They had living standards much higher then USSR
Well I'm glad you agree on that then. Let's see a quote from the abovementioned site (and the data is accurate, made by Romanians).
These are just a few examples relating to life under the latter years of Ceausescu:
>Food
Many foodstuffs were rationed including meat, bread, sugar, and vegetable oil - despite this shortages ensured empty shelves in foodstores. Queues would immediately form whenever there was a food delivery, however poor the quality.
>Energy
Petrol was rationed and electricity consumption severely curtailed - you could only use one 40 watt bulb in a room. Only one in every three streetlamps was switched on - often less. In addition powercuts played havoc, even disrupting industry and hospitals - operating theatres would be plunged into darkness and life support machines would fail. Fuel shortages lead to ambulances not attending emergencies if the patient was over 70. Heating was minimal and gas pressure was often so low that cooking was virtually impossible.
>Birth Control
Perhaps the most appalling policies were those introduced to "boost" the population. Abortion and Contraception were abolished and all women in factories subjected to monthly gynaecological examinations to ensure that the laws were obeyed. From 1983 it became the duty of every woman to produce a minimum of 5 children. Childless and unmarried women were subjected to higher taxes whilst women producing larger numbers of offspring were declared "Heroine Mothers". The results are well known - the unwanted children of the orphanages and horrific deaths from back street abortions.
>Information
The state controlled media including the daily newspaper of the party, "Scinteia" reported in great detail on Ceausescu, glorifying him and heaping praise on his wife, continuously reporting on the great advances the country was making in all fields of industry, agriculture, science and international relations. Television was restricted to a two hour programme, the bulk of which showed Ceausescu on his various visits receiving praise from crowds of people lining the roads or attending his speeches. This was "Big Brother" and Romania was stuck in "1984". Books were published in his honour heaping praise on him with (often dubious or out of context) quotes from international press and endless photographs, commissioned paintings and poems.
History had also been rewritten, in particular Ceausescu's part in the rise of Communism. The arrest of the Iron Guard leader, Antonescu, and the switch of alliance from the axis to the allies by King Michael on 23 August 1944 became a glorious communist uprising against imperialist and fascist forces.
Even contact with visitors from the West was restricted - any contact had to be reported to the Securitate within 24 hours. Despite all of this the people were not naive, they no longer believed the propaganda. However, the hardship of life and the constant fear instilled by the Securitate made organised resistance impossible and lead to a feeling of hopelessness. When the 1989 "Revolution" finally came it was the most bloody of all the former Warsaw Pact countries - once the people saw for themselves how vulnerable Ceausescu was nothing was going to stop them from gaining their freedom. It is no surprise that it was sparked in Timisoara since the people there had long received outside information via Yugoslav and Hungarian radio and television.
Life under Ceausescu was well illustrated by Ana Blandiana's banned poem 'Totul'
