The Romanian economy was plundered by the Soviet-style nomenklatura, and by the corrupt family of Romania's cruel, idiosyncratic dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu.

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Pacepa's memoir Red Horizons formed the basis for the indictment and conviction of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who was executed in 1989.

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In 1989, Romania's National Salvation Front named a new government headed by President Ion Iliescu, a day after announcing the execution of deposed dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

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People survived the abject poverty and international isolation of the last years of the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu - who ruled from 1965 to 1989 - with a diet of jokes, and alcohol, but very little open political dissent.

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At any rate, when the Ceausescu regime was toppled in December 1989 Mr Cioaba was judged to be on the right side and served on the Provisional National Council, the country's frail start towards the democracy it achieved only in 1996.

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Another hopeful sign is that Mr Nastase's comparative popularity has weakened support for the opposition Greater Romania Party and its leader, Vadim Tudor, a sycophant in Ceausescu's court whose xenophobic nationalism won him 33% of the vote in last year's presidential election.

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