ABSTRACT
In November 1990, there were demonstrations in the streets of Bucharest every day, for and against the government. Newspapers of most shades of opinion were sold from damp piles on the curbs. At the end of a long boulevard stood the unfinished Palace of the People, erected by Nicolae Ceauşescu at much cost to the people. In University Square, women in black lit candles in memory of those killed in the revolt against the Ceauşescu regime. Only Ceauşescu felt confident enough to resist, as he had opposed Moscow in the past. His sense of security was based upon the strength of his secret police, the Securitate, and the family network which held his government together. An interim government was installed, the National Salvation Front (NSF), which announced that 'all power structures of the Ceauşescu clan have been dissolved'. The NSF was sufficiently alarmed by the opposition parties to seek to restrict their chances in the elections.
