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

Shoemaker's Apprentice

Nicolae Ceausescu was called the “Romanian Stalin.” The parallels are indeed obvious. In many ways, even in biographical facts. Ceausescu was born into a peasant family on January 26, 1918. Of ten children in the family, he was the third. 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 to become a shoemaker. There is not enough money to live on and the boy makes a living by pickpocketing. Four years later, he begins working as an apprentice in the shoe shop of Alexandre Sandulescu, an active member of the Romanian Communist Party.

Then Ceausescu became acquainted with communist ideas and was so fired up by them that until 1944 he was free much less often than he was 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, he died of cancer. old friend, 63-year-old Romanian leader Gheorghiu-Dej. Until now, Nicolae has been in the shadow of the latter. Ceausescu, who advocates an independent policy for Romania, is rapidly gaining popularity and already in December 1967 becomes head of state.

Your opinion

Ceausescu was an extremely inconvenient politician. An ardent Stalinist, Ceausescu sharply did not accept Khrushchev’s course and constantly pursued an independent economic policy, reducing economic dependence on the USSR to a minimum. And he succeeded. True, he still had to take out loans from the West, but Ceausescu did not spend the money thoughtlessly. The country became an independent state with 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 loan obligations to the West. Of course, Romania's course towards economic and political independence dramatically changed the West's attitude towards Ceausescu.

The "Seven" essentially switched 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 it did not support the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan. Ceausescu did not join the “socialist” boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Ceausescu questioned all the projects of Reagan and Gorbachev, while in Romania there was active development in all areas: from industry to sports. Thus, the Steaua football club, which Ceausescu personally supervised, 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 in Romania during the Ceausescu era there was active work on the creation of nuclear weapons. According to a former secret police colonel, an entire army of engineers and scientists worked on the secret nuclear project. Modern uranium enrichment technology was stolen in the West, and Romania established its own production of heavy water. Ceausescu received the secret of bomb production from the Pakistani government.

The institute, created in collaboration with a West German company, worked on the creation of a launch vehicle, and the Ministry of Mining received a directive to begin creating uranium reserves at the Beitz mine. In May 1989, the West German magazine Der Spiegel reported that an underground plant for the production of missiles with nuclear warheads was being built in Romania. On April 14 of the same year, Ceausescu publicly stated that Romania was capable of producing nuclear weapons, noting, however, that he did not intend to use this technology. In December 1989, Ceausescu was overthrown and executed.

Friend of the Jackal

The head of Romania provided full support to the number one terrorist in the world, Ilyich Ramirez, better known by his 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 Jackal gained fame as the main terrorist by taking hostages at a meeting of OPEC member countries in Vienna. Three hostages were killed immediately, and after this the Austrian government agreed to negotiate. Ilyich’s weapons for all terrorist attacks were supplied by the Romanian leadership.

According to intelligence reports, Ceausescu supported the terrorist friendly relations and was the mastermind behind many of the murders committed by Carlos, including the murder of the editor-in-chief of Radio Free Europe. A Romanian army officer who had sought political asylum from the US government died under mysterious circumstances while traveling in Mexico, and intelligence documents revealed a detailed assassination plan signed and approved by Ceausescu. Ceausescu valued Ilyich Ramirez so much that he transferred $1 million to his account.

"Roman"

Nicolae Ceausescu considered Romanians to be the direct descendants of the ancient Romans, and the Romanian language to be the closest of all modern languages to Latin. To prove these theses, special scientific groups were formed in the Romanian Academy of Sciences to 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 pleases is legal.

His wife, Elena Ceausescu, was officially the second person in the country - 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 further 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 designated 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 safety of the President of Romania was ensured by special methods. The wardrobe, including outerwear and shoes, was updated daily - the Ceausescu couple feared poisoning from slow poisons absorbed through the skin. Ceausescu's food was checked for the presence of 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 bottle of alcohol, which 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 with personal linen that arrived from Bucharest in sealed suitcases, underwear and Ceausescu's 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, one of which involved his own son.

Secrets of Timoshiar

The scenario for overthrowing Ceausescu was well developed. On December 17, 1989, anti-government protests began in Timisoara, which grew into mass unrest. Attempts by the police to disperse people with water cannons resulted in multi-day clashes. At the same time, protest demonstrations against the “atrocities of Ceausescu” were organized abroad near the Romanian embassies. Several world television channels broadcast a story about the murders of civilians in Timisoara by agents of the secret Romanian intelligence service Securitate.

Later it turned out that the world saw the bodies of the dead as “victims” of the Ceausescu regime, which were provided for a fee by orderlies of city morgues. 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 also a plan B. It provided for the entry of Soviet troops into Romania. Military units of the USSR in the Odessa region and the Carpathian region were put on combat readiness.

Leaving Bucharest by helicopter, Ceausescu ordered the pilot to contact the Soviet border and request a landing on Soviet territory. Having received a refusal, he understood everything. The execution of Ceausescu took place without trial or investigation. According to the latest public polls in Romania, Nicolae Ceausescu is considered the man who has done the most good for Romanians in the last 100 years.

The “great leader” who commanded millions of people boarded the presidential helicopter, and two hours later an old, lonely fugitive got out. He was shot by three paratroopers - they were allegedly chosen from hundreds of volunteers.

21 years ago, on December 25, 1989, at the Tirgovishte military base, Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena were executed by a military tribunal.

Prosecutor Djiku Popa accused Ceausescu of "genocide that led to 60 thousand human casualties; undermining state power by organizing armed actions against one’s own people; destruction and damage to state property; organizing explosions in cities; undermining the national economy; an attempt to flee the country using funds stored in foreign banks in the amount of $1 billion."

Thus ended Ceausescu's 24-year period in power.

Ceausescu (standing with a glass on the left) celebrates the signing of a cooperation agreement between Romania and the United States. American President Jimmy Carter looks enthusiastically at Nicholas. 1978.

He gained some popularity in the West after he condemned the entry of Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia in 1968 and allowed Romanian Olympians to take part in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, which was ignored by the USSR (of all the socialist countries, China and Yugoslavia also went there).It was under Ceausescu that Romania - the first of the countries of the "eastern bloc" - concluded agreements with the European Commonwealth (the prototype of the EU), recognized West Germany and began to cooperate with the IMF.

He also proved himself a deft international mediator - for example, in establishing US relations with China in 1969.

Thanks to these qualities, Romania became the only country in the world that managed to maintain normal diplomatic relations with both Israel and Palestine.

Comrade Nicolae was also popular in his homeland and expanded his powers by becoming the first president of Romania in 1974.

Leaders of socialist countries familiar from the TASS chronicles to every Soviet citizen: Husak (Czechoslovakia), Zhivkov (Bulgaria), Honecker (East Germany), Gorbachev (USSR), Ceausescu, Jaruzelski (Poland) and Kadar (Hungary) at the meeting of the Warsaw Pact countries (that name had a socialist counterpart to NATO) in 1987.

The West, appreciating the political independence of Bucharest, provided Ceausescu with considerable loans (Romania’s external debt reached $13 billion). In the 1980s, when the time came to give them away, it turned out that they had almost devastated the economy.

The price of oil - the main product of Romanian exports - meanwhile fell significantly (this oil crisis, by the way, also ended Brezhnev's stagnant prosperity, giving rise to perestroika and the future collapse of the USSR).

Chronicle of the last hours of the USSR

To pay off foreign debts, Ceausescu took radical steps somewhat reminiscent of Stalin's during the industrialization of the 1930s.

Most agricultural and other local products were exported, causing a significant decline in living standards throughout the 1980s.

Queue for sunflower oil in Bucharest. 1986

There was a shortage of food in the country, electricity and heating were regularly cut off, and television, reduced to one channel, worked only for a few hours a day.

In 1984, Ion Mihai Pacela, head of the political security service Securitate, fled to the United States. He became the highest-ranking defector from the entire socialist camp. Relations with the West deteriorated, and Ceausescu began to lose control over the intelligence services.

Against the backdrop of mass impoverishment and rationing of food in stores, state television showed the country's leader visiting stores filled with goods and talking about “further increases in welfare.”

The same 1986. Party propaganda on the streets of Bucharest: “65 years of the creation of the Communist Party of Romania.” Other iconic slogans are “Era of Ceausescu” and “Party - Ceausescu - Romania”. Photo by Scott Edelman.

It is not known whether Ceausescu himself believed in these statements, but since 1974, when, after being elected president, the ideological communist took the scepter in his hands, it began to look like he was suffering from something like delusions of grandeur.

He (often together with his wife Elena, who became his first deputy) was portrayed as a god-like “great leader,” and his speeches were accompanied by staged ovations.

The cult of Ceausescu arose in the country, which contrasted with rumors about the addiction of Elena, Nicholas himself and their children to luxury.

Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu. Undated photo found in the presidential archives

In November 1987, the government brutally suppressed a strike at a car plant in Brasov, showing that it ignored any negotiations on the critical economic situation.

Meanwhile, Romania became the poorest country in the socialist camp, not counting Albania.

In the summer of 1989, Bucharest paid off its foreign debts, but the radical export of everything and everyone continued until the death of the dictator. However, paying off the debt became an additional trump card for extending Ceausescu's party powers.

In November 1989, the XIVth Congress of the Communist Party of Romania re-elected 71-year-old Nicolae Ceausescu as party secretary general for another five years.

A few weeks later he will be shot by the military by decision of the revolutionary tribunal.

Ceausescu greets the delegates of the XIVth Congress of the Communist Party. Nearby is First Deputy Prime Minister of Romania Elena Ceausescu

The Romanian Revolution of 1989 began on December 15 with events that took place in the city of Timisoara. The ethnic protest of the Hungarian minority, who spoke out in defense of their priest, quickly grew into an economic protest.

A powerful wave of protest rallies swept across the country. A self-confident dictator who listened only to himself, and occasionally to his wife, on December 17 ordered the armed forces to shoot at demonstrators. The uprising seemed to have fizzled out.

In fact, the uprising continued. The protesters took over the Opera Square in Timisoara, and were joined by workers from neighboring factories. Their demands had already grown to the point of Ceausescu’s resignation, which the authorities could not agree to.

Opera Square in Timisoara, December 1989. Hitler's attributes are painted on the portrait of the leader.

State propaganda about the course of events in Timisoara contrasted sharply with reports from Western radio stations, which the population trusted more.

On December 20, the Conductor took off from official visit to Iran, leaving the fight against unrest to his wife, but alarming reports from his homeland forced him to cut short the visit.

In the evening, he addressed the nation on television and radio, from which it followed that on December 16-17, “groups of hooligans provoked a series of incidents in Timisoara, opposing a legitimate judicial decision.”

Behind the backs of these groups, as Ceausescu said, there were “imperialist circles” whose goal was “to undermine the independence, integrity and sovereignty of Romania, to return the country to the times of foreign domination, to eliminate socialist gains.”

Party Congress. As far as the editors of Istoricheskaya Pravda understand Romanian, it says something like: “Long live the Communist Party, led by the General Secretary, Comrade Nicolae Ceausescu.”

In the evening, Ceausescu held a secret teleconference with the top and local leadership of security agencies, ordering the country's armed forces to be put on alert and "to shoot at the rioters without warning."

In addition, he ordered the party leadership to create self-defense squads and bring at least 50 thousand “proven proletarians” to Bucharest on December 21 to demonstrate support for the country’s leadership and fight against “hooligans.”

The Conductor's task was completed.

About 50 thousand residents of the counties where the power of the Ceausescu clan was strongest were brought to Bucharest and placed in hotels, sanatoriums, recreation centers, and factory dormitories. The vigilantes were divided into “tens”; each group was assigned a full-time party worker.

November 1989. XIVth Congress of the Communist Party, at which Ceausescu was re-elected for another 5 years.

In the morning next day residents of the capital and visitors began to flock to the building of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Romania, and gradually main square The country was filled to the brim.

Recorded speakers from among the party functionaries habitually branded the “counter-revolutionary instigators” responsible for all the misfortunes of Romania, and again confirmed their unshakable loyalty to the Conductor.

Then Ceausescu himself came out onto the balcony of the Central Committee building.

He was pleasantly surprised by the number of demonstrators gathered in the square, considering everyone his followers, and began to speak. It flowed in the then bureaucratic "newspeak" to the usual accompaniment of the "spontaneous" excitement of the masses - the loyal slogans of the regular "skirmishers" and obedient, rote applause.

1989 Elena and Nicolae Ceausescu.

These applause completed the banal and boring phrases of the Romanians about the triumph of “scientific socialism” and the brilliant successes achieved by the country under the wise leadership of the leader in all areas and in all sectors.

This went on for about eight minutes. And suddenly, in the depths of the 100,000-strong crowd, a different kind of excitement arose: there was a blasphemous whistle and hiss, and then the chant began: “Ti-mi-sho-a-ra!”

Romanian television, thanks to cameras fixedly installed at several points, continued to broadcast the rally.

The television cameras broadcast all this, and they also recorded the confusion on the balcony: a confused Ceausescu (he tried to be heard, repeating the telephone “Hello! Hello!” to the protesters) and his wife Elena, hissing in his ear: “Promise me give them something!"

Ceausescu stopped cursing at the “hooligans” and their “overseas guides” and publicly announced an increase in wages, pensions and cash assistance low-income families, as well as an increase in student scholarships by 10 lei (which at the market exchange rate was then 2-3 American cents).

The noise and whistling grew, and Ceausescu, completely unprepared for such behavior from the crowd, fell silent altogether. The television cameras showed his confused, haunted look. TV viewers saw how a man in uniform took him by the arm and led him out of the balcony.

76% of the country's population saw this program. The confused “great leader” became a symbol of change - and riots began in most cities.

Spontaneous demonstrations in Bucharest continued throughout the night, and at the same time snipers from the Securitate began shooting at people without clearing their targets.

Timisoara, December 1989. Fraternization of demonstrators and soldiers

That night, 85 victims with gunshot wounds were admitted to Bucharest hospitals, and even more were killed.

Despite the shooting, crowds gathered near party buildings, on University Square and in front of the Romanian television center.

The shooting at demonstrators continued throughout the night, but it was absolutely impossible to determine who the culprit was - killers from the Securitate or army units.

There were panicked rumors that Ceausescu sent into battle an airborne sabotage detachment staffed by Arabs who had undergone “military-terrorist” training under the leadership of the Securitate.

The dictatorial couple sat in the presidential palace all night, and on December 22, after underground passage went to the Central Committee building and escaped by helicopter.

The circumstances of this escape are quite mysterious.

On the morning of December 22, Defense Minister Vasile Mila was found shot dead (we omit rumors about the causes of his death, there are many of them - from suicide to unsuccessful attempt self-harm). His successor, Victor Stanculescu, actually ensured the success of the revolution by ordering the army to stop shooting at demonstrators.

Demonstrators on the streets of Bucharest

“By accepting Ceausescu’s offer to become a minister, I actually became a target for two firing squads,” Stanculescu later recalled. “Either presidential or revolutionary.”

Despite the announced curfew and the ban on gathering in groups of more than 5 people, on the morning of December 22, Bucharest residents again went to the Central Committee building. This time they were no longer organized by the party, they came on their own to continue yesterday's show.

From above they were thrown leaflets urging them not to become "victims of coup attempts" but to go home and enjoy their Christmas dinner - which sounded like a mockery to people who could not buy bread.

Ceausescu (it seemed like he really didn’t understand what was going on in the country) went out onto the balcony to speak, but this time they didn’t even listen to him. Booing the “great leader,” the people rushed to storm the building - which was no longer guarded by the army.

“When we took off at 12.08 from the terrace of the Central Committee building, we saw protesters who were already running up to it,” recalled the pilot of the presidential helicopter, Vasile Malutan. “Our car was designed for four passengers, but there were six.”

Noon December 22, 1989. The dictator is going on his last flight; he will emerge from the helicopter as a fugitive.

In addition to the presidential couple, two Securitate agents and Ceausescu’s deputies in the party and government boarded the helicopter.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the resistance formed the National Salvation Front as the body of all the forces of the nation opposed to the dictatorship.

Professor Petre Roman proclaimed from the balcony of the Central Committee building, from which Ceausescu spoke the day before: “Today, December 22, the dictatorship of Ceausescu has fallen. From now on, all power in Romania belongs to the people.”

The Ceausescu couple, after escaping from Bucharest, made their first stop with Snagove - near their summer residence, 40 km from the capital.

Ceausescu called the Securitate, some military units and his son Nick. When it became clear that escape from the country was impossible, the helicopter was abandoned in the countryside near Tirgovishte.

Pilot Vasile Malutan remembers this a little differently: “When we sat down, Ceausescu called me and ordered the arrival of two helicopters with armed guards. I called the boss, and he said: “We have a revolution... Decide for yourself. Good luck!"

Street fighting in Bucharest. Pay attention to the banner on the far tank - the communist coat of arms, which was then part of the national flag, is cut out of it

Malutan reported to Ceausescu that it was necessary to fly further, but the engine had overheated and the two passengers should be left in Snagov. The deputies remained, and the dictator, taking the agents, ordered them to fly in the direction of Tirgovishte.

IN While moving, Malyutan began to make sharp maneuvers, explaining that in this way he wanted to “avoid possible anti-aircraft fire.” Ceausescu ordered him to sit down immediately. So they ended up in a field near the road.

The former dictator and his wife, accompanied by two security guards, seized a private car with a driver and, threatening him with weapons, ordered him to drive forward. This driver later said that Elena suggested hiding in the forest and waiting, and Nicolae believed that they should resort to the help of workers.

Romanian Wikipedia gives a slightly different picture of the dictatorial "hitchhiking": the agents managed to stop two cars - a forester and a doctor. After some time, the doctor, who did not want to get involved in future fate Ceausescu, imitated an engine breakdown.

The driver of the next stopped car took the Ceausescu couple and one of the agents to Tirgovishte and advised them to hide until morning on the outskirts of the city.

These soldiers had their cockades torn off their caps (dents from them are visible) - which should indicate a switch to the side of the rebels

In three hours, yesterday's "great leader", who ruled over millions of people, turned into an old, lonely fugitive. Worth seeing moment - at what stage of this “transition of power” did the last Securitate agent leave the Ceausescu couple?

During a stop near the first enterprise, workers threw stones at the car, shouting: “Death to the criminals!” This greatly annoyed Ceausescu. In Tirgovishte they tried to find shelter in the building of the local RCP party committee, but they were not allowed there.

Nicolae and Elena tried to hide in the forest, but when darkness fell they returned to the city. On December 22 at 17:50, Ceausescu was detained by the police, who eventually took them to the barracks of the Tirgovishte military garrison.

Meanwhile, clashes continued in Bucharest between supporters and opponents of the revolution, which escalated into full-fledged military operations using equipment. The Securitate, the army of self-defense forces - in this mess, when it was often unclear who was for whom and who was giving orders, there were many victims.

Shootout in the center of Bucharest. A civilian brought a box of cakes to the soldiers.

A total of 1,104 people died during the revolution (of which 162 during the protests against Ceausescu's rule on December 16-22 and 942 in subsequent clashes).

The official number of wounded is 3,352 (during the protests - 1,107, during the clashes after the flight of Ceausescu - 2,245).

Formed from minor leaders of the Communist Party, the National Salvation Front was headed by Ion Iliescu, a former ally who fell into disgrace in the 1970s. The army, led by Victor Stanciulescu, sided with the Federal Tax Service.

1970s Iliescu (left) plays hoops with Ceausescu

Iliescu would later become famous for using miners to fight against students who did not like the fact that Ceausescu left and communism remained.

ButHereThis is not about Ceausescu's successors, but about how the dictatorship of the "great leader" ended.

On December 24, Iliescu signed a decree establishing the Extraordinary Military Tribunal. It included two military judges, two colonels and three “people's judges” of a lower rank.

On December 25, this tribunal held a hearing in Tirgovishte, where within an hour it sentenced the dictator and his wife to death on the charges that you read at the beginning of the article.

The sentence was carried out on the spot, 10 minutes after it was announced. On his way to execution, the dictator exclaimed: “Long live the Socialist Republic of Romania, free and independent!”

Security soldiers (supposedly loyal to Ceausescu) after watching a story about the execution of the dictator

This gasp is not on the video recording of the trial and execution. The operator delayed for a minute, and at this time the firing squad had already opened fire - as soon as the Ceausescu couple stood against the wall.

Record of the trial and execution of the Ceausescu couple

The execution was carried out by three paratroopers from an elite army unit. They agreed voluntarily. They say that there were hundreds of people who wanted to shoot their “great leader.” Although this is probably not true - who announces such an execution?

The corpses of the Ceausescu couple were shown on Romanian television in the evening.

Nicolae Ceausescu, a few minutes after his death

The leaders of the National Salvation Front explained such a cruel step by saying that they wanted to force the remnants of Ceausescu’s supporters to lay down their arms.

According to the leadership of the Federal Tax Service, the death sentence to the dictator and the demonstration of the execution on television saved the lives of tens of thousands of Romanians.

Demonstrators in Bucharest react to news of dictator's death

Two weeks later, the death penalty was abolished in Romania.

Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu - life and execution

Since 1965 - General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party, since 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 several Orders of Lenin. In the West, all sorts of hostile “radio voices” presented Comrade Ceausescu as a cruel tyrant and murderer.

IN recent 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 team slowly poured 90 percent alcohol into his palms.

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

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

According to the testimony of Iona Pacepa, the former chief of the Romanian secret services, 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 Boss could touch. Ceausescu also had a personal chemical engineer, Major Popa, who accompanied the president with a portable laboratory designed to test food.

The priest had to make sure that there were no bacteria, poison or radioactivity in the food.

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 on Wednesday he was forced to return - protests against his dictatorial regime began in Romania. Ceausescu fled Bucharest by helicopter with his wife Elena. Then, with the help of two officers from the Securitate secret police, they seized the car of a worker. In the end, the Ceausescu couple asked for help in a private house, the owners of which, having locked them in one of the rooms, called the soldiers.

The arrested spouses were placed in a cell at the military police station. They stayed there for three days while their fate was decided.

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

The military tribunal trial lasted only 2 hours. It turned, rather, into observing 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 accused refused to recognize the legality of such a trial.

During the tribunal hearing, Elena kept leaning towards her husband and whispering something to him. They were asked questions, but most they remained unanswered. When Ceausescu and his wife were asked to admit their mental instability (the only clue to protect and save their lives), 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 wavered at the last moment; For a moment, Nicolae Ceausescu's gloomy, unshaven face betrayed the fear he felt as he stood before the firing squad. On the way to execution, Elena asked one of the soldiers: “What are you doing with us? After all, I was your mother.” The soldier dryly objected: “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 execution were killed. It is believed that their bodies were buried in unmarked grave not far from Targovishte, this place is recorded in documents.

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

American experts, studying post-mortem photographs of the Ceausescu couple (the nature of the bullet holes and so on), suggested that perhaps they were killed before the trial. An interesting hypothesis, although it does not fit with the data collected by English 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 20 years later: “It was a political murder”

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

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

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

Csirlan, then 27, was at his regiment's headquarters in Boteny, 50km from Budapest, when two helicopters arrived to pick up the 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: “Who 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.

The general ordered one of them to sit in the makeshift courtroom and shoot Ceausescu if anyone tried to break in and save him. Chirlan and another soldier stood guard at the exit.

“I heard every word through the door,” Chirlan tells The Times. - I knew something was wrong here. Elena complained and refused to acknowledge the trial. The so-called lawyers acted as prosecutors. But I was a soldier following orders. Only later did I realize what a deception it was.”

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

“Put them against the wall,” General Stanculescu ordered the soldiers. “First him, and then her.” But the Ceausescu didn't know what was happening until they were led past the helicopters into another building.

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

in order of commentary, article by Alexey Alekseev

Pentagon on the Champs Elysees
One of the last earthly affairs 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 in the spirit of Kalininsky Prospekt in Moscow was built.
Residents of Bucharest nicknamed the new city center “caushima” (something like our “khrushchubs”, but a little higher class). Its main street, the Boulevard of Victory of Socialism (now, of course, renamed) was supposed to eclipse 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 in a huge square capable of accommodating 300 thousand 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 Bucharest residents call “pimple”, “it”, and sometimes in completely obscene words, was planned as the largest administrative building on Earth. But, apparently, the comrades sent to the USA 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 Stalin-Brezhnev architecture, 12 churches, three monasteries, two synagogues and 7,000 residential buildings were demolished. The building has more than 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 taken through some of the halls.
Particularly important guests of the country are allowed to stay 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 thousand in front of the palace. Coming out onto the balcony, the pop singer greeted the crowd 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 at a regular research institute. He was a kind genius of the Steaua (Bucharest) football team. 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 Valentin is engaged in export-import operations; he has no desire to remember the past or 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 crowd applauds.
His sister Zoya Elena studied mathematics under her father, and after her release, she studied business. She prefers to live outside her homeland with her husband, a programmer. Like her brother, Zoe spent eight months in prison on charges of embezzling $8 million (between them). Perhaps the amount was slightly overestimated. In any case, during the search they found only $97 thousand in cash.
In the first post-revolutionary years, the life of Zoe Ceausescu was one of the most beloved topics in Romanian newspapers. She was accused of nymphomania, drunken sprees and suspicious transactions with jewelry. Either the daughters of communist leaders look alike, or the journalists in different countries They are exposed in the same way, but this story is too reminiscent of something Soviet. Now she is also no longer alive. She died of intestinal cancer.
But the most colorful was the third child - the youngest son Niku. Firstly, he took after his father and rose to the post of member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Romania and 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 he 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, Nicu, who was known behind his back as the Prince, devoted a lot of time to women - from factory workers in Sibiu to Nadia Comaneci, whom he raped immediately after the 14-year-old gymnast’s triumphant return to Romania with five Olympic medals from Montreal.
The third passion of Ceausescu's youngest son was alcohol. When he was tried, Nicu justified himself by saying that he did not remember whether he gave the order to shoot at the demonstration in Sibiu, since he was on a multi-day drinking binge and only sobered up in a prison cell. For genocide and illegal possession of weapons, he received 20 years in prison. Three years later he was released due to health reasons. Already free, he was hospitalized with a diagnosis of liver cirrhosis, varicose veins of the esophagus. The liver transplant operation was not performed in the best clinic in Vienna, although friends paid $40 thousand in advance. Niku died in a hospital bed. He is buried next to his parents in 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 gave a report at a party conference, an auction of things that once belonged to him and his wife was held.
The hall was attended by lovers of historical curiosities (mainly from the USA and Japan), as well as numerous journalists.
Judging by the items up for auction, the most extravagant of Europe's communist rulers was most often given chess self made, hunting and fishing accessories, carpets, crystal vases, tablecloths. Brezhnev presented his Romanian colleague with a “Flight” watch, a nesting doll and two Olympic bears.
The trades were brisk. 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 Tsek astrakhan “pie”).
Wool socks, which Ceausescu never even wore, were sold for $16 apiece. But for some reason, handkerchiefs that were never used for their intended purpose (five pieces for $3) did not find a buyer.
No one was even tempted by the most expensive lots - two motor boats, produced a quarter of a century ago ($4-5 thousand apiece), and two yachts (for $40 thousand and $80 thousand). And a MANN bus was purchased by a local resident for the starting price of $38 thousand.
The real battle arose over a completely Woland-like silver cane with a knob, decorated with the inscription in Romanian: “To Comrade Nicolae Ceausescu, our Supreme Commander, as a sign of immeasurable love from lovers of mountain hunting.” The cane was sold for Wolandov's same amount - $666.
Prices, however, were not quoted 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

It is impossible to talk about this woman only in white or black. If only because she was able, without any education (at the village school, where she never completed her studies, she was given only one good mark - in needlework), to be right hand her husband, the President of Romania. Together they ruled the country for more than 20 years. Without any diploma, she stood at the head of the Romanian Academy of Sciences and the country's largest chemical company, ICECHIM. She is Elena Ceausescu, the wife of Nicolae Ceausescu and the mother of their three children - Nika, Valentina and Zoe.

Childhood years

In the commune of Petresti (Dambovita County, in the Wallachia region), on January 7, 1919, a girl was born into an ordinary peasant family, who received the name Elena. The whole family existed thanks to the work of the father, a local plowman. Not much is known about how Elena Ceausescu spent her childhood, but some records made in her homeland state that she did not particularly enjoy studying at school, so she ran away without finishing it. And the level of knowledge that Elena (at that time still Petrescu) managed to obtain left much to be desired, because only in needlework was she able to distinguish herself among her classmates in elementary school.

After stopping her studies, she and her brother moved to Bucharest. At first she worked as a laboratory assistant, and then got a job in a textile factory.

Party activities of a poorly educated textile worker

At the age of 18, Elena Ceausescu became a member of the Romanian Communist Party. And 2 years later, while still a very young underground communist, she meets her future husband. He had just recently been released from prison, which he was serving in Doftan prison. To say that the young man was fascinated by her is to say nothing. He fell in love at first sight. The marriage of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu was registered immediately after the end of the Second World War.

For several decades, this woman with a truly steely character and reinforced concrete will managed to play one of the main roles in the state.

Wife of a Genius

And before that, after the textile factory, she had the opportunity to work for some time at a chemical plant. This came in handy for Elena many years later, when she became the head of the country’s largest chemical laboratory, ICECHIM. Very little time passes, and the wife of the greatest “genius of the Carpathians” is showered with a variety of academic degrees. Now Elena Ceausescu, whose execution was a complete surprise for many, is called a “luminary of science” and heads the Romanian Academy of Sciences.

Rise to political Olympus

Elena Ceausescuso, with her character, could never remain on the sidelines. Moreover, being married to such a person as the President and Secretary General of Romania. When Nicolae made official visits abroad, she almost always went with him. An important political lesson for her was a state visit to the PRC, where she saw firsthand the real power of a woman - Mao Zedong's wife, whose name was Jiang Qing.

History is silent about what exactly was the impetus for the further development of the situation, but it is quite possible that Elena’s enthusiasm was fueled by this particular trip. After all, it was just after the 1971 visit that she began her rapid climb up the political ladder in her country.

In July of the same year, she was already a member of the Central Commission for Socio-Economic Forecasting, and a year later Ceausescu was already a member of the Central Committee of the RCP. A year later she was elected to the party’s executive committee.

The year 1980 brought her the portfolio of First Deputy Prime Minister (in parallel with this, we must remember that her husband Nicolae was the president of the country at that time). Very long odes were written in her honor, in the lines of which she was compared to a star standing with the Great Man and looking with her eyes at the path of Romania leading to victory.

The usual life of Romanian rulers

The guards always treated the entire room in any hotel with antiseptics - power switches, door handles, floors, carpets, even upholstered furniture. Ceausescu was constantly accompanied by his personal chemical engineer, Major Popa, who always had a portable laboratory at hand. After all, Nicolae was also afraid of poisoned food, even if it was brought from Bucharest. Therefore, all products that ended up on the spouses’ table were tested in this laboratory.

But all these precautions became null when the uprising of the popular masses occurred.

The last gasp of the “greats”

On December 18, 1989, Nicolae Ceausescu went on an official visit to Iran, but after 2 days he had to return: a revolution began in his country, the main idea of ​​which was to overthrow his dictatorial regime.

The couple fled Bucharest by helicopter. Then they seized the car of one of the workers and forced him to act as their driver and go looking for shelter for them. At times the husband could not stand it, tears rolled down his face. Elena, who (as well as her husband) would make many tremble, stood like a rock: threatening the worker with a pistol, she gave him orders on what and how to do.

A little later, the couple asked for shelter in one of the private houses. The owners warmly received them, and then, locking the Ceausescu couple in a room, they called the soldiers. In the city of Targovishte, at the military base where the spouses were brought, a tribunal was organized. They were accused of genocide and tyranny. Of course, there is a significant amount of truth in this. They called themselves the beloved children of the people, and the common people, in their understanding, did not need love. They were brought luxurious foods and outfits from abroad, while the people were starving, receiving 200 grams of bread a day. Through their efforts, an armed attack was organized against people and state power. By their actions they hindered the proper development of the country's economy.

The Ceausescu couple denied all accusations. Nicolae shouted that he would speak only before the Great National Assembly, that he would never recognize this court.

When they were asked to talk about the accounts in Switzerland, both Ceausescu shouted that such a thing did not exist. And when they demanded that they transfer all the funds from these accounts to the State Bank of Romania, Nicolae replied that he would not transfer anything. The couple never told the court how much they used to publish abroad. scientific works"academician" Elena Ceausescu and selected works Nicholas.

They were sentenced to capital punishment. The execution of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu took place on December 25, 1989 at 4 pm. Elena still didn’t understand what the word “genocide” meant. According to one assumption, their bodies were buried in the town of Targovishte in an unmarked grave. Experts from the United States, having closely studied the post-mortem photographs of the spouses, suggested that they could have been killed before the trial.