Watching the “Video of Ceausescu’s Last Speech” on the Making the History of 1989 website, a speech which Nikolae Ceausescu made on 21 December 1989, I was curious to see what the disturbance was that so rattled Ceausescu because by the end of the speech it appears a semblance of order had returned.  Why would Ceausescu be so flabbergasted by some heckling as appears in the video on the 1989 website?  After giving speeches for 25 years what would cause him to be so confused?  I decided to look up more video of this speech and found “Videograms of a revolution / Ceausescu’s last speech” on Youtube which has some extra footage that the 1989 website video does not have.  It shows a mass of people trying to enter the Central Committee Headquarters building.  Where does the extra footage from “Videograms” fit in to the original footage?  I guess a telltale sign would be the shaking of the camera that is visible in each video as the crowd surges forward.  Did Ceausescu become bewildered when the crowd started heckling him of was it when the mass surged forward to try to enter the Central Committee Headquarters? Or did both of these happen at the same time?  I would suppose so but the extra footage does not seem to have sound.  Is there more footage?  So naturally I am interested in reading interviews of first hand accounts of the event.  Both videos depict that at this particular moment the state has little control over the people.  Who, by the way, were bussed in for the speech to provide choreographed propaganda of party support .  By the end of these videos the state seems to have put the crowd back in order.  What does that signify?  By watching the videos it certainly does not seem like a revolution has occurred or is anyway threatening to the regime yet the Ceausescu’s reign is about to end.  Events at Timisoara seem to be the galvanizing factor for the revolution and  spilled over to this speech.  The next day Nikolae and his wife Elena attempt to flee to no avail.  On December 25th Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife were tried in a show court, found guilty, taken outside and executed.

Here is the video from Youtube:

To view the other video of the speech go to this site:

“Video of Ceausescu’s Last Speech, December 1989,” Making the History of 1989, Item #696, http://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/items/show/696 (accessed February 02 2014, 4:29 pm).

Mc Parker. “Videograms of a revolution / Ceausescu’s last speech”. Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 11 May 2009. Web. 3 Feb. 2014.