Ceausescu: From Rise to Fall

Thirty-five years ago the Ceausescu couple was uted by firing squad in a vague scenario at a barracks near the city of Targoviste (Draculas Center) and the series of protest developments and social movements reached their peak in less than a week and with the situation spiraling out of control of the very closed and security system of Romania a group called the National Salvation Front led by Ion Iliescu one of the Communist Partys outcasts took power. Now the Romanian

Thirty-five years ago, the Ceausescu couple was executed by firing squad in a vague scenario at a barracks near the city of Targoviste (Dracula's Center), and the series of protest developments and social movements reached their peak in less than a week, and with the situation spiraling out of control of the very closed and security system of Romania, a group called the National Salvation Front, led by Ion Iliescu, one of the Communist Party's outcasts, took power. Now, the Romanian people believe that, on the one hand, Ceausescu implemented huge development projects by implementing economic austerity, including the Parliament Palace as the largest administrative building in the world after the Pentagon, the Danube-Black Sea Canal, and on the other hand, the people are placed in the global network of communication and democracy. However, there are still unanswered questions about the bloody developments in Romania, the most important of which are:

1.  Why couldn't Ceausescu join the process of political reforms and the peaceful transfer of power?
2. Why did the number of victims of the December events in Romania before Ceausescu's execution, which was only less than 50 people, reach more than 1,000 after his execution?
3. What role did the Americans and the former Soviet Union and foreign powers, especially the intelligence and security agencies of Romania's neighboring countries, play in the revolution process of this country?

The fall of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the communist bloc in Eastern Europe can be seen as the result of a power struggle between the two fronts of the Cold War in the final decade of the twentieth century; a battle between democracy and the market economy versus communism. This conflict had consequences such as the crises of Karabakh, Kosovo, Bosnia, Abkhazia and Transnistria, and claimed many victims from these nations, especially Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo.

Ceausescu was a powerful, totalitarian and dictatorial leader who was born on January 26, 1918 in a large peasant family in the Olt region of Romania. After 71 years of a tumultuous life and experience as a factory worker, political activist and prisoner, head of the youth branch of the Communist Party, president and leader of the country from 1974 to 1989, and having three children, he was tried in a short and swift military court on December 25, 1989. Due to his failure to respond to the judge, the prosecutor and the agents of the field court and his failure to recognize them, he and his wife were sentenced to death and were tragically killed by a hail of bullets with their hands tied.

Historical documents show that in March 1989, Mihai Ceausescu, the older brother of the Romanian dictator who lived in Austria, gave warnings to the Romanian leader in a phone call, and at that time, during a short trip to Bucharest, informed his younger brother of his assessment and conclusion of the will and decision of the great powers to fully support changes in the political rule of the communist camp. In this regard, the report of the Romanian Intelligence Organization regarding the December 1989 developments states: After the last Warsaw summit in Moscow in early December 1989, Gorbachev, in a private meeting, failed to persuade Mr. Ceausescu to accept the necessity of making changes in the political rule and the peaceful transfer of power, and the leader of the Romanian Communist Party, unaware of his bitter and bloody future, in a kind of protest, left the meeting unfinished and left Moscow for Bucharest without saying goodbye or being officially seen off.

After returning from Tehran, Ceausescu, in a live television address, called the agents of unrest in Timisoara a group of disruptors and imperialist agents and announced the holding of a large rally in support of socialism and the beloved leader in Bucharest for December 21, 1989. In this so-called solidarity meeting, while promising reforms and increased salaries, he faced protests and was forced to flee Bucharest. However, the cooperation of foreign intelligence services and their internal agents led to the arrest of the Ceausescu couple, and the formation of a military court, a quick and ambiguous trial, and the execution of Ceausescu and his wife, who played the role of the country's second person, was the beginning of a series of bloody developments and street clashes that left a thousand dead and thousands injured for the Romanian revolution.

Romania and other former communist countries endured very difficult economic, social and cultural conditions, especially livelihood conditions, during a 45-year period of centralized rule and political repression, and the people of these countries began a relentless effort to achieve democracy, freedom and a better life and to make fundamental changes in the governmental and security structures from the mid-1980s. After sacrifice and struggle, while benefiting from the full support of the Western world, in 1990 they said goodbye to five decades of communist dictatorship and economic austerity and began to experience the path of freedom, free economy and a better life, and now most of these countries are both members of NATO and members of the European Union, and the indicators of life and the economic situation of the people have improved significantly.

In summary, it can be acknowledged that one of the important weaknesses of dictators was excessive self-confidence. In the contemporary world, one of the success factors of countries is the careful attention and calculation of the weight and capacity of their country. While the effort to carry out tasks and projects that were beyond the capacity of Romania in the geographical and political puzzle of a country in Central and Eastern Europe took place during the Ceausescu era, which led to excessive foreign borrowing and the decision of the Romanian leadership to pay off foreign claims, which in the early 1980s was about 25 billion dollars, and as a result, a decade of difficult conditions and economic austerity was imposed on the people, which led to the collapse of the ruling regime.

Also, in most countries of the world, intelligence agencies always play an important role in maintaining power, but in Romania, the prominent role of intelligence and security organizations, especially the Securitate, in engineering the administration of the country and full authority in dealing with the people, which created a police atmosphere and psychological distrust of the people towards each other and towards the country's rule, caused this transformation. And the more important issue is that in ruling systems and in the state of cohesion of societies, the religious beliefs of the people play an important role. In his era, disrespect for the religious beliefs of the people was common, so that during the Ceausescu era, most churches and mosques were closed and people performed religious ceremonies and performed their duties secretly.

 

 Ali Beman Eghbali Zarch, Head of Eurasian Studies

  (The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the IPIS)