As hard as it is to believe after his rule, Nicolae Ceausescu, Romania's second* most infamous ruler, was actually rather moderate during his early rule. Romania underwent a period of cultural and economic liberalization in the second half of the 1960s, Western products were flowing into the country (Pepsi even had a factory in Constanta!), and writers, artists, and professors saw censorship lessen. All that changed after Ceausescu visited China and North Korea in 1971 and published his July Theses. Inspired by Mao Zedong and Kim il-Sung, he took Romania in a far more hardline direction afterwards, cracking down on dissidents, instituting a cult of personality, and initiating a mini-"cultural revolution" of sorts. Romania paid dearly for the resulting two decades of pseudo-Maoism on the part of Ceausescu.
* (Because there's a reason why it's not called the Nicolae Ceausescu Award for Excellence in the Field of Posting Elaborate Tortures, Uncivilized Acts Against Humanity, and Not Knowing the Meaning of the Words “Cruel and Unusual”.)
But what if Ceausescu hadn't made that trip? Or what if he had, but came away repulsed by or indifferent to what he had seen? What if Romania and Ceausescu continued on the moderate track that they were going down between 1965 and 1971?