Nicolae Ceaușescu, leader of the Romanian Communist Party since 19 March 1965, gave his final speech in Bucharest on 21 December 1989. He and his wife Elena were sentenced to death and killed by firing squad on Christmas Day 1989. Romania was the last hard-line dictatorship to fall in the Warsaw Pact, after the resignation of Czechoslovakia’s President Gustáv Husák.

Florian Rat, Ceaușescu’s bodyguard, is the nervous looking man on the right in this screenshot. This video is part one of the speech with English subtitles, below is part two.

The above video shows the full speech on the 21st (no English subtitles), and the protests on the 22nd[starting 23:07], ending with the Ceaușescus fleeing Bucharest by helicopter[35:40].

This video is age-restricted because it shows the trial and bloody execution of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu, but when it happened it was seen on Romanian television and around the world. It is important that this history is preserved so we never forget!

Finally, this incredible ABC news report from Ted Koppel, “Death of a Dictator”, aired on 2 April 1990, shows rare film footage of the Romanian revolution.