I remember this vividly when I saw it on the news. My friend Ruta Sepetys is releasing a new book about the Ceaușescu regime called "I Must Betray You". Her books are always beautiful, poignant reads about "hidden histories." If you like my work, you'll love hers. https://smile.amazon.com/Must-Betray-You-Ruta-Sepetys/dp/198483603X

Reposted from yaas_america on Instagram:
This week, Romania celebrates 32 years since they outlawed the Communist Party after 42 painful years of Communist rule.

Weeks prior, the Romanian Revolution began on December 17th, 1989 in Timisoara, as rioters broke into the district committee building and threw out propaganda brochures, Ceaușescu's writings, and other symbols of Communist power out of windows.

Days later, Dictator Nicholas Ceaușescu gave his last speech on December 21st in Bucharest, condemning the uprising in Timisoara but anti-communist protestors started to shout in the crowd, “Timisoara!” in support of the uprising. In response, Ceaușescu tried silencing the crowd by yelling “Stay calm! Sit down! You can’t hear?”; his stunned expression remains one of the defining moments of the end of Communism in Eastern Europe. Soon, the streets filled and the protestors were shouting, “Liberty! We are the people, down with Ceaușescu!”

Ceaușescu’s regime pervaded every aspect of government, relying heavily on his secret police, the “Securitate”, who openly fired on the crowd of protestors, killing 162 people that day. Soon, anti-communist demonstrations were held throughout the country, which led to more than a week of civil unrest & tragically taking thousands of Romanians lives who were defending their nation and murdered by the “Securitate.”

On December 23, 1989, it was announced that Nicolas Ceaușescu and his wife, Elena, were captured. After a two-day trial, on Christmas 1989, Nicolas Ceaușescu and his wife were executed by military tribunals. The people took to the streets celebrating and shouting, “Liberty! We have no fear!”

As the dictator and his family lived in luxury, Ceaușescu surprised the world by announcing he had paid off the $10 billion dollar national debt in April 1989, at the expense of exploiting his own people by exporting the nation’s fuel and food while the Romanian citizens were starving and industrialization had collapsed.

While 1989 was not a good year for Communism, Romania’s revolution was different from other European countries in a plain but crucial way; while communism was no longer the ruling party, those who had been in the Communist party were still running it.

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