Beginning in late 1986, the seeds of the Romanian Revolution of 1989 were sown, as workers throughout this Soviet Bloc country mobilized in protest of communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu's economic policies.

Labor uprisings sprouted in the major industrial centers of Cluj-Napoca (November 1986) and Nicolina, Iași (February 1987), culminating in a massive strike in Brașov, one of the largest cities in Romania.

A skilled working class emerged in the 1960s as the Communist government encouraged migrations from the more rural regions of Romania (such as Moldavia) to operate Brașov factories.

[4] However, since the regime decided to play down the uprising as “isolated cases of hooliganism,” sentences were between 6 months and 3 years in prison, a relatively moderate penalty in the communist penal code, but they were deported to other cities around the country and not allowed to return to Brașov.

This revolt reflected what historian Dennis Deletant referred to as "Ceaușescu's inability to heed the warning signs of increasing labor unrest, plunging blindly forward with the same [economic] measures, seemingly indifferent to their consequences."