Ceausescu For Review - Somecorrections

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Ceausescu 101
Who Was That Man They Killed on Christmas Day?
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By Catalin Gruia
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Copyright 2013 Catalin Gruia
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All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof
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may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
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without the express written permission of the publisher
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except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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First Printing, July 2013
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Cover design: Tudor Smalenic
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37-Minutes Publishing
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www.catalingruia.com
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About the Author

Catalin Gruia is a veteran journalist who has written
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and reported for the Romanian edition of National Geographic
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for over 10 years. He is currently Editor in Chief of National
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Geographic Traveler and Deputy Editor in Chief of National
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Geographic Romania.
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International awards
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First prize (Geographica category) at the International
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Seminar of National Geographic International Editions,
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Washington, 2004
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Johann Strauss Golden Medal, Vienna, 2010
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http://b2b.wien.info/de/reisebranche/wtk-2010-strauss-medaille
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Kinarri Trophy, Friends of Thailand Awards, Bangkok,
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2013
http://www.thaistory.ro/romania-premiata-la-friends-ofthailand-awards-2013/
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Table of Contents
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Foreword ..................................................................................................... 5
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About this book ........................................................................................... 7
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The Young Underground Hero? ............................................................... 10
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Butter Up, Fit In, Work, Climb the Ladder ............................................... 13
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The Rookie in the Political Office ............................................................ 15
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The Easterns Blocs Trojan Horse ............................................................ 19
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Sidebar: Psychological profile .................................................................. 22
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Private Life Details ................................................................................... 25
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Romanias Forced Industrialization .......................................................... 27
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The Rough Years ...................................................................................... 29
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Sidebar: The Golden Age Of Nicolae Ceausescu.................................. 37
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Towards a Potemkin Romania .................................................................. 43
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Elena Ceausecu: Romanias Lady MacBeth ............................................. 45
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Sidebar: Grand Legacies ........................................................................... 47
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The Beginning of the End ......................................................................... 51
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Between Security and Paranoia................................................................. 54
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Down with Ceausescu! The Turning Point in Timisoara ...................... 58
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The Execution Squad ................................................................................ 59
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Sidebar: Whose House Is It Anyway? ...................................................... 63
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The End ..................................................................................................... 70
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................... 72
About the Author ........................................................................................ 3
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Foreword
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Ne Sutor Ultra Crepidam!
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By Cristian Lascu, Editor In Chief of the Romanian edition of National
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Geographic Magazine.
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Cobbler, stick to thy last! master Apelles yelled at a
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shoemaker who, thinking that he was good at everything, criticized
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the way the former had painted a sandal. When the smoke of the
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Ceausescus execution cleared, we were frustrated. Somebody had
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cheated. Instead of an embarassing crime, there should have been a
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Nrenberg trial of the communist dictatorship. How is it possible
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not to repeat mistakes if you do not understand their causes and you
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do not criticize them openly?
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This story about Ceausescu, documented and illustrated
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brilliantly, brings back memories about the hardships, abuses, and
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peculiarities of daily life during the dictatorship. Time, however,
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has blurred the details; what happened then seems incomprehensible
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for young people, and this dry documentary about Ceausescu may
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seem too late for them.
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On the other hand, through a wide angle lens with a focal
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range of 25 years, author Catalin Gruia atempts to cover a subject
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that unfolded over a more-than-50 year range. The distorsions thus
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become inevitable; history has to be looked at through a telescopic
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lens. Ceausescus ascent and decline is long and complicated, but its
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meaning can be succint: a simple but ambitious man succeeded in
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holding on to the absolute state power for 25 years.
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In all his actions, he was a passionate, consistent communist

and patriot, therefore, he was to the liking of the poor, of the mob,
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and of the nationalists, at least for a while. He entered the arena of
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politics like a soccer player and the crowd everywhere cheered him
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on, forgetting that its no use scoring in an away game if you lose at
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home.
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He wanted to accomplish a lot, he had no education, and
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being suspicious by nature and hating the elites, he did not even
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want to listen to those who were knowledgeable. Facing death, he
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yelled: Long live the free, independent, Socialist Republic of
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Romania! By then, his obsessive dream, the Socialist Romania,
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was almost built. It had been built, however, on sand, by an
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exceptional but incompetent dictator.
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Cristian Lascu
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About this book
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or Ceausescu and I
For me, Ceausescus death put a serious spanner in the
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works. I had just won a school contest in speed skating. The
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prize was a place in a childrens mountain camp, which got
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cancelled because of the events in December 1989.

How could the fall of communism compare to the
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drama of losing that prize, to my nine-year old eyes?
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Oh well, forget about that camp sour, like any grapes
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you cant reach. A few days later I went to the grandparents
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village, for the yearly slaying of the pig. Then, just at the
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culmination, when the pig was screeching madly under the
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knife, its nostrils blowing thick jets of steam, pinned down in
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the snow by a bunch of men wearing heavy sheepskin coats,
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the adults let go of the animal and rushed into the house,
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crowding around the TV.

They came back out after long minutes (I refused to go
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inside) with their faces transformed with stupefaction mixed
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with joy, heatedly discussiong the big news. I cant remember
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exactly when we killed the pig that year, so I cant be sure what
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the news was: The 22nd of December the Tyrants flight
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from the Central Committee building. The 24th his
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apprehension. I remember I started to chant out like an idiot the
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rhyme I heard on everyones lips: Ol, ol Ceausescu nu mai
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e!1 I also remember that only my half-illiterate grandmother
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remained skeptical in the midst of this general effervescence:
Ceausescu is gone.
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It does not bode well for a people to hunt down its leaders like
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that.
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I understood even less of the happiness of the grown-
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ups the second or third day after, when I happened to be in
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front of the TV just when they were broadcasting scenes from
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the execution of the Ceausescus (after which whoever was
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directing the live revolution put on some Animal Farm
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cartoons). To my childs mind, the Ceausescus were just two
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little old people put against the wall of an outhouse and pierced
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full of bullet holes on Christmas day.
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Fifteen years later, I spent almost 11 months studying
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Ceausescus life for a National Geographic documentary. I let
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his ghost follow me through dozens and dozens of books and
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interviews I even dreamed of him at night.
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As far as Im concerned, a story is good as long as it
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obeys the great rule of any journalistic material: convincingly
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prove a hypothesis. And my hypothesis for the article in
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National Geographic was that Ceausescus life was a road to
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hell paved with good intentions.
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I set out in my work without resentment; I associated
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the last decade of Ceausescus regime with my beautiful
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childhood, spent mostly in the countryside, not with what it
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really was a black stain of deprivation in Romanias history. I
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think that may be why Ive been able to present Ceausescu
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objectively, without hating or admiring him, the way you
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would describe a faraway planet that you look upon detachedly,
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though a telescope.
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But I must confess I enjoyed working on the Ceausescu
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project because it was easy for me to empathize with the
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character. I ended up recognizing myself in him: a guy from the
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village who fails to adapt to the city, lacking culture but
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intelligent enough to push through, with his failed struggle to
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overcome his inferiority complexes (turned superiority
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complexes)
Ive ended up seeing him both as a tyrant with narrow
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vision and as a victim of an obedient, sycophantic people.
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Ultimately, Ive ended up wondering what would happen to
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me, or to yourself, if everyone started to flatter and cajole us
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year after year, telling us we are the most beautiful, the most
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intelligent and so on.

In a few sentences, Ceausescus life could be
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summarized as follows: This is the story of a state resident, for
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whom the world was a great village. His cottage happened to
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be Romania. For 24 years he led this country like an ambitious
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peasant, dreaming of turning an impoverished small holding
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into a rich farm. He struggled to earn the respect of the people.
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Tired of depending on and borrowing money from his affluent
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neighbors, he tried to make it on his own. At first, he thought
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he would succeed. But he was sloppy and hasty. What others
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had, he wanted also, without thinking too much about
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feasibility or necessity. If any other two world leaders fought,
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he would jump in to break them up. For a while he treated his
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people well giving them many jobs and houses but when
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things stopped going his way, he exploited them without
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mercy.
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CHAPTER 1
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The Young Underground Hero?
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I had never heard anything about him - Constantin
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Pirvulescu, one of the founders of the Romanian Communist Party
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(PCR).
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A short, stuttering kid left home at 11 to make
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something of himself in Bucharest. His parents, peasants from
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Scornicesti, could barely put food on the table for their 10
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children. His father, Andruta, had three hectares of land, a few
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sheep, and would make ends meet by tailoring. He didnt take
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care of his kids; he stole, he drank, he was quick to fight, and
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he swore... said the old priest from Scornicesti. His mother
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was a submissive, hard-working woman. The family slept on
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benches along the walls of a two-room house. Corn mush was
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their staple food.
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Nicolae went to the village school for four years. The
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teacher taught simultaneous classes for different years in a one-
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room schoolhouse. The young Ceausescu did not have books
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and he often went to school barefoot. An outsider from early in
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life, he did not have friends; he was anxious and unpredictable.
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In a then cosmopolitan Bucharest the first city he had
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seen Nicolae moved in with his sister, Niculina Rusescu.
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Soon, he was sent to serve his apprenticeship at the workshop
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of shoemaker Alexandru Sandulescu, active member of the
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Romanian Communist Party (PCR), who initiated his
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apprentice in conspirative missions. Nicolae did not adapt to
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Bucharest.
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The switch from a world in which he couldnt find his
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place (his own village) to another in which he still couldnt find
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his place (the intimidating city) marked him. His initiation
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into the marginalized movement of the communists was his
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alternative solution for integrating into social life, says
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sociologist Pavel Campeanu, author of the book Ceausescu:
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The Countdown.
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Historians of the Golden Age never miss an opportunity
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to hyperbolize Ceausescu, the activist, as a young hero,
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arrested for the first time at the age of 15, and who, by the age
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of 26, had spent 7 years in prison.
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The truth is that, in the 1930s, Nicolae was a rash,
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incompetent kid. I had never heard anything about him, says
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Constantin Parvulescu, one of the founders of the Romanian
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Communist Party (PCR). He would receive minor missions
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from his communist bosses. For example, in 1934 in Craiova,
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with three other young people, he caused a stir at the trial of a
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group of communists led by Gheorghe Gheorghiu Dej, who
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was at the time the leader of the Romanian Rail System union
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in Bucharest. Ceausescu and his comrades were arrested and
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beaten by the police.
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According to the testimony of Ion Gheorghe Maurer,
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who would become president of the Council of Ministers,
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Nicolae had been paid to distribute manifestos and petitions
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just as others were paid to sell newspapers.
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Until the mid-1930s, Nicolae traveled on missions in
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Bucharest, Craiova, Campulung, or Ramnicu Valcea. He was
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arrested several times. His record was beginning to convey the
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image of a dangerous communist agitator and distributor of
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communist and anti-fascist propaganda.
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His first prison sentence: June 6, 1936, the court of
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Brasov two years in prison, plus 6 months for defiance of the
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court, a 2000-lei fine, and a year of home detention in
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Scornicesti. The largest part of his sentence was served at
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Doftana. His fellow inmates say that the prisoner Ceausescu
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was envious, vengeful, and tough. But he knew how to get
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under peoples skin.
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When he got out of prison, Ceausescu was no longer
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quite as anonymous. He became a leading member of the youth
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organization of the Romanian Workers Party (PMR). In
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Romania, there were about 700 free communists (led by
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Patrascanu, Foris, Pirvulescu) and about 200 more imprisoned
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(the generation that had taken part in Dejs railway strike); a
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royal dictatorship has been instated, activist meetings were
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rare, money was scarce, member IDs and membership dues did
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not exist.
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He was soon arrested again and sent to Jilava for three
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years for conspiring against the social order. Ceausescu spent
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the war years in prisons and work camps: Jilava (1940),
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Caransebes (1942), Vacaresti (August, 1943), Targu Jiu
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(September, 1943).
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The bars isolated him from what was happening outside: the
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agreement between Hitler and Stalin; internal conflicts between
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communists; the loss of Basarabia and North Ardeal territories; the
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attempted legionary coup detat; the abdication of Carol II; the
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Antonescu dictatorship. Sealed away from the tumultuous history
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unravelling in his homeland, the prisoner plotted his own vision for
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Romanias future.
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CHAPTER 2
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Butter Up, Fit In, Work, Climb the Ladder
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An uneducated young man, but with a real instinct for power
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August 1944 was a crossroads in his and Romanias
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destiny: Ceausescu was released and began his rise to power.
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The Romanian communist family the Moscovite faction, the
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imprisoned generation of Dej, and the veteran covert activists
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reunited that autumn in the mansion at 16, Eliza Filipescu Lane
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(where the Indian Embassy is housed today). Ceausescu was
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among them.
Under the protective wing of Dej, whose favorite he had
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become while in prison, Ceausescu struggled, flattered,
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adapted, worked, raised himself up, step by step, tenaciously,
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stubbornly, and with a real instinct for power:
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at 27 he was the leader of the Communist Youth
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Organization (UTC) and, later, of the Central
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Committee (CC) of the Romanian Workers Party
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(PMR);
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at 28 party instructor in Constanta and Oltenia;
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at 29 deputy in the Grand National Assembly (after he
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had mobilized motorized troops in the electoral precinct
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to convince electors to place ballots in the urns which
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had already been filled by the communists ahead of
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time);
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at 30 Sub-Secretary of State in the Ministry of

Agriculture (where the forced collectivization began);
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army, then politruk with a specialization in Moscow;
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at 31 Co-Minister of Defense, political head of the
at 36 secretary of the Central Committee (a key
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position in the Communist Party, dealing with the
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organization of the Party);
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at 37, during the second Romanian Workers Party
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congress, he was accepted as a member of the politburo,
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where his duty was to supervise the internal affairs of
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the party within the Ministries of the Interior, Securitate,
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the Armed Forces, the Magistracy, and Justice (he used
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this position to create a network of connections,
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installing his people in the Partys key positions).
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CHAPTER 3
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The Rookie in the Political Office
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The honeymoon of the first steps of the youngest ever political
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leader in Europe
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November 5, 1957. An IL-14 airplane carrying a
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delegation of 14 Romanian Workers Party members, on its
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way to Moscow for the October anniversary of the Great
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Socialist Revolution crashed upon landing at the Vnukovo
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airport, at 17:48, because of a piloting error. The Foreign
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Minister, Grigore Preoteasa, and three members of his
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delegation died. The other passengers suffered serious injuries.
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Nicolae Ceausescu, the secretary of the Central
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Committee of the Romanian Workers Party, was luckier. The
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medical record released in Moscow states: Trauma to the
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outer right hemithorax and to the left calf. Scratch wounds on
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the face, hands, and feet. Temperature: 37.5 degrees, general
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state: satisfactory. But fate had still been close to playing the
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most cruel joke on this ambitious young man, when he was just
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steps away from grasping power.
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A few years later, on March 19, 1965, 17:45, when
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Gheorghiu Dej died surrounded by the leading team of the
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Romanian Workers Party, Nicolae Ceausescu was the first to
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bend over and kiss him.
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The three veteran members of the politburo, friends of
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Dej who were qualified to replace him, were not well suited for
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the job because of their unhealthy origins: Ion Gheorghe
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Maurer was German, Emil Botnaras Ukrainian, Dumitru
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Coliu Bulgarian. (According to Paul Niculescu-Mizil, former
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member of the Central Committee, the three prerequisites for
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the future leader were: 1. to be Romanian, 2. to be an activist,
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3. to be part of the working class).

The desire of this triumvirate of the old guard to
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promote a docile young man to the head of a collective
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leadership converted Ceausescus defects into strengths. They
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pulled the strings for the junior member of the Politburo whom
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they considered the easiest to manipulate.

At the congress of July 19 24 meant to validate the
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Politburo elections, the 1357 delegates voted Ceausescu not as
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Prime Secretary, but as Secretary General, a title not used in
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the Eastern Bloc since the death of Stalin. Ceausescu, 47 years
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old, Europes youngest political leader to date, launched his
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mandate at full strength: the PMR returned to its old name, the
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Romanian Communist Party. After only one month, the name
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of the country changed, too: Romania went from being a
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Popular Republic to being a Socialist Republic. The
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honeymoon of the first steps in this seemingly modest and
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tolerant young dynamos governing career did not in any way
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foreshadow the bitter years of its end.

In the beginning, Ceausescu successfully focused on 4
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goals:
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the liberalization of internal politics;
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the wellbeing of Romanians;
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more power for himself (under the pretext of
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rehabilitation for the victims of the Dej period,
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he pulled the strings to replace the team that had
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promoted him and with whom he was supposed
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to share power, with the younger members in his
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entourage);
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an offensive strategy of seduction of the West,
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playing the rebel son of the Warsaw Pact family,
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while careful not to upset the USSR too much.
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Romanians lived better and they were proud of their
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President. Frustrated by history, they saw in Ceausescu one of
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their own, who was on equal standing with the worlds bigger
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players. When he condemned the military intervention in
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Czechoslovakia (on the night of August 20-21, 1968),
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Romanian enthusiasm was spontaneous. This act of defiance
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against Moscow brought him the respect of the entire world.
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But August 1968 was just the tip of the iceberg:
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Ceausescu consistently cultivated his aura of atypical
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communist leader:
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with the Federal Republic of Germany (1967),
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the only one who did not break off relations

with Israel after the Six-Day War (June 1967),
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he was the first to stabilize diplomatic relations
the only head of state who allowed Jewish
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citizens in his country to leave for Israel (it cost
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$2,000 - $5,000 per person, as the Securitate
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general Mihai Pacepa would reveal);
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the first Romanian President to visit the United
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States at a time when relations between the
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USSR and the US were extremely tense (1970);
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the first to refuse to align himself with the oil
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cartel founded by the General Plan of Comecon
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(1971),
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the leader of the only socialist country that was
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a member of the World Bank and the IMF
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(1972), etc.
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CHAPTER 4
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The Easterns Blocs Trojan Horse
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In his foreign policy, Ceausescu had a spark of genius - Silviu
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Brucan, former editor-in-chief of Scanteia
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In less than a decade, following the withdrawal of
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Soviet troops in 1956, the Romania of Gheorghiu Dej went
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from servility towards Moscow to a more autonomous foreign
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policy. Dej and his successor, Ceausescu, were both Stalinist
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wolves who, out of necessity, wore the pro-Western sheepskin
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of a national-liberal kind of communism, reacting to
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Khrushchevs attempt to reform the Eastern Bloc.

It was a defensive move that made them as popular at
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home as they were abroad. The West thought they had found in
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Ceausescu the Trojan horse of the Eastern Bloc, and they
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issued him a carte blanche for almost two decades. Some
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Western observers exalted him, comparing him to Kennedy or
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predicting that Romania would become a kind of Switzerland.

His fame as a stubborn, strong-headed nationalist with a
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special role in the Warsaw Pact opened almost every door for
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him. And Ceausescu proved to be a born mediator, extremely
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tolerant in his foreign policy (the polar opposite of the
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fanaticism that he exemplified in his internal affairs) he was
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capable of making a pact with the devil himself.

Ceausescu was a tyrant when it came to politics, an
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economic disaster, but in his foreign policy he had a spark of
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genius, said Silviu Brucan, former editor-in-chief of Scanteia,
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and later one of the main actors of the events in 1989.
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Although uneducated, he was smart, a wily, peasant sort of
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smart.
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Soon, political tourism in Romania was in style.
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Richard Nixon, the future president of the US, was the one who
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opened the season in 1967. That year, Corneliu Manescu, the
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Romanian Foreign Affairs Minister, became the president of
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the UN General Assembly.
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Ceausescu returned the visits. 1973 was the apogee of
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his trips abroad: Iran, Pakistan, the Netherlands, Italy, the
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Federal Republic of Germany, Yugoslavia, the US, the Vatican,
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the USSR, Morocco, and several countries in South America.
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At the Vatican, Pope Paul VI told him (May 26, 1973):
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Excellency, we ask Heaven to bless your activity, which we
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follow with great interest, and we ask you to consider us
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humble supporters of your policies of independence and
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sovereignty, which you are executing with such consistency.
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Ceausescu collected a considerable number of friends,
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medals, orders, and academic titles, a list of which would fill
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up 30 pages of this book. They vary from the French Legion of
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Honor to Luxembourgs Order of the Gold Lion of the House
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of Nassau, from the Order of the White Rose of Finland to the
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National Order of the Leopard of Zaire, from the British Order
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of the Bath to a handful of Orders of Lenin, of Karl Marx, and
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of the Red Banner from communist countries.
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He was the contemporary of six American presidents;
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he got along with all of them, and was friends with Nixon (they
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visited each other in Washington and Bucharest twice).
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Most of the time, he cultivated his good relations with
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the United States, which were tested in 1970 when Romania
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suffered floods (38 out of 39 provinces were affected, 600,000
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people were evacuated) and America sent more than $11.6
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million in aid, and culminated on July 25, 1975 when Romania
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obtained Most Favored Nation status (renewed annually until
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1988).
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Moscow had gotten used to the grandeur of Ceausescus
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foreign policy: they probably considered him an original, yet
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harmless, clown. He, however, took himself seriously: in July
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1973, at a meeting of the Eastern European Communist Party
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leaders, the Romanian spoke heresy: he asked for collaboration
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with the Social Democrats (considered traitors of communism),
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called for the abolition of the two military blocs NATO and
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Warsaw , defended China in the quarrel with the USSR, and
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criticized Brezhnev for not doing more to avoid a nuclear war.
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International tensions cooled down for a few years, and
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his double play was no longer necessary: the West discarded
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Ceausescu. Between 1974 and 1976, Ceausescu only traveled
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to the West twice. The number of Western visits to Romania
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decreased as well. In 1974 no one came. Feeling betrayed by
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the West, Ceausescu turned to the Russians, whom he needed
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to help turn Romania into a modern, industrialized state.
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In a private conversation in August 1976, Erich
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Honecker, leader of the German Democratic Republic, then on
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vacation in Crimea, told Leonid Brezhnev, the head of the
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USSR: Ceausescu keeps nagging me to go visit Romania. In
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general hes been acting better than usual. This is good. Well
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catch him again in the Warsaw Pact.
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During the same period, Ceausescu oriented himself
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towards the Third World (Africa, South America, the Arab
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states). He posed proving his political instinct as the
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European promoter of national independence. He approved
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million dollar credits, considered investments for the future,
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cooperated in the exploitation of underground riches and the
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exportation of industrial products and weapons.
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Sidebar
Psychological profile
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He was an isolated individual (he had no friends, the only person he
517
relied on being his wife), fierce and angry, critical with his
518
employees.
519
By psychologist Roxana Dobri.
520
521
His mother did not have enough strength to love and
522
protect him. His alcoholic and irresponsible fathers
523
aggressiveness scarred him for life. Nicolae would always
524
avoid this fatherly model, looking for a good father to protect
525
him and offer him security. Since he could not find such a
526
person, he turned into the Romanian peoples Father.
527
Because of his parents relationship, Ceausescu was
528
destined from early childhood to become an ambivalent
529
individual. He was in his element in the conflict between the
530
US and USSR. He defied Russias authority, in fact defying the
531
paternal authority. He turned into the rebel adolescent who
532
denied his parents i.e. those who had built Communism in the
533
world, including Romania in order to throw himself into
534
the arms of a family at odds with his own i.e. the West.
535
The anger and helplessness that characterized his early
536
years, his youth in capitalist Bucharest, were sublimated in the
537
frenzy of grandeur that was going to be sustained progressively
538
by the whole country.
539
He hid his frustrations and humiliation well, gaining
540
power, gradually but surely, first at home and then at an
541
international level. The system he promoted supported the
542
myth of self-achievement, the rule according to which he
543
overcame his own life history without ever escaping it
-22-
544
promoting peasants and poor workers children (like himself).
545
His childhood limitations and poverty probably drove him to
546
the creation of the New Man, a humble and ascetic socialist.
547
Preparing his ascent to the top of the Party, many years
548
before, Nicolae Ceausescu relied on unquestionable qualities.
549
He manifested signs of excellent emotional intelligence
550
abilities that helped him take his destiny into his own hands
551
right from the moment he arrived in Bucharest.
552
Joining the Romanian Communist Party was the only
553
way he could achieve acknowledgement and rapid social
554
ascension. He was servile and submissive to Gheorghe
555
Gheorghiu Dej, who would grant him access to the communist
556
networks of the time. His abilities to negotiate convinced the
557
old Party members that he was the most suitable successor to
558
Dej. His capacity to seduce and convince through humility and
559
submission, to dissimulate, helped him seize power in
560
Romania.
561
In reality, he proved to be emotionally unstable, acting
562
without thinking of the consequences of his own deeds. He was
563
an isolated individual (he had no friends, the only person he
564
relied on being his wife), fierce and angry, critical and
565
evaluating with his employees.
566
His non-verbal behavior during his speeches from the
567
podium or balcony shows a man who is rigid, limited,
568
tormented by his own need to control his speech impediments
569
and his emotions and to be accepted and flattered by the crowd.
570
These were not the personal characteristics of a man who lived
571
the delusive picture of total power and the need to be
572
worshipped, a need satisfied year after year by the millions of
573
people who chanted his name for minutes on end.
-23-
574
Some observers of the time thought that Ceausescu
575
lived in a parallel universe, trying to explain the fact that the
576
hard life of the Romanian people in the 90s was caused by the
577
Party machine and not by the dictators decisions. I believe that
578
world was the universe that Ceausescu consciously wanted and
579
created in a socio-political environment that facilitated the
580
delirium of his grandeur according to the mental pathology
581
with which he lived.
582
-24-
583
CHAPTER 5
584
Private Life Details
585
Ceausescu loved playing chess, pool, volleyball, and traveling
586
abroad. He discovered movies when he was in his mid-thirties. He
587
was a huge Kojak fan, and enjoyed watching American detective
588
movies. All his residences had a special projection room. After
589
1955, he took to hunting.
590
Nicolae Ceausescu met Lenuta Petrescu in 1939 at a
591
592
protest at the Workers Cultural Center. It was love at first
593
sight; Lenuta was young, beautiful, two years older than him,
594
and a member of the Communist youth organization she was
595
responsible for Sector 2 of Bucharest under her alias, Florica.
596
Seven years later they were married; they would have three
597
children (Valentin, Zoe, and Nicu) and stay together for 50
598
years.
599
They were very close, they held hands. Ceausescu
600
would not disobey her, and she would take great care of him,
601
making sure he ate, had everything he needed and was
602
satisfied. They would eat in the garden and they would have a
603
good time together.
604
He liked the music of Ioana Radu and Mia Braia and,
605
after they ate, he would sing, they would play backgammon,
606
and she would cheat. He would say: you cheated again, Im not
607
playing anymore. She would say: come on, Nicu, I wont cheat
608
anymore... And thats how they had their family fun, says
609
Suzana Andreias, head of personnel at the Ceausescu family
610
residence in Snagov for almost three decades.
-25-
611
Ceausescu liked chess, pool, and volleyball. Based on
612
the verse he would read at party Conventions, it seems he read
613
Romanian literature, primarily the poetry of Eminescu.
614
He was not a picky eater and had rustic tastes. He
615
discovered movies when he was 35 years old. After 1955, he
616
took up hunting, first invited by local party leaders whom he
617
controlled at the time as member of the Central Committee
618
politburo. Since 1965, it became a rule: he would go no Sunday
619
of the season without hunting. In 25 years, he killed over 7,000
620
animals.
621
In 1966, after finishing the Academy of Economic
622
Sciences (ASE) in the evening class section, he presented his
623
thesis: Selected Problems of the Development of Romania in
624
the 19th Century. The real author is unknown. Starting in
625
1968, his speeches were typed; they make up 33 volumes.
626
In the last 10 years of his life, he suffered from
627
diabetes. As he grew older, he became more and more fearful.
628
From 1972 on, he did not wear any article of clothing for
629
longer than one day. The Fifth Directorate of the Securitate
630
founded a tailors workshop just for him: it produced office
631
wear, Lenin caps, Mao jackets, English tweed pants, Soviet
632
style heavy padded coats and German style hunting suits.
633
He was pedantic and obsessed with punctuality. Every
634
morning, at 8.00 sharp, a line of cars escorted him to the office.
635
He ate lunch at 13:00 sharp. He used Badedas shower gel and
636
shaved with Gillette. He liked Odobesti white wine and red
637
sparkling wine.
638
-26-
639
CHAPTER 6
640
Romanias Forced Industrialization
641
Between 1971 and 1975, Romania's GDP registered an annual
642
growth rate of 11.3% that would never be reached again.
643
644
Between 1950 and 1989, and especially after 1965,
645
industrial production in Romania increased by a factor of 44.
646
Ironically, the driving force behind this Stalinist
647
industrialization was a fear of Moscow. Nikita Khrushchev
648
wanted to transform Comecon into a multinational planning
649
organization. Gheorghiu-Dej refused the role of granary for the
650
Warsaw Pact countries, which would have fallen upon
651
Romania, preferring to turn to the forced industrialization of
652
the country.
653
Ceausescu stepped on the gas, benefiting from his role
654
as Trojan horse of the East and taking advantage of Western
655
financing (especially from the US and the Federal Republic of
656
Germany). His authoritarian style of governing transformed
657
Romania from a mainly agricultural country into one that
658
registered production in almost all industrial branches.
659
In 1973, he approved the founding of joint ventures
660
with the participation of Western capital. From the first year,
661
there were 20 such enterprises. The volume of commercial
662
exchange with the West almost doubled: from 28% in 1965 to
663
45% in 1974.
664
Between 1971 and 1975, Romania registered an 11.3%
665
annual increase in GDP, never again surpassed. Whole towns
666
became construction sites, and the propaganda couldnt keep
667
up with the inauguration of factories and plants that popped up
668
like mushrooms after the rain of Western capital.
-27-
669
It was a hasty process though, usually using outdated
670
technology, without taking into account the effectiveness or the
671
cost of further investments. Ceausescu banked on quantity, not
672
quality. He was obsessed with the countrys high investment
673
rate over one third of the national income which, for him,
674
was the only remedy against underdevelopment, while
675
industrialization was a decisive factor for maintaining national
676
independence and sovereignty.
677
But the economy was not profitable. The state
678
enterprises, most of which were overstaffed, led to poverty,
679
suffering from the diseases of planned economy in its most
680
acute, Romanian form: disorganization, nepotism, corruption,
681
negligence and theft. The average GDP growth rate in Romania
682
decreased from 11.3% (between 1971 and 1975) to 9.6%
683
(1976-1980), then to 1.8% (1981-1982).
-28-
684
CHAPTER 7
685
The Rough Years
686
The generous policy of the '60s and '70s was replaced by a policy of
687
strict austerity in the '80s. There were ration cards for all the basic
688
food categories. Endless queues. Gas and power failures occurred
689
on a daily basis.
690
691
The galloping industrialization lead to a 10% increase
692
in urban population over a decade: in 1977, almost half of
693
Romanias population of 20 million lived in cities.
694
Collectivization left the village workforce unemployed,
695
while accelerated industrialization created jobs in the city. The
696
state launched an extensive construction program for peasants
697
who had headed to the city in hopes of gaining a better life. For
698
them, the leap from a small room, with a table and benches on
699
which parents, children, and grandparents slept, to apartments
700
with bedroom, dining room, kitchen and bathroom was real and
701
can be considered one of Ceausescus accomplishments.
702
Apartment blocks were built in great numbers: from
703
1981 to 1985, 750,000 apartments with central heating and hot
704
water opened their doors to their occupants. Between 1965 and
705
1970, migration from the country to the city as a side effect of
706
industrialization was considered a phenomenon to be desired.
707
In only a few years, because of the imbalance created by this
708
migration, restrictions were put into place for those who
709
wanted to settle in the big cities.
710
Forced industrialization plunged Romania into debt.
711
Between 1971 and 1982 the foreign debt grew from $1.2
712
billion dollars to almost $13 billion.
-29-
713
The oil crisis of 1978-1981 was like an earthquake for
714
this economy built on sand. In 1982, Romanias foreign trade
715
income decreased by 17% compared to the previous year.
716
Ceausescu found himself in the situation of not being able to
717
pay back his Western creditors. The countrys inability to pay
718
was formally declared. Disgusted by his Western friends,
719
Ceausescu ordered the foreign debt to be paid without taking
720
out new loans. This was another proclamation of national
721
independence, his obsession. Seven years later, Romania was
722
out of debt, paying the price with unprecedented poverty.
723
In 1984 the Danube Black Sea canal was inaugurated,
724
after 9 years of construction. The canal, which measures 64
725
kilometers (40 miles) and shortens the trip to the Black Sea by
726
400 kilometers (248 miles), had too high taxes to be attractive
727
for navigators ($1 for every ton of cargo) and was yet another
728
act asserting independence from the USSR, with whom
729
Romania shared the Danube Delta.
730
Construction on the Peoples House, which was to
731
become the headquarters of the Party and seat of the
732
Government, began in 1985. The head architect, Anca Petrescu,
733
had a team of 400 architects under her direction. Three
734
neighborhoods were leveled Uranus, Antim, and part of
735
Rahova, along with 17 churches. Every day, over 20,000
736
builders worked in three shifts. Within five years, the second
737
largest administrative building in the world (second only to the
738
Pentagon outside of Washington, D.C.) rose from the ground
739
with a volume of 2,500,000 cubic meters (88,287,000 cubic
740
feet) and over 7,000 rooms, some of them the size of stadiums.
741
The bill: circa $2 billion.
742
743
The grandeur of his economic plans, his obsession with

paying off the national debt and his ignoring of the consumer
-30-
744
needs of his population all pushed Ceausescu toward a
745
reckoning. Catastrophe was not far off.
746
The generous politics of the 60s and 70s were
747
replaced by one of strict saving in the 80s. Standing in line to
748
buy food became the public occupation. Buildings had central
749
heating, but it was no longer used; medical assistance was free,
750
but it was lacking medicine and technology, and the doctors
751
took bribes.
752
The populations energy consumption was reduced by
753
20% in 1979, 20% in 1982, 50% in 1983, and another 50% in
754
1985, each measurement based on the already reduced numbers
755
of the previous years.
756
In 1981, food rationing was reintroduced. There were
757
ration cards for oil, milk, butter, and sugar. The meat on the
758
market was whatever had been rejected for export. Between
759
1985 and 1988 food exports doubled. To mask the food crisis,
760
Iulian Mincu, Ceausescus personal doctor, invented a rationed
761
diet plan on the grounds that it was not healthy for an adult to
762
consume more than 3,000 calories per day. In 1983, Ceausescu
763
went even further below his nutritionists recommendations,
764
fixing per capita rations: 39.12 kg of meat, 73 kg of milk and
765
dairy products, 42.54 kg of potatoes, 66.08 kg of vegetables,
766
27.49 kg of fruit. Students, teachers and soldiers were forced to
767
participate in agricultural work.
768
In 1984, the energy crisis started: enterprises were
769
closed due to lack of electricity and raw materials; electricity,
770
gas, streetlights, and heat were cut off daily; gas had become a
771
rarity; on Sundays, driving was limited (one Sunday was only
772
for cars with even-number license plates, , the next only for
773
odd numbers).
-31-
774
In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev, newly elected Secretary
775
General of the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet
776
Union (CPSU), compared the Romanian economy to an old
777
horse ridden by a cruel horseman. Romanians were doing
778
badly: only 5% of the population had cars, 19% had TVs,
779
14.7% had washing machines, and 17.6% had refrigerators.
780
Ceausescu was familiar with the numbers of his weak
781
economy. After 1989, at one of his beachside villas, two
782
versions of documents detailing the last harvests were found,
783
one with the real numbers and the other with the fabricated
784
numbers for propaganda.
785
According to German-Romanian author Richard
786
Wagner, who left the country in the 80s, the only people left
787
in his entourage were relatives, lackeys, and criminals ready to
788
do anything. They ran the country like a bunch of demented
789
leaseholders.
-32-
790
CHAPTER 8
791
The Cult of Personality
792
We love him because he has hunger in his heart/For work, so that
793
we may have a better life/All our voivodes hold his arm tightly/And
794
all our forefathers whisper words of wisdom in his ear/He is a man
795
like any other, a man, a man, the man... from Homage for
796
Ceausescus 60th birthday, by poet Adrian Paunescu
797
798
The cult of personality inflated as reality worsened. In
799
1980, when the Year of the Dacians was celebrated,
800
Ceausescu himself was celebrated as a descendent of
801
Burebistas legacy. On TV, there were only two hours of
802
broadcast: between 8.00 and 10.00 P.M. Here is a list of
803
programs from January 26, 1987: 8 oclock news, 8:20 We
804
Praise the Leader of the Country Poems, an Anthology of
805
Venerations; 8:40 A Documentary Devoted to the
806
Theoretical Activity of Comrade Nicolae Ceausescu, 9
807
oclock The Veneration of the Supreme Commander, a
808
made-for-TV play accomplished with the help of the artistic
809
assembly of the army; 9:30 news, end of broadcast.
810
In November 1984, the penultimate Romanian
811
Communist Party (PCR) Convention was held. Hunger haunted
812
the country, while in the convention room, Nicolae Ceausescu,
813
interrupted by ovations Ceausescu heroism, Romania
814
communism! Our esteem and our pride, Ceausescu Romania!
815
reported on the strong development of the food industry to
816
his party members.
817
This cult of personality started in 1970-1973 with his
818
visit to Asia. Inspired by Mao Zedong in China and Kim Il
819
Sung in North Korea, Ceausescu presented his theses on his
820
own small cultural revolution in July 1971, with the aim of
-33-
821
forming a new kind of man, through which he sought to
822
transform Romania into a Korean-style beehive.
823
The bees didnt let out the slightest buzz. In 1910,
824
academic Constantin Radulescu Motru wrote: Romanians
825
have a herd instinct and mimic everything they see around
826
them, like sheep.
827
On March 25, 1974, Ceausescu was elected President of
828
the Socialist Republic of Romania, a position created especially
829
for him. The Eastern Bloc had never seen a communist
830
President before. Ceausescu had become an institution: he was
831
the President par excellence - of the State, of the State Council,
832
of the National Defense Council, of the United Socialist Front,
833
of the Supreme Council of Economic and Social Development,
834
of the Permanent Bureau of the Executive Political Committee,
835
of the Ideological Commission of the Romanian Communist
836
Party, and other commissions and committees.
837
In 1968, when he condemned the invasion of
838
Czechoslovakia, Romanians spontaneously praised him.
839
Immediately, at the 10th Romanian Communist Party
840
convention, his yes-men brought him homage, which he
841
rejected: We do not need idols or flag wavers. We do not need
842
to make standard bearers out of people. Our idol is Marxism-
843
Leninism and its concepts about the world and the life of the
844
proletariat.
845
After his visits to China and North Korea, he changed
846
his tune. His election to the position of president meant the
847
beginning of probably the most shameless cult of personality in
848
Europe since Hitler and Mussolini. Ceausescu became an idol
849
in only a few years; he was no longer just the Comrade but
850
titan among titans, the Oak from Scornicesti, strategist of luck,
851
guarantor of Romanias richness, sun, the measure of all things,
852
hawk, the Transfagarasan of our soul, the best
-34-
853
worker/soldier/peasant/miner/railway worker /hunter of the
854
country, all-knowing, beloved leader, earthly god, prince
855
charming, the peak that rises above the country, beloved father.
856
Since 1970, Romanians, predisposed to accepting
857
authoritarian forms of government, participated, at least
858
formally, in the leaders cult. The cult quickly developed its
859
own dynamic, at first a snowball the nucleus made up of
860
toadies he had resisted several years earlier that rapidly began
861
rolling, growing with opportunism and the herd mentality, until
862
it finally reached its extreme form in the 80s, becoming a sort
863
of schizophrenia shared by the entire population. His birthday
864
became a national holiday. On each of his birthdays, a new
865
Homage program would come out, heavy with praise and
866
anthems.
867
We love him because he has hunger in his heart/For
868
work, so that we may have a better life/All our voivodes hold
869
his arm tightly/And all our forefathers whisper words of
870
wisdoms in his ear/He is a man like any other, a man, a man,
871
the man... read the Homage for Ceausescus 60th birthday, by
872
the regimes number one poet, Adrian Paunescu, a Social
873
Democratic Party (PSD) senator in the post-communist regime.
874
In an interview with his French biographer, Michel-
875
Pierre Hamelet, Ceausescu defined the personality cult
876
organized around him in Romania as a problem of
877
organization and clear-sightedness.
878
One last protest: 83 year-old Romanian Communist
879
Party veteran Constantin Parvulescu stood up in the middle of
880
the 7th Romanian Communist Party convention in November
881
1979 and stated that he did not support Ceausescu, whom he
882
accused of putting his own interest above those of the party. It
883
was an isolated incident: the leader was reelected and 80,000
-35-
884
Bucharestians gathered for a mega-rally. Students got the day
885
off, and enterprises halted work.
886
-36-
887
Sidebar
888
The Golden Age Of Nicolae Ceausescu
889
The rise and fall: 25 years of communist reign
890
891
Four major steps in domestic policy:
892
The Thaw (1965-1969)
893
Cultural Revolution (1970-1973)
894
Romanian Neo-Stalinism (1974-1979)
895
Decade of Crisis (1980-1989)
896
897
898
Four major steps in foreign policy:
1974)
899
900
Western political tourism in Romania (1965-
Reorientation towards the USSR and Third

World countries (1974-1977)
901
902
Rapprochement with the West (1978-1984)
903
Anti-perestroika resistance and total isolation
904
(1985-1989)
905
Timeline
906
1965 Nicolae Ceausescu, Secretary General of the
907
Romanian Communist Party at 47, is Europes youngest
908
political leader to date.
909
910
911
1966 A series of laws prohibit abortion and

contraceptives; divorce procedures become more difficult.
-37-
912
913
1967 Corneliu Manescu, Romanian Foreign Minister,
914
becomes president of the UN General Assembly; Richard
915
Nixon becomes the first in a series of Western guests to visit
916
Ceausescu during the Cold War.
917
918
1968 Defying Moscow, Ceausescu condemns the
919
interference of the Warsaw Pact troops in Czechoslovakia.
920
Wave of enthusiasm in Romania. Western interest in the
921
Trojan horse of the Eastern Bloc; hypocritical plan of
922
rehabilitation of Dej regime victims, meant to isolate those who
923
propelled him to power.
924
925
926
1970 Catastrophic floods in Romania, 38 out of 39

counties affected, 600,000 people evacuated.
927
928
1971 Ceausescu visits Mao Zedong in China and Kim
929
Il Sung in North Korea. He begins to model his cult of
930
personality after theirs; road signs bearing Transylvanian town
931
names in Hungarian and German are prohibited.
932
933
934
1971-75 Romania achieves a GDP growth rate of

11.3%, never again surpassed.
935
936
1972 Romania becomes the only socialist country to
937
become a member of the World Bank and the IMF; Ceausescu
938
meets Anwar Sadat, Yasser Arafat, and other members of the
-38-
939
Organization for the Liberation of Palestine in Cairo, and
940
begins peace talks concerning war in the Middle East.
941
942
1973 The apogee of foreign visits: Iran, Pakistan, the
943
Netherlands, Italy, the Federal Republic of Germany,
944
Yugoslavia, the USSR, several South American countries,
945
Morocco, the US, the Vatican; Romania allows the founding of
946
joint ventures with the participation of Western capital (51%
947
Romanian capital).
948
949
1974 Ceausescu is elected President of the Socialist
950
Republic of Romania, a position created especially for him;
951
State monopolies seize all rare metals and precious stones.
952
953
1974-1976 The West gives up on Ceausescu, who
954
travels there only twice. He reorients himself towards the
955
USSR and the Third World, where he plays the role of credit-
956
lending European.
957
958
959
1975 Romania obtains Most Favored Nation status

with the US (renewed yearly until 1988)
960
961
962
1976 The right of settlement in big cities is heavily

limited.
963
964
1977 In March, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake: 1,570
965
dead, 11,300 injured, 35,000 households destroyed; in August,
966
the Jiu Valley miners strike; in October, the new anthem of the
-39-
967
Socialist Republic of Romania. (based on a text by Ceausescu)
968
and the law that replaced Mister, Mrs., Sir, and Maam
969
with comrade or citizen.
970
971
1978 The Ceausescus visit Great Britain (June 13-16);
972
the betrayal of the general of the Securitate, Mihai Pacepa (July
973
28). Foreign Intelligence Service restructured.
974
975
1979 At the 7th Romanian Communist Party (PCR)
976
Convention in November, Constantin Parvulescu, veteran of
977
PCR, 83 years old, rebukes Ceausescu for placing his personal
978
interest above those of the party; cars can be driven every other
979
Sunday, alternating even and odd license plate numbers; The
980
Russian invasion of Afghanistan; Ceausescu is again esteemed
981
by the West.
982
983
984
1979-1981 The fall of the Shah of Iran; the oil crisis

strikes countries with unstable economies, like Romania.
985
986
1980 CSCE conference in Madrid in November:
987
Ceausescu presents his plan for a united Europe, from the
988
Pyrenees to the Carpathians; a person may not be in possession
989
of more than one house or apartment.
990
991
1981 Rationing of staple foods. Drastic measures for
992
energy savings. Gas is scarce; people forced to participate in
993
agricultural work.
994
-40-
995
1982 Ceausescu orders the rapid payment of foreign
996
debt (almost $13 billion) without taking out new loans.
997
Romania under austere measures without precedent; emigrants
998
houses and land taken by the state.
999
1000
1983 Possession of photocopiers prohibited.
1001
1002
1984 The Danube Black Sea canal is inaugurated,
1003
after 9 years of construction; any privately owned typewriter
1004
must be registered with the Militia; energy crisis; new legal,
1005
fiscal, and medical rules for a more efficient enforcement of
1006
anti-abortion laws; Romania is the only Eastern Bloc country to
1007
participate in the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles despite the
1008
Soviet boycott.
1009
1010
1011
1981-1985 750,000 apartments opened for use; the

inhabitable surface area per capita is 12 m2.
1012
1013
1985 Construction begins on the Peoples House,
1014
which was to become the headquarters of the Party and seat of
1015
the Government; any conversation between a Romanian and a
1016
foreigner must be reported to the Securitate within 24 hours.
1017
Romanians are forbidden from hosting foreign citizens if they
1018
are not close family.
1019
1020
1986 In March, Mikhail Gorbachev presents his
1021
perestroika and glasnost theses in Moscow; minimum wage
1022
abolished, payment based on accomplishments.
-41-
1023
1024
1987 Mihai Pacepas book Red Horizon is published,
1025
revealing the side scenes of the Ceausescu regime; workers
1026
revolt in Brasov.
1027
1028
1029
1988 Program for the organization of villages; annual

per capita rations.
1030
1031
1989 The New York Times (March 10) publishes the
1032
letters of the 6 old guard communists Parvulescu, Gh.
1033
Apostol, C. Manescu, S. Brucan, G. Raceanu and A.
1034
Barladeanu asking Ceausescu to change his domestic policy;
1035
the revolt in Timisoara (December 16).; on December 25, the
1036
Ceausescus are lined up against the wall of an outhouse and
1037
shot by an execution squad in Targoviste.
1038
1039
1040
-42-
CHAPTER 9
1041
1042
Towards a Potemkin Romania
1043
Surrounded by hypocrites, Ceausescu lost all sense of limitations,
1044
and took increasing delight in his role as a feudal despot.
1045
1046
Visits around the country made Ceausescu popular in
1047
the first years of his government. Then, local activists started
1048
building Potemkin villages for him. Before his arrival, a
1049
commando would mask reality: healthy cows popped up in the
1050
landscapes, pine trees on the side of the road, apples were tied
1051
onto trees with wires, and plastic grapes topped the tables at
1052
exhibitions. Everything he said was taken as a valuable order to
1053
be executed in full.
1054
For example, in the 80s, when he found out that
1055
Westerners were producing huge quantities of corn per hectare
1056
(the secret being the production density of 50 60,000 plants
1057
per hectare), Ceausescu brought the task back to Romania.

One fall, in a county in Transylvania, the comrade
1058
1059
visited a representative farm unit. Since they had not been able
1060
to achieve the desired density on any field, local specialists
1061
stuffed the lot with corn cobs cut from another field.
Excited by the explanations given to him on the side of
1062
1063
the field where an exhibition of produce, display boards, and
1064
graphics had been strategically placed, Ceausescu walked onto
1065
the field, peeled a corn cob, and ended up with one of the cobs
1066
that had been put there for show in his hand. He realized it had
1067
been a farce, he huffed and puffed, and then he forgot about it.
Surrounded by hypocrites, Ceausescu lost all sense of
1068
1069
limitations, and increasingly took delight in his role as a feudal
1070
despot.
-43-
1071
French president Valry Giscard dEstaing, who visited
1072
Romania in March 1979, found a Ceausescu who was
1073
arrogant, disagreeable, and surrounded by corrupt idiots.
1074
Ceausescu lived his whole life in fear that all those around him
1075
could betray him. After Pacepas flight, his distrust of his close
1076
collaborators increased.
1077
He turned to all kinds of solutions: he took the reins of
1078
the Party and promoted his relatives to key positions. In time,
1079
he dismissed almost all of his intelligent and upright
1080
collaborators. The noose of power tightened more and more.
1081
His most trusted advisors, who had fought each other to get
1082
ahead, competed in shielding him from unpleasant information.
1083
The Second Office, lead by his wife, filtered all
1084
information that reached him. Slowly, the court of Bucharest
1085
was overrun by an elite of servants who didnt have the
1086
courage to tell him the truth, even at the bitter end.
1087
-44-
CHAPTER 10
1088
1089
Elena Ceausecu: Romanias Lady MacBeth
1090
Labeled by many as an ill-fated Lady MacBeth figure, Elena
1091
Ceausescu became in 1982 the first woman vice president in the
1092
history of Romania. Her own personality cult was also initiated on a
1093
huge scale.
1094
1095
Elena Ceausescu became number two in the
1096
government, the first female vice president in Romania. Born
1097
Petrescu on November 17, 1916 in Petresti, Dambovita,
1098
daughter of peasants, Elena did not finish fourth grade. She
1099
made it to Bucharest where she worked in a textile factory, and
1100
met Nicolae in 1939.
1101
Considered by many a fatal Rasputin, Ceausescus wife
1102
collected academic titles and bylines for books written by
1103
others. His biggest mistake was that he listened too much to
1104
what mother told him. Even a history written today should
1105
point out that mother had an ill-fated influence over him, said
1106
the son Nicu Ceausescu in 1991 in Jilava prison, in an
1107
interview with writers George Galloway and Bob Wylie.
1108
1109
1110
Elena became interested in politics in 1972. In 1985,

her own massive personality cult began.
In his egomaniacal evolution, Nicolae Ceausescu was,
1111
first of all, supported by his wife Elena. She successfully
1112
played several roles in his life. On the one hand, she became
1113
his surrogate mother taking the place of a real mother who, in
1114
the reality of his emotional life, never supported him enough.
1115
Elena succeeded in protecting her husband, accepting
1116
him for what he was. But she nurtured a relationship of sick
1117
and immature dependency within the couple. She would take
-45-
1118
care of his health; she would make sure he ate and felt well.
1119
She helped him control his stuttering. Throughout these
1120
actions, however, she would satisfy her need to control their
1121
relationship. She would often manifest this control through the
1122
decisions that were made. Nicolae had given her so much
1123
power that, towards the end of the Golden Age, she was the one
1124
making all the decisions, says psychologist Roxana Dobri.
1125
-46-
1126
Sidebar
1127
Grand Legacies
1128
Ceausescus 7 Obsessions why he built them and whats happend
1129
to them
1130
by Andreea Campeanu
1131
1132
I did something for this country! The Peoples House
1133
beats the Taj Mahal! said Ceausescu to architect Anca
1134
Petrescu. Perseverant and tenacious in his centralizing
1135
megalomania, Ceausescu wanted to build as much as possible,
1136
on the largest scale possible, in order to show how much power
1137
the Romanian people had.
1138
1139
1. The Peoples House (The Palace of Parliament)
1140
Goal: To show the world what the Romanians were
1141
capable of; he would gather the state leadership institutions in
1142
one place.
1143
Construction: It was built in only 5 years by an army of
1144
400 architects and 20,000 construction workers, sacrificing one
1145
fifth of the historic areas of Bucharest. Only Romanian
1146
materials were used. The bill: $2 billion; work continued for 7
1147
years after Ceausescus death.
1148
Today: The second largest administrative building in
1149
the world, after the Pentagon in Washington; 332,000 sq m
1150
(3,573,600 sq ft); houses the Parliament, the Constitutional
1151
Court, the Official Gazette, the International Convention
1152
Center, the National Museum of Contemporary Art, conference
1153
halls, restaurants, and clubs.
1154
-47-
1155
2. The Transfagarasan (DN 7C)
1156
Goal: Planned as a strategically important road for the
1157
passage of Romanian armored cars in case of an attack on the
1158
western front.
1159
Construction: Built in 4 years (1970 1974); dynamited
1160
three times a day; has a maximum altitude of 2,042 m (6,700
1161
ft), length of 91.5 km (56.8 mi), and a tunnel 887 m (2,910 ft)
1162
long. Built primarily by a military workforce.
1163
Today: Tourist attraction during the summer; closed
1164
from October through June due to snow; currently in bad
1165
condition.
1166
1167
3. Hunger Circuses (Agro-alimentary Complexes)
1168
Goal: Were to be large canteens for residents of
1169
1170
1171
1172
1173
Bucharest, eliminating their need to cook at home.

Construction: Began at the end of the 1980s; in 1989,
only two circuses were finished.
Today: After 1989, they were abandoned; later turned
into malls or modern commercial complexes.
1174
1175
4. The Danube Black Sea Canal
1176
Goal: Shortening the way to the Port of Constanta by
1177
1178
approximately 400 km (248 mi).

Construction: Began in 1949, but was interrupted in
1179
1955 and recommenced on June 13, 1973; inaugurated on May
1180
26, 1984. 64 km (39.7 mi) long, 7 m (23 ft) deep, and 70 m
1181
(230 ft) wide. Cost: 2 billion euros; the recuperation of the
1182
investment was predicted to take 50 years.
-48-
Today: The third largest construction of its kind, after
1183
1184
the Suez and Panama canals. The canal brings in an average of
1185
3,160,000 euros annually: the investment can be repaid in 633
1186
years.
1187
1188
5. The Bucharest Subway
1189
Goal: Smoother traffic in the capital.
1190
Construction: Intense pace; problems insulating the
1191
tunnels; the first sections were dug as ditches on the banks of
1192
the Dambovita river, later covered with concrete; construction
1193
began on February 3, 1975; the first section went into use in
1194
November of 1979.
1195
Today: 75 km (46.6 mi) long; 50,000 passengers/hour is
1196
the maximum capacity, circa 50 trains (on average 300,000
1197
passengers/day).
1198
1199
6. Casa Radio
1200
Goal: Ceausescu wanted to bring all of Romanias
1201
museums under one roof as a museum of the Communist Party,
1202
a Trajans column; planned to have seven floors.
1203
Construction: Began in 1986; would have been finished
1204
in 1992; the second largest building in Bucharest after the
1205
House of the People; 110,000 sq m (1,184,000 sq ft); basement
1206
finished, ground floor almost finished; it took a long time
1207
because Ceausescu kept coming up with new ideas.
1208
Today: Contracted for 49 years to Turkish investors;
1209
70% of it will be demolished and remodeled; 450 million-euro
1210
investment; ready in 8 years; there will be stores, a hotel,
1211
offices, casinos: Dambovita Center.
-49-
1212
1213
7. The National Library
1214
Goal: A central location for the National Library of
1215
1216
1217
1218
1219
Romania; a depository of books in a single place.

Construction: Began in 1986; 57,000 sq m (613,500 sq
ft); in 1990, the funds for its finalization were redistributed.
Today: book depository; has undergone remodeling for
33 months, keeping its communist faade.
-50-
1220
CHAPTER 11
1221
The Beginning of the End
1222
According to Mikhail Gorbachev, newly elected Secretary General
1223
of the Politburo of the Soviet Unions Communist Party (CPSU), in
1224
1985, the Romanian economy was like an old horse ridden by a
1225
cruel horseman.
1226
1227
After the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1979,
1228
Ceausescu once again got into the good graces of the West. He
1229
started getting state visit invitations and he was visited as well.
1230
In November 1980, he raised the bar at the CSCE conference in
1231
Madrid, presenting his plan for a united Europe, from the
1232
Pyrenees to the Carpathians, a common European home
1233
without the USSR.
1234
In 1982, Leonid Brezhnev, leader of the USSR, died.
1235
For two years he was replaced by Yuri Andropov, who was 68
1236
years old, a former KGB head, lover of reform, and who didnt
1237
see Ceausescu with good eyes. Andropov was succeeded by 73
1238
year-old Constantin Chernenko who was insignificant, senile,
1239
very much to Ceausescus taste.
1240
During this period of Moscows increased weakness,
1241
Ceausescu let himself be talked into extending the Warsaw
1242
Pact, having claimed that NATO and Warsaw both seemed
1243
unnecessary to him. Furthermore, in 1984, Romania was the
1244
only country in the Eastern Bloc that participated in the
1245
Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
1246
Unfortunately for Ceausescu, in March 1985,
1247
Chernenko was replaced by the dynamic reformer, Mikhail
1248
Gorbachev. It was the beginning of the end for Ceausescu and
1249
the socialist camp.
-51-
1250
In March 1986, Gorbachev presented his perestroika
1251
and glasnost theses to the 27th Communist Party of the Soviet
1252
Union (PCUS) convention in Moscow. The actions of the
1253
Partys organizations and of the State have fallen behind the
1254
times. Indolence, the rigid method of governing, low
1255
productivity, a growing bureaucracy, all of these have cost us
1256
greatly, he said. He continued, offering up ideas for which
1257
Ceausescu had fought all his life: Each nation should choose
1258
its own path and decide the fate of its own territory and
1259
resources.
1260
Ceausescu the dissident saw his role as Trojan horse
1261
usurped. He, who had been the favorite child of the West,
1262
found himself falling in their general disfavor. Betrayed by
1263
the West for the third time, Ceausescu once again turned his
1264
back on them, fighting tenaciously against the reforms that
1265
threatened his socialist world. But he became more and more
1266
isolated. Soon he had only one friend the other old man of
1267
communism, the German Democratic Republics Erich
1268
Honecker. For them, the reforms in Poland and Hungary were a
1269
nightmare, and they were the only ones to praise the repression
1270
of democratic demonstrations in China in June 1989.
1271
Between the 25th and 27th of May 1987, Mikhail
1272
Gorbachev and his wife Raisa came to Romania. A pompous
1273
welcome was prepared for them. Hundreds of thousands of
1274
people lined up along the side of the road from the airport to
1275
the prepared residence. On the last evening, the Ceausescus had
1276
dinner with the Gorbachevs in a distinctive atmosphere. The
1277
men ended up arguing. Ceausescu told Gorbachev that he
1278
would be better off quitting international politics and worrying
1279
about the internal problems of the USSR. Gorbachev accused
1280
him of keeping his country in a state of fear after having
1281
isolated it from the world.
-52-
1282
Also in 1987, Red Horizons, the confessions of one
1283
of Ceausescus lieutenants and the Securitate General, Mihai
1284
Pacepa, was published. Ronald Regan, the President of the
1285
United States, called it my Bible for relations with communist
1286
dictators. Radio Free Europe broadcast Red Horizons, in
1287
episodes, bringing the scandals of the Ceausescu household
1288
into Romanian homes.
1289
-53-
1290
CHAPTER 12
1291
Between Security and Paranoia
1292
According to Securitate general Mihai Pacepa, each officer had to
1293
have 50 collaborators (members of the Romanian Communist Party)
1294
and 50 informants (outside of the Romanian Communist Party). The
1295
result was constant surveillance of the population.
1296
1297
Pacepas betrayal, in July 28, 1978 caused a stir in the
1298
Securitate. Ninety percent of the Romanians who worked
1299
abroad were spies. Now, they were in danger. Ceausescu was
1300
livid. Pacepa made his secrets public, describing him as a
1301
pygmy in a perpetual state of agitation who would grimace in
1302
order to hide his stuttering, spitting on those around him when
1303
he spoke. He would only shake his inferiors hands with three
1304
weak fingers, while his eagle eye sized them up. Heads rolled
1305
not only in the Securitate (all those who had had connections
1306
with Pacepa), but also in related fields. The entire Foreign
1307
Intelligence Service was restructured. Pacepas reasons for
1308
deserting remain unclear, but it seems that he had heard that he
1309
would be accused of corruption. He fled to the US and the CIA
1310
took care of him.
1311
On March 10, 1989, the New York Times published the
1312
Letter of the six communists of the old guard: Constantin
1313
Parvulescu, Gheorghe Apostol, Corneliu Manescu, Silviu
1314
Brucan, Grigore Raceanu, and Alexandru Barladeanu, in which
1315
they asked Ceausescu to change his domestic policies. They
1316
blamed him for not respecting the Constitution, for his village-
1317
urbanization program, for building the Peoples House, for his
1318
repressiveness in domestic policy, and for ruining the national
1319
economy. The conspirators (whose average age was 80) were
1320
placed under house arrest.
-54-
1321
On October 25, 1989, Gennadi Gerasimov, spokesman
1322
of the Foreign Minister of the USSR, announced a switch in
1323
doctrine, from the Brezhnev doctrine to the Sinatra doctrine (I
1324
did it my way). The events in Eastern Europe quickly came
1325
tumbling down: the Berlin wall fell (November 10), Todor
1326
Jivkov was dethroned in Bulgaria (November 10), the
1327
citizens forum was founded in Czechoslovakia (November
1328
20). In Romania, at the 14th Romanian Communist Party
1329
convention (November 22-24), all was well. Ceausescus five-
1330
hour speech was interrupted 55 times by comrades who stood
1331
up to applaud him.
1332
On December 4th, Ceausescu left for Moscow in an
1333
attempt to save himself. Gorbachev couldnt stand the arrogant
1334
Romanian. His lips were perpetually smirking to show his
1335
conversation partner that he could read his thoughts and that he
1336
did not value him. This impertinence and his lack of value for
1337
others took on a grotesque form over the years. He transferred
1338
these traits, maybe without realizing it, from his courtiers to his
1339
partners who usually were the same rank as him or higher,
1340
wrote Gorbachev in his memoirs.
1341
Old Ceausescu returned home and began preparing to
1342
defend his power. His plans for suppressing a coup detat, kept
1343
in his drawer, were known only by a restricted circle. Work on
1344
these plans had begun back in the 70s. Two days after he gave
1345
a speech condemning the suppression of the Prague Spring,
1346
Ceausescu met with Josip Broz Tito, who told him: For your
1347
own safety, be careful in Romania.
1348
Ceausescu was afraid that the Russians would come
1349
after him: he requested safe houses and escape routes, and a
1350
radio transmitter to be able to address his people from any
1351
location. In 1970, a special unit of the Securitate came up with
1352
a secret plan, Rovine IS-70, which involved an escape abroad
-55-
1353
in case of emergency. At first, the Securitate oversaw the
1354
communist leadership and foreign visitors. Its tentacles
1355
extended throughout the whole country, as Ceausescu grew
1356
older and more paranoid.
1357
In 1965, there was a central phone-tapping center and
1358
11 regional ones. Thirteen years later, there were 248 centers
1359
and 1,000 portable stations. By the 1980s, the Securitate had
1360
become one of the most feared secret police organizations in
1361
the world. In 1989 it had 14,259 employees, of which 8,159
1362
were officers. According to Pacepa, each officer had to have 50
1363
collaborators (members of the Romanian Communist Party)
1364
and 50 informants (outside of the Romanian Communist Party).
1365
The result was the constant surveillance of the population.
1366
In 1971, after a visit to China, Ceausescu called for the
1367
establishment of U.M.0920, a special counter-informative unit,
1368
whose mission was to protect him against a Soviet coup detat.
1369
This unit found out about the Dniester operation, initiated in
1370
July 1969, a few days after which, contrary to Moscows
1371
recommendation, Ceausescu visited Nixon. Brezhnev, irritated
1372
by Ceausescus nationalism, considered replacing the
1373
Romanian.
1374
By 1978, U.M.0920 had identified nine Army and
1375
Securitate generals whom the Russian First Chief Directorate
1376
(PGU) wanted to use in a coup detat against Ceausescu.
1377
According to Pacepa, many agents recruited by Moscow from
1378
the Romanian Communist Party for the Dniester operation
1379
were released of their duties, and then repeatedly rotated lest
1380
they take political roots or be contacted by Soviet informants.
1381
Also according to Pacepa, the highest ranking victim of
1382
U.M.0920 was Ion Ilici Iliescu, one of Ceausescus favorites.
1383
Ruling over the partys vast propaganda machine and national
1384
misinformation operations, Iliescu was an intelligent young
-56-
1385
man who had studied in Moscow, gaining a thorough Marxist
1386
education. Ion Iliescu was named Ilici after Vladimir Ilici
1387
Lenin, whom his extremist father idolized. Pacepa says Iliescu
1388
preferred not to report to his mentor an allusion made by a
1389
member of an ideological delegation (and recorded on tape),
1390
according to which the Kremlin would be happier with Iliescu
1391
as the head of the Romanian Communist Party. In Iliescus
1392
version, Ceausescu would have dismissed him because he had
1393
not agreed with his little cultural revolution.
1394
Other victims of U.M.0920: Valter Roman (father of
1395
Petre Roman, the future Prime Minister) and Silviu Brucan.
1396
-57-
1397
CHAPTER 13
1399
Down with Ceausescu! The Turning Point in

Timisoara
1400
On December 17, the Army opened fire on the crowd in Timisoara.
1398
1401
1402
On December 16, 1989, the Timisoara revolt began.
1403
1,000 people gathered in the center of town, shouting Down
1404
with Ceausescu. A state of emergency was declared. In the
1405
middle of the crisis, Ceausescu accused Army and Securitate
1406
generals: You should be sent before the execution squad.
1407
Thats what you deserve, because what you have done means
1408
fraternizing with the enemy.
1409
Tired and disappointed, Ceausescu threatened to resign.
1410
A wave of cries from the Central Committee members for him
1411
to change his mind followed; a few women broke down in
1412
tears. In the end, Elena persuaded him.
1413
OK, shall we try again, comrades? he asked those
1414
around him. Before leaving for Iran, he forbade anyone from
1415
entering the country if they were not from North Korea, China,
1416
or Cuba, convinced that the coup detats that had taken place in
1417
the German Democratic Republic, Bulgaria, and
1418
Czechoslovakia were due to outside help. On December 17, the
1419
platoons fired at random into the crowd. The next day, it was
1420
quiet in a city under siege.
1421
-58-
CHAPTER 14
1422
1423
The Execution Squad
1424
When he fell, he cried, Long live the free and independent
1425
Socialist Republic of Romania!- Andrei Kemenici, commander of
1426
the Targoviste garrison.
1427
1428
On December 20, Ceausescu held a telephone
1429
conference with the secretaries of each county: he told them
1430
that spies were working in Timisoara, accusing the US and the
1431
USSR of having made an agreement regarding Romania. That
1432
evening on TV, he told the country about the hooligans in
1433
Timisoara.
The next day, he called a meeting in Bucharest where
1434
1435
he promised an increase in salaries and rations. He was booed.
1436
The people came out to protest in Bucharest, too. Barricades.
1437
The army fired. On December 22, 162 people had already died.
1438
The day after the failed meeting in Bucharest, the masses
1439
gathered once again in front of the Central Committee, where
1440
the Ceausescus had remained overnight. In the morning, the
1441
Minister of Defense, Vasile Milea, was found dead in his
1442
office.
1443
Ceausescu once again appeared on the balcony before
1444
the crowds. Booing ensued again. General Stanculescu, newly
1445
appointed Minister of Defense, called a helicopter, pleading
1446
with his President to leave the Central Committee building.
1447
I warned my father that this moment would come and
1448
that it would happen this way. The night before he was
1449
overthrown, I talked to him for approximately 15 minutes. I
1450
implored him to make concessions, to welcome a peoples
1451
delegation. He was listening but not hearing. Mother told me:
-59-
1452
Dont be a fool. He always listened to Mother too much, said
1453
his son, Valentin Ceausescu to writers George Galloway and
1454
Bob Wylie.
1455
The Ceausescu regimes movie was reaching a
1456
surrealistic ending, and the reel was turning faster and faster.
1457
The Ceausescus took the elevator up to the roof. The doors
1458
were blocked before the last floor. The bodyguards opened
1459
them with blows of their weapons. They climbed onto the
1460
Central Committee terrace through a window.
1461
They flew to Snagov, where Ceausescu tried to get in
1462
touch with the Government, the Army, and the Securitate.
1463
Nobody answered. They continued on in the helicopter. The
1464
pilot warned them that they could be shot down. They landed
1465
on the road in Titu. They stopped a red Dacia, which took them
1466
to the village of Vacaresti. They took another car to Targoviste.
1467
They stopped at the Aggregate Works of Special Steel where
1468
Ceausescu wanted to talk to the workers. They didnt open the
1469
gates for him.
1470
They went on to the Center for the Protection of Plants
1471
in Targoviste. A Militia team came and escorted them to the
1472
Inspectorate. The building was surrounded by an angry mob.
1473
The Militia car was attacked with stones and followed by
1474
several other cars. They fled the city with the two militiamen
1475
and hid in the forest near Ratoaia, 20 km outside of Targoviste.
1476
Only at night were they brought into the Militia building.
1477
Some soldiers took them to the barracks in a white Aro
1478
car; they were given military clothes and they were locked in a
1479
small, unventilated room. Although they still called him
1480
comrade President, comrade Supreme Commander, his tea
1481
was sweetened with sugar even though he was a diabetic.
1482
Ceausescu was furious. Elena caressed him like a child. On the
1483
first night, they slept in the same bed, embracing, and
-60-
1484
constantly whispering to each other. In the following days, they
1485
were locked in a bulletproof TAB vehicle (for their safety, they
1486
were told), where they spent their last night.
1487
The former major lieutenant, Iulian Stoica (today an
1488
Army Reserve Major), guardian of the Ceausescus between
1489
December 22nd- 25th in the Targoviste garrison, recounts in a
1490
TV interview how, on the 24th of December, Ceausescu
1491
verbally attacked his wife (they usually got along very well and
1492
took care of each other) when he heard the names of the
1493
protagonists of the tele-revolution of 1989.
1494
(Stoica had gone out for tea, and he got stuck for 30
1495
minutes in front of the TV that showed incredible things. He
1496
told them that he had seen Mircea Dinescu, Sergiu Nicolaescu,
1497
Ion Iliescu, etc. in studio 4. Elena, who had the best
1498
information cadre, insulted each one of them.) When he heard
1499
Ion Iliescus name, Ceausescu stood up, and started yelling at
1500
Elena: You didnt let me. You didnt let me do what I should
1501
have done. You will see, now he will finish us off, that Soviet
1502
spy.
1503
It was the first time the two of them had had a
1504
confrontation and a heated discussion, says Stoica. He goes on
1505
to say that on the night of December 24th, he thwarted four
1506
assassination attempts against the Ceausescus, ordered by
1507
colonel Kemenici in hopes of avoiding the embarrassing trial
1508
that would follow the next day.
1509
Two days after fleeing from the Central Committee
1510
building, several members of the National Salvation Fronts
1511
inner circle gathered around Ion Iliescu in a bathroom at the
1512
Ministry of Defense, turned on the faucets so that no one could
1513
hear them, and decided what to do with the Ceausescus.
-61-
1514
On December 25th, General Victor Stanculescu, with a
1515
suite of military personnel and civilians, landed in Targoviste
1516
in a helicopter.
1517
When Ceausescu saw him, he let out a sigh of relief.
1518
Dont worry, he told Elena, Stanculescu is here! Little did
1519
he know that the man whom he had named Minister of Defense
1520
a few days earlier had betrayed him and had come to prepare
1521
his death. The Ceausescus trial was a masquerade in which
1522
even the defense attorneys tried to out-accuse the prosecution.
1523
The presidential couple was sentenced to death and lined up
1524
with their backs against one of the outhouses in the unit.
1525
Andrei Kemenici, commander of the Targoviste
1526
garrison, who had been promoted to General in the meantime
1527
(all those who had contributed to this trial were to be rewarded
1528
by the new regime), declared in an interview 10 years after the
1529
trial: the hardest part was when I saw the paratroopers trying
1530
to tie up Nicolae and Elena.
1531
She was begging for mercy and struggling. He didnt
1532
struggle. He endured the humiliation. But tears were running
1533
down his cheek. He was sobbing. No, he was no longer
1534
Ceausescu, he was just a man, and when he was riddled with
1535
bullets, I broke down in tears. When he fell, he yelled, Long
1536
live the free and independent Socialist Republic of Romania! I
1537
dont know if the communist heroes yelled out slogans as they
1538
died, as literature would have us think, but Nicolae Ceausescu
1539
died exactly like in those books, like in the movies.
1540
1541
1542
-62-
Sidebar
1543
1544
Whose House Is It Anyway?

by Justin Kavanagh
1545
1546
Everyones mood changed once we entered the Palace
1547
1548
of the Parliament. Ceausescus House. Or the Peoples House, I
1549
never figured out which it really was. But the warm, hospitable
1550
Romanians that Id been with for 24 hours suddenly seemed
1551
shrouded in shame and bitterness.

I remembered that sinister greeting from the Irishmans
1552
1553
novel:
Welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely; and
1554
1555
leave something of the happiness you bring.

Like the legend of Dracula, this egregious edifice was
1556
1557
imposed on this country, and has since become an unwelcome
1558
part of the landscape. If Romania is known to the outside world
1559
as the home of Dracula and Ceausescu, the people here are
1560
decidedly ambiguous about both unsolicited legacies.

Like the Counts infamous welcome, our tour of the
1561
1562
Palace of the Parliament embodied the dark duality that seems
1563
to pervade many things Romanian; a smiling public facade
1564
failing to hide some badly masked menace from a knowing
1565
people.
1566
We shuffled silently through the security scanner. Once
1567
inside, we were herded together by our tour guide. In the first
1568
of many grand, anonymous halls, my Romanians hosts told me
1569
that this wasnt officially called the Peoples House any more.
1570
That was the unofficial name. Originally the House of the
1571
Republic, it had become the House of Ceausescu, a name of
-63-
1572
shame adapted for a few years back in the early 1990s. Back
1573
then, when the ghost of the dictator might have been exorcised
1574
from its 1,100 rooms, the people might have reclaimed this
1575
citadel that was still being completed with their blood, sweat,
1576
and lei.
1577
Now they were outsiders again. The Palace was more
1578
or less complete, but strangely vacant. Now the Romanians
1579
paid, along with foreigners like me, for a tour of the house that
1580
had now transmogrified into The Palace of the Parliament.
1581
Almost twenty years after the revolution, its back to being
1582
The Politicians House, I thought.
1583
The world sees Romanians in a heroic light, as the
1584
brave citizens who drove a stake into the heart of the
1585
Ceausescu regime in this very place. Yet one of my hosts was
1586
now telling me that for Romanians, the real national narrative
1587
is the story of Miorita; that their role is that of the passive
1588
Moldavian shepherd in the ballad of the Little Sheep. Passive
1589
acceptance is still the accepted lot of the people.
1590
We followed the bright, young voice around the vast
1591
passages and the empty, echoing halls of the Palace of the
1592
Parliament. There was something extremely sinister about the
1593
tour. The pleasant young woman with perfect English gave us
1594
all the facts and all the superlatives of a building that reflects
1595
all the rampant egomania of its creator: we were standing in the
1596
most expensive administrative building in the world; the
1597
building contained one million cubic meters of marble from
1598
Transylvania; it housed 480 chandeliers; 200,000 square meters
1599
of woolen carpets; the velvet and brocade curtains, adorned
1600
with embroideries, were among the longest in the world; one of
1601
Europes biggest chandeliers was in another part of the
1602
building, where we wouldnt be going today.
-64-
1603
All very interesting and edifying, but one simple fact
1604
was missing from the tour, strangled in the screaming silence
1605
that followed these fantastic fact checks: this building was the
1606
bricks and mortar of a dictators dream. We were standing in
1607
the fantasy palace of Europes most brutal dictator since Hitler
1608
and Stalin.
1609
I wanted to know who mined all this endless marble
1610
that lined the wall, and what that cost in human terms. Instead
1611
we got a guided tour, presented as a dictatorship Disneyland by
1612
numbers. A lot of fascinating figures about interior decorating,
1613
but barely a word about one of the greatest political dramas of
1614
late 20th Century Europe. The details were as sparse as the
1615
furnishings of the great empty rooms we hiked around
1616
diligently. Seeing nothing. Learning even less. There was
1617
nothing to see in these rooms except space. We were told about
1618
the size of the main offices upstairs, but no mention was made
1619
of the Ceausescus desperate escape through these rooms to the
1620
helicopter on the rooftop.
1621
In the anodyne tone of tour-guides everywhere, the
1622
young woman fed us these endless figures and meaningless
1623
measurements. What did it tell us about the people who had to
1624
build it? Nothing. There was no mention of the people
1625
displaced to build this place.
1626
I heard later that Bucharests wild dog problem started
1627
in earnest due to the upheaval caused to the neighborhoods
1628
razed for the Palace of the Parliament and for Union
1629
Boulevard. Marble halls for the powerful, gauntlets of rabid
1630
dogs for the poor. Such details remained the untold legacy of
1631
the dictator.
1632
The tour did achieve its purpose though. It sent the
1633
visitor away impressed by the sheer scale of the construction.
1634
The empty monotony and lack of imagination of everything
-65-
1635
about the place made a dull impression too. This is what you
1636
get when you give a peasant from Oltenia endless
1637
possibilities, whispered one of my hosts.
1638
The real shock of that day for an outsider, however,
1639
was the visceral reaction of the Romanians themselves, the
1640
chilled shift from their spirited demeanor. Inside these walls,
1641
they seemed to trudge through their hidden history under a
1642
gloom. It was like witnessing a haunting.
1643
Clearly, the past still lingered in these rooms. But what
1644
of the present and what of the future? I decided to ask the
1645
obvious question: Why is this place so empty? Where else in
1646
the world would one find these acres of empty floor space
1647
inside such a well-constructed building at the very heart of a
1648
capital city? Why not put all this valuable real estate to
1649
practical use?
1650
I was given a quick historic recap of the many previous
1651
plans for the building: proposed home of an alternative World
1652
Bank; planned home for the Presedintia Republicii (Romanian
1653
Presidency), Marea Adunare Nationala (Great National
1654
Assembly), Consiliul de Ministri (Government Ministries) and
1655
Tribunalul Suprem (Supreme Court)this was the original
1656
plan under Ceausescu; after the revolution, a site for a
1657
multinational casino; there was even a debate about razing it to
1658
the ground in order to banish the phantom of the dictator, a
1659
solution which would merely have compounded the public
1660
insult of this black hole in the Romanian economy.
1661
So, to assuage the hurt, the House of the People became
1662
known for a spell after the revolution as the House of
1663
Ceausescu. Nowadays, it is home to the Senate and the
1664
Chamber of Deputies, as well as the site of the National
1665
Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC), and the Museum and
-66-
1666
Park of Totalitarianism and Socialist Realism. Yet most of the
1667
rooms we saw in it were empty.

So why not use all this wasted space? How many
1668
1669
NATO summits can there be on the calendar to fill up its vast
1670
corridors, its grand halls, and its echoing conference rooms? If
1671
the House of the People was not the de facto House of the
1672
Politicians, why not open more of it to the public to use as they
1673
see fit?
1674
The answer to that question came from my friend
1675
Catalin (Gruia): The public dont use it, Justin, because the
1676
public dont really belong here. We got rid of one Ceausescu
1677
and replaced him with a hundred little Ceausescus.
1678
The spirit of oppressed passivity that Ceausescu
1679
inspired in Romanians seemed to prevail in that cold, brightly
1680
lit yet foreboding place. His legacy lived on there. The Great
1681
Architect was one of the many accolades his propaganda
1682
machine bestowed upon him. Defender of the present and the
1683
future was another.
1684
Inside the citadel today, one still hears the wind rattling
1685
through doors and windows, which were never properly
1686
installed. Its a fitting reminder that no amount of power or
1687
wealth can fully insulate a leader from the outside world.
1688
Now the world was coming in as tourists, walking
1689
through the small part of his world that we were allowed to see.
1690
We stopped to take in the Grand Hall, with its large empty
1691
space in the wall originally intended for a large painting of
1692
The Polyvalent Genius (who made up this stuff?). This
1693
endless monument to megalomania was now pushing the limits
1694
of my patience.
1695
We trooped on into another ornate hall, with another
1696
plush pile carpet. Then something very interesting happened.
-67-
1697
Andreea, the youngest of our group, got bored and, in the
1698
casual way of her generation (the post-revolutionary
1699
Romanians) dropped herself and her rucksack and her camera
1700
in the middle of a main hallway and simply sprawled out on the
1701
floor. I waited for the inevitable guard, the outraged lackey in
1702
uniform chastising her lack of respect.
1703
I wondered how long one could make oneself
1704
comfortable on the carpets of the Senate Building in
1705
Washington, say, or the palace at Versailles, before the wrath
1706
of officialdom would descend with all its fusty force. Tired too
1707
of this tour, I joined her on the carpet. If nothing else, being
1708
horizontal gave one a good look at the opulently decorated
1709
ceilings. They were a long way up. I wondered how many
1710
stories were contained in the buildings razed to make this one.
1711
Soon we were all on the carpet. No guard ever came.
1712
Security here is just another faade, I thought. The guards
1713
know that all they are guarding is a vacant space at the heart of
1714
Bucharest. They are making a show of guarding the void that
1715
represents modern Romanias soul.
1716
I later learned that two neighborhoods including
1717
numerous Christian Orthodox and Protestant churches,
1718
synagogues and Jewish temples, and 30,000 homes, were
1719
sacrificed to make way for Ceausescus house. A football
1720
stadium was interred in its foundations. Although all the
1721
construction is now more or less complete, Bucharesters are
1722
still living with the fallout of this Ceaushima; and all
1723
Romanians are still living through the half-lives of Nicolae
1724
Ceausescu.
1725
He is Romanias modern-day Dracula, the Undead, still
1726
draining the life force of his people. Still alive in the collective
1727
memory, still poisoning their politics with his lingering legacy.
-68-
1728
It is the politicians, after all, who still have the only set of keys
1729
to the big house on the hill.
1730
Lying there on the comfortable carpet in his House of
1731
the People, I wondered what those people felt about the place
1732
now. It is a question Id like to ask them: what would you do if
1733
you were given the keys to the House of the People? No doubt
1734
the dictator would have chased such an act of flagrant
1735
imagination out of his building. But it is no longer his building.
1736
Or is it?
-69-
1737
1738
1739
The End
A black dog licks at a puddle of blood in which two old
1740
people lie, executed on Christmas day in the Targoviste
1741
garrison. Following a kangaroo trial, a special tribunal
1742
sentenced them to death by shooting in December 1989 for
1743
serious crimes against the people of Romania. He died
1744
instantly. The woman died a minute later, after the execution
1745
squads paratroop captain furiously emptied another round in
1746
her. Thus Nicolae and Elena Ceausescus five-decade journey
1747
together ended, after they started from the bottom, seized
1748
power, and grew old while ruling the country.
1749
Adulated for all of his 24 years in power, during which
1750
he came to personify Romania, Ceausescu dethroned and
1751
replaced by some of his former barons was turned into a
1752
scapegoat for all the evils done to Romanians.
1753
During his regime, Ceausescu's image had been painted
1754
in sparkling white. Once he was killed everything turned to
1755
pitch black. I tried my best to paint a portrait in color, with all
1756
shades of grey included, combining the good and bad, the light
1757
and the dark extremes of the life of Nicolae Ceausescu.
1758
Romania has changed a lot since his death. Although
1759
its only been a quarter of a century, Ceausescus age is an
1760
oddity to the young people in my generation and almost
1761
incomprehensible to the younger.
1762
To us Romanians, embracing successive, opposite
1763
models in our civilization is nothing short of a historical
1764
tradition. Despite being halfway between the Atlantic and the
1765
Urals on the map, Romanian land has always lain at the
1766
outskirts of the great political and civilization structures.
-70-
1767
According to historian Lucian Boia, Romanias
1768
permanent frontier condition led to both isolation and
1769
permeability to influences from all directions. Relating to
1770
different, often conflicting foreign models the Byzantine,
1771
then the Ottoman (in the Middle Ages), the Occidental (in the
1772
19th century and the first half of the 20th), the Eastern (the
1773
second half of the 20th century) and again the Occidental at
1774
present has given Romania an unstable, contradictory
1775
history.
1776
Today, we live in a form-without-content kind of
1777
democracy chaotic, unstructured. Those who are maladjusted
1778
to the new market economy dont know how to manage on
1779
their own and feel increasingly nostalgic thinking of the times
1780
when the Good Father made sure they have a roof over their
1781
head, food on their table, a job a.s.o. And theres more and
1782
more of them. The danger of a new dictator in Romania is real,
1783
what with our habit of hopping from one extreme to the other.
1784
Of course, I couldnt stop that, not to mention it would
1785
be completely absurd to try to. But I can give you a crash
1786
course in all I know about Ceausescu in only 37 minutes.
1787
Dear Reader, I hope you enjoyed this book. Now, if you could take
1788
a few moments and click on the link below and leave a review I
1789
would greatly apreciate it. It will help others to learn about this
1790
book and help me learn how I can better serve my readers.
1791
1792
1793
Here is the link to the Amazon book page where you can
leave me a review
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
1794
1795
Thank you and all the best,
1796
Catalin Gruia
-71-
1797
1798
1799
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
1800
1801
1802
1803
1804
1805
1806
1807
1808
I would like to express my special appreciation and thanks to
1809
Anca Barbulescu, Andreea Campeanu, Cristian Lascu, Roxana
1810
Dobri and Justin Kavanagh .
1811
-72-
1812
1813
1814
Before you go page
1815
-73-

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1

Who Was That Man They Killed on Christmas Day?

Copyright 2013 Catalin Gruia

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

without the express written permission of the publisher

except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

First Printing, July 2013

Cover design: Tudor Smalenic

About the Author

and reported for the Romanian edition of National Geographic

for over 10 years. He is currently Editor in Chief of National

Geographic Traveler and Deputy Editor in Chief of National

First prize (Geographica category) at the International

Seminar of National Geographic International Editions,

Johann Strauss Golden Medal, Vienna, 2010

Kinarri Trophy, Friends of Thailand Awards, Bangkok,

About this book ........................................................................................... 7

The Young Underground Hero? ............................................................... 10

Butter Up, Fit In, Work, Climb the Ladder ............................................... 13

The Rookie in the Political Office ............................................................ 15

The Easterns Blocs Trojan Horse ............................................................ 19

Sidebar: Psychological profile .................................................................. 22

Private Life Details ................................................................................... 25

Romanias Forced Industrialization .......................................................... 27

The Rough Years ...................................................................................... 29

Sidebar: The Golden Age Of Nicolae Ceausescu.................................. 37

Towards a Potemkin Romania .................................................................. 43

Elena Ceausecu: Romanias Lady MacBeth ............................................. 45

Sidebar: Grand Legacies ........................................................................... 47

The Beginning of the End ......................................................................... 51

Between Security and Paranoia................................................................. 54

Down with Ceausescu! The Turning Point in Timisoara ...................... 58

The Execution Squad ................................................................................ 59

Sidebar: Whose House Is It Anyway? ...................................................... 63

The End ..................................................................................................... 70

About the Author ........................................................................................ 3

Ne Sutor Ultra Crepidam!

By Cristian Lascu, Editor In Chief of the Romanian edition of National

Cobbler, stick to thy last! master Apelles yelled at a

shoemaker who, thinking that he was good at everything, criticized

Ceausescus execution cleared, we were frustrated. Somebody had

cheated. Instead of an embarassing crime, there should have been a

Nrenberg trial of the communist dictatorship. How is it possible

do not criticize them openly?

This story about Ceausescu, documented and illustrated

brilliantly, brings back memories about the hardships, abuses, and

peculiarities of daily life during the dictatorship. Time, however,

has blurred the details; what happened then seems incomprehensible

seem too late for them.

On the other hand, through a wide angle lens with a focal

range of 25 years, author Catalin Gruia atempts to cover a subject

that unfolded over a more-than-50 year range. The distorsions thus

become inevitable; history has to be looked at through a telescopic

meaning can be succint: a simple but ambitious man succeeded in

holding on to the absolute state power for 25 years.

In all his actions, he was a passionate, consistent communist

and of the nationalists, at least for a while. He entered the arena of

He wanted to accomplish a lot, he had no education, and

want to listen to those who were knowledgeable. Facing death, he

yelled: Long live the free, independent, Socialist Republic of

Romania! By then, his obsessive dream, the Socialist Romania,

was almost built. It had been built, however, on sand, by an