British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher made a secret, personal appeal to Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev to intervene and help stop the bloodshed at the height of the Romanian Revolution in 1989.
Moved by vivid diplomatic cables detailing “very large sustained outbursts of gunfire” and at least 3,000 armed
members of President Nicolae Ceaușescu’s security forces “brutally suppressing” pro-democracy demonstrators “in bloodshed which might even approach the proportions of a civil war”, SBS News can reveal Margaret Thatcher penned the first in a series of coordinated, personal pleas to the Soviet Leader.
“We may be on the brink of very serious loss of life”, the British Prime Minister began her letter, dated 22 December 1989, which has been made public for the first time ahead of the thirtieth anniversary of the democratic uprising.
“I believe we should do all we can to stop that happening.”
“What is happening in Romania risks becoming a dreadful exception to the recent pattern of peaceful change which you initiated in Europe.”
“I am therefore writing to you in the hope that you will be willing to join with us in bringing every possible influence to bear in Bucharest to try to prevent bloodshed and see the current problem resolved peacefully.”
The brutal eleven day crackdown – a month after the fall of the Berlin Wall - left 1,290 people dead and 3,321 more injured.
The Prime Minister’s hand signed note was sent shortly after 10 Downing Street received a ‘flash’ diplomatic telegram from the British Embassy in Bucharest, detailing how ‘securitate’ personnel were busy undertaking “a big clean-up operation” after a night of “much slaughter”.
“Blood stains are still visible on the pavements”, wrote the Ambassador, Michael Atkinson, “bullet marks are visible on the university buildings and our embassy vehicle returned with blood on its wheels after visiting the area.”
In making her direct appeal to the Soviet Leader, Margaret Thatcher made clear her letter was never to be made public: “the aim is to cooperate with the Soviet Union, not to try to put them on the spot”.
Dr George Hay, a Principal Records Specialist at The National Archives in London, told SBS News the Prime Minister’s intervention was “significant”.
“Significant in that these diplomatic telegrams were bringing an almost immediate response from the Prime Minister”, Dr Hay said.
“The (Romanian) state response (to the protests) is surprisingly violent in a way that really hasn’t been seen elsewhere in Eastern Europe and it’s quite clear how surprised the Foreign Office is at the level of violence.”
“(Gorbachev) is being courted I think by Western democracies as a moderniser and a reformer and Margaret Thatcher appears to feel, in this example, that she can perhaps lean on him and encourage him to bring about a positive end to what has been a very violent start to change in Romania.”
The Ambassador was right in his assessment that despite the bloodshed, even larger crowds were expected on the streets that morning.
Within a few hours, President Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife Elena dramatically fled Bucharest by helicopter as angry crowds stormed the Communist Party Headquarters.
They were soon arrested, faced a rapid show trial and were executed by firing squad on Christmas Day, bringing an end to 42 years of communist rule in Romania (LINK: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/romania-marks-uprising-anniversary).
“They’re taking democracy for granted”
“The revolution turned around the entire trajectory of our country”, 20 year old Daniela Burciu tells SBS News from her home in Bucharest.
“Even thirty years on, there is a big discussion here in Romania about external factors and voices in the revolution and the 1989 investigation is still going on.”
“So this new letter comes as another piece in the puzzle.”
Daniela studies International Relations and European Studies at the National School of Political Studies and Public Administration in Bucharest and is the Educational Vice President of UN Youth Romania.
Her father was among the protestors who helped tear down Ceaușescu’s regime.
“As a child born in 1998 I can’t even imagine life in a totalitarian regime and I hope I and my children won’t ever have to experience that in the future.”
“I can’t imagine my life not living in a democracy and I’m really not taking that for granted.”
“I think it’s such a trap that young people fall into, taking their democracy for granted, without realising how easy it is to lose.”
In January 2017, she was determined to defend that democracy, joining in the largest protests (LINK: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/hundreds-injured-in-romania-protests) the nation has seen since the fall of communism in 1989.
Crowds spontaneously swelled the capital when Romania’s newly elected Social Democratic Party voted late in the evening to essentially decriminalise corruption, which many Romanians feared would help hundreds of politicians escape prosecution and imprisonment.
“We weren’t there out of hope, we were there out of desperation”, Daniela told SBS News.
“You could feel the ground shaking beneath us.”
The parliament’s decision sparked two years of rolling protests and forced the resignation of the Justice Minister.
“Young people to my left, to my right, were saying ‘Oh my god, we were so stupid, we didn’t vote! Next time, we’re voting!’ and I think that was very important.”
“It really felt like they forgot the lesson of 1989, they’re just taking democracy for granted, which is just very tragic.”
“More than a thousand people died for you to enjoy the life that you have right now.”
Romania is the fourth-worst European Union nation in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (LINK: https://www.transparency.org/cpi2018).
“That’s why I want to be a citizen - in the real sense of the word - and participate in the democratic process.”
“It’s a duty that I have to those who sacrificed their life.”
Now a vocal human rights and gender equality activist, Daniela believes the 2017 protests have seen complacent Romanians being to “wake up”.
The turnout of young Romanian voters increased in May’s European elections and Daniela is optimistic more will mobilise for the Presidential elections in November and parliamentary elections expected next year.
“This is going to be the test – do young people actually understand what’s going on and will they get involved?”
“They need to make sure 1989 wasn’t in vain and people like me are going to make sure that it wasn’t.”
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