Life in 1980s Romania

December 20, 2019

Today at noon in Timisoara the sirens blared throughout the city for 3 minutes to mark the moment Timisoara earned the status of a city free from Communism

December 20, 1989

The borders with Hungary, Yugoslavia and the USSR have been closed. Ceausescu has returned from Iran and called an emergency session of parliament in which he proclaims martial law. He demands a rally be organized for the next day in Bucharest to show worker support for his policies. The protests have spread to a second city, Cluj.

In Timisoara the secret police continue firing on demonstrators in the street. There is a general strike in all of the factories in the city. Negotiators from the government arrive and try to buy time before the elite troops can arrive and crush the rebellion.

The protesters created a group called The Romanian Democratic Front to organize the resistance movement. More army soldiers joined the protesters in Opera Square. By 2 pm the soldiers were back in their garrison and the central and local authorities had given up control of the city. The revolutionaries then went out on the balcony of the Opera House and declared Timisoara to be Romania’s first free city, released from the Communist regime. The terror would continue nevertheless.

Romanians were following events there from western radio stations like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe as well as from TV and radio transmissions from Hungary and Yugoslavia. Word of mouth spread quickly.

By the next day an ill-conceived rally by Ceausescu in Bucharest would result in full blown Revolution. Six more cities would soon rise up in resistance and bloodshed.

December 19, 1989

This day brought more terror and confusion. There was shooting all over the city. The prime minister promised to release the political prisoners, but ignored the demand to remove Ceausescu. On the following day in Bucharest, Ceausescu gave a televised speech promising to defeat the “terrorists and hooligans” in Timisoara. He talked in terms of “interference of foreign forces in Romania’s internal affairs.” Every factory and school was being guarded 24/7.

Nevertheless a civic committee was formed by the demonstrators, but was soon fractured by infighting. They were also under the impression that the uprising was nearly over despite all of the bloodshed. In fact one army regiment had joined with the protesters who gave them flowers. The political prisoners had been released and thousands of workers organized by factory committees streamed into the city for four hours. Some others chanted, “The army is with us!” Also on this day the United States condemned the Romanian government for its use of “brutal force”, and some hoped the U.S. would involve themselves. This night graffiti on the Communist Party headquarters read, “The People Have Won” .

After two days of failed attempts by the militia, the army and the intelligence service to repress the revolt, the protesters still occupied Timisoara’s downtown Opera Square.

A week of increased terror was about to begin. More people would soon die than had in all of this violence.

Here is a quote about rationing in Timisoara from The Washington Post by writer Mary Battiata titled “How Romania’s Bloody Revolution got its Start in Timisoara” 12/31/1989

“Until recently the city had a slightly higher standard of living than the rest of the country. For years, a citizen here could get a pound more meat a month than Romanians elsewhere. That changed in October, when for the first time in Banat (the state) meat, eggs and salami were rationed, along with the already restricted supplies of butter and flour. That was bad enough, people said, but the cards were no guarantee that people would get food. People began to stand in lines from 5 to fifteen hours to collect their allotments of meat, only to find there was none. But people here knew the region was producing enough to feed them. on the outskirts of Timisoara is the largest pork processing plant in Central Europe. There are large bread bakeries and other food plants. Workers handle these foods bound for export, all day long. Then they return home to find the shops empty and nothing to eat.

Besides food, electricity and gas were also rationed. Ceausescu’s goal in this was to pay down the $11 billion dollar debt by exporting goods. The full repayment was accomplished shortly before his death. The palace cost 3.4 billion dollars alone while it is thought 10,000 children died of malnutrition during this harsh austerity begun in 1981.

December 18, 1989

Riots and protests persisted. On orders of Ceausescu security forces cracked down on demonstrators with lethal force. The dreaded secret police (the Securitate) had joined the forces and began to assault the demonstrators by shooting into the crowd sometimes from their perches in nearby buildings. Ceausescu, not realizing the gravity of the situation left for Iran on a scheduled visit. Realizing that these demonstrators were not terrorists, but ordinary citizens, army general Vasile Milea refused to kill protestors and for that he was shortly executed.

That morning a delegation of top officials including the prime minister arrived in Timisoara by helicopter to investigate the protests. They were surprised to find everyday citizens filling the streets and squares without any sinister outside influence.

By evening, with protestors shouting, “Down with Ceausescu” and “Give us our dead” (the dead were collected by the army and either thrown in mass graves or burned) Timisoara was transformed into an armed camp with two soldiers and two Securitate with machine guns standing every few feet. The city’s 20,000 students were sent home for Christmas vacation a few days earlier than planned.

That night a line of plainclothes secret police opened fire on approximately 30 demonstrators, most of them young and holding candles, chanting and gathering around the opera house. More than ten died.

A 1991 US Department of State report called, “The Problems of Communism”, stated, “A religiously inspired act of civil disobedience had thus triggered a full-blown political rebellion against one of the most tightly controlled authoritarian societies in the world.” This, in a country where it was against the law for more than three people to gather outside.

Today, December 17, is a day of mourning in Timisoara with ceremonies marking this thirty year anniversary of the massacre including a speech by President Klaus Iohannis, wreath laying and religious services.

On this day in 1989, a huge crowd came together in Timisoara. The crowd marched on the Communist headquarters. They now included university students and workers, who shouted, “Down with Ceausescu!” and the squares had swollen with thousands. Women with their children that had lead a column of demonstrators wishing to speak with the mayor were beaten. After having forced their way into the headquarters, protestors burned portraits of Ceausescu and shops in the square went up in flames. By seven that night the shooting started.

The army used tear gas and water cannons at first as tanks rolled into the square and crushed people and then soldiers fired their machine guns and rifles indiscriminately into the crowd.

The exact number killed is unknown, but is estimated now to be around 100 with 2000 injured.

People in Timisoara faced food rationing, while working at places where their food was exported and there was little meat and always long lines, some waiting up to 15 hours for food. This winter was particularly cold and often they had no heat. Fuel was rationed. Now the military had turned against them. Adding to their outrage were rumors that the military had destroyed the blood supply for the injured and for the fact that 43 of their dead citizens were brought to Bucharest on the eighteenth of December and cremated with their ashes thrown into the sewers on orders of Elena Ceausescu.

The city would be under siege for three more days.

But the regime could not stop the demonstrations that spread like flames, skipping to other cities including Bucharest as news of the massacre filtered across the border from press coverage in Budapest and the Balkan nations. The world was now watching.

The Revolution began on December 15, 1989 with the house arrest of Reformed Pastor Laszlo Tokes who had dared to speak out against the regime. The Hungarian Reformed Church represented a substantial minority of Romania based largely in Transylvania.

After his house arrest, the townspeople anticipated the “disappearance” of Tokes. Tokes had already escaped many attempts on his life. In fact, two ministers had already been murdered that year. To protect the Pastor, members of the congregation formed a chain across the entrance of his home in Timisoara. Some were taken away by the Secret Police, tortured and even murdered, but hundreds more replaced them at the church and his house.

These events in Timisoara started a national uprising. Within days the Ceausescu regime would be overthrown.

Tokes was arrested and taken away by security police sometime between 5 and 6 am on Sunday December 17th. and beaten. Many other ethnic minorities joined in the street protests. Many were killed by the Army or Secret Police. But the crowds grew and rallying cry of “Timisoara” spread to Bucharest.

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

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