Romania – the revolution of 1989

The situation became simply desperate in 1989. Romania was transformed into a police state being led by the Secret Service (Securitate). Nobody was allowed to speak freely or to have any other political preferences than the Communist Party. It was totally forbidden to even joke about the communist regime. Everything was censored including TV programs, news, art and books. The Romanians were almost trapped. It was like living in a separate world. The only connection with the rest of the world was listening to the Radio Free Europe from Western Europe. Nicolae Ceausescu’s austerity program was simply draconic putting the population into painful shortages and terrible poverty. Even if you could afford buying something, it became impossible to buy anything because all the Romanian domestic production was exported in order to pay the country’s debt in a short period of time. The TV Romanian channels were reduced to only one that was broadcasted only for 2 hours per day and even that was dedicated to his family.

Ceausescu created a cult of personality, with shows that were dedicated to him all over Romania. People say that his behavior has changed a lot after he has visited China where he could see such shows. Thousands of Romanian residents were evicted from their homes because Ceausescu needed more space to build up his huge projects. Many wonderful and old buildings suffered from that including old churches.

Although there were a few protests before 1989, none of them succeeded. But on the 16^th of December 1989, a protest broke out in Timisoara as a response to the fact that the Government wanted to evict a dissident Hungarian reformed pastor named Laszlo Tokes. Soon the protest changed into something else since the crowd started to chant anticommunist slogans. Many passers-by spontaneously joined it. The Securitatea replied with tear gas and water jets and the police beat the rioters up. They managed to make the rioters withdraw but, after a while, they got regrouped and started a protest march around the city. They were confronted by the Securitatea again. Ceausescu thought he was really loved by his people and, for that reason, he never ordered to have a riot police. So, since the Securitatea and the police couldn’t handle the rioters, the army was sent to stop the protest. They used armored personnel carriers, tanks and helicopters. Everything turned into a battlefield. The rioters realized they were going to be fired upon so they started singing “Desteapta-te romane” (Awaken Thee, Romanian). Many of them died or were seriously injured and some of them were lucky to escape. On the 19^th of December 100,000 Romanians stopped going to work, occupied Piata Operei ( Opera Square – now the Victory Square) and started to shout “we are the people” , “the army is on our side” , “have no fear, Ceausescu will disappear”.

On the 21^st of December, in Bucharest, Ceausescu tried to condemn the uprising from Timisoara in front of 100,000. He started his speech as usual, misreading the crowd’s mood and the people began to shout against him. Being desperate, he started to offer a salary raise but that got people really mad. He and his wife got panicked and went inside the building to hide from people that were very agitated. They could hear from inside the building “down with the dictator”, “death to the murderer”. The protesters eventually flooded all the downtown area. The crowd started being shot at from everywhere. The bullets were simply in torrents. Many people died including foreign people that were there by accident.

Vasile Milea, the minister of defense committed suicide and he put Stanculescu in his place. However, Stanculescu ordered the troops to withdraw without Ceausescu’s knowledge and even convinced Ceausescu to leave by helicopter. That’s when the army started to be on people’s side. Ceausescu and his wife were found later close to Pitesti and taken into arrest. They even had a so-called trial and executed shortly afterwards. That’s how, on the 22^nd of December 1989, the dictatorship was overthrown.