Armand Calinescu
Encyclopedia
Armand Călinescu was a Romania
n economist and politician, who served as Prime Minister between March 1939 and the time of his death.
as the son of Mihai Călinescu, a Romanian Army veteranian, and his wife Ecaterina, née Gherasim. Mihai Călinescu was a landowner and relatively wealthy man.
Călinescu attended secondary school and high school in his native city at Ion Brătianu High School then, between 1912 and 1918, studied the Law and Philosophy at University of Bucharest
, before taking a Ph.D.
in Economics
and Political Sciences at the University of Paris
, with a thesis on Le change roumain. Sa dépreciation depuis la guerre et son rétablissment ("The Romanian Exchange Rate
. Its Depreciation
Ever Since the War
and Its Recovery").
(PNL), but his views on politics were rejected by its leader Ion I. C. Brătianu
. Instead, he joined the Peasants' Party
(PŢ), a rising opposition group, falling under the influence of Ion Mihalache
. He was first elected to office in 1926, as one of the 38 PŢ deputies
in opposition to the second Alexandru Averescu
cabinet, and was reelected for consecutive terms until 1937.
After the PŢ merged with the Romanian National Party
to create the National Peasants' Party
(PNŢ), he stood on the group's left wing, together with Mihai Ralea, Ernest Ene, Mihail Ghelmegeanu, Petre Andrei, and Nicolae L. Lupu
). He was the PNŢ local leader for Argeş County
, and, when the party came to power with the Iuliu Maniu
cabinet in 1928, served as prefect
of Argeş before being appointed general secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture by Mihalache (who was titular Minister). In 1930, he was appointed Under Secretary of State in the Alexandru Vaida-Voevod
-led Ministry of the Interior.
In the latter capacity, Călinescu oversaw actions against the illegal Communist Party
: he ordered the troops to carry out arrests of suspected agitators after the miner strike in Lupeni
, and ordered troops to open fire on demonstrators during the Griviţa Strike of 1933
.
His equally firm opposition to the fast rise of the fascist
Iron Guard
(the Legionaries, a group he helped outlaw in January 1931), contributed to the fall of the 1933 Vaida-Voevod government of which Călinescu was a member. The Guard's leader, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu
, had by then issued intimidating replies in the far right
press.
In opposition to the Gheorghe Tătărescu
PNL cabinet, Călinescu warned against the latter's tolerant stance toward the Legionaries, especially after the murder of Ion G. Duca
in December 1933 and the desecration of his memorial plate in 1936 ("The Iron Guard is not a movement of the [public] opinion, but rather an association of assassins and foul profaners of tombs").
and the United Kingdom
and a steadfast adversary of the pro-Nazi Germany
movements in Romania, Călinescu also supported King
Carol II
's move to counter the Guard's success; he first confronted the PNŢ leadership during the elections of 1937
, after it signed an electoral agreement with the Guard. Eventually, he defied his party by becoming Minister of the Interior after December of that year, in the short-lived Octavian Goga
cabinet formed by the National Christians
, being immediately expelled from the PNŢ.
He began preparing himself for the confrontation with the Iron Guard. While organizing the early elections of March 1938, he took steps to limit the Guard's propaganda
machine, and closed down all press linked to the Guard, causing violent clashes between the movement and representatives of state authorities.
Călinescu remained in office during the authoritarian
regime established by King Carol after that date — he was also a founding member of the National Renaissance Front
(FRN) created by as the sole legal party
in December 1938, and was generally seen as very close to Carol. He soon became involved in a virulent dispute with historian Nicolae Iorga
, when the latter issued harsh criticism regarding Carol's January 1939 initiative to dress large sections of the society, including Romanian Academy
members, in various uniforms (a measure backed by Călinescu); Iorga remarked with irony: "I'm prepared to wear the FRN uniform, but allow me to wear a speared helmet
on my head, on which to place [that is, to impale
] the Minister of the Interior". Eventually (in May of the same year), Iorga gave in to the demands and became a supporter of the regime.
In May, after witnessing the result of Nazi pressures on Austria
(see Anschluss
), Călinescu decapitated the Guard by ordering arrests of its leaders, beginning with that of Codreanu, as well as many of its members and sympathisers (including Nae Ionescu
and Mircea Eliade
). Codreanu and other leaders (probably as much as 300 people) were consequently killed in custody; other Legionaries were pressured to sign "declarations of dissociation". Many other Guard leaders, including Horia Sima
, fled to various locations in Germany.
On March 7, 1939, after brief stints as Minister of Health and Minister of Education, he replaced the ailing Miron Cristea
as Premier, being considered the "man of steel" able to prevent Iron Guard's political violence and to keep Romania out of the pro-German war camp (the nickname "The Man of Steel" probably originated, under the form l'homme d'acier, in essays written by the French journalists Jérôme
and Jean Tharaud
on Romanian topics). Călinescu was also Minister of the Interior and Minister of Defense. In September of that year, after the invasion of Poland
, the pro-Nazi members of Iron Guard alleged that Călinescu and the King Carol planned with the British Intelligence services
to blow up the Prahova
oil fields, preventing Germany from taking control and using them.
, Dinu Brătianu
, and General Gavrilă Marinescu, Călinescu was assassinated in Bucharest
by Iron Guard members under the direct leadership of Sima (exiled in Steglitz
at the time), the last of several attempts (which included an attack on the Romanian Athenaeum
and bombing a bridge over the Dâmboviţa River
— both of which were uncovered by police).
It seems that the action was carried out with German approval and assistance. On September 1, representatives of Germany, Fascist Italy, and the Iron Guard met in Copenhagen
with Mihail R. Sturdza
(Romania's ambassador to Denmark
and a supporter of Sima), to discuss Călinescu's killing. Some details of the subsequent plan were offered to Romanian authorities by a renegade member of the Iron Guard, Mihai Vârfureanu. A death squad
was formed, having as its members the lawyer Dumitru "Miti" Dumitrescu (who had been trained by the Gestapo
and returned to Romania through Hungary
), the students Cezar Popescu, Traian Popescu, Ion Moldoveanu, Ion R. Ionescu, and the draftsman Ion Vasiliu. Contacting each other in the area around Ploieşti
, they initially planned to kill Călinescu, Carol and Marinescu together, and probably aimed to accomplish this in the Prahova Valley
.
While passing through the Eroilor area
on its return from the Cotroceni Palace
, Călinescu's luxury automobile
, a Cadillac
, was ambushed by that of the assassins, who shot Călinescu, his bodyguard Radu Andone, and his driver (Miti Dumitrescu drove his car into the Premier's, which came to sudden stop as it ran into a cart — Andone was gunned down as he stepped out of the car, and Călinescu as he stood waiting on the back seat; over twenty bullets were recovered from his body). Sima, who is known to have crossed the border illegally in August of that year, was alleged to have disguised himself as a woman in order to witness the actions from nearby; other sources indicate a certain Marin Stănculescu as the covert supervisor. Ironically, Călinescu had never trusted the safety of his Cadillac, and had repeatedly asked Gavrilă Marinescu to allow him use of an armored car
.
The group of assassins left the vicinity before the arrival of police forces, and stormed into the Radio Broadcasting Society
; holding the employees at gunpoint and cutting short the live airing of a waltz
, it announced, through the voice of Traian Popescu, that it had killed the Premier. The message was never broadcast, as, unbeknown to the squad, transmission had already been interrupted by Radio staff.
and British political forces, as a means to pressure Romania into abandoning its neutrality — this version was supported by, among others, Hans Fritzsche
).
A harsh repression of the Iron Guard followed under the provisional leadership of Gheorghe Argeşanu
— it was inaugurated by the immediate execution of the assassins and the public display of their bodies at the murder site, for days on end. A placard was set up on the spot, reading De acum înainte, aceasta va fi soarta trădătorilor de ţară ("From now on, this shall be the fate of those who betray the country"), and students from several Bucharest high schools were required to visit the site (based on the belief that this was going to dissuade them from affiliating with the Guard). Executions of known Iron Guard activists were ordered in various places in the country (some were hanged on telegraph poles, while a group of was shot in front of Ion G. Duca
's statue in Ploieşti
); in all, 253 were killed without trial. Călinescu was succeeded by Marinescu as Minister of the Interior and by Ioan Ilcuş as Minister of Defense.
One year later, under the National Legionary State
(the Iron Guard's government), Marinescu and Argeşanu, alongside other politicians, were executed in Jilava
(September 1940); it was also at that time that the Călinescu family crypt in Curtea de Argeş
was dynamited, while a bronze bust of him which awaited unveiling was chained and dragged through the streets of Piteşti. Călinescu's wife Adela was required to hand all of her husband's personal documents, and, in a letter to Conducător
Ion Antonescu
, claimed to have been repeatedly harassed by agents of Siguranţa Statului.
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n economist and politician, who served as Prime Minister between March 1939 and the time of his death.
Early life
He was born in PiteştiPitesti
Pitești is a city in Romania, located on the Argeș River. The capital and largest city of Argeș County, it is an important commercial and industrial center, as well as the home of two universities. Pitești is situated on the A1 freeway connecting it directly to the national capital Bucharest,...
as the son of Mihai Călinescu, a Romanian Army veteranian, and his wife Ecaterina, née Gherasim. Mihai Călinescu was a landowner and relatively wealthy man.
Călinescu attended secondary school and high school in his native city at Ion Brătianu High School then, between 1912 and 1918, studied the Law and Philosophy at University of Bucharest
University of Bucharest
The University of Bucharest , in Romania, is a university founded in 1864 by decree of Prince Alexander John Cuza to convert the former Saint Sava Academy into the current University of Bucharest.-Presentation:...
, before taking a Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in Economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
and Political Sciences at the University of Paris
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...
, with a thesis on Le change roumain. Sa dépreciation depuis la guerre et son rétablissment ("The Romanian Exchange Rate
Exchange rate
In finance, an exchange rate between two currencies is the rate at which one currency will be exchanged for another. It is also regarded as the value of one country’s currency in terms of another currency...
. Its Depreciation
Depreciation
Depreciation refers to two very different but related concepts:# the decrease in value of assets , and# the allocation of the cost of assets to periods in which the assets are used ....
Ever Since the War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and Its Recovery").
PŢ and PNŢ
Initially, Călinescu intended to enter the political scene as a member of the dominant National Liberal PartyNational Liberal Party (Romania)
The National Liberal Party , abbreviated to PNL, is a centre-right liberal party in Romania. It is the third-largest party in the Romanian Parliament, with 53 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 22 in the Senate: behind the centre-right Democratic Liberal Party and the centre-left Social...
(PNL), but his views on politics were rejected by its leader Ion I. C. Brătianu
Ion I. C. Bratianu
Ion I. C. Brătianu was a Romanian politician, leader of the National Liberal Party , the Prime Minister of Romania for five terms, and Foreign Minister on several occasions; he was the eldest son of statesman and PNL leader Ion Brătianu, the brother of Vintilă and Dinu Brătianu, and the father of...
. Instead, he joined the Peasants' Party
Peasants' Party (Romania)
The Peasants' Party was a political party in post-World War I Romania that espoused a left-wing ideology partly connected with Agrarianism and Populism, and aimed to represent the interests of the Romanian peasantry. Through many of its leaders, the party was connected with Romanian populism , a...
(PŢ), a rising opposition group, falling under the influence of Ion Mihalache
Ion Mihalache
Ion Mihalache was a Romanian agrarian politician, the founder and leader of the Peasants' Party and a main figure of its successor, the National Peasants' Party .-Early life:...
. He was first elected to office in 1926, as one of the 38 PŢ deputies
Chamber of Deputies of Romania
The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house in Romania's bicameral parliament. It has 315 seats, to which deputies are elected by direct popular vote on a proportional representation basis to serve four-year terms...
in opposition to the second Alexandru Averescu
Alexandru Averescu
Alexandru Averescu was a Romanian marshal and populist politician. A Romanian Armed Forces Commander during World War I, he served as Prime Minister of three separate cabinets . He first rose to prominence during the peasant's revolt of 1907, which he helped repress in violence...
cabinet, and was reelected for consecutive terms until 1937.
After the PŢ merged with the Romanian National Party
Romanian National Party
The Romanian National Party , initially known as the Romanian National Party in Transylvania and Banat , was a political party which was initially designed to offer ethnic representation to Romanians in the Kingdom of Hungary, the Transleithanian half of Austria-Hungary, and especially to those in...
to create the National Peasants' Party
National Peasants' Party
The National Peasants' Party was a Romanian political party, formed in 1926 through the fusion of the Romanian National Party from Transylvania and the Peasants' Party . It was in power between 1928 and 1933, with brief interruptions...
(PNŢ), he stood on the group's left wing, together with Mihai Ralea, Ernest Ene, Mihail Ghelmegeanu, Petre Andrei, and Nicolae L. Lupu
Nicolae L. Lupu
Dr. Nicolae Lupu was a Romanian politician and medical doctor, active in the National Peasants' Party....
). He was the PNŢ local leader for Argeş County
Arges County
Argeș is a county of Romania, in Wallachia, with the capital city at Pitești.-Demographics:In 2002, it had a population of 652,625 and the population density was 95/km².*Romanians – 96%*Roma , and other.-Geography:...
, and, when the party came to power with the Iuliu Maniu
Iuliu Maniu
Iuliu Maniu was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian politician. A leader of the National Party of Transylvania and Banat before and after World War I, he served as Prime Minister of Romania for three terms during 1928–1933, and, with Ion Mihalache, co-founded the National Peasants'...
cabinet in 1928, served as prefect
Prefect (Romania)
A prefect in Romania represents the Government in each of the country's 41 counties, as well as the Municipality of Bucharest.-Attributes:The main attributes of prefects are defined at Article 123 of the Constitution of Romania:...
of Argeş before being appointed general secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture by Mihalache (who was titular Minister). In 1930, he was appointed Under Secretary of State in the Alexandru Vaida-Voevod
Alexandru Vaida-Voevod
Alexandru Vaida-Voevod or Vaida-Voievod was a Romanian politician who was a supporter and promoter of the union of Transylvania with the Romanian Old Kingdom; he later served three terms as a Prime Minister of Greater Romania.-Transylvanian politics:He was born to a Greek-Catholic family in the...
-led Ministry of the Interior.
In the latter capacity, Călinescu oversaw actions against the illegal Communist Party
Romanian Communist Party
The Romanian Communist Party was a communist political party in Romania. Successor to the Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to communist revolution and the disestablishment of Greater Romania. The PCR was a minor and illegal grouping for much of the...
: he ordered the troops to carry out arrests of suspected agitators after the miner strike in Lupeni
Lupeni Strike of 1929
The Lupeni Strike of 1929 took place on August 5 and 6 1929 in the mining town of Lupeni, in the Jiu Valley of Transylvania, Romania.-Chronology:...
, and ordered troops to open fire on demonstrators during the Griviţa Strike of 1933
Grivita Strike of 1933
The Grivița Strike of 1933 was a railway strike which was started at the Grivița Workshops, Bucharest, Romania, on 16 February 1933 by workers of Căile Ferate Române . The strike was brought about by the increasingly poor working conditions of railway employees in the context of the worldwide Great...
.
His equally firm opposition to the fast rise of the fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
Iron Guard
Iron Guard
The Iron Guard is the name most commonly given to a far-right movement and political party in Romania in the period from 1927 into the early part of World War II. The Iron Guard was ultra-nationalist, fascist, anti-communist, and promoted the Orthodox Christian faith...
(the Legionaries, a group he helped outlaw in January 1931), contributed to the fall of the 1933 Vaida-Voevod government of which Călinescu was a member. The Guard's leader, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu was a Romanian politician of the far right, the founder and charismatic leader of the Iron Guard or The Legion of the Archangel Michael , an ultra-nationalist and violently antisemitic organization active throughout most of the interwar period...
, had by then issued intimidating replies in the far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
press.
In opposition to the Gheorghe Tătărescu
Gheorghe Tatarescu
Gheorghe I. Tătărescu was a Romanian politician who served twice as Prime Minister of Romania , three times as Minister of Foreign Affairs , and once as Minister of War...
PNL cabinet, Călinescu warned against the latter's tolerant stance toward the Legionaries, especially after the murder of Ion G. Duca
Ion G. Duca
Ion Gheorghe Duca was prime minister of Romania from November 14 to December 30, 1933, when he was assassinated for his efforts to suppress the fascist Iron Guard movement.-Life and political career:...
in December 1933 and the desecration of his memorial plate in 1936 ("The Iron Guard is not a movement of the [public] opinion, but rather an association of assassins and foul profaners of tombs").
Carol's minister
A staunch ally of FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and a steadfast adversary of the pro-Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
movements in Romania, Călinescu also supported King
King of Romania
King of the Romanians , rather than King of Romania , was the official title of the ruler of the Kingdom of Romania from 1881 until 1947, when Romania was proclaimed a republic....
Carol II
Carol II of Romania
Carol II reigned as King of Romania from 8 June 1930 until 6 September 1940. Eldest son of Ferdinand, King of Romania, and his wife, Queen Marie, a daughter of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second eldest son of Queen Victoria...
's move to counter the Guard's success; he first confronted the PNŢ leadership during the elections of 1937
Romanian general election, 1937
General elections were held in Romania on 20 and 22 December 1937. It was Romania's last election before King Carol II dissolved Parliament and instituted a royal dictatorship the following February. By the next elections under the 1923 Constitution, Romania had passed through two dictatorships and...
, after it signed an electoral agreement with the Guard. Eventually, he defied his party by becoming Minister of the Interior after December of that year, in the short-lived Octavian Goga
Octavian Goga
Octavian Goga was a Romanian politician, poet, playwright, journalist, and translator.-Life:Born in Răşinari, nearby Sibiu, he was an active member in the Romanian nationalistic movement in Transylvania and of its leading group, the Romanian National Party in Austria-Hungary. Before World War I,...
cabinet formed by the National Christians
National Christian Party
The National Christian Party was a Romanian political party, the product of a union between Octavian Goga's National Agrarian Party and A. C. Cuza's National-Christian Defense League; a prominent member of the party was the philosopher Nichifor Crainic...
, being immediately expelled from the PNŢ.
He began preparing himself for the confrontation with the Iron Guard. While organizing the early elections of March 1938, he took steps to limit the Guard's propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
machine, and closed down all press linked to the Guard, causing violent clashes between the movement and representatives of state authorities.
Călinescu remained in office during the authoritarian
Authoritarianism
Authoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is usually opposed to individualism and democracy...
regime established by King Carol after that date — he was also a founding member of the National Renaissance Front
National Renaissance Front
The National Renaissance Front was a fascist Romanian political party created by King Carol II in 1938 as the single monopoly party of government following his decision to ban all other political parties and suspend the 1923 Constitution, and the passing of the 1938 Constitution of Romania...
(FRN) created by as the sole legal party
Single-party state
A single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a type of party system government in which a single political party forms the government and no other parties are permitted to run candidates for election...
in December 1938, and was generally seen as very close to Carol. He soon became involved in a virulent dispute with historian Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga was a Romanian historian, politician, literary critic, memoirist, poet and playwright. Co-founder of the Democratic Nationalist Party , he served as a member of Parliament, President of the Deputies' Assembly and Senate, cabinet minister and briefly as Prime Minister...
, when the latter issued harsh criticism regarding Carol's January 1939 initiative to dress large sections of the society, including Romanian Academy
Romanian Academy
The Romanian Academy is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 acting members who are elected for life....
members, in various uniforms (a measure backed by Călinescu); Iorga remarked with irony: "I'm prepared to wear the FRN uniform, but allow me to wear a speared helmet
Pickelhaube
The Pickelhaube , also "Pickelhelm," was a spiked helmet worn in the 19th and 20th centuries by German military, firefighters, and police...
on my head, on which to place [that is, to impale
Impalement
Impalement is the traumatic penetration of an organism by an elongated foreign object such as a stake, pole, or spear, and this usually implies complete perforation of the central mass of the impaled body...
] the Minister of the Interior". Eventually (in May of the same year), Iorga gave in to the demands and became a supporter of the regime.
In May, after witnessing the result of Nazi pressures on Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
(see Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
), Călinescu decapitated the Guard by ordering arrests of its leaders, beginning with that of Codreanu, as well as many of its members and sympathisers (including Nae Ionescu
Nae Ionescu
Nae Ionescu was a Romanian philosopher, logician, mathematician, professor, and journalist. Near the end of his career, he became known for his antisemitism and devotion to far right politics, in the years leading up to World War II.-Life:...
and Mircea Eliade
Mircea Eliade
Mircea Eliade was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religious studies that persist to this day...
). Codreanu and other leaders (probably as much as 300 people) were consequently killed in custody; other Legionaries were pressured to sign "declarations of dissociation". Many other Guard leaders, including Horia Sima
Horia Sima
Horia Sima was a Romanian fascist politician. After 1938, he was the second and last leader of the fascist and antisemitic para-military movement known as the Iron Guard.-In Romania:...
, fled to various locations in Germany.
On March 7, 1939, after brief stints as Minister of Health and Minister of Education, he replaced the ailing Miron Cristea
Miron Cristea
Miron Cristea, was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian cleric and politician....
as Premier, being considered the "man of steel" able to prevent Iron Guard's political violence and to keep Romania out of the pro-German war camp (the nickname "The Man of Steel" probably originated, under the form l'homme d'acier, in essays written by the French journalists Jérôme
Jérôme Tharaud
Jérôme Tharaud was a French writer. He was elected the fifteenth occupant of Académie française seat 31 in 1938.-References:...
and Jean Tharaud
Jean Tharaud
Jean Tharaud was a French writer.Tharaud was born in Saint-Junien, Haute-Vienne.He was the eighteenth member elected to occupy seat 4 of the Académie française in 1946...
on Romanian topics). Călinescu was also Minister of the Interior and Minister of Defense. In September of that year, after the invasion of Poland
Invasion of Poland (1939)
The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...
, the pro-Nazi members of Iron Guard alleged that Călinescu and the King Carol planned with the British Intelligence services
Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
to blow up the Prahova
Prahova County
Prahova is a county of Romania, in the historical region Muntenia, with the capital city at Ploieşti.-Demographics:In 2002, it had a population of 829,945 and the population density was 176/km². It is Romania's most populated county, having a population density double than the country's mean...
oil fields, preventing Germany from taking control and using them.
Assassination
Having been secretly blacklisted at the same time as Nicolae TitulescuNicolae Titulescu
Nicolae Titulescu was a well-known Romanian diplomat, at various times government minister, finance and foreign minister, and for two terms President of the General Assembly of the League of Nations . He was a member of the Freemasonry.-Early years:...
, Dinu Brătianu
Dinu Bratianu
Dinu Brătianu , born Constantin I. C. Brătianu, was a Romanian politician, who led the National Liberal Party starting with 1934.-Early career:...
, and General Gavrilă Marinescu, Călinescu was assassinated in Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
by Iron Guard members under the direct leadership of Sima (exiled in Steglitz
Steglitz
Steglitz is a locality of the Steglitz-Zehlendorf borough in the south-west of Berlin, the capital of Germany. The locality also includes the neighbourhood of Südende.-History:...
at the time), the last of several attempts (which included an attack on the Romanian Athenaeum
Romanian Athenaeum
The Romanian Athenaeum is a concert hall in the center of Bucharest, Romania and a landmark of the Romanian capital city. Opened in 1888, the ornate, domed, circular building is the city's main concert hall and home of the "George Enescu" Philharmonic and of the George Enescu annual international...
and bombing a bridge over the Dâmboviţa River
Dâmbovita River
Dâmbovița is a river in Romania. It has its sources in the Făgăraş Mountains, on the Curmătura Oticu. The upper reach of the rivers, upstream of the confluence with the Boarcăşu River is also known as Izvorul Oticului River or Oticu River....
— both of which were uncovered by police).
It seems that the action was carried out with German approval and assistance. On September 1, representatives of Germany, Fascist Italy, and the Iron Guard met in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
with Mihail R. Sturdza
Mihail R. Sturdza
Prince Mihail R. Sturdza . Romanian nobleman and diplomat. Was a descendant of the wealthy and influential Sturdza family of Romanian landowners, politicians and boyars. Played a brief role in Romanian interwar politics....
(Romania's ambassador to Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
and a supporter of Sima), to discuss Călinescu's killing. Some details of the subsequent plan were offered to Romanian authorities by a renegade member of the Iron Guard, Mihai Vârfureanu. A death squad
Death squad
A death squad is an armed military, police, insurgent, or terrorist squad that conducts extrajudicial killings, assassinations, and forced disappearances of persons as part of a war, insurgency or terror campaign...
was formed, having as its members the lawyer Dumitru "Miti" Dumitrescu (who had been trained by the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
and returned to Romania through Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
), the students Cezar Popescu, Traian Popescu, Ion Moldoveanu, Ion R. Ionescu, and the draftsman Ion Vasiliu. Contacting each other in the area around Ploieşti
Ploiesti
Ploiești is the county seat of Prahova County and lies in the historical region of Wallachia in Romania. The city is located north of Bucharest....
, they initially planned to kill Călinescu, Carol and Marinescu together, and probably aimed to accomplish this in the Prahova Valley
Prahova Valley
Prahova Valley is the valley where the Prahova river makes its way between the Bucegi and the Baiu Mountains, in the Carpathian Mountains, Romania. It is a tourist region, situated about 100 km north of the capital city of Bucharest.Geographically, the Prahova river separates the Eastern...
.
While passing through the Eroilor area
Cotroceni
Cotroceni is a neighbourhood in western Bucharest, Romania located around the Cotroceni hill, in Bucharest's Sector 6.The Hill of Cotroceni was once covered by the forest of Vlăsia, which covered most of today's Bucharest...
on its return from the Cotroceni Palace
Cotroceni Palace
Cotroceni Palace is a palace in Bucharest which is the residence of the President of Romania, located at Bulevardul Geniului, nr. 1.On Cotroceni Hill, in 1679, Şerban Cantacuzino built a monastery...
, Călinescu's luxury automobile
Luxury vehicles
Luxury vehicle is a marketing term for a vehicle that provides luxury — pleasant or desirable features beyond strict necessity—at increased expense ....
, a Cadillac
Cadillac
Cadillac is an American luxury vehicle marque owned by General Motors . Cadillac vehicles are sold in over 50 countries and territories, but mostly in North America. Cadillac is currently the second oldest American automobile manufacturer behind fellow GM marque Buick and is among the oldest...
, was ambushed by that of the assassins, who shot Călinescu, his bodyguard Radu Andone, and his driver (Miti Dumitrescu drove his car into the Premier's, which came to sudden stop as it ran into a cart — Andone was gunned down as he stepped out of the car, and Călinescu as he stood waiting on the back seat; over twenty bullets were recovered from his body). Sima, who is known to have crossed the border illegally in August of that year, was alleged to have disguised himself as a woman in order to witness the actions from nearby; other sources indicate a certain Marin Stănculescu as the covert supervisor. Ironically, Călinescu had never trusted the safety of his Cadillac, and had repeatedly asked Gavrilă Marinescu to allow him use of an armored car
Armored car (VIP)
A civilian armored car is a security vehicle which made by replacing the windows of a standard vehicle with bulletproof glass and inserting layers of armor plate into the body panels...
.
The group of assassins left the vicinity before the arrival of police forces, and stormed into the Radio Broadcasting Society
Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company
The Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company , informally referred to as Radio Romania , is the public radio broadcaster in Romania. It operates four national radio channels, and, under the Radio România Regional umbrella, eleven regional radio stations. The four national radio channels are: Radio...
; holding the employees at gunpoint and cutting short the live airing of a waltz
Waltz
The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
, it announced, through the voice of Traian Popescu, that it had killed the Premier. The message was never broadcast, as, unbeknown to the squad, transmission had already been interrupted by Radio staff.
Legacy
The vast majority of sources reacting to the events made ample mention of Nazi backing for Călinescu's killers, with the exception of German media (the latter alleged that PolishSecond Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; a period in Polish history in which Poland was restored as an independent state. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland , the Polish state was...
and British political forces, as a means to pressure Romania into abandoning its neutrality — this version was supported by, among others, Hans Fritzsche
Hans Fritzsche
Hans Georg Fritzsche was a senior German Nazi official, ending the war as Ministerialdirektor at the Propagandaministerium.- Career :...
).
A harsh repression of the Iron Guard followed under the provisional leadership of Gheorghe Argeşanu
Gheorghe Argesanu
Gheorghe Argeşanu was a Romanian cavalry general and politician who served as a Prime Minister of Romania for about a week in 1939 .-Biography:...
— it was inaugurated by the immediate execution of the assassins and the public display of their bodies at the murder site, for days on end. A placard was set up on the spot, reading De acum înainte, aceasta va fi soarta trădătorilor de ţară ("From now on, this shall be the fate of those who betray the country"), and students from several Bucharest high schools were required to visit the site (based on the belief that this was going to dissuade them from affiliating with the Guard). Executions of known Iron Guard activists were ordered in various places in the country (some were hanged on telegraph poles, while a group of was shot in front of Ion G. Duca
Ion G. Duca
Ion Gheorghe Duca was prime minister of Romania from November 14 to December 30, 1933, when he was assassinated for his efforts to suppress the fascist Iron Guard movement.-Life and political career:...
's statue in Ploieşti
Ploiesti
Ploiești is the county seat of Prahova County and lies in the historical region of Wallachia in Romania. The city is located north of Bucharest....
); in all, 253 were killed without trial. Călinescu was succeeded by Marinescu as Minister of the Interior and by Ioan Ilcuş as Minister of Defense.
One year later, under the National Legionary State
National Legionary State
The National Legionary State was the Romanian government from September 6, 1940 to January 23, 1941. It was a single-party regime dictatorship dominated by the overtly fascist Iron Guard in uneasy conjunction with the head of government and Conducător Ion Antonescu, the leader of the Romanian...
(the Iron Guard's government), Marinescu and Argeşanu, alongside other politicians, were executed in Jilava
Jilava
Jilava is a commune in Ilfov county, Romania, near Bucharest. It is composed of a single village, Jilava.The name derives from a Romanian word of Slavic origin meaning "humid place". Jilava was the location of a fort built by King Carol I of Romania, as part of the capital's defense system...
(September 1940); it was also at that time that the Călinescu family crypt in Curtea de Argeş
Curtea de Arges
Curtea de Argeș is a city in Romania on the right bank of the Argeş River, where it flows through a valley of the lower Carpathians , on the railway from Pitești to the Turnu Roşu Pass. It is part of Argeș County. The city administers one village, Noapteș...
was dynamited, while a bronze bust of him which awaited unveiling was chained and dragged through the streets of Piteşti. Călinescu's wife Adela was required to hand all of her husband's personal documents, and, in a letter to Conducător
Conducator
Conducător was the title used officially in two instances by Romanian politicians, and earlier by Carol II.-History:...
Ion Antonescu
Ion Antonescu
Ion Victor Antonescu was a Romanian soldier, authoritarian politician and convicted war criminal. The Prime Minister and Conducător during most of World War II, he presided over two successive wartime dictatorships...
, claimed to have been repeatedly harassed by agents of Siguranţa Statului.