The communist dictatorship was set
\nup in Romania after the Second World War, when Soviet troops occupied Romania.
\nParadoxically, the regime that endured half a century took only one week to
\ncollapse. Unable to further cope with the austerity and oppression of Nicolae
\nCeausescu’s regime, living with hunger, cold and in the dark, deprived of
\nelementary rights and encouraged by the cascading collapse of the Soviet
\nregimes in East-European countries, it took only a spark for Romanians to take
\nto the streets. On December 16, 1989, the protest staged by a dozen supporters
\nof the Hungarian-born Reformed priest Laszlo Tokes, whom the authorities were
\nplanning to deport from Timisoara, western Romania, turned into a genuine
\nrebellion. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Protesters grew from a few hundreds to thousands, then tens of
\nthousands of people of various ethnicities and confessions. The security forces
\nimmediately resorted to arrests. Then the army, the political police the
\nSecuritate as well as the militia took point, firing on the crowd of
\nprotesters. Factories and plants were left unmanned, while students went on
\nstrike to join the protesting workers. Eventually, the army withdrew to their
\nbarracks. On December 20, Timisoara thus became the first city in Romania free
\nof communism. On the 21st, the Revolution engulfed other large cities
\nin the west and center of the country, and events peaked with a massive protest
\nstaged in Bucharest, which the communists again tried to stifle with bloodshed. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
On December 22, Ceausescu fled by helicopter the communist party’s central
\ncommittee, besieged by hundreds of thousands of people. Captured and subjected
\nto a speedy trial, he was executed on the 25th, leaving behind a
\ncountry in ruins and mourning. Over 1,100 people were killed over December
\n16-25, mostly after Ceausescu ran away. The official version of the time was
\nthat these people had been killed by the so-called terrorists, people still
\nloyal to the regime, whose identity is yet to be ascertained. Military
\nprosecutors now investigating the Revolution Case however have pointed the
\nfinger at Ion Iliescu, the man commonly acknowledged to have orchestrated the
\nchange of regime, himself one of Ceausescu’s ministers in the 70s, and at his
\nclose associates as well. Prosecutors say they are responsible for creating
\nthis terrorist psychosis, which fueled the loss of human lives. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The massacre
\naimed at building the legitimacy of the new Government had its desired effect.
\nIn May 1990 the first free elections were held after the events of ’89. Ion
\nIliescu won the election by a landslide, with over 85% of the votes, from the
\nfirst round of election. His party, dubbed the National Salvation Front, won
\ntwo thirds of the seats in the newly created Parliament. Prosecutors claim
\nIliescu and his acolytes formed a dissident group that sought to remove dictator
\nNicolae Ceausescu from power and to maintain Romania under Soviet influence.
\nToday a member of the European Union and NATO and deeply attacked to Western
\ndemocratic values, Romania is the living proof that the scenario of the
\npro-Moscow conspirators failed. <\/p>\n
(Translated by V. Palcu)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Romanians continue to commemorate the anticommunist revolution of 1989, which changed the course of their nation forever<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":84108,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[39842,32197,39843,29650,29645,1989],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-84107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-communist-regime","tag-ion-iliescu","tag-nicolae-ceasusescu","tag-romanian-revolution","tag-timisoara","tag-vaccin-imunizare-coronavirus"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n