Brasov uprising

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The uprising of Brașov on November 15, 1987 was an uprising of around 20,000 workers in the city of Brașov ( Kronstadt in German  ) and was directed against the economic policy of Nicolae Ceaușescu in communist Romania .

Political situation

Brașov, located in southeastern Transylvania , was the most industrially developed city in Romania , with over 61 percent of the city's workforce working in the local industry. In the 1960s, the government had settled Moldovan farmers here , from which a skilled workforce had developed along with other local residents. The city's workers felt the industrial decline in Eastern Europe particularly hard in the mid-1980s.

With Nicolae Ceaușescu's plans for drastic debt reduction from the beginning of 1982, funds intended for food production and distribution were diverted to pay debts in the West . As a result, the most important food and consumer goods were rationed, resulting in long queues for most basic foods.

In addition, there were other goals such as reducing energy consumption and wages, which led to great dissatisfaction among the population. As early as November 1986 there was an uprising in Cluj-Napoca and in February 1987 in Nicolina near Iași . In this climate of economic depression with energy and food shortages, the Brașov uprising broke out on November 15, 1987.

Course of the uprising

The uprising began on the morning of November 15, a Sunday, in the Intreprinderea Autocamionul Brașov (IABv.) Steagul Roșu ( German  Red Flag ) truck combine . The party officials had planned that at the end of the shift, instead of going home, the workers on the night shift would cast their vote in the People's Council election.

The protests against this quickly turned into a demonstration against the company management and the regime. More than 1,500 workers, already angry because of the impending wage cuts and the planned abolition of 15,000 jobs in the city, marched towards the city center and were welcomed from all sides on the way. The local police initially held the train for a Pro-Ceaușescu demonstration and did not intervene, as Nicolae Ceaușescu was in town at the time to vote.

The demonstrators first loudly demanded wage increases, then shouted slogans like Down with Ceaușescu! , Down with communism! and sang patriotic songs from the time of the Romanian Revolution of 1848 such as Down with the dictatorship and We want bread . More than 20,000 workers from the Hidromecanica tractor factory and a number of other Brașov residents joined the march.

4,000 people then occupied and looted the town hall and the party offices. The protesters were particularly angry about the festively prepared official buildings, which were stocked with plenty of food to celebrate the upcoming election victory, at a time of austerity and a food shortage that had brought Romania the fourth winter in a row. In the town square, a large fire was kindled from party documents, propaganda materials and Ceaușescu portraits, which burned for hours.

The police and Securitate forces were only able to suppress the revolt with tear gas and water cannons after six hours at dusk, supported by armored personnel carriers. The news of the riots did not spread in the country until later, and when Radio Free Europe reported, it was too late to jump over to other cities. Although there were no fatalities, around 300 protesters (other sources speak of around "400 ringleaders") were arrested, of which, according to unofficial reports, around half belonged to the German minority . For fear of further uprisings, the prisoners were taken to prisons in Bucharest . It was not until weeks later, when the repression had taken hold, that the uprising was briefly reported as “vandalism” and so-called “isolated cases of hooliganism”, which resulted in relatively mild prison sentences of no more than two years. Of the approximately 300 participants in this uprising, 61 were arrested for six months to three years and relocated to different cities in the country such as Filiași , Târgoviște , Brăila or Bârlad . Various forms of harassment were also inflicted on their wives.

consequences

Although the Brasov uprising did not immediately lead to a revolution, it was a heavy blow to the Ceaușescu regime. The historian Dennis Deletant described the revolt as "Ceaușescu ignored warning signs about the growing dissatisfaction in the workforce" and criticized "his blind rush with the same economic measures, apparently indifferent to their consequences". The events cast their shadows on the Romanian Revolution in 1989 , which two years later led to the overthrow and execution of Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife Elena, and to the end of the real socialist system in Romania .

literature

In English:

  • Thomas J. Keil: The State and Labor Conflict in Post-Revolutionary Romania. Radical History Review, Issue 82 (Winter 2002), pp. 9-36.
  • Timur Kuran: Now Out of Never: The Element of Surprise in the East European Revolution of 1989. In: World Politics. Vol. 44, No. 1. (October 1991), pp. 7-48.
  • Daniel Nelson: The Worker and Political Alienation in Communist Europe. In: Polity Journal. Vol. 10, No. 3, 1978, pp. 1-12.
  • Vladimir Socor: The Workers' Protest in Brașov: Assessment and Aftermath. In: Romania Background Report 231. Radio Free Europe Research, December 4, 1987, pp. 3-10.

In Romanian:

  • Ruxandra Cesereanu: Decembrie '89. Deconstrucția unei revoluții. Ediția a II-a revăzută și adăugită, Editura Polirom, 2009, ISBN 978-973-46-1263-5 , pp. 23–43.
  • Marius Oprea, Stejărel Olaru: Ziua care nu se uită. 15 noiembrie 1987, Brașov. Editura Polirom, 2002, ISBN 973-681-136-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bianca Ioniță: 15 noiembrie 1987 - ziua în care Braşovul a cântat “Deşteaptă-te, române!” Radio România, November 15, 2014, accessed on September 24, 2019 (Romanian).