Brașov rebellion Brașov rebellion The Rebellion of Brașov was a revolt against Nicolae Ceaușescu's economic policies in Communist Romania, which erupted on the day of the 1987 local election. Beginning in late 1986, the seeds of the Romanian Revolution of 1989 were sown, as workers throughout this Soviet Bloc country mobilized in protest of communist leader Nicolae Ceauşescu's economic policies. Labor uprisings sprouted in the major industrial centers of Cluj-Napoca (November 1986) and Nicolina, Iași (February 1987), culminating in a massive strike in Brașov, one of the largest cities in Romania. Ceaușescu's draconian economic measures sought to curb food and energy consumption
Alexandru Drăghici As historian Marius Oprea notes, this initiative of his was the culmination of periodic antisemitic purges inside and outside the party structures. When Gheorghiu-Dej died in March 1965, Ion Gheorghe Maurer, Chivu Stoica, and Emil Bodnăraș, fearful of seeing Drăghici come to power, all backed Ceaușescu as the new leader. Maurer also considered that Ceaușescu had stood up to Khrushchev, while Drăghici was seen as a loyal follower of the Soviet Union. Bacon writes: "So powerful was the apparatus of terror that its chief, Alexandru Dr[ă]ghici, challenged Ceau[ș]escu for political power following Gheorghiu-Dej's death. It is a tribute to Ceau[ș]escu's