Trial and Execution of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu
en.wikipedia.orgI rode around Romania on my motorbike about six years ago. Jeepers. I also remember the revolution and the execution of the Ceaușescus. Possibly for the only time in my life can I reasonably say that they absolutely had it coming.
Their execution, although deserved, was done too swiftly by a sham trial so that their accomplices in the 'Securitatea' (the Romanian KGB) could quickly bury and cover their involvement into the atrocities of the regime and then go into politics as the "good guys".
Even today in Romania, the police, military and security services, collectively known here as the 'state police apparatus', have a huge amount of power and government influence. No political party dares touch their over bloated pensions and benefits or curb their influence.
They're pretty much above the law and untouchable. The old guard did not die with the Ceaușescus but lives on in modern clothes.
No kidding, this was so publicly obvious on our ride with ostentatious displays of power and wealth that I still think about it years later.
Man, Wikipedia has gone full insane, and this article is proof. This is the guy who tried to flee the country with a suitcase full of as much foreign currency as he could stuff in it, after his secret police intentionally didn't keep records of who they were beating to death until they realized he was too insane even for them.
The show trial was a miscarriage of justice, because it wasn't done largely and publicly enough. Imprisoning him for appeal would have been a good idea for international relations, but his death was a point of unification of the country.
Wikipedia has always had an issue on some pages with tankies whitewashing some brutal monsters.
Similarly to corporations/politicians editing their pages FWIW.
>The show trial was a miscarriage of justice, because it wasn't done largely and publicly enough
Emphasis added.
(I agree.)
With scenes of street fighting appearing on the evening news, it was indeed a very weird run-up to Christmas.