The flight of the Ceausescus – December 22 and 23, 1989 in Romania
By dawn Ceausescu thought to have successfully quenched the revolution. A meeting of the Communist Party’s Executionary Committee was called by 8:00 a.m. One of Ceauescu’s brothers, Deputy Defence Minister Ilie Ceausescu warned him about a huge crowd approaching Bucharest, however Ceausescu remained calm, saying if the authorities could stop one million people at Beijing’s Tienanmen Square, this situation could be handled as well.
Before 7:00 a.m. a huge crowd started walking towards the centre of Bucharest from the factories and apartments in the outskirts of the city. The protesters broke through the cordons of the militia (some of them took sides of the protesters) and started gathering in the streets around the Communist Party Headquarters.
By 10:00 a.m. a state of necessary was announced in the whole country and the gathering of more than 5 people was prohibited, however the militia could not execute any of these orders.
Around 9:30 a.m. Vasile Milea, Ceausescu’s Defence Minister committed suicide. Ceauescu announced that Milea killed himself because he committed treason and was afraid of the consequences. The most popular theory around Milea’s death was that the Ceausescus ordered his murder because he did not want to execute Nicolae’s orders. However, according to witness testimonies he indeed committed suicide. He asked for an officer’s pistol and wanted to shoot himself in the heart. The bullet hit an artery instead. The Minister had time to lie down on a bed before falling into a coma and dying at the hospital.
After Milea’s suicide Ceausescu wanted to appoint his brother, Ilie for the position, however he rejected the appointment. Instead he asked for a new government to be formed. Returning to his office, he put together a list of a new, Soviet-friendly government with Ion Iliescu’s name on the top of the list.
Ceausescu then decided to appoint Victor Atanasie Stanculescu as a Minister for Defence. Stanculescu served as a military commander in Timisoara for two days. Seeing that the protests in Timisoara were not started by hooligans or vandals, Stanculescu did not want to sustain the regime any more. He pretended to have broken a leg and did not want to go to the office, however Ceausescu threatened to arrest him if he did not accept his appointment. In the next 2-3 hours he pretended to execute the dictator’s order, but in the background he started giving orders supporting the spontaneous protest instead. Stanculescu prevented the enhancement of army forces at Boulevard Oltenitei, he prohibited the use of live ammunition (including warning shots) and instructed the leaders of military units to start negotiating with the protesters. Stanculescu gained the support of General Iulian Vlad, leader of the State Security as well.
As the Minister for the Interior could not leave the Communist Party Headquarters, General Vlad and local police commanders took control. They decided not to use violence.
At 11:00 a.m. both radio and television announced that Milea was a traitor and acted against Romania’s independence and sovereignty, conspiring with other traitors within the country and with imperialist circles organising provocations, spreading lies and providing false information about the status fo the country, staying silent about the events in Timisoara. Now that his conspiracy came to the surface, he committed suicide.
At 11:20 a.m. General Eftimescu, still faithful to Ceausescu tried to regroup the tanks in front of the party headquarters in order to escape the high commanders and the Ceausescus, however his orders were not forwarded as they did not come from Stanculescu. Seeing that the units were not moving, the commanders asked the order to be forwarded by courier.
Stanculescu tried to persuade Ceausescu to leave the building by helicopter and fly to one of the army’s secret bunkers, however he was not willing to leave first. Instead he wanted to hold a speech from the balcony of the Central Committee Building again, however the crowd booed him and one of the protesters threw a piece of wood towards the megaphone which might have hit Ceausescu as he put his hand in front of his mouth, possibly because of the pain that the impact caused. Eventually he took Stanculescu’s advice, climbed up to the rooftop with his wife and their entourage and left the building by helicopter at 12:09 p.m.
The crowd took Ceausescu’s departure as an attempt to flee and started celebrating, singing “Ole, ole, ole, ole Ceausescu is no more!” The protesters broke the windows of the party headquarters building and seized it. The soldiers protecting the building did not use their weapons. The people in the building threw books and propaganda material out of the window which the crowd at the square set on fire. Others knocked the word “Communist” down at the rooftop from the script “Long live the Romanian Communist Party!”
At 12:15 p.m. Stanculescu’s order for the troops to withdraw peacefully was forwarded. At 12:43 p.m. another order came to negotiate with the citizens instead of shooting them. Stanculescu declared that he had to choose from two firing squads: The one killing people or the other killing the Ceausescus. In the afternoon he chose to support the group of Iliescu from those fighting for power.
Shortly after the flight of the Ceausescus, Dutch Ambassador Coen Stork appeared at the gate of the house where poet Mircea Dinescu was kept under house arrest by the Securitate. The officers were pushing the Ambassador away, but he managed to shout “Ceausescu fled by helicopter”. The officers of Securitate sent Mircea back to the house. However, an hour later a neighbour came to let the poet know that the officers disappeared. As the poet stepped out of the house he was greeted by another poet, the Hungarian Géza Domokos. A tank came, Géza climbed on it and shouted “Look, here’s Mircea Dinescu!” People knew Mircea’s name from Radio Free Europe, but did not know how he looked like. A few people from the crowd lifted him up to the air so that everybody could see him.
The people started walking towards the television headquarters. They gave a revolutionary flag to Mircea, however he was afraid that the soldiers from the tank would shoot him to death. The situation was indeed dangerous, as it was not sure that the army really took sides with the protestors at this point yet. Mircea asked the two officers in the tank whether the army was really with them, however the officers were scared and did not dare to answer. The reason for this was the chaos that broke out after the Ceausescus left. Some soldiers were shot by mistake by other soldiers. At 12:18 p.m. Mircea Dinescu and actor Ion Caramitru announced the flight of the dictator and the victory of the people on television.
At 1:30 p.m. Stanculescu confirmed his verbal orders by telephone regarding the withdrawal of military units. Another order was issued about protecting the building of judiciary allowing the soldiers to shoot only in case of an attack by snipers.
At 2:30 p.m. Iliescu appeared at the television headquarters with some generals including Voinea, Mihai Chitac and Nicolae Militaru, soldiers and civilians. They confirmed the news about the downfall of dictatorship and asked both for the military’s and for the civilians’ support. They announced that the Securitate was dissolved and that units of the Department for the Interior came under the control of the Department of Defence. Later Iliescu appeared on the balcony of the Communist Party Headquarters as well, holding a speech to the crowd. He had Stefan Gusa, head of the military staff with him, who assured the people that the army was with them and would always be with them.
The Securitate increased chaos by playing the sound of loud gunshots through speakers. Some of the Securitate snipers started shooting at the soldiers. The first soldiers were shot at the Communist Party Headquarters at around 4:00 pm.
Ion Iliescu called a meeting with people who opposed to Ceausescu’s regime, including human rights activist and professor Doina Cornea and Mircea Dinescu as well. There were about 20 people in the room when the shooting started. Somebody suggested to switch the lights off so that the snipers could not shoot into the room. After five minutes a huge noise could be heard: Five people were shot to death by snipers using guns with infra-red pointers.
In the meantime the Ceausescus flew to their palace in Snagov where Ceausescu contacted the commanders of the main military units, however they were reluctant to support him. The dictator then wanted to fly to Pitesti in order to organise a counter-attack, although the pilot landed at 13:30 p.m. close to the Boteni airport in the fear that the helicopter would be shot as Stanculescu ordered a closure of the airspace.
Shortly after, a doctor was taken hostage with the order to take the Ceausescu to the military base at Gaesti. Arriving at the village of Vacaresti the doctor saw a man washing his car and took advantage of the situation. He pretended that his car broke down and parked right behind the other car. The second man became the Ceausescus’ new hostage at 14:15 p.m. After a few minutes Nicolae asked the driver if he could hide them but the man answered that he could not do so as everyone knew that the couple was on the run. He tried to take them on a back road to Targoviste. Nicolae, still hopeful to re-organise his troops wanted to stop at a steel factory on the way to Targoviste, however the workers started shouting “There’s the tyrant!” and threw stones towards the car. Nicolae became very frightened and the car had to leave the premises. The couple did not understand why people hated them so much as they considered to have created and built so many things for them. When the driver turned on the radio, Nicolae told Elena: “It’s a coup d’etat. They sold themselves for a handful of dollars.” Then the driver decided to stop at an agricultural research station where an engineer recognised the couple and called the police.
Two cars arrived with four policemen and wanted to take the couple to the county police station, but the protestors recognised the couple. They started to hit and kick the police car. For this reason the policemen decided to leave the town. Some civilians started chasing the police car and deliberately crashed their car into it. In the end the police car successfully escaped, however the policemen had to rip their bands off and the Ceausescus had to duck and cover so that the people could not see them. The policemen pretended to greet the protestors with jubilation. The couple wanted to go to the Otopeni Airport, but this seemed impossible. The police car had to hide in the bushes between the villages of Ratoaia and Racovita for a few hours. One of the policemen sent a coded message through the radio: “The pedestrians are with us. We are waiting for further instructions.” However, he gave false coordinates to the dispatcher at the other end of the line as he realised that the police station was seized by the protesters. The policemen then decided to drive the couple to the police station at Targoviste.
The police station was already under the control of he revolutionaries and a few policemen. The revolutionaries started bullying the couple, then the policemen searched through their pockets. General Cont consulted with the army and gave an order to take the captives to the nearby garrison. At the garrison General Kemenici assured the Ceausescus that they were safe. The couple was taken into a room and a guard was ordered in front of the door. A soldier checked up on them every hour.
The lights had to be switched off and everybody in the room hid under the beds as the garrison was attacked during the night and the soldiers returned fire. At one moment Nicolae had to be hit by one of his guards as he wanted to open the window, thinking that the people at the street wanted to free him. Captain Boboc was accused of brutality. In the morning the couple was moved inside the garrison building: first they had to sit in a tank, then they had to hide in the kitchen of the garrison.
On the night of December 22 the Securitate units faithful to the Ceausescus started attacking important objects, including the national television and radio, post offices, the press centre, the building of National Defence, the Headquarters of the Communist Party’s Central Committee, the university and Airport Baneasa. The National Salvation Front called the people to the streets to protect the revolution. Most of the victims died during the fights at night. The Securitate started attacking hospitals and civilian buildings as well. Civilians replied with attacking local party headquarters and police stations.
Due to the chaos an enormous fight broke out at the Otopeni Airport where soldiers started shooting at each other by mistake. 50 soldier lost their lives.
By the evening of December 23, Nicu Ceasescu, the couple’s youngest son was captured and brought to the television station.
Source:
Á. Szenczi: Temesvár – A romániai forradalom kitörésének valódi története (EurOnAir Productions Ltd: Berlin, 2013)
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