulnerable ethnic minority group across Europe, were left in significant poverty and at risk of hate crimes in the country. Such conditions exist in modern-day Romania, as demonstrated by the policies of several subsequent presidents.[citation needed]
Revolution
In November 1989, the XIVth Congress of the Romanian Communist Party (PCR) saw Ceaușescu, then aged 71, re-elected for another five years as leader of the PCR. During the Congress, Ceaușescu made a speech denouncing the anti-Communist revolutions happening throughout the rest of Eastern Europe. The following month, Ceaușescu's government itself collapsed after a series of violent events in Timișoara and Bucharest.
Czechoslovak President Gustáv Husák's resignation on 10 December 1989 amounted to the fall of the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia, leaving Ceaușescu's Romania as the only remaining hard-line Communist regime in the Warsaw Pact.[58][59][60]
Timișoara
This section needs additional citations for verification. (October 2018) |
Demonstrations in the city of Timișoara were triggered by the government-sponsored attempt to evict László Tőkés, an ethnic Hungarian pastor, accused by the government of inciting ethnic hatred. Members of his ethnic Hungarian congregation surrounded his apartment in a show of support.
Romanian students spontaneously joined the demonstration, which soon lost nearly all connection to its initial cause and became a more general anti-government demonstration. Regular military forces, police, and the Securitate fired on demonstrators on 17 December 1989, killing and injuring men, women, and children.
On 18 December 1989, Ceaușescu departed for a state visit to Iran, leaving the duty of crushing the Timișoara revolt to his subordinates and his wife. Upon his return to Romania on the evening of 20 December, the situation became even more tense, and he gave a televised speech from the TV studio inside the Central Committee Building (CC Building), in which he spoke about the events at Timișoara in terms of an "interference of foreign forces in Romania's internal affairs" and an "external aggression on Romania's sovereignty".
The country, which had little to no information of the events transpiring in Timișoara from the national media, learned about the revolt from CIA-sponsored radio stations that broadcast propaganda in the Eastern Bloc throughout the Cold War (such as
Overthrow
Speech on 21 December
The mass meeting of 21 December, held in what is now Revolution Square, began like many of Ceaușescu's speeches over the years. He spoke of the achievements of the "Socialist revolution" and Romania's "multi-laterally developed Socialist society". He also blamed the Timișoara riots on "fascist agitators who want to destroy socialism".[61]
However, Ceaușescu had misjudged the crowd's mood. Roughly eight minutes into his speech, several people began jeering and booing, and others began chanting "
Failing to control the crowd, the Ceaușescus took cover inside the building that housed the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party. The rest of the day saw an open revolt of Bucharest's population, which had assembled in University Square and confronted the police and army at barricades. The rioters, however, were no match for the military apparatus concentrated in Bucharest, which cleared the streets by midnight and arrested hundreds of people in the process.
Flight on 22 December
By the morning of 22 December, the
The Western press[who?] published estimates of the number of people killed by Securitate forces. The count increased rapidly until an estimated 64,000 fatalities were reported across front pages.[64] The Hungarian military attaché expressed doubt regarding these figures, pointing out the unfeasible logistics of killing such a large number of people in such a short period. After Ceaușescu's death, hospitals across the country reported a death toll of fewer than 1,000, and probably much lower than that.[65]
Death
Ceaușescu and his wife Elena fled the capital with Emil Bobu and Manea Mănescu and flew by helicopter to Ceaușescu's Snagov residence, from which they fled again, this time to Târgoviște. They abandoned the helicopter near Târgoviște, having been ordered to land by the army, which by that time had restricted flying in Romania's airspace. The Ceaușescus were held by the police while the policemen listened to the radio. They were eventually handed over to the army.
On Christmas Day, 25 December 1989, the Ceaușescus were tried before a court convened in a small room on orders of the National Salvation Front, Romania's provisional government. They faced charges including illegal gathering of wealth and genocide. Ceaușescu repeatedly denied the court's authority to try him, and asserted he was still legally the President of Romania. At the end of the trial, the Ceaușescus were found guilty and sentenced to death. A soldier standing guard in the proceedings was ordered to take the Ceaușescus outside one by one and shoot them, but the Ceaușescus demanded to die together. The soldiers agreed to this and began to tie their hands behind their backs, which the Ceaușescus protested against, but were powerless to prevent.
The Ceaușescus were executed by a group of soldiers: Captain Ionel Boeru, Sergeant-Major Georghin Octavian and Dorin-Marian Cîrlan,[66] and five other non-commissioned officers who were recruited from twenty volunteers. Before his sentence was carried out, Nicolae Ceaușescu sang "The Internationale" whilst being led towards the wall. The firing squad began shooting as soon as the two were in their positions up against the wall.[67]
Later that day, the execution was also shown on Romanian television.[68] The hasty show trial and the images of the dead Ceaușescus were videotaped and the footage released in numerous Western countries two days after the execution.
The manner in which the trial was conducted has been criticised. However, Ion Iliescu, Romania's provisional president, said in 2009 that the trial was "quite shameful, but necessary" in order to end the state of near-anarchy that had gripped the country in the three days since the Ceaușescus fled Bucharest.[69] Similarly, Victor Stănculescu, who had been defence minister before going over to the revolution, said, in 2009, that the alternative would have been seeing the Ceaușescus lynched on the streets of Bucharest.[70]
The Ceaușescus were the last people to be executed in Romania before the abolition of capital punishment on 7 January 1990.[71]
Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu were originally buried in simple graves at Ghencea Cemetery, in Bucharest, on opposite sides of a path; their graves were often decorated with flowers and symbols of communist rule. In April 2007, their son, Valentin Ceaușescu, lost an appeal for an investigation into whether the graves were genuine. Upon his death in 1996, the younger son, Nicu, was buried nearby in the same cemetery.[72] According to the Jurnalul Național,[73] requests were made by the Ceaușescus' daughter, Zoia, and by supporters of their political views, to move their remains to mausoleums or to purpose-built churches. These demands were denied by the government.
Exhumation and reburial
On 21 July 2010, forensic scientists exhumed the bodies to perform DNA tests to prove conclusively that they were indeed the remains of the Ceaușescus.[72] The body believed to be Elena's had decayed too much to allow for a positive identification, but Nicolae was easily identifiable, wearing the bullet-riddled black winter coat he had been wearing during the execution. DNA tests were able to conclusively prove his identity.[74][75] His family organised a funeral service for the couple,[72] and they were reburied together at Ghencea under a tombstone.[76]
Ceaușescu's policies
While the term Ceaușism (
Ceaușism's main trait was a form of Romanian nationalism,[78] one which arguably propelled Ceaușescu to power in 1965, and probably led the Party leadership under Ion Gheorghe Maurer to select him over the more orthodox Gheorghe Apostol. Although he had previously been a careful supporter of the official lines, Ceaușescu came to embody Romanian society's wish for independence after what many considered years of Soviet directives and purges, during and after the SovRom fiasco. He carried this nationalist option inside the Party, manipulating it against the nominated successor, Apostol. This nationalist policy had more timid precedents:[79] for example, Gheorghiu-Dej had overseen the withdrawal of the Red Army in 1958.
It had also engineered the publishing of several works that subverted the Russian and Soviet image, no longer glossing over traditional points of tension with Russia and the Soviet Union (even alluding to an "unlawful" Soviet presence in Bessarabia). In the final years of Gheorghiu-Dej's rule, more problems were openly discussed, with the publication of a collection of Karl Marx's writings that dealt with Romanian topics, showing Marx's previously censored, politically uncomfortable views of Russia.
Ceaușescu was prepared to take a more decisive step in questioning Soviet policies. In the early years of his rule, he generally relaxed political pressures inside Romanian society,[80] which led to the late 1960s and early 1970s being the most liberal decade in Socialist Romania. Gaining the public's confidence, Ceaușescu took a clear stand against the 1968 crushing of the Prague Spring by Leonid Brezhnev. After a visit from Charles de Gaulle earlier in the same year, during which the French President gave recognition to the incipient maverick, Ceaușescu's public speech in August deeply impressed the population, not only through its themes, but also because, uniquely, it was unscripted. He immediately attracted Western sympathies and backing, which lasted well beyond the 'liberal' phase of his rule; at the same time, the period brought forward the threat of armed Soviet invasion: significantly, many young men inside Romania joined the Patriotic Guards created on the spur of the moment, in order to meet the perceived threat.[81] President Richard Nixon was invited to Bucharest in 1969, which was the first visit of a United States president to a communist country after the start of the Cold War.
The system's nationalist traits grew and progressively blended with
Nicolae Ceaușescu had a major influence on modern-day Romanian populist rhetoric. In his final years, he had begun to rehabilitate the image of pro-
The strong opposition to Ceaușescu on all forms of
In November 1989, at the XIVth and last congress of the PCR, Ceaușescu condemned the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and asked for the annulment of its consequences. In effect, this amounted to a demand for the return of Bessarabia (most of which was then a Soviet republic and since 1991 has been independent Moldova) and northern Bukovina, both of which had been occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940 and again at the end of World War II.
Non-aligned policy feats
Ceaușescu was among the most ardent supporters of dimming lingering tensions between different Balkan states,
Ceaușescu's Romania was the only Eastern Bloc country that retained diplomatic relations with Israel and did not sever diplomatic relations after Israel's strike on
Similarly, Romania was the only Eastern Bloc country to attend the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, which had been boycotted by the Soviets and the rest of their allies in response to the U.S.-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.[citation needed]
Ceaușescu's Romania was the only Warsaw Pact country that did not sever diplomatic relations with
Nicolae Ceaușescu was a close ally and personal friend of
Ceaușescu reduced the size of the
Bessarabia
In August 1976, Nicolae Ceaușescu was the first high-level Romanian visitor to Bessarabia since World War II. In December 1976, at one of his meetings in Bucharest, Ivan Bodiul said that "the good relationship was initiated by Ceaușescu's visit to Soviet Moldova".[93]
Personality cult and totalitarianism
Ceaușescu created a pervasive
The most important day of the year during Ceaușescu's rule was his official birthday, 26 January—a day which saw Romanian media saturated with praise for him. According to historian Victor Sebestyen, it was one of the few days of the year when the average Romanian put on a happy face, since appearing miserable on this day was too risky to contemplate.[20]
To lessen the chance of further treason after Pacepa's defection, Ceaușescu also invested his wife Elena and other members of his family with important positions in the government. This led Romanians to joke that Ceaușescu was creating "socialism in one family", a pun on "socialism in one country".[citation needed]
Ceaușescu was greatly concerned about his public image. For years, nearly all official photographs of him showed him in his late 40s. Romanian state television was under strict orders to portray him in the best possible light.[20] Additionally, producers had to take great care to make sure that Ceaușescu's height (he was only 1.68 metres (5 ft 6 in) tall[95]) was never emphasized on screen. Consequences for breaking these rules were severe; one producer showed footage of Ceaușescu blinking and stuttering, and was banned for three months.[20]
As part of a propaganda ploy arranged by the Ceaușescus through the consular cultural attachés of Romanian embassies,[] a title of which he was stripped in 1989. Elena Ceaușescu was arranged to be "elected" to membership of a science academy in the US.
To execute a massive redevelopment project during the rule of Nicolae Ceaușescu, the government conducted extensive demolition of churches and many other historic structures in Romania. According to Alexandru Budistenu, former chief architect of Bucharest, "The sight of a church bothered Ceaușescu. It didn't matter if they demolished or moved it, as long as it was no longer in sight." Nevertheless, a project organized by Romanian engineer Eugeniu Iordachescu was able to move many historic structures to less-prominent sites and save them.[97]
Ikea
In the 1980s under Nicolae Ceaușescu, Romania's secret police the 'Securitate' received six-figure payments from Ikea.[98][99] According to declassified files at the National College for Studying the Securitate Archives, Ikea agreed to overcharge for products made in Romania and some of the overpayment funds were deposited into an account controlled by the Securitate.[100]
Legacy
Ceaușescu had a mixed reputation among international leaders of his time. In his memoir The Artful Albanian, Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha remarked "As if Ceaușescu and company are to bring down imperialism! If the world waits for the Ceaușescus to do such a thing, imperialism will live for tens of thousands of years..."[101] According to Pacepa, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had an opposite interpretation, allegedly saying, "My brother! You are my brother for the rest of my life!".[102] Ceaușescu even received praise from anti-communists with the Shah (King) of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi acclaiming Ceaușescu leadership: "I would like to salute [Ceaușescu's] intransigent patriotism and ferocious will for independence. A veritable amity links me to him."[103]
He directed the construction of the
The Parliamentary Palace building has 1,100 rooms and is the largest civilian government building in the world as measured by volume in one continuous structure. (There are larger private sector buildings, mainly for the construction of aircraft, that have more continuous volume in one building, such as the Boeing Everett Factory.) Much of the building remains empty, being larger than the Parliament needs, though Parliament shares it with three museums and an international conference center.[104] It is also the heaviest building in the world, being constructed of 700,000 tonnes of steel and bronze, a million square feet of marble, and large amounts of crystal and wood.[105][106]
Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu had three children: Valentin Ceaușescu (born 1948), a nuclear physicist; Zoia Ceaușescu (1949–2006), a mathematician; and Nicu Ceaușescu (1951–1996), a physicist. After the death of his parents, Nicu Ceaușescu ordered the construction of an Orthodox church, the walls of which are decorated with portraits of his parents.[73]
Praising the crimes of totalitarian governments and denigrating their victims is forbidden by law in Romania; this includes the Ceaușescu era. Dinel Staicu was fined 25,000 lei (approx. 9,000 United States dollars) for praising Ceaușescu and displaying his pictures on his private television channel (3TV Oltenia).[107] Nevertheless, according to opinion polls held in 2010, 41% of Romanians would have voted for Ceaușescu if given the opportunity[108][109] and 63% felt their lives were better before 1989.[109][110] In 2014, the percentage of those who would vote for Ceaușescu reached 46%.[111] On 27 December 2018, a poll found 64% of people had a good opinion of him.[112]
Cultural depictions
Ceaușescu was played by Constantin Cojocaru in the 2011 Swiss docudrama Die letzten Tage der Ceaușescus.[113]
A comedy musical enjoyed a world premiere at Seven Arts in Leeds on Sunday 21 May 2017. It was written by Tom Bailey and Greg Jameson, with songs by Allan Stelmach, and depicted Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu and their son Valentin in a piece of meta musical theatre that was also a comment upon celebrity culture and the role social media and political correctness play in creating social pariahs.[114]
Honours and awards
Ceaușescu was made a knight of the Danish
Ceaușescu was likewise stripped of his honorary
On his 70th birthday in 1988, Ceaușescu was decorated with the
Romanian orders, decorations and medals
All titles and decorations were revoked by the provisional government on 26 December 1989.
- Commemorative Medal of the 5th Anniversary of the Republic of Romania
- Commemorative Medal of the 35th Anniversary of the Liberation of Romania
- Hero of Romania, three times (1971, 1978 and 1988)
- Hero of Socialist Labour (Romania) (1964)
- Military Merit Medal (Romania)
- Order of the Victory of Socialism(accompanied each Hero of Romania)
- Order of Labour
- Order of Homeland Defence
- Order of the Star of the Republic of Romania
Foreign state orders, decorations and medals
Several foreign decorations were revoked at the time of the collapse of Ceaușescu's rule.
- Argentina
- Collar of the Order of the Liberator General San Martín (1974)
- Austria
- Great Star of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria (1969)[116]
- Brazil
- Order of the Southern Cross (1975)
- Bulgaria
- Order of Stara Planina(1983)
- Cuba
- Order of José Martí (1973)
- Twentieth Anniversary Commemorative Medal of the Assault on the Moncada Barracks(1976)
- Czechoslovakia
- Grand Collar of the Order of the White Lion (1987; subsequently expelled 1989)[117]
- Denmark
- Knight of the Order of the Elephant (1980; subsequently expelled 1989)
- France
- Legion of Honour[118]
- East Germany
- German Democratic Republic, 1988) – for his defence of Marxism by rejecting Gorbachev's reforms
- West Germany
- Special class of the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany, 1971)
- Greece
- Athens Gold Medal (1976)
- Iran
- Commemorative Medal of the
- Italy
- Knight Grand Cross decorated with Grand Cordon of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (1973)
- Malaysia
- Honorary Recipient of the Order of the Crown of the Realm (1984)[121]
- Norway
- Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olaf(expelled 1989)
- Peru
- Grand Cross with Diamonds of the Order of the Sun of Peru (1973)[122]
- Philippines
- Grand Collar of the Ancient Order of Sikatuna (1975)[123]
- Portugal
- Collar of the Order of Saint James of the Sword(1975)
- Soviet Union (All Soviet decorations and medals were revoked in 1990)
- Jubilee Medal "Thirty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (1975)
- Order of Lenin, twice (Soviet Union, 1973 and 1988)
- Order of the October Revolution (1983)
- Sweden
- Knight of the Royal Order of the Seraphim(1980)
- United Kingdom
- Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath(1978; expelled 1989)
Foreign non-state decorations
- Gold Collar of the Olympic Order (International Olympic Committee, 1984), for decision not to participate in the boycott of the Los Angeles Olympics
- Gold Medal Plate of the International Relations Institute of Rome, an Italian non-profit organization (1979)
Academic titles
Honorary degrees from the
In popular culture
Two documentaries have been made about Ceaușescu in the 21st century. The first film was written and directed by Ben Lewis for the BBC, titled The King of Communism: The Pomp & Pageantry of Nicolae Ceaușescu (2002).
The second, Autobiografia lui Nicolae Ceaușescu (2011), was created by a Romanian writer/director named
Selected published works
- Report during the joint solemn session of the CC of the Romanian Communist Party, the National Council of the Socialist Unity Front and the Grand National Assembly: Marking the 60th anniversary of the creation of a Unitary Romanian National State, 1978
- Major problems of our time: Eliminating underdevelopment, bridging gaps between states, building a new international economic order, 1980
- The solving of the national question in Romania (Socio-political thought of Romania's President), 1980
- Ceaușescu: Builder of Modern Romania and International Statesman, 1983
- The nation and co-habiting nationalities in the contemporary epoch (Philosophical thought of Romania's president), 1983
- The history of the Romanian people in the view of the President (Istoria poporului român în concepția președintelui), 1988
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General sources
- Mic Dicționar Enciclopedic ("Small encyclopedic dictionary"), 1978
- Edward Behr, Kiss the Hand you Cannot Bite, ISBN 0-679-40128-8
- Dumitru Burlan, Dupa 14 ani – Sosia lui Ceaușescu se destăinuie ("After 14 Years: The Double of Ceaușescu confesses"). Editura Ergorom. 31 July 2003 (in Romanian).
- ISBN 1-56000-620-X
- Gheorghe E. (2015) Nicolae Ceaușescu. In: Casey S., Wright J. (eds) Mental Maps in the Era of Détente and the End of the Cold War 1968–91. Palgrave Macmillan, London
- Marian Oprea, "Au trecut 15 ani – Conspirația Securității" ("15 Years Later: The Securitate Conspiracy"), in Lumea Magazin Nr 10, 2004: (in Romanian; link leads to table of contents, verifying that the article exists, but the article itself is not online).
- Viorel Patrichi, "Eu am fost sosia lui Nicolae Ceaușescu" ("I was Ceaușescu's double"), Lumea Magazin Nr 12, 2001 (in Romanian)
- Stevens W. Sowards, Twenty-Five Lectures on Modern Balkan History (The Balkans in the Age of Nationalism), 1996, in particular Lecture 24: The failure of Balkan Communism and the causes of the Revolutions of 1989
- Victor Stănculescu, "Nu vă fie milă, au 2 miliarde de lei în cont" Archived 13 October 2004 at the Wayback Machine ("Do not have mercy, they hold 2 billion lei [33 million dollars] in their account[s]"), in Jurnalul Național, 22 November 2004
- John Sweeney, The Life and Evil Times of Nicolae Ceaușescu, ISBN 0-09-174672-8
- Stelian Tănase, "Societatea civilă românească și violența" ("Romanian Civil Society and Violence"), in Agora, issue 3/IV, July–September 1991
- Filip Teodorescu, et al., Extracts from the minutes of a Romanian senate hearing, 14 December 1994, featuring the remarks of Filip Teodorescu.
- Cătălin Gruia, "Viata lui Nicolae Ceausescu", in National Geographic Romania, November 2007, pp. 41–65
- Dennis Deletant (1995), Ceaușescu and the Securitate: Coercion and Dissent in Romania, 1965–1989, ISBN 978-1563246333pub. M. E. Sharpe. p. 351
- Pinstripes and Reds: An American Ambassador Caught Between the State Department & the Romanian Communists, 1981–1985 Washington, D.C.: Selous Foundation Press, 1987. ISBN 0-944273-01-7
External links
- Nicolae Ceaușescu's last speech in public
- Romania's Demographic Policy
- Gheorghe Brătescu, Clipa 638: Un complot ratat ("A failed scheme") (In Romanian)
- Death of the Father: Nicolae Ceaușescu Focuses on his death, but also discusses other matters. Many photos.
- Video on YouTube, Video of the trial and execution of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu.