It is well known that Nicolae Ceaușescu had a true obsession with hunting. Perhaps because of this he was far from behaving like a real hunter. The dictator shot everything that came within range of his rifle, without respecting hunting rules and legislation in the field. He shot any kind of animal, it didn’t matter if it was a chicken or an animal protected by law. Moreover, the dictator received a report every morning with information about the wild animals he was going to hunt. Moreover, Ceaușescu even “invented” deer hunting from a helicopter. He was eager to shoot as many and towering wild animals as possible. Such a case happened in September 1989, in Suceava county.
The deer hunting season started right from September 1, but for the hunts in which Nicolae Ceaușescu participated, preparations were made long before.
Foresters from the whole country were mobilized in a real campaign. The number of deer, the number of rays and the estimated CIC score, the areas and the time of day when the deer were observed, etc. were observed and noted. All this recorded data was reported daily to the communist dictator.
“Ceaușescu had no patience in one place for more than 4-5 minutes”
It is known that deer hunting can be done either in “shacks”, or by lying in wait in a place located on the edge of areas where deer and deer come out for food, water or salt, or simply are favorite areas for their gathering, also called “bump zones”. However, Nicolae Ceaușescu had no patience at all, and most of the time he drove by car as close as possible to the place where the hunt was to take place.
“He couldn’t stay in one place for more than 4-5 minutes. During the raid he was accompanied by a Security officer who carried his weapons, ammunition and other accessories; he was necessarily accompanied by a local hunting specialist, who knew well the terrain, the movement and the value of deer”, says forestry engineer Vasile Crișan in the book “Hunting with Ceaușescu”.
“He didn’t shoot bad. I saw him shoot a deer, shooting from one side of the mountain to the other”
Besides, the dictator never took into account the distance at which he was shooting the weapon. From where he could see the deer there was shooting. “At 50, 100 or 1,000 meters, it didn’t matter to him. Actually, it didn’t shoot bad. I saw him when he shot a deer, shooting from one mountainside to the other, at a distance of 800-1000 meters”.
In addition to all this, Nicolae Ceaușescu also had crazy ideas. One day he came up with the idea of using a helicopter for deer hunting. The highlight is that many times he managed to shoot notable specimens of deer from the helicopter, according to the forestry engineer.
Most of the time, the dictator combined the deer hunts with “hunting working visits” in the respective counties. In the morning and in the afternoon he went hunting, and during the day he asked for official visits to be organized for him in cities and in some enterprises.
A business visit, interrupted by the appearance of a towering deer
This is how one of his last deer hunts took place, combined with a business visit. In September 1989, Nicolae Ceaușescu visited Suceava, when it was announced that a special sky had appeared in Pătrăuți forest, with a “26 odd” trophy. Suddenly, the dictator interrupted his working visit from the city and went to shoot the deer.
“He was not satisfied with just this deer, with a very rare trophy, he once again proved his greed as a hunter, shooting 9 more deer”, revealed the forestry engineer Vasile Crișan, one of the specialists who dealt with several decades of organizing hunting parties in which Nicolae Ceaușescu participated.
A huge number of hunting trophies
After the hunt, the deer shot by Ceaușescu were collected and the value of the trophies was determined, and then real work followed for their exploitation.
“The trophies of the deer shot by Ceaușescu were prepared with great care by the hunting staff from the forest corners, they were then mounted on wooden panoplies that became more and more beautiful, and then, if they were valuable, they were presented to Ceaușescu directly for viewing and , only after that, are they handed over to the trophy warehouse in Scroviştea. Thus, hundreds of trophies were collected in his collection”, says Vasile Crișan.
After the 1989 Revolution, the record book of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s hunting trophies, stored in Scrovistea, was published.
The huge number of trophies surprised even hunting enthusiasts. The following figures are recorded in the register: 426 deer trophies, 385 bear pelts mounted with skulls, 20 bear skulls, 172 black goat trophies (of which 5 were hunted in Yugoslavia), 610 panoplies with boar tusks, 1,265 trophies of fallow deer, 81 roe deer, 78 mouflons and 2 rock goat trophies. Added to these are a number of trophies of exotic species that he has shot abroad, especially in Africa.
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Source: www.descopera.ro
