It’s nothing new when corruption and bad state of human rights are associated with communist regimes. But there has never been in history a communist leader who has abused and exhibited the state wealth like Nicolae Ceaușescu.
With four years of elementary education, Ceaușescu went on to become a shoe maker. Being involved in the communist revolution since in 1933, Ceaușescu became the leader of Romania in 1965. His partner in crime was his wife Elena Ceaușescu, a spiteful woman who lived a life of luxury at the expense of hard working Romanians.
My wife is the Lady Tesla
When Ceaușescu became the leader, his not so literate wife mysteriously started developing scientific aptitude. Ceaușescu compelled all scientist to include his wife’s name as an author in their publications. They didn’t just stop the farce here, Elena Ceaușescu even went to science conferences where she took along a translator, the translator gave the rights answer while she kept saying stupid things. Nicolae even wanted Elena to be made a member of the New York Academy of Sciences and the Royal Institute of Chemistry. Lucky for the world that Romania did not have any oil else it could have become a reality.
The child that came out Lady Tesla could have been no less a scientist than his mother, thus Nicolae’s alcoholic and womanising son proclaimed to have published several volumes on nuclear physics. Which was another one of Ceaușescus’ hoax.
A palace visible from moon
To cement his godlike status Ceaușescu wanted to build a palace, which would be like no place else in the world. He demolished 19 Churches, 6 Synagogues and 30000 homes in order to obtain the land for the palace. Between years 1983 and 1989 40% of Romania’s GDP was used to build this 333000 square meter Palace, at the same time the people of Romania battled the food crisis. This Palace is the world’s second largest building after the Pentagon.
Make me look pretty.
Ceaușescu was insecure about this physical appearance. Romanian state television was under strict orders to portray him physically attractive. Producers had to take great care to make sure that Ceaușescu's height which was 1.65m (5-foot 5 inches) tall was never emphasized on screen. Consequences for breaking these rules were severe; one producer showed footage of Ceaușescu blinking and stuttering, and was banned for three months.
Of course the bans
Ceaușescu was a dictator and dictators like to ban things.Apart from free press Ceaușescu also banned abortion and contraception to boost the population of the country. This ban eventually lead to a population explosion and a food crisis.
Nicolae also banned scrabble citing that it was too intellectual, but it could be that he was beaten at it by a little girl and so now he was being one.
Ceaușescu's reign of oppression ended after a coup in 1989, both Elena and Nicolae were executed.