PROSECUTOR: Let us now talk about the accounts in Switzerland, Mr. Ceausescu. Why did you make the peasants starve? The counsel for the defense now takes the floor and instructs the Ceauescus once again that they have the right to defense and that they should accept this right. This is a legal trial, and I honor them by defending them. They are cowards. Workers from a Bucharest power plant started chanting "Ti-mi-oa-ra! This year, the crowd begins to chant unscripted comments back at the dictator. From the archive, 23 December 1989: Celebration as a nation emerges from the dark, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. The workers were augmented by bystanders who were rounded up on Calea Victoriei. Nicolae Ceauescu (Romanian pronunciation: [nikola.e ta.uesku]; 26 January 1918 25 December 1989) was a Romanian politician who was the Secretary Gener. Then he is treated like a normal citizen. I have observed that she is not even able to read correctly, but she calls herself an university graduate. PROSECUTOR: By now, there have been 34 casualties. Elena and Nicolae Ceauescu state: Well, you told us about it. The hardship exemption rules, for example, let anyone who experienced domestic violence avoid the mandate, without providing any documentation of abuse. We have data concerning both of them. 20072021 Roy Rosenzweig Center for History & New Media The story ofCeauescus final speech is a textbook example. NICOLAE CEAUESCU: Is it possible that we are facing such charges? Mystery surrounded the whereabouts of the former President and his wife, Elena, last night. . I hope that you do not also work for the foreigners and for the destruction of Romania. The entire intelligentsia of the country ran away. Who are these fanatics? Immediately before them were plainclothes Securitate agents and a row of police militia, who kept the mass of the crowd about thirty meters back from the front of the Central Committee building. He answers: I am the president of Romania, and I am the commander in chief of the Romanian army. Tell the people that I will answer all their questions. ELENA CEAUESCU: Accounts in Switzerland? PROSECUTOR: Please, make a note: Ceauescu does not recognize the new legal structures of power of the country. Teams of doctors with emergency medical supplies were being flown in from Geneva last night. PROSECUTOR: This is how you worked with the people and exercised your functions! PROSECUTOR: In all district capitals, which you grandly called municipalities, there is shooting going on. The counsel for the defense now takes the floor and instructs the Ceausescus once again that they have the right to defense and that they should accept this right. Are they the people, or are you paying them? The prosecutor turns to Elena: You have always been wiser and more ready to talk, a scientist. Elena and Nicolae reject this. You should have stayed in Iran where you had flown to. Earlier, joyful crowds had paraded through the city after reports that Mr Ceauescu had been arrested after trying to flee from the roof of the party headquarters by helicopter. In response, the two laugh, and she says: We do not stay abroad. PROSECUTOR: Please, make a note: Nicolae Ceausescu refuses to cooperate with the court-appointed counsel for the defense. I am talking to you as simple citizens at the least, as simple citizens, and I tell you: I am the president of Romania. This is where President Ceausescu gave his final speech in December 1989, before fleeing Bucharest. Just a genteel, inoffensive refusal from an old gent. The bill of indictment contains the following points: Genocide, in accordance with Article 356 of the penal code. PROSECUTOR: And who heads Securitate? Ford said of his resignation,I was no longer in a position where I felt I could defend the American policy. Sooner or later inability to credit yoga or videos produced in Los Angeles as actual factors becomes more and more widespread. The English translation is by the U.S. government's Foreign Broadcast Information Service. You were so impertinent as to cut off oxygen lines in hospitals and to shoot people in their hospital beds. . A caretaker government was announced within an hour of the dictators capture. You see, there is no use in talking to these people. He then tried to placate the crowd by offering to raise workers' salaries by 200 lei per month (about 18 U.S. dollars at the time, yet a 10%-20% raise for a modest salary) and student scholarships from 100 to 110 lei while continuing to praise the achievements of the past 42 years. PROSECUTOR: Will you sign the statement now or not? We will speak only at the National Assembly, because we have worked hard for the people all our lives. What should he ask us? Elena and Nicolae reject this. Recent items of interest by Belmont readers based on Amazon click-throughs. PROSECUTOR: In all district capitals, which you grandly called municipalities, there is shooting going on. CHIEF PROSECUTOR: Esteemed chairman of the court, today we have to pass a verdict on the defendants Nicolae Ceausescu and Elena Ceausescu who have committed the following offenses: Crimes against the people. The day began as it ended with vehement anti-Ceauescu demonstrations. Elena and Nicolae Ceasescu state: Well, you told us about it. Nicolae Ceauescu had been making speeches for over a couple of decades. At that very moment, many everyday Romanians saw the weakness of Ceauescu's regime for the first time. "Video of Ceausescus Last Speech, December 1989," Making the History of 1989, Item #696, https://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/items/show/696 (accessed May 28 2021, 3:24 pm). Nicolae Ceausescu - Last Speech, Trial and Execution - History Channel (ENG subtitled) ac agencija 258 subscribers Subscribe 743 Save 111K views 3 years ago Notice Age-restricted video (based. Print. This occurs when the official line becomes so ridiculous that ordinary people dont even realize they are falling out of step with the Party Line. A voice in the studio said that the army was wholly on the side of the people. The destruction of buildings and state institutions, undermining of the national economy, in accordance with Articles 165 and 145 of the penal code. Have you understood them? These two defendants procured the most luxurious foodstuffs and clothes from abroad. You were not used to talking to the people. But their triumph was marred by the first confused reports of fresh bloodshed in the early evening following heavy machine-gun fire in Bucharests Republic Square. What defamation, what provocations! The story of Ceauescu's final speech is a textbook example. They cultivated the soil in line with your orders and had nothing to eat. In the footage, Romanian president Nicolae Ceausescu can be seen delivering a speech from the balcony of the Central Committee building overlooking Palace Square, now know as "Revolution Square," where he praised the achievements of Romania's socialist regime and its "multi-laterally developed socialist society." From Wikipedia: [3], From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core, The former headquarters of the Central Committee of the, File:Ceausescu Final Speech - Former Central Committee Building - Bucharest - Romania.jpg, Video of Ceausescus Last Speech, December 1989, Nicolae Ceauescu LAST SPEECH (english subtitles) 1/2, https://infogalactic.com/w/index.php?title=Ceauescu%27s_final_speech&oldid=714636674, Articles with Romanian-language external links, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, About Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core. Getting a shut-off notice from a utility is also sufficient to claim a hardship exemption. In fact, his speech on August 21, 1968 in defiance of the military actions taken by Moscow and a few of her allies in Czechoslovakia roused quite a considerable amount of support for not only himself, but for the Patriot Guards as well. One of the most decisive moments in the Romanian Revolution of 1989 was Ceausescus December 21st speech (or lack thereof). PROSECUTOR: Mr. Chairman, we find the two accused guilty of having committed criminal actions according to the following articles of the penal code: Articles 162, 163, 165 and 357. PROSECUTOR: Yes, but you are paying the mercenaries. Usurpers have been punished severely during the past centuries in Romania's history. PROSECUTOR: The people are fighting against you, not against the new forum. If you had had a mental illness and admitted this, you would not be responsible for your acts. A tyrant stops knowing the difference. I have observed that she is not even able to read correctly, but she calls herself an university graduate. Richard III of England rode into Bosworth Field relying on his ally Baron Stanely to come to his aid. However, why are your programs not implemented? Because of this indictment, I call for the death sentence and the impounding of the entire property of the two accused. Nicolae Ceausescu delivers his last public speech in Bucharest on December 21, 1989. They organized the putsch. Are they the people, or are you paying them? Judecator Gica POPA. Who pays them? PROSECUTOR: And who heads Securitate? In addition, the law forbids the IRS from using its normal enforcement tools to collect unpaid penalties. One in four of the population is believed to have a member. For example,the administration recently issued a new list of prisoners to be released from Guantanamo, citing theirpractice of yogaas proof they had reformed. The video- shown live on Romanian television-- shows his confusion and consternation and the barely audible comments. The final speech of the prosecutor follows: PROSECUTOR: It is very difficult for us to act, to pass a verdict on people who even now do not want to admit to the criminal offenses that they have committed during 25 years and admit to the genocide, not only in Timisoara and Bucharest, but primarily also to the criminal offenses committed during the past 25 years. Their son, Nicu, was shown on television under arrest. Ceauescu's speech of 21 August 1968 [English Subtitles] Transcrierea discursului lui Ceauescu: 01:08 Nicolae Ceauescu: Dragi tovari. PROSECUTOR: Do you not know anything about the order to shoot? NICOLAE CEAUESCU: You as officers should know that the government cannot give the order to shoot. You told us about it here. That is why the people are fighting all over the country. The details are known. It can go on for a long time shedding parts, but eventually the axle falls out. This page was last edited on 8 October 2016, at 23:48. This is our home. They were even worse than the king, the former king of Romania. After an outage of transmission of Romanian television, the speaker announces the verdict in the trial of Elena and Nicolae Ceauescu is death sentence. Here Nicolae Ceausescu steps in and defends her. Paper is patient. However, he had badly misread the crowd's mood. NICOLAE CEAUESCU: I do not recognize this court. Who pays them? The English translation is by the U.S. government's Foreign Broadcast Information Service. Eight minutes into the speech, some in the crowd actually began to scream because there was a shooting that occurred in the background. However, why are your programs not implemented? CEAUSESCU: Her scientific papers were published abroad! You, as a scientist, did you know about it? They used to fetch people from orphans' homes or from abroad whom they trained in special institutions to become murderers of their own people. At that moment Elena says to Nicolae: Forget about them. Tell us! This was a coup d'etat. Now the counsel for the defense, who was appointed by the court, asks whether Nicolae and Elena Ceauescu know the aforementioned facts that he is no longer president, that she has lost all official functions. The final speech of the prosecutor follows: PROSECUTOR: It is very difficult for us to act, to pass a verdict on people who even now do not want to admit to the criminal offenses that they have committed during 25 years and admit to the genocide, not only in Timisoara and Bucharest, but primarily also to the criminal offenses committed during the past 25 years. Video of Ceausescu's Last Speech, December 1989 Annotation One of the most decisive moments in the Romanian Revolution of 1989 was Ceausescu's December 21st speech (or lack thereof). I told you right at the beginning that I will not answer a single question. Every honest citizen who worked hard here until 22 December knows that we do not have medicines, that you two have killed children and other people in this way, that there is nothing to eat, no heating, no electricity. And who brought them into the country? The crimes against the people grew year by year. Central planning in economics leads to a mismatch in prices and a collapse in the economy while a Central Narrative in politics leads to an increased incidence of involuntary rebellion. Workers, military units and other popular organizations were bused to the capitol and given orders on where to stand, when to applaud and what to sing. That is why the people are fighting all over the country. It must be cleared up whether Ceauescu wants to, should, must or can answer at all. He then tried to placate the crowd by offering to raise workers salaries He did not realize, however, that a real revolution was starting before his eyes. PROSECUTOR: Who ordered shooting into the crowd? What do you think? All the world should know what is going on here. Two: Armed attack on the people and the state power, in accordance with Article 163 of the penal code. Fiction. This shows how little patriotism there is, how many treasonable offenses were committed. They were only busy enslaving the people and building up an apparatus of power. The problem with the Narrative is that it suppresses the dispersed information by insisting on the centralized knowledge, on stories the elite make up themselves. [2], Ceauescu appeared on the balcony of the Central Committee building and began as he had in years past, with a speech laden with the usual "wooden language." Who are these fanatics? CEAUSESCU: No, we will not sign. Then he is treated like a normal citizen. Why did you make the peasants starve? As the crowd becomes more unruly, Ceausescu becomes more confused and he begins arguing with the unseen hecklers. NICOLAE CEAUESCU: I repeat: I am the president of Romania and the commander in chief of the Romanian army.