Nicolae Ceausescu

Nicolae Ceausescu, was the leader of Romania from 1965 until he was overthrown and killed in the revolution of 1989. Early in his life he played an active role in the Communist party, which resulted in imprisonment in 1936 and 1940. In 1939 he married another highly devoted Communist, Elena Petrescu. Once the Communists fully gained power in Romania in 1947, Ceausescu headed the nation's ministry of agriculture and served as deputy minister of the armed forces.

Eventually he rose up to the second highest position in the party, holding important posts in the Politburo and Secretariat. After GheorghiuDej's death in 1965, Ceausescu became the leader of the state and president of the State Council. In the 1960s he ended Romania's participation in the Warsaw Pact and condemned the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union.

After becoming President in 1974, Ceausescu began to run the country in a militant fashion. His secret police held tight control of free speech and the media. In 1982 he ordered most of Romania's products to be exported in order to pay off a ballooned foreign debt due to his mismanagement. The lack of agricultural and industrial resources crippled the country and the lack of medicine, food, energy, and other basic necessities drove the people to the brink of starvation, while the Ceausescu's outrageous consumption continued unabated.

The population finally rebelled when Ceausescu ordered his forces to fire on anti-government demonstrators in Timisoara. On December 22, 1989 he and his wife were captured and on Christmas Day they were both executed by a firing squad.