For the previous two episodes of this ongoing series, see the below. As the reader will note, I have changed the title from articles to media, to include video/film, etc.
Decembrie rosu (Red December, clearly both to connote the idea that the communists perpetuated their power AND that they did so through the loss of innocent blood) is a 15 part series showing on TVR. The first four episodes this past week were posted on youtube, although the fourth, which is the second episode about Timisoara was removed later, for reasons which remain unclear (I did see people linking to it; hopefully this will not happen here with episode 2). I have skimmed these first four episodes and one thing seems apparent at this point: episodes 3 and 4, by Razvan Butnaru, do not appear quite as tendentious as episode 2 by Corneliu Mihalache. I have previously written about Mihalache’s skillful, but manipulative documentaries, for example here:
There are many aspects of these first four episodes that deserve to be called out. For now, I will note how in episode 1, between minutes 43:00 and 44:00, against the backdrop of sinister music, the narrator suggests ALL of the changes in Eastern Europe in 1989, all the changes of leadership and regimes, were the work of Mikhail Gorbachev and the “intervention” of the Soviet Union, with Romania, the only “domino” yet to fall. This sets up an ominous prologue for where this 15 part series on Romania’s main public tv station is set to go for three weeks on the 30th anniversary of December 1989…
If in episodes 3 and 4, Razvan Butnaru gives a surprising amount of time to the former deputy chief of the Securitate for Timis County (Timisoara), Radu Tinu, to spin his narrative, and at least toward the end of episode 4, there is at least a little questioning/push back. That is not the case with episode 2 and Corneliu Mihalache’s presentation of his interviews with colonel Constantin Ciurlau, the former head of Securitate in Iasi. Here is a summary of Mihalache’s clips interviewing Ciurlau (I highly encourage people to watch them! They are very revealing.)
9:55-10:38; 11:40-12:17 (“tourists” were responsible for flyers with the name “National Salvation Front” on them)
14:55-15:18 Suggests one knows based on the fact that Iliescu and others came to power and these people had ties to “Eastern spy services” (i.e. Soviet Union), that they were responsible for what happened in December 1989
16:35-17:33 In whose interests was it that crowds should “coagulate” around Tokes in Timisoara, in whose interest was it to have the bloodshed and victims? He hints that somehow because Iasi did not have these things, it is to the merit of the Iasi Securitate.
19:35-21:17 Securitate Director General Iulian Vlad was in contact, sent people from unit 0110. They clearly must have had information that many more people from Soviet Moldova were implicated in the events.
22:03-22:28 The Securitate in Iasi didn’t arrest, investigate or beat anyone, wasn’t their job!
32:23 (They, the Securitate, and he) deserve praise for the lack of a bloodbath like in Timisoara. Sure they had long since told the Party about the threat posed by the USSR etc, but they had no power to do anything…
34:35-34:55 Praises the arrested demonstrator Pruteanu as the only one who couldn’t be bought off
*36:05 December 1989 wasn’t an uprising against Ceausescu or the communist regime, but “an action against the Romanian state” by East and West who exploited the grievances of the population versus the party, in conjunction with agenturii (36:43), who together undermined Ceausescu’s actions like the meeting on 21 December…(37:23) the revolution ended with the taking of the power by the group well known for its ties to Eastern (and some Western) espionage services, Iliescu et. al.
**38:36-38:50 Stanculescu’s military coup d’etat (explanation added by Mihalache in part) supported the political seizure of power by Iliescu et. al. (oh, how the military prosecutors will loves this…)
***39:06-Iliescu on TVR with aberatii about the securisti-teroristi, 39:19 look at the Army’s special units, 39:38 DIA (!) they are the real terrorists, if Mihalache looks there he will find the “adevarul adevarat” about December 1989 and who were the terrorists…40:42…(these last three clips are the trifecta of standard former Securitate revisionism on December 1989…Mihalache embraces it and eggs him on…)
46:22 Not Ciurlau, but perhaps fitting the coda to this miserable episode: among the few things that remain from the events of Iasi in mid-December 1989, o punga (plastic bag) from the Dinamoviada…(exactly, and that is where Mihalache’s episode and especially the clips with the former head of the Iasi Securitate should be stored)…
for further reading about Iasi 14 December 1989 on the internet, see here:
https://romanianrevolutionofdecember1989.com/2010/12/10/dinamoviada-iasi-decembrie-1989-si-sportivi-in-treninguri-cu-acelasi-de-tip-geanta-cazati-la-unirea-traian-si-moldova/
https://romanianrevolutionofdecember1989.com/2010/12/14/iasi-14-decembrie/
https://romanianrevolutionofdecember1989.com/2010/12/12/constantin-isac-intre-14-si-22-decembrie-dinamovist-de-judo-la-iasi-prezent-in-zona-crematoriului-cenusa-si-martor-in-piata-universitatii/