“I was shot. Do you live better? “- BBC

25 years ago against the backdrop of a peaceful retreat from the power of the Communist Parties in Eastern Europe, Romania became a bloody exception. “Special Deal” Bucharest has led to the fact that for Nicolae Ceausescu, no one stood up. After a quarter of a century, only a small part of the Romanians nostalgic for his rule.

The end of the 1980s was the time of the collapse of the “people’s democracies” in Eastern Europe. 1989 Communist Party lost their monopoly on power in Poland, Hungary, East Germany and Czechoslovakia. This process was peaceful in nature and has been called “velvet revolutions”. “Wind of Change” blew and the Balkans: a bloodless change of power took place in Bulgaria.

Romania was the only exception to this rule. Country since 1965 rules eccentric and authoritarian policies of Nicolae Ceausescu.

During his Socialist Republic of Romania participated in the Warsaw Treaty Organization (WTO) and the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) – military and economic organizations of the Eastern bloc, has maintained close relations with Moscow. In 1987, during the years of “perestroika” in the brochure about Romania Society “Knowledge” say: “Great, nice, but at the same time and difficult path of development was the Romanian people over the decades …” The truth about Ceausescu brochure said restraint (so he was never called “comrade”), although abundant quotations from his speeches and joint communiques, especially the Soviet-Romanian.

Perhaps this due to the fact that the Romanian army was not involved in the suppression of the Prague Spring and in some other areas of Bucharest demonstrated independence.

Thus, Romania was active economic cooperation with Yugoslavia, which formally entered the Non-Aligned Movement; Romanian athletes in 1984 took part in the Eastern bloc boycotted the Olympics in Los Angeles, parallel ridges and counter-Games «Friendship 1984» .

Economic basis of such policies in Romania was the energy independence of the republic: near Ploiesti extract oil and gas. In addition, the leadership of the country was formulated “special course».

Bucharest maneuvered between the Western world, Moscow, Belgrade and Beijing, trying to get as many benefits.

Ceausescu built in their country a cult of personality. Its 60th anniversary in 1978 noted with great fanfare. Norm in reference to him were “Genius of the Carpathians” and “our source of light».

Kondukatora (leader) of Romanians featured megalomania: if, for example, was built metallurgical plant, the the largest in the Balkans.

As a result, by the beginning of the 1980s, the economic situation in the country deteriorated. Policies aimed at the accelerated repayment of international loans has led to a drop in living standards. Propaganda machine hard to talk about “normalized consumption”: disguised beneath the queue for food, which were issued on the cards, the lack of consumer goods. Picture of late socialist Romania – poverty, food queues, the race for Western goods – Cristian Mungiu drew in his film «4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days» , received the 2007 “Palme d’Or” at the Cannes Film Festival.

Many Romanians have fled abroad. Shirilos dissatisfaction with the Hungarian minority in Transylvania. In this case, Ceausescu did not accept the “perestroika” in the Soviet Union, to tighten control over society that is all-powerful State Security Service – the Securitate.

In November 1989, was held in Bucharest XIV Congress of the Communist Party of Romania. It brought together many times with thunderous applause interrupted kondukatora it.

Ceausescu criticized the “capitalist restoration” in the socialist countries.

But even then, in the west began performances. Detonator was the deportation of Hungarian Protestant priest Laszlo Tekesh from Timisoara for anti-government sermons. By mid-December in the city already there were mass demonstrations, which were attended by Hungarians and Romanians. Ceausescu demanded at any price to stop performances, but the security forces have not fully controlled by the army and police.

December 21 after a massive propaganda attack (Romanian leader said that the unrest in Timisoara organized espionage services of foreign states, shown on television meeting labor groups that supported the leader) in Bucharest organized a grand rally. However, some of the participants were shouting slogans antichausheskovskie. So excitement rolled to the capital. On December 21, during clashes death toll exceeded 100 people . On the night of December 22, began building barricades in the city. They dare tanks Romanian People’s Army, but

in the morning on the streets of Bucharest reached hundreds of thousands of people, including the largest factories working capital.

During the excitement of a discredited Ceausescu nobody intervened. Soviet and American leaders have not even commented on the bloody events in Transylvania and Bucharest.

On the same day kondukator and his odious wife Elena Ceausescu fled in Targoviste, where they were arrested.

The trial of the couple was short and looked like a travesty of justice.

Frames shooting the couple went around the world. The fighting in the country between the army and the intelligence services on the one hand and the mysterious “terrorists” continued until December 28, and claimed the lives of at least 1,030 people. Most of them were killed on the streets during the shootings. Until now, there is a discussion about what it was for the “terrorists”. The spectrum of different opinions, from radical chaushistov to sabotage military commanders, who wanted to make the army a full “savior” of the revolution in exchange for forgetting their protection regime until 1989.

In the Soviet Union on the events in Romania reported sketchy: December 17, began the second All-Union Congress of People’s Deputies, which has turned into a huge discussion platform. Reports with performances of participants occupied the entire newspaper space. Only on December 21 in “Pravda” appeared first tiny notes on “the situation in Romania.” In the future, the main newspaper journalists of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union spoke harshly about Ceausescu: Bucharest correspondent writes about the house, “where the family lived unimaginable luxury” leader; and the National Committee of democracy, which arose during the revolution, entered military leaders “not compromised under the dictatorship of Ceausescu.”
most acute was the expected reaction to these events in Moldova. There’s days of fighting on the streets of Bucharest were arranged funeral protest near the cathedral in Chisinau, has been co llecting donations.

Local TV even handed application of the Communist Party of Moldova and the Council of Ministers of the Republic, condemning the “hard mode violent measures against the civilian population.”

The victory over Ceausescu’s Romania did not bring peace. In 1991 and 1996 the country was shaken miners’ protests. In the 2000s, amid disappointment in the new economic policy in the society appeared a certain nostalgia for Ceausescu. In 2010, the body of Nicolae and Elena were exhumed.

During the procedure, the cemetery came kondukatora supporters with placards “I was shot. Do you live better? “.

However, the nostalgia for the days of socialist Romania mass did not – in contrast to the Yugo-nostalgia in Serbia, «Ostalgie» in East Germany and the Soviet nostalgia in Russia. This is largely contributed to the fact that in 2007, Romania joined the European Union, although as it remains outside the Schengen area and the euro area.

References: Potapov VI, Feig NV Socialist Republic of Romania. M .: Knowledge, 1987. Shary Shimov A. Ya roots and crown: Essays on the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The fate of the Empire. M .: Colibri, 2011. V. Shevelev Dictators and gods. P n D .: Phoenix, 1999