Nicolae Ceausescu - vizita in Coreea de Nord (1971)

Date: Sun Feb 07 2021 ; Tags: Romania

In 1971, Nicolae Ceausescu and an entourage visited North Korea. It's said that Ceausescu was so impressed by what he saw, that it inspired him to repeat it in Romania. As a result he forced Romanians into performing massive choreographed staged events, and began rebuilding Bucharest to be a grand Communist city. In other words, this visit ushered in some of the excesses that befell Romania under his rule.

Consider - they'd flown halfway around the world, making who knows how many stops, and how many hours of flight time, to reach North Korea. And their welcome was to be greeted by throngs of people lining the boulevards performing extravagant choreographed dance routines. And it wasn't just the welcome, but every part of the trip.

This video is an excellent way to see how Communist ruled North Korea operated in 1971.

Of course the video is highly slanted to present the most positive picture. We see a very clean and sleek society, with modern vehicles, modern living, yet adhering to Communist practices. It's all posed of course, but they were able to construct such an illusion in a big scale.

It is understood that Ceausescu was a leader who needed to have constant praise. Therefore the extravagant displays of cheering and adulation had to have affected him such that he wanted his own country to do the same.