INTOLERANCE IN MY PAST - DIFFICULT MOMENTS IN HISTORY -

ROMANIAN REVOLUTION OF 1989 The Revolution marked the end of the Communist regime of Nicolae Ceauşescu. Street protests and violence in several Romanian cities over the course of roughly a week led the Romanian dictator to abandon power. The Romanian Revolution caused 1,104 deaths and he number of injured reached 3,352.

THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE DANUBE – BLACK SEA CANAL The Canal was notorious as the site of labor camps in 1950s Communist Romania, when, at any given time, several tens of thousands political prisoners (60,000) worked on its excavation. It has a width of m and a depth of 7 m and at one point it divides into two branches. 300 million m³ of soil were excavated, more it was when they built Panama or Suez. 3.6 million m³ of concrete were used for the locks and support walls. The total number of people used as a workforce for the entire period is unknown, as is the number of people who died in the construction.

MINERIAD Mineriad is the term used to name any of the successive violent interventions of miners in Bucharest. These interventions were generally seen as aimed at wrestling policy changes or simply material advantages from the current political power. The term is mostly used to refer to the most violent mineriad, which occurred in Bucharest during the period June 13–15, 1990.

THE PITEŞTI EXPERIMENT The Piteti prison was a penal facility in Piteti, Romania, best remembered for the brainwashing experiment carried out by Communist authorities in (also known as the "Piteti Experiment" or the "Piteti Phenomenon"). It was designed as an attempt at violently "reeducating" the mostly young political prisoners. The experiment's goal was for prisoners to discard past political and religious convictions, and, eventually, to alter their personalities to the point of absolute obedience. Estimates for the total number of people passed through the experiment range from 1,000 to 5,000. It is considered the largest and most intensive brainwashing torture programme in the Eastern bloc.

THE WALLACHIAN UPRISING OF 1821 In 1391, the principality was forced to pay tribute to the Ottoman Empire and later Turkish suzerainty was acknowledged in This allowed Wallachia to keep its own dynasty, territory and religion, even though domestic and foreign policy was handled by the Ottomans. Resistance continued over time, resulting in an unstable political structure that caused the Turks to select Greek administrators (Phanariote) to govern. In 1821, an uprising caused the end of the Turkish Phanariote. Tudor Vladimirescu was the leader of the Wallachian uprising of 1821.

THE GREAT UNION OF st December 1918 represents, for the Romanian people, the triumph of centuries of struggle and sacrifices for achieving the national unitary state. At Alba Iulia, in the centre of Transylvania, the Great National Assembly approved the unification of Transylvania, Banat, Crisana and Maramures with the Kingdom of Romania. “...The Great Union of 1918 was and remains the most sublime event in Romanian history. Its greatness resides in the fact that the fulfillment of the national unity is not the work of any politician, government or party; it is the historic deed of the whole Romanian nation, accomplished out of a powerful longing coming from the vivid awareness of the unity of the people and channeled by the political leaders for it to be led towards its aim with a remarkable political intelligence. “ The national holiday of Romania is on December 1 st to commemorate this event.