Constantin Argetoianu

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Constantin Argetoianu
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania
In office
18 April 1931 – 26 April 1932
Prime MinisterNicolae Iorga
Preceded byIon Mihalache
Succeeded byDimitrie I. G. Ghica
In office
28 June 1940 – 4 July 1940
Prime MinisterGheorghe Tătărescu
Preceded byIon Gigurtu
Succeeded byMihail Manoilescu
Minister of Industry and Commerce
In office
10 February 1938 – 31 March 1938
Prime MinisterMiron Cristea
Preceded byIon Gigurtu
Succeeded byMitiță Constantinescu
President of the Senate of Romania
In office
15 June 1939 – 5 September 1940
Preceded byNicolae Iorga
Succeeded bynone (Senate suspended in September 1940 and abolished on 15 July 1946)
Personal details
Born(1871-03-15)15 March 1871
People's Party
Democratic Nationalist Party
National Liberal Party
National Renaissance Front
Spouses
Clemența Talievici
​
(divorced)​
Valentina Lahovari (née Boambă)
​
​
(m. 1928)​
[1]
ChildrenMarie-Jeanne Argetoianu
ProfessionBusinessman, physician, jurist

Constantin Argetoianu (15 March [

memoirs, Memorii. Pentru cei de mâine. Amintiri din vremea celor de ieri ("Memoirs. For those of tomorrow. Recollections of yesterday's world")—a cross section of Romanian society, were made known for the sharp critique of several major figures in Romanian politics (using a sarcastic tone which had made his previous political speeches notorious).[2]

Biography

Early life

Born in Craiova as the son of Army general Ioan Argetoianu [ro], he trained in Law, Medicine, and Letters at the University of Paris, and later entered the diplomatic service (1897).[3]

He was an exceptionally prosperous man (a noted Stock Exchange player and landowner in Breasta, Dolj County), and his frequent change in political allegiances was attributed by some of his contemporaries to his financial independence.[4] In 1913 he served as a combat medic with the rank of captain in the Second Balkan War, where he faced a cholera epidemic.[5]

World War I

A

Conservative Party representative,[4] where he oscillated between the mainstream Conservatives of Petre P. Carp and the dissident group around Take Ionescu (the latter was welcoming Romania's entry into World War I on the side of the Entente Powers, which Argetoianu also proposed).[7]

Throughout 1918, during the final stages of the

Romanian Campaign, Argetoianu was Justice Minister, sitting on the first Averescu cabinet (at the time when authorities had retreated to Iași, once the southern half of the country was occupied by Imperial German, Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian troops).[3] He was also head of the Romanian delegation at the Peace preliminaries of Buftea, in 1918. The talks resulted in the punitive Treaty of Bucharest of May, which consecrated Romania's defeat by the Central Powers. His actions at the time were later the subject of an epigram by Cincinat Pavelescu (Pavelescu expressed his belief that the treaty and Argetoianu's views on fiscal policies were to be the subject of scorn for future generations):[8]

People's Party

Argetoianu followed Averescu into opposition to the

People's Party (PP) created by the former. He later documented the populist message of the movement, and left testimonies of Averescu's spontaneous adulation by the crowds of peasants.[10]

Argetoianu was Finance Minister and later

Interior Minister in the second Averescu government of 1920.[11] In March 1921, it was uncovered that an associate of his named Aron Schuller had attempted to contract a 20 million lire loan with a bank in Italy, using as collateral Romanian war bonds that he had illegally obtained from the Finance Ministry reserve.[12] Argetoianu, who was still in charge at the time, became the target of attacks from the opposition group formed by the Romanian National Party and the Peasants' Party, being pressed by Virgil Madgearu and Grigore Iunian to explain himself (Iunian proposed a motion of no confidence, but the PNL continued to show its support for the PP).[13]

Clash with Communism and split with Averescu

Argetoianu soon became noted for his

fait accompli.[15]

The standoff between Averescu and the parliamentary opposition eventually witnessed a decisive incident: during a prolonged debate over Averescu's proposal to nationalize enterprises in Reșița, Argetoianu addressed a mumbled insult to Madgearu; the PNL, seeing an opportunity for a return to power, expressed sympathy, and all opposition groups appealed to King Ferdinand, asking for Averescu's recall (July 14, 1921).[16]

Despite Averescu's eventual defeat in December 1921, Argetoianu was kept in office by the Take Ionescu and Brătianu cabinets. During the spring of 1922, he ordered the killing of several Communist activists who were held in prison custody, including Leonte Filipescu, staging their attempts to flee from under escort as a pretext.[17] Nevertheless, pressures on the revolutionary grouping were relaxed in summer, when King Ferdinand approved an amnesty and Argetoianu officially declared that "communism is over in Romania".[18]

PND and PNL

On a diplomatic tour to Western Europe, 1932

In 1923, after Brătianu again assumed power, he clashed with Averescu and proclaimed himself leader of the PP, being eventually expelled.[16] Having joined Nicolae Iorga's Democratic Nationalist Party (PND), he soon vehemently protested against the latter's alliance with the Romanian National Party, and moved to the PNL.[3]

Following the sudden death of Ion I. C. Brătianu in 1927, and choosing, in contrast to the policies of

far right philosopher Nae Ionescu.[20]

Iorga cabinet and Agrarian Party

He was again in charge of Internal Affairs and Finance from 1931 to 1932, during the Iorga government,[21] when he took a harsh stance against the fascist Iron Guard, outlawing it and arresting some of its members (which led to a string of violent confrontations).[22] Argetoianu was hotly contested as Finance Minister: faced with the widespread insolvency of small agricultural holdings in front of the Great Depression, he proposed a form of liquidation that was considered in breach of the 1923 Constitution.[23] Various other issues forced Argetoianu to cease payments of salaries for civil servants at certain intervals, causing far-reaching problems.[24]

The government was voted out of office in the elections of 1932, when Iorga was replaced by

National Agrarian Party's Octavian Goga, was probably one of the king's main options in his attempt to create an altogether new political establishment around the camarilla, relying on a compromise with Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (leader of the Iron Guard).[26] Codreanu refused to accept negotiation, but Carol successfully approached the PNL's "young liberals" faction, which came to power with Gheorghe Tătărescu (January 1934).[27]

Royal dictatorship and World War II

King Carol II (left) and Argetoianu (third person from left to right), 1939

The frequent target of attacks in the Iron Guard press,[28] Argetoianu led his grouping until 1938, when, faced with the unstoppable rise of the Iron Guard, Carol banned all parties and established his National Renaissance Front (FRN).[29]

His own short-lived FRN cabinet, established after that date, was, after

Gheorghe Argeşanu's the second in quick succession to the violent clash between the Guard and monarch (after the murder of Armand Călinescu by the former). The Argetoianu government was replaced by that of Tătărescu, who had to deal with the Soviet Union's occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina and was in turn replaced with Ion Gigurtu[30] (Argetoianu, who remained influential throughout the period, began calling for a rapprochement between Romania and the Soviets).[31]

Carol's regime crumbled after the

Romanian Army officials.[32]

Retreating from public life during

Axis in August and the start of Soviet occupation caused him to return in November, seeing an opportunity in the apparent decrease in the appeal of traditional parties and expanding on his vision of Romanian-Soviet cooperation.[31] He was the subject of derision in the National Peasants' Party press (Dreptatea wrote of him: "leading the intrigue in favor of a private property–based communism, a capitalist-based socialism, a mass-free democracy... The country is trustingly placing itself at your disposal. Here are your strings: pull them! Here are your back rooms: maneuver them! Here is your «people»: take it away!").[33]

UNMR, arrest, and death

Attempting in vain to mediate between the Communists and the PNȚ, Argetoianu was rejected by both sides, and, in January 1947, formed his own grouping — the National Union for Work and Reconstruction (Uniunea Națională Muncă și Refacere, UNMR) —, alongside

Union of Patriots.[31]

Argetoianu, who was ill at the time and had just undergone surgery on his

Sighet prison five years later,[36][37]
never having been put on trial.

Legacy

In 1999, attorney and civil rights activist Monica Macovei, representing Argetoianu's two granddaughters – Yvonne Oroveanu Niculescu and Constantina "Dina" Oroveanu – before court cleared Argetoianu of all charges, with prosecutor Mihai Carp admitting that Argetoianu's detention had been an abuse.[38]

A street in his native city, Craiova, is named after him, and so is a school in Argetoaia, Dolj County.

Notes

  1. ^ Stelian Neagoe [in Romanian] (December 17, 2005). "Evocând – cu smerenie – marii boieri români". Jurnalul Național (in Romanian). Retrieved January 21, 2021.
  2. ^ Otu; Slabey Rouček, p.76
  3. ^ a b c d Slabey Rouček, p.76
  4. ^ a b Savu; Slabey Rouček, p.76
  5. ^ Manolache
  6. ^ Otu
  7. ^ Boia, p.251
  8. ^ Pavelescu
  9. ^ Wikisource: "To Argetoianu" epigrams by Cincinat Pavelescu
  10. ^ Boia, p.264; Scurtu, "Prăbușirea unui mit", "Mit și realitate..."
  11. ^ Slabey Rouček, p.76; Troncotă, p.18
  12. ^ Constantinescu, p.68
  13. ^ Constantinescu, p.68–70
  14. ^ Diac; Troncotă, p.18–19
  15. ^ a b Diac
  16. ^ a b Scurtu, "Prăbușirea unui mit"
  17. ^ Troncotă, p.18–19
  18. ^ Argetoianu, in Diac; in Troncotă, p.19
  19. ^ a b Veiga, p.130
  20. ^ Ornea, p.226; Veiga, p.200
  21. ^ Slabey Rouček, p.76; Veiga, p.137–138
  22. ^ Ornea, p.295, 296; Veiga, p.137
  23. ^ Veiga, p.130, 140–141
  24. ^ Veiga, p.156
  25. ^ Veiga, p.138, 141
  26. ^ Veiga, p.202, 209, 215
  27. ^ Veiga, p.202
  28. ^ Ornea, p.243, 245
  29. ^ Argetoianu, "Pleacă Tătărescu, vine Gigurtu"; Veiga, p.215
  30. ^ Argetoianu, "Pleacă Tătărescu, vine Gigurtu"
  31. ^ a b c d e f g Otu
  32. ^ Veiga, p.292, 309
  33. ^ "Profilo", in Otu
  34. ^ a b Adrian Costea (July 31, 2014). "Ultimele momente de libertate ale lui Constantin Argetoianu: "Bă, dar tari trebuie să fiți voi, comuniștii, dacă vă e frică și de un moș bă..nos ca mine"". Adevărul (in Romanian). Retrieved January 21, 2021.
  35. ^ Argetoianu, in Otu
  36. ^ * Giurescu, Constantin C. (1994), Cinci ani și două luni în penitenciarul din Sighet (7 mai 1950 – 5 iulie 1955), București: Editura Fundației Culturale Române
  37. ^ Stelian Neagoe [in Romanian] (2012), Politică și destin. Constantin Argetoianu, București: Editura Machiavelli
  38. ^ "A încetat urmarirea penală împotriva fostului prim-ministru Constantin Argetoianu", Evenimentul Zilei, 1999, archived from the original on March 30, 2014, retrieved August 8, 2013

References

External links

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