The Romanian Revolution - by Karsten Cheng

Demonstrators in Timisoara in Dec 89
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Romania and the Revolution

By: Karsten Cheng

August 7, 2006

Do you know when the Revolution happened in Romania? Would you have the courage to start shouting at Ceausescu and turning him down? Would you try to escape? Or hide? Or would you participate in the revolution? Find out more about the revolution when you read this essay.

Crowd of Demonstrators in the main square of Timisoara
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In 1989 the people were starving because they had no food and there were long lineups to empty bread stores. But when Ceausescu was on TV he told everyone that Romania was doing very well. He was in stores that were stocked up with bread and he was praising “the high living standard”. But none of this was true. The people lived in poverty.

The revolution happened between December 16 and 22 in 1989. It all started when a priest in Timisoara was preaching against the Communist government and the government of Romania did not like that at all. The government told him to leave the city. The people of his church and soon the whole town protested against that idea. The mayor said he will try to allow the priest to stay in Timisoara. But the people did not believe the mayor and soon they were protesting against the communists, as well.

They were shouting “down with Communism!” “Down with Ceausescu”! By December 20^th all the people of Timisoara were on the streets protesting. All the workers went on strike. They were threatening to burn down the communist party building but the armed forces stopped them. Some people got inside the building and threw out some documents, some writings of Ceausescu, and some propaganda. At the Orthodox Church people were singing “Wake up, Romania”, an anthem which was banned since 1947. The police came and started shooting at them, arresting them, and spraying tear gas. Some people were very lucky to escape. Some were arrested, injured or killed. The protest soon spread to other places, as well, like Bucharest.

Ceausescu had a perfunctory trial on Christmas Day, 1989. After a very short trial, Ceausescu, as well as his wife, were condemned to death, and were killed immediately after they heard the verdict.

At the end of 1989, Romania had new leaders who promised free elections, but great sacrifices had already been made. A short statistic cannot show Romanians’ sorrow, but it can help us vaguely understand what happened in Romania.

Key points:

· 1,104 dead

· 3,352 wounded

I learned a lot of the above at the Revolution Museum in Timisoara. The guide at the museum was a very good guide and he asked us to check the archives of Canadian newspapers to see what was written about the Revolution when it happened. He would like us to send him copies of the articles for his collection in the museum. He has copies of articles from other countries but not any from Canada. We will try to find some for him when we get back to Canada next year. The videos we saw were quite graphic but they told the story. I am thankful that Communism does not exist any more in Romania.