Corneliu Mănescu (8 February 1916 – 26 June 2000) was a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n diplomat born in

Ploiești Ploiești ( , , ), formerly spelled Ploești, is a Municipiu, city and county seat in Prahova County, Romania. Part of the historical region of Muntenia, it is located north of Bucharest. The area of Ploiești is around , and it borders the Ble ...

. He served as

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania The Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs () is the ministry responsible for external affairs of the Government of Romania, Romanian Government. The current foreign minister is Emil Hurezeanu. List of ministers of foreign affairs (1862–1989) ...

from 1961 to 1972 and as

President of the United Nations General Assembly The president of the United Nations General Assembly is a position voted by representatives in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on a yearly basis. The president is the chair and presiding officer of the General Assembly. Election ...

from 19 September 1967 to 23 September 1968.

Life and political career

After completing his secondary studies in

, Mănescu went on to study

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

and

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

at the

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest (UB) () is a public university, public research university in Bucharest, Romania. It was founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princely Academy of Bucharest, P ...

from 1936 to 1940. He joined the

Romanian Communist Party The Romanian Communist Party ( ; PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave an ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that would replace the social system ...

in 1936. While a student, he began writing for leftist publications, mostly about international relations. He was the leader of the Bucharest Communist students' organization until 1940. In 1944 he was working at the Central Statistics Bureau, and in 1948 he was appointed as one of the vice ministers of the Ministry of National Defence, with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Promoted shortly after to

colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

, he served from 1950 to 1952 as head of the National Military Circle. In 1959 he was named chief of the Higher Political Division of the Army, with the rank of major general. Between 1955 and 1960 he was vice president of the State Planning Committee. In 1960, Mănescu became Director of the Political Division in the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

. From 1960 to 1961, he served as Ambassador to

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. He was appointed Minister of

Foreign Affairs ''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit organization, nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership or ...

in March 1961, a post in which he remained until 1972. Other important posts he held were that of vice president of the United Socialist Front, president of the Romanian Group of the

Inter-Parliamentary Union The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU; , UIP) is an international organization of national parliaments. Its primary purpose is to promote democratic governance, accountability, and cooperation among its members; other initiatives include advancing g ...

, ambassador to France (1977–1982). Mănescu, who became a member of Romanian Communist Party's Central Committee in 1965, was the first

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

elected president of the UN General Assembly. In 1989, he became the leader of the reformist movement within the

. In March 1989, together with five other Communist dignitaries ( Gheorghe Apostol, Alexandru Bârlădeanu,

Silviu Brucan Silviu Brucan (born Saul Bruckner; 18 January 1916 – 14 September 2006) was a Romanian communist politician. He became a critic of the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu. After the Romanian Revolution, Brucan became a political analyst. Ear ...

Constantin Pîrvulescu Constantin Pîrvulescu (November 10, 1895 – July 11, 1992) was a Romanian communist politician and one of the founders of the Romanian Communist Party (PCR), who, as time went on, became an active opponent of leader Nicolae Ceaușescu. Bri ...

, and

Grigore Răceanu Grigore Ion Răceanu (1906–1996) was a Romanian communist politician and opponent of Nicolae Ceaușescu. Born in Cojocna, Cluj County, he became a train driver for Căile Ferate Române. He was also a trade union leader, being one of the organi ...

), he signed the

open letter An open letter is a Letter (message), letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally. Open letters usually take the form of a letter (mess ...

known as ''Scrisoarea celor șase''—"The Letter of the Six". After the

Romanian Revolution of 1989 The Romanian revolution () was a period of violent civil unrest in Romania during December 1989 as a part of the revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several countries around the world, primarily within the Eastern Bloc. The Romanian revoluti ...

, he was part of the interim council that administered Romania in 1990 from the overthrow of the

Nicolae Ceaușescu Nicolae Ceaușescu ( ; ; – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian politician who was the second and last Communism, communist leader of Socialist Romania, Romania, serving as the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 u ...

government until elections could be held. Mănescu married Doina Dobrescu in 1950. They had a daughter, Alexandra. He died in a hospital on 26 June 2000 in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

, Romania.

References

External links

Short bio
at un.org * Gabriel Partos
"Obituary: Corneliu Mănescu"
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', June 30, 2000 {{DEFAULTSORT:Manescu, Corneliu Members of the Great National Assembly Presidents of the United Nations General Assembly Ministers of foreign affairs of Romania Romanian Communist Party politicians People of the Romanian revolution University of Bucharest alumni People from Ploiești 1916 births 2000 deaths Permanent representatives of Romania to the United Nations Ambassadors of Romania to Hungary Ambassadors of Romania to France Presidents of the Romanian Football Federation Romanian sports executives and administrators