Romania’s Senate on Monday held a moment of silence to commemorate the victims of the Brasov revolt which was a precursor for the 1989 revolution.
The Brasov Rebellion was one of the uprisings that were the seeds of the unrest brewing in Eastern Europe.
Romania had seen a miners uprising over working conditions in 1977. That was crushed by the Securitate secret police of late dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
But a decade later, the whiff of dissent was in the air in the central industrial city of Brasov.
Angered by food and energy shortages, thousands of workers at the local Steagul Rosu truck plant protested cut wages and the threat of 15,000 job cuts.
Some 20,000 workers walked off the job and marched toward the Communist headquarters, shouting slogans such as “Down with Ceaușescu!”, „Down with the Dictatorship” and „We want bread.”
They sacked the headquarters and city hall and threw portraits of Ceaușescu. By dusk, the Securitate and military surrounded the area and disbanded the revolt by force. Some 300 were arrested.
The Brașov Rebellion underscored growing discontent among workers against the Ceaușescu regime and foreshadowed the revolution that overthrew Ceausescu and ended communism two years later
„It’s 34 years today from the Brasov Revolt, let’s have a moment of reflection,” said Daniel Fenechiu, Liberal lawmaker said, Agerpres reported.
The city marks the date which is calls the Day of the anti-Communist Revolt when people rose up to fight for personal freedoms.
Parliament adopted a draft law this year to mark the date, which is considered one of the most important events in post World War II history in the fight against the communist dictatorship.
