Last year, Dr. Anthony Fauci told people not to invite unvaccinated relatives to holiday parties, and even warned the vaccinated to stay away from events. Americans resisted the white coat supremacist, but they have never faced an outright ban on Christmas like those in the Communist dictatorships of Eastern Europe.
As F. A. Voigt explained in Unto Caesar, Marxism-Leninism is a secular religion. In power, it functions as “armed idolatry.” Communist dictators want people to worship them, so they use the power of the state against any moral authority outside of the state. Christianity is a prime target, so banning Christmas was an easy call for Romania’s Nicolae Ceaușescu.
Ceaușescu and wife Elena joined Communist youth movements and rose through the ranks. In 1965, Nicolae became general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party and ruled in the best Stalinist tradition. The Securitate, the regime’s secret police, sowed division among the people and built a vast network of informers. Midnight arrests, torture, and assassination were common.
“My grandfather was a priest, a liberal, he was in prison for a lot of his life,” recalled Ionel Boyeru in 2014. The priest managed to survive, but others were not so fortunate.
During a 1977 miners’ strike, Ceaușescu’s Securitate subjected union leaders to five-minute X-rays that caused cancer and killed off the strike leaders. By the end of the 1970s, as this account explains, Romania was one of the most oppressive states in the world, practically on the level of Enver Hoxha’s Albania.
Ceausescu bulldozed churches, monasteries, and entire neighborhoods in Bucharest. Nicolae and Elena lived like royalty as the people lined up for the barest necessities. During the 1980s, as the economy went south, Ceaușescu ramped up arrests and torture.
In the city of Timișoara, the Securitate attacked pastor László Tȍkés for criticizing the regime, and on December 17, 1989, the people organized an anti-government demonstration. Ceaușescu ordered police and Securitate to fire on the crowds, killing nearly 100 protesters. Ceaușescu gave a speech blaming anti-Romanian forces but the crowd only heckled the dictator. The regime then cracked down on the military.
“They made us sign a statement saying we didn’t agree with what was happening, and vowing we would support and protect Ceaușescu,” recalled Boyeru, an officer and elite paratrooper. Mass protests broke out across the country and this time the military sided with the people. Ceaușescu fled in a helicopter but the pilot forced a landing and soldiers took him into custody. Captain Boyeru then volunteered for a special mission.
He stood guard as Nicolae and Elena were tried swiftly for crimes against humanity and sentenced to death. Then, on Christmas Day, Boyeru’s elite unit led the pair toward an outdoor toilet block in a courtyard. Nicolae sang the “Internationale,” while Elena screamed filth at a soldier, who hauled off and smashed her face. The troops then stood the pair against a wall, set their Kalashnikovs on full automatic, and opened fire. The rifle reports came as tidings of comfort and joy.
“Soldiers were crying with happiness,” Boyeru recalled, “people you previously might have thought agreed with the regime entirely were bursting out with excitement. We took out our hidden alcohol, a very bad brandy, and drank.” His grandfather took part in the celebration.
“Don’t worry,” he told Ionel. “I take all your sins upon myself.”
Joyous Romanians openly celebrated Christmas for the first time in decades and the next year the nation held free elections.
The United States has been holding those for a long time, and has never slapped an outright ban on Christmas. On the other hand, since 2020 the nation is experiencing a Gadarene slide into totalitarianism.
The Biden Junta claims to represent Our Democracy™, just as Stalinist East Germany proclaimed itself the “German Democratic Republic.” The regime divides the people into oppressor and victim classes, based on race. It exploits a pandemic to curtail the rights of the people, and leverages tech companies against free speech.
Biden’s domestic opposition replaces terrorists and foreign adversaries as the greatest threat to the nation. Should that be doubted, recall Biden’sSeptember 1 speech, backlit in blood red, with Marines at the ready, and the Delaware Democrat oozing hatred like pus.
Should mass protests arise—a distinct possibility—the regime would doubtless deploy military force. This has already taken place at Kent State, Ruby Ridge, and Waco, with deadly consequences. A demented misanthrope has the forces of mass violence at his disposal, and the FBI functions as Biden’s private Gestapo and Securitate.
On Christmas 1989, Romania’s military chose to side with the people. On the other hand, the vile Ceaușescu is the only Communist dictator who got what he deserved.
Josef Stalin, murderer of more than 20 million people, died of a heart attack on March 5, 1953. According to The Black Book of Communism, Mao Zedong’s genocidal campaigns claimed more than 60 million victims. China’s “Great Helmsman” died peacefully on September 9, 1976, at the age of 82.
At the age of 76, Albania’s Enver Hoxha died of complications from diabetes on April 11, 1985. Erich Honecker, Communist dictator of the “German Democratic Republic” and builder of the Berlin Wall, died of cancer in Chile on May 29, 1994, at the age of 81.
Khmer Rouge dictator Pol Pot, whose campaign of genocide snuffed the lives of some nearly 2 million innocents—about 21 percent of the population—died in his sleep on April 15, 1998. Sado-Stalinist Fidel Castro passed away peacefully on November 25, 2016, at the age of 90.
Totalitarians believe they can get away with murder, but sometimes the people prove victorious.
Make Christmas 2022 a memorial day. Remember the Kalashnikov Christmas of 1989. In 2023 moving forward, the struggle against tyranny will be the struggle of memory against forgetting.