Armand Călinescu

Armand Călinescu (4 June 1893 – 21 September 1939) was a Romanian economist and politician, who served as 39th Prime Minister from March 1939 until his assassination six months later. He was a staunch opponent of the fascist Iron Guard and may have been the real power behind the throne during the dictatorship of King Carol II. He survived several assassination attempts but was finally killed by members of the Iron Guard with German assistance.

Biography

Early life

He was born in Pitești as the son of Mihai Călinescu, a Romanian Army veteran, and his wife Ecaterina, ''née'' Gherasim.Ciobanu, p. 55. Mihai Călinescu was a landowner and relatively wealthy man.Savu, p. 61.

Călinescu attended secondary school and high school in his native city at Ion Brătianu High School. Between 1912 and 1918 he studied Law and Philosophy at the University of Bucharest, before taking a PhD in Economics and Political Sciences at the Faculty of Law and Economics from the University of Paris, with a thesis on ''Le change roumain. Sa dépreciation depuis la guerre et son rétablissement'' ("The Romanian Exchange Rate. Its Depreciation Since the War and Its Recovery").

PÈš and PNÈš

Initially, Călinescu intended to enter the political scene as a member of the dominant National Liberal Party (PNL), but his views on politics were rejected by its leader Ion I. C. Brătianu.Ciobanu, pp. 54–55. Instead, he joined the Peasants' Party (PȚ), a rising opposition group, falling under the influence of Ion Mihalache.Ciobanu, p. 54. 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 PÈš merged with the Romanian National Party to create the National Peasants' Party (PNÈš), he stood on the group's left wing, together with Mihai Ralea, Ernest Ene, Mihail Ghelmegeanu, Petre Andrei and Nicolae L. Lupu.Veiga, p. 191. He was the PNÈš local leader for ArgeÈ™ County and, when the party came to power with the Iuliu Maniu cabinet in 1928, served as prefect of ArgeÈ™ 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 miners' strike in Lupeni, and ordered troops to open fire on demonstrators during the Grivița strike of 1933, leading to the deaths of seven workers.

His equally firm opposition to the fast rise of the fascist Iron Guard (the Legionnaires, 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 Legionnaires, 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 ublicopinion, but rather an association of assassins and foul profaners of tombs").

Carol's minister

A staunch ally of France and the United Kingdom and a steadfast adversary of the Iron Guard movement in Romania, Călinescu also supported King Carol II's move to counter the Iron Guard's success; he first confronted the PNȚ leadership during the elections of 1937, after it signed an electoral agreement with the Iron 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,Savu, p. 66.Scurtu, p. 25. being immediately expelled from the PNȚ.

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 royal dictatorship established by King Carol in 1937, serving as vice-premier under Miron Cristea. According to historian Joseph Rothschild, he was actually the real power in the government. 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 impale">Impalement.html" ;"title="hat is, to Impalement">impalethe Minister of the Interior". Eventually (in May of the same year), Iorga gave in to the demands and became a supporter of the regime.

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