The Fall of Communism 1205crowds, and tanks crushed
protesters in a scene haunt
ingly reminiscent of Beijing’s
Tiananmen Square earlier that
year. After soldiers battled the
security forces outside the pres
idential palace, hundreds of
bodies lay in the streets.
Several of the dictator’s top
officials now decided that
Ceau§escu’s days of iron rule
were numbered. Ceau§escu
and his wife left their stately
residence on December 22,
1989, through secret tunnels,
and then commandeered a helicopter. They were captured and immedi
ately charged with murder and embezzlement of government funds. On
Christmas Day, they were tried by a hastily convoked tribunal—which, in
fact, had no legal authority—and condemned to death. They were then
taken behind the building and shot, their bloody bodies left lying stiffly in
the snow for a worldwide television audience to see. More than 1,000 peo
ple died during the revolution that overthrew Ceau§escu and ended com
munism in Romania.
Communism was swept away even in Albania, which had remained
largely isolated from change in Eastern Europe by sealed borders. In Eu
rope’s poorest country, where food shortages had generated sullen anger,
the fall of Ceau§escu in December 1989 emboldened dissidents. As a cri
sis mounted, President Ramiz Alia (1925- ) announced greater openness
in the selection of government leaders and a larger role for workers in
choosing managers. Agricultural cooperatives would be allowed to sell
surplus produce. Alia then announced the right to travel abroad and the
abrogation of the long-standing ban on “religious propaganda.’’A group of
Albanian intellectuals demanded the end of the Communist monopoly on
power and students went on strike. Like other Communist leaders, Alia
believed that he could maintain control by placating Albanians with minor
reforms.
Confronted by demonstrations that began in December 1990, Alia
announced that henceforth the Communist Party would cease to be the
only approved political party. The Democratic Party quickly constituted
itself, and opposition newspapers began to publish, although the Commu
nist Party of Labor retained control of radio and television. In February
1991, a crowd of 100,000 demonstrated in Tirana, pulling down a large
statue of former strongman Hoxha, who had died in 1985. In early March,
20,000 Albanians tried to force their way onto boats departing for Italy.
This event, which focused international attention on Albania, produced a
A Romanian prays for countrymen executed
on the orders of dictator Nicolae Ceau$escu