OTD 35 years ago, Ceaușescu delivered what would become his final speech, addressing 100k people forcibly gathered there so he could stage a facade of popular support for his regime. In one of the most iconic moments of modern history, he will lose control of the crowd.🧵

Bucharest would soon be engulfed in revolution, with an ever increasing number of people taking to the streets in the following hours. To the sound of "Death to the dictator!", people begin to carve the communist coat of arms out of the Romanian flags they were carrying.

Much like he did in what was at that point the free city of Timisoara, Ceausescu decides to use deadly force. Soon, the regime's soldiers, tanks and APCs would begin to fire on the unarmed masses of protesters, leading them to defiantly chant "WE WILL DIE AND WILL BE FREE!".

From his exile, through Radio Free Europe, King Michael I of Romania would encourage the nation: "Through the savagery of their repression you understand that they are are afraid of you. Their weapons cannot crush your souls and cannot destroy your ideals. With God ahead!"

Shot, clubbed to death, stabbed and crushed by APCs and tanks, with layers of their blood washed away by the regime's water cannons just to make room to fresh layers of blood, with unimaginable courage, people begin to fight back and raise barricades throughout the capital.

The next day, faced with ever increasing protests and an army no longer following his orders, Ceausescu flees Bucharest by helicopter only to be captured in a matter of hours. Three days later, on Christmas day, Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu will both be executed by firing squad.

The sign reads "Our children will be free!". Cinste eroilor Revolutiei!

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In that year, my one-hour film "The state of fear!" was shown on the BBC, which I had been shooting for two years during Ceausescu's lifetime. I was arrested about 8 times by the SECU while I was working on it. I spent the days of the revolution there again.

That's fascinating, what a small world. Can it be found on YT? I'd love to watch it.

I'll never forget that era - it took the life of a Belgian journalist too

And that of a French journalist, Jean-Louis Calderon. Crushed by a tank... I believe the Bucharest street where he died carries his name today.