Romanian diplomat and politician (1882?1941)
Nicolae Titulescu
(
Romanian pronunciation:
[niko?la.e
titu?lesku]
; 4 March 1882 ? 17 March 1941) was a
Romanian
politician and diplomat, at various times ambassador,
finance minister
, and
foreign minister
, and for two terms president of the General Assembly of the
League of Nations
(1930?32).
Early years
[
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]
Titulescu was born in
Craiova
, the son of a solicitor. He grew up at his father's estate in
Titule?ti
, a commune in Romania that was later named after him. Upon graduating with honours in 1900 from the
Carol I High School
in Craiova, Titulescu studied law in
Paris
, obtaining his doctorate with the thesis
Essai sur une theorie des droits eventuels
. In 1905, Titulescu returned to Romania as a professor of law at the
University of Ia?i
, and in 1907 he moved to
Bucharest
.
Political career
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Following the Romanian elections of 1912, Titulescu became a parliamentarian with the
Conservative-Democratic Party
led by
Take Ionescu
, and five years later he became a member of the government of
Ion I. C. Br?tianu
as Minister of Finance.
In the summer of 1918, together with other prominent Romanians (
Take Ionescu
,
Octavian Goga
,
Traian Vuia
,
Constantin Mille
), Titulescu formed, in
Paris
, the National Romanian Committee, with the purpose of promoting in international public opinion the right of the Romanian people to national unity, the committee being officially recognised as the plenipotentiary
de facto
organ of the Romanian nation.
After the war, Titulescu was finance minister in the
second Averescu government
in 1920-21. He was then appointed
Romanian Ambassador to the United Kingdom
, a position he held on-and-off until 1936.
Beginning in 1921, Titulescu functioned as the permanent representative of Romania to the
League of Nations
in
Geneva
. He was chosen twice (in 1930 and 1931) to be the
president
of that organization. In this capacity, he fought for the preservation of stable borders through the maintenance of peace, for good relations between both large and small neighboring states, for the respect of the sovereignty and equality of all nations in the international community, for collective security, and the prevention of aggression.
[1]
In June 1936, Titulescu reacted to the buffoonery exhibited by the Italian journalists when
Emperor
Haile Selassie I
spoke to the League after
Ethiopia had been invaded and occupied by Fascist Italy
. He jumped to his feet and shouted: "To the door with the savages!" ("
A la porte les sauvages!
").
[2]
Patrick Leigh Fermor
described him as "tall and
mandarin
-like, but with splendid histrionic gestures, and obviously a comic genius of the first order".
[3]
From 1927 to 1928, Titulescu was the minister of foreign affairs, a post he held again from 1932-36. After an initial period of skepticism, he concluded that Romania needed an alliance with the
Soviet Union
,
[4]
and he conducted many negotiations with Commissar for Foreign Affairs
Maxim Litvinov
. These failed due to lack of support from king
Carol II
and other Romanian political leaders.
[5]
In 1935, Titulescu was elected a titular member of the
Romanian Academy
.
[6]
Exile and death
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]
In August 1936,
King
Carol II
removed Titulescu from all official positions, asking him to leave the country. Settling first in
Switzerland
, he later moved to
France
. In exile, he continued in conferences and newspaper articles to propagate the idea of the preservation of peace, as he perceived the danger of the approaching war. He returned to Romania in November 1937, partly by the efforts of
Iuliu Maniu
.
In 1937, Titulescu again left Romania and took refuge in France. At
Cannes
, he denounced the Romanian fascist regime. In 1941, Titulescu died in Cannes following a long illness. In his will, he asked to be buried in Romania.
In 1989, after the fall of
communist Romania
during the
Romanian Revolution
, the honouring of Titulescu's request became possible. On 14 March 1992, his remains were reburied in the Sfanta Ecaterina cemetery in
?cheii Bra?ovului
, next to
St. Nicholas Church
,
Bra?ov
after a difficult legal procedure organized by Jean-Paul Carteron, a French attorney. He was awarded
Order of the White Eagle
and other decorations.
[7]
References
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]
- ^
Markham, Reuben (20 March 1941). "Tireless Titulescu". The Christian Science Monitor.
- ^
Barker, A. J.,
The Rape of Ethiopia 1936
, p. 133
- ^
Fermor, Patrick Leigh
(2013).
The Broken Road
. p. 189.
- ^
Lungu, Dov B. (1989)
Romania and the Great Powers, 1933-1940
, Duke University Press, p. 235 "...Titulescu recommended, as the lesser of two great evils, collaboration with the Soviet Union in the framework of a wider alliance whose goal was to deter Germany."
- ^
Lungu, Dov B.
op. cit
, chap. 5 "The Russian Connection and Its Enemies: The Causes of Titulescu's Fall"
- ^
(in Romanian)
Membrii Academiei Romane din 1866 pan? in prezent
at the Romanian Academy site
- ^
Acovi?, Dragomir (2012).
Slava i ?ast: Odlikovanja među Srbima, Srbi među odlikovanjima
. Belgrade: Slu?beni Glasnik. p. 614.
External links
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