All posts by meanderer007

Veliko Târnovo: Where religions have finally learned to get along

2025 Cruise up the Danube River, Politics & Religion

 

We spent the night on our boat at Ruse, Bulgaria the city often called “Bulgaria’s Little Vienna.”  The city was founded by the Romans and became under the Ottoman Domination the largest and most important Ottoman town along the Danube.

 

From there I went on an excursion and the first place we stopped was Veliko Târnovo, the former Bulgarian capital—with its ancient stone houses clinging to the cliffs above the Yantra River.

 

Unfortunately, Christiane stayed behind on the boat as she was told by the Cruise director that it would be too steep. We were moored at the city of Russe

 

I will give you just a little bit of the history of Bulgaria. It was founded by the Romans in the 1st century A.D. Ancient Bulgarians rule until the Turks conquered it in the 14th century and then dominated Bulgaria for nearly 500 years until it was liberated in the late 19th century and then became independent in the early 20th century. “Liberated” of course just means captured by other powers, in this case the Austro-Hungarian empire.

 

During the reign of the Turks, they reorganized the Bulgarian territories and basically parcelled them out to the Sultan’s close followers but they could sell the land or pass it on to their children. Instead, when the owner died it reverted to the Sultan. He did however share it with other nobles to gain their loyalty.

 

During this time Christians had to pay disproportionately higher taxes than Muslims. These taxes were an important source of revenue for the Ottomans.  By the early 1600s a system had been established whereby land was divided into estates granted to senior Ottoman officials- as a form of tax farming. I don’t know what tax farming is, but it sounds unsavoury. Sort of like eating maggots seems unsavoury.   This created conditions for the severe exploitation of taxpayers by unscrupulous land holders. As happened everywhere, the rich exploited the poor by divine right.

 

The domination however was pretty absolute. For example, there was the infamous blood tax (кръвен данък), also known as devsirme where, where young Christian Bulgarian boys were taken from their families, enslaved and forced to convert to Islam and later employed either in the military corps or the Ottoman administrative system. The boys had to be unmarried and, once taken, were ordered to cut all ties with their family, similar to what Canada did to its indigenous children and for the same reason—assumed superiority.

 

Christians faced other forms of oppression. They were not allowed to testify in court against Muslims in inter-faith disputes, but they were allowed to perform their own religious ceremonies provided they did in such a way that it was not conspicuous to the Muslims. Loud prayers and bell-ringing were barred.  They were weirdly barred from riding horses, from wearing certain colours or from carrying weapons.

 

Christian houses of worship of Christians had to be smaller and lower and more modest than Mosques as a mark of subservience.  Christians however managed to build some of their churches partially underground to get around such regulation. They looked squatter than they really were.

 

What can I say, when it comes to religious domination, things get weird.

 

The Ottoman’s also started mass population transfers in the late 1300s and the practice continued for nearly 200 years well into the 1500s. The goal was not only to convert Christians to Islam but also to assimilate the Bulgarians so that they would be less likely to revolt. They wanted to “mix people” to quell unrest.

 

Though to some disagree, the Ottomans rarely practiced forced Islamisation of the Bulgarians, but rather voluntary, by offering them economic and religious benefits. Of course, using the state to convert the barbarians makes the voluntariness to some extent a sham. For example, in some cases, conversion to Islam can be said to have been the result of tax coercion, due to the much lower tax burden on Muslims.  Many converted to pay less taxes or gain status. Obviously, their faith was not vital to them. Not as vital as money at least.

 

The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 led to the diminishment of the Turkish state to a small Ottoman vassal state.

 

During the Communist occupation of the country starting in 1945, religion was unofficially banned.  One of the interesting things about the country was that during Communism it had the highest levels of private property in the Soviet empire.  People were used to owning their apartments.

 

Veliko Tarnovo is a province in the middle of the northern Part of Bulgaria close to the Danube River. It is famous for its ancient stone houses clinging to the cliffs above the Yantra River. The city was the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire.

 

86% of the people in Bulgaria purport to be Orthodox Christians, but as we found out from nearly every one of our guides on this trip through the Balkans, they called themselves Orthodox Christians but rarely went to church and rarely were affected by their religion. Religion here is mainly nominal. Sort of like Quebec, and unlike the southern United States.

 

One of the things we saw a lot of evidence of, was religious takeovers throughout history. Whenever a new religion took over a church or mosque or synagogue the old religious facility became building materials. Basically, each successor religious group did this to the one being taken over.

 

 

This seemed like a pretty spectacular place, until I realized it was really just a gift shop and a large washroom. Old people on tours need washrooms frequently and why not build one with a gift shop and extract some of their cash? And why can’t old people have spectacular wash rooms?

 

I learned in Romania that it was very difficult to use your credit card because the Romanian money is considered a joke, and carrying too much cash there would be a mistake because it would be orphaned with me. So why not avoid buying anything? It felt a little unkind, but it was a great way to go. Who needs more junk?

 

I ended up doing this through most of my time in Balkans.  Unless for some reason I was using a credit card I had no money to tip someone. Even though some think I am a cheap Mennonite, I did not do this to avoid tipping. But it had a side benefit. For me. I spent almost nothing on this trip once I paid for the cruise and the flights. Believe me, that was expense enough.

84% of the people in the country are ethnic Bulgarians and 9 & ½% are Turks and 4% Roma or gypsy. After centuries of fighting now they finally  get along well. We can do better!

Bulgaria has been in the EU since 2007 and NATO since 2004. It has been part of the Schengen zone on a trial basis since 2003 if flying by air.  Recently, it is also included for trips by land. The Schengen Area is a zone of 29 European countries that have abolished internal border controls, allowing for free movement between member states as if it were a single country. It includes most EU member states as well as some non-EU countries like Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. The area operates with a common visa policy and heightened security at its external borders. I really wish the entire world could operate like that. It would go a long way toward making travel civilized again.  Bulgaria is scheduled to switch to the Euro in 2026. That would be the second leg of the civilization process.

 

Yet Bulgaria is still one of the poorest countries of Europe. Before 1944 Bulgaria benefited and gained prosperity from farming.  After the Communists took over farming by expropriation and nationalisation co-operative farming became popular and is still popular. Most families moved to the cities and started working in factories. The 1950s and 1960s were periods of great industrialisation.

 

After the Bulgarian Revolution of 1997 when the Communists were evicted, many people got their farms back but often the family no longer knew how to farm nor had the equipment to farm. Some families no longer wanted to farm but did so collectively. Now 98% of farm land is farmed collectively. Machinery is owned in common and crops are marketed in common. Sort of like our old Canadian Wheat Board. That is one of the reasons we saw so few fences in Bulgaria.

 

 

Belogradchik Fortress

2025 Cruise up the Danube River, Fortress

 

 

 

We had a lovely visit to a special place, namely Belogradchik Bulgaria. “Belogradchik” means Small White Town and is found in Vidin province in the northwest part of Bulgaria and about 50 km south of the Danube River. It is just east of the Serbian border. It has a population of about 5,000 people. It is most famous for its fortress amid the Belogradchik rocks which provide its sensational setting. Frankly, the rocks reminded me of the Superstition Mountains of souther Arizona.

 

Belogradchik Fortress, also known as Kaleto, which comes from the Turkish word kale is a very old fortress on the north slopes of the Balkan Mountains. It was built by the Romans in the 3rd  century AD. Naturally, it has become a famous tourist attraction drawing tourists from as far away as Steinbach, Manitoba. It is one of the best-preserved strongholds in Bulgaria and a cultural monument of national importance.

 

The fortress’s walls are more than 2 metres (6.6 ft) thick in the foundation and reach up to 12 m (39 ft) in height. It consists of 3 separate fortified yards connected with each other through gates. The fortress has a total area of 10,210 square metres (109,900 sq ft). The Belogradchik Fortress was reconstructed to later become a proclaimed cultural monument.

 

The fortress was originally built by the Romans during its empire to defend its northern border from the ugly hordes. It uses the natural rock walls as part of the fortress together with fortified stone walls. The yard is beautifully surrounded by rocks. The rocks are up to 70 m high (230 ft.). At first its primary task was to serve as a means of surveillance and not so much defense. Fortified garrisons were added in the 14th century. Of all the castles in Bulgaria, it was only secondary in importance to the fortress of Baba in Vidin which we saw later in the day.

 

The fortress was captured by the Ottomans in 1393. Many changes were made to the fort in the 19th century by the Ottomans but has European elements because the engineers were French and Italian. There was some globalization even then.

 

An important part of the splendor of the fortress is of course the surrounding rocks. Those rocks are of course bit older than the fortress. The rocks were formed 230 million years ago, when this land was located at the bottom of a shallow sea. Sedimentary rocks consisting of limestone components were created by the forces of weight and subsequent erosion. Much later a crack appeared in the sea bottom and water drained out to the red sea revealing the beautiful  red and orange rocks and 20 centuries of history in the Balkan Mountains.

 

On our walk up the hill, I noticed a man slip down and fall right in front of me on the trail up to the fort. I must mention that falls were a big part of this trip. Our tour director kept warning us to watch our step but that did not help. Frankly, many of the sites were not very safe.  I heeded his advice and did not walk all the way up. Later I regretted that decision because I did not see the fortress from the inside nestled against the big rocks.  Perhaps I was too cautious. I was disappointed how little people in the Balkans soften the hurdles to seeing the sites and failed to provide railings or adequate steps. As a result sliding and slipping on the rocks was a bit treacherous. So I only walked part way up. Now I wonder if I gave up to easily.

 

Bulgaria: Where men are men and women are (usually) women

2025 Cruise up the Danube River, Bulgaria

JP

There were 147 passengers on board our vessel Avalon Passion. Some of them were quite sane. This one not so much. But he sure was  one with whom it was fun to travel. HIs name is JP and we have a traveled with him a couple of times and he is always upbeat and having a good time. Hard to find a better travelling companion

The second country we visited on our Balkan journey was Bulgaria.  I knew almost nothing about Bulgaria before the trip began. I knew that they had been taken over by the Soviet Empire without permission. That was how the Russians operated. They would apologize later as the saying goes, but they never apologized.  The Russians advertised the hostile takeover as a friendly takeover, but that was fake news.  They did this at the end of World War II.

Like so many countries in the Balkans they were rarely independent. Usually some big boys in the area took them over, like it or not. An early society that occupied the lands of current Bulgaria was the Karanovo culture which existed around 6,500 B.C.  From that time to the 3rd century B.B. the region became the battleground of warring cultures that included Thracians, Persians, Celts, and Macedonians.

Things finally stabilized when the Romans conquered those culture around 45 A.D.  That stability was shattered when the Roman state splintered around the 6th century A.D allowing in what we used to call Barbarians, which meant tribal invasions that included early Slavs, Bulgars establishing the First Bulgarian Empire recognized as such with a treaty made in 681 A.D. it dominated most of the Balkans and significantly influenced Slavic cultures when it developed the Cyrillic script. It became a great power of its time when the Krum dynasty took power. That first Bulgarian empire lasted until the 11th century when the Byzantine Empire began its domination of the Balkan peninsula after Basil II conquered and then dismantled it.

 

The second Bulgarian empire arose when it revolted against the Byzantine Empire in 1185. That second empire lasted until it was conquered by the Ottomans in 1396 and lasted for nearly 500 years. Many aspects of that culture are still visible particularly in buildings such as mosques. The Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878 created the 3rd Bulgarian Empire but it was taken over by the Communists in 1946.

 

That regime lasted until 1989 when the Soviet Empire collapsed. After that the country has transitioned into a democratic state which joined the European Common Market (now EU) and NATO. It is also part of the Schengen Zone. That means that once you cross the border into Bulgaria you don’t need to pull out your passport until you leave the EU. For example, you can go all the way to the UK without reporting in to any border crossing.

 

As I mentioned I really knew nothing about Bulgaria before I left, other than a few articles on line and a very interesting CBC radio show, Ideas, which I will get to a little later.  One of my friends mockingly said all he knew about Bulgaria was that the women there looked by big strong men who could heave a shot put in the Olympics about as far as a male Olympic athlete. Long before Gender ideology became a thing or gender dysphoria, we had suspicions about the real gender or sex of these athletes.

Well, I am happy to report that the women in Bulgaria look just as good and feminine as women anywhere in Europe. Everyone should go to Bulgaria. It’s worth the trip.

Men need not be afraid.

 

Cruising through the Balkans

2025 Cruise up the Danube River, War

 

 

I took this photo as we left our first port city of Oltenita while sitting on the deck of the Avalon Passion.

We cruised through the Balkans on this journey. But—what are the Balkans?

 

The Balkans are a peninsula in southeastern Europe, known as the Balkan Peninsula, but they are also a word used to describe a number of diverse countries and cultures that are found in that region.

 

There are various definitions for it. Here is one that I found as a result of an AI search I made. I did not know I was making an AI search but that is what the message I received indicated. So, I will believe it.  That definition is based on bodies of water. Here it is: “It is bordered by the Adriatic Sea to the northwest, the Ionian and Aegean Seas to the southwest and south, and the Black Sea and Turkish straits to the east.”

If your geography, like mine is not really up to snuff, then you can say this about the Balkans (again according to that AI search):

 

“Geographically, it’s defined by rugged mountain ranges and is surrounded by the Adriatic, Mediterranean, and Black Seas, though the exact borders can vary. Historically, the region has a complex and turbulent past, shaped by centuries of Ottoman rule, and today includes countries like Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia, though the inclusion of some countries is debated.  I thought Hungary was included, but that might be a bit beyond the boundaries.  I want to include it because we will be going to Hungary, so I will include it. That means that all the countries we will be visiting are part of the Balkans.”

 

Here is what I really know. First and foremost, the people are incredibly interesting. There is nothing boring about the Balkans. Remember the word above that you might have missed— “turbulent.” Politics here is never boring. Some people refer to the Balkan as the place where wars are born. Most famously, the match that lit World War 1 occurred when the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand occurred in part of the Balkans, namely, Sarajevo in 1914.  Sarajevo was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, not Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was formed after World War I, in 1918, although the region of Bosnia and Herzegovina was later a part of the country before becoming independent in 1992.

 

Secondly, the Balkans have been the plaything of greater powers.  Our Romanian guide Vio, grumbled that Romania, one of those countries had been enslaved by Greeks, Turks, Austro-Hungarians, Germans and most recently, Russians. He openly wondered who would be next in line, as he saw signs of a crumbling country. It seemed obvious to him that Romania would be enslaved again.

 

And great powers rarely care much about lesser powers. Except of course when they want to exploit them. It was actually a ridiculous event that should never have happened. No one really cared about that assassination. Yet the various countries of Europe set about a brutal long-lasting war after many years of preparation for war by all of the countries involved. The countries were all European countries seeking to enhance or start up their empires. There was no reason for the war and it served no military purpose. Amazingly however, in a number of European countries the young men in particular, and even older men goading on the younger men, were all wildly overjoyed at the fact that war had been declared. Many felt it was a chance for young men to obtain glory. In other words, the war was categorically stupid, and happened in part just because the flash that started the war did so in the Balkans. I first heard of this phenomenon from reading the autobiography of Bertrand Russell. He was a young man when World War I was declared in 1914 and saw the young men of England in Trafalgar Square ecstatic at the prospect of war.

 

And that could happen again. The Balkans are a perennial hot spot. Maybe this is where the next world war will ignite. Just before we got here a Russian drone, mistakenly they said, flew over Romania.

 

 

This ship name with the name Mariupol painted on it reminded me of how close we were to the latest war in Europe, the largest since World War II, the War in Ukraine.  There occurred  absolute slaughter by the Russians in Mariupol.

 

 

A Cruise up the Danube River

2025 Cruise up the Danube River

 

Amazingly, this is a view of the boat on which we sailed.  The Avalon Passion. I had tried all trip to get a photo of it but could not.  It was actually taken in Hungary, the last day we were on the boat. I had not been able to get a good photo of the boat because we were usually tied up at the dock with other boats.  When we were moving, we were in the boat, so I could not photograph it. This photo was taken when I went for a long walk down the Danube all by myself. Christiane was sick with a very bad cold. I was surprised to find an Avalon boat was sailing past the Parliament building of Hungary and thought I could take the photo and pretend it was our boat. WE had sailed with Avalon on the Passion, Well, I was even more surprised when it turned around and went back right in front of me and I was able to see it up close and saw it was the same boat we had travelled on. A weird coincidence.

I called this series of posts. “202525 A Cruise up the Danube”.  Well, it has taken me a while to get to the cruise part of the trip. I know one person for whom it has been too long. Sorry. But I have already warned everybody that I meander. And I won’t stop meandering just yet.

 

Our cruise really started with a visit to Romania, with which I fell in love. That surprised me and I never expected that. After that was over, we were brought to Oltenita Romania on the shores of the Danube River. There we boarded the  Avalon Passion  which would be our home nearly 2 weeks.

This was the second river cruise we had taken. The first one was a cruise down the Rhine river in 2017. [see my post 2017 European River Cruise at https://themeanderer.ca/category/2017-european-river-cruise/]

 

We loved that earlier cruise and hoped we would love this one too. That earlier trip was also with Avalon and we thought they were really good. This one we signed up for on a whim, without much thought.  Frankly, after we had committed we realized this trip was very expensive.  We thought it was maybe not worth what we had to pay. But we were committed. Life is hard when you are stupid. I have to keep saying that.

 

What happened was that 3 of our friends, including Christiane’s sister, were going on this cruise and a year ago told us there were 3 rooms left and why didn’t we come too? We hardly thought this out at all. We got excited and signed up.  They picked the trip and we followed.  Then a couple of weeks later, I started reviewing the itinerary. We would be travelling to Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, and Hungary. I have never had a burning desire to go to any of these countries. So why was I going?  Good question?

 

I decided to look into these countries a bit more. I quickly realized this could be a great easy trip. The cruise company does all the work.  It is the lazy man’s way to travel. Or an old man’s way to travel. Well guess what?

 

The countries looked fascinating. What would there be not to like?

 

What stood out on the last river cruise was the people with whom we traveled.  Every night, at the end of excursion, or walks through towns on our own, we would meet in the bar of the boat, have a couple of drinks, and discuss all kinds of things, including of course what we had seen and learned. The People were great. And we had a great time.

 

This trip the people were great fun to be around  as well.  We had decided that although we loved our friends we were travelling with, we did not want to confine our visits to them. After all, this little boat had people from around the world. We could see our friends when we got back home. Of course, we were often with them as well. We just wanted to see other people too.

 

Now it would have been great to meet other people. But really, unfortunately, that did not happen much. We had local guides every day and got to know them really well. They were great. We learned a lot from them. A little interaction with locals would have been wonderful however.

 

So, on the boat, we met people from around the world. France, New Zealand, the United States, and Canada.  There were 147 passengers on the vessels, plus a lot of staff. We met all kinds of people. The biggest group was from Canada. From Canada the largest group by far, came from Manitoba. Weird.  But there was an explanation. A keen CAA travel representative in Winnipeg sold a lot of trips. And she was good.

 

Amazingly, we met another couple from Steinbach whom we did not really know. We had seen the husband before as he used to own and operate the local A & W franchise. We had some great discussions with them and their friends from Kenora. We met a woman, travelling alone, from Ste. Anne. 18 km away from home. And another couple from the same small town. The rest were from all over Manitoba. Great people and we had great fun with them. The best part of the trip was time spent with people on the boat. And we learned a lot off the boat.

 

Some of the Americans were Trumpsters. Very nice people.  They loved what Trump was doing for their country.  We quietly disagreed. The large majority of Americans were not Trumpsters. I had a theory that was reinforced by the people we met.  Most Trumpsters don’t have passports.  They like it at home. Foreign lands are not for them. People who travel on river boats have passports, and in my biased view, have more open minds than most Trumpsters. But we enjoyed our time with all of them.

 

Everyone talks about the food on ocean cruises.  We have only been on two and agree the food is pretty good. However, the food on both cruises, but particularly this one, was outstanding. The chef was a magician. Second only to Christiane. The servers were outstanding.

 

The boat was very modern and cruising was very relaxing. Smooth as silk. Or as a curler of note one said, “as smooth as a baby’s ass at teething time.” You could barely notice  if we were moving, unless you looked outside.

 

Most travelling was done at night. That is weird. You go to sleep in Romania and wake ups in Bulgaria and never noticed you were moving. You missed the entire slog of traveling. This is a strange and disorienting feeling. And very artificial.

 

But it was not perfect. If you asked Christiane, she might say it was horrible. At least some of it. If you asked me, I loved it.  Lawyers would say, “we were not ad idem.” [Lawyers love to use Latin to confuse people into thinking they know something when they don’t] The expression means ‘our minds have not met’. More on this later. I will explain.

People’s Salvation Cathedral

2025 Cruise up the Danube River, Churches

Looks pretty grand doesn’t it?

 

Just in case you might think Romania’s problems are behind them, I have one last story to tell. Another story about another church. Fitting perhaps for this land of glorious churches.

 

As their former Communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu personally demonstrated, Romanians love the extravagantly grandiose. Not just their corrupt leaders.  On our last day in Romania, this country I had grown to love, though not ignoring its blemishes, I noticed a spectacular church near the fantastical Peoples Palace. How could I have missed this? And we were on our way out to our ship for the first time. Too late. As we drove closer to it, I realized it was not yet completed. That made me feel somewhat better. Who needs to see a church under construction?

This church is going to be spectacular. Again, grandiose, but this time we won’t be able to blame any communists. This time the church and current “original democracy” are responsible. But they don’t seem to have learned a lot.

This church is called People’s Salvation Cathedral but  also the National Cathedral. It is an Eastern Orthodox cathedral and is under construction in Bucharest Romania and when complete will serve as the patriarchal cathedral of the Romanian Orthodox Church.

It will dominate the Bucharest skyline visible from all corners of the city. It will be the tallest and largest Eastern Orthodox church building by volume and area in the world! It is the tallest domed cathedral in the world with a height of 132 metres and the 6th tallest cathedral and 3rd tallest domed church.

 

It will have the largest collection of church mosaics (interior decorations) in the world. The mosaic of the altar will be about 3,000 sq. meters. It will have glass from Venice and Carrara stone from Italy. It will also have the world’s largest free-swinging bell. And it will have the world’s largest iconostasis (a wall of icons and religious paintings, separating the nave from the sanctuary in a church).

It will be grand. It will be stupendous. It will cost a fortune to build. Will it be insane for such a small and relatively poor country?  Is it necessary? Or should parishioners reach for the stars?

Patriarch Daniel explained in 2008 that the choice of name “New Patriarchal Cathedral,” is a spiritual manifestation of gratitude to God for the deliverance of the Romanian nation from oppression and alienation. But is it deliverance from oppression into poverty and financial ruin?

As Jimmy Buffet would say, only time will tell.

 

Romanian Revolution

2025 Cruise up the Danube River, Authoritarianism

This building reminded me of the transition from communism to “original democracy.”

 

The Revolution in Romania did not happen all at once.  It really started in the city of Brasov where we had spent 2 days. At first it represented a revolt against Nicolae Ceaușescu’s economic policies. On the morning of November 15, 1987, a local elections day, workers at a local truck manufacturing plant in Brasov led to about 20,000 workers refusing to work and marching  toward the communist party headquarters.  There, what had been claims for wages turned into shouts for “Down with Ceaușescu!”, “Down with Communism!” They even chanted anthems of the 1848 Revolution that not everyone had forgotten about. For example, “Down with the Dictatorship” and “We want bread.” These were brave actions in the face of communist dictatorship.

 

Ceaușescu had started to curb food and energy consumption for the good of the country and to reduce workers’ wages. None of these measures were popular of course with working people. 61% of people in labor participated in industry in Brasov. The economic decline of factories in eastern Europe in the mid-1980s hit Brasov particularly hard and led to the collapse of the consumer market. It started when Ceaușescu decided he had to divert payments intended for food production to paying the country’s debts. The state began to ration food stuffs.

 

The protesting workers from Brasov were joined by ordinary people from the city, and the combined mob sacked the communist headquarters building and city hall “throwing into the square portraits of Ceaușescu, and food from the well-stocked canteen.” In a time of drastic food shortages, protesters were particularly angered to find buildings that had been prepared for official festivities with food in abundance in order to celebrate the local communist election victory, which of course was a foregone conclusion. So the protesters celebrated with a massive bonfire of party records and propaganda burned for hours in the city square.

By dusk, Securitate forces and the military surrounded the city center and disbanded the revolt by force. Though no one was killed, some 300 protesters were arrested. Sounds a bit like cities in the US doesn’t it? Meanwhile protesters were being detained and tortured by state “investigators.” The communist party decided to downplay the rebellion as “isolated cases of hooliganism, rather than rebellion so the sentences were relatively light.

 

Though the Brașov Rebellion did not directly lead to revolution, it dealt a serious blow to the Ceaușescu regime, and its confidence in the pliability of the trade unions. Historian Dennis Deletant referred to the incident as demonstrating “Ceaușescu’s inability to heed the warning signs of increasing labor unrest, plunging blindly forward with the same [economic] measures, seemingly indifferent to their consequences.”

 

The Brașov Rebellion showed there was growing discontent among workers against the Ceaușescu regime, even though he believed the people loved him and he could do anything he wanted and get away with it. It was a precursor to the popular uprisings that would bring down the regime and Communism in Romania only two years later, after the fall of the Soviet Empire.

 

 

In 1989 when the massive power of the Soviet Communist party began to crumble  thanks to the actions of Mikhail Gorbachev, anti-government demonstrations in Romania arose in December of 1989.  These were heady times. It seemed like a whole new world order was being ushered in.  Around the world people like me, were excited about the burst for freedom behind the Iron Curtain . A communist regime that seemed invincible, as autocratic regimes always seem, at least until they are not, was losing its grip on power. What would happen next?

 

Things were so bad in the country that many people had to resort to begging in the streets for food.  Sort of like people do in cities of the west today. Amazingly, Ceaușescu thought the people still loved him. That was how out of touch he was. The people hated him. Ceaușescu was told to give up power but he resisted, until finally the people resisted and turned on him and his wife and the Communist regime which had been so powerful people thought it would last forever.  But dictatorships never last forever. Eventually they fall. And when they do it is usually with a crash.

 

In Romania hundreds of Romanians were shot and killed or injured.  When it was revealed that Ceaușescu was responsible, massive unrest spread through the country. When the demonstrations reached Bucharest, it became known as the Romanian Revolution. And that is what it was. In fact, it was the only overthrow of a communist regime in the course of the revolutions of 1989.

Ceaușescu and his wife Elena fled the capital in a helicopter, but were soon captured after the armed forces turned on them. When the military turns on its autocratic leaders that usually spells the end of the regime. And it did exactly that in Romania. Ceaușescu was very quickly tried and convicted of economic sabotage and, amazingly, genocide. His wife was included in the trial as well. As a result, both were sentenced to death and they were immediately executed by a firing squad on December 25, 1989. The regime was toast.

The dictator  had absolute power until he had no power. The life of dictators can end abruptly.  Until their power evaporates, they are feared and obeyed. After that they are revealed as little men. No longer giant autocrats.

According to Vio, our guide for this part of our trip.  Ceaușescu had interfered in everything in the life of the people and as a result ruined the country and paid a heavy price in the end. He paid with his life.

Soon, Romania would have “original democracy.” It is far from perfect, but better than communism and outright autocracy.,

 

History is like an Almost Empty School

2025 Cruise up the Danube River, History, Truth and Beauty

 

 

This photograph was taken near a university in Bucharest, Romania

 

The Romanian communist party, like most communist parties around the world, and like the Republican party in the United States, want to control the narrative. That means they want to control history. Which means that they want to control the truth, or at least perceptions of the truth. In the Unites States for example, the Republicans want to erase or minimize history that shows the country was not always at its best. For example, they want to minimize stories about slavery or the assault on the native peoples of North America. Canada did this too when they refused to release information about the mistreatment of indigenous people at residential schools. For example, even though I went to university for 7 years I never once heard about residential schools while I attended university.

 

In Romania, when the communists came to power soon after the completion of World War II, the communists started to erase the royal family from the historical record. Within about 3 years it was if there never had been a royal family.

After the communists lost power in Romania 1989, the truth started coming out. It was then learned that 17,000 teenagers had contracted Aids. No information had been released about this by the communists. The communists wanted people to believe that under communism things were perfect and their leaders were perfect. That is what the communist leader of Romania wanted. I think that is what Donald Trump wants too.

This is unfortunate, because unless a country acknowledges its history—its truth—it can never move beyond that. It is chained to an unacknowledged past. It is like an almost empty school.