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  • 80 years since the assassination of historian Nicolae Iorga

    80 years since the assassination of historian Nicolae Iorga

    On September 6, 1940, the regime led by General Ion Antonescu in partnership with the legionnaires, proclaimed Romania a national-legionary state. This meant that the model of state and society adopted was the fascist one, imagined by the Iron Guard and inspired by Italian fascism and German Nazism. A supporter of the superior race theory, the Romanian fascism was synchronised with then European one. Most historical studies see the Antonescu-legionary regime as a strict one, against basic democratic norms.




    Imposing such as regime was possible only in the context of a deep crisis, such as the one undergone by the rule of Carol II, a Romanian version of the European crisis. Starting 1938, Carol II had imposed a regime of personal authority, restricting rights and liberties. At the beginning of September 1940, the king was held responsible for the territorial disaster suffered by Romania. In June, Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina had been annexed by the Soviet Union while two months later Hungary annexed Northern Transylvania, under the Second Vienna Award.




    On September 5, under huge public pressure, Carol II appointed General Ion Antonescu as head of state and renounced the throne. Although it lasted only four and a half months, until January 23, 1941, the regime was defined by repressive measures, especially against Carol II’ camarilla, a group seen as having ruined democracy and made up of courtiers, senior diplomats, army officers, politicians and industrialists who were all in some way dependent upon royal favour. The legionary revenge against 65 dignitaries who had supported Carol II can be explained by the fact that the latter had been involved in the repressive measures against them and especially in the killing of the Iron Guard leader, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, in 1938.




    One of the legionnaires’ victim was historian Nicolae Iorga. Born in 1871, he is generally seen as the most important historian of Romanians. There is even a Iorga cult in Romania, for two reasons: his impressive work and his tragic death. Iorga wrote a lot, at least 1,250 books and 25,000 articles. Before being the victim of the fascist-type terrorism, Iorga was the model of intellectual who cultivated nationalism, eventually falling victim to its fury. Historian Ioan Scurtu summarized Iorga’s ideas and his political activity: ”Iorga was a nationalist, who in 1910 created, together with A.C. Cuza, the Democratic Nationalist Party. He cultivated the idea that Romanians must prove themselves in all domains, including the economic one, in the context in which, ever since the end of the 19th century, the main industrial companies, banks and trade were in the hands of national minorities and of foreigners. He believed the Romanian element had to replace the foreign one, by means of nationalization. In his opinion, the way to do this was a peaceful one, the Romanians having to prepare, to study, to learn how to do each job so as to be able to win the competition with the foreigners. This was what he supported. The legionnaires propagated his ideas, but they took on an extremist path and went as far as to murder their opponents.”




    Iorga’s separation from the legionnaires, whose mentor he initially wanted to be, took place in the mid-1930s. Iorga’s vanity and difficult personality made this relation to degenerate. The critical moment took place in 1938, when, after political parties had been dissolved, the Legionary Movement ended its activity through a document signed by Codreanu, ever since February 24, 1938. However, the legionary trade continued, and their stores sold products at smaller, production costs. Ion Scurtu explains: ”Nicolae Iorga said the legionnaires’ stores were serving as meeting venues where they gathered and planned actions meant to destabilize the government. Iorga asked for the legionary trade to be banned. Against this background, Codreanu sent Iorga a letter, in which he accused him of being dishonest. After having spread the idea that Romanians should handle trade so as to remove foreigners, Jews in particular, Iorga was now asking for these stores to be closed. Iorga showed the letter received from Codreanu to Armand Calinescu, who in his turned showed it to Carol II. Iorga was advised to sue Codreanu, so the matter was taken to Court. During the trial, Iorga realized he took a risky path and withdrew his court action. But the trial continued and Codreanu was sentenced to 6 months behind bars. During the trial, the headquarters of the Legionary Movement and the houses of a number of members were searched. Based on these searches, a new court action was opened against Codreanu, who, in May 1938 was sentenced to 10 years of hard labour for actions against the state and for holding secret information, accusations which were false. He was imprisoned and, while being transported from Ramnicu Sarat to Jilava, on the night of 29 to 30 November, 1938, he was murdered near the Tancabesti Forest.”




    On November 27, 1940, Nicolae Iorga was taken from his home by a team of legionnaires, and killed with nine bullets in the Strejnicu forest. Thus, the historian paid with his life for his opinions, at a time when political violence, hatred and abuse took the place of justice.


  • Ion Ratiu and the Rebirth of Romanian Democracy

    Ion Ratiu and the Rebirth of Romanian Democracy

    Politician Ion Ratiu was one of the role models for Romanian society as it was beginning to rebuild democracy in 1990, after 45 years of communism. He was a descendant of a family that was instrumental in fighting for the national rights of Romanians in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Ion Ratiu had a considerable contribution to the improvement of the Romanian political climate after December 1989. He stood out by his signature bow tie, by his supremely polite way of expressing himself, and the slight English accent he had when speaking Romanian. Ratiu was one of the most important democratic Romanian politicians after 1990, one who had previously militated against both the Fascist and Communist dictatorships. Upon his return to Romania in 1990, he was instrumental in rebuilding the Christian-Democratic National Peasant Party, and got deeply involved in rebuilding a democratic climate.

    Ion Ratiu was born to a family of intellectuals on June 6, 1917, in Turda, in what is now western Romania. He had a degree in law from Cluj, and one in economy from Cambridge. He was active in the youth organization of the National Peasant Party. In 1940 he was appointed as a diplomat with the Foreign Ministry, and was sent to London right away, in February of that year, before the fall of France. After France was occupied, a country which used to be one of Romanias most important allies, Ratiu continued to work at the Romanian legation to the UK until early September 1940, when power in Romania was grabbed by General Antonescu and the Iron Guard. As an anglophile and francophile, Ratiu refused to accept his countrys joining the alliance with Nazi Germany.

    In 1985, in an interview with Radio Free Europe for the Romanian Current Events feature, preserved in the archives of the Center for Oral History by Radio Romania, Ion Ratiu described how he got to remain in the UK:

    “After King Carol II departed, and the Legionnaire state was set up, I resigned, in September 1940. I went to the British Foreign Secretary and asked for political asylum, which they granted me right away. I had the great luck to get a scholarship at Cambridge, and I studied there for three years and got a Master of Arts degree in economic sciences. While I was at Cambridge I made several radio broadcasts on patriotic topics with regard to Transylvania, especially after Northern Transylvania got taken away in 1940, and I was active in student life in the association of Romanian students in Great Britain.”

    Ion Ratiu got involved in the propaganda to get Romania out of the Axis and have it join the Allied side. He deeply wished for CEE, Romania included, to remain under the influence of Western democracies after the end of the war:

    “I worked on the International Student Council, where they made me vice-president during the war, and in the World Youth Executive Committee. Because we were all concerned about the future of Europe after the war, as exiles in England, we set up an organization we called Central East European Students for a New Society. Also, even though I was young, I was co-opted into the movement of free Romanians who opposed Romanias falling in line with Nazi Germany policy, and who said that Romanias place was next to the great democratic powers in the West who had created Greater Romania. During that time I wrote articles, I held conferences, and I spoke on the radio, as I said, at the BBC, of course.”

    As the prosperous businessman he became, Ion Ratiu did not watch passively from afar as Romania was being turned communist. He set up an anti-Communist organization, the World Union of Free Romanians, and printed democratic leaning publications, such as The Free Romanian, one of the most influential publications for Romanian exiles. In 1985, Ion Ratiu was convinced that only the unity of all Romanians could make democracy return. The organization welcomed all who wanted to help in the effort of restoring democracy:

    “In 1980, together with Professor Brutus Coste from America, we launched an appeal telling everyone that it would be the time to do something for this country to be represented in a dignified manner in the West. Until 1975 we had had the Romanian National Committee, which ceased its activities that year. We believed that this struggle needs to continue, and so we launched the appeal and we set up in 1984. We said from the beginning that this cannot be done around parties, we said that all Romanians who want to make an effort for the national cause should join us, irrespective of party, past or present. This did not mean that parties should not function. Quite the opposite, parties have to function, because there is no democracy without parties.”

    On January 3, 1990, the National Salvation Front issued a law decree on the creation and official registration of political parties in Romania. This act meant the renaissance of political parties and political pluralism in Romania, after 45 years of absence. Returning to Romania in 1990, right after the decree was issued, Ion Ratiu continued to display the same firm democratic beliefs, as a true moral compass. He passed away in London on January 17, 2000, and, as per his wishes, was laid to rest in his native Romanian town of Turda.