•By the late 1980s, Ceausescu
had transformed Romania into a police state.
•The Securitate had
become the chief prop of his rule. Physical hardship
and moral despair overwhelmed society.
•Yet the Ceausescu dictatorship,
which had come to seem unassailable, was overthrown in the course
of a single week, Dec. 16–22, 1989.
–Minor incidents in the
Transylvanian city of Timisoara led to
violence, which quickly spread to other cities. Ceausescu
was forced to flee Bucharest and then was arrested,
tried, and executed on December 25. No formal
dissolution of the Communist Party took place: it simply
melted away.
•