| Summary/Abstract |
CIVIL UNREST in Timişoara in December 1989 became the detonator in the explosive sociopolitical situation that had taken shape in Romania by the end of the 1980s. Nicolae Ceauşescu reacted in a resolute and uncompromising way - the disturbances had to be suppressed at any cost. They weren't an ordinary expression of discontent. There had been developments in Romania's neighborhood that were endangering the country's leadership: in the Soviet Union perestroika was gaining momentum with its new wave of revisions of the past, including the roles of former leaders, and setting a bad example to communist parties in other countries.
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