Paul Brummell
Head of Soft Power and External Affairs Department, Communication Directorate
10th December 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
September 17th 1989 Teresa and I arrived in Bucharest to take up our appointment in the Defence Section. November The 14th party congress of the Romanian Communist Party was held during a bitterly cold period. Some cynically said that if that weather had continued through December there would not have been a revolution. 15th to […]
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9th December 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
‘Although I spent four months in Romania covering the revolution from early January 1990 through until world attention faded, my reasons for being there – I was officially Middle East Correspondent of the Times based in Cairo – bore more resemblance to Evelyn Waugh’s hilarious satire, Scoop, than any hard-nosed, tale of derring-do. For personal […]
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8th December 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
‘Romania’s “televised revolution” was the most exciting event of 1989, that momentous year when country after country fell out of the crushing embrace of the Soviet Union. The fall of the Berlin Wall provided the main drama of that year and the revolutions in Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and the other central European countries were smooth […]
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5th December 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Continued from 04 December ‘I have recounted this incident in an effort to give some sense of the atmosphere reigning in Bucharest in the immediate aftermath of Ceauşescu’s overthrow. Paranoia, mistrust, uncertainty about the future, a glut of firearms in circulation, some in the hands of young men fired by machismo, who had little idea […]
Read more on Romanian Revolution through British Eyes/Dennis Deletant: ‘Revisiting the 1989 Romanian Revolution: Some Personal Reflections’ (chapter II) | Reply (1)
4th December 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
‘The Romanian revolution was for me, my own personal revolution. It brought me – to use Andy Warhol’s expression – my ‘fifteen minutes of fame’ for it catapulted me and Romanian studies at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies of the University of London, into the public eye. On 16 December 1989, I […]
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3rd December 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
‘I had already made the flight from Cluj to Bucharest on a number of occasions and it was rarely, if ever, a joyful occasion. The trip on 21st December 1989 was no exception as there was tension amongst the passengers, the airport staff and the flight crew. Even my Securitate-sponsored minder, technically a colleague in […]
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18th November 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
It was a privilege for me to lay a wreath last Sunday at the Bucharest War Cemetery in Tâncăbeşti, on behalf of the British Government, in a ceremony honouring the British and Commonwealth servicemen and women killed in the First World War and more recent conflicts, as well as those from other countries who gave […]
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13th November 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
It was good to return this month to the university city of Iasi, my home over the summer during my Romanian immersion language training. The focus of the visit was to speak at two very different conferences. At the first, marking the 175th anniversary of the foundation of the Central University Library, I spoke about […]
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17th October 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Cluj-Napoca was not a surprising choice for my first official visit outside Bucharest. And not just because it is Romania’s second city. The thriving British Business Group of Transylvania is testimony to the strength of the British business community, and I was delighted to meet up with its members at a local Indian restaurant. From […]
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15th October 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
In my first blog as British Ambassador to Bucharest, I wanted to write a few words about the contribution of some Great Britons to the development of the voluntary sector in Romania. One of the pleasures of my first few weeks at Post has been to meet a range of dedicated Brits who have devoted […]
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