In December 2025, the year 2024 finally ends. But the lies about communism continue and the propaganda against democratic Romania continues.
Young people in Romania are massively exposed on TikTok to posts that spread pro-totalitarian nostalgia and extremist ideas. They are being offered “a cool Nicolae Ceaușescu” and a reinterpreted communism, claims a study from the end of 2024.
130 million views from only 200 posts
The study was carried out by the Institute for the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism and the Memory of Romanian Exile (IICCMER). 200 visibility spike posts were analyzed. They promote nostalgia about communism and praise Nicolae Ceaușescu. “130 million views emerged from just 200 analyzed posts,” the IICCMER study claims.
It is true that the posts with high traffic were chosen, but “according to my estimates, the number of TikTok posts (not about communism and Ceaușescu) amounts to several tens of thousands, which indicates a systematic, well-coordinated strategy and an extensive mobilization for the spread of these messages”, writes Didona Goanța, the author of the study.
Reshaping the character of a people
“In this case we should talk about an attempt to shape the character,” said Italian researcher Matteo Pugliese, interviewed by IICCMER.
Pugliese is a specialist in Russian propaganda. The stake is the brainwashing of the younger generations, the ones that give, over time, the character of a people. To remodel, however, it is necessary to hide crimes and responsibilities.
Today is December 20. It is the day when, 36 years ago, Timișoara became the first free city of Romania.
Of all the communist leaders in Europe, only Nicolae Ceaușescu ordered: “Shoot!”
Starting with December 16, 1989, hundreds, thousands and then tens of thousands of people rose up in Timisoara against Ceaușescu's dictatorship. In all the countries around us where there were similar protests, East Germany, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, the leaders chose to talk to the people or resign. At the disposal of Nicolae Ceaușescu, Romania was the only state where the order was: “Shoot!”.
In just a few days, hundreds of people died and were injured in Timisoara. The city was surrounded by the army. Romania was closed. The international shock was immense.
No matter how many lies are told about the EU today, no matter how much propaganda is spread on TikTok, there are still millions of Romanians, at home and abroad, who know the truth. And who cannot forget the tape broadcast on December 20 by Europa Liberă, when it was heard how the Ceaușescu regime shot at its own people. The recording was from December 17, when the city of Timișoara was already in the streets.
The democracies were with us
The rest of Romania only knew about Free Europe. The information was fragmentary.
But “Corriere della Serra”, the biggest Italian newspaper, opened its front page on December 18 with the Ceausist murders in Timișoara. Also on the 18th, tens of thousands of people protested, alongside the Romanians, in Budapest. We didn't know then. But since we found out, we can't forget who was with us.
The Poles rose to their feet
On December 19, the Polish Seimas, the parliament in Warsaw, voted a resolution of solidarity with the rioting crowd in Timișoara. The whole hall rose to its feet. It was voted unanimously.
The US coordinated with the Community of European States (today's EU) and summoned dozens of Romanian ambassadors, whom they asked why they were shooting their citizens instead of talking to them.
Czech students lit candles, the Bulgarian government protested and, in Luxembourg, the public broadcaster dedicated its audience dialogue program so people could call and send messages to Romanians. The outrage and support of citizens across Europe was astounding. No matter how many people lie today, we cannot forget who was with us.
He was laying flowers in Iran, people were dying in Timisoara
During this time, Ceaușescu was in Iran, where he was laying wreaths for Ayatollah Khomeini, exactly in the hours when, on his order, Romanians were being killed. A few months before, in June, Ceaușescu had welcomed the repression by the Chinese leadership of the Chinese student protesters in Tienanmen Square.
The fronts are the same today, after almost four decades. And the propaganda of the dictatorships remained on TV and multiplied on the Internet.
When he returned to the country from Iran, on December 20, Ceaușescu gave a speech on national television. He was pale, but as turned on by those who had a different dream than he, and he spoke mechanically, like a man determined to lie to the end.
The lies, from Ceaușescu to Putin
Nicolae Ceaușescu admitted, for the first time, that something is happening in Timișoara. But he said, as is said today, that the demonstrators were “hooligans” paid by the West. The Soros myth had not yet appeared, but the “interest of foreign forces in the West” myth was being used.
It was not the army and the Securitate that fired at the people, said Ceaușescu, but the people attacked the tanks and troops. Not the shooters, but the shooters were responsible.
I recently heard Vladimir Putin at the press conference. He continues to lie, as defiantly as all KGB heirs do: “not Russia, but Europe and Ukraine started the war.” “We do not consider ourselves responsible for the dead in Ukraine,” Putin said.
“You have no shame, do you?”
Gunshots are heard in the recording from Timișoara. Stunned and outraged that the communist regime could be so cruel, so criminal, the Romanians in the first rows shouted, at the beginning, “Thieves!” and “You're not ashamed, are you?”. Decades later, these words retain the power to bring tears to the corner of the eye. Just for their contrast. They were so gentle, so civilized about what was going on.
They expressed, with human candor, the struggle of decency in the face of lies and the unimaginable.
Hundreds of people from Timișoara were then killed and injured by law enforcement. But the city continued to take to the streets, day after day. Until the troops refused to shoot people anymore.
“Ceaușescu who are you, criminal from Scornicesti” and “Let him be judged, here in Banat”
On December 20, hundreds of thousands of citizens gathered in the central square. The city was theirs. And they demanded, this time, not just resignation, but punishment for the crimes. Justice.
In unison, with anger, with synchronized hands in the air, they shouted, contemptuously: “Ceaușescu who are you, criminal from Scornicesti”. The chants no longer had candor, but boldness: “Let him be judged, here in Banat”.
Arad, Sibiu, Brașov also took to the streets. The next day, Bucharest rose.
66% of Romanians believe that Ceaușescu was a good leader, according to the INSCOP survey. and 48% say that life was better under communism. When he wasn't dying.
