Against the side of a wall in a Romanian military
barracks, the dictator of Romania and his wife were executed and slaughtered by a trigger
happy firing squad.

The Romanian Revolution was a period of civil
unrest which was also linked to other uprisings that took place in countries around the world.

It was also known as the Christmas Revolution and it began in the city of Timisoara, and
then the feelings spread throughout Romania and it would then lead to the trial and execution
of the Dictator of Romania and his wife.

The long in power Romanian Communist Party General
Secretary Nicholae Ceausescu and his wife Elena would be executed against the side of
a wall, which brought to an end the 42 years of communist rule in the country, and the
removal of the final Marxist Leninist government in a Warsaw pact land.

It was the revolution
that overthrew the government and the dictator and his wife, and during this over 1000 people
died and many more were injured.

But join us today as we look at the ruthless executions
of the Ceausescus.

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Nicholae Ceausescu was a prominent member
of the Romanian Communist youth movements, and he would then in 1936 be imprisoned and
four years later he was held again for his actions with the communist party.

But he would
marry another communist Elena Petrescu in 1939, and he would lean in prison from a communist
leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, who would later become the communist leader of Romania in
1952.

Ceausescu managed to escape from prison in August 1944 as the Second World War was
still being fought, and he then became more politically motivated especially with regards
to finding power.

When the communists came to power in 1947, Nicholae Ceausescu was involved
in the Ministry of Agriculture, before he became a deputy minister of the armed forces
and served as a major general.

But Ceausescu then became the second most powerful person
in the country, and following the death of Gheoghiu-Dej, Ceasescu then became the leader
of Romania’s communist party.

He would become the dictator and the head of state, and people
across his lands to begin with loved him as he would also challenge the influence of the
Soviet Union over Romania.

He ended the involvement in the Warsaw Pact alliance, and also would
speak out against the invasion of Czechoslovakia and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

In
1974 though he became the President of Romania, and he would enforce his rule brutally.

His police would prevent freedom of speech,
and they would not accept any dissent against Ceausescu, and they also banned other things
which caused misery to many.

Many people who dissented would be quickly sent to prison
and they would be tortured, and Ceausescu’s government found themselves also in debt to
foreign governments and agencies.

They tried to break out and become a powerhouse in the
world, but this failed especially when Nicholae Ceausescu exported the agricultural and industrial
production of Romania to try to clear debts.

This led to many people suffering from a shortage
of fuel, resources and medical supplies and the standard of living for the Romanian people
fell heavily.

But Nicholae Ceasescu then brought many of his family members into government
including his wife.

Elena Ceausescu worked as a secretary in the Ministry of foreign
affairs, but she wasn’t significant until her husband came to power.

She would go with
him on state visits to lands sushi as China, but then she became the second most important
person in Romania.

She began to become more involved in politics, and a cult of personality
developed around the pair, and Elena was believed to have been the mother of the nation, and
she would be more ambitious and power hungry than her husband would.

She was very self
conscious and would prevent her being shown on camera in profile as she was worried about
her larger nose, but in March 1980 she became the First Deputy Prime Minister.

But in Romania in the 1980s there were a lot
of tensions and protests would then emerge.

On the 16th December 1989, a group of Hungarians
in Timisoara would protests the eviction of a Hungarian Pastor named LAzslo Tokes.

The
government said he was dangerous and that he was inciting hatred, and they wanted rid
of him.

But the crowd became very angry, and they chanted anti government and anti communist
shouts, and when the police arrived the protests began to grow.

The original cause was left
behind, and some protesters then tried to burn down buildings and the police would fire
tear gas and use water cannons against the people.

They also beat brutally some of the
protestors, and then rounded them up, but the following day the protests and riots continued.

Protestors broke into district committee buildings and the threw things out of the windows, and
then the army was sent in to bring things to an end.

But the protests were growing bigger,
and were spreading across the land.

The army could not control order, and gunfire occurred
and fights broke out.

There were many people who were injured, and cars were torched but
the Ceausescu’s then ordered the army to be sent in.

Inside of Liberty Square there
was a lot of shooting, and helicopters circled overhead.

It was a war zone, and Ceausescu
then abandoned the army leaving them to deal with it as he went to Iran.

He also left his
wife to deal with this, and whilst he was away martial law was then declared as was
a curfew.

But the protestors would not abide by this, and many people turned their attention
to the government and protesting against them directly and communism.

Some men removed the
communist coat of arms from the Romanian flag and these were then shot at and some died,
but Elena then ordered others to take control of the city and the riots.

But when Nicholae Ceasescu returned back from
Iran, he gave a speech to the people telling them how angry he was at the revolution and
the protestors.

He then organised a gathering where he on the 21st December spoke to 100,000
people to try to bring the uprising to an end.

Many supporters were brought in and they
were given flags and pictures of Ceasescu to drown out the protestors, but he had no
idea what he was doing.

The crowd heckled him and jeered and boo’ed and then there
was a huge roar for the revolution, and Nicholae Ceasescu looked uncomfortable and he then
became very desperate.

But then chaos broke out, and the sound of gunshots could be heard,
and the crowd then tried to flee and there was reports that the security services had
fired upon the crowd.

But the Speech was broadcast everywhere and it was a big loss for Ceasescu,
and he and his wife were bundled back into the building.

The crowd turned into an angry
riot, and anti terrorist squads were gathered, and the crowd then began to be shot at again.

Some were run over, and some were stabbed by government forces, and there were many
horrific sights and the police began to brutally slaughter anyone they came across.

But it was clear that the end of the Ceasescus
was coming on the horizon.

They made the decision to wait until the morning of the 22nd December
to try and flee, but before 7am Eleana heard that more people were heading to Bucharest
to join the protests.

There were bans on gatherings but hundreds of thousands were gathering in
central Bucharest.

At 9:30am, the minister of defence was presumably executed under suspicious
circumstances, and this may have been because he defied Ceasescus orders to fire on the
protestors.

The new minister of defence Victor Staculescu would refuse to also fire on them
and he said, ‘I had the prospect of two execution squads, Ceasescus’ and the revolutionary
one.

’ But then Nicholae and Elena went onto the roof of the building they were hiding
out of, and they were then to be airlifted from safety.

A group of protestors made their
way through the building and overpowered bodyaguards, and they were seconds from the Ceasescus.

But the personal pilot of the Ceasescus was ordered to evacuate Nicholae and Elena, but
there was trouble ahead.

The pilot later said that, ‘Then Stelica, the co-pilot, came
to me and said that there were demonstrators coming to the terrace.

Then the Ceaușescus
came out, both practically carried by their bodyguards .

.

.

They looked as if they were
fainting.

They were white with terror.

Manea Mănescu [one of the vice-presidents] and
Emil Bobu were running behind them.

Mănescu, Bobu, Neagoe and another Securitate officer
scrambled to the four seats in the back .

.

.

As I pulled Ceaușescu in, I saw the demonstrators
running across the terrace .

.

.

There wasn’t enough space, Elena Ceaușescu and I were
squeezed in between the chairs and the door .

.

.

We were only supposed to carry four passengers .

.

.

We had six.

” The helicopter went to Snagova, and when they
got there a unit commander said ‘There has been a revolution, you are on your own, good
luck.

’ With this the Ceausescu’s had no protector, and their security detail tried
to get a car but they were picked up by a doctor who then feigned having car issues.

But The Ceasescus would then be arrested by local police, and they were then sent to the
Targoviste garrison military compound and they were held and were then placed on trial.

Many criticised the trial and said it was a shame and just a formality for the execution
of the Ceasescus.

But the trial was brief and only took an hour.

The Ceasescu’s tried
to defend themselves but they were said to have been guilty of the genocide of 60,000
people.

They were also accused of subversion of the state power by organising the army
to fire against the people, and also destroying public property and damaging buildings as
well as causing irreparable damage to the national economy.

Nicholae and Elena were
then convicted of the crimes and were sentenced to death.

The Ceausescu’s were to be executed for
their crimes and this was a bloody end to the Dictatorship of Romania, and the pair
were then taken out to a military base outside of Bucharest on Christmas Day 1989.

There
execution took place at 4pm, and the execution was carried out by a firing squad gathered
fro paratroopers, and many people volunteered to be a part of this and they wanted to executed
the dictator and his wife.

Nicole Ceasescu said before the execution that, ‘we could
have been shot without having this masquerade,’ and their hands were then tired and bound,
and Elena was also brought out for her execution.

Before this took place she screamed ‘You
sons of dogs,’ as she would be led outside and against the wall which would act as a
firing range.

The wall was against the side of a barracks.

Whilst this took place, Nicolae
sung a Communist song, and then as the pair were standing against the wall the firing
squad then began to shoot.

The executioners were trigger happy and the television crew
that was there to film the execution were not ready, and they just caught the final
round of gunshots.

One member of the firing squad would state that he was the only one
who switched his rifle to automatic, and that his bullets killed the Ceacescus.

The execution
was carried out quickly to prevent the pair being rescued.

Following the executions the bodies of the
pair were then covered in canvas, before they were then buried inside of a cemetery’s
and these were the final people to be executed before capital punishment was abolished in
Romania.

But stood against the side of the barracks the Ceausescu’s reign over the
nation came to a bloody and brutal end.

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