Gheorghe Tătărescu

This is a good article. Click here for more information.
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the artist, see Gheorghe Tattarescu.
Gheorghe Tătărescu
Miron Cristea
Preceded byIstrate Micescu
Succeeded byNicolae Petrescu-Comnen
In office
2 October 1934 – 9 October 1934
Preceded byNicolae Titulescu
Succeeded byNicolae Titulescu
Minister of Interior
In office
25 November 1939 – 30 November 1939
Prime MinisterHimself
Preceded byNicolae Ottescu
Succeeded byMihail Ghelmegeanu
In office
23 February 1937 – 14 November 1937
Prime MinisterHimself
Preceded byDumitru Iuca
Succeeded byRichard Franasovici
Personal details
Born(1886-11-02)2 November 1886
National Liberal Party-Tătărescu
ProfessionLawyer

Gheorghe I. Tătărescu (also known as Guță Tătărescu, with a slightly antiquated pet form of his given name;Unknown – 28 March 1957) was a

fascist Iron Guard and ultimately becoming instrumental in establishing the authoritarian and corporatist regime around the National Renaissance Front. In 1940, he accepted the cession of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union
and had to resign.

After the start of

Communist takeover, he was arrested and held as a political prisoner while being called to testify in the trial of Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu
. He died soon after his release from prison.

Elected an honorary

Nazi group, the National Socialist Party
.

Early life and politics

Born in Târgu Jiu, Tătărescu studied at Carol I High School in Craiova. He later went to France, where he was awarded a doctorate from the University of Paris in 1912, with a thesis on the Romanian parliamentary system (Le régime électoral et parlementaire en Roumanie).[1] He subsequently worked as a lawyer in Bucharest. He fathered a son, Tudor, and a daughter, Sanda (married to the lawyer Ulise Negropontes in 1940).[2]

After joining the

socialist agitation in the countryside.[4]

He stood among the PNL's "young liberals" faction, as they were colloquially known, supporting

National Liberal Party-Brătianu).[5]

The Undersecretary in the Interior Affairs Ministry under several PNL cabinets (beginning with that of

imperialist communism".[7]

First cabinet

Context

Tătărescu became leader of the cabinet in January 1934, as the

Constantin Anghelescu ensured transition between the two governments). His was the second PNL cabinet formed during Carol's reign, and the latter's failure to draw support from the mainstream group led to a tight connection being established between Carol and the young liberals, with Tătărescu backing the process leading to the creation of a royal dictatorship.[8] One of Tătărescu's first measures was a decisive move to end the conflict between the National Liberal executive and the Mayor of Bucharest, Dem I. Dobrescu (who was backed by the National Peasants' Party)—making use of his prerogative, he removed Dobrescu from office on 18 January.[9]

The brief period constituted a reference point in

camarilla dominated by the figures of industrialists such as Aristide Blank, Nicolae Malaxa, and Max Auschnitt.[11] In this context, Tătărescu's allegedly subservient position in front of Carol was a frequent topic of ridicule at the time.[12] According to a hostile account of the socialist Petre Pandrea
:

"Tătărescu was ceremonious in order to cover his menial nature. When he was leaving audiences [with the King], he pressed forward on the small of his back and returned facing backwards from the desk to the door, not daring to show his back. [...] Watching over the scene [...], Carol II exclaimed to his intimate assistants:
— I don't have a big enough tooshie for all the politicians to kiss!"[13]

Among other services rendered, he intervened in the conflict between Carol and his brother,

Prince Nicholas, asking the latter to renounce either his marriage to Ioana Dumitrescu-Doletti—considered a misalliance by Carol, it had not been recognized by Romanian authorities—or his princely prerogatives.[14] Nicholas chose the latter alternative in 1937.[14]

Inside his party, Tătărescu lost ground to Dinu Brătianu, elected by the traditional Liberal elite as a compromise in order to ensure unity; upon his election in 1934, the latter stated:

"This time as well, I would have gladly conceded, if I were to believe that anyone else in the party could gather voter unanimity."[15]

The issue remained debated for the following two years. The party congress of July 1936 eventually elected Tătărescu to the second position in the party, that of general secretary.[16]

European politics

In his foreign policy, Prime Minister Tătărescu balanced two different priorities, attempting to strengthen the traditional military alliance with Poland which was aimed at the Soviet Union, and reacting against the growing regional influence of Nazi Germany by maintaining the relevancy of the Little Entente and establishing further contacts with the Soviets.

In August 1936, he removed

Dimitrie Ghyka, the ambassador to Belgium, and Caius Brediceanu, the ambassador to Austria) while Titulescu's adversaries, such as Antoine Bibesco, were returned to office.[17] Bibesco subsequently campaigned in France and the United Kingdom, in an attempt to reassure Romania's main allies that the move did not signify a change in Romania's priorities.[18] Tătărescu was later blamed by his own party for having renounced the diplomatic course on which Romania had engaged.[19]

In early 1937, Tătărescu rejected the proposal of

Czechoslovak Prime Minister Milan Hodža, Šeba was recalled to Prague.[21]

Facing the Iron Guard

In combating the Iron Guard, Tătărescu chose to relax virtually all pressures on the latter (while mimicking some of its messages), and instead concentrated again on curbing the activities of the

Popular Front-type organizations (see Amicii URSS).[22]

In April 1936, he and the

Sinaia train station, and, upon their arrival in Târgu Mureș, made public their violent antisemitic agenda.[23] It was probably there that death squads were designated and assigned missions, leading to the murder of Mihai Stelescu, a former associate, in June of the next year.[24]

In February 1937, an intense publicity campaign by the Guard, begun with the ostentatious funerals of Ion Moța and Vasile Marin (killed in the Spanish Civil War) and culminating in the physical assaulting of Traian Bratu, rector of the University of Iași, by Guardist students, provoked the premier's order to close down universities throughout the country.[25]

Later in that year, the collaboration between monarch and premier, coupled with the fact that Tătărescu had successfully attracted

National Liberal Party-Brătianu—the pact was meant to prevent all attempt by Carol to manipulate the votes in elections.[26] (A secondary and unexpected development was that the illegal PCR, which had decided to back the National Peasants' Party prior to the elections, eventually supported the electoral pact.)[27] Tătărescu's own alliance policy rose the anger of his opponents inside the PNL, as he signed collaboration agreements with the fascist Romanian Front and German Party.[16]

The

far right had gathered momentum (the Guard, running under the name of "Everything for the Fatherland Party", had obtained 15.6% of the vote),[29] Carol was faced with the threat of an Iron Guard government, which would have been one deeply opposed to all of his political principles: he called on a third party, Octavian Goga's National Christian Party (coming from the antisemitic far right but deeply opposed to the Guard) to form a new cabinet in December of that year.[30]

Consequently, Tătărescu renounced his offices inside the party, and, while keeping his office of general secretary, he was surpassed by the readmitted Gheorghe I. Brătianu — who was elected to the new office of PNL vice president on 10 January 1938.[16] After the failure of Goga's policies to curb the rise of their competitors, the king, backed by Tătărescu, resorted to dissolving all political parties on 30 May 1938, creating instead the National Renaissance Front.[31]

Rearmament

As Prime Minister, Tătărescu showed particular concern for the modernization of the Romanian Armed Forces. Almost immediately after becoming Prime Minister, he established the Ministry of Armaments, chaired by himself. This ministry lasted for over three years before being dissolved on 23 February 1937, during his third cabinet.

Under Tătărăscu's premiership, Romania launched a ten-year rearmament program on 27 April 1935. Under this program, Romania acquired 248

Reșița works. There, two submarines would be built between 1938 and 1943, among others (Marsuinul and Rechinul).[32] The resumed and much improved trade relations with Škoda, following the disastrous "Škoda Affair" of the early 1930s, were credited to the energy and ability of Tătărăscu, "the soldier-politician who reversed the usual order in Romanian politics by placing the welfare of the country superior to the lust for graft".[33] It is worth noting, however, that of the 35 tankettes and 126 tanks ordered during Tătărescu's premiership, only 10 of the former and 15 of the latter actually arrived in Romania before the end of his mandate at the end of 1937. Both of these orders were delivered in full during late 1938 and early 1939, respectively.[34] In 1936, Romania also started producing the Polish PZL P.11 fighter aircraft, of which 95 were ultimately built by IAR.[35] In 1937, Romanian production of the improved PZL P.24 also commenced, with 25 fighters being built until 1939.[36]

Second cabinet

Main article: National Renaissance Front

In this context, Tătărescu chose to back the regime, as the PNL, like the National Peasants' Party, remained active in nominal clandestinity (as the law banning it had never been enforced any further).[37] Having personally signed the document banning opposition parties, he was expelled from the PNL in April 1938, and contested the legitimacy of the action for the following years.[38] Allegedly, his ousting was recommended by Iuliu Maniu, leader of the National Peasants' Party's and, for the following years, the closest of Dinu Brătianu's political allies.[38]

Soon after his second arrival to power, Tătărescu became noted for the enthusiastic support he gave to the

The Endless Column complex in Târgu Jiu (completed in October 1938).[1]

Alongside

Ernest Urdăreanu and Mihail Ghelmegeanu, began talks with the (by then much weaker) Iron Guard.[42]

Tătărescu remained in office throughout the rest of the

Phony War, until the fall of France, and his cabinet signed an economic agreement with Nazi Germany (through which virtually all Romanian exports were directed towards the latter country)[43] and saw the crumbling of Romania's alliance with the United Kingdom and France.[44] The cabinet was brought down by the cession of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union (effects of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact), as well as by Carol's attempt to appease German hostility by dissolving it, replacing Tătărescu with Ion Gigurtu, and recreating the Front as the totalitarian Party of the Nation.[45]

World War II

Greater Romania with Northern Transylvania highlighted in yellow

After the Second Vienna Award (when Northern Transylvania was lost to Hungary, confirming Carol's failure to preserve both the country's neutrality and its territorial integrity), Romania was taken over by an Iron Guard dictatorial government (the National Legionary State). Speaking five years later, Dinu Brătianu placed the blame for the serious developments on Tătărescu's own actions, addressing him directly:

"I remind you: [...] you have contributed directly, in 1940, in steering the country towards a foreign policy that, as one could tell even then, was to prove ill-fated and which led us to the loathsome Vienna settlement, one which you have supported inside the Crown Council [...]."[46]

On 26 November 1940, the Iron Guard began a

bloody retaliation against various political figures who had served under Carol (following a late investigation into the 1938 killing of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, the movement's founder and early leader, by Carol's authorities). Tătărescu and Constantin Argetoianu were among the second wave of captured politicians (on 27 November), and were destined for arbitrary execution; they were, however, saved by the intervention of regular police forces, most of whom had grown hostile to the Guardist militias.[47]

Retired from political life during the war, he was initially sympathetic to

Romania during World War II)—Dinu Brătianu, who remained in opposition to the Antonescu regime, made mention an official visit to Bessarabia, recovered after the start of Operation Barbarossa, when Tătărescu had accompanied Antonescu, "thus making common cause with his warmongering action".[46] At the time, his daughter Sandra Tătărescu Negropontes worked as an ambulance driver for the Romanian Red Cross.[2]

In the end, Tătărescu became involved in negotiations aimed at withdrawing Romania from the conflict, and, while beginning talks with the

government in exile in England.[48] Beneš, who had already been discussing matters involving Romania with Richard Franasovici and Grigore Gafencu, and had agreed to support the Romanian cause, informed the Allied governments of Tătărescu's designs.[48]

Tătărescu later contrasted his diplomatic approach with the strategy of

King Michael Coup
.

Alliance with the Communists

Tătărescu returned to the PNL later in 1944—after the Soviet Red Army had entered Romania and the country had become an Allied state, political parties were again allowed to register. Nevertheless, Tătărescu was again opposed to the party leaders Dinu and Gheorghe I. Brătianu, and split to form his own group in June–July 1945.[49] Dinu Brătianu convened the PNL leadership and formally excluded Tătărescu and his partisans, citing their support for dictatorial regimes.[19]

As the PCR, which was growing more influential (with the backing of

bribers".[53]

Tătărescu became Foreign Minister and vice president of the government in the cabinet of

Petre N. Bejan), and Religious Affairs, with Radu Roșculeț. He indirectly helped the PCR carry out an electoral fraud during the general election in 1946 by failing to reply to American proposals for organizing fair elections.[55] At the Paris Conference,[56] where he was accompanied by the PCR leaders Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej and Pătrășcanu, he acknowledged the dissolution of Greater Romania under the provisions of the new Treaty (1947).[57]

1947 and after

Tensions between his group with the PCR occurred when the former founded itself as a party under the name of National-Liberal Party (commonly known as the

National Liberal Party-Tătărescu), and, in June–July 1945, proclaimed its goal to be the preservation of property and a middle class under a new regime.[58]
Of himself and his principles, Tătărescu stated:

"I am not a communist. Taking in view my attitudes towards mankind, society, property, I am not a communist. Thus, the new orientation in external politics which I demand for my country cannot be accused of being determined by affinities or sympathies of doctrine."[59]

Speaking in retrospect, Gheorghiu-Dej indicated the actual relation between his party and Tătărescu's: "we have had to tolerate by our side a capitalist-gentry political group, Tătărescu's group".[60]

Tătărescu himself continued to show his support for several PCR policies: in the summer of 1947, he condemned the United States for having protested against the repression of forces in the opposition.

conspired against the government.[63] Scînteia, the official voice of the PCR, wrote of all National Liberal Party-Tătărescu offices in the government: "The rot is all-encompassing! It has to be removed!".[64]

Tătărescu resigned his office on 6 November 1947, and was replaced by the Communist

Petre N. Bejan—the party was subsequently known as National Liberal Party-Petre N. Bejan).[66] One of his last actions as cabinet member had been to sign the document officially rejecting the Marshall Plan.[67]

After the proclamation of the People's Republic of Romania on 30 December 1947, the existence of all parties other than the PCR had become purely formal, and, after the elections of 28 March the one-party state was confirmed by legislation.[68] He was arrested on 5 May 1950, and held in the notorious Sighet Prison,[69] alongside three of his brothers—Ștefan Tătărescu included—and his former collaborator Bejan.[70] His son Tudor, who was living in Paris, suffered from schizophrenia after 1950, and had to be committed to an institution (where he died in 1955).[2] Sandra Tătărescu Negropontes was also imprisoned in 1950, and released three years later, upon the death of Joseph Stalin.[2]

One of Gheorghe Tătărescu's last appearances in public was his stand as one of the prosecution's witnesses in the 1954 trial of Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu, when he claimed that the defendant had been infiltrated into the PCR during the time when he had been premier (Pătrășcanu was posthumously cleared of all charges).[71] Released in 1955, Tătărescu died in Bucharest, less than two years later.[72] According to Sanda Tătărescu Negropontes, this came as a result of tuberculosis contracted while in detention.[2]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Gogan
  2. ^ a b c d e Petru
  3. ^ Constantinescu, p.21
  4. ^ Constantinescu, p.24-25
  5. ^ Hitchins, p.380, 385, 412; Ornea, p.16; Scurtu, "Politica...", p.16-17; Veiga, p.212
  6. ^ Cioroianu, p.36, 111
  7. ^ Tătărescu, 1926 speech
  8. ^ Hitchins, p.412; Scurtu, "Politica...", p.16
  9. ^ Zănescu et al., p.83
  10. ^ Veiga, p.211
  11. ^ Gallagher, p.102-103; Veiga, p.212-213
  12. ^ Gallagher, p.102; Pandrea
  13. ^ Pandrea (Pandrea's italics)
  14. ^ a b Scurtu, "Principele Nicolae..."
  15. ^ Brătianu, in Scurtu, "Politica...", p.17
  16. ^ a b c Scurtu, "Politica...", p.17
  17. ^ Potra, Part I, Part II
  18. ^ Potra, Part II
  19. ^ a b Țurlea, p.29
  20. ^ Hitchins, p.432-433
  21. ^ a b Otu
  22. ^ Cioroianu, p.43, 113-118; Frunză, p.84, 102-103; Veiga, p.223-224
  23. ^ Ornea, p.304-305; Veiga, p.233
  24. ^ Ornea, p.305, 307
  25. ^ Veiga, p.234
  26. ^ Hitchins, p.412-413; Ornea, p.302-303, 304; Veiga, p.234-235; Zamfirescu, p.11
  27. ^ Veiga, p.235
  28. ^ Hitchins, p.413
  29. ^ Hitchins, p.413; Zamfirescu, p.11
  30. ^ Hitchins, p.414
  31. ^ Hitchins, p.415, 417-418; Pope Brewer
  32. ^ Jonathan A. Grant, Cambridge University Press, 2018, pp. 187-188
  33. ^ Jonathan A. Grant, Cambridge University Press, 2018, pp. 107-108
  34. ^ Kliment, Charles K.; Francev, Vladimír (1997), Czechoslovak Armored Fighting Vehicles, Atglen, PA: Schiffer, pp. 113-114 and 124-126
  35. ^ Morgała, Andrzej (1997), Samoloty wojskowe w Polsce 1918-1924 [Military aircraft in Poland 1918-1924] (in Polish), Warsaw: Lampart, pp. 63 and 69
  36. ^ Bernád, Dénes, Rumanian Air Force: The Prime Decade 1938-1947, Carrollton, TX: Squadron/Signal Publications Inc, 1999, p. 45
  37. ^ Hitchins, p.416; Veiga, p.247-248
  38. ^ a b Scurtu, "Politica...", p.18
  39. ^ Argetoianu
  40. ^ a b Pope Brewer
  41. ^ Hitchins, p.418
  42. ^ Hitchins, p.419; Ornea, p.323-325; Zamfirescu, p.11
  43. ^ Veiga, p.267
  44. ^ Veiga, p.267-268
  45. ^ Argetoianu; Hitchins, p.419
  46. ^ a b Brătianu, in Țurlea, p.29
  47. ^ Veiga, p.292, 309
  48. ^ a b c Tejchman
  49. ^ Hitchins, p.502; Țurlea, p.29
  50. ^ Hitchins, p.502, 506; Țurlea, p.30, 31
  51. ^ Frunză, p.147
  52. ^ Pătrășcanu, in Betea,
  53. ^ Pătrășcanu, in Betea
  54. ^ Cioroianu, p.97; Frunză, p.187, 308
  55. ^ Hitchins, p.517
  56. ^ The delegation he headed included Florica Bagdasar, Mitiță Constantinescu, General Dumitru Dămăceanu, Dimitrie Dimăncescu, Richard Franasovici, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, Horia Grigorescu, Ion Gheorghe Maurer, Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu, Lothar Rădăceanu, Mihai Ralea, Simion Stoilow, Elena Văcărescu, Șerban Voinea, and Ștefan Voitec. ("Documente inedite. România...", p.16; Paris-WWII Peace Conference-1946: Settling Romania's Western Frontiers. Delegation, at the Romanian Honorary Consulate in Boston site Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine)
  57. ^ Hitchins, p.526
  58. ^ Frunză, p.121; Hitchins, p.510-511, 515, 538; Țurlea, p.31
  59. ^ Tătărescu, in Țurlea, p.31
  60. ^ Gheorghiu-Dej, February 1948, in Frunză, p.121
  61. ^ Hitchins, p.533
  62. ^ Cioroianu, p.96-97
  63. ^ Frunză, p.307-308; Hitchins, p.538
  64. ^ Scînteia, 6 November 1947, in Frunză, p.121
  65. ^ Hitchins, p.538
  66. ^ Frunză, p.357; Hitchins, p.538
  67. ^ Cioroianu, p.74
  68. ^ Frunză, p.357
  69. ^ Gogan; Rusan
  70. ^ Rusan
  71. ^ Cioroianu, p.228
  72. ^ Gogan; Petru

References

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gheorghe_Tătărescu&oldid=1224501573"