After the Second World War, the world was divided into two. On the one hand, the eastern bloc led by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and on the other hand, the western bloc led by the United States. There were transitions between this bloc, one symbolizing communism and the other capitalism, and Nicolae Ceausescu was a leader who offered this transition to his country Romania, or at least tried to implement this transition.
Nicolae Ceausescu, who became president as a revolutionary who loved his people, moved away from the Soviets and closer to the west. However, while doing this, he fell into an unimaginable amount of foreign debt, condemned his people to famine, what happened when the people rebelled, and his wife and himself were executed by shooting with the decision of the committee established after the coup. Let’s take a closer look at Nicolae Ceausescu and see the details of his life that resulted in his execution.
Who is Nicolae Ceausescu? The tailor’s son of a farmer’s father:
Nicolae Ceaușescu, Romanian to Nicolae Ceaușescu, was born on January 26, 1918 in Scornicești, a small Romanian town. His father, who was a farmer, had a small plot of land, so Nikolay started tailoring at a young age to support his family. But his father was a very tough man and at the age of 11 he ran away from home and went to Bucharest.
The owner of the shoemaker’s workshop in Bucharest was a member of an illegal communist party. In 1932, Nicolae Ceausescu joined the Romanian Communist Party and began taking small posts. He was arrested many times for his activities. He was imprisoned when he was arrested in 1936 and was released in 1939. He rose in the party until the communists took power in 1947, went to jail many times, and met Elena, whom he would later marry.
Nicolae Ceausescu becomes President of Romania:
After the communists seized power after 1947, Nicolae Ceausescu, who rose within the party, became the first secretary of the Romanian Workers’ Party in March 1965, that is, the leader of the party and the state. His first job was to change the name of the party to the Romanian Communist Party, which was previously considered illegal. He changed the country’s name to the Socialist Republic of Romania and added to himself the title of President of the State Council.
He fired officials known to be Stalinist in the bureaucracy and distanced himself from the Soviets. He exited the Warsaw Pact and did not support the pact’s invasion of Czechoslovakia. Nicolae Ceausescu was openly rebelling against the Soviets. More interestingly, as a socialist country, it was getting closer and closer to the capitalist west every day.
Romania strengthens its ties with the west:
Nicolae Ceausescu was implementing an open policy towards the USA and other western states. He was the first communist leader to join the IMF and meet with the US president. It joined the Customs Treaty and the European Economic Community. Nicolae Ceausescu described himself as a reformist communist. He played an important role in starting relations between China and the USA, and Israel and Palestine.
During this period, Nicolae Ceausescu initiated a series of programs to develop his country. Its aim was to establish an advanced socialist society. Within the scope of these programs, it started to demolish churches, historical buildings and nature because it aimed at urbanization. Of course, all these decisions were quite selfish because Romania was neither economically nor socially prepared for such a change.
Influenced by North Korea, Nicolae Ceausescu began to make terrible decisions in his country:
Nicolae Ceausescu, who turned to the West but still concealed his inner communist, was influenced by the Chinese Cultural Revolution and the Korean Workers’ Party. Moreover, he took the system of North Korean president Kim II-Sung and started to implement it in his own country. Although he said it was for the purpose of healing his country, this system aimed to create a god leader.
During this period, Ceausescu outlawed abortion in order to increase the population of his country, imposed additional taxes on single and childless people, declared mothers of 10 children heroes, and made divorce difficult. Because of these decisions, countless women died during secret abortions. 60 percent of AIDS patients in Europe were in Romania because contraceptive methods were banned. The number of children abandoned and left on the street or in orphanages has increased.
Although Romania is a small country, it had to borrow 13 billion dollars due to the wrong decisions of Nicolae Ceausescu. When all agricultural and industrial products produced in the country were exported in order to cover this debt, access to basic consumer goods decreased, the people began to experience a great famine, natural gas and electricity were cut off frequently.
The events of Timișoara that brought the end of Nicolae Ceausescu were:
While the people were starving, Nicolae Ceausescu was on television and shamelessly saying that everything was fine. With the arrest of a Hungarian clergyman, the minority group in the country, the fuse was ignited and the people started demonstrations in the city of Timișoara. Unable to stop the people, the police opened fire on the demonstrators.
The events quickly spread to other cities of the country. Demonstrations became more active after the suspicious death of the defense minister. Meanwhile, Nicolae Ceausescu had escaped in his helicopter. In the clashes between the demonstrators, police and soldiers, two generals and a minister took over the administration after rumors that more than 64 thousand people died.
Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife were executed by shooting:
The National Liberation Front, which was established after the coup, pursued Nicolae Ceausescu. He was eventually caught with his wife on December 25, 1989. He was tried in public and sentenced to death along with his wife, although he refused the court-martial set up to try him.
Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena Ceausescu were executed by firing squad on January 7, 1990. The couple were buried separately in the Ghencea Cemetery in Bucharest. Post-execution footage was recorded by the committee and distributed to the world press and broadcast on Romanian official television. Nicolae Ceausescu was accused of causing more than 60,000 deaths, but later different sources put this figure as between 689 and 1200.
We talked about the details of the life of Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu, who condemned his people to famine for the sake of his own ambitions, which ended with his execution. You can share your thoughts on the life and death of Nicolae Ceausescu in the comments.
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