President of Romania, his main functions and powers. Complete list of Romanian presidents

In 1989, events took place in Romania that radically changed the face of the country - the last leader of socialist Romania, who had been going his own way for a quarter of a century, was overthrown. The overthrow of the regime of Nicolae Ceausescu turned out to be bloody and ended with the execution of the former leader of the country and his wife.

The future ruler of Romania, Nicolae Ceausescu, came from a peasant family. Already in young age he experienced the oppression of capitalism, then joined the communist party, was in prison "for politics."

In 1965, Nicolae Ceausescu became the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Romania, in fact, the first person in the country. The next two and a half decades of his reign can be assessed in different ways. Some argue that these were years of genocide and economic collapse, while others, on the contrary, saw a general upsurge.

A real cult of personality has developed around Ceausescu. The period of his reign was almost officially called the “Golden Age of Ceausescu”, and the dictator himself was called “Secular God”, “Seer” and “Genius of the Carpathians”.

At the same time, there was a real devastation in the country. Due to the lack of external funding, a rationing system had to be introduced, and food was often in short supply. Therefore, in December 1989, thousands of Romanians took to the streets. Residents of the city of Timisoara protested against poverty and lawlessness, which have become the norm. Nicolae Ceausescu began to be openly called a dictator and a Stalinist. The angry crowd demanded the removal from power of the 71-year-old man and his wife Elena, who was also a very influential person.

Like many rulers before him, Ceausescu ordered to open fire on the crowd demanding his resignation. But the army, which entered the capital on tanks, refused to shoot at civilians. When it became clear that the revolution could not be stopped, Nicolae and Elena fled Bucharest by helicopter. But they didn't fly far. In the city of Targovishte, the spouses were arrested and an emergency trial was held.

The process took place on December 25 in the premises of the military unit. Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu were charged with the destruction of the national economy, an armed uprising against the people, the destruction state institutions, genocide.

The entire process, lasting less than two hours, was filmed on video. It is difficult to name what happened, except as a trial. The whole meeting was reduced to squabbles and bickering between the accusers and the accused. The verdict was known in advance: the death penalty. On the same day, the Ceausescus were shot at the wall of the soldiers' restroom.

Decades later, the events of December in Romania are remembered differently. Some believe that in this way the country got rid of the “leash” from Moscow at once, while others regret that time and the “strong ruler”. According to a poll conducted, if Nicolae Ceausescu took part in the next elections, about 40 percent of Romanians would vote for him.

In just a few years. Thus ended the history of one of the most unusual countries of the 20th century.

Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu - life and execution

From 1965 - General Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP, from April 1974 - President of Romania.

For more than twenty years, the Ceausescu family - Nicolae, Elena and their son Nicu - ruled socialist Romania.

Party colleagues compared the glorious Marxist-Leninist comrade Ceausescu with Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Peter I and Abraham Lincoln, that is, with people who "satisfied the people's thirst for perfection."

The leaders of the USSR did not lag behind, awarding the leader of Romania with several Orders of Lenin. In the West, all sorts of hostile "radio voices" represented Comrade Ceausescu as a cruel tyrant and murderer.

IN last years During his dictatorial rule, Ceausescu was pathologically afraid that he would be poisoned or contract some disease. At the end of diplomatic receptions and other official meetings at which the president had to shake hands, the head of the bodyguard group slowly poured 90 percent alcohol into his palms.

This invariable ritual Ceausescu observed with religious reverence whenever he had to shake someone's hand, even the hand of the head of state.

During trips abroad, in the bedroom, his servant and his hairdresser removed the hotel bed linen and replaced it with Ceausescu's personal linen, which arrived from Bucharest in sealed suitcases.

According to Iona Pacepa, the former chief of the secret services of Romania, during Ceausescu's visits to other countries, the guards treated the room assigned to him with antiseptics: floors, carpets, furniture, door handles and electrical switches - everything that the Big Master could touch. Ceausescu also had a personal chemical engineer, Major Popa, who accompanied the president with a portable laboratory designed to test food.

Popa had to make sure the food was free of bacteria, poison, or radioactivity.

However, all these precautions and methods of terror turned out to be meaningless when the people rebelled.

On Monday, December 18, 1989, Ceausescu went on a visit to Iran, but was forced to return on Wednesday - speeches began in Romania against his dictatorial regime. Ceausescu, along with his wife Elena, fled Bucharest by helicopter. Then, with the help of two officers from the Securitate secret police, they seized a worker's car. In the end, the Ceausescu couple asked for help in a private house, the owners of which, locking them in one of the rooms, called the soldiers.

The arrested spouses were placed in the cell of the military police department. They stayed there for three days while their fate was being decided.

Someone advocated an open trial of them, but the high army command was in a hurry: the barracks were attacked by agents of the Securitate, they would stop resisting only after the death of Ceausescu.

The trial of the military tribunal lasted only 2 hours. It has become, rather, the observance of the necessary formalities to give the execution of the former dictator at least some semblance of legality.

Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu were accused of genocide; the defendants refused to recognize the legitimacy of such a trial.

During the meeting of the tribunal, Elena continually leaned over to her husband and whispered something to him. They were asked questions, but most of them remained unanswered. When Ceausescu and his wife were asked to admit their mental imbalance (the only clue to protect and save life), both rejected this offer with contempt.

The court sentenced both to death. On December 25, at four o'clock in the afternoon, the Ceausescu spouses were taken to the courtyard of the soldiers' barracks. English journalists who collected material about their execution said that the ex-ruler and his wife behaved defiantly and only faltered at the last moment; Nicolae Ceausescu's gloomy, unshaven face betrayed for a moment the fear he felt as he stood in front of the firing squad. On the way to the execution, Elena asked one of the soldiers: “What are you doing us for? Because I was your mother." The soldier objected dryly: “What kind of mother are you if you killed our mothers?”

Hundreds of volunteers volunteered to shoot the Ceausescu couple, but only four were selected - an officer and three soldiers. They lined up and took aim.

Ceausescu only had time to shout: "I don't deserve ...", and then shots rang out. Those condemned to death were killed. According to the assumption, their bodies were buried in an unmarked grave near Targovishte, this place is recorded in the documents.

Something should be added to the story of Ceausescu's death.

American experts, studying the post-mortem photographs of the Ceausescu couple (the nature of the bullet holes and so on), suggested that they may have been killed before the trial. An interesting hypothesis, although it does not fit with the data collected by British journalists.

The chairman of the military tribunal that convicted the dictator and his wife, Major General Georgica Popa, committed suicide on March 1, 1990.

About Christmas 1989. The executioner of the Romanian dictator Ceausescu admitted after 20 years: “It was a political assassination”

The trial and execution of Nicolae Ceausescu was not a fair process, but "a political assassination in the midst of a revolution". This was told by one of the members of the firing squad Dorin-Marian Chirlan, who dealt with the Romanian dictator and his wife Elena. Subsequently, Chirlan said goodbye to his military career and became a lawyer, but memories of Christmas 1989, when the dictator was assassinated, still haunt him.

“It’s terrible for a Christian to take a life from a person - and even on Christmas, a sacred holiday,” Chirlan told The Times, which is quoted by InoPressa.ru.

Chirlan served in the elite 64th airborne regiment Boteni, when the 1989 revolution swept Romania. Unlike the coups in Poland, the GDR, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, blood was shed in Romania.

Chirlan, then aged 27, was at his regimental headquarters in Boteni, 50 kilometers from Budapest, when two helicopters arrived to pick up eight volunteers. One of them was Chirlan. What exactly they would have to do was not explained.

After landing, General Victor Stanculescu called the paratroopers to him and asked: "Whoever is ready to shoot, raise your hands!" All eight people raised their hands. Then he shouted: "You, you, and you!" - pointing to Chirlan and two other soldiers.

One of them was ordered by the general to sit in a makeshift courtroom and shoot Ceausescu if someone tried to break in and save him. Chirlan, along with another soldier, stood guard at the exit.

“I heard every word through the door,” Chirlan tells The Times. - I knew there was something wrong. Elena complained and refused to recognize the court. The so-called lawyers acted as prosecutors. But I was a soldier following orders. It was only later that I realized what a scam it was.”

The verdict was read a few hours later. The Ceausescu couple was sentenced to death. They were given ten days to appeal, but the sentence was to be carried out immediately.

“Put them against the wall,” General Stanculescu ordered the soldiers. “First him, then her.” But the Ceausescus did not know what was happening until they were led past the helicopters to another building.

“He looked into my eyes and realized that he would die now, and not sometime in the future, and wept, Chirlan says. -This moment was very important for me. I still have nightmares about that scene."

in order of commentary article by Alexei Alekseev

Pentagon on the Champs Elysees
One of the last earthly deeds of Nicolae Ceausescu was the transformation of Bucharest into an exemplary socialist city. To do this, in the center of the Romanian capital, everything was destroyed to the ground, and then something was built in the spirit of Kalininsky Prospekt in Moscow.
The people of Bucharest called new center the city of "chaushima" (something like our "khrushchev", but a little higher class). Its main street - the Boulevard of the Victory of Socialism (now, of course, renamed) was supposed to overshadow the bourgeois Champs Elysees. Responsible comrades were sent to Paris with a special task - to measure the width of the Champs Elysees in order to build a socialist boulevard two meters wider.
The three-kilometer boulevard ended with a huge square capable of accommodating 300,000 demonstrators with flags and banners. On the other side of the square stood the Palace of the People (now the Palace of Parliament) - a building that the Bucharests call "pimple", "it", and sometimes with completely obscene words, was planned as the largest administrative building on Earth. But, apparently, the comrades sent to the United States made a mistake in the measurements, and the palace was inferior in size to the Pentagon and became the largest only in Europe.
Under Ceausescu, the palace consumed six times more electricity per day than the rest of Bucharest. The total cost of the building was, according to various estimates, from $760 million to $3.3 billion.
For the sake of a 12-story monster in the style of traditional Stalinist-Brezhnev architecture, 12 churches, three monasteries, two synagogues and 7,000 residential buildings were demolished. The building has over 1000 rooms. Marble stairs, red carpets, huge crystal chandeliers, huge tables for meetings of the Central Committee and ministerial boards. Now it houses the constitutional court of Romania and the lower house of parliament. The top one is getting ready to move in. Tourists are led through some halls.
Especially important guests of the country are allowed to live in the palace. The famous gymnast Nadia Comaneci played a wedding in it. And Michael Jackson managed to fulfill Ceausescu's dream - to gather a crowd of 300,000 in front of the palace. Stepping onto the balcony, the pop singer greeted the audience with the words "Hello, Budapest!".

Good genius, drunkard and prince
Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu had three children.
The eldest (adopted) son Valentin was an apolitical person. Received higher education in England, worked as a nuclear physicist in a conventional research institute. He was a good genius of the football team "Steaua" (Bucharest). For victories in European cups, Valentin gave the players of his favorite club from $200 to an ARO car (Romanian Niva), depending on the importance of the match. During the days of the revolution, he was arrested and spent eight months in prison on suspicion of "undermining the national economy."
Now Valentinu is engaged in export-import operations, he has no desire to remember the past and communicate with journalists. "Especially with Russian journalists," his lawyer clarified in a telephone conversation with me. Businessman Valentin Ceausescu rarely visits his native Romania. When he appears at the football stadium during Steaua matches, the audience applauds.
His sister Zoya Elena studied mathematics with her father, and after her release, business. Together with her programmer husband, she prefers to live outside her homeland. Like her brother, Zoe spent eight months in prison on charges of embezzlement of $ 8 million (for two). Perhaps the amount was somewhat overstated. In any case, only $97,000 in cash was found during the search.
In the first post-revolutionary years, Zoe Ceausescu's life was one of the favorite topics of Romanian newspapers. She was accused of nymphomania, drunken sprees and suspicious transactions with jewelry. Whether daughters communist leaders similar to each other, or journalists in different countries they expose the same way, but this story is painfully reminiscent of something Soviet. She is no longer alive either. Died of bowel cancer.
But the most colorful was the third child - the youngest son Niku. Firstly, he took after his father and grew up to the post of a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Romania and the head of the local party committee in the city of Sibiu. In his free time from party work, Niku liked to go to Las Vegas and play in the casino. Usually lost, and a lot. The father, seeing how the game had a bad effect on his son, even banned bridge in Romania, but he could not tell Las Vegas.
In addition to cards, Nick, who was called the Prince behind his eyes, devoted a lot of time to women - from factory workers in the city of Sibiu to Nadia Comaneci, whom he raped immediately after the triumphant return of the 14-year-old gymnast to Romania with five Olympic medals from Montreal.
The third passion of the youngest son of Ceausescu was alcohol. When he was tried, Niku justified himself by saying that he did not remember whether he had given the order to shoot at the demonstration in Sibiu, since he was on a many-day binge and sobered up only in a prison cell. For genocide and illegal possession of weapons, he received 20 years in prison. Three years later he was released for health reasons. Already at large, he was hospitalized with a diagnosis of cirrhosis of the liver, varicose veins of the esophagus. The liver transplant operation was not performed at the best clinic in Vienna, although friends paid $40,000 in advance. Niku died in a hospital bed. He is buried next to his parents at the Genci cemetery in Bucharest. On the grave of the main playboy of socialist Romania, there is a foppish tombstone, paid for by friends in the Communist Party and the Romanian Komsomol, who have now become the business elite.

Wool socks $16 each
From December 8 to 10, in a conference hall in the center of Bucharest, where, shortly before his death, Nicolae Ceausescu made a presentation at a party conference, an auction was held of things that once belonged to him and his wife.
The hall was attended by lovers of historical curiosities (mainly from the USA and Japan), as well as numerous journalists.
Judging by the things put up for auction, chess was most often given as a gift to the most erratic of the communist rulers of Europe self made, hunting and fishing accessories, carpets, crystal vases, tablecloths. Brezhnev presented his Romanian colleague with a Poljot watch, a matryoshka doll and two Olympic bears.
Trades went briskly. Four dozen autumn-winter hats from the dictator's wardrobe were sold out instantly. Buyers paid from $15 (for a simple beret) to $250 (for a real Tsekovsky astrakhan "pie").
The wool socks, which Ceausescu never even wore, were sold for $16 each. But also handkerchiefs never used for their intended purpose (five pieces for $ 3) for some reason did not find a buyer.
No one was seduced by the most expensive lots - two motor boats manufactured a quarter of a century ago ($4-5 thousand apiece), and two yachts (for $40 thousand and $80 thousand). And the MANN bus was purchased by a local resident for a starting price - $38 thousand
The real battle arose because of a completely Wolandian silver cane with a head, decorated with an inscription in Romanian: "To Comrade Nicolae Ceausescu, our supreme commander, as a token of immeasurable love from lovers of mountain hunting." The cane was sold for Woland's same amount - $666.
Prices, however, were not in dollars, but in Romanian lei. And buyers had to struggle with calculators. For $1 they give about 18 thousand lei. It is impossible to give an exact figure: the exchange rate of the national currency is falling daily.
Personally, I liked the lot

27 years ago, the communist regime of Nicolae Ceausescu was overthrown in Romania, and the dictator himself was shot. On December 25, 1989, the tribunal found him guilty of all charges:
. "undermining the national economy" (Article 145).
. armed uprising against the people and the state (Article 163).
. destruction of state institutions (Article 165).
. genocide of one's own people (Article 356).

The judges also charged both Ceausescu with major damage. state property, opening secret accounts in foreign banks (in excess of $ 1 billion) and trying to escape with this money from the country.
Ceausescu was shot near the wall of the soldiers' restroom. The sentence was carried out by paratroopers chosen from hundreds of volunteers. The Ceausescus were the last to be executed in Romania.

It is curious that shortly before the uprising and his death, Nicolae's rating among the population was 94% ...

Mass demonstration against the Ceausescu regime. Revolution in Romania. Romania, 1989

One of the last dictators in Europe, Nicolae Ceausescu (Rom. Nicolae Ceaușescu; January 26, 1918, Scornicesti, Olt County - December 25, 1989, Targovishte) - Romanian statesman and politician, general secretary Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party (RCP) since 1965, General Secretary of the RCP since 1969. Chairman of the State Council of the Socialist Republic of Romania (SRR) from 1967 to 1974 (formally - until 1989). President of the SRR from 1974 to 1989.
In the first decade of his reign, he pursued a policy of cautious domestic political liberalization, and in the field of foreign policy - greater openness towards Western Europe and the United States. In a relationship Soviet Union continued the course of his predecessor, distancing himself from many initiatives of the USSR (such as the entry of troops into Czechoslovakia in 1968), but maintaining a good relationship with the countries of the Eastern bloc. The second decade of Ceausescu's reign was marked by a more rigid style of government, a nationalist course in the internal and foreign policy, the establishment of a cult of one's own personality, nepotism and repressions against dissidents. Simply put, Ceausescu was an ordinary socialist dictator. As befits a communist leader, he carried out collectivization in Romania - with mass arrests and executions of disgruntled peasants. At the age of 47 he was elected first secretary of the Central Committee. He quickly removed all his political competitors - one of them, according to the official version, committed suicide, the other was accused of "moral decay" and sent as an ambassador to Latin America.

Where there is socialism, there is a cult of personality. Loyal sycophants praised Ceausescu: "Genius of the Carpathians", "Source of our light", "Full-flowing Danube of reason", "Creator of the era of unprecedented renewal", "Heavenly body", "Demiurge", "Genius", "Secular god", "Miracle" , Morning Star, Navigator, Prince Charming, Saint, Savior, Sun, Titan, and Seer. His wife Elena was declared "a luminary of science" and "Mother of the nation". At the same time, the "Sun" was small in stature (for some reason this is often found among dictators - the mechanism of hypercompensation?), Therefore, in the department state security there was a protocol department that followed the television people. When meeting with foreign statesmen cameramen had to shoot in such a way that the difference in their height was not visible. The program could go on the air only after the editors removed all the involuntary pauses, hitches and stutters of Nicolae Ceausescu. They never showed his wife in profile - she had a large nose. In Romania, his portraits began to flaunt everywhere, in which he was portrayed while still relatively young.

Of course, the newspapers and television news were mostly devoted to the daily schedule, activities and achievements of the sun-like leader. And judging by many testimonies, he sincerely and until the end of his days believed in his own popularity, filial respect, and love among the people of Romania. As the economic crisis intensified in the country, distrust of him grew, the level of social tension grew, and people gradually lost patience.

Like many dictators, Ceausescu gave great importance scientific research designed to show the greatness of his people. Actively developed scientific theory, proving that the Romanians are the direct heirs of the ancient Romans.

Like many dictators, he planted "morality". Virtually banned divorce. In 1967, Ceausescu introduced a ban on abortion and on the sale of contraceptives to women who had less than 5 children, after which a "baby boom" occurred in Romania. Irony of fate: children born during this period made a revolution, deprived Ceausescu of power and executed him in 1989.

But such security measures were taken... According to rumors, almost forty thousand employees of this service were allocated to protect the head of state. Protection also relied on the wife and other members of the Ceausescu clan. When, for example, the motorcade of the head of state moved, in the buildings that were located along the usual routes of movement of the motorcade, there were special premises where intelligence officers were in an ambush. And in the center of Bucharest, the special services created numerous underground labyrinths with weapons depots. The warehouses were located in underground passages that were dug under the buildings of the State Council, the Central Committee of the RCP and the main square of Bucharest. Around the capital of Romania, underground passages (in two rings) were also dug, which led to a secret airfield. And from there, Ceausescu could have run further, to a safe place. On the shores of Lake Herestrau, Ceausescu had a so-called. "Spring Palace", which had its own anti-nuclear bunker. The latter was connected, through underground passages, with other buildings and two secret airfields located near the capital.
Ceausescu was pathologically afraid that he would be poisoned or that he might catch some kind of disease. After shaking hands or touching any object, he necessarily wiped his hands with alcohol. On trips, he was accompanied by a personal chemical engineer with a portable laboratory, who tested Ceausescu's food for toxicity, bacteria, and radioactivity. Food, for example, during visits to the USSR, was prepared from products delivered by plane from Romania, and necessarily tasted by a doctor.

As befits a socialist leader, Ceausescu did not deny himself anything - he had 21 palaces. He had about 3600 hunting trophies and 100 cars in his personal collection. My favorite dog was a Labrador. On trips, the dog was accompanied by a specially dedicated limousine with an escort. The dog was promoted to colonel.

The economy in oil-producing Romania has faced serious problems after the fall in oil prices. To pay off debts, Ceausescu introduced the sale of products on cards. He limited electricity consumption nationwide (no more than one 15-watt lamp per room was supposed to be in the homes of Romanian citizens. There was a sharp depreciation of the national currency. In 1977, the retirement age was raised and the disability pension was canceled. The last two circumstances caused mass discontent, among which stood out the unrest of 35 thousand miners - from the Jiu Valley, the city of Lupeni. To calm the strike, Ceausescu himself was first invited, and then the Securitate began to sort it out. As a result of the "calming" up to 4 thousand people suffered. But this was not the last strike ...

Protests and strikes began in the country. The cause for unrest in Timisoara was the dismissal and eviction of pastor Laszlo Tekes, who opposed the arbitrariness of the communists. Ceausescu said on television that the unrest in Timisoara organized spy services foreign states. It was entrusted to the Minister of Defense to suppress the speech. He replied: "I looked in all the military regulations and nowhere did I find a paragraph that said that the people's army should shoot at the people." According to the official version, the Minister of Defense committed suicide. A new minister of defense was appointed, and troops were brought into the cities engulfed in unrest, first using water cannons, and then starting to shoot to kill.

At the suggestion of the mayor of Bucharest, a large-scale rally was organized near the building of the Central Committee, designed to demonstrate popular support for the regime and publicly condemn the events in Timisoara. According to the testimonies of the participants, most of the people in the square stood silently. Ceausescu began his speech, but managed to utter only a few phrases before his voice was drowned in the hum and screams coming from the crowd. There were cries of "Down with!" and "Rat!" The assembled people began to chant in unison: “Ti-mi-sho-a-ra!” Explosions of firecrackers were heard, people began to hastily leave the square, throwing flags, banners and portraits of the Secretary General. Ceausescu promised those who remained to increase pensions and salaries by 100 lei, after which he returned to the building of the Central Committee.

Clashes with the police began. The soldiers brought into the city began to defect to the protesters. To distinguish themselves from the government troops, they tore the cockades from their hats.

The next day, Ceausescu, along with his wife and several associates, fled from Bucharest in a helicopter that landed on the roof of the Central Committee building. But they failed to escape from the country, because fighter interceptors were raised into the air.

Rebellious soldiers and civilians in Ceausescu's office at the Central Committee of the RCP (Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party), Romania, 1989.

The Ceausescu couple was arrested and sentenced to death.
They were placed against the wall of the soldiers' toilet. The sentence was carried out by paratroopers selected from hundreds of volunteers. There were three of them: Captain Ionel Boeru, foremen Georgin Octavian and Dorin-Marian Kirlan.
The quick trial and execution was explained by the fact that the military was afraid that the Securitate could recapture Ceausescu. As soon as the two paratroopers took aim at the wall, the firing squad began firing. At least 30 rounds of ammunition were fired at the spouses. After the execution, the bodies of the Ceausescu couple were covered with a tarpaulin.

They were then taken away and left lying in the Steaua stadium. Then they were buried at the Genca military cemetery, located nearby. The hasty show trial and images of the dead Ceausescu were recorded on video and the footage was immediately shown in many Western countries.

The Ceausescus were the last to be executed in Romania.

Celebrate the death of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu, Bucharest, 1989.

Ceausescu Nicolae (1918 - 1989) since 1955 in the leadership of the Romanian Communist Party, Secretary General since 1965, in 1967-1974 Chairman of the State Council, since 1974 President of Romania.

Ceausescu, Nicolae (1918-1989), President of Romania. He was born on January 26, 1918 in the village of Skorniceshti into a peasant family. In 1933 he joined the ranks of the youth communist movement, in 1936 became a member of the Communist Party. From 1940 to 1944 he was imprisoned in various prisons. At the end of the war, in 1944–1945, he became secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League. At the end of the 1940s, Ceausescu was secretary of the regional party committee, first in Dobruja and then in Oltenia. In 1948-1950 Ceausescu was a minister Agriculture, in 1950 Deputy Minister of National Defense with the rank of Major General, in 1951 the head of the political department in the armed forces, in 1952 a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Ceausescu supported the party secretary G.Georgiou-Dej in his struggle for power with the “Muscovite” A.Pauker, who was deprived of power in 1952 (“Muscovites” are party leaders who were during the war years on the territory of the USSR). In 1954, Ceausescu was elected secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, and in 1955 a member of the Politburo. In 1961, the Romanian version of "national communism" appeared, which consisted mainly in the policy of resisting N.S. Khrushchev's course towards economic integration. Ceausescu was elected in 1965 general secretary Central Committee, took the post of chairman of the State Council, and in 1974, after a change in the constitution, became president of Romania.

The reign of Ceausescu was characterized by an active foreign policy, different from the course of other Eastern European countries. Ceausescu was not a supporter of a complete revision of relations with the USSR, but he condemned the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, as well as the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan in 1979. He did not support Soviet accusations against China, maintained good relations with Israel, the United States and countries Western Europe

In particular, in 1984, Romania was the only CMEA member country that did not boycott the Los Angeles Olympics, for which Ceausescu received the Olympic Order a year later. Ceausescu uncontrollably took loans from Western countries, which quickly brought the Romanian economy to the brink of collapse. In an attempt to rectify the situation in the country, a referendum was held on a legislative ban on attracting foreign loans, and since 1980, the payment of debts on loans has become the main priority of the Romanian economy. As a result, by 1989 - in fact, a few months before the overthrow of the Ceausescu regime - Romania managed to pay off almost all Western creditors.

Ceausescu openly patronized his relatives, bringing them into the government. His wife Elena was the second person in the country, acting as the first deputy prime minister, who was Ceausescu himself. The son of the Ceausescu couple, Nicu, was appointed head of Sibiu.

In addition to the title of "Mother of the Nation", Elena Ceausescu was also quite officially called the "Torch of the Party", "Woman Hero" and "Guiding Beam of Culture and Science."

The main views of Ceausescu on socialism, arising from the analysis of his reports and speeches:

Socialism is called upon to abolish private ownership of the means of production and to transfer them into the hands of their true owners - the workers, the intelligentsia; only large property in agriculture provides the necessary conditions for economic development;

The main milestone of socialist construction in Romania is the IX Party Congress (1965); Romania has turned from an underdeveloped country into an industrial-agrarian country, constantly developing on the basis of the latest achievements of science and technology;

The future of all mankind is only socialism;

In a socialist country there should be only one, united and powerful party with a revolutionary or progressive outlook, preserving a workers' character; there is not and cannot be any other force that could fulfill the vital role of the Communist Party; the party cannot refuse the leading role and cannot share it with anyone;

Under communism, the party will disappear only when the entire people attains a lofty revolutionary consciousness and revolutionary militancy, when the people themselves become the revolutionary people, the creators of communism.

A significant role in the totalitarian regime of Ceausescu was played by the official ideology, which, in fact, was turned into a false and illusory consciousness, divorced from social reality and serving the interests of the ruling group. Almost all spheres of human life were ideologized. The state exercised strict and comprehensive control, suppressing all dissent. For this ideology, state power was the only value. Everything that happened in Romanian society, she considered only in one plane - whether it strengthens or weakens the power of the state over the individual.

In 1989, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR Eduard Shevardnadze paid an official visit to Romania, making a statement that became a signal for anti-government actions. During the so-called "December uprising" (1989), Ceausescu was arrested and hastily shot on December 25 in the city of Timisoara, along with his wife. The cruel massacre was not a "spontaneous creativity of the masses", but was conceived somewhere in high offices even before Shevardnadze's visit. It was the revenge of Ceausescu, who managed to fully repay all debts to Western countries and brought Romania out of the IMF debt loop. Later, for the same, Pinochet was brought to the Spanish court (heading Chile, he paid off the IMF in full). The actions of Ceausescu (and Pinochet) created a dangerous precedent for the "new world order" established from the beginning of the 80s and 90s on the territory of Eastern Europe.

Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu had three children: Nicolae Jr. (Niku, Nicusor), Zoya and Valentin. After the death of their parents, Niku and Zoya were convicted of various (primarily financial) abuses and spent some time in prison. Shortly after his release, Nicu died of cirrhosis of the liver. Valentin during the life of his father did not interfere in politics and subsequently was not subjected to any repression.

• Awards of Nicolae Ceausescu - Romanian Dictator Hero of the Socialist Republic of Romania (1971) Hero of the Socialist Labor of the Republic (Romania, 1964) Order of Lenin (USSR, 1978) Order of Karl Marx (GDR) Order of Merit for the Federal Republic of Germany Order of the Elephant (Denmark) Most Honorable Order of the Bath, Grand Cross Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olaf Order of the Legion of Honor (France)

22% of Romanians, according to recent polls, consider the late dictator Nicolae Ceausescu the greatest Romanians of the 20th century.

Articles in this place:

He was called the "genius of the Carpathians" and the "Romanian Stalin", he raised the industry and sports in Romania to unprecedented heights, but was overthrown as a result of a coup inspired by the West and the Soviet Union.

shoemaker's apprentice

Nicolae Ceausescu was called the "Romanian Stalin". There are indeed parallels. In many ways, even in the facts of the biography. Ceausescu was born into a peasant family on January 26, 1918. He was the third of ten children in the family. The family lived poorly - in a house of three small rooms, where there was not even electricity. Having moved to Bucharest at the age of 11, Nicolae begins to study as a shoemaker. There is not enough money to live on and the boy trades in pickpocketing. Four years later, he began working as an apprentice in the shoe shop of Alexander Sandulescu, an active member of the Romanian Communist Party.

Then Ceausescu gets acquainted with communist ideas and lights up with them so that until 1944 he is at large much less often than he is in prisons and camps. On August 23, 1944, when the pro-German prime minister of Romania, Ion Antonescu, was deposed and arrested, Ceausescu escaped from prison and became incredibly popular. On December 30, 1947, the monarchy was abolished in Romania, and Ceausescu became the republican minister of agriculture. Carrying out collectivization, he personally shot too obstinate villagers. On March 19, 1965, his old friend, the 63-year-old leader of Romania, Georgiou-Dej, dies of cancer. So far, Nicolae has been in the shadow of the latter. Ceausescu, advocating an independent policy of Romania, is rapidly gaining popularity and in December 1967 becomes the head of state.

Your opinion

Ceausescu was an extremely uncomfortable politician. An ardent Stalinist, Ceausescu abruptly did not accept Khrushchev's course and constantly pursued an independent economic policy, reducing economic dependence on the USSR to a minimum. And he did it. True, he still had to take loans - from the West, but Ceausescu did not spend money thoughtlessly. The country became an independent state with a developed light and heavy industry. Romania almost independently completed the construction of the Chernavodsk nuclear power plant, and by the time of the overthrow, Ceausescu had fulfilled his credit obligations to the West. Of course, Romania's course towards economic and political independence has dramatically changed the attitude of the West towards Ceausescu.

The "Seven" essentially switched over to a policy of economic blockade of the republic. The USSR was also not happy with Ceausescu. In 1968, Romania refused to join the entry of Warsaw Pact troops into Czechoslovakia, and in 1979 did not support the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan. Nor did Ceausescu join the "socialist" boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Ceausescu called into question all the projects of Reagan and Gorbachev, while in Romania there was an active development in all areas: from industry to sports. So, the Steaua football club, which Ceausescu personally oversaw, won the UEFA Super Cup in 1986, and won the Champions League in 1989.

nuclear threat

The overthrow of Ceausescu, whose policy was distinguished by unpredictability and independence, was also predetermined for the reason that active work was underway in Ceausescu's time in Romania to create nuclear weapons. According to a former secret police colonel, a whole army of engineers and scientists worked on a secret nuclear project. Was stolen in the West modern technology uranium enrichment, in Romania, a own production heavy water. Ceausescu received the secret of making the bomb from the government of Pakistan.

An institute set up in cooperation with a West German firm worked on the creation of a launch vehicle, and the Ministry of Mines received a directive to start building uranium reserves at the Beitz deposit. In May 1989, the West German magazine Der Spiegel reported that an underground plant for the production of nuclear-tipped missiles was being built in Romania. On April 14 of the same year, Ceausescu publicly stated that Romania was capable of producing nuclear weapon, noting, however, that it does not intend to use this technology. In December 1989, Ceausescu was overthrown and shot.

Friend of the Jackal

The head of Romania provided all possible support to terrorist No. 1 in the world, Ilyich Ramirez, better known by the nickname Carlos the Jackal. Ilyich's father was a fan of communism, which is why he named his three sons after the leader of the Russian Bolsheviks - Vladimir, Ilyich and Lenin. The glory of the main terrorist Jackal brought the hostage-taking at a meeting of OPEC member countries in Vienna. Three of the hostages were killed outright, and the Austrian government then agreed to negotiate. Ilyich's armament for all terrorist attacks was supplied by the Romanian leadership.

According to intelligence, Ceausescu maintained friendly relations with the terrorist and was the mastermind behind many of the murders committed by Carlos, including the assassination of the editor-in-chief of Radio Free Europe. One of the officers of the Romanian army, who asked for political asylum from the US government, died under mysterious circumstances while traveling in Mexico, and was found in intelligence documents detailed plan assassination, signed and approved by Ceausescu. Ceausescu appreciated Ilyich Ramirez so much that he transferred $1 million to his account.

"Roman"

Nicolae Ceausescu considered Romanians the direct heirs of the ancient Romans, and the Romanian language was the closest of all modern languages to Latin. To prove these theses, special scientific groups were formed in the Romanian Academy of Sciences, which were engaged in the search for evidence of imperial succession. Ceausescu openly exalted his relatives, guided by the motto of his direct ancestors: quod principi placuit, legis habet vigorem - whatever the ruler wants is lawful.

His wife, Elena Ceausescu, was officially the second person in the country - the first deputy prime minister, and his son, a weak-willed and immoral drunkard, was put in charge of Sibiu. The parallel with one of the Roman emperors is strengthened by the fact that Ceausescu so adored the Labrador named Corbu, given to him in England, that he awarded him the army rank of colonel. The dog was transported in a separate limousine with a fixed driver, and fed with special dog biscuits, which the Romanian ambassador in London bought at a local supermarket and sent home by diplomatic mail.

Phobias

Ceausescu was incredibly suspicious. Like Stalin, he was very afraid of an assassination attempt, so the security of the President of Romania was ensured by special methods. The wardrobe, including outerwear and shoes, was updated daily - the Ceausescu couple feared poisoning with slow poisons absorbed through the skin. Ceausescu's food was checked for poison, bacteria and radioactivity by his personal chemical engineer, Major Popa, who accompanied the president with a portable laboratory. In addition, Ceausescu had a fear of germs. His bodyguard always had a vial of alcohol that Nicolae used to wipe his hands after touching objects.[

Particular attention was paid to hygiene during trips abroad. The bed linen of the hotel where the Romanian leader stayed was replaced by personal linen that arrived from Bucharest in sealed suitcases, Ceausescu's underwear and table napkins, sterilized and brought from Romania in hermetically sealed plastic bags, had to be ironed again before use to kill all germs. These fears, as history has shown, were not in vain. Several conspiracies were being prepared against Ceausescu at once, one of which involved his own son.

Secrets of Timoshiar

The scenario for overthrowing Ceausescu was well developed. On December 17, 1989, anti-government demonstrations began in Timisoara, which grew into mass unrest. Attempts by the police to disperse people with water cannons resulted in many days of clashes. At the same time, demonstrations of protest against the "cruelty of Ceausescu" were organized outside the Romanian embassies. On several world TV channels there was a story about the murders of Timisoara civilians by agents of the secret Romanian special service "Securitate".

Later it turned out that as "victims" of the Ceausescu regime, the world saw the bodies of the dead, which were provided by orderlies of city mortuaries for a fee. It is now known that the United States was behind the overthrow of Ceausescu. The operation was entrusted to the head of the CIA's Eastern European department, Milton Borden. In case of failure, there was a plan "B". It provided for the entry of Soviet troops into Romania. The military units of the USSR in the Odessa region and the Carpathians were put on alert.

Departing from Bucharest by helicopter, Ceausescu ordered the pilot to contact the Soviet border and request a landing on the territory of the USSR. Having received a refusal, he understood everything. The execution of Ceausescu passed without trial or investigation. According to the results of the latest public polls in Romania, Nicolae Ceausescu is considered there as the person who has done the most good for Romanians over the past 100 years.