Nicolae Ceausescu
- The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. The correct title is Nicolae Ceauşescu.
Nicolae Andruţă Ceauşescu [nik-oh-LA-ye ahnd-RU-tsuh cha-ow-SHESS-koo] (January 26, 1918 - December 25,1989) was the leader of Communist Romania from 1965 until shortly before his execution in 1989.
He was born in Scorniceşti village, Olt County, Oltenia, Romania.
Ceausescu moved to Bucharest at the age of 11 to become a shoemaker's apprentice. He joined the illegal Communist Party of Romania in early 1932 and was first arrested in 1933 for agitational work during a strike. He was arrested again in 1934 first for collecting signatures on a petition protesting the trial of railway workers and twice more for other agitational activities earning him the description "dangerous communist agitator" and "active distributor of communist and anti-fascist propaganda" on his police record. He then went underground but was captured and imprisoned in 1936 for a two year sentence at Doftana Prison for anti-fascist activities. While out of jail in 1939 he met Elena Petrescu (they married in 1946) - she would play a growing role in his political life over the decades. He was arrested and imprisoned again in 1940. In 1943 he was transferred to Târgu Jiu concentration camp where he shared a cell with Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej becoming his protégé. After World War II, when Romania was beginning to fall under Soviet influence, he served as secretary of the Union of Communist Youth (1944-1945). After the Communists seized power of Romania in 1947, he headed the ministry of agriculture, then served as deputy minister of the armed forces under Gheorghiu-Dej's Stalinist reign. In 1952 Gheroghiu-Dej brought him onto the Central Committee months after the party's "Muscovite faction" led by Ana Pauker had been purged. In 1954 he became a full member of the Politburo and eventually rose to occupy the second highest position in the party hierarchy.
Three days after the death of Gheorghiu-Dej in March 1965, Ceauşescu became first secretary of the Romanian Workers' Party. One of his first acts was to rename the party the Romanian Communist Party and declare that the country was now the Socialist Republic of Romania rather than a people's republic. In 1967 he consolidated his power by becoming president of the State Council. Initially, he was a popular figure, thanks to his independent policy, challenging the supremacy of the Soviet Union in Romania. In the 1960s he ended Romania's active participation in the Warsaw Pact (though Romania formally remained a member) and condemned the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact forces.
In 1974, Ceausescu added President of Romania to his titles further consolidating his power. He followed an independent policy in foreign relations—for example, in 1984, Romania was one of only two Communist-ruled countries to take part in the American-organized 1984 Summer Olympics. Also, the country was the first of the Eastern Bloc to have official relations with the European Community: an agreement including Romania in the Community's Generalized System of Preferences was signed in 1974 and an Agreement on Industrial Products was signed in 1980. However, Ceauşescu refused to implement any liberal reforms. The evolution of his regime followed the Stalinist path already traced by Gheorghiu-Dej. Their opposition to Soviet control was mainly determined by the unwillingness to proceed to destalinization. The secret police (Securitate) maintained firm control over speech and the media, and tolerated no internal opposition.
Ceausescu had made state visits to the People's Republic of China and North Korea in 1971. He took great interest in the idea of total national transformation as embodied in the programs of the Korean Workers' Party and China's Cultural Revolution. Shortly after returning home he began to emulate North Korea's dictatorship, influenced by the Juche philosophy of North Korean President Kim Il Sung. Korean books on Juche were translated into Romanian and widely distributed in the country.
Beginning in 1972, Ceauşescu instituted a program of systematization. Promoted as a way to build a "multilaterally developed socialist society," the program of demolition, resettlement, and construction began in the countryside, but culminated with an attempt to completely remodel the country's capital. Over one fifth of central Bucharest, including churches and historic buildings, was demolished during Ceauşescu's rule in the 1980s, to rebuild the city in his personally chosen style. Many people died during the erection of The People's House ("Casa Poporului") in Bucharest, now the Parliament House, the world's second largest building after The Pentagon. Ceauşescu also planned to bulldoze many villages in order to move the peasants into blocks of flats in the cities, as part of his "urbanization" and "industrialization" programs. An NGO project called "Sister Villages" that created bonds between European and Romanian communities may have played a role in hindering these plans.
In 1978 Ion Mihai Pacepa, a senior member of the Romanian intelligence service (Securitate), defected to the United States. According to the the official declaration made by president Ion Iliescu when Pacepa asked his properties and position back, Pacepa was "a confused man" who gathered illegal properties in Romania by using his influential position. His treason was a powerful blow against the regime, forcing Ceauşescu to overhaul the architecture of Securitate. Pacepa's 1986 book Red Horizons: Chronicles of a Communist Spy Chief (ISBN 0895265702) reveals details of Ceauşescu's regime such as his collaboration with Arab terrorists, his massive espionage on American industry and his elaborate efforts to rally Western political support. After the chief of his information agency, Ion Mihai Pacepa, decided to flee to USA and reveal all his secret international contracts to CIA, the country became more isolated and the economic growth stoped. Following the treason of Pacepa, his intelligence agency started to be strongly infiltrated by foreign intelligence agents and he started to lose the control of the country. He tried several reorganizations in a bid to get rid of old collaborators of Pacepa, but this was unsuccessful.
Like Kim, Ceauşescu created a pervasive personality cult, giving himself the titles of "Conducător" ("Leader") and "Geniul din Carpaţi" ("Genius of the Carpathians,") and even having a king-like scepter made for himself. Such excesses prompted the painter Salvador Dalí to send a congratulatory telegram to the "Conducator." The Communist Party daily Scînteia published the message, unaware that Dalí had written it with tongue firmly in cheek. To avoid new treasons after the one of Pacepa, Ceauşescu also invested his wife Elena and other members of his family with important positions in the government.
Despite his increasingly totalitarian rule, Ceauşescu's political independence from the Soviet Union drew the interest of western powers. Ceauşescu was able to borrow heavily from the west to finance economic development programs, but these loans ultimately devastated the country's financial position. In the 1980s, Ceauşescu ordered the export of much of the country's agricultural and industrial production in order to repay its debts. The resulting domestic shortages made the everyday life of Romanian citizens a fight for survival.
Ceausescu's social policies further aggravated the situation. For instance, it became national policy to forcefully increase the population. A key element of this was the 1966 decree that prohibited abortion and contraception and made divorce more difficult to obtain. While the population did increase, many of the children were abandoned at state-run orphanages by their families who could not support them owing to the food shortages. These institutionalized "decree babies" lived in squalid conditions that caused many deaths. Another disastrous policy was Ceausescu's refusal to acknowledge the presence of AIDS in the population. He forbade testing of the blood supply; because of this and because Romania allowed the use of shared needles in transfusions for orphans, Romania had over half the cases of childhood AIDS infections in Europe.
Under Ceausescu, Romania was Europe's fourth biggest exporter of weapons. Nevertheless, several of the actions of Ceausescu suggest that one of his ambitions was to get a Nobel Prize for peace. In this direction he tried to be a mediator between PLO and Israel. He organized a successful referendum for reducing the size of the Romanian army by 5%. He was holding large rallies for peace and wrote a poem that was part of each literature manual. His poem was (in a word for word translation): Let us make from canons tractors \\ From atom lights and sources \\ From nuclear missiles \\ Plows to plough fields. Ceausescu also tried to play the role of a father of the poor African countries. He was one of the friends of Mobutu of Congo, sending them money and technology, and used to be acclaimed as a hero by the people of these countries when he was visiting them.
In 1987 an attempted revolution at Braşov failed: the army occupied the factories and crushed the workers' demonstrations.
During 1989, Ceauşescu became even more isolated in the communist world: he proposed in August 1989 a summit to discuss the problems of Eastern European Communism and "defend socialism" in these countries, but his proposal was turned down by the Warsaw Pact states and China.
After taking credits in 1970s to boost the industry, Nicolae Ceausescu decided that this was not a good idea and decided to pay Romanias debts. He managed a referendum to change the constitution, adding that Romania will be forbidden to take debts again (this was the first thing that the leaders of the "revolution" changed in December 1989, without any referendum). The standard of life (and specially the availability of food in shops) slowly decreased between 1980 and 1989. The official explanation was that the country is paying her debts, and people accepted to suffer thinking that it is for a limited time and a good goal. People were very happy when in summer 1989 Ceausescu announced that all debts were paid, expecting that the situation will improve. An improve of situation was indeed claimed on the TV where Ceausescu was shown entering well provided shops.
In 1989 Ceausescu was giving signs that he was completely isolated from the reality in the country. The country was undergoing difficult times with long queues for food and empty shops. He was often shown on TV entering in shops that were full with food and declaring that the people are living well. In Fall 1989, there were TV transmissions during several hours per day showing scrolling lists with uncountable CAPs (kolhozs) where there would have been a record harvest in century. People were told that Romania is in her best wealth ever. All this happened in times when shops were really empty, people living only on bread with fish, and were making people to salivate with anger. Instead, in many places in the country the electricity was cut each time he was giving a speach, completely disconnecting the people from what was happening. Some people, believing that Ceausescu did not know what was happening in the country, tried to hand him letters when he was visiting the country. However, each time he was getting a letter he was seen passing it to his security advisers, and nobody knew whether he ever got to really know their content. Worse, there were rumors all over saying that people handing letters directly to Ceausescu would be punished by the Securitate. People were strongly discouraged to address him and there was a general feeling that worse is not possible, everybody being psihically prepared to happily accept a change in government. It follows that there was no real shortage, since one day after his failure the shops were filled with products. The reason while the products were not given to people are unknown, and the two alternative explanations were that "he tried to pay external debts" (which was no longer plausible after debts were paid in summer 1989), respectively that "somebody played bad jokes on people". People were divided on whether he pretended not to know the reality of the shops, or he was really unaware and cheated by his informers. The subsequent data seem to support the latter supposition.
Ceauşescu's regime collapsed after regular military forces and Securitate fired on anti-Communist demonstrators in the city of Timişoara on December 17, 1989. The demonstrations were triggered by the government-sponsored attempt to evict a popular hungarian church minister accused of inciting ethnic hate. His congregation surrounded him in sign of support. Many passer-by religious romanian students, not knowing the details and being told by supporters that this is an action of state against religion, spontaneously decided to join the manifestation. The event was largely mediated by the popular Voice of America radio and by the Timisoara students returning home for Christmas holidays. A group of conspiring generals in Securitate used the opportunity to launch a coup in Bucharest. The coup, prepared since 1982, was originally planned for the New Year feasts, but was spontaneously replanned to catch the good moment. Their leaders, generals Stanculescu and Neagoe were the closest security advisors of Ceausescu and convinced him to hold a mass rally in a Square that was prepared with remotely controlled automatic guns. During the talk of Ceausescu, the remotely controlled automatic guns were set to fire randomly over the crowd and agitators started to cry in loud-speakers against Ceausescu. Scared, the people first tried to run away. Being told with loud-speakers that the Ceausescu's repressive Securitate would be firing on them and that a "revolution" is going on, the people were convinced to join the "revolution". This turned into a protest demonstration.
Ceasusecu's official salary was 18000 lei (300$). He used them to pay his food in service, to pay the rent for the appartments he used in holidays, and was sending his cief bodyguard to put 5000 lei each month in bank (CEC) accounts for his children. Nevertheless, he used to receive (sometimes substantial) presents from countries and organization that he was visiting, like golden taps, etc., which was one of the accuses agains him at his trial. While he tried to pay all his consumations in detail, his child Nicu Ceausescu was much less restrained and rumors said that he paid with a herd of horses belonging to the Comunist Party for a debt he made gambling in Las Vegas.
Ceausescu's guard was relatively small compared to the current Romanian government, 40 people for his residences and for his whole family. The chief of this guard was Col. Dumitru Burlan and he says that his troops had only 2 guns (insufficient for any serious defence). Col. Burlan claims that Ceausescu was too confident that the Romanian people loved him (which was true for 70ties), and was believing that he did not need a defence. This made his failure very easy.
On December 22 the army was without a leader, since Ceasescu (the official chief of the army) dissapeared, being sent by his conspiring advisor (Stanculescu) to country-side, and since the minister of Defence Vasile Milea was dead (initially the "revolution" leaders claimed that Milea was assasinated by Ceausescu, but might have equally been killed by the plot under the guise of a suicide because he might have refused to join them). Confused, the army officers decided to avoid conflicts by simulating that they would fraternize with the demonstrators (at least these were the orders and explanations they gave to soldiers at the sites of the major events in Bucharest). More details at Romanian Revolution of 1989.
Fierce fights occured at that moment at Bucharest airport between troups sent one against another under claims that they are going to meet terrorists. It a case discussed on romanian TV in 1989, a garrison of Securitate affiliated soldiers (they were draftees in 1.5 year service related to Securitate) that received orders to go and defend a city against Ceausescu's terrorists (that were believed at that time to be a disobediant faction of the Securitate, since the Securitate openly fraternized with the revolution), while in the city it was announced that the Securitate soldiers are comming to attack the regular garrison. Hundreds of people volunteered to fight against the expected Securitate. In that particular case, the chief of the Securitate garrison felt that something is wrong and refused to enter the city. According to Colonel Dumitru Burlan's book, (the bodyguard of Ceausescu) the generals that were part of the conspiracy (led by general Victor Stanculescu) tried to create such fictive terrorists to instigate fear, to draw the army on the side of the plot.
On the same day Ceauşescu and his wife Elena Ceauşescu fled the presidential palace in a helicopter—an aide held a gun to the pilot's head. The pilot landed near a farm-house after falsely claiming the helicopter was being targeted by anti-aircraft radar. The presidential couple continued fleeing through the countryside more or less aimlessly. The flight included grotesque episodes: a car chase to evade citizens attempting an arrest, the desertion of the aides, a short stay in a school. The Ceauşescus were finallly held in a police car for several hours, while the policemen listened to the radio, presumably in order to understand which political option is about to win. Police eventually turned the presidential couple to the army. On December 25, the two were condemned to death by a military kangaroo court on a range of charges including genocide, and were executed by firing squad in Târgovişte. According to Col. Dumitru Burlan, he before dying the couple started to sing the Internationala song. They were fired on after they sang the 4th word (n.a., I do not know the song).
One of the main accusations agains them was that they would have gathered illegaly wealth. As a prove of this, the accusers at TV have shown later a lather bag found in their house, and a volkswagen car (when the rest of the people wer having Dacias).
Romania was the only Eastern Bloc country to violently overthrow its Communist regime.
After Ceauşescu's fall, Ion Iliescu won the Romanian presidential election in 1990.
The Ceauşescus had one adopted son, Valentin Ceauşescu (the he adopted on purpose to give a personal example of how people should take care of orphans, a big problem in Romania), a daughter Zoia Ceauşescu (born 1950) and a younger son, Nicu Ceauşescu (born 1951).
See also
Bibliography
- Edward Behr, Kiss the Hand you Cannot Bite, ISBN 0679401288
- John Sweeney, The Life and Evil Times of Nicolae Ceausescu, ISBN 0091746728 ---
- Dumitru Burlan, "The replacement of Ceausescu confeses", (rom. "Sosia lui Ceausescu se destainuie"). Ed. Ergorom. July 31, 2003,
- Viorel Patrichi, "I was the replacement of Nicolae Ceausescu" (rom. Eu am fost sosia lui Nicolae Ceausescu), in World Magazin (rom. Lumea Magazin) Nr 12, 2001: [1] (http://www.lumeam.ro/nr12_2001/politica_si_servicii_secrete.html)
- Marian Oprea "After 15 years -- the conspiracy of Securitate" (rom. Au trecut 15 ani -- Conspiratia Securitatii), in World Magazin (rom. Lumea Magazin) Nr 10, 2004: [2] (http://www.lumeam.ro/nr10_2004)
- Victor Stanculescu "Do not have merci, they own 33 milion dollars" (rom. "Nu va fie mila, au 2 miliarde de lei in cont") in National Journal (rom. Jurnalul National) Nov 22, 2004 [3] (http://www.jurnalul.ro/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=14985)
- Nelu Balaj: About Laszlo Tokesh (http://missiology.org/discussion/_disc1/00000006.htm)
External links
- A website where romanians write their opinions about Nicolae Ceausescu (http://www.nicolaeceausescu.ro)
- The Politicians and the revolution of 1989 (http://www.timisoara.com/newmioc/Politic.htm)
- Clipa 638: How Milea was killed, probably by Stanculescu, and the life of the Ceausescu family (http://www.clipa.com/pagpolitica638.htm)
- Ceauşescu's trial transcription (http://www.timisoara.com/timisoara/rev/trialscript.html)
- Ceauşescu Nicolae - Romania's Dark Age under Communism (http://www.ceausescu.org/)
- AP, 30 Sep 1989 (http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=26903%40iuvax.cs.indiana.edu&output=gplain)
- Reuters, 25 Oct 1989 (http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=8910260017.AA03230%40hkucs.HKU.HK&output=gplain) Bogdan
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