Elena zoia ceausescu biography

Politicile economice si sociale promovate de Elena Ceausescu au fost, de asemenea, subiect de critici. Planurile de industrializare fortata si reglementarile stricte privind natalitatea si avorturile au fost considerate de multi analisti drept cauze ale saraciei si declinului calitatii vietii in Romania. Politicile ei coercitive in privinta controlului populatiei au provocat suferinta si nemultumire in randul cetatenilor.

Istoricul si politologul Vladimir Tismaneanu, un cunoscut specialist in studiul regimurilor comuniste, a descris-o pe Elena Ceausescu ca fiind o figura autoritara si oportunista, care a contribuit semnificativ la perpetuarea unui regim represiv. Tismaneanu a subliniat ca, in timp ce Nicolae era fata publica a dictaturii, Elena a fost adesea considerata creierul din spatele deciziilor brutale si nepopulare.

Politica de achitare a datoriei externe, initiata de regimul Ceausescu, a dus la masuri de austeritate extreme, care au afectat grav nivelul de trai al populatiei. In aceste conditii, nemultumirea populara a crescut. Deciziile economice au fost completate de o serie de masuri represive care au accentuat izolarea internationala a Romaniei.

Elena a sprijinit politicile de cenzura si control al informatiilor, incercand sa mentina un climat de teroare si obedienta. In ciuda acestor probleme evidente, Elena Ceausescu a continuat sa promoveze imaginea unei societati prospere, ignorand semnalele clare ale nemultumirii sociale. Ratiunea aparenta din spatele acestei atitudini a fost mentinerea autoritatii regimului prin propaganda si control strict.

Toate aceste aspecte au contribuit la o instabilitate crescanda, iar in decembrie revolutia populara a dus la caderea regimului Ceausescu. Elena Ceausescu a fost capturata alaturi de Nicolae si supusa unui proces sumar, in urma caruia au fost executati in 25 decembrie Impactul Elenei Ceausescu asupra Romaniei a fost de amploare, iar mostenirea sa ramane un subiect de dezbatere intensa.

In perioada regimului sau, a contribuit la modelarea unei societati controlate intr-un mod autoritar, cu accent pe propaganda si reprimarea libertatilor individuale. Politicile sale economice au avut efecte devastatoare asupra economiei romanesti. In plus, politicile de control al demografiei au avut efecte negative asupra structurii populatiei.

Dupa caderea regimului, imaginea Elenei Ceausescu a fost reevaluata, iar criticile la adresa sa au devenit mai vocale. Evaluarea mostenirii sale ramane controversata, unii sustinand ca a fost un lider puternic, in timp ce altii o vad ca pe un simbol al coruptiei si abuzului de putere. Specialistii in istoria comunismului, precum Vladimir Tismaneanu, subliniaza ca mostenirea Elenei Ceausescu trebuie inteleasa in contextul unui regim totalitar care a suprimat libertatile personale si a promovat o ideologie utopica in detrimentul bunastarii reale a populatiei.

In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikisource Wikidata item. Romanian politician and first lady — Portrait of Elena date unknown. Valentin Zoia Nicu. Background [ edit ]. Career in government [ edit ]. Fall from power [ edit ]. Execution [ edit ]. Reputation as a chemistry researcher [ edit ]. Honours [ edit ]. Honorary degree and professorship [ edit ].

Publications [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. Retrieved 8 April Revolution The Fall of the Soviet Empire. New York City: Pantheon Books. ISBN Retrieved 29 June — via YouTube. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Sultanistic Regimes. Modern Tyrants: the power and prevalence of evil in our age. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Retrieved 17 August Futura Publications.

Stern in German. Sfera Politicii in Romanian Archived from the original on 24 April Archived from the original on 4 May Google Scholar. The Guardian. Retrieved 22 December Radio Free Europe. Archived from the original on 3 June The immensely vain Elena Ceausescu, determined to be accepted both at home and abroad as nothing less than a world-class scientist, brought about the virtual destruction of the Rumanian Academy of Sciences.

During the Ceausescu era, the Academy lost control of all the 50 institutes originally under its jurisdiction. By , the Academy's normal membership of had evaporated to a total of only 93 cowed and submissive members with an average age of over 70; for more than a decade, Elena had refused to allow the election of new members. The Academy's scientific work was crippled because the Academy was denied the foreign currency needed to subscribe to foreign scientific journals and retain membership in international scientific organizations and academies.

To the end of her life, Elena Ceausescu maintained her pose as a distinguished chemist when accompanying her husband on his foreign trips, and, amazingly, foreign scientific academies and universities responded to her craving for academic respectability by bestowing on her a vast number of honorary degrees, awards and memberships.

In many cases, a combination of Cold War pressures the belief that Rumania deserved to be rewarded for its independence of Moscow , lack of moral spine and plain ignorance were responsible for such behavior on the part of respected institutions of learning. Determined to retain power as long as possible, Elena and Nicolae Ceausescu watched their weight carefully as they grew older and took other steps designed to preserve and enhance their health.

The menus at the Villa Primavera recorded the calorie count of each of their five daily meals. Elena and her husband were convinced that organically produced food would ensure them long and healthy lives. The Ceausescus also employed a foodtaster to guard against poisoning by their political enemies. Their palatial Villa Neptune on the Black Sea featured a swimming pool inlaid with fine mosaics, a sauna, massage showers, and a plenitude of bathroom scales, testifying to a belief that with the passage of time they could hold onto both their health and power.

As they grew older, however, factions within the Communist upper ruling elite began to hatch plots for the removal of the Ceausescu clan from power. Increasingly isolated from their own people, Elena and Nicolae Ceausescu lived in this fantasy world through the s. The economic life of the country was in a shambles. A plan of economic and social "systematization" destroyed much of the country's village life.

Huge building projects in Bucharest resulted in the destruction of many historic buildings in order to create vast spaces on which to build some of the largest buildings in the world, including a "House of the People" meant to serve as a presidential palace, as well as a "House of Science"; the latter would presumably have provided office space for Elena Ceausescu, who preferred to be addressed as "Comrade Academician Doctor Engineer.

By , the regime was in a profound crisis. The Ceausescus probably could have held on to power in a stable environment, but the mood of that year was a revolutionary one. The peaceful transfer of power by the Communists in Poland during the summer of that year, the upheaval in East Germany in October and the opening up of the Berlin Wall in early November should have made clear to the Ceausescus how precarious their power was, but they did not heed the warnings.

A Communist Party congress in November ritualistically reaffirmed Nicolae's dictatorship and Elena continued to control the scientific and cultural life of an exhausted nation. The collapse came suddenly. During Nicolae's ill-advised state visit to Iran, long festering minority problems erupted when many thousands of the oppressed Hungarian minority demonstrated for cultural autonomy and freer conditions.

The Securitate forces, with the approval of Elena and her son Nicu, responded by savagely attacking the demonstrators. Hundreds of dead and wounded resulted from this bloody massacre, which pushed the patience of the populace to the breaking point.

Elena zoia ceausescu biography

Initially, it appeared that the regime would survive on the basis of terror and the vastly superior power it possessed in the Securitate and armed forces. But when a huge rally in Bucharest on December 21 designed to show public support for the regime turned into an anti-Ceausescu demonstration, Nicolae and Elena lost their nerve and fled the capital by helicopter.

Betrayed, they were captured on the morning of December The new government, which called itself the National Salvation Front, at first announced that there would be a public trial of the couple but then quickly reneged on its promise. A secret trial held at Tirgoviste north of Bucharest on Christmas day, December 25, , resulted in a death penalty for both Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu, who were found guilty on ill-specified charges of "genocide against the Rumanian people.

When it became clear to her that she and her husband were to be executed, she screamed "Don't tie us up! Stop, my boy, you're hurting me. It appears that the Ceausescus were thereupon executed. Various stories surfaced in the world press after the execution of the Ceausescus on Christmas day, The official line taken by the National Liberation Front was that the execution had to be carried out immediately after the trial's conclusion because of a serious threat from Securitate forces who, refusing to lay down their arms, might have attempted to liberate the Ceausescus and restore them to power.

Later, however, it became clear that Securitate resistance had been no more than sporadic and that dramatic television footage of destruction in Bucharest misrepresented the extent of fighting in the capital. When the National Salvation Front failed to either bring Securitate "terrorists" to trial or indeed even mention them again, many grew suspicious about the circumstances surrounding the death of the Ceausescus.

The question now was not whether their regime had been corrupt and repressive but whether the new Rumanian government had eliminated the hated Ceausescu clan in a planned coup d'etat, rather than as the result of a spontaneous mass uprising, and was thus in fact little more than a thinly veiled continuation of the old Communist order. Both the nature and actions of the tribunal became increasingly suspicious in March , when its presiding officer, Major General Gica Popa, shot himself in the heart; the official cause given was "a severe nervous breakdown ," but not until his unexpected suicide had Popa or any of the other members of the tribunal been publicly identified as having served on it.

The growing suspicions about what took place on Christmas day, , gained support in April , when French television broadcast both the official as well as pirated versions of the trial and execution of the Ceausescus. Major discrepancies between the two versions made it clear that several questions about the trial and execution needed to be answered by the new Rumanian government.

Among them was the issue of Victor Stanculescu, one of the members of the man military tribunal, who was a former Securitate general. Stanculescu admitted in that he had promised the Ceausescus a helicopter to carry them away to safety when he in fact delivered them to the hastily assembled tribunal. The behavior of both Nicolae and Elena on the trial tape makes it appear likely that reports that they had been told that the trial was a formality and after its conclusion they would be able to return to Bucharest were correct, for not until the announcement of the death verdict did they panic and cease their defiance of the tribunal.

Finally, French forensic pathologists who viewed the pirated tape noted that as soon as the dust from what appeared to have been the Ceausescus' execution had settled, military doctors appeared on the scene to be certain death had occurred. On the official tape, Elena lay over a stream of blood, yet when a doctor lifts her head it is stiff with no running blood; also, the blood on her head and on the ground could clearly be seen to have coagulated.

Rigor mortis had set, suggesting that when the tape was made she had already been dead four or five hours. In contrast, Nicolae's body was less rigid and his head bobbed when lifted by the doctors; like his wife, no blood trickled from his head wounds. Experts concluded on the basis of this evidence that he was killed well after his wife. In other words, there was compelling evidence that the official Rumanian tape of the execution was a fabrication, and that both Ceausescus had been killed well before their official "execution," then their bodies were propped against the wall some hours later at which point soldiers were ordered to fire on them.

In death as in life, Elena Ceausescu remained linked to a system of lies, corruption and deception. Even her final hours remained a mystery. The Ceausescus left a profoundly negative legacy to their people, a society of material impoverishment and a political culture that was morally depleted and spiritually devastated. The dynastic neo-Stalinism imposed by the Ceausescu clan had paralyzed an entire nation's civil society and traumatized its populace by the irrational sacrifices imposed during the Ceausescu era.

Burdened by its history, as the 20th century came to an end Rumania faced immense difficulties as it attempted to meet the challenges of political freedom, economic competition and individual moral responsibility. Almond, Mark. Decline without Fall: Romania under Ceausescu. Behr, Edward.