Grigore Gafencu
Grigore Gafencu (born January 30, 1892 in Bârlad , † January 30, 1957 in Paris ) was a Romanian journalist , diplomat and politician as well as a leading figure in Romanian exile during the communist dictatorship.
Life
After studying in Geneva and Paris , which he completed in 1914 with a doctorate in law from the Sorbonne , he enlisted in the French Aéronautique Militaire to take part in the First World War. He was deployed as an air officer in the Romanian theater of war and was awarded the military order of Michael the Brave , among other things .
In the post-war period he began a journalistic career and was among other things the founder of the Timpul familiei newspaper . In 1924 he was elected to parliament for the Partidul Național (later Partidul Național-Țărănesc ) and served from 1928 in the first Maniu government under Nicolae Titulescu in the Foreign Ministry . Postings in the Ministry of Transport and Trade and in the Prime Minister's Office followed.
In early 1939, Gafencu succeeded Nicolae Petrescu-Comnens as Foreign Minister in the Cristea government and retained this post under several subsequent Prime Ministers. In the Tătărescu government , he also held the post of press and propaganda minister. Due to the escalating tensions with the Soviet Union , which he had been unable to prevent, he was replaced as Foreign Minister by Ion Gigurtu in early June 1940 . When he took over the government after the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia , northern Bukovina and the Herza region , Gafencu was sent as ambassador to Moscow in August 1940 , which he remained until the beginning of the German attack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. He then went into exile and settled in Geneva. He wrote for the Journal de Genève and other European newspapers during the war .
After the war he found his new home in Paris, where he came forward with demands for a free Romania during the Paris Peace Conference . In November 1947 he was sentenced in absentia by a Romanian court to a total sentence of 52 years' imprisonment and his Romanian citizenship was revoked.
In 1948 he founded the Comitetul Național Român in the USA with Nicolae Rădescu and other prominent exiles , which saw itself as the Romanian government in exile. He was also a co-founder of the Liga Românilor Liberi and a member of the National Committee for a Free Europe and took part in debates for Radio Free Europe .
Fonts
- Preliminaires de la Guerre à l'Est. De l'Accord de Moscou (21 aout 1939) aux hostilites en Russie (22 juin 1941). (1944; German: Prelude to the War in the East: From the Moscow Agreement (Aug. 21, 1939) to the outbreak of hostilities in Russia (June 22, 1941) )
- Derniers jours de l'Europe. Un voyage diplomatique en 1939. (1946; German: Europe's last days: A political journey in 1939 )
literature
- JW Brügel: The Soviet ultimatum to Romania in June 1940. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte , October 1963, pp. 404-417 ( PDF ).
Web links
- Grigore Gafencu, "reacţionarul" care a dat voce exilului românesc on evz.ro
- Newspaper article about Grigore Gafencu in the press kit of the 20th century of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen |
Romania's Foreign Minister February 1, 1939 - June 1, 1940 |
Ion Gigurtu |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gafencu, Grigore |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Gafenco, Grégoire (French) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Romanian journalist, diplomat and politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 30, 1892 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bârlad |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 30, 1957 |
| Place of death | Paris |