Romania Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Romania - Essay Example The Revolution in Romania in 1989 led to scores of deaths and put an end to Communist rule in Romania. Ceausescu and his wife were summarily produced before a sham court, declared guilty of mass murder, sentenced and executed by the end of 1989. If we step away from these incidents and look at the years preceding, we will see that till 1947 Romania was truly liberal in its politics and economic organization. During the next twelve years Soviet style government was imposed on Romania and the party's dictates had to be followed, The Securitate (police) was at the centre of a net of covert Russian style security system created to keep a watch on even private lives of people, this was later to be exploited by Ceausescu. The activities of the Church were restricted and in its stead, mass organizations were put into place mainly to harness public opinion. Stalinist style planning was introduced and industrial production tended to lean more toward heavy machinery rather than goods for mass consumption. Artists and writers were expected to express the views of the State. Everything Soviet was eulogized and emulated. But, Romanians did not sympathize with this regime. This resistance led to the imposition of COMECON and the Warsaw Treaty Organization, created to counter the military and economic influence of the Western Allies. Increasing disenchantment with Communist Russia and the emergence of Romanian national Communism led to a relatively liberal period during the 1960's when curbs on artists were relaxed and health care and social benefits were introduced along with interactions with the United States. This situation even led to the "declaration of independence" by the Romanian Communist Party m albeit still under the basic Communist structure. Nicolae Ceausescu continued with this 'liberal' trend disallowing Warsaw Pact military maneuvers in Romania and really showed his fangs when he suddenly advocated a return to rigid orthodoxy when once again, private life was intruded on and the supremacy of the Party was above all. 2 In his 24 years in power Ceausescu attempted to spread Communism through his ban on abortion from the 1960's. This was supposed to increase the Communist population to over 20 million by the beginning of the second millennium. To enforce this, a clampdown was imposed on abortions and the use of contraceptives coupled with a law stating that each couple has at least five children. Monetary rewards were bestowed after the birth of each child and a family with more children would be given 500 lei monthly. The result was that the overwhelming population of children had to be moved to orphanages. Over 100000 million children were inmates of these state run orphanages and living under the threat of imminent disease and abuse. The healthy ones were picked to be trained to join the infamous state police or Securitate and the frail were left to their own fate in filthy conditions m uncared for and unwanted.3 In conclusion it should be mentioned that after Ceausescu's execution, these orphanages were visited by journalists and then the impact of the calamity was really felt. But nothing much has been done about these orphanages - the children continue to remain there under terrible conditions and inadequate medical care. With