Context of the Revolution
Manifestation in Timisoara
Ceaușescu was booed by the audience in Bucharest
End of the regime
Election of 1990
The Berlin Wall was fallen the 9 november 1989.
Nicolae Ceaușescu is the communist dictator of Romania since 1974 (15 years).
The majority of the population suffered
from the lack of civil liberties and the economic policy of Ceauşescu (repayment of external debt through the export of agricultural production combined with oversized construction projects) which maintained the population in
material misery, the food shortage and the atmosphere of terror maintained by the secret police (Securitate).
Image : Romanian Communism Online Photo Collection
against the expulsion by the Securitate of a Protestant pastor, László Tőkés, member of the Hungarian minority of Romania.
During the manifestation, the crowd began libertarian songs and religious,
considered anti-communist by the regime. Special forces of the Securitate responded with tear gas and water cannons, but the manifestation resumed the next day.
Image : Constantin Duma
Nicolae Ceauşescu and his wife fled on 22 December 1989 from the headquarters of the Romanian Communist Party in a helicopter. They are intercepted. On December 25, 1989, a 55-minute summary trial in a secret court was improvised. Nicolae Ceauşescu
and his wife Elena Petrescu were declared "guilty of genocide", sentenced to death and immediately shot.
During the revotution there were 1,104 deaths (of which 564 in Bucharest, 93 in Timişoara, 90 in Sibiu, 66 in Braşov and 26 in Cluj-Napoca) and 3,321 were wounded (1,761 to Bucharest).
Image : unknow
Romania holds an election, six months after the end of the regime. It was the first election since 1937. Ion Iliescu was elected with 85% of the vote. He comes from the National Salvation Front (NSF),
this organization was against the last regime.
Ion Iliescu was at the National Salvation Front Council since December 22, when Ceauşescu left office.
Image : Mediafax/Emanuel Pârvu
