On the Road Again...FINALLY!: I Can Finally Spell "Ceausescu"

Our first full tour day was Saturday, 3 September. We had a civilized start time of 8:30am, which left plenty of time for a nice breakfast at the hotel. Neither of us had a full night's sleep, but with a shot of coffee, we were ready to go. We soon learned that despite our diminutive number, we would have a full-size tour bus. It seemed excessive, but as it was explained -- and later evident -- the poor conditions of many roads in Romania would have made riding in a smaller bus very uncomfortable. With a huge bus, we had plenty of room to spread out. Ironically, most of us migrated toward the front anyway, as it allowed us to chat and get to know one another.

The day was grey and cool (in the 50's) with intermittent rain. We had a local tour guide join us for a morning tour of the city. Unlike the afternoon of our arrival the previous day, the streets were rather deserted and getting around was very easy. The city, though historically called "the Paris of the East," has certainly seen better days. When the first king of Romania (Carol I) was installed in the late 19th Century, he set about building a city similar to Paris, and many of the ornate buildings and stately mansions were constructed them. In the subsequent 100+ years, however, you had the Communist era, which saw the construction of countless soulless concrete monstrosities, which are interspersed with the stately -- if not aged -- 19th century architecture. It all adds up to a disorienting jumble which, coupled with the gloomy weather, gave the city a rather dour appearance.

National Theater of Romania

University of Bucharest

We saw LOTS of signs during the trip expressing support for Ukraine.

Among our stops on the tour was the former Communist Party headquarters building, from the balcony of which Nicolae Ceausescu (the second and final leader of Communist Romania) gave his infamous speech on 21 December 1989 which culminated in the subsequent revolution and his execution. Though I lived through the revolution (from afar, of course), we were both rather embarrassed how little we knew of Romanian history, in particular the revolution that toppled the communist regime. During the fall of communist governments across the Eastern Bloc in the late 80's, the revolution in Romania was the only bloody conflict. While other governments fell around him, Nicolae Ceausescu felt confident in his hold on power. We would learn over the course of the tour how isolated he was in the final years, and how almost all connection to what was really happening outside was kept from him. There had been protests in the western city of Timisoara in mid-December, which had been broken up by the secret policy -- the Securitate ("secure-e-tat-a"). Popular reports were that a group of school children, who had been protesting for freedoms on the steps of a church -- had been shot and killed. It was learned later, looking at secretly filmed footage, that the children had evacuated before the armored units moved in. Nonetheless, rumors of the killing spread, as did audio recordings of the subsequent crack-down. Tapes had been smuggled out and the Voice of America was playing them essentially non-stop for several days. Ceausescu was oblivious to the conditions on the ground, as well as what the majority of people believed happened in Timisoara, so he went ahead with a planned rally from party headquarters in Bucharest on the 21st. There are conflicting stories as to whether his inner circle pushed him to go ahead with the speech, knowing that it would not end well. Whatever the case, they bussed in thousands of workers -- who received special pay -- to fill the square, cheer, and hold up banners extolling Nicolae and wife, Elana, as saviors of the country. The speech was broadcast live on Romanian television, and shortly after it started, there was a disruption in the crowd, and soon there were loud chats of "Timisoara" ringing out. You can watch the video on-line, and it is startling. You can literally see the fear enter Ceausescu's eyes as he realizes the crowd is turning. You can hear his wife, Elana, say to him, "give them another 100 leu a month" -- his speech was to include an announcement that wages for most workers would increase, and she though throwing more money at them (about $5), would quiet the crowd. Then you see the head of security approach Ceausescu and say "we have to leave," at which point the transmission was cut.

The crowd very rapidly stormed the building and overwhelmed security. Within minutes they were on the balcony itself -- which is only on the 2nd story of the building. There is footage of Ceausescu, his wife, and inner circle, taking off from the roof in a helicopter seconds later. It was so overloaded, it almost couldn't get airborne. Ironically, so great was Ceausescu's paranoia, the he had built an elaborate network of secret tunnels beneath the city, linking all the important buildings and his villa, and offered multiple escape routes through underground rivers. For unknown reasons he did not head down, but rather to the roof to escape, which proved to be a fatal decision. By this time, the head of the military was dead. There are conflicting reports, but when he was ordered to have the army open fire on the protesters, he balked and either attempted to shoot himself in a non-life-threatening manner, or he was executed. In either case, he died, and word of his refusal to obey and subsequent death was enough to turn the military against the Communist government. This left Ceausescu with only the fiercely loyal Securitate to protect him. There are questions as to whether the Securitate was really loyal, or if they just realized that they faced harsh retaliation themselves should the revolt succeed.

While attempting to fly to one of his palaces, his helicopter pilot essentially defected, landed the aircraft, and turned Nicolae and his wife over to revolutionaries. He was held for several days in a remote location while chaos rolled across the country. There were gunfights in many cities, particularly as the Securitate set up sniper locations to fire on protesters. All the while, Ceausescu was confident he'd be rescued. It was later learned he had a tracking device in his watch, and in the video released of his arrest and subsequent trial, you can see him repeatedly looking at his watch nonsensically, expecting the proverbial cavalry to rush in at any moment to save him.

As the Securitate forces showed no signs of letting up their counteroffensive, it was decided that Ceausescu had to be removed, so a "trial" was hastily arranged and both he and Elana were sentenced to death. You can watch the footage and see that both of them failed to comprehend their situation until they were literally dragged outside and summarily shot on Christmas day. I watched several documentaries on the revolution during the trip, and found it all fascinating.

Former Communist Party Headquarters (now the Interior Ministry)

Balcony From Which Ceausescu Gave his Final (and Fateful) Speech.

Monument to the 1989 Revolution

Former Headquarters of the Securitate (Secret Police)

Sorry to write so much about that. Anyway, the city tour included several other areas and memorials associated with the 1989 revolution. The centerpiece of the morning tour, however, a visit the largest palace in the world, and second largest building of any kind (behind the Pentagon). Namely, the current Parliament Building, which was originally started by Ceausescu as the "Palace of the People." It is a monstrosity of an eyesore which was built to reflect his megalomania.

Romanian Parliament Building (former "Palace of the People")

We heard about how he had more than 75% of the historic city center torn down to make room for the huge building, as well as a new boulevard -- purposely built to be "wider and grander than the Champs de Elysee in Paris." Ironically, we learned later that -- aside from the grand boulevard -- all the other streets built in Bucharest under communism were purposely built narrow, as they never expected people would rely on private cars for transit. As such, traffic gets clogged VERY easily in the city nowadays, as cars are quite prevalent. As for the grand "palace," it has over 1,000 rooms and was inspired by Ceausescu's visit to North Korea. While there, he "marveled" at the grand buildings in Pyongyang. He was completely fooled by the artificial displays set up to impress foreign visitors, and thought that Kim Il-Sung had really figured out how to make communism work. As such, the Palace of the People (now the Palace of the Republic) and the grand boulevard have a very marked North Korean feel to them. Ceausescu was so obsessed with the building that he reportedly visited up to four times a day, and was notorious for ordering changes as soon as something was completed. Entire staircases would be removed as soon as they were erected. His wife, Elana, made most of the visits with him, and was said to be even more of a stickler than Nicolae, and much more cruel when not satisfied.

The building was not completed until four years AFTER Ceausescu was killed, and it was immediately a white elephant. Several other large construction projects -- such as a new "House of the Press" -- were simply abandoned in the early 90's, and many of them now sit as huge derelict buildings, which no one has the money to complete and demolish.

Part of the palace -- the side with the most ornate finishings -- was converted to house the Romanian Parliament, and that was the area we got to see during our visit. The building is so massive though, huge portions still sit empty. It was impressive, but the amount of wasted space and the obviously convoluted architecture -- given all the changes along the way -- make for an assault on the senses.