PEOPLE'S PALACE

The large building in the background of this picture is the known as the People's Palace.  It was to be the showplace of the dictator, Nicholae Ceausescu, whose family and friends ran the country of Romania since 1965.   During that time, the people of Romania lived in the harshest regime of Eastern Europe and had none of the freedoms we take for granted.  To build the People's Palace, Ceausescu, whose family was to live in the building, drained the country's finances and starved his already impoverished people.   In 1989, as revolutions swept across Eastern Europe, the people of Romania rose up against Ceausescu who sent the army against them.  Despite the death of more than 7500 people,  Ceausescu was overthrown.  He and his wife were captured and executed live on national TV on Christmas Day, 1989.  This picture was taken several months afterward.  Things had settled down but the police and army were still very visible.  This soldier in the photo guards the Palace which is only half completed.  With a carton of cigarettes, you could bribe your way into the palace and even sit at the Ceausescu dinner table.