When Romania Executed Its Dictator on Live TV

It's the middle of December 1989. We're in the Palace Square in Bucharest and it's nearly freezing. Over 50,000 people have been brought here.

Many were taken straight from schools or their workplaces. Some have been standing in the cold for more than 5 hours, and they're all waiting for one man, Nikolai Chowescu. For 24 years, he's ruled Romania with an iron fist.

A few days earlier, protests broke out in Timishora after a local priest criticized Chaoscu. When locals resisted his arrest, Chowoescu's soldiers opened fire. Now news have spread and protests are erupting across the country.

Desperate to restore his image, Chowoescu calls for a mass rally in Bucharest to be broadcast live on national television. It'll be the biggest mistake of his life. Chowoescu steps out onto the balcony as he waves to the audience to the sound of almost deafening cheers.

But something's off. Almost everyone in the crowd is standing completely still except for a few people in the front rows. The cheering is fake.

It's actually a pre-recorded track blasting from huge speakers around the square. Then Chaosu starts his speech. And at first things seem to be going rather well.

But then just as he's in the middle of thanking the organizers of the rally, screams can be heard from somewhere back in the crowd. This is not part of the pre-recorded track. Someone is shooting, his wife Elena shouts.

They're entering the building. his security guard says. Off camera, demonstrators have broken through barriers and are heading toward the central committee building right where Chiaoescu is standing.

The cameraman has had specific instructions to point it toward the sky if something unexpected happens. The demonstrators are now directly below Chiaoescu and both him and Elena are shouting at them, telling them to stay back. This is a provocation, Nikolai says to himself as he and his wife continue to shout at the demonstrators.

Somehow, the security guards actually managed to push the crowd back behind the barriers. But it's too late. And even as Chiaoescu continues his speech by announcing sudden wage increases and higher pensions, after the speech ends, many in the crowd refuse to go home.

They've had enough of the lies, the repression, and of Chowoescu. They spread through Bucharest, shouting things like, "Down with Chowoescu," and calling for freedom. And when Chowoescu hears of this, he's outraged.

Still in Bucharest, he orders tanks, soldiers, and his very own secret police to crush the protests by any means necessary. And so they do. Protesters are shot in the streets and those who've barricaded themselves are hit by snipers positioned on top of many of the buildings.

By morning, there's so much blood in the streets that the military needs to hose it with huge water cannons just to get it off the asphalt. Meanwhile, Chiaoescu is still in Bucharest and he's relieved. He's convinced that the uprising has been crushed.

Surely now everything will be back to normal, he tells his wife Elena. But he's wrong. Before dawn, the first reports come in that massive columns of workers are leaving their factories and heading toward the city center.

And something's changed. The soldiers and police sent out to control them suddenly refuse to shoot and actually join the protesters instead. Chiaoescu immediately holds a crisis meeting with the remaining members of the Communist Party's pilot bureau in the central committee building.

At the same time, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators now surround the central committee headquarters and they're starting to break in. With protesters minutes away from reaching their offices, Chiaoescu orders his pilot to bring a helicopter to the roof. Both Nikolai and Elena are visibly shaken and have to be carried aboard by their bodyguards.

Their faces are completely drained of color. Together with two senior officials and two bodyguards, they squeeze into the helicopter and take off minutes before the protesters reach the rooftop. The pilot immediately heads toward Chaoscu's residence in Snagoff, north of the city.

Here, Nikolai desperately tries to summon military assistance and orders the pilot to get two helicopters with soldiers as an escort. The answer from the other end, however, is clear. They're on their own.

No one's coming to help. The pilot convinces the Chaoscus to take off again quickly, leaving the two officials behind to lighten the load. Nikolai instructs the pilot to fly toward the western city of Tetu, hoping to reach a loyal garrison.

But suddenly a message crackles over the radio. All flights are grounded. Any unidentified aircraft will be shot down.

And so they have to land. The pilot puts them down by a road between Bucharest and Targov. And with that, the Chowosescus now find themselves on their own with just two security guards.

After a while, they managed to hijack a passing car, a bicycle mechanic, who drives them toward the town of Turvishe. On the way, the Chowoescus listen in horror as the car radio plays a news report about the uprising's victory in Bucharest. The bicycle mechanic, Petraaw, suggests they hide at an agricultural institute on the outskirts of the city.

When they arrive, the institute director shoves the couple into a room and locks the door, trapping them inside. Shortly after, local police arrest both Chiaoescus and hand them over to a nearby military barracks in the city for the next few days. The new government is determined to bring both to trial as quickly as possible.

And so, the day after their capture, ICU, the new head of state, signs a decree establishing an extraordinary military tribunal to be carried out immediately at the barracks where they're held. Here they're accused of genocide, of destroying the country's economy, and attempting to flee with over $1 billion in foreign banks. As their crimes are read to them, Nikolai simply [Music] laughs.

The trial is brief and largely for show. It lasts about 2 hours and takes place without any real possibility for defense or appeal. Jaoescu himself refuses to recognize the court and calls it illegal, but it doesn't matter.

The tribunal finds both him and Elena guilty. The sentence for both is death by firing squad, and the execution will happen immediately. Straight away, Nicolay tries to appeal the decision, but he's denied.

Before being led out of the room, Nikolai turns to the guards and says he wants to be executed alongside Elena. They accept. Meanwhile, a soldier returns with rope to tie their hands, but neither Nikolai nor Elena wants to be restrained.

Both argue with the soldiers, saying there's no need for it and that they're not going to run, but again, they're denied. [Music] They're then led out into the courtyard and placed against a wall to the barracks. Elena begins to scream insults at the execution squad in rage.

Other accounts say that she starts crying. Nikolai, on the other hand, remains relatively calm in his final seconds and begins singing the first line of the International, the workers international battle song. [Music] The very next day, Romanian television shows footage of the two bodies at the foot of the barracks wall as final proof that the Chowoescus are gone.

In May 1990, Romania held its first free elections since 1937. Over the next two decades, it joined NATO, entered the European Union, and began rebuilding.