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98-622: Gerovital is promoted with unsupported claims of its curative abilities for a wide range of human ailments; research has found no evidence that it has any health benefit or "anti-aging" properties. The impetus for developing the drug is sometimes alleged to have come from Nicolae Ceaușescu , who is also wrongly claimed to have funded the establishment of a research organization, the National Institute of Geriatrics, in Bucharest , Romania, headed by Ana Aslan (1897–1988). From

196-568: A "militant, revolutionary" character in artistic productions. The liberalization of 1965 was condemned and an index of banned books and authors was re-established. The Theses heralded the beginning of a "mini cultural revolution" in Romania, launching a Neo-Stalinist offensive against cultural autonomy, reaffirming an ideological basis for literature that, in theory, the Party had hardly abandoned. Although presented in terms of "Socialist Humanism",

294-414: A Communist Spy Chief ( ISBN   0-89526-570-2 ), claimed to expose details of Ceaușescu's government activities, such as massive spying on American industry and elaborate efforts to rally Western political support. Systematization ( Romanian : Sistematizarea ) was the program of urban planning carried out under Ceaușescu's regime. After a visit to North Korea in 1971, Ceaușescu was impressed by

392-836: A decline in industrial output caused by significantly increased material costs. Despite the 1988 decline, the net foreign balance reached its decade-long peak (9.5% of GDP). In 1989, GDP slumped by a further 5.8% due to growing shortages and the increasingly obsolete capital stock. By March 1989, virtually all external debt had been repaid, including all medium- and long-term external debt. The remaining amount, totalling less than 1 million, consisted of short-term credits (mainly short-term export credits granted by Romania). A 1989 decree legally prohibited Romanian entities from contracting external debt. The CIA World Factbook edition of 1990 listed Romania's external debt as "none" as of mid-1989. A tentative coup d'état planned in October 1984 failed when

490-539: A full socialist consciousness in the people, and that a full socialist consciousness could only come about if the entire population was made aware of socialist values that guided society. The Communist Party was to be the agency that would so "enlighten" the population and in the words of the British historian Richard Crampton "...the party would merge state and society, the individual and the collective, and would promote 'the ever more organic participation of party members in

588-424: A negligible effect on disease. In 1994, the U.S. FDA Consumer magazine said: "No health claims for Gerovital have been substantiated, and FDA considers it an unapproved new drug. It has caused low blood pressure, respiratory difficulties, and convulsions in some users." Suppliers assert that the product is safe, and one cites a brief quotation from a newspaper article that says "while as early as 1973 Elmer Gardner of

686-588: A number of joint party-state organizations were founded such as the Council for Socialist Education and Culture, which had no precise counterpart in any of the other communist states of Eastern Europe, and the Romanian Communist Party was embedded into the daily life of the nation in a way that it never had been before. In 1974, the party programme of the Romanian Communist Party announced that structural changes in society were insufficient to create

784-554: A number of townspeople marched against economic policies in Socialist Romania and Nicolae Ceaușescu's policies of rationing of basic foodstuffs , rationing electricity and central heating . The first protests began practically on 14 November 1987, at the 440 "Molds" Section of the Red Flag truck company. Initially, the protests were for basic needs: "We want food and heating!", "We want our money!", "We want food for

882-492: A petition protesting against the trial of railway workers and twice more for other similar activities. By the mid-1930s, he had been in missions in Bucharest, Craiova , Câmpulung and Râmnicu Vâlcea , being arrested several times. The profile file from the secret police, Siguranța Statului , named him "a dangerous Communist agitator" and "distributor of Communist and antifascist propaganda materials". For these charges, he

980-417: A specially selected team of paratroopers from a crack regiment , handpicked earlier in the morning to act as a firing squad . Before the legal proceedings began, Stănculescu had already selected the spot where the execution would take place: along one side of the wall in the barracks ' square. Nicolae Ceaușescu refused to recognize the tribunal , arguing its lack of constitutional basis and claiming that

1078-782: A speech before the executive committee of the Romanian Communist Party. This quasi- Maoist speech, which came to be known as the July Theses , contained seventeen proposals. Among these were: continuous growth in the "leading role" of the Party; improvement of Party education and of mass political action; youth participation on large construction projects as part of their "patriotic work"; an intensification of political-ideological education in schools and universities, as well as in children's, youth and student organizations; and an expansion of political propaganda, orienting radio and television shows to this end, as well as publishing houses, theatres and cinemas, opera, ballet, artists' unions, promoting

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1176-523: A week before the invasion to offer moral support to his Czechoslovak counterpart, Alexander Dubček . Although the Soviet Union largely tolerated Ceaușescu's recalcitrance, his seeming independence from Moscow earned Romania maverick status within the Eastern Bloc . All of Ceaușescu's economic, foreign and demographic policies were meant to achieve his ultimate goal: turning Romania into one of

1274-420: A whole. Effectively, Ceaușescu now held all governing power in the nation; virtually all party and state institutions were subordinated to his will. The principles of democratic centralism, combined with the legislature's infrequent sessions (it sat in full session only twice a year) meant that for all intents and purposes, his decisions had the force of law. Starting with the 1973–74 Arab oil embargo against

1372-406: Is the uprising of Vadu Roșca (Vrancea county) which opposed the state program of expropriation of private holdings, when military units opened fire on the rebelling peasants, killing 9 and wounding 48. Ceaușescu personally led the investigation which resulted in 18 peasants being imprisoned for "rebellion" and "conspiring against social order". When Gheorghiu-Dej died on 19 March 1965, Ceaușescu

1470-493: The Juche ideology of that country, and began a major campaign shortly afterwards. Beginning in 1974, systematization consisted largely of the demolition and reconstruction of existing villages, towns, and cities, in whole or in part, with the stated goal of turning Romania into a "multilaterally developed socialist society ". The policy largely consisted in the mass construction of high-density blocks of flats ( blocuri ). During

1568-549: The Central Committee months after the party's "Muscovite faction" led by Ana Pauker had been purged. In the late 1940s-early 1950s, the Party had been divided into the "home communists" headed by Gheorghiu-Dej who remained inside Romania prior to 1944 and the "Muscovites" who had gone into exile in the Soviet Union. With the partial exception of Poland, where the Polish October crisis of 1956 brought to power

1666-526: The Communist Party of Romania and to declare the country a socialist republic , rather than a people's republic . In 1967, he consolidated his power by becoming president of the State Council , making him head of state. His political apparatus sent many thousands of political opponents to prison or psychiatric hospitals. Initially, Ceaușescu became a popular figure, both in Romania and in

1764-573: The Great National Assembly had the power to remove him. He argued that it was a coup d'état organized by the Soviets . Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu were convicted of all charges and condemned to death in what amounted to a show trial . At one point, their forcibly-assigned lawyers abandoned their clients' defence and joined with the prosecutor , accusing them of capital crimes instead of defending them. No offer of proof

1862-773: The Romanian Revolution in December 1989, part of a series of anti-communist uprisings in Eastern Europe that year. Born in 1918 in Scornicești , Ceaușescu was a member of the Romanian Communist youth movement. He was arrested in 1939 and sentenced for "conspiracy against social order", spending the time during the war in prisons and internment camps: Jilava (1940), Caransebeș (1942), Văcărești (1943), and Târgu Jiu (1943). Ceaușescu rose up through

1960-726: The Western bloc and the European Community : an agreement including Romania in the Community's Generalised System of Preferences was signed in 1974 and an Agreement on Industrial Products was signed in 1980. On 4 April 1975, Ceaușescu visited Japan and met with Emperor Hirohito . In June 1978, Ceaușescu made a state visit to the UK where a £200m licensing agreement was signed between the Romanian government and British Aerospace for

2058-495: The World Health Organization (WHO). In May 1969, Marcolino Candau, Director General of this organization, visited Romania and declared that the visits of WHO staff to various Romanian hospital establishments had made an extraordinarily good impression. The social and economic transformations resulted in improved living conditions for Romanians. Economic growth allowed for higher salaries which, combined with

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2156-597: The "Muscovites" in 1952. In 1954, Ceaușescu became a full member of the Politburo, effectively granting him one of the highest positions of power in the country. As a high-ranking state official in the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Defence Ceaușescu had an important role in the forced collectivisation, according to own Romanian Workers' Party data, between 1949 and 1952 there were over 80,000 arrests of peasants and 30,000 ended with prison sentences. One example

2254-526: The 1950s until her death in 1988, Aslan promoted Gerovital H3 with great success. In the 1960s and 1970s her Romanian clinic, the Parhon Institute, became a mecca for celebrities seeking treatment, and an upscale tourist attraction. The New York Times referred to Gerovital's "jet-set aura", noting that Aslan had been covered in "society columns where such public figures as Nikita S. Khrushchev , Konrad Adenauer , and Ibn Saud have been listed among

2352-453: The 1980s, Ceaușescu became obsessed with building himself a palace of unprecedented proportions, along with an equally grandiose neighborhood, Centrul Civic , to accompany it. The mass demolitions that occurred in the 1980s under which an overall area of eight square kilometres of the historic center of Bucharest were leveled, including monasteries, churches, synagogues, a hospital, and a noted Art Deco sports stadium, in order to make way for

2450-542: The Communist prisoners much freedom in running their cell block, provided they did not attempt to break out of prison. At Târgu Jiu, Gheorghiu-Dej ran " self-criticism sessions" where various Party members had to confess before the other Party members to misunderstanding the teachings of Karl Marx , Friedrich Engels , Vladimir Lenin , and Joseph Stalin as interpreted by Gheorghiu-Dej; journalist Edward Behr claimed that Ceaușescu's role in these "self-criticism sessions"

2548-494: The FDA's Bureau of Drugs stated 'There is no safety problem with Gerovital H-3. ' " There is no evidence that Gerovital is helpful in slowing aging or treating illness. Procaine itself is often considered to be a drug. Earlier references by advocates of Gerovital H3 refer to it as a drug. Hoffer and Walker (1980) call it a "youth drug". Mircea Dumitru, Aslan's colleague and personal physician, describes it as "a complex drug acting like

2646-567: The Romanian dictator. In 1978, Ion Mihai Pacepa , a senior member of the Romanian political police ( Securitate , State Security), defected to the United States. A two-star general, he was the highest-ranking defector from the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War . His defection was a powerful blow against the administration, forcing Ceaușescu to overhaul Romania's state security architecture. Pacepa's 1986 book, Red Horizons: Chronicles of

2744-581: The Romanian state. Ceaușescu's speech of 21 August 1968 represented the apogee of Ceaușescu's rule. It marked the highest point in Ceaușescu's popularity, when he openly condemned the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia . Ceaușescu visited China, North Korea, Mongolia and North Vietnam in 1971. He took great interest in the idea of total national transformation as embodied in the programmes of North Korea's Juche and China's Cultural Revolution . He

2842-553: The Shah was overthrown . In an attempt to correct this, Ceaușescu decided to repay Romania's foreign debts . He organised the 1986 military referendum and managed to change the constitution, adding a clause that barred Romania from taking foreign loans in the future. According to official results, the referendum yielded a nearly unanimous "yes" vote. Romania's record—having all of its debts to commercial banks paid off in full—has not been matched by any other heavily indebted country in

2940-497: The Theses in fact marked a return to the strict guidelines of Socialist Realism and attacks on non-compliant intellectuals. Strict ideological conformity in the humanities and social sciences was demanded. In a 1972 speech, Ceaușescu stated he wanted "a certain blending of party and state activities... in the long run we shall witness an ever closer blending of the activities of the party, state and other social bodies". In practice,

3038-529: The West, a period of prolonged high oil prices set in that characterised the rest of the 1970s. Romania as a major oil equipment producer greatly benefited from the high oil prices of the 1970s, which led Ceaușescu to embark on an ambitious plan to invest heavily in oil-refining plants. Ceaușescu's plan was to make Romania into Europe's number one oil refiner not only of its own oil, but also of oil from Middle Eastern states such as Iraq and Iran, and then to sell all of

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3136-494: The West, because of his independent foreign policy, which challenged the authority of the Soviet Union . In the 1960s, he eased press censorship and ended Romania's active participation in the Warsaw Pact , but Romania formally remained a member. He refused to take part in the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact forces and even actively and openly condemned it in his 21 August 1968 speech . He travelled to Prague

3234-578: The benefits offered by the state (free medical care, pensions, free universal education at all levels, etc.) were a leap compared to the pre-WWII situation of the Romanian population. Certain extra retributions were allowed for the peasants, who started to produce more. In October 1966, in an attempt to reverse the Romania's low birth and fertility rates, Ceaușescu issued Decree 770 to restricted abortion and contraception . The government targeted rising divorce rates and made divorce more difficult — marriages could only be dissolved in exceptional cases. By

3332-526: The catalogs of Scornicești Primary School, which certifies that Nicolae A. Ceaușescu passed the first grade with an average of 8.26 and the second grade with an average of 8.18, ranking third, in a class in which 25 students were enrolled. Journalist Cătălin Gruia claimed in 2007 that he ran away from his supposedly extremely religious, abusive and strict father. He initially lived with his sister, Niculina Rusescu. He became an apprentice shoemaker , working in

3430-640: The children!", "We want light and heat!" and "We want bread without a card!". Next to the County Hospital, they sang the anthem of the revolution of 1848, " Deșteaptă-te, române! ". Upon arriving in the city center, thousands of workers from the Tractorul Brașov and Hidromecanica factories, pupils, students, and others joined the demonstration. From this moment on, the protest became political. Participants later claimed to have chanted slogans such as "Down with Ceaușescu!", "Down with communism!", "Down with

3528-649: The country. The demonstrations, which reached Bucharest , became known as the Romanian Revolution —the only violent overthrow of a communist government in the course of the Revolutions of 1989 . Ceaușescu and his wife Elena fled the capital in a helicopter enrouting to Vatican via Vienna , Austria , but they were captured in Romanian territory by the military after the armed forces defected. After being tried and convicted of economic sabotage and genocide , both were sentenced to death, and they were immediately executed by firing squad on 25 December . Ceaușescu

3626-591: The day after the execution: The morning of the trial, prominent lawyer Nicu Teodorescu was having Christmas breakfast with his family when he was telephoned by an aide to Iliescu, and asked by the National Salvation Front to be the Ceaușescus' defence counsel . He replied that it would be "an interesting challenge". Teodorescu met the couple for the first time in the Târgoviște "court room", when he

3724-652: The deaths that occurred during the Romanian Revolution, most of which took place after Ceaușescu was overthrown. The indictment also made reference to the conviction and execution of the Ceaușescus "after a mockery of a trial". The investigation that led to the indictments had previously been closed in 2009, but was re-opened in 2016 as the result of a trial at the European Court of Human Rights . Swiss theatre director Milo Rau and his International Institute of Political Murder (IIPM) wrote and produced

3822-460: The deterioration of foreign relations, even with the Soviet Union . As anti-government protesters demonstrated in Timișoara in December 1989, Ceaușescu perceived the demonstrations as a political threat and ordered military forces to open fire on 17 December, causing many deaths and injuries. The revelation that Ceaușescu was responsible resulted in a massive spread of rioting and civil unrest across

3920-668: The development of cancer. He continued to follow an independent policy in foreign relations—for example, in 1984, Romania was one of few communist states (notably including the People's Republic of China and Yugoslavia ) to take part in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, despite a Soviet-led boycott. Also, the Socialist Republic of Romania was the first of the Eastern bloc nations to have official relations with

4018-525: The dictatorship!" or "Down with the tyrant!". During the march, members of the Securitate disguised as workers infiltrated the demonstrators, or remained on the sidelines as spectators, photographing or even filming. Trial and execution of Nicolae and Elena Ceau%C8%99escu The trial and execution of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu were held on 25 December 1989 in Târgoviște , Romania . The trial

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4116-401: The entire social life'". Ceaușescu had been head of state since 1967, though nominally only as first among equals, deriving his real power from his status as party leader. In 1974, Ceaușescu however introduced a full-fledged executive presidency as the nation's top decision-maker. He was first elected to this post in 1974 and would be reelected every five years until 1989. As President he

4214-420: The execution. Simon Sebag Montefiore wrote that Elena Ceaușescu screamed, "You sons of bitches!" as she was led outside and lined up against the wall, while Nicolae Ceaușescu began singing a fragment of " The Internationale " before the soldiers opened fire. The firing squad began shooting as soon as the two were positioned against a wall. The execution happened too quickly for the television crew assigned to

4312-532: The few Communist countries to participate in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles (going on to win 53 medals, trailing only the United States and West Germany in the overall count) while most of the Eastern Bloc's nations boycotted this event. Ceaușescu refused to implement measures of economic liberalism . The evolution of his regime followed the path begun by Gheorghiu-Dej. He continued with

4410-614: The grandiose Centrul Civic (Civic center) and the House of the Republic, now officially renamed the Palace of Parliament , were the most extreme manifestation of the systematization policy. In 1988, a massive rural resettlement program began . Ceaușescu's political independence from the Soviet Union and his protest against the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 drew the interest of Western powers, whose governments briefly believed that he

4508-557: The grave, with large numbers of pensioners gathering on 26 January, Nicolae's birthday. The hasty trial and the images of the dead Ceaușescus were videotaped and the footage promptly released in numerous Western countries two days after the execution. Later that day, it was also shown on Romanian television. In 2009 Valentin Ceaușescu , elder son of the Ceaușescus, argued that the revolutionary forces should have killed his parents when they had arrested them on 22 December since they did not need any trial. After making vague comments about

4606-690: The group hesitated to shoot for several seconds. In 1990, a member of the National Salvation Front reported that 120 bullets were found in the couple's bodies. In 1989, Prime Minister Petre Roman told French television that the execution was carried out quickly due to rumours that loyalists would attempt to rescue the couple. After the execution, the bodies were covered with canvas. The Ceaușescus' corpses were taken to Bucharest and buried in Ghencea Cemetery on 30 December 1989. The bodies were exhumed for identification and reburied in 2010. Groups of Ceaușescu supporters visit to place flowers on

4704-414: The helicopter pilot, claimed to be in danger from anti-aircraft fire, so he landed on the Bucharest – Târgoviște road, near Găești . They stopped a car driven by a Nicolae Decă, who took them to Văcărești , after which he informed the local authorities that the Ceaușescus were going toward Târgoviște. The Ceaușescus took another car and told its driver, Nicolae Petrișor, to drive them to Târgoviște. During

4802-461: The incident, Ion Iliescu stated that it was "quite shameful, but necessary". In a similar vein, Stănculescu told the BBC in 2009 that the trial was "not just, but it was necessary" because the alternative would have been seeing Nicolae lynched on the streets of Bucharest. Several countries criticized the new rulers of Romania after the execution due to lack of public trial. The United States government

4900-411: The information recorded in his autobiography, Nicolae Ceaușescu was born on 26 January 1918. His father Andruță (1886–1969) owned 3 hectares (7.4 acres) of agricultural land and a few sheep, and Nicolae supplemented his large family's income through tailoring. He studied at the village school until the age of 11, when he left for Bucharest . The Olt County Service of National Archives holds excerpts from

4998-604: The late 1960s, the population began to swell. In turn, a new problem was created, child abandonment, which swelled the orphanage population (see 1980s-1990s Romanian orphans phenomenon ). Many of the children in these orphanages suffered mental and physical deficiencies see Cighid ). Measures to encourage reproduction included financial motivations for families who bore children, guaranteed maternity leave, and childcare support for mothers who returned to work, work protection for women, and extensive access to medical control in all stages of pregnancy, as well as after it. Medical control

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5096-787: The military unit assigned to carry out the plan was sent to harvest maize instead. Romanian workers began to mobilize against the economic policies of Ceaușescu. Spontaneous labor conflicts, limited in scale, took place in major industrial centers such as Cluj-Napoca (November 1986) and the Nicolina platform in Iași (February 1987), culminating in a massive strike in Brașov . The draconian measures taken by Ceaușescu involved reducing energy and food consumption, as well as lowering workers' incomes, leading to what political scientist Vladimir Tismăneanu called "generalized dissatisfaction". Over 20,000 workers and

5194-666: The multitudes said to have taken the drug." As late as 1988 an advertisement by the Romanian National Tourist Office lauded "the picturesque and exciting cities, scenic delights, famous resorts (including Gerovital H3 treatment centers), cultural and historic treasures that await the traveler to Romania." With the rise of the Web Gerovital has enjoyed a new lease of promotional life as it is promoted by many sites with claims of its "cure-all" abilities. A 1973 New York Times article said "cold water

5292-443: The news of their arrest from General Andrei Kemenici, the commander of the army unit, they began to discuss what to do with the Ceaușescus. Victor Stănculescu , who was Ceaușescu's last defence minister before going over to the revolution, wanted a quick execution, as did Gelu Voican Voiculescu. Ion Iliescu , Romania's provisional president, supported holding a trial first. During the evening of 24 December 1989, Stănculescu sent

5390-828: The only Eastern European countries that entered into trade agreements with the European Economic Community before the fall of the Eastern Bloc. A series of official visits to Western countries (including the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Spain and Australia) helped Ceaușescu to present himself as a reforming Communist, pursuing an independent foreign policy within the Soviet Bloc. He also became eager to be seen as an enlightened international statesman, able to mediate in international conflicts, and to gain international respect for Romania. Ceaușescu negotiated in international affairs, such as

5488-544: The opening of US relations with China in 1969 and the visit of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat to Israel in 1977. In addition, Romania was the only country in the world to maintain normal diplomatic relations with both Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization . In 1980, Romania participated in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow with its other Soviet bloc allies, but in 1984 was one of

5586-461: The population led to a growing number of illegal abortions and increased the number of orphans in state institutions. Economic mismanagement due to failed oil ventures during the 1970s led to very significant foreign debts for Romania. In 1982, Ceaușescu directed the government to export much of the country's agricultural and industrial production in an effort to repay these debts. His cult of personality experienced unprecedented elevation, followed by

5684-421: The possibility that what Ceaușescu had seen in both China and North Korea were "vast Potemkin villages for the hoodwinking of gullible foreign guests" was something that never seemed to have crossed his mind. Shortly after returning home, he began to emulate North Korea's system. North Korean books on Juche were translated into Romanian and widely distributed inside the country. On 6 July 1971, he delivered

5782-468: The premiere at the Odeon Theatre in Bucharest in 2010, Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu's son-in-law Mircea Oprean (the widower of Zoia , who died in 2006), forced his way into rehearsals, saying that he and his brother-in-law Valentin Ceaușescu had registered the name "Ceaușescu" as a trademark in 2008, and it could not be used in the title. A lawsuit followed, and the director was forced to cancel

5880-458: The previously imprisoned "home communist" Władysław Gomułka , Romania was the only Eastern European nation where the "home communists" triumphed over the "Muscovites". In the rest of the Soviet bloc, there were a series of purges in this period that led to the "home communists" being executed or imprisoned. Like his patron Gheorghiu-Dej, Ceaușescu was a "home communist" who benefited from the fall of

5978-679: The procaine molecule ... The addition of benzoic acid, potassium and disodium phosphate increase the effects of Gerovital-H3 biotrophic treatment." As of 2004, the FDA's 1982 automatic detention alert is still in effect and bans the import of Gerovital H3 into the U.S. as "a new drug within the meaning of 201(p), without an approved new drug application [Unapproved New Drug, Section 505(a)]." The ban covers: Nicolae Ceau%C8%99escu Nicolae Ceaușescu ( / tʃ aʊ ˈ ʃ ɛ s k uː / chow- SHESK -oo , Romanian: [nikoˈla.e tʃe̯a.uˈʃesku] ; 26 January [ O.S. 13 January] 1918 – 25 December 1989)

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6076-617: The production of more than eighty BAC One-Eleven aircraft. The deal was said at the time to be the biggest between two countries involving a civil aircraft. This was the first state visit by a Communist head of state to the UK, and Ceaușescu was given a knighthood by the Queen, which was revoked on the day before his death in 1989. Similarly, in 1983, Vice President of the United States George H. W. Bush and in 1985 United States Secretary of State George Shultz also praised

6174-436: The program of intensive industrialization aimed at the economic self-sufficiency of the country which since 1959 had already doubled industrial production and had reduced the peasant population from 78% at the end of the 1940s to 61% in 1966 and 49% by 1971. However, for Romania, like other Eastern People's Republics, industrialization did not mean a total social break with the countryside. The peasants returned periodically to

6272-415: The ranks of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej 's Socialist government and, upon Gheorghiu-Dej's death in 1965, he succeeded to the leadership of the Romanian Communist Party as general secretary. Upon achieving power, Ceaușescu eased press censorship and condemned the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in his speech of 21 August 1968 , which resulted in a surge in popularity. However, this period of stability

6370-517: The refined oil at a profit on the Rotterdam spot market. As Romania lacked the money to build the necessary oil refining plants and Ceaușescu chose to spend the windfall from the high oil prices on aid to the Third World in an attempt to buy Romania international influence, Ceaușescu borrowed heavily from Western banks on the assumption that when the loans came due, the profits from the sales of

6468-523: The refined oil would be more than enough to pay off the loans. The 1977 earthquake which destroyed much of Bucharest led to delays in the oil plan. By the time the oil refining plants were finished in the early 1980s, a slump in oil prices had set in, leading to major financial problems for Romania. In August 1977 over 30,000 miners went on strike in the Jiu River valley complaining of low pay and poor working conditions. The Jiu valley miners' strike

6566-510: The revolutionary authorities were part of a Soviet plot. His refusal to recognize the tribunal did not prevent the firing squad from carrying out the sentence immediately, on the same day as the trial. On 22 December 1989, during the Romanian Revolution , Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu left the Central Committee building in Bucharest by helicopter towards Snagov , from where they left soon afterwards towards Pitești. Vasile Maluțan ,

6664-473: The secret code "recourse to the method" to Kemenici, referring to the execution of the Ceaușescus. A ten-member tribunal was formed to try the case. The members of the panel were all military judges. The Independent characterized the trial as "what can best be described as an egregiously conducted summary trial , at worst a kangaroo court ". The charges were published in Monitorul Oficial

6762-562: The stage production The Last Days of the Ceausescus in 2009. The production was a re-enactment of the trial, and IIPM was able to obtain testimonies from people directly involved in the Romanian revolution (including dissidents, politicians, revolutionaries and ordinary Romanians) and the trial of the Ceaușescus (including the general who betrayed them, the officer who captured them, and the soldier who shot them). A few days before

6860-515: The trial and death sentence to videotape it in full; only the last round of shots was filmed. In 2014, retired Captain Boeru told a reporter for The Guardian newspaper that he believes that the shots he fired from his rifle were solely responsible for the deaths of both of the Ceaușescus, because, of the three soldiers in the firing squad, he was the only one who remembered to switch his assault rifle to fire fully automatic, and at least one member of

6958-411: The trip, the Ceaușescus heard news of the revolution on the car radio (by then the revolutionaries had taken control of the state media), causing Ceaușescu to angrily denounce the revolution as a coup d'état . Petrișor took the couple to an agricultural centre near Târgoviște, where they were locked in an office and later arrested by soldiers from a local army garrison . As the new authorities heard

7056-403: The two were taken by an armoured personnel carrier to the garrison command office where the trial would take place. After the medical visits, they were brought into the improvised courtroom. The trial of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu was very brief, lasting approximately one hour. Ceaușescu defended himself by arguing that the tribunal was against the 1965 Constitution of Romania and that only

7154-459: The villages or resided in them, commuting daily to the city in a practice called naveta. This allowed Romanians to act as peasants and workers at the same time. Universities were also founded in small Romanian towns, which served to train qualified professionals such as engineers, economists, planners or jurists necessary for the industrialization and development project of the country. Romanian healthcare also achieved improvements and recognition by

7252-470: The words of the British historian Richard Crampton) "... once again à la polonaise , with cries of 'Down with the Red Bourgeoisie!'". Ceaușescu ultimately negotiated a compromise solution to the strike. In the years after the strike, a number of its leaders died of accidents and "premature disease". Rumors emerged that Securitate had doctors give the strike leaders 5-minute chest X-rays to ensure

7350-464: The workshop of Alexandru Săndulescu, a shoemaker who was an active member in the then-illegal Communist Party. Ceaușescu was soon involved in the Communist Party activities (becoming a member in early 1932), but as a teenager he was given only small tasks. He was first arrested in 1933, at the age of 15, for street fighting during a strike and again, in 1934, first for collecting signatures on

7448-584: The world's great powers. During the following years, Ceaușescu pursued an open policy towards the United States and Western Europe . Romania was the first Warsaw Pact country to recognize West Germany , the first to join the International Monetary Fund , and the first to receive a US president, Richard Nixon . In 1971, Romania became a member of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade . Romania and Yugoslavia were also

7546-643: The world. The policy to repay—and, in multiple cases, prepay—Romania's external debt became the dominant policy in the late 1980s. The result was economic stagnation throughout the 1980s and, towards the end of the decade, an economic crisis. The country's industrial capacity was eroded as equipment grew obsolete and energy intensity increased, and the standard of living deteriorated significantly. Draconian restrictions were imposed on household energy use to ensure adequate supplies for industry. Convertible currency exports were promoted at all costs and imports severely reduced. In 1988, real GDP contracted by 0.5%, mostly due to

7644-403: Was genocide . Romanian state television announced that Nicolae Ceaușescu had been responsible for the deaths of 60,000 people; the announcement did not make clear whether this was the number killed during the Romanian Revolution in Timișoara or throughout the 24 years of Ceaușescu's rule. Nevertheless, the charges did not affect the trial. General Victor Stănculescu had brought with him

7742-409: Was a Romanian politician who was the second and last communist leader of Romania , serving as the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989. Widely classified as a dictator , he was the country's head of state from 1967 to 1989, serving as President of the State Council from 1967 and as the first President of the Republic from 1974. He was overthrown and executed in

7840-669: Was also inspired by the personality cults of North Korea 's Kim Il Sung and China 's Mao Zedong . Journalist Edward Behr claimed that Ceaușescu admired both Mao and Kim as leaders who not only totally dominated their nations but had also used totalitarian methods coupled with significant ultra-nationalism mixed in with communism in order to transform both China and North Korea into major world powers. Furthermore, that Kim and even more so Mao had broken free of Soviet control were additional sources of admiration for Ceaușescu. According to British journalist Edward Behr, Elena Ceaușescu allegedly bonded with Mao's wife, Jiang Qing . Behr wrote that

7938-486: Was an anti-Soviet maverick and hoped to create a schism in the Warsaw Pact by funding him. Ceaușescu did not realise that the funding was not always favorable. Ceaușescu was able to borrow heavily (more than $ 13 billion) from the West to finance economic development programs, but these loans ultimately devastated the country's finances. He also secured a deal for cheap oil from Iran , but the deal fell through after

8036-421: Was arrested again and sentenced for "conspiracy against social order", spending the time during the war in prisons and internment camps : Jilava (1940), Caransebeș (1942), Văcărești (1943), and Târgu Jiu (1943). In 1943, he was transferred to Târgu Jiu internment camp , where he shared a cell with Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej , becoming his protégé. Enticed with substantial bribes, the camp authorities gave

8134-599: Was beginning to fall under Soviet influence, Ceaușescu served as secretary of the Union of Communist Youth (1944–1945). After the Communists seized power in Romania in 1947, and under the patronage of Gheorghiu-Dej, Ceaușescu was elected a member of the Great National Assembly , the new legislative body of communist Romania. In May 1948, Ceaușescu was appointed Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, and in March 1949 he

8232-420: Was born in the small village of Scornicești , Olt County , being the third of nine children of a poor peasant family (see Ceaușescu family ). Based on his birth certificate, he was born on 23 January [ O.S. 5 February] 1918, rather than the official 26 January [ O.S. 8 February] 1918—his birth was registered with a three-day delay, which later led to confusion. According to

8330-459: Was brief, as his government soon became totalitarian and came to be considered the most repressive in the Eastern Bloc . His secret police , the Securitate , was responsible for mass surveillance as well as severe repression and human rights abuses within the country, and controlled the media and press. Ceaușescu's attempts to implement policies that would lead to a significant growth of

8428-630: Was carried out by a firing squad consisting of eight paratroop regiment soldiers brought in by two helicopters from the Boteni base: Captain Ionel Boeru, Sergeant-Major Georghin Octavian and Dorin-Marian Cîrlan, and five other non-commissioned officers who were selected from 20 volunteers. Before the execution, Nicolae Ceaușescu declared, "We could have been shot without having this masquerade!" The Ceaușescus' hands were tied by four soldiers before

8526-575: Was conducted by an Extraordinary Military Tribunal, a drumhead court-martial created at the request of a newly formed group called the National Salvation Front . Its outcome was predetermined, and it resulted in guilty verdicts and death sentences for former Romanian President and General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party Nicolae Ceaușescu , and his wife, Elena Ceaușescu . The main charge

8624-579: Was convicted on 6 June 1936 by the Brașov Tribunal to 2 years in prison, an additional 6 months for contempt of court , and one year of forced residence in Scornicești. He spent most of his sentence in Doftana Prison . While out of jail in 1939, he met Elena Petrescu , whom he married in 1946 and who would play an increasing role in his political life over the years. Soon after being freed, he

8722-528: Was empowered to carry out those functions of the State Council that did not require plenums . He also appointed and dismissed the president of the Supreme Court and the prosecutor general whenever the legislature was not in session. In practice, from 1974 onward Ceaușescu frequently ruled by decree. Over time, he usurped many powers and functions that nominally were vested in the State Council as

8820-436: Was given ten minutes to confer with his clients. With so little time to prepare any defence, he tried to explain to them that their best hope of avoiding the death sentence was to plead insanity . The Ceaușescus brushed off the idea; according to Teodorescu, "When I suggested it, Elena in particular said it was an outrageous set-up. They felt deeply insulted...They rejected my help after that." At 5:30 a.m. on 25 December,

8918-439: Was made for the Ceaușescus' alleged crimes. They were tried based on references, solely by offence-name or hearsay , to criminal acts they had committed in the opinion of prosecutors, or as alleged in press reports. Various irregularities presented themselves, or became apparent after the trial: The Ceaușescus were executed at 2:50 p.m. local time at Military Unit UM 01417 from Târgoviște on 25 December 1989. The execution

9016-473: Was not the obvious successor, despite his closeness to the longtime leader. But widespread infighting by older and more connected officials led the Politburo to choose Ceaușescu as a compromise candidate. He was elected general secretary on 22 March 1965, three days after Gheorghiu-Dej's death. One of Ceaușescu's first acts was to change the name of the party from the Romanian Workers' Party back to

9114-714: Was promoted to the position of Deputy Minister. From the Ministry of Agriculture and with no military experience, he was made Deputy Minister in charge of the armed forces, holding the rank of Major General. Later, promoted to the rank of lieutenant general, he became First Deputy to the Ministry of Defense and head of the Army's Higher Political Directorate. Ceaușescu studied at the Soviet Frunze Military Academy in Moscow for two consecutive months in both 1951 and 1952. In 1952, Gheorghiu-Dej brought him onto

9212-423: Was seen as one of the most productive effects of the law, since all women who became pregnant were under the care of a qualified medical practitioner, even in rural areas. In some cases, if a woman was unable to visit a medical office, a doctor would visit her home. Mothers of at least five children were entitled to receive significant benefits, while mothers of at least ten children were declared "heroine mothers" by

9310-441: Was that of the enforcer, the young man allegedly beating those Party members who refused to go with or were insufficiently enthusiastic about the "self-criticism" sessions. These "self-criticism sessions" not only helped to cement Gheorghiu-Dej's control over the Party, but also endeared his protégé Ceaușescu to him. It was Ceaușescu's time at Târgu Jiu that marked the beginning of his rise to power. After World War II , when Romania

9408-694: Was the most prominent critic of the trial, stating: "We regret the trial did not take place in an open and public fashion." On 1 March 1990, Colonel Gică Popa, who had presided over the trial and been promoted to general, was found dead in his office. His death was ruled a suicide. The Ceaușescus were the last people to be executed in Romania before the abolition of capital punishment on 7 January 1990. In December 2018, Iliescu, former Deputy Prime Minister Gelu Voican Voiculescu , former Romanian Air Force chief Iosif Rus, and former National Salvation Front council member Emil Dumitrescu were indicted by Romanian military prosecutors for crimes against humanity for

9506-463: Was the most significant expression of opposition to Ceaușescu's rule prior to the late 1980s. The striking miners were inspired by similar strikes along Poland's Baltic coast in December 1970, and just as in Poland in 1970, the striking Romanian miners demanded face-to-face negotiations with their nation's leader. When Ceaușescu appeared before the miners on the third day of the strike, he was greeted (in

9604-481: Was thrown on [Gerovital]'s reputation years ago" by "three reports published simultaneously in British Medical Journal [that said it] found no merit for procaine hydrochloride for any of the problems of aging." Some clinical trials in the mid-to-late 1970s suggested that Gerovital H3 acts as a weak, competitive, reversible MAO inhibitor , and so may have some antidepressant value, but otherwise has

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