Romanian Revolution

For other uses, see Romanian Revolution (disambiguation).

The Romanian Revolution (Romanian: Revoluția Română), also known as the Christmas Revolution^[8] (Romanian: Revoluția de Crăciun), was a period of violent civil unrest in Romania during December 1989 as a part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several countries around the world.^[9] The Romanian Revolution started in the city of Timișoara and soon spread throughout the country, ultimately culminating in the drumhead trial and execution of longtime Romanian Communist Party (PCR) General Secretary Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife Elena, and the end of 42 years of Communist rule in Romania. It was also the last removal of a Marxist–Leninist government in a Warsaw Pact country during the events of 1989, and the only one that violently overthrew a country's leadership and executed its leader; according to estimates, over one thousand people died and thousands more were injured.^[10]

Romanian Revolution
Part of the Revolutions of 1989
The Revolution Square of Bucharest during the revolution, photographed from a broken window of the Athénée Palace Hotel. Tanks can be seen flooding the square.
Date 16–25 December 1989 (violence continued until 30 December 1989)^[1]^[2] Location Romania Arad, Brașov, Bucharest, Târgoviște, and Timișoara (among other cities) Result Revolutionary victory Socialist Republic of Romania dissolved (22 December 1989) Securitate nominally dissolved (29 December 1989–2 January 1990)^[3], later reorganised into the Romanian intelligence agencies Capture, trial and execution of Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife Elena (22–25 December 1989)
Belligerents
Government Securitate Romanian People's Army (until 22 December 1989) Communist Party loyalists	Revolutionaries Anti-communists Communist Party dissidents After 22 December 1989: National Salvation Front Romanian Army
Commanders and leaders
Nicolae Ceaușescu  Elena Ceaușescu  Constantin Dăscălescu Emil Bobu Victor Stănculescu (AWOL) Vasile Milea † Iulian Vlad^[4] Tudor Postelnicu	Protesters (no centralised leadership) Members of the National Salvation Front Council
Casualties and losses
689^[5]–1,290 killed^[6]
3,321 injured^[7]

Following World War II, Romania was placed under the Soviet sphere of influence in 1947 with Communist rule implemented. When Romania seceded from Soviet influence in April 1964, Nicolae Ceaușescu became the country's leader the following year.^[11][12] Under his rule, Romania experienced a brief waning of internal repression that led to a positive image both at home and in the West. However, repression again intensified by the 1970s. Amid tensions in the late 1980s, early protests occurred in the city of Timișoara in mid-December on the part of the Hungarian minority in response to an attempt by the government to evict Hungarian Reformed Church pastor László Tőkés. In response, Romanians sought the deposition of Ceaușescu and a change in government in light of similar recent events in neighbouring nations. The country's ubiquitous secret police force, the Securitate, which was both one of the largest in the Eastern Bloc and for decades had been the main suppressor of popular dissent, frequently and violently quashing political disagreement, ultimately proved incapable of stopping the looming, and then highly fatal and successful revolt.^[13]

Social and economic malaise had been present in the Socialist Republic of Romania for quite some time, especially during the austerity years of the 1980s. The austerity measures were designed in part by Ceaușescu to repay the country's foreign debts.^[14] Shortly after a botched public speech by Ceaușescu in the capital Bucharest that was broadcast to millions of Romanians on state television, rank-and-file members of the military switched, almost unanimously, from supporting the dictator to backing the protesters.^[15] Riots, street violence and murder in several Romanian cities over the course of roughly a week led the Romanian leader to flee the capital city on 22 December with his wife, Elena. Evading capture by hastily departing via helicopter effectively portrayed the couple as both fugitives and also acutely guilty of accused crimes. Captured in Târgoviște, they were tried by a drumhead military tribunal on charges of genocide, damage to the national economy, and abuse of power to execute military actions against the Romanian people. They were convicted on all charges, sentenced to death, and immediately executed on Christmas Day 1989, and were the last people to be condemned to death and executed in Romania, as capital punishment was abolished soon after. For several days after Ceaușescu fled, serious fighting and street battles took place between revolutionary soldiers and remaining pro-Ceaușescu Securitate, who were skilled fighters.^[2][1] Hospitals in Bucharest were treating as many as thousands of civilians.^[2] Following an ultimatum, many Securitate members turned themselves in on 29 December with the assurance they would not be tried.^[1]

Present-day Romania has unfolded in the shadow of the Ceaușescus along with its Communist past, and its tumultuous departure from it.^[16][17] After Ceaușescu was toppled, the National Salvation Front (FSN) quickly took power, promising free and fair elections within five months. Elected in a landslide the following May, the FSN reconstituted as a political party, installed a series of economic and democratic reforms,^[18] with further social policy changes being implemented by later governments.^[19][20]

Background

Further information: 1980s austerity policy in Romania, Brașov Rebellion, and Dissent in Romania under Nicolae Ceaușescu

In 1981, Ceaușescu began an austerity programme designed to enable Romania to liquidate its entire national debt ($10,000,000,000). To achieve this, many basic goods—including gas, heating and food—were rationed, which drastically reduced the standard of living and increased malnutrition. The infant mortality rate grew to be the highest in Europe.^[21]

The secret police, Securitate, had become so omnipresent that it made Romania essentially a police state. Free speech was limited and opinions that did not favour the Romanian Communist Party (PCR) were forbidden. The large numbers of Securitate informers made organised dissent nearly impossible. The regime deliberately played on this sense that everyone was being watched to make it easier to bend the people to the Party's will.^[22] Even by Soviet Bloc standards, the Securitate was exceptionally brutal.^[23]

Ceaușescu created a cult of personality, with weekly shows in stadiums or on streets in different cities dedicated to him, his wife and the Communist Party. There were several megalomaniac projects, such as the construction of the grandiose House of the Republic (today the Palace of the Parliament)—the biggest palace in the world—the adjacent Centrul Civic and a never-completed museum dedicated to Communism and Ceaușescu, today the Casa Radio. These and similar projects drained the country's finances and aggravated the already dire economic situation. Thousands of Bucharest residents were evicted from their homes, which were subsequently demolished to make room for the huge structures.

Unlike the other Warsaw Pact leaders, Ceaușescu had not been slavishly pro-Soviet but rather had pursued an "independent" foreign policy; Romanian forces did not join their Warsaw Pact allies in putting an end to the Prague Spring—an invasion Ceaușescu openly denounced—while Romanian athletes competed at the Soviet-boycotted 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles (receiving a standing ovation at the opening ceremonies and proceeding to win 53 medals, trailing only the United States and West Germany in the overall count).^[24][25] Conversely, while Soviet Communist Party General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev spoke of reform, Ceaușescu maintained a hard political line and cult of personality.^[26]

The austerity programme started in 1981 and the widespread poverty it introduced made the Communist regime very unpopular. The austerity programmes were met with little resistance among Romanians and there were only a few strikes and labour disputes, of which the Jiu Valley miners' strike of 1977 and the Brașov Rebellion of November 1987 at the truck manufacturer Steagul Roșu were the most notable. In March 1989, several leading activists of the PCR criticised Ceaușescu's economic policies in a letter, but shortly thereafter he achieved a significant political victory: Romania paid off its external debt of about US$11,000,000,000 several months before the time that even the Romanian dictator expected. However, in the months following the austerity programme, shortages of goods remained the same as before.

Like the East German state newspaper, official Romanian news organs made no mention of the fall of the Berlin Wall in the first days following 9 November 1989. The most notable news in Romanian newspapers of 11 November 1989, was the "masterly lecture by comrade Nicolae Ceaușescu at the extended plenary session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Romania," in which the Romanian head of state and party highly praised the "brilliant programme for the work and revolutionary struggle of all our people," as well as the "exemplary fulfillment of economic tasks." What had happened 1,500 km northwest of Bucharest, in divided Berlin, during those days is not even mentioned. Socialism is praised as the "way of the free, independent development of the peoples." The same day, on Bucharest's Brezoianu Street and Kogălniceanu Boulevard, a group of students from Cluj-Napoca attempted a demonstration but were quickly apprehended. It initially appeared that Ceaușescu would weather the wave of revolution sweeping across Eastern Europe, as he was formally re-elected for another five-year term as General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party on 24 November at the party's XIV Congress. On that same day, Ceaușescu's counterpart in Czechoslovakia, Miloš Jakeš, resigned along with the entire Communist leadership, effectively ending Communist rule in Czechoslovakia.

The three students, Mihnea Paraschivescu, Grațian Vulpe, and the economist Dan Căprariu-Schlachter from Cluj, were detained and investigated by the Securitate at the Rahova Penitentiary on suspicion of propaganda against the socialist society. They were released on 22 December 1989 at 14:00. There were other letters and attempts to draw attention to the economic, cultural, and spiritual oppression of Romanians, but they served only to intensify the activity of the police and Securitate. ^[27]

Mounting isolation within the Warsaw Pact

 

The disintegration of Warsaw Pact Communist regimes before the Romanian Revolution. Countries in pink removed the leading role of the Communist Party from their constitutions. Countries in light red disbanded their party militias. The Soviet Union - in dark red - had one republic which removed the leading role of the Communist Party from its constitution. Countries in darkest red had fully-functioning Communist regimes.

On 20 November 1989 (the day when Ceaușescu was reelected as leader of the Romanian Communist Party^[28]) almost all of the Warsaw Pact Communist regimes were institutionally intact. The leading role of the Communist Party was enshrined in their constitutions and the party militia was active. The lone exception was Hungary, where - in October 1989 - the leading role of the party was rescinded from the constitution and the party militia was abolished. However, very soon after Ceaușescu's reelection, the other communist regimes in the Warsaw Pact began to crumble as well. The party militia was abolished in Poland on 23 November and then in Bulgaria on 25 November. The leading role of the party was rescinded from the constitution of Czechoslovakia on 29 November and from that of East Germany on 1 December.^[29][30][31] Even the Soviet Union's Communist regime started to unravel while Ceaușescu was still in power: on 7 December 1989, one of the 15 Union Republics - Lithuania - removed the leading role of the Communist Party from its constitution.^[32][33]

Timișoara uprising

 

Demonstration in Timișoara

On 16 December 1989, the Hungarian minority in Timișoara held a public protest in response to an attempt by the government to evict Hungarian Reformed church Pastor László Tőkés. In July of that year, in an interview with Hungarian television,^[34] Tőkés had criticised the regime's Systematisation policy^[35] and complained that Romanians did not even know their human rights. As Tőkés described it later, the interview, which had been seen in the border areas and was then spread all over Romania, had "a shock effect upon the Romanians, the Securitate as well, on the people of Romania. […] [I]t had an unexpected effect upon the public atmosphere in Romania."^[36]

The government then alleged that Tőkés was inciting ethnic hatred.^{[citation needed]} At the behest of the government, his bishop removed him from his post, thereby depriving him of the right to use the apartment to which he was entitled as a pastor, and assigned him to be a pastor in the countryside. For some time his parishioners gathered around his home to protect him from harassment and eviction. Many passersby spontaneously joined in. As it became clear that the crowd would not disperse, the mayor, Petre Moț, made remarks suggesting that he had overturned the decision to evict Tőkés. Meanwhile, the crowd had grown impatient and, when Moț declined to confirm his statement against the planned eviction in writing, the crowd started to chant anti-communist slogans. Subsequently, police and Securitate forces showed up at the scene. By 19:30 the protest had spread and the original cause became largely irrelevant.

Some of the protesters attempted to burn down the building that housed the district committee of the PCR. The Securitate responded with tear gas and water cannons, while police beat up rioters and arrested many of them. Around 21:00 the rioters withdrew. They regrouped eventually around the Romanian Orthodox Cathedral and started a protest march around the city, but again they were confronted by the security forces.

Crackdown

 

People detained after 22 December 1989 in Timişoara

Riots and protests resumed the following day, 17 December. The rioters broke into the district committee building and threw party documents, propaganda brochures, Ceaușescu's writings, and other symbols of Communist power out of windows.^[37]

The military was sent in to control the riots, because the situation was too large for the Securitate and conventional police to handle. The presence of the army in the streets was an ominous sign: it meant that they had received their orders from the highest level of the command chain, presumably from Ceaușescu himself. The army failed to establish order and chaos ensued, including gunfire, fights, casualties, and burned cars. Transportor Amfibiu Blindat (TAB) armoured personnel carriers and tanks were called in.^[37]

After 20:00, from Piața Libertății (Liberty Square) to the Opera, there was wild shooting, including the area of Decebal bridge, Calea Lipovei (Lipovei Avenue) and Calea Girocului (Girocului Avenue). Tanks, trucks and TABs blocked the accesses into the city while helicopters hovered overhead. After midnight the protests calmed down. Colonel-General Ion Coman, local Party secretary Ilie Matei, and Colonel-General Ștefan Gușă (Chief of the Romanian General Staff) inspected the city. Some areas looked like the aftermath of a war: destruction, rubble and blood.^[37]

 

T-55 tank in front of Opera House

On the morning of 18 December the centre was being guarded by soldiers and Securitate agents in plainclothes. Ceaușescu departed for a visit to Iran, leaving the duty of crushing the Timișoara revolt to his subordinates and his wife. Mayor Moț ordered a party gathering to take place at the university, with the purpose of condemning the "vandalism" of the previous days. He also declared martial law, prohibiting people from going about in groups of larger than two.^[37]

Defying the curfew, a group of 30 young men headed for the Orthodox cathedral, where they stopped and waved a Romanian flag from which they had removed the Romanian Communist coat of arms leaving a distinctive hole, in a manner similar to the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Expecting that they would be fired upon, they started to sing "Deșteaptă-te, române!" ("Awaken thee, Romanian!"), an earlier patriotic song that had been banned in 1947 (but then partially co-opted by the Ceaușescu regime once he fashioned himself as a nationalist). Ethnic Hungarian protesters also chanted "Români, veniți cu noi!" ("Romanians, come with us", to convey that the protest was by and for all citizens of Romania, not an ethnic minority matter). They were, indeed, fired upon; some died and others were seriously injured, while the lucky ones were able to escape.^[37]

On 19 December, local Party functionary Radu Bălan and Colonel-General Ștefan Gușă visited workers in the city's factories, but failed to get them to resume work. On 20 December, massive columns of workers entered the city. About 100,000 protesters occupied Piața Operei (Opera Square – today Piața Victoriei, Victory Square) and chanted anti-government slogans: "Noi suntem poporul!" ("We are the people!"), "Armata e cu noi!" ("The army is on our side!"), "Nu vă fie frică, Ceaușescu pică!" ("Have no fear, Ceaușescu is falling!")^[37]

Meanwhile, Emil Bobu (Secretary to the Central Committee) and Prime Minister Constantin Dăscălescu were sent by Elena Ceaușescu (Nicolae being at that time in Iran) to resolve the situation. They met with a delegation of the protesters and agreed to free the majority of the arrested protesters. However, they refused to comply with the protesters' main demand (resignation of Ceaușescu) and the situation remained essentially unchanged.^[37]

The next day, trains loaded with workers from factories in Oltenia arrived in Timișoara. The regime was attempting to use them to repress the mass protests, but after a brief encounter they ended up joining the protests. One worker explained, "Yesterday our factory boss and a party official rounded us up in the yard, handed us wooden clubs and told us that Hungarians and 'hooligans' were devastating Timișoara and that it is our duty to go there and help crush the riots. But I realised that wasn't the truth."^[37]

Upon Ceaușescu's return from Iran 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."^[37]

The country, which had no information about the Timișoara events from the national media, heard about the Timișoara revolt from Western radio stations like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, and by word of mouth. A mass meeting was staged for the next day, 21 December, which, according to the official media, was presented as a "spontaneous movement of support for Ceaușescu," emulating the 1968 meeting in which Ceaușescu had spoken against the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact forces.^[37]

Revolution spreads

Ceaușescu's speech

On the morning of 21 December, Ceaușescu addressed an assembly of approximately 100,000 people to condemn the uprising in Timișoara. Party officials took great pains to make it appear that Ceaușescu was still immensely popular. Several busloads of workers, under threat of being fired upon, arrived in Bucharest's Piața Palatului (Palace Square, now Piața Revoluției – Revolution Square) and were given red flags, banners and large pictures of Ceaușescu. They were augmented by bystanders who were rounded up on Calea Victoriei.^[22]

 

The balcony where Ceaușescu delivered his last speech, taken over by the crowd during the Romanian Revolution of 1989

The speech was typical of most of Ceaușescu's speeches over the years. Making use of Marxist-Leninist rhetoric, he delivered a litany of the achievements of the "socialist revolution" and Romanian "multi-laterally developed socialist society". He blamed the Timișoara uprising on "fascist agitators". However, Ceaușescu was out of touch with the people and completely misread the crowd's mood. The people remained unresponsive, and only the front rows supported Ceaușescu with cheers and applause. About two minutes into the speech, some in the crowd began to jeer, boo, whistle and yell insults at him, a reaction unthinkable for most of his rule. Workers from a Bucharest power plant started chanting "Ti-mi-șoa-ra! Ti-mi-șoa-ra!", which was soon picked up by others in the crowd. In response, Ceaușescu raised his right hand in hopes of silencing the crowd; his stunned expression remains one of the defining moments of the end of Communism in Eastern Europe. He then tried to placate the crowd by offering to raise workers' salaries by 200 lei per month (about 19 U.S. dollars at the time, yet a 5–10% raise for a modest salary) and student scholarships from 100 to 110 lei while continuing to praise the achievements of the Socialist Revolution. However, a revolution was brewing right in front of his eyes.^[22]

As Ceaușescu was addressing the crowd from the balcony of the Central Committee building, sudden movement came from the outskirts of the massed assembly, as did the sound of (what various sources have reported as) fireworks, bombs or guns, which together caused the assembly to break into chaos. Initially frightened, the crowds tried to disperse. Bullhorns then began to spread the news that the Securitate was firing on the crowd and that a "revolution" was unfolding. This persuaded people in the assembly to join in. The rally turned into a protest demonstration.

 

Protesters in Cluj-Napoca on the morning of 21 December. This photo was taken by Răzvan Rotta after security forces opened fire.

The entire speech was being broadcast live nationwide. Censors attempted to cut the live video feed and replace it with Communist propaganda songs and video praising the Ceaușescu regime, but parts of the riots had already been broadcast and most of the Romanian people realised that something unusual was in progress. Ceaușescu and his wife, as well as other officials and CPEx members, panicked; Ceaușescu's bodyguard hustled him back inside the building.

The jeers and whistles soon erupted into a riot; the crowd took to the streets, placing the capital, like Timișoara, in turmoil. Members of the crowd spontaneously began shouting anti-Ceaușescu slogans, which spread and became chants: "Jos dictatorul!" ("Down with the dictator"), "Moarte criminalului!" ("Death to the criminal"), "Noi suntem poporul, jos cu dictatorul!" ("We are the People, down with the dictator"), "Ceaușescu cine ești?/Criminal din Scornicești" ("Ceaușescu, who are you? A criminal from Scornicești").^[37]

Protesters eventually flooded the city centre area, from Piața Kogălniceanu to Piața Unirii, Piața Rosetti and Piața Romană. In one notable scene from the event, a young man waved a tricolour with the Communist coat of arms torn out of its centre while perched on the statue of Mihai Viteazul on Boulevard Mihail Kogălniceanu in the University Square. Many others began to emulate the young protester, and the waving and displaying of the Romanian flag with the Communist insignia cut out quickly became widespread.^[37]

Street confrontations

As the hours passed many more people took to the streets. Later, observers^[who?] claimed that even at this point, had Ceaușescu been willing to talk, he might have been able to salvage something.^{[citation needed]} Instead, he decided on force.^[22] Soon the protesters—unarmed and unorganised—were confronted by soldiers, tanks, APCs, USLA troops (Unitatea Specială pentru Lupta Antiteroristă, anti-terrorist special squads) and armed plainclothes Securitate officers. The crowd was soon being shot at from various buildings, side streets and tanks.^[37]

There were many casualties, including deaths, as victims were shot, clubbed to death, stabbed and crushed by armoured vehicles. One APC drove into the crowd around the InterContinental Hotel, crushing people. A French journalist, Jean-Louis Calderon, was killed. A street near University Square was later named after him, as well as a high school in Timișoara. Belgian journalist Danny Huwé was shot and killed on 23 or 24 December 1989.^[38][39]

 

An ABI armoured car used by the USLA in December 1989

Firefighters hit the demonstrators with powerful water cannons, and the police continued to beat and arrest people. Protesters managed to build a defensible barricade in front of the Dunărea ("Danube") restaurant, which stood until after midnight, but was finally torn apart by government forces. Intense shooting continued until after 03:00, by which time the survivors had fled the streets.^[37]

Records of the fighting that day include footage shot from helicopters that were sent to raid the area and record evidence for eventual reprisals, as well as by tourists in the high tower of the centrally located InterContinental Hotel, next to the National Theatre and across the street from the university.

It is likely that in the early hours of 22 December that Ceaușescus made their second mistake. Instead of fleeing the city under cover of night, they decided to wait until morning to leave. Ceaușescu must have thought that his desperate attempts to crush the protests had succeeded, because he apparently called another meeting for the next morning. However, before 07:00, his wife Elena received the news that large columns of workers from many industrial platforms (large communist-era factories or groups of factories concentrated into industrial zones) were heading towards the city centre of Bucharest to join the protests. The police barricades that were meant to block access to Piața Universității (University Square) and Palace Square proved useless. By 09:30 University Square was jammed with protesters. Security forces (army, police and others) re-entered the area, only to join with the protesters.^[37]

By 10:00, as the radio broadcast was announcing the introduction of martial law and a ban on groups larger than five persons, hundreds of thousands of people were gathering for the first time, spontaneously, in central Bucharest (the previous day's crowd had come together at Ceaușescu's orders). Ceaușescu attempted to address the crowd from the balcony of the Central Committee of the Communist Party building, but his attempt was met with a wave of disapproval and anger. Helicopters spread manifestos (which did not reach the crowd, due to unfavourable winds) instructing people not to fall victim to the latest "diversion attempts," but to go home instead and enjoy the Christmas feast. This order, which drew unfavourable comparisons to Marie Antoinette's haughty (but apocryphal) "Let them eat cake", further infuriated the people who did read the manifestos; many at that time had trouble procuring basic foodstuffs such as cooking oil.^[37]

Military defection and Ceaușescu's fall

At approximately 09:30 on the morning of 22 December Vasile Milea, Ceaușescu's minister of defence, died under suspicious circumstances. A communiqué by Ceaușescu stated that Milea had been sacked for treason, and that he had committed suicide after his treason was revealed.^[37] The most widespread opinion at the time was that Milea hesitated to follow Ceaușescu's orders to fire on the demonstrators, even though tanks had been dispatched to downtown Bucharest that morning. Milea was already in severe disfavour with Ceaușescu for initially sending soldiers to Timișoara without live ammunition. Rank-and-file soldiers believed that Milea had actually been murdered and went over virtually en masse to the revolution. Senior commanders wrote off Ceaușescu as a lost cause and made no effort to keep their men loyal to the regime. This effectively ended any chance of Ceaușescu staying in power.^[22]

Accounts differ about how Milea died. His family and several junior officers believed he had been shot in his own office by the Securitate, while another group of officers believed he had committed suicide.^[22] In 2005 an investigation concluded that the minister killed himself by shooting at his heart, but the bullet missed the heart, hit a nearby artery and led to his death shortly afterward. Some believe that he only tried to incapacitate himself in order to be relieved from office, but it is unclear then why he would shoot in the direction of the heart and not something non-vital like arms or legs.^[40]

Upon learning of Milea's death, Ceaușescu appointed Victor Stănculescu minister of defence. He accepted after a brief hesitation. Stănculescu, however, ordered the troops back to their quarters without Ceaușescu's knowledge, and also persuaded Ceaușescu to leave by helicopter, thus making the dictator a fugitive. At that same moment angry protesters began storming the Communist Party headquarters; Stănculescu and the soldiers under his command did not oppose them.^[37]

By refusing to carry out Ceaușescu's orders (he was still technically commander-in-chief of the army), Stănculescu played a central role in the overthrow of the dictatorship. "I had the prospect of two execution squads: Ceaușescu's and the revolutionary one!" confessed Stănculescu later. In the afternoon, Stănculescu "chose" Ion Iliescu's political group from among others that were striving for power in the aftermath of the recent events.^[37]

Helicopter evacuation

Following Ceaușescu's second failed attempt to address the crowd, he and Elena fled into a lift headed for the roof. A group of protesters managed to force their way into the building, overpower Ceaușescu's bodyguards and make their way through his office before heading onto the balcony. They were unaware they were only a few metres from Ceaușescu. The lift's electricity failed just before it reached the top floor, and Ceaușescu's bodyguards forced it open and ushered the couple onto the roof.^[22]

At 11:20 on 22 December 1989, Ceaușescu's personal pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Vasile Maluțan, received instructions from Lieutenant General Opruta to proceed to Palace Square to pick up the president. As he flew over Palace Square he saw it was impossible to land there. Maluțan landed his white Dauphin, #203, on the terrace at 11:44. A man brandishing a white net curtain from one of the windows waved him down.^[41]

Maluțan said, "Then Stelica, the co-pilot, came to me and said that there were demonstrators coming to the terrace. Then the Ceaușescus came out, both practically carried by their bodyguards ... They looked as if they were fainting. They were white with terror. Manea Mănescu [one of the vice-presidents] and Emil Bobu were running behind them. Mănescu, Bobu, Neagoe and another Securitate officer scrambled to the four seats in the back ... As I pulled Ceaușescu in, I saw the demonstrators running across the terrace ... There wasn't enough space, Elena Ceaușescu and I were squeezed in between the chairs and the door ... We were only supposed to carry four passengers ... We had six."^[41]

According to Maluțan, it was 12:08 when they left for Snagov. After they arrived there, Ceaușescu took Maluțan into the presidential suite and ordered him to get two helicopters filled with soldiers for an armed guard, and a further Dauphin to come to Snagov. Maluțan's unit commander replied on the phone, "There has been a revolution ... You are on your own ... Good luck!". Maluțan then said to Ceaușescu that the second motor was now warmed up and they needed to leave soon but he could only take four people, not six. Mănescu and Bobu stayed behind. Ceaușescu ordered Maluțan to head for Titu. Near Titu, Maluțan says that he received the national flights denial and had to land to not get shot down by the army.^[42]

He did so in a field next to the old road that led to Pitești. Maluțan then told his four passengers that he could do nothing more. The Securitate men ran to the roadside and began to flag down passing cars. Two cars stopped, one of them driven by a forestry official and one a red Dacia driven by a local doctor. However, the doctor was not happy about getting involved and, after a short time driving the Ceaușescus, faked engine trouble. A bicycle repairman was then flagged down and drove them in his car to Târgoviște. The repairman, Nicolae Petrișor, convinced them that they could hide in an agricultural technical institute on the edge of town. When they arrived, the director there guided the Ceaușescus into a room and then locked them in. They were arrested by local police at about 15:30, then after some wandering around, transported to the Târgoviște garrison's military compound and held captive for several days until their trial.^[43]>^[37]

Trial and execution

Main article: Trial of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu

On 24 December Ion Iliescu, head of the newly formed Council of the National Salvation Front (FSN), signed a decree establishing the Extraordinary Military Tribunal, a drumhead court-martial to try the Ceaușescus for genocide and other crimes. The trial was held on 25 December, lasted for about two hours and delivered death sentences to the couple. Although nominally the Ceaușescus had a right of appeal, their execution followed immediately, just outside the improvised courtroom, being carried out by three paratroopers with their service rifles.

Footage of the trial and of the executed Ceaușescus was promptly released in Romania and to the rest of the world. The actual moment of execution was not filmed; the cameraman only managed to get into the courtyard just as the shooting ended.^[44]

In footage of the trial, Nicolae Ceaușescu is seen answering the ad hoc tribunal judging him and referring to some of its members—among them Army General Victor Atanasie Stănculescu and future Romanian Secret Service head Virgil Măgureanu—as "traitors". In the same video, Ceaușescu dismisses the "tribunal" as illegitimate and demands his constitutional rights to answer to charges in front of a legitimate tribunal.

New government

Main articles: National Salvation Front (Romania) and List of members of the National Salvation Front Council

 

Ion Iliescu at the Romanian Television during the Romanian Revolution of 1989

After Ceaușescu left, the mood of the crowds in Palace Square grew celebratory, perhaps even more than in the other former Eastern Bloc countries because of the recent violence. People cried, shouted and gave each other gifts mainly because it was also close to Christmas Day, a long-suppressed holiday in Romania.^{[citation needed]} The occupation of the Central Committee building continued.^[37]

People threw Ceaușescu's writings, official portraits and propaganda books out the windows, intending to burn them. They also promptly ripped off the giant letters from the roof making up the word "comunist" ("communist") in the slogan: "Trăiască Partidul Comunist Român!" ("Long live the Communist Party of Romania!"). A young woman appeared on the rooftop and waved a flag with the coat of arms torn out.^[37]

At that time, fierce fights were underway at Bucharest Otopeni International Airport between troops sent against each other with the claim that they were going to confront terrorists. Early in the morning, troops sent to reinforce the airport were fired upon. These troops were from the UM 0865 Câmpina military base, and were summoned there by General Ion Rus, commander of the Romanian Air Force. The confrontation resulted in the deaths of 40 soldiers, as well as eight civilians. The military trucks were allowed entrance into the airport's perimeter, passing several checkpoints. However, after passing the last checkpoint, they were fired upon from different directions. A civilian bus was also fired upon during the firefight. After the firefight, the surviving soldiers were taken prisoner by the troops guarding the airport, who seemed to think that they were loyal to Ceaușescu's regime.

Fighting and continued violence

 

Petre Roman speaking to the crowd in Bucharest.

However, the seizure of power by the new political structure FSN, which "emanated" from the second tier of the PCR leadership with help of the plotting generals, was not yet complete. Forces considered to be loyal to the old regime (spontaneously nicknamed "terrorists") opened fire on the crowd and attacked key points across the city: the television, radio and telephone buildings, as well as Casa Scânteii (the nation's print media center, which serves a similar role today under the name of the "House of the Free Press", Casa Presei Libere) and the post office in the district of Drumul Taberei; Palace Square (site of the Central Committee building, but also of the Central University Library, the national art museum in the former Royal Palace, and the Ateneul Român (Romanian Athaeneum), Bucharest's leading concert hall); the university and the adjoining University Square (one of the city's main intersections); Otopeni and Băneasa airports; hospitals and the Ministry of Defence.^[37]

During the night of 22–23 December, Bucharest residents remained on the streets, especially in areas under attack, fighting (and ultimately winning, at the cost of many lives) a battle with an elusive and dangerous enemy. With the military confused by contradictory orders, actual battles ensued, with many real casualties. At 21:00 on 23 December, tanks and a few paramilitary units arrived to protect the Palace of the Republic.^[37] Meanwhile, messages of support were flooding in from all over the world: France (President François Mitterrand); the Soviet Union (General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev); Hungary (the Hungarian Socialist Party); the new East German government (at that time the two German states were not yet formally reunited); Bulgaria (Petar Mladenov, General Secretary of the Bulgarian Communist Party); Czechoslovakia (Ladislav Adamec, leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, and Václav Havel, the dissident writer, revolution leader and future president of the Republic); China (the Minister of Foreign Affairs); the United States (President George H. W. Bush); Canada (Prime Minister Brian Mulroney); West Germany (Foreign Minister Hans Dietrich Genscher); NATO (Secretary General Manfred Wörner); the United Kingdom (Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher); Spain; Austria; the Netherlands; Italy; Portugal; Japan (the Japanese Communist Party); SFR Yugoslavia government and Moldavia.^[37]

 

USAF C-130 Hercules unloads medical supplies at the Bucharest airport on 31 December.

In the following days, moral support was followed by material support. Large quantities of food, medicine, clothing, medical equipment, and other humanitarian aid were sent to Romania. Around the world, the press dedicated entire pages and sometimes even complete issues to the Romanian revolution and its leaders.^[37]

On 24 December, Bucharest was still a city at war. Tanks, APCs and trucks continued to patrol the city and surround trouble spots in order to protect them. At intersections near strategic objectives, roadblocks were built; automatic gunfire continued in and around University Square, the Gara de Nord (the city's main railroad station) and Palace Square. Yet amid the chaos, some people were seen clutching makeshift Christmas trees.^[37] Doctors at one Bucharest hospital reported not sleeping for days and treating as many as 3,000 civilians due to the fighting.^[2] "Terrorist activities" continued until 27 December, when they abruptly stopped. Nobody ever found out who conducted them, or who ordered them stopped.^[37] The Central University Library was burned down in uncertain circumstances and over 500,000 books, along with about 3,700 manuscripts, were destroyed.^[45][46]

Casualties

The total number of deaths in the Romanian Revolution was 1,104, of which 162 were from the protests that led to the overthrow of Ceaușescu (16–22 December 1989) and 942 during the fighting that occurred after the seizure of power by the new FSN. The number of wounded was 3,352, of which 1,107 occurred while Ceaușescu was still in power and 2,245 after the FSN took power.^[47][48] Official figures place the death toll of the revolution at 689 people, many of whom were civilians.^[5]

Figures by FSN officials in January 1990 claimed that as many as 7,000 people died during four days of bitter street fighting in December.^[3]

Aftermath

Political changes

The Revolution brought Romania vast attention from the outside world. Initially, much of the world's sympathy went to the FSN government under Ion Iliescu, a former member of the CPR leadership and a Ceaușescu ally prior to falling into the dictator's disfavour in the early 1980s. The FSN, composed mainly of former members of the second echelon of the CPR, immediately assumed control over the state institutions, including the main media outlets such as the national radio and television networks. They used their control of the media in order to launch attacks against their political opponents, newly created political parties that claimed to be successors to those existing before 1948.

Much of that sympathy was squandered during the Mineriads. Massive protests erupted in downtown Bucharest as political rallies organised by the opposition parties during the presidential elections, with a small part of the protesters deciding to stand ground even after Iliescu was re-elected with an overwhelming majority of 85%. Attempts by police to evacuate the remaining protesters resulted in attacks on state institutions, prompting Iliescu to appeal to the country's workers for help. Infiltrated and instigated by former Securitate agents, in the following days a large mass of workers, mainly miners, entered Bucharest and attacked and fought with anti-government protesters and gathered bystanders.^[49][50]

On the eve of the first free post-communist elections day (20 May 1990), Silviu Brucan—who was part of the FSN—argued that the 1989 Revolution was not anti-communist, being only against Ceaușescu. He stated that Ion Iliescu made a "monumental" mistake in "conceding to the crowd" and banning the PCR.^[51]

While other former ruling Communist parties in the Soviet bloc reconfigured themselves into social democratic or democratic socialist parties, the PCR melted away in the wake of the revolution, never to return. However, a number of former PCR politicians remain prominent on Romania's political scene. Iliescu, for example, remained the central figure in Romanian politics for more than a decade, losing the presidency in 1996 before regaining it in 2000; he retired for good in 2004.

Economic reforms

The FSN chose between the two economic models that political elites claimed were available to post-Communist Eastern European countries: shock therapy or gradual reforms. The FSN chose the latter, slower reforms, because it would have not been possible to convince the people who were already "exhausted" after Ceaușescu's austerity to undergo further sacrifices. Nevertheless, the neoliberal reforms were implemented, although not all at once: by the end of 1990, the prices were liberalised and a free currency exchange rate, devaluing the leu by 60%. The land of the state-owned collective farms was distributed to private owners and a list of 708 large state-owned enterprises to be privatised was devised.^[52]

In 1991 Romania signed an agreement with the IMF and began the privatisation of state-owned enterprises, with the first privatisation law being passed in 1991. In 1992, the Stolojan government began an austerity plan, limiting wages and further liberalising prices. The economic situation deteriorated and inflation as well as unemployment increased substantially. The austerity measures, which by 1995 included a decrease in social spending, led to an increase in poverty. The neoliberal reforms were accelerated after the Democratic Convention won the 1996 elections, the government using its prerogatives to pass a package of laws, removing subsidies, passing reforms on unemployment benefits and greatly increasing the number of privatised companies.^[53]

•  

  A Romanian sub-officer gives the victory sign on New Year's Eve 1989. He has removed the insignia of communist Romania from his ushanka.

•  

  "Empty" Romanian flags with the communist insignia cut out, from an exhibit at the Military Museum, Bucharest

•  

  Buildings marked by fire and bullet holes on the northern edge of Revolution Square, Bucharest, July 1990

See also

•  1980s portal
•  Romania portal

• 1989 Moldovan civil unrest
• 8888 Uprising
• Die Wende
• Dissolution of the Soviet Union
• End of Communism in Hungary (1989)
• Fall of communism in Albania
• Fall of the Berlin Wall
• List of books about the Romanian Revolution
• List of films about the Romanian Revolution
• List of massacres in Romania
• Mongolian Revolution of 1990
• People Power Revolution
• Revolutions of 1989
• Romanian anti-communist resistance movement
• Singing Revolution
• 1989 Tiananmen Square protests
• Velvet Revolution
• Videograms of a Revolution

Preceded by Communist Romania

History of Romania Romanian Revolution

Succeeded by Present Romania

References

Citations

1. Blaine Harden (30 December 1989). "DOORS UNLOCKED ON ROMANIA'S SECRET POLICE". The Washington Post.
2. DUSAN STOJANOVIC (25 December 1989). "More Scattered Fighting; 80,000 Reported Dead". AP.
3. January 2, 1990. "Romania disbands secret police force". The Washington Post.
4. Schudel, Matt (17 September 2017). "Iulian Vlad, head of Romania's secret police during 1989 revolution, dies at 86". The Washington Post. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
5. 2014 Europa World Year Book, p. 3758, ISBN 978-1857437140
6. Valentin Marin (2010). (PDF). Caietele Revoluției (in Romanian). Bucharest: Editura Institutului Revoluției Române din Decembrie 1989. ISSN 1841-6683. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 June 2016. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
7. Marius Ignătescu (21 March 2009). "Revoluția din 1989 și ultimele zile de comunism". Descoperă.org (in Romanian).
8. "Executing a dictator: Open wounds of Romania's Christmas revolution". BBC News. 25 December 2019.
9. "Europe | Romania's bloody revolution". BBC. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
10. "Thirty years after Romanian revolution, questions remain". Politico. 25 December 2019.
11. Marvin Zonis, Dwight Semler, Wiley, Jul 24, 1992, The East European Opportunity: The Complete Business Guide and Sourcebook, p. 245
12. Daniel N. Nelson, East European Monographs, 1980, Democratic Centralism in Romania: A Study of Local Communist Politics, p. 12
13. Smith, Craig S. (12 December 2006). "Eastern Europe Struggles to Purge Security Services". The New York Times. from the original on 26 December 2013. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
14. Ban, Cornel (November 2012). "Sovereign Debt, Austerity, and Regime Change: The Case of Nicolae Ceausescu's Romania". East European Politics and Societies and Cultures. 26 (4): 743–776. doi:10.1177/0888325412465513. S2CID 144784730.
15. Hirshman, Michael (6 November 2009). "Blood And Velvet in Eastern Europe's Season of Change". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
16. "25 Years After Death, A Dictator Still Casts A Shadow in Romania : Parallels". NPR. 24 December 2014. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
17. Insider, Romania. . Romania Insider. Archived from the original on 15 May 2016. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
18. "Romanians Hope Free Elections Mark Revolution's Next Stage – tribunedigital-chicagotribune". Chicago Tribune. 30 March 1990. from the original on 10 July 2015. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
19. "National Salvation Front | political party, Romania". Encyclopædia Britannica. from the original on 15 December 2014. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
20. (PDF). Fride.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 December 2014. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
21. Roper 2000, pp. 55–56.
22. Sebetsyen, Victor (2009). Revolution 1989: The Fall of the Soviet Empire. New York City: Pantheon Books. ISBN 978-0-375-42532-5.
23. Smith, Craig S (12 December 2006), "Eastern Europe Struggles to purge Security Services", The New York Times
24. Mitchell, Houston (9 April 2013). "L.A.'s greatest sports moments No. 3: 1984 Olympics opening". Los Angeles Times.
25. . Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 7 July 2008. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
26. "Minutes of the Meeting between Nicolae Ceausescu and Mikhail Gorbachev, December 1989 | Making the History of 1989". Chnm.gmu.edu. 9 January 1990. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
27. "Cum a căzut comunismul în Europa de Est: Teoria Dominoului pe invers". Europa Liberă România (in Romanian). Retrieved 29 November 2022.
28. Naewoe Press, 1990, North Korea News, Issues 508-559, p. 4
29. Michael Waller, Manchester University Press, 1993, The End of the Communist Power Monopoly, p. 227
30. Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Cambridge University Press, Feb 18, 2002, Redeeming the Communist Past: The Regeneration of Communist Parties in East Central Europe, p. 71
31. Michael Moran, Maurice Wright, Springer, Jul 27, 2016, The Market and the State: Studies in Interdependence, p. 116
32. A. Meleshevich, Springer, Jan 22, 2007, Party Systems in Post-Soviet Countries: A Comparative Study of Political Institutionalization in the Baltic States, Russia, and Ukraine, p. 127
33. Vera Tolz, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1990, The USSR's Emerging Multiparty System, p. 101
34. Brubaker, Rogers: Nationalist politics and everyday ethnicity in a Transylvanian town. Princeton University Press, 2006, p. 119. ISBN 0-691-12834-0
35. Roper 2000, p. 59.
36. Der Grenzer am Eisernen Vorhang. Part 4. A film by Sylvia Nagel. LE Vision GmbH. Mitteldeutsche Rundfunk (MDT), 2008. Broadcast by YLE Teema, 3 January 2012.
37. Ștefănescu, pp. 1–27
38. . Newseum.org. Archived from the original on 2 March 2012. Retrieved 17 November 2012.
39. APPublished: 26 December 1989 (26 December 1989). "Upheaval in the East; 2 Journalists Killed in Rumanian Combat". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 November 2012.
40. Flavius Cristian Marcau, "Revolution of 1989: Milea's Suicide", University of Târgu Jiu, Letter and Social Science Series, Issue 4, 2013, Retrieved February 27, 2016.
41. Galloway & Wylie 1991, pp. 168–169.
42. Galloway & Wylie 1991, p. 170.
43. Galloway & Wylie 1991, p. 171.
44. Galloway & Wylie 1991, p. 199.
45. The Central University Library of Bucharest, official site: "the History".
46. "Legea recunoștinței, made in Romania" 26 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Evenimentul Zilei, 3 June 2010.
47. [1] 19 June 2006 at the Wayback Machine
48. Marius Mioc, Revoluția din Timișoara așa cum fost, 1997.
49. "The Enemy Within: The Romanian Intelligence Service In Transition". fas.org. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
50. Deletant, Dennis (2004), Carey, Henry F. (ed.), (PDF), Romania since 1989: politics, economics, and society, Oxford: Lexington Books, pp. 507–510, archived from the original (PDF) on 5 November 2012, retrieved 25 October 2020
51. "Romania revolution 'not against communism'", The Guardian, 19 May 1990, Page 24
52. Roper 2000, pp. 88–95.
53. Roper 2000, pp. 91–100.

Sources

• Galloway, George; Wylie, Bob (1991). Downfall: The Ceaușescus and the Romanian Revolution. London: Futura Publications. ISBN 0-7088-5003-0.
• Roper, Stephen D. (2000). Romania: The Unfinished Revolution. Routledge. ISBN 978-90-5823-028-7.

Further reading

• Mark Almond, Uprising: Political Upheavals that have Shaped the World, 2002. Mitchell Beazley, London.
• Timothy Garton Ash (1990), The Magic Lantern: The Revolution of 1989 Witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin, and Prague, New York: Random House, ISBN 0-394-58884-3.
• Dennis Deletant, Romania under communist rule (1999). Centre for Romanian Studies in cooperation with the Civic Academy Foundation, (Iași, Romania; Portland, Oregon), ISBN 973-98392-8-2. Gives a detailed account of the events in December 1989 in Timișoara.
• Jeffrey A. Engel (2017), When the World Seemed New: George H. W. Bush and the End of the Cold War, New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, ISBN 978-0547423067.
• Siani-Davies, Peter (2007) [2005]. The Romanian Revolution of December 1989. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-4245-2.
• (in Romanian) Domnița Ștefănescu, Cinci ani din Istoria României ("Five years in the history of Romania"), 1995. Mașina de Scris, Bucharest.

External links

•   Media related to Romanian Revolution of 1989 at Wikimedia Commons
• Article on justice failing for 942 killed in Revolution on eve of 20th anniversary
• Video of Nicolae Ceaușescu's final speech in Republican Square
• Anonymous Photo Essay about the Romanian Revolution of 1989
• from 22 and 23 December 1989
• Live TV Broadcast from 22 December 1989 on Hungarian TV (with English subtitles)
• The Romanian Revolution of December 1989
• Academic Article on Feature Films about 1989
• Academic Article on Documentaries about 1989