Dem I. Dobrescu

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Dem I. Dobrescu (usual rendition of Demetru Ion Dobrescu; 1869—1948) was a Romanian left-wing politician who served as Mayor of Bucharest between February 1929 and January 1934.

Born in Jilava, he trained as a lawyer and joined the Bucharest bar. Alongside N. D. Cocea and others, he also defended Communist Party members during the 1922 Dealul Spirii Trial.[1] In 1923, Dobrescu was part of the defense for Constantin Titel Petrescu, leader of the Federation of Romanian Socialist Parties, during a trial he faced for alleged insults addressed to the Romanian Army; Petrescu was eventually acquitted.[2] Earlier in the year, Dobrescu had joined Petrescu's Liga Drepturilor Omului (League for Human Rights), which voiced protests against measures taken by the National Liberal cabinet of Ion I. C. Brătianu; the League also included Constantin Rădulescu-Motru, Constantin Mille, Victor Eftimiu, Nicolae L. Lupu, Constantin Costa-Foru, Grigore Iunian, Radu Rosetti, and Virgil Madgearu.[3]

Dobrescu ran in elections for the mayor's office as a candidate for the National Peasants' Party (PNŢ).[4] After winning, he declared the purpose of the office to be "not just administrative in character, but also social".[5] Consequently, he created a series of non-partisan comitete cetăţeneşti ("citizen committees"), which were to oversee the application of norms in areas such as health, building maintenance, street commerce, and public safety.[6] In the context of the Great Depression, he took measures to ensure that the underprivileged were regularly fed through public expense.[7]

He also soon began a series of major public works: paving most streets (with measures take to replace the many types of pavement in use with a single material);[8] radical measures in electrification and the expansion of the water supply network;[9] authorising the first buildings reflecting a modernist style;[10] widening and straightening Calea Victoriei, as well as other major routes (with the reshaping of squares such as Piaţa Universităţii);[11] sanitizing and embanking the Băneasa Lake, as well as other lakes and ponds in northern Bucharest.[12]

Although widely popular, Dobrescu's measures contributed, according to the newspaper Dimineaţa, to creating "unease — inside his party — unease on the outside".[13] He eventually came into conflict with the Ion G. Duca National Liberal government and was fired on November 13, 1933; the move caused scandal, and Dobrescu was reinstated as mayor on November 26, only to be deposed by the new Gheorghe Tătărescu cabinet (which had taken over following Duca's assassination by the fascist Iron Guard) on January 18, 1934.[14]

Dobrescu's leftist convictions eventually brought him into conflict with the PNŢ: he left in December 1935 to establish his own political movement, which took the name of the popular institution he had helped create — the Citizen Committees.[15] It remained a minor anti-fascist party, and disappeared in 1938, when King Carol II replaced all political forces with his National Renaissance Front.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Cioroianu, p.29
  2. ^ Constantin Titel Petrescu
  3. ^ Constantin Titel Petrescu
  4. ^ Dumbravă
  5. ^ Dobrescu, in Zănescu et al., p.82
  6. ^ Dumbravă; Zănescu et al., p.82
  7. ^ Dumbravă; Zănescu et al., p.82
  8. ^ Dumbravă
  9. ^ Dumbravă; Zănescu et al., p.82
  10. ^ Dumbravă
  11. ^ Dumbravă; Zănescu et al., p.82
  12. ^ Dumbravă; Zănescu et al., p.82
  13. ^ Dumbravă
  14. ^ Zănescu et al., p.83
  15. ^ Niculae et al., p.15

[edit] References

  • Adrian Cioroianu, Pe umerii lui Marx. O introducere în istoria comunismului românesc ("On the Shoulders of Marx. An Incursion into the History of Romanian Communism"), Editura Curtea Veche, Bucharest, 2005
  • Dinu Dumbravă, "Patru ani de mari realizări în Capitală" ("Four Years of Major Achievements in the Capital"), in Dimineaţa, November 13, 1933, p.19-20
  • Vasile Niculae, Ion Ilincioiu, Stelian Neagoe, Doctrina ţărănistă în România. Antologie de texte ("Peasant Doctrine in Romania. Collected Texts"), Editura Noua Alternativă, Social Theory Institute of the Romanian Academy, Bucharest, 1994
  • Ionel Zănescu, Camelia Ene, "Doi primari interbelici în slujba cetăţeanului" ("Two Interwar Mayors in Service to the Citizen"), in Magazin Istoric, March 2003
  • (Romanian) Constantin Titel Petrescu at social-democrati.ro
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