Episode 3:
On the morning of December 21, CeauÅŸescu addressed a mass assembly of a hundred thousand people to condemn the uprising of Timisoara. Speaking from the balcony of the Central Committee, building in the usual “wooden language”, CeauÅŸescu delivered a litany of the achievements of the “socialist revolution” and Romanian “multi-laterally developed socialist society”. The people, however, remained apathetic, and only the front rows supported CeauÅŸescu with cheers and applause. His lack of understanding of the events and his incapacity to handle the situation were further demonstrated as he offered, as an act of desperation, to raise the salaries for workers by the ridiculous amount of 100 Lei (about 5 US dollars at the time) per month. He kept praising the achievements of the Socialist Revolution, still unable to realize that a revolution was unfolding right in front of his eyes.
As he was addressing the crowd from the balcony of the Central Committee building, sudden movement coming from the outskirts of the mass assembly and the sound of what various sources have reported as fireworks, bombs, or guns broke the orderly manifestation into chaos. Scared at first, the crowds tried to disperse. Bullhorns were used to spread the news that the communist security-men was firing on them and that a “revolution” was unfolding, and finally the people were persuaded to join in. The rally turned into a protest demonstration and in the end a revolution emerged.
CeauÅŸescu, his wife, as well as other officials and party members panicked, and finally CeauÅŸescu went into hiding inside the building. The live transmission of the meeting was interrupted, but the people who were watching had seen enough to realize that something unusual was going on.
It is likely that in the small hours of December 22, CeauÅŸescu must have thought that his desperate attempts to crush the protests had succeeded, because he apparently called another meeting for the next morning. However, before 7:00 a.m., his wife Elena received the bad news that large columns of workers from many industrial platforms (large communist-era factories or groups of factories concentrated into industrial zones) were heading towards downtown Bucharest.
On the morning of December 22, sometime between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., Vasile Milea, CeauÅŸescu’s minister of defense, died under very suspect circumstances. A communiqué by CeauÅŸescu stated that Milea had been found to be a traitor and that he had committed suicide after his treason was revealed. The most widespread opinion at the time was that Milea was assassinated in response to his refusal to follow CeauÅŸescu’s orders.
Scared, Ceausescu left Bucharest by helicopter, from the roof of the Central Committee of Communist Party, witch was surrounded by the revolutionary crowd. On December 25, Christmas Day, Ceauşescu and his wife were sentenced to death by an ad hoc military court on a range of charges including genocide, and were executed by firing squad in Târgovişte
Some say it was no revolution; it was something else, controlled by foreign secret agencies, governments, etc. I do not know about that, but I do know the facts from these days, and for me, getting rid of the communism it was a revolution for Romania.
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