Romania was a communist country to end the monarchy and the Soviet occupation since 1947. The country remained under direct military and economic control of the USSR until the late '50s, when Soviet troops began a negotiated withdrawal, and Nicolae Ceausescu took control. A brief period of economic prosperity and openness in the late '60s and early '70s was followed by the accumulation of national debt from growing larger. To achieve its objective of removing the country under the influence of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to relieve the external debt of 10 billion dollars, Ceausescu initiated a full refund, imposing a series of policies that have exhausted Romania's economy. The Romans reached the verge of starvation due to reductions desperate for food, fuel and other basic elements. Extreme poverty, combined with diminishing personal and political freedoms have led to the overthrow of the Ceausescu regime in the revolution of December 1989.