|
|
Nicolae Ceausescu
Dictator
![]()
Nicolae Ceausescu was the leader of Communist Romania from 1965 until shortly before his execution in 1989 after a countrywide revolt. Initially, Ceausescu was a popular figure in Romania, due to his independent foreign policy, challenging the supremacy of the Soviet Union in Romania. In 1966, Ceausescu placed a sizeable tax on individuals over 25 that did not have children and gave many benefits to those who had five or ten children. By the late 1960s, the population began to swell, accompanied by rising poverty and increased homelessness in the urban areas. In turn, a new problem was created by uncontrollable child abandonment, which swelled the orphanage population and facilitated a rampant AIDS epidemic in the late 1980s - created by the regime's refusal to acknowledge the existence of the disease, and its unwillingness to allow for any HIV test to be carried out. Ceausescu also took on great amounts of debt from western countries that financially crippled Romania for years. Many in the country felt that Ceausescu ignored the financial and economical woes that befell Romania and this contributed to already growing tensions that lead to Ceausescu being forcibly removed from power.h
|
|