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	Content preview:  Dorin, this is a very interesting story, thanks for
	posting it. My last name is Romanian (or I think so, you tell me), so I
	guess I have some Romanian roots, and I have read your post here with
	great interest. I vividly remember 1989 Revolution in Romania, I was 14
	back then, but I watched TV coverage of it for hours. Off-topic - in
	winter 1989/90 there was a big rock festival in Warsaw called Romania
	Libera, where major Polish rock stars played for Romania. Also, one of
	my favorite bands wrote a song Bucharest Blues (Blues o Bukareszcie)
	about the Revolution. If you are interested, I can translate the lyrics,
	they are very good. Greetings, Tymek [...] 
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Dorin, this is a very interesting story, thanks for posting it. My last nam=
e is Romanian (or I think so, you tell me), so I guess I have some Romanian=
 roots, and I have read your post here with great interest. I vividly remem=
ber 1989 Revolution in Romania, I was=A014=A0back then, but I watched TV co=
verage of it for hours. Off-topic - in winter 1989/90 there was a big rock =
festival in Warsaw called Romania Libera, where major Polish rock stars pla=
yed for Romania. Also, one of my favorite bands wrote a song Bucharest Blue=
s (Blues o Bukareszcie) about the Revolution. If you are interested, I can =
translate the lyrics, they are very good.
=A0
Greetings, Tymek

--- On Fri, 6/12/09, Dorin Cheptea <dorin.cheptea@gmail.com> wrote:


From: Dorin Cheptea <dorin.cheptea@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [WPM] EU elections
To: "Wikipedia statistics" <folks@wikipedometer.net>
Date: Friday, June 12, 2009, 9:51 PM


OK, perhaps a bit of recent history of Romania is necessary.


When in 1989 communism fell all over eastern Europe, the Romanian society w=
as boiling, but the authorities were still in strong control. Serious disag=
reements between Grobachov and Ceausescu came into evidence since 1987, and=
 ever since Ceausescu's regime was fearful the Soviets might want to replac=
e it with a regime friendly to them. The Soviets managed to find the suitab=
le guy to do that job. In fact it is believe that it was even those guys th=
at approached the Soviets first: Ion Iliescu, general Militaru, and others.=
 A "coup d'etat" was planned for the new year night 1989-1990, when it was =
believed certain movements could be facilitated under the cove of New Year =
celebrations. But the events on the ground took an unprecedented turn.


On December 14, Securitate was scheduled to remove the Calvinist Hungarian =
pastor Laszlo Tokes from his residency in Timisoara and relocate him to ano=
ther (smaller) city. This was but a minor thing, or the time carried out by=
 dozen every day (at the scale of the entire country). Nobody outside his c=
ongregation knew Tokes before. Strangely enough, several dozen of his paris=
hioners came to his residency and managed to delay the relocation. The Secu=
ritate guy did not react firmly, and the matter was left for the next day. =
On the 15, now there were not 20, but 200 parishioners, and things were del=
ayed even more. The rumors of Securtate failure to control the crowd spread=
 through the city, and the next day, Saturday on the 16th, thousands of Rom=
anians made it on purpose to walk by that house which was adjacent to the c=
entral boulevard. People in the crowd were shouting "freedom for the pastor=
" and "freedom for the people". Tokes had to come out to say that he
 is free to do whatever, to calm the spirits (he was naturally afraid that =
afterwards Securitate would blame him for organizing riots, which wasn't hi=
s interest because he was no dissident or anything before, and he was willi=
ng to relocate). When he came out, people asked him, who is detaining him. =
He replied that nobody and invited 5 people to come in and see for themselv=
es. Somehow that idea drew suspicion from the crowd. Securitate started to =
pick up people throughout the city. Over 1,000 people did not come home tha=
t night. Most were youth who had gone to party with friends, and had nothin=
g in mind of a revolution. But their parents and relatives became too worri=
ed, and Sunday, on 17th started to gather in the center of the city in huge=
 numbers to demand to learn about the fate of their relatives. (Tokes was t=
otally forgotten at this point.) Moreover, there were small crowds (200-300=
 peopl) all over the city that stayed through the night, such as for
 example in the university campus, in front of the cathedral, and some othe=
r places. The military, police and Securitate were securing whatever they w=
ere told by superiors to secure, but did not manage to suppress the crowd a=
ltogether. =A0


Now, should the Securitate have freed the majority next morning and should =
have abstain from further escalation the tension, everything would have gon=
e towards becoming more calm. BUt they made a crucial mistake. Ceusescu pla=
nned a 2-day visit to Iran, and before leaving he wordered two generals: St=
anculescu and Chitac to quill down the spirits in Timisoara. After the noon=
 on Sunday, hundreds of people started to poor out from the mass in the cat=
hedral in Timisoara, including many who had relatives detained and knew not=
hing about them. In the square they were met by a line of soldiers with lif=
e ammo. Some people in the crowd were histerical, because they feared somet=
hing dreadful has happened to their children, brothers, husbands. Someone f=
rom the military has ordered to shoot into the crowd, and the soldiers did.=
 Several dozen people were killed. the army started to move tanks through t=
he city: for example, columns would move from east end to west end,
 then vice-versa. On many occasions, life ammo fire was opened in order to =
scare people. But those bullets hit blocs of flats, hit by-standers. People=
 were enraged.=A0


On Monday, one by one all major factories in Timisoara went on strike. With=
 the exception of one or two people gathered and remained in the factory, b=
ut in 1-2 case some decided to march to the center of the city. The force t=
hat actually did the Revolution in Timisoara was this crowd of over 50,000 =
workers that first went on strike, then from their factories pored into the=
 streets (in long columns). I don't know what happened exactly on 18th and =
19th, i.e. I don't know who was in control and where, but on the 20th the a=
rmy was ordered to their bases, and the streets of the city were free for p=
eople to take over.


Ceausescu returned from Iran and found the disaster in Timisoara. He was co=
nvinced that it is a common operation of the Soviets, Hungarians and wester=
n powers. It was neither. Westerners and Hungarians did not have any resour=
ces to pool out such a thing, while Soviets had another plan, for which Sta=
nculescu (he was one of the conspirators) was one of the essential figures,=
 so he had to keep doing whatever not to have Ceausescu's suspicion he was =
about to betray them. Ceausescu rallied people in Bucharest in front of the=
 party headquarters on 21st and 22nd - two huge meetings to support his reg=
ime. People were brought from factories known as most loyal to the regime. =
On the 21st he made a crucial mistake to make the meeting live on TV. At on=
e point the crowd erupted with anti-communist cries and "tell us the truth =
about Timisoara". He managed to keep in control, but this was live, and the=
 entire country saw that it is possible to get to this regime. If
 their dared cry that in front of him in the very heart of his meeting, the=
n nobody anymore feared talking about that while going to buy bread or othe=
r daily chores. Everybody was talking, hence nobody feared. The live broadc=
ast from the square was cut "for technical reasons" for some 10-20 minutes =
when there were problems. But in the afternoon of the 21st people did not a=
ll go home. Some went to the nearby University Square (and the boulevard no=
rth of it) and moved erratically in the crowd (at least 10,000 people). As =
the dusk came, Soldiers were called in. And they made order, other dozens o=
f people were killed. Again, one of the officers giving order to shoot was =
Stanculescu.


On the 22nd, Ceausescu learned that the minister of defense has committed s=
uicide. Calling that guy a traitor (for committing suicide), Ceausescu made=
 Stanculescu acting minister of defense. The meeting on the 22nd, this time=
 not live on TV, went even worse. At some point "everybody" came to Ceauses=
cu to tell him there are "terrorists" and "shooters" in the crowd. and he s=
hould come out of the balcony. Then Stanculescu recommended him to take the=
 helicopter from the roof of the party headquarters to his villa in Snagov =
(30 km north). But in Snagov Ceausescu learned he has no proper communicati=
on, command and control. He decided to go further to some factory, to rally=
 workers to his support. He took the helicopter the second time, but "someh=
ow" in mid-air the pilot discovered he does not have enough fuel (!). They =
have to land in a field. Ceausescu finds a car and with his wife and one mo=
re person go to the city of Targoviste. There they don't manage to
 find a factory, but are retained/detained/invited/obliged to the military =
unit. For the next 3 night he is kept in isolation with just food and no co=
mmunication. On the 25th, he is pulled out to a mock trial, masterminded by=
 Gelu Voican-Voiculescu and ... Voctor Stanculescu. Ceausescu is so shocked=
 he can not but point finger at Stanculescu, unable to find the proper word=
s to express his outrage. Meantime, the "trial" ends within an hour and he =
is found "guilty" to be executed. In his last hour he managed actually to k=
eep his dignity, but he was betrayed by the very people he brought around h=
im.


In the meantime, in Bucharest, the Party headquarters were invaded by the c=
rowd (around 1-2 a clock). At the TV, a number of people, learning that Cea=
usescu has fled, went online to do anti-communist broadcast. Some of them w=
ere very erratic, and only spread rumors and panic (out of their sheer inco=
mpetence, like Dinescu, who now claims he was a dissident before), like rum=
or that tub water in poisoned (!) Around 5-6pm, a group of people, led by I=
on Iliescu (who spent the previous 3 hours in some sort of negociation at t=
he Soviet trade mission in Bucharest) came to the TV to broadcast life a co=
mmunique of the "Front for National Salvation", which blamed Ceausescu for =
defiling "the sociallist values", and said that them have taken power, foll=
owed by a list of names, and "(...) with your permission, last on the list,=
 me, Ion Iliescu". Hence the name of the new leader was revealed to the peo=
ple.


So that the transition of power does not seem a game, "terrorists" started =
to attack the TV, and other buildings over the next 3-4 days. In fact, Stan=
culescu, from his command office (in full security) was ordering different =
low-level military units (companies, even platoons)=A0to take control of di=
fferent "objectives" from different approaches, and those units fought with=
 each other. Sometimes, it was possible to make such that ponoe side was po=
lice, or Securitate, or some vollonteers who came fight for the revolution.=
 The most fierce of these clashes occurred for the runway (not for the buil=
ding) of the Otopeni International Airport in the north of Bucharest, possi=
ble because the order to disengage did not follow soon enough. It turned ou=
t later that the two company-size units were from the same regiment. (The r=
esult was a draw, noone won, noone lost, but it cost about 50 lives in a he=
roic field battle as you see in WWI and WWII movies that lasted a day
 I think.)


In total, there were ca. 150 deaths in Timisoara, ca 150 in Bucharest until=
 the 22dd December and ca. 800 afterwards to mock the transition of power.


In January 1990, however, dissidents started to organize themselves and dem=
and true reforms. Iliescu could not keep the pressure. First he had to acce=
pt a multi-party system, then he had to allow the three pre-WWII parties le=
galized, then on and on. In June 1990 he managed to crash the student demon=
stration in the University Square in Bucharest with the help of miners. But=
 despite all that, he and there there were multiple cracks, because people =
thought there was a genuine change in power, so they acted accordingly. Eve=
n Iliescu's co-conspirators were not all safe. He and their someone discove=
red some of them ordered shooting people, and people did not fear making al=
l that public, and everybody was listening. He had to let go some of his cl=
ose allies, he had to bring in some people (like Roman) who were not aware =
of the plot before December 1989. Plus, he had to have technicians in techn=
ical posts, and many of those tended to have reformist views.


In the spring (if I am not mistaken) of 1990, the former dissidents organiz=
ed a group they called Civic Alliance, with about 150 members from intellig=
hentsia. It was appolitical, but it provided the impetus for the future Dem=
ocratic Convention.=A0


Well, there were quick elections in May 1990, mostly won by the FSN (Iliesc=
u's "revolutionary" organization who now had to be but a simple party), but=
 also they allowed many anti-Communists to acquire legitimacy in power at d=
ifferent levels. A new constitution was drawn, and elections were held in 1=
992. By then the society was fractured into those that blamed Iliescu for c=
oup-d'etat and those that wanted only moderate reforms and for whom someone=
 like Iliescu in powere was ok. The society was deeply fractured. The Democ=
ratic Convention lost the 1992 elections, but it built itself as the opposi=
tion force. (Iliescu's intent to dilute things with starting 1,000 politica=
l parties failed.) By 1992 things changed in the world so much that Iliescu=
's party was moving towards Social Democracy (yet it only arrived there aft=
er 2000), there was no longer any possibility of becoming the party. Even i=
nside his party, most rejected that idea.


So, you see how the Democratic Convention was born. It won the elections in=
 1996. But until that point there was no serious scrutiny as to who exactly=
 are the people at the top of the Democatic Convention. It was know that th=
e vast majority of them were anti-Communist, many were old guys that where =
ten-agers or in their 20ies before 1944, and were members of the youth orga=
nizations of the PNTCD (National Peasant Christian Democratic Party) of PNL=
 (National Liberal Party), main pre WWII parties in Romania. Unfortunately =
it turned out that 45 years of communism + 7 years of Iliescu regime result=
ed in the death of the most moralistic people, while the guys that prefer t=
o adapt and where not incorruptible survived. For example, the leader of th=
e PNTCD was Corneliu Coposu, the leader of the PNTCD youth before 1947. He =
was a dissident and fully respected, but he died in 1995. His deputy was so=
meone named Diaconescu, who ... had 11 nephews, each in need of a
 sweet government post. But is Diaconescu has 11, what prevents "me from ha=
ving 2 or 3"?...


People were so disappointed by the corruption that ensued, that in 2000, PN=
TCD did not pass the threshold !


As for the economics and transition, it was important to do things early on=
, as was partially done in Poland and Estonia. Iliescu's 7 years (December =
1989 - December 1996) meant the reforms were slow, the big enterprises have=
 accumulated huge debts and nobody would buy them, etc. Inflation was high =
already. Whatever economic reforms were done since 1996 (and they were sign=
ificant in comparison to that was done before), were too late. In 1998 Russ=
ian crisis had some effect. Then in 1999 Romania had to pay back ca. 2 bill=
ion USD in debt (the living standard meant this kind of money look fantasti=
c). The average salary dropped more and more. It was at about 50-70 USD/mon=
th in 1999, at a time when the prices for goods have already reached the le=
vel of the western Europe. Democratic Convention was doomed. You don't even=
 have to factor in the typical Romanian ugly quarrels inside any organizati=
on or association.


Then came a strange news. In July 1999, Romania owed to pay 550 million USD=
 in "samurai bonds" (bonds issued for Japanese market). The conditions for =
them were not drastic, i.e. Romania did not stand to loose anything (like s=
ome property or some rights) except its reputation if it did not pay back. =
As a result, everybody expect Romania not to pay them back. Technically tha=
t meant default, which meant different (much worse) economic and financial =
rating for the country, etc, you name it. All calculations showed the Natio=
nal Bank did not have enough money to pay the loan. As a result, most inves=
tors in the spring on 1999 liquidated their assets in Romania (which meant =
even more trouble for the exchange rate, state budget and living standard).=
 The Japanese have already written out the money. Then, came the news that =
the National Bank paid the loan back. Afterwards it turned out that after t=
he payment, all Romania was left with was 60 million dollars, i.e.
 GDP for 1 day (even at Romania's worst level), and that less than a week b=
efore there were not enough money yet to pay the debt. Even Romania's gover=
nment did not expect the National Bank to pull this out. Because it has not=
 stake, its was huge effort for nothing.=A0


Afterwards, data for Febraury 2000 by the National Statistics Bureau showed=
 the first increase in Romania's GDP since 1989. People did not feel the ef=
fects until 2001 or 2002, and even the data only came in the summer of 2000=
, but statistically, Febraury 2000 was the turning point. As you can see, p=
oliticians were could totally outside the economy, and especially parallel =
to economics, albeit many of them were on paper "economics professors".


The political science of Romania re-modeled itself after the growth has sta=
rted, and the process is still going on, but we can see now towards what (s=
ee for example European elections results, I edited the article a little bi=
t).


D





2009/6/12 Miacek and his crime-fighting dog <miacek08@googlemail.com>

Thnx for the information, I've always been interested in that stuff,
even if I don't edit corresponding wiki pages. But what about
"Conventia Democratica" - it turned out a(n economic) failure, didn't
it? GDP decline after some years of GDP growth.

M.


On 11/06/2009, Dorin Cheptea <dorin.cheptea@gmail.com> wrote:

> Note that in 1991-1992 Romania had a technocrat government, with many peo=
ple
> who were not former communist party members, while after 1996, the
> "Conventia Democratica" coalition came to power, and Iliescu lost
> presidential elections. So, 1992-1996 is the height of former-communist
> comeback.
>




_______________________________________________
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folks@wikipedometer.net
http://wikipedometer.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/folks


-----Inline Attachment Follows-----


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=0A=0A=0A      
--0-2037615808-1244869433=:9664
Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

<table cellspacing=3D"0" cellpadding=3D"0" border=3D"0" ><tr><td valign=3D"=
top" style=3D"font: inherit;"><DIV>Dorin, this is a very interesting story,=
 thanks for posting it. My last name is Romanian (or I think so, you tell m=
e), so I guess I have some Romanian roots, and I have read your post here w=
ith great interest. I vividly remember 1989 Revolution in Romania, I was&nb=
sp;14&nbsp;back then, but I watched TV coverage of it for hours. Off-topic =
- in winter 1989/90 there was a big rock festival in Warsaw called Romania =
Libera, where major Polish rock stars played for Romania. Also, one of my f=
avorite bands wrote a song Bucharest Blues (Blues o Bukareszcie) about the =
Revolution. If you are interested, I can translate the lyrics, they are ver=
y good.</DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV>Greetings, Tymek</DIV>
<DIV><BR>--- On <B>Fri, 6/12/09, Dorin Cheptea <I>&lt;dorin.cheptea@gmail.c=
om&gt;</I></B> wrote:<BR></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style=3D"PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(=
16,16,255) 2px solid"><BR>From: Dorin Cheptea &lt;dorin.cheptea@gmail.com&g=
t;<BR>Subject: Re: [WPM] EU elections<BR>To: "Wikipedia statistics" &lt;fol=
ks@wikipedometer.net&gt;<BR>Date: Friday, June 12, 2009, 9:51 PM<BR><BR>
<DIV id=3Dyiv1618538305>OK, perhaps a bit of recent history of Romania is n=
ecessary.
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>When in 1989 communism fell all over eastern Europe, the Romanian soci=
ety was boiling, but the authorities were still in strong control. Serious =
disagreements between Grobachov and Ceausescu came into evidence since 1987=
, and ever since Ceausescu's regime was fearful the Soviets might want to r=
eplace it with a regime friendly to them. The Soviets managed to find the s=
uitable guy to do that job. In fact it is believe that it was even those gu=
ys that approached the Soviets first: Ion Iliescu, general Militaru, and ot=
hers. A "coup d'etat" was planned for the new year night 1989-1990, when it=
 was believed certain movements could be facilitated under the cove of New =
Year celebrations. But the events on the ground took an unprecedented turn.=
</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>On December 14, Securitate was scheduled to remove the Calvinist Hunga=
rian pastor Laszlo Tokes from his residency in Timisoara and relocate him t=
o another (smaller) city. This was but a minor thing, or the time carried o=
ut by dozen every day (at the scale of the entire country). Nobody outside =
his congregation knew Tokes before. Strangely enough, several dozen of his =
parishioners came to his residency and managed to delay the relocation. The=
 Securitate guy did not react firmly, and the matter was left for the next =
day. On the 15, now there were not 20, but 200 parishioners, and things wer=
e delayed even more. The rumors of Securtate failure to control the crowd s=
pread through the city, and the next day, Saturday on the 16th, thousands o=
f Romanians made it on purpose to walk by that house which was adjacent to =
the central boulevard. People in the crowd were shouting "freedom for the p=
astor" and "freedom for the people". Tokes had to come out to say
 that he is free to do whatever, to calm the spirits (he was naturally afra=
id that afterwards Securitate would blame him for organizing riots, which w=
asn't his interest because he was no dissident or anything before, and he w=
as willing to relocate). When he came out, people asked him, who is detaini=
ng him. He replied that nobody and invited 5 people to come in and see for =
themselves. Somehow that idea drew suspicion from the crowd. Securitate sta=
rted to pick up people throughout the city. Over 1,000 people did not come =
home that night. Most were youth who had gone to party with friends, and ha=
d nothing in mind of a revolution. But their parents and relatives became t=
oo worried, and Sunday, on 17th started to gather in the center of the city=
 in huge numbers to demand to learn about the fate of their relatives. (Tok=
es was totally forgotten at this point.) Moreover, there were small crowds =
(200-300 peopl) all over the city that stayed through the night,
 such as for example in the university campus, in front of the cathedral, a=
nd some other places. The military, police and Securitate were securing wha=
tever they were told by superiors to secure, but did not manage to suppress=
 the crowd altogether. &nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Now, should the Securitate have freed the majority next morning and sh=
ould have abstain from further escalation the tension, everything would hav=
e gone towards becoming more calm. BUt they made a crucial mistake. Ceusesc=
u planned a 2-day visit to Iran, and before leaving he wordered two general=
s: Stanculescu and Chitac to quill down the spirits in Timisoara. After the=
 noon on Sunday, hundreds of people started to poor out from the mass in th=
e cathedral in Timisoara, including many who had relatives detained and kne=
w nothing about them. In the square they were met by a line of soldiers wit=
h life ammo. Some people in the crowd were histerical, because they feared =
something dreadful has happened to their children, brothers, husbands. Some=
one from the military has ordered to shoot into the crowd, and the soldiers=
 did. Several dozen people were killed. the army started to move tanks thro=
ugh the city: for example, columns would move from east end to west
 end, then vice-versa. On many occasions, life ammo fire was opened in orde=
r to scare people. But those bullets hit blocs of flats, hit by-standers. P=
eople were enraged.&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>On Monday, one by one all major factories in Timisoara went on strike.=
 With the exception of one or two people gathered and remained in the facto=
ry, but in 1-2 case some decided to march to the center of the city. The fo=
rce that actually did the Revolution in Timisoara was this crowd of over 50=
,000 workers that first went on strike, then from their factories pored int=
o the streets (in long columns). I don't know what happened exactly on 18th=
 and 19th, i.e. I don't know who was in control and where, but on the 20th =
the army was ordered to their bases, and the streets of the city were free =
for people to take over.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Ceausescu returned from Iran and found the disaster in Timisoara. He w=
as convinced that it is a common operation of the Soviets, Hungarians and w=
estern powers. It was neither. Westerners and Hungarians did not have any r=
esources to pool out such a thing, while Soviets had another plan, for whic=
h Stanculescu (he was one of the conspirators) was one of the essential fig=
ures, so he had to keep doing whatever not to have Ceausescu's suspicion he=
 was about to betray them. Ceausescu rallied people in Bucharest in front o=
f the party headquarters on 21st and 22nd - two huge meetings to support hi=
s regime. People were brought from factories known as most loyal to the reg=
ime. On the 21st he made a crucial mistake to make the meeting live on TV. =
At one point the crowd erupted with anti-communist cries and "tell us the t=
ruth about Timisoara". He managed to keep in control, but this was live, an=
d the entire country saw that it is possible to get to this regime.
 If their dared cry that in front of him in the very heart of his meeting, =
then nobody anymore feared talking about that while going to buy bread or o=
ther daily chores. Everybody was talking, hence nobody feared. The live bro=
adcast from the square was cut "for technical reasons" for some 10-20 minut=
es when there were problems. But in the afternoon of the 21st people did no=
t all go home. Some went to the nearby University Square (and the boulevard=
 north of it) and moved erratically in the crowd (at least 10,000 people). =
As the dusk came, Soldiers were called in. And they made order, other dozen=
s of people were killed. Again, one of the officers giving order to shoot w=
as Stanculescu.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>On the 22nd, Ceausescu learned that the minister of defense has commit=
ted suicide. Calling that guy a traitor (for committing suicide), Ceausescu=
 made Stanculescu acting minister of defense. The meeting on the 22nd, this=
 time not live on TV, went even worse. At some point "everybody" came to Ce=
ausescu to tell him there are "terrorists" and "shooters" in the crowd. and=
 he should come out of the balcony. Then Stanculescu recommended him to tak=
e the helicopter from the roof of the party headquarters to his villa in Sn=
agov (30 km north). But in Snagov Ceausescu learned he has no proper commun=
ication, command and control. He decided to go further to some factory, to =
rally workers to his support. He took the helicopter the second time, but "=
somehow" in mid-air the pilot discovered he does not have enough fuel (!). =
They have to land in a field. Ceausescu finds a car and with his wife and o=
ne more person go to the city of Targoviste. There they don't manage
 to find a factory, but are retained/detained/invited/obliged to the milita=
ry unit. For the next 3 night he is kept in isolation with just food and no=
 communication. On the 25th, he is pulled out to a mock trial, masterminded=
 by Gelu Voican-Voiculescu and ... Voctor Stanculescu. Ceausescu is so shoc=
ked he can not but point finger at Stanculescu, unable to find the proper w=
ords to express his outrage. Meantime, the "trial" ends within an hour and =
he is found "guilty" to be executed. In his last hour he managed actually t=
o keep his dignity, but he was betrayed by the very people he brought aroun=
d him.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>In the meantime, in Bucharest, the Party headquarters were invaded by =
the crowd (around 1-2 a clock). At the TV, a number of people, learning tha=
t Ceausescu has fled, went online to do anti-communist broadcast. Some of t=
hem were very erratic, and only spread rumors and panic (out of their sheer=
 incompetence, like Dinescu, who now claims he was a dissident before), lik=
e rumor that tub water in poisoned (!) Around 5-6pm, a group of people, led=
 by Ion Iliescu (who spent the previous 3 hours in some sort of negociation=
 at the Soviet trade mission in Bucharest) came to the TV to broadcast life=
 a communique of the "Front for National Salvation", which blamed Ceausescu=
 for defiling "the sociallist values", and said that them have taken power,=
 followed by a list of names, and "(...) with your permission, last on the =
list, me, Ion Iliescu". Hence the name of the new leader was revealed to th=
e people.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>So that the transition of power does not seem a game, "terrorists" sta=
rted to attack the TV, and other buildings over the next 3-4 days. In fact,=
 Stanculescu, from his command office (in full security) was ordering diffe=
rent low-level military units (companies, even platoons)&nbsp;to take contr=
ol of different "objectives" from different approaches, and those units fou=
ght with each other. Sometimes, it was possible to make such that ponoe sid=
e was police, or Securitate, or some vollonteers who came fight for the rev=
olution. The most fierce of these clashes occurred for the runway (not for =
the building) of the Otopeni International Airport in the north of Buchares=
t, possible because the order to disengage did not follow soon enough. It t=
urned out later that the two company-size units were from the same regiment=
. (The result was a draw, noone won, noone lost, but it cost about 50 lives=
 in a heroic field battle as you see in WWI and WWII movies that
 lasted a day I think.)</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>In total, there were ca. 150 deaths in Timisoara, ca 150 in Bucharest =
until the 22dd December and ca. 800 afterwards to mock the transition of po=
wer.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>In January 1990, however, dissidents started to organize themselves an=
d demand true reforms. Iliescu could not keep the pressure. First he had to=
 accept a multi-party system, then he had to allow the three pre-WWII parti=
es legalized, then on and on. In June 1990 he managed to crash the student =
demonstration in the University Square in Bucharest with the help of miners=
. But despite all that, he and there there were multiple cracks, because pe=
ople thought there was a genuine change in power, so they acted accordingly=
. Even Iliescu's co-conspirators were not all safe. He and their someone di=
scovered some of them ordered shooting people, and people did not fear maki=
ng all that public, and everybody was listening. He had to let go some of h=
is close allies, he had to bring in some people (like Roman) who were not a=
ware of the plot before December 1989. Plus, he had to have technicians in =
technical posts, and many of those tended to have reformist
 views.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>In the spring (if I am not mistaken) of 1990, the former dissidents or=
ganized a group they called Civic Alliance, with about 150 members from int=
ellighentsia. It was appolitical, but it provided the impetus for the futur=
e Democratic Convention.&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Well, there were quick elections in May 1990, mostly won by the FSN (I=
liescu's "revolutionary" organization who now had to be but a simple party)=
, but also they allowed many anti-Communists to acquire legitimacy in power=
 at different levels. A new constitution was drawn, and elections were held=
 in 1992. By then the society was fractured into those that blamed Iliescu =
for coup-d'etat and those that wanted only moderate reforms and for whom so=
meone like Iliescu in powere was ok. The society was deeply fractured. The =
Democratic Convention lost the 1992 elections, but it built itself as the o=
pposition force. (Iliescu's intent to dilute things with starting 1,000 pol=
itical parties failed.) By 1992 things changed in the world so much that Il=
iescu's party was moving towards Social Democracy (yet it only arrived ther=
e after 2000), there was no longer any possibility of becoming <I>the</I> p=
arty. Even inside his party, most rejected that idea.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>So, you see how the Democratic Convention was born. It won the electio=
ns in 1996. But until that point there was no serious scrutiny as to who ex=
actly are the people at the top of the Democatic Convention. It was know th=
at the vast majority of them were anti-Communist, many were old guys that w=
here ten-agers or in their 20ies before 1944, and were members of the youth=
 organizations of the PNTCD (National Peasant Christian Democratic Party) o=
f PNL (National Liberal Party), main pre WWII parties in Romania. Unfortuna=
tely it turned out that 45 years of communism + 7 years of Iliescu regime r=
esulted in the death of the most moralistic people, while the guys that pre=
fer to adapt and where not incorruptible survived. For example, the leader =
of the PNTCD was Corneliu Coposu, the leader of the PNTCD youth before 1947=
. He was a dissident and fully respected, but he died in 1995. His deputy w=
as someone named Diaconescu, who ... had 11 nephews, each in need of
 a sweet government post. But is Diaconescu has 11, what prevents "me from =
having 2 or 3"?...</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>People were so disappointed by the corruption that ensued, that in 200=
0, PNTCD did not pass the threshold !</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>As for the economics and transition, it was important to do things ear=
ly on, as was partially done in Poland and Estonia. Iliescu's 7 years (Dece=
mber 1989 - December 1996) meant the reforms were slow, the big enterprises=
 have accumulated huge debts and nobody would buy them, etc. Inflation was =
high already. Whatever economic reforms were done since 1996 (and they were=
 significant in comparison to that was done before), were too late. In 1998=
 Russian crisis had some effect. Then in 1999 Romania had to pay back ca. 2=
 billion USD in debt (the living standard meant this kind of money look fan=
tastic). The average salary dropped more and more. It was at about 50-70 US=
D/month in 1999, at a time when the prices for goods have already reached t=
he level of the western Europe. Democratic Convention was doomed. You don't=
 even have to factor in the typical Romanian ugly quarrels inside any organ=
ization or association.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Then came a strange news. In July 1999, Romania owed to pay 550 millio=
n USD in "samurai bonds" (bonds issued for Japanese market). The conditions=
 for them were not drastic, i.e. Romania did not stand to loose anything (l=
ike some property or some rights) except its reputation if it did not pay b=
ack. As a result, everybody expect Romania not to pay them back. Technicall=
y that meant default, which meant different (much worse) economic and finan=
cial rating for the country, etc, you name it. All calculations showed the =
National Bank did not have enough money to pay the loan. As a result, most =
investors in the spring on 1999 liquidated their assets in Romania (which m=
eant even more trouble for the exchange rate, state budget and living stand=
ard). The Japanese have already written out the money. Then, came the news =
that the National Bank paid the loan back. Afterwards it turned out that af=
ter the payment, all Romania was left with was 60 million dollars,
 i.e. GDP for 1 day (even at Romania's worst level), and that less than a w=
eek before there were not enough money yet to pay the debt. Even Romania's =
government did not expect the National Bank to pull this out. Because it ha=
s not stake, its was huge effort for nothing.&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Afterwards, data for Febraury 2000 by the National Statistics Bureau s=
howed the first increase in Romania's GDP since 1989. People did not feel t=
he effects until 2001 or 2002, and even the data only came in the summer of=
 2000, but statistically, Febraury 2000 was the turning point. As you can s=
ee, politicians were could totally outside the economy, and especially para=
llel to economics, albeit many of them were on paper "economics professors"=
.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>The political science of Romania re-modeled itself after the growth ha=
s started, and the process is still going on, but we can see now towards wh=
at (see for example European elections results, I edited the article a litt=
le bit).</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>D</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV class=3Dgmail_quote>2009/6/12 Miacek and his crime-fighting dog <SPAN =
dir=3Dltr>&lt;<A href=3D"http://us.mc328.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=3Dmia=
cek08@googlemail.com" target=3D_blank rel=3Dnofollow ymailto=3D"mailto:miac=
ek08@googlemail.com">miacek08@googlemail.com</A>&gt;</SPAN><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=3Dgmail_quote style=3D"PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px=
 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">Thnx for the information, I've alw=
ays been interested in that stuff,<BR>even if I don't edit corresponding wi=
ki pages. But what about<BR>"Conventia Democratica" - it turned out a(n eco=
nomic) failure, didn't<BR>it? GDP decline after some years of GDP growth.<B=
R><FONT color=3D#888888><BR>M.<BR></FONT>
<DIV class=3Dim><BR>On 11/06/2009, Dorin Cheptea &lt;<A href=3D"http://us.m=
c328.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=3Ddorin.cheptea@gmail.com" target=3D_blan=
k rel=3Dnofollow ymailto=3D"mailto:dorin.cheptea@gmail.com">dorin.cheptea@g=
mail.com</A>&gt; wrote:<BR><BR>&gt; Note that in 1991-1992 Romania had a te=
chnocrat government, with many people<BR>&gt; who were not former communist=
 party members, while after 1996, the<BR>&gt; "Conventia Democratica" coali=
tion came to power, and Iliescu lost<BR>&gt; presidential elections. So, 19=
92-1996 is the height of former-communist<BR>&gt; comeback.<BR>&gt;<BR><BR>=
</DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
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