Speech of 21 August 1968

Main article: Ceaușescu's speech of 21 August 1968

Ceaușescu's speech of 21 August 1968 represented the apogee of Ceaușescu's rule.[22] It marked
the highest point in Ceaușescu's popularity, when he openly condemned the Warsaw Pact
invasion of Czechoslovakia.

President of the State Council

In office
9 December 1967 – 22 December 1989
 Ion Gheorghe Maurer
 Manea Mănescu
Prime Minister  Ilie Verdeț
 Constantin Dăscălescu

Preceded by Chivu Stoica

Succeeded by Office abolished
Additional positions
Personal details
26 January 1918
Born Scornicești, Olt County, Kingdom of
Romania
25 December 1989 (aged 71)
Died Târgoviște, Socialist Republic of
Romania
Cause of death Execution by firing squad
Ghencea Cemetery, Bucharest,
Resting place
Romania
Nationality Romanian
Romanian Communist Party (1932-
Political party
1989)
Elena Petrescu
Spouse(s)
(m. 1947; died 1989)
 Valentin
 Zoia
Children
 Nicu

Cult of personality
Known for Systematization
Austerity Policy
 Signature

July Theses

Main article: July Theses

Ceaușescu meeting with North Korean President Kim Il-sung in 1971

Ceaușescu visited China, North Korea, Mongolia and North Vietnam in 1971. He took great
interest in the idea of total national transformation as embodied in the programmes of North
Korea's Juche and China's Cultural Revolution. He was also inspired by the personality cults of
North Korea's Kim Il-sung and China's Mao Zedong. Journalist Edward Behr claimed that
Ceaușescu admired both Mao and Kim as leaders who not only totally dominated their nations,
but had also used totalitarian methods coupled with significant ultra-nationalism mixed in with
communism in order to transform both China and North Korea into major world powers.[23]
Furthermore, that Kim and even more so Mao had broken free of Soviet control were additional
sources of admiration for Ceaușescu. According to Behr, Elena Ceaușescu allegedly bonded with
Mao's wife, Jiang Qing.[23] The British journalist wrote that the possibility that what Ceaușescu
had seen in both China and North Korea were "vast Potemkin villages for the hoodwinking of
gullible foreign guests" was something that never seemed to have crossed his mind.[23] Shortly
after returning home, he began to emulate North Korea's system. North Korean books on Juche
were translated into Romanian and widely distributed inside the country.[24]

On 6 July 1971, he delivered a speech before the Executive Committee of the Romanian
Communist Party. This quasi-Maoist speech, which came to be known as the July Theses,
contained seventeen proposals. Among these were: continuous growth in the "leading role" of
the Party; improvement of Party education and of mass political action; youth participation on
large construction projects as part of their "patriotic work"; an intensification of political-
ideological education in schools and universities, as well as in children's, youth and student
organizations; and an expansion of political propaganda, orienting radio and television shows to
this end, as well as publishing houses, theatres and cinemas, opera, ballet, artists' unions,
promoting a "militant, revolutionary" character in artistic productions. The liberalization of 1965
was condemned and an index of banned books and authors was re-established.
The Theses heralded the beginning of a "mini cultural revolution" in Romania, launching a Neo-
Stalinist offensive against cultural autonomy, reaffirming an ideological basis for literature that,
in theory, the Party had hardly abandoned. Although presented in terms of "Socialist
Humanism", the Theses in fact marked a return to the strict guidelines of Socialist Realism, and
attacks on non-compliant intellectuals. Strict ideological conformity in the humanities and social
sciences was demanded. Competence and aesthetics were to be replaced by ideology;
professionals were to be replaced by agitators; and culture was once again to become an
instrument for political-ideological propaganda and hardline measures.[citation needed] In a 1972
speech, Ceaușescu stated he wanted " a certain blending of party and state activities...in the long
run we shall witness an ever closer blending of the activities of the party, state and other social
bodies. In practice, a number of joint party-state organizations were founded such as the Council
for Socialist Education and Culture, which had no precise counterpart in any of the other
communist states of Eastern Europe, and the Romanian Communist Party was embedded into the
daily life of the nation in a way that it never had been before. In 1974, the party programme of
the Romanian Communist Party announced that structural changes in society were insufficient to
create a full socialist consciousness in the people, and that a full socialist consciousness could
only come about if the entire population was made aware of socialist values that guided society.
The Communist Party was to be the agency that would so "enlighten" the population and in the
words of the British historian Richard Crampton "...the party would merge state and society, the
individual and the collective, and would promote 'the ever more organic participation of party
members in the entire social life'".[25]

Doua secvente semnifi cati ve pentru tema dramei sunt: cea din tabloul al II-lea, in care
Ionagaseste un cutit, semn al libertatii de actiune si comenteaza lipsa de vigilenta a chitului, apoi
recomandaca “ar trebui sa se puna un gratar la intrare in orice suflet”, simbolizand ideea ca este
necesara o selectierelationala a lucrurilor importante in viata. A doua secventa este cea in care Iona se
sinucide. Solutia deiesire pe care o gaseste semnifica evadarea din propria carcera, din propriul destin,
din propria captivitate.D r a m a s e t e r m i n a c u r e p l i c a c e s u g e r e a z a i n c r e d e r e a p e c a r e
i - o d a r e g a s i r e a s i n e l u i , c u n a o s t e r e a  propriilor capacitati de actiune, concluzionand ca “ e
greu sa fii singur” si simbolizand un nou inceput.Iona, personaj principal si eponim, pescar pasionat,
intruchipeaza omul obisnuit ce nazuieste in viata sprelibertate, aspiratie si iluzie,idealurile simbolizate
de marea care-l fascineaza. El inceara sa-si controlezedestinul, sa-l refaca. Gestul sinuciderii si simbolul
luminii din final sunt o incercare de impacare a omuluisingur cu omenirea intreaga , o salvare prin
cunoasterea de sine, ca forta purificatoare a spiritului, ca o primenire sufleteasca.Un alt element
semnific

Doua secvente semnifi cati ve pentru tema dramei sunt: cea din tabloul al II-lea, in care
Ionagaseste un cutit, semn al libertatii de actiune si comenteaza lipsa de vigilenta a chitului, apoi
recomandaca “ar trebui sa se puna un gratar la intrare in orice suflet”, simbolizand ideea ca este
necesara o selectierelationala a lucrurilor importante in viata. A doua secventa este cea in care Iona se
sinucide. Solutia deiesire pe care o gaseste semnifica evadarea din propria carcera, din propriul destin,
din propria captivitate.D r a m a s e t e r m i n a c u r e p l i c a c e s u g e r e a z a i n c r e d e r e a p e c a r e
i - o d a r e g a s i r e a s i n e l u i , c u n a o s t e r e a  propriilor capacitati de actiune, concluzionand ca “ e
greu sa fii singur” si simbolizand un nou inceput.Iona, personaj principal si eponim, pescar pasionat,
intruchipeaza omul obisnuit ce nazuieste in viata sprelibertate, aspiratie si iluzie,idealurile simbolizate
de marea care-l fascineaza. El inceara sa-si controlezedestinul, sa-l refaca. Gestul sinuciderii si simbolul
luminii din final sunt o incercare de impacare a omuluisingur cu omenirea intreaga , o salvare prin
cunoasterea de sine, ca forta purificatoare a spiritului, ca o primenire sufleteasca.Un alt element
semnific