Ilie Ceaușescu (8 June 1926 – 1 October 2002) was a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

n army general and

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

politician who was Deputy Defence Minister of

Communist Romania The Socialist Republic of Romania ( ro, Republica Socialistă România, RSR) was a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist One-party state, one-party socialist state that existed officially in Romania from 1947 to 1989. From 1947 to 1965, the s ...

during the rule of his older brother,

Nicolae Ceaușescu Nicolae Ceaușescu ( , ; – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian communist politician and dictator. He was the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and the second and last Communist leader of Romania. He was ...

. Ilie's military and political career was helped by Nicolae; between 1980 and 1989, he was a member of the

Central Committee Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of Communist party, communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party org ...

of the

Romanian Communist Party The Romanian Communist Party ( ro, Partidul Comunist Român, , PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that woul ...

, and, in 1982-1989, he was Deputy Minister of Defense. Ilie Ceaușescu was also a historian, and he influenced Nicolae in establishing

protochronism Dacianism is a Romanian term describing the tendency to ascribe, largely relying on questionable data and subjective interpretation, an idealized past to the country as a whole. While particularly prevalent during the regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu ...

as Romania's official

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians ha ...

and an important part of the national

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

system. For instance, he claimed that the

Romanian people The Romanians ( ro, români, ; dated exonym ''Vlachs'') are a Romance-speaking ethnic group. Sharing a common Romanian culture and ancestry, and speaking the Romanian language, they live primarily in Romania and Moldova. The 2011 Romanian c ...

have been always the same since time immemorial, being very little influenced by other people (

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

Slavs Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...

Mongols The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal membe ...

) etc.: After the

Romanian Revolution The Romanian Revolution ( ro, Revoluția Română), also known as the Christmas Revolution ( ro, Revoluția de Crăciun), was a period of violent civil unrest in Romania during December 1989 as a part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred i ...

and the execution of Nicolae Ceaușescu, in 1990 it was claimed that both Ilie Ceaușescu and

Marin Ceaușescu Marin Ceaușescu (2 February 1916 – 28 December 1989) was a Romanian economist and diplomat, the older brother of Communist Romania's President Nicolae Ceaușescu. He was born in 1916 in Scornicești, Olt County, the son of Andruță and Lixan ...

was involved in a series of transactions between the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and Romania, which consisted of selling

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

military technology. The deal was worth $40 million, part of which was allegedly deposited in

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

bank accounts A bank account is a financial account maintained by a bank or other financial institution in which the financial transactions between the bank and a customer are recorded. Each financial institution sets the terms and conditions for each type of ...

. However, Ilie Ceaușescu rejected that. After his release he retired from public life, and died 13 years later at the age of 76."Obituaries; in brief: Ilie Ceausescu", ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'', October 4, 2002, p.R15 __NOTOC__

Works

English

* ''The entire people's war for the homeland's defence with the Romanians: From times of yore to present days'', Military Publishing House, Bucharest, 1980 * ''Transylvania, an ancient Romanian land'', Military Publishing House, Bucharest, 1983 * ''23 August 1944: 200 days spared from World War II'', Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, 1984 * ''From the Dacian state to socialist Romania: 2,000 years of statehood'', Military Publishing House, Bucharest, 1985 * ''A Turning Point in World War II'', East European Monographs,

Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In c ...

, 1985 * ''Independence - a fundamental aim of the Romanian people: Traditions, present features, prospects'' Military Publishing House, Bucharest, 1987 * ''Romanian Military Doctrine'', East European Monographs, Boulder, 1988

Romanian

* ''Transilvania: Străvechi pamînt românesc'', Ed. Militară, Bucharest, 1984 (with

Florin Constantiniu Florin Constantiniu (8 April 1933 – 13 April 2012) was a Romanian historian. A native of Bucharest, he attended Saint Sava National College, followed by the University of Bucharest. He was elected a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy ...

and Mihail E. Ionescu) * ''Mobilitate socială'', Ed. Academiei, Bucharest, 1973

Notes

References

Katherine Verdery Katherine Verdery (born 1948) is an American anthropologist, author, and emeritus professor, following her tenure as the Julien J. Studley Faculty Scholar and Distinguished Professor at the City University of New York's Graduate Center. Career S ...

, ''National Ideology under Socialism. Identity and Cultural Politics in Ceaușescu's Romania'',

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

, 1991 {{DEFAULTSORT:Ceausescu, Ilie 1926 births 2002 deaths Ilie Romanian communists Romanian Land Forces generals 20th-century Romanian historians