|
Kiss the Hand You Cannot Bite: The Rise and Fall of the Ceausescus
by Edward Behr
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Villard (1991-05-21)
ISBN: 0679401288
EAN: 9780679401285
Dewy Decimal #: 949.8
Hardcover: 293 pages
Release Date: 1991-05-21
SKU: 070819013
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comments: This copy is in excellent condition. No markings, highlights, underlining, tears, creases. Tight text and spine. Glossy Black & White photos in the middle of the copy. Hard Cover clean. Dust Jacket has light shelf/edge wear. A very interesting copy at an affordable price. (I 8)
|
Customer Reviews
|
Persecuted by Fate
Rating  (4)
Date: 2006-09-03
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is probably the definitive look at the strange horrors of Communist-era Romania, culminating in the 1989 overthrow and execution of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu. Edward Behr's treatment is both an investigative report into key events, and a historical analysis into the long-term social forces that culminated in Romania's terrible hardships. A history of imperial subjugation and frustrated ambitions steered Romania down the road to dictatorship, in the form of the dim-witted and histrionic Nicolae, and his manipulative and vindictive wife Elena. Behr usefully analyzes the state terror and recrimination fomented by the Ceausescus, to perpetuate their incompetent cult of personality and thoughtless oppression of the people. Also, the Romanian communists were as prone to bitter factionalism and denunciations as their Soviet overlords, while Behr finds that yet another party conspiracy manipulated the popular unrest of late 1989, to force a tragic continuation of the people's suffering under a new regime. This book is a generally excellent political and historical analysis, though there are some problems with Behr's narrative that keep it from being a consistent winner. The travails of the common people are merely alluded to in passing, with almost no examination of the horrifying disease, starvation, and child abandonment that were all over the world news at the time. And more fundamentally, this book was written almost immediately after the 1989 revolution, probably to cash in before public interest in the subject waned. This is a problem because Behr frequently vows to analyze how the Ceausescu dictatorship would leave a sorry legacy in Romania for decades to come, but not enough time had passed for him to make more than thin speculations on those everlasting horrors. [~doomsdayer520~]
|
|
Fine history of a dismal 20th Century Romania
Rating  (5)
Date: 2006-04-28
2 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
The 20th Century will forever be remembered as one of supreme cruelty, and few nations can speak to this better than those who fell beneath the Iron Curtain. Romania, a proud Eastern European nation with a mix of Italians, Bulgarians and Hungarians among the native peoples, was a centerpiece to this. At the close of WWII, Communist forces rose up in Romania and neighboring nations, installing a home-brewed oppression under the guidance and repression of the Soviet Union. Romania's Communist experience was punctuated by distinct periods, the worst of which was the Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu rule of the 1970s and '80s.
With this background, Edward Behr does a fabulous job guiding the reader through a social and political history of Romania from its invasions of pre-1000 A.D., to the power-sharing rule under the Turks in later years, to the imported German royal family in the Industrialization of the latter 1800s. The nation was pulled in different directions by various interests - Hungarians, Transylvanians and Bessarabians (Moldovans) looking for dominion. Into this cauldron, Nicolae Ceausescu was born. Behr takes us through his childhood and upbringing, where the uneducated and unintelligent child was little more than a street thug who discovered, and followed without question, the Marxist-Leninist doctrine. He served powerful men within the Romanian Communist Party during the 'dark' years as a forbidden political party, was jailed for several years, and emerged at the end of WWII in the shadow of Romania's Communist rulers. His loyalty gained him titles, priviledge and eventually, the position of First Secretary. As Behr describes it, what began with hopes and indications of a break with Soviet doctrine, dissolved into Ceausescu's fascination with the cult of personality, his fear of betrayal, and Elena's pressures to keep them living at the peak while most Romanians suffered horrendously.
This book is well-written, very readable and an excellent overview of the troubles Romania has faced. While there are several interview snippets with members of the Ceausescu regime, and indications that Behr was given access to files of the Securitate (the Romanian secret police), there is nothing in the way of documentation. However, I have no reason to doubt that Behr traveled repeatedly and extensively in researching his book. Here's hoping that future authors follow this up by providing details on the Romanian Communist central planning function, and its fundamental break with the economic reality of the country.
|
|
Excels at recounting the Ceausescus' last days
Rating (5)
Date: 2005-10-28
2 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
Released in 1991 by Villard, now out of print.
There've been several books released on the Ceausescus so the reader may wonder how to distinguish them?
KISS THE HAND YOU CANNOT BITE has much information on Ceausescu's early years (how he became what he was), and the best accounting I've yet read of his last days and hours before his capture and execution. Also interesting are all the former government officials who now condemn Ceausescu. One wonders, if so many opposed him, why did Ceausescu remain in power for so long? I think many of these officials are rewriting their own personal histories.
By contrast, DOWNFALL: THE CEAUSESCUS AND THE ROMANIAN REVOLUTION by George Galloway and Bob Wylie, excels at recounting the events of '89 Revolution and the six months immeadiately following the revolution (e.g., the miner's revolt of June 1990, etc.). Excellent journalism, with a great many participants interviewed.
RED HORIZONS by Pacepa is a "slice of life" of the Ceausescus that covers several months in 1978, when Ceausescu was at the peak of his world prestige. Very lurid details.
|
|
About Ignorance and Leadership
Rating (4)
Date: 2005-04-03
4 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
I found the book interesting, rigorous and well-documented. Even though it echoes some American cliches about Europeans (like the Romanians' inherent anti-semitism) it outlines the cultural and historical context of Ceausescu's rise to power quite accurately.
I've read books on Ceausescu's lives before, such as Pacepa's "Red Horizons" but I needed a foreigner's take on this subject, a more objective one. Like most other historians, Behr makes a connection between Ceausescus' lack of education and megalomania, which is why I don't understand why he tries to extend this feature to all other rulers, especially the Hohenzollern kings, who were at least literate, if nothing else. Behr exposes Nicolae's personal issues (short stature, stuttering, bad temper, ignorance) as root causes for his vanity and erratic behavior as a leader, as well as Romanians' complacency and historical tendency to compromise, without romanticizing these features like Romanian writers do, most of whom consider them survival tools. He makes a point that I totally agree with: not only was Ceausescu made possible by the culture in which he lived, but he was encouraged to be that way by his peers (especially his wife). A ruling class made up of the most marginal elements of society was brought to power by the Russian tanks (ironically they eventually became fiercely anti-sovietic), which made the most backward features of the Balkan nation, like nepotism, corruption, lack of scrupules, bad taste, etc. the very leadership principles of Romania for 60 years. Ceausescu is bound to happen when the system of values is totally reversed, and Behr makes this clear with detachment and professionalism, without minimizing the responsability of the rest of Romanians.
|
|
A history of two evil buffoons who became leaders
Rating (5)
Date: 2003-12-28
3 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
While there were many indications of severe economic and social problems in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union during the last five years of the 1980's, the sudden collapse of Communism caught nearly everyone by surprise. However, the most amazing thing was the incredible lack of blood that was shed during the transition from the "proletarian dictatorships" to some form of representative government. The only significant deaths occurred in Rumania, where the change was a coup within the leadership class rather than a popular revolt. Since it was a coup, Rumania was the only country where the former leader had to be killed, and Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu were executed very early in the coup.
While this is a history of the Ceausescu regime, it is more so a history of Rumania in the twentieth century. It is an extensive probing of the national psyche, one that allowed a man to control more than was controlled in other east block countries while employing less terror. Although he was applauded in the west for his maverick stance regarding the Soviet line in Eastern Europe, Ceausescu was more of a buffoon than a leader, which is one of the primary reasons why the Soviet leadership allowed him so much leash. Despite enormous natural resources, Rumania is capable of feeding itself and has substantial oil reserves, by the 1980's it was the second poorest country in Europe, ahead of only Albania. Behr comes close to, but does not quite say that had Ceausescu been a capable leader, his challenging of the Soviet line would not have been tolerated and they would have engineered his removal. It is amazing to say that Rumania and the world would have been better off if the Soviets had simply had him assassinated. Furthermore, it most likely would have been applauded inside the country.
In reading through the book, you cannot help but wonder how the Ceausescus were able to control the country for so long. Some form of opposition to the Communist leadership existed in the other Eastern block countries, but was almost totally absent in Rumania. The relentless and ridiculous praise heaped on the Ceausescus by everyone was a façade that everyone except the Ceausescus seemed to be aware of. Behr spends a great deal of time probing for the reasons for this, making some progress, but still not arriving at a satisfactory answer.
Ceausescu has quite accurately been called a Communist Dracula, which is somewhat of an understatement. Dracula merely sucked the blood from his individual victims, while Ceausescu sucked the life essence from an entire nation. In this book, you learn what he did and at least some of the reasons why he was able to do it.
|
|
|