Titans of History

THE CEAUŞESCUS OF ROMANIA

Nicolae 1918–1989 Elena 1916–1989

He always claimed to act and speak on behalf of the people, to be a beloved son of the people, but he only tyrannized the people all the time.

Prosecutor at the opening of the trial of Nicolae and Elena Ceauşescu, December 1989

The preposterous and merciless Ceauşescus personified the long Communist tyranny over eastern Europe—and their violent fate represented the drama of the 1989 revolutions that overthrew it. Ceauşescu promoted his own cult of personality as self-declared “Conductor” (Leader) and “Genius of the Carpathians” and diverted his poverty-stricken country’s resources to vast monuments to his own glory while using his Securitate secret police to murder his enemies. He and his wife Elena ruled as a grotesque partnership. When the communist Eastern Bloc collapsed in 1989–90, they were the only two of the ousted leaders to be shot.

Born into a peasant family, Ceauşescu joined the fledgling Romanian communist movement in the early 1930s. At the time Romania was a conservative monarchy, and being a communist was illegal. In 1936 Ceauşescu was jailed for two years, and in 1940 was interned in a concentration camp. Here he met Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, the leader of the Romanian Communist Party, and escaped with him in 1944. That same year a broad-based anti-fascist “liberation” government—including Dej—was set up with Soviet assistance. In 1947 Ceauşescu married plowman’s daughter Elena.

Later that year the Communists ousted their erstwhile allies from government, and in 1952 Dej became de facto dictator of Romania. With the elevation of his mentor, Ceauşescu was able to secure his own position, and when Dej died in 1965, Ceauşescu became party leader and head of state. Many Romanians hoped their new leader would inaugurate a period of greater liberalization and reform. In August 1968 such expectations intensified after Ceauşescu’s denunciation of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, and his defiant line made him a genuinely popular figure within Romania, and earned plaudits from the West. Nevertheless, he was quick to assure the Soviets that his country would remain a loyal member of the Eastern Bloc.

Early optimism started to dissipate as Ceauşescu began to fantasize about turning Romania into a world industrial power house; and as he did so, prospects for liberalization receded. Instead, Ceauşescu became obsessed with shoring up his monopoly of power, and to this end he introduced a process of continual job rotation by which functionaries at every level were ordered to change position regularly, with the intention that no one would be able to build up a power base to challenge him. The fact that the system also led to administrative chaos does not seem to have troubled Ceauşescu, who in March 1974 assumed the ability to rule by decree alone. His wife Elena became increasingly powerful as vice-premier, politburo member and self-declared “Mother of the Nation”: the Ceauşescus ruled as a gruesome partnership and stories of her greed, ruthlessness and vainglory abounded.

The role of the secret police, the infamous Securitate, or State Security Department, also expanded. By 1989 it had an estimated 24,000 members, and right across society a climate of fear was inculcated in which everyone was encouraged to spy on everybody else; failure to do so resulted in confinement in prison or a labor camp. At the same time, Ceauşescu became intoxicated with the notion that Romania needed to build an image as a modern socialist utopia, culminating in the 1980s with the construction of a gigantic palace in the heart of Bucharest. This monstrous piece of architecture was built on the back of what was effectively slave labor, and required the eviction of 40,000 people from their homes in order to make space for it.

Ceauşescu determined to combine the values of socialism with an ever more strident Romanian nationalism. This resulted in an increasingly bizarre series of campaigns aimed at cementing Romania’s national greatness. In March 1984, for example, concerned at the country’s low birth rate, Ceauşescu decreed that women of child-bearing age were required to have monthly gynecological examinations under the watchful eye of the Securitate, and if they were not pregnant had to justify why not.

By the 1980s, as the country faced a mounting debt crisis, Ceauşescu resolved to pay off Romania’s creditors by the end of the decade. To achieve this he ordered the mass exportation of the country’s agricultural produce and industrial manufactures. The result was a collapse in the standard of living, and the deaths of thousands as a result of poor nutrition and lack of modern medical care. Ceauşescu responded by introducing austerity measures such as the “Rational Eating Program,” which set per capita limits on consumption. The long-suffering people of Romania were finally released from the tyrant’s grip when the popular revolutions of 1989 brought the totalitarian regimes of Eastern Europe crashing down. The fall of the “Genius of the Carpathians” proved to be bloody: after a summary trial, on Christmas Day 1989 he and his wife Elena were executed by firing squad as he sang the “Internationale” and she shouted “You motherf–rs!”