The Ceaușescus

In the history of Romania there have been families to whom we literally owe the existence of the country. And then there were the infamous Ceausescus.

Steliu Lambru, 16.03.2026, 13:08

In the history of Romania there have been families to whom we literally owe the existence of the country, such as the Brătianu, Cantacuzino, Golescu, Ghica, Lahovary and other families. But there is also the example of the infamous Ceausescus.

The communist regime meant an extremely high degree of corruption and nepotism at all levels. Once Nicolae Ceaușescu reached the top position in the party and in government in 1965, he secured his stability through loyal collaborators and relatives. His wife Elena, his three children—Valentin, Zoe and Nicu—and his siblings Niculina, Marin, Maria, Florea, Andruță, Ilie, Elena and Ion, held various positions in the public hierarchy, with various levels of involvement and visibility. The Ceausescus, members of a lowly family, took full advantage of the chance to reach a status far above the one they would have acquired otherwise. Of all the members of the Ceausescu family, Elena Ceausescu was the most influential.

Maxim Berghianu was a high dignitary, responsible for economic development projects. In 2002, the Oral History Centre of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation asked him if any other member of the family, apart from the wife Elena, had influenced Nicolae in his decision-making.

Maxim Berghianu: “I don’t think any of them influenced him in making decisions, as far as I know. I didn’t met them personally, but I knew Nicolae’s brother, Florea Ceausescu, by sight; he was a journalist, a modest man who kept to himself. He was also investigated by Elena Ceauşescu because he had built a villa in Snagov. She was not very keen on his siblings. Nelu, the youngest, was somewhat accepted, he was a man of character, a great character. I worked with him at the Ministry of Agriculture and he was a man of common sense, a good man, perhaps as Ceausescu himself would have been, had he not have such a woman by his side, who always pushed him towards darkness, towards evil. But this Nelu guy was a quiet and modest boy, he helped everyone, I really liked working with him. He was both respectful and fair.”

General Ilie Ceaușescu, Nicolae’s brother, ran a research institute in history and military studies. The institute led by Ilie Ceaușescu, together with the Romanian Communist Party History Institute, set the tone in the Romanian history research. Ideological directives, editorial projects and research plans valid for all historians in Romania came from the team formed around Ilie Ceaușescu, a true camarilla. Maxim Berghianu remembers Nicolae’s historian brother, as well as Marin, the eldest and most senior brother in the party ranks, who committed suicide at the Romanian embassy in Vienna during the Revolution of December 1989.

Maxim Berghianu: “Then there was Ilie, a military man, whom I didn’t know, but I know that he was a man with an interest in history, and rather modest as a person. Of course, they all had Ph.Ds, the whole family. I didn’t know the other brother Nicolae. Nor have I met Marin, who died in unclear circumstances. I think he had to be taken out because he knew too much about the family accounts.”

Two of the three children of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu, the eldest son Valentin and the daughter Zoe, were discreet in terms of public appearances. But discretion was far from defining the third born, Nicu, who was the leader of the entourage formed around him by the children of high-ranking party officials. Nicu was rumoured to be quite the partygoer. Paradoxically, it was him who received political positions and seemed to be groomed to take over power after his father retired.

Valentin Ceaușescu, a physicist by training, was a big fan of the Steaua Bucharest football team, which he managed until they won the European Cup in 1986. Zoe Ceauşescu, the daughter, a mathematician, was even more reserved, and worked at the Mathematics Institute of the Romanian Academy.

Maxim Berghianu: “When Pacepa published his memoirs, Red Horizons, he mentioned a man who had a brief affair with Zoe and they disappeared for a few days. She worked at the Mathematics Institute, Zoe was very intelligent and a good mathematician. I don’t know about her private life, I was never interested, but I know that she was a good specialist and worked there on merit. And I don’t know where she went with that boy, to a cabin somewhere, and the Securitate couldn’t find her. As for that engineer, whose name was Mihai, Pacepa says that Madame Ceauşescu called him and told him, Look. About this Mihai engineer guy, you are to send him to Conakri, to Sékou Touré’s Guinea, within a month. You know that the ambassador told us that there is a disease there from a fly that stings you and in two days your head swells like a slug and you die. This is where you’ll send him! This is what Pacepa writes in Red Horizons.”

The Ceausescus sparked the imagination of Romanians, and much has been said about them. It was a family that came into the spotlight only because of a regime that promoted repression and nepotism, namely communism.