17th December 2014
Romanian Revolution through British Eyes/Ken Morgan: ‘A well organized spontaneous revolution’
‘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 I could obtain residence permission if I opened a company in Bucharest. That is what I did and after waiting a number of years to be granted permission to marry.
So years later on December 2nd 1989, we had just moved in to a villa I had bought and had virtually reconstructed in my wife’s name only as it was not possible for a foreigner to own property in Romania. By this time we had three children, so here we were just settling in when things began to change around us. During the middle of December I noticed that my Romanian friends and all the staff at my office seemed to be very tense and spent a lot of time whispering amongst themselves. I knew that all my staff had to report anything I said or did to the Securitate and so did some of my friends; they knew that I knew. I accepted that as they would be in very serious trouble if they did not do so. I always chose my words carefully when I was with them.
This atmosphere alerted me to find out what was going on around me. Eventually I found out about the fighting in Timișoara and that it was spreading to other areas. I had travelled the world for many years and had seen these things happen before. I spoke to a neighbour of mine who was a pilot with Tarom in order to fly the family out of the country. He informed me that I could leave with my daughters but as my wife had a Romanian passport it would be impossible for her to leave the country at that time. When later the British Embassy evacuated British citizens, they could not help my wife so we had to sit it out at home in Bucharest as a family and that is what we did. Feeling very vulnerable I bought as much foodstuff as possible and filled pots and pans, baths, etc with water. I also had two jerry cans (originals) of petrol in my yard as petrol was always hard to obtain and with long queues [sometimes it took two days, plus a big bribe, to buy a few litres].
This all happened I think on December 20th 1989. As I had heard that a mass demonstration was demanded by Ceaușescu on the 21st , I thought this guy is completely out of his mind to do a thing like that at that moment. I was told by a relative of my wife that factory bosses had been asked to make sure that the workers were at the rally or else! That really made me take notice. On the 21st the real part of the revolution had started. I barricaded the house: this went quite well as the builders of my villa had left a lot of building material in the yard. I could hear gun fire from downtown because my home is near Gara de Nord station. In the building work I had strong wrought iron covers made for all the vulnerable windows at the house, with escape hinged exit points that were padlocked with the keys fixed nearby in each room in case of fire. I also had very strong wrought iron front and back doors made with metal frames cemented in to the structure. I brought a long hose in from the yard and connected it to a water supply just in case of fire.
As the fighting developed some neighbours desperately asked if they could stay in our house as they were afraid of rumours of armed gangs raiding homes and that they may attack them. A family of four were invited to move in with us: they were husband and wife and two children. The husband was a rather small man with health problems; he did not think he would be of much use if a problem developed. That was all I needed to round out my day! I converted ten spare three meter copper water pipes into spears by cutting angle off each one to defend the front and back doors by pushing them through the wrought iron design. They would have been very effective if used. On the first day of the fighting I moved everyone in the house down to our demi basement apartment that I had made as a play and entertainment area for my children. This was the safest place for them and we brought mattresses down for everyone to be able to sleep there. I moved my Mercedes away from the house so not to attract attention to us.
As the political situation worsened and the days slipped by, my home was hit by AK47 ammunition from a fire fight near Gara de Nord. My home is on a (T) junction that looks straight down a road to Calea Griviței side entrance to Gara de Nord’s car park some two hundred and fifty meters away. I think a frightened soldier fired up our street before he crossed the road. I think he must have seen a Rambo film. On the third or fourth day a big firefight developed near Gara de Nord, with explosions and armoured personnel carriers, and tanks involved. I heard two RPG explosions and a 12.7mm machine gun being used. I saw a group of eight armed men running down our road towards the station. Our large terrace on the top floor at the back of our home had seven bullet holes in one of the walls and one 12.7mm also buried in the wall. I found used bullets in the yard which I think had been fired from some long distance into the air as they had done no damage but had fallen to earth. I heard from another neighbour about gangs of robbers roaming around and attacking people at home.
All this time the children were being looked after by the ladies who did a great job of it. They also had video films and cartoons I had bought to keep them entertained; they had games to play and music to listen to. What amazed me was that we never once lost electricity, gas or water. On two or three occasions during the fighting the local police from sector 1 came calling to see if we were all safe and okay; they also gave me a direct number to find them if needed. I thought that was very good of them. I knew these policemen as I had a dog that they used to pat on the head whenever we met when taking him for a walk. We always smoked a cigarette when meeting each other.
We took a chance on Christmas day to have a British Christmas dinner in the dining-room. We even put the lights on the tree whilst eating, then we bundled the kids back downstairs to play with their presents. I had made 20 Molotov cocktails that I could throw from the terrace down towards the front door and the back door if needed. The children had polished off at least two crates of coca cola so I used the bottles with some wine corks to keep the petrol inside the bottles.
The neighbour and I took turns day and night to watch the streets. Some young men were hanging around my car one night so I threw two bottles of water near them and they ran like hell.
There is much more. This account should give you some idea as to how human beings adapt to bad situations; I became quite used to it very quickly even though it could have been far worse than it was.
I was very happy for the Romanian people that the Revolution succeeded.’
By Ken Morgan, Bucharest
British businessman
Disclaimer: This account does not represent the view of the Her Majesty’s British Government, but is a personal recollection of the December 1989 events in Romania.