Communist Romania
On December 21, 1989, Nicolae Ceausescu, the communist dictator of Romania, organized a massive support rally in the center of Bucharest. Shortly before this, the Soviet Union stopped helping the East European communist regimes, the Berlin Wall fell, revolutions engulfed Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia. Ceausescu, who has ruled Romania since 1965, believed he could withstand the tsunami despite the riots against his rule in the city Timisoara. As one of his countermeasures, he staged a grand rally in Bucharest to show the Romanians and the rest of the world that the majority of the population still loves him - or at least fears him.
The video on youtube captures the moment when Ceausescu begin a long phrase: “I want to thank all the initiators and organizers of this greatest event for Bucharest, considering it as ...” - then cuts off and freezes with a shocked and confused look. He never finished the sentence. In that moment, the world was crumbling before his eyes. There were shouts and whistles in the crowd. In a few seconds, the entire square was hooting and chanting.
Communist Romania stopped to exist in the moment then 80,000 people in the central square of Bucharest realized that they were much stronger than the old man in the fur hat trampling on the balcony. But what is most striking is not the collapse of the system, but the fact that it lasted for decades. Why are revolutions so rare? Why do the masses sometimes applaud and throw their hats in the air for centuries, doing all the commands of the man on the balcony, although theoretically they can rush forward at any moment and tear him to shreds?
Ceausescu managed to rule over twenty million Romanians for four whole decades, as he observed three important conditions. First, he gave to loyal employees all systems of interaction - the army, trade unions and even sports associations. Secondly, he didn’t allow to create of any opposition organizations - no matter political, economic or social - on the basis of which anti-communists could establish interaction. Thirdly, he resorted to the help of the fraternal communist parties of the Soviet Union and the countries of Eastern Europe- these parties helped each other when necessary. Under such conditions, twenty million Romanians were unable to organize effective opposition.