Some of the most violent images of the collapse of Communism in eastern Europe came from Romania.  The overthrow of the Ceausescu regime came at a heavy price and deep scars were left by the violence in which more than 1,000 Romanians lost their lives and more than 3,000 were injured. And the world was shocked by images of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena being summarily tried and executed on Christmas Day 1989.

The final stage of the struggle against Communism in Romania began in the city of Timisoara on 15 December 1989. Dozens of protesters began a vigil outside the house of dissident priest Laszlo Tokes to prevent his forced eviction. The next day this group swelled to a crowd of tens of thousands of people, who began chanting anti-Ceausescu and anti-Communist slogans.

 

Chaos and violence
On 17 December the army fired on the demonstrators, killing dozens of people. Mass protests quickly spread to other Romanian cities, including Bucharest, where more lives were lost on 21 December when Ceausescu’s attempt to address a large rally descended into chaos and violence.

Of the 275 victims buried in the Cemetery of the Revolution Heroes in Bucharest 202 were under 40 years old. For that reason, the revolution is often referred to as the “youth revolution”. In addition to those who died in Timisoara and Bucharest, the revolution also claimed lives in dozens of other cities. This was the price Romania paid to rid itself of the Ceausescu regime.

 

Political indifference
Twenty years on from that struggle, a small handful of activists and students are battling political indifference to bring to light details of the human rights abuses committed by the Communist regime. Activists believe the number of executions, disappearances and cases of torture in Romania under Ceausescu exceeds those in any other Eastern Bloc country.

 

But since Romania joined the European Union in 2007 it has been talked about as "developing". It’s still dealing with corruption issues, and the bloody crimes of the Communist regime are not high on many agendas for discussion.

 

Buried bodies
Marius Oprea is a former adviser to the former president of Romania, Emil Constantinescu. Nowadays he spends his weekends digging up the bodies of people murdered by the old communist regimes. Oprea says he hands over the names of perpetrators of atrocities committed under Communism, along with evidence, regularly to prosecutors. They do nothing.

 

Traumas of the past
There is now a generational conflict between those who remember the realities of the old regime and those who do not. Paradoxically, it is often those who are too young to remember who are least likely to indulge in nostalgia and keenest to uncover the truth. Some young Romanians feel everyone needs to learn about the past for the country to get over its communist-era trauma. Students of politics and law from Bucharest University volunteer to research communist crimes and help spread knowledge among the wider population.

 

But despite the efforts of students and a handful of activist, the current political climate in Romania means the ugly truths of the county’s final Communist years are likely to remain largely hidden for some time to come.

 

Photo: Cemetery of the Revolution Heroes. Photo:

Flickr/Giara