Communist
official who was leader of Romania from 1965 until he was overthrown and
killed in a revolution in December 1989. A prominent member of the
Romanian Communist youth movement during the early 1930s, Ceausescu was
imprisoned in 1936 and again in 1940 for his Communist Party activities.
In 1939, he married Elena Petrescu, a devout Communist. While in prison
Ceausescu became a protégé of his cell mate, the Communist leader
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, who would become the Communist leader of Romania
beginning in 1952. Escaping prison in August 1944 shortly before the
Soviet occupation of Romania, Ceausescu subsequently served as secretary
of the Union of Communist Youth (1944-45). After the Communists' full
accession to power in Romania in 1947, he first headed the nation's
ministry of agriculture (1948-50), and from 1950 to 1954 he served as
deputy minister of the armed forces with the rank of major general. Under
Gheorghiu-Dej, Ceausescu eventually came to occupy the second highest
position in the party hierarchy, holding important posts in the Politburo
and Secretariat. With the death of Gheorghiu-Dej in March 1965, Ceausescu
succeeded to the leadership of Romania's Communist Party as first
secretary (general secretary from July 1965); and 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,
nationalistic political course, which openly challenged the dominance of
the Soviet Union over Romania. In the 1960s Ceausescu virtually 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). Ceausescu was
elected to the newly created post of president of Romania in 1974.
While following an independent policy in foreign relations, Ceausescu
adhered ever more closely to the communist orthodoxy of centralized
administration at home. His secret police maintained rigid controls over
free speech and the media and tolerated no internal dissent or opposition.
In an effort to pay off the large foreign debt that his government had
accumulated through its mismanaged industrial ventures in the 1970s,
Ceausescu in 1982 ordered the export of much of the country's agricultural
and industrial production. The resulting drastic shortages of food, fuel,
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 many members of his extended family to high posts in the government
and party. Among his grandiose and impractical schemes was a plan to
bulldoze thousands of Romania's villages and move their residents into new
apartment buildings. Ceausescu's regime collapsed after he ordered his
security forces to fire on antigovernment demonstrators in the city of
Timisoara on Dec. 17, 1989. The demonstrations spread to Bucharest, and on
December 22 the Romanian army defected to the demonstrators. That same day
Ceausescu and his wife fled the capital in a helicopter but were captured
and taken into custody by the armed forces. On December 25 the couple were
hurriedly tried and convicted by a special military tribunal on charges of
mass murder and other crimes. Ceausescu and his wife were then shot by
firing squad.
Communist
official who was leader of Romania from 1965 until he was overthrown and
killed in a revolution in December 1989. A prominent member of the
Romanian Communist youth movement during the early 1930s, Ceausescu was
imprisoned in 1936 and again in 1940 for his Communist Party activities.
In 1939, he married Elena Petrescu, a devout Communist. While in prison
Ceausescu became a protégé of his cell mate, the Communist leader
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, who would become the Communist leader of Romania
beginning in 1952. Escaping prison in August 1944 shortly before the
Soviet occupation of Romania, Ceausescu subsequently served as secretary
of the Union of Communist Youth (1944-45). After the Communists' full
accession to power in Romania in 1947, he first headed the nation's
ministry of agriculture (1948-50), and from 1950 to 1954 he served as
deputy minister of the armed forces with the rank of major general. Under
Gheorghiu-Dej, Ceausescu eventually came to occupy the second highest
position in the party hierarchy, holding important posts in the Politburo
and Secretariat. With the death of Gheorghiu-Dej in March 1965, Ceausescu
succeeded to the leadership of Romania's Communist Party as first
secretary (general secretary from July 1965); and 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,
nationalistic political course, which openly challenged the dominance of
the Soviet Union over Romania. In the 1960s Ceausescu virtually 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). Ceausescu was
elected to the newly created post of president of Romania in 1974.