It was the moment when he lost control.
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| 'Just listen to me!' |
On the morning of 21 December, 1989,Nicolae Ceausescu - Romania’sCommunist leader - addressed the crowds gathered in central Bucharest.
The previous days had seen unrest anddisturbances in several provincial centres. Now, Ceausescu himself decided tocalm the unrest with a conciliatory speech heralding the achievements ofCommunist Romania. To ensure a favourable reception, busloads of workers were drivento Palace Square and ordered (on pain of losing their jobs) to cheer and wavered banners.
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| 'Ti-mi-soa-ra!' |
Ceausescu’s speech was the usual monologueof party rhetoric and it didn’t impress the crowd. After eight minutes, theybegan chanting ‘Ti-mi-soa-ra!’ - areference to the town which had seen serious disturbances.
Ceausescu was stunned to silence. He hadbeen expecting the usual adoring crowd of party faithful. Nothing had preparedhim for a hostile and angry audience. In his confusion, he panicked. After attemptingto offer concessions, he paused again in mid-speech. The crowd was shouting:there was the sound of gunfire.
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| Ceausescu's building of doom |
Ceausescu’s bodyguard jostled him back intothe building as the situation began to turn nasty.
Ceausescu might have saved his skin if hehad fled straightaway. Instead, he remained inside the Central Committeebuilding as the entire nation inexorably spilled into revolution.
He spent the night sheltering in thebuilding. A sign of his lack of grasp on the situation came on the followingmorning - 22 December - when he attempted to address the crowd once more.
This time, rocks were hurled at him and hewas forced to flee inside once again. He was now in grave danger of becoming aprisoner inside the building.
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| Mrs C - much hated |
At around 10am, a group of protestorsmanaged to break inside the Central Committee building. They overpoweredCeausescu’s bodyguards and then headed for the balcony.
They were not aware of it at the time, butthey had come within a whisker of capturing Ceausescu and his wife, Elena. Theyhad got into the lift in the nick of time and were now hiding on the roof ofthe building.
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| In the nick of time |
At precisely 11.20am, Ceausescu’s personalpilot, Vasile Malutan, was ordered to rescue the Ceausescus by helicopter. Helanded with difficulty on the adjoining roof and the couple were bundled into thechopper. They were taken the Snagov, some 40km to the north of Bucharest. Forthe moment, at least, they were out of danger.
Ceausescu told his pilot to contactmilitary headquarters and order more helicopters and armed guards. Malutan didas he was told, only to be informed by his commander: ‘There had been arevolution. You are on your own.’ He then added the words: ‘Good luck!’
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| 'You're under arrest' |
Ceausescu panicked when he heard this andordered Malutan to fly to Titu in southern Romania. But Malutan was by nowtiring of helping the Ceausescus to escape. He sent the helicopter into aseries of dives, informing Ceausescu he was dodging gunfire. A terrifiedCeausescu ordered him to land.
The Ceausescus flight now had to continueon land. A car was flagged down and the couple climbed in. But the driver, adoctor, had no wish to help them. He pretended there was engine trouble andtold them he could go no further.
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| Thus ends a dictator. |
A second car was flagged down and thedriver, a bicycle repair man named Nicolae Petrisor, told them that he had theperfect hiding place - a farming institute on the edge of town. He took themthere and once they were safely inside, he locked the door. He then informedlocal police, who came and arrested the Ceausescus shortly after.
Their end was now not long in coming. Lessthan 48 hours after their capture, the head of the newly formed Council of theNational Salvation Front signed a decree establishing an Extraordinary MilitaryTribunal. Its first trial was that of Ceausescu and his wife, held in secret onthe following day - Christmas Day.
Ceausescu repeatedly insisted that theproceedings were unlawful, but the Tribunal nevertheless ordered the deathsentence to carried out on both Nicolae and Elena. It was undertakenimmediately: they were shot there and then.
The one flaw in the execution was the factthat the cameraman arrived too late to film it. He only obtained footage of thetwo corpses, which were immediately broadcast to a jubilant nation and world.
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UK paperback |
NOW PUBLISHED IN PAPERBACK
And for my American readers, it is now published under the title: The Boy Who Went to War: The Story of a Reluctant German Soldier in WWII available here
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Newly published US edition |
'Idiosyncratic and utterly fascinating... an extraordinary tale of hardship, horror and amazing good fortune' James Delingpole, The Daily Mail
