King of Communism - Elena Ceausescu
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- Duration: 3:33
- Published: 2007-07-03
- Uploaded: 2011-01-03
- Author: BenLewisTV
An extract about Nicolae's wife, Elena Ceausescu
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| Spouse | Nicolae Ceauşescu (m.1947-1989) |
|---|---|
| Birth date | January 07, 1916 |
| Death date | December 25, 1989 |
| Office | Deputy Prime Minister of Romania |
| Term | March 1980 - 22 December 1989 |
| President | Nicolae Ceauşescu |
| Party | Romanian Communist Party |
| Primeminister | Ilie Verdeţ Constantin Dascalescu |
After the Communists took power, Ceauşescu worked as a secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was an unimportant figure until her husband became general secretary of the party. Ceauşescu was fluent in French. Starting in July 1972, Elena Ceauşescu was given various offices at senior levels in the Romanian Communist Party. In June 1973 she became a member of the Politburo of the Romanian Communist Party becoming the second most important and influential person after Ceauşescu himself. She was deeply involved in party administration alongside her husband. The Ceauşescus issued strict public relations rules for all elements of their persona, which were rigidly followed.
Ceauşescu frequently accompanied her husband on official visits abroad, and it was during the state visit to the People's Republic of China in June 1971, where she noticed how Chairman Mao Zedong's wife, Jiang Qing had her own position of real power in the state, that Elena's remarkable rise was inspired. In July 1971 she was elected a member of the Central Commission on Socio-Economic Forecasting, and in July 1972 she became a full member of the Romanian Communist Party Central Committee. She was elected a member of the Executive Committee in June 1973, after being proposed by Emil Bodnăraş. In November 1974, at the 11th party congress, she was made a member of the (renamed) political executive committee and in January 1977 became a member of the highest party body, the Permanent Bureau of the Political Executive Committee. In March 1980, she was made a First Deputy Prime Minister.
Under her husband's regime, Ceauşescu became a major Romanian political figure. Publicly, Ceauşescu said that it was an honor to be referred to as "comrade", but Romanian expatriates in the United States frequently referred to her as "Madame Ceauşescu" with great disdain. She enjoyed being referred by the title "Mother of the Nation."
Ceauşescu was outlived by her almost 100-year old mother, her brother Gheorghe Petrescu (also an important figure in the party) and her three children: Valentin (b. 1948), Zoia (1949–2006) and Nicu (1951–1996), who was also a very important member of the Romanian Communist Party.
Despite never finishing an elementary education (her records show that she left school with only a good mark in needlework), Ceauşescu graduated from the University of Bucharest with a PhD in polymer chemistry and top in a class of 100 women with the honor of summa cum laude. Her thesis has 162 pages, 32 tables, 40 figures and 440 references and describes the invention of a very valuable artificial material. Critics consider it unlikely that a textile worker would have been able to write a thesis in chemistry. After the Revolution of 1989, several scientists have claimed that Elena had forced them to write papers in her name while a later report from her instructors claims she had rarely attended lectures or classes, and there were also disputes over whether she was literate. Allegedly, she was once thrown out of an adult education chemistry exam for cheating. Claims have also arisen that the university gave her the honor of the doctorate solely because of her political position.
Most of the respected academic institutions and universities in the West refused to acknowledge her alleged academic merit. She was made a member of the Illinois Academy of Sciences. Elena Ceauşescu later complained that she never heard of Illinois and that the membership was given by the "dirty Jew". "Codoi" also means "big tail" in Romanian, therefore the comic effect created by her alleged mispronunciation.
Category:1916 births Category:1989 deaths Category:1989 crimes Category:Ceauşescu family Category:Deaths by firearm in Romania Category:Deputy Prime Ministers of Romania Category:Executed politicians Category:Executed Romanian women Category:Filmed executions Category:Members of the Romanian Academy Category:People executed by firing squad Category:People executed by Romania Category:People from Ilfov County Category:People of the Romanian Revolution of 1989 Category:Communist rulers Category:Romanian communists Category:Romanian women in politics Category:Spouses of national leaders
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