Yesterday was the thirtieth anniversary of the deaths of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu. Romania was not part of the Soviet Bloc. It had a ghastly regime, not least from the point of view of the valiant Byzantine Rite Catholics. But not a Soviet satellite one.
In fact, that regime had particularly close ties to Britain. To our shame, but there we are. English and French, rather than Russian, were taught in schools. No Romanian troops participated in putting down the Prague Spring. More than once, the Soviet Union came to the brink of invading Romania. There was absolutely no question of giving back what is now the Romanian-speaking western part of the cut-and-shunt state of Moldova.
In fact, that regime had particularly close ties to Britain. To our shame, but there we are. English and French, rather than Russian, were taught in schools. No Romanian troops participated in putting down the Prague Spring. More than once, the Soviet Union came to the brink of invading Romania. There was absolutely no question of giving back what is now the Romanian-speaking western part of the cut-and-shunt state of Moldova.
That bring us to the National Salvation Front, overthrowers of Nicolae Ceaușescu, and originators of the present political class in Romania. Their objection to Ceaușescu was not that he was pro-Soviet. It was that he was anti-Soviet.
They emerged out of the Moscow-backing, because Moscow-backed, faction within the Communist Party. In 1989, the Soviet Union still had two years left to go, and few were those who thought that it would collapse entirely.
When a kangaroo court convicted and executed the Ceaușescus for the "genocide" of 34 people and for daring to throw parties at their house on major holidays, then it was not only the beginning of dodgy "genocide" convictions: of Luis García Meza Tejada for fully eight people, of Augusto Pinochet for fewer than a hundred, of Mengistu Haile Mariam in absentia, of his opponents even including aid workers, and of Jean Kambanda without trial, with Slobodan Milošević never convicted at all.
It was also, as it turned out, the last great triumph of the Soviet Union, taking out a man who was vicious and brutal in himself (like García Meza, or Pinochet, or Mengistu), but who was nevertheless a dedicated opponent of Soviet power.
Those who took him out have run Romania ever since. They now do so within both the EU and NATO.
Ostensibly, we are about to leave the EU, although Boris Johnson's "level playing field" provisions, the end of which should be believed when seen and not before, will leave us subject to the legislative will of these people while having no such will of our own. But even the Labour manifesto this year committed that party, under Jeremy Corbyn, to continued membership of the NATO that Donald Trump had already described as "obsolete".
I will be standing for Parliament again here at North West Durham next time, so please give generously. In any event, please email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.
I will be standing for Parliament again here at North West Durham next time, so please give generously. In any event, please email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.
But you're not our MP. You're not even our councillor. I don't know why we even have elections.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas from Bucharest! There is another narrative about the overthrow of Ceaușescu. Apparently party members were incresingly worried by his growing Parkinsonțs disease and were justifiably concerned by the way he was grooming is youngest son, Nicu for office. They did not want a dynasty. Nicu was a very unpleasant individual in his personal and public life. The seeds of the overthrow can be seen as an entirely Romanian affiar, though many here see it as being hijacked by foreign actors who were certainly not workinng for the Soviet Union.
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