 He greatly extended the authority of the "Securitate" (secret police) and imposed a cult of personality, leading to a dramatic decrease in Ceauşescu's popularity and culminating in his overthrow and execution in the bloody Romanian Revolution in December 1989.The Romanian Revolution resulted in more than 1,000 deaths in Timișoara and Bucharest, and brought about the fall of Ceauşescu and the end of the Communist regime in Romania.After a week of unrest in Timişoara, a mass rally summoned in Bucharest in support of Ceauşescu on 21 December 1989 turned hostile.