What was the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. How the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife were executed, and why in Romania they now respectfully remember him
From 1965 - General Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP, from April 1974 - President of Romania.
For more than twenty years, the Ceausescu family - Nicolae, Elena and their son Nicu - ruled socialist Romania.
Party colleagues compared the glorious Marxist-Leninist comrade Ceausescu with Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Peter I and Abraham Lincoln, that is, with people who "satisfied the people's thirst for perfection."
The leaders of the USSR did not lag behind, awarding the leader of Romania with several Orders of Lenin. In the West, all sorts of hostile "radio voices" represented Comrade Ceausescu as a cruel tyrant and murderer.
AT last years During his dictatorial rule, Ceausescu was pathologically afraid that he would be poisoned or contract some disease. At the end of diplomatic receptions and other official meetings at which the president had to shake hands, the head of the bodyguard group slowly poured 90 percent alcohol into his palms.
This invariable ritual Ceausescu observed with religious reverence whenever he had to shake someone's hand, even the hand of the head of state.
On trips abroad, in the bedroom, his servant and his hairdresser removed the hotel bed linen and replaced it with Ceausescu's personal linen, which had arrived from Bucharest in sealed suitcases.
According to Iona Pacepa, the former chief of the secret services of Romania, during Ceausescu's visits to other countries, the guards treated the room assigned to him with antiseptics: floors, carpets, furniture, door handles and electrical switches - everything that he could touch Big Boss. Ceausescu also had a personal chemical engineer, Major Popa, who accompanied the president with a portable laboratory designed to test food.
Popa had to make sure the food was free of bacteria, poison, or radioactivity.
However, all these precautions and methods of terror turned out to be meaningless when the people rebelled.
On Monday, December 18, 1989, Ceausescu went on a visit to Iran, but was forced to return on Wednesday - speeches began in Romania against his dictatorial regime. Ceausescu, along with his wife Elena, fled Bucharest by helicopter. Then, with the help of two officers from the Securitate secret police, they seized a worker's car. In the end, the Ceausescu couple asked for help in a private house, the owners of which, locking them in one of the rooms, called the soldiers.
The arrested spouses were placed in the cell of the military police department. They stayed there for three days while their fate was being decided.
Someone advocated an open trial of them, but the high army command was in a hurry: the barracks were attacked by agents of the Securitate, they would stop resisting only after the death of Ceausescu.
The trial of the military tribunal lasted only 2 hours. It has become, rather, the observance of the necessary formalities to give the execution of the former dictator at least some semblance of legality.
Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu were accused of genocide; the defendants refused to recognize the legitimacy of such a trial.
During the meeting of the tribunal, Elena continually leaned over to her husband and whispered something to him. They asked questions, but most of they remained unanswered. When Ceausescu and his wife were asked to admit their mental imbalance (the only clue to protect and save life), both rejected this offer with contempt.
The court sentenced both to death. On December 25, at four o'clock in the afternoon, the Ceausescu spouses were taken to the courtyard of the soldiers' barracks. English journalists, who collected material about their execution, said that the ex-ruler and his wife behaved defiantly and only at the last moment faltered; Nicolae Ceausescu's gloomy, unshaven face betrayed for a moment the fear he felt as he stood in front of the firing squad. On the way to the execution, Elena asked one of the soldiers: “What are you doing us for? Because I was your mother." The soldier objected dryly: “What kind of mother are you if you killed our mothers?”
Hundreds of volunteers volunteered to shoot the Ceausescu couple, but only four were selected - an officer and three soldiers. They lined up and took aim.
Ceausescu only had time to shout: "I don't deserve ...", and then shots rang out. Those condemned to death were killed. According to the assumption, their bodies were buried in an unmarked grave near Targovishte, this place is recorded in the documents.
Something should be added to the story of Ceausescu's death.
American experts, studying the posthumous photographs of the Ceausescu couple (the nature of the bullet holes and so on), came to the conclusion that they may have been killed before the trial.
The chairman of the military tribunal that convicted the dictator and his wife, Major General Georgica Popa, committed suicide on March 1, 1990.
Nicolae Ceausescu was born on January 26, 1918. He was called the "genius of the Carpathians" and the "Romanian Stalin", he raised the industry and sports in Romania to unprecedented heights, but was overthrown as a result of a coup inspired by the West and the Soviet Union.
On December 22, 1989, the last leader of socialist Romania was overthrown, who had been going his own way for a quarter of a century.
At the turn of the 1980s - 1990s, a series of so-called "velvet revolutions" swept through Eastern Europe, during which the former socialist leaders of countries transferred power to the opposition.
The events in Romania fall out of this range. Overthrow of the regime Nicolae Ceausescu turned out bloody and ended in execution former leader countries.
Immediately after what happened in December 1989, the following interpretation of events was considered generally accepted: “an angry people dealt with a bloody dictator who gave the order to shoot hungry workers.”
But the further, the more questions arise for researchers. Were the events in Romania spontaneous, or were professionals behind their organization? Were the representatives of the Romanian secret services loyal to Ceausescu really the main culprits of the bloodshed? Why did the revolutionaries so hastily execute the captured head of state?
Stepped out of the shadows
The 47-year-old Nicolae Ceausescu came to the post of leader of the Romanian Workers' Party in 1965, after the death of Gheorghe Geogiou-Deja who held this position for 17 years. Like Leonid Brezhnev in the USSR, Nicolae Ceausescu was considered by more influential party members as a temporary figure.
And, as in the case of Brezhnev, Ceausescu's party comrades underestimated him. He very quickly gained popularity among the people, criticizing and exposing the old methods of leadership.
To improve the image and emphasize the difference in the policy of the new leadership, Ceausescu even achieved the renaming of the country - the Romanian People's Republic (PRR) was renamed the Socialist Republic of Romania.
Two years later, Nicolae Ceausescu took over as Chairman of the State Council, concentrating the highest state and party power in his hands.
Under Ceausescu, Romania began to pursue a fairly independent foreign policy, actively interacting with Western countries. Ceausescu did not support the entry of Warsaw Pact troops into Czechoslovakia in 1968, refused to support the entry Soviet troops to Afghanistan in 1979. And in 1984, when the USSR boycotted the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, Romanian athletes participated in the Games in the USA.
In 1974, having amended the Constitution of Romania, Ceausescu became president of the country and held this post until his death.
Ceausescu receives the presidential scepter from the hands of the chairman of the Grand National Assembly, Stefan Voitek (1974).
Liberal from the socialist camp
The first years of Ceausescu's reign were marked by liberal reforms that significantly softened the attitude towards dissidents. Entry and exit from the country was relatively free, the Romanian leadership did not obstruct the emigration of citizens, and foreign press was freely sold in the country.
With Ceausescu, who positioned himself as a communist reformer, Western countries actively cooperated, he was given multimillion-dollar loans. Under Ceausescu, the country's industry began to actively develop, since the leader saw the future of the state in a move away from the predominance of the agricultural sector.
Ceausescu actively cooperated with the IMF, with the IBRD, having received loans for more than $22 billion.
Due to this, the country's economy has experienced rapid growth - the volume industrial production in Romania in 1974 was 100 times higher than in 1944.
President against debt
Soon, however, problems began. Romania was struck by a crisis of overproduction - Romanian industrial goods did not find sufficient sales in the CMEA countries, and they turned out to be completely uncompetitive in Western markets.
Ceausescu, the first of the socialist leaders to feel the charm of billions of dollars of Western loans, was also the first to feel their suffocating effect. He did not want to put up with the prospect of debt bondage, and in 1983, with the help of a referendum, he achieved a ban on further foreign borrowing.
The West offered the leader of Romania an elegant way out - writing off all debts and providing new ones in exchange for withdrawing from the Warsaw Pact and the Comecon and ending cooperation with the USSR.
Ceausescu flatly refused. The point here was not only and not so much in loyalty to the communist ideology, but in the fact that, freeing itself from a certain dependence on the USSR, Romania would inevitably fall into dependence on the West. Ceausescu, on the other hand, was quite satisfied with the isolated position in the socialist camp.
To ensure the payment of debts, austerity measures were introduced in the country - food on cards, gasoline on coupons, electricity on the clock. The standard of living of the Romanians began to fall, and with it the popularity of Ceausescu.
At the same time and in political life little is left of the former liberal freedoms. A rigid authoritarian system was established in the country, and a Ceausescu personality cult was formed. Leading government posts were occupied by people close to the president, sometimes just members of his family. The manifestation of discontent in society was suppressed by the security police "Securitate".
Ceausescu went ahead, but by April 1989 he had achieved his goal - the country paid off its external debts. However, the situation in the economy by that time was extremely difficult.
Nicolae Ceausescu at Brezhnev's funeral.
Fight on two fronts
Even worse was the fact that foreign policy Ceausescu had no one to rely on. The West, which did not forgive Ceausescu for refusing his proposals and adherence to principles in the issue of debt repayment, transferred the Romanian leader to the category of "bad guys".
And perestroika was raging in the Soviet Union, and Mikhail Gorbachev urged the head of Romania to follow the same course. The course, however, did not inspire Ceausescu. The politician who was not afraid of Brezhnev's wrath in 1968 and 1979 was not afraid of Gorbachev's discontent either.
Moreover, in August 1989, when the socialist regimes of the countries deprived of the support of the USSR of Eastern Europe bursting at the seams, Nicolae Ceausescu, at the celebration of the 45th anniversary of the liberation of Romania from fascism, said: “Rather, the Danube will flow back than perestroika will take place in Romania.”
The last meeting between Gorbachev and Ceausescu took place in Moscow on December 6, 1989, and, according to members of the Romanian delegation, the Soviet leader spoke directly that the rejection of reforms would result in "consequences."
In 1989, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR Eduard Shevardnadze paid an official visit to Romania, making a statement that became a signal for anti-government actions.
Ceausescu became a bone in the throat for the West, for Gorbachev, and for the opposition in Romania itself. In the Soviet press, he began to be called a "Stalinist", and in the West, forgetting the previous articles about " good guy from Romania", wrote about the "monstrous crimes of the Romanian dictator".
Nicolae Ceausescu found himself in a "one against all" position. At the same time, he seemed to have the situation in the country under control.
Mikhail Gorbachev and Nicolae Ceausescu with their spouses.
Riot in Timisoara
On December 16, 1989, unrest began in Timisoara, caused by the removal from his post and eviction from home dissident pastor Laszlo Tekes, a Hungarian by nationality, an anti-communist and one of the leaders of the separatist movement, who advocated "full ethnic autonomy" for several regions with a significant proportion of the Hungarian population.
Separatist slogans very quickly changed to anti-communist ones, pogroms of local state bodies began.
It should be noted that ordinary citizens, dissatisfied with the decline in living standards, also participated in the riots. The harsh suppression of unrest caused outrage throughout the country.
On the night of December 16-17, the riots were suppressed. To this day, the exact number of victims of the clashes in Timisoara is not known. More or less objective data point to several dozen people, but rumors spread around the country, which were immediately picked up by foreign media, that several hundred or even several thousand people were killed in the city. Gradually, the number of those killed, figured in the rumors, reached 60 thousand people. Much later it became known that total number the victims of the Romanian revolution, not only in Timisoara, but throughout the country, for the entire time of the crisis on both sides, there were about 1,100 killed and 1,400 wounded, so the story of "60 thousand killed" appeared solely to whip up passions and create more indignation in society.
Mass protests in Bucharest (1989).
The last speech of the dictator
It was not possible to completely calm the situation in Timisoara. On December 20, Ceausescu spoke on national television. The speech of the Romanian leader a quarter of a century later looks surprisingly logical and reasonable. Ceausescu said that the clashes in Timisoara were initiated by "groups of hooligans who provoked a series of incidents in Timisoara, opposing a legitimate judicial decision", that the riots are supported by the secret services of other countries, that the purpose of these actions is "to undermine the independence, integrity and sovereignty and return the country to the times of foreign domination, liquidate socialist gains.
Isn't it true that Ceausescu described the scenario, in modern world known as the "color revolution"? This, of course, did not change the fact that not only extremists took part in the riots, but also simply exhausted by heavy economic situation citizens, as always happens in such cases.
Ceausescu also acted quite traditionally from the current point of view. On December 21, 1989, a rally of 100,000 supporters of the president was assembled in Bucharest. They just gathered people there not at the call of the heart, but according to the order. Therefore, groups of oppositionists who penetrated the crowd, chanted and exploded firecrackers, managed to bring chaos and confusion and disrupt Ceausescu's speech from the balcony of the presidential palace. 
The story about opposition groups in the crowd is not a fabrication of Ceausescu supporters, but revelations Casimir Ionescu, one of the leaders who came to power after the overthrow of the president of the National Salvation Front.
Escape
Nicolae Ceausescu was confused. He has lost the habit of speaking in front of a mass of people who are not 100% loyal. His departure from the balcony of the presidential palace was tantamount to defeat.
A few hours later, chaos reigned in Bucharest. There were sounds of shooting, and it was not clear who was shooting at whom. On the morning of December 22, it became known about the death Romanian Defense Minister Vasile Mil. Although there was no evidence of this, the oppositionists said that the minister was killed for refusing to shoot at the people. After that, a massive transition to the side of the oppositionists of the military units began. The rebels seized the television center and announced the fall of the Ceausescu regime.
Fights begin in the city military units and units of the Securitate. But by this time, Ceausescu is no longer in Bucharest - he flies by helicopter from the roof of the building of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Romania. They flee with him wife Elena, who was a prominent functionary of the regime, two associates - Former Prime Minister Manya Manscu and Former Minister of Labor Emil Bobou, as well as two employees of the Securitate.
Secrets of Timoshiar
and The script for overthrowing Ceausescu was well designed. On December 17, 1989, anti-government demonstrations began in Timisoara, which grew into mass unrest. Attempts by the police to disperse people with water cannons resulted in many days of clashes. At the same time, demonstrations of protest against the "cruelty of Ceausescu" were organized outside the Romanian embassies. On several world TV channels there was a story about the murders of Timisoara civilians by agents of the secret Romanian special service "Securitate". Later it turned out that as "victims" of the Ceausescu regime, the world saw the bodies of the dead, which were provided by orderlies of city mortuaries for a fee. It is now known that the United States was behind the overthrow of Ceausescu. The operation was entrusted to the head of the CIA's Eastern European department, Milton Borden. In case of failure, there was a plan "B". It provided for the entry of Soviet troops into Romania. The military units of the USSR in the Odessa region and the Carpathians were brought to combat readiness. Departing from Bucharest by helicopter, Ceausescu ordered the pilot to contact Soviet border and request a landing on the territory of the USSR. Having received a refusal, he understood everything. The execution of Ceausescu passed without trial or investigation. According to the results of the latest public polls in Romania, Nicolae Ceausescu is considered there as the person who has done the most good for Romanians in the last 100 years.
Manescu and Bobu remain at the presidential dacha on Lake Snagov, where the helicopter has made an intermediate landing. Ceausescu is trying to contact the commanders of the military districts loyal to him. Finally, he receives similar confirmation from the city of Piesti. But by this time new Defense Minister Victor Stanculesque y gives the order to shoot down the helicopter with the president. Warned about this, the pilot lands the car in a field near the town of Targovishte and announces that he has gone over to the side of the rebels.
Ceausescu with his wife and guards are trying to get to Piesti by car, but in Targovishte itself they fall into the hands of the military.
Fighting on the streets of Bucharest, December 1989.
fleeting tribunal
For two days, Nikolai and Elena Ceausescu are kept in the military prison of the Targovishte garrison. And then right there, in Targovishte, a military tribunal is being organized to try the Ceausescu couple.
The piquancy of the situation lies in the fact that the main initiator of the tribunal is the Minister of Defense Stanculescu - the man who commanded the suppression of speeches in Timisoara, from which the revolution in Romania began. In 2008, Stanculescu will stand trial for this.
And on December 25, 1989, the minister was in a hurry to condemn the deposed president. The public prosecutor at the trial was Major General George Popa, deputy chairman of the military tribunal for Bucharest, specially summoned to Targovishte and found out who he was to accuse just before the trial.
Nicholas and Elena Ceausescu were accused of destroying the national economy, armed action against the people and the state, destroying state institutions and genocide.
The two hours of the process were more like a squabble. Ceausescu, it seems, understood how it would end, and did not so much answer the investigator's questions as he summed up the results own life. He said that he fed the Romanians, provided them with housing and work, made the Socialist Republic of Romania the envy of the whole world. It is unlikely that Ceausescu lied; rather, this is how he saw the results of his reign.
What was right and what was Ceausescu's fault, a two-hour process could not be established purely physically. But he had no such goal. Having performed a formal ritual, the tribunal announced that Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu were found guilty on all counts and sentenced to capital punishment - death by firing squad with confiscation of all their property.
Operation "Liquidation"
According to the verdict, the Ceausescus had 10 days to appeal. However, it was announced that he would be executed on the same day so that the deposed president would not be recaptured by his supporters.
At four o'clock in the afternoon on December 25, Nikolai and Elena Ceausescu were taken to the courtyard of the barracks, placed against the wall of the soldiers' restroom and shot.
Three days later, the execution of the deposed president and his wife was shown on Romanian television. The bodies of the executed were interred at the Bucharest Genca cemetery.
Politics, which at the end of his life began to interfere with too many, is gone. Over time, the events of December 1989 in Romania are increasingly referred to not as a popular uprising, but as a well-thought-out and organized operation to change the regime and physically eliminate the objectionable leader.
And the last. Among the accusations against Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu was the opening of secret accounts in foreign banks. Allegedly, the Ceausescu spouses intended to flee abroad, where the money stolen from the Romanian people was supposed to ensure a comfortable life. The amounts sounded different - from 400 million to more than 1 billion dollars. After 20 years of searching Head of the Special Committee of the ParliamentRomanian cop Sabin Cutasstated: "After hearing numerous witnesses who had information on this subject, including the chairman of the board of the central bank, as well as other bankers and journalists, we came to the conclusion that Nicolae Ceausescu did not have bank accounts abroad and never transferred public finances abroad" .
nuclear threat
The overthrow of Ceausescu, whose policy was distinguished by unpredictability and independence, was also predetermined for the reason that active work was underway in Ceausescu's time in Romania to create nuclear weapons. According to a former secret police colonel, a whole army of engineers and scientists worked on a secret nuclear project. Was stolen in the West modern technology uranium enrichment, in Romania, a own production heavy water. Ceausescu received the secret of making the bomb from the government of Pakistan. An institute set up in cooperation with a West German firm worked on the creation of a launch vehicle, and the Ministry of Mines received a directive to start building uranium reserves at the Beitz deposit. In May 1989, the West German magazine Der Spiegel reported that an underground missile factory was being built in Romania. nuclear warheads. On April 14 of the same year, Ceausescu publicly stated that Romania was capable of producing nuclear weapon, noting, however, that it does not intend to use this technology.
Your opinion
Ceausescu was an extremely uncomfortable politician. An ardent Stalinist, Ceausescu abruptly did not take Khrushchev's course and constantly led an independent economic policy reducing economic dependence on the USSR to a minimum. And he did it. True, he still had to take loans - from the West, but Ceausescu did not spend money thoughtlessly. The country became independent state with developed light and heavy industry. Romania almost independently completed the construction of the Chernavodsk nuclear power plant, and by the time of the overthrow, Ceausescu had fulfilled his credit obligations to the West. Of course, Romania's course towards economic and political independence has dramatically changed the attitude of the West towards Ceausescu. The "Seven" essentially switched over to a policy of economic blockade of the republic. The USSR was also not happy with Ceausescu. In 1968, Romania refused to join the entry of Warsaw Pact troops into Czechoslovakia, and in 1979 did not support the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan. Nor did Ceausescu join the "socialist" boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Ceausescu called into question all the projects of Reagan and Gorbachev, while in Romania there was an active development in all areas: from industry to sports. So, the Steaua football club, which Ceausescu personally oversaw, won the UEFA Super Cup in 1986, and won the Champions League in 1989.
Almost Caligula Nicolae Ceausescu considered Romanians the direct heirs of the ancient Romans, and the Romanian language was the closest of all modern languages to Latin. To prove these theses, special scientific groups were formed in the Romanian Academy of Sciences, which were engaged in the search for evidence of imperial succession. Ceausescu openly exalted his relatives, guided by the motto of his direct ancestors: quod principi placuit, legis habet vigorem - whatever the ruler wants is lawful. His wife, Elena Ceausescu, was officially the second person in the country - the first deputy prime minister, and his son, a weak-willed and immoral drunkard, was put in charge of Sibiu. The parallel with one of the Roman emperors is strengthened by the fact that Ceausescu so adored the Labrador named Corbu, given to him in England, that he awarded him the army rank of colonel. The dog was transported in a separate limousine with a fixed driver, and fed with special dog biscuits, which the Romanian ambassador in London bought at a local supermarket and sent home by diplomatic mail.
Ceausescu Nicolae (1918 - 1989) since 1955 in the leadership of the Romanian Communist Party, general secretary since 1965, chairman in 1967-1974 State Council, since 1974 President of Romania.
Ceausescu, Nicolae (1918-1989), President of Romania. He was born on January 26, 1918 in the village of Skorniceshti into a peasant family. In 1933 he joined the ranks of the youth communist movement, in 1936 became a member of the Communist Party. From 1940 to 1944 he was imprisoned in various prisons. At the end of the war in 1944-1945 he became secretary of the Central Committee communist union youth. In the late 1940s, Ceausescu was the secretary of the regional party committee, first in Dobruja and then in Oltenia. In 1948-1950, Ceausescu was Minister of Agriculture, in 1950 Deputy Minister of National Defense with the rank of Major General, in 1951 the head of the political department in the armed forces, in 1952 a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Ceausescu supported Party Secretary G. Georgiou-Dej in his struggle for power with the “Muscovite” A. Pauker, who was deprived of power in 1952 (“Muscovites” are party leaders who were during the war years on the territory of the USSR). In 1954, Ceausescu was elected secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, and in 1955 a member of the Politburo. In 1961, the Romanian version of "national communism" appeared, which consisted mainly in the policy of economic integration. In 1965, Ceausescu was elected general secretary of the Central Committee, took the post of chairman of the State Council, and in 1974, after a change in the constitution, he became president of Romania.
The reign of Ceausescu was characterized by an active foreign policy, different from the course of other Eastern European countries. Ceausescu was not a supporter of a complete revision of relations with the USSR, but he condemned the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, as well as the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan in 1979. He did not support Soviet accusations against China, he maintained good relations with Israel, the USA and Western European countries
In particular, in 1984, Romania was the only CMEA member country that did not boycott the Los Angeles Olympics, for which Ceausescu received the Olympic Order a year later. Ceausescu uncontrollably took loans from Western countries, which quickly brought the Romanian economy to the brink of collapse. In an attempt to rectify the situation in the country, a referendum was held on a legislative ban on attracting foreign loans, and since 1980, the payment of debts on loans has become the main priority of the Romanian economy. As a result, by 1989 - in fact, a few months before the overthrow of the Ceausescu regime - Romania managed to pay off almost all Western creditors.
Ceausescu openly patronized his relatives, bringing them into the government. His wife Elena was the second person in the country, acting as the first deputy prime minister, who was Ceausescu himself. The son of the Ceausescu couple, Nicu, was appointed head of Sibiu.
In addition to the title of "Mother of the Nation", Elena Ceausescu was also quite officially called the "Torch of the Party", "Woman Hero" and "Guiding Beam of Culture and Science."
The main views of Ceausescu on socialism, arising from the analysis of his reports and speeches:
Socialism is called upon to abolish private ownership of the means of production and to transfer them into the hands of their true owners - the workers, the intelligentsia; only large property in agriculture provides the necessary conditions for economic development;
The main milestone of socialist construction in Romania is the IX Party Congress (1965); Romania has turned from an underdeveloped country into an industrial-agrarian country, continuously developing on the basis of the latest achievements science and technology;
The future of all mankind is only socialism;
In a socialist country there should be only one, united and powerful party with a revolutionary or progressive outlook, preserving a workers' character; there is not and cannot be any other force that could fulfill the vital role of the Communist Party; the party cannot refuse leadership and cannot share it with anyone;
Under communism, the party will disappear only when the entire people attains a lofty revolutionary consciousness and revolutionary militancy, when the people themselves become the revolutionary people, the creators of communism.
A significant role in the totalitarian regime of Ceausescu was played by the official ideology, which, in fact, was turned into a false and illusory consciousness, cut off from social reality and serving the interests of the ruling group. Almost all spheres of human life were ideologized. The state exercised strict and comprehensive control, suppressing all dissent. For this ideology government was the only value. Everything that happened in Romanian society, she considered only in one plane - whether it strengthens or weakens the power of the state over the individual.
In 1989, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR Eduard Shevardnadze paid an official visit to Romania, making a statement that became a signal for anti-government actions. During the so-called "December uprising" (1989), Ceausescu was arrested and hastily shot on December 25 in the city of Timisoara, along with his wife. The brutal massacre was not "spontaneous creativity populace", but was conceived somewhere in high offices even before Shevardnadze's visit. It was revenge on Ceausescu, who managed to completely pay off all debts Western countries and pulled Romania out of the IMF debt loop. Later, for the same, Pinochet was brought to the Spanish court (heading Chile, he paid off the IMF in full). The actions of Ceausescu (and Pinochet) set a dangerous precedent for the "new world order" that had been established since the early 1980s and 1990s in Eastern Europe as well.
Trial of Romanian ruler Nicolae Ceausescu.
In 1989, events took place in Romania that radically changed the face of the country - the last leader of socialist Romania, who had been going his own way for a quarter of a century, was overthrown. The overthrow of the regime of Nicolae Ceausescu turned out to be bloody and ended with the execution of the former leader of the country and his wife.
Nicolae Ceausescu speaks to the Romanian people.
The future ruler of Romania, Nicolae Ceausescu, came from a peasant family. Already in young age he experienced the oppression of capitalism, then joined the communist party, was in prison "for politics." 
Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu.
In 1965, Nicolae Ceausescu became General Secretary Communist Party of Romania, in fact - the first person in the country. The next two and a half decades of his reign can be assessed in different ways. Some argue that these were years of genocide and economic collapse, while others, on the contrary, saw a general upsurge.
A real cult of personality has developed around Ceausescu. The period of his reign was almost officially called the “Golden Age of Ceausescu”, and the dictator himself was called “Secular God”, “Seer” and “Genius of the Carpathians”. 
Nicolae Ceausescu and Mikhail Gorbachev, 1985
At the same time, there was a real devastation in the country. Due to the lack of external funding, it was necessary to introduce card system often lacked food. Therefore, in December 1989, thousands of Romanians took to the streets. Residents of the city of Timisoara protested against poverty and lawlessness, which have become the norm. Nicolae Ceausescu began to be openly called a dictator and a Stalinist. The angry crowd demanded the removal from power of the 71-year-old man and his wife Elena, who was also a very influential person. 
Romanian soldier in front of a flag with a carved coat of arms.
Like many rulers before him, Ceausescu ordered to open fire on the crowd demanding his resignation. But the army, which entered the capital on tanks, refused to shoot at civilians. When it became clear that the revolution could not be stopped, Nicolae and Elena fled Bucharest by helicopter. But they didn't fly far. In the city of Targovishte, the spouses were arrested and an emergency trial was held. 
Tanks in Bucharest, December 24, 1989.
The process took place on December 25 in the premises of the military unit. Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu were charged with the destruction of the national economy, an armed uprising against the people, the destruction of state institutions, and genocide. 
Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu in court.
The entire process, lasting less than two hours, was filmed on video. It is difficult to name what happened, except as a trial. The whole meeting was reduced to squabbles and bickering between the accusers and the accused. The verdict was known in advance: the death penalty. On the same day, the Ceausescus were shot at the wall of the soldiers' restroom. 
Execution of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu.
The execution site of the Romanian dictator and his wife has become a popular tourist attraction.
Decades later, the events of December in Romania are remembered differently. Some believe that in this way the country got rid of the “leash” from Moscow at once, while others regret that time and the “strong ruler”. According to a poll conducted, if Nicolae Ceausescu took part in the next elections, about 40 percent of Romanians would vote for him.
Some still remember the late Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu kind word, others consider him the devil in the flesh. His identity is still debated, and some even dream of bringing him back.
An inconspicuous man, you can hardly remember this if you see him in the subway, devoid of a great mind, Ceausescu nevertheless managed to become one of the largest political figures of the time cold war. In this he was helped by his peasant ingenuity, unusual resourcefulness, as well as the ability to maneuver between China, the West and the USSR.
Having passed the path of an underground revolutionary, typical for many Eastern European communists, Ceausescu achieved significant posts in Communist Party Romania. After the overthrow of the regime of General Ion Antonencu, an ally of Hitler, and the establishment of the communist regime, Gheorghiu Deja Ceausescu became his closest ally. After the death of Deja, it was Ceausescu who led the party.
Anyone who knew Ceausescu well noted his ability for clever intrigues, which helped him remove most of his opponents from power, gradually taking over important government posts.
Despite the formal separation of powers that existed in communist Romania, Ceausescu was able to introduce changes to the country's constitution in the mid-1970s, which gave him the opportunity to redistribute power from the State Council to the president, who was elected by parliament. Despite the fact that in Romania there were restrictions on the terms of the president, Ceausescu was able to be elected to this post without an alternative, becoming the country's de facto president for life.
I'm not your brother
In words, Romania Ceausescu proclaimed herself a faithful comrade-in-arms Soviet Union, and on the streets of Bucharest one could see numerous toasts in honor of the Soviet leaders. However, in reality, Ceausescu practically defiantly showed not only his independence in external affairs, but also often - albeit in a veiled form - criticized the Soviet comrades.
“Ceausescu really often allowed himself a lot,” recalled the late secretary of the Central Committee Konstantin Katushev in an interview with Gazeta.Ru,
who at one time oversaw relations between the USSR and the socialist countries. Unlike the politically correct Soviet functionary, the famous Russian singer Alla Boyanova, who lived in Romania, recalls Ceausescu like this: “He hated Russia and everything Russian.”
The Soviet leadership was especially nervous about the intensification of ties between Bucharest and the Moldavian SSR, which was native to the Soviet Secretary General Leonid Brezhnev, where after the war part of the territories that once belonged to Romania was included.
Although Romania was a member economic union socialist countries - CMEA, as well as the military - the Warsaw Pact, Ceausescu refused to send troops to suppress the Prague Spring of 1968. Ceausescu's move was approved even by his tough opponent, the first president of democratic Romania, Ion Illiescu. True, the latter told Gazeta Ru that Ceausescu did not learn lessons from the events in Prague: “He condemned Brezhnev and such measures, but then he himself turned into a tough dictator who did not understand that he had to change something in his policy. He held on to power and paid for it with his life.”
Fronder was not needed
The opposition of Ceausescu in relation to the Soviet leadership drew attention in the United States. In 1969, US President Richard Nixon made his first visit to Romania, who made it clear that Washington was interested in improving relations with Bucharest, despite its odious regime.
“Countries may have different internal orders. Countries can have different economic interests and live in peace,” the US President said in his welcoming speech.
These were not just words: the US gave Romania the most favored nation in trade, sold this country industrial equipment for oil production, and even built a joint nuclear reactor for scientific purposes. From the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, Romania lived quite well.
Maintaining relations with Israel, despite the conflict with the USSR, Iran and African regimes, Romania actively used the possibilities of its diplomacy and intelligence, stealing secrets around the world.
At the same time, the country actively traded consumer goods of good quality: Romanian leather shoes were in demand in Western Europe, and potential buyers literally fought for Romanian furniture in Soviet stores.
However, the improvement of life only contributed to the Ceausescu personality cult - he, like Stalin once, was praised in every television program, and his speeches - often long and of little substance - had to be memorized at party meetings. “... In cities and villages on the highways and streets of Romania
every now and then I came across slogans that the Romanian people should be worthy of the Ceausescu era, ”
- wrote in his book "Ceausescu and Zhivkov: I knew them" the famous Soviet international journalist Nikolai Paniev, who worked as a correspondent for Soviet newspapers in Bucharest.
The odious cult annoyed many in the White House, but relations with Ceausescu were considered very useful, and in America even the anti-communist Ronald Reagan accepted him with a smile. The drift towards the United States irritated the Soviet allies, but most of all they did not like the demonstrative rapprochement of the Romanian regime with hostile China. It got to the point that Romania began to sell the Kalashnikov assault rifles supplied by the USSR to the PRC.
However, with the beginning of perestroika and the proclamation of reforms in the countries of Eastern Europe, the West and, mainly, the United States, began to need the odious Romanian dictator less and less. In addition, dissatisfaction with the regime began to grow in Romania itself due to a sharp drop in the economic level since the early 80s. By 1981, Romania's external debt amounted to $ 10.2 billion. Wanting to quickly pay off the debts taken from the IMF, Ceausescu called for a tough way to save electricity, and the Romanians were forced to turn off the lights in their homes almost on orders.
The desire of the President of the SRR, Nicolae Ceausescu, to pay off huge loans led to total and absurd savings, the impoverishment of the population and the omnipotence of the secret police Securitate.
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev tried to influence the situation in Romania, who pushed Ceausescu to reforms. Iliescu recalls how in the fall of 1989, at a party plenum, Ceausescu said that he did not "want to listen to lectures from Gorbachev", since he had already carried out his own "perestroika" long ago and "developed socialist democracy in Romania."
“He broke away from reality, and the reality was this: living conditions were the most difficult,” recalled in an interview with Gazeta.Ru the former president of Romania, Ion Iliescu, who, together with his then colleague Petre Roman, the future prime minister, led the resistance.
Professor at Georgetown University in Washington DC, author of several papers on recent history Romania Dennis Deletant said that Ceausescu's behavior had a depressing effect on the Romanians living in poverty. Many were struck by the scene of the arrival of Ceausescu from Iran, which was broadcast on television. “On the screen, it was clear that Ceausescu, who had been suffering from diabetes for many years, and all these “fossils” from the Politburo were standing around him,” the professor shared his impressions.
Tragedy in the style of Aeschylus
Despite the mass public demonstrations that had begun, the dictator was fully confident that nothing threatened his regime. After the suppression of the uprising in Timisoara, where 60 people were killed and 253 people were injured, he calmly flew away on a visit to Iran. However, he was forced to return to see Bucharest seething in front of the presidential palace.
Curses were shouted from the crowd at Ceausescu and his wife Elena. The revolutionary events unfolded rapidly - the police and the army were paralyzed, and some of the high-ranking military went over to the side of the rebels.
The only option was to escape by helicopter, which landed right on the roof of the presidential palace.
Romanian and international historians have not agreed on whether the events in Bucharest in December 1989 were only a spontaneous protest or were accompanied by a conspiracy against Ceausescu in military and party circles.
The author of the book “The Romanian Revolution of December 1989”, Professor Siani-Davies, notes that there could be a conspiracy against Ceausescu in the Romanian army, and refers to conversations with the military, who allegedly turned to the leadership of the USSR with a proposal to throw off Ceausescu.
The researcher writes that a group of high-ranking Romanian leaders, including the Romanian Minister of Defense Nicolae Militaru, who had previously been removed from his post, who later supported the revolution, turned to Soviet leaders for help already during perestroika. Militaru himself, a graduate of the Soviet military academy, said that in 1987, during a visit to Turkey, he met with Soviet diplomats.
The ex-president of Romania claims that he became the leader of the protest solely because of his fame in opposition circles:
“It was a popular uprising without any preparation on the part of political structures", says Iliescu.
However, regardless of whether the National Salvation Front existed before the revolutionary events, part of the Romanian elite in the party and special services saw perestroika in the USSR and changes in neighboring socialist countries as opportunities for their own changes. According to Deletant, "Ceausescu and his wife Elena stood in the way of reforms."
The fact that the army leaders provided significant assistance to the revolutionaries was also said by the ex-president of the country, Iliescu, although at first, according to him, the army carried out the order to suppress the uprising in Timisoara and Bucharest. The same thing happened with the Securitate. “The role of these structures during the regime was very active, but during the uprising they realized that the fate of the dictator was decided and stopped supporting the regime,” Iliescu believes.
Leaving the borders of Bucharest, the Ceausescu couple tried to hide in the province, but was identified by a detachment of rebels. Soon a trial was carried out over them, resembling something between a revolutionary tribunal and ordinary reprisal. As eyewitnesses say,
Ceausescu, supporting his wife, behaved courageously and contemptuously declared that he "does not recognize this court."
The incident shocked the writer Eduard Limonov, who at that time lived in Paris and saw a report on the execution of the dictator on French television. “Squeezed into a corner between the tables, sleepy, preparing for death, taken by surprise, they, however, showed us live an action akin to the best tragedies of Aeschylus or Sophocles,” Limonov wrote in his book “The Killing of the Sentry”.
Iliescu agrees that things did not happen the way the revolutionaries wanted, and believes that the execution of Ceausescu was necessary, as it helped to stop resistance to the revolution: “From a political point of view, it would be better if we could organize a political trial of Ceausescu in normal conditions. But people were dying, and the idea appeared that the losses could only be stopped by such a trial and the execution of Ceausescu, and this turned out to be correct. Immediately after the execution, the resistance ceased, and all those who were associated with him and tried to slow down the uprising laid down their arms.”
Today, when many difficult pages of Ceausescu's reign are forgotten, Romanians are beginning to remember the "Genius of the Carpathians" with a kind word.