There I was - a brand new 1Lt at Beale AFB. I joined the Air Force because of those damn Communists, and then something happened. Freedom was breaking out everywhere in Eastern Europe. 1989 was the beginning of the end
for Communism in Eastern Europe. In June
of that year, Poland held open elections, resulting in its first non-Communist
government in 40 years. In October,
Hungary made many changes. It ceased to
be a “people’s republic,” and passed legislation that guaranteed human and
civil rights, made provisions for free, fair and multi-party elections, and
established separate executive, legislative and judicial branches of
government. On November 9th
the Berlin Wall fell, effectively ending the German Democratic Republic. A week later the Velvet Revolution commenced
in Czechoslovakia. Vaclav Havel became
the first non-Communist president of Czechoslovakia since 1948 in
December. In Bulgaria, longtime
Communist leader Todor Zhivkov was replaced by a more liberal Communist
government. The new government repealed
restrictions on free speech and assembly.
In December the Bulgarian Communists renounced their monopoly on power,
which led to free and fair elections in 1990.
All of these events were relatively peaceful. The exception to this non-violence was
Romania.
It started in a place called Timoşoara. There was a Hungarian Reformed church pastor
named László Tőkés. He was at
the center of a protest movement against Romania’s Systemization policy. In short, this was a policy of rural
resettlement. Villages were to become
urban industrial centers, the result of which was the demolition of small
villages, churches and many older buildings which would be replaced with
“modern” apartment buildings. People
were evicted from their homes and relocated to these apartment buildings. The peasant way of life disappeared under
concrete. To say the least, the huddled
masses weren’t pleased. Tőkés made his critiques about the systemization policy
on Hungarian TV. This got the attention
of Romania’s secret state police, the Securitate. The Securitate tried to evict Tőkés from his home, but his parishioners wouldn’t have
it. On December 16, 1989 they intervened
to stop the Securitate from executing Tőkés’ eviction. As the day wore on, more protesters against
the Securitate gathered, and soon the protest against Tőkés’
eviction became an anti-Communist protest.
The Securitate tear gassed the protesters, and they used water cannons
to disperse them. The next day the
protests resumed, but this day the protesters broke into the local Party
headquarters and ransacked the place.
They tried to burn the place down, but the military stopped them. The unrest in Timoşoara continued for five days. According to the Library of Congress Federal
Research Division, Nicolae Ceauşescu ordered the minister of national defense
to fire on the crowd in order to end the demonstrations. Gunfire by the
Securitate killed and wounded scores of demonstrators.
What caused this discontent in
Romania? For most of the 1980s Romania
was living under an austerity program.
Wanting to be free of foreign debt, Nicolae Ceauşescu decided to ration practically everything – food, gas,
heating – in order to export everything else to pay down the debt. Wages were low, and there were massive
shortages of everything. The infant
mortality rate in Romania was the highest in Europe. The Romanian standard of living for the great
unwashed was low. The Securitate and its
huge network of informants was everywhere, enabling Ceauşescu to rule Romania with an
iron fist. Widespread poverty made Ceauşescu and the Communist party
unpopular. Ceauşescu and his cronies lived in
palatial mansions while the huddled masses suffered. On top of all of this was the aforementioned
systemization program.
On December 20th, Ceauşescu returned from a trip to Iran. Events were spinning out of control, so Ceauşescu decided to give a
nationally-televised speech to a mass meeting staged in Bucharest. It started out as an ordinary speech, with Ceauşescu bloviating the usual
Communist bilge about his regime’s accomplishments. The hired party hacks were up front. They clapped and cheered at his every
pronouncement. But after about eight
minutes things changed drastically. The
crowd started to chant "Ti-mi-șoa-ra!
Ti-mi-șoa-ra!" Ceauşescu froze – he didn’t know
what to do. Twenty years of a cult of
personality left Ceauşescu
without a clue how to deal with masses of people who disagreed with him. He was dumbfounded, and even worse, was seen
by many to be dumbfounded. The people
were no longer afraid of him. Then there
was what sounded like fireworks and gunshots, and word spread that the
Securitate was firing on the crowd. The
crowds began to storm the building from which he gave his speech. The army kept them out. Ceauşescu was hustled inside, as rioting continued throughout
the night. The following day the army
withdrew their support from Ceauşescu
and went over to the other side. Ceauşescu and his wife fled
Bucharest by helicopter.
They first flew to his villa at Snagov, where Ceauşescu tried to contact local
party leaders [he failed]. They found
themselves in Boteni, near a military base.
The helicopter pilot told Ceauşescu that they’d been spotted on radar and would be blown
out of the sky at any minute. After
landing they hijacked a car at gunpoint to try to get away. He told the scared driver that there was a
coup in Bucharest, and that he intended to organize resistance at
Tȃrgovişte. The driver took Ceauşescu to a cooperative farm. It was here that the police finally caught up
with the Ceauşescus,
three hours after they fled Bucharest.
They were driven around in an armored car until a decision about their
future was made. As long as the Ceauşescus were alive, his
supporters would continue the fighting and killing. A short trial was arranged, during which Ceauşescu refused to recognize the
court’s authority. It didn’t take long
before the court reached its pre-determined decision – execution. After the Ceauşescus’ sentence was pronounced [even their defense “lawyer”
asked for the death penalty], they suddenly realized their sentences were going
to be carried out immediately. They were
taken outside and shot. For every bullet
the hit Nicolae Ceauşescu,
ten hit his wife Elena. She was even
more-hated than he was. The execution
was on Christmas Day. They were buried
in simple graves in different parts of a Bucharest cemetery.
And there was much rejoicing...
