Grigore Iunian
Grigore Iunian (September 30, 1882 – 1939) was a
Biography
Born in
"Gr. Iunian had ten years of fame in law practice. He honored the bar, and his memory deserves to live on. Among his contemporaries, between 1925 and 1938, there surely were more distinguished lawyers. But Iunian was not just a lawyer, not just a diligent jurist in studying the case and conscious in his exposition. He was a cultivated man, a warm-hearted and honest politician, a passionate fighter and a man with a heart as few others had."[1]
During the
As a PȚ deputy, Iunian backed Minister of Agriculture
Together with other left-leaning activists (
After the PȚ merged with
"Grigore Iunian was the consistent partisan of openness in relations with Carol II, of strict legality in respect to the
center-left coalition on the basis of an actual common program. In effect, his principled attitude placed him in a very courageous situation: partisans of the King competed in repressing extreme elements with the aid of measures that were debatable from a legal point of view, and the so-called left came to ally itself with the Iron Guard against the Liberals."[8]
Confronted with the Great Depression and the insolvency of many small landowners, Iunian proposed to devalue the Romanian leu until most debts were to be paid; the idea failed to win him support.[9] In October 1933, he took decision to leave and form the Radical Peasants' Party around the journal Deșteptarea on November 22, 1933.[7] According to Xeni, Iunian also had "little sympathy" for Maniu's leadership.[3] The new PȚR, having Mihail Paleologu among its prominent members,[8] absorbed the Democratic Peasants' Party, created by Constantin Stere, in February 1933.[10] At the time, Xeni argued, Iunian's support for democratic government was becoming "a pointless struggle".[3]
In its columns, Deşteptarea stressed that "
In 1936, Iunian was called as a witness in the trial of Petre Constantinescu-Iași and other seven members of the Romanian Communist Party, which was housed in Chișinău.[14] Witnessing irregularities in procedures (such as Romanian Army soldiers guarding the hall), he stated: "I shall not lend myself to a farce. I did not know, upon arriving here, that it was to be a simulacrum".[15]
The PȚR came to clash with the National Christian Party and the Octavian Goga cabinet in 1937-1938.[10] It was eventually banned together with all other parties in early 1938, when King Carol created the National Renaissance Front; Iunian returned to the bar, but suffered a stroke and became afflicted with cerebral palsy, which, according to Xeni, were due to stress caused by
"political deceptions, the unequal
tyranny with which he could not make his peace, the liquidation of all parliamentary activity which he cared so passionately for [...]."[3]
He progressively lost his speech and motor skills, and ultimately died soon after turning 55.[3]
Legacy
After the establishment of a
"A series of politicians such as Nicolae Titulescu, Nicolae Iorga, Grigore Iunian, Virgil Madgearu, Dem. Dobrescu, Grigore Filipescu and others took a stand against the aggressive expansion of Nazi Germany, unmasked the internal fascist activity, militated for developing collaboration with other states and strengthening the country's security."[17]
Notes
- ^ a b Xeni, p.48
- ^ Xeni, p.48-49
- ^ a b c d e f g h Xeni, p.49
- ^ Scurtu, "Întâlniri pe înserate..."
- ^ Constantinescu, p.68-70
- ^ Brătescu
- ^ a b Niculae et al., p.14-15; Scurtu, "Ianuarie 1933..."
- ^ a b Paleologu
- ^ Scurtu, "Ianuarie 1933..."
- ^ a b Arimia & Şimandan, p.48
- ^ a b Tudor Ionescu, in Niculae et al., p.171
- ^ Tudor Ionescu, in Niculae et al., p.172
- ^ Tudor Ionescu, in Niculae et al., p.169
- ^ Achim
- ^ Iunian, in Achim
- ^ Boia, p.76
- ^ Ceauşescu, in Arimia & Şimandan, p.47
References
- (in Romanian) Irina Achim, "Condamnați la Chișinău" ("Sentenced in Chișinău"), in Jurnalul Național, May 24, 2005
- Lucian Boia, History and Myth in Romanian Consciousness, Central European University Press, 2001
- (in Romanian) Gheorghe Brătescu, Constantin Titel Petrescu, at the Social Democratic Party-Constantin Titel Petrescu site
- Ion Constantinescu "Duiliu Zamfirescu: «Zero la purtare lui Ionel Brătianu!»" ("Duiliu Zamfirescu: «Grade Zero in Manners to Ionel Brătianu!»"), in Magazin Istoric, September 1971
- 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
- (in Romanian) , February 4, 2006
- (in Romanian) Ioan Scurtu,
- Constantin Xeni, "Portrete politice din anii interbelici" ("Political Portraits from the Interwar Years"), forward and post-scriptum by Vasile Arimia and Vasile Șimandan, in Magazin Istoric, April 1975