History - Nicolae Ceausescu. NICOLAE CEAUSESCU, A MODERN DESPOT. Nicolae Ceausescu (1918-1989) was a communist official who was leader of Romania from 1965 until he was overthrown and executed during the events of 1989. A member of the Romanian communist youth movement during the 1930s, Ceausescu was imprisoned in 1936 and in 1940 for his communist party activities. In 1939 he married Elena Petrescu. While in prison Ceausescu became a protg of his mate, the future communist leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu Dej, who would become the communist leader of Romania beginning in 1952. Ceausescu subsequently served as secretary of the Union of Communist Youth (1944-1945). After the communists' full accession to power in Romania in 1947, he headed the nation's ministry of agriculture, and then, from 1950 to 1954, he served as deputy minister of the armed forces. Under Gheorghiu-Dej, Ceausescu eventually came to occupy the second highest position in the party hierarchy, holding important posts in the Politbureau. With the death of Gheorghiu-Dej in March 1965, Ceausescu succeeded to the leadership of Romania's Communist Party as first, and then general secretary; with his assumption of the presidency of the State Council (December 1967), he became head of state as well. He soon won popular support for his independent political course, which openly challenged the dominance of the Soviet Union over Romania. In the 1960s Ceausescu ended Romania's active participation in the Warsaw Pact military alliance, and he condemned the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact forces (1968) and the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union (1979). In 1974 Ceausescu became president of Romania as well. While following an independent policy in foreign relations, Ceausescu resisted all pressures for liberal reforms, and he adhered closely to the communist orthodoxy of centralized administration at home. His secret police (Securitate) maintained rigid controls over free speech and the media, and tolerated no internal opposition. In an effort to pay off the large foreign debt that his government had accumulated in the 1970s, Ceausescu ordered the export of much of the country's agricultural and industrial production. The resulting drastic shortages of food, energy, medicines, and other basic necessities drove Romania from a state of relative economic well-being to near starvation. Ceausescu also instituted an extensive personality cult and appointed his wife, Elena, and some members of his family to high posts in the government. Among his grandiose schemes was a plan to bulldoze thousands of Romania's villages and large areas of the city of Bucharest, and move their residents into new apartment buildings. Over one fifth of the built area of central Bucharest, including churches and historic buildings, was demolished during Ceausescu's rule in the '80s. Ceausescu's regime collapsed after he ordered armed and security forces to fire on antigovernment demonstrators in the city of Timisoara in December 1989. The demonstrations spread to Bucharest, and on December 22 the army defected to the demonstrators. That same day Ceausescu and his wife fled the capital in a helicopter, but were captured by the armed forces. On December 25 the couple were hurriedly tried and convicted by a military tribunal on charges of mass murder. Ceausescu and his wife were then shot by a firing squad at Targoviste.

Greater Romania. From Democracy to Dictatorship. Cap, truncheon and cavalry girlde whitch belonget to Marshal Ion Antonescu. GREATER ROMANIA. FROM DEMOCRACY TO DICTATORSHIP. In 1918, Romania's political unity, based on the principles of peoples' right to self-determination, was completed. On March 27, 1918, the Council of the Country (Sfatul Tarii) convened in Kishinew, and decided on the unification of Bessarabia with Romania for now and all times. On November 28, 1918, the General Congress of Bukovina cast a unanimous vote for the unconditioned and everlasting unification of Bukovina within its old borders up to Ceremus, Colacin and the Dnestr, with the kingdom of Romania. On the 1st of December, 1918, the great national assembly in Alba Iulia proclaimed the unification of all Romanians from Transylvania, the Banat, Crisana and Maramures with Romania for all ages to come. Romanian forces in Transylvania drove into Hungary in 1919, after the communist forces there gained ground under Bela Kun, who, starting from early 1919, had launched an attack across the Tisza River against the Romanians. In 1919, the Romanians seized Budapest and occupied it for several months. The unification of all the lands inhabited by Romanians was mentioned in the Versailles peace treaties (1919-1920) after the First World War, and sanctioned by the crowning of King Ferdinand I and Queen Maria at Alba Iulia in the year 1922. After 1918, Romania made important steps forward toward strengthening national state life, by enacting major reforms the universal ballot (1918), the land reform (1921) and the Constitution of 1923. Benefitting from large natural resources and boasting a constitutional regime based on a democratic system, the country recorded a strong upsurge of development. The depression of 1929-1933 caused social unrest and instability within the country and paved the way for Carol, King Ferdiand's son, who was in exile with Elena Lupescu, his mistress. He ascended the throne in 1930, as Carol II, and brought Elena along. A fascist movement was founded in 1927 by Corneliu Codreanu, who later renamed his followers the Iron Guard. The Iron Guard grew in strength during the 1930s, and King Carol had thousands of them imprisoned, and Codreanu shot. In 1938, King Carol II abolished the constitution and proclaimed a royal government. As far as foreign policy - as represented by the great Romanian diplomat Nicolae Titulescu - was concerned, it militated for European security, with Romania playing a major role within the Society of Nations at Geneva; it also masterminded regional alliances like the Little Entente (1921), comprising Romania, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and the Balkan Entente (1934), including Romania, Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey. In 1940, Romania underwent severe territorial losses Bessarabia and the northern part of Bukovina were snatched by the Soviet Union (June 26-28), northern Transylvania was annexed by Hungary under the Vienna Diktat (August), while Bulgaria seized the southern part of Dobrudja i.e. the Quadrilateral area (September). This was mainly due to the fact that Romania had strained relations with both the U.S.S.R. and Germany, which joined together in the Ribentropp-Molotov Pact (1939), establishing the spheres of influence in Central and Eastern Europe. The serious crisis of 1940 led to the abdication of King Carol II in favour of his son, Mihai I (Michael of Romania). In the fall of 1940, a Nazi military mission entered Romania. This situation, together with the hope of regaining Bessarabia and the northern part of Bukovina, and the danger of Bolshevism, made the government (led by Ion Antonescu) decide to side with Germany, and declare war on the Soviet Union (June 22, 1941), and subsequently, on the U.S.A. and the U.K. Ion Antonescu became Romania's state leader. The military defeats after 1942 led to many attempts made by Antonescu's government and the democratic opposition to break Romania from the alliance with Germany. As a result of a coup d'etat supported by the major political parties and King Michael's personal involvement, on August 23, 1944, the Antonescu regime was overthrown. Romania turned arms against Germany and placed its whole military and economic capability at the service of the anti-fascist coalition. Romania took part in the war until the May 1945 victory. After having pushed the enemy out of the country, the Romanian army fought to liberate Hungary and Czechoslovakia. The Paris Peace Treaty (1947), stating the 1940 Vienna Diktat null and void, made Romania re-establish its sovereign rights over Transylvania. But Bessarabia, northern Bukovina and the Herta area passed under Soviet occupation.

Romanian History - Nation Building. Romanian officers during Alexandru Ioan Cuza's rule. NATION - BUILDING. MODERN AGE. The dissolution of the medieval structures throughout the territory inhabited by Romanians (mid-18th century), and the huge economic and social changes had two major consequences, namely the development of new relationships, and the emergence of a new national consciousness, conducive to the setting up of the Romanian nation. The national Renaissance in Transylvania was embodied by bishop Ioan Inocentiu Micu (Klein), a staunch fighter for the Transylvanian Romanians' emancipation irrelevant of confessional, social and ethnic differences. The works of important scholars like Constantin Cantacuzino and Dimitrie Cantemir were continued in Transylvania by a brilliant group of Romanian intellectuals like Gheorghe Sincai, Petru Maior, Samuil Micu and Ioan Budai Deleanu, who gathered together in what was called the Scoala Ardeleana (Transylvanian School) movement. The outstanding members of this group would disseminate, through their writings, the ideas of enlightenment circulating then in Europe. They did their best to stimulate the Romanians' national spirit, by advocating the use of Romanian language and history in schools. The national movement was backed by a social one, which culminated in the 1784 peasant uprising led by Horea, Closca and Crisan. The counterpart of the Transylvanian uprising, the 1821 Wallachian revolution led by Tudor Vladimirescu, represents an important event in the Romanian people's struggle to assert its national rights. For several months, Wallachia focused the attention of international public opinion; the relationships between Moldavia, Wallachia and the Ottoman Empire underwent some changes in 1828 - 1829 which gave the Principalities broader autonomy. As the result of the Treaty of Adrianople (1829), a virtual Russian protectorate over the principalities was imposed, reducing the Ottoman suzerainty to a few legal formalities. The Russian protectorate, despite the promulgation of constitutions, increased the Romanians' resentment towards Russia. Liberal and Western-educated boyars demanded new political reforms and an end to foreign domination. As the Romanians' sense of self-awareness grew, and the formation process of the Romanian nation beyond political bounds acquired momentum, the social and national movements grew into a vast revolutionary process. The 1848 revolution covered all of the Romanian geographical area but Bessarabia, stimulating national consciousness. Moldavians, Wallachians and Transylvanians represented by Mihail Kogalniceanu, Nicolae Balcescu, and Simion Barnutiu voiced their decision to do away with the old social and political structure, to break new ground for national unity. One of the targets of the 1848 revolution was to bring the Romanian people close to modernity. Unfortunately, Turkey and Russia joined forces in the effort to stifle it, and eventually succeeded. The revolutionary programme, however, lived on as a national yearning and hope. The Crimean War (1853-1856) and its aftermath brought the question of the Romanian Principalities to the forefront of European countries. Their future political status became a concern not only for the surrounding empires - Habsburg, Ottoman and Tsarist Russia - but also for other powers such as France, Prussia, and Britain. The problem was being discussed at international conferences and congresses. Meanwhile, the movement for national and political unity gained momentum. The Paris Treaty (1856) stipulated that the Russian protectorate, strengthened in 1829 by the Adrianople Peace Treaty, be replaced by the collective guarantee of European states; it also stipulated the autonomy of the Romanian Principalities, which paved the way to the setting up of the modern Romanian state. In 1857, the assemblies of Moldavia and Wallachia voted to create a union of the two Principalities. On January 24, 1859, the historic act of political unity between Moldavia and Wallachia under one single rule, that of Alexandru Ioan Cuza, turned a centuries-old dream into real fact. The age of the Union featured a vast and comprehensive reform programme relating to institutions, economy, and education. In 1862, Bucharest became the official capital of Romania. By initiating these changes on his own authority, Cuza asserted the de facto independence of Romania, as the united principalities were now known. But his authoritarian methods earned him many enemies who, in 1866, joined together and forced his abdication. In February 1866, Cuza was obliged to renounce the throne in favour of the German Prince Carol of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. After confirmation, Carol went to Romania, called a convention in order to draft the constitution, and visited the sultan of Turkey who graciously received him. He took the title of prince Carol I, and had a long and contented reign. A wise man, Carol promoted a policy that strengthened his predecessor's achievements, and worked toward completing national unity. In 1866, a new modern liberal Constitution was drafted, which was inspired by the Belgian one. In 1875, the re-opening of the Eastern Question dossier was a favourable moment for the modern Romanian state to reassert its independence. On May 9, 1877, the Assembly of Deputies, synthesising the aspirations of the Romanian people, proclaimed independence, with foreign minister Mihail Kogalniceanu making the decision known to the world. Romania's independence was further consolidated by the country's military involvement, alongside Russia and the Balkan peoples, in the anti-Ottoman war of 1877 - 1878. A Romanian army crossed the Danube and participated in the siege of Pleven and Vidin. The San Stefano and Berlin treaties (1878) sanctioned the independence of Romania, later acknowledged by the European powers. These international documents re-established Romania's rights over Dobrudja, which was reunited with Romania. Once Turkish control had been removed, Romania was able to organise its state administration on a modern basis. On 14/26 March, 1881, the parliament voted a new form of government, the kingdom, with ruling Prince Carol and his wife - Elisabeth of Wied -, being crowned King and Queen of Romania (10th/22nd May, 1881). The king was given a crown made of steel from a cannon seized at Pleven from the Turks. As an independent state, Romania started to foster an economic policy directed toward increasing production. Independent Romania furthered a policy which allowed it to play an important role in the concert of European nations. The 1878-1914 period was crucial in the history of the Romanians. The economy expanded; politics polarised around two parties - conservative and liberal. In 1883, Romania joined the alliance with Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. One of the reasons for this choice can be related to its strained relations with Russia after the decision of the Tsarist government in 1878 to occupy Southern Bessarabia. At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, Romania recorded an outstanding development of culture and science, which matched European standards. It was the time when great scientists like doctors Victor Babes, Gheorghe Marinescu and Constantin Levaditi, chemists Petru Poni and Constantin Istrati, mathematicians Spiru Haret and Traian Lalescu, historians Alexandru D. Xenopol, Dimitrie Onciul and Nicolae Iorga, and linguists Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, Alexandru Cihac, Lazar Saineanu, Sextil Puscariu, came to the fore. With Romania being an independent kingdom, the hopes of all the Romanians who lived on territories which were still under foreign occupation, i.e. Bukovina, Bessarabia, and most of all Transylvania, turned to their fatherland. The policy of forced assimilation in the above-mentioned territories had terrible consequences. Transylvanian Romanians, who continued to be dominated by the Austro-Hungarian monarchy (set up...

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