Saturday 20 December 2014

21 December 1989


Nicolae Ceaucescu.

The famous dictator of Romania.21 December 1989, in order to save his reign, he gave a Speech.

The mass meeting of 21 December, held in what is now Revolution Square, began like many of Ceaușescu’s speeches over the years. Ceaușescu spoke of the achievements of the “Socialist revolution” and Romanian “multi-laterally developed Socialist society.” He also blamed the Timișoara riots on “fascist agitators who want to destroy socialism.”

However, Ceaușescu had seriously—and as events developed, fatally—misjudged the crowd’s mood. Roughly eight minutes into his speech, several people began jeering, booing and whistling at him—a reaction that would have been unthinkable for most of the previous quarter of a century of his rule. As the speech wore on, more and more people did the same. Others began chanting “Ti-mi-șoa-ra! Ti-mi-șoa-ra!” He tried to silence them by raising his right hand and calling for the crowd’s attention before order was temporarily restored, then proceeded to announce social benefit reforms that included raising of the national minimum wage by 100 lei per month.

What happened then the angry crowd pushes forward to the army demanding to break inside Politbereau building.

Ceaușescu’s facial expression (perhaps reflecting realisation of his dawnfall) as the crowd began to push forward the buildng remains one of the defining moments of the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe.
He and his wife, Elena Ceaucescu (which was more hated by her countrymen than Ceaucescu himself) was shot dead on 3.30pm, 25 Dec, Christmas day, 1989.

You can push forward to minutes 37.00 of the historic moment of 21 December 1989 on Ceaucescu’s speech.

Source : Youtube and Wikipedia. Some content above directly taken from Wikipedia.

Below is video about his wife, Elena Ceaucescu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AIoZ7McaQ8