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Kiss the Hand You Cannot Bite: The Rise and Fall of the Ceausescus

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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.

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~]

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.

The most chilling aspect of Kiss the Hand You Cannot Bite: The Rise and Fall of the Ceausescus is the small price the couples' sycophants exact for their souls.

Edward Behr chronicles scientists, academicians, party functionaries, intellectuals, physicians, lawyers, and others who gladly que up to kiss the hands and other body parts of the first couple of the communist dictatorship of Romania. In exchange for their blind loyalty, these luminaries get little more than a pat on the head and a grip-and-grin photograph with their semi-literate leaders. As Behr notes, the phrase "banality of evil" applied particularly well to the Ceausescus. Of all the books written since the collapse of the communist bloc, this one best explains why dictators in Eastern Europe so seldom had to use armed force to remain in power. Material goods---and we are talking K-mart liquidation stuff here---bought the best and brightest in Romania, and physical and spiritual starvation kept the general populace weakened and at bay.

By the time the Ceausescus meet their predictable ends, you don't know who to loathe the most, the co-dictators or their willing subjects. Perhaps it is unfair, but the fact that the most abusive elements of the Ceausescus police state remain to govern seems like some sort of Old Testament justice.

Behr gives us what we will have to take in lieu of the equivalence of the de-Nazification of Eastern Europe: naked and ugly truth about the people who comprised the communist system.

A great read about the little known Communist regime in Romania.
After watching the Velvet Revolution in person in Prague, I wondered wheather I should travel to Bucharest to see the effects of another Communist regime. A month later Nicholae Ceausescu and his wife were dead. For those who don't know much about Romania, this book gives a political overview of the country's history.
Ceausescu was a dispictable little man who had an even more wretched wife Elena. Not only did he run the country into the ground, but his politics destroyed whatever trust Romanians had in their government. Both Ceausescus were semi literate who had
a penchant for collecting honors, degrees, and loot.
This book details how a uneducated man wormed his way into a small Communist party, and eventually ran the country. It details not only his rise and fall, but also that of the country. Ceausescu's successors were once his proteges. For more information on Romania after Ceausescu, read A Hole in the Flag.

The 20th Century will forever be remembered as one of supreme cruelty, and few nations can speak to this better than those who fell beneath the Iron Curtain. Romania, a proud Eastern European nation with a mix of Italians, Bulgarians and Hungarians among the native peoples, was a centerpiece to this. At the close of WWII, Communist forces rose up in Romania and neighboring nations, installing a home-brewed oppression under the guidance and repression of the Soviet Union. Romania's Communist experience was punctuated by distinct periods, the worst of which was the Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu rule of the 1970s and '80s.

With this background, Edward Behr does a fabulous job guiding the reader through a social and political history of Romania from its invasions of pre-1000 A.D., to the power-sharing rule under the Turks in later years, to the imported German royal family in the Industrialization of the latter 1800s. The nation was pulled in different directions by various interests - Hungarians, Transylvanians and Bessarabians (Moldovans) looking for dominion. Into this cauldron, Nicolae Ceausescu was born. Behr takes us through his childhood and upbringing, where the uneducated and unintelligent child was little more than a street thug who discovered, and followed without question, the Marxist-Leninist doctrine. He served powerful men within the Romanian Communist Party during the 'dark' years as a forbidden political party, was jailed for several years, and emerged at the end of WWII in the shadow of Romania's Communist rulers. His loyalty gained him titles, priviledge and eventually, the position of First Secretary. As Behr describes it, what began with hopes and indications of a break with Soviet doctrine, dissolved into Ceausescu's fascination with the cult of personality, his fear of betrayal, and Elena's pressures to keep them living at the peak while most Romanians suffered horrendously.

This book is well-written, very readable and an excellent overview of the troubles Romania has faced. While there are several interview snippets with members of the Ceausescu regime, and indications that Behr was given access to files of the Securitate (the Romanian secret police), there is nothing in the way of documentation. However, I have no reason to doubt that Behr traveled repeatedly and extensively in researching his book. Here's hoping that future authors follow this up by providing details on the Romanian Communist central planning function, and its fundamental break with the economic reality of the country.

Released in 1991 by Villard, now out of print.

There've been several books released on the Ceausescus so the reader may wonder how to distinguish them?

KISS THE HAND YOU CANNOT BITE has much information on Ceausescu's early years (how he became what he was), and the best accounting I've yet read of his last days and hours before his capture and execution. Also interesting are all the former government officials who now condemn Ceausescu. One wonders, if so many opposed him, why did Ceausescu remain in power for so long? I think many of these officials are rewriting their own personal histories.

By contrast, DOWNFALL: THE CEAUSESCUS AND THE ROMANIAN REVOLUTION by George Galloway and Bob Wylie, excels at recounting the events of '89 Revolution and the six months immeadiately following the revolution (e.g., the miner's revolt of June 1990, etc.). Excellent journalism, with a great many participants interviewed.

RED HORIZONS by Pacepa is a "slice of life" of the Ceausescus that covers several months in 1978, when Ceausescu was at the peak of his world prestige. Very lurid details.

I read this good book, here in Brazil. This book is mainly about the rise and fall of the Communist couple Ceausescu in Romania. This book has these advantages and many otheres:
1- This book makes a clear connection between Ceausescus' lack of education and complete megalomania decades later.
2- Behr exposes Nicolae's personal main bad qualities: Corruption, stuttering, bad temper, ignorance, vanity, bad taste and erratic behavior as a terrible leader.
3- This book exposes centuries of Romanians' complacency and historical tendency to compromise, without ever romanticizing these features.
4- This book shows that a group of yes-men and above all Ceausescu's wife, Elena, were following centuries of same features in government of Romania. Things like nepotism, corruption, lack of scrupules, bad taste, huge and useless palaces, etc. the very leadership principles of Romania for many decades before Ceausescu's government.
5- Communism itself produced the Ceausescu couple government. In fact, this book shows that Communism is a system where the correct values is totally reversed, and Behr makes this clear with detachment and professionalism.
6- This book shows how easily former Nazists of Iron Guard became complete communists. See page 111, as an example.
7- Romanian Communist Party grew more than one hundred times, between 1944 and 1947. See page 106.
8- For Communists, the past is something they exchange at their will and lies are normal tools for Communists. See page 100 as an example.
9- The fake "scientifics works" of Elena Ceausescu are exposed. See pages 140 and 141. Her evil genius is exposed on pages 182 to 184. Elena Ceausescu's bad education is covered.
10- After the first chapter, the firsts chapters of this book are about Romania before Communism. They are very good and undisposable. Many things that happened before Communism were repeated decades later, under another ears and other names.
11- Penury under Communism is exposed many times in this book.
12- Rest of Ceausescu's family is exposed. After Ceausescu's fall, one relative of he got suicide.

Even with these and about two dozens others great things in this book, I won't give five stars for it, because:
1- This book claims that Potsdam Conference decided the Romania's fate. In fact theorical Romania's fate for Communism was decided during the Yalta Conference months before and by Soviet occupation about one year before Potsdam Conference.
2- About the Antonescu's execution, this book tells a lie, on page 108, about that execution.
3- There's a mistake about the First Oil Crisis' year (page 167).
4- This book makes an useless critic to Iom Pacepa's book "Red Horizons" on page 214.
5- The first chapter is very good writen, but it is in the wrong place. This chapter is about the Ceausescu's downing, capture and execution. The correct place of this chapter would be at the end chapters of this good book.
This book must be read together with the Pacepa's book "Red Horizons".

Edward Behr's "Kiss the Hand You Cannot Bite" was written almost twenty years ago at the end of the Ceausescu regime. It is still quite readable for its historical documentation and surprisingly fresh for the lessons of history it conveys. What is missing for a reader today are of course, the events of twenty years of Romanian history that have occurred since the Ceausescus' fall from power.

Like many people of a certain age, I number myself as one of the "duped," who believed at the time that if there was a "good Communist" out there, it was probably Ceausescu of Romania. After all, it was Ceausescu who at the peak of his power asserted Romanian nationalism and independence. He was perceived as "standing up to the Soviets" at the height of the Cold War. Among other things, he opposed the Soviet Union/Warsaw Pact boycott of 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and sent a quite successful Romanian team, a symbolic assertion of Romania's independent foreign policy.

Little did I know what petty slugs the Ceausescus were--and one must include Elena as well as Nicholae, since they ran the Romanian ship-of-state as a duopoly. As petty and mean as Nicholae was, Elena actually bested her husband for sheer arrogance and harsh vengefulness.

How did these two ordinary people rise to power? Read Edward Behr's book and find out. It's a fascinating saga of early-insider Communist tactics, self-centered pettiness and backstabbing and the emergence of a nomenklatura class enabled through spycraft, bribery, intimidation, extortion and 'bully-boys.'

The photo set included in "Kiss the Hand You Cannot Bite" is quite interesting. Among other things, I was fascinated to learn of the difficult struggles of the three Ceausescu children. I find myself wondering what has become of them since their parents execution by firing squad on Christmas Day, 1989.

I enjoyed this book a great deal simply as a educational look at the forces that allowed people like the Ceausescus to come to power and the inevetable forces that drove them out of it. It was obviously immaculately and meticulously researched and the author certainly sweeps you along in the emotion of nearly every narrative.

I'm strictly an armchair history buff with no particular specialty, although I read a lot of English Tudor stuff. I've been going hit and miss through Russian history and some German things, and after watching the documentary, "The Rise and Fall of the Ceausescus," I was interested enough to seek out this book. I'm glad I did see the documentary first for my own assistance, because it gave me some help with some of the general points of reference and helped keep some of the events in line for me.

I didn't come into the book with any strong opinions about the reasons for why the Ceausescus did what they did or for Romanian politics in general, just because I was only a casual reader of this region's history. Just judging this book on the merits of its writing, apparent research, narrative, sources and correlation with what I do know, this is really a top notch book. Very easy to read, engrossing and worth the effort to find since it now seems to be available on the secondary market only.