These two defendants procured the most luxurious foodstuffs and clothes from abroad. As the other primary sources reveal, the Ceausescus were tried a few days later and executed as enemies of the new Romanian state. Elena and Nicolae reject this. Free shipping for many products! He then tried to placate the crowd by offering to raise workers salaries He did not realize, however, that a real revolution was starting before his eyes. Elena says: Look, and that they are calling genocide. This demonstrates their lack of understanding. I have done everything to create a decent and rich life for the people in the country, like in no other country in the world. The bill of indictment contains the following points: Genocide, in accordance with Article 356 of the penal code. We have sufficient data on this period. Thousands of workers were bussed into the square under threat of being fired. CEAUSESCU: I do not recognize this court. The front rows of the assembly were made up of low-level Communist Party officials and members who acted as cheer-leaders. PROSECUTOR: In the same way he refused to hold a dialogue with the people, now he also refuses to speak with us. We have sacrificed all our lives to the people. At that moment Elena says to Nicolae: Forget about them. Diane Dimond writes in Real Clear Politicsabout the low level grumbling that risen to detectable levels since the Bergdahl affair. CHIEF PROSECUTOR: Esteemed chairman of the court, today we have to pass a verdict on the defendants Nicolae Ceauescu and Elena Ceauescu who have committed the following offenses: crimes against the people. Earlier, joyful crowds had paraded through the city after reports that Mr Ceauescu had been arrested after trying to flee from the roof of the party headquarters by helicopter. They are not only accused of offenses committed during the past few days, but of offenses committed during the past 25 years. The prosecutor turns to Elena: You have always been wiser and more ready to talk, a scientist. PROSECUTOR: In all district capitals, which you grandly called municipalities, there is shooting going on. Paper is patient. They are shooting at children; they are shooting arbitrarily into the apartments. CEAUSESCU: No, no. The prosecutor wants to find out on which basis the trial can be continued. Storming the Castle at Amazon Kindle for $3.99, why government should get small I told you right at the beginning that I will not answer a single question. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Mr. President, I would like to know something: The accused should tell us who the mercenaries are. Elena and Nicolae Ceauescu must be held fully responsible for this. PROSECUTOR: So far, they have always claimed that we have built this country, we have paid our debts, but with this they bled the country to death and have hoarded enough money to ensure their escape. After an outage of transmission of Romanian television, the speaker announces the verdict in the trial of Elena and Nicolae Ceausescu is death sentence. Have you understood them? Grandiose plans are announced, pivots are ordered, Red Lines are drawn, all manner of schemes are announced with a maximum of hoopla but everybody ignores it they know the latest fad will pass and the regime will Move On. PROSECUTOR: Why do you think that people are fighting today? You have destroyed the Romanian villages and the Romanian soil. They are cowards. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for The Land of Green Plums, Mller, Herta at the best online prices at eBay! Everybody should be paid according to his performance. I would not call for the death sentence, but it would be incomprehensible for the Romanian people to have to go on suffering this great misery and not to have it ended by sentencing the two Ceausescus to death. You have information about it. CEAUSESCU: You as officers should know that the government cannot give the order to shoot. PROSECUTOR: Please, make a note: Nicolae Ceausescu refuses to cooperate with the court-appointed counsel for the defense. They were even worse than the king, the former king of Romania. Nobody has the right to abolish the Grand National Assembly. Ceausescu claims that the putsch was organized from abroad. I am now talking to you as simple citizens, and I hope that you will tell the truth. Elena answers: The intellectuals of this country should hear you, you and your colleagues. CEAUSESCU: Nobody can change the state structures. The process usually follows this path. PROSECUTOR: In the same way he refused to hold a dialogue with the people, now he also refuses to speak with us. I will only speak at the Grand National Assembly. Now we are making a last attempt. A later article shows that Australia is moving toward purchasing Japanese submarines to replace its existing fleet. In the early evening, it was announced that a National Democracy Committee had been formed, made up of uncompromised military commanders, students and intellectuals. The defendant has not recognized us. Not a single shot was fired in Palace Square. I have no statement to make, and I will not sign one. Frederich Hayek identified the primary reason why tyrants fall: they rely on the poisoned cup of centralized knowledge. And today you are acting in the same megalomaniac way. Despite this, I ask the court to make a decision which we will be able to justify later as well. ELENA CEAUSESCU: I will not answer. All strategic points in the country were said to be under the control of the people. Nobody is likely to rise up and become a Man on Horseback. His security guard appears, disappears and, finally, hustles Ceausescu off the balcony. CEAUSESCU: This is not possible at all. You were not used to talking to the people. I will only speak in front of it. In the footage, Romanian president Nicolae Ceausescu can be seen delivering a speech from the balcony of the Central Committee building overlooking Palace Square, now know as "Revolution Square," where he praised the achievements of Romania's socialist regime and its "multi-laterally developed socialist society." From Wikipedia: PROSECUTOR: Well, Mr. Ceausescu refused to answer. We live in a normal apartment, just like every other citizen. Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu appeared on the balcony of the Central Committee of Comunmunist Party of Romania building, in Bucharest, Romania, on 21 December 1989, and began as he had in years past, with a speech laden with the usual `wooden language`. They were not really interested in the people. PROSECUTOR: So far, they have always claimed that we have built this country, we have paid our debts, but with this they bled the country to death and have hoarded enough money to ensure their escape. But we are not talking about people. PROSECUTOR: Do you not know anything about the order to shoot? The day began as it ended with vehement anti-Ceauescu demonstrations. What prevents him from doing so? All the world should know what is going on here. The court notes that the investigations have been concluded. Soon afterwards, Bucharest television reported that Mr Ceauescu and his wife were no longer in the country. PROSECUTOR: That is to say, as a deputy prime minister you did not know about the genocide? Mystery surrounded the whereabouts of the former President and his wife, Elena, last night. Ceausescu begins his address to the people as he had in years past but this year the tide turned. This page was last edited on 8 October 2016, at 23:48. They will receive a link in their email and it will automatically give them access to a Kindle reader on their smartphone, computer or even as a web-readable document. It doesnt happen as one big wave. ELENA CEAUSESCU: The terrorists are from Securitate. Paper is patient. PROSECUTOR: The people are fighting against you, not against the new forum. They used to fetch people from orphans' homes or from abroad whom they trained in special institutions to become murderers of their own people. Workers, military units and other popular organizations were bused to the capitol and given orders on where to stand, when to applaud and what to sing. PROSECUTOR: Who gave the order to shoot in Bucharest, for instance? I will not answer any question. Because of this indictment, I call for the death sentence and the impounding of the entire property of the two accused. The people were slaves. In response, Ceauescu raised his right hand in hopes of silencing the crowd; his stunned expression remains one of the defining moments of the end of Communism in Eastern Europe. The prosecutor agrees, but stresses that they lived in them while the people suffered. Any actual attempts to fine 30 million Americans would end in a political disaster. Witnesses saw scores of people shot down in the centre of Bucharest in the evening and around the burning royal palace where the Ceauescu family had made their home. However, they will be indicted, and a sentence will be passed on the basis of the new legal system. Eight minutes into the speech, some in the crowd actually began to jeer, boo and whistle at hima reaction considered unthinkable for most of Ceauescus 24 years in power. PROSECUTOR: The Grand National Assembly has been dissolved. Not a single shot was fired in Palace Square. NICOLAE CEAUESCU: Her scientific papers were published abroad! But their triumph was marred by the first confused reports of fresh bloodshed in the early evening following heavy machine-gun fire in Bucharests Republic Square. You have acted in a very irresponsible manner; you led the country to the verge of ruin and you will be convicted on the basis of the points contained in the bill of indictment. At the moment the situation is rather uncertain. I have done everything to create a decent and rich life for the people in the country, like in no other country in the world. CEAUSESCU: I will not answer this question. The workers were augmented by bystanders who were rounded up on Calea Victoriei. Their son, Nicu, was shown on television under arrest. Another question . Captive: My Time as a Prisoner of the Taliban Richard III of England rode into Bosworth Field relying on his ally Baron Stanely to come to his aid. CEAUSESCU: Her scientific papers were published abroad! He did not realize, however, that a real revolution was starting right before his eyes. PROSECUTOR: Whether you have ever had a mental illness. The following is a transscript of the closed trial of Romanian Dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, as shown on Romanian and Austrian television. PROSECUTOR: Did you know about the genocide in Timisoara? We will speak only at the National Assembly, because we have worked hard for the people all our lives. Elena and Nicolae Ceausescu must be held fully responsible for this. I ask the chairman of the prosecutor's office to read the bill of indictment. Furnish proof! The charges are incorrect, and I will not answer a single question here. They organized the putsch. Then he is treated like a normal citizen. It is surpassingly perilous not only for the country, but also for the ruler who relies on it. Thirty years on, will the guilty pay for horror of Ceauescu orphanages? You were not used to talking to the people. The video- shown live on Romanian television-- shows his confusion and consternation and the barely audible comments. Ceausescu and his wife were later captured, tried, and executed. He then tried to placate the crowd by offering to raise workers' salaries by 200 lei per month (about 18 U.S. dollars at the time, yet a 10%-20% raise for a modest salary) and student scholarships from 100 to 110 lei while continuing to praise the achievements of the past 42 years. The workers were augmented by bystanders who were rounded up on Calea Victoriei. That is why the people are fighting all over the country. Despite this, I ask the court to make a decision which we will be able to justify later as well. CEAUSESCU: Nu recunosc nici un tribunal in afara de Marea Adunare Nationala. As hard as it may be to believe, there was a time when . It gave no further details. NICOLAE CEAUESCU: I do not recognize this new forum. The problem with the Narrative is that it suppresses the dispersed information by insisting on the centralized knowledge, on stories the elite make up themselves. PROSECUTOR: Will you sign the statement now or not? CEAUSESCU: As a citizen, as a simple citizen, I tell you the following: At no point was there such an upswing, so much construction, so much consolidation in the Romanian provinces. The story of Ceauescu's final speech is a textbook example. Teams of doctors with emergency medical supplies were being flown in from Geneva last night. 20072021 Roy Rosenzweig Center for History & New Media The prosecutor asks the counsel for the defense to ask Ceausescu whether he knows that he is no longer president of the country, that Elena Ceausescu has also lost all her official state functions and that the government has been dissolved. It is as if, in that moment, everyday Romanian's saw the possibility, saw the reality of the weakness of Ceausescus regime. He also refuses to recognize the new forum. 23 December 1989: Nicolae Ceauescus overthrow follows a week of carnage in which thousands of protesters against his regime were killed in cold blood. In 1947, we assumed power, but under completely different circumstances. PROSECUTOR: You have never been able to hold a dialogue with the people. As a result, the prosecutor says: Elena has always been talkative, but otherwise she does not know much. For example,the administration recently issued a new list of prisoners to be released from Guantanamo, citing theirpractice of yogaas proof they had reformed. They obstructed the normal process of the economy. CEAUSESCU: I do not recognize this court. PROSECUTOR: Note: He does not recognize the points mentioned in the bill of indictment. One moment Ceauescu was in total control of Romania, determined to crush his enemies. ELENA CEAUESCU: We will not sign any statement. Answer this question! Queen Victoria and Her Prime Ministers The Rise of Ceausescu Nicolae was a member of the communist youth movement. If he no longer has a certain function, he cannot demand anything at all. Nicolae Ceauescu (Romanian pronunciation: [nikola.e tea.uesku]; 26 January 1918 -- 25 December 1989) was a Romanian Communist politician. You are faced with charges that you held really sumptuous celebrations on all holidays at your house. He always claimed to act and speak on behalf of the people, to be a beloved son of the people, but he only tyrannized the people all the time. All the world should know what is going on here. I will not say anything here. The palaces belong to the people. PROSECUTOR: This situation is known. Perhaps the biggest example of thisis a CBO report that while 30 million people will technically be liable to pay the Obamacare Individual Mandate fine but in practice all but 4 million will have their fines waived or exempted. Powered by Omeka, Roy Rosenzweig Center for History & New Media. The great Ceauescu escape attempt came after it had become clear that most of the army had gone over to the people. They are not only accused of offenses committed during the past few days, but of offenses committed during the past 25 years. At that moment Elena says to Nicolae: Forget about them. Ceausescu answers: As I said before, the people are fighting for their freedom and against this putsch, against this usurpation. I hope that you do not also work for the foreigners and for the destruction of Romania. As the other primary sources reveal, the Ceausescus were tried a few days later and executed as enemies of the new Romanian state. Centralized regimes may seem to collapse suddenly, yet in reality they have been coming apart for a long time. PROSECUTOR: But not of our army, you are not the commander in chief of our army. PROSECUTOR: This is how you worked with the people and exercised your functions! . They used to fetch people from orphans' homes or from abroad whom they trained in special institutions to become murderers of their own people. , Now career military personnel are speaking out through gritted teeth, insisting they speak for active-duty personnel who cannot talk without being punished. ELENA CEAUESCU: I will not answer. Ceausescu's last speech was interrupted but not by the shouts of the masses. Do you want to sign this statement? The Securitate had hidden food reserves on which Bucharest could have survived for months, the whole of Bucharest. It is a lie that I made the people starve. The English translation is by the U.S. government's Foreign Broadcast Information Service. Immediately before them were plainclothes Securitate agents and a row of police militia, who kept the mass of the crowd about thirty yards back from the front of the Central Committee building. A horse or a hearse? As the crowd becomes more unruly, Ceausescu becomes more confused and he begins arguing with the unseen hecklers. Forget the pontifications from the myriad talking heads on TV and radio. NICOLAE CEAUESCU: What? They not only deprived the people of heating, electricity and foodstuffs, they also tyrannized the soul of the Romanian people. At the moment the situation is rather uncertain. At that very moment, many everyday Romanians saw the weakness of Ceauescu's regime for the first time. I now ask the court to pass a verdict on the basis of the law, because everybody must receive due punishment for the offenses he has committed. One in four of the population is believed to have a member. CEAUSESCU: We will discuss this before the Grand National Assembly. Therefore, it is a mistake for the two accused to refuse to cooperate with us. Here Nicolae Ceauescu steps in and defends her. The front rows of the assembly were made up of low-level Communist Party officials and members who acted as cheer-leaders. What may happen of course, is that like a frog slowly being boiled in a pot, the process happens so slowly that people arent aware of it themselves. Furnish proof! The message was apparently sent on the understanding that Mr Ceauescu had been arrested. KGB technicians and agents made one of the most brilliant moves and played a recording of whistles and protests through installed speakers in the square. This was a coup d'etat. Free elections would be held as soon as possible, and independent media would be established. PROSECUTOR: Esteemed Mr. Chairman, I have been one of those who, as a lawyer, would have liked to oppose the death sentence, because it is inhuman. The balcony where Ceauescu delivered his last speech, taken over by the crowd during the Romanian Revolution of 1989 The speech was typical of most of Ceauescu's speeches over the years. The War of the Words for $3.99, Understanding the crisis of the early 21st century in terms of information corruption in the financial, security and political spheres He always claimed to act and speak on behalf of the people, to be a beloved son of the people, but he only tyrannized the people all the time. CEAUSESCU: I will not answer. We want a legal trial. PROSECUTOR: You claim to have taken measures so that every peasant is entitled to 200 kilograms of wheat. Eight minutes into the speech, some in the crowd actually began to scream because there was a shooting that occurred in the background. Elena and Nicolae Ceauescu state: Well, you told us about it. You, as a scientist, did you know about it? The Ceauescu administrations Prime Minister, Mr Constantin Dsclescu, and his government were said to have resigned. PROSECUTOR: You have never been able to hold a dialogue with the people. What defamation, what provocations! Only a few hours before the Genius of the Carpathians had been in apparently complete command. "Video of Ceausescus Last Speech, December 1989," Making the History of 1989, Item #696, https://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/items/show/696 (accessed May 28 2021, 3:24 pm). No one can deprive me of these functions. Usurpers have been punished severely during the past centuries in Romania's history. This is not possible. Workers from a Bucharest power plant started chanting "Ti-mi-oa-ra! Tell the people that I will answer all their questions. First their narratives become so infested with lies they go out of sync with their own administrators on the ground. The people only received 200 grams per day, against an identity card. The prosecutor turns to Elena: You have always been wiser and more ready to talk, a scientist. When the crisis comes the Leader Maximus discovers to his absolute surprise that all support has vanished. Its just that he makes it so hard to do so.. In 1947, we assumed power, but under completely different circumstances. NICOLAE CEAUESCU: I will not say anything more. Have you understood them? The English translation is by the U.S. government's Foreign Broadcast Information Service. However, they will be indicted, and a sentence will be passed on the basis of the new legal system. How can one say something like this? The produce which the peasants grew was exported, and the peasants came from the most remote provinces to Bucharest and to the other cities in order to buy bread. They are cowards. PROSECUTOR: This situation is known. If you had had a mental illness and admitted this, you would not be responsible for your acts. This is a vulgar provocation. CEAUSESCU: She was not a deputy prime minister, but the first deputy prime minister. PROSECUTOR: We have wonderful programs. His country passed from traditional monarchy to troubled democracy to royal dictatorship to military control to occupied territory. One announcer called it the heart of our nation. In response, the two laugh, and she says: We do not stay abroad. Everybody should be paid according to his performance. NICOLAE CEAUESCU: I do not recognize this court. Please make a note that here it has been stated that all legal regulations have been observed, that this is a legal trial. But by then there was nowhere to hide. The Man at the Top increasingly pulls on disconnected controls, yet still imagines he is in charge. Yet there is a big difference between grousing, which is endemic to the military, and actual rebellion. PROSECUTOR: By now, there have been 34 casualties. Elena answers: The intellectuals of this country should hear you, you and your colleagues. CEAUSESCU: I will not say anything more. Storm Over the South China Sea $0.99, how China is restarting history in the Pacific CHIEF PROSECUTOR: Esteemed chairman of the court, today we have to pass a verdict on the defendants Nicolae Ceausescu and Elena Ceausescu who have committed the following offenses: Crimes against the people. The next he was a hunted man. What happened was that he was misled by Centralized Information. Elena says: Look, and that they are calling genocide. Only a president who is still confirmed in his position can demand to speak at the Grand National Assembly. You cannot talk to me in such a way! And we will not betray our people here. Why did you make the peasants starve? You need not admit your mistakes, mister. You should have stayed in Iran where you had flown to. The truth shall set you free, even if it makes you miserable. We are all equal. PROSECUTOR: And who wrote the papers for you, Elena? PROSECUTOR: We have always spoken of equality. I am the president of the people. They not only killed children, young people and adults in Timisoara and Bucharest; they allowed Securitate members to wear military uniforms to create the impression among the people that the army is against them. In the second stage their edicts become unenforceable from sheer impracticability. Within hours Ceauescu was beseiged inside the Central Committee building by irate crowds. Only the front rows supported Ceauescu with cheers and applause, with most of the crowd remaining impassive. The catastrophic situation of the country is known all over the world. Fuelled by the events taking place in Berlin (the wall had come down just a few weeks before) and the ripple impact of the weakening Iron Curtain, Romanians had taken to the streets in . What do you say as a citizen? You were the most important aide, the number two in the cabinet, in the government. PROSECUTOR: Children cannot even buy plain candy, and you are living in the palaces of the people. The crowd, now totaling up to 80,000, were given orders on where to stand, when to applaud and what to sing. Immediately before them were plainclothes Securitate agents and a row of police militia, who kept the mass of the crowd about thirty meters back from the front of the Central Committee building. NICOLAE CEAUESCU: What an obscene provocation. a silent falling away among American allies. Ceausescu begins his address to the people as he had in years past but this year the tide turned. ELENA CEAUSESCU: Accounts in Switzerland? PROSECUTOR: Please, make a note: Ceausescu does not recognize the new legal structures of power of the country.