Head of Soft Power and External Affairs Department, Communication Directorate
29th December 2014
During a visit to London last month I headed to the delightfully quirky Horniman Museum at Forest Hill, where curator Fiona Kerlogue gave me a tour of the Revisiting Romania exhibition, on show since October. The exhibition offers a beautiful display of Romanian folk art, from embroidered sheepskin jackets to the intricately carved distaffs often […]
22nd December 2014
I was back in London for a few days last month to attend a series of events focused on the export opportunities for UK companies represented by the Central European region, stretching from Poland in the north to Bulgaria in the south. The centrepiece was the High Growth Europe Showcase, organised in concert with the […]
18th December 2014
‘I was 3 month and 2 day old when fights for ‘Awakening Romania’ took off. I am 25 year old now. And I am very proud that the age of democratic Romania will always be the same with my age. The topic of the ’89 Revolution is very sensitive; the stories on the personal experiences […]
Read more on Romanian Revolution through British Eyes/Alice Șapcaliu: ‘Looking into the future’ | Reply
17th December 2014
‘I made my first visit on business to Romania during December 1981. It was then when I first met my future wife. Over the following year I made any excuse to visit Romania just to see her again. In fact, I made over twenty four flights from London to Bucharest. Eventually I found out that […]
Read more on Romanian Revolution through British Eyes/Ken Morgan: ‘A well organized spontaneous revolution’ | Reply
16th December 2014
By December 1989 the situation in Romania for the population was bad. Years of erratic dictatorial rule, ever increasing privation and austerity had produced an atmosphere ripe for change. But because of the very powerful communist tyranny and repression not even the most expert and experienced diplomatic and foreign media observers foresaw the sudden overthrow […]
Read more on Romanian Revolution through British Eyes/Michael Atkinson: ‘Bucharest during the 1989 Revolution’ | Reply (1)
15th December 2014
Continued from 12 December Friday, December 22nd, Alecu Russo Diplomatic quarters 08.00 am Eleanor had not yet turned up. I was finishing breakfast and wondering in the quietness of morning whether it was all over. Had the police/soldiers and all the apparatus of the Police State finished the job last night, and cleared all the […]
Read more on Romanian Revolution through British Eyes/ Bernard Marshall: ‘Two days of the Romanian Christmas Revolution in December 1989’ (Chapter II) | Reply (1)
12th December 2014
‘December 21st – 10.30 am on Palace Square, Bucharest “Please move back “, said the tall Securitate official. Three diplomats moved back a few steps onto the now empty square. “I asked you to move – please move back “, he ordered again – in surprisingly refined and clear English. He was wearing a long […]
Read more on Romanian Revolution through British Eyes/ Bernard Marshall: ‘Two days of the Romanian Christmas Revolution in December 1989’ (Chapter I) | Reply
11th December 2014
The calm before December 1989 is as memorable to me as experiencing the revolution itself. Roll back a year to November 1988 and my arrival in a city blanketed by ice, snow and grey slush. More horse and carts on the airport road than cars and an introduction to faded and frozen communist grandeur through […]
Read more on Romanian Revolution through British Eyes/ Richard Morris: ‘Awakening Romania’ | Reply
10th December 2014
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 […]
Read more on Romanian Revolution through British Eyes/ Mike Brown’s memories | Reply (1)
9th December 2014
‘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 […]
Read more on Romanian Revolution through British Eyes/Christopher Walker: ‘Scoop with real bullets’ | Reply