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Revolutions

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Discussion between Gorbachev and Mitterand about Romania, July 1989

The transcript of the Mitterrand – Gorbachev meeting of July 1989 illustrates the international awareness of the extensive control and repression of citizens in Ceauşescu’s Romania.

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The Timişoara Proclamation, March 1990

Written on March 11, 1990, the Timisoara Proclamation, was a 13-point document that called for continuing to build on the victory over the communist dictatorship achieved in December 16-20, 1989.

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Minutes of the Meeting between Nicolae Ceausescu and Mikhail Gorbachev, December 1989

The seemingly cordial conversation between the Soviet and Romanian communist leaders less than two weeks before the troubles started in Timişoara provides evidence of the wide differences between them.

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Telegram from the Minister of Foreign Affairs to all Embassies, December 1989

As the confrontation in Timisoara continued, the Romanian government tried to stonewall in its diplomatic contacts, and thus control the flow of information, in the hope that the repression unleashed against protesters would succeed in pacifying the rebels and then the dictatorship could resume b

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Birth and Death in Romania, October 1986

In the last years of the regime, Pavel Câmpeanu, a prominent sociologist and a lifelong leftist and former prison cellmate of Nicoale Ceauşescu during World War II managed to smuggle out this article, which was published in The New York Review of Books.

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Grafitti from the Romanian Streets, December 1989-January 1990

In February 1990, the ethnographer Irina Nicolau and a few friends, printed 250 copies of Ne-a luat valul [On the Crest of the Wave], the first book published in Romania about the 1989 Revolution. Included were 141 pieces of graffiti from December 1989-January 1990.

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Letter of the Six, March 1989

In March of 1989, six prominent members of the Romanian Communist Party sent Nicolae Ceauşescu an open letter which was also leaked to the international press. In it they explicitly disagreed with his policies and suggested a number of reforms.

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Review

National Security Archive: Sources on Europe

These materials help students discover that history does not follow a predetermined course, but is the result of decisions, any one of which could drastically alter history’s outcome.
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Excerpt from Courrier of Avignon

This paper is from September 1770 and at that time France had two kinds of newspapers, those run by the state that were censored and also papers published beyond the borders of France that had licenses to get in but could that be they could be revoked at any time.

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Review

Fine Arts in Hungary

A handy feature of this site is the Guided Tours, designed to help users 'discover the territory of Hungarian fine arts.'