The Most Evil Building in Europe

00:10:51
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uln3oINe6Kc

摘要

TLDRThe video discusses the Palace of the Parliament in Romania, one of the largest and heaviest buildings in the world, conceived by Nicolae Ceaușescu during the late 1970s. This building was part of a grand plan to create a centralized socialist capital following a devastating earthquake in Bucharest in 1977. Ceaușescu's plan involved demolishing a large section of the city, displacing over fifty thousand families, and using an enormous portion of the country's budget. The construction was notorious for Ceaușescu’s micromanagement and paranoia, particularly around safety features. Post-Ceaușescu, the building, which was unfinished at the time of his death, houses Romania's main political institutions. Despite its controversial history, today it serves a practical political function, while remaining a symbol of authoritative communism and the ironies of centralized control.

心得

  • 🏢 The Palace of the Parliament is one of the largest and heaviest buildings worldwide.
  • 🏗️ Designed under the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu, it's a symbol of communist authoritarianism.
  • 📐 The construction required demolishing a large section of Bucharest, evicting thousands of families.
  • 🇷🇴 Originally intended to centralize Romania's political institutions, it now hosts the government.
  • 🔨 Despite the building's massive scale, it consumed a significant portion of Romania’s budget.
  • 🚫 Built without air conditioning due to Ceaușescu's paranoia about possible attacks.
  • 👷 Hundreds of architects and thousands of workers contributed to its construction.
  • 🌍 Its controversial construction remains an emblem of the impacts of centralized control.
  • 🗝️ Today, the building serves functional roles in Bucharest's political landscape.
  • 🌳 Historical sites were moved to accommodate the new construction during its creation.

时间轴

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    The Palace of the Parliament in Romania, measuring 270 by 240 meters, is one of the world's largest buildings and likely the heaviest. It was born from a master plan by Romania's communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu in the late 1970s, who sought to build a new socialist capital centralizing political power and affirming his rule. Using the earthquake of 1977 as a pretext, Ceausescu aimed to reconstruct Bucharest's city center with a colossal building, the Casa Poporului, administrative buildings, and a grand boulevard for the country's elite, demolishing neighborhoods and displacing families in the process. Despite the negative impacts, he chose Arsenal Hill for its seismic safety, enforcing strict architectural demands throughout the taxing construction process.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:10:51

    Anca Petrescu, the chief architect, managed the construction with 700 architects and many workers under extreme conditions, adhering to Ceausescu's rigorous demands and using exclusively Romanian materials. The palace required vast resources, symbolizing Ceausescu’s authoritarian regime and the extremes of communist control. Although he couldn’t witness its completion due to his execution, the building now houses Romania's parliament and government offices, as well as concert venues. Ceausescu's grand vision, once a symbol of oppression, now serves functional political purposes, but remains a stark reminder of centralized control's destructive nature. The discussion moves towards personal life choices, emphasizing how one's time, likened to disappearing cubes, should be invested wisely, hinting at career choices that bring personal fulfillment and positive impact.

思维导图

Mind Map

常见问题

  • What is the Palace of the Parliament?

    It is one of the largest and heaviest buildings on the planet, located in Bucharest, Romania.

  • Who was Nicolae Ceaușescu?

    He was the communist leader of Romania who initiated the construction of the Palace of the Parliament.

  • Why was the Palace of the Parliament built?

    Ceaușescu wanted a new socialist capital that centralized Romania's political institutions.

  • What was the scale of destruction for this project?

    A large section of Bucharest was removed, evicting over fifty thousand families and destroying over ten thousand homes.

  • What architectural style influenced the Palace's design?

    The design was influenced by North Korean architecture.

  • What key feature does the building lack for safety reasons?

    The building has no air conditioning because Ceaușescu feared a poison gas attack.

  • What are the current uses of the Palace of the Parliament?

    It houses Romania's government, both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

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  • 00:00:02
    this is the Palace of the parliament
  • 00:00:05
    270 by 240 meters it is one of the
  • 00:00:08
    largest buildings on the planet and it's
  • 00:00:10
    probably the heaviest
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    however this concrete giant is small
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    compared with a master plan that created
  • 00:00:18
    it
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    in the late 1970s Romania's communist
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    leader decided he wanted something new
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    a socialist Capital that centralizes
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    country's political institutions and
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    cemented his reign
  • 00:00:30
    over the course of a decade Nikolai
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    chaucesku said in motion one of the most
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    destructive Master plans in human
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    history removing a section of Bucharest
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    as large as Venice
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    Romania is special located on the
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    Eastern end of the European continent
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    it's home to one of the most seismically
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    active areas in Europe the francian
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    mountain range within the carpathians
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    produces unusually strong earthquakes
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    and on March 4th 1977 Francia produced
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    an earthquake measuring more than seven
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    on the Richter scale
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    in Bucharest it killed more than 1 500
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    Romanians destroyed thousands of homes
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    and left tens of thousands homeless for
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    some Romanians it was one of the worst
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    disasters in their lives
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    but for one Romanian it was a blessing
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    in disguise
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    on the pretense of responding to the
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    destruction of the earthquake Nikolai
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    chaucesku announced that the country
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    needed to build a new capital in
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    Bucharest City Center
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    his plan was designed around three main
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    sections one the casa popaluri a massive
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    structure designed to hold Romania's
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    main political organs two a horizontal
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    axis of administrative buildings for the
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    bureaucrats and three a massive
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    Boulevard lined with luxury apartments
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    for the nomenclatura Romania's political
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    Elite
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    for his massive building chochesku
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    needed to scope out a safer location
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    some of Romania's communist political
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    institutions were damaged in the
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    earthquake and this couldn't happen
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    again
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    so we chose Arsenal Hill a mountain in
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    the center of Bucharest that provided
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    protection from earthquakes however
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    there was a problem because the hill was
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    safe it still had an entirely intact
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    neighborhood
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    actually this wouldn't be a problem for
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    chachesco at all he'd just destroy it it
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    was only a problem for the people living
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    there
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    in the mid to early 1970s Romania's
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    Communist Party adopted multiple
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    National systematization laws
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    the fundamental goal was to develop
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    backwards regions and prioritize dense
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    urban areas over rural ones
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    to do this the party ordered villages to
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    be converted into miniature cities with
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    Civic centers functional zoning and high
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    density buildings
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    at face value it didn't seem entirely
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    bad density can be good but Romania's
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    Communists were impatient
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    by the mid-1980s the party proposed that
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    thousands of villages in Romania had to
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    be entirely demolished and the
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    population relocated to different
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    villages in order to produce denser more
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    productive areas
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    fortunately for many this didn't end up
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    happening Romanians chose Revolution
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    over Central planning
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    but the individual neighborhoods in
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    Bucharest weren't as lucky
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    chachescu ordered the destruction of
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    more than ten thousand homes and
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    forcibly evicted more than fifty
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    thousand families
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    with a new blank canvas he could start
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    building
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    he launched a competition and received
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    multiple designs
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    a big fan of North Korea one of the
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    concepts he received looks like it came
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    straight out of Pyongyang made by the
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    20-something-year-old architect Anka
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    petresku she purposely built large paper
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    mache models to help convince ciao
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    chesku to choose her designs
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    and it worked although her North Korean
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    design wasn't chosen she proposed
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    another variation that did
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    considerably thinner than what we know
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    the building as today it still featured
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    its unique Four Corners
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    nonetheless it's hard not to notice how
  • 00:04:11
    different it still looks
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    see exactly what you'd expect from a
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    communistential planner chachescu was a
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    control freak who wasn't very easy to
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    please
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    he and his equally controlling wife
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    would visit the building's construction
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    site around three times a week they
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    wanted the columns to be Doric Ionic and
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    then dork again
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    windows that were round now needed to be
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    square he needed one more floor than
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    another one and then another one
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    he destroyed marble staircases ordered
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    them rebuilt ordered them destroyed
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    again and then ordered them rebuilt
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    again
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    it had no air conditioning specifically
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    because ciaochesku feared a poison
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    attack and he would order people to
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    measure flowers on decorating columns in
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    order to make sure that they were
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    symmetrical
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    over the course of the building's
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    construction it would take up around 30
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    percent of the entire country's budget
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    and overseeing the entire construction
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    and reconstruction was Anka the Chief
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    Architect
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    who underneath her had 700 other
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    individual Architects and thousands of
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    workers working in three shifts 24 7.
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    because ciao chesku was a man of the
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    Romanian people he ordered that the
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    entire building should be locally
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    sourced from Romanian materials
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    his Palace required around 1 million
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    cubic meters of marble 550 000 tons of
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    cement 700 000 Tons of Steel 2 million
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    tons of sand 900 000 cubic meters of
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    wood
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    3500 tons of Crystal 220
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    000 square meters of carpet and 3 500
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    square meters of leather
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    and his communist cronies created an
  • 00:05:46
    entire Crystal industry in Romania to
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    help build thousands of individual
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    chandeliers
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    while he organized the political
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    apparatus that scanned the streets to
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    catch and punish families who used more
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    than 140 watt light bulb his Palace was
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    rigged with tens of thousands
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    while he cut Central Heating and hot
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    water from Romanian households he
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    commanded the construction of a building
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    that today requires the same amount of
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    power as a mid-sized town
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    his building is made up of more than one
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    thousand individual rooms and has 14
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    floors 10 above ground and four beneath
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    building is also supposedly fitted with
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    an atomic bunker and a tunnel system
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    that could have secured an escape in
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    case of the need for an evacuation
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    unfortunately for Chuchu and his wife
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    their tunnels wouldn't be useful enough
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    in time
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    now that he had a design for his
  • 00:06:38
    building chuchesuku also needed an
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    equally Monumental access
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    called the victory of socialism
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    Boulevard it would purposely be made
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    longer than the chandelier
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    around 3.5 kilometers in length and 90
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    meters wide
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    lining is Boulevard are 10 story
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    apartment buildings that were intended
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    for key members of his party
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    from a distance his Boulevard seems like
  • 00:07:02
    it completely disregards the native
  • 00:07:03
    conditions of the city as though the
  • 00:07:06
    buildings were just glued on
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    and that's because they were
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    the kesku was a Romanian also known as
  • 00:07:14
    the engineer of Heaven
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    concerned about the planned communist
  • 00:07:17
    destruction he developed a system to
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    move churches and historical buildings
  • 00:07:21
    on Rails this allowed him and others to
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    save historical buildings that would
  • 00:07:26
    have otherwise stood in the way of
  • 00:07:27
    chachescu's grand plans
  • 00:07:30
    the last part of chachesco's plan were
  • 00:07:32
    the administrative buildings surrounding
  • 00:07:34
    the Piazza constitui a massive
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    semicircle where chachesco was supposed
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    to address his people
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    unfortunately for Nikolai though the
  • 00:07:43
    building would not be completed in time
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    for him to use it
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    instead Romanians grew restless and
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    they'd end chachu's reign
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    both him and his wife were sentenced to
  • 00:07:53
    death in a brief military show trial and
  • 00:07:55
    executed via firing squad
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    after his death chochesku's Palace
  • 00:08:00
    remained unfinished it was unclear what
  • 00:08:02
    to do with it there were those who
  • 00:08:04
    suggested that it should be demolished
  • 00:08:06
    it was the purest symbol of Communism
  • 00:08:07
    and chachescu's Cult of Personality
  • 00:08:11
    and there were also ideas to convert it
  • 00:08:12
    into the world's largest shopping mall
  • 00:08:14
    casino and even into a Dracula theme
  • 00:08:17
    park
  • 00:08:18
    it could have also been densified but
  • 00:08:20
    instead it was chosen to become the home
  • 00:08:22
    of Romania's government
  • 00:08:24
    today it houses both Romania's chamber
  • 00:08:26
    of deputies and the Senate
  • 00:08:28
    it is the biggest Parliament building on
  • 00:08:30
    the planet and the second largest
  • 00:08:32
    Administrative Building second only to
  • 00:08:34
    the Pentagon
  • 00:08:36
    the horizontal axis is still used by
  • 00:08:38
    Ministries and the square is now used
  • 00:08:40
    for concert venues
  • 00:08:42
    the boulevard is also still there of
  • 00:08:44
    course but instead of Apartments being
  • 00:08:46
    filled with members of the nomenclature
  • 00:08:48
    they are some of bucharest's most
  • 00:08:50
    valuable Apartments
  • 00:08:51
    [Music]
  • 00:08:52
    although chachesco's plans have now
  • 00:08:54
    become integrated and over time have
  • 00:08:56
    developed a practical political function
  • 00:08:58
    it should never be forgotten what this
  • 00:09:00
    building is
  • 00:09:02
    it is Europe's largest and youngest
  • 00:09:04
    symbol for centralized control and
  • 00:09:06
    authoritarian communism
  • 00:09:09
    constant reminder of how real it is to
  • 00:09:12
    be led by people who live and breathe do
  • 00:09:14
    as I say not as I do
  • 00:09:17
    this is your life in weeks if you're
  • 00:09:20
    lucky enough to turn 80 years old
  • 00:09:23
    each week a cube disappears taking away
  • 00:09:26
    a piece of your life that you'll never
  • 00:09:28
    get back
  • 00:09:29
    at first you may not care especially
  • 00:09:32
    when you have cubes to spare
  • 00:09:34
    but as you get older it becomes clearer
  • 00:09:36
    we know that our time binging TV shows
  • 00:09:39
    getting angry and regretful requires a
  • 00:09:41
    cost each Cube given is one that you'll
  • 00:09:44
    never get back
  • 00:09:46
    and there's probably no larger Cube
  • 00:09:48
    consumer than the job you choose to
  • 00:09:50
    dedicate your life to
  • 00:09:52
    eighty thousand hours is the amount of
  • 00:09:54
    time you'll spend in a career and it's
  • 00:09:56
    also the name of the non-profit that
  • 00:09:58
    wants to help you find a meaningful one
  • 00:10:01
    if your cubes have to go why not give
  • 00:10:03
    them to a career that impacts something
  • 00:10:05
    you care about
  • 00:10:06
    the choice of a career is a hard one but
  • 00:10:09
    80 000 hours is here to help you
  • 00:10:12
    they've been researching the question
  • 00:10:13
    for how you can find a fulfilling career
  • 00:10:15
    that also does good for years
  • 00:10:17
    they have a website that provides you
  • 00:10:18
    their research a podcast and also a
  • 00:10:21
    newsletter they have a job board that
  • 00:10:23
    provides hundreds of open listings for
  • 00:10:24
    potential high impact career paths and
  • 00:10:27
    all of their advice and research is free
  • 00:10:29
    forever
  • 00:10:31
    so if you're not sure what you should do
  • 00:10:32
    with your cubes or you're worried about
  • 00:10:34
    how you're spending them maybe check out
  • 00:10:36
    their in-depth career guide at eighty
  • 00:10:37
    thousand hours.org
  • 00:10:40
    remember life is short but what you do
  • 00:10:43
    with your decreasing time is up to you
  • 00:10:49
    foreign
标签
  • Palace of the Parliament
  • Nicolae Ceaușescu
  • Romania
  • communism
  • Bucharest
  • earthquake
  • authoritarianism