Original subtitles

- (inquisitive music)

NARRATOR: In the heart of Bucharest, the vast People's Palace

stands as the largest administrative building in Europe.

- It's so heavy that it actually sinks six millimetres

into the ground every year.

- (speaks Romanian):

NARRATOR: Started in June 1984 and finally opened 13 years later,

it encompasses a staggering 11,000 rooms,

spanning a total area of 365,000 square metres.

Such grandeur was the vision of longtime Romanian strongman

Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena.

This colossal building was supposed to be not only a symbol of power...

..it was meant to be a refuge for a fading ruler.

Deep beneath its imposing facade lies a secret underground bunker.

- There's this real sense of paranoia

that's still very, very much attached

to what lies below the People's Palace,

and that's even today.

NARRATOR: Was this amazing building a symbol of the rampant megalomania

of an aging dictator trying to cling to power?

Or is there something altogether more sinister

buried deep within its tunnel complex?

Underground tunnels.

Nuclear bunkers.

Architectural madness.

Lavish headquarters.

For dictators, the cost did not matter.

Only their desires, power

and security.

What secrets hide in these grand structures?

- Ceausescu is a typical character

who is corrupted by power.

- You've got to remember that Nicolae Ceausescu

is not being a dictator all by himself

because his wife, Elena,

was also immensely powerful.

NARRATOR: A member of the Romanian Communist Youth movement

in the early 1930s, it was, ironically, in prison

that Ceausescu got his big break. There he shared a cell

with legendary Communist leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej,

becoming his protege.

Following the death of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-De in 1965,

Ceausescu took power in the country.

- When he began, Ceausescu was much more constructive,

with much more positive potential for contributing to his country.

- When Ceausescu first came to power,

he looked as if he was going to set up a new kind of government,

something unique behind the Iron Curtain.

- Initially, Ceausescu is actually, you know...

He's quite anti-Soviet. He's quite anti-Russia.

And what he starts doing is looking west

and forging links with Western countries.

- (clock chimes)

NARRATOR: Ceausescu took his first major step

in convincing the whole world that he was a staunch opponent

of the USSR by opposing Soviet suppression

of the Prague Uprising in 1968.

Ceausescu not only refused allowing Romanian forces

to retaliate against Czechoslovakia

but also publicly condemned the actions

of his fellow members of the Warsaw Pact.

- He begins to believe that he's a new path,

a path that's sort of diplomatically between West and East.

NARRATOR: Hailed as the Genius of the Carpathians,

Ceausescu could be found sipping champagne

with the president of the United States on one day

then ordering the fastest mass urbanisation

of a rural population the next.

The project was the largest ever witnessed in a Communist country.

While Ceausescu flew in luxury around the world,

at home, poverty raged and thousands died from hunger.

- He travelled to London. He travelled to North Korea.

He travelled to China. He travelled everywhere, really.

NARRATOR: With one hand, Ceausescu accepted a knighthood

from Queen Elizabeth II, whilst with the other,

he inflicted yet more misery on his people by restricting abortion

and signing a law requiring every family

to have at least five children.

Thousands of women die due to use of underground abortion clinics,

while children are left on their own due to orphanages being overwhelmed.

- Ceausescu was an evil man.

There is no other word for it. And actually, so is his wife.

- They completely believe that they were somehow destined

to be these great leaders, great statesmen and women,

and they take total control of Romania.

And Romania gets poorer and poorer,

and they spend more and more and more money.

NARRATOR: Romanians were afraid of the despotic couple.

- Throughout his entire regime,

all the way through, people were disappeared,

they were tortured. Or of course, they were murdered.

So, this is classic dictator behaviour.

NARRATOR: As they sought to extend their reign,

Nicolae and Elena were themselves increasingly fearful.

Rising tensions with the USSR,

which first emerged after their condemnation of Soviet suppression

of the Prague Spring, created a pervasive atmosphere of paranoia.

Foremost amongst their fears was their conviction

that the KGB would try to poison them.

NARRATOR: Among the fears that tormented Nicolae

and Elena Ceausescu, one rose above all others.

- Well, of course, if you're gonna be the new king,

then you're gonna want your own new castle.

And so what Ceausescu does is to order the building

of the world's biggest castle.

And that's exactly what the People's Palace is.

- (water dripping echoes)

- (eerie music)

NARRATOR: In an act of madness,

akin to Hitler's fantasy model for Berlin,

Ceausescu decided to remake Romania's capital

in his own grandiose image.

His magnum opus would require the displacement of thousands

of Romanian citizens, not to mention hundreds of millions of dollars.

The project was the brainchild of two ministers in the Politburo,

Cornel Burtica and Stefan Andrei,

whose vision was to recreate the face of the capital.

- She was really the go-to person in a number of ministries,

and above all, she controlled access to her husband.

NARRATOR: Elena immediately pitched the project to her husband.

- He was worried about the effect it would have on the people,

and of course, he was paranoid about a revolution.

NARRATOR: In 1977, however,

a golden opportunity presented itself.

- (alarm whines)

NARRATOR: As a result of an earthquake in Bucharest

measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale,

1,400 people lost their lives, with over 10,000 injured.

Nearly 12,000 houses were uninhabitable,

while dozens of historic buildings were damaged.

For a dictator, the most important thing

is to show that he is in control of the situation.

- He gave a lot of attention to how he was presented in the media.

NARRATOR: Paradoxically, this tragedy led to the strengthening

of Nicolae Ceausescu's prestige.

- Ceausescu realises, this is a great opportunity. Now he could say,

"Look, now I can protect the city from any more earthquakes."

So, what does he do?

- Ceausescu destroys 30% of the city himself,

which is far worse than any earthquake has ever done.

- All the rest of Bucharest was also unsafe, according to his excuses,

but he nevertheless, didn't think about that too much,

even though he was a complete hypocrite.

NARRATOR: Despite its anecdotal origins,

reality was every bit as bizarre. At a public exhibition,

Ceausescu strutted around a model of Bucharest with a stick,

toppling buildings he intended to demolish.

Construction of new walkways and thoroughfares,

along with the imposing People's Palace,

officially started in 1983.

- The estimate is up to 100,000 people actually worked

on the construction of this project,

so it was a massive undertaking.

NARRATOR: The whole project was supervised

by the fledgling architect Anca Petrescu.

Very open to Ceausescu's suggestions,

who had precise ideas about how things should be built...

- And so she would come up with something, and they would say,

"No, no, no, you have to change this, you have to change that."

- And sometimes it was actually a very foolish idea,

sometimes technically almost impossible to accomplish.

NARRATOR: While overseeing construction of the People's Palace,

Ceausescu drew his inspiration from North Korea.

- It's when he starts going to Communist countries

and especially starts going to places like North Korea.

- (crowd singing in Korean):

- (upbeat music plays)

WALTERS: Because he looks at North Korea and he goes,

"I love these big buildings.

"I love all these people singing songs to the dear leader.

"This is great. I want this at home."

NARRATOR: The impression made on the dictatorial couple would

prove pivotal. They began to crave the same outpouring of devotion

from their people on the streets of Bucharest

as they had seen for the supreme leader of North Korea, Kim Il Sung.

Key to that, they believed, was construction of a new capital city.

- "I've got to build that, because that's the way I'm going to project

"onto the rest of the world how powerful

"and how important and how mighty I am."

NARRATOR: Ceausescu complained that the boulevard was too narrow

and needed to be widened.

He was told that the foundations had already been completed.

- Ceausescu didn't see a problem with this massive building project

cos his view was, "Well, just bulldoze the buildings

that are in the way. It didn't matter to him how much it cost.

It didn't matter to him what kind of cultural treasures

or historic buildings might be destroyed in the process.

All he wanted to do was his mega project.

NARRATOR: But what was happening on the surface was mere child's play

compared to what Nicolae had planned underground.

- Bucharest is, geologically,

really not the best place to build underground structures.

It's the type of place that if you dig,

things above you, they're gonna collapse.

NARRATOR: Despite the engineers' warnings,

Ceausescu insisted on building an underground railway.

An innovative tunnelling technique was developed.

The ground was frozen, then the tunnel was dug and reinforced,

and the process started all over again.

This investment was wildly expensive and risky,

but Ceausescu didn't care.

- When they're building things like the metro system in Bucharest,

there's only really one way you can test

to see if it's gonna be stable and that's to build the tunnel.

And then what you do is you wait a year,

and if it doesn't collapse, you're good.

But if it collapses, you're not so good.

NARRATOR: The construction of the metro

turned out to be a major success.

But the metro was only part of the underground structures

the Ceausescu's had planned.

In the newly built government district,

all administrative buildings were to be connected by a network

of underground tunnels.

The People's Palace was to have a series of escape tunnels

and a huge underground bunker beneath it.

Construction would take years, with everything cloaked in secrecy.

- This building alone cost about $1.8 billion,

and he secretly took out loans from the West in order to complete it.

NARRATOR: With the People's Palace under construction

and their people starving,

the Ceausescu's lodged in luxurious residences

dotted around the country.

- The Ceausescu's were... They're really greedy and really wasteful.

I mean, they had around 80, that's eight zero, villas.

But there would be food and drink ready for them all the time.

And there'll be beds ready for them.

And there'll be staff there around the clock.

And the Ceausescu's just didn't even use not even half of these villas.

They used about ten or fifteen of them.

So, they're just sitting there, empty,

in a country that is desperately poor.

NARRATOR: He had a special and unique residence

in the exclusive Primaverii district of Bucharest,

commissioned by his former mentor.

- Ceausescu's favourite personal residence was the Spring Palace.

NARRATOR: After the death of his predecessor in 1965,

Ceausescu claimed the Spring Palace for himself,

making it his primary residence.

Dumitru Burlan was responsible for the protection

and management of the villa between 1968 and 1990.

NARRATOR: The vast villa quickly failed

to meet the needs of Ceausescu.

The dictatorial couple decided on an overhaul.

An entirely new wing was constructed behind the master bedroom.

- It's human nature to wanna better yourself in life. We all want that.

But the Ceausescu's make that absurd.

- (upbeat classical music)

NARRATOR: Despite their Communist heritage,

Nicolae and Elena did everything to pass as educated,

cultured aristocrats with expensive tastes

and intellectual predispositions.

- So, you have Elena claiming to have all these academic titles

and doctorates, things like that.

Ceausescu himself, he's a pretty ill-educated guy.

I mean, he's not very bright either, and he comes from this very humble,

rural background. And yet here he is,

trying to make out that he's the new king of Romania.

So, the couple's ambition is absolutely boundless.

Actually, though, grounded on nothing. In fact,

they're both big liars.

NARRATOR: Despite their ambitions and pretensions,

they found it impossible to disguise their humble origins entirely

and often overcompensated, especially Elena.

- She was a terrible, terrible boss. Horrible person to work for.

- She leaves expensive items in a room unattended.

Then she spies on the cleaners and the staff

to see whether they're gonna steal that thing.

It's just utter madness.

NARRATOR: Ironically, during their trips abroad,

it was the Ceausescu's themselves who did the stealing,

stripping hotels where they stayed of towels,

bathrobes and bedding.

- This is a thief spying on potential thieves.

- (water dripping echoes)

- Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu,

they are not the only members of the family

kind of adjusting to the high life.

The dictator's parents were really unable

to completely forget their modest rural roots.

NARRATOR: His mother-in-law refused

to eat anything except sweets and cakes.

- And his father, Andruta Ceausescu, he would often go missing,

and he had to be picked up by the dictator's security detail

from the local pub because he used to sneak off

while their backs were turned.

NARRATOR: Keeping their watchful eye on Andruta Ceausescu

was Romania's dreaded secret police, the Securitate.

Developed and modelled on the KGB,

designed to ensure Ceausescu could dominate the country

without fear of popular dissent.

- Securitate was one of the worst of the secret services

behind the Iron Curtain.

NARRATOR: On behalf of the Securitate,

the security officer responsible for safeguarding the president

and his family was villa manager Dumitru Burlan.

NARRATOR: The Securitate's structure

and arsenal of informers ballooned to vast proportions.

- Their paranoia leaked out into the whole of society,

in a country of 22 million people.

By the 1980s, there were already half a million agents

that were working for the Securitate.

NARRATOR: Round-the-clock protection for the Ceausescus

and the Spring Palace fell to the first department.

Department three organised

and secured the dictator's visits abroad.

Department four was the information gathering

and domestic intelligence service. In the Spring Palace,

it was mainly responsible for surveillance of employees.

Department five's agents protected the dictator

while traveling around Romania,

while departments seven

and eight took care of the food supply

and daily necessities for Ceausescu's family.

As a result, working at the family villa was both a privilege

and a curse.

- They set up a network of secret police in every level of society.

Places were bugged. People were followed.

NARRATOR: Elena Ceausescu enjoyed eavesdropping,

uncovering scandals and threats.

The Securitate collected gossip

and tittle-tattle, especially for her,

and reported ongoing rumours

about all members of the party committee...

..who had direct contact with her husband.

- Elena was so paranoid

and so determined to remain in control of every aspect

of life in Romania that she even had her husband's office bugged.

NARRATOR: As Nicolae Ceausescu received various delegations

and ministries, Elena's obsession over the meetings only grew.

NARRATOR: Though she wasn't officially invited

to these meetings, with the Securitate's help,

she could listen in.

However, the most complicated issue for the Securitate by far

was the personal protection of the president.

The dictator's security practices involved food tasting,

checks on people meeting the leader,

along with regular deployment of decoys

to confuse potential assassins.

Burlan himself acted as Ceausescu's doppelganger on several occasions.

NARRATOR: The dictator himself was especially paranoid

about poisoning plots,

which caused the Ceausescus to become germaphobes,

constantly washing their hands with disinfectants.

- Even if he had to shake the hand of a world leader or somebody else,

he would rush back and clean his hands with an alcoholic solution

so that he wouldn't be somehow stained

or infected in any way.

NARRATOR: To further protect

and insulate themselves from possible assassination,

they developed concentric layers of security around their residences,

with each unit assigned specific areas,

governed by separate pass codes.

NARRATOR: Mounting paranoia made the dictator feel unsafe everywhere.

He needed a new security measure:

a no-expense-spared...

..nuclear bunker.

The Spring Palace bunker was no ordinary refuge...

..comprising a portion

of the villa's two-level underground structure.

Much like the rest of the residence,

it was characterised by splendour and kitsch.

The basement's first level included a cinema,

allowing the dictator to watch his favourite American programmes.

Below it, past a set of marble stairs,

stood the fallout shelter, adorned with luxurious furniture.

- This is so typical of Ceausescu.

Even the bunker's got to look like the Palace of Versailles.

Of course, from a practical point of view,

everything he needed was there.

Most importantly, he could stay in permanent contact

with the Securitate or the Army or the police.

NARRATOR: Additionally, two now-defunct escape tunnels ensured

that the dictator could make a swift evacuation should it be necessary.

- The entrances to these tunnels were safeguarded

with huge steel doors.

One of the tunnels was 20 kilometres long.

- And that leads directly to the People's Palace,

from this tunnel, if it's absolutely necessary,

to get to the state television building

or even the Izvor metro station.

- The second tunnel led to a canal of water,

which then led to a lake,

so this meant that Ceausescu could actually escape from Bucharest

by water if he needed to.

NARRATOR: But compared to the underground complex

he was building below the People's Palace,

Ceausescu's bunker beneath the Spring Palace

was a mere broom closet.

As far as he was concerned,

the sooner he could occupy his massive new palace the better.

- Ceausescu was not only building this massive,

huge, grandiose project above ground,

but also he wanted nuclear shelters, he wanted escape tunnels,

and he wanted a whole world underground,

just in case there was some kind of nuclear attack

or some other physical attack, he could safely escape to with his wife

and then carry on the government from the safety of underground.

- It is very, very hard to get a definitive answer

as to how many levels there are below there.

No one will talk about it. No one will give you a definitive answer

because no one really knows for sure.

If someone does, we would really like to hear from them.

- (footsteps)

NARRATOR: Marius Marinescu is a Romanian politician and publicist,

the author of many publications about the People's Palace

and its secrets, as well as one of the few

who researched the underground tunnels in the 1990s.

He is one of a select group of people

who know the secrets of the bunker beneath the People's Palace,

able to shed light on its mysteries.

NARRATOR: Aside from the underground floors accessible to the public,

Marinescu states that there are four additional floors below,

each fulfilling a distinct function.

NARRATOR: The command centre consists of a meeting room,

a telecommunications headquarters. From here,

the Ceausescu's could maintain full control over the country

and restore order in the event of rebellion or a nuclear attack.

NARRATOR: Elena, Nicolae and other party dignitaries

were to have all possible luxuries at their disposal:

private chefs, trainers,

psychologists and doctors.

NARRATOR: The fourth floor housed all technical facilities

and the offices of engineers responsible

for the proper functioning of systems required

to maintain life in the bunker.

The bunker was intended to function like an underground city.

Ceausescu made sure that he was capable of accessing the bunker

not only from the People's Palace

but also from several other buildings throughout Bucharest.

- (water dripping echoes)

NARRATOR: The year is 1989.

As Romanians are forced to live in abject poverty,

Nicolae Ceausescu's vast People's Palace remains under construction.

- Romania's population was under more and more pressure,

under more and more economic pressure,

but also more and more of this police surveillance,

violence, prison and murder by the regime.

- So, the situation is the borders of the Eastern Bloc

are stretched to breaking point.

One of those points is a large popular protest

which breaks out in Timisoara.

- Ceausescu had it brutally put down,

but it was clear that the cracks in the system were beginning to show,

and people were starting, for the first time,

to think that they might be able to depose this man.

- (people shouting)

- (shouting continues)

NARRATOR: The revolution was perceived by the government

as a hostile, external act, the act of the enemy.

NARRATOR: Protests sprang up around the country,

spreading to Bucharest.

Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu remained holed up

in the Central Committee building, deploying secret police

and armed forces to try and quell the unrest.

NARRATOR: Ceausescu, not used to experiencing resistance,

began to promise absolutely petty things.

- (crowd shout)

- The Ceausescus were fundamentally arrogant.

They may have worried about their own safety,

but what they hadn't realised, what they should have worried about

was that by the late 1980s, the world was changing,

and it was changing fast. The Ceausescu's simply did not realise

that, actually, they were very near the end.

Not you know in years to come but right now.

- (gunfire in distance) - (man shouts in Romanian)

NARRATOR: They headed from Bucharest to Targoviste,

where they landed ostensibly to rest and refuel.

But their journey ended abruptly.

- The couple were betrayed.

They were handed over to the Army,

and that is how they met their end.

NARRATOR: Captured by his enemies and on trial for his life,

Ceausescu had one final ace up his sleeve.

A gold watch that he never left behind.

During the trial, Nicolae can be seen periodically glancing at it.

In '89, no one could explain this behaviour,

but as it turns out, the watch was the dictator's last resort.

- Ceausescu wore a gold Rolex. Of course he did.

Would befit his love of splendour and opulence.

But this Rolex, it was different.

It had a radio locator in it.

And the Securitate could then use that

to look out for the dictator at any time.

And this is why Ceausescu behaved so strangely

during that very quick trial.

He's actually waiting for the moment

that people loyal to him are gonna come to his rescue.

Now, unfortunately for him, that never happened.

- I think it's fair to say that neither Nicolae

nor Elena Ceausescu got a fair trial.

NARRATOR: On December 25th, 1989,

Ceausescu and his wife were tried within roughly two hours

before being sentenced unanimously to death.

Had he managed to escape to his tunnels rather than taking flight

with his military, his fate may have been vastly different.

NARRATOR: Former British Army Intelligence Corps officer

and security expert Adrian Weale has examined this hypothetical scenario

and whether the Ceausescu's might have survived

under the People's Palace while facing the sophisticated weaponry.

According to Adrian Weale,

an attack with Scud missiles would be effective.

- The Scud missile was a Soviet invention originally,

and it's a fairly basic short-range ballistic missile.

It can carry a conventional warhead or a tactical nuke.

NARRATOR: A simple but deadly weapon,

these missiles were successfully employed by the Soviets in Iraq

and Iran in the 1980s.

- It's got an accuracy of about,

what's called a circular error probability of about 1,000 meters.

So, if you were to fire Scud at the People's House in Bucharest,

it's a really big target.

So it might be that you just hit the gift shop

or the canteen or something else, but you're still gonna hit it.

And that will spook Ceausescu,

who was not a terribly brave man, and get him out of there.

- (air-raid siren wails)

- (multiple explosions)

- (wailing continues)

NARRATOR: Shelling the People's Palace would be insufficient

in eliminating Ceausescu.

Other administrative buildings would need to be targeted

alongside to ensure he would flee in the intended direction.

- From the People's Palace, you have a number of tunnels,

and it's likely that Ceausescu's destination

if the People's Palace came under attack

would be his personal favourite residence, the Spring Palace,

still within a government area but next to the river.

NARRATOR: Of course, Nicolae Ceausescu

and his wife would not have stayed in Primaverii.

There was an underground tunnel leading from the villa

to Lake Floreasca.

NARRATOR: But the only possible escape route in this situation

leads straight into a trap.

At the end of the tunnel, the Russian Spetsnaz would be waiting

for Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu.

- In the 1970s and 1980s, Spetsnaz developed a reputation

as being super soldiers, equivalent to Western special forces.

I think the thing about them is that they're very ruthless.

The weaponry they're gonna be carrying is probably quite light.

The Kalashnikov AK-74.

So, the modern Kalashnikov and probably the AKSU variant,

which is much smaller than a standard Kalashnikov rifle,

with a silencer fitted.

They'll have thermal imaging sights for use at night.

And these are accurate, effective modern weapons,

which, because of the silencer, have a very low sound signature

and will enable these soldiers

to get very close to their target before they're detected.

- (silenced gunshots)

- Now, there are all these rumours swirling about that Ceausescu,

when he leaves Bucharest by helicopter with Elena,

that maybe he's going to head to Iran or maybe Argentina.

I don't think there are a lot of people in the world

who really wanted to have Mr and Mrs Ceausescu

as their permanent house guests.

NARRATOR: By December 1989,

the Ceausescus had no friends left to call on.

Two decades of corrupt rule, enriching themselves

and embarking on impractically grandiose construction projects,

all whilst abandoning their people to starve,

had long ago eroded any residual goodwill,

both at home and abroad.

All that remains of their 25-year reign of terror is the vast edifice

of the People's Palace, a monument to the Ceausescus greed

and hubris.

- (reflective music)

Subtitles by Sky Access Services