RRI Live!

Listen to Radio Romania International Live

The Romanian Communist Party’s 14th Congress, the last ball

This feature focuses on the Former Romanian Communist Partys 14th Congress.

The Romanian Communist Party’s 14th Congress, the last ball
The Romanian Communist Party’s 14th Congress, the last ball

, 04.11.2013, 12:53

The Romanian Communist Party’s Congress of November 20-24th, 1989 was eagerly awaited by Romanians and all those interested in the political future the then leader Nicolae Ceausescu had in store for Romania. Never before had a Congress of the single party been expected with such a considerable amount of interest and fear. Usually, the Party’s Congresses and conferences used to be something ordinary folk would just ignore. People paid heed to such events only because the party and the repressive apparatus forced them to. But that particular congress was one of restlessness, as communist regimes kept crumbling one after the other. As Ceausescu’s regime looked like it would endure forever, Romanians lost all hope for a peaceful change, while the most pessimistic saw no change in store for the country as a whole.



At that time, Romanian society was under the grip of its own frustrations, of the political class’s lack of vision and inability to find a successor for the dictator who had been ruling Romania since 1965.



With the year 1974, the regime’s excessive personalization policy gained its momentum in the 1980s when everything had become unbearable. Against the backdrop of the communist regime’s chronic crisis, an ambition began to burn in Nicolae Ceausescu to see Romania pay its foreign debts. And that lead to harsh austerity measures targeting basic needs such as food and heating.



Engineer Pamfil Iliescu was employed by one of Romania’s largest enterprises at the time called “August 23”. Pamfil Iliescu was also a union leader and all the time he was in contact with people and their needs. Radio Romania’s Centre for Oral History has a recording of Pamfil Iliescu dated 2002.



“In the last five, six or seven years the pointless work we had been doing began to make its presence felt. This became even more obvious in “August 23” plants. As long as there was work, nobody complained. Problems started to surface with the advent of massive investments. In the last years, especially in the last five years, in the mid-1980s, everyone could see that actually everything we placed our investments in was money thrown down the drain. I for one can say that in our department we made investments worth half a billion lei during that period. It was no small amount at the time. Right now it is tantamount to hundreds, if not thousands of billions. And, with no exaggeration, from an investment accounting for more than half a billion we could use nothing!”



The Romanian industry, where a tremendous amount of money had been invested, most of which were loans, was supposed to provide prosperity. On the contrary, it turned out to be a stumbling block for the economy. The cause was the much-too-bureaucratized logic of the communist regime.



We generally faced many drawbacks, but the biggest one was the lack of money. We had to receive many pieces of equipment or we were given money only to build various pieces of equipment, but that was not enough, because the equipment had to be integrated into a system. And so we received many expensive pieces of hardware that could not be integrated and used, and in the meantime we were required to produce the same amount as before.”



Trade relations with other socialist countries were becoming even more difficult and Romania was running the risk of turning into a closed economic system. Many factories produced more than they exported, therefore the management of many factories was forced to accept products and equipment that had nothing to do with the factory’s specificity. The events of 1989 were also caused by the fact that Nicolae Ceausescu, a rather narrow-minded person, would not give up power at the 14th Congress of the Communist Party. In December 1989 those who took to the streets were the very workers from Romania’s big industrial platforms.



Roumors had started to go around. It was common knowledge that people said one thing in the meeting hall and something different outside the hall. There was this huge gap between words and actions and people had grown tired of it. They no longer had their weekends free, but what was curios was the fact that they worked more efficiently at the weekend than during the week, because there was no pressure put on them. On Sundays, during breaks, they would even vent their discontent with the system. Without any exaggeration many people expected a change to happen at the 14th Congress and disillusionment was great when they saw that nothing had changed after the Congress. The atmosphere had got very tense and revolt was in the air. I guess many people felt the uprising coming and were not at all surprised when it broke out”.



What followed only one month after the 14th Congress of the Romanian Communist Party was a people’s regaining freedom by paying a blood price. “The last ball in November” is the title of a film by Dan Pita, which shows the final party before the storm, which any authoritarian regime throws before ending up in the trash bin of history.


banner-Pro-Memoria.-960x540-1.jpg
The History Show Monday, 04 November 2024

The Spark(Scanteia) communist newspaper

The press was one of the communist regime’s most powerful weapons regarding propaganda. The freedom of expression and of the press was a right that...

The Spark(Scanteia) communist newspaper
RRI
The History Show Monday, 28 October 2024

Securitate and the KGB parting ways

The most feared institution of the Romanian communist state was the political police known as Securitate, created on the model of the NKVD, which...

Securitate and the KGB parting ways
Vasile Luca
The History Show Monday, 21 October 2024

Vasile Luca

From the end of World War II in 1945 until 1989, the Red Army imposed communist party regimes in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. They...

Vasile Luca
Gheorghe Gheorghiu –Dej şi Petru Groza /
The History Show Monday, 14 October 2024

The Romanian Communist Party and the Agrarian Reform

According to the Marxist-Leninist theses about means of production, property had to be common, owned by all those who used it and created added...

The Romanian Communist Party and the Agrarian Reform
The History Show Monday, 07 October 2024

The Romanian military fleet in WWII

The history of the Romanian military fleet begins in the middle of the 19th century, when, after the union of the two principalities of Moldova and...

The Romanian military fleet in WWII
The History Show Monday, 30 September 2024

Ana Pauker

Ana Pauker is one of the most conspicuous figureheads in the history of the communist regime in Romania. Ana Pauker played a crucial part in the team...

Ana Pauker
The History Show Monday, 23 September 2024

Nicolae Titulescu and the Romanian diplomacy in Europe in the 1930s

  The diplomacies of countries that gravitate around the powerful ones, always have the mission of being one step ahead of events. They must...

Nicolae Titulescu and the Romanian diplomacy in Europe in the 1930s
The History Show Monday, 16 September 2024

The early days of BBC’s Romanian-language broadcasting

In the world of radio broadcasting, the BBC needs no introduction. The BBC is one of the landmarks without which the history of radio broadcasting...

The early days of BBC’s Romanian-language broadcasting

Partners

Muzeul Național al Țăranului Român Muzeul Național al Țăranului Român
Liga Studentilor Romani din Strainatate - LSRS Liga Studentilor Romani din Strainatate - LSRS
Modernism | The Leading Romanian Art Magazine Online Modernism | The Leading Romanian Art Magazine Online
Institului European din România Institului European din România
Institutul Francez din România – Bucureşti Institutul Francez din România – Bucureşti
Muzeul Național de Artă al României Muzeul Național de Artă al României
Le petit Journal Le petit Journal
Radio Prague International Radio Prague International
Muzeul Național de Istorie a României Muzeul Național de Istorie a României
ARCUB ARCUB
Radio Canada International Radio Canada International
Muzeul Național al Satului „Dimitrie Gusti” Muzeul Național al Satului „Dimitrie Gusti”
SWI swissinfo.ch SWI swissinfo.ch
UBB Radio ONLINE UBB Radio ONLINE
Strona główna - English Section - polskieradio.pl Strona główna - English Section - polskieradio.pl
creart - Centrul de Creație Artă și Tradiție al Municipiului Bucuresti creart - Centrul de Creație Artă și Tradiție al Municipiului Bucuresti
italradio italradio
Institutul Confucius Institutul Confucius
BUCPRESS - știri din Cernăuți BUCPRESS - știri din Cernăuți

Affiliates

Euranet Plus Euranet Plus
AIB | the trade association for international broadcasters AIB | the trade association for international broadcasters
Digital Radio Mondiale Digital Radio Mondiale
News and current affairs from Germany and around the world News and current affairs from Germany and around the world
Comunità radiotelevisiva italofona Comunità radiotelevisiva italofona

Providers

RADIOCOM RADIOCOM
Zeno Media - The Everything Audio Company Zeno Media - The Everything Audio Company