„Azi în Timişoara,
mîine în toată ţara!”
The revolution in Timişoara in 1989
Final Thesis Master Political History Version 2; 18 July 2012.
University of Groningen Supervisor: Dr. S. de Hoop T. A. A. Minnema, s1432095
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3 “Like success can be a burden sometimes, that is how freedom can be difficult sometimes. But it is definitely, once you learned to use it, in the right way, it is incredible. It’s really wonderful, it opens all the doors and dreams can come true and different perspectives than you could ever imagine…”
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Romania in 19181 Places in Romania named in this thesis
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Index
Preface 7
Introduction 8
1 Chronological overview from literature 10
1.1 Introduction 10
1.2 Main Sources 11
1.3 Reasons for the revolution: „Ceauşescu şi soţia / Duc la rîpă România!” 11
1.4 Starting of the Revolution: „Fără violenţă!” 15
1.5 December 15 and 16: Pastor Tökés: „Uniţi-vă cu noi!” 17
1.6 December 17: Revolution: „Ceauşescu asasin, al poporului român!” 22
1.7 December 18 and 19: „Soldaţi, soldaţi, pe cine apăraţi?” 24
1.8 December 20: „Azi în Timişoara, mîine în toată ţara!” 25
1.9 December 21: „Români veniţi cu noi!” 30
1.10 December 22 and further: “Olé, olé, olé, olé, Ceauşescu nu mai e” 31
1.11 December ’89: How it ended: „Luptăm, luptăm, luptăm şi cîştigăm!” 32
1.12 Timişoara Proclamation: „Să fie judecat / Aici în Banat!” 33
1.13 Epilogue 34
2 The stories of the eyewitnesses 35
2.1 December 15 36
2.2 December 16 39
2.3 December 17 41
2.4 December 18 and 19 45
2.5 December 20 47
2.6 December 21 and further 50
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3 Results, Ideas and Controversies 53
3.1 Miscalculations of the government 53
3.2 The Securitate and the Army 54
3.3 The bloody revolution 55
3.4 The role of religion 56
3.4.1 What happened around the Hungarian Reformed Church 57
3.4.2 From religious to political 58
3.5 The balcony and what happened after: a different point of view 59
3.6 The effect of the revolution 61
3.7 The role of the media 62
3.8 Revolution or not? 63
3.9 How do the people look back to the revolution? 65
3.10 The uniqueness of the Romanian revolution 67
Conclusion 69
Used resources 71
Appendix 1: Proclamation of Timişoara 91
Appendix 2: Photo overview 105
Attachment: Interviews
Pictures:
All pictures dated in 1989 are made by Constantin Duma2. All ‘modern’ pictures are made by the author.
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Preface
It is interesting to see how you can become enthusiastic about a topic and especially about a revolution. I was always interested in history, as I liked the nice stories and different facts. But I never thought to be interested that much in the history of Central and Eastern Europe as I am now, thanks to the interesting courses of Dr. Hans Renner. They were really wonderful and together with some nice travels I made in this area I started to deepen myself, to understand what happened there, to understand the people. Not an easy aim; it would take probably another life to start to understand them.
Then of course the question why Timişoara? The practical side is the fact that I got an intern there, so it was easy to arrange interviews etc. The other side is the fact that I found out that there wasn’t so much written about it. I was surprised by that as the revolution still is present in the city. People know, people still talk about it and there are numerous signs, starting from the names of the streets, the hero cemetery with their monument, several other monuments, but as well the bullet holes in some buildings. I started to get some literature about it, but besides Romanian literature I couldn’t find that much. Thanks to some friends there I got into contact with several eyewitnesses. Their stories, their feelings, there passion when they are talking about the revolution: it got me. The pain they still feel when we talked about the killed people, the courage, enthusiasm and drive when they tell about the events in which they took place; and their happiness when they talk about the victory, immediately followed by worries about what happened after and the future of the city and the country. Therefore I would like to dedicate this thesis to them, the people of Timişoara and especially the people who were so kind to tell me their story.
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Introduction
The year 1989 brought a lot of changes in European politics. Communist regimes in Eastern Europe felt down, one by one. Even in the Soviet Union changed a lot under the reforms of Gorbachev. Late 1989 it seemed that all Eastern European countries changed, except for the one with the strongest dictatorship: Romania. There was not so much news about the country, only the re-election of Nicolae Ceauşescu as president, or, as he called himself, conducator, leader, in November. A lot of people, in- and outside Romania hoped for reforms, but there were none. It seemed that Romania would stay a communist bastion in a changing Eastern Europe.
And then, suddenly, a few days before Christmas the news spread that something happened. Rumours of revolution, shootings, fights and chaos appeared in the news. It should happen in the western Romanian city of Timişoara, around pastor László Tökés of the Hungarian Reformed Church. But from the official side nobody would confirm anything, and the world had to divide their attention as on the same time the United States invaded Panama.
Then, on 22 December it became clear that something serious happened in Romania. Everyone could see live on television how the revolution took over the streets of Bucharest, after they had interrupted a live speech of the president, what never had happened before. In a split second it became clear that Romania even before 1990 would join the changes in Eastern Europe. The unthinkable had happened.
But, what really did happen in Timişoara? What happened with the people there, the thousands of wounded and dead people according to the press? Was there a revolt, were it some hooligans and terrorists as the regime said, or was there a real revolution? In this final thesis we will have a closer look to that with the following main question:
Was there a revolution in 1989 in Timişoara,
what happened and how do the people look back to it?
In order to get a clear picture of the situation and a good answer four sub questions will be answered:
What was the role of the regime and their services? What was the role of religion in the revolution?
9 Those four questions will be answered first in a literature research to find out what is already written about the revolution. In the second chapter the answer is searched by some of the people who were involved. They will tell what they experienced and what they think about the revolution. In the last chapter we will have a closer look to the results, the ideas and the controversies. This all will be followed by a conclusion.
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1. Chronological overview from literature
1.1 Introduction
Timişoara3 is one of the main cities of Romania, in the west of the country and is the former capital of the Banat region. Here started the events of December 1989, which ended president Nicolae Ceauşescu’s ruling and brought Romania back in Europe. Romania itself is a country in the East of Europe and has ca. 22 million citizens. Most of the people are living on the countryside, as there is only one big city in the country: Bucharest.4 Romanians characterises themselves sometimes after their national dish mamaliga5: you can boil it as long as you wants, but it never boils over. The modern Romania became independent in 1859, expanded after the First World War with Bucovina, Transylvania and Bessarabia; in 1920 with the ‘Treaty of Trianon’ it was enlarged with the Banat, Crişiana and Maramureş became part of Romania as well. The city of Timişoara belonged to the Ottoman Empire until 1716 when it became part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Around 1900 the population of the city was divided in ca. 30% Hungarians, 30% Serbs, 30% Romanians and 10% Germans and other groups. Nowadays ca. 85% of the population is Romanian.
The late 1980s were years full of changes in Eastern Europe. Poland, Czechoslovakia, East-Germany, Hungary and Bulgaria changed their political systems into more democratic developments and even in the USSR started reforms. Only Romania and Albania seemed to stay as they were. Ceauşescu was unanimously re-elected as leader of the Partidul Comunist
Român (Romanian Communist Party - PCR) in November 1989. He continued to stretch his
anti-reform opinions. ‘At the turn of the century Romania will have achieved communism. The Romanians know that they have to make sacrifices and they do so gladly’ he said in an interview for the West German television, condemning the betrayal of socialism in Eastern Europe.6 For the outside world it looked like nothing will change in many years. The reality, however, was different…
Many non-Romanian sources about the revolution simply mention that the revolution started with the ethnic Hungarian pastor László Tökés7 who refused to leave his house and
3 Temesvár (Hungarian) Temeswar or Temeschburg (German), Темишвар (Temišvar, Serbian). 4
Bucharest has ca. 2,3 million citizens, the second and third biggest cities in Romania are Iaşi (321.500) and Cluj-Napoca (318.000), followed by Timişoara (317.600).
5 Mamaliga is a kind of maize porridge.
6 Martyn Rady, Romania in Turmoil. A contemporary history, 91.
11 church. Members of his congregation came to protect him to be forced by the Romanian secret services, the Securitate, to leave as he had spoken out against the regime. This peaceful protest ended up in a mass protest against the regime and due to some mistakes of this regime including Ceauşescu himself the revolution spread to Bucharest. It may be clear that this is a very simple explanation of what happened, however, there are not many non-Romanian sources telling the long version of the story. Goal of this chapter is to find out what is written in the literature about what happened in Timişoara, completed by sources from these days. As an extra link to the revolution, almost all titles in this chapter have a slogan, chanted by the crowd on the Opera square during the events.
1.2 Main Sources
The main sources for this chapter of course contains Tökés biography. Besides this book, Nestor Ratesh book “Romania: The Entangled Revolution”, Trond Gilberg’s “Nationalism & Ccommunism in Romania. The Rise and Fall of Ceausescu’s Personal Dictatorship”, Nick Thorpe’s “’89. The unfinished Revolution” and Martyn Rady’s “Romania in Turmoil. A contemporary history” are some of the main sources. Furthermore, a lot of international press articles have been used. A very interesting used sourc are the recordings of the speeches on the Opera square which are available on the internet.
1.3 Reasons for the revolution: „Ceauşescu şi soţia / Duc la rîpă România!” Ceausescu and his wife / leading Romania to the ravine.
Romania was after the Second World War one of the communist countries in Eastern Europe. Its ruler, Nicolae Ceauşescu8 with his wife Elena9, first appeared as reasonable negotiators for western countries, especially in 1968 when they condemned the Soviet repression of the Prague Spring. However, in the seventies and eighties, especially after a visit to North Korea, Ceauşescu turned out to be a real dictator. Jeffrey A. Angel wrote:
8 Nicolae Ceauşescu (1918-1989) was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party and president of Romania from 1965-1989. The Romanian people called him ‘El’ (him) and his wife ‘Ea’ (her).
9
Elena Ceauşescu (1916-1989) was born as Elena Petrescu. She did not finish the primary school and became a member of the communist party in 1937. After the Second World War she married Ceauşescu, approved by the party. She made a career in Polymer Chemistry although her educational and scientific achievements are disputed. She became Vice-prime minister in 1973. J.F. Brown writes: “She played a her own dominating role in the Romanian tragedy, exercising an influence on her husband that some considered to be decisive at times. Certainly they were a very close couple, mostly inseparable. Occasional glimpses tended to confirm that Elena was the more determined and forceful of the two. She was usually the more strident.” J.F. Brown, Surge to
12 “Communism had degenerated from national Leninism to a sort of neo-Stalinist satrapy”.10 The difference with other communist countries in the region seems to be the lack of de-Stalinisation in Romania, there was never a process of moving from the absolute rule of one man to the slightly less absolute rule of a communist politburo.11 Daniel Chirot agrees with this in his book The Revolution of 1989 and add to this that Romania was the most independent country of the Warsaw pact and felt itself less dependent on Soviet support. This brought the regime considerable legitimacy in the 1970’s but in the 1980’s this hope failed as a growing number of people noticed that the Soviet Union became more progressive than Romania.12 Soviet president Michael Gorbachev wrote in his memoires that Ceauşescu tended to equate himself and Romania.13 That resulted in a personal cult that has religious and mystical overtones to it, although real believers were persecuted; the Romanian Orthodox church only survived the communist period because it submissive and because it helps lend a legitimizing aura to the political leadership.14
In Romania in theory the Communist party was the leading force in the society. In practice, however, even the party “had been emasculated and subordinated to the secret police (…) and Ceauşescu and his inner circle”.15 In fact all power was in the hands of the
conducator16 and his wife, leading to extreme centralization and rigidity at the top, but chaos in the lower ranks. Ceauşescu still held the Stalinist vision and had close ties with North-Korea and their ruler Kim Il Sung, who had the same style of ruling. Jonathan Eyal writes about Ceauşescu:
“The vulgar cult of the leader and the faintly ridiculous traits of Ceausescu’s character should not obscure the fact that Romania’s president was, essentially, a brilliant tactician whose skills went further than the mere consolidation of power, a task he
10 Jeffrey A Engel, ‘1989: An Introduction to an international History’, in: idem, The Fall of the Berlin wall. The
Revolutionar legacy of 1989, 6.
11 Peter Cipkowski, Revolution in Eastern Europe. Understanding the collapse of Communism in Poland,
Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and the Soviet Union, 122.
12
Daniel Chirot, ‘What happened in Eastern Europe in 1989?’ in: Vladimir Tismaneanu, The Revolution of 1989, 33-34.
13 “А он несомненно, был склонен отождествлять себя с Румынией”, Горбачев, Михаил, Жизнъ и
реформы, 392.
14 Trond Gilberg, Nationalism & Ccommunism in Romania. The Rise and Fall of Ceausescu’s Personal
Dictatorship, 193.
13 achieved through the time-honoured method of purging opponents, rehabilitating potential supporters and blaming former leaders for all misdemeanours.”17
The party had considerable skills in dividing the potential oppositionist groups according to ethnic background and religious affiliation, by showing that they are non-Romanian and therefore against the ideals and goals of the non-Romanian nation.18 This policy was very successful as there was almost no form of dissent or (democratic) opposition. Fear ruled the people, there was lack of trust, cohesion and acceptance of common values; they lived in a Gesellschaft instead of in a Gemeinschaft: an agglomeration of individuals who happen to live on the same territory, subject to the same regime, forced to seek a living in the economic setting in existence; atomized, everyone for him- or herself.19 The fear and repression in Romania where such, that no other state in Eastern Europe could match it.20 In November 1989 the Romanian Communist Party still had 3,8 million members, remarkably as not everybody got the honour and the party as well represented the regime.21
President Ceauşescu had, mainly in the beginning, a different way of policy than most of the other socialist countries in Eastern Europe: a policy of opening up to the west. Jonathan Eyal gives three reasons why: the first, very practical, is access to Western technology, raw materials and markets, in order to supplant Soviet ties. The second reason was a strategic one: Ceauşescu calculated that burgeoning ties with the West would raise the price Moscow would have to pay should it ever consider whipping Romania into compliance. The third reason is internal: The implicit aim of Romania’s historic founders was the rejection of their country’s place in the Balkans and its transformation through the imposition of Western institutions.22 However, after the visit of the president to North Korea and the change of economic policies the political and economic situation got worse, resulting in worsening relations with the West.
For the people in general the worsening circumstances were a reason for revolution as well. Foame, frică and frig (hunger, fear and cold) is a characterizing of Ceauşescu’s Romania. In 1989 the official ration for many Romanians was reduced to a kilo of flour, sugar and meet, half a kilo of margarine and five eggs – a month, with no guarantee that it could be supplied. Romanians left home always with a bag, in case there was something to buy
17 Jonathan Eyal, ‘Why Romania could not avoid bloodshed’, in: Gwyn Prins, Spring in Winter. The 1989
revolutions, 146.
18 Trond Gilberg, Nationalism & Ccommunism in Romania., 143-144. 19 Ibidem, 145.
20
Ibidem, 239. 21
Wolf Oschlies, Ceauşescus Schatten schwindet: politische Geschichte Rumäniens 1988-1998, 48. The PCR at the other hand represented as well the chance to become somebody in the society.
14 somewhere, although they had to stay in lines for hours. Gas and electricity was rationed as well – if it wasn’t cut off. Centralized heating systems in cities produced hot water once a week and in many flats the temperature never rose above eight degrees Celsius, even in winter.23 All, officially, to export the products (by the Securitate24) to get the debts of Romania paid. It created the willingness of countless individuals to literally risk their lives for change.25 “Shoot, we don’t want to live anymore!” a pregnant woman shouted to soldiers on December 17.26
The second reason for the people in general was the plan to destroy 5.000 villages and deport the inhabitants to new build cities and let them travel to their work. The idea was to rationalize the agricultural space.27 In fact only a few villages were destroyed, due to the fact that the revolution ended the plan. This plan was as well one of the topics pastor Tökés was fighting against, as this plan should have had a serious impact at the ethnic Hungarians in Romania as they were mainly living in this kind of villages.
Another reason for the revolution was the self-legitimacy of the Ceauşescu regime on the fear of a Soviet invasion argues Daniel Chirot. The regime always made clear that if there were too much problems the Soviets would come to interfere, so “was it not better to suffer a patriotic Romanian tyrant than another episode of Soviet occupation?” But when it became clear in 1989 that the Soviets would not come anymore, the end was in sight.28
People in Romania in general knew more or less what happened in other parts of Eastern Europe. Main sources for this information where radio stations like Europa Libere29 (Radio Free Europe) and The Voice of America. Citizens in the North and West part of
23 It became that far, that in 1985 the energy consumption was only 20% of the 1979 level. Peter Siani-Davies,
The Romanian Revolution of December 1989, 9-11.
24 Dennis Deletant, Ceauşescu and the Securitate. Coercion and Dissent in Romania, 1965-1989, 372.
25
Trond Gilberg, Nationalism & Ccommunism in Romania., 267. 26 Peter Michielsen, Verworpenen Ontwaakt, 117.
27
Peter Siani-Davies, The Romanian Revolution of December 1989, 13.
28 Daniel Chirot, ‘What happened in Eastern Europe in 1989?’, 33-34. Chirot makes an interestion comment as he states that almost everybody knew that the end was in sight except Ceauşescu himself, as could be seen on his face at the demonstration in Bucharest on December 21. His surprise, writes Chirot, “may have been due to the fact that the demonstration against him was probably instigated by elements in the army and from with the Securitate itself”. Daniel Chirot, ‘What happened’, 47 (n43). See as well: Trond Gilberg, Nationalism &
Ccommunism in Romania, 267.
29
15 Romania were also able to listen and watch the Hungarian radio and television30, as could Romanians in the West listen and watch the Yugoslavian media31, in the south the Bulgarian and in the East the Soviet media. State media did not broadcast any events happening in Europe, as Ceauşescu rejected the notion that developments in the Soviet Union could (or should) have a direct effect on the political, socio-economic, or cultural life of other socialist systems.32
A last reason for the revolution is the military. The refusal of some armed forces to massacre their fellow citizens what turned the table in a fluid situation (see the description of the days of the revolution later in this chapter), together with some badly needed early leadership was provided by elements of the military hierarchy who, together with some reform-oriented groups and individuals both inside the party and out, had long contemplated the need for action.33
1.4 Starting of the Revolution: „Fără violenţă!” No violence!
A big question in the literature is when the revolution itself started. Some authors write that the revolution suddenly was there, with some reasons building slowly up in the months before. Others don’t agree and say that the revolution slowly started some years earlier and came to a final explosion in December 1989. It is a fact that the situation in Romania was already tense before December 15. The first big sign that even in Romania things would possible change was on November 15, 1987 in Braşov34. Workers from the
Steagul Roşu truck factory35 demonstrated against the reducing of salaries and the proposed elimination of 15.000 jobs. First they chanted only related slogans but later on anti-Ceauşescu and anti-government slogans where heard as well. The group went to the city centre, burning the portraits of the president and his wife and ransacking the local headquarter of the
30 Dennis Deletant writes in his book Ceauşescu and the Securitate. Coercion and Dissent in Romania,
1965-1989 that “one effect of Ceauşescu’s draconian economies was supremely ironical in view of the status of the Hungarian language in Romania. The reduction in Romanian television (…) led Romanian children in western Transylvania to turn to Hungarian television for entertainment. In the process, they picked up the language. Ceauşescu, the arch Romanian nationalist, can thus be credited with a measure whose direct result was to facilitate the spread of the Hungarian language among Romanian children.” Dennis Deletant, Ceauşescu and the Securitate. Coercion and Dissent in Romania, 1965-1989, 140.
31
Belgrade Television was running taped CNN broadcasts at that time at night with reportage about events throughout Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Stephen Kotkin, Uncivil Society. 1989 and the Implosion of the
Communist Establishment, 71.
32 Trond Gilberg, Nationalism & Ccommunism in Romania, 231.
33
Ibidem, 267.
34 Braşov is located in the central part of the country, about 165 km north of Bucharest, in Transylvania. The city was founded by German colonists who gave it the name Corona (crown, still Kronstadt in German). The name Braşov comes from Turkish barasu (white water). From 1950 to 1960 the city was called Orașul Stalin (Stalin city). In the past there lived mainly Germans and Hungarians, in 1989 there lived around 330.000 people, more than 90% of them Romanians. László Tökés was pastor in Braşov from 1975 to 1977.
16 Romanian Communist Party. In the evening the Securitate closed the city and arrested around 300 workers. The regime managed it to keep this secret in most parts of Romania for months.36 However, in Timişoara some students protested, asked for meat and bread, shouting “Long live Braşov”. Due to strong repression of the Securitate those protest were limited.37 Although the Romanian press these events did not mention, the people where later on informed by the foreign media.38 Two and a half year later Braşov was the scene of an act of epic self-sacrifice when Liviu Babes set himself on fire on a ski slope on March 2, 1989, to protest the terror unleashed by the regime in the aftermath of the 1987 unrest.39
Outside the city of Timişoara there was one of the biggest pork-processing plants of Europe, together with many bread factories and other food production plants. These factories were working hard, many of the citizens were working there. However, almost all production was used for the exports. The shops in Timişoara were, as in the rest of Romania, almost empty. This fact, together with the strict social limitations, repression on believers and churches, the fact that crowds were not permitted, unless for the holidays permitted by the regime and football matches and the fact that the most people in Timişoara knew what happened in other countries in Eastern Europe made the tense situation. A Yugoslav who lived for several years in Timişoara told The New York Times on December 29, 1989:
“Tökes was the spark, but he was one of many episodes. (…) The tension was extraordinary. With all the regimes falling in Eastern Europe, you know something would happen soon. During the party congress40 in October there was extraordinary security here.”41
Only one month before, after Romania’s defeat on Denmark in the World Cup qualifier42 in Bucharest, the streets in Timişoara were full of celebrating people under who some apparently chanted ‘Jos Ceauşescu’, Down with Ceauşescu!43
36 Thorp, Nick, ’89. The unfinished revolution, 24-32.
37 C.H. Jansen, De Jongste Geschiedenis van Europa. 1945-1990, 368. 38
Vladimir Tismaneanu, Reinventing Politics. Eastern Europe from Stalin to Havel, 227. 39 Nestor Ratesh, Romania: The Entangled Revolution, 10.
40 The 14th party congress of the Romanian Communist Party was held in Bucharest on 20 November 1989. Many people, in- and outside Romania, hoped for some radical changes. The reality was that Ceauşescu in his speech denounced the events in Eastern Europe and was re-elected as party leader for another five years. 41 Schmemann, Serge, ‘In Cradle of Rumanian Revolt, Anger Quickly Overcame Fear’, The New York Times, 30 December 1989.
42 Romania won with 3-1 from Denmark and qualified for the World Cup in 1990 in Italy. This explains why the people were celebrating that much.
43 Peter Siani-Davies, The Romanian Revolution of December 1989, 44. Also quoted in: Stephen Kotkin, Uncivil
17 In the beginning of March 1989 six prominent members of the Communist Party, Silviu Brucan, Gheorghe Apostol, Alexandru Bârlădeanu, Grigore Răceanu, Corneliu Mănescu, and Constantin Pîrvulescu wrote the Scrisoarea celor şase (Letter of the six). In this open letter, published by foreign media, the six party members openly criticized Ceauşescu’s politics44: “At a time when the very idea of socialism, for which we have fought, is discredited by your policy, and when our country is being isolated in Europe, we have decided to speak up.” They appealed President Ceauşescu the following:
“To stop the negative processes both domestic and international besetting our nation we appeal to you, as a first step, to take the following measures:
1. To state categorically in unequivocal terms that you have renounced the plan of systematization of villages.
2. To restore the constitutional guarantees regarding the rights of citizens. This will enable you to observe the decisions of the Vienna Conference on Human Rights. 3. To put an end to food exports which are threatening the biological existence of our nation.”45
The authors of the letter did feel the repression of the Ceauşescu regime, as they all got home arrests or other forms of punishments.
Geoffrey Swain and Nigel Swain wrote in their book that “in a sense it was the Hungarian dimension to Romania’s problems that precipitated the downfall of the regime”.46 In the spring of 1989, Hungary already made lots of political and economic reforms and Romania started to get worried about the flood of refugees into Hungary. In august relations even got worse when the Hungarian television broadcasted interviews with King Michael of Romania and pastor László Tökés.47
1.5 December 15 and 16: Pastor Tökés: „Uniţi-vă cu noi!” Unite with us!
The events in December 1989 started at the Hungarian Reformed Church in Timişoara, were the Securitate planned to remove pastor Tökés, who was called a ‘chauvinist, anti-communist and anti-Romanian enemy of the state’.48 Almost as long as he was pastor49, Tökés made
44 Vladimir Tismaneanu calls it an “scathing indictment of Ceauşescu’s disastrous politics”. Vladimir Tismaneanu, Reinventing Politics. Eastern Europe from Stalin to Havel, 228.
45 Letter of the Six: http://hetel.ro/index.php/2011/01/1603/ (last seen on 22 May 2012, 14:58hrs). 46
Swain, Geoffrey and Nigel Swain, Eastern Europe since 1945, 223. 47 See note 29.
18 problems according to the, at that time, bishops of Cluj and Oradea, Gyula Nagy and Laszlo Papp. His writings in the dissident publication Ellenpontok (Counterpoints) in 1981 – 1982, and especially an article about Human rights, brought him under attention of the regime which ordered the bishops to exile him. Tökés resisted and lived from 1984 to 1986 unemployed at his parents’ home. When the Foreign Relations Committee of the United States Senate got attention for his problems, the church authorities appointed him in 1986 as an assistant pastor in Timişoara, directed by the regime. Tökés however continued to preach in which he made scarcely veiled attacks on the regime, especially after the death of the incumbent pastor Leo Peuker in January 1987 when he was appointed probationary pastor.50 Nevertheless, he was very clear that his concern, as ‘above all as servant of Christ’, was not only the Hungarian minority but the Romanians in Transylvania as well as they were both victims of the regime.51
The Romanian authorities were not pleased by his actions, especially because Tökés got a lot of attention due to interviews he gave for (Hungarian) media52 and his popularity as a preacher. The Securitate made more and more pressure on him and his congregation. On 31 March 1989 Tökés was ordered by the bishop of Oradea to leave Timişoara for a new job in Mineu53, a small county village in the north of Romania. Tökés resisted, so the bishop began civil proceedings to evict him from his church flat. His power was cut off and his ration book taken away, his father briefly arrested. However, his congregation helped him although some of the members were arrested and beaten. At least one, Ernő Ujvárossy, was found murdered in the woods outside Timişoara on September 14. Tökés himself and the church building were attacked as well by unidentified people. Finally, the Securitate told him that he would be forced to leave on December 15. As Tökés explained, the removal by the Securitate would be unlawful as his house was a Church property and not from the state. He called his parishioners in the Sunday service to come peacefully to be a witness. Around 30 to 40 of them came in the morning, benefitting from an unseasonably warm winter stretch. The Securitate didn’t interfere at that time, so during the following hours more and more people joined, especially workmen on their way home, including ethnic Romanians, Germans, Serbs, Greeks, ‘and, 49 Tökés was pastor in Braşov from 1975-1977, in Dej from 1977-1984 and in Timişoara from 1986-1990.
50
Peter Siani-Davies, The Romanian Revolution of December 1989, 56. 51 Martyn Rady, Romania in Turmoil. A contemporary history, 86. 52
19 some have said, a few Gypsies’ and as well people from other threatened Protestant minorities as Baptists and Pentecostals.54 This ‘amounted to an astonishing display of solidarity across ethnic and religious lines’.55
The authorities thought probably that Tökés would leave peacefully by himself as they did not try to get him out. However, shortly after 7pm, the Securitate attempted to take into custody a man who was crying for help. That incident provoked the first known clash between the police and the demonstrators, as there were more than 1.000 people around.56 The same day around ten o’clock two members of the US embassy tried to talk with him, but the
Securitate blocked their way in the building. Around eleven the Securitate left from the
church, to avoid escalation.57 That evening Tökés appeared every half an hour in a window to address the crowd. Around half past ten in the evening, the mayor of Timişoara came to spread the crowd and to talk with Tökés. To calm down the situation he promised a permit to stay, to replace the smashed windows and broken doors, to send a doctor to examine Tökés pregnant wife Edith and research of the
other complains. After the major left, Tökés addressed the crowd to tell them what happened. They reacted angry, some of them stayed the whole night. The weather was extraordinarily mild for mid-December, still above freezing. Many Romanians have said that it was the warm weather that made the revolution.58
On December 16, the mayor came again with a doctor and some work men to talk with Tökés, to examine his pregnant wife Edith and to replace the smashed windows. He requested that Tökés would ask the crowd to leave in return. To avoid huge problems and bloodshed, Tökés did so. However, the crowd (possible more than 1.500 at that time, with a lot of young people and more and more Romanians) did not want to leave and staid: “Do not believe a communist!”. Representatives of the crowd told the major that they would not leave before there was an official document in which would be declared that Tökés not would be removed, that the decision to replace Tökés to Mineu would be cancelled and an official confirmation
54 Stephen Kotkin, Uncivil Society. 1989 and the Implosion of the Communist Establishment, 81-82. 55 Gilberg, Trond, ‘Romania: Will history Repeat itself?’, Current History, 89 (1990) 551.
56 Nestor Ratesh, Romania: The Entangled Revolution, 21. 57
It was Ceauşescu himself who first gave the orders to let the demonstration go ahead. He thought it would run out of steam. Victor Sebestyen, Revolution 1989. The Fall of the Soviet Empire, 383.
20 that Tökés is the official pastor of the Hungarian Reformed Church of Timişoara. “In an hour” the major promised, but after an hour the apologies started: it is Saturday, the offices in Bucharest are closed, the right civil servant wasn’t at work. A big mistake of the major, as the crowd didn’t believe him anymore.59 Inside the church, Tökés’ associates started to get more and more worried that the Securitate would intervene with a lot of violence, blaming Tökés afterwards.60
Before the doctor came to examine Tökés wife, a friend of the family, Ms. Baranyi, who was a doctor as well came and examined Ms. Tökés. The conclusion of the doctors send by the major was that Edith Tökés had to go to a hospital – what would be an easy way for the regime to get her out of the building. However, Ms. Baranyi didn’t agree and Ms. Tökés choose to stay.61
In the middle of the afternoon, after a failed attempt to start a counter demonstration, the police and Securitate formed a line in the middle of the boulevard, but after an hour or so they left. People realized for the first time they had power, “we had driven the Securitate away. It was like a wild dream, a forbidden fantasy”.62 In the evening at seven o’clock the crowd stretched until the city centre. They were shouting Tökés name and singing “Deşteaptă-te, române”63 for the first time since the events in Braşov in 1987. As the song was unknown to Hungarian Romanians, the song was an anthem of resistance to oppression and a sign that a Hungarian protest had now become a Romanian revolt. The hymn that separated the groups before united them now.64
Nick Thorpe described what happened next:
“(…), a young man jumped up onto one of the trams which was stuck in the midst of the crowd at the far end or the street.
‘I am Mihai Zaganescu’ he shouted. ‘And I am not afraid of the Securitate anymore! All people… shout with me: “Down with Ceauşescu!” “Free Romania!” “Now or
59 Tökes, Laszlo and David Porter (ed.), De vonk in de Roemeense Revolutie. Een autobiografie, 117. 60
Gertsen, Hans, ‘Tien jaar na val Ceausescu’, Leeuwarder Courant, 13 November 1999.
61 Tökes, Laszlo and David Porter (ed.), De vonk in de Roemeense Revolutie. Een autobiografie, 114.
62
Victor Sebestyen, Revolution 1989. The Fall of the Soviet Empire, 383. 63
“Deşteaptă-te, române”, Wake up, Romanians, was a revolutionary song composed in 1848 by Andrei Mureşanu (1816-1863) as “Un răsunet”, an echo. The song was used as a revolutionary sung and was forbidden by the communist authorities. Nowadays it is the national anthem of Romania. The first verse is as follows: “Deşteaptă-te, române, din somnul cel de moarte, (Awaken thee, Romanian, shake off the deadly slumber) / În
care te-adânciră barbarii de tirani (The scourge of inauspicious barbarian tyrannies) / Acum ori niciodată croieşte-ţi altă soarte, (And now or never to a bright horizon clamber) / La care să se-nchine şi cruzii tăi duşmani (That shall to shame put all your nocuous enemies).” http://romania-on-line.net/essentials/anthem.htm.
21 Never!” “We want the Truth!” “Timişoara!” ’ And like the conductor of an orchestra, he chanted with the crowd, teaching them their lines.”65
At this moment the defending of the pastor turned into an anti-Communist uprising according to Nestor Ratesh. The crowd started to move to the centre of the town to the Opera square. From there they marched to the party headquarters, tearing down the party emblem from the front, smashing the windows and
making fire in front. Some demonstrators tried to enter the building but did not succeed. At nine o’clock the police came. Some of the 30.000 demonstrators took over a fire engine which was used to the people and started to use it against the militia. 66 After some clashes the biggest part of the crowd went back to the opera square, to the cathedral.
They wanted to ask the Metropolitan Nicolae of Banat (who was abroad at that time) to serve as a conduit to the local party leadership. Furthermore they felt safer in front of the church. In this evening clashes were reporting all over the city.67
On Maria square a bus full of militia arrived in the meantime, separating the church congregants from the rest of the crowd and blocking all entrances to the square. The crowd fought the troops with pavement rocks and bottles. The people heading the church entrance were sprayed by two fire engines arriving. Surprised, the people ran for cover.68 When the crowd was gone to the city centre at three in the morning, Tökés and his wife were, almost unnoticed, captured with violence by the Securitate and brought to Mineu. The Securitate even let him sign a blank piece of paper on which they could write later on Tökes resignation as pastor of Timişoara.69
65 Thorp, Nick, ’89. The unfinished revolution, 115. 66
Thorp, Nick, ’89. The unfinished revolution, 115. 67
Ratesh, Nestor, Romania: The Entangled Revolution, 24. 68 Ibidem, 23.
22
1.6 December 17: Revolution: „Ceauşescu asasin, al poporului român!” Ceausescu killer, of the Romanian people
The next day, December 17, was a Sunday. As a reaction to what happened the day before, the authorities had put the city under virtual military occupation and did send a military parade in the early afternoon to impress the people and to show the strength of the army and the regime. The reaction was the other way around. People viewed this as absurd and provocative.70 Around 2.000 people, mostly from the big factories in town, were marching to the city centre. The authorities tried to stop them by using a fire truck, but the crowd rushed it, broke it and drowned in the Bega Canal. People went again to the party headquarters. This time they succeed to enter it. In the main conference room they found a Romanian flag. They cut out the communist symbol, leaving a hole in the middle and a young girl took it to the balcony, waving to the people in front of the building. This was the first time that the holed flag was used, which became a symbol of the revolution. After about 20 minutes, around 2pm, special unites came to get the demonstrators out of the building. In the clashes that followed, the first people died and many people were injured and arrested.71
Tanks were send and the people tried to stop them by putting sticks in their tracks and hacking them open with axes to put fuel and fire in. They captured five tanks, after the tanks already killed some people by running over them.72 Furthermore, a lot of shops, especially book shops with the books written by the president and his wife, were burned by protestors. Many writes do believe that this was the work of the Securitate, in order to have a reason to bring the protesters in court when the revolt was turned down. Around 4pm most demonstrators managed to escape and gathered at Opera square, which was already full of people.
Ceauşescu reacted furious. He called the minister of interior Tudor Postelnicu, the head of the Securitate Iulian Vlad and the minister of Defense and head of the army Vasile Milea to account for what happened. Ceauşescu treated them as children, called them cowards and dismissed them for a while, threatening them with sending them to a firing squad. Finally they assured Ceauşescu that from now on they will proceed “in such a way as to merit your faith”.73 Furthermore Ceauşescu ordered a conclave of the Political Executive Committee of the party, followed by a closed-circuit teleconference with officials around the country. “I’ve
70
Hall, Richard Andrew, ‘Theories of Collective Action and Revolution: Evidence from the Romanian Transition of December 1989’, in: Europe-Asia Studies, 1082.
71
Ratesh, Nestor, Romania: The Entangled Revolution, 26.
23 given the order to shoot”, he told them, “(…) In an hour order should be re-established in Timişoara.”74
That day armoured and motorized columns came to the city, as well as the Army Chief of Staff and First Deputy Defense Minister Major General Ştefan Guşă75. The army did set up roadblocks and around 5pm they started to shoot, first at liberty square. Several people were killed as the bullets came from everywhere, hundreds wounded and arrested. The people fled and many of them went to the Opera square. Around 7:15pm, without any warning the troops started to shoot, at Opera square, Maria square, 700 square, Republicii Boulevard and at the continental hotel. It turned out later that most of the shooting was directed in the air and on the ground but still a few tens of people were killed. One of the most tragic incidents happened on the steps of the Cathedral. Around 2.0000 – 3.000 people gathered together to pray on their knees and to warm their hands on the candles. The army opened fire, eyewitnesses reported that soldiers were packing bodies, dead and injured, in army trucks and driving off at speed.76 The bodies were brought to the paupers’ cemetery and to Bucharest on orders of Elena Ceauşescu.77 In order to cover all proofs of the shooting, identity cards of the dead were burned to show the outside world that nothing had happened.78
“‘The revolution was made by the youth and children’ said Dubra Andreics, an actress of the German theatre of Timişoara. ‘By the children of the decree.’ She was referring of the decree that Ceauşescu had passed in 1968 banning contraception and abortion. Each family should have at least five children, Ceauşescu suggested. ‘Everything he did then, is coming back to haunt him now’, she said. ‘He was brought down by the generation he created.’79
Ceauşescu organized a closed-circuit telephone conference with all forty leaders of the Communist party at county level. He made clear that he would use all means to control the
74
Stephen Kotkin, Uncivil Society, 84. The foreign media knew that the orders came from Ceauşescu himself; see for example “Ceausescu gab persönlich den Schießbefehl”, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 29 December 1989; and Bohlen, Celestine and Clyde Haberman, ‘Revolt in Rumania: Days of Death and Hope – A special report: How the Ceausescu Fell: Harnessing Popular Rage’, The New York Times, 7 January 1990.
75
Major General Ştefan Guşă (1940-1994) was from 25 September 1986 till 28 December 1989 the 56th Army Chief of Staff of Romania.
76 Thorp, Nick, ’89. The unfinished revolution, 117.
77 43 bodies were brought to the Cenusa Crematory in Bucharest and burned. 78
Cees Zoon, Het laatste bal van de vampier. Roemenië en de erfenis van Ceausescu, 178.
79 Thorp, Nick, ’89. The unfinished revolution, 117. In Romania the revolution is sometimes called ‘revoluţia
24 situation and that he closed the borders for almost all foreigners, including Soviet citizens.80 The president issued a degree, declaring a state of emergency in Timiş district, “in view of grave violations of public law and order in Timiş district, acts of terrorism and vandalism committed there, and destruction of public property”. The degree did not only put the army on combat readiness, banned public meetings and night movement, but ordered the public as well to continue to work normally and observe the laws of the country.81
In the evening many clashes were reported in the suburbs. 2.000 demonstrators clashed at Calea Girocului. Around 9pm troops came from both sides of the streets. Demonstrators tried to talk to them, others were
throwing stones. Suddenly two red rockets lighted the sky. At that time the shooting started, first in the air to scare the people into fleeing, but when that didn’t had enough success, the troops opened fire directly in the crowd. Between 30 and 40 people died there. Around 11pm an unusual summer-like storm with
blinding lightning and deafening thunder descended on the city, cleaning the streets a bit. In the early hours of December 18, the troops finally left the area back to their barracks as the regime assumed to be in control again.82
1.7 December 18 and 19: „Soldaţi, soldaţi, pe cine apăraţi?” Soldiers, soldiers, who do you defend?
Ceauşescu flew the next day to Iran for a scheduled visit, where he, ironically, spoke about the need for peace in the Persian Gulf.83 He could not cancel this visit without admitting that a serious threat to his regime had arisen. In turn, such an admission might stimulate disorder elsewhere in Romania. Therefore his inner circle urged him to go, with Elena Ceauşescu staying behind, dealing with the situation and informing the president regularly during his trip.84 In Timişoara the shooting continued till early in the morning. That day all workers in the factories where called together to hear the ‘right’ interpretation of the events.
80 Mark Almond, The rise and fall of Nicolae & Elena Ceauşescu, 222. 81
‘Upheaval in the East: The Rumanian Turmoil Through Soviet Eyes: Chants and Sudden Violence’, The New
York Times, 22 December 1989.
82 Ratesh, Nestor, Romania: The Entangled Revolution, 30-31.
83 ‘Upheaval in the East: The Rumanian Turmoil Through Soviet Eyes: Chants and Sudden Violence’, The New
York Times, 22 December 1989.
84
25 However, it also made that all people came together and started strikes, beginning at the
Electobanat (ELBA) factory. The hospitals were visited as well by the Securitate and
wounded demonstrators arrested, some even tortured or executed.85
It seemed quite again, the regime again in control. But beneath the surface tensions were building to a point of no return. The first strike committees were set up. A ‘Committee for Socialist Democracy’ together with an ‘Action Committee of the Timişoara Romanian Democratic Front’ were founded to coordinate the local strike committees and to represent them in negotiations with officials. The fact that those strike committees were set up is a turning point. It is a vital stage in the escalation of the protests, as it introduced the first elements of organization in the popular movement which was so far almost entirely spontaneous.86
On December 19th all workers from the major factories started to strike, organizing themselves in strike committees. Only bread loaves continued production.87 Several clashes between workers and military forces occurred in different parts of the city. By midnight, however, all shooting came to an end as if by magic, and didn’t resume for two days, then under totally different circumstances.88
1.8 December 20: „Azi în Timişoara, mîine în toată ţara!” "Today in Timişoara, tomorrow in the whole country!"
On the afternoon of 20 December the protest began again in the centre of the town. This time the army let all protesters pass when heading to Opera square. When Ceauşescu came back from Teheran, he was very angry that the situation in Timişoara was not solved yet. He gave a speech on national television in which he called the demonstrators “hooligans”, “fascists” and “foreign agents”. An interesting thing to do as he now was confirming live on television that something was wrong in Timişoara. In the city itself the strikes became bigger and bigger until it was a general strike. The people of Timişoara of course denied that they were hooligans, many warnings were given by their leaders to not use any form of violence.89
85 Martyn Rady, Romania in Turmoil. A contemporary history, 95. 86
Ibidem, 96. 87
Stephen Kotkin, Uncivil Society, 86.
88 Ratesh, Nestor, Romania: The Entangled Revolution, 33. It turned out later that the soldiers were withdrawn to their barracks, what will be explained in chapter three.
26 Once again, the army got orders to shoot. However, the morale of the army got lower and lower, several soldiers refused the orders or even joined the protesters, especially when several personal calls were made around noon at Opera square from the leaders of the revolution to stop the violence.90 By the evening, several T55 tanks91 were in the possession of the protesters. General Guşăordered his soldiers to withdrawn from the city centre. One of the reasons for this seemed to be the fact that the soldiers were fraternizing with the people, already almost 40,000 up to 100.000 at Opera square.92
“ ‘The people, not the army, began this revolution,’ the commander in chief of the garrison in Timişoara, Major General Gheorghe Popescu explained the international press. ‘Although we were ordered to act against the people, we refused to obey the Ceauşescu clicque. The allegations that the army opened fire are simply not true.’ ”93
Another reason for the withdrawal of the soldiers was probably taken by the commanders on the spot who realized that the only option left to them was to engage in a massacre, the order for which their troops would almost certainly refuse. The threat of the strike committee in the Solvent petrochemical works to blow up the plant if the army did not leave the city could be of influence as well.94 Surviving accounts, however, tell of the complete confusion reigning among the government and party officials who were in the city at this time. Most of them found the situation as lost and returned to Bucharest for further instructions.95
Two different groups were demonstrating in the city centre. One group at Opera square, and another group in front of the communist party county headquarters. High ranking
90
http://ro.altermedia.info/reportajinvestigatii/timioara-20-decembrie-1989-nu-vrem-s-avem-capitalismul-vrem-un-socialism-democratic_8146.html in: Website with transcripts, video and audio of revolution in Timişoara:
http://ro.altermedia.info/reportajinvestigatii/revoluia-din-1989-de-la-timioara-in-inregistrri-audio-video_8095.html 91
The T55 is a Soviet made tank. Martyn Rady, Romania in Turmoil. A contemporary history, 96.
92 The Yugoslav news agency Tanjug quoted the Yugoslav consul in Timişoara saying that some 50.000 demonstrators were involved (Beck, Ernest, Dessa Trevisan and Andrew McEwn, ‘Ceausescu defends protest deaths’, The Times, 21 December 1989). Martyn Rady writes that there were no less than 100.000 persons on the square, about 1/3 of the city’s entire population (Martyn Rady, Romania in Turmoil. A contemporary history, 96).
93 Nick Thorp, ’89. The unfinished revolution, 118. This statement was made shortly after the revolution at the time the international press was allowed again to enter Romania.
94
Martyn Rady, Romania in Turmoil. A contemporary history, 96; and ‘Upheaval in the East: The Rumanian Turmoil Through Soviet Eyes: Chants and Sudden Violence’, The New York Times, 22 December 1989.
27 party officials from Bucharest were in the party building, including prime minister Constantin Dăscălescu96. He made, together with the local party boss Balan, an appearance on the balcony of the party building in an attempt to speak to the people. They were jeered and booed.
At the Opera a group of leaders was formed. 41 year old Professor Lorin Fortuna from the Polytechnica University became the leader of the group. At 14:00hrs he came on the balcony of the Opera and addressed the crowd, announcing this Frontului Democrat Român (Romanian Democratic Front), which became suddenly the main negotiating partner for the local authorities.97 The front came with the following declaration:
The tyranny is fallen!
On request of the action committee of the Romanian Democratic Front, we read the following proclamation:
I. The Romanian Democratic Front is a political organization established in Timişoara to achieve a dialogue with the Romanian government to democratize the country. The condition of the Romanian Democratic Front for the beginning of this dialogue is the resignation of President Nicolae Ceauşescu.
II. We propose the Romanian government as a basis for discussion, the following claims:
1. Free elections.
2. Freedom of speech, press, radio and television. 3. Immediate opening of state borders.
4. Romania's integration among countries that guarantees and respects fundamental human rights.
5. Release of all prisoners and political dissidents in Romania without delay. 6. Revitalizing the national economy.
7. Education reform in a democratic. 8. The right to manifest freely. 9. Real religious freedom.
96 Constantin Dăscălescu (1923-2003) studied at the Economical Academy of Bucharest and in Moscow. Besides several functions in the Communist Party he became Member of Parliament in 1965. In 1979 he became member of the Permanent Bureau, a council with only intimates of Ceauşescu. In 1982 he became Prime-Minister, although in reality that function didn’t had any power.
28
10.Improving healthcare and catering. III. Regarding the events in Timişoara.
We ask those who gave orders to shoot people to be strongly punished.
We demand restitution of the bodies of the dead, to be buried by tradition, and national mourning.
We demand the immediate release of all those arrested following the demonstration.
We require termination of any future attack on participants in demonstrations in Timişoara. We ask local authorities for the official recognition of the action committee of the Romanian Democratic Front, set up in Timişoara.98
We thank everyone who stood against tyranny and the National Theatre of Timişoara teams for their support. 99
The Romanian people won!100
In his speech on the balcony of the Opera on December 21st, Lorin Fortuna added the following:
The Romanian Democratic Front addresses the entire country the following call: One. We ask all the Romanian people to join us in our fight for a democratic country. Two. Form in all cities of the country, in businesses and institutions, committees of the Romanian Front, Democratically, to ensure the coordinate of a national democratic movement.
Three. Claim your constitutional rights peacefully and without violence.
Four. To go in a general strike, starting today December 21, 1989 until the final victory, except for vital sectors that cannot be stopped.
Five. The Romanian Democratic Front thanks all those who were, are and will be with us.101
98
In his speech on the balcony on December 21st Lorin Fortuna added: “(…) and initiating a direct dialogue.” http://ro.altermedia.info/reportajinvestigatii/timioara-21-decembrie-1989-proclamaia-fdr_8191.html in: Website with transcripts, video and audio of revolution in Timişoara:
http://ro.altermedia.info/reportajinvestigatii/revoluia-din-1989-de-la-timioara-in-inregistrri-audio-video_8095.html.
99
In his speech on December 21st Lorin Fortuna said only: “We thank the staff of the National Theatre of
Timişoara for their support.” http://ro.altermedia.info/reportajinvestigatii/timioara-21-decembrie-1989-proclamaia-fdr_8191.html in: Website with transcripts, video and audio of revolution in Timişoara:
http://ro.altermedia.info/reportajinvestigatii/revoluia-din-1989-de-la-timioara-in-inregistrri-audio-video_8095.html
100 Proclamation of the Romanian Democratic Front:
29 Around 3pm the prime minister asked to talk with the representatives of the demonstrators. The prime minister and other high ranking party officials conceded the demands for an investigation into the recent violence and some other minor issues, but in fact nothing came out of it. Dăscălescu said that major demands would have to wait the president’s return from Iran, expected in the late afternoon of that day. Rady writes however that Dăscălescu “clearly (…) was acting on the president’s instructions and was only playing for time.”102 The talks ended just befor 7pm, Dăscălescu boarded a plane afterwards back to Bucharest. In fact, the regime lost the control of the city this day.
On the same day Timişoara was declared as the first ‘Free city of Romania’. During the day a lot of speeches were given on the balcony of the opera. Several representatives of different factories, writers and medical people addressed the crowd shortly. Songs were sung, and representatives from different minorities addressed the crowd as well, sometimes even in their own language. However, the situation was still tensed; many warnings were given as well. Furthermore the release of several dissidents was demanded, as for example Doina Cornea from Cluj and Mircea Dinescu from Bucharest. Fortuna asked as well for the return of Tökes.103
On these days several reports were made in the foreign press. Although the country was closed for (especially western) journalists, mainly Hungarian, Soviet and Yugoslavian press did report about the events in Timişoara. Many countries condemned the use of force, including the United Kingdom, Germany, the council of Europe, the NATO, the United States and Soviet minister of foreign affairs Shevardnadze who said in front of the European Parliament that “some unpleasant things” happened in Romania.104 The governments in Europe knew what was going on, as in a meeting of the Ambassadors of the European
101
http://ro.altermedia.info/reportajinvestigatii/timioara-21-decembrie-1989-proclamaia-fdr_8191.html in: Website with transcripts, video and audio of revolution in Timişoara:
http://ro.altermedia.info/reportajinvestigatii/revoluia-din-1989-de-la-timioara-in-inregistrri-audio-video_8095.html.
102
Martyn Rady, Romania in Turmoil, 97.
103 http://ro.altermedia.info/reportajinvestigatii/timioara-20-decembrie-1989-preoii-romani-s-ia-exemplu-de-la-laszlo-Tökés_8144.html in: Website with transcripts, video and audio of revolution in Timişoara:
http://ro.altermedia.info/reportajinvestigatii/revoluia-din-1989-de-la-timioara-in-inregistrri-audio-video_8095.html.
30 Community in Bucharest the French ambassador announced the liberation of Timişoara.105 In East-Berlin, Poland and Hungary officials protested against the violence, in Sofia a 1.000 Bulgarians protested outside the embassy of Romania. From official side the tragedy in Timişoara was denied, by vice-prime minister Gheorghe Oprea.106
1.9 December 21: „Români veniţi cu noi!” Romanians join us!
On December 21st the central government has send a train full with workers with clubs from Oltenia107 to Timişoara, to put down the ‘hooligans’. However, they saw what really happened in Timişoara and returned home, spreading the news. One of them even addressed the crowd on the Opera square. On the same day, newspapers in the rest of the world started to spread the news that already 4.000 people had died and that pastor Tökés probably had been beaten to death.108 This number was heavy exaggerated and Tökés was still alive, but as will be explained in chapter three, for them the country was still inaccessible, and there was so a chaos and less sources that it was almost impossible for the international media to give objective news.
On the Opera square the first messages of cities that joined the revolution were spread, for example Suceava, Satu Mare, Cluj, Jimbolia, Targu Mures and Lugoj. Later on even the message of the protest and street fighting in Bucharest came through. Especially the protests in Bucharest were important, as it was the capital. People there had to join a mass demonstration called by Ceauşescu. But, as the New York Times later reported,
“before he began to spreak, students had gathered at the nearby University of Bucharest (…). Some of them now say that, after hearing the first Ceauşescu speech on Wednesday night, they had called each other in outrage to discuss ways to protest the Timişoara killings. “We decided to go to meet at our faculty” said Mihaila Antemia, a 23-year-old philology student. “Nobody told us, you and you will go here. We had heard about Timişoara. We didn’t know what would happen in Bucharest, but we wanted to protest Timişoara.”109
105 Eugen Simion and Pieter Jan Wolthers, 2000 de Ani de Relaţi Intereuropene Orient- Occident. Studiu de caz:
România – Olanda / 2000 Years of Inter-European East-West Relations. Case study: Romania – The Netherlands, 494.
106 ‘Troepen richtten afschuwelijk bloedbad aan in stad Timişoara’, Trouw, 23 December 1989
107 Oltenia is an area in the south of Romania, the main cities are Craiova, Calafat, Caracal, and Băileşti.
108 Ernest Beck, Trevisan Dessa and Andrew McEwn, ‘Ceausescu defends protest deaths’, The Times, 21 December 1989.
31 In the evening Lorin Fortuna was appealing to artists, “to participate this night in a festive night”. Several artists did, many poems were read during the night, many songs were sung.110
1.10 December 22 and further: “Olé, olé, olé, olé, Ceauşescu nu mai e”, Ceauşescu is no more.
On December 22 around 100.000 to 150.000 people gathered in Timişoara at Opera square. When the news came that Ceauşescu has fled from Bucharest the people started to celebrate their new freedom: “God has turned his face toward Romania again” dissident Mircea Dinescu said on liberated Romanian television. “The ant-Christ died” Romanians said on the television, adding a symbolic dimension on the death of Ceauşescu on Christmas day. Although this was where it all started for, people were amazed that they succeeded. “We were very surprised” a citizen told The New York Times. “One week ago no one would ever have thought this could happen.”111
But “our struggle is not yet over” Sorin Oprea of the Romanian Democratic Front said in the New York Times.112 Ceauşescu loyal troops, possibly Securitate continued shooting. During this period, in the Romanian history known as the “terrorists”, many civilians were killed. Most of them were killed in Bucharest, but some as well in Timişoara. The army reported for example that they had turned back an attack by Securitate paratroopers on Timişoara airport and on December 26 shootings were reported near the city centre and near hotel Continental, were many foreign journalists stayed.113 More people lost their lives in the days that followed the fall of Ceauşescu than before.
110
http://ro.altermedia.info/reportajinvestigatii/timioara-21-decembrie-1989-proclamaia-fdr_8191.html in: Website with transcripts, video and audio of revolution in Timişoara:
http://ro.altermedia.info/reportajinvestigatii/revoluia-din-1989-de-la-timioara-in-inregistrri-audio-video_8095.html.
111
Kifner, John, ‘Upheaval in the east: The overview; Rumanian Army Gains in Capital but Battle Goes On’,
The New York Times, 25 December 1989.
112 ‘Upheaval in the East: Dispatches; ‘Mass Graves Found in Rumania; Relatives of Missing Dig Them Up’,
The New York Times, 23 December 1989.
113
‘Upheaval in the East: The Rumanian Turmoil Through Soviet Eyes: Chants and Sudden Violence’, The New
York Times, 22 December 1989; and Kifner, John, ‘Upheaval in the east: The overview; Rumanian Army Gains
