This book makes sense of the events of December 1989, when Romanians turned on Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu and overthrew their savage, megalomaniac rule in a wave of violence and butchery which was witnessed live on television. In his inquiry into the rise and fall of the Ceausescus, Edward Behr explores and dissects the myths of their complex lives and political careers. Only now are key witnesses to the Ceausescus' early years coming forward to tell the real story. Behr has talked to former cell companions, Party workers and army colleagues who watched with amazement as the first despized, then feared couple skilfully outmanoeuvred all rivals to establish a dictatorship and succeeded in fooling the outside world for over a decade and a half. Edward Behr explains how this power was retained by a system of informers, secret police and a subterranean city of tunnels under Bucharest. He exposes the sad truth that the majority of the Romanian "Establishment" and intellectual elite vied with one another in currying favour in return for personal advancement and material rewards.