15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Revealing book about Romania's Stalin, July 2, 2003
This review is from: Kiss the Hand You Cannot Bite: The Rise and Fall of the Ceausescus (Hardcover)
25 December 1989 may have been notable as the last Christmas of the 1980's, but the people in communist Romania got a much needed Christmas present they're likely never to forget. On that particular St. Nicholas's Day, Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu were executed by members of the National Salvation Front. Romania thus became the last of the Communist East bloc countries to fall, albeit violently. That's how the book begins, before going back in time and detailing Ceausescu's rise and fall.
Ceausescu worked as a cobbler in his father-in-law's shop and was lousy. When asked by his father-in-law what he would do for a living, Ceausescu prophetically replied, "I won't need a trade. I'm going to be Romania's Stalin." Ceausescu did become Romania's Stalin, but the term Conducator comes from the title given to Ion Antonescu, the head of fascist Romania during World War II. Also, readers will learn that Ceausescu was Romania's third Communist leader, the others being Petru Grosz (1946-1948) and Gheorge Gheorgiu-Dej (1948-1965)
There's also the usual historic background behind Romania from World War I, when it was ruled by the ineffectual but tyrannical King Carol. The rise of the RCP under Gheorge Gheorgiu-Dej in the 1930's, and Romania under the Axis-allied Iron Guard is covered. These are important, as Romania's rival communists began jockeying for power when the tide of the war began to turn. But being a high-ranking lackey for Gheorgiu-Dej helped Ceausescu when the former became the second Communist leader of Romania.
There's also an unflattering look at Elena Ceausescu, nee Petrescu, who was a lousy student and whose doctorate in chemistry was gotten by bogus means--she didn't even know the formula for sulfuric acid. And some portion of the book includes the early career of Ion Iliescu, the man who succeeded Ceausescu as leader of Romania.
One critical event that took place was the earthquake in 1977, which stimulated his desire for urban renewal and led him to destroy villages and churches--he was "perceived as an urban rapist, Dracula driving a bulldozer."
I'll say here and now that at high school, I considered Ceausescu a hero, a maverick in the mold of Tito because he told the Soviet Union where to go, he and Tito condemned the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia, and he defied the Soviet-sponsored East bloc boycott of the LA Games, sending some hot-looking gymnasts by the way. He was seen as the "good communist" because of that, even when he was starving his own people by exporting food abroad, concentrating on enriching himself--in France, he and his people stole ashtrays, clocks, electric and phone wiring at the residence they had been staying at. This book reveals him to be quite the tyrant.
Behr's book spawned a TV special aired on PBS, which I videotaped. Oh, and as for the title, it's taken from an old Romanian proverb of Turkish origin. Although Ceausescu and his wife are long gone, they left their mark on Romania the same way Stalin did his on the Soviet Union, and it's likely to continue for years to come.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Persecuted by Fate, September 3, 2006
This review is from: Kiss the Hand You Cannot Bite: The Rise and Fall of the Ceausescus (Hardcover)
This is probably the definitive look at the strange horrors of Communist-era Romania, culminating in the 1989 overthrow and execution of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu. Edward Behr's treatment is both an investigative report into key events, and a historical analysis into the long-term social forces that culminated in Romania's terrible hardships. A history of imperial subjugation and frustrated ambitions steered Romania down the road to dictatorship, in the form of the dim-witted and histrionic Nicolae, and his manipulative and vindictive wife Elena. Behr usefully analyzes the state terror and recrimination fomented by the Ceausescus, to perpetuate their incompetent cult of personality and thoughtless oppression of the people. Also, the Romanian communists were as prone to bitter factionalism and denunciations as their Soviet overlords, while Behr finds that yet another party conspiracy manipulated the popular unrest of late 1989, to force a tragic continuation of the people's suffering under a new regime. This book is a generally excellent political and historical analysis, though there are some problems with Behr's narrative that keep it from being a consistent winner. The travails of the common people are merely alluded to in passing, with almost no examination of the horrifying disease, starvation, and child abandonment that were all over the world news at the time. And more fundamentally, this book was written almost immediately after the 1989 revolution, probably to cash in before public interest in the subject waned. This is a problem because Behr frequently vows to analyze how the Ceausescu dictatorship would leave a sorry legacy in Romania for decades to come, but not enough time had passed for him to make more than thin speculations on those everlasting horrors. [~doomsdayer520~]
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
About Ignorance and Leadership, April 3, 2005
This review is from: Kiss the Hand You Cannot Bite: The Rise and Fall of the Ceausescus (Hardcover)
I found the book interesting, rigorous and well-documented. Even though it echoes some American cliches about Europeans (like the Romanians' inherent anti-semitism) it outlines the cultural and historical context of Ceausescu's rise to power quite accurately.
I've read books on Ceausescu's lives before, such as Pacepa's "Red Horizons" but I needed a foreigner's take on this subject, a more objective one. Like most other historians, Behr makes a connection between Ceausescus' lack of education and megalomania, which is why I don't understand why he tries to extend this feature to all other rulers, especially the Hohenzollern kings, who were at least literate, if nothing else. Behr exposes Nicolae's personal issues (short stature, stuttering, bad temper, ignorance) as root causes for his vanity and erratic behavior as a leader, as well as Romanians' complacency and historical tendency to compromise, without romanticizing these features like Romanian writers do, most of whom consider them survival tools. He makes a point that I totally agree with: not only was Ceausescu made possible by the culture in which he lived, but he was encouraged to be that way by his peers (especially his wife). A ruling class made up of the most marginal elements of society was brought to power by the Russian tanks (ironically they eventually became fiercely anti-sovietic), which made the most backward features of the Balkan nation, like nepotism, corruption, lack of scrupules, bad taste, etc. the very leadership principles of Romania for 60 years. Ceausescu is bound to happen when the system of values is totally reversed, and Behr makes this clear with detachment and professionalism, without minimizing the responsability of the rest of Romanians.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
