Ilie Ceauşescu

Who was Ilie Ceauşescu?

Ilie Ceaușescu was a Romanian army general and communist politician who served as Deputy Defence Minister of Communist Romania during the rule of his older brother, Nicolae Ceaușescu.

Ilie's military and political career was helped by Nicolae; between 1980 and 1989, he was a member of the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party, and, in 1982-1989, he was Deputy Minister of Defense.

Ilie Ceaușescu was also a historian, and he influenced Nicolae in establishing Protochronism as Romania's official historiography and an important part of the national propaganda system. For instance, he claimed that the Romanian people have been always the same since time immemorial, being very little influenced by other people etc.:

"It is well known that the Romanian people remained always the same, consolidated, unitary and homogeneous in the hearth it had always occupied."

After the 1989 Romanian Revolution and the execution of Nicolae Ceaușescu, he retired from public life, and died 13 years later at the age of 76. At the time, it was revealed that Ilie Ceaușescu was involved in a series of transactions between the United States and Romania, which consisted of selling Soviet military technology. The deal was worth $40 million, part of which was allegedly deposited in Swiss bank accounts.