The Scotsman archive: How we reported the death of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu

The story gives a live sense of how the Romanian revolution was still playing out

It was Boxing Day 1989 when the news of the deaths of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena by firing squad was broadcast across the world.

The Romania revolution and subsequent Christmas Day execution of the leader who had controlled his country with an iron fist for 15 years is arguably one of the most memorable stories of the fall of Communism.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The Scotsman carried the story on its front page, providing both an informative news story on the situation and an opinion piece by diplomatic correspondent David Wallen.

“Dictator and wife executed”, screamed the headline. “Swift justice for Ceausescus after secret trial by army”.

Mr Wallen’s story, however, which recalled his “one and only” visit to Romania during the time of Ceausescu’s rule four years earlier, offers a cutting analysis of the UK government’s relationship with a man whom, as he describes “wanted to drive the peasants who once made up the bread bowl of Europe into vast high-rise blocks”.

“Yet for so long, the West, as well as the East, was prepared to go along with the man we can now see as the Butcher of Bucharest for reasons of little more than pragmatism,” he wrote. He said the British government was prepared to “woo” the “Warsaw Pact renegade” for the sole reason that he was not aligned to the Soviet Union.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Unlike most Communist countries, Romania was independent from the Soviet Union. As a result, relations were cordial, with Ceausescu even being welcomed on a state visit to Britain in 1978.

Scotsman Publications

News of the revolution came out in a piecemeal fashion in the 24 hours following Ceausescu’s arrest. While it was still a news story reported in the time of telephones and TV cameras, getting information back home, especially from a country that had been locked away for so long, was difficult.

The situation is clearly still live at the time of reporting, with details emerging of Securitate - Romanian secret police - still hiding out in a network of tunnels beneath the capital Bucharest.

“I am convinced the Romanian army will finish them off within a couple of days,” says a Hungarian defence ministry spokesman. The Scotsman’s story also describes the “secret trial” held by the Romanian military.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“A tribunal declared him guilty of a series of crimes against the state, including genocide: Romanian television was expected to carry pictures of the execution,” the report said.

Journalist Hella Pick interviewing President Ceausescu of Romania in 1978.Journalist Hella Pick interviewing President Ceausescu of Romania in 1978.
Journalist Hella Pick interviewing President Ceausescu of Romania in 1978. | JPI

“Other charges laid against Ceausescu and his wife included ‘crimes against the economy’, trying to escape capture and ordering the army to fire on the Romanian people.”

The report says, however, the “front” - the revolutionaries leading the coup - had announced that 60,000 people had been killed in the bloody revolution. That number is now generally believed to be closer to 1,000.

The most telling passage comes, perhaps, from a local journalist quoted by The Scotsman’s correspondent, summing up the strength of emotion in the country at the time.

“A Romanian journalist said: ‘I wanted him to die slowly and suffer as much as we did’,” it says.

Comments

 0 comments

Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.

Dare to be Honest
Follow us
©National World Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.Cookie SettingsTerms and ConditionsPrivacy notice