The Romanian Revolution of December 1989

While Romania’s bloody revolution of December 1989 remains one of the first images of the country that foreigners conjure up, few remember the even bloodier Mineriada of June 1990. The madness of those June days, when at least 100 people were killed, 700 were injured and several thousand illegally arrested in a brutal, three-day long, government-approved riot, will forever cast a very dark shadow over Romania and its revolution. The revolution and Mineriada are linked: the latter had its roots in the former; in the downfall of Romania’s communist regime. To this day the real stories behind both events remain well guarded secrets, and all we have to go on are best guesses.

On the morning of December 21, 1989, a large crowd brought in to dutifully cheer Nicolae Ceausescu jeered him on live television during a rally in Piaţa Revoluţiei (C-4). The rally quickly became an anti-communist riot, and the square was soon out of all control. The crowd was eventually dispersed by gunfire, though to this day it is unclear if the gunfire was ordered by organs of the Ceausescu regime, or by the Ion Iliescu group of former communist nomenklature - known as the  National Salvation Front (FSN) - that was about to sieze power. It may also have simply been the result of mass confusion. Later on the night of December 21, the crowd moved on to Piaţa Universităţii, where it stayed until dawn, before again being fired upon.



The revolutionaries regrouped later the next day back in Piaţa Revoluţiei, and at the headquarters of Romanian television. A fierce battle was fought here, but by the evening of December 22 revolutionaries – after the army had sided with them - had gained control of the building. Poet Mircea Dinescu made the first speech on free Romanian television, ending with the immortal words „Dictatorul a fugit. Am învins! Am învins!” (“The dictator has gone. We’ve won! We’ve won!”)

By this stage Ceauşescu and his entourage had indeed gone, fleeing in a helicopter from the top of the Central Committee building (today the Senate). They were caught a few hours later, and shot on Christmas Day, 1989. The power vacuum he left was quickly filled, with Ion Iliescu, a one-time loyal lieutenant of Ceauşescu and life-long socialist forming a provisional government. It is important to note here that though this new government was allegedly an independent body representative of every sector of Romanian society, Iliescu refused to allow any surviving members of Romania’s pre World War II governments join. Important figures - including Corneliu Coposu, a leading liberal politician of the 1930s and 1940s who had served time in Romania’s brutal communist prisons – were prevented from entering the Central Committee building.

Iliescu’s new regime initially stated that it would be nothing more than a transitional government. Late in January 1990 however, Iliescu announced he would stand for election as president, and that the FSN would field candidates for parliament. Given that Iliescu and the FSN had complete control of every facet of government, including a media-monopoly, their crushing victory in elections (held in April 1990) was hardly surprising. Unhappy with what they viewed as one dictatorship replacing another, large numbers of protesters began demonstrating in Piata Universităţii early in May. Led by students from Bucharest University the demonstrators soon occupied the entire square, declaring that it was the only part of Romania genuinely free of communism. As support for the protests grew, it became an embarrassment to Iliescu and his regime. On June 13, 1990, Iliescu ordered miners from the Jiu Valley to Bucharest to brutally put down the revolt, and to ‘reoccupy the square in the name of the revolution.’ Over the next three days the miners killed more than 100 people. Iliescu then went on television to thank the miners for their ‘revolutionary zeal and spirit.’