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Nicolae Ceauşescu was born in 1918 and he died in 1989. Due to the extraordinary changes that the Romanian society witnessed during his time, the biography of this son of the peasantry may be re-signified in several vastly contradictory ways. For all intents and purposes however, he may be placed in the category of "professional revolutionaries", an extremely positive valuation within the contemporary Leninist ideology. Once in contact with the illegal communist movement, Ceauşescu became an outlaw, practically from the age of 15. The aftermath of WWII thrust him at the core of decision-making and at the focal point of Romanian power, a position he retained uninterruptedly until three days before his death. He held absolute power for nearly a quarter of a century. His atypical biography also dwindled his already scarce grasp of reality. The propaganda that had sustained the cult for "professional revolutionaries", and -during the final decades- the cult of his own personality determined grave distortions in his social perception, leading, in the "Ceauşescu case", to the "ultimate solution".