On December 22, 1989, at 2:35 pm local time, a man stepped in front of the camera in studio 4 of Romanian state television TVR and addressed the viewers as "Dear comrades." It was Ion Iliescu, then 59, taking the reins as the overthrow of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was being broadcast live.

Shortly before, Ceausescu had fled the capital, Bucharest, in a helicopter, driven out by an angry and determined crowd. The uprising against the national-Stalinist dictatorship had triumphed, and the "end of the tyrant" was announced from the television studio.

When Iliescu appeared, most Romanians knew only vaguely who he was. In party circles, however, he was known as a functionary who Ceausescu had once sidelined. Iliescu made an emotional speech, accusing the "confused Ceausescu clique" of having "plunged Romania into chaos and disorder." He also called on the population to exercise "social discipline."

Hours later, he made a second appearance. This time in a wooden tone, Iliescu announced that a "Front of National Salvation" had taken power and decided on measures to democratize Romania. High-ranking functionaries of the recently overthrown dictatorship surrounded him with applause.

Iliescu appeared as the provisional Romanian leader — and as the head of an uprising in which he hadn't even participated. At that moment, no one questioned his legitimacy. In one of his famous self-mythologizations, Iliescu himself later said that he had been an "emanation," that the revolution had "brought him forth" as a leader.

Iliescu was later elected three times, leaving a legacy in post-communist Romania unlike any other politician in the country. During........

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