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Download The Romanian Revolution of December 1989 ePub

by Peter Siani-Davies

ISBN 0801473896
ISBN13 978-0801473890
Language English
Author Peter Siani-Davies
Publisher Cornell University Press (February 1, 2007)
Pages 328
Formats doc lit mbr mobi
Category Different
Subcategory Humanities
Size ePub 1753 kb
Size Fb2 1705 kb
Rating: 4.2
Votes: 807

The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was the most spectacularly violent and remains today the most controversial of all the East European upheavals of that year. Despite (or perhaps because of) the media attention the revolution received, it remains shrouded in mystery. How did the seemingly impregnable Ceausescu regime come to be toppled so swiftly and how did Ion Iliescu and the National Salvation Front come to power? Was it by coup d'état? Who were the mysterious "terrorists" who wreaked such havoc on the streets of Bucharest and the other major cities of Romania? Were they members of the notorious securitate? What was the role of the Soviet Union?Blending narrative with analysis, Peter Siani-Davies seeks to answer these and other questions while placing the events and their immediate aftermath within a wider context. Based on fieldwork conducted in Romania and drawing heavily on Romanian sources, including television and radio transcripts, official documents, newspaper reports, and interviews, this book is the most thorough study of the Romanian Revolution that has appeared in English or any other major European language.Recognizing that a definitive history of these events may be impossible, Siani-Davies focuses on the ways in which participants interpreted the events according to particular scripts and myths of revolution rooted in the Romanian historical experience. In the process the author sheds light on the ways in which history and the conflicting retellings of the 1989 events are put to political use in the transitional societies of Eastern Europe.

Peter Siani-Davies, utilizing a wide variety of Romanian sources, has written a detailed history of the revolution that .

Peter Siani-Davies, utilizing a wide variety of Romanian sources, has written a detailed history of the revolution that brought the overthrow of the Communist government in Romania and the execution of Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena on Christmas Day, 1989. Here is a remarkable portal to a crossroad in contemporary politics for Romanian aficionados and Cold War history buffs. In this academic yet approachable text, Siani-Davies presents the events of December 1989 from the view of the streets to the impressions of the international community.

The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was the mo. . His thorough coverage of the bloody downfall of the Ceauşescu regime is most telling in that the actual identity of the "oppressing" forces that shot down unarmed civilians standing against them and committed acts of "terror" throughout the nation during the weeks of the revolution still remains unclear.

This unsettled memory is an indirect topic of Peter Siani-Davies's book.

The Romanian Revolution of December 1989. This unsettled memory is an indirect topic of Peter Siani-Davies's book. One of his main questions is whether the events of December 1989 and January 1990 can be classified as a revolution. The sparsity of his sources is not astonishing, since most primary sources are still off limits to the public.

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Title:-The Romanian Revolution of December 1989.

The Revolutions of 1989 formed part of a revolutionary wave in the late 1980s and early 1990s that resulted in the end of communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe and beyond

The Revolutions of 1989 formed part of a revolutionary wave in the late 1980s and early 1990s that resulted in the end of communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe and beyond. The period is sometimes called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of Nations, a play on the term Spring of Nations that is sometimes used to describe the Revolutions of 1848. The events of the full-blown revolution began in Poland in 1989 and continued in Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Romania.

The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was the most spectacularly violent and remains today the most controversial . What was the role of the Soviet Union? Blending narrative with analysis, Peter Siani-Davies seeks to answer these and other questions while placing the events and their immediate aftermath within a wider context. Siani-Davies has reconstructed the rush of events during these three revolutionary weeks literally hour by hour.

MORE BY Robert Legvold. September/October 2005. The Romanian Revolution of December 1989. By Peter Siani-Davies. The effect is to draw the reader in as if he or she were there, while at the same time soaring above and viewing the overall flow and structure of a revolution. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005. From the publisher: The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was the most spectacularly violent and remains today the most controversial of all the East European upheavals of that year. How did the seemingly impregnable Ceausescu regime come to be toppled so swiftly and how did Ion Iliescu and the National Salvation Front come to power? Was it by coup d’etat?

Talk about The Romanian Revolution of December 1989

Vojar

I was in Romania in October 1999, nearly a decade after the Revolution, in Timişoara where the revolution began as a protest against the eviction of the dissident priest, László Tőkés, on December 15, 1989. I walked with Romanians who lived there when it happened and listened to courageous stories of Christians who came out of their homes offering portions of their scarce food to the Army of the regime tasked with putting the people down. "Why would you shoot your own people?" they would ask while serving young, scared conscripts sandwiches. Until I read this book, I had no idea how confusing things were on the ground and the grandstanding balconies of the uprising that rinsed the Ceauşescu's from Romania in a stream of blood.

In this academic yet approachable text, Siani-Davies presents the events of December 1989 from the view of the streets to the impressions of the international community. His thorough coverage of the bloody downfall of the Ceauşescu regime is most telling in that the actual identity of the "oppressing" forces that shot down unarmed civilians standing against them and committed acts of "terror" throughout the nation during the weeks of the revolution still remains unclear. Also enlightening is the exposure of the difficulty of a nation coming out of Neo-Stalinist Marxism into some form of free market democracy.

I highly recommend this work for anyone interested in this period of Romanian history and a desire for greater understanding of Eastern Europe.

Weetont

Any event that is as chaotic as the 1989 Romanian Revolution is difficult to cover simply because there were so many different things going on in so many different places. Unlike the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, which had a single planned goal, the one in Romania seemed to have multiple goals that sprang up somewhat spontaneously.

The book does an excellent job of trying to discuss the many various parts of the turmoil, devoting most of its attention to the events in Bucharest before, during, and immediately after December 1989. It did this effectively within the constraints of the book's 315 pages. The book's concluding chapters deal with the founding of the NSF (National Salvation Front) in the midst of the hectic days just before Christmas 1989.

In my personal opinion, the NSF was simply a rehash of the old communism that the people who participated in the revolution were attempting to overthrow. Communism didn't die with the revolution nor with the execution of its dictator (Ceausescu). It simply grew a new head. But the book shows the sometimes amazing strength of the Romanian spirit to overcome the injustices visited upon them by their leaders.

Runemane

I was 11 years old during the revolution and I vividly recall standing next to my father in the public square in front of our town's communist party headquarters on December 22 or 23. Since then, I've read about a handful of book-length accounts of the revolution, though only in Romanian. I was pleased to find this work on Amazon, as most other English-language treatments of the events seem to be found only in academic journals or are otherwise difficult to obtain.

The book's seven chapters deal with: the general picture of Romanian society in the 1980's (1), the spark and initial days of the revolution (2), the street fighting that occurred after the Ceausescus' flight (3), the thorny issues of who caused the deadly fighting and whether any political conspiracies triggered the revolution (4), the establishment of a new political regime and its many fractures (5 and 6), and a theoretical discussion of how to categorize and write about the events of late '89-early '90 in Romania.

The author keeps a balanced stance throughout (which is particularly important in treating this subject, as more than half of Romanians nowadays do not consider that a "true" revolution took place in '89 and a variety of descriptions of the events are in circulation). The account of the events of the revolution themselves (chapters 2 and 3) make for a particularly stick-to-the-facts, yet lively, read. All in all, the book provides a great overview of the revolution and all of its social and political aspects, and pays particular attention to those thorny issues that are, as of yet, unresolved for the vast majority of Romanians.

But I deducted two stars from the book's rating because the author doesn't bring anything new to the table: he doesn't uncover any new findings, doesn't conduct any new interviews, and generally doesn't seem to be interested in conducting original research into any of the actions and events that have remained unexplained or uncertain. For a history of events that occurred only twenty years ago, there is a disappointing absence of primary sources or original evidence. Furthermore, it is unclear what audience the author had in mind, as chapters 1, 5, 6, and 7 are often jargon-heavy, whereas chapters 2 and 3 have a very narrative flow to them. In trying to appeal to both general and academic audiences, I'm not convinced that the book will please either.

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