The Development of the
Revolution
A tram railway
was passing not far from Tokes’ house (there was a tram stop in Maria Square).
Some revolutionaries (as we can already call the people of the crowd near
Tokes’ house) decided to stand on the railway. The trams were blocked and the
passengers had to descend. This was a smart move - the crowd increased
significantly.
Part of the
crowd took the decision to go to the student campus to make more people join
them. However, when they arrived there, the reaction of the students was
disappointing. Only few of them joined the protesters. It seemed that many
students were afraid; to be seen in such a crowd could have caused their
expulsion from the University. The crowd continued its way towards the county
headquarters of the Communist Party. More and more people joined it. At the
communist headquarters, the symbol of the hammer and the sickle was thrown
down.
Fire fighters,
policemen and soldiers were sent to stop the movement.
Adrian Kali, a revolutionary who was shot later,
relates: “A fire-fighters’ truck came sprinkling the demonstrators. We ran
after it. Its windows were broken and I managed to catch at it. The driver
panicked when he saw the three of us on
his car and stopped it in the wall of a house. A lieutenant was weeping and
asked to be forgiven, as he was only obeying his orders. The truck was
bombarded with stones. A towel was put on the
truck, as a sign of peace, when from the bridge came two buses full of soldiers
with shields. They descended and made a lot of noise. They hit their shields
with their sticks and were shouting at us to leave. Near me, an elegant woman
wearing a fur coat told us that we were cowards and good for nothing, than she
hit a policeman with her handbag. The soldiers attacked us. It was a scuffle.
People were throwing stones, bottles and clods against the soldiers. Other
policemen appeared and struck the people in the street.
The crowd was scattered. I left with a group,
helping a friend who had been hit in the head with a bottle of vodka. During
the fight, this friend managed to dismantle a guide post, which he used to hit
the feet of the shield bearers, who were falling on
the ground"[1].
Small groups of
demonstrators, scattered from near the Communist Party headquarters, regrouped
and started towards Buziasului Road (the south-eastern part of the city), where
there were many factories. They tried to persuade the workers to join them, but
they failed. The authorities tried to stop them. Near “Banatul” factory the
demonstrators conquered another fire brigade truck. Near the Detergents
factory, two other trucks of soldiers met the protesters. However, the appeal
“The Army is with us!” shouted by the demonstrators was convincing enough. The
soldiers didn’t want to start a conflict with the crowd and let it go further.
The crowd kept
advancing towards the workers’ neighbourhoods. In Girocului Road, many people
joined them.
Meanwhile, near
Tokes’ house, in Maria Square, where a part of the original crowd remained,
fightings with the policemen took place. The authorities managed to push the
crowd towards the bridge over the Bega, clearing the street where Laszlo Tokes’
house was. The priest was arrested that night, and forcibly moved with his wife
and furniture to Mineu village.
From Maria
Square the crowd moved to the centre of the city, in front of the Orthodox
Cathedral. There were about 600 people in front of the cathedral. One of them,
Sorin Oprea, had the idea of moving through the city, in order to make the
events known by as many people as possible. In the student campus they joined
the crowd that was coming from Girocului Road. Now, the crowd that numbered
around 10,000 people went northwards. On Circumvalatiunii Street the
demonstrators passed peacefully by a group of soldiers, who did not take action
against them. When the crowd reached Torontalului Road, they were attacked by
soldiers with clubs and scattered. It was already 4 o’clock in the morning.
Many revolutionaries were arrested (almost 1,000, including those in the
following days).
Until December
15th, the protest movement was
concentrated near the Reformed Church. In the night of December 16th/17th, the revolutionary movement
covered a large part of the city, from the southern parts of Girocului and
Buziasului to the northern areas (Dacia Square). The movement was not a secret
for Timisoara’s inhabitants, although mass media did not mention a word about
it.
December 17th is known as “the bloody
Sunday”. People gathered in the downtown area and in the outlying districts of
Girocului, Lipovei, Aradului and Buziasului again. The Army joined the Police
and the Secret Police in the attempt to stop the Revolution. A platoon was
parading with the fighting banner in the centre of the city. A crowd of
demonstrators gathered in the town centre. In the afternoon they moved towards
the student campus and the Communist Party headquarters. The attempt to stop
them with fire brigade trucks that sprinkled water failed. At the Continental
Hotel the trams were blocked and soldiers were disposed across the street. The
crowd attacked, the soldiers ran. The headquarters of the Communist Party was
in the hands of the revolutionaries. The clerks from inside ran out through the
back doors and windows. Windows were broken and all the things related to the
regime (portraits of the president Ceausescu, communist flags) were destroyed.
Some officers who were in the building were assaulted.
After a
counter-attack of the Secret police troops, the building was conquered back.
The troops hit the demonstrators with sticks and bayonets. Many were arrested
and badly beaten. The demonstrators retired towards the Decebal Bridge, and
kept fighting against armoured vehicles.
The Central
Committee of the Communist party met under the rule of Nicolae Ceausescu and
decided to take resolute action against the revolution, even by opening fire
against the demonstrators. However, no mention about the events was to be seen
in the official media. Nicolae Ceausescu criticised the Ministers of Armed
Forces, Police and Secret Service for their lack of resolution.
Clashes between
demonstrators and troops took place in Traian Square and in Liberty Square.
People threw stones and bottles at tanks and armoured vehicles.
Traian Orban, a revolutionary who was shot in the
leg, says: “The soldiers started to move towards Liberty Square, trying to
spread the crowd and to arrest the most active demonstrators. A citizen wanted
to talk to them, asking them to be understanding because we did not want to
harm anyone. As a result, he was arrested and hit with the butts. (...) The
soldiers chased us, trying to scatter us. I ran towards Liberty Square. A tank
was following us at high speed, with a caterpillar on the sidewalk, crushing
the protective railing. It almost caught my leg. After the tank had passed,
some people took the furniture from the “Macul Rosu” confectionery, and built a
barricade, which they put on fire. Tanks were moving everywhere, on sidewalks
and on green areas. At a certain moment, a tank stopped near a tram and young
people surrounded it. Some boys wanted to block it, they blocked the
caterpillars with various objects. I helped them by forcing a cable between the
wheels of the caterpillar. The tank was blocked, but its engine was still working
and its turret was rotating. A boy was riding on its cannon. I told to the
youngsters to stop up its exhaust with rags. The engine of the tank stopped and
the crowd burst into cheers. After a while, soldiers scattered us and recovered
the tank.
Two armoured vehicles (quicker than the tanks) were
moving through the square. Somebody had the idea to fill bottles with fuel.
They took fuel from the cars parked in the square. After a while, one vehicle
was retreating in flames, in the cheers of the demonstrators. From the
headquarters of the 18th Army Division (which was in Liberty Square) shots were being fired in
the air (I didn’t see anybody wounded). On hearing the shots, hundreds of
demonstrators came from the centre of the city. Among them were many who had
left the square before. This group was very resolute. They shouted slogans like
“Freedom!”, “Today in Timisoara, tomorrow in the entire country!”. The shots
became more frequent, but still in the air. I started to talk to the soldiers
who were near Caraiman Street. I told them that they should not shoot us,
because we were their brothers, and the Army must defend the country, not kill
its own people. Some demonstrators gave cigarettes to the soldiers. A soldier
was crying; he told me that they had been in a mission since 5 o’clock in the
morning, they hadn’t eaten anything and he showed me that he had no bullets.
As the shots intensified, we wanted to retreat. When
I arrived at the corner of Karl Marx Street, I saw three people in civilian
clothes exiting from the Army headquarters (10 meters away) and opening fire
without challenge. Somebody was wounded near me. When I turned to him the blood
splashed on my face. I heard somebody shouting that a soldier was also shot,
and then I felt a terrible pain in my left leg. I was shot myself."[2].
The shots in the
centre were heard in the entire city. Groups of people were discussing the
events. In Girocului Road people got organised, in order not to allow other
military units to advance towards the town centre.
Gheorghe Curpas, a participant in the events on
Girocului Road, says: “We were around 2,000 people divided in small groups. The
sight of a column of tanks united us. Now we had a target: we should not allow
the tanks to pass towards downtown. We were no longer a gathering of people who
did not know what they wanted, we were a combat unit. Some of us pushed two
trolley-buses so that the access towards downtown was blocked. Others raised a
barricade on Lidia Street. When the tanks grouped in front of the barrage, two
other trolley-buses were moved so that the tanks were caught between two
insurmountable lines. The nimblest of us penetrated between the tanks with
crowbars trying to cause as much damages as possible. After we surrounded the
tanks we jumped on them, tried to put them on fire and remove the soldiers from
inside them. We told them: Come out and nothing will happen to you! They
refused. Then we started to hit the tanks with crowbars. After a while, an
officer opened the trap-door and shouted: “The army is with you!” What? Why
hadn’t he come out until then? Somebody hit him in the head with a stone. When
we saw blood, we went to help him immediately. We took him to the nearest block
of flats, where we bandaged his head"[3].
A barricade was
also built in Buziasului Road to prevent the army units from moving towards the
centre of the city. In Lipovei Road, fire against the demonstrators was opened
from the military unit. Six of them died and 30 were wounded.
Many stores were
destroyed; book stores that displayed president Ceausescu’s books in their
windows attracted the demonstrators’ rage particularly.
A column of
demonstrators moved towards the Decebal Bridge, which was near the county
headquarters of the Communist Party. The police headquarters where many
demonstrators had been imprisoned the day before was in the same direction.
Some thought of trying to free the prisoners. The army units were waiting for
the demonstrators.
Adrian Kali: “When we were shifting towards Decebal
Bridge, on that narrow street, I heard shots. Somebody said that they were fake
bullets, just to scare us. However, when I saw the flames from the barrels in
the darkness, I realised that the bullets were real. I ran towards the other
people and I pushed them to the ground. Many demonstrators followed my example.
When I threw myself to the ground, I was hit for the first time in the back.
Above our heads, the helicopter turned on its searchlight, lightening the
place. Moments of terror followed. The bullets were hitting the rocks near me.
I put my hands on my head, thinking that if I were shot in the hand, my head
would be protected. I shouted: don’t shoot, we are yours brothers! The answer
was: hang you all! Then I saw my friend Iovanovici raising his head. I dashed
upon him to protect him and then I was shot the second time. I felt as if an
auger had pierced my back and chest. I rose and ran, trampling on human bodies.
At the corner of the park I met two friends. Blood was running down my back and
out of my mouth. They dragged me near a young man who had been shot his
leg"[4].
Bloody conflicts
also occurred in Lipovei Road, near the military unit that was located close to
the flat buildings.
Ion Ghinea remembers: “Many friends came to me and
we talked about the possible turn of events. I received phone calls from
acquaintances, telling me that people were shot in the downtown area. From the
Green Forest
(a small wood just outside the city) a
column of about 50 demonstrators was coming, shouting: “People, come out! Do
you have electricity? Do you have heat?” I put on a jacket quickly, went out
and stood in the front of the column. We moved on to Lotusului Street,
intending to go to Lipovei Road, and then to the Opera House, where we knew we
would find many demonstrators. Before reaching Lipovei Road, 60 meters from the
gate of the military unit, fire was opened against us, without warning. I was
shot in the chest, near the heart"[5].
Sometimes,
people were shot without a clear reason.
Anton Suharu says: “Near the bridge over the Bega I
saw a truck of noisy soldiers was coming from Badea Cartan Square. It was
moving slowly, and it turned towards me. When it arrived near me, the soldiers
ordered me to stop! I stopped. They laughed and opened fire, while they shouted
at me: run! I felt burns in my hair, on my head, and a hit in the back. After
3-4 meters I fell down. I heard two women yelling: “You killed him, you
murderers!”, but I rose and tried to run towards Badea Cartan Square. I fell
and I rose again. I didn’t know what was happening to me. When I reached the
bridge, under the pole light, I realised that I had been shot in my right leg.
Then I felt a terrible pain"[6].
In the evening,
in Girocului Road, the Army tried to recover the tanks that the revolutionaries
had conquered before.
Mihai Ciofu remembers: “Armoured vehicles and tanks
with soldiers near them were coming from Giroc village. We, about 250
demonstrators, were determined not to let the Army advance towards downtown. An
officer told us to let them recover the blocked tank. We didn’t want it and
then they started shooting. Some shots went in the air, but others hit the
people; I saw a man with a wounded leg. He started shouting at the soldiers:
“Cowards! Communists! You are shooting your brothers and parents!” The crowd
dispersed and the soldiers went ahead on Girocului Road. I ran among the
apartment buildings. On Girocului Road there was a barricade of trolley-buses.
The tanks went to the barricade and pushed the tanks away. All this time volleys of shots were heard. The blocked tank
was recovered. When there was shooting, we hid among the buildings. As soon as
the atmosphere calmed a little, we returned in
the street. After a while, we stayed in the street even when there were shots,
as most of them were in the air. However, some people were hit. I saw a wounded
man near the confectionery. An ambulance came to take him, but the soldiers
didn’t want to let it go through.
When the shots stopped for a while, we approached
the soldiers and we discussed with their commander. We asked him why they were
shooting at us, what we were guilty of. A friend, Dumitru Vlaic (who was shot
later), unbuttoned his shirt and told the officer: Shoot me if I am guilty of
anything! The officer told us to calm down and go home, because nothing would
happen.
We made a fire in the middle of the street. We were
dancing and singing ‘Awaken ye Romanians’[7] .
The officer we had spoken to told us that his orders were to shoot and told us
to go home. We refused. Then a shot was heard in the air, followed by shooting
in the crowd. However, most of the soldiers were shooting in the air. I hid
behind a pillar. The shootings were intense. I wanted to run from behind the
pillar, to hide behind a building. Then I was shot. I started to cry: ‘My children! My children!’ An old man saw me and told the others to
take care of me. The soldiers were advancing and if they had found me, they
would probably have killed me. Two people dragged me inside a building, where I
was given the first aid. I told them not to send me in the county hospital, as
there were rumours that they killed the wounded there. Somebody from that
building took me to the Orthopaedics Hospital by car. It was full of wounded
people, and the smell of blood made me vomit”[8].
In December 17th 62 people were killed[9]
and hundreds wounded. Of those who died, 11 were killed in Girocului Road, 16
in the centre (near the Cathedral or the Opera House), 6 in Lipovei Road, 2
near Liberty Square, 2 in 700 Square, 5 near the Decebal Bridge, 2 in Aradului
Road and the rest in other parts of the town.
Monday December
18th was the first working day
after the events. In the factories the communist bosses warned the workers to
avoid going in large groups on the streets.
However, in the
downtown area the people gathered again.
Avram Gliguta remembers: “We climbed the steps of
the Cathedral. I said: ‘Let’s get some candles!’ The
people rushed to buy candles. I myself took three candles, but I gave two to
others . After that I descended the steps. On the sidewalk in front of the
Cathedral and near the hedge, there were puddles of coagulated blood. When I
saw them I headed towards the soldiers and I asked: ‘What is this? Are you the firing squad? Go home!’ They didn’t answer. I
climbed the steps again. Almost everybody lit his or her candle. We started to
shout towards the soldiers: ‘You are
our brothers and children! Ceausescu down!’ They let us shout what we wanted
for about half an hour. When we shouted ‘Soldiers, join us’, those from the armoured vehicles hid inside and
drove them towards the tram stop, in order to spread the crowd from that part.
When the vehicles passed in front of us, the policemen who were posted between ‘Timis’ cinema house and ‘Expres’ fast food shot a warning fire. We
rushed into the Cathedral. The Cathedral has a double gate, but because of the
crush one gate was closed. We crouched, trying to slink inside. A man (later I
learnt that his name was Sorin Leia) and I rose our heads to see what was
happening, when a volley of shots started. Sorin Leia was hit right in his
forehead. The bullet that exited from his head touched my neck on the right
side. I felt something like a burning, I let my head down and I slunk inside.
Some young people saw that Leia was shot and dragged him inside the Cathedral.
Although shot in the forehead, Leia didn’t lose much blood, and he was still
breathing. When his head touched the cement a puddle of blood appeared below it
suddenly. We were talking about buying a candle, so that he would die in a
Christian way. A tall priest approached us and asked: ‘What has happened to him, is he dead?’. Yes, we said. On hearing us
talking about a candle, he said: ‘He
doesn’t need anything anymore!’.
Another priest, older than the first one, showed the
demonstrators the exit from the back of the church that led to the park, but I
didn’t pay attention to him. When things had calmed down a little, I left by
the front door and near the wall I headed towards the tram station. I could
still hear shots. I stopped on the grass and I threw myself on my belly. On my
clothes I had pieces of brain and stains of blood from Sorin Leia. I tried to
clean myself with grass and leaves. Near the fast food stood the person who had
shot Sorin Leia and me (I had managed to see his face) and a police officer who
were shooting at the people to scatter them”[10] .
Five people were
killed in December 18th
(2 in Girocului Road and 3 at the Cathedral). In December 19th two other people were
killed.
The strategy of
the communist regime was to claim that nothing was happening in Timisoara. In
December 18th , president Ceausescu left
the country for a previously scheduled visit to Iran. He wanted to prove the
entire world that all the rumours about the events in Timisoara were false,
that nothing special was going on to justify the cancellation of his visit to
Iran. The newspapers did not mention anything about Timisoara. The destruction
of any evidence about the events became the top priority. The broken windows
were replaced. Quick repairs were done at the Communist County headquarters.
The corpses of the killed revolutionaries were a very annoying evidence. Those
should also be destroyed!
The main
hospital in Timisoara (The County Hospital) was surrounded by policemen. They
did not allow the civilians to seek for their relatives who had been wounded or
killed during the previous manifestations. In the night of December 18th/19th a group of policemen, with
the help of the hospital manager (who claimed that he had been forced to help
them), stole 40 corpses that were taken to the crematorium in Bucharest and
burnt. The ashes were thrown away in a canal. Also, the documents with the
names of the wounded and the dead were stolen from the hospital. The plan was
to claim afterwards that the missing people had left the country[11].
In December 19th, at ELBA factory, the
employees stopped working. They demanded the release of the arrested. The first
secretary of the County Communist Party, Radu Balan, and the army general
Stefan Guse, tried to convince them to go back to their work, but they failed.
When a woman was shot near ELBA, the workers became even more resolute.
December 20th is the day when in all
Timisoara’s factories the workers went on strike. A big crowd gathered in front
of the Communist Party headquarters. The prime minister, Constantin Dascalescu,
arrived in Timisoara to discuss with the demonstrators. A group was formed from
the crowd, in order to negotiate with the authorities. The first successful
step of the revolution was made: the prime minister agreed to free the
prisoners. Only few of them, those whom the authorities considered leaders,
were still kept in custody.
Columns of
workers left the factories and went towards the city centre. There were
hundreds of thousands of demonstrators. The military units were not able to
stop them.
Nicolae Badilescu relates: “On Savinesti Street
there was a row of soldiers and near the wall of the city hall stood frontier
guards, young boys, almost children. I went near them and tried to open a
dialogue with them: ‘Boys, children, what are you
doing here? I am sure that you haven’t eaten for a long time. The rascal, he is
keeping you hungry, asking you to point the guns against us, isn’t he? What we
are doing is for everybody, including you’. I gave money to one of them and
told him: ‘Buy some biscuits, it is
not worth to starve for that crazy man in Bucharest’.
My gesture was successful, other demonstrators did
the same. The frontier guards didn’t cause us any problems.
On seeing the armoured vehicles, I thought that it
would be great for the spirit of the crowd to enter the Opera Square on one of
them. I climbed on one, starting to
talk with the officers. My first question was: ‘How many bullets do you have?’ ‘Three
thousand’. ‘OK. We are about 300,000.
So I believe the best option is for you to come with us in the Opera Square’.
We arrived in the Opera Square with the vehicle of sergeant Martin”[12].
While the crowd
was gathering in the Opera Square (there was another crowd at the Communist
Party headquarters), the Romanian Democratic Front was being organised inside
the Opera House; it was an organisation trying to lead the revolutionary
movement. The army units were withdrawn from the city. Anyway, the authorities
could no longer count on their submission.
Around 6 o’clock
in the evening the revolutionary movement started in a second Romanian town -
Lugoj (situated near Timisoara).
President
Ceausescu returned from his trip to Iran and, in the evening of December 20th, he delivered a speech
broadcast by the national radio and television stations. That speech was the
first official recognition of the fact that some events against the policy of
the Party were happening in Timisoara.
In his speech, president Ceausescu said: “In the
days of December 16th and 17th, under the pretext of stopping the application of a legal court
decision, several groups of hooligans organised some manifestations and
incidents; they assaulted state institutions, destroyed and robbed many
offices, stores, public buildings, and in December 17th they intensified
their activities against the Party and state institutions, including military
units (...)
The people in Timisoara knew and witnessed those
fascist-type destructions. (...) As the actions of those terrorist,
antinational groups continued, the military units – according to the
Constitution and the laws of the country - were obliged to defend themselves,
to defend the order and the goods of the entire city, in fact to defend the
order of the entire country.(...)
From the data available we can declare with
certitude that those terrorist actions were organised and unleashed in close
relation with the reactionary, imperialist, irredentist, chauvinistic forces
and the intelligence agencies from foreign countries.
The purpose of those antinational actions was to
cause disorder to destabilise the political and economic situation, to create
the conditions for the territorial dismantling of Romania, the destruction of
the independence and sovereignty of our socialist country.
Not accidentally, the radio stations from Budapest
and from other countries started a shameless campaign of lies against our
country even during those antinational and terrorist actions.
Their purpose (...) is to destroy our independence,
our integrity, to stop the socialist development of Romania, to bring Romania
back under foreign domination. (...)
It is obvious that this campaign against Romania is
part of a larger plan against the independence and sovereignty of nations -
those nations that don’t want foreign domination and are ready to defend their
independence, their right for a free life at any price, including with the
weapons in hands. (...)
It is the duty of all the citizens of the Socialist
Republic of Romania to act with the entire force against those who, in the
service of different foreign interests, of espionage agencies, of imperialist
forces, betray their country for a handful of dollars or other currencies.
(...)
Nothing should stop out resolute action to serve the
people, the socialism, the bright future of our country, of our nation”.
The Romanians
learnt about the events in Timisoara from the Western radio stations. However,
the confirmation of those events by president Ceausescu was an important
moment. Now, “What happened in Timisoara?” was a subject that can be discussed
openly. And the discussions did not always follow the line that the authorities
expected.
In December 21st the effect of Ceausescu’s
speech was visible. The revolutionary movement boomed in many cities: Arad,
Buzias, Sibiu, Cugir, Targu Mures, Caransebes, Resita, Bucharest, Brasov,
Ghimbav, Fagaras, Cluj, Cisnadie, Nadrag, Alba Iulia. In some of them
(Bucharest, Cluj, Sibiu, Cugir, Caransebes, Targu Mures) fire was opened
against the demonstrators. Many were killed, but not enough to stop the revolution.
In Cugir, the revolutionaries killed some police officers.
In Bucharest,
president Ceausescu organised a large meeting, in order to show the support
that he had from the Romanian people. Hundreds of thousands of workers were
taken from the factories and sent to the meeting. They were carrying portraits
of president Ceausescu and his wife, Elena Ceausescu, and placards with slogans
like “We blame the traitors of the country!”, “The chauvinist and irredentist
manifestations of foreign circles should stop!”, “Romania has chosen:
Socialism, Peace, Progress”. The meeting was broadcast on TV.
Nicolae
Ceausescu began his speech, but suddenly a rumour was heard in the crowd. Some
participants started shouting slogans against the dictatorship. The TV
broadcast was stopped. The president was stunned; for the first time he was
unable to control the crowd. The participants panicked, the events were a
surprise for them. They scattered but some of them regrouped in University
Square. It was the beginning of the anticommunist demonstration in Bucharest.
In the evening
of December 21st, the police and army units
were sent against the freedom fighters in University Square. 41 people were
killed in Bucharest that evening and night. But the next morning, columns of
workers left the factories of Bucharest and went towards the headquarters of
the Communist Party. There were hundreds of thousands people, nobody could stop
them. On seeing the crowd, President Ceausescu escaped. A helicopter took him
and his wife from the roof of the Communist Party headquarters, while the
demonstrators were conquering the building. Soon, he would be captured and
detained in the garrison of Targoviste.
[1] See "Revolutia din Timisoara asa cum a fost" (The Revolution of Timisoara As It Was) by Marius Mioc, Brumar Publishing House, Timisoara 1997 (Romanian), p. 14-18.
[2] See "Revolutia din Timisoara asa cum a fost" (The Revolution of Timisoara As It Was) by Marius Mioc, Brumar Publishing House, Timisoara 1997 (Romanian), p. 35-38.
[3] See "Reportaj cu sufletul la gura" (An Out of Breath Reportage) by Titus Suciu, Facla Publishing House, Timisoara 1990 (Romanian), p. 66-67.
[4] See "Revolutia din Timisoara asa cum a fost" (The Revolution of Timisoara As It Was) by Marius Mioc, Brumar Publishing House, Timisoara 1997 (Romanian), p. 17-18.
[5] See "Revolutia din Timisoara asa cum a fost" (The Revolution of Timisoara As It Was) by Marius Mioc, Brumar Publishing House, Timisoara 1997 (Romanian), p. 93.
[6] Idem, p. 100-101.
[7] Awaken, Ye Romanians! is a patriotic Romanian song that became Romania's national anthem after the Revolution.
[8] See "Revolutia din Timisoara asa cum a fost" (The Revolution of Timisoara As It Was) by Marius Mioc, Brumar Publishing House, Timisoara 1997 (Romanian), p. 27-28.
[9] Including two people officially considered missing, but excluding one person whose cause of death is unsure: he was either shot during the Revolution or killed in a car accident.
[10] See "Revolutia din Timisoara asa cum a fost" (The Revolution of Timisoara As It Was) by Marius Mioc, Brumar Publishing House, Timisoara 1997 (Romanian), p. 32-33.
[11] The opinion of the chief military prosecutor of Timis County, expressed after the revolution in an interview published in "Expres" magazine in April 13th 1990.
[12] See "Lumea buna a balconului" (The High Society of the Balcony) by Titus Suciu, Helicon Publishing House, Timisoara 1995 (Romanian), p. 75-76.