The Final 24 Hours of Nicolae Ceaușescu

December 25, 1989. Christmas Day. In a cramped military courtroom, a man who ruled Romania for nearly a quarter century stands defiant. His hands shake slightly, but his voice remains strong. He refuses to recognize the judges. He refuses to answer questions. He insists he is still the president. Within minutes, he will be dead. Less than twenty-four hours earlier, this same man had been in his palace, still believing he controlled the nation. He had ruled with absolute power for so long that he couldn't comprehend how quickly everything was unraveling. His secret police, the feared Securitate, had kept the population terrorized for decades. His cult of personality rivaled North Korea's. And yet, in a span of time shorter than a single day, he went from dictator to prisoner to corpse.