Kiss the Hand You Cannot Bite: The Rise and Fall of the Ceausescus

The 20th Century will forever be remembered as one of supreme cruelty, and few nations can speak to this better than those who fell beneath the Iron Curtain. Romania, a proud Eastern European nation with a mix of Italians, Bulgarians and Hungarians among the native peoples, was a centerpiece to this. At the close of WWII, Communist forces rose up in Romania and neighboring nations, installing a home-brewed oppression under the guidance and repression of the Soviet Union. Romania's Communist experience was punctuated by distinct periods, the worst of which was the Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu rule of the 1970s and '80s. With this background, Edward Behr does a fabulous job guiding the reader through a social and political history of Romania from its invasions of pre-1000 A.D., to the power-sharing rule under the Turks in later years, to the imported German royal family in the Industrialization of the latter 1800s. The nation was pulled in different directions by various interests - Hungarians, Transylvanians and Bessarabians (Moldovans) looking for dominion. Into this cauldron, Nicolae Ceausescu was born. Behr takes us through his childhood and upbringing, where the uneducated and unintelligent child was little more than a street thug who discovered, and followed without question, the Marxist-Leninist doctrine. He served powerful men within the Romanian Communist Party during the 'dark' years as a forbidden political party, was jailed for several years, and emerged at the end of WWII in the shadow of Romania's Communist rulers. His loyalty gained him titles, priviledge and eventually, the position of First Secretary. As Behr describes it, what began with hopes and indications of a break with Soviet doctrine, dissolved into Ceausescu's fascination with the cult of personality, his fear of betrayal, and Elena's pressures to keep them living at the peak while most Romanians suffered horrendously. This book is well-written, very readable and an excellent overview of the troubles Romania has faced. While there are several interview snippets with members of the Ceausescu regime, and indications that Behr was given access to files of the Securitate (the Romanian secret police), there is nothing in the way of documentation. However, I have no reason to doubt that Behr traveled repeatedly and extensively in researching his book. Here's hoping that future authors follow this up by providing details on the Romanian Communist central planning function, and its fundamental break with the economic reality of the country.

Released in 1991 by Villard, now out of print. There've been several books released on the Ceausescus so the reader may wonder how to distinguish them? KISS THE HAND YOU CANNOT BITE has much information on Ceausescu's early years (how he became what he was), and the best accounting I've yet read of his last days and hours before his capture and execution. Also interesting are all the former government officials who now condemn Ceausescu. One wonders, if so many opposed him, why did Ceausescu remain in power for so long? I think many of these officials are rewriting their own personal histories. By contrast, DOWNFALL: THE CEAUSESCUS AND THE ROMANIAN REVOLUTION by George Galloway and Bob Wylie, excels at recounting the events of '89 Revolution and the six months immeadiately following the revolution (e.g., the miner's revolt of June 1990, etc.). Excellent journalism, with a great many participants interviewed. RED HORIZONS by Pacepa is a "slice of life" of the Ceausescus that covers several months in 1978, when Ceausescu was at the peak of his world prestige. Very lurid details.

While there were many indications of severe economic and social problems in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union during the last five years of the 1980's, the sudden collapse of Communism caught nearly everyone by surprise. However, the most amazing thing was the incredible lack of blood that was shed during the transition from the "proletarian dictatorships" to some form of representative government. The only significant deaths occurred in Rumania, where the change was a coup within the leadership class rather than a popular revolt. Since it was a coup, Rumania was the only country where the former leader had to be killed, and Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu were executed very early in the coup. While this is a history of the Ceausescu regime, it is more so a history of Rumania in the twentieth century. It is an extensive probing of the national psyche, one that allowed a man to control more than was controlled in other east block countries while employing less terror. Although he was applauded in the west for his maverick stance regarding the Soviet line in Eastern Europe, Ceausescu was more of a buffoon than a leader, which is one of the primary reasons why the Soviet leadership allowed him so much leash. Despite enormous natural resources, Rumania is capable of feeding itself and has substantial oil reserves, by the 1980's it was the second poorest country in Europe, ahead of only Albania. Behr comes close to, but does not quite say that had Ceausescu been a capable leader, his challenging of the Soviet line would not have been tolerated and they would have engineered his removal. It is amazing to say that Rumania and the world would have been better off if the Soviets had simply had him assassinated. Furthermore, it most likely would have been applauded inside the country. In reading through the book, you cannot help but wonder how the Ceausescus were able to control the country for so long. Some form of opposition to the Communist leadership existed in the other Eastern block countries, but was almost totally absent in Rumania. The relentless and ridiculous praise heaped on the Ceausescus by everyone was a façade that everyone except the Ceausescus seemed to be aware of. Behr spends a great deal of time probing for the reasons for this, making some progress, but still not arriving at a satisfactory answer. Ceausescu has quite accurately been called a Communist Dracula, which is somewhat of an understatement. Dracula merely sucked the blood from his individual victims, while Ceausescu sucked the life essence from an entire nation. In this book, you learn what he did and at least some of the reasons why he was able to do it.

25 December 1989 may have been notable as the last Christmas of the 1980's, but the people in communist Romania got a much needed Christmas present they're likely never to forget. On that particular St. Nicholas's Day, Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu were executed by members of the National Salvation Front. Romania thus became the last of the Communist East bloc countries to fall, albeit violently. That's how the book begins, before going back in time and detailing Ceausescu's rise and fall.Ceausescu worked as a cobbler in his father-in-law's shop and was lousy. When asked by his father-in-law what he would do for a living, Ceausescu prophetically replied, "I won't need a trade. I'm going to be Romania's Stalin." Ceausescu did become Romania's Stalin, but the term Conducator comes from the title given to Ion Antonescu, the head of fascist Romania during World War II. Also, readers will learn that Ceausescu was Romania's third Communist leader, the others being Petru Grosz (1946-1948) and Gheorge Gheorgiu-Dej (1948-1965)There's also the usual historic background behind Romania from World War I, when it was ruled by the ineffectual but tyrannical King Carol. The rise of the RCP under Gheorge Gheorgiu-Dej in the 1930's, and Romania under the Axis-allied Iron Guard is covered. These are important, as Romania's rival communists began jockeying for power when the tide of the war began to turn. But being a high-ranking lackey for Gheorgiu-Dej helped Ceausescu when the former became the second Communist leader of Romania.There's also an unflattering look at Elena Ceausescu, nee Petrescu, who was a lousy student and whose doctorate in chemistry was gotten by bogus means--she didn't even know the formula for sulfuric acid. And some portion of the book includes the early career of Ion Iliescu, the man who succeeded Ceausescu as leader of Romania.One critical event that took place was the earthquake in 1977, which stimulated his desire for urban renewal and led him to destroy villages and churches--he was "perceived as an urban rapist, Dracula driving a bulldozer."I'll say here and now that at high school, I considered Ceausescu a hero, a maverick in the mold of Tito because he told the Soviet Union where to go, he and Tito condemned the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia, and he defied the Soviet-sponsored East bloc boycott of the LA Games, sending some hot-looking gymnasts by the way. He was seen as the "good communist" because of that, even when he was starving his own people by exporting food abroad, concentrating on enriching himself--in France, he and his people stole ashtrays, clocks, electric and phone wiring at the residence they had been staying at. This book reveals him to be quite the tyrant.Behr's book spawned a TV special aired on PBS, which I videotaped. Oh, and as for the title, it's taken from an old Romanian proverb of Turkish origin. Although Ceausescu and his wife are long gone, they left their mark on Romania the same way Stalin

The most chilling aspect of Kiss the Hand You Cannot Bite: The Rise and Fall of the Ceausescus is the small price the couples' sycophants exact for their souls. Edward Behr chronicles scientists, academicians, party functionaries, intellectuals, physicians, lawyers, and others who gladly que up to kiss the hands and other body parts of the first couple of the communist dictatorship of Romania. In exchange for their blind loyalty, these luminaries get little more than a pat on the head and a grip-and-grin photograph with their semi-literate leaders. As Behr notes, the phrase "banality of evil" applied particularly well to the Ceausescus. Of all the books written since the collapse of the communist bloc, this one best explains why dictators in Eastern Europe so seldom had to use armed force to remain in power. Material goods---and we are talking K-mart liquidation stuff here---bought the best and brightest in Romania, and physical and spiritual starvation kept the general populace weakened and at bay.By the time the Ceausescus meet their predictable ends, you don't know who to loathe the most, the co-dictators or their willing subjects. Perhaps it is unfair, but the fact that the most abusive elements of the Ceausescus police state remain to govern seems like some sort of Old Testament justice.Behr gives us what we will have to take in lieu of the equivalence of the de-Nazification of Eastern Europe: naked and ugly truth about the people who comprised the communist system.