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