Elena Ceaușescu

Elena Ceaușescu ( Petrescu; – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian politician and doctor of chemistry who was the wife of Nicolae Ceaușescu, General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party and leader of the Socialist Republic of Romania. She was also the Deputy Prime Minister of Romania. Following the Romanian Revolution in 1989, she was executed alongside her husband on 25 December.

Background She was born Elena Petrescu into a peasant family in Petrești commune, Dâmbovița County, in the historical region of Wallachia. Her father worked as a ploughman. She was able to acquire only an elementary school level education. After elementary school, she moved along with her brother to Bucharest, where she worked as a laboratory assistant before finding employment in a textile factory. They married in December 1947. She obtained a degree in chemical engineering in 1957 and a doctorate in 1967, though there is anecdotal evidence that her thesis was written by a university professor since she had only a rudimentary knowledge of the discipline.

From the early 1980s onward, Elena was the object of a cult of personality as intense as that of her husband, which exalted her as the "Mother of the Nation". As she was led out of the courtroom before her execution she was recorded chastising the soldiers binding her hands with the words, "Shame on you. I brought you up as a mother. I raised you." By all accounts, her vanity and desire for honours exceeded that of her husband. As with her husband, Romanian state television was under strict orders to take great care portraying her on screen. For instance, she was never supposed to be shown in profile because of her large nose and overall homely appearance. She was the only woman ever executed by the modern state of Romania.

Ceaușescu was outlived by her mother, a near centenarian at the time of her death, her brother Gheorghe Petrescu (also an important figure in the party) and her three children: Valentin (born 1948), Zoia (1949–2006) and Nicu (1951–1996). Nicu was an important member of the Romanian Communist Party, unlike his siblings. Elena Ceaușescu is buried in Ghencea Cemetery.

Reputation as a chemistry researcher After graduating from primary school in her village and moving to Bucharest, Ceaușescu continued her education in the 1950s through night courses at the local Politechnic, obtaining a bachelor's degree in chemistry. Later in 1967, she was promoted as a scientist, and was also awarded a PhD in chemistry.

Since the Revolutions of 1989, several scientists have claimed that Ceaușescu had forced them to write papers in her name, and that the university gave her the honour of the doctorate solely because of her political position. The dissertation is titled the "Stereospecific Polymerization of Isoprene" and has substantial scientific value, still cited today. Elena Ceausescu went to school only up to 4th grade, which she failed, and thus it is implausible for her to have written the dissertation in 1967. The real authors remain anonymous, but indirect evidence points to a group of Romanian chemists led by Dr. Ozias Solomon; professor Solomon was a renowned chemist and he had been forced to publish with Elena Ceausescu.

She was sometimes nicknamed Codoi, referring to her alleged mispronunciation of the name of the chemical compound CO (C for carbon, O for oxygen, and "" being Romanian for "two"). She was mocked by many, including an official who called her by this nickname during her show trial. Contributing to the humorous effect, "" is an actual word in Romanian, meaning "big tail".

In 1957, she was hired as a research scientist at ICECHIM (National Institute for Chemical Research). In the early 1960s, she was reported to be secretary of the party committee of the Bucharest Central Institute of Chemical Researches, and when her husband took over the party leadership in March 1965, she was listed as the institute's director. In December of the same year, she was elected a member of the newly established National Council of Scientific Research, and in September 1966, she was awarded the Order of Scientific Merit First Class. Also, patents under her name are still kept by the European Patent Office.

Honours Iran: Commemorative Medal of the 2500th Anniversary of the founding of the Persian Empire (14 October 1971). Italy: Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (21 May 1973). National Reorganization Process: Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the Liberator General San Martín (5 March 1974). Portugal: Dame Grand Collar of the Order of Prince Henry (12 June 1975). Philippines: Order of Gabriela Silang (9 April 1975). Malaysia: Honorary Grand Commander of the Order of the Defender of the Realm (1984)

Honorary degree and professorship

Elena Ceaușescu was an Honorary Doctor of several universities and was a member of some academic societies in the United States and countries in Asia, Europe, and Africa.

Member of the New York Academy of Sciences (United States, 1973) Corresponding member of the Academy of Athens (Greece, 1976) Honorary doctor causa of the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina, 1974) Honorary doctor causa of Universidad Nacional del Sur (Bahia Blanca, Argentina, 1974) Honorary doctorate degree honoris causa – Philippine Women's University (1975) Honorary doctor of Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán (Mexico, 1975) Honorary doctor of the University of Tehran (Iran, 1975) Honorary member of the International Society of Industrial Chemistry (1970) Honorary professor at the National University of Engineering (Lima, Peru, 1973) Honorary member of the American Institute of Chemists (Washington, D.C., 1973) Honorary member of the College of Chemists and Chemical Engineers of Costa Rica (San Jose, 1973) Honorary member of the Council of the Central University of Ecuador and of the Institute of Natural Sciences of the Central University of Ecuador (Quito, 1973), Honorary member of the Mexican Chemical Society (1975) Honorary doctor causa at the University of Manila (1975) Honorary member of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (1977) Honorary professor of the Polytechnic of Central London (1978)

Publications Research work on synthesis and characterization of macromolecular compounds, Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, 1974 Stereospecific Polymerization of Isoprene, 1982 Nouvelles recherches dans le domaine des composés macromoleculaires, 1984 Dostizheniia v khimii i tekhnologii polimerov, 1988