Nicolae Ceaușescu

Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian politician who was the second and last <a href="/facts/Communism/PkUwa9xK">communist</a> leader of <a href="/facts/Socialist_Romania/sIqLNfBy">Romania</a>, serving as the <a href="/facts/General_secretary_of_the_Romanian_Communist_Party/v19r9sLq">general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party</a> from 1965 until <a href="/facts/Trial_and_execution_of_Nicolae_and_Elena_Ceau%25C8%2599escu/wQhwUCF2">his execution</a> in 1989. Widely regarded as a <a href="/facts/Dictator/ueVW1a39">dictator</a>, he was the country's <a href="/facts/Head_of_state/U2QzdE4a">head of state</a> from 1967 to 1989, serving as President of the <a href="/facts/State_Council_of_Romania/yzVumhBU">State Council</a> from 1967 and as the first <a href="/facts/President_of_Romania/tldmN4bY">president</a> from 1974. He was overthrown and executed in the <a href="/facts/Romanian_Revolution/gEmUEELt">Romanian Revolution</a> on 25 December 1989 along with his wife <a href="/facts/Elena_Ceau%25C8%2599escu/j1wrrS5X">Elena Ceaușescu</a>, as part of a series of <a href="/facts/Anti-communism/bJuolzxo">anti-communist</a> uprisings in <a href="/facts/Eastern_Europe/f5CDGzNA">Eastern Europe</a> that year.
Born in 1918 in <a href="/facts/Scornice%25C8%2599ti/jUk5aWnK">Scornicești</a>, Ceaușescu was a member of the Romanian Communist youth movement. He was arrested in 1939 and sentenced for "conspiracy against social order", spending the time during <a href="/facts/World_War_II/2efV5L1U">World War II</a> in prisons and internment camps: Jilava (1940), Caransebeș (1942), Văcărești (1943), and Târgu Jiu (1943). Ceaușescu rose up through the ranks of <a href="/facts/Gheorghe_Gheorghiu-Dej/0ad9AePq">Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej</a>'s Socialist government and, upon Gheorghiu-Dej's death in 1965, he succeeded to the leadership of the Romanian Communist Party as general secretary.
Upon achieving power, Ceaușescu eased <a href="/facts/Censorship_in_Communist_Romania/IrDLh09l">press censorship</a> and condemned the <a href="/facts/Warsaw_Pact_invasion_of_Czechoslovakia/BeRhWf5T">Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia</a> in his <a href="/facts/Ceau%25C8%2599escu%2527s_speech_of_21_August_1968/UsFEwrrG">speech of 21 August 1968</a>, which resulted in a surge in popularity. However, this period of stability was brief, as his government soon became <a href="/facts/Totalitarian/Txc6sJvM">totalitarian</a> and came to be considered the most repressive in the <a href="/facts/Eastern_Bloc/12f32hA7">Eastern Bloc</a>. His <a href="/facts/Secret_police/1ea5u7R8">secret police</a>, the <a href="/facts/Securitate/EKcxwRFR">Securitate</a>, was responsible for <a href="/facts/Mass_surveillance/GgAEJtso">mass surveillance</a> as well as <a href="/facts/Securitate/EKcxwRFR">severe repression</a> and human rights abuses within the country, and controlled the media and press. Ceaușescu's attempts to implement <a href="/facts/Decree_770/DyE6nrcq">policies that would lead to a significant growth of the population</a> led to a growing number of illegal abortions and increased the number of orphans in state institutions. Economic mismanagement due to failed oil ventures during the 1970s led to very significant foreign debts for Romania. In 1982, Ceaușescu directed the government to export much of the country's agricultural and industrial production in an effort to repay these debts. <a href="/facts/Nicolae_Ceau%25C8%2599escu%2527s_cult_of_personality/aHU6rQ8q">His cult of personality</a> experienced unprecedented elevation, followed by the deterioration of foreign relations, even with the <a href="/facts/Soviet_Union/m7wWsPto">Soviet Union</a>.
As anti-government protesters demonstrated in <a href="/facts/Timi%25C8%2599oara/z4PAkdCE">Timișoara</a> in December 1989, Ceaușescu perceived the demonstrations as a political threat and ordered military forces to open fire on 17 December, causing many deaths and injuries. The revelation that Ceaușescu was responsible resulted in a massive spread of rioting and civil unrest across the country. The demonstrations, which reached <a href="/facts/Bucharest/4xQnsGwM">Bucharest</a>, became known as the <a href="/facts/Romanian_Revolution/gEmUEELt">Romanian Revolution</a>—the only violent overthrow of a communist government in the course of the <a href="/facts/Revolutions_of_1989/gLWM6JLk">Revolutions of 1989</a>. Ceaușescu and his wife <a href="/facts/Elena_Ceau%25C8%2599escu/j1wrrS5X">Elena</a> fled the capital in a helicopter intending to go to the <a href="/facts/Vatican_City/JTKnEt6J">Vatican</a> via <a href="/facts/Vienna/NSpIURsA">Vienna</a>, but they were captured while still in Romanian territory by the military after the armed forces turned on them. After being <a href="/facts/Trial_and_execution_of_Nicolae_and_Elena_Ceau%25C8%2599escu/wQhwUCF2">tried and convicted</a> of economic sabotage and <a href="/facts/Genocide/IjkNvg7y">genocide</a>, both were sentenced to death, and they were immediately <a href="/facts/Trial_and_execution_of_Nicolae_and_Elena_Ceau%25C8%2599escu/wQhwUCF2">executed by firing squad on 25 December</a>.

Nicolae Ceaușescu open-in-new

Nicolae Ceaușescu