Socialism improves the best achievements in human progress The last Agerpres summary received by Nicolae Ceauşescu
To what extent was Ceauşescu accurately informed about the transformations occurring in the neighboring countries, during the fall of 1989? The last Agerpres summary delivered to him in November 1989 sounded extremely confident: all the documents and the papers written by the communist leaders appeared to guarantee the salient march towards communism.1 Following the stories whispered by some members of the power elite, one of the most trustful sources of information used by the CPEx (The Executive Committee of the Romanian Communist Party) were some special newsletters written expressly for its members. From time to time, Elena and Nicolae Ceauşescu used to receive some „even more special” newsletters, particularly drafted for them. Yet, during the year of 1989 the representatives of CPEx didn’t receive anything! Besides, they couldn’t even listen to Radio Free Europe or to The Voice of America any longer, as they were permanently under the sharp surveillance of the Directorate V (Directia V), a special branch of Securitatea, in charge with the protection of all important governmental officials. What was going on around, in the neighboring countries, was largely impossible for them to find out, except for the occasion of some rare meetings when Ceauşescu was given the report. Additionally, the information channel was obstructed also by the Second Office, Elena Ceauşescu’s private Chamber. Overall, the censor was flourishing. While from 1965 Ceauşescu used to be constantly and directly up-dated by his most trusted men, starting from December 22, 1989, pretending her husband was in poor health, Ms. Ceauşescu began putting under strong restriction any sort of information. It is said that she used the same kind of excuse even with the chief leaders of the special services and for the army too. Usually, the mail sent by the Army and by the Ministry of Home Affairs was received by the Secretary General in sealed envelopes. Exceptionally, Ceauşescu was personally reading then, writing down his resolutions or any other personal inquiry. Sometimes, eluding both the chief of his cabinet and the Central Committee’s Office, he sealed back the envelopes and mailed them to the Ministry of Defense or to the Home Office. Yet, we still don’t know to what extent all the chief executives in diplomacy, armed forces or secret services were fairly informing him, because the records are still not available for researchers. Even though during the past decade several notes made by ambassadors or some drafts belonging to various military units have been brought to light, unfortunately we don’t have any sustainable proof that all the information involved eventually arrived to Ceauşescu. Presently, ANIC holds a precious document drafted by Agerpres, aimed to instruct Ceauşescu about the condition of all Communist regimes around Europe. Dated in November 1989, this newsletter is entitled „Positions held by some socialist countries in connection with the theory and practice of socialist construction, in connection with the imperialist politics of destabilizing the existing order in some socialist countries and with the denigration of socialism”. All the recorded events span a lapse of time characterized by strong rationalization 1 ANIC, the archives of the Central Committee of Romanian Communist Party - Foreign Affairs, file 22 / 1989, ff. 7 to 38. Sfera Politicii 141
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