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Looking at communist Romania and Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu.
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00:00This is the story of a happily married couple, Nicolai and Elena Ceaușescu, who together ruled
00:08Romania for nearly a quarter of a century. Romanians sarcastically called this socialism
00:14in one family. The concentration of power in their hands and the cult of personality
00:20which surrounded them was quite different from the other communist countries in Europe.
00:24Even the private lives of Romanians were targeted by the Ceaușescu's. Both contraception
00:32and abortion were banned. Any signs of rebellion or defiance were ruthlessly silenced.
00:45When communism collapsed, the Ceaușescu's were the only leaders to meet the fate of tyrants.
00:54This is the most important part of the world.
01:08Down one of the walkways in Bucharest's main cemetery is the modest resting place of the
01:13man who relentlessly moulded the lives of a whole generation. In view of the hatred he
01:20inspired, it is perhaps surprising that his grave is well maintained, and that Ceaușescu
01:25even inspires some respect 20 years later, for a few at least.
01:29I come to Ceaușescu's grave every Saturday because thanks to him, I have a house, I had a job, I didn't lack anything.
01:44It was inconceivable that I shouldn't have food on the table. Although I raised two children on my own, they had all they needed.
01:54They had all they needed.
02:03Ceaușescu's popularity began here on the balcony of what was then the Communist Party headquarters.
02:10A few years after he came to power, Ceaușescu had the courage to criticize the Soviet Union and the other satellite states for invading Czechoslovakia.
02:20Never before had a satellite leader criticized the Soviets so publicly.
02:24Dragi covareți, cetățeni ai țării românești, pătrunderea trupelor celor cinci sferi socialiste în Ceaușovacea,
02:39constituie o mare greșeală și o primejdie gravă pentru pacea în Europa, pentru soarta socialismului în lume.
02:52By proclaiming Romania's independence from Soviet domination, Ceaușescu aroused Romanian nationalism.
03:01Nicolai Melinescu was in the crowd.
03:04It was a very emotional speech and at that time if Ceaușescu came down into the street,
03:11he would have been regarded as a national hero and I think people would have kissed him.
03:17Ceaușescu's popularity was to decline, but his power did not.
03:26Indeed it grew and was sustained by a cult of personality which had both narcissistic and monarchic overtones.
03:34As head of state, head of the armed forces and head of the Communist Party, Ceaușescu exercised incredible power.
03:43But it was a power he shared with his wife.
03:48It was a power which was used to interfere in any aspect of a citizen's life.
03:57And that even included intruding into the home life of a senior party man like Joe Pop.
04:04He and his wife Nadia were privileged enough to have their own movie camera and projector.
04:09The pops already had the camera when their first child was born.
04:16Her name is Indira.
04:21We'd just come from the maternity ward.
04:23These are her first days after we brought her home.
04:29She was so pretty.
04:31Her eyes were so blue and a little red mouth.
04:34Here she was less than two weeks old.
04:36As a party member, Joe should not have married Nadia at all.
04:44He was a communist and the son of a peasant.
04:47She was from the former ruling elite and therefore a class enemy who had lost all privileges.
04:53From Nadia's point of view, marriage to Joe was a lifeline.
04:57Because in those days, members of the Communist Party were the only people with a good future.
05:07They were among the few who could have a career, live a better life and avoid doing manual work.
05:16Joe and Nadia married secretly. There are no wedding pictures.
05:20That's why after I got married and told them who I'd married, I had problems.
05:30I was called to the Central Committee by a senior party figure who insulted me.
05:38She asked me how I'd dare to marry without asking for their approval.
05:48Communists were atheists, so Joe should not have had his daughter baptized.
05:59If they'd found out at work that we baptized our girl, they'd have fired my husband.
06:05Their daughter was baptized secretly and the celebration which followed was held away from prying eyes.
06:11We celebrated at home because I had a high ranking position in the party.
06:22We couldn't celebrate publicly, for example in a restaurant or a church.
06:26Not at home, not at home, not at home.
06:37Ceausescu celebrates the birth of the 20 millionth Romanian.
06:41He was obsessed with increasing the population to provide manpower for his new industries.
06:47So in 1966, he banned abortion for all women except for those who already had four children.
06:56Any mother caught having an abortion was jailed, as was the abortionist.
07:02These were serious penalties, as crucially, contraception was banned as well.
07:09One way to stop abortion was regularly to check all females of childbearing age to see if they were pregnant.
07:16This was done in some high schools.
07:19A very unworldly Daniele Dragic remembers the first time a gynecologist examined her.
07:27We didn't really know what he wanted from us, but there were rumors going on.
07:35And we knew he was looking at a certain part of our body that no one had ever looked at before.
07:41We were scared, we were afraid of what they might say, they might write down after that kind of examination, of what they might tell our parents.
07:54We didn't even know how you got pregnant at that time.
07:59Maybe we had kissed, and maybe you could get pregnant like that.
08:02There were rumors that if he kissed, he could get pregnant.
08:04But once she learned the facts of life, Daniele quickly learned what a nightmare the ban on abortion and contraception was.
08:12You couldn't have fun having sex while you were afraid.
08:16Everybody was afraid, particularly the girls.
08:19The boys maybe didn't care that much.
08:21They were not the ones who would have to get an abortion.
08:24So they didn't really feel what we felt.
08:28The girls really were scared.
08:30And they were not confident at all, even when having sex and withdrawal was the method.
08:37Because we couldn't control it.
08:41For most families, and particularly for poor couples like the Niagos who already had three children,
08:47Ceausescu's law was terrible.
08:49He wanted people to have as many children as possible, to torment them because people had no means to raise them.
09:01There wasn't enough food, housing was scarce, and people lived three or four in one room.
09:06Ceausescu later ruled that women working in factories should be inspected every month to see if they were pregnant,
09:17thus making abortions virtually impossible.
09:20Paraschiva remembers the inspections.
09:22I was ashamed, but what could I do? I was ordered to get undressed.
09:35The nurses were rude.
09:39And the doctor would shout too if he didn't like how I lay on the table, if it was difficult for him to examine me.
09:45The doctors were patronizing and put me down. They called me stupid.
09:56They told me I behaved as if I'd been born in a barn.
10:05Nadia Popp didn't want any more children.
10:07But when she got pregnant again, her doctor told her that an abortion would be too dangerous.
10:14So she thought of doing an abortion on herself.
10:17This was quite common in Romania at the time.
10:20I considered doing it on myself, but then I thought, am I insane?
10:26I could be sent to prison, I could die.
10:29When I had my earlier abortions, it never occurred to me that I might die.
10:32But once I had my girl, I couldn't take that risk because I had to live for her.
10:42It's estimated that over 10,000 women died from botched abortions during the Ceausescu period.
10:52Both Nicolai and Elena had large families.
10:55They had come a long way from their beginnings in illiterate, dirt poor, often drunken peasant homes.
11:0627 family members came to hold top positions in party and government.
11:12But the head of the family, for all his drive and intelligence, had his fair share of hang-ups.
11:19One of his closest collaborators was Stefan Andrei.
11:22He was painfully aware that he was short, that he stuttered, that he was ugly.
11:33He didn't have any friends and generally he was always on his guard.
11:38His wife played a completely destructive role.
11:53She was a mean, backward, shrewd woman who dominated him.
12:01Quite apart from her unique access, Elena acquired real power when she took control of all political appointments within the party.
12:14When someone was due to be named as minister, she'd say, I don't agree, and her opinion was final.
12:27There were many instances when I talked to him and he would tell me, make sure nobody knows, meaning she wasn't to know.
12:37Elena also used to interfere in cultural matters.
12:44One target was Stefan Andrei's wife, film star, Violetta Andrei.
12:48I just don't understand why she hated me so much.
13:01She never even spoke to me.
13:05Elena was apparently jealous of beautiful women.
13:10There's also the suggestion that both Ceaușescu's were prudish.
13:19Before 1972, I appeared in many, many films, both on the small and on the big screen.
13:28In these movies, I would show my legs, I would wear low-cut tops.
13:32I was shown in the bath, covered in bubbles, in a movie called Felix and Otilia.
13:42This was disturbing for the Ceaușescu's.
13:49Directors had got wind of Elena's dislike of Violetta's style.
13:52For example, I was starring in a musical, and I was wearing a very revealing bikini.
14:09The director asked the costume designer to throw a chiffon top over my swimsuit so it didn't look so revealing.
14:15He asked why I wasn't wearing a one-piece swimsuit.
14:31I replied that I had never worn one.
14:37Soon after, Violetta was banned from TV and film.
14:40Elena and Nikolai Ceaușescu were to get some useful lessons on manipulating their own image.
14:56Ceaușescu was inspired by the cult of personality, which was a key feature of Kim Il-sung's regime in North Korea.
15:01When I visited North Korea myself, I realized how much Ceaușescu had been impressed by Kim Il-sung and the way he ran things.
15:11They were very good friends, too.
15:16The Romanian cult of personality portrayed the peasant's son alongside the great kings and heroes of the nation's history.
15:29His wife was queen of Romanian science.
15:32Not a bad title for someone who had left school at 14 after failing nearly every subject.
15:47The popular displays of adoration knew no limit.
15:54The popular displays of adoration knew no limit.
15:56.
16:08.
16:09.
16:13,
16:18My dear Elena Ceaușescu, we do not give you flowers from the roots of the empire, but
16:27you know the truth and the fulfillment of us, and we will be victorious.
16:37Attending these displays was compulsory. A quarter of a million would take part in the
16:42annual Independence Day parade.
16:45One bad thing, you had to wake up very early, to walk long distances, to get to the gathering
16:50point and then march on in front of the leadership of the country. So that was quite unpleasant.
16:57On the other hand, it was a sort of a get-together. That was a good park because you met your friends
17:02and then get into a park or anywhere else where they had cheap beer, sausages, sandwiches for
17:09half a price that they were usually sold for in any other day. It was a sort of a popular festival.
17:18It was a huge picnic.
17:21But when Nicolai Melinescu, seen here in the studio, joined Romanian TV News, he discovered
17:27that dealing with footage of their leader was no picnic. Certain images were simply banned.
17:34And that meant, let's say, old, natural things, gestures that common people do, like dinking, or like stuttering, or wiping your forehead when it was too hot.
17:48He had to speak hours and hours on end. He hated air conditioning and he was sweating.
17:54Sometimes, cameramen could not avoid getting unsuitable shots. So these pictures of Ceausescu relaxing with party cronies were really not quite right.
18:05He was never shown chewing food or drinking from a glass or a cup of water. Never. Just half the gesture of taking the cup or the glass to his lips.
18:18On one occasion, Melinescu slipped up. We don't have the pictures, but he certainly has the memories.
18:24And the incriminated picture showed everything which shouldn't be shown under no circumstances. Ceausescu, in two seconds only, did everything wrong.
18:34He stuttered. He blinked. He wiped his nose. He forced his eyes. He was nervous.
18:42Something happened during those two seconds, and that came onto the screen. And that was disaster.
18:49I took the plane, and for about six months there was a cut in the salary, and I was put to do the menial jobs of the department.
19:04In the 1960s, a band in the town of Timisoara had made a name for itself by playing British pop music, especially the latest Beatles numbers.
19:19The leader of the Phoenix band, Niku Kovac, was a natural member of the Awkward Squad. Typically, he filmed his band travelling upstream, literally.
19:40Here was his response to Ceausescu's announcement that all Romanian art may only draw on authentic national folklore.
19:53From now on, we were only allowed to sing in Romanian. Our response was, you want folklore, you'll have folklore.
20:04However, the folklore was combined with rock, and the songs had a strong Robin Hood theme.
20:18We were angry young men, and rock music was our way of expressing our feelings. But as we sang in archaic Romanian, they couldn't compare us with Western bands and accusers of importing foreign influence.
20:41Normally, the police would confiscate the ID of any teenager with long hair, and only return it when he got his hair cut. But Niku found a way around this.
20:56To this day, I can't understand how I acquired such a privileged status. When my band members had their IDs confiscated, I used to intervene. I'd go to the police station and have a row with the cops. The result was always the same. They'd hand over the IDs, and our guy's hair stayed long.
21:18Kovac seemed to enjoy some sort of protection from higher up. But it didn't last.
21:25To make sure there was no fighting and that people wouldn't shout forbidden slogans, the Securitate soldiers and police mingled with the audience.
21:31There were policemen with dogs outside the stadium as well. All this intimidated the audience and ensured that they showed their appreciation only by applauding.
21:56And I zapalos.
22:11Soon the Securitate were threatening Kovac.
22:17I was warned you're in great danger
22:27because it was so easy to end up in a madhouse tied to a bed
22:31with them saying he was taking drugs.
22:36Kovac took the hint.
22:38At great risk, he hid his band in loudspeaker boxes
22:41and smuggled them out of Romania.
22:47Vasily Paraschiv, a working-class man from the town of Ploest,
22:54was one of the very few who challenged Ceaușescu openly.
22:57Nothing could stop him.
23:00In 1971, he sent a list of proposals to the party leadership
23:04and to the unions, of which he was a member.
23:11Those 11 proposals stipulated precisely the democratic rights
23:16and freedoms that are enjoyed today
23:18by the Romanian trade unions.
23:24The response of the Securitate
23:26was a series of beatings in secluded places,
23:29like this forest near his home.
23:31They hit my soles with a rubber stick.
23:46They hit my face and my stomach with their fists.
23:49And they hit me on the head with bags filled with sand
23:52for seven days and seven nights
23:56without water and food.
23:59This didn't stop Paraschiv fighting for union rights.
24:14After being attacked again,
24:16this time on the staircase outside his flat,
24:18he got himself photographed immediately afterwards.
24:21But the worst thing that happened to him
24:24was being put in psychiatric hospitals three times,
24:27even though he was perfectly sane.
24:36Ceaușescu had declared
24:37that only a madman could disagree
24:40with the grand achievements of socialism.
24:43And if there were people who disagreed,
24:51then they were mad.
24:56And the straitjacket was awaiting them.
25:09Paraschiv is one of the few victims of the regime
25:11who ever got to confront some of his tormentors.
25:15After the revolution,
25:16he went back to one of the hospitals
25:17where he'd been detained.
25:20There he met the hospital's former chief psychiatrist,
25:24Dr. Ara Kerestigian.
25:28Good morning, doctor.
25:29Good morning.
25:31Good morning.
25:32Do you know me?
25:33Yes.
25:35Let's go.
25:39What do you want to do?
25:40Dr. Kerestigian insisted that Paraschiv was mentally ill,
25:45but admitted that the hospital had been used by the regime
25:48to isolate troublemakers.
25:51The security has brought some victims
25:52in certain events that were in the nationality.
25:56What did you think of the normal thing?
25:59The victims that were forced to fight
26:00or the order of the system,
26:02they brought them into the system.
26:04They brought them into the system,
26:05but they were victims,
26:06not the people who were in the system.
26:07They brought them into the system.
26:09They brought them into the system,
26:10because they were not afraid.
26:10They brought them into the system.
26:12No, they didn't.
26:13Paraschiv's original admission files
26:14stated that he suffered from paranoia.
26:19The symptoms included publicising a series
26:22of irresponsible complaints against the authorities,
26:25at home and abroad.
26:26Paraschiv says his dignity was destroyed in the hospitals
26:31I would rather have been tried in court and sentenced to years in prison
26:39than have my dignity destroyed
26:41Of course that was the intention of the Securitate
26:46They wanted to convince my workmates that I was not sane
26:51and that they should ignore ideas about free trade unions
26:55and democratic rights
26:56If anyone was suffering from paranoia, it was Ceaușescu
27:03Not just about opposition at home, but also about travelling abroad
27:08as his foreign minister, Stefan Andrei, recalls
27:11As a rule, he didn't eat at official dinners on foreign trips
27:19He had his meals at the embassy, prepared by his own cook
27:28He was accompanied by a chemist who was in charge, among other things
27:38of destroying his excrement so that nobody could examine it
27:41to check the state of his health
27:43Colonel Dimitri Berlan of the Securitate was Ceaușescu's chief bodyguard
27:56If during a visit he'd shake hands with a foreigner
28:07Particularly if he was from the third world
28:12There was always in his entourage either an officer
28:16Or somebody from the food safety agency
28:19who had a medical kit containing tissues dipped in alcohol
28:24And he'd be given one of them
28:31to wipe his hands
28:34Ceaușescu's suspicion of foreigners
28:43meant that the Securitate had to take a close look
28:46at anyone who travelled abroad
28:53As senior party member Joe Popp discovered
28:56after he returned from an official trip to New York
29:08When we returned to Romania
29:10the Securitate suspected that we'd been recruited as American spies
29:14Even though I was a director working for the Department of International Relations
29:21I was suspended and forbidden to go abroad
29:24But Joe was cleared, his career prospered
29:32And he and Nadia were able to enjoy the slight increase in living standards
29:35of the late 60s and early 70s
29:37We bought a Yugoslav car
29:41A Sostava
29:42A Sostava
29:43Look
29:44Here is our little girl again
29:45And our glorious Sostava
29:46It was good
29:48Now the Pops could easily get to Nadia's parents
29:50in the town of Tergovicsta
29:52And escape from the ever-present surveillance in Bucharest
29:54Family was where we felt safe
30:08A place one could take refuge in without fear of being listened to or sneaked on
30:14Neighbours were nosy sometimes
30:18But Joe was even watched at his in-laws
30:25It turned out that the local Securitate boss knew his mother-in-law
30:30He told her
30:32If you're under the impression that we don't know what your son-in-law does while he's in Tergovicsta
30:37Think again
30:39Lucky for him, he's okay
30:41We can't hold anything against him
30:43But we know everything
30:44So they kept me under surveillance all the time
30:52Well, actually, the Pops did find some escape from being watched
30:56At the seaside
31:00It wasn't crowded
31:02It's one of the most beautiful places that I've ever been to
31:06We had so much freedom for the children
31:10It wasn't luxury as in other places
31:12But it was very pleasant
31:22Perhaps the most unexpected targets of the Securitate
31:25Were the Ceausescu children
31:27All the more so when we consider who authorized the surveillance
31:31My mother asked the Securitate to keep an eye on us
31:40This might have been from a misguided sense of love
31:46But whatever it was, it was excessive
31:49The Securitate couldn't touch us
31:52But the information they gave our mother created a lot of problems for us
31:54But the information they gave our mother created a lot of problems for us
32:07One day I received a call asking where's Zoya Ceausescu
32:10I reported and then got another call saying that I was to go and fetch comrade Elena
32:18I went to the residence
32:23She got into the car and we went to the Harestro Park
32:26In order for her to see what Zoya was doing in the park with her boyfriend
32:30She saw from the car that they were walking, holding hands
32:40Or the boyfriend would have his arm around her waist
32:42Or around her shoulders
32:48We stayed for about 15 minutes
32:50I stayed for about 10-15 minutes
32:58Elena was to force Zoya to end two of her relationships
33:06The Securitate kept close tabs on son Niku as well
33:10Elena and Nikolai did not approve of the hedonistic lifestyle Niku enjoyed with his sweetheart, Donka Mizil
33:17In their determination to stop them marrying
33:20Nikolai even broke his own law
33:27He ended Niku's long relationship with Donka Mizil
33:34He went so far as to force her to have an abortion
33:39He took the child out of her without her parents' approval
33:42And without her approval
33:44It was illegal, of course
33:50Nikolai and Elena wanted Niku to go into politics
33:54And lined up a budding youth leader for him, Pollyanna Cristescu
34:00Niku married her very reluctantly
34:03After he signed the marriage certificate, Niku said to Pollyanna
34:06Now go and live with my mother
34:09She should shag you because she chose you
34:12Few ordinary people could escape the endless surveillance and interference
34:16But Daniele Dragic did manage to create something like an alternative life
34:20After she and her husband were sacked for refusing to translate some government propaganda, she set up a kindergarten
34:34I had this private English teaching kindergarten in my own apartment, I could make a living, I could do what I wanted, I spoke English with the kids, I lived in a different world, I created a world that was different
34:52Most people, let's say, survived communism by listening to Radio Free Europe, by having an underground abortion provision network
35:05We would sit together in the kitchen most often, drinking beer, eating sunflower seeds, and talking against the government
35:20And that helped us, you know, exercise, maybe in a way, ourselves
35:25And survive communism and even laugh about it
35:27We would sit together
35:36The dreadfulness of everyday life provided rich material for one student comedy group
35:45They filmed this spoof New Year's broadcast by Romanian TV for their private amusement
35:52But before any public performances, all their sketches had to be made
35:57approved by the census it reached the height of stupidity when the ministry
36:06of culture and communist education I hope my memory is not betraying me and
36:10this was the actual name had issued a list of forbidden words these words
36:19weren't allowed on stage in shows on TV in newspapers anywhere else yes newspapers
36:29too so these words were forbidden one forbidden word was dollar the census
36:37assumed that anyone who used the word must be an enemy of the working class one of the
36:46jokes was that as we couldn't say the word dollar we claim we had bought a
36:49piece of machinery with rubles the censors were outraged by this as well and wrote
36:54on our script any other currency and we said exactly that we bought this piece
36:59of machinery for 300 any other currency the audience burst into hysterical
37:04laughter it was funnier than any other word we could have used because the
37:11student audience cottoned on to the fact that we've been censored
37:13the censor a really nice guy didn't want to impose on us the alternative to the word dollar
37:21so he allowed us to choose any other currency as long as it wasn't the dollar
37:28but we took it literally and said it cost 300 any other currency people roared with laughter
37:39after 20 years in power ceausescu started planning his legacy so in 1985 he and elena signed a document
37:49proclaiming their decision to adorn bucharest with a new government center the document was buried in the
37:56foundations the project meant knocking down a quarter of the old city
38:0340 000 homes were demolished there was no consultation and no appeal
38:16these pictures were secretly taken by someone living on the edge of the destruction zone
38:25centerpiece of ceausescu's new bucharest was to be a palace of
38:32the people second only in size to the pentagon
38:37he can't listen but uh...
38:39uh...
38:40ceausescu inspected his building sites every saturday morning
38:47i think that it's a absolute dot chair rashan here
38:50she'll change it
38:52preparing for these visits was quite exhausting
38:55he had enormous vitality
38:58no detail was too insignificant
39:01he required a precise explanation about everything we did
39:05he was very abrupt
39:08for the construction workers this was exhausting and dangerous
39:12one worker had to disguise his identity
39:15when he spoke to an undercover western reporter while ceausescu was still in power
39:20he started with the morning
39:20when he denied his iliteration
39:23and talk about fundraising
39:24after following days
39:26heện
39:32in the report
39:36of thousands of people
39:39between爸爸 were playing
39:40the yet
39:41twenty
39:42the memoirs
39:43was
39:43the
39:44through picture
39:46of the
39:46the
39:47Ceausescu also started to knock down Romanian villages and move the inhabitants to new towns.
39:57This would both clear more land for agriculture and tighten his stranglehold on the peasants.
40:08The story of how Lenuta and Marin Sarescu's house was demolished is depressingly typical.
40:14The method used was to dig a large hole and to bulldoze the house with all its belongings into it.
40:25We took anything we could grab quickly.
40:29Did you resist?
40:31If we had, they'd have taken us to the militia station and beaten us.
40:34Some resisted and they got beaten up, so people just shut up.
40:44They were allocated a flat in a new block.
40:46It had no doors, windows, running water or heating.
40:56When I reached the stairs, my knees were shaking, coming from a beautiful house to these ruins.
41:01No door, no window, nothing.
41:06Debris everywhere, everything a disaster.
41:12Many people who lost their homes were traumatized.
41:14At the same time as thousands were losing their homes, the regime of shortages that Ceausescu was inflicting on his subjects was making him more and more unpopular.
41:37Food became very scarce.
41:47Ceausescu was exporting Romanian food to pay off the country's huge foreign debts.
41:52Pigs trotters were known as patriots, as they were the only parts of the pig which didn't leave the country.
42:07Paraskeva and Marianne Niagu were typical of the thousands of peasants who moved to towns to get work.
42:12For them, the shortages were an even bigger problem, because they didn't have a residence permit.
42:19This meant they weren't eligible for food coupons.
42:24If somebody offered me meat, some lard or chicken's legs and throats, I never refused.
42:30Even colleagues at work gave me food because they knew I had three children and I had nothing to feed them.
42:35Because they had no residence permit, they weren't eligible for a government flat either.
42:44They had to rent privately this leaking shack, which had no bathroom, lavatory or central heating.
42:50During the 1980s, there were more and more power cuts and the Niagos got very cold.
42:57Those with central heating did not fare much better, as the periods when it was on grew ever shorter,
43:11and even then the temperature was never above 12 Celsius.
43:14All this was a major source of dissatisfaction.
43:19In December 1989, revolution broke out.
43:22There was a series of sporadic, disorganized but deadly encounters in Bucharest and other cities.
43:29In the middle of this mayhem, Karaskiva's husband went missing.
43:34She and the children set out to look for him.
43:41I had our younger daughter in my arms, and the older one was walking in front of me.
43:46If she'd been one step further away, she would have been hit by a bullet.
43:49But you couldn't see anybody.
43:53You looked around for snipers, but bullets came from the most unexpected directions.
43:58But the revolution got a decisive boost when the army changed sides.
44:11The Ceaușescu's were captured.
44:12On Christmas Day, they were brought to trial.
44:22He took his hat off and smoothed his hair down. I couldn't recognize him.
44:28He was looking around, frightened.
44:30Paratrooper Ionel Boiru first took the Ceaușescu's to this room for a medical examination.
44:40Ionel Boiru first took the first room for a medical examination.
44:50Unlike Nicolae Ceaușescu, who smelled normally like somebody who takes care of himself,
44:59she smelled embarrassingly bad, but she behaved normally.
45:02During the trial, there was considerable concern that forces sympathetic to the old regime might try and rescue the Ceaușescu's.
45:17I was in the courtroom and under orders to execute them if that happened, even at the risk of shooting other people.
45:24The Ceaușescu's were accused of killing thousands of people during the revolution and in the years before.
45:38The crime is in the moment.
45:41In the lack of heat, in the lack of rain.
45:45The crime is in the first room and the spirit of the Roman gods.
45:50It's about the grace of the Roman Republic.
45:56It is a minceum.
46:00I mean, I'm going to say, I'm going to say,
46:02I'm going to say, I'm going to say that,
46:04I hope, that's insane.
46:06And now, what is the case,
46:09This was a show trial.
46:20After 90 minutes, it ended with the Ceaușescu's being sentenced to death.
46:28Everybody went out of the courtroom and I was left alone with them.
46:33The lieutenant colonel entered the room and ordered me to take them out separately and shoot them.
46:37But they said no, they wanted to die together.
46:48Then I asked the officers to grant them their last wish, to be shot together.
47:07No!
47:08No!
47:09No, no!
47:10No le god!
47:12No?
47:13No le god!
47:14No le god!
47:15No le god!
47:17...
47:23...
47:30...
47:34...
47:39...
47:43...
47:47I ordered my men to set the machine guns on automatic fire to make sure we wouldn't miss.
48:11I fired 29 cartridges in three rounds. The first one hit Nikolai in the knees and the second in his chest. And the third round hit Elena Ceaușescu.
48:41Because the two paratroopers with him panicked and were slow to open fire, Boiru believes it was his shots which killed Nikolai and Elena.
49:11He got exactly what he deserved. I still think that.
49:18The Ceaușescu's death, like their life, was a spectacle. The men who had taken over needed to show that they were now in charge.
49:29I saw the bad dead bodies on television and I saw the same scene over and over again.
49:39And it was like we couldn't get enough of it, you know, to see that, to make sure that it was happening that they were really dead.
49:49Paraschiva's husband, Marianne, died in the revolution. This is what he said the last time he left home.
49:58Even if he were to die, he still would have no regrets if his children were to have a better life, a happier life, a more comfortable life than ours, not to be tormented like we were.
50:10All together, some 1,140 people were killed and over 3,000 injured during the revolution.
50:40One legacy of the Ceaușescu years is the monster palace which now completed dominates Bucharest.
50:50Less quantifiable is the effect of the dictators on the minds and self-respect of Romanians who lived under the Ceaușescu shadow for nearly 25 years.
51:00The end of communism across Eastern Europe was sudden, unexpected and greeted with great enthusiasm.
51:15But what has replaced it has not always been universally welcomed.
51:20As Karl Marx, the founder of communism, once said, men make their own history, but they do not make it as they choose.
51:29TheCause of the сюда DEFENE BASICH
51:35This time of communism, nothing can continueomination, but they do not move.
51:37Why will he just become people who aren't from here to the second Class of Assim prejudiced?
51:41Š Bombardulálini
51:48To help him, alight, estou to influence his power in renovations as a leader!
51:53VETERES
51:55You
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