Romania's Blood-Sucking Rulers

Romania, home of Vlad the Impaler, the real Dracula, was witness to a more recent ruthless ruler - Nikolai Ceaucescu. Vlad Tepes, a legendary Romanian hero, squashed his opponents and wandered among the commoners to seek and destroy unjust behavior. Ceaucescu, with his vast network of secret police, did the same thing in a manner. Securitate members and their loyals would rat out opponents to the Stalinist regime, particularly those of minority groups.

Both leaders were ousted by those closest to them. Vlad Tepes' brother was responsible for Vlad's demise, while two of Ceaucescu's closest security advisors and military generals staged a coup in 1989 to rid the country of the megalomaniacal leader. Targoviste was home to Vlad's throne, but it was also the location of Ceaucescu's execution. In a strange circumstance of opposites, Snagov is Vlad the Impaler's supposed place of eternal rest - but Ceaucescu and his wife maintained a residence in that little village.

It proabably goes without saying that Ceaucescu was not exactly Dracula incarnate, but that Romania's experiences with totalitarian brutality extend across centuries makes one wonder what other connections can be made between two of Romania's most famous rulers.

Pedo File

The Writer's Almanac for today mentioned two important dates for fellow Slavophiles. In 1955, Lolita was published, a book that is both horrifying and beautiful and that solidified Nabokov's position in the cannon of American writers. It is also the birthday of the Polish film director, Roman Polanski, who fled the States after his arrest for the sexual abuse of a 13 year-old girl. While the crime has not prevented him from winning numerous awards, Polanski has not been back to the States for almost three decades. He was not as tenacious, but his behavior still resembles that of Humbert Humbert.