Ceauşescu, Nicolae (1918–1989)

Romanian politician, leader of the Romanian Communist Party (RCP), in power from 1965 to 1989. He pursued a policy line independent of and critical of the USSR. He appointed family members, including his wife Elena Ceauşescu (1919–1989), to senior state and party posts, and governed in an increasingly repressive manner, zealously implementing schemes that impoverished the nation. The Ceauşescus were overthrown in a bloody revolutionary coup in December 1989 and executed on Christmas Day that year.

Ceauşescu joined the underground RCP in 1933 and was imprisoned for antifascist activities 1936–38 and 1940–44. After World War II he was elected to the Grand National Assembly and was soon given ministerial posts. He was inducted into the party secretariat and Politburo in 1954–55. In 1965 he became leader of the RCP and from 1967 chair of the state council. He was elected president in 1974. As revolutionary changes rocked Eastern Europe in 1989, protests in Romania escalated until the Ceauşescu regime was toppled. After his execution, the full extent of his repressive rule and personal extravagance became public.