1989 marked the end of communist regimes in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Romania was the only former communist country in which the transition to democracy was achieved through violence, through large-scale protests and street fighting, and in which the leaders of the old regime were executed. The spark that ignited the fire that engulfed Nicolae Ceausescu’s dictatorship appeared in Timisoara on December 16, 1989.

Exactly 34 years ago, a revolution began in Timisoara that changed the history of Romania.

That day, several believers from the city held a peaceful demonstration around the Reformed Cathedral in Maria’s Square against the court’s decision that the Reformed pastor László Tokeš was to be evicted and relocated. The movement expanded, students, workers and other residents of Timisoara joined it. Columns of people from Timisoara are forming towards the city center. Thus, the anti-communist rebellion breaks out against the background of a dramatic drop in the standard of living of the population, as well as the collapse of the European communist system in the former socialist countries, mentions the work “Istoria României în date” (Ed. Enciclopedică, 2003).

“Freedom”, “Down with Ceausescu!”

In a short time, Maria Square in Timisoara was occupied by several hundred people chanting “Freedom”, “Justice” and singing “Wake up, Romanians!”.

Columns of demonstrators are heading to the county committee of the Communist Party of Romania (PCR). Mobilized forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, militia, army, patriotic guard, firefighters. Demonstrators are met with jets of water and tear gas. Fierce clashes are taking place between demonstrators and law enforcement officers. Arrests are being made.

Demonstrators fall back and fall back in front of the cathedral. Columns of demonstrators again go through the city, but they are again attacked by law enforcement officers; battles are fought in the literal sense of the word; many demonstrators are arrested.

Around 4:00 p.m., several trams are blocked by demonstrators shouting “Down with Ceausescu!”. Part of the crowd goes to the student dormitories to gather new demonstrators. By midnight, some demonstrators, including pastor Laszlo Tokes, were beaten and arrested.

December 17, 1989. In Timisoara, the district committee of the PKR was stormed

The next day, December 17, 1989, the people of Timisoara gather in large numbers on the streets. Workers of plants and factories join the demonstrators. They chant: “Down with Ceausescu!”, “Down with communism!”, “Don’t be afraid!”. The PKR regional committee is “stormed” by demonstrators who enter the building through broken windows. The army intervenes.

On the order of Nicolae Ceausescu, with the help of the local leadership of the district, the following are sent to Timisoara: General Veliku Mihalea, Deputy Chief of the Counterintelligence Directorate of the Department of State Security (DSS), Colonel Filip Teodorescu from the 3rd Counterintelligence Directorate of DSS and other senior officers. Ion Koman, secretary of the Central Committee of the PKR, was appointed as the sole commander of Timisoara. He moves to Timişoara accompanied by Generals Stefan Guşe, Victor Atanasi Stanculescu, Mihai Citsats, Flore Komşa, Colonel Gheorghe Radu and others to coordinate the repressive actions.

At midnight, the police opened fire on the demonstrators. Children, young people, women and the elderly are killed and wounded. More than 20,000 members of the “patriotic guard” from Dolj and Rymnik Vilca are sent by special trains to Timisoara; armed with sticks, they were tasked with helping to disperse the demonstrators. Action fails. Some of the envoys fraternize with the people of Timisoara, the other part stops on the way and turns back.

That same day, Nicolae Ceausescu calls a teleconference with party and state officials from the counties and announces that he has given the order to shoot. “They call on anyone who does not obey to be considered a state of necessity and the law will be applied!” – threatens the communist leader.

All enterprises and institutions of the country work around the clock, security measures are being tightened, the atmosphere is becoming very charged, if not explosive. The streets are patrolled by a policeman, a soldier, and the Patriotic Guard.

The first shots

In Timișoara, the first shots are fired, street battles between civilians and soldiers begin until midnight, and TABs, tanks and shops are set on fire. Also, on the steps of the cathedral, a group of children and young civilians began chanting: “Down with Ceausescu!”, “Freedom!”, “We want a free country!”. They sing carols, and are joined by several hundred more demonstrators, waving a flag with a communist emblem carved from it.

As Nicolae Ceausescu begins his official visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran on December 18, 1989, shop windows are smashed in Timisoara, police are everywhere, and the military orders people to move without stopping, preventing them from staying in groups.

After two days of unsuccessful efforts by the army, police and security forces to quell the uprising, on December 19, 1989, demonstrators occupied the center of Timisoara, in the Piaţa Operei area. Most of the enterprises in Timisoara stop their activities, protest meetings are organized, and demands are formulated. On the streets of the city, soldiers are fraternizing with revolutionaries and chanting: “The army is with us!”.

More than 40 unidentified corpses of the victims of the repressions in Timişoara were secretly transported from the morgue of the Timiș County Hospital to Bucharest, where they were cremated in the Cenuşa crematorium on the night of December 19-20.

“We are not going home, the dead do not leave us!”

On December 20, 1989, demonstrators in Timisoara united in the Romanian Democratic Front, led by Lorin Fortuna (President), Ioan Kish (Vice-President) and Claudio Iordake (Secretary General), with the aim of organizing a resistance movement. In the morning, dozens of convoys of workers from the city’s enterprises head towards the Opera Square.

At around 11:00 a.m., General Stefan Guša ordered to remove military equipment from the barracks and prohibit its use. Around 1:00 p.m., columns of demonstrators arrive at the Opera Square, with whom the military engages. At 14.00, the military forces were withdrawn to the barracks, the central and local authorities no longer exercise authority over the city. Thus, Timisoara becomes the first free city of Romania.

On the balcony of the Opera House, the mayor of Timisoara, Petre Mots, is given the demands of the protesters: the release of the arrested, the return of the bodies to the families who demand them, the resignation of Nicolae Ceausescu, the release of the movement of people and ideas. The crowd chants: “We are not going home, the dead will not leave us!”, “Today in Timisoara, tomorrow in the whole country!”.

The headquarters of the PKR regional committee is surrounded by workers. In an attempt to resolve the crisis, communist leaders Emil Bobu and Constantin Dascalescu meet with a delegation of demonstrators. Ceausescu’s emissaries, frightened by the demands of the demonstrators (resignation of Ceausescu and the government), hastily return to Bucharest.

A state of necessity

Nicolae Ceausescu returns from an official visit to Iran and issues a decree on the introduction of a state of emergency. In a televised speech, he declares that “hooligan elements (…) caused a fascist-type destruction with the aim of destabilizing the country, territorial dismemberment, liquidation of the socialist revolution and the return of foreign rule.” At the same time, Ceausescu blames “foreign spy agencies and Romanians from the interior who sell their country for a handful of dollars or other currency.”

The government-controlled press did not cover the events in Timișoara, but they were widely publicized through Romanian-language broadcasts on major Western radio stations, as well as broadcasts from Budapest and Belgrade. The only indirect account of the events was hastily organized rallies in institutions and factories, through which “the workers expressed their “determination” to defend the “conquest of socialism”!”.

On December 20, 1989, a presidential decree was issued imposing a state of emergency on the territory of Timișoara County due to “a serious violation of public order due to acts of terrorism, vandalism and destruction of public property.” The party’s municipal committee announces the organization of a large rally in Palatului Square, where it was hoped that Bucharest would condemn the “hooliganism” in Timisoara. (Source: Agerpres – republished article)