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Nicolae Ceaüescu, (born January 26, 1918, Scorniceti, Romania-died December 25, 1989, near Bucharest), Communist official who was leader of Romania from 1965 until he was overthrown and killed in a revolution in 1989. A member of the Romanian Communist youth movement during the early 1930s, Ceaüescu was imprisoned in 1936 and again in 1940 for his Communist Party activities. In 1939 he married Elena Petrescu (b. January 7, 1919, Oltenia region, Romania-d. December 25, 1989, near Bucharest), a Communist activist. While in prison, Ceaüescu became a protégé of his cell mate, the Communist leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, who would become the undisputed Communist leader of Romania beginning in 1952. Escaping prison in August 1944 shortly before the Soviet occupation of Romania, Ceaüescu subsequently served as secretary of the Union of Communist Youth (1944-45).