On 20 December 1989, the Revolution in Timisoara wins, and the last ditch attempt to suppress the revolt fails. All troops of the Defense Ministry, the Interior Ministry and the Department of State Security (Securitate) retreat. Ceausescu returns from Iran and makes a speech on television.
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In the morning, a general strike starts in Timisoara: only the bread factories were still in operation. Workers head in columns towards the city center, in solidarity with those who lost relatives and friends in the repression, and who now demanded the bodies of their dead. The army units do not put up resistance. The protesters chant “Down with the dictator!”, “Freedom!”, “The army is on our side!”, and give the soldiers bread, water and cigarettes. At around 11:00, the army is ordered to retreat to barracks. Without any concealment, the Militia and Securitate troops follow suit. At 11:40, 11:50 and 13:30, the MI Order no. 99 instructs the Militia and Securitate troops “to not use the armament, to not be disarmed, to speak with the protesters”.
In the center of the city, between the Opera and the Metropolitan Cathedral, between 100.000 and 150.000 people gather. The population of the city was 300.000. The revolutionaries proclaim Timisoara the first Romanian city free of communism and create the Romanian Democratic Front.
At 14:30, prime-minister Constantin Dascalescu and Emil Bobu arrive on the airport in Timisoara. At the County Party Committee , they spoke with a delegation of revolutionaries, who presented their requests. Later that day, the RDF elaborated a Proclamation which read:
>I. The Romanian Democratic Front is a political organization established in Timișoara to engage in a dialogue with the Romanian Government in order to democratize the country. The Romanian Democratic Front conditions the beginning of this dialogue with the resignation of the tyrant Ceaușescu.
>II. We propose to the Romanian Government as a basis for discussion the following demands:
>1. The organization of free elections.
>2. Freedom of speech, press, radio and television.
>3. Immediate opening of state borders.
>4. Romania’s integration into the ranks of states that guarantee and respect fundamental human rights.
>5. The immediate release of all political prisoners and dissidents in Romania.
>6. Revitalization of the national economy.
>7. Reform of education in a democratic spirit.
>8. The right to demonstrate freely.
>9. Real freedom of religious cults.
>10. Improved health care and public food supply.
>III. Regarding the events in Timisoara
>We strongly demand that those who ordered the shooting of the people be held accountable.
>We demand the return of the deceased to be buried according to custom, with national mourning.
>We demand the immediate release of all those arrested following the demonstrations.
>We demand official recognition of the Romanian Democratic Front founded in Timisoara.
>We thank all those who stood up against tyranny, as well as the staff of the National Theatre of Timișoara for their support.
At around 17:00 Ceausescu returns from Iran. He holds a teleconference with the county first secretaries, and decides to send troops of the Patriotic Guards to Timisoara. Around 25.000 workers from Olt, Valcea and Dolj counties arrive in the next morning in Timisoara’s North Railway Station, where revolutionaries greeted them with water and food and told them what happened in the past days. Some workers decided to remain in the city and joined the crowd in Opera Square, others went back to their hometowns, spreading the news of the victory of the Revolution.
At around 19:00, Ceausescu hold a speech on television and Radio. [Here is the full speech, with English subtitles]( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWbg8aToCdM&ab_channel=o.o).
What the Securitate feared in the past few days happened when some citizens of Timisoara managed to board trains towards Bucharest, because, as the revolutionaries were chanting, _Azi la Timisoara, maine in toata tara!_.
And so it began
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