The LAND of ENOUGH
Once upon a time...
Not very long ago, in 1989...
27 November 1989
Ceausescu defiantly denounces the political changes sweeping across Eastern Europe at the 14th Congress of the Romanian Communist Party. None of the 3308 members vote against his re-election. However, security is tight, flags are flying and for a while the borders are sealed and international flights cancelled. The atmosphere on the streets is tense and there are a number of isolated incidents of defiance. In Cluj there is a brief panic when the words "Down with Ceausescu" are written in the snow of Piata Libertatii one evening. There are other minor incidents and an unusual feeling of excitement and expectation which largely goes unreported
17 November 1989
In the city of Timisoara, a small group of faithful followers forms outside the home of a popular Calvinist pastor called Laszlo Tökes. He has long been a thorn in the side of the Securitate for his criticism of the Ceausescu regime and finally his bishop has called in the police to evict him from his church-owned home - he has refused to take up a new post in a less "sensitive" rural parish. This intervention provokes the initial demonstration and some reports suggest that a picket continues outside his house through the following weeks. 15 December has been set as the deadline for his departure
15 December 1989
In Timisoara, the deadline arrives for Tökes to be evicted. His parisioners gather outside and sing psalms and read prayers. The crowd swells to several hundred people including women and children. The mayor arrives and asks them to disperse but they refuse to move and are still there the following morning.
16 December 1989
The protest continues and the crowd continues to grow through the afternoon, the original core of Hungarian-speaking Calvinists now far outnumbered by ordinary, ethnic Romanians. In the evening an even bigger crowd marches into town shouting anti-communist and anti-Ceausescu slogans for the first time and demanding democracy. Another group marches on the town hall and the Communist Party HQ, destroying files and throwing portraits of Ceausescu and Communist literature onto a bonfire they have made in the street. A shout goes up when a flag appears with a hole in the centre where the communist logo has been torn out - the Revolution has a symbol. The regime has lost control of Timisoara but the Army and Securitate have not yet opened fire on the crowd, they had not anticipated the scale of the uprising. Meanwhile, Tökes and his wife are arrested by the Securitate and held prisoner in a farmhouse in the countryside.
17 December 1989
The factories around Timisoara go on strike and the demonstrations continue. Ceausescu becomes aware of the situation and the failure of the army to act decisively. He calls a meeting of the Politburo, launches a scathing attack on the defense minister (General Milea) and chief of Securitate ( General Vlad) and threatens to dismiss them. Finally, after receiving a pledge that the army will shoot to kill, he embarks on a State visit to Iran, confident that the situation has been contained. Elena takes control. It should be noted that Ceausescu still does not realize that HE is the target of the demonstrations - he believes that they are the result of foreign spies and agents trying to destabilize the country - for many years he has been only fed with what he wants to hear!
Representatives order to shoot by Ceausescu himself arrive in Timisoara that afternoon. At 17:00 water cannons and tear gas are used against the people, tanks and APD's enter the streets and the shooting begins at about 18:00. They fire indiscriminately into the crowd. This was the watershed of the Revolution - differentiating it from previous demonstrations such as strikes in the Jiu valley and the 1987 riots in Brasov. News spreads quickly, especially by foreign TV and radio transmissions from neighboring countries. The scale of the massacre becomes more and more exaggerated with reports of up to 60,000 dead in Timisoara. The borders are closed so frustrated reporters cannot verify anything (actual figures later published were 97 dead and 210 injured in total). That same night there are sporadic anti-Ceausescu riots in other towns including Arad.
18 - 20 December 1989
Confusion about what is happening in Romania reigns in the West. The Romanian embassy in London are being elusive but advise that there are new visa requirements which require a delay of at least 20 days. Press reports liken Timisoara to the Tienamen Square massacre while fresh riots in Cluj and Iasi are reported. A crowd of some 50,000 in Timisoara continues to demand Ceausescu's resignation.The army withdraws and refuses to shoot even when Ceausescu returns from Iran and orders an immediate crackdown in the city. He decides to make a direct appeal to the people that evening. He talks of "international and terrorist actions by imperialist circles and foreign espionage agencies" designed to "provoke disorder and destroy the institutions" of the country. He ranted and rambled on praising the army for defending the homeland and suggested that no more than 10 people had been killed. Nobody was fooled. For the first time he was seen as weak and his admission enabled people to read between the lines - there was light at the end of the tunnel!
