Romanian Revolution of 1989
... In February 1982 “ Street lighting was cut off altogether in the countryside, while in the cities only the main streets were poorly lit “ ( Brucan 116 ). In 1989 Eastern Europe was undergoing a lot of changes. The wind of change was blowing over Poland , Hungary Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia. This was soon to spill over in Romania. The peoples malcontent and suffering in Romania ignited on the date of December 16th 1989, when rumors that the government has decided to evict the popular minister Laszlo Tokes from his house in the city of Timisoara. A large crowd formed and started protesting against his eviction and also the first anti Ceausescu chants were heard. Firemen and militia forces started hosing the demonstrators with water in order to disperse them. Their actions failed and the secret service supported by the army started shooting the demonstrators. Later that night news of the bloody demonstrations led to more demonstrations in the cities of Cluj, Arad and Sibiu. The next evening, Ceausescu called a meeting of the Political Executive. The proceedings were tape recorded , thus constituting the incontestable evidence that the order to shoot into the crowds was Ceausescu’s and that nobody around the table dared to oppose it (Brucan 167 – 169 ). The 21st of December, in the capital Bucharest ,Ceausescu addressed the Romanian people from the balcony of his Central Committee building. Spontaneously the massed Romanian population decided to chant against the regime. Ceausescu was ushered away from the balcony as more and more people screamed “Down with the murderers” (Brucan 1). That evening in the capital Bucharest people gathered in front of the Intercontinental Hotel where a lot of foreign guests were housed. Tanks were called in to disperse the crowd and started rolling over the barricades while the secret service started shooting demonstrators. The next day the army units supervising the demonstrators decided not to open fire on them. This act encouraged Nicolae Ceausescu in deciding that the time has come to flee the capital. He was flown away from the city by his bodyguards and then driven away by car till he was finally caught by the revolutionaries. Ceausescu and his wife were tried and convicted of crimes against humanity. Their sentence was death by firing squad. Also worth noting is the fact that the 22nd of December the revolutionaries captured the sole television station in Romania and used it to broadcast live images of the revolution taking place outside. Meanwhile a group of people , many of them former politicians and armed forces generals , going by the name of The Front of National Salvation assumed command of the transitional government. These events led to the first democratic elections ( Brucan 1-2 ). The new president of Romania will be Ion Iliescu . Communism affected my family by forbidding access to free speech. We were often under supervision to limit contact with foreigners and with persons that had democratic ideas. The secret service was often intereste...