Boo Sekali Saja - Diktator Pun Lari.

Someone sent me this interesting article. My comments follow.

A single boo can bring down a regime.

On 21 December 1989 Nicolae Ceausescu, the communist dictator of Romania, organised a mass demostration of support in the centre of Bucharest. 

Over the previous months the Soviet Union had withdrawn its support from the eastern European communist regime, the Berlin Wall had fallen, and revolutions had swept Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia. 

Ceausescu, who had ruled Romania since 1965, believed he could withstand the tsunami, even though riots against his rule had erupted in the Romanian city of Timisoara on 17 December. 

As one of the counter-measures, Ceausescu arranged a massive rally in Bucharest to prove to Romanians and the rest of the world that the majority of the populace still loved him - or at least feared  him. 

The creaking party apparatus mobilised 80,000 people to fill the city's central square, and citizens throughout Romania were instructed to stop all their activities and tune in on their radios and televisions.

To the cheering of the seemingly enthuastic crowd, Ceausescu mounted the balcony overlooking the square, as he had done scores of times in previous decades. Flanked by his wife Elena, leading party officials and a bevy of bodyguards, Ceausescu began delivering one of his trademark dreary speeches. 

For eight minutes he praised the glories of Romanian socialism, looking very pleased with himself as the crowd clapped mechanically. 

And then something went wrong. You can watch it for yourself on Youtube, 'Ceausescu's Last Speech', and watch history in action.

Ceausescu starting another long sentence, saying, "I want to thank the initiators and organisers of this great event in Bucharest, considering it as a---", and then he falls silents, his eyes open wide, and he freezes in disbelief. He never finished the sentence. 

Somebody in the audience booed. And then another person booed, and another, and another, and within a few seconds the masses began whistling, shouting abuse and calling; "Ti-mi-soa-ra! Ti-mi-soa-ra!"

Ceusescu then appealed to excited crowds in the square, imploring them, 'Comrades! Comrades! Be quiet, comrades!'

But the comrades were unwilling to be quiet. 

The Romanian dictatorship crumbled when 80,000 people in the Bucharest central square realised they were  much stronger than the old man in the fur hat on the balcony."

 'Long live the revolution!'
Homo Deus.

 

My comments : Here is that YouTube video of that famous event that took place in Bucharest in December 1989 - the crowd booing the Rumanian dictator Nicolai Causescu.    

 

Link  https://youtu.be/TcRWiz1PhKU

After this booing things went down very quickly and very badly for Nicolai Causescu and his wife Elena.

They were absolute dictators over Rumania for 24 years.  Ruling the people through fear, oppression, suppresion, murder,  jail and torture.

While Rumanians were poor and worked like slaves, Nicolai Causescu and his wife Elena lived a life of great luxury. 

For example, they never wore the same shirt or the same dress twice. 

At the end of each day all their clothes they had worn would be neatly packed in plastic bags and put  away.

That booing event above took place on 21 December 1989. After the booing things went really very badly for Causescu and his wife Elena.  

When the demonstrations became uncontrollable, the Rumanian Army itself  arrested Causescu and his wife as traitors. 

On 25th December 1989 both the dictator and his wife were shot by a firing squad at a shooting range in Bucharest.  

 

Causescu and his wife Elena were executed 

by firing squad on Christmas Day, 1989.