-1-

1

2

Ceausescu 101 3

Who Was That Man They Killed on Christmas Day? 4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

By Catalin Gruia 14

15

-2-

16

17

18

19

Copyright © 2013 Catalin Gruia 20

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof 21

may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever 22

without the express written permission of the publisher 23

except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. 24

25

First Printing, July 2013 26

Cover design: Tudor Smalenic 27

28

29

37-Minutes Publishing 30

www.catalingruia.com 31

32

-3-

33

About the Author 34

Catalin Gruia is a veteran journalist who has written 35

and reported for the Romanian edition of National Geographic 36

for over 10 years. He is currently Editor in Chief of National 37

Geographic Traveler and Deputy Editor in Chief of National 38

Geographic Romania. 39

40

International awards 41

First prize (Geographica category) at the International 42

Seminar of National Geographic International Editions, 43

Washington, 2004 44

45

Johann Strauss Golden Medal, Vienna, 2010 46

http://b2b.wien.info/de/reisebranche/wtk-2010-strauss-medaille 47

48

Kinarri Trophy, Friends of Thailand Awards, Bangkok, 49

2013 50

http://www.thaistory.ro/romania-premiata-la-friends-of-51

thailand-awards-2013/52

-4-

53

Table of Contents 54

About the Author ........................................................................................ 3 55

Foreword ..................................................................................................... 5 56

About this book ........................................................................................... 7 57

The Young Underground Hero? ............................................................... 10 58

Butter Up, Fit In, Work, Climb the Ladder ............................................... 13 59

The Rookie in the Political Office ............................................................ 15 60

The Easterns Bloc’s Trojan Horse ............................................................ 19 61

Sidebar: Psychological profile .................................................................. 22 62

Private Life Details ................................................................................... 25 63

Romania’s Forced Industrialization .......................................................... 27 64

The Rough Years ...................................................................................... 29 65

Sidebar: “The Golden Age” Of Nicolae Ceausescu .................................. 37 66

Towards a Potemkin Romania .................................................................. 43 67

Elena Ceausecu: Romania’s Lady MacBeth ............................................. 45 68

Sidebar: Grand Legacies ........................................................................... 47 69

The Beginning of the End ......................................................................... 51 70

Between Security and Paranoia................................................................. 54 71

“Down with Ceausescu!” The Turning Point in Timisoara ...................... 58 72

The Execution Squad ................................................................................ 59 73

Sidebar: Whose House Is It Anyway? ...................................................... 63 74

The End ..................................................................................................... 70 75

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................... 72 76

77

78

-5-

79

Foreword 80

Ne Sutor Ultra Crepidam! 81

By Cristian Lascu, Editor In Chief of the Romanian edition of National 82

Geographic Magazine. 83

84

“Cobbler, stick to thy last!” master Apelles yelled at a 85

shoemaker who, thinking that he was good at everything, criticized 86

the way the former had painted a sandal. When the smoke of the 87

Ceausescus execution cleared, we were frustrated. Somebody had 88

cheated. Instead of an embarassing crime, there should have been a 89

Nürenberg trial of the communist dictatorship. How is it possible 90

not to repeat mistakes if you do not understand their causes and you 91

do not criticize them openly? 92

This story about Ceausescu, documented and illustrated 93

brilliantly, brings back memories about the hardships, abuses, and 94

peculiarities of daily life during the dictatorship. Time, however, 95

has blurred the details; what happened then seems incomprehensible 96

for young people, and this dry documentary about Ceausescu may 97

seem too late for them. 98

On the other hand, through a wide angle lens with a focal 99

range of 25 years, author Catalin Gruia atempts to cover a subject 100

that unfolded over a more-than-50 year range. The distorsions thus 101

become inevitable; history has to be looked at through a telescopic 102

lens. Ceausescu’s ascent and decline is long and complicated, but its 103

meaning can be succint: a simple but ambitious man succeeded in 104

holding on to the absolute state power for 25 years. 105

In all his actions, he was a passionate, consistent communist 106

and patriot, therefore, he was to the liking of the poor, of the mob, 107

-6-

and of the nationalists, at least for a while. He entered the arena of 108

politics like a soccer player and the crowd everywhere cheered him 109

on, forgetting that it’s no use scoring in an away game if you lose at 110

home. 111

He wanted to accomplish a lot, he had no education, and 112

being suspicious by nature and hating the elites, he did not even 113

want to listen to those who were knowledgeable. Facing death, he 114

yelled: “Long live the free, independent, Socialist Republic of 115

Romania!” By then, his obsessive dream, the Socialist Romania, 116

was almost built. It had been built, however, on sand, by an 117

exceptional but incompetent dictator. 118

- Cristian Lascu 119

120

-7-

121

About this book 122

or Ceausescu and I 123

For me, Ceausescu’s death put a serious spanner in the 124

works. I had just won a school contest in speed skating. The 125

prize was a place in a children’s mountain camp, which got 126

cancelled because of the events in December 1989. 127

How could the fall of communism compare to the 128

drama of losing that prize, to my nine-year old eyes? 129

Oh well, forget about that camp – sour, like any grapes 130

you can’t reach. A few days later I went to the grandparents’ 131

village, for the yearly slaying of the pig. Then, just at the 132

culmination, when the pig was screeching madly under the 133

knife, its nostrils blowing thick jets of steam, pinned down in 134

the snow by a bunch of men wearing heavy sheepskin coats, 135

the adults let go of the animal and rushed into the house, 136

crowding around the TV. 137

They came back out after long minutes (I refused to go 138

inside) with their faces transformed with stupefaction mixed 139

with joy, heatedly discussiong the big news. I can’t remember 140

exactly when we killed the pig that year, so I can’t be sure what 141

the news was: The 22nd of December – the Tyrant’s flight 142

from the Central Committee building. The 24th – his 143

apprehension. I remember I started to chant out like an idiot the 144

rhyme I heard on everyone’s lips: Olé, olé – Ceausescu nu mai 145

e!1 I also remember that only my half-illiterate grandmother 146

remained skeptical in the midst of this general effervescence: 147

1 Ceausescu is gone.

-8-

„It does not bode well for a people to hunt down its leaders like 148

that”. 149

I understood even less of the happiness of the grown-150

ups the second or third day after, when I happened to be in 151

front of the TV just when they were broadcasting scenes from 152

the execution of the Ceausescus (after which whoever was 153

directing the live revolution put on some Animal Farm 154

cartoons). To my child’s mind, the Ceausescus were just two 155

little old people put against the wall of an outhouse and pierced 156

full of bullet holes on Christmas day. 157

Fifteen years later, I spent almost 11 months studying 158

Ceausescu’s life for a National Geographic documentary. I let 159

his ghost follow me through dozens and dozens of books and 160

interviews – I even dreamed of him at night. 161

As far as I’m concerned, a story is good as long as it 162

obeys the great rule of any journalistic material: convincingly 163

prove a hypothesis. And my hypothesis for the article in 164

National Geographic was that Ceausescu’s life was a road to 165

hell paved with good intentions. 166

I set out in my work without resentment; I associated 167

the last decade of Ceausescu’s regime with my beautiful 168

childhood, spent mostly in the countryside, not with what it 169

really was – a black stain of deprivation in Romania’s history. I 170

think that may be why I’ve been able to present Ceausescu 171

objectively, without hating or admiring him, the way you 172

would describe a faraway planet that you look upon detachedly, 173

though a telescope. 174

But I must confess I enjoyed working on the Ceausescu 175

project because it was easy for me to empathize with the 176

character. I ended up recognizing myself in him: a guy from the 177

village who fails to adapt to the city, lacking culture but 178

-9-

intelligent enough to push through, with his failed struggle to 179

overcome his inferiority complexes (turned superiority 180

complexes…) 181

I’ve ended up seeing him both as a tyrant with narrow 182

vision and as a victim of an obedient, sycophantic people. 183

Ultimately, I’ve ended up wondering what would happen to 184

me, or to yourself, if everyone started to flatter and cajole us 185

year after year, telling us we are the most beautiful, the most 186

intelligent and so on. 187

In a few sentences, Ceausescu’s life could be 188

summarized as follows: This is the story of a state resident, for 189

whom the world was a great village. His cottage happened to 190

be Romania. For 24 years he led this country like an ambitious 191

peasant, dreaming of turning an impoverished small holding 192

into a rich farm. He struggled to earn the respect of the people. 193

Tired of depending on and borrowing money from his affluent 194

neighbors, he tried to make it on his own. At first, he thought 195

he would succeed. But he was sloppy and hasty. What others 196

had, he wanted also, without thinking too much about 197

feasibility or necessity. If any other two world leaders fought, 198

he would jump in to break them up. For a while he treated his 199

people well – giving them many jobs and houses – but when 200

things stopped going his way, he exploited them without 201

mercy.202

-10-

203

204

CHAPTER 1 205

The Young Underground Hero? 206

“I had never heard anything about him” - Constantin 207

Pirvulescu, one of the founders of the Romanian Communist Party 208

(PCR). 209

A short, stuttering kid left home at 11 to make 210

something of himself in Bucharest. His parents, peasants from 211

Scornicesti, could barely put food on the table for their 10 212

children. His father, Andruta, had three hectares of land, a few 213

sheep, and would make ends meet by tailoring. “He didn’t take 214

care of his kids; he stole, he drank, he was quick to fight, and 215

he swore...” said the old priest from Scornicesti. His mother 216

was a submissive, hard-working woman. The family slept on 217

benches along the walls of a two-room house. Corn mush was 218

their staple food. 219

Nicolae went to the village school for four years. The 220

teacher taught simultaneous classes for different years in a one-221

room schoolhouse. The young Ceausescu did not have books 222

and he often went to school barefoot. An outsider from early in 223

life, he did not have friends; he was anxious and unpredictable. 224

In a then cosmopolitan Bucharest – the first city he had 225

seen – Nicolae moved in with his sister, Niculina Rusescu. 226

Soon, he was sent to serve his apprenticeship at the workshop 227

of shoemaker Alexandru Sandulescu, active member of the 228

Romanian Communist Party (PCR), who initiated his 229

apprentice in conspirative missions. Nicolae did not adapt to 230

Bucharest. 231

-11-

The switch from a world in which he couldn’t find his 232

place (his own village) to another in which he still couldn’t find 233

his place (the intimidating city) marked him. “His initiation 234

into the marginalized movement of the communists was his 235

alternative solution for integrating into social life,” says 236

sociologist Pavel Campeanu, author of the book Ceausescu: 237

The Countdown. 238

Historians of the Golden Age never miss an opportunity 239

to hyperbolize Ceausescu, the activist, as a “young hero,” 240

arrested for the first time at the age of 15, and who, by the age 241

of 26, had spent 7 years in prison. 242

The truth is that, in the 1930s, Nicolae was a rash, 243

incompetent kid. “I had never heard anything about him,” says 244

Constantin Parvulescu, one of the founders of the Romanian 245

Communist Party (PCR). He would receive minor missions 246

from his communist bosses. For example, in 1934 in Craiova, 247

with three other young people, he caused a stir at the trial of a 248

group of communists led by Gheorghe Gheorghiu Dej, who 249

was at the time the leader of the Romanian Rail System union 250

in Bucharest. Ceausescu and his comrades were arrested and 251

beaten by the police. 252

According to the testimony of Ion Gheorghe Maurer, 253

who would become president of the Council of Ministers, 254

Nicolae had been paid to distribute manifestos and petitions 255

just as others were paid to sell newspapers. 256

Until the mid-1930s, Nicolae traveled on “missions” in 257

Bucharest, Craiova, Campulung, or Ramnicu Valcea. He was 258

arrested several times. His record was beginning to convey the 259

image of a “dangerous communist agitator” and “distributor of 260

communist and anti-fascist propaganda.” 261

-12-

His first prison sentence: June 6, 1936, the court of 262

Brasov – two years in prison, plus 6 months for defiance of the 263

court, a 2000-lei fine, and a year of home detention in 264

Scornicesti. The largest part of his sentence was served at 265

Doftana. His fellow inmates say that the prisoner Ceausescu 266

was envious, vengeful, and tough. But he knew how to get 267

under people’s skin. 268

When he got out of prison, Ceausescu was no longer 269

quite as anonymous. He became a leading member of the youth 270

organization of the Romanian Workers’ Party (PMR). In 271

Romania, there were about 700 free communists (led by 272

Patrascanu, Foris, Pirvulescu) and about 200 more imprisoned 273

(the generation that had taken part in Dej’s railway strike); a 274

royal dictatorship has been instated, activist meetings were 275

rare, money was scarce, member IDs and membership dues did 276

not exist. 277

He was soon arrested again and sent to Jilava for three 278

years for “conspiring against the social order.” Ceausescu spent 279

the war years in prisons and work camps: Jilava (1940), 280

Caransebes (1942), Vacaresti (August, 1943), Targu Jiu 281

(September, 1943). 282

The bars isolated him from what was happening outside: the 283

agreement between Hitler and Stalin; internal conflicts between 284

communists; the loss of Basarabia and North Ardeal territories; the 285

attempted legionary coup d’etat; the abdication of Carol II; the 286

Antonescu dictatorship. Sealed away from the tumultuous history 287

unravelling in his homeland, the prisoner plotted his own vision for 288

Romania’s future. 289

290

-13-

291

CHAPTER 2 292

Butter Up, Fit In, Work, Climb the Ladder 293

An uneducated young man, but with a real instinct for power 294

295

August 1944 was a crossroads in his – and Romania’s – 296

destiny: Ceausescu was released and began his rise to power. 297

The Romanian communist family – the Moscovite faction, the 298

imprisoned generation of Dej, and the veteran covert activists – 299

reunited that autumn in the mansion at 16, Eliza Filipescu Lane 300

(where the Indian Embassy is housed today). Ceausescu was 301

among them. 302

Under the protective wing of Dej, whose favorite he had 303

become while in prison, Ceausescu struggled, flattered, 304

adapted, worked, raised himself up, step by step, tenaciously, 305

stubbornly, and with a real instinct for power: 306

at 27 he was the leader of the Communist Youth 307

Organization (UTC) and, later, of the Central 308

Committee (CC) of the Romanian Workers’ Party 309

(PMR); 310

at 28 – party instructor in Constanta and Oltenia; 311

at 29 – deputy in the Grand National Assembly (after he 312

had mobilized motorized troops in the electoral precinct 313

to „convince” electors to place ballots in the urns which 314

had already been filled by the communists ahead of 315

time); 316

at 30 – Sub-Secretary of State in the Ministry of 317

Agriculture (where the forced collectivization began); 318

-14-

at 31 – Co-Minister of Defense, political head of the 319

army, then politruk with a specialization in Moscow; 320

at 36 – secretary of the Central Committee (a key 321

position in the Communist Party, dealing with the 322

organization of the Party); 323

at 37, during the second Romanian Workers’ Party 324

congress, he was accepted as a member of the politburo, 325

where his duty was to supervise the internal affairs of 326

the party within the Ministries of the Interior, Securitate, 327

the Armed Forces, the Magistracy, and Justice (he used 328

this position to create a network of connections, 329

installing his people in the Party’s key positions). 330

331

-15-

CHAPTER 3 332

The Rookie in the Political Office 333

The honeymoon of the first steps of the youngest ever political 334

leader in Europe 335

336

November 5, 1957. An IL-14 airplane carrying a 337

delegation of 14 Romanian Workers’ Party members, on its 338

way to Moscow for the October anniversary of the Great 339

Socialist Revolution crashed upon landing at the Vnukovo 340

airport, at 17:48, because of a piloting error. The Foreign 341

Minister, Grigore Preoteasa, and three members of his 342

delegation died. The other passengers suffered serious injuries. 343

Nicolae Ceausescu, the secretary of the Central 344

Committee of the Romanian Workers’ Party, was luckier. The 345

medical record released in Moscow states: „Trauma to the 346

outer right hemithorax and to the left calf. Scratch wounds on 347

the face, hands, and feet. Temperature: 37.5 degrees, general 348

state: satisfactory.” But fate had still been close to playing the 349

most cruel joke on this ambitious young man, when he was just 350

steps away from grasping power. 351

A few years later, on March 19, 1965, 17:45, when 352

Gheorghiu Dej died surrounded by the leading team of the 353

Romanian Workers’ Party, Nicolae Ceausescu was the first to 354

bend over and kiss him. 355

The three veteran members of the politburo, friends of 356

Dej who were qualified to replace him, were not well suited for 357

the job because of their “unhealthy origins”: Ion Gheorghe 358

Maurer was German, Emil Botnaras – Ukrainian, Dumitru 359

Coliu – Bulgarian. (According to Paul Niculescu-Mizil, former 360

member of the Central Committee, the three prerequisites for 361

-16-

the future leader were: 1. to be Romanian, 2. to be an activist, 362

3. to be part of the working class). 363

The desire of this triumvirate of the old guard to 364

promote a docile young man to the head of a collective 365

leadership converted Ceausescu’s defects into strengths. They 366

pulled the strings for the junior member of the Politburo whom 367

they considered the easiest to manipulate. 368

At the congress of July 19 – 24 meant to validate the 369

Politburo elections, the 1357 delegates voted Ceausescu not as 370

Prime Secretary, but as Secretary General, a title not used in 371

the Eastern Bloc since the death of Stalin. Ceausescu, 47 years 372

old, Europe’s youngest political leader to date, launched his 373

mandate at full strength: the PMR returned to its old name, the 374

Romanian Communist Party. After only one month, the name 375

of the country changed, too: Romania went from being a 376

Popular Republic to being a Socialist Republic. The 377

honeymoon of the first steps in this seemingly modest and 378

tolerant young dynamo’s governing career did not in any way 379

foreshadow the bitter years of its end. 380

In the beginning, Ceausescu successfully focused on 4 381

goals: 382

the liberalization of internal politics; 383

the wellbeing of Romanians; 384

more power for himself (under the pretext of 385

rehabilitation for the victims of the Dej period, 386

he pulled the strings to replace the team that had 387

promoted him and with whom he was supposed 388

to share power, with the younger members in his 389

entourage); 390

-17-

an offensive strategy of seduction of the West, 391

playing the rebel son of the Warsaw Pact family, 392

while careful not to upset the USSR too much. 393

Romanians lived better and they were proud of their 394

President. Frustrated by history, they saw in Ceausescu one of 395

their own, who was on equal standing with the world’s bigger 396

players. When he condemned the military intervention in 397

Czechoslovakia (on the night of August 20-21, 1968), 398

Romanian enthusiasm was spontaneous. This act of defiance 399

against Moscow brought him the respect of the entire world. 400

But August 1968 was just the tip of the iceberg: 401

Ceausescu consistently cultivated his aura of atypical 402

communist leader: 403

he was the first to stabilize diplomatic relations 404

with the Federal Republic of Germany (1967), 405

the only one who did not break off relations 406

with Israel after the Six-Day War (June 1967), 407

the only head of state who allowed Jewish 408

citizens in his country to leave for Israel (it cost 409

$2,000 - $5,000 per person, as the Securitate 410

general Mihai Pacepa would reveal); 411

the first Romanian President to visit the United 412

States at a time when relations between the 413

USSR and the US were extremely tense (1970); 414

the first to refuse to align himself with the oil 415

cartel founded by the General Plan of Comecon 416

(1971), 417

-18-

the leader of the only socialist country that was 418

a member of the World Bank and the IMF 419

(1972), etc. 420

421

-19-

CHAPTER 4 422

The Easterns Bloc’s Trojan Horse 423

“In his foreign policy, Ceausescu had a spark of genius” - Silviu 424

Brucan, former editor-in-chief of Scanteia 425

426

In less than a decade, following the withdrawal of 427

Soviet troops in 1956, the Romania of Gheorghiu Dej went 428

from servility towards Moscow to a more autonomous foreign 429

policy. Dej and his successor, Ceausescu, were both Stalinist 430

wolves who, out of necessity, wore the pro-Western sheepskin 431

of a national-liberal kind of communism, reacting to 432

Khrushchev’s attempt to reform the Eastern Bloc. 433

It was a defensive move that made them as popular at 434

home as they were abroad. The West thought they had found in 435

Ceausescu the Trojan horse of the Eastern Bloc, and they 436

issued him a carte blanche for almost two decades. Some 437

Western observers exalted him, comparing him to Kennedy or 438

predicting that Romania would become a kind of Switzerland. 439

His fame as a stubborn, strong-headed nationalist with a 440

special role in the Warsaw Pact opened almost every door for 441

him. And Ceausescu proved to be a born mediator, extremely 442

tolerant in his foreign policy (the polar opposite of the 443

fanaticism that he exemplified in his internal affairs) – he was 444

capable of making a pact with the devil himself. 445

“Ceausescu was a tyrant when it came to politics, an 446

economic disaster, but in his foreign policy he had a spark of 447

genius,” said Silviu Brucan, former editor-in-chief of Scanteia, 448

and later one of the main actors of the events in 1989. 449

“Although uneducated, he was smart, a wily, peasant sort of 450

smart.” 451

-20-

Soon, political tourism in Romania was in style. 452

Richard Nixon, the future president of the US, was the one who 453

opened the season in 1967. That year, Corneliu Manescu, the 454

Romanian Foreign Affairs Minister, became the president of 455

the UN General Assembly. 456

Ceausescu returned the visits. 1973 was the apogee of 457

his trips abroad: Iran, Pakistan, the Netherlands, Italy, the 458

Federal Republic of Germany, Yugoslavia, the US, the Vatican, 459

the USSR, Morocco, and several countries in South America. 460

At the Vatican, Pope Paul VI told him (May 26, 1973): 461

“Excellency, we ask Heaven to bless your activity, which we 462

follow with great interest, and we ask you to consider us 463

humble supporters of your policies of independence and 464

sovereignty, which you are executing with such consistency.” 465

Ceausescu collected a considerable number of friends, 466

medals, orders, and academic titles, a list of which would fill 467

up 30 pages of this book. They vary from the French Legion of 468

Honor to Luxembourg’s Order of the Gold Lion of the House 469

of Nassau, from the Order of the White Rose of Finland to the 470

National Order of the Leopard of Zaire, from the British Order 471

of the Bath to a handful of Orders of Lenin, of Karl Marx, and 472

of the Red Banner from communist countries. 473

He was the contemporary of six American presidents; 474

he got along with all of them, and was friends with Nixon (they 475

visited each other in Washington and Bucharest twice). 476

Most of the time, he cultivated his good relations with 477

the United States, which were tested in 1970 when Romania 478

suffered floods (38 out of 39 provinces were affected, 600,000 479

people were evacuated) and America sent more than $11.6 480

million in aid, and culminated on July 25, 1975 when Romania 481

-21-

obtained Most Favored Nation status (renewed annually until 482

1988). 483

Moscow had gotten used to the grandeur of Ceausescu’s 484

foreign policy: they probably considered him an original, yet 485

harmless, clown. He, however, took himself seriously: in July 486

1973, at a meeting of the Eastern European Communist Party 487

leaders, the Romanian spoke heresy: he asked for collaboration 488

with the Social Democrats (considered traitors of communism), 489

called for the abolition of the two military blocs – NATO and 490

Warsaw –, defended China in the quarrel with the USSR, and 491

criticized Brezhnev for not doing more to avoid a nuclear war. 492

International tensions cooled down for a few years, and 493

his double play was no longer necessary: the West discarded 494

Ceausescu. Between 1974 and 1976, Ceausescu only traveled 495

to the West twice. The number of Western visits to Romania 496

decreased as well. In 1974 no one came. Feeling betrayed by 497

the West, Ceausescu turned to the Russians, whom he needed 498

to help turn Romania into a modern, industrialized state. 499

In a private conversation in August 1976, Erich 500

Honecker, leader of the German Democratic Republic, then on 501

vacation in Crimea, told Leonid Brezhnev, the head of the 502

USSR: “Ceausescu keeps nagging me to go visit Romania. In 503

general he’s been acting better than usual. This is good. We’ll 504

catch him again in the Warsaw Pact.” 505

During the same period, Ceausescu oriented himself 506

towards the Third World (Africa, South America, the Arab 507

states). He posed – proving his political instinct – as the 508

European promoter of national independence. He approved 509

million dollar credits, considered investments for the future, 510

cooperated in the exploitation of underground riches and the 511

exportation of industrial products and weapons. 512

513

-22-

Sidebar 514

Psychological profile 515

He was an isolated individual (he had no friends, the only person he 516

relied on being his wife), fierce and angry, critical with his 517

employees. 518

- By psychologist Roxana Dobri. 519

520

His mother did not have enough strength to love and 521

protect him. His alcoholic and irresponsible father’s 522

aggressiveness scarred him for life. Nicolae would always 523

avoid this fatherly model, looking for a “good” father to protect 524

him and offer him security. Since he could not find such a 525

person, he turned into the Romanian people’s “Father”. 526

Because of his parents’ relationship, Ceausescu was 527

destined from early childhood to become an ambivalent 528

individual. He was in his element in the conflict between the 529

US and USSR. He defied Russia’s authority, in fact defying the 530

paternal authority. He turned into the rebel adolescent who 531

denied his parents – i.e. those who had built Communism in the 532

world, including Romania – in order to “throw himself” into 533

the arms of a family at odds with his own – i.e. the West. 534

The anger and helplessness that characterized his early 535

years, his youth in capitalist Bucharest, were sublimated in the 536

frenzy of grandeur that was going to be sustained progressively 537

by the whole country. 538

He hid his frustrations and humiliation well, gaining 539

power, gradually but surely, first at home and then at an 540

international level. The system he promoted supported the 541

myth of self-achievement, the rule according to which he 542

overcame his own life history without ever escaping it – 543

-23-

promoting peasants’ and poor workers’ children (like himself). 544

His childhood limitations and poverty probably drove him to 545

the creation of “the New Man,” a humble and ascetic socialist. 546

Preparing his ascent to the top of the Party, many years 547

before, Nicolae Ceausescu relied on unquestionable qualities. 548

He manifested signs of excellent emotional intelligence 549

abilities that helped him take his destiny into his own hands 550

right from the moment he arrived in Bucharest. 551

Joining the Romanian Communist Party was the only 552

way he could achieve acknowledgement and rapid social 553

ascension. He was servile and submissive to Gheorghe 554

Gheorghiu Dej, who would grant him access to the communist 555

networks of the time. His abilities to negotiate convinced the 556

old Party members that he was the most suitable successor to 557

Dej. His capacity to seduce and convince through humility and 558

submission, to dissimulate, helped him seize power in 559

Romania. 560

In reality, he proved to be emotionally unstable, acting 561

without thinking of the consequences of his own deeds. He was 562

an isolated individual (he had no friends, the only person he 563

relied on being his wife), fierce and angry, critical and 564

evaluating with his employees. 565

His non-verbal behavior during his speeches from the 566

podium or balcony shows a man who is rigid, limited, 567

tormented by his own need to control his speech impediments 568

and his emotions and to be accepted and flattered by the crowd. 569

These were not the personal characteristics of a man who lived 570

the delusive picture of total power and the need to be 571

worshipped, a need satisfied year after year by the millions of 572

people who chanted his name for minutes on end. 573

-24-

Some observers of the time thought that Ceausescu 574

lived in a parallel universe, trying to explain the fact that the 575

hard life of the Romanian people in the ‘90s was caused by the 576

Party machine and not by the dictator’s decisions. I believe that 577

world was the universe that Ceausescu consciously wanted and 578

created – in a socio-political environment that facilitated the 579

delirium of his grandeur – according to the mental pathology 580

with which he lived. 581

582

-25-

CHAPTER 5 583

Private Life Details 584

Ceausescu loved playing chess, pool, volleyball, and traveling 585

abroad. He discovered movies when he was in his mid-thirties. He 586

was a huge Kojak fan, and enjoyed watching American detective 587

movies. All his residences had a special projection room. After 588

1955, he took to hunting. 589

590

Nicolae Ceausescu met Lenuta Petrescu in 1939 at a 591

protest at the Workers’ Cultural Center. It was love at first 592

sight; Lenuta was young, beautiful, two years older than him, 593

and a member of the Communist youth organization – she was 594

responsible for Sector 2 of Bucharest under her alias, Florica. 595

Seven years later they were married; they would have three 596

children (Valentin, Zoe, and Nicu) and stay together for 50 597

years. 598

“They were very close, they held hands. Ceausescu 599

would not disobey her, and she would take great care of him, 600

making sure he ate, had everything he needed and was 601

satisfied. They would eat in the garden and they would have a 602

good time together. 603

He liked the music of Ioana Radu and Mia Braia and, 604

after they ate, he would sing, they would play backgammon, 605

and she would cheat. He would say: you cheated again, I’m not 606

playing anymore. She would say: come on, Nicu, I won’t cheat 607

anymore... And that’s how they had their family fun,” says 608

Suzana Andreias, head of personnel at the Ceausescu family 609

residence in Snagov for almost three decades. 610

-26-

Ceausescu liked chess, pool, and volleyball. Based on 611

the verse he would read at party Conventions, it seems he read 612

Romanian literature, primarily the poetry of Eminescu. 613

He was not a picky eater and had rustic tastes. He 614

discovered movies when he was 35 years old. After 1955, he 615

took up hunting, first invited by local party leaders whom he 616

controlled at the time as member of the Central Committee 617

politburo. Since 1965, it became a rule: he would go no Sunday 618

of the season without hunting. In 25 years, he killed over 7,000 619

animals. 620

In 1966, after finishing the Academy of Economic 621

Sciences (ASE) in the evening class section, he presented his 622

thesis: “Selected Problems of the Development of Romania in 623

the 19th Century.” The real author is unknown. Starting in 624

1968, his speeches were typed; they make up 33 volumes. 625

In the last 10 years of his life, he suffered from 626

diabetes. As he grew older, he became more and more fearful. 627

From 1972 on, he did not wear any article of clothing for 628

longer than one day. The Fifth Directorate of the Securitate 629

founded a tailor’s workshop just for him: it produced office 630

wear, Lenin caps, Mao jackets, English tweed pants, Soviet 631

style heavy padded coats and German style hunting suits. 632

He was pedantic and obsessed with punctuality. Every 633

morning, at 8.00 sharp, a line of cars escorted him to the office. 634

He ate lunch at 13:00 sharp. He used Badedas shower gel and 635

shaved with Gillette. He liked Odobesti white wine and red 636

sparkling wine. 637

638

-27-

CHAPTER 6 639

Romania’s Forced Industrialization 640

Between 1971 and 1975, Romania's GDP registered an annual 641

growth rate of 11.3% that would never be reached again. 642

643

Between 1950 and 1989, and especially after 1965, 644

industrial production in Romania increased by a factor of 44. 645

Ironically, the driving force behind this Stalinist 646

industrialization was a fear of Moscow. Nikita Khrushchev 647

wanted to transform Comecon into a multinational planning 648

organization. Gheorghiu-Dej refused the role of granary for the 649

Warsaw Pact countries, which would have fallen upon 650

Romania, preferring to turn to the forced industrialization of 651

the country. 652

Ceausescu stepped on the gas, benefiting from his role 653

as “Trojan horse of the East” and taking advantage of Western 654

financing (especially from the US and the Federal Republic of 655

Germany). His authoritarian style of governing transformed 656

Romania from a mainly agricultural country into one that 657

registered production in almost all industrial branches. 658

In 1973, he approved the founding of joint ventures 659

with the participation of Western capital. From the first year, 660

there were 20 such enterprises. The volume of commercial 661

exchange with the West almost doubled: from 28% in 1965 to 662

45% in 1974. 663

Between 1971 and 1975, Romania registered an 11.3% 664

annual increase in GDP, never again surpassed. Whole towns 665

became construction sites, and the propaganda couldn’t keep 666

up with the inauguration of factories and plants that popped up 667

like mushrooms after the rain of Western capital. 668

-28-

It was a hasty process though, usually using outdated 669

technology, without taking into account the effectiveness or the 670

cost of further investments. Ceausescu banked on quantity, not 671

quality. He was obsessed with the country’s high investment 672

rate – over one third of the national income – which, for him, 673

was “the only remedy against underdevelopment,” while 674

industrialization was “a decisive factor for maintaining national 675

independence and sovereignty.” 676

But the economy was not profitable. The state 677

enterprises, most of which were overstaffed, led to poverty, 678

suffering from the diseases of planned economy in its most 679

acute, Romanian form: disorganization, nepotism, corruption, 680

negligence and theft. The average GDP growth rate in Romania 681

decreased from 11.3% (between 1971 and 1975) to 9.6% 682

(1976-1980), then to 1.8% (1981-1982). 683

-29-

CHAPTER 7 684

The Rough Years 685

The generous policy of the '60s and '70s was replaced by a policy of 686

strict austerity in the '80s. There were ration cards for all the basic 687

food categories. Endless queues. Gas and power failures occurred 688

on a daily basis. 689

690

The galloping industrialization lead to a 10% increase 691

in urban population over a decade: in 1977, almost half of 692

Romania’s population of 20 million lived in cities. 693

Collectivization left the village workforce unemployed, 694

while accelerated industrialization created jobs in the city. The 695

state launched an extensive construction program for peasants 696

who had headed to the city in hopes of gaining a better life. For 697

them, the leap from a small room, with a table and benches on 698

which parents, children, and grandparents slept, to apartments 699

with bedroom, dining room, kitchen and bathroom was real and 700

can be considered one of Ceausescu’s accomplishments. 701

Apartment blocks were built in great numbers: from 702

1981 to 1985, 750,000 apartments with central heating and hot 703

water opened their doors to their occupants. Between 1965 and 704

1970, migration from the country to the city as a side effect of 705

industrialization was considered a phenomenon to be desired. 706

In only a few years, because of the imbalance created by this 707

migration, restrictions were put into place for those who 708

wanted to settle in the big cities. 709

Forced industrialization plunged Romania into debt. 710

Between 1971 and 1982 the foreign debt grew from $1.2 711

billion dollars to almost $13 billion. 712

-30-

The oil crisis of 1978-1981 was like an earthquake for 713

this economy built on sand. In 1982, Romania’s foreign trade 714

income decreased by 17% compared to the previous year. 715

Ceausescu found himself in the situation of not being able to 716

pay back his Western creditors. The country’s inability to pay 717

was formally declared. Disgusted by his Western friends, 718

Ceausescu ordered the foreign debt to be paid without taking 719

out new loans. This was another proclamation of national 720

independence, his obsession. Seven years later, Romania was 721

out of debt, paying the price with unprecedented poverty. 722

In 1984 the Danube – Black Sea canal was inaugurated, 723

after 9 years of construction. The canal, which measures 64 724

kilometers (40 miles) and shortens the trip to the Black Sea by 725

400 kilometers (248 miles), had too high taxes to be attractive 726

for navigators ($1 for every ton of cargo) and was yet another 727

act asserting independence from the USSR, with whom 728

Romania shared the Danube Delta. 729

Construction on the People’s House, which was to 730

become the headquarters of the Party and seat of the 731

Government, began in 1985. The head architect, Anca Petrescu, 732

had a team of 400 architects under her direction. Three 733

neighborhoods were leveled – Uranus, Antim, and part of 734

Rahova, along with 17 churches. Every day, over 20,000 735

builders worked in three shifts. Within five years, the second 736

largest administrative building in the world (second only to the 737

Pentagon outside of Washington, D.C.) rose from the ground 738

with a volume of 2,500,000 cubic meters (88,287,000 cubic 739

feet) and over 7,000 rooms, some of them the size of stadiums. 740

The bill: circa $2 billion. 741

The grandeur of his economic plans, his obsession with 742

paying off the national debt and his ignoring of the consumer 743

-31-

needs of his population all pushed Ceausescu toward a 744

reckoning. Catastrophe was not far off. 745

The generous politics of the ‘60s and ‘70s were 746

replaced by one of strict saving in the ‘80s. Standing in line to 747

buy food became the public occupation. Buildings had central 748

heating, but it was no longer used; medical assistance was free, 749

but it was lacking medicine and technology, and the doctors 750

took bribes. 751

The population’s energy consumption was reduced by 752

20% in 1979, 20% in 1982, 50% in 1983, and another 50% in 753

1985, each measurement based on the already reduced numbers 754

of the previous years. 755

In 1981, food rationing was reintroduced. There were 756

ration cards for oil, milk, butter, and sugar. The meat on the 757

market was whatever had been rejected for export. Between 758

1985 and 1988 food exports doubled. To mask the food crisis, 759

Iulian Mincu, Ceausescu’s personal doctor, invented a rationed 760

diet plan on the grounds that it was not healthy for an adult to 761

consume more than 3,000 calories per day. In 1983, Ceausescu 762

went even further below his nutritionist’s recommendations, 763

fixing per capita rations: 39.12 kg of meat, 73 kg of milk and 764

dairy products, 42.54 kg of potatoes, 66.08 kg of vegetables, 765

27.49 kg of fruit. Students, teachers and soldiers were forced to 766

participate in agricultural work. 767

In 1984, the energy crisis started: enterprises were 768

closed due to lack of electricity and raw materials; electricity, 769

gas, streetlights, and heat were cut off daily; gas had become a 770

rarity; on Sundays, driving was limited (one Sunday was only 771

for cars with even-number license plates, , the next – only for 772

odd numbers). 773

-32-

In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev, newly elected Secretary 774

General of the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet 775

Union (CPSU), compared the Romanian economy to an “old 776

horse ridden by a cruel horseman.” Romanians were doing 777

badly: only 5% of the population had cars, 19% had TVs, 778

14.7% had washing machines, and 17.6% had refrigerators. 779

Ceausescu was familiar with the numbers of his weak 780

economy. After 1989, at one of his beachside villas, two 781

versions of documents detailing the last harvests were found, 782

one with the real numbers and the other with the fabricated 783

numbers for propaganda. 784

According to German-Romanian author Richard 785

Wagner, who left the country in the ‘80s, “the only people left 786

in his entourage were relatives, lackeys, and criminals ready to 787

do anything. They ran the country like a bunch of demented 788

leaseholders.”789

-33-

CHAPTER 8 790

The Cult of Personality 791

“We love him because he has hunger in his heart/For work, so that 792

we may have a better life/All our voivodes hold his arm tightly/And 793

all our forefathers whisper words of wisdom in his ear/He is a man 794

like any other, a man, a man, the man...” from Homage for 795

Ceausescu’s 60th birthday, by poet Adrian Paunescu 796

797

The cult of personality inflated as reality worsened. In 798

1980, when the “Year of the Dacians” was celebrated, 799

Ceausescu himself was celebrated as a descendent of 800

Burebista’s legacy. On TV, there were only two hours of 801

broadcast: between 8.00 and 10.00 P.M. Here is a list of 802

programs from January 26, 1987: 8 o’clock – news, 8:20 – “We 803

Praise the Leader of the Country – Poems, an Anthology of 804

Venerations; 8:40 – “A Documentary Devoted to the 805

Theoretical Activity of Comrade Nicolae Ceausescu,” 9 806

o’clock – “The Veneration of the Supreme Commander,” a 807

made-for-TV play accomplished with the help of the artistic 808

assembly of the army; 9:30 – news, end of broadcast. 809

In November 1984, the penultimate Romanian 810

Communist Party (PCR) Convention was held. Hunger haunted 811

the country, while in the convention room, Nicolae Ceausescu, 812

interrupted by ovations – “Ceausescu – heroism, Romania –813

communism! Our esteem and our pride, Ceausescu Romania!” 814

– reported on the “strong development of the food industry” to 815

his party members. 816

This cult of personality started in 1970-1973 with his 817

visit to Asia. Inspired by Mao Zedong in China and Kim Il 818

Sung in North Korea, Ceausescu presented his theses on his 819

own small cultural revolution in July 1971, “with the aim of 820

-34-

forming a new kind of man,” through which he sought to 821

transform Romania into a Korean-style beehive. 822

The bees didn’t let out the slightest buzz. In 1910, 823

academic Constantin Radulescu Motru wrote: “Romanians 824

have a herd instinct and mimic everything they see around 825

them, like sheep.” 826

On March 25, 1974, Ceausescu was elected President of 827

the Socialist Republic of Romania, a position created especially 828

for him. The Eastern Bloc had never seen a communist 829

President before. Ceausescu had become an institution: he was 830

the President par excellence - of the State, of the State Council, 831

of the National Defense Council, of the United Socialist Front, 832

of the Supreme Council of Economic and Social Development, 833

of the Permanent Bureau of the Executive Political Committee, 834

of the Ideological Commission of the Romanian Communist 835

Party, and other commissions and committees. 836

In 1968, when he condemned the invasion of 837

Czechoslovakia, Romanians spontaneously praised him. 838

Immediately, at the 10th Romanian Communist Party 839

convention, his yes-men brought him homage, which he 840

rejected: “We do not need idols or flag wavers. We do not need 841

to make standard bearers out of people. Our idol is Marxism-842

Leninism and its concepts about the world and the life of the 843

proletariat.” 844

After his visits to China and North Korea, he changed 845

his tune. His election to the position of president meant the 846

beginning of probably the most shameless cult of personality in 847

Europe since Hitler and Mussolini. Ceausescu became an idol 848

in only a few years; he was no longer just the Comrade but 849

titan among titans, the Oak from Scornicesti, strategist of luck, 850

guarantor of Romania’s richness, sun, the measure of all things, 851

hawk, the Transfagarasan of our soul, the best 852

-35-

worker/soldier/peasant/miner/railway worker /hunter of the 853

country, all-knowing, beloved leader, earthly god, prince 854

charming, the peak that rises above the country, beloved father. 855

Since 1970, Romanians, predisposed to accepting 856

authoritarian forms of government, participated, at least 857

formally, in the leader’s cult. The cult quickly developed its 858

own dynamic, at first a snowball – the nucleus made up of 859

toadies he had resisted several years earlier – that rapidly began 860

rolling, growing with opportunism and the herd mentality, until 861

it finally reached its extreme form in the ’80s, becoming a sort 862

of schizophrenia shared by the entire population. His birthday 863

became a national holiday. On each of his birthdays, a new 864

Homage program would come out, heavy with praise and 865

anthems. 866

“We love him because he has hunger in his heart/For 867

work, so that we may have a better life/All our voivodes hold 868

his arm tightly/And all our forefathers whisper words of 869

wisdoms in his ear/He is a man like any other, a man, a man, 870

the man...” read the Homage for Ceausescu’s 60th birthday, by 871

the regime’s number one poet, Adrian Paunescu, a Social 872

Democratic Party (PSD) senator in the post-communist regime. 873

In an interview with his French biographer, Michel-874

Pierre Hamelet, Ceausescu defined the personality cult 875

organized around him in Romania as „a problem of 876

organization and clear-sightedness.” 877

One last protest: 83 year-old Romanian Communist 878

Party veteran Constantin Parvulescu stood up in the middle of 879

the 7th Romanian Communist Party convention in November 880

1979 and stated that he did not support Ceausescu, whom he 881

accused of putting his own interest above those of the party. It 882

was an isolated incident: the leader was reelected and 80,000 883

-36-

Bucharestians gathered for a mega-rally. Students got the day 884

off, and enterprises halted work. 885

886

-37-

Sidebar 887

“The Golden Age” Of Nicolae Ceausescu 888

The rise and fall: 25 years of communist reign 889

890

Four major steps in domestic policy: 891

The Thaw (1965-1969) 892

Cultural Revolution (1970-1973) 893

Romanian Neo-Stalinism (1974-1979) 894

Decade of Crisis (1980-1989) 895

896

Four major steps in foreign policy: 897

Western political tourism in Romania (1965-898

1974) 899

Reorientation towards the USSR and Third 900

World countries (1974-1977) 901

Rapprochement with the West (1978-1984) 902

Anti-perestroika resistance and total isolation 903

(1985-1989) 904

Timeline 905

1965 – Nicolae Ceausescu, Secretary General of the 906

Romanian Communist Party at 47, is Europe’s youngest 907

political leader to date. 908

909

1966 – A series of laws prohibit abortion and 910

contraceptives; divorce procedures become more difficult. 911

-38-

912

1967– Corneliu Manescu, Romanian Foreign Minister, 913

becomes president of the UN General Assembly; Richard 914

Nixon becomes the first in a series of Western guests to visit 915

Ceausescu during the Cold War. 916

917

1968 – Defying Moscow, Ceausescu condemns the 918

interference of the Warsaw Pact troops in Czechoslovakia. 919

Wave of enthusiasm in Romania. Western interest in “the 920

Trojan horse of the Eastern Bloc”; hypocritical plan of 921

rehabilitation of Dej regime victims, meant to isolate those who 922

propelled him to power. 923

924

1970 – Catastrophic floods in Romania, 38 out of 39 925

counties affected, 600,000 people evacuated. 926

927

1971 – Ceausescu visits Mao Zedong in China and Kim 928

Il Sung in North Korea. He begins to model his cult of 929

personality after theirs; road signs bearing Transylvanian town 930

names in Hungarian and German are prohibited. 931

932

1971-75 Romania achieves a GDP growth rate of 933

11.3%, never again surpassed. 934

935

1972 – Romania becomes the only socialist country to 936

become a member of the World Bank and the IMF; Ceausescu 937

meets Anwar Sadat, Yasser Arafat, and other members of the 938

-39-

Organization for the Liberation of Palestine in Cairo, and 939

begins peace talks concerning war in the Middle East. 940

941

1973 – The apogee of foreign visits: Iran, Pakistan, the 942

Netherlands, Italy, the Federal Republic of Germany, 943

Yugoslavia, the USSR, several South American countries, 944

Morocco, the US, the Vatican; Romania allows the founding of 945

joint ventures with the participation of Western capital (51% 946

Romanian capital). 947

948

1974 –Ceausescu is elected President of the Socialist 949

Republic of Romania, a position created especially for him; 950

State monopolies seize all rare metals and precious stones. 951

952

1974-1976 – The West gives up on Ceausescu, who 953

travels there only twice. He reorients himself towards the 954

USSR and the Third World, where he plays the role of credit-955

lending European. 956

957

1975 – Romania obtains Most Favored Nation status 958

with the US (renewed yearly until 1988) 959

960

1976 – The right of settlement in big cities is heavily 961

limited. 962

963

1977 – In March, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake: 1,570 964

dead, 11,300 injured, 35,000 households destroyed; in August, 965

the Jiu Valley miners’ strike; in October, the new anthem of the 966

-40-

Socialist Republic of Romania. (based on a text by Ceausescu) 967

and the law that replaced “Mister,” “Mrs.,” “Sir,” and “Ma’am” 968

with “comrade” or “citizen.” 969

970

1978 – The Ceausescus visit Great Britain (June 13-16); 971

the betrayal of the general of the Securitate, Mihai Pacepa (July 972

28). Foreign Intelligence Service restructured. 973

974

1979 – At the 7th Romanian Communist Party (PCR) 975

Convention in November, Constantin Parvulescu, veteran of 976

PCR, 83 years old, rebukes Ceausescu for placing his personal 977

interest above those of the party; cars can be driven every other 978

Sunday, alternating even and odd license plate numbers; The 979

Russian invasion of Afghanistan; Ceausescu is again esteemed 980

by the West. 981

982

1979-1981 – The fall of the Shah of Iran; the oil crisis 983

strikes countries with unstable economies, like Romania. 984

985

1980 – CSCE conference in Madrid in November: 986

Ceausescu presents his plan for a united Europe, from the 987

Pyrenees to the Carpathians; a person may not be in possession 988

of more than one house or apartment. 989

990

1981– Rationing of staple foods. Drastic measures for 991

energy savings. Gas is scarce; people forced to participate in 992

agricultural work. 993

994

-41-

1982 – Ceausescu orders the rapid payment of foreign 995

debt (almost $13 billion) without taking out new loans. 996

Romania under austere measures without precedent; emigrants’ 997

houses and land taken by the state. 998

999

1983 – Possession of photocopiers prohibited. 1000

1001

1984 – The Danube – Black Sea canal is inaugurated, 1002

after 9 years of construction; any privately owned typewriter 1003

must be registered with the Militia; energy crisis; new legal, 1004

fiscal, and medical rules for a more efficient enforcement of 1005

anti-abortion laws; Romania is the only Eastern Bloc country to 1006

participate in the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles despite the 1007

Soviet boycott. 1008

1009

1981-1985 – 750,000 apartments opened for use; the 1010

inhabitable surface area per capita is 12 m2. 1011

1012

1985 – Construction begins on the People’s House, 1013

which was to become the headquarters of the Party and seat of 1014

the Government; any conversation between a Romanian and a 1015

foreigner must be reported to the Securitate within 24 hours. 1016

Romanians are forbidden from hosting foreign citizens if they 1017

are not close family. 1018

1019

1986 – In March, Mikhail Gorbachev presents his 1020

perestroika and glasnost theses in Moscow; minimum wage 1021

abolished, payment based on accomplishments. 1022

-42-

1023

1987 – Mihai Pacepa’s book Red Horizon is published, 1024

revealing the side scenes of the Ceausescu regime; workers’ 1025

revolt in Brasov. 1026

1027

1988 – Program for the organization of villages; annual 1028

per capita rations. 1029

1030

1989 – The New York Times (March 10) publishes the 1031

letters of the 6 old guard communists – Parvulescu, Gh. 1032

Apostol, C. Manescu, S. Brucan, G. Raceanu and A. 1033

Barladeanu – asking Ceausescu to change his domestic policy; 1034

the revolt in Timisoara (December 16).; on December 25, the 1035

Ceausescus are lined up against the wall of an outhouse and 1036

shot by an execution squad in Targoviste. 1037

1038

1039

1040

-43-

CHAPTER 9 1041

Towards a Potemkin Romania 1042

Surrounded by hypocrites, Ceausescu lost all sense of limitations, 1043

and took increasing delight in his role as a feudal despot. 1044

1045

Visits around the country made Ceausescu popular in 1046

the first years of his government. Then, local activists started 1047

building Potemkin villages for him. Before his arrival, a 1048

commando would mask reality: healthy cows popped up in the 1049

landscapes, pine trees on the side of the road, apples were tied 1050

onto trees with wires, and plastic grapes topped the tables at 1051

exhibitions. Everything he said was taken as a valuable order to 1052

be executed in full. 1053

For example, in the 80s, when he found out that 1054

Westerners were producing huge quantities of corn per hectare 1055

(the secret being the production density of 50 – 60,000 plants 1056

per hectare), Ceausescu brought the task back to Romania. 1057

One fall, in a county in Transylvania, the comrade 1058

visited a representative farm unit. Since they had not been able 1059

to achieve the desired density on any field, local specialists 1060

stuffed the lot with corn cobs cut from another field. 1061

Excited by the explanations given to him on the side of 1062

the field where an exhibition of produce, display boards, and 1063

graphics had been strategically placed, Ceausescu walked onto 1064

the field, peeled a corn cob, and ended up with one of the cobs 1065

that had been put there for show in his hand. He realized it had 1066

been a farce, he huffed and puffed, and then he forgot about it. 1067

Surrounded by hypocrites, Ceausescu lost all sense of 1068

limitations, and increasingly took delight in his role as a feudal 1069

despot. 1070

-44-

French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, who visited 1071

Romania in March 1979, found a Ceausescu who was 1072

“arrogant, disagreeable, and surrounded by corrupt idiots.” 1073

Ceausescu lived his whole life in fear that all those around him 1074

could betray him. After Pacepa’s flight, his distrust of his close 1075

collaborators increased. 1076

He turned to all kinds of solutions: he took the reins of 1077

the Party and promoted his relatives to key positions. In time, 1078

he dismissed almost all of his intelligent and upright 1079

collaborators. The noose of power tightened more and more. 1080

His most trusted advisors, who had fought each other to get 1081

ahead, competed in shielding him from unpleasant information. 1082

The Second Office, lead by his wife, filtered all 1083

information that reached him. Slowly, the court of Bucharest 1084

was overrun by an elite of servants who didn’t have the 1085

courage to tell him the truth, even at the bitter end. 1086

1087

-45-

CHAPTER 10 1088

Elena Ceausecu: Romania’s Lady MacBeth 1089

Labeled by many as an ill-fated Lady MacBeth figure, Elena 1090

Ceausescu became in 1982 the first woman vice president in the 1091

history of Romania. Her own personality cult was also initiated on a 1092

huge scale. 1093

1094

Elena Ceausescu became number two in the 1095

government, the first female vice president in Romania. Born 1096

Petrescu on November 17, 1916 in Petresti, Dambovita, 1097

daughter of peasants, Elena did not finish fourth grade. She 1098

made it to Bucharest where she worked in a textile factory, and 1099

met Nicolae in 1939. 1100

Considered by many a fatal Rasputin, Ceausescu’s wife 1101

collected academic titles and bylines for books written by 1102

others. “His biggest mistake was that he listened too much to 1103

what mother told him. Even a history written today should 1104

point out that mother had an ill-fated influence over him,” said 1105

the son Nicu Ceausescu in 1991 in Jilava prison, in an 1106

interview with writers George Galloway and Bob Wylie. 1107

Elena became interested in politics in 1972. In 1985, 1108

her own massive personality cult began. 1109

“In his egomaniacal evolution, Nicolae Ceausescu was, 1110

first of all, supported by his wife Elena. She successfully 1111

played several roles in his life. On the one hand, she became 1112

his surrogate mother taking the place of a real mother who, in 1113

the reality of his emotional life, never supported him enough. 1114

Elena succeeded in protecting her husband, accepting 1115

him for what he was. But she nurtured a relationship of sick 1116

and immature dependency within the couple. She would take 1117

-46-

care of his health; she would make sure he ate and felt well. 1118

She helped him control his stuttering. Throughout these 1119

actions, however, she would satisfy her need to control their 1120

relationship. She would often manifest this control through the 1121

decisions that were made. Nicolae had given her so much 1122

power that, towards the end of the Golden Age, she was the one 1123

making all the decisions”, says psychologist Roxana Dobri. 1124

1125

-47-

Sidebar 1126

Grand Legacies 1127

Ceausescu’s 7 Obsessions – why he built them and what’s happend 1128

to them 1129

by Andreea Campeanu 1130

1131

“I did something for this country! The People’s House 1132

beats the Taj Mahal!” said Ceausescu to architect Anca 1133

Petrescu. Perseverant and tenacious in his centralizing 1134

megalomania, Ceausescu wanted to build as much as possible, 1135

on the largest scale possible, in order to show how much power 1136

the Romanian people had. 1137

1138

1. The People’s House (The Palace of Parliament) 1139

Goal: To show the world what the Romanians were 1140

capable of; he would gather the state leadership institutions in 1141

one place. 1142

Construction: It was built in only 5 years by an army of 1143

400 architects and 20,000 construction workers, sacrificing one 1144

fifth of the historic areas of Bucharest. Only Romanian 1145

materials were used. The bill: $2 billion; work continued for 7 1146

years after Ceausescu’s death. 1147

Today: The second largest administrative building in 1148

the world, after the Pentagon in Washington; 332,000 sq m 1149

(3,573,600 sq ft); houses the Parliament, the Constitutional 1150

Court, the Official Gazette, the International Convention 1151

Center, the National Museum of Contemporary Art, conference 1152

halls, restaurants, and clubs. 1153

1154

-48-

2. The Transfagarasan (DN 7C) 1155

Goal: Planned as a strategically important road for the 1156

passage of Romanian armored cars in case of an attack on the 1157

western front. 1158

Construction: Built in 4 years (1970 – 1974); dynamited 1159

three times a day; has a maximum altitude of 2,042 m (6,700 1160

ft), length of 91.5 km (56.8 mi), and a tunnel 887 m (2,910 ft) 1161

long. Built primarily by a military workforce. 1162

Today: Tourist attraction during the summer; closed 1163

from October through June due to snow; currently in bad 1164

condition. 1165

1166

3. Hunger Circuses (Agro-alimentary Complexes) 1167

Goal: Were to be large canteens for residents of 1168

Bucharest, eliminating their need to cook at home. 1169

Construction: Began at the end of the 1980s; in 1989, 1170

only two “circuses” were finished. 1171

Today: After 1989, they were abandoned; later turned 1172

into malls or modern commercial complexes. 1173

1174

4. The Danube – Black Sea Canal 1175

Goal: Shortening the way to the Port of Constanta by 1176

approximately 400 km (248 mi). 1177

Construction: Began in 1949, but was interrupted in 1178

1955 and recommenced on June 13, 1973; inaugurated on May 1179

26, 1984. 64 km (39.7 mi) long, 7 m (23 ft) deep, and 70 m 1180

(230 ft) wide. Cost: 2 billion euros; the recuperation of the 1181

investment was predicted to take 50 years. 1182

-49-

Today: The third largest construction of its kind, after 1183

the Suez and Panama canals. The canal brings in an average of 1184

3,160,000 euros annually: the investment can be repaid in 633 1185

years. 1186

1187

5. The Bucharest Subway 1188

Goal: Smoother traffic in the capital. 1189

Construction: Intense pace; problems insulating the 1190

tunnels; the first sections were dug as ditches on the banks of 1191

the Dambovita river, later covered with concrete; construction 1192

began on February 3, 1975; the first section went into use in 1193

November of 1979. 1194

Today: 75 km (46.6 mi) long; 50,000 passengers/hour is 1195

the maximum capacity, circa 50 trains (on average 300,000 1196

passengers/day). 1197

1198

6. Casa Radio 1199

Goal: Ceausescu wanted to bring all of Romania’s 1200

museums under one roof as a museum of the Communist Party, 1201

a Trajan’s column; planned to have seven floors. 1202

Construction: Began in 1986; would have been finished 1203

in 1992; the second largest building in Bucharest after the 1204

House of the People; 110,000 sq m (1,184,000 sq ft); basement 1205

finished, ground floor almost finished; it took a long time 1206

because Ceausescu kept coming up with new ideas. 1207

Today: Contracted for 49 years to Turkish investors; 1208

70% of it will be demolished and remodeled; 450 million-euro 1209

investment; ready in 8 years; there will be stores, a hotel, 1210

offices, casinos: Dambovita Center. 1211

-50-

1212

7. The National Library 1213

Goal: A central location for the National Library of 1214

Romania; a depository of books in a single place. 1215

Construction: Began in 1986; 57,000 sq m (613,500 sq 1216

ft); in 1990, the funds for its finalization were redistributed. 1217

Today: book depository; has undergone remodeling for 1218

33 months, keeping its communist façade. 1219

-51-

CHAPTER 11 1220

The Beginning of the End 1221

According to Mikhail Gorbachev, newly elected Secretary General 1222

of the Politburo of the Soviet Union’s Communist Party (CPSU), in 1223

1985, the Romanian economy was like an “old horse ridden by a 1224

cruel horseman”. 1225

1226

After the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, 1227

Ceausescu once again got into the good graces of the West. He 1228

started getting state visit invitations and he was visited as well. 1229

In November 1980, he raised the bar at the CSCE conference in 1230

Madrid, presenting his plan for a united Europe, from the 1231

Pyrenees to the Carpathians, a common European home 1232

without the USSR. 1233

In 1982, Leonid Brezhnev, leader of the USSR, died. 1234

For two years he was replaced by Yuri Andropov, who was 68 1235

years old, a former KGB head, lover of reform, and who didn’t 1236

see Ceausescu with good eyes. Andropov was succeeded by 73 1237

year-old Constantin Chernenko who was insignificant, senile, 1238

very much to Ceausescu’s taste. 1239

During this period of Moscow’s increased weakness, 1240

Ceausescu let himself be talked into extending the Warsaw 1241

Pact, having claimed that NATO and Warsaw both seemed 1242

unnecessary to him. Furthermore, in 1984, Romania was the 1243

only country in the Eastern Bloc that participated in the 1244

Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. 1245

Unfortunately for Ceausescu, in March 1985, 1246

Chernenko was replaced by the dynamic reformer, Mikhail 1247

Gorbachev. It was the beginning of the end for Ceausescu and 1248

the socialist camp. 1249

-52-

In March 1986, Gorbachev presented his perestroika 1250

and glasnost theses to the 27th Communist Party of the Soviet 1251

Union (PCUS) convention in Moscow. “The actions of the 1252

Party’s organizations and of the State have fallen behind the 1253

times. Indolence, the rigid method of governing, low 1254

productivity, a growing bureaucracy, all of these have cost us 1255

greatly,” he said. He continued, offering up ideas for which 1256

Ceausescu had fought all his life: “Each nation should choose 1257

its own path and decide the fate of its own territory and 1258

resources.” 1259

Ceausescu “the dissident” saw his role as Trojan horse 1260

usurped. He, who had been the favorite child of the West, 1261

found himself falling in their general disfavor. “Betrayed” by 1262

the West for the third time, Ceausescu once again turned his 1263

back on them, fighting tenaciously against the reforms that 1264

threatened his socialist world. But he became more and more 1265

isolated. Soon he had only one friend – the other old man of 1266

communism, the German Democratic Republic’s Erich 1267

Honecker. For them, the reforms in Poland and Hungary were a 1268

nightmare, and they were the only ones to praise the repression 1269

of democratic demonstrations in China in June 1989. 1270

Between the 25th and 27th of May 1987, Mikhail 1271

Gorbachev and his wife Raisa came to Romania. A pompous 1272

welcome was prepared for them. Hundreds of thousands of 1273

people lined up along the side of the road from the airport to 1274

the prepared residence. On the last evening, the Ceausescus had 1275

dinner with the Gorbachevs in a distinctive atmosphere. The 1276

men ended up arguing. Ceausescu told Gorbachev that he 1277

would be better off quitting international politics and worrying 1278

about the internal problems of the USSR. Gorbachev accused 1279

him of keeping his country in a state of fear after having 1280

isolated it from the world. 1281

-53-

Also in 1987, “Red Horizons,” the confessions of one 1282

of Ceausescu’s lieutenants and the Securitate General, Mihai 1283

Pacepa, was published. Ronald Regan, the President of the 1284

United States, called it „my Bible for relations with communist 1285

dictators.” Radio Free Europe broadcast “Red Horizons,” in 1286

episodes, bringing the scandals of the Ceausescu household 1287

into Romanian homes. 1288

1289

-54-

CHAPTER 12 1290

Between Security and Paranoia 1291

According to Securitate general Mihai Pacepa, each officer had to 1292

have 50 collaborators (members of the Romanian Communist Party) 1293

and 50 informants (outside of the Romanian Communist Party). The 1294

result was constant surveillance of the population. 1295

1296

Pacepa’s betrayal, in July 28, 1978 caused a stir in the 1297

Securitate. Ninety percent of the Romanians who worked 1298

abroad were spies. Now, they were in danger. Ceausescu was 1299

livid. Pacepa made his secrets public, describing him as “a 1300

pygmy in a perpetual state of agitation who would grimace in 1301

order to hide his stuttering, spitting on those around him when 1302

he spoke. He would only shake his inferiors’ hands with three 1303

weak fingers, while his eagle eye sized them up.” Heads rolled 1304

not only in the Securitate (all those who had had connections 1305

with Pacepa), but also in related fields. The entire Foreign 1306

Intelligence Service was restructured. Pacepa’s reasons for 1307

deserting remain unclear, but it seems that he had heard that he 1308

would be accused of corruption. He fled to the US and the CIA 1309

took care of him. 1310

On March 10, 1989, the New York Times published the 1311

Letter of the six communists of the old guard: Constantin 1312

Parvulescu, Gheorghe Apostol, Corneliu Manescu, Silviu 1313

Brucan, Grigore Raceanu, and Alexandru Barladeanu, in which 1314

they asked Ceausescu to change his domestic policies. They 1315

blamed him for not respecting the Constitution, for his village-1316

urbanization program, for building the People’s House, for his 1317

repressiveness in domestic policy, and for ruining the national 1318

economy. “The conspirators” (whose average age was 80) were 1319

placed under house arrest. 1320

-55-

On October 25, 1989, Gennadi Gerasimov, spokesman 1321

of the Foreign Minister of the USSR, announced a switch in 1322

doctrine, from the Brezhnev doctrine to the Sinatra doctrine (“I 1323

did it my way”). The events in Eastern Europe quickly came 1324

tumbling down: the Berlin wall fell (November 10), Todor 1325

Jivkov was dethroned in Bulgaria (November 10), the 1326

“citizen’s forum” was founded in Czechoslovakia (November 1327

20). In Romania, at the 14th Romanian Communist Party 1328

convention (November 22-24), all was well. Ceausescu’s five-1329

hour speech was interrupted 55 times by comrades who stood 1330

up to applaud him. 1331

On December 4th, Ceausescu left for Moscow in an 1332

attempt to save himself. Gorbachev couldn’t stand the arrogant 1333

Romanian. “His lips were perpetually smirking to show his 1334

conversation partner that he could read his thoughts and that he 1335

did not value him. This impertinence and his lack of value for 1336

others took on a grotesque form over the years. He transferred 1337

these traits, maybe without realizing it, from his courtiers to his 1338

partners who usually were the same rank as him or higher,” 1339

wrote Gorbachev in his memoirs. 1340

Old Ceausescu returned home and began preparing to 1341

defend his power. His plans for suppressing a coup d’etat, kept 1342

in his drawer, were known only by a restricted circle. Work on 1343

these plans had begun back in the 70s. Two days after he gave 1344

a speech condemning the suppression of the Prague Spring, 1345

Ceausescu met with Josip Broz Tito, who told him: “For your 1346

own safety, be careful in Romania.” 1347

Ceausescu was afraid that the Russians would come 1348

after him: he requested safe houses and escape routes, and a 1349

radio transmitter to be able to address his people from any 1350

location. In 1970, a special unit of the Securitate came up with 1351

a secret plan, Rovine IS-70, which involved an escape abroad 1352

-56-

in case of emergency. At first, the Securitate oversaw the 1353

communist leadership and foreign visitors. Its tentacles 1354

extended throughout the whole country, as Ceausescu grew 1355

older and more paranoid. 1356

In 1965, there was a central phone-tapping center and 1357

11 regional ones. Thirteen years later, there were 248 centers 1358

and 1,000 portable stations. By the 1980s, the Securitate had 1359

become one of the most feared secret police organizations in 1360

the world. In 1989 it had 14,259 employees, of which 8,159 1361

were officers. According to Pacepa, each officer had to have 50 1362

collaborators (members of the Romanian Communist Party) 1363

and 50 informants (outside of the Romanian Communist Party). 1364

The result was the constant surveillance of the population. 1365

In 1971, after a visit to China, Ceausescu called for the 1366

establishment of U.M.0920, a special counter-informative unit, 1367

whose mission was to protect him against a Soviet coup d’etat. 1368

This unit found out about the Dniester operation, initiated in 1369

July 1969, a few days after which, contrary to Moscow’s 1370

recommendation, Ceausescu visited Nixon. Brezhnev, irritated 1371

by Ceausescu’s nationalism, considered replacing the 1372

Romanian. 1373

By 1978, U.M.0920 had identified nine Army and 1374

Securitate generals whom the Russian First Chief Directorate 1375

(PGU) wanted to use in a coup d’etat against Ceausescu. 1376

According to Pacepa, many agents recruited by Moscow from 1377

the Romanian Communist Party for the Dniester operation 1378

were released of their duties, and then repeatedly rotated lest 1379

they take political roots or be contacted by Soviet informants. 1380

Also according to Pacepa, the highest ranking victim of 1381

U.M.0920 was Ion Ilici Iliescu, one of Ceausescu’s favorites. 1382

Ruling over the party’s vast propaganda machine and national 1383

misinformation operations, Iliescu was an intelligent young 1384

-57-

man who had studied in Moscow, gaining a thorough Marxist 1385

education. Ion Iliescu was named Ilici after Vladimir Ilici 1386

Lenin, whom his extremist father idolized. Pacepa says Iliescu 1387

preferred not to report to his mentor an allusion made by a 1388

member of an “ideological” delegation (and recorded on tape), 1389

according to which “the Kremlin would be happier with Iliescu 1390

as the head of the Romanian Communist Party.” In Iliescu’s 1391

version, Ceausescu would have dismissed him because he had 1392

not agreed with his “little cultural revolution.” 1393

Other victims of U.M.0920: Valter Roman (father of 1394

Petre Roman, the future Prime Minister) and Silviu Brucan. 1395

1396

-58-

CHAPTER 13 1397

“Down with Ceausescu!” The Turning Point in 1398

Timisoara 1399

On December 17, the Army opened fire on the crowd in Timisoara. 1400

1401

On December 16, 1989, the Timisoara revolt began. 1402

1,000 people gathered in the center of town, shouting “Down 1403

with Ceausescu”. A state of emergency was declared. In the 1404

middle of the crisis, Ceausescu accused Army and Securitate 1405

generals: “You should be sent before the execution squad. 1406

That’s what you deserve, because what you have done means 1407

fraternizing with the enemy.” 1408

Tired and disappointed, Ceausescu threatened to resign. 1409

A wave of cries from the Central Committee members for him 1410

to change his mind followed; a few women broke down in 1411

tears. In the end, Elena persuaded him. 1412

“OK, shall we try again, comrades?” he asked those 1413

around him. Before leaving for Iran, he forbade anyone from 1414

entering the country if they were not from North Korea, China, 1415

or Cuba, convinced that the coup d’etats that had taken place in 1416

the German Democratic Republic, Bulgaria, and 1417

Czechoslovakia were due to outside help. On December 17, the 1418

platoons fired at random into the crowd. The next day, it was 1419

quiet in a city under siege. 1420

1421

-59-

CHAPTER 14 1422

The Execution Squad 1423

“When he fell, he cried, ‘Long live the free and independent 1424

Socialist Republic of Romania!’- Andrei Kemenici, commander of 1425

the Targoviste garrison. 1426

1427

On December 20, Ceausescu held a telephone 1428

conference with the secretaries of each county: he told them 1429

that spies were working in Timisoara, accusing the US and the 1430

USSR of having made an agreement regarding Romania. That 1431

evening on TV, he told the country about the hooligans in 1432

Timisoara. 1433

The next day, he called a meeting in Bucharest where 1434

he promised an increase in salaries and rations. He was booed. 1435

The people came out to protest in Bucharest, too. Barricades. 1436

The army fired. On December 22, 162 people had already died. 1437

The day after the failed meeting in Bucharest, the masses 1438

gathered once again in front of the Central Committee, where 1439

the Ceausescus had remained overnight. In the morning, the 1440

Minister of Defense, Vasile Milea, was found dead in his 1441

office. 1442

Ceausescu once again appeared on the balcony before 1443

the crowds. Booing ensued again. General Stanculescu, newly 1444

appointed Minister of Defense, called a helicopter, pleading 1445

with his President to leave the Central Committee building. 1446

“I warned my father that this moment would come and 1447

that it would happen this way. The night before he was 1448

overthrown, I talked to him for approximately 15 minutes. I 1449

implored him to make concessions, to welcome a people’s 1450

delegation. He was listening but not hearing. Mother told me: 1451

-60-

Don’t be a fool. He always listened to Mother too much,” said 1452

his son, Valentin Ceausescu to writers George Galloway and 1453

Bob Wylie. 1454

The Ceausescu regime’s movie was reaching a 1455

surrealistic ending, and the reel was turning faster and faster. 1456

The Ceausescus took the elevator up to the roof. The doors 1457

were blocked before the last floor. The bodyguards opened 1458

them with blows of their weapons. They climbed onto the 1459

Central Committee terrace through a window. 1460

They flew to Snagov, where Ceausescu tried to get in 1461

touch with the Government, the Army, and the Securitate. 1462

Nobody answered. They continued on in the helicopter. The 1463

pilot warned them that they could be shot down. They landed 1464

on the road in Titu. They stopped a red Dacia, which took them 1465

to the village of Vacaresti. They took another car to Targoviste. 1466

They stopped at the Aggregate Works of Special Steel where 1467

Ceausescu wanted to talk to the workers. They didn’t open the 1468

gates for him. 1469

They went on to the Center for the Protection of Plants 1470

in Targoviste. A Militia team came and escorted them to the 1471

Inspectorate. The building was surrounded by an angry mob. 1472

The Militia car was attacked with stones and followed by 1473

several other cars. They fled the city with the two militiamen 1474

and hid in the forest near Ratoaia, 20 km outside of Targoviste. 1475

Only at night were they brought into the Militia building. 1476

Some soldiers took them to the barracks in a white Aro 1477

car; they were given military clothes and they were locked in a 1478

small, unventilated room. Although they still called him 1479

“comrade President,” “comrade Supreme Commander,” his tea 1480

was sweetened with sugar even though he was a diabetic. 1481

Ceausescu was furious. Elena caressed him like a child. On the 1482

first night, they slept in the same bed, embracing, and 1483

-61-

constantly whispering to each other. In the following days, they 1484

were locked in a bulletproof TAB vehicle (for their safety, they 1485

were told), where they spent their last night. 1486

The former major lieutenant, Iulian Stoica (today an 1487

Army Reserve Major), guardian of the Ceausescus between 1488

December 22nd- 25th in the Targoviste garrison, recounts in a 1489

TV interview how, on the 24th of December, Ceausescu 1490

verbally attacked his wife (they usually got along very well and 1491

took care of each other) when he heard the names of the 1492

protagonists of the tele-revolution of 1989. 1493

(Stoica had gone out for tea, and he got stuck for 30 1494

minutes in front of the TV that showed incredible things. He 1495

told them that he had seen Mircea Dinescu, Sergiu Nicolaescu, 1496

Ion Iliescu, etc. in studio 4. Elena, who had the best 1497

information cadre, insulted each one of them.) When he heard 1498

Ion Iliescu’s name, Ceausescu stood up, and started yelling at 1499

Elena: “You didn’t let me. You didn’t let me do what I should 1500

have done. You will see, now he will finish us off, that Soviet 1501

spy.” 1502

“It was the first time the two of them had had a 1503

confrontation and a heated discussion,” says Stoica. He goes on 1504

to say that on the night of December 24th, he thwarted four 1505

assassination attempts against the Ceausescus, ordered by 1506

colonel Kemenici in hopes of avoiding the embarrassing trial 1507

that would follow the next day. 1508

Two days after fleeing from the Central Committee 1509

building, several members of the National Salvation Front’s 1510

inner circle gathered around Ion Iliescu in a bathroom at the 1511

Ministry of Defense, turned on the faucets so that no one could 1512

hear them, and decided what to do with the Ceausescus. 1513

-62-

On December 25th, General Victor Stanculescu, with a 1514

suite of military personnel and civilians, landed in Targoviste 1515

in a helicopter. 1516

When Ceausescu saw him, he let out a sigh of relief. 1517

“Don’t worry,” he told Elena, “Stanculescu is here!” Little did 1518

he know that the man whom he had named Minister of Defense 1519

a few days earlier had betrayed him and had come to prepare 1520

his death. The Ceausescus’ trial was a masquerade in which 1521

even the defense attorneys tried to out-accuse the prosecution. 1522

The presidential couple was sentenced to death and lined up 1523

with their backs against one of the outhouses in the unit. 1524

Andrei Kemenici, commander of the Targoviste 1525

garrison, who had been promoted to General in the meantime 1526

(all those who had contributed to this trial were to be rewarded 1527

by the new regime), declared in an interview 10 years after the 1528

trial: “the hardest part was when I saw the paratroopers trying 1529

to tie up Nicolae and Elena. 1530

She was begging for mercy and struggling. He didn’t 1531

struggle. He endured the humiliation. But tears were running 1532

down his cheek. He was sobbing. No, he was no longer 1533

Ceausescu, he was just a man, and when he was riddled with 1534

bullets, I broke down in tears. When he fell, he yelled, ‘Long 1535

live the free and independent Socialist Republic of Romania!’ I 1536

don’t know if the communist heroes yelled out slogans as they 1537

died, as literature would have us think, but Nicolae Ceausescu 1538

died exactly like in those books, like in the movies.” 1539

1540

1541

1542

-63-

Sidebar 1543

Whose House Is It Anyway? 1544

— by Justin Kavanagh 1545

1546

Everyone’s mood changed once we entered the Palace 1547

of the Parliament. Ceausescu’s House. Or the People’s House, I 1548

never figured out which it really was. But the warm, hospitable 1549

Romanians that I’d been with for 24 hours suddenly seemed 1550

shrouded in shame and bitterness. 1551

I remembered that sinister greeting from the Irishman’s 1552

novel: 1553

“Welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely; and 1554

leave something of the happiness you bring.” 1555

Like the legend of Dracula, this egregious edifice was 1556

imposed on this country, and has since become an unwelcome 1557

part of the landscape. If Romania is known to the outside world 1558

as the home of Dracula and Ceausescu, the people here are 1559

decidedly ambiguous about both unsolicited legacies. 1560

Like the Count’s infamous welcome, our tour of the 1561

Palace of the Parliament embodied the dark duality that seems 1562

to pervade many things Romanian; a smiling public facade 1563

failing to hide some badly masked menace from a knowing 1564

people. 1565

We shuffled silently through the security scanner. Once 1566

inside, we were herded together by our tour guide. In the first 1567

of many grand, anonymous halls, my Romanians hosts told me 1568

that this wasn’t officially called the People’s House any more. 1569

That was the unofficial name. Originally the House of the 1570

Republic, it had become the House of Ceausescu, a name of 1571

-64-

shame adapted for a few years back in the early 1990s. Back 1572

then, when the ghost of the dictator might have been exorcised 1573

from its 1,100 rooms, the people might have reclaimed this 1574

citadel that was still being completed with their blood, sweat, 1575

and lei. 1576

Now they were outsiders again. The Palace was more 1577

or less complete, but strangely vacant. Now the Romanians 1578

paid, along with foreigners like me, for a tour of the house that 1579

had now transmogrified into The Palace of the Parliament. 1580

Almost twenty years after the revolution, it’s back to being 1581

“The Politicians’ House,” I thought. 1582

The world sees Romanians in a heroic light, as the 1583

brave citizens who drove a stake into the heart of the 1584

Ceausescu regime in this very place. Yet one of my hosts was 1585

now telling me that for Romanians, the real national narrative 1586

is the story of Miorita; that their role is that of the passive 1587

Moldavian shepherd in the ballad of the Little Sheep. Passive 1588

acceptance is still the accepted lot of the people. 1589

We followed the bright, young voice around the vast 1590

passages and the empty, echoing halls of the Palace of the 1591

Parliament. There was something extremely sinister about the 1592

tour. The pleasant young woman with perfect English gave us 1593

all the facts and all the superlatives of a building that reflects 1594

all the rampant egomania of its creator: we were standing in the 1595

most expensive administrative building in the world; the 1596

building contained one million cubic meters of marble from 1597

Transylvania; it housed 480 chandeliers; 200,000 square meters 1598

of woolen carpets; the velvet and brocade curtains, adorned 1599

with embroideries, were among the longest in the world; one of 1600

Europe’s biggest chandeliers was in another part of the 1601

building, where we wouldn’t be going today. 1602

-65-

All very interesting and edifying, but one simple fact 1603

was missing from the tour, strangled in the screaming silence 1604

that followed these fantastic fact checks: this building was the 1605

bricks and mortar of a dictator’s dream. We were standing in 1606

the fantasy palace of Europe’s most brutal dictator since Hitler 1607

and Stalin. 1608

I wanted to know who mined all this endless marble 1609

that lined the wall, and what that cost in human terms. Instead 1610

we got a guided tour, presented as a dictatorship Disneyland by 1611

numbers. A lot of fascinating figures about interior decorating, 1612

but barely a word about one of the greatest political dramas of 1613

late 20th Century Europe. The details were as sparse as the 1614

furnishings of the great empty rooms we hiked around 1615

diligently. Seeing nothing. Learning even less. There was 1616

nothing to see in these rooms except space. We were told about 1617

the size of the main offices upstairs, but no mention was made 1618

of the Ceausescus’ desperate escape through these rooms to the 1619

helicopter on the rooftop. 1620

In the anodyne tone of tour-guides everywhere, the 1621

young woman fed us these endless figures and meaningless 1622

measurements. What did it tell us about the people who had to 1623

build it? Nothing. There was no mention of the people 1624

displaced to build this place. 1625

I heard later that Bucharest’s wild dog problem started 1626

in earnest due to the upheaval caused to the neighborhoods 1627

razed for the Palace of the Parliament and for Union 1628

Boulevard. Marble halls for the powerful, gauntlets of rabid 1629

dogs for the poor. Such details remained the untold legacy of 1630

the dictator. 1631

The tour did achieve its purpose though. It sent the 1632

visitor away impressed by the sheer scale of the construction. 1633

The empty monotony and lack of imagination of everything 1634

-66-

about the place made a dull impression too. “This is what you 1635

get when you give a peasant from Oltenia endless 1636

possibilities,” whispered one of my hosts. 1637

The real shock of that day for an outsider, however, 1638

was the visceral reaction of the Romanians themselves, the 1639

chilled shift from their spirited demeanor. Inside these walls, 1640

they seemed to trudge through their hidden history under a 1641

gloom. It was like witnessing a haunting. 1642

Clearly, the past still lingered in these rooms. But what 1643

of the present and what of the future? I decided to ask the 1644

obvious question: “Why is this place so empty?” Where else in 1645

the world would one find these acres of empty floor space 1646

inside such a well-constructed building at the very heart of a 1647

capital city? Why not put all this valuable real estate to 1648

practical use? 1649

I was given a quick historic recap of the many previous 1650

plans for the building: proposed home of an alternative World 1651

Bank; planned home for the Presedintia Republicii (Romanian 1652

Presidency), Marea Adunare Nationala (Great National 1653

Assembly), Consiliul de Ministri (Government Ministries) and 1654

Tribunalul Suprem (Supreme Court)—this was the original 1655

plan under Ceausescu; after the revolution, a site for a 1656

multinational casino; there was even a debate about razing it to 1657

the ground in order to banish the phantom of the dictator, a 1658

solution which would merely have compounded the public 1659

insult of this black hole in the Romanian economy. 1660

So, to assuage the hurt, the House of the People became 1661

known for a spell after the revolution as the House of 1662

Ceausescu. Nowadays, it is home to the Senate and the 1663

Chamber of Deputies, as well as the site of the National 1664

Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC), and the Museum and 1665

-67-

Park of Totalitarianism and Socialist Realism. Yet most of the 1666

rooms we saw in it were empty. 1667

So why not use all this wasted space? How many 1668

NATO summits can there be on the calendar to fill up its vast 1669

corridors, its grand halls, and its echoing conference rooms? If 1670

the House of the People was not the de facto House of the 1671

Politicians, why not open more of it to the public to use as they 1672

see fit? 1673

The answer to that question came from my friend 1674

Catalin (Gruia): “The public don’t use it, Justin, because the 1675

public don’t really belong here. We got rid of one Ceausescu 1676

and replaced him with a hundred little Ceausescus.” 1677

The spirit of oppressed passivity that Ceausescu 1678

inspired in Romanians seemed to prevail in that cold, brightly 1679

lit yet foreboding place. His legacy lived on there. “The Great 1680

Architect” was one of the many accolades his propaganda 1681

machine bestowed upon him. “Defender of the present and the 1682

future” was another. 1683

Inside the citadel today, one still hears the wind rattling 1684

through doors and windows, which were never properly 1685

installed. It’s a fitting reminder that no amount of power or 1686

wealth can fully insulate a leader from the outside world. 1687

Now the world was coming in as tourists, walking 1688

through the small part of his world that we were allowed to see. 1689

We stopped to take in the Grand Hall, with its large empty 1690

space in the wall originally intended for a large painting of 1691

“The Polyvalent Genius” (who made up this stuff?). This 1692

endless monument to megalomania was now pushing the limits 1693

of my patience. 1694

We trooped on into another ornate hall, with another 1695

plush pile carpet. Then something very interesting happened. 1696

-68-

Andreea, the youngest of our group, got bored and, in the 1697

casual way of her generation (the post-revolutionary 1698

Romanians) dropped herself and her rucksack and her camera 1699

in the middle of a main hallway and simply sprawled out on the 1700

floor. I waited for the inevitable guard, the outraged lackey in 1701

uniform chastising her lack of respect. 1702

I wondered how long one could make oneself 1703

comfortable on the carpets of the Senate Building in 1704

Washington, say, or the palace at Versailles, before the wrath 1705

of officialdom would descend with all its fusty force. Tired too 1706

of this tour, I joined her on the carpet. If nothing else, being 1707

horizontal gave one a good look at the opulently decorated 1708

ceilings. They were a long way up. I wondered how many 1709

stories were contained in the buildings razed to make this one. 1710

Soon we were all on the carpet. No guard ever came. 1711

Security here is just another façade, I thought. The guards 1712

know that all they are guarding is a vacant space at the heart of 1713

Bucharest. They are making a show of guarding the void that 1714

represents modern Romania’s soul. 1715

I later learned that two neighborhoods including 1716

numerous Christian Orthodox and Protestant churches, 1717

synagogues and Jewish temples, and 30,000 homes, were 1718

sacrificed to make way for Ceausescu’s house. A football 1719

stadium was interred in its foundations. Although all the 1720

construction is now more or less complete, Bucharesters are 1721

still living with the fallout of this Ceaushima; and all 1722

Romanians are still living through the half-lives of Nicolae 1723

Ceausescu. 1724

He is Romania’s modern-day Dracula, the Undead, still 1725

draining the life force of his people. Still alive in the collective 1726

memory, still poisoning their politics with his lingering legacy. 1727

-69-

It is the politicians, after all, who still have the only set of keys 1728

to the big house on the hill. 1729

Lying there on the comfortable carpet in his “House of 1730

the People,” I wondered what those people felt about the place 1731

now. It is a question I’d like to ask them: what would you do if 1732

you were given the keys to the House of the People? No doubt 1733

the dictator would have chased such an act of flagrant 1734

imagination out of his building. But it is no longer his building. 1735

Or is it? 1736

-70-

1737

The End 1738

A black dog licks at a puddle of blood in which two old 1739

people lie, executed on Christmas day in the Targoviste 1740

garrison. Following a kangaroo trial, a special tribunal 1741

sentenced them to death by shooting in December 1989 for 1742

“serious crimes against the people of Romania.” He died 1743

instantly. The woman died a minute later, after the execution 1744

squad’s paratroop captain furiously emptied another round in 1745

her. Thus Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu’s five-decade journey 1746

together ended, after they started from the bottom, seized 1747

power, and grew old while ruling the country. 1748

Adulated for all of his 24 years in power, during which 1749

he came to personify Romania, Ceausescu – dethroned and 1750

replaced by some of his former barons – was turned into a 1751

scapegoat for all the evils done to Romanians. 1752

During his regime, Ceausescu's image had been painted 1753

in sparkling white. Once he was killed – everything turned to 1754

pitch black. I tried my best to paint a portrait in color, with all 1755

shades of grey included, combining the good and bad, the light 1756

and the dark extremes of the life of Nicolae Ceausescu. 1757

Romania has changed a lot since his death. Although 1758

it’s only been a quarter of a century, Ceausescu’s age is an 1759

oddity to the young people in my generation and almost 1760

incomprehensible to the younger. 1761

To us Romanians, embracing successive, opposite 1762

models in our civilization is nothing short of a historical 1763

tradition. Despite being halfway between the Atlantic and the 1764

Urals on the map, Romanian land has always lain at the 1765

outskirts of the great political and civilization structures. 1766

-71-

According to historian Lucian Boia, “Romania’s 1767

permanent frontier condition led to both isolation and 1768

permeability to influences from all directions. Relating to 1769

different, often conflicting foreign models – the Byzantine, 1770

then the Ottoman (in the Middle Ages), the Occidental (in the 1771

19th century and the first half of the 20th), the Eastern (the 1772

second half of the 20th century) and again the Occidental at 1773

present – has given Romania an unstable, contradictory 1774

history.” 1775

Today, we live in a form-without-content kind of 1776

democracy – chaotic, unstructured. Those who are maladjusted 1777

to the new market economy don’t know how to manage on 1778

their own and feel increasingly nostalgic thinking of the times 1779

when the Good Father made sure they have a roof over their 1780

head, food on their table, a job a.s.o. And there’s more and 1781

more of them. The danger of a new dictator in Romania is real, 1782

what with our habit of hopping from one extreme to the other. 1783

Of course, I couldn’t stop that, not to mention it would 1784

be completely absurd to try to. But I can give you a crash 1785

course in all I know about Ceausescu – in only 37 minutes. 1786

Dear Reader, I hope you enjoyed this book. Now, if you could take 1787

a few moments and click on the link below and leave a review I 1788

would greatly apreciate it. It will help others to learn about this 1789

book and help me learn how I can better serve my readers. 1790

Here is the link to the Amazon book page where you can 1791

leave me a review 1792

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. 1793

1794

Thank you and all the best, 1795

Catalin Gruia1796

-72-

1797

1798

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1799

1800

1801

1802

1803

1804

1805

1806

1807

I would like to express my special appreciation and thanks to 1808

Anca Barbulescu, Andreea Campeanu, Cristian Lascu, Roxana 1809

Dobri and Justin Kavanagh . 1810

1811

-73-

1812

1813

Before you go page 1814

1815