ARTicles vol. 7 i.2a: The Last Days of the Ceausescus

On December 15, 1989, three hundred people gathered in Timisoara, Romania’s fourth largest city, to protest the exile of Laszlo Tokes. Tokes, a priest, built a cult following by attacking the Ceausescus from his pulpit. For three days his supporters grew in strength and number. On December 17 Ceausescu ordered the army to fire on the crowd. The soldiers shot indiscriminately, killing and wounding hundreds. When rumors of the massacre circulated, Ceausescu, to quell the outcry, staged a rally in Bucharest. Party officials pulled thousands of Romanians from their homes, supplying them with pro-Ceausescu banners; however, minutes into Ceausescu’s speech the audience began to jeer, and the dictator’s advisers ushered him inside. The people, now supported by the army, stormed government headquarters the next day and drove the Ceausescus from the capital. In flight the Ceausescus hijacked multiple cars before being arrested in Tirgoviste. They spent the next three days as prisoners in army barracks. On Christmas morning they faced a court of former allies. The trial lasted fifty-five minutes, and the court found the couple guilty of genocide in Timisoara. Minutes later a firing squad executed the dictator and his wife, and Ceausescu’s underlings seized power.

Marshall Botvinick is a second-year dramaturgy student at the A.R.T./MXAT Institute for Advanced Theatre Training.