Ion Gheorghe Maurer
Ion Gheorghe Maurer | |
---|---|
Minister of Foreign Affairs | |
In office 15 July 1957 – 15 January 1958 | |
Prime Minister | Chivu Stoica |
Preceded by | Grigore Preoteasa |
Succeeded by | Avram Bunaciu |
Personal details | |
Born | Bucharest, Romania | 23 September 1902
Died | 8 February 2000 Bucharest, Romania | (aged 97)
Political party | Romanian Communist Party |
Other political affiliations | Radical Peasants' Party |
Spouse | Elena Maurer (died 1999) |
Profession | Lawyer |
Ion Gheorghe Iosif Maurer (23 September 1902 – 8 February 2000)[1] was a Romanian communist politician and lawyer, and the 49th Prime Minister of Romania. He is the longest serving Prime Minister in the history of Romania (having served for 12 years and 343 days).
Early life, family, and education
Maurer was born in
The first wife was named Dana Gavrilovici, according to other sources, Lucretia. She was older than him and had two daughters with him as well as a son from her first marriage, Alexandru Niculescu, who became an officer. He remarried in 1949 to Elena (Lili) Stănescu, ex-wife of his friend N.D. Cocea and with whom he had a son, Jean Maurer, who lives in Munich. His wife died a year before his death, but fearing a heart attack his son kept this fact a secret, so Maurer died believing his wife was still alive and being treated in a hospital.
Political career
He became active politically, defending in court members of the illegal
Before 1937, he was briefly active in the Radical Peasants' Party, formed by Grigore Iunian as a splinter group of the National Peasants' Party;[7] however, he was by then already a member of the illegal Communist Party[8] and active in the Agitprop section.[9]
In 1942–1943, during
After the war, Maurer became a member of the
He supported Gheorghiu-Dej's
Regarded, according to the claims of dissident journalist
Alongside Emil Bodnăraș, Maurer was an important member of the Politburo in opposing the ambitions of Gheorghe Apostol and, together with Bodnăraș, helping along the establishment of the Nicolae Ceaușescu regime.[25] Among others, Maurer helped silence potential opposition from inside the Party by withdrawing his support for Corneliu Mănescu and welcoming Ceaușescu's directives, before being himself criticized and sidelined (at the same time as his collaborator Alexandru Bârlădeanu).[26] Pensioned in 1974, he was still present in the forefront at most Party ceremonies.[27]
A prominent member of the nomenklatura for much of his life, he was known for his latent conflict with a large part of the PCR hierarchy.[19] He accumulated a sizable wealth and was known for his ostentatious lifestyle.[19] In 1989, Maurer's earlier support for Ceaușescu led the sidelined PCR members who were planning to state their opposition to the regime by drafting the so-called Letter of the Six (Gheorghe Apostol, Alexandru Bârlădeanu, Silviu Brucan, Constantin Pîrvulescu, and Grigore Răceanu) not to enlist his assistance in the process.[28]
Death
He died in Bucharest a decade after the
Notes
- ^ Profile of Ion Gheorghe Maurer
- ISBN 973-98392-8-2.
- ^ Partoș; Deletant indicates in passing that Maurer's father was an Alsatian French language teacher, and that his mother was Romanian (Communist Terror..., p.19); he also states that Maurer was of "German origin" (Ceausescu..., p.69)
- ^ a b "Rumania's Man Abroad – Ion Gheorghe Maurer". The New York Times. 28 July 1964. Retrieved 14 September 2022.
- ^ Betea; Deletant, Communist Terror..., p.19; Tismăneanu, p.298-299
- ^ Deletant, Communist Terror..., p.19; Tismăneanu, p.298-299
- ^ Alexandrescu et al.
- ^ Deletant, Communist Terror..., p.19; Tismăneanu, p.99, 298
- ^ Tismăneanu, p.99
- ^ Frunză, p.468; Tismăneanu, p.298
- ^ Tismăneanu, p.298
- ^ Frunză, p.129
- ^ Tismăneanu, p.119
- ^ Tismăneanu, p.37, 298, 323
- ^ Tismăneanu, p.151
- ^ Frunză, p.188, 217; Tismăneanu, p.112
- ^ Tismăneanu, p.239, 298-299
- ^ Frunză, p.437; Tismăneanu, p.299
- ^ a b c Tismăneanu, p.299
- ^ Frunză, p.240, 439, 448, 452; Tismăneanu, p.215, 219, 299, 342
- ^ Frunză, p.462
- ^ Tismăneanu, p.207
- ^ Tismăneanu, p.207, 299
- ^ Griffin, p.572
- ^ Frunză, p.463-464, 475-478; Tismăneanu, p.213, 221-222, 299, 323, 344
- ^ Deletant, Ceausescu..., p.69-70; Frunză, p.479-480, 483, 510-511; Tismăneanu, p.37, 299
- ^ Tismăneanu, p.239
- ^ Tismăneanu, p.299, 343
References
- Ion Alexandrescu, Ion Bulei, Ion Mamina, and Ioan Scurtu, Partidele politice din România, 1862–1994: Enciclopedie, Bucharest, Editura Mediaprint, 1995; fragment published in Dosarele Istoriei, 12/III 1998, p. 26-27
- (in Romanian) Lavinia Betea, "Gheorghe Maurer – "aparător al comuniștilor"", in Jurnalul Național, February 9, 2005
- Dennis Deletant, Communist Terror in Romania, C. Hurst & Co., London, 1999; Ceaușescu and the Securitate, M. E. Sharpe, Armonk, New York, 1995
- Victor Frunză, Istoria stalinismului în România, Humanitas, Bucharest, 1990
- Nicholas Griffin (ed.), The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell, Routledge, London, 2002
- Gabriel Partoș, "Obituary: Ion Gheorghe Maurer" in The Independent, February 15, 2000
- ISBN 0-520-23747-1)