Ion Monoran
Ion Monoran was one of the heroes of the December 1989 Revolution in Timisoara
Steliu Lambru, 04.01.2026, 12:14
The Romanian Revolution of December 1989 created modern heroes—the heroes of the anti-communist civic movements whose goal was for human beings to become what they naturally are, free and with the right to seek their happiness without constraints. For communism was a regime and a society based on constraints and conventions. The pre-1989 regime seemed indestructible and eternal, with one, undisputed leader at its centre. In such a closed society, any form of resistance was viewed as madness by social and ideological conformists. But the heroes were the ones who broke the clichés of their times and proved to others that the madness of challenging a tyrannical regime was in fact the ability to see clearly the direction in which history was going.
One of the heroes of the December 1989 Revolution in Timisoara was Ion Monoran. He was among the several hundred Timișoara residents who had learned of the authorities’ steps to have the Reformed pastor Laszlo Tökes evicted from his home and went to the scene. As he stated in a memoir posted on his personal website ionmonoran.ro, “the tense situation that had been created for several days around the house of Pastor László Tőkés told me that it was time for something to happen in Romania, just like in the other communist states in Eastern Europe. The imbecility and the dictatorial way in which the Ceauşescus were leading the country had brought Romania to the brink of economic disaster, to hunger, cold and destitution. Throughout 1989, I had waited in a nervous tension for something to happen, that would save us from the hollow pretence of communism in which generations had been forced to live their lives… My involvement in the events on the night of December 16, 1989 was decided from the first moments… When I reached Maria Square, there were no more than 250 people around the house of pastor Tokes. I joined them and told them that we had to do something, but that we needed leaders otherwise we would have the same fate as the protesters in Braşov in 1987. In order to persuade those who did not dare come closer because of the political police who were everywhere around, we started singing Hora Unirii (the Romanian Unification Song) and slogans like ‘Freedom!’ and ‘Romanians, join us’!”
But who was Ion Monoran? He was born in 1953; in December 1989 he was 36 and had established himself as a poet, although he had refused to publish his work so as to keep his poems from being censored. He felt he was suffocating in the unbreathable air of terror and censorship, and just like other Romanians, he felt that the general nervousness was approaching paroxysm. He threw himself in the protests with all his heart and his powers. And it was with the same passion that he welcomed what came in the first years after December 1989.
36 years on, the philosopher Gabriel Liiceanu paid tribute to Monoran, whose name is tied to the founding documents of the Revolution that changed Romania:
Gabriel Liiceanu: “December 16 is the moment when the Timișoara Revolution began and when Ion Monoran stopped the trams in front of Laszlo Tökes’ house to invite the people on the tram to get off. Together with the 200 who were already gathered in front of Tökes’ house, they started a march to challenge the communist regime and Ceaușescu. And he succeeded. He did this, he stopped the trams, convinced the people to get off, put himself in front of 1,000 people and led them to the communist party head offices. There they protested, fully aware of the consequences that we can imagine were facing those who challenged the communist power. He is the one who created the Timișoara Association and it was in his house, in the office of this association, that the famous Timișoara Proclamation was written, with the notable Paragraph Eight in which lustration was demanded. This meant preventing former party members and former members of the Securitate, to hold office in the new society.”
The Romanian Revolution triumphed, and Romania, together with the other socialist countries that had removed the communist tyranny, rejoined the civilised and democratic world. The poet Ion Monoran, who had become a strong voice of democracy, consistently criticised the new power, the National Salvation Front, which consisted mostly of former members of the Romanian Communist Party. He remained active in the “Timișoara” Association and wrote articles for the “Timișoara” newspaper.
Freedom also saw his literary debut. The “General Dictionary of Romanian Literature”, published by the Romanian Academy in 2005, describes him as “a member of the ‘80s generation, who refused any kind of compromise… His impulsive, abrupt and often conflicting poetry, as well as his deeply contested style, fuel a constant state of conflict, reflecting the experience of a free, misunderstood spirit.”
On December 2, 1993, the poet and hero Ion Monoran passed away at only 40 years of age. He left behind four books, all published after his death, and the memory of a brave man who lived up to the historical moment he was living. (AMP)
