Publisher's Synopsis
Twenty-five years ago, the Communist leaders of Eastern Europe were falling like dominoes. And on Christmas Day in 1989, Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, were executed by firing squad. The deaths of the despised couple ended a quarter-century of iron-fisted rule that translated into oppression and misery for most Romanians. Yet many in that country - including some of their opponents - question the summary nature of the Ceausescus' trial and sentence. One is the commander of the military base in Targoviste, some 50 miles northwest of the capital Bucharest, where the couple spent their final four days. He is retired Gen. Andrei Kemenici, and he lives with his wife in a small apartment a short drive away. The 78-year-old jokes with a visitor about how he and other retired public servants would have fared better if Romania had remained communist. "I would have had four rooms instead of two," he says. But his smile fades when asked about Ceausescu and his legacy.
