Corneliu Coposu
Corneliu Coposu | |
---|---|
Founding Leader of the Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party | |
In office 6 January 1990 – 11 November 1995 | |
Succeeded by | Ion Diaconescu |
Member of the Senate of Romania | |
In office 16 October 1992 – 11 November 1995 | |
Constituency | Bucharest |
Leader of the Romanian Democratic Convention | |
In office 26 November 1991 – November 1992 | |
Succeeded by | Emil Constantinescu |
Personal details | |
Born | Bobota, Szilágy County, Austria-Hungary | 20 May 1914
Died | 11 November 1995 Bucharest, Romania | (aged 81)
Resting place | Bellu Cemetery, Bucharest 44°24′06″N 26°06′07″E / 44.401613°N 26.101934°E |
Political party | National Peasants' Party (1932–1947) Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party (1989–1995) Christian Democratic International Party |
Spouse |
Arlette Marcovici
(m. 1942; died 1966) |
Parents |
|
Alma mater | University of Cluj |
Profession | Lawyer, Politician |
Awards | Legion of Honour |
Corneliu (Cornel) Coposu (Romanian: [korˈnelju koˈposu]) (20 May 1914 – 11 November 1995)[1] was a Christian Democratic and liberal conservative Romanian politician, the founder of the Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party (Romanian: Partidul Național Țărănesc Creștin Democrat), the founder of the Romanian Democratic Convention (Romanian: Convenția Democratică), and a political detainee during the communist regime. His political mentor was Iuliu Maniu (1873–1953), the founder of the National Peasant Party (PNȚ), the most important political organization from the interwar period. He studied law and worked as a journalist.
Biography
Early life
Corneliu Coposu was born in
He too was a devout member of the church and joined the Romanian National Party (PNR), a group dominated by Greek-Catholic politicians – Gheorghe Pop de Băsești was an acquaintance of the Coposu family, and Alexandru Vaida-Voevod was a relative on Corneliu Coposu's mother's side.
After studying Law and Economy at the
World War II
Accused of propaganda against the National Rebirth Front (Frontul Renașterii Naționale), Coposu was sent into forced domicile in Bobota. After the
In 1945, after the royal coup against the Antonescu regime, Coposu became deputy secretary of the PNȚ and, after the reintegration of Northern Transylvania, the party's delegate to the leadership of provisional administrative bodies. He was also active in organizing the party as the main opposition to the Communist Party and the Petru Groza cabinet before the 1946 general election.[6]
Communist persecution
The
In 1956, Coposu was sentenced to
Coposu later testified having been impressed by the deep scars collectivization had left in the country,[10] as well as by the resilience of the Rubla deportees (see Bărăgan deportations) — "They traded in vegetables they had grown themselves while locals could not be convinced that these could actually grow on the Bărăgan".[11] In the 1990s, during debates over the overall number of victims of the Communist regime between 1947 and 1964, Coposu spoke of 282,000 arrests and 190,000 deaths in custody.[12]
After his release, Coposu started work as an unskilled worker on various construction sites (given his status as a former prisoner, he was denied employment in any other field), and was subject to Securitate surveillance and regular interrogation.[13] After the collapse of communism, Tudor Călin Zarojanu published large excerpts from the huge Securitate file on Corneliu Coposu, kept for decades by the secret communist political police [14]
His wife Arlette was also prosecuted in 1950 during a rigged espionage trial, and died in 1966, soon after her release, from an illness contracted in prison.
Coposu managed to keep contact with PNȚ sympathisers, and re-established the party as a clandestine group during the 1980s, while imposing its affiliation to
Post-communism
On 22 December 1989, (during the
For the rest of his life, Coposu was the main voice of the opposition to the
Coposu successfully grouped various organizations into the
Regarding Emil Constantinescu's election as the CDR's candidate for the presidential office in 1992, Coposu stated: "The candidate was elected in an absolutely democratic manner. The appointment of the candidate of the Democratic Convention for the position of president of the country was made according to the most authentic democratic rules. All five candidates had the moral stature and prestige to honor the highest magistracy of the country. We, the Democratic Convention, wish the only candidate, elected by the vote of the 67 major presidential electors, to succeed in the elections and to achieve his first goal, which is the eradication of communism in Romania."[19]
Death
He died in Bucharest while undergoing treatment for lung cancer. Some 100,000 people attended his funeral three days later.[20] He was buried in the Catholic section of Bellu Cemetery.
One of the main thoroughfares in the capital now bears his name. A bust of Coposu stands next to Kretzulescu Church, in Revolution Square.
In a 2006
Notes
- ^ Traynor, Ian (16 November 1995). "Corneliu Coposu: A peasant in revolt". The Guardian. p. 20A.
- ^ Tudor Călin Zarojanu, Viața lui Corneliu Coposu (1996: Editura Mașina de Scris, București); ediția a III-a, revăzută și completată publicată în Cristian Fulger, Tudor Călin Zarojanu (editori), Seniorul Corneliu Coposu (București: Humanitas, 2014), Partea a III-a, p. 181;
- ^ Corneliu Coposu, File dintr-un jurnal interzis. 1936-1947, 1953, 1967-1983, ediție îngrijită de Doina Alexandru (București: Editura Vremea, 2014).
- ^ Zarojanu, 184.
- ^ Coposu, File dintr-un jurnal interzis, 163-424.
- ^ Roman jr.
- ^ Levy, p.284
- ^ "Distrugerea ţărănimii"
- ^ "Distrugerea țărănimii"; Roman jr.
- ^ "Distrugerea țărănimii"
- ^ Coposu, in "Distrugerea țărănimii"
- ^ Cioroianu, p.313
- ^ Deletant, Preface, p.xxvii-xxix
- ^ Zarojanu, Viața.
- ^ Prelipceanu, p.31-32
- ^ Tismăneanu, p.270, 279, 281
- ^ Gheorghe & Huminic
- ^ Tismăneanu, p.270
- ^ Tismăneanu, p.270
- ^ OMRI Daily Digest Archived 26 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine, No. 223, 15 November 1995
References
- Lavinia Betea (17 August 2006). "Distrugerea țărănimii" [The Destruction of the Peasant Class]. Jurnalul Național (in Romanian). Retrieved 22 October 2023.
- 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
- Coposu, Corneliu (1991), Dialoguri cu Vartan Arachelian, Colecția Caractere, București: Editura Anastasia; (in Romanian)
- Corneliu Coposu, File dintr-un jurnal interzis. 1936-1947, 1953, 1967-1983, ediție îngrijită de Doina Alexandru (București: Editura Vremea, 2014), ISBN 978-973-645-647-3
- Cristian Fulger, Tudor Călin Zarojanu (editori), Seniorul Corneliu Coposu (București: ISBN 978-973-50-4648-4
- Dennis Deletant, Ceaușescu and the Securitate: Coercion and Dissent in Romania, 1965–1989, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk, New York, 1995
- Gabriela Gheorghe, Adelina Huminic, "Istoria mineriadelor din anii 1990–1991" ("The History of the 1990–1991 Mineriads"), in Sfera Politicii (in Romanian)
- Robert Levy, Ana Pauker: The Rise and Fall of a Jewish Communist, University of California Press, Berkeley, 2001
- Mărturisiri. Corneliu Coposu în dialog cu Vartan Arachelian, ediția a 3-a (București: Fundația Academia Civică, 2014) [prima ediție, 1991]
- Nicolae Prelipceanu's interview with Corneliu Coposu, in Agora, IV/4, October–December 1991, pp. 29–40
- Pavel, Dan; Huiu, Iulia (2003), "Nu putem reuși decît împreună." O istorie analitică a Convenției Democratice, 1989-2000, Iași: ISBN 973-681-260-X
- Toma Roman Jr., "Noblețe – Modestie princiară" ("Noblesse – Princely Modesty"), in Jurnalul Național, 25 August 2005 (in Romanian)
- ISBN 0-52-023747-1)
- Tudor Călin Zarojanu, Viața lui Corneliu Coposu (1996: Editura Mașina de Scris, București); ediția a III-a, revăzută și completată publicată în Cristian Fulger, Tudor Călin Zarojanu (editori), Seniorul Corneliu Coposu (București: Humanitas, 2014), Partea a III-a, ISBN 978-973-50-4648-4
External links
- Corneliu Coposu foundation (in Romanian)
- Short bio on the Romanian Chamber of Deputies site (in Romanian)
- Short bio on the Sighet Memorial site (in Romanian)
- Corneliu Coposu on the condition of the intellectual, Radio Free Europe interview, February 1993 (in Romanian)
- "Corneliu Coposu" at the Mari Românisite (in Romanian)
- More about Corneliu Coposu (in Romanian)