Iosif Constantin Drăgan (; June 20, 1917 – August 21, 2008) was a

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

and

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

businessman, writer, historian and founder of the ButanGas company. In 2005, he was the second-wealthiest Romanian, according to the Romanian financial magazine ''Capital'', having a wealth estimated at $850 million.'' Jurnalul Naţional''
"Top 300 – Ion Tiriac the Richest Romanian"
, 16 November 2005 According to the same financial magazine, in 2006, he became the wealthiest Romanian, at $1.3-1.6 billion.''

Evenimentul Zilei ''Evenimentul Zilei'' is a formerly physical and now exclusively online newspaper in Romania. Its name means "today's even (news)". History and profile ''Evenimentul Zilei'' was founded by Ion Cristoiu, Cornel Nistorescu and Mihai Cârciog, an ...

''
"Cei mai bogaţi români" ("The Richest Romanians)"
, 15 November 2006 Drăgan was involved in a series of controversies, including some alleged deals with the

Securitate The Securitate (, Romanian for ''security'') was the popular term for the Departamentul Securității Statului (Department of State Security), the secret police agency of the Socialist Republic of Romania. Previously, before the communist regime ...

, his admiration for Romanian leader

Ion Antonescu Ion Antonescu (; ; – 1 June 1946) was a Romanian military officer and marshal who presided over two successive wartime dictatorships as Prime Minister and ''Conducător'' during most of World War II. A Romanian Army career officer who made ...

, and being one of the main figures in the protochronist current of Romanian historiography.Primul miliardar român îşi ia secretele în groapă
''

'', 23 August 2008

Biography

Early life

Born in Lugos,

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

(now

Lugoj Lugoj (; hu, Lugos; german: Lugosch; sr, Лугош, Lugoš; bg, Лугож; tr, Logoş) is a list of cities and towns in Romania, city in Timiș County, Romania. The Timiș River divides the city into two halves, the so-called "Romanian Lugoj" ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

), Drăgan graduated from Law School at the

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest ( ro, Universitatea din București), commonly known after its abbreviation UB in Romania, is a public university founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princel ...

in 1938, and earned in 1940 a scholarship at the University of Rome, where he studied political science and economics, earning a Ph.D. in law. At the time, Drăgan was attracted to

fascist Fascism is a far-right, Authoritarianism, authoritarian, ultranationalism, ultra-nationalist political Political ideology, ideology and Political movement, movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and pol ...

ideals and the

Iron Guard The Iron Guard ( ro, Garda de Fier) was a Romanian militant revolutionary fascist movement and political party founded in 1927 by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu as the Legion of the Archangel Michael () or the Legionnaire Movement (). It was strongly ...

, representing a

corporatist Corporatism is a collectivist political ideology which advocates the organization of society by corporate groups, such as agricultural, labour, military, business, scientific, or guild associations, on the basis of their common interests. The ...

trend inside the latter.

Francisco Veiga Francisco José Veiga Rodríguez (born 1958 in Madrid) is a Spanish historian, journalist and writer. He is a doctor and professor in the Department of Contemporary History at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), where he has been a profe ...

, ''Istoria Gărzii de Fier, 1919-1941: Mistica ultranaționalismului'' ("History of the Iron Guard, 1919-1941: The Mistque of Ultra-Nationalism"), Humanitas, Bucharest, 1993, p.287, 307 Drăgan explained his views on the Fascist Iron Guard in 1940 in the pro-Mussolini newspaper '' Conquiste d'Impero'' in two articles entitled "The Mystique of Codreanu's Legionnaires" and "Romanian Corporatism: Pieces of Legionnaire Doctrine". In 1987, based on these articles, the Italian magazine '' Il Panorama'' called him "a Legionnaire", but Drăgan sued them and won the trial, as they were not able to bring a proof that he was an actual member of the organization.

Business in Italy

In 1941, he started a company which exported Romanian petroleum products to

Fascist Italy Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the ...

. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, in 1948, he established a gas distribution company in Italy, ButanGas.'' Jurnalul Naţional''
"Omul care transformă gazul în bani gheaţă" ("The Man Turning Gas into Cash")
, 26 July 2004 After the war, with the

Romanian Communist Party The Romanian Communist Party ( ro, Partidul Comunist Român, , PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that woul ...

gaining power in Romania, he was not allowed for 30 years to return to Romania.

Protochronism and the relation with Ceaușescu

In 1967, he started the "Drăgan European Foundation", which has the goal to promote the "values of the Romanian civilization". He was also the founder of two publishing houses (''Nagard'' in Italy and ''Europa Nova'' in Romania), a privately owned university, '' Universitatea Europeană Drăgan'' (founded in 1991 in Lugoj), a TV station, a radio station (''Radio NovaFm'') and a weekly newspaper (''Redeșteptarea'') and a daily local newspaper (''Renașterea Bănățeană''), all in Romania. He also funded the

Statue of Decebalus The rock sculpture of Decebalus () is a colossal carving of the face of Decebalus (r. AD 87–106), the last king of Dacia, who fought against the Roman emperors Domitian and Trajan to preserve the independence of his country, which corresponds to ...

, a 40-meter high carving, near Orşova. He wrote many historical works associated with the

protochronism Dacianism is a Romanian term describing the tendency to ascribe, largely relying on questionable data and subjective interpretation, an idealized past to the country as a whole. While particularly prevalent during the regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu ...

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...

movement in Romanian history, which was later promoted by

Nicolae Ceauşescu Nicolae may refer to: * Nicolae (name), a Romanian name * ''Nicolae'' (novel), a 1997 novel See also *Nicolai (disambiguation) *Nicolao Nicolao is an Italian given name and a surname. It may refer to the following: Given name *Nicolao Civitali ...

's regime.Katherine Verdery, National Ideology under Socialism. Identity and Cultural Politics in Ceaușescu's Romania, University of California Press, 1991. Despite being a sympathiser of the Iron Guard, Drăgan became a semi-official collaborator of Ceaușescu and the

Communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Cominte ...

, and as a result, he had access to some documents never published before on

, using them in a four-volume book, which put Antonescu, a man who has been sentenced to death for war crimes and executed, in a good light.Report of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania
(RICHR) submitted to President

Ion Iliescu Ion Iliescu (; born 3 March 1930) is a Romanian politician and engineer who served as President of Romania from 1989 until 1996 and from 2000 until 2004. Between 1996 and 2000 and also from 2004 to 2008, the year in which he retired, Iliescu ...

in Bucharest on November 11, 2004
and accepted by the Romanian government
. According to historian

Lucian Boia Lucian Boia (born 1 February 1944 in Bucharest) is a Romanian historian. He is mostly known for his debunking of historical myths about Romania, for purging mainstream Romanian history from the deformations due to ideological propaganda. I.e. as ...

, Drăgan promoted an extreme version of protochronism, which claimed that the Romania was the cradle of civilization, and the Romanian people the oldest in Europe:

After 1989

After the

Romanian Revolution of 1989 The Romanian Revolution ( ro, Revoluția Română), also known as the Christmas Revolution ( ro, Revoluția de Crăciun), was a period of violent civil unrest in Romania during December 1989 as a part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred i ...

, it was alleged that he supported financially

Eugen Barbu Eugen Barbu (; 20 February 1924 – 7 September 1993) was a Romanian modern novelist, short story writer, journalist, and correspondent member of the Romanian Academy. The latter position was vehemently criticized by those who contended tha ...

and

Corneliu Vadim Tudor Corneliu Vadim Tudor (; 28 November 1949 – 14 September 2015) also colloquially known as "Tribunul" was the leader of the Greater Romania Party ( ro, Partidul România Mare), poet, writer, journalist, and a Member of the European Parliament. H ...

to launch their

far right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...

'' România Mare'' newspaper. Nevertheless, in 2008, Vadim denied that he got any funding from Drăgan. Together with Vadim Tudor, Drăgan was the founder of "Liga Mareșal Ion Antonescu" in 1990, later renamed to "Liga Mareșalilor" following the changes in the Romanian legislation which disallowed the praise of the pro-

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

dictator.

Death

Drăgan died on August 21, 2008, at his house in

Palma de Mallorca Palma (; ; also known as ''Palma de Mallorca'', officially between 1983–88, 2006–08, and 2012–16) is the capital and largest city of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is situate ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

Private life

After his first wife, Teresa Maria Moriglioni, died in 1986, Drăgan married, at the age of 78, Daniela Veronica Gușă, aged 22 at the time, the daughter of Ştefan Guşă, a

Romanian Army The Romanian Land Forces ( ro, Forțele Terestre Române) is the army of Romania, and the main component of the Romanian Armed Forces. In recent years, full professionalisation and a major equipment overhaul have transformed the nature of the Lan ...

general involved in the attempted repression of the 1989 revolution who died of cancer in 1994.''

Ziua ''Ziua'' (''The Day'' in Romanian) was a major Romanian daily newspaper published in Bucharest. It was published in Romanian with a fairly sizeable and often informative English section. ''Ziua'' was founded in 1994 by Sorin Roşca Stănescu, eve ...

'
"Fiul rătăcitor în căutarea lui Iosif Constantin Drăgan" ("The Prodigal Son in Search for Iosif Constantin Drăgan")
9 June 2005 Together they had three sons. Mike Fink (b. 1970), who claims to be Drăgan's son, announced, in 2005, that he had not been able to contact his father in the previous three years. ''

'' reached the conclusion that Drăgan was being held captive by his younger wife and his business partners.''

''
"Drăgan, tot în geam" ("Drăgan, Still on Display")
, 6 June 2005 However, he was seen dining in a restaurant only a few days later in Bucharest, together with his wife.''

Averea ''Click!'' (former ''Averea'') is a Romanian tabloid newspaper owned by Adevărul Holding Adevărul Holding is a media joint stock company owned by Romanian businessman and politician Dinu Patriciu and named after its main publication, the dail ...

'', "L-am descoperit pe I. C. Dragăn" ("We Have Uncovered I. C. Dragăn"), 14 June 2005

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dragan, Iosif Constantin 1917 births 2008 deaths People from Lugoj Socialist Republic of Romania 20th-century Romanian businesspeople Romanian essayists Members of the Iron Guard 20th-century Romanian politicians Romanian fascists Romanian Greek-Catholics Romanian journalists Romanian memoirists Romanian newspaper founders Romanian philanthropists University of Bucharest alumni Romanian emigrants to Italy 20th-century Romanian historians 20th-century essayists 20th-century philanthropists 20th-century Italian businesspeople 20th-century journalists 20th-century memoirists