On
\nthe 22nd of December 1989, at 12.08 am, Nicolae Ceausescu and his
\nwife Elena were taking off by helicopter from the rooftop of the building
\nhousing the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party in Bucharest. Their
\nflight paved the way for the end of the communist dictatorship and for the
\nrestoration of democracy in Romania. However, soon after that glorious moment,
\ndoubt began to creep in. All kinds of myths began to appear that tried to
\ndestroy what had been earned through bloodshed. Like all myths, those connected
\nto the Romanian revolution are extremely powerful, being constantly fed by the
\nmany mysteries that still exist. One of the most persisting myths is that of
\nthe hijacking of the revolution by Ion Iliescu and his entourage. A
\nhigh-ranking activist in the Communist Party, Iliescu was also Romania’s first
\npost-communist president. The party backing him, the National Salvation Front,
\nwas made up of people from the lower ranks of the Communist Party, which made
\npeople think that the revolution of December 1989 was an arrangement intended to
\nbring Ion Iliescu to power. Dragos Petrescu is the author of a number of comprehensive
\nstudies on the revolutions of 1989. We asked him to comment on the myth of the
\nhijacked revolution. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I think the idea that the revolution was hijacked or confiscated circulated
\nfrom the very first moments of the change of regime, immediately after 22nd
\nof December 1989. We suddenly saw coming to power the second and third echelons
\nof the former Communist Party which replaced Ceausescu’s inner circle, the
\nnomenklatura, the people at the very top of the Romanian Communist Party who
\nwere blamed for all the problems of the 1980s: the profound economic crisis,
\nextreme nationalism, the assimilation of ethnic minorities and Romania’s
\ndisastrous image abroad.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The
\nmyth of the hijacked revolution is very strong among public opinion and
\nDragos Petrescu believes it hinders a fair evaluation of the changes that have
\ntaken place in the last 30 years:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
If we believe that Iliescu and his group confiscated or stole the revolution I
\nthink we could destroy one of the most magical moments of Romania’s 20th
\ncentury history. The revolution was the most interesting moment and the moment
\nthat could really make us proud to be Romanian, beyond the empty nationalism of
\nthe common expression ‘proud to be Romanian’. Why? Because we would be denying
\nthe fundamental moments of the Romanian revolution. The violent repression of
\nthe revolution in Timisoara, of the people’s protest that turned into a
\nrevolution, and other such moments, could not have been controlled by Iliescu.
\nThe transition from what happened in Timisoara to what happened in Bucharest on
\nthe 21st December 1989 when Ceausescu tried to reenact the
\nsuccessful moment of 21st August 1968 when he condemned the
\nintervention of the Warsaw Pact in Czechoslovakia could also not have been
\norchestrated by Iliescu, because it wasn’t Iliescu who made Ceausescu organise
\nthat rally.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The
\nsecond myth that gained a firm stronghold in the collective mind of Romanians
\nwas that the revolution of 1989 was a coup d’\u00e9tat. Dragos Petrescu says this
\nmyth was generated by the same course of events:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We’re dealing in this case with a very interesting historical exercise. Often,
\nwhat happens after a certain event makes us change our opinion about the
\nrespective event. In other words, the frustration felt by many Romanian
\ncitizens, especially in respect of the slow pace of reforms and the fact that Romania
\nonly very slowly advanced towards Europe, made them deny the change that
\noccurred on 22nd December 1989. The slow change, the very slow
\ndemocratic process, the coming to power of many from the former middle-rank
\nnomenklatura, the technocrats with links to the Romanian Communist Party, all
\nthese made Romanians deny their participation in a very important, fundamental
\nevent, I’d say, for the Romanians. The change was real, Romania did go through real
\nregime change, through a revolution, and 1,100 people dead and 3,300 wounded
\nmake Romania the only example of a real revolution.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The
\nmyth of the terrorists, the third most powerful myth connected with the
\nRomanian revolution, was, however, initiated by the new post-communist
\ngovernment represented by Ion Iliescu and the National Salvation Front, a myth
\nvery few Romanians still believe. Dragos Petrescu says it was a myth that
\nperfectly served the aims of those who had just come to power: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The issue of the terrorists is strictly connected to the issue of the almost
\n900 tragic and useless deaths caused by the diversion and confusion that
\nfollowed after 22nd of December and which is the work of the new
\ngovernment. In my opinion, the confusion was clearly maintained intentionally
\nby those connected with the new government to help it consolidate its power.
\nMoreover, it served to put an end to the people’s revolutionary drive that
\ncould have led to calls for the immediate punishment of those who were guilty
\nof abuses during the communist period, in particular former secret police
\nofficers and former members of the communist party in decision-making
\npositions. The myth of the terrorists helped fuel the diversion and confusion
\nand Ion Iliescu constantly maintained it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Fortunately,
\nhowever, the myths of the Romanian revolution aren’t stronger than the
\nawareness of what was achieved in 1989, namely a return to normality. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On the 22nd of December 1989, at 12.08 am, Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena were taking off by helicopter from the rooftop of the building housing the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party in Bucharest. Their flight paved the way for the end of the communist dictatorship and for the restoration of democracy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":130762,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41141],"tags":[29661,19347],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-130761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-history-show","tag-revolution","tag-romania"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n