dece? blog

I begin a brief historical writing about what happened in December ‘89. Because of its length this writing will be divided into 3 episodes.

17 years ago, in 16-22 December 1989 Romanian young people (but not only) were fighting for freedom, for escaping from the communism. The fact, known as the ‘89 Revolution (Revolutia din ‘89) started in Timisoara, my home city.

How we reached there?

Episode 2:

Riots and protests resumed the following day, 17 December, but early in the morning, every single people found on the street were arrested. At the noun time, many streets were blocked with military tanks. In the afternoon, I was leaving with my parents and two friends of mine on the mountain, and we had to go all around Timisoara to get out from the city, we were stopped 2 or 3 times, I don’t remember very well. In the meantime, people were gathering in many places in Timisoara to manifest against the communist system. In the evening, the communist security-men started to shot bullets against the anti-communism crowd. After 8:00 p.m., from PiaÅ£a LibertăÅ£ii (Liberty Square) to the Opera there was wild shooting, including the area of Decebal Bridge, Calea Lipovei (Lipovei Avenue) and Calea Girocului (Girocului Avenue). Tanks and trucks were blocking the access ways into the city while helicopters were hovering overhead. After midnight, the protests calmed down. On the next 2 days (18 and 19 of December) the anti-communist manifestations step back, after the military force came. The mayor declared martial law, prohibiting people from going about in groups larger than two people. Defying the curfew, a group of 30 young men headed for the Orthodox Cathedral, where they stopped and waved a Romanian flag from which they had removed the Romanian Communist coat of arms.

Nevertheless, on 20 December some of the largest factories in town entered in strike. Over 100.000 of people started to manifest against Ceausescu (the communist Romanian conducer of that time, from 1967 to 1989) in the Opera Square, in the center of Timisoara. Ceausescu’s people brought another 100.000 workers in Timisoara from Oltenia (a region in the south side of the country) with trains, to calm down the revolutionary crowd. Instead of doing that, they joined the anti-communists in the central square. The events in Timisoara were widely reported by Radio Free Europe, Voice of America and by students returning home for Christmas holidays.

On 21 December, the revolution is starting in Bucharest and in other cities, as it goes Arad (8 AM), Sibiu (9.45), Tîrgu Mureş (11.30), Caransebeş (12.00), Bucharest (12.40), Braşov (13.00), Cluj (15.00), Alba Iulia (22.30).

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