ABSTRACT
Romania is best known outside the Soviet bloc for frequent deviations from Soviet norms in foreign policy. Nicolae Ceausescu's leadership style evokes comparison with other prominent communist leaders such as Lenin, Stalin, and Mao: all four men have been the objects of personality cults. The Ceausescu idol created after 1969 has been given a number of faces. First, it is omniscient, the Party oracle, the interpreter of Marxism-Leninism, initiating, planning, and announcing all major policies. Since 1969 Ceausescu has dominated the Romanian political system. By that year he had eliminated any opposition within the top leadership. "Ceausescuism" specifies an entire set of postulates about social, economic and political goals. In domestic terms, the height of Ceausescu's symbolic prestige probably occurred in March 1974 when he was elected President of the Republic. As Scinteia described the occasion: March 28, 1974, will remain engraved in the history of the homeland, in the consciousness of our people.
