Nicolae Ceaușescu: Difference between revisions

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[[File:220px-Nicolae_Ceausescu.jpg|thumb|right]]

{{Quote|It is a lie that I made the people starve. A lie, a lie in my face. This shows how little patriotism there is, how many treasonable offenses were committed.… At no point was there such an upswing, so much construction, so much consolidation in the Romanian provinces. I guaranteed that every village has its schools, hospitals and doctors. I have done everything to create a decent and rich life for the people in the country, like in no other country in the world.|Ceausescu at his trial}}

{{Quote|On Christmas Day in 1989 the people of Romania received an unexpected gift. their dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife were tried convicted and shot by a firing squad. During his year Ceausescu had elevated himself to the status of a near god, living in marble palaces whilst his people suffered.|Introduction to a documentary of Nicolae Ceausescu}}

Nicolae Ceausescu (January 26, 1918 - December 25, 1989) was a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romania Romanian] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism Communist] politician. He was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Secretary General Secretary] of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_Communist_Party Romanian Communist Party] from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's last Communist leader. He was also the country's head of state from 1967 to 1989.

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Ceaușescu's second decade was characterized by an increasingly brutal and repressive regime—by some accounts, the most [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalinism Stalinist] regime in the Soviet bloc. It was also marked by a ubiquitous [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_personality personality cult], nationalism and a deterioration in foreign relations with the Soviet Union. Ceaușescu's government was overthrown in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_Revolution_of_1989 December 1989 revolution], and he and his wife were executed following a televised and hastily organised two-hour court session. However although he was aggressive, short tempered and egotistic (all his photos show him in his early 40s and his actual height which was 1.65 metres tall never emphasised on screen and also shown to be a confident speaker) he was also one of few people to stand up to the Soviet Union.

==Early life==

Ceaușescu was born in the village of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scornice%C5%9Fti Scorniceşti], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olt_County Olt County], on 26 January 1918 being one of the ten children of a poor peasant family (see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceau%C8%99escu_family Ceaușescu family]). His father, Andruță Ceaușescu owned 3 hectares of agricultural land, a few sheep and he also supplemented his large family's income through tailoring<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Gruia42_4-0">[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolae_Ceausescu#cite_note-Gruia42-4 .]</sup> Nicolae studied at the village school and, at the age of 11, he moved to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucharest Bucharest], initially living with his sister, Niculina Rusescu, and then becoming an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apprentice apprentice] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoemaker shoemaker].

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 [[File:220px-Nicolae_Ceausescu.jpg|thumb|right]]
 {{Quote|It is a lie that I made the people starve. A lie, a lie in my face. This shows how little patriotism there is, how many treasonable offenses were committed.… At no point was there such an upswing, so much construction, so much consolidation in the Romanian provinces. I guaranteed that every village has its schools, hospitals and doctors. I have done everything to create a decent and rich life for the people in the country, like in no other country in the world.|Ceausescu at his trial}}
+{{Quote|On Christmas Day in 1989 the people of Romania received an unexpected gift. their dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife were tried convicted and shot by a firing squad. During his year Ceausescu had elevated himself to the status of a near god, living in marble palaces whilst his people suffered.|Introduction to a documentary of Nicolae Ceausescu}}
 Nicolae Ceausescu (January 26, 1918 - December 25, 1989) was a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romania Romanian] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism Communist] politician. He was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Secretary General Secretary] of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_Communist_Party Romanian Communist Party] from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's last Communist leader. He was also the country's head of state from 1967 to 1989.
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 Ceaușescu's second decade was characterized by an increasingly brutal and repressive regime—by some accounts, the most [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalinism Stalinist] regime in the Soviet bloc. It was also marked by a ubiquitous [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_personality personality cult], nationalism and a deterioration in foreign relations with the Soviet Union. Ceaușescu's government was overthrown in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_Revolution_of_1989 December 1989 revolution], and he and his wife were executed following a televised and hastily organised two-hour court session. However although he was aggressive, short tempered and egotistic (all his photos show him in his early 40s and his actual height which was 1.65 metres tall never emphasised on screen and also shown to be a confident speaker) he was also one of few people to stand up to the Soviet Union.
 ==Early life==
 Ceaușescu was born in the village of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scornice%C5%9Fti Scorniceşti], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olt_County Olt County], on 26 January 1918 being one of the ten children of a poor peasant family (see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceau%C8%99escu_family Ceaușescu family]). His father, Andruță Ceaușescu owned 3 hectares of agricultural land, a few sheep and he also supplemented his large family's income through tailoring<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Gruia42_4-0">[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolae_Ceausescu#cite_note-Gruia42-4 .]</sup> Nicolae studied at the village school and, at the age of 11, he moved to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucharest Bucharest], initially living with his sister, Niculina Rusescu, and then becoming an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apprentice apprentice] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoemaker shoemaker].