Nicolae Ceaușescu

Nicolae Ceaușescu 1918-1989, age 71

He was a Romanian communist politician. He was the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989 and hence the second and last Communist leader of Romania.
His secret police, the Securitate, was responsible for mass surveillance as well as severe repression and human rights abuses within the country and he suppressed and controlled the media and press, implementing methods that were among the harshest, most restrictive and brutal in the world. Economic mismanagement due to failed oil ventures during the 1970s led to skyrocketing foreign debts for Romania.

In 1982, he exported much of the country’s agricultural and industrial production in an effort to repay them. The shortages that followed drastically lowered living standards, leading to heavy rationing of food, water, oil, heat, electricity, medicine, and other necessities. His cult of personality experienced unprecedented elevation, followed by extensive nepotism and the intense deterioration of foreign relations, even with the Soviet Union.

As anti-government protesters demonstrated in Timișoara in December 1989, he perceived the demonstrations as a political threat and ordered military forces to open fire on 17 December, causing many deaths and injuries. The revelation that Ceaușescu was responsible resulted in a massive spread of rioting and civil unrest across the country. The demonstrations, which reached Bucharest, became known as the Romanian Revolution—the only violent overthrow of a communist government in the turn of the Revolutions of 1989.

Ceaușescu and his wife Elena fled the capital in a helicopter, but they were captured by the military after the armed forces changed sides. After being tried and convicted of economic sabotage and genocide, they were immediately executed by firing squad on 25 December and Ceaușescu was succeeded as President by Ion Iliescu, who had played a major part in the revolution.
Capital punishment was abolished shortly thereafter.
On Christmas Day, December 25th, 1989, the Ceaușescus were tried before a court convened in a small room on orders of the National Salvation Front, Romania’s provisional government.
They faced charges including illegal gathering of wealth and genocide. Ceaușescu repeatedly denied the court’s authority to try him and asserted he was still legally the president of Romania. At the end of the quick show trial, the Ceaușescus were found guilty and sentenced to death.

A soldier standing guard in the proceedings was ordered to take the Ceaușescus out back one by one and shoot them, but the Ceaușescus demanded to die together. The soldiers agreed to this and began to tie their hands behind their backs, which the Ceaușescus protested against but were powerless to prevent.
The Ceaușescus were executed by a gathering of soldiers: Captain Ionel Boeru, Sergeant-Major Georghin Octavian and Dorin-Marian Cîrlan, while reportedly hundreds of others also volunteered.
Before his sentence was carried out, Nicolae Ceaușescu sang “The Internationale” while being led up against the wall. The firing squad began shooting as soon as the two were in position against a wall. A TV crew who were to film the execution only managed to catch the end of the execution, as the Ceaușescus lay on the ground shrouded by dust kicked up by the bullets striking the wall and ground. After the shooting, the bodies were covered with canvas.
Later that day, the execution was also shown on Romanian television
The hasty show trial and the images of the dead Ceaușescus were videotaped and the footage released in numerous Western countries two days after the execution.

Nicolae and wife Elena Ceausescu execution by the Romanian Army

 

 

Nicolae Ceaușescu 1918-1989, age 71

He was a Romanian communist politician. He was the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989 and hence the second and last Communist leader of Romania.
His secret police, the Securitate, was responsible for mass surveillance as well as severe repression and human rights abuses within the country and he suppressed and controlled the media and press, implementing methods that were among the harshest, most restrictive and brutal in the world. Economic mismanagement due to failed oil ventures during the 1970s led to skyrocketing foreign debts for Romania.

In 1982, he exported much of the country’s agricultural and industrial production in an effort to repay them. The shortages that followed drastically lowered living standards, leading to heavy rationing of food, water, oil, heat, electricity, medicine, and other necessities. His cult of personality experienced unprecedented elevation, followed by extensive nepotism and the intense deterioration of foreign relations, even with the Soviet Union.

As anti-government protesters demonstrated in Timișoara in December 1989, he perceived the demonstrations as a political threat and ordered military forces to open fire on 17 December, causing many deaths and injuries. The revelation that Ceaușescu was responsible resulted in a massive spread of rioting and civil unrest across the country. The demonstrations, which reached Bucharest, became known as the Romanian Revolution—the only violent overthrow of a communist government in the turn of the Revolutions of 1989.

Ceaușescu and his wife Elena fled the capital in a helicopter, but they were captured by the military after the armed forces changed sides. After being tried and convicted of economic sabotage and genocide, they were immediately executed by firing squad on 25 December and Ceaușescu was succeeded as President by Ion Iliescu, who had played a major part in the revolution.
Capital punishment was abolished shortly thereafter.
On Christmas Day, December 25th, 1989, the Ceaușescus were tried before a court convened in a small room on orders of the National Salvation Front, Romania’s provisional government.
They faced charges including illegal gathering of wealth and genocide. Ceaușescu repeatedly denied the court’s authority to try him and asserted he was still legally the president of Romania. At the end of the quick show trial, the Ceaușescus were found guilty and sentenced to death.

A soldier standing guard in the proceedings was ordered to take the Ceaușescus out back one by one and shoot them, but the Ceaușescus demanded to die together. The soldiers agreed to this and began to tie their hands behind their backs, which the Ceaușescus protested against but were powerless to prevent.
The Ceaușescus were executed by a gathering of soldiers: Captain Ionel Boeru, Sergeant-Major Georghin Octavian and Dorin-Marian Cîrlan, while reportedly hundreds of others also volunteered.
Before his sentence was carried out, Nicolae Ceaușescu sang “The Internationale” while being led up against the wall. The firing squad began shooting as soon as the two were in position against a wall. A TV crew who were to film the execution only managed to catch the end of the execution, as the Ceaușescus lay on the ground shrouded by dust kicked up by the bullets striking the wall and ground. After the shooting, the bodies were covered with canvas.
Later that day, the execution was also shown on Romanian television
The hasty show trial and the images of the dead Ceaușescus were videotaped and the footage released in numerous Western countries two days after the execution.

Nicolae and wife Elena Ceausescu execution by the Romanian Army