Romanian Revolution in the context of "De-Stalinization in Romania"

Timișoara (UK: /ˌtɪmɪˈʃwɑːrə/, US: /ˌtiːmiː-/, Romanian: [timiˈʃo̯ara] ; see other names) is the capital city of Timiș County, Banat, and the main economic, social and cultural center in Western Romania. Located on the Bega River, Timișoara is considered the informal capital city of the historical Banat region. From 1848 to 1860 it was the capital of the Serbian Vojvodina and the Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of Temeschwar. With 250,849 inhabitants at the 2021 census, Timișoara is the country's fifth most populous city. It is home to around 400,000 inhabitants in its metropolitan area, while the Timișoara–Arad metropolis concentrates more than 70% of the population of Timiș and Arad counties. Timișoara is a multicultural city, home to 21 ethnic groups and 18 religious denominations. Historically, the most numerous were the Swabian Germans, Jews and Hungarians, who still make up 6% of the population in Timișoara.

Conquered in 1716 by the Austrians from the Ottoman Turks, Timișoara developed in the following centuries behind the fortifications and in the urban nuclei located around them. During the second half of the 19th century, the fortress began to lose its usefulness, due to many developments in military technology. Former bastions and military spaces were demolished and replaced with new boulevards and neighborhoods. Timișoara was the first city in the Habsburg monarchy with street lighting (1760) and the first European city to be lit by electric street lamps in 1884. It opened the first public lending library in the Habsburg monarchy and built a municipal hospital 24 years ahead of Vienna. Also, in 1771 it published the first German newspaper in Southeast Europe (Temeswarer Nachrichten). In December 1989, Timișoara was the starting point of the Romanian Revolution.

The Romanian royal family (Romanian: Familia regală a României) constitutes the Romanian subbranch of the Swabian branch of the House of Hohenzollern (also known as the House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen), and was the ruling dynasty of the Kingdom of Romania, a constitutional monarchy in Central-Eastern Europe. The kingdom existed from 1881, when Carol I was proclaimed king, until 1947, when the last king, Michael I, was forced to abdicate and the Parliament proclaimed Romania a republic. Soon after, upon the establishment of the constitution of 13 April 1948, Romania became a people's republic, a state that lasted until the Romanian Revolution in 1989.

Current members of the former royal family include the daughters of the late, former King Michael of Romania. Some descendants have adopted the surname "of Romania". There are also descendants of Michael's older half-brother Carol Lambrino (also known as "Carol Hohenzollern" and "Carol Mircea Grigore of Romania" or, in Romanian, al României, on his amended, Romanian birth certificate), whose legitimacy was disputed and who were not recognised as royal during the reigns of Ferdinand, Carol II and Michael.

The union of Transylvania with Romania was declared on 1 December [O.S. 18 November] 1918 by the assembly of the delegates of ethnic Romanians held in Alba Iulia. The Great Union Day (also called Unification Day), celebrated on 1 December, is a national holiday in Romania that celebrates this event. The holiday was established after the Romanian Revolution, and celebrates the unification not only of Transylvania, but also of Bessarabia and Bukovina and parts of Banat, Crișana and Maramureș with the Romanian Kingdom. Bessarabia and Bukovina had joined with the Kingdom of Romania earlier in 1918.

The unification of Moldova and Romania is the idea that Moldova and Romania should become a single sovereign state and the political movement which seeks to bring it about. Beginning during the Revolutions of 1989 (including the Romanian Revolution and the independence of Moldova from the Soviet Union), the movement's basis is in the cultural similarity of the two countries, both being Romanian-speaking, and their history of unity as part of Greater Romania.

The question of reunification is recurrent in the public sphere of the two countries, often as a speculation, both as a goal and a danger. Though historically Romanian support for unification was high, a March 2022 survey following the Russian invasion of Ukraine indicated that only 11% of Romania's population supports an immediate union, while over 42% think it is not the right moment.

Elena Ceaușescu (Romanian pronunciation: [eˈlena tʃe̯a.uˈʃesku]; born Lenuța Petrescu; (7 January 1916 [O.S. 25 December 1915] – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian communist politician who was the wife of Nicolae Ceaușescu, General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party and leader of the Socialist Republic of Romania. She was also the Deputy Prime Minister of Romania. Following the Romanian Revolution in 1989, she was executed alongside her husband on 25 December.

The de-satellization of the Socialist Republic of Romania from the Soviet Union was the release of Romania from its Soviet satellite status in the 1960s. The Romanian leadership achieved the de-satellization partly by taking advantage of Nikita Khrushchev's errors and vulnerabilities. Romania's independence was tolerated by Moscow because its ruling party was not going to abandon communism. Although Romania remained a member of both the Warsaw Pact and Comecon, it was not to be a docile member of either.

Even before Nicolae Ceaușescu came to power, Romania was a genuinely independent country, as opposed to the rest of the Warsaw Pact. To some extent, it was even more independent than Cuba (a socialist state that was not a member of the Warsaw Pact). The Romanian regime was largely impervious to Soviet political influence, and Ceaușescu was the only declared opponent of glasnost and perestroika. Due to the conflictual relationship between Bucharest and Moscow, the West did not hold the Soviet Union responsible for the policies pursued by Romania, as it did for other countries in the region such as Czechoslovakia and Poland. At the start of 1990, Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze implicitly confirmed the lack of Soviet influence over Ceaușescu's Romania. When asked whether it made sense for him to visit Romania less than two weeks after its revolution, Shevardnadze insisted that only by going in person to Romania could he figure out how to "restore Soviet influence".

László Tőkés (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈlaːsloː ˈtøːkeːʃ]; born 1 April 1952) is a Romanian pastor and politician of Hungarian descent. He was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2007 to 2019. Tőkés served as a Vice-President of the European Parliament from 2010 to 2012. Bishop of the Reformed Diocese of Királyhágómellék of the Romanian Reformed Church, he is also a former Honorary President of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania. An effort to transfer Tőkés from his position as assistant pastor in Timișoara and evict him from his parsonage helped spark the Romanian Revolution, which overthrew Nicolae Ceaușescu and marked the end of communism in Romania. Tőkés is the president of the Hungarian National Council of Transylvania, a civic organization representing Transylvanian Hungarians. He is closely associated with the Hungarian People's Party of Transylvania (PPMT), but not a member of it. He is a member of the Reconciliation of European Histories Group, and co-sponsored the European Parliament resolution of 2 April 2009 on European conscience and totalitarianism.

The national flag of Romania (Romanian: drapelul național al României) is a tricolour featuring three equal vertical bands colored blue (at the flagpole), yellow and red, with a width to length ratio of 2:3.

The current version was adopted in 1989 in the wake of the Romanian Revolution and is defined in the Constitution of Romania as well as by organic law 75/1994, plus several later clarifications. Starting in 2023, the law provides exact color shades for print and digital purposes.

The president of Romania (Romanian: Președintele României) is the head of state of Romania. The president is directly elected by a two-round system, and, following a modification to the Romanian Constitution in 2003, serves for five years. An individual may serve two terms that may be consecutive. During their term in office, the president may not be a formal member of a political party. The president of Romania is the supreme commander of the Romanian Armed Forces.

The office of president was created in 1974 when communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu elevated the presidency of the State Council to a fully fledged executive presidency. It took its current form in stages after the Romanian Revolution, culminating in adopting Romania's current constitution in 1991.