Nicolae Ceausescu (Nick-o-lie Chi-Ches-Coo) was born on January 26th, 1918. He was one of the ten children of a poor peasant family. His father owned 7 and a half acres of agricultural land, a few sheep, and he also supplemented his large family's income through tailoring.

At the age of 7 Nicolae started his education at the local village school, but after only 4 years of education he ran away from home to escape his extremely religious, abusive, and strict father. He initially lived with his sister and became an apprentice shoemaker. The shoemaker he was an apprentice for was an active member in the then-illegal Communist Party and taught Nicolae about communism. Nicolae loved it and he was soon given small tasks to help spread the word of communism. (More on the podcast)