Back to the future: 1979-1989
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The Romanian Revolution

How the civil unrest of 1989 led to the fall of a dictator and the formation of a new Government.

Essay

  • Author:
  • A staff writer
    National Library of Scotland

In 1989 in Eastern Europe one change followed another.

In April, the Polish Government and the Solidarity trade union signed an agreement to hold democratic elections. In May, Hungary dismantled 240 kilometres of barbed wire fencing along its border with Austria. In June, Solidarity won the first democratic elections in Poland. In October, the Hungarian Parliament voted to restore multi-party democracy and the Hungarian Republic was officially declared. In November the Communist Government of East Germany resigned. On 9 November 1989 the Berlin Wall fell. On the next day Communist rule in Bulgaria ended and the leader of the Communist Party, Todor Zhivkov, resigned. At the end of November Miloš Jakeš and other Communist leaders resigned in Czechoslovakia. At the summit in Malta, US President George H W Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev declared that the Cold War between their nations may be coming to an end.

At the beginning of December 1989, it seemed that Communism was dead in Europe. However, there were still three countries in Eastern Europe under the rule of Communist Governments: Yugoslavia, Albania and Romania.

Romanian dictatorship

The situation in Romania was particularly different from the rest of the Communist countries. It was under the rule of strong dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu and his wife Elena. Ceauşescu was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Romania from 1965 and in 1974 he became the President of Romania and de facto sole ruler of the country. His inauguration ceremony for this office broke with tradition, because he received a sash of the office and a sceptre, like a king at a coronation. From 1974, Ceauşescu held the two highest offices of the country and he started to change Romania according to his own vision — a version of a Communist country, but independent of the USSR.

In August 1968 Ceauşescu had refused to send Romanian troops to Czechoslovakia and he strongly opposed the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Army. For this he became very popular in Western Europe and in the United States. In 1967 he invited presidential candidate Richard Nixon for a visit to Romania, with an official state visit to follow in 1969. Consequently, Ceauşescu was seen as an intermediary between the USSR and Western Europe in the 1970s. In June 1978 he paid an official state visit to Great Britain, where he received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in Buckingham Palace.

In the 1980s, however, Ceauşescu became more and more isolated, as he introduced harsher laws violating international agreements on human rights. The international community increasingly withdrew from Ceauşescu, but did not interfere with internal affairs in Romania.

They were afraid to talk openly to other people

Meanwhile, the situation inside the country was becoming bleaker and more desperate towards the end of 1980s. Centralised agricultural policies introduced by the Government failed to produce enough food. Severe food shortages were made worse by Ceauşescu's policy to export the majority of food produced in the country. Electricity was severely rationed and often cut entirely during the winter. The waiting time for buying a car was approximately seven years. Petrol was severely rationed, and Sunday driving was permitted once a fortnight.

There were mass celebrations and feasts, with crowds of people performing at stadiums several times a year to celebrate Ceauşescu's life and work. He was omnipresent. His portraits were in offices, classrooms and factories.

Romania was also a police state. People couldn't move out of the town where they worked. They were afraid to talk openly to other people as every third person was cooperating with the secret police, the Securitate. Contact with foreigners was severely restricted and risky. Romanians were meant to report every conversation with a foreigner to the police. They had to ask for permission to make a phone call abroad and the content of the call had to be reported.

Family policies were extremely harsh. Married women were required to have children, and 'failure' to conceive led to a monthly fine; there were mandatory monthly pregnancy tests and miscarriages were viewed with suspicion. Contraception and abortion were illegal.

Hatred of Ceauşescu's policies and Ceauşescu himself ran very deep inside Romanian people.

Beginnings of the revolution

The revolution ignited on 15 December 1989 in the town of Timişoara, the cultural centre of the region of Banat. This region was more westernised and had a higher standard of living than the rest of Romania. Its proximity to Hungary and Yugoslavia enabled people there to gain more information from abroad. Banat had been a multi-ethnic part of Romania for centuries; minorities of Hungarians, Serbs and other nations had been living together there for many generations.

And it was among the Hungarian minority, in the Hungarian Reformed Church, where the first protest started. This small church community held a vigil for their beloved Reverend László Tőekés. The Reverend was accused of indiscipline and of entering into contact with political activists, and threatened with eviction from his parish.

On 15 December 1989, several hundred Hungarian congregants on the vigil were joined by a number of Romanian sympathisers. Plainclothes policemen were sent to provoke people. They attempted to arrest a man who was crying for help. That provoked the first known clash between the police and the demonstrators — as described on page 21 of the book 'Romania: The Entangled Revolution'. In the late afternoon on 16 December, the crowd around the church dramatically increased, many young people and university students joining the vigil. They chanted 'Freedom! Down with Ceauşescu!' The vigil turned into an anti-Communist uprising — as reported on pages 22-23 of 'Romania: The Entangled Revolution'.

New slogans were sung, one in particular: 'Today in Timişoara, tomorrow in the whole country!' The crowd marched to the Communist Party regional headquarters. They broke the windows and destroyed the Party flag in the empty building. Dozens of books written by Ceauşescu and his wife were taken from nearby bookstores and set on fire in front of the building. Troops with heavy sticks and tear-gas attacked the demonstrators. All evening more and more people from the suburbs of Timişoara joined the crowd.

On Sunday 17 December members of Securitate broke into the reformed church, beat Reverend László Tőekés and took him into custody. During the night, troops and armoured personnel carriers had been deployed all over Timişoara. The army and the security police were undertaking a show of force in an attempt to intimidate the population.

troops were given the order to shoot into the crowd, with live ammunition

Nevertheless, thousands of people found their way to the centre of the city. In the early afternoon the crowd came to the Party headquarters and forced their way inside. They found the Romanian flag, cut out the communist coat of arms and set fire to the ground floor of the building. A young girl took the flag with a hole in the middle to the balcony and waved it to the crowd. This seemed to have been the first time that the holed flag became the symbol of the Romanian Revolution. Shortly after 2pm, special units armed with rifles with bayonets attacked the crowd in this building, dispersing them — as described on pages 25-26 of 'The Entangled Revolution'.

In the late afternoon, troops were given the order to shoot into the crowd, with live ammunition, on Liberty Square. Those who escaped this shooting regrouped at the cathedral and opera house. After 7pm, with no warning, the troops started to shoot indiscriminately. Several people fell to the ground, wounded or dead. Heavy shooting was under way in other central locations. The shooting came from different sources: soldiers in formations, moving armoured vehicles, officers in plain clothes. There were clashes in the suburbs as well. On Monday 18 December Timişoara resembled an occupied city, with massive military forces deployed everywhere. Hospitals were full of wounded people and bodies of the dead were buried in secret. Many people were detained, beaten and tortured. Access roads to the city were blocked and telephone lines were cut. On Tuesday 19 December a general strike was in effect in the whole city. Several clashes with casualties were reported.

On Wednesday 20 December Prime Minister Constantin Dăscălescu and Emil Bobu came to Timişoara to talk to the people. They talked to a small group of demonstrators, and although the talks were inconclusive there was no more fighting that evening.

Demonstration in Bucharest

In the meantime Nicolae Ceauşescu did not consider these events to be important and he left for a scheduled state visit to Iran on 18 December — a decision that was later considered as his biggest mistake. He did not want to acknowledge how serious the situation in Timişoara was. After his return from Iran, on the evening of 20 December, he made a speech to his people broadcast by Romanian television.

On 21 December 1989, on the government order, there was a Communist Party rally in Bucharest. Working people from the factories were ordered to go to the square in front of the Central Committee building. Ceauşescu's speech was broadcast live by TV and radio. Mark Almond described this event on page 6 of the book 'The Rise and Fall of Nicolae and Elena Ceauşescu':

'The face of the tyrant registered the dissolution of his power before his own eyes. Confusion came over him. Ceauşescu stuttered a few sounds. He made the strange window-wiping gesture that usually silenced applause when he had wearied of it, but to no effect. Then he looked anxiously to his wife. The other dignitaries on the balcony shuffled in their winter boots and looked down at their feet. The window door behind Ceauşescu was opened and the chief of his personal security guard manoeuvred him inside the building as the television transmission was cut and replaced by martial music.'

This staged Communist rally turned into a massive demonstration against Communism and Ceauşescu.

On 22 December 1989 Minister of Defence Vasile Milea was sacked for failing to prevent the Bucharest demonstration and for events in Timişoara. He died soon after, in disputed circumstances — either at his own hand or on the orders of Ceauşescu. His death helped turn the army against the President, effectively ending Ceauşescu's power over Romania.

End of a dictator

Nicolae and Elena Ceauşescu fled Bucharest by helicopter from the roof of the Central Committee building. They went to their presidential residence in Snagov. After packing their treasures and personal belongings in the residence they continued their escape by the helicopter. However, the helicopter left them at an air force base at Boteni and from there they tried to escape to Târgovişte by a hijacked car. They were delivered to the police and then handed over to the garrison of elite forces at Târgovişte, where they were held as prisoners.

On Christmas Day, 25 December 1989, a quick military trial took place in Târgovişte in the presence of the new defence minister Victor Stănculescu, some lawyers and a squad of special troops. Nicolae Ceauşescu and his wife were accused of genocide, of undermining of the national economy, of the use of armed forces against people, of illegal gathering of wealth and of the attempt to flee the country. They were both found guilty, and sentenced to death.

Nicolae and Elena demanded to die together. They were executed by a firing squad on the same day. Their remains were buried among the graves of other people who died in the revolution in December 1989 in Bucharest. In 2010 their remains were exhumed in order to confirm their identity by DNA tests and reburied at Ghencea cemetery in Bucharest.

New Government and more violence

While the Ceauşescus were imprisoned in Târgovişte, a new Government was formed in Bucharest. The leading figure was a Communist who was expelled from Ceauşescu's Government many years before, Ion Illiescu. He founded the National Salvation Front on 22 December. He promised Romanians free multi-Party elections, and served as the President of the country until elections could take place.

The new administration under the National Salvation Front mimicked the Communist structures — more Perestroika-style Communism than true democracy (Illiescu was close to Mikhail Gorbachev). On 26 December 1989, the Council of the National Salvation Front announced the appointment of the new Premier, Petre Roman.

young and inexperienced soldiers often fired at innocent people

On the streets of Romanian towns, the revolution became more violent as people vented their frustrations and anger. The days between 22 and 25 December were the most violent days with large number of casualties across bigger towns in Romania: Bucharest, Timişoara, Sibiu, Cluj, Braşov, Constanţa, Craiova, Brăila, Galaţi, Bacău and Arad (as described on page 99 of 'The Romanian Revolution of December 1989'). There was confusion, lack of communication among the army, secret police, militia and the new Ministry of Defence. Many people were killed in accidents and friendly fire as a result of miscommunication between the commanders of the military units. Many people simply stood up and took part in revolution; many people settled personal vendettas in the chaos and anarchy.

The new regime called for calm and at the same time called for people to come to protect new regime from 'terrorists'. At first, it was generally believed that these terrorists were from the elite forces of the army or secret police, people closest to Ceauşescu. Then rumours led to a belief that the 'terrorists' posing as normal civilians. Therefore, young and inexperienced soldiers often fired at innocent people. Nobody truly identified the 'terrorists'. Romanians fought an imaginary enemy for a few days. The new Government eventually established new main headquarters of the armed forces and gained control over the situation on the streets on 25 December.

These events were recorded on video or by TV cameras. Demonstrations, shooting on the streets, the creation of the new Government, as well as the execution of the old dictator, were all seen by millions of people on TV. The Romanian revolution was called 'the first televised revolution'.

Although the television coverage just weeks earlier of the fall of the Berlin Wall in East Germany, and the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia had captured the world's attention, there was a particular brutality about the ending of Ceauşescu's regime in the last week of 1989 that brought the 1980s to a shocking full stop.

Post-revolution Romania

The revolution today is seen from several different perspectives. Many people believe that it was a genuine movement of ordinary people. But there are those who believe that this revolution was prepared from within the Communist Party of Romania to depose the dictator. Romania's journey to freedom was longer than other Eastern European countries, and complicated by the fact that the National Salvation Front with former Communists as leaders was in power for a long period of time after 1989.

However, life in the country changed very quickly in 1990. The shelves of the shops filled with food, there was electricity and petrol for everyone and houses were warm again. This made the new Government popular with people who had lived in poverty for such a long time.

Ion Illiescu was the first freely elected President of the country in 1990 and later served another two terms as President. However, he is currently accused of crimes against humanity for his actions in the aftermath of the revolution. In recent years there has been much speculation about the Romanian revolution of 1989.

In the 1990s, Romania developed closer relations with Western Europe and built its democracy. In the 2000s, the Romanian economy grew very fast and living standards significantly improved. Finally, in complete reversal from the Ceauşescu years, Romania joined NATO in 2004 and in 2007 it became a full member state of European Union.

See also:

Further reading

  • 'Nicolae Ceauşescu: Builder of modern Romania and International Statesman' (Oxford: Pergamon, 1983) [National Library of Scotland shelfmark: H4.83.176].
  • 'The Rise and Fall of Nicolae and Elena Ceauşescu' by Mark Almond (London: Chapmans, 1992) [Shelfmark: HP1.94.2661].
  • 'Romania: The Entangled Revolution' by Nestor Ratesh (Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies; New York: Praeger, 1991) [Shelfmark: Q3.93.74].
  • 'The Romanian Revolution of December 1989' by Peter Siani-Davies (Ithaca; London: Cornell University Press, 2005) [Shelfmark: HB2.206.10.709].

 

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