Lonely Planet Romania & Bulgaria

by Lonely Planet

  Along with bugged phones and recorded conversations there were strict curfews. Few of the dictator's sinister schemes were more frightening than the pro-birth campaign, designed to increase the working population from 23 to 30 million. In 1966 it was decreed: 'The fetus is the property of the entire society…' A celibacy tax was charged on offenders with up to 10% of their monthly wages docked until they had children. Romania's birth rate predictably swelled, with the country's infant-mortality rate soaring to 83 deaths in every 1000 births. Women under the age of 45 were rounded up at their workplaces and examined for signs of pregnancy (in the presence of government agents – dubbed the 'menstrual police'). Many fled to Hungary, leaving a legacy of millions of hungry orphans – many with serious developmental problems – to the outrage of the international community when the story broke in 1990.

  The Securitate (Secret Police) was Ceauşescu's chief instrument and it ruled with an iron hand, proliferating paranoia and fear, delivering torture and threatening to place people on its infamous 'blacklist'. Estimates suggest that as many as one person in 30 had been recruited as a Securitate by the 1980s – many Romanians couldn't trust their own families for fear of them being informers. Worse still, many of them were children. In March 1987 Ceauşescu embarked on 'Systematisation', a rural urbanisation program that would see the total destruction of 8000 villages (mainly in Transylvania) and the resettlement of their (mainly Hungarian) inhabitants into ugly apartment blocks.

  For an in-depth look at Romania since communism, check out Tom Gallagher’s Modern Romania: The End of Communism, the Failure of Democratic Reform, and the Theft of a Nation (2008).

  The 1989 Revolution

  In late 1989, as the world watched the collapse of one communist regime after another, it seemed only a matter of time before Romania’s turn would come. The Romanian revolution was carried out with Latin passion and intensity – of all the Soviet bloc countries, only Romania experienced a government transfer that ended with a dead leader. The spark that ignited Romania occurred on 15 December 1989 when Father László Tökés publicly condemned the dictator from his Hungarian church in Timişoara, prompting the Reformed Church of Romania to remove him from his post. Police attempts to arrest demonstrating parishioners failed and within days the unrest had spread across the city, leading to some 115 deaths. Ceauşescu proclaimed martial law in Timiş County and dispatched trainloads of troops to crush the rebellion. The turning point came on 19 December when the army in Timişoara went over to the side of the demonstrators.

  On 21 December, anti-Ceauşescu demonstrators in Bucharest interrupted an address by Ceauşescu to a mass rally intended to shore up support for the dictator. They booed and shouted ‘Timişoara!’. This moment is often seen as the decisive turning point in the country. The demonstrators retreated to the wide boulevard between Piaţa Universităţii and Piaţa Romană – only to be crushed a couple of hours later by police gunfire and armoured cars. Drenched by ice-cold water from fire hoses, they refused to submit, erecting barricades, under the eyes of Western journalists in the adjacent Hotel Inter-Continental. At 11pm the police began their assault using a tank to smash through the barricades, and by dawn the square had been cleared of debris and the corpses of insurgents. Estimates vary, but at least 1033 were killed.

  The following morning thousands more demonstrators took to the streets, and a state of emergency was announced. Around noon Ceauşescu reappeared briefly on the balcony of the Central Committee building to try to speak again, only to be forced to flee by helicopter from the roof of the building. Ceauşescu and his wife Elena were arrested near Târgovişte and taken to a military base there. On 25 December, they were condemned by an anonymous court and executed by a firing squad. Footage of the Ceauşescu family’s luxury apartments broadcast on TV showed pure-gold food scales in the kitchen and rows of diamond-studded shoes in Elena’s bedroom.

  While these events had all the earmarks of a people’s revolution, many scholars have advanced the notion that they were just as much the result of a coup d’état: the Communist Party, tired of having to bow down to Ceauşescu, had been planning an overthrow for months. Communist bystanders quickly came to power following Ceauşescu’s fall, calling themselves the ‘National Salvation Front’ (FSN). Not until 2004 did Romania have a president who was not a former high-ranking communist.

  The Securitate was finally abolished in late 1989, after Ceauşescu was ousted, leaving behind a damaging footprint of paranoia and mistrust that is still not entirely gone from the Romanian psyche today.

  Attempts at Democracy

  The years immediately following the revolution were rocky and the future was uncertain. The National Salvation Front took immediate control of the country. In May 1990 it won the first democratic elections since 1946, placing Ion Iliescu, a Communist Party member since the age of 14, at the helm as president. Protests ensued, but Iliescu sent in 20,000 coal miners to violently quash them. Iliescu was nonetheless re-elected in 1992 as the head of a coalition government under the banner of the Party of Social Democracy. New name, same policies. Market reforms remained nowhere in sight. In 1993 subsidies on food, transportation and energy were scrapped, prompting higher prices and widespread unemployment.

  Iliescu was ousted in the 1996 presidential elections by an impoverished populace, who ushered in Emil Constantinescu, leader of the right-of-centre election alliance Democratic Convention of Romania (CDR), as president. Constantinescu’s reform-minded government made entry into NATO and the European Union (EU) its stated priorities, together with fast-paced structural economic reform, the fight against corruption and improved relations with Romania’s neighbours, especially Hungary.

  Scandal and corruption surrounded the November 2000 electoral race. In May of that year the National Fund for Investment (NFI) collapsed. Thousands of investors – mainly pensioners who’d deposited their life savings into the government fund – took to the streets to demand their cash back (US$47.4 million, long squandered by the NFI).

  After Constantinescu refused to run in the 2000 elections, Iliescu retook the helm as the country’s president and his Social Democrat Party (PSD) formed a minority government, with Adrian Nastase as prime minister. The 2004 elections were marred by accusations of electoral fraud, and there were two rounds of voting before centre-right politician and former Bucharest mayor Traian Băsescu was announced the winner, with 51% of the vote. The PNL (National Liberal Party) leader, Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu, became prime minister and swore in a new coalition that excluded the PSD.

  The government’s main goal, aside from addressing the many domestic issues, was integration with international bodies, most notably the EU. In 2002 Romania was invited to join NATO. Romania (and Bulgaria) finally joined the EU in 2007, their membership having been delayed by Romania’s record of organised crime, corruption and food safety. Brussels would continue to be a big supporter of Romania’s EU cause, granting billions of euros towards infrastructure, business development, environmental protection and social services.

  Băsescu re-nominated the leader of the Democratic Liberal party, Emil Boc, as prime minister in December 2009, following which a coalition government of the Democrat Liberals and the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) was formed. Boc resigned in 2012 after street protests and increasing pressure from the opposition to call early elections. He was followed briefly by Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu, who was later trounced by Victor Ponta, leader of the Social Democratic Party, who formed a coalition with the National Liberal Party.

  Following spats between factions in the Romanian government in 2012, the EU postponed Romania’s bid to join the group's visa-free Schengen Zone.

  Trouble at the Top

  The union of Băsescu as president and Ponta as prime minister was rocky from the start. Ponta went on to accuse Băsescu of breaching the constitution. Among his assertions, Ponta accused the president of pressuring prosecutors in legal cases and abusing his control of the secret service. Băsesc
u, in turn, accused Ponta of engineering a coup d’état. The conflict came to a head in the summer of 2012, when Ponta and his allies called for a national referendum to impeach Băsescu. The referendum failed because fewer than 50% of voters went to the polls.

  Ponta was dogged by scandals of his own, including allegations he plagiarised his doctoral thesis at university. Băsescu went on to serve until the end of his term in 2014. Ponta eventually ran for president to succeed him, but was narrowly defeated at the polls in November of that year by the centre-right candidate, Klaus Iohannis. Ponta's career ended in disgrace after he was forced to resign in 2015 in the wake of the 'Colectiv' nightclub fire in October in which more than 60 people died.

  Iohannis, an ethnic German and former mayor of Sibiu, ran on the familiar theme of anticorruption and won overwhelming support from the country's young people. At the time of writing the jury is still out on whether he will succeed where his predecessors have failed. His first major act in office was to launch a massive anticorruption campaign, which resulted in the jailing of mayors, judges and businessmen around the country.

  Timeline

  650 BC

  Dacians are first recorded in the area of present-day Transylvania from their trade with Greeks, who established colonies at Callatis, Tomis (now Constanţa) and Histria.

  AD 106

  Dacia becomes a Roman province for 175 years, until Goth attacks (AD 271) force Emperor Aurelian to withdraw Roman legions south of the Danube.

  896

  Magyars settle in the Carpathian Basin, integrating Transylvania into Hungary.

  1000

  Byzantine, Slavic, Hungarian and Oriental records first mention the existence of Romanians under the name of Vlachs.

  1241

  After the Tatars invade Transylvania, King Bela IV of Hungary offers free land to entice German Saxons to Transylvania, fortifying the defence.

  14th century

  Prince Basarab I creates the first Romanian principality: Wallachia. The region is known as Ţara Românească (Romanian Land).

  1431

  Vlad Ţepeş (Vlad the Impaler) is born. He grows a handlebar moustache then spends much of his cumulative eight years in power terrorising and slaughtering invading Turks.

  1453

  The fall of Constantinople. The Ottomans block trade on the Black Sea, deepening Romania’s isolation.

  1467

  Ştefan cel Mare (Stephen the Great) defeats the Hungarian army (Hungary’s last attempt to conquer Moldova), then defeats Tatar forces at Lipnic and finally invades Wallachia to repel the Ottomans.

  1475

  Moldavian Prince Ştefan cel Mare wins a decisive battle against a numerically superior Ottoman army at Vaslui.

  16th century

  The Turks conquer Hungary, and Transylvania becomes a vassal of the Ottoman Empire.

  1600

  Wallachia, Transylvania and Moldavia are united for 15 months under Mihai Viteazul.

  1606

  The Treaty of Vienna gives religious and constitutional rights to Hungarian-speaking Transylvanians but none to Romanian-speaking people.

  1683

  The Ottomans' siege of Vienna ends in the defeat of the Turks; the Habsburg Empire moves in to take control of Transylvania.

  1784

  A peasant uprising results in Habsburg Emperor Joseph II abolishing serfdom in Transylvania the following year.

  1812

  Treaty of Bucharest, signed at the conclusion of the Russo-Turkish War, grants Russia control of eastern Moldavia. The Ottoman Empire gains control of western Moldavia.

  1819–34

  Wallachia and Moldavia are occupied by Russia.

  1864

  In retaliation, after Romanian Jews refuse to provide financial support, Alexandru Ioan Cuza inserts a clause to deny suffrage to all non-Christians in his draft of a constitution. Jews are forbidden to practice law.

  1881

  Prince since 1866, Carol I is crowned the first king of Romania.

  1897

  Bram Stoker’s Dracula is published.

  1916

  Romania relinquishes its WWI neutrality and declares war on Austria-Hungary in order to annex Transylvania.

  February 1938

  King Carol II declares a royal dictatorship. All political parties are dissolved.

  1940

  Romania is forced to cede northern Transylvania to Hungary by order of Nazi Germany.

  June 1941

  The citizens of Iaşi, whipped into a far-right frenzy, commit an atrocious pogrom against Jews, eventually killing 13,000 people.

  1944

  Following secret talks between Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt, the Soviet Union gains a 90% share of ‘influence’ in Romania.

  1947

  The monarchy is abolished and a Romanian People’s Republic is proclaimed.

  1968

  Nicolae Ceauşescu’s public condemnation of the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia is lauded by the West, which rewards him with economic aid.

  1976

  Fourteen-year-old Nadia Comăneci wins three gold medals and scores a perfect ‘10’ at the Montreal Summer Olympics, the first ‘10’ awarded in modern Olympic gymnastics history.

  1989

  After 25 years in power, Nicolae Ceauşescu and his wife Elena are executed on Christmas Day in Târgovişte.

  May 1990

  The National Salvation Front, led by Communist Party member Ion Iliescu, wins the first democratic elections held in Romania since 1946.

  June 1990

  The Iliescu government brings in miners to quell protests in Bucharest. The mineriada, as it's later called, results in seven deaths and hundreds of injuries.

  1993

  The government removes subsidies on food, transport and energy, causing prices to skyrocket and employment figures to fall to an all-time low.

  1994

  Eugène Ionesco (b 1909), the celebrated Romanian playwright, dies. Ionesco was half French and didn't write his first play until his late 30s.

  1997

  The number of stray dogs in Bucharest reaches between 150,000 and 200,000 – twice as many as New York City, which is three times larger. Dogs bite 50 people per day.

  2004

  Romania joins NATO, a major step in guaranteeing security, external stability and eventual EU membership.

  2007

  On 1 January Romania and Bulgaria become the 26th and 27th members of the EU.

  2012

  Parliament, urged on by Prime Minister Victor Ponta, votes to impeach President Traian Băsescu, though he survives a national referendum.

  2014

  Romanians elect ethnic-German Klaus Iohannis as president for a five-year term.

  2016

  Reacting to the president's far-reaching corruption campaign, voters return the opposition, left-leaning Social Democrat Party (PSD) to power in parliamentary elections.

  The Dracula Myth

  Love it or loathe it, visit Romania and you can’t ignore the omnipresence of Dracula; from mugs and T-shirts all the way to bat- and blood-themed menus and cape-bedecked waiters. But what’s really chilling is that a blueprint for the pale, shape-shifting count we were all reared on in books and films actually existed – though not in a black cape and cloud of fog, but rather as a Wallachian warrior king with a predilection for extreme cruelty.

  In the 1980s the original manuscript of Dracula was found in a barn in northwestern Pennsylvania. It now belongs to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

  The Impaler

  Fifteenth-century prince Vlad Ţepeş is often credited with being the inspiration for Dracula, the vampire-count originally featured in the classic Gothic horror story Dracula (1897). His princely father, Vlad II, was called Vlad Dracul. 'Dracula' actually means 'son of the house of Dracul', which itself translates as 'devil' or 'dragon'. Add to this diabolical moniker the fact that Vlad used to impale his victims – from which you get his surname: Ţepe�
� (Impaler) – and it's easy to see why Dracula’s creator, Irishman Bram Stoker, tapped into his bloodline. Even though Romanian shops are quick to bunch merchandise of the 19th-century vampire and 15th-century leader together, Vlad Ţepeş is still a much-respected figure in Romania today; a symbol of independence and resistance for his stand against the Ottoman Empire.

  Legend has it that Ţepeş was born in 1431 opposite the clock tower in Sighişoara, and at the age of 17 he ascended to the throne of Wallachia. In 1459 his first act of murderous renown was against the Boyars (noblemen) of Târgovişte for the murder of his father and brother. The oldest Boyars were brutally impaled on spikes while the remainder were frogmarched 80km to Poienari where they were ordered to build an 850m-high fortress guarding the pass. You can still visit the ruins today.

  Author Leif Pettersen's Backpacking with Dracula (2016) is a highly amusing take on both the fictionalised and historical versions of 'Dracula' and the effect they've had on Romanian tourism.

  The Vampire

  Bram Stoker’s literary Dracula, by contrast, was a bloodsucking vampire – an undead corpse reliant on the blood of the living to sustain his own immortality. But who would have thought this oftentimes hyperbole-blown epistolary-style yarn about a lawyer visiting a megalomaniac aristocrat would almost single-handedly spawn a literary genre? Forget your Vampire Chronicles and Twilight series, because arguably neither would have been written without Dracula. And Victorian dramatics aside, this late-19th-century Gothic epic is a master-class in thriller writing, and so beautifully crafted in places it leaves an indelible impression on the reader’s mind; none more so than the eerie passages following young Jonathan Harker’s journey and imprisonment in Transylvania.

  Countless films have loosely followed its storyline, and the novel has never been out of print.