The Execution of Romanian Dictator Nicolae Ceausescu
History Daily
Airship | Noiser | Wondery
4.4 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 25 December 2023
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
December 25, 1989. After decades of brutal dictatorial rule, Romanian president Nicolae Ceasescu and his wife Elena are executed by firing squad for crimes against humanity.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | There are more ways than ever to listen to History Daily ad free. |
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| 0:06.0 | Or you can get all of History Daily, plus other fantastic history podcasts at |
| 0:10.5 | Into History. |
| 0:11.6 | com. It's December 22, 1989 in Bucharest, Romania. |
| 0:25.0 | Hundreds of thousands of revolutionary are chanting and marching in the street. |
| 0:30.0 | They're all here for one reason to overthrow the Romanian dictatorship once and for all |
| 0:35.8 | The teeming mass head toward the city's Central Committee building the main hub of the Romanian Communist Party |
| 0:42.1 | This place is synonymous with a torture and |
| 0:44.8 | murder of countless Romanians at the hands of the secret police. But today |
| 0:49.1 | it's where the country's dictator Nikolai Chauchescu and his wife Elena are in hiding. For 25 years |
| 0:55.7 | Chausescu has ruled Romania with an iron fist, but his repressive regime |
| 1:00.2 | has turned the people against him. A few days ago, hundreds were killed |
| 1:04.5 | after the dictator ordered his army to open fire on an anti-communist |
| 1:08.5 | demonstration in the city of Timi Schwara. For many Romanians, this was the final straw. What started as a protest of a few |
| 1:16.3 | thousand people has exploded into a revolution. Shoshescu shows no interest in stepping |
| 1:21.9 | down, but the Romanian people are determined to remove him, even if it |
| 1:26.2 | means killing him. |
| 1:27.9 | The revolutionaries finally make it to the Central Committee Building. |
| 1:31.4 | They rush in, searching for the dictator. But quickly, news |
| 1:34.5 | spreads through the crowd. Chausescu and his wife have already fled by |
| 1:38.3 | helicopter. The demonstrators rush back outside just in time to see the helicopter hovering above them. |
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