Today, Dec. 21, 2023 marks the 34th anniversary of Nicolae Ceausescu’s downfall in Romania.
At the moment his 33-year-reign ended, I was standing outside the Romanian Communist Party Central Committee Building in Bucharest with a crowd of 100,000 when the Ceausescus fled from the top of the building in a helicopter that was so overloaded, it barely cleared the roof.
In the aftermath of the Romanian Revolution, virtually all of Ceasescu’s artifacts were destroyed. Their photos, books, and records were burned. No one wanted to be associated with the Ceausescus and their crimes. Few of these historical oddities remain. This photo shows the official portraits of Nicolae Ceausescu and Elena Ceausescu, which is typical of communist East Bloc idolatry of the post-Leninist era. The Ceausescus were executed by an impromptu firing squad comprised of Romanian Army soldiers on Christmas Day 1989.
I don’t think of artifacts such as these as mementos of conquest. But these are reminders and cherished memories of another time and place. Here I am posing with their giant portraits out in my back yard, this morning.
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