Ceaușescu's speech of 21 August 1968

Palace Square, Bucharest on 21 August 1968

Ceaușescu gesticulating while giving his speech

Socialist Republic of Romania
Part of a series on the

hide Organizations Romanian Communist Party Securitate Union of Communist Youth Great National Assembly State Council Patriotic Guards Pioneers Ștefan Gheorghiu Academy Orthodox Church Scînteia Comturist
hide Leaders Petru Groza Ana Pauker Ion Gheorghe Maurer Chivu Stoica Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej Nicolae Ceaușescu Elena Ceaușescu
hide Ideology Dacianism National Communism July Theses Ceaușescu's cult of personality
hide Policies Collectivization Nationalization Literacy campaigns Five-Year Plans De-Stalinization Systematization (Rural) 1980s austerity
hide Culture Daciad Cîntarea României Cenaclul Flacăra Obsessive decade Emblem Flag
hide Repression Censorship Danube–Black Sea Canal Re-education Bărăgan deportations Tămădău Affair Pitești prison Sighet prison
hide Protests and resistance 1940s–1950s resistance Bucharest student movement of 1956 Dissent under Nicolae Ceaușescu Jiu Valley miners' strike of 1977 SLOMR Brașov Rebellion Letter of the Six Romanian Revolution
hide Relationship with the USSR Soviet occupation (1944–1958) SovRom De-satellization of Communist Romania Bessarabian question
hide Relations with other states Democratic People's Republic of Korea
v t

Ceaușescu's speech of 21 August 1968 was a public address by Nicolae Ceaușescu, General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party and President of the State Council of Romania, strongly condemning the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. On the night of 20–21 August 1968, five Warsaw Pact nations (the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany, and Poland) invaded Czechoslovakia in an effort to quell the reformist ideology of Alexander Dubček, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.

On 21 August, in what became his most famous speech,^[1] Ceaușescu boldly denounced the invasion in a public address before 100,000 people in Palace Square in Bucharest, and he declared that it was a "grave error and constituted a serious danger to peace in Europe and for the prospects of world socialism".^[2] His address was perceived as a bold gesture of disobedience to the Soviet Union both at home and abroad. The speech was part of the Romanian government's efforts since 1956 to assert its independence vis-à-vis Moscow.

Ceaușescu's response consolidated Romania's independent voice in the next two decades, especially since Ceaușescu encouraged the population to take up arms to meet any similar maneuver in the country. He received an enthusiastic initial response, with many people being willing to enroll in the newly-formed paramilitary Patriotic Guards.^{[citation needed]}

References[]

^ Conflicted Memories: Europeanizing Contemporary Histories, edited by Konrad H. Jarausch, Thomas Lindenberger, p. 43
^ Apoteoza lui Ceaușescu – 21 august 1968

External links[]

(in Romanian) Excerpts of Ceaușescu's 1968 speech (with English subtitles) Archived 2016-06-10 at the Wayback Machine

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Ceaușescu's speech of 21 August 1968

show v t Protests of 1968
Movements	1968 movement in Italy Civil Rights Movement Anti-nuclear movement Black Consciousness Movement Black Power movement Black Power Revolution Chicano Movement Cultural Revolution Gay liberation Hippie movement Human rights movement in the Soviet Union May 1968 events in France Mexico 68 Northern Ireland civil rights movement Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War Prague Spring Red Power movement Sexual revolution The Troubles West German student movement Women's liberation movement 1968–69 Japanese university protests
Events	1968 Polish political crisis 1968 student demonstrations in Yugoslavia 1968 Democratic National Convention protest activity 1968 Miami riot 1968 Red Square demonstration Båstad riots Battle of Valle Giulia Ceaușescu's speech of 21 August 1968 Central Park be-ins Columbia University protests of 1968 East L.A. walkouts King assassination riots March of the One Hundred Thousand Memphis sanitation strike Mexican Movement of 1968 (Tlatelolco massacre) Movement of 22 March Occupation of the Old Student House Occupation of the Student Union Building Poor People's Campaign Presidio mutiny Rodney riots Third World Liberation Front strikes of 1968
Related	Anti-capitalism Black Power Counterculture of the 1960s Flower power Free love Hippie Antisemitism in Poland New Left Racism in the United States School discipline Second-wave feminism Segregation in Northern Ireland Student activism Vietnam War Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia

Ceaușescu's speech of 21 August 1968

See also[]

References[]

External links[]