Romania's socialist queen: Who is Elena Ceaușescu?

Nikolay appointed her head of the Scientific Research Institute. Two years later, she received the title of Doctor of Chemistry with the doctoral thesis prepared in her name by the professors at the Institute.

In 1980, she served as Deputy Prime Minister in the Council of Ministers.

As Elena continued to gain power alongside her husband, the country continued its inexorable decline.

Together they lived in luxury and magnificence in houses that numbered forty. She was tried on December 25, 1989, sentenced to death, and executed together with his wife on the same day.

Humble Days

Elena Ceaușescu was born in 1916 as the daughter of a ploughman family in a village. She was expelled from school in the fourth grade of primary school due to her failure in classes. At the age of 14, she moved to Bucharest with her brother and found a job in a laboratory there. Shortly after, she starts working in a textile factory.

Elena Ceaușescu (born Lenuța Petrescu; 7 January 1916 – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian communist politician who was the wife of Nicolae Ceaușescu, General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party and leader of the Socialist Republic of Romania. She was also the Deputy Prime Minister of Romania. Following the Romanian Revolution in 1989, she was executed alongside her husband on 25 December.

In 1939, she became a member of the Romanian Communist Party, where she met Nicolae Ceaușescu, who was 21 years old at the time. As they say, "Love at first sight", once Ceausescu meets Elena's eyes, he loses sight of anyone else. Although their relationship was interrupted by Ceaușescu's frequent prison stays, they got married on December 23, 1947.

Government Jobs

Starting from 1950, Elena attended night school at the Bucharest Municipal Adult Education Institute for 7 years. However, when she was caught cheating on an exam, she was expelled from school and thus could not receive a bachelor's degree. The teacher who administered the exam told reporters that "he lived in fear for the next decades"...

In short, she does not have a Chemistry degree. But in 1960 she started working as a full-time researcher at the Institute of Chemistry (ICECHIM), and in 1965 she became the director of the institution.

Somehow, on December 8, 1967, she defended her thesis and received a doctorate degree in chemistry. According to Romanian law, doctoral candidates are required to defend their theses publicly. For some unknown reason (!) the law was changed as a matter of fact, and all that was required was to submit a written defense.

A few days after the “thesis defense”, there will be a public presentation of your thesis. The presentation is scheduled for 7:30 in the morning. The wife of the country's number one name will present her thesis, and the public flocks to the building. However, the building doors are locked. A small note catches your eye on the door: The presentation has been moved to 6 in the morning as if it has already finished. Hear and don't believe.

His name appears in scientific publications one after another. After all, no one can say no to the leaders of the country. "Write" is said, they write. A huge team is established and their “work” is translated, announced, and disseminated. She becomes one of the leading scientists without even touching her hands.

She never leaves Nicolae Ceaușescu's official side during her travels abroad. She is an intelligent person. She draws lessons from what she sees. During her visits to the People's Republic of China in 1971, she examined how Jiang Qing, the wife of Chairman Mao Zedong, held power. On her return, she designs ways to establish her own political future step by step.

With the ideas she gained from his Far East trip, Nicolae Ceaușescu gave a speech in front of the Executive Committee of the Romanian Communist Party on July 6, 1971. This speech called the July Theses, ignited the "mini cultural revolution". Strict adherence to ideological rules will be ensured in humanities and social sciences, and culture will be used as a propaganda tool. Writers are put under pressure. Sociology is no longer a university discipline and is taught at the Party's Ştefan Gheorghiu Academy. The number of people allowed to take non-technical courses at university is significantly reduced. The number of published books decreases and privileges previously granted to intellectuals are abolished.

In 1974, the Academy of Sciences was first forced to accept Elena Ceaușescu as a member. If this was not enough, she soon became the president of the Academy. The institution becomes so politicized that its reputation quickly disappears. Most serious research is destroyed. "Let me be called 'Professor Doctor Engineer Elena Ceausescu'," she says, and the Academy approves.

Elena has her sights set on "Membership in the British Royal Society", which is considered one of the most prestigious scientific degrees in Europe. Before their official visit to the United Kingdom, the Ceausescus asked for honorary awards from Oxford and Cambridge, as well as the Royal Society, just in case.

Their wishes are not met; Elena has to settle for receiving an honorary degree from the Central London Polytechnic and an honorary membership of the Royal Institute of Chemistry.

She pronounces CO2 as “CO-doi.” “Codoi” means “big tail” in Romanian. Of course, everyone else's mouth is not a bag, so they call her "codoi".

In 1975, she received honorary doctorates from the Universities of Tehran and Jordan, and subsequently from the University of Manila. Of course, they appease universities with "generous" donations.

While their official visit to the United States was being planned in 1978, Elena was offered honorary membership in the Illinois Academy of Sciences. She turns up her nose and insists, "It must be an institution from Washington." When no other offer comes, she is forced to say yes to Illinois, whether she likes it or not.

The Last Curtain

In Romania, which fell into heavy debt, efforts were made to pay off the debts with the income obtained by exporting most of the production in the 1980s. However, this leads to famine; Food becomes scarce and basic needs become unattainable. With the ban on imports, many fruits and vegetables, from oranges to bananas, suddenly became unavailable in the country.

By 1989, Nicolae Ceaușescu lives in a world completely different from reality. While he is posing in packed shops on state television, the public is miserable in bread lines. While he praised the "high living standards" of his period and talked about the records broken in the harvest; He probably doesn't know that fat cows have already been transported to the farms he will visit.

Protests break out one after another. Protests quickly turn into riots, and soldiers open fire on the people. Ceaușescu, who started his speech in Revolution Square on December 21, perhaps thinks that everything will be fine. However, when the crowd suddenly starts protesting, he is surprised at what has happened, and he and Elena take shelter in the building. When the moves they try fail, they soon have to escape by helicopter. The number of citizens killed by Ceaușescu's troops during the incidents gradually increases as word of mouth spreads: Some say 1,000, some say 5,000, and eventually an incredible number of 64,000 is reached. After the events, it was seen that the real number was around 1,000. The tragic part is that, years later, it became clear that two generals and a minister were responsible for the shooting and massacre during the demonstrations, and that these people were "rewarded" as ministers after the coup.

The Ceausescus were executed by firing squad at a military base outside Bucharest on December 25, 1989, just a few hours after the show trial. Before the execution, Nicolae Ceaușescu said, "We could have been shot even without this masquerade!" It is said. At one point during the hearing, he looks at General Victor Stănculescu and says, "Even those present here betrayed us." The general is not there, as seen from the video recording, he continues to make paper airplanes in the "courtroom". Because even the soldiers who will carry out the execution and the place where the execution will be carried out have not yet been judged. He has already determined it before it is done, he tries to kill time.

During the hearing, the prosecutor asks Elena the following question: "Who wrote these publications for you, Elena?"

Professor Doctor Engineer Elena Ceaușescu would never admit to wrongdoing, neither during the trial nor before or after. According to him, he has earned all the degrees he has earned and has written all the publications published under her name, that's all.

Royal Society of Chemistry; Years later, announces that Ceaușescu's honorary membership was revoked during the revolution.

Today, a group of Romanian scientists are still trying to ignore Ceaușescu's scientific references, which consist of more than two dozen publications and books.

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Elena Ceausescu: Greatest Scientist Ever — except she was a fraud

https://paperpile.com/blog/elena-ceausescu-scientist-fraud/