Nicolae Ceaușescu was the second, and final, communist leader of Romania. Born in 1918 in Scornicești, Kingdom of Romania, Ceaușescu was the third of nine children. His parents were "peasants," and Ceaușescu experienced poverty. Ceaușescu's family moved to Bucharest in the 1920s, where Ceaușescu attended school and earned high marks. He claims to have escaped his strictly religious and frequently abusive father. While working as an apprentice shoemaker, Ceaușescu joined the then-illegal Romanian communist youth movement, under the encouragement of his employer, an active Party member.
Ceaușescu was arrested several times as a teenager for fighting and political activities, such as being a "distributor of Communist and antifascist propaganda materials." His time in political prisons and internment camps shaped his worldview and political leanings. In one prison, he shared a cell with Communist political leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, who became Ceaușescu's mentor.
From 1944-1945, Ceaușescu served as secretary of the Union of Communist Youth. When Romanian fell under Soviet control in 1947, Ceaușescu was elected to the Great National Assembly, where he held various positions. Under his control, hundreds of thousands of farmers and peasants were imprisoned for "rebellion." He later studied at a military academy in Moscow in the early 1950s. After a breakdown in the Romanian Communist Party, Ceaușescu ascended to the second-highest position in the country.
After Gheorghiu-Dej's death in 1965, Ceaușescu succeeded his mentor as General Secretary and then as Party President. Though Ceaușescu initially reduced censorship and refused to invade Czechoslovakia during his tenure as President of the Republic, he quickly became a totalitarian dictator as the Soviet Union declined. Hoping to make Romania a global superpower, Ceaușescu implemented a number of unconventional policies. He opened trade and political relationships with Western countries, including West Germany. Ceaușescu negotiated several prominent treaties between foreign powers and industrialized the Romanian economy, improving medical care, education, and pension programs. He maintained his hold on power and secrecy through nepotism; historians estimate that approximately thirty of his family members served in high governmental positions.
Ceaușescu isolated Romania from both Soviet and Western influence, projecting false images of the nation's prosperity and progressive ideals. In 1966, Ceaușescu banned abortion and contraception in Romania to increase the nation's population. The state privileged mothers of five or more children and penalized child-free women. Ceaușescu also implemented policies to make divorce more difficult. After visiting North Korea and China, Ceaușescu began modeling the Romanian government on North Korea, presented in the 1971 "July Theses," a speech in which Ceaușescu declared seventeen proposals that restricted freedom of speech, expression, and political activity.
In 1974, Ceaușescu appointed himself as "President of the Socialist Republic of Romania," a position he retained until his execution in 1989. In the 1980s, Ceaușescu reduced standards of living to secure money to pay foreign debts. In 1984 and 1987, rebellions were staged against Ceaușescu, though both failed. To maintain his grip on power, he deployed a network of secret police called the Securiate, which relied on citizen participants who informed on their friends, families, and neighbors in exchange for necessities like food and safety. Historians estimate that perhaps "one in every ten citizens" reported for the Securiate.
In 1989, Ceaușescu denounced anti-Communist movements in Eastern Europe. Soon after, Ceaușescu's government was overthrown after a series of student movements. Ceaușescu left the country for Iran during these revolutions. On December 21, 1989, Ceaușescu gave a speech and made concessions to the Romanian people; however, the crowd heckled and booed him, and the following day, Ceaușescu and his wife escaped to the Romanian countryside. On Christmas Day, 1989, Ceaușescu was tried by the temporary government and executed; his death was broadcast across Romania and the West.
