Vasile Milea

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Vasile Milea

Vasile Milea (born January 1, 1927 in Lereşti , Argeş district ; † December 22, 1989 in Bucharest ) was a Romanian politician , Chief of Staff of the Romanian Army ( Armata Română ) (1980-1985) and Romanian Defense Minister (1985-1989). With his suicide, he may have contributed to the fact that the army did not oppose the demonstrators in December 1989 and thus the Ceaușescu regime was overthrown.

career

Milea began his career at the Școala Militară de Ofițeri de Infanterie (military school for infantry officers). He was a member of the Romanian Communist Party (RKP) and became a senior general in the army. In 1980 the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu appointed him Chief of the General Staff . In 1985 he became Minister of Defense of Romania and thus a member of the RKP Politburo .

1989 revolution

Milea attracted international attention during the Romanian Revolution in 1989 . On December 21, after a speech by Ceausescu, riots broke out in Bucharest. Ceaușescu, who constantly distrusted the army, accused Milea of ​​refusing to give orders to put down the unrest in Bucharest. He had previously blamed Milea for the unrest in Timișoara and accused him of not having given the army any live ammunition. At the time , the army was more ready to fight .

On the morning of December 22, 1989, Ceaușescu probably called Milea to order him to disperse the people in the streets; Milea had just rejected General Iulian Vlad's proposal at 3 a.m. that same day . Shortly after 9 a.m., Milea informed his chief of staff that certain items were to be given to his grandchildren, after which he had a belt with a weapon brought to him. Shortly afterwards, Milea died in his office of a gunshot wound in the chest, which - even after a posthumous forensic investigation in spring 2005 - is commonly regarded as suicide. A Romanian doctoral student published the conviction that Milea wanted to shoot herself incapacitated due to great psychological and physical pressure; However, there is no evidence.

Ceaușescu had threatened to bring Milea to justice for his alleged failure. At the last meeting of the RKP's Politburo on December 22, 1989, Ceaușescu announced Milea's death. He described him as a "traitor" during the session. Milea's successor was his deputy Ilie Ceaușescu . However, he could no longer stop the military's defection from the regime.

consequences

It is unclear whether Milea opposed Ceaușescu and contributed to sparking the revolution through his behavior . The later Romanian minister of culture, Ion Caramitru, reported that on the morning of December 22nd he brought the news of Milea's alleged suicide to the commander of a tank unit at a central location in Bucharest. This caused the commander to switch sides. His tanks drove to the central television building and Caramitru with them. When they got there, Ceaușescu, his wife, and some bodyguards flew away from the roof of the building in a helicopter. Caramitru and other famous artists, including the poet Mircea Dinescu , went on the air and proclaimed the revolution.

Honors after his death

Boulevard General Vasile Milea, Bucharest, Sector 6

In numerous cities of Romania, e.g. B. in Ploieşti , Sibiu , Arad and Bucharest , streets were named after Vasile Milea.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Alex Mihai Stoenescu (December 20, 2011). Loviturile Securităţii care i-au fost fatale lui Ceauşescu. evz.ro
  2. ↑ a b c Flavius ​​Cristian Mărcău (2013). Revolution of 1989: Milea's Suicide. Annals of the " Constantin Brâncuși ", University of Târgu Jiu , Letter and Social Science Series (4/2013), pp. 96-99. "Academia Brâncuși" Publisher, ISSN 1844-6051 ( PDF file)
    Flavius ​​Cristian Mărcău (2011). Revolutia romana din decembrie 1989 (Chapter 3). Târgu Jiu : Academica Brancusi.
  3. ↑ Jeremy Bransten (1999): Romania: The Bloody Revolution in 1989: Chaos As The Ceausescus Are Executed
    Peter Siani-Davies (2007): The Romanian Revolution of December 1989 , ISBN 978-0801473890 , pp. 104 ff. ( Online )
personal data
SURNAME Milea, Vasile
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Romanian politician and general
DATE OF BIRTH January 1, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Lerești , Argeș County
DATE OF DEATH December 22, 1989
Place of death Bucharest