34 years since the Romanian Revolution
34 years ago, Romanians had the courage to take to the streets against the totalitarian regime led by Nicolae Ceausescu.
Daniela Budu, 22.12.2023, 14:00
The late 1980s and early 1990s were marked by the collapse of communist regimes both in Central and Eastern Europe and in other parts of the world. In Romania, December 1989 was the moment when people fought for freedom and won. Romania was the only country in which the transition from communism to democracy was violent, with protests and street fights, and where the leaders of the old regime were executed. 34 years have passed since then. The revolt, which put an end to almost four decades of communist dictatorship in a few days, broke out on December 16 in Timișoara, where people took to the streets in protest at a court decision by which the reformed pastor László Tokés was to be evicted and moved to another locality. Against the background of the dramatic decrease in peoples living standards, as well as the collapse of the European communist system in the former socialist countries, an anti-communist revolt broke out. On December 20, Timişoara was proclaimed the first Romanian city free from communism. Protests then spread to several cities in the country, and on December 21 they started in the capital Bucharest.
In the evening of the same day, the first Bucharesters who had the courage to demand the removal of the dictatorial regime were killed in the city center. The violence continued on December 22, making even more victims. Over a thousand people lost their lives and around three thousand were injured those days. To honor their memory, commemorative events are held throughout the country every December. Military and religious ceremonies, tribute meetings and laying of wreaths are held. Witnesses of the Revolution and descendants of the victims prayed and laid flowers in the cities where the most people were killed.
In a message on the occasion of the Victory Day of the Romanian Revolution and Freedom, President Klaus Iohannis recalled that the Revolution of December 1989 “represents the moment when the Romanians decade-long aspiration for freedom succeeded in overthrowing communism, and in revealing its barbarism in front of the whole world. The head of state urged Romanians not to forget the heroes who opposed the dictatorship in order to restore, for the entire Romanian nation, the rights and freedoms it was deprived of for so many decades.
Young people must know that the freedom they have today was paid for with the lives of thousands of heroes, and the right to an opinion and to dialogue, which are natural and necessary in a democracy, would not have been possible without the removal of the oppressive communist regime, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said in turn. In his message, Ciolacu said that the Romanian Revolution of December 1989 was the moment when the ideal of freedom defeated the terror strongly inflicted among the population.
Interior Minister, Cătălin Predoiu, said that that the Revolution of December 1989 put the country on a historical path that led it to the world of European and Euro-Atlantic values, into the European Union and NATO, among democratic countries, alongside strategic partners with whom we cooperate in our mutual development and security interests. (EE)
