Speech by Ceaușescu on August 21, 1968

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Palace Square in Bucharest on August 21, 1968
Ceaușescu during his speech

The speech of Ceausescu on 21 August 1968 was a public address by Nicolae Ceausescu , the Secretary General of the Romanian Communist Party and Chairman of the State Council of Romania , the invasion of the troops in which he Warsaw Pact into Czechoslovakia strongly condemned.

background

On the night of August 20-21, 1968 , troops from five Warsaw Pact states - the Soviet Union , Bulgaria , Hungary , (to a lesser extent) Eastern Germany and Poland - marched into Czechoslovakia to defend the reformist ideology of Alexander Dubček , the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia .

history

In his speech on August 21, Ceaușescu denounced the invasion in a public address in front of tens of thousands of people on what was then the main square in Bucharest as a show of solidarity for the Czechoslovaks and declared that the “invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops is a big mistake and a big mistake Threat to peace in Europe, to the fate of socialism in the world, and it is a day of shame for the international movement. "

Nicolae Ceaușescu appeared on the balcony of the government building with his hands raised in front of the cheering crowd. With him were members of the communist central committee. Paul Niculescu-Mizil read the communiqué on the Romanian talks.

At home and abroad, Ceaușescu's address was seen as a gesture of disobedience to the Soviet Union. The western states subsequently entered into closer political and economic relations with Romania. The US President Nixon and Ceaușescu visited each other in 1969, and Romania was accepted into the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank . Ceaușescu, who is described in the biography of Norbert Kunze as a "neo-Stalinist dictator", was considered the bearer of hope for the Western Europeans and the USA in the fight against communism for the following years.

The speech was also part of efforts by the communist elite in Bucharest after 1956 to liberate their party from Moscow. Ceaușescu's reaction had the appreciation of Romanian society, intellectuals and representatives of the working class. Ceaușescu cemented Romania's independent voice over the next two decades, especially after Ceaușescu encouraged the population to take up arms to counter a similar maneuver in his country. He received an enthusiastic initial reaction from many people who were by no means Communist and ready to enroll in the newly formed Paramilitary Patriotic Guards ( Romanian: Gărzile Patriotice ).

In Romania these events are referred to as the Ceauşescu apotheosis .

References and footnotes

  1. ↑ cf. Germany divided: Modernization> International developments: Prager Frühling (hdg.de) - accessed on October 17, 2019
  2. ^ William Totok: Prague Spring and Romania: The "hostile brother country" . In: The daily newspaper: taz . August 22, 2018, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed October 25, 2019]).
  3. ↑ Apoteoza lui Ceauşescu - August 21, 1968 (adevarul.ro) (“Invadarea Cehoslovaciei de către trupele Pactului de la Varşovia constituie o mare greşeală şi o ameninţare pentru pacea în Europa, pentru soarta socialismulea şîent interna ") - accessed October 17, 2019
  4. ↑ cf. Daily Report, Foreign Radio Broadcasts, Issues 161-165, United States. Central Intelligence Agency , H 2 - H 3 ( Text of Communique )
  5. ↑ cf. Romanian independence from Soviet leadership? (deutsche-einheit-leipzig.de) - accessed on October 17, 2019
  6. ↑ mdr.de: Dictator Nicolae Ceausescu: "Titan of the Titans" | MDR.DE. Retrieved October 25, 2019 .
  7. ↑ cf. Lavinia Betea, et al. (2009)
  8. ↑ Klaus Heitmann: Literatura panegirică în Secolul al XX-lea. Observaţii despre apoteoza lui Nicolae Ceauşescu . In: Philologica Jassyensia . tape IV , no. 1 (07) , 2008, ISSN  1841-5377 , pp. 35-48 ( ceeol.com [accessed October 25, 2019]).

literature

  • Lavinia Betea (coordinator); Cristina Diac; Florin-Răzvan Mihai; Ilarion Țiu: August 21, 1968: apoteoza lui Ceauşescu [21. August 1968: Ceauşescu's apotheosis]. Iași : Polirom, 2009. Istorii subterane , 5

Web links

Speech by Ceaușescus on August 21, 1968 (alternative names of the lemma)
Ceauşescu's speech on the invasion of Prague; Ceaușescu's speech on August 21, 1968