He was the poster child of East Europe's bloodiest revolution against communism 20 years ago, a dashing young academic who captured the yearning of Romania's masses for a new beginning after decades of Stalinist repression by an aging dictator and his henchmen.

Two decades later, Petre Roman, Romania's first post-communist prime minister, has emerged unscathed by scandal and controversy from the turbulent era after the toppling of Nicolae Ceausescu.

Roman has aged well. Not so Romania.

The struggle that left more than 1,000 dead and captivated the world appears increasingly irrelevant to a new generation facing economic hardship and political bickering, and focused more on living for today than reliving history.

Today, Romania is mired in debt _ with foreign obligations of almost euro78 billion ($113 billion) and dependent on an International Monetary Fund lifeline to meet its budget for next year.

Although it joined the EU in 2007, the nation remains in recession, and paralyzed by political infighting _ most recently by a hotly contested presidential election marred by allegation of wholesale fraud. Transparency International effectively named the country as the most corrupt of the 27 EU nations.

Woven into Romania's unhappy present is a perception of a tainted post-revolution past. Many political leaders after Ceausescu were cronies turned critics of the dictator, leading to a widespread view that a genuine uprising was quickly co-opted by former Ceausescu allies.

Whereas democracy swept away communism in East Germany and Czechoslovakia, the Romanian old-guard that took over after Ceausescu perpetuated communist practices, including cronyism and corruption, according to popular sentiment.

That _ and the fact that only a handful of senior officials were tried for the mass shootings of the unarmed civilians thronging city squares in revolutionary fervor _ perpetuates the mood of cover up, well after other former Soviet bloc nations have moved on.

"In terms of democracy it was a great achievement," Roman said of the initial wave that swept away both Ceausescu and wife Elena, his partner in repression, while acknowledging that many today are "nostalgic" for the communist era of job security, low crime rates and cradle-to-grave social benefits.

In the past 20 years, "we have a situation where a bunch of people got very rich and the large majority are living in a precarious situation," Roman told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "This is not normal."

The revolt began Dec. 16, 1989, in the western city of Timisoara and engulfed Bucharest six days later.