Armand Călinescu
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Armand Călinescu (June 4, 1893 [O.S. May 22] - September 21, 1939) was a Romanian economist and politician.
Călinescu was born in Piteşti in the family of an army doctor. Between 1912 and 1918, he studied the Law and Philosophy at University of Bucharest, then took a Ph.D. in Economics and Political Sciences at the University of Paris.
After his entry into politics as a member of the National Peasants' Party (initially representing the party's left wing, with Mihai Ralea, Ernest Ene, Mihail Ghelmegeanu, Petre Andrei, and Nicolae L. Lupu),[1] he was elected to the Romanian Chamber of Deputies, and served between 1926 and 1937. His firm opposition to the fast rise of the fascist Iron Guard (the Legionaries), while serving as undersecretary for Internal Affairs Ministry,[2] contributed to the fall of the 1933 Alexandru Vaida-Voevod's government of which Călinescu was a member. In opposition to the Gheorghe Tătărescu National Liberal cabinet, Călinescu warned against the latter's tolerant stance toward the Legionaries, especially after the murder of Ion G. Duca in December 1933 and the desecration of his memorial plate in 1936 ("The Iron Guard is not a movement of the [public] opinion, but rather an association of assassins and foul profaners of tombs").[3]
He was a staunch ally of France and the United Kingdom and a steadfast adversary of the pro-Nazi Germany movements in Romania. Călinescu also supported King Carol II's move to counter the Guard's success, and, eventually, he defied his party by becoming Minister of the Interior after December 1937, in the short-lived Octavian Goga cabinet formed by the National Christians,[4] being immediately expelled from the PNŢ.[5]
He began preparing himself for the confrontation with the Iron Guard. While organizing the early elections of March 1938, he took steps to limit the Guard's propaganda machine, and closed down all press linked to the Guard, causing violent confrontation between the movement and representatives of state authorities.[6] Călinescu remained in office during the authoritarian regime established by King Carol after that date — he was also a founding member of the National Renaissance Front created by as the sole legal party in December 1938, and was generally seen as very close to Carol.[7] In May, he decapitated the Guard by ordering arrests of its leaders, beginning with that of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu,[8] as well as many of its members and sympathisers (including Nae Ionescu and Mircea Eliade).[9] Codreanu and other leaders (probably as much as 300 people)[10] were consequently killed in custody;[11] other Legionaries were pressured to sign "declarations of dissociation".
In 1939, after brief stints as Minister of Health and Minister of Education, on March 7 he became Prime Minister of Romania, being considered the "man of steel" able to prevent Iron Guard's political violence and to keep Romania out of the pro-German war camp. In September of that year, after the invasion of Poland, the pro-Nazi members of Iron Guard alleged that Călinescu and the King Carol planned with the British Intelligence services to blow up the Prahova oil fields, preventing Germany to take control and use them.
Călinescu was assassinated in Bucharest by Iron Guard members under the direct leadership of Horia Sima: his automobile was blocked by the assassins, who shot Călinescu, his bodyguard, and his driver; and over twenty bullets were recovered from the Prime Minister's body.[12] A harsh repression followed under the provisional leadership of Gheorghe Argeşanu, beginning with the quick killing of the assassins and the public display of their bodies for days on end.[13] It seems that the assassination was carried out with German approval and assistance.[14]
Two years later, during the Legionnaire's Rebellion, his tomb was dynamited.[15]
| Preceded by: Miron Cristea |
Prime Minister of Romania March 7, 1939-September 21, 1939 |
Succeeded by: Gheorghe Argeşanu |
[edit] Notes
- ^ Ornea, p.119, 295; Veiga, p.191
- ^ Veiga, p.191
- ^ Călinescu, 1936, in Ornea, p.305
- ^ Ornea, p.312; Scurtu, p.25
- ^ Scurtu, p.25
- ^ Hitchins, p.415; Ornea, p.208; Scurtu, p.25
- ^ Hitchins, p.417; Ornea, p.312-313
- ^ Ornea, p.314-318; Veiga, p.248-251
- ^ Ornea, p.208-209, 240
- ^ Ornea, p.322
- ^ Hitchins, p.416; Ornea, p.320-321; Veiga, p.257
- ^ Veiga, p.261
- ^ Veiga, p.261
- ^ Veiga, p.262
- ^ "Rumania Tries Arms Maker in Guard Revolt", in The Washington Post, January 29, 1941.
[edit] References
- Keith Hitchins, România, 1866-1947, Humanitas, Bucharest, 1998 (translation of the English-language edition Rumania, 1866-1947, Oxford University Press, USA, 1994)
- Z. Ornea, Anii treizeci. Extrema dreaptă românească, Ed. Fundaţiei Culturale Române, Bucharest, 1995
- Ioan Scurtu, "La originea sistemului de autoritate monarhică a lui Carol al II-lea. Lovitura de stat din 10 februarie 1938", in Dosarele Istoriei, 1/IV, 1999
- Francisco Veiga, Istoria Gărzii de Fier, 1919-1941: Mistica ultranaţionalismului, Humanitas, Bucharest, 1993
