Original version

BBC World Service South Asia

The Documentary

Documentaries

Factual

Investigating global developments, issues and affairs.

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service East Asia

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

The Documentary: Romania’s revolution 30 years on

Romania’s Revolution 30 years On

18/12/2019 GMT

Romania’s revolution 30 years on

BBC World Service - The Documentary, Romania’s revolution 30 years on

How has Romania moved on from its totalitarian past?

Thirty years after Dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena were executed on Christmas day, Tessa Dunlop looks back at the violent birth of post-Communist Romania and asks if it has shaken off the legacy of decades of ruthless totalitarianism.
The violence of the Romanian Revolution marked its difference from the other former Eastern European communist states which were swept away by largely peaceful pro-democracy movements born after the fall of the Berlin wall. In Romania, hundreds died in bloody protests as the regime’s grisly endgame was played out across the world’s media.
 
Now, 30 years later, we revisit the hope and trauma behind the December revolution. What has changed, and how well has Romania come to terms with its past?



(Photo: Romanian waving flag over Bucharest Square. Credit: Peter Turnley/Corbis/VCG/Getty Images)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Documentary

Romania’s revolution 30 years on

Genres

Brand

BBC World Service South Asia

About BBC World Service