esku]; 26 January 1918[1] 25 December 1989) was a Romanian Communist politician.

. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's last Communist leader. He was also the country's head of state from 1967 to 1989. A b f h y h v , h gh h f Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej's Communist government and, upon with the death of Gheorghiu-Dej in March 1965, h d d h d h f P y G S y H w popular support for his independent, nationalistic political course, which openly challenged the dominance of the Soviet Union over Romania.[2] As a , ' w d by h U dS dW E w d h wy d f d f Romania in 1974. H w v , ' g b gyb d v By , h ule was the most rigidly Stalinist in the Soviet bloc.[3] His secret police, the Securitate, maintained strict controls over free speech and the media, and internal dissent was not tolerated. In 1982, with the goal of paying off Romania's large foreign deb , d d h x f h f h y g and industrial production. The resulting extreme shortages of food, fuel, energy, medicines, and other basic necessities drastically lowered living standards and intensified unrest. Ceausescu's regime was also marked by an extensive and ubiquitous personality cult, nationalism, a continuing deterioration in foreign relations with the Soviet Union, and nepotism. d f h d dh yf f ntigovernment d h y fT D b 17, 1989 Th d d B h and became known as the Romanian Revolution of 1989, and was the only violent overthrow of a communist government to occur during the revoluti f 1989 dh wf ,E ,f d h capital in a helicopter but were captured by the armed forces. On December 25 the couple were tried and convicted by a special military tribunal on charges of mass murder in a hastily organised two-hour dh wf w h h by f g q d 4] Contents [hide] 1 Early life and career 2 Leadership of Romania 2.1 The 1966 decree 2.2 July Theses 2.3 President of Romania 2.4 Pacepa defection 2.5 Foreign debt g

3 Revolution 3.1 T 3.2 Overthrow 3.2.1 21 December Speech 3.2.2 22 December 3.3 Death 4 Personality cult and authoritarianism 4.1 Statesmanship 5 Legacy 6" "

7 Honours and awards 8 Selected published works 9 Gallery 10 Notes 11 References 12 External links Early life and career [edit]

Captured in 1936 when he was 18 years old, and imprisoned for two years at Doftana Prison for antifascist activities. w b h v g fS ,O y, 26 J y 1918 b g f h h d f f y f y) H f h , A d w d3 hectares of agricultural land, a few sheep and he also supplemented his large family's income through tailoring.[5] Nicolae studied at the village school and, at the age of 11, he moved to Bucharest, initially living with his sister, Niculina Rusescu, and then becoming an apprentice shoemaker.[5]

H w d h w h f A x d S d , h wh w v b h then-illegal Communist P y 5] w v v d h P y v (becoming a member in early 1932), but, as a teenager, he was given only small tasks.[5] 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 a petition protesting the trial of railway workers and twice more for other similar activities.[6] By the mid-1930s, he had been in missions in Bucharest, Craiova, Cmpulung and Rmnicu Vlcea, being arrested several times.[7] Th f f f h ,Sg S , dh " d g g " and "distributor of communist and antifascist propaganda materials".[7] For these charges he was v d 6J 1936 by h B v Tribunal to 2 years in prison, an additional 6 months for f d y ff d d S 7] H fh Doftana Prison.[7] While out of jail in 1940, he met Elena Petrescu, whom he married in 1946 and who would play an increasing role in his political life over the years.[6] Soon after being freed, he was arrested again and sentenced for "conspiracy against social order", spending the time during the war in prisons and internment camps: Jilava (1940), b 1942), V 1943), T g J 1943) 7] I 1943, h w f d T g J wh he shared a cell with Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, becoming his protg. After World War II, when Romania was beginning to fall under Soviet influence, he served as secretary of the Union of Communist Youth (19441945).[6] After the communists seized power in Romania in 1947, he headed the ministry of agriculture, then served as deputy minister of the armed forces under Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, becoming a Major General. In 1952, Gheorghiu-Dej brought him onto the Central Committee months after the party's "Muscovite faction" led by Ana Pauker had been purged. In 1954, he became a full member of the Politburo and eventually rose to occupy the second-highest position in the party hierarchy.[6] Leadership of Romania [edit]

Meeting between US president Richard Nixon, Michigan congressman Gerald Ford and Nicolae 1973 w h bv Gh gh -Dej when he died on 19 March 1965, despite his closeness to the longtime leader, but amid widespread infighting among older and more connected ff h P b d dd 8] H w dg secretary on 22 March 1965, three days after Gheorghiu-Dej's death. One of his first acts was to change the name of the party from the Romanian Workers' Party back to the Communist Party of Romania, and

declare the country the Socialist Republic of Romania rather than a People's Republic. In 1967, he consolidated his power by becoming president of the State Council (head of state). I y, b fg d h W W d, d h independent foreign policy, challenging the authority of the Soviet Union. In the 1960s, he eased press censorship and ended Romania's active participation in the Warsaw Pact (though Romania formally remained a member). He not only refused to take part in the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact forces, but actively and openly condemned that action. He even traveled to Prague a week b f h v ff h z h v , A x d D b A h gh h S v U g y d ' ,h g independence from Moscow earned Romania maverick status within the Eastern Bloc.[8]

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D g h f w gy d y wards 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.[9] In 1971, Romania became a member of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Romania and Yugoslavia were also the only Eastern European countries that entered into trade agreements with the European Economic Community before the fall of the Eastern Bloc.[10]

The presidential couple is received by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in June 1978 A series of official visits to Western countries (including the US, France, the United Kingdom, and Spain) h d h f f g , g dependent foreign policy within the Soviet Bloc. He also became eager to be seen as an enlightened international statesman, able d f d g f 11] negotiated in international affairs, such as the opening of US relations with China in 1969 and the visit of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat to Israel in 1977. Also Romania was the only country in the world to maintain normal diplomatic relations with both Israel and the PLO.[12] The 1966 decree [edit]

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I 1966, h g , b h y' , d b g , and introduced other policies to reverse the very low birth rate and fertility rate. Mothers of at least five children would be entitled to significant benefits, while mothers of at least ten children were declared heroine mothers by the Romanian state. Few women ever sought this status; instead, the average Romanian family during the time had two to three children (see Demographics of Romania).[13] Furthermore, a considerable number of women either died or were maimed during clandestine abortions.[14] The government also targeted rising divorce rates and made divorce much more difficult it was decreed that a marriage could be dissolved only in exceptional cases. By the late 1960s, the population began to swell. In turn, a new problem was created by child abandonment, which swelled the orphanage population (see Cighid). Transfusions of untested blood led to Romania accounting for many of Europe's pediatric HIV/AIDS cases at the turn of the 21st century despite having a population that only makes up around 3% of Europe's total population.[15][16] July Theses [edit]

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Main article: July Theses v d h P ' b f h ,N hK ,M g dN hV 1971 H took great interest in the idea of total national transformation as embodied in the programs of North Korea's Juche and China's Cultural Revolution. He was also inspired by the personality cults of North Korea's Kim Il-sung and China's Mao Zedong. 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 a speech before the Executive Committee of the PCR. 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 a "militant, revolutionary" character in artistic productions. The liberalisation 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", 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. Competence and aesthetics were to be replaced by ideology; professionals were to be replaced by agitators; and culture was once again to become an instrument for political-ideological propaganda and hardline measures. President of Romania [edit]

Standard as President of Romania In 1974, b P d f h S b f ,f h d gh power. He continued to follow an independent policy in foreign relationsfor example, in 1984, Romania was one of few socialist states (notably including the People's Republic of China, and Yugoslavia) to take part in the American-organized 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

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Also, the Socialist Republic of Romania was the first of the Eastern bloc nations to have official relations with 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 1980 O 4 A 1975, v dJ d w hE H h Pacepa defection [edit] In 1978, Ion Mihai Pacepa, a senior member of the Romanian political police (Securitate, State Security), defected to the United States. A 2-star general, he was the highest ranking defector from the Eastern B d g h dW H d f w w f b w g h g ,f g overhaul the architecture of the Security. Pacepa's 1986 book, Red Horizons: Chronicles of a Communist Spy Chief (ISBN 0-89526-570-2), x d f ' g , h v y g on American industry and elaborate efforts to rally Western political support. Foreign debt [edit]

ddressing his New Year's Eve message on TV and radio

Main article: 1980s austerity policy in Romania ' d d f h S v U dh g h v f Czechoslovakia in 1968 drew the interest of Western powers, whose governments briefly believed that he was an anti-Soviet maverick and hoped to create a schism in the Warsaw Pact by funding him. dd h h f d gw w y f v b w b b w heavily (more than $13 billion) from the West to finance economic development programs, but these yd v d h y' f I h , d d d repay Romania's foreign debts. He organised a referendum and managed to change the constitution, adding a clause that barred Romania from taking foreign loans in the future. The referendum yielded a nearly unanimous "yes" vote. I h 1980 , d d h x f h f h y' g d d production in order to repay its debts. The resulting domestic shortages made the everyday life of Romanians a fight for survival as food rationing was introduced and heating, gas and electricity blackouts became the rule. During the 1980s, there was a steady decrease in the Romanian population's standard of living, especially in the availability and quality of food and general goods in shops. During h , h d w d d f h , d d v channel broadcasting only two hours a day. The official explanation was that the country was paying its debts and people accepted the suffering, believing it to be for a short time only and for the ultimate good.[citation needed] The debt was fully paid in the summer f 1989, h y b f exports continued until the revolution in December.[17][18] Revolution [edit] w v h w ,b h vy

Main article: Romanian Revolution of 1989 In November 1989, the XIVth Congress of the Romanian Communist Party (PCR) w , h aged 71, redf h fv y d f h P D g h g , d speech denouncing the anti-Communist revolutions happening throughout the rest of Eastern Europe. B h f w g h, ' g f d f fv v T and Bucharest in December 1989. T d ]

D h y fT w gg d by h g v -sponsored attempt to evict L z T , h H g astor, accused by the government of inciting ethnic hatred. Members of his ethnic Hungarian congregation surrounded his apartment in a show of support.

Romanian students spontaneously joined the demonstration, which soon lost nearly all connection to its initial cause and became a more general anti-government demonstration. Regular military forces, police and Security fired on demonstrators on 17 December 1989, killing and injuring men, women and children. O 18 D b 1989, d df visit to Iran, leaving the duty of crushing the T v h b d dh wf U h h v g f 20 December, the situation became even more tense, and he gave a televised speech from the TV studio inside Cen B d g B d g), wh h h b h v T terms of an "interference of foreign forces in Romania's internal affairs" and an "external aggression on Romania's sovereignty". The country, which had little or no f f h T v f h d , b h T v f w d h V fA d d F E and by word of mouth. On the next day, 21 December, a mass meeting was staged. Official media d " v f f ", g h 1968 g wh h h d g h v f z h v by W wP f Overthrow [edit] 21 December Speech [edit] The mass meeting of 21 December, held in what is now Revolution Square, began like many of ' h v h y W h h "w d g g ", d v d y of the achievements of the "socialist revolution" and Romanian "multi-laterally developed socialist society."[19] He had seriously misjudged the crowd's mood; around 8 minutes into his speech, several people began jeering, booing and whistling at him; as the speech wore on, more and more people did the same. Others began chanting "Ti-mi- -ra! Ti-mi- - !" ' h d gf expression as the crowd began to boo and heckle him remains one of the defining moments of the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe. He tried to silence them by raising his right hand, and when that did not work, he announced that they would receive a raise of 100 lei per month.[8] Failing to h wd , h f y v d h b d g, wh h y d h next day. The rest of the day saw an open revolt of the Bucharest population, which had assembled in University Square and confronted the police and army at barricades. The unarmed rioters were no match for the military apparatus concentrated in Bucharest, which cleared the streets by midnight and arrested hundreds of people in the process. Although the television broadcasts of the "support meeting" and subsequent events had been d, ' h v h d dy b d h y' memory. 22 December [edit] d ,

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By the morning of 22 December, the rebellion had already spread to all major cities across the country. The suspicious death of Vasile Milea, the defense minister (later confirmed as a suicide), was announced by h d I d y h f , d d v h PEx P Ex v ) meeting and assumed the leadership of the army. Believing that Milea had been murdered, the rank-and-file soldiers went over virtually en masse to the v , wh h d w ff d d attempt to address the crowd gathered in front of the Central Committee building, but the people in the square began throwing stones and other projectiles at him, forcing him to take refuge in the building once more. One group of protesters forced open the doors of the building, by now left unprotected. Th y g d v w ' b dyg d d h d h gh h ff d onto the b y A h gh h y d d w , h yw y f w f , wh w d in an elevator. He, Elena and four others managed to get to the roof and escaped by helicopter, only seconds ahead of a group of demonstrators who had followed them there.[8] The PCR disappeared soon afterward, and unlike its kindred parties in the former Soviet bloc, it has never been revived, and no present-day Romanian party claims to be its successor. During the course of the revolution, the western press published estimates of the number of people d by S f g dq h b Th increased rapidly until an estimated 64,000 fatalities were widely reported across front pages. The Hungarian military attach expressed doubt regarding these figures, pointing out the unfeasible logistics f g h g b f h h d f Af ' d h, h across the country reported a death toll of less than 1,000, and probably much lower than that.[20] Death [edit] M T fN dE

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f d h w hE B b dM Mnescu and headed, by h ,f ' S g v d , wh h yf d g , h f T g v N T g v h y b d d h h ,h v gb d d d by h y, wh h by h had restricted flying in Romania' Th w h d by h wh h listened to the radio. They were eventually turned over to the army.

O h D y, 25 D b , h w d h g d g g gathering of w h dg d dyd d h ' h y yh , d dh w g y d f A h d f h q h w h were found guilty and sentenced to death. A soldier standing guard in the proceedings was ordered to h b d h h Th v d f h h w h f g h h d h h d db h d h b d d d h b d g b x d Th w x ed by a gathering of soldiers: Captain Ionel Boeru, Sergeant-Major Georghin Octavian and Dorin-Marian Cirlan,[21] while reportedly hundreds of others also volunteered. The firing squad began shooting as soon as the two were in position against a wall. The firing happened too soon for the film crew covering the events to record it.[22] Before his sentence was carried out, Nicolae g "Th I " wh b g d g h w Af h h g, h b d were covered with canvas. Th h y h w d h g f h d d w vd d d h f g y released in numerous western countries two days after the execution. Later that day, it was also shown on Romanian television.[23][24] Th w he last people to be executed in Romania before the abolition of capital punishment on 7 January 1990.[25] Their graves are located in Ghencea Cemetery in Bucharest. They are buried on opposite sides of a path. The graves themselves are unassuming, but they tend to be covered in flowers and symbols of the g I A 2007, h V f v g wh h h graves were genuine. Upon his death in 1996, the elder son, Nicu, was buried nearby in the same c y 26] A d g J N , 27] q w d by h ' d gh Z and by supporters of their political views to move their remains to mausoleums or to purpose-built churches. These demands were denied by the government. On 21 July 2010, forensic scientists exhumed h b d f h f DNA 26] I w d d h h yw d d h f h 28] H f y d g z f v f h 26] Personality cult and authoritarianism [edit]

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d v v y ,gv gh f "G d " "Th G f h h "), w h (Proletkult), and even had a king-like sceptre made for himself.

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Th d y f h y d g 's rule was his birthday, 26 Januarya day which saw Romanian media saturated with praise for him. According to historian Victor Sebestyen, it was one of the few days of the year when the average Romanian put on a happy face, since appearing miserable on this day was too risky to contemplate.[8] Such excesses prompted the painter Salvador Dal to send a congratulatory telegram to the " d ", wh h h y g d h " d g h d sceptre". The Communist Party daily Scnteia published the message, unaware that it was a work of T v d w f P ' d f , v dh wf E d h members of his family with important positions in the government, leading Romanians to joke that w g" f y" N g y, w g y d b h b g N y fh showed him in his early 40s. Romanian state television was under strict orders to portray him in the best b gh Add y, d h d g h ' h gh he was 1.65m (5 foot 5 inches) tall was never emphasized on screen. Consequences for breaking these rules were severe; one producer sh w d f g f b g d g, d w b d for three months.[8] Statesmanship [edit]

With Warsaw Pact leaders, 1987 (from left): Husk of Czechoslovakia, Zhivkov of Bulgaria, Honecker of E G y, G b h v f h USS , scu, Jaruzelski of Poland, and Kdr of Hungary ' w h yE B y h dd w hI and did not sever diplomatic relations after Israel's launch of the Six-Day War in 1967 against Egypt, Jord , d Sy d ff d b w h PLO d I S y, Romania was the only Soviet-bloc country to attend the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He organised a successful referendum for reducing the size of the Romanian Army by 5% and held large rallies for peace. d y f f dg d Af d d] H w close ally and personal friend of dictator President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zare. Relations were in fact not just state-to-state, but party-to-party between the MPR and the Romanian Communist Party. Many b v h ' d h y d f gM b "d "Z 1990 29]

F g d h L g fH d in 1978 he became an Honorary British Knight[30] G B, d 1989) h UK, E w g d b " d" b h f S A d y h USA; f h , d ,w g d by h g d ploy through the consular cultural attachs of Romanian embassies in the countries involved. ' w h yW wP Chile after Augusto Pinochet's coup.[31] y h dd v d w h

I A g 1976, N scu was the first high-level Romanian visitor to Bessarabia since World War II. In December 1976, at one of his meetings in Bucharest, Ivan Bodiul said that "the good h w d by ' v S v M d v " 32] Legacy [edit]

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,V b 1948) hy , 19511996) d d gh Z 19492006), who was a h Af h d h fh ,N d d h f O h d x church, the walls of which are decorated with portraits of his parents.[27] Praising the crimes of so-called totalitarian regimes and denigrating their victims is forbidden by law in ; h d h g D S w f d 25,000 x 9,000 U d S d )f g dd y gh h v v h 3TV Oltenia).[33] Nevertheless, according to opinion polls held in 2010, 41% of Romanians would vote for 34] 35] d 63% h h h v w b b f 1989 35] 36] ' d y w w d z d g , Th F f , w tten and composed by Ron Conner. It premiered at the Los Angeles Theater Center in September 1995 and was attended by Romanian President Ion Iliescu, who was visiting Los Angeles at the time. One unresolved mystery that followed the death of Nicolae ' A 17 G dw M 37] wh h w ' h f h d h, b h disappeared.[citation needed] This moon rock was presented by the Nixon Administration to Romania and is said to be worth 5 million dollars on the black market.[citation needed]